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"These men imprisoned me, and likely would have killed me. They also had your lady friend there. Their leader is deceitful, follows an evil god, and also felt confident enough to try and kill ALL of us, by himself. If we leave them, they will live to kill another day, or die here. If we bring them, they will die, either on the trail, from their sickness, by the laws in town, or even by us if they try to escape. These men are dead already."
"At the very least we should deal with this Rhokar. I find him to be especially dangerous. He follows the evil god Norgorber and cannot be trusted. He also has the power to animated the dead. Torag sees Norgorber as the cancer that destroys a city from within, despite walls mighty enough to keep out the most dangerous foes. I do not wish that evil upon this land."
"It's not getting any warmer out.", Caeulum continues, "and it seems we are debating over where they will die, since they are all certainly going to die. If they are certain to die, then lets end it and be done with them. We should be concerned about how we will live."
"I vote to end them. Then rest. We can throw the bodies in the stable and burn it down when we leave. That should also take care of the undead horses as well. I do not know if Rohkar's spell will end with him or if the horse will continue to be an abomination. I also do not want them being reanimated. I cannot think of another way to ensure our safety."
"We can then rest in the lodge to regain our strength. Our only threats will come from outside. I do not think it is wise to travel at this time. We all appear to be tired and hurt. Another battle like the one we just went through could be our last. I must rest and pray to Torag if I am to be able to heal us further."
The Lady smiles. "Democracy is so refreshing--it's as if we're a bunch of Andorans. I remain at your mercies and will abstain from the decision process. You already know my opinions"
"I do not wish to put even wicked men down like animals," Chiquq says with a frown to Caelum's words. "As for Rokhar himself: yes, he is vile. But if he is bound, and his tools and the evil god-stone taken from him, he is less a threat, I think. I doubt he can make the dead walk with his thoughts alone-- he must be able to speak words to his foul god. We can gag and tie him. The main reason to go to any trouble with bringing him back would be that he may know more of what is going on here."
Chiquq squints up at the sky. "There is still a good amount of daylight left. We could make some progress back. But what I said still holds true: these spirits will be able to see a fire at night, easily.. especially if they can fly, like the little ones earlier. We cannot hope to have a 'secret' campsite, wherever we make it."
Caelum gives a shameful nod to Chiquq, "Wise words, Chiquq. I must've still been heated from battle."
”I don’t like staying here tonight. If the winter-children come, we’ll be trapped.” He shrugs, ”But enough of you like that plan.” He looks over at Lady Argentea. ”You’ll have to bear with us, Lady. We sorely need to recover. One more fight might be more than we can take in our current state.”
He grins weakly, ’We’ll try to set out early to get out from under these winter-children as quickly as possible.”
"Let's bind the sick bandits, find a place to stow Rokhar, and go about fortifying this place as best we can. Then I plan to sleep ... hard."
Imendri listens to everyone without interruption, nodding subtly at each person's statement.
"Fine. If we don't bring dem wif us, den we leave dem here. I am still going to use my magics to heal dem so dey can take care off dem selfs. I still fink we should cut out Rokhar's tongue. Make it hard to pray to his god!" he says, laughing longer and harder at the last statement than is appropriate, as though it were the funniest thing he'd heard all day.
Wiping a tear from his eye, he nods and says "...but it seems like eet's a fing yuu don't want to do, so fine. Cloth gag it is, haha. We sleep, we wake, we heal de bandits, we leave in de morning bringing Rokhar wif us. Ya?"
"And if the winter-spirits come on us while we huddle around a fire out in the middle of the woods, we will not be trapped... we'll be free to bolt each way out into the snow, and freeze in the dark," Chiquq drily counters Braegan's words. But she nods all the same, and nod to Imendri's words.
"What of the upstairs? Did we not hear something moving up there? Likely it is one of the dead Rokhar created-- but the room itself may have things of value... or use," Chiquq says as she cuts a strip of cloth from Rokhar's own cloak and uses it to gag the unconscious man.
Imendri shrugs, looks up at the ceiling, shrugs again. "Let me know if I haff to kill somefing." he says, and walks up the stairs to sit beside the possible combat room.
Braegan shrugs again at Chiquq's further rebuttal. "I said let's do your plan," he responds with a wink. "No more convincing needed."
He groans as the attention to the upstairs ... undoubtedly filled with undead. "I guess that's better than trying to sleep with them over our heads. Can we pull Dez's 'poke'em through a hole' trick again?"
The door rattles upon Imendri's approach, but whatever is inside cannot get out. Perhaps because it is undead and stupid.
Rohkar is gagged, along with his surviving well bandits, who remain tied up, and the sick bandits, who have gone quiet inside their sickroom.
Yrja is letting the fearless warriors deal with the unknown menace upstairs. If it is undead, the weak sparks of magic she is still capable of will not have any effect on them, but she hovers nearby all the same, ready to assist if the situation takes a turn for the worse.
"Ila, wait at the bottom of the stairs. I will call you if I need you."
...Chiquq's not certain that Ila's weight might prove a little too much for the stairs, actually, but...
Dez quietly listens to the additional debate and does not further challenge the majority view, despite his concerns about what lurks nearby.
He readily expresses agreement with Chiquq's comments about the creature upstairs and moves with Imendri to confront it.
