The creature looks at Anwel with its face unchanged. It seems disinterested with the group in front of it and starts to walk, albeit with a severe limp, towards the camp of the group.
It makes no haste in its movement and only continues it's howl periodically as it goes. No distinct person is in it's sight.
@ Anwel
Udoeak steps back as the creature advances, not ready to attack it prior to provocation. Well, this is certainly interesting, eh? he says, standing with his sword still drawn.
"Quite," says Anwel, lowering his arms as the creature passes him by. Now that he's fairly sure the creature isn't connected with his mistress or his mark, his affect is less frightened and more grim. Particularly since it's now between him and his spellbooks.
"If it's interested in this place, can we just pack up and leave it behind?"
"It doesn't seem to want to attack us, but does look to be the walking undead and in all the stories I know they are evil killers. Let us go get our stuff and observe what it does when reaches the tree. I do think we need to destroy it in the end but we might learn something by observing it in the mean while."
Andrei circles the creature and picks up his glowing rock and then back around quickly to get back to the camp before it does.
Very well, Udoeak says shortly before returning to the camp and starting to pack his things up as quickly as possible.
"So the flying undead are benevolant protectors of the weak?" says Anwel, with a small smile that flashes into existence and disappears in an instant. He wonders briefly if Arcil knows any of the spells which grant flight, then decides it's pointless to do so.
Most of Anwel's possessions other than the wand, his bow, and his bedroll are already packed away, and two of those are already on his person. It should be a simple matter to roll up the bedroll and put it in the backpack - provided he can get to them before the creature does. He hurries to his bag, another thought entering his mind. What if this was the wizard whose possessions they'd uncovered, the most valuable of which was now in his pack?
|
Gorax heaves his armor out of the path of the strange walking dead creature, dropping it safely out of reach of the walking dead. "You know more of this thing than I, so how do you kill something that's already dead?" asks the fighting man, clearly concerned. He stays out of reach as the thing walks by.
Trudging along, the creature continues towards the tree where the party was resting. Its movements are slow and clumsy, it occasionally trips along the way.
As it nears the mound where the tree is, it starts to rummage around the groups various belongings. Its drops down on it's hands and knees and scours the ground looking for something. Every so often its easy to hear a grunt or moan as it struggles in its search. It peers through the stash of food prepared previously, and after a moment it finds itself looking down into the hole that the group dug. Its movements start to become more animated and energetic. Clumps of dirt and grass go flying through the air landing where they may fall.
After a few moments, you look at the creature as it starts to stand up. Bracing itself on the tree and stabilizing on its knee it props itself back up. When you look at the creatures face an image of anger comes across it. It stretches its arms out wide and looks at the group and screams louder than you have heard before.
"Well, looks like that's our cue," Udoeak says, raising his sword in preparation.
"Unless you guys plan on giving back your magic baubles, we fight!"
"Agreed. Gorax any advice or just hit it lots?" Andrei says circling the circling the creature to provide Udoeak with a flank. "Interestingly it seems to retain some memories. Original owner or thief do you think? I suspect thief."
"I had thought original owner," admits Anwel, shrugging his pack on, "but thief seems more likely. The orignal owner wouldn't have buried the items like they were, and wouldn't have known where to look if they had been taken." Anwel sighs, and pulls the wand from his belt. At this rate, he won't be able to fill his shadow with magic before the bulk of it was burned away by the sun. That being the case, he wants to rely on the wand, knowing that if he doesn't cast any spells he had prepared this morning, he could draw on them tomorrow.
"As for a strategy," he muses, wondering idly if the thing can hear them plotting its destruction only a few feet away from it, and if it cares, "these creatures usually have some weakness, but it can vary from kind to kind and from case to case within a kind. Try everything, and repeat what works."
Bimbur lets an arrow fly, missing badly.
Udoeak rushes forward, also trying to get a flank, and swinging with his longsword in two hands. "Sounds like a plan."
Stellan with Vinur behind him keeps pace with the others. When it seems to have emotions Stellan asks, "I have no experience with the undead, does this thing seem to have enough of a mind to be affected by emotion altering magic?"
Initiative:
"Never mind, I'll try it and see."
Stellan makes a minor gesture and glares with one eye, which appears to frost over for a second, at the creature.
Hex:Evil eye for -2 A.C. if it works. Will save to reduce six rds. affect to one rd. Can I tell if it does not work?
Bimbur lets loose an arrow towards the raging creature but it sails past it only finding home in the ground.
Stellan concentrates as he tries to place a hex on the undead creature standing near the tree.
Gorax rushes straight at the creature to be the first to take a stand against it. He swings but at the last second his footing goes loose and just misses the creature. It shifts its focus from the group in general and now stares directly at Gorax.
