"Wait! That one... that one is with us. When you went down... I was desperate. I tried the spell we bought - the one that can command the undead. And it worked." there is a tinge of wonder, still, in Tyrus' voice.
He points to the Revenant. "You! Help me up!"
"With us?" Dante asks looking dumbfounded. "We are trying to destroy all of them and you want to keep one as a pet?" He so wanted to burn it to ashes right then and there for what the other one did. "This place is deadly. If you die that thing will turn on us immediately. And let's not forget we are returning to Mistwatch. They see that thing following you like a lost puppy and we're done for. Either they are going to kill us on the spot or interrogate us and then kill us for necromancy."
"We're hardly in a position to be picky, Dante. Your preoccupation with killing these things isn't helping. We're not trying to cleanse the area; we're trying to survive. Maybe find something that can help. This" he points at the Revenant "Can help. Once we're closer to Mistwatch, I'll send it away."
Despite Tyrus's increased size, the Revenant's supernatural strength allows it to still be of use.
"It's not being picky its being pragmatic. If something crawls out of a wall and rips you to shreds then we have to fight it and that thing unless you can kill it with a thought. Pretty sure necromancy doesn't work that way though."
"Dante. If something can attack and kill me before I can order the Revenant to stop it, you will indeed have to fight it. If you're up against something that can kill me that fast, then you are dead anyway. And while I cannot kill it with a thought, I can order it to run away. The spell does not lapse when I die."
"The spell does not lapse when I die."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Dante gives the revenant a disgusted look but puts his blade away.
With some effort and the help of the rope and the revenant, the party makes the first ascent. You pick your way carefully through the rubble.
With Tyrus and Dante's engineering knowledge you easily avoid the weaker sections of the building. At one point you are forced to move inside, but soon enough even that partially-intact portion gives way to large areas of collapse and ruin. You can see zombies milling about in the floors below. The walking corpses notice you, but are powerless to reach you.
Eventually you come to the remains of a corridor where the floor has largely fallen away for a pair of stories below, leaving a drop of about twenty feet. Two zombies are wandering aimlessly along the bottom, one of whom's legs are so badly smashed even the undead cannot stand on them.
There is enough of a ledge to scoot along if one does so carefully, but the risk of a fall seems high.
After peeking down at the zombies, Luca swallowed nervously - but she was light, and it made sense for her to go across first. Taking a deep breath, she slowly and carefully made her way along the ledge to the side, and soon managed to cross to the other side without any problems. So... that was good, at least.
A remnant of the building's load-bearing structure juts out from the wall around the center of the gap. It looks sturdy enough to handle some weight.
"Wait..." Dante cringes as Luca takes her first few tentative steps out along the hole. There were a lot safer options. Like that beam up above. Or even jumping. That ledge looked way to rickety for him of Tyrus. "When I get over there..." Dante takes a few paces back for a running start and...
Tyrus looks grim. "I hope someone has a good idea, as I doubt I'll fit along that ledge, and I'm sure I won't make the jump."
Luca and Dante cross the chasm without much trouble, leaving only Tyrus standing unhappily on the other side.
"That was extremely dangerous to try without aid," Dante says hypocritically. He pulls out a line and ties it off somewhere sturdy. He then tosses the rest to Tyrus to hook on to something. Obviously if Tyrus tied it, the rope would have to stay there. So he has Tyrus toss it back and Dante provides the tension by pulling. Now Tyrus had something to hold onto while walking. "Like this. Now he has something to hold onto. I am sure one of us has a spell that could have helped."
Given her physical weakness, Luca didn't try to help with the rope - she wouldn't have made much of a difference anyway. Instead, she focused on recalling her Eidolon on the far side of the pit so that it could scout ahead once everyone else was safely across.
Not sure I stated I was casting Mage Armour and False Life
Enlarge Person is finished, right?
Tyrus sends Torble slithering along the wall - literally along the wall, the ooze bug sticking to the wall like the insect it resembles.
