Meridian smiled at Silent and vaguely pointed the barrels of his musket at the chest, "If all else fails..."
"Let me try." Simon says pulling a small sort of "fanny pack" from low on his back around to the front and opening it up to unroll a collection of small tools.
Simon fiddles with the lock for a short while, managing to push all the pins in the correct sequence. An audible click opens the chest. Inside the chest there are lots of dusty old books, scattered gems and jewelry, loose papers, and an assortment of potions.
As the group moves on to the Garrison you pass by a lot of carnage from the earlier attack. Zhan and Simon, you remember from being in the town for a little while, that the Garrison is on the second tier of the city. After making your way up to the second tier, the gates of the Garrison come into view, open. The immediate vicinity inside looks to be ransacked, but no bodies are present. The fort itself looks to be nearly four stories tall. Made completely of stone, the building is surrounded by a reinforced stone wall, with steel gates. There are stables inside for horses, and feed leftover from the soldiers herd.
"This looks perfect. Lets scour the structure for any threats before we settle in. Once the gates are secure, this should keep out any threat that cannot fly, or pass through walls."
Zhan dismounts from his horse, and drawing his revolver in one hand, and his sword in the other, he casts light upon the blade and moves into the structure, looking for any sign of threats, hostiles, or hauntings.
"We'll decide what to do next once we've rested."
Rovert follows Zhan, bow readied.
As the group sifts through the contents of the chest Kiwyn notices what appears to be a false bottom to the chest. Making a mental note of it she decides to wait until the group secures shelter for the night before investigating further.
Once at the garrison the wizard lets Khloey help her stable Noroikawa for the night. Showing the young girl how to remove the saddle, the bags and the harness before giving the horse a proper grooming and feeding him.
Once inside the building itself she picks out beds for them and sets her gear down. "Does anyone know how to make a meal for a group our size? I'm afraid I'm not well versed it the ways of the hearth." She asks with a chuckle as she rejoins the group.
"Besides, I think I should take a closer look at the chest our good smith found." She smiles at Silent. "There may be something useful in it."
Moving to the chest Kiwyn carefully begins pulling out its contents and arranging them. Once empty, she looks again and nods. "There's a hidden compartment in the bottom." She says, looking back at the men then back at the chest utters a chat and gestures with her fingers.
Meridian follows the group inside and helps search for useful/dangerous things.
And after extensive consideration, decides he must be inside a building.
Simon takes his time moving into the building, helping to check each room for danger before settling in to discuss food or the treasure chest.
Silents waits patiently waiting to see what the others find. When Kiwyn mentions about a meal, Silent states,"Aye girl. I'll get to work on that." Silent goes to cook, while others inspect the chest and contents.
As you make your way through the fort, it's clearly laid out for a small army. There are two mess halls with some food left behind in both. Near the center of the first floor, there is a chapel dedicated to the Sun God. Around the outer edges of the first floor are offices and classroom like areas. The second floor seems to be a barracks of sorts, with an armory for foot soldiers. The third and fourth floors are similar to the first two floors, but they seem laid out for wizards and archers. Training rooms are scattered across the upper levels, and on the fourth floor, there is a lone room with a non-working portal. There are no bodies like in the town, but it's obvious that a speedy evacuation occurred.
Kiwyn, you get a faint aura of magic from the chest, but it is not dangerous necessarily.
Robert keeps a lookout for a bathtub or similar receptacle before meeting up with the others again. "This place seems safe, but we should we stay near each other just in case."
"Agreed. Lets close the gates and secure them, and find a room that can be secured as well. One with two entrances, no more, no less, sturdy walls, and large enough to accommodate us all. If we need to, we can move some cots in there from the barracks."
There are several rooms on any floor that would fit this discription. Mostly however, there are no troubles with barricading your position.
Cliks sighs, leaning against a wall once they've sufficiently barricaded themselves. "This has been a long day."
Zhan conducts the necessary work to make their holdout position safe, and secures each stage of entry as well, just to be on the safe side. He closes and secures the gates to the yard, makes sure the keep's gates are also shut tight, and then finally secures the doors to their room.
"Things seem pretty safe, and I doubt we could find a more secure location than this. All the same though, I don't trust this place, particularly with what that cult has been up to here. I suggest we post a watch anyway while we let the others rest."
Once a rotation has been chosen, Zhan will take to his cot, or take up position for his watch, as needed, taking whatever chance he can to sleep. He'll nod to each of his companions, trying to express his tie and fondness for each of them; even the Duergar, as his heart always seems to be in the right place. Taking out his sword, fashioned to imitate the symbol of Iomidae, he says his prayers kneeing, before returning the blade to its sheath and going to sleep.
