So be it...
The gnome pronounced the verdict pooping off a magic missile then jumped off the wagon and ran to a safe looking spot under the walkway the bandit was on.
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The hunter senses a wild, irrational look in his tiger's eye and worries. "Chett, don't do nothin' stupid!"
Then he notices Jerrik, beset by three of the zombies he saw outside earlier. "The man's brave as a tiger," he thinks aloud. A memory from the night before enters his mind, when Wendell skewered one's head with an arrow and still it fought on.
"Shit, Alfentinius, you alright?" Wendell's eyes grow wide, a sort of panic is setting in. We're trapped in here... What've we done?
He turns his back on Chett and fires an arrow at one of the zombies .
Wendell is distracted and the shot is far off mark.
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From the corner of his big yellow eye Chett sees the arrow bury into Alfentinius' chest, and the bandit on the catwalk above that shot him.
With a yowl of pain, he limps over to the ramp and starts slowly making his way up. His teeth are weakly bared.
He hears his master's command echo in his whooshing ears. Protect Alfentinius...
The sounds of battle around Jerrik was almost deafening. He was able to block the first zombie's swipe at him but that left his defenses open to the second zombie. A rotting arm managed to club him in the side and grimaced at the pain but quickly recovered. Suddenly an arrow streaked through the air between him and the zombies. He used the momentary distraction to focus healing energies into his wound before once again raising his longsword and swinging for a zombie's head. His attack was unfocused though and went wide of the mark.
"Trying to use my shadow against me? You must have heard of me.
Arim meets the man's rapier with greatsword on the second attempt before driving the blade at the man.
The two senior bandits try to dodge Aleksara's cone of fire!
Alfentinius' magic missile sails into the bandit's chest up on the catwalk, causing him to grunt in pain. He steps back again then fires another arrow at the gnome, missing this time as he fears the magic.
Arim skillfully parries the man's attack, slamming into him with one of his own. The grim looking man bit off far more than he bargined for, woefully underestimating you all. He crumples to the dirt under Arims swing, still smoldering from Aleksara's fire.
At the sight of his friend going down, the lumbering scream bandit becomes ever more enraged. Failing madly he steps into reach of Arim and retaliates with a heavy two handed club swing! The blow proves enough to down the man, for now.
Prunus exchanges attacks with the man he cornered.
The Stag Lord then steps out and fires an arrow targeting Aleksara. HE misses her wide which puts a noticeable end to is menacing chuckling.
The zombies continue to swing away at Jerrik, who all miss as the paladin remembers his training well.
The Kobold warrior woman stabs at the manic man as he enages Arim, sliding her rapier into the man's hip.
The centipede mount bites at the man as well as he slashes Prunus with his longsword.
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When the Stag Lord finally shows his cowardly face, Wendell spits at the ground with disrespect - it snags in his red beard and slowly drips down.
Only way to break a pack a wolves is to kill the alpha.
He moves forward and draws an arrow for the bandit leader.
"Hey Stag B@$@~, catch this."
His arrow skips off the ground at the Stag's feet and clatters against the wall behind. "F$~~. Why have y' cursed me, Ol' Deadeye?"
Seeing Arim fall, Aleksara panics a bit, and attempts to blast the wild screaming man wielding the club!
She then steps up (5 ft step) to force the odd man into melee with her, hoping to reduce her profile to the Stag's arrow shots in the process. She then yells, trying to prevent panic from creeping into her voice...
"Arim is down! Jerrik! Wendell! We need help here quickly!!"
With a ferocious...Bleat?.... William charges the bandit on the catwalk.
Bhaa!!!
Seeing the large bandit drop Arim, Alfentinius feels worry for the shadowy soldier, praying that he is okay. Then Alfentinius turns his attention to Arims attacker.
Jerrik heard the shouts of his name above the din of the battle. He glanced back over his shoulder but really couldn't make out many details. What he did notice was the cart. The Ulfen warrior resigned himself to what he had to do next.
Gritting his teeth, he turned his back on the zombies and dashed away. He knew they would likely try to swipe at him as he moved away, but he had to get clear of the wagon and closer to his friends if they were going to survive this. He ran past the wagon before skidding to a halt. With one hand on the wagon, he began pulling it towards him, shouting at Jasper while he pulled. "Jasper! Back! BACK!"