Once it is across, Tyrus leaves the Revenant on the other side as he crosses. "Alright, Dante. This is the situation you were worried about. If I fall, and die, it'll go free. Cut the rope."
Wiping his sweaty hands on his side, Tyrus grasps the rope firmly and starts to make his way across.
Half way across Tyrus loses his balance, clings to the rope, and flattens himself against the wall. Staring fixedly ahead, he seems frozen with panic.
not sure if the rope lowers the difficulty enough to cross on a low roll
Tyrus nearly loses his balance and threatens to plunge into the pit - but is able to use the rope to stabilize himself, and then slowly, carefully, finishes the crossing. The enthralled revenent remains on the other side, standing dumbly in wait for instructions.
Luca's eidolon ranges ahead through the craggy, broken building, reporting back every few minutes to indicate it has found no active danger that can't be easily avoided. Once it indicates that the group should take some stairs to a yet higher floor, up and around a nest of zombies.
At one point, Tyrus and Dante miss the signs of structural weakness as they start moving back down towards the street below. A section of the wall collapses, taking much of the stairway with it - with only Luca still left upon them. she manages to dodge back up and out of the way before the collapsing brick and stone catches her, and then is able to climb down the remains with the help of her fellows. Luca is uninjured, though the path behind them has grown just a little more treacherous.
Finally, after what seems like ages, the group descends another couple of floors on still-solid stairs, and climbs down another small pile of rubble without trouble. Then you trudge down the road, arriving wearily at Mistwatch with another hour or so of daylight left.
And now all they had to worry about was the people here getting angry at them for losing their guide - although they probably knew how dangerous the area was, and that expecting too many people to make it back wasn't the greatest idea. Gulp. Still, she dismissed her Eidolon well before anyone in the town could see it, quietly trudging along behind the others. They weren't safe, exactly, but maybe they were... safe-ish?
Mistwatch. They were a half days journey from the city walls. Dante felt relieved to have come this far after all that had happened, but also not. Like everyone else, he had made no difference here. He'd actually lost quite a bit. Keldradt had taken and given nothing back. He'd learned new spells, gained more experience, but it all seemed to have no effect. A zero gain. He looked at the blade on which he swore to do good. To do better. A blade he thought belonged to a hero. Now he wasn't so sure. Curiosity was the only thing that kept him from leaving it behind. What was his families true legacy? It was still quiet. Just a hunk of useless metal against the things wandering the streets.
After a few hours - still hours out from Mistwatch - Tyrus turns to his new companion.
"Go. Cross as much of the city as fast as you can without being destroyed."
Tyrus, exhausted, looked up at Mistwatch.
'It seems so long ago since I left. Before Georgi. Before the vision. Before the pearl. I was an innocent - and a fool - when I lieft here.'
"Nearly there" he croaks encouragingly. "Just need to get in, now. We'll rest up, head for the walls with the next convoy." 'There must be convoys' he reasons 'People wouldn't risk this trip alone, and even fantatics would need to head to the city occasionally.'
You are greeted at Mistwatch by the usual cautious guards, who invoke spells to examine you from afar before waving you forward. One of the guards is a woman you recognize, named May, who belonged to the same band as Georgi.
Her face falls as you move closer. "Georgi?"
Dante turns away and walks past the woman. "The only consolation is he won't come back as one of them." The damage over the last few days had been substantial. He just wanted a meal and a bed at this point.
May and the others who overhead Dante make a gesture with their hands, invoking the love of the goddess Felathren, and let the group pass without another word.
Inside Mistwatch, everything is just as you left it. There are a few well-armed, capable-looking people sitting at tables eating and drinking, mending equipment, or just talking. Off in the corner of the warehouse-turned-fort, a woman in a heavy leather apron works at a small smithy. Several people look up as you enter. A flicker of emotion seems to pass over a face here and there when they recognize that Georgi is not amongst you, but nobody says anything.
