Crady is able to dig in and crack the zombie hard upon the noggin.
Philacris takes aim and tentatively fires her crossbow. Nearly dropping the weapon with surprise, she watches as her bolt rips a chuck of flesh from the corpse.
Titus shows his diefic symbols and a burst of pure goodness explodes from it. Though it only licks the feet of a couple, the remaining seem to be caught by surprise.
Sendi lashes out against the opponents in reach. Dropping the initial creature with one viscous swipe, she turns to the next and has a repeat performance. Leaping forward, she buries her claw in a third beast! Though it remains standing.
Crady lashes out against the closest undead creature, bopping it on the head. It seems to feel his blow, though not as much as he'd hoped.
The tengu follows his companions lead and in an enraged fury of beak and talon, rips another fleshy foe to pieces. Eager to please Pakuzzo, Vinz tries to snap his beak on the decaying flesh. At the last second, he spots the distasteful look in his companions eye, and rethinks the foul taste.
With fresh meat within reach, and the foul smell of undeath about her, both of the remaining zombies surge for Sendi. As one slams into the poor gal, it knocks her out of the second zombies path.
ZOMBIES!
Philacris
Titus
Sendi
Crady
Pakuzzo
Grimacing in pain, Sendi lashed out with her claws in both directions, spinning in a mad flurry of blood. Surrounded, and to be honest with herself, afraid, she didn’t think, she just acted.
Philacris lowers her crossbow as she watches Sendi's claws sink rapidly through undead flesh. Her cheeks are flushed with fear and adrenaline.
'Undead! Just in the middle of town! They're... horrifying, worse than I could have imagined.'
'And this Sendi girl, she's surprisingly vicious, particularly in contrast with how she looks. Not someone I would normally want anywhere near me, though in this mess I can't be too upset.'
Pakuzzo spits out the undead flesh from his beak; carrion usually agreed with his race, but necromancy made even this taste awful. Still, with his attacker now ripped to pieces, he moves in on the zombie threatening Vinz. He darts swiftly to its right to cut off its escape, then attempts to take its head off.
With the hunter backing him up this time, Vinz feels that much braver. He lunges again at the zombie in red.
Seeing his fellows wearing down the enemy, Titus wades into battle. He takes a few steps to the south, then swings his morningstar at one of the undead.
In a sea of claws, fists, weapons, and beaks, our heroes manage to rip the remaining zombies to shreds.
All of the zombies wear burned nobles’ clothing, but two of them still wear Victocora signet rings (worth 75 gp each) baked onto their charred fingers.
You recognize these two corpse as Rexus Victocora's parents
Crady
Pakuzzo
Sendi
Her chest heaving, Sendi looked down in surprise at the two bodies. That experience hadn’t been fun...not at all. She quickly went about using her innate magic to clean the blood and gore off of herself, while also healing her wounds.
Once done, and after looking at the bodies...
...”It looks like we found Rexus’ parents.” She said this with a degree of sadness.
Philacris steps forwards, with more than a little hesitation in her step. 'Powered by necromancy as they are, maybe they can spring back to unlife even after this punishment.'
When Sendi mentions the identities, Phila inspects the signet rings herself. "I will take your word for it Sendi. I've never concerned myself much with noble houses..." She shakes her head. "Poor Rex, he had been hoping so very hard. This is worse than if we had found them dead."
Phila quiets down. "Though, undead do not spontaneously arise. Someone did this to them, and that person could have done so to take over this hideout. They may be still around. I would suggest proceeding with care."
She focuses on listening for any movement in the rest of the building.
Titus shakes his head with anger, then sighs. Indeed...I only hope that he can at least find some closure with this. You're right Philacris; whatever vile creature made them into this state needs to be stopped before it can do it to anyone else. He looks up, beyond the bodies. To the south then...is everyone ready?
”Yes, let us continue.”
"Thank you Sendi," the tengu replies in gratitude for the healing.
He retrieves his bow from the floor, looks down at the remains of Rexus' parents and sighs.
"Well, at least the man will get some closure. Maybe we'll get lucky and we can upgrade that to revenge."
He signals to Vinz to follow after him.
