Wincing, Basil moves forward, and takes a point-blank shot at the remaining corpse...
Basil glances over his shoulder, and grimaces.
"By Asmodeus' shriveled loins, that hoard we saw earlier is headed this way! We need to move quickly..."
So saying, he moves over to the downed Walker, pulls his arrow out of its skull, nods to the Hobs, and attempts to slip away into the shadows, trusting that the others will come with him...
"No time to stay here. Quick we must lose them." Kaars hurries off following Basil.
Staying silent and impassively ignoring his pain The Hob follows. He looks at his brother as he starts, trying to gauge whether he is injured enough to help despite the shame.
Timothy glances back down the street then brings up the rear.
As the others get out of sight and he gets to the corner of the building he turns and casts Dancing Lights nearer to the group of zombies. He makes sure they see the lanterns and then moves them away from the group hoping that the zombies follow the movement.
Though it makes him uncomfortable The Hob eventually realises that it makes sense to work as a group.
"Where are you going?" he asks in a whisper.
"As far away from here as possible? The further we get away from a population centre, the better off we will be; that said, depending on how bad things actually are, a sailing vessel and a bee-line for the closest off-shore island might be a good idea..."
Bill tries to be stealthy as he leaves his beloved shop behind.
Basil casts a worried glance back in the direction of the horde.
"Hells. Looks like we are going to have to leg it!"
The Hob nods, and starts to jog.
"Ah mother of all cheeses! We need to move." Kaars runs with the others towards the river. "I hope you guys can swim."
|
Ok...
One group heads north, the other, south, both along the river.
Both groups realize, about the time that they're getting winded...these things don't seem to be able to run...and...shortly after you disappear from sight...they stop following.
Yes, even the short-legged outrun (or swim, in one casr) them.
Kaars stops after a bit to look back. As he sees that there are no more zombies chasing them he stops for breath. "I think we lost them. Where to now?"
The Hob stops and considers.
"I have to go back to The Family at The House. Make sure they're ready if we are attacked."
He turns to the others
"What happened? We should share what we know."
"We saw some of these sick people walking strangely in the graveyard as we came into town. We went looking for the Rat Man to see if there was a cure, and there was a dead woman and a lot of blood. Then we were attacked. Then you showed up."
Could there be other survivors? Is it some sort of sickness?
"That sorta makes sense. Of course. It started in the graveyard. Where else are there squillions of bodies ripe for using." Kaars looks around at the others to see what their reactions might be. "Necromancers. Why would they want to destroy the town... Perhaps we should investigate. Carefully."
"Wait. You think those sick people were dead?"
Hob casts his mind over the Great Spells his mentor had talked of. Was there one that could make the dead walk?
Basil shrugs.
"Well, as I *did* see strange figures moving around the graveyard... it would not be a huge leap of intuition to assume that they had been raising at least *some* of the undead from there..."
Once Timothy could stop panting and catch his breath he piped up.
"Investigate? We should hide, those things will eat us. I don't know if they're alive or dead but they killed that woman at the store and ate her. I don't want to be their dessert!"
Will looks back, not hearing anything following them anymore.
"Well it seems we lost the buggers ..." he slows down his step, recounting the events of this evening in his head. "I wonder where they came from. You got any ideas on that sergeant?
"Will hiding work? Better to push on a little. Find somewhere we can defend. One of the farms. I would have thought you would want to tell the farmers nearby that death comes for them."
Just trying to work out if with that Spellcraft roll and what he's seen Hob would believe the Dead Walk, or just some sort of grody rabies outbreak is happening and townies are overreacting again
"You're right, hiding somewhere that we can defend if necessary is better, and someplace we can get out of if that defense fails. If you know of such a place, lead on."
"We can hole-up for the night, but I recommend that we keep moving, rather than trying to weather the 'storm'; staying in one place will just get you killed..."
"Well you big loud ones are probably no good at sneaking anyway. If there was some way to get a closer look at the graveyard. And if I knew what to look for... maybe find out how this happened... Kaars seemed to mumble on to himself as he follows the others.
"We'd better get moving before that bunch behind us catches up...I wonder if they can track us by smell or if it's just sight and the noise we make?"
"We need to warn people sleeping of what has happened." Hob maintains stubbornly. "They should be allowed to die fighting."
Will sees the houses near the riverside filled with people unaware of what's happening in town.
"Bill, Forbes, we need to warn these people. If even a few of those creatures are still on our trail, they will soon find very unaware victims in these houses." ... and I do not wish to have more souls weighing down my conscience, his mind added in thought, but not in spoken words.
"You want to go back there? Those that sleep through this madness are the ones likely to survive. Though how anyone could sleep with all those screams. I think everyone is warned enough. If they go outside their house it's their fault. You can't warn everyone. Hopefully some will run like us." Kaars explains that people will probably be ok if they are careful. But he doesn't want to go anywhere alone tonight. Just in case.
Hob scoffs "They do not have hearing like yours, Rat Man. I was just outside the town coming in and I[i]/ did not hear screaming. Those a mile or two up the river have no chance."
he pauses
"Though I think those who live [i]in the town are dead or fled, as you say."
"We are coming up near George's farm. I have no love for him, but we could warn him and maybe camp out there. He may be glad of the extra weapons we carry."
"They might be able to help us. Unless it is already too late for them." Kaars is willing to go with Hob to check out the farm and looks around at the other three to see what their inclinations be. He isn't bothered where they decide to go.
Basil raises an eyebrow as he regards Hob, but doesn't comment.
"I have no objections to rousing the people on the farms that we pass near - it will also give us an opportunity to gather further supplies for the journey ahead."