Luca winced as the locals gestured for the attention of the goddess, and bit her lower lip as she looked away from them. They... they weren't wrong to do it, exactly, but calling upon that particular deity brought up some memories she desperately wanted to avoid thinking about. She clutched tight behind Tyrus as they moved, and muttered just one thing along the way. "...I'm not sure there's anything here for us."
"No." says Tyrus sadly. "But I also think we need to recover before we head out." He calls out more loudly to Dante "Let's get what belongings of Georgi to... someone. The keep's commander should know."
Dante turns to look at Tyrus and slowly begins to walk over. He holds up Georgi's pack and then something weird happens. The world begins to to turn in slow motion. His stomach tightens the same way it does when you fall. He didn't even feel the floor come up to meet him. His vision is jarred and then starts to go black. Dante passes out. Apparently the mental and physical strain from being at death's door twice had finally caught up to him. His mind registered the relative safety of Mistwatch and shutdown.
Tyrus ran to Dante, dropping to his knees and checking for a pulse. After a few moments he looked up. "The poor lad. His body has been pushed to the limit. I might be able to get him up again with magic... but I think we'd do better to just let him rest. It's a small miracle he's alive at all." He looks around for someone to help, then back at Luca. "Let's ask for a room for the night, even if it is expensive. I'll stay here with Dante, if you can ask for directions to the closest... inn?" the last word is more a question than a statement.
Luca swallowed slightly, but took a deep breath and tried to quell her panic at the thought of talking to strangers. As the gestures towards the goddess had reminded her, nothing good ever happened when she panicked - especially not to the people she cared about. With that, she simply went over to the closest person.
"U-um, e-excuse me, w-we're looking for a c-clean, quiet p-place to stay..." she stammered out.
There are some looks of alarm as Dante collapses. They calm down as Tyrus explains.
One of the men at the tables points towards the back of the building. "There're a few single rooms for the sick back near the barracks. Quiet, clean. You might be able to use them. Ask Ulag."
You remember Georgi mentioning Ulag as the resident 'librarian, healer, and know-it-all' of Fort Mistwatch.
Immediately a voice speaks up from behind you. "The lad can rest in one of the sick rooms. Just let me determine whether or not he is, in fact, sick."
Behind you stands a wizened half-orc, whom you assume is Ulag. He sports an eyepatch on the right side several scars everywhere else. He kneels next to Dante and examines him, lifting eyelids, feeling for the pulse, and even intoning a few words of a spell.
Ulag is a cleric, though you cannot tell how powerful he is. The spell he used was a simple orison to detect the presence of disease.
Eventually he stands up again. "Extreme fatigue, and some residual blood loss from his wounds. It seems you people had some trouble out there. Is Georgi dead?"
Ulag nods at your answer without apparent emotion. Wordlessly he helps you pick up Dante and leads you to the rear of the building where you lay him down on a small but clean bed.
"You all should rest as well," Ulag says when you shut the door. He waves you towards the barracks. "More words can wait for the morrow."
As long as Dante got the care he needed, Luca was basically satisfied. She did, however, hold back from approaching too close to Ulag - half-orcs, with their imposing physiques, were less than comfortable for her. (...Of course, at her size even a normal adult was still rather intimidating, so maybe that didn't count for as much as it would have if she was a little older...)
Eventually he stands up again. "Extreme fatigue, and some residual blood loss from his wounds. It seems you people had some trouble out there. Is Georgi dead?"
"I'm afraid Georgi passed away. We tried to bring his body back..." Tyrus trails off.
"You all should rest as well," Ulag says when you shut the door. He waves you towards the barracks. "More words can wait for the morrow."
Tyrus nods gratefully, and helps to carry Dante to the room. Once sure his patient is set up correctly, and after setting a silent Alarm, he sinks bonelessly into one of the thin mattresses. Thin, yes, but a luxury feather bed compared to how he had been sleeping.
Frustratingly, sleep eludes him. Days of constant stress leave him starting at every half-heard noise beyond the solid walls. Trying not to wake the youngsters, he quietly levers himself out of bed.