"I'll take point again, but stick close to me. I'll bet my feathers for pillow stuffing that we've alerted somebody by now, and if we're walking into an ambush I'd rather not be by my lonesome."
He nocks his shortbow and creeps through the southern door, looking around for anything potentially dangerous.
Picking through the remains of the zombies yielded nothing edible. Vinz gave up trying once Pakuzzo called him to follow as he entered the next room.
Crady looks at the fallen undead, trying to use his knowledge to identify which one's were Rex's parents.
"Damn.."
Titus lets the others move slightly ahead of them, hopefully awarding them a head start before his unstealthy, clunking form notifies everyone within the building that they were on their way.
Sendi doesn't even bother to sneak. Instead she just walks next to Titus.
Philacris reaches down to try to keep Titus' armor plates from making such an awful racket, but its to no avail. She clicks her tongue in frustration.
"At least now they might think half an army has invaded their hideout."
She steps past Titus and follows on Pakuzzo's heels, whispering "Well, maybe Mr. Titus can cover the movements of the rest of us. I will be following right behind you."
Hearing the sounds of rustling parchment from the neighboring room, all but Titus quietly approach. *CLANG.CLANG.CLANG* echoes through the building. Wincing at the sound, Pakuzzo peaks around the corner.
The room's shelves and displays seem more akin to those found in a storeroom than a museum. While the shelves are relatively empty, what rubbish remains on them further supports the conclusion that this was once some sort of shop. Four long tables in the middle of the room seem to have seen more recent use, their surfaces cluttered with papers and objects.
Beside each table, pouring over the documents with painstaking attention, he spies four men. Each wearing long flowing robes with the Asmodeus emblem displayed in large red ink. None appear to have a weapon of any kind, though they too groan with each sound from Titus.
"I wish those zombies would kill whatever triggered them already. Getting hard to concentrate." remarks one, as he inks a long line through a passage on the parchment in front of him.
These are Asmodean Redactors. They are known for their task of redacting 'unsanctioned history.
Pakuzzo ducks back to the relative safety of the group, well out of the four men's line of sight.
"Four humans," Pakuzzo whispers, holding up the requisite number of clawed fingers, "They're wearing Asmodeus' symbol and they're each reading some documents at four tables; no idea what or why. They seemed to have heard us coming, but they think that we're still battling the zombies so they don't look like they're expecting a fight just yet."
”Then let’s sneak up on them. Titus makes some noise a distance away, so they think nobody is here. Then we hit them.”
Crady chuckles silently at Sendi suggestion. "Sorry", whispered the urban druid apologetically. "But that sounds like that would work."
"Working on documents? I bet they're Redactors, editing the histories to stamp out dissent. Seems like its time for a little vengeance on those blasted Asmodeans."
Phila hefts her crossbow and waits for Pakuzzo's signal to attack.
Titus nods, then shrugs sheepishly at Crady. At least we can use my noisy nature to better our chances...at the end of the day, I'm happy with that He waits for the word, then stomps back up to the north, making significant noise simply walking. Then, he crashes into a wall and wordlessly exclaims, as if in pain.
Heading back out far enough to sneak a peak, Pakuzzo raises his hand in a signal for the group to hold off until he can see how the Asmodeans reacted to Titus' ruse.
As the loud ruckus continues, farther away this time, the four men look up. The one that had previously spoken smiles.
"Sounds like whatever it was is in retreat. Aint it nice how we were able to recycle those rebellious Victocorans? HA HA. Go gettem!" he cheers towards the noise.
Without so much as another word, they go back to their work. The one at the back begins to whistle softly to himself.
It's an old tune about devils eating the souls of babies....You know, an Asmodean lullaby. :-P
Taking advantage of their distraction, Sendi burst from cover, her claws out. ”With me! Take them down before they can cast anything.”
Philacris loads her light crossbow, then if she has a chance, she uses slips ahead quietly and takes up position to fire at one of the Asmodean cultists.
Phila fires a bolt towards the nearest cultist, whispering "A sting to right a wrong!"
Sendi's already a blur as Pakuzzo points toward the nearest Asmodean.
"Vinz, ATTACK!"