Meridian spends several minutes cleaning his double barreled musket, reloading it, and refilling the various ammo pouches and loops in his ammo belts. He then spends a time looking over and organizing the materials he collected for the rifle.
He sleeps during his down time, and watches most carefully during his watch, volunteering for the darkest parts of the night.
Robert, if finally finding a bathtub or close enough approximation, spends time submerged in the water, both for his own health and to think over recent events calmly.
Simon was glad to rest. He took whatever watch no one else wanted and gladly slept.
Kiwyn smiles to herself and nods. Pulling the false cover out of the chest the wizard pulls the contents of the hidden compartment out for examination.
------
After volunteering to take the second to last watch Kiwyn sees Khloey to bed and follows suit. That way once her watch is over, she is already awake and can take the time to study and refresh her spells.
Each of you take your shifts with no trouble. The night is quiet, the town unmoving. As you all keep watch over each other, there is little to notice, other than Zhan and Simon move around more than the others in their sleep.
When the morning comes, everybody who awakes finds a fresh smell in the air. A new breeze. The events of yesterday seem to have washed away, and although fresh in your mind, the prospect of continuing your journey gives you all renewed spirits. Looking out into the town, there is no movement, or commotion. It appears that you are still the only ones present. The assaulted city, and dead bodies littering the streets are only a remnant of the past.
Currently, there is the matter of Khloey, The Brotherhood, the Blood of Mystra, your next destination, and the whereabouts of the people of Eastwall. It's about 7 a.m with plenty of time for flexibility.
Simon looks bleary. He clearly didn't sleep well. As he reaches for the kettle on the fire, a shadowy tendril slides out of his sleeve and breifly wraps around the handle next to his hand before sliding back into his sleeve again.
He sighs and pours the water into his mug of tea.
"So much to do," Robert says, returning from where he was looking out to the sea. "But what to do first? I think we should bring Khloey to safety first, for anything else would bring her danger."
"How sad." She thinks, wiping a tear from her cheek.
She carefully sets it on a scavenged piece of cloth. Focusing on the amulet as she beings a soft arcane chant her eyes seem to become unfocused, even as her sight expands to include bits of the unseen.
Setting aside her book the little wizard takes a deep, relaxing breath before moving to wake Khloey for breakfast. "Good morning little one." Kywin smiles cheerfully.
After getting the young girl up, washed and moving around they walk together to join the others. She offers the group a smile as well. "Good morning everyone. I hope every slept well."
Khloey looks up at Kiwyn when she wakes up, smiling and greeting her with a hug. She follows Kiwyn to where breakfast is being made, and greeting everyone with a perky Good Morning. She looks curiously at Robert and Simon who're both in conversation about her.
Meridian rises, glancing about at the rest of the group. His bleary-eyed gaze indicating that perhaps he spent a bit too much time working on his new project. He stumbles to where breakfast is waiting and digs in with a will, the morning coffee doing more for his mood than the food. "Good morning, everyone."
Zhan rises early and lays out his sword and holy text, spending longer than usual at his prayers. When he moves to the fire and takes his breakfast, he seems more distant than usual, and eats in silence.
After a lengthy silence, he rises and moves to the others.
"Our next move?"
"Take the girl to a church?" Simon suggests. "An orphanage seems like a bad idea for someone who's been through something like this. She's going to need observation and help beyond the secular."
"We are still hoping to find some sign of the citizenry that were not converted to an undead form. Perhaps we should ride a perimeter around the city as see if anything unusual is apparent to the eye."
Khloey sits in silence for a moment, as you all speak about her situation. When she hears Simon speak of a Church, she gasps. "No! They'll treat me like a Devil, or worse. They'll try to exorcise me if you tell them what happened. I can stay out of the way if I come with you, honest.". It seems strange to all of you that a girl her age would have such an opposition like that to a church, but you're mostly aware of how churches treat survivors of these kinds of encounters. Simon and Zhan more so than the rest of you. A moment of scared silence later, Khloey gives you all a look of illumination. "My home! Momma and Pa told me what I'm supposed to do in an emergency. They left a box for me if we ever got seperated."
"Here in town? Then we can certainly take you there to check for them and retrieve your belongings."
"Everyone make ready, we'll head out as soon as we're prepared. Id suggest we leave nothing behind. We may end up here again tonight, but there is no way to know for certain, and we'd best not limit our options."