Dante's mind was too tired to dream that night so it was spent in blissful oblivion. The next day he awoke on a cot with no recollection as to how he got there. But the building seemed familiar. He must still be in Mistwatch. He gets up and notices his gear was nearby so that was good. As he heads for the door, he passes a mirror next to a wash basin. He does a double-take. He did not recognize the person in the mirror and looks around trying to find them. He realizes he is alone and looks back at the mirror. His neck had some terrible scaring from the revenent bite. There was a scar on his cheek from one of the many tumbles most likely. He lifts his shirt to see the wounds from the Dreamer and zombies. Neither healed well.
A sudden realization overwhelms him and sends him into a fit of hysterical laughter. Not one of his family had seen any real fighting in a long time. So not a single one of them had any scars of significance. They were actually a sign of poor skill as most of their fights were duels to first blood. A lot of scars meant a lot of losses. It meant the same thing in this case. Dante lays on the floor as the laughter peters out. The goal he set out to accomplish felt like a dream that was slowly fading away. All those stories of hero's felt like awful lies. It seemed so easy to be one. Now he knew the truth.
He joined the others in the morning with probably unwelcome news. But he felt determined. "I am staying here at Mistwatch. It might be futile but I am going to hunt down as many undead as I can close to the fort and return each night. I am putting an end to this nightmare."
Luca dithered for a few minutes - but it was increasingly clear that they needed to stick together, and quite frankly, she was terrified of what was going to happen to Dante if he was alone. If he was with one of the purger bands... well, she wasn't actually going to join in, given the trouble her powers might cause. If he wasn't going with anyone besides Tyrus, though, she was willing enough to go along and provide what help she could.
Luca asks Ulag if there is any worth in the intelligence they brought back from Keldrat - but after describing their route to Ulag, the half-orc shakes his head.
"Unlikely," he says. "That area is fairly well-explored already, with a few prominent exceptions - such as the tower itself."
He joined the others in the morning with probably unwelcome news. But he felt determined. "I am staying here at Mistwatch. It might be futile but I am going to hunt down as many undead as I can close to the fort and return each night. I am putting an end to this nightmare."
"It is futile, Dante. I am convinced this place somehow spawns undead. No matter how many you destroy, there will always be more." He puts his hand on Dante's shoulder "And as your physician, you need at least a day of recovery. At this point your blood is half coconut water - you need to eat lots of red meat and leeches."
"If that were true this place would have been overrun. If not, then it is only because of the Purger groups it hasn't reached that level," he says building up some momentum. But the slight pressure on his shoulder caused him to wince. He was still very hurt and thus relents. "One day of rest outside this hell hole."
Luca:
Sadly, with Keldradt not home to much in the way of leisure or high society, Luca isn't able to find any demand for her ornate calligraphy skills. However, those who can read and write well always have a place. She finds some work with the order of Illein itself, transcribing old faded scrolls and tomes.
Tyrus finds work with the order as well, who are perpetually short-staffed. They maintain a hospital that deals with the various maladies a population so near to a concentrated evil curse come down with. Showing them that he knows what he is doing both alchemically and with knowledge of healing itself, Tyrus quickly finds a place helping to prepare complicated poultices and other healing aid.
Tyrus sighs. "Luca - it seems a waste of your talents, but it should keep us in food and board. I hope they at least have you translate soemthing interesting. Selfishly, I am glad you'll be close to where I am."
"Dante - I can't say I approve, but I understand. For my curiosity's sake, could you ask them about those who struck it rich, and quietly try to see who has claim to the scimitar we found. I realise the journey to town is not so easy, but I would appreciate it if you could try to visit us in a week. In the meantime, my spellbook is open to you if you would like to learn or copy anything - though I do ask you not share it further."
"Transcribing is pretty easy - you just repeat things." Luca noted quietly. Translation would have been far more interesting, but the only languages she knew outside of Obanese and Dwarven were... well... "uncommon" was probably the nicest way of putting it. Either that or "probably going to get her burned at the stake".