Bimbur concentrates on his first shot to get it just right as he unloads a two arrows, one after the other.
Andrei uses a move action to finish moving around to other side of the creature, threatening the creature his sword starts that now starts to glow slightly .
Speaking as he moves his words ring out clearly and confidently "In the fourth year of King Mikhail a plague hit the land and all that died rose from their graves..."
[dice=Initiative]1d20+3
Udoeak rushes forward, also trying to get a flank, and swinging with his longsword in two hands. "Sounds like a plan."
[dice=Attack]1d20+7 +1=23
[dice=Damage]1d8+7 +1=16
[dice=Sneak Attack]1d6 =1
The creature studder steps back when the arrow hits it in the chest. It still stands however it's focus still remains on the human in front of it.
"I suppose that reveals your purpose well enough," says Anwel, stepping closer to the creature and brandishing the wand. "You want this." Anwel hisses something that sounds like a command, and a plume of dark fire erupts out of the wand's tip. Andrei, Gorax, and Udo are close enough to the blast to feel its heat on their faces, but the fire reseves its full wrath for the undead thing. A moment later, the blaze is gone and a gust of cool air whips over the battlefield.
Anwel raises the wand and holds it up next to his head, his tone mocking as he finishes his taunt. "Don't you?" He feels sure that if he does distract the thing, it will come after him. He feels equally sure his companions will be undistracted, and trusts them to take advantage of the opportunity.
A massive gash across it's chest, multiple arrows peppered across its front, and now a lit on fire, the creature will scream out and start to fall. It drops to one knee, holding itself up with its hands, almost trying to stay alive as the flames continue to consume it. In a last ditch effort it seems to say something that is hard to understand given the condition of it's mouth and the flames. After a moment, it drops to the ground lifeless.
The corpse smolders for a moment longer, then... no more. It is slain.
Silence.
Well then. That was a tad underwhelming, wouldn't you agree? Udoeak asks, wiping his blade on the grass before resheathing it. He adjusts his glasses before looking to the rest of the group, his muscles still bulging and rippling from the effect of the mutagen.
Anwel shoves the wand back into his belt. His sneer, directed at the now smoking and motionless corpse, slides from his face like a mask at an Opparan ball. "As an experience?" he muses at Udoeak's question, "Yes. Our encounter with Happs and his goons lasted longer. But this thing's presence does raise some questions."
He makes his way to the smoldering remains and crouches down next to them. Ignoring the smell, he examines them to see if any identifying marks and other possessions had survived, and makes sure that the token he'd given the creature, made to be fragile, had burned in his firey assault. As he works, he continues his musings.
"There are two possibilities for how such a creature could rise. Either it was created, or it rose on its own. Either a rogue necromancer or a bleeding, whether preexisting or called by whoever this was, of negative energy into the world could pose a problem for us."
Udoeak nods. "I may not know much about these things, but corpses moving around and attacking is indeed bad. If there are more, they could become a definite problem."
Udoeak crouches to check the body for anything interesting as well, occasionally adjusting his glasses to get a closer look.
"Both though options do sound bad. Maybe in the morning we can try to work out where it came from. After you've finished examining the body we already have a nice fresh hole to bury it... him in." Andrei goes about reorganising the camp site getting ready to go back to sleep.
Stellan looks aghast at the burning violation of the what once was a man. "I know little of the necromantic arts, it never interested me." Stellan forces a smile he does not mean. "Even less now ... but I may need to overcome my revulsion."
Addressing Anwel and Udo, "Eldars, I know little of these matters, but is there anything I can do to assist you in determining the full nature of the threat we face? I assume by 'bleeding' you mean a break in the skeins of reality? Mother mentioned such but never fully instructed me."
Perception Examine the body and anything else that draws attention.
Stellan will assist will the body as long as need be and then will help the camp get back in order. He will stand the rest of his watch.
Vinur growls and barks at the burning corpse then goes into camp and curls up to nap.
Stellan, Udoeak, and Anwel gather round the corpse to seek answers to their questions. Crouching down, they are able to get a better view at the creature that stalked quietly in the night as it lays face down in the dirt. As they get close, the pungent aroma of death quickly fills their nostrils and continuing on becomes more of a challenge than originally thought.
Udoeak investigates the remnants of the clothing to see if anything can be learned but the flames have made this task impossible. Whatever remains on the flesh simply crumbles away as ash as his hand touches it. Clothing and furs are now in the past. The only thing remaining is a rusty sword that hasn't seen combat in quite some time. Picking it up, you can not see any redeeming value to this object.