'I heard a sliding and crackling sound coming from the room. I am not sure what to make of that, so we should be ready for anything."
Caelum waits on the porch in case anything tries to escape from the window.
Crossbow loaded and ready.
Gimme a day to rally my hand..
Lo, the door opens to reveal two more of Rokhar's creations! Two skeletons, encrusted with frost, with an evil light glinting in their ice sockets. Imendri has a brief flashback to melee with flaming skeletons. While no longer under the control of their unconscious master, they are ready and willing to attack with icy scimitars.
Round 1 - Stay Frosty
Braegan <-- we are here
Chiquq
Yrja
Dez
Caelum
Skellies
Imendri
You recall that the flaming skeletons explode upon 'death'. These might as well...
From his position at the bottom of stairs, Braegan shouts up. ”What’s in there? What should we do?”
Round 1 - Stay Frosty
Braegan
Chiquq <-- we are here
Yrja
Dez
Caelum
Skellies
Imendri
Braegan calls out helpfully...helplessly? The skeletons continue to menace...
"More walking dead?" Chiquq calls, craning to try and see. "We could just close the door, maybe!"
"Ugh! Not much I can do about those, I'm afraid." Yrja stays close to Braegan at the foot of the stairs, her face screwed up in a grimace of disgust.
"Let's lure the skeletons downstairs and into one of the rooms we have already searched! Can one of you open the door to that bedroom at the bottom of the stairs, as well as the window in the room? I will try to lead them in and then escape out the window. The rest of you should make sure you are out of the way so as not to distract the skeleton. Maybe someone should be outside prepared to close the window once I jump out of it."
Dez moves to the bottom of the stairs and towards the door of the closest bedroom.
"Um ... okay," shouts Braegan as he looks for the nearest door. As he rushes for and out it, he calls to the team, "If you can't help get these things through this door, then I'd suggest you get scarce."
Chiquq hesitates before enacting Dez's plan, unwilling to leave her cousin as the last one standing before the undead. She draws back to the ground floor, however, nodding at Yrja to give Imendri a clear path down as well. And keeps an arrow readied on the string.
Yrja retreats hastily from the projected path of the undead, readying her sling just in case. Her tail is swishing back and forth nervously until she notices and stills it with an embarrassed look around her.
Caelum moves off the porch to stay out of sight and clear the doorway for the Mastodon. He switches back to his warhammer while peeking through the window.
The nearest skeleton strikes at Imendri, wounding him with its rusted, ice encrusted scimitar, cutting into the half-elf's armor. The wound immediately puckers with horrible chillblains and frostbite.
Imendri shivers in the aura of cold radiating from the skeleton.
The other skeleton snarls soundlessly at the barbarian, but cannot reach him.
Imendri is up!
Imendri hops back after being struck by the icy sword, shivering and blubbering a bit. Feeling the wall as he makes his way down the stairs, he retreats to the first floor and takes a defensive stance.
Round 2! Fight!
Braegan <--we are here
Chiquq
Yrja
Dez
Caelum
Skellies
Imendri
Yrja gasps in sympathetic pain as Imendri is hit and retreats down the stairs. She places herself in front of him protectively, ready to let fly a stone as soon as the undead come into view. Over her shoulder she tells Imendri "In my belt, the ribboned pocket. There's a healing potion. Take it."
Chiquq also pulls back, dropping her bow and drawing her longspear, ready to stab at anything that comes around the corner.
Braegan holds his place, waiting for Dez to tumble through the window so he can shut the undead in.
"Everyone get out of the line of sight of the skeletons! Except for maybe Chiquq, if you want to wait around the corner so you can close the door behind them."
Dezső delays his move action until the skeletons come down the stairs and come towards him. When they are about 10 feet away, and assuming he has their attention, he will move into the room and then out the window.
The skeletons descend the staircase and right into the range of Chiquq's spear. As the first one lurches into the spear's point, it does some damage to the frosty bones, but far less than Chiquq would expect. Her second hit does nothing at all.
The second one advances on the Kellid, eyesockets glowing with a strange unlight, and swipes at her with its broken scimitar.
It nearly twists its own arm off, so bad is its aim.
Dez, Yrja, and Chiquq can feel a deadly aura of cold emanating from the skeleton nearest them (and the one behind) and are certain that they will freeze if they stay near it.
Braegan shivers in the cold, totally ready to close this window.
"These skeletons are dangerous, especially in our depleted state. And our spears and swords are not very useful against them. Could everyone please run out of the lodge so I can draw them into the room? My Lady? Yrja? Imendri? Chiquq? This fight is unnecessary!"
Yrja doesn't wait to be told twice. Shivering with the cold and the revulsion caused by the animated skeletons, she scurries out of the lodge, gently pulling the noblewoman behind her.
"Very well...." Chiquq says to Dezso's words, and pulls back north to avoid the skeletal claws. "Come, Ila!"
She pulls outside near to where Caelum is, still gripping her spear.
Yrja's sling stone also strikes true, rattling around in the skeleton and resulting in some satisfying frosty cracks. As a result, Chiquq's spear is enough to to the further skeleton in. It explodes in a cloud of icy shards and ice-slicked bone fragments.
The remaining skeleton appears unconcerned and unaffected by the re-death of its compatriot.