Staying as low as the ceiling allows, Vinz swoops in toward the nearest Asmodean and begins snapping at him with his beak, beating him with his wings as he does so.
With Vinz already engaged in an attack, Pakuzzo scurries toward the left of the doorframe where his line of sight is clearest. He pulls back his bowstring and fires at the devil-worshiper, just as the magic dissipates from his shortbow.
Crady slowly advances forward for maximum surprise.
All at once, following Pakuzzo's command of Vinz, the Silver Ravens open fire. Vinz charges in and rips the mans eye out, as Pakuzzo and Philacris release their projectiles, both landing with a *Thud*.
Sendi rushes in as the man begins to fall and slices a large gash across his jugular, removing any doubt of his fate.
The remaining three men look up, dropping the papers they were workin on, surprise evident on their face. "What...I...."
"Uh...Sir! SIR INTRUDERS!"
Pakuzzo:
Sendi:
Metronicus Crady:
Titus Enfeld:
Philacris:
=========================
Philacris
Titus
Pakuzzo
Sendi
Redactors
Crady
Not sparing any time, Sendi ran at the man in the purple robes. She nearly tripped on a book on the ground, regained her footing, and struck.
Phila venomously spits out "Alright you disgusting little rats, redact this!" and reloads and fires her crossbow at her clearest target .
Pakuzzo grins when the first Asmodean hits the floor. And if a tactic is effective, why mess with a good thing?
"Get 'em!" he yells to Vinz, pointing at the next enemy.
Gulping down the stolen eyeball as he moves, Vinz heeds Pakuzzo's command and caws loudly as he swoops toward the next human.
Stepping forward into the room, Pakuzzo lets loose an arrow at the neck of the man Vinz is currently savaging.
Hearing the sounds of battle, Titus rushes to the south, drawing his weapon as he goes.
The elven one opens a new hole in the Redactor on the far side of the room as Titus hustles to join the foray.
Pakuzzo sends Vinz after the next on in range and the little bird slashes at the man's face. Pakuzzo lines up and buries an arrow in his shoulder.
Sendi's claws still hungry, she rushes the one with the purple scarf and again snags a good hold,nearly eviscerating the redactor.
"What in the holy hells...Lord Azvernathi! We're under seige!" screams the one in green. Pulling the arrow from his shoulder, he glares at Pakuzzo. Stepping around the bird he moves to Pakuzzo and punches the nearby bookshelf. "That hurt. You surrender now and you'll go quickly."
The man with the blue ascot charges Sendi, bringing his fist to bear. The young lady simply ducks harmlessly away.
Redactors
Crady
Philacris
Titus
Pakuzzo
Sendi
Sendi nearly ducked beneath the man’s attack, and then struck back. She began by sweeping his legs out from under him, before descending on him in a flurry of claws.
The urban druid rounds the corner to flank Green Meanie with Vinz, and attacks with his club.
Pakuzzo moves to lunge at the monk that just attacked him with his beak, but pauses when Crady's blow renders the man unconscious.
"Thanks for the save!" he tells the sage. Then he takes aim with his shortbow and snaps off a shot at the other monk, before commanding Vinz to attack.
One monk dropped, one more to go. Vinz takes off.
Philacris steps swiftly into the room as the two asmodean followers fall, reloading her crossbow in the process. She casts an eye around the room for anyone hiding and listens to see if that call for help from 'Lord Azvernathi' is being answered.
Under her breath she calls out "Here lordie, lordie, lodie... some punishment waiting for you..." as if she's calling out to a cat.
Crady conks the man on the head and he collapses in a heap as the group converges on the remaining foe and...a simple grease spot remains when the dust clears.
Titus hustles into the room as Philacris coos for the lord to show himself.
On queue the double doors at the north end of the room burst open and an armor clad man bursts forth, mace in hand. The star of Asmodeus stands out proudly on his breast plate. "What is the meaning of this?! You DARE to interfere with the will of Thrune?!" he challenges. "Lay down your arms now and maybe we'll be lenient!"
Azvernathi
Crady
Philacris
Titus
Pakuzzo
Sendi
Crady poses a question to his cohorts.
"Run? I'm thinking run. Let's run."
The urban druid makes his way to the doors.