Stellan gathers his courage and examines the flesh of the creature. The black left over from the burning clothes does a great job masking the discolored skin previously seen. Handling any extremity on the body leaves his hands covered in the soot. However, despite the blazing inferno, the skin appears to still be in relatively decent condition ... all things considered. It is peculiar but the thought doesn't linger long. Rolling over the creature reveals the cut on chest from the fight. It exposes flesh and internals, also covered in charred maggots.
Anwel carefully glances over the body of the creature before getting close. While the other two take the time to go for the obvious, he is left with the not-so-obvious. At a moment, a glimmer catches his eye as he notices a ring on the creature. It appears to be a silver ring, on the right hand. Crouching down and wiping the soot off it reveals that it is a simple ring, most likely a wedding of some sort.
While the men cover the creature from head to toe, Gorax, Andrei, and Bimbur cover the surrounding lands and keep an eye out for anything else that might try wondering this way. The night time stars glimmer brightly in the sky, illuminating the land for a distance. No other creatures of the night can be seen.
"A shame. Everything's burnt all to hell, and this thing's useless, Udo says, holding the rusty sword.
Well, I suppose if nothing else, we should count ourselves lucky that none but the dead were injured this night.
As Anwel works, he tries to answer Stellan's question as best he can. It's slow going, given the care needed to find anything salvagable on the wreck of a man and the complexity of the answer Stellan's question demands. But Anwel doesn't seem perturbed at the signt or smell of flesh, and is able to speak cogenty.
"Yes, Stellan," he begins, "reality can be torn just as you say. In the southern march of the Iadara Forest you can find such a tear, if you're extremely brave, powerful, and lucky. Their defining characteristic is that creatures can find their way through, like blood spurting from a deep cut." It's at this moment that Stellan manages to logroll the body onto its back, exposing just such a cut across its chest. Anwel helps him lower it down.
"I was thinking, however," he continues, passing his hand over the corpse's, "of a wearing thin of the boundaries between the worlds more than an open rift. Something like the Vale of Shadows south of here. Such a place would keep creatures on the other side at bay, but energies could pass through to twist creatures of our world. It is more like a burn or avulsion on a body than a penetrating wound.
"It is also possible," muses Anwel, "that this is the work of the spellbook-writer. A necromantic backlash as he died could have animated his body or lain dormant in that of his killer. I'm afraid, however, that finding out what truly created this thing is beyond me. All I can offer are hypotheses and maybe clues." At this, Anwel turns over his hand. There is a silver ring sitting in his palm.
"Andrei, can you compare this with the one you and Gorax found among the roots?"
Andrei looks around; "Sure, was it wearing this? Maybe I was wrong on the assumption that it was the bandit. Maybe it was the victim's lover. I should have given it the ring and seen what it did."
Pulls out the other ring and compares the two of them with the light of the glowing rock
Stellan absently says, "Thank you, Anwel for that answer, I think I'll need to learn more someday if such ... disturbing events keep happening here." Stellan frowns as he examines the fresh cut. "Odd, the clothing and the maggots burned but not the flesh. Must mean something but I know not what."
Knowledge:Arcana Does Stellan think of something about the burning corpse?
Stellan, quirks his brow at Udo, saying "I'm not so sure, I think my ability to sleep well in this land may have taken a mortal wound." Stellan's lips form a genuine but wan smile as he continues. "I expected vile bandits, hungry critters, and angry monsters but the walking dead I did not." Stellan sighs, "My fault I suppose, I was warned to expect anything and everything. But I've been here less than a day, and seen bandits receive justice and the dead walk, what will tomorrow bring?" Shakes his head, "No I will not buy into despair. There are great challenges here, nothing great is easy, but we can learn to overcome it. Gonna have to learns us quick though."
Stellan then checks the sky to see if the weather is going to change tonight or tomorrow.
Survival Weather?
Proceed with burial, say some words over the body, fix camp, finish watch.
"Worrying won't change anything, Andrei," says Anwel in a reassuring tone. "The ring couldn't have let the creature speak, and wouldn't have revealed its mind to you." Anwel hands Andrei the other ring and leaves him to his examination, patting him on the shoulder before he walks away. "Let us know what you find," he says over his shoulder.
Anwel knows he probably won't get much rest tonight, not before dawn. Instead he'll watch through the night. It will leave him tired the following morning, but he'll be more sure of retaining his spells. "Well said," he says to Stellan, nodding at Udo. They'd spoken the night before on a similar theme. "I know it's not what you meant, but since we're awake and alert we might give some thought to our course. Bearing northeast, and heading a little ways into the Narlmarches, would let us continue making sure that land around the trading post is clear of bandits" he pauses, with a glance at the corpse "and other hazards before we head south."