0th
Create Water
Detect Magic
Light
Read Magic
1st
<Open Slot>
Protection from Evil
Shield of Faith
Sanctuary - Bonus
Obscuring Mist - Domain
2nd
<Open Slot>
Lesser Restoration
Calm Emotions
Grace - Bonus
Slipstream - Domain
3rd
<Open Slot>
Stone Shape
Water Walk - Domain
"I have everything I need, but I'll do another round of the fort to see if there's anything useful left."
Simon stands up, stretches and gets his horse ready to move.
"Right. Lets get a move on."
Having packed up his gear, Meridian follows Simon's lead and gets his horses ready to go.
Kiwyn looks over at Simon at the mention of the church or an orphanage. "She still has family, we can't just drop her at an orphanage." She glances at Zhan, about to say something when Khloey speaks up.
The kitsune puts her arms around the child and hugs her comfortingly. "Agreed, we can retrieve Khloey's belongings and sweep the outskirts for signs of life."
After eating, Kiwyn takes Khloey back to the room to pack up and get ready to leave. They then rejoin the others.
Once prepared, Zhan opens the gate to the fortress, leads his horse out, and waits for the others to clear the structure. As soon as they are all clear, he closes and secures the gate again, as best he can. He then mounts his horse.
"Which way, Khloey?"
He then leads the party off in the indicated direction.
Khloey looks about as you all leave the building. She takes a moment to figure out where she is, looks off, points, and runs towards her destination. Given that there's no real 'residential' area of the large town, there are a lot of homes, taverns and apartments mixed in with businesses. She leads you zigzagging through the streets, losing her way once and backtracking. Having led you originally to a small bar, she turns around and heads down the opposite street, where in-between two medium sized houses, she runs into a small cottage. Following her in you see furniture and papers overturned, some cloths that were torn apart in the rampage. Her home is completely wrecked, and upon seeing this, she is struck with shock. Her movements are slower now, taking in everything that she used to know now destroyed. She moves towards the back of the cottage where one room sits. There are two beds, one larger than the other, and a dresser. This appears to be a room that she shared with her parents. She starts searching through the wreckage, and shortly after pulls a small, lightly decorated wooden box from under the broken bed frame. Khloey hands the box to Zhan. Inside is a letter that details the living will of her parents. It includes the godparents who live in Camden, with directions, as well as alternate options. It's noted towards the bottom of the page, that if transfer to Camden is not an option, there are several smaller towns of trade between Eastwall and Camden, where the Magistrate can take temporary custody of Khloey, before transferring her via military guarded travel, with other orphans.
"Do you have everything you need Khloey? If so we will press on looking for the city's survivors. With fortune, we can pray we'll find your parents among them."
Zhan looks around the home, checking all the rooms, and the attic and cellar, making sure the house is indeed empty, and that there is no sign of the girl's parents, or what is left of their bodies in the wake of the necromantic spell that affected all this settlement's dead. He also looks at every item and room very carefully, trying to determine if anything has been disturbed since the zombie outbreak, which might indicate the parents returned here for supplies. He looks for any indication of what they might have done, and if there is any sign of where they might have gone.
"They were well-prepared," Robert comments to himself. "A common precaution considering where they were based, perhaps."
Simon waited outside, guarding their escape while the others went in and searched the house.
"Aye, it would be better to get a move on." Silent states in a cold tone shaking his head, "Ye best hope is to find ye belongings. Ye be lucky if that."
Meridian follows the group inside, but, seeing Simon watching the front, he is more interested in securing any approaches to the building other than the front door. He will stand watch where he can protect the others during their search from any threats Simon would not see, then he will follow them out when they leave.
Kiwyn follows after Khloey as the girl runs inside. She catches up as Khloey is struck with the scene of her home in ruins.
Kiwyn stays by the girl, offering what help and comforting support she can. When Khloey pulls the small box from beneath the bed and hands it to Zhan the wizard listens carefully.
Kiwyn tries to sound comforting as she helps Khloey gather any belongings she wants to take with her. "We will do our best find the survivors, then we can see that get to a safe home."
Once the girl is ready, the little wizard will help her up into the saddle before climbing up behind her. She draws Noroikawa up into the middle of the group's formation for Khloey's protection.
Let's head out then.
Zhan will lead the party out to the city limits, and the begin to lead them along a methodical exploration of its edges and boundaries. He keeps a careful eye out for any sign of the recent passage of any large group of people; anything that might indicate an exodus of survivors.
Meridian rides behind the group, as usual, ever alert for threats.