Arim is caught off guard by the brute's attack, the blow catching his shoulder and knocking him off his feet. He looks to all the world like a lifeless rag-doll, tossed aside by a petulant child.
But Arim is not lifeless, Arim is driven by the rage of his blood. The rage of injustices heaped in his past. Arim barely blinks.
He lands heavily on one knee and twists to address the man who would be his killer. He hears Aleksara's shout as if through a thick mist but he is too distracted to reply. The full force of his legs goes into lifting himself to his feet, lifting himself and his blade that is between Auchs' tree trunk legs.
Wendell's arrow sails wide of the Stag Lord who seems almost supernaturally untouchable. William then charges the lone standing bandit pawn and gores the man brutally to his end.
Aleksara's reach spell succeeds and she is able to shock the berserking man thoroughly. Followed by Alfentinius' missile, the thug is left staggering. Then Arim rises from the apparent dead, kept standing only by his boiling blood for revenge. He slices his enemy from groin to chin, spilling him onto the dirt. Completely out played by his passions, the fiece bandit barbarian falls dead.
In a move of heroism, Jerrik risks a retreat to blockade the undead out of the fort, but also locking themselves in with the Stag lord and his highest ranking lieutenant. Two of the zombies get their nails deep into Jerrik's flesh and he runs, but ultimately his plan succeeds and the wagon blocks the door.
The zombies proceed to start crawling under that wagon.
"I knew it would be you and me Akiros. Do not prove me wrong, for I will reward you lavishly with the riches of my Lady!" A voice booms from the ruins around you all, sounding like the earth itself was commanding. The Stag Lord becomes determined and focuses on those who have now killed two of his lieutenants in less than a minute.
The lone lieutenant strikes at Prunus again, but misses.
Prunus and his mount continue to thrash at the Stag's man without success while Aibreann sees a moment to be a hero, she rushes in to attack the Stag Lord! She manages to stab him in the leg!
"For the Sootscales! Claw and Scale!"
Feeling ANOTHER arrow strike her failing form, Aleksara is amazed at the booming voice, hoping it cannot harm them directly!
Focusing on her last remaining spell of any real power, she casts hurriedly! A ball of sticky goo appears in her free hand and launches itself at the Stag lord!
Aleksara then falls prone next to Arim (free action?) and tries to staunch the man's obvious bleeding!
"Help me...gods he's bleeding too much!
It was a foolish gamble, but it had paid off. Jasper had bought Jerrik the time he needed. Blood rushing from numerous claw wounds, Jerrik stumbled forward, the tip of his longsword dragging along the ground as he pushed himself forward.
"Alfentinius, the wagon will only stall the zombies a few moments. You should get to safety my friend."
As Jerrik continued to lumber forward, he once again summoned the positive energy that flowed through his body. It staunched most of the blood loss and sealed several of his wounds. Again he found the strength of will to continue on.
Arim wakes from his momentary unconsciousness with a throbbing headache and only a vague dreamlike recollection of the last few moments activity
Approaching the wall, we had to rush, why did we...
As his vision clears he catches a glimpse of the threat from under the cart.
The undead!
With one last lingering glare at the stag lord he drags himself over to the cart, ready to strike the first thing that comes out from under it.
"Chet. Buddy. Sir. Erm... Your highness?! Take out those sleepers before they can surround us!"
Looking Around William sees the fight below and quickly turns back the way he had come heading back towards the fight.
Alfentinius heads Jerrick's warning and moves away from the cart peering around the corner of the wall. From there he sees some blood on the Man with a deer head for a skull and chooses to pile damage in on him.
The Stag Lord is able to break free while he is pelted by force projectiles! "Menacing little shits!" The Stag Lord bellows before stepping out of Aibreann's reach and unleashing more arrows.
While the arrow at Wendell misses, Aibreann is hit hard and goes down. "Hurry up Akiros! Take the weird ones, I want the Humans!"
Akiros then continues to trade blows with Prunus! He easily downs the Mite and turns to see Arim standing back up with Aleksara and Wendell covered in the Barbarian's blood. "Aye! I can finish this.."
Arim is able to cleanly remove the first zombie head to emurge. The others continue to come, both crawling out enough to swipe at Arim's legs from the ground. They both throw deadly claws at his thighs, but luckily his readiness allows him to evade the attacks.
Aleksara gets up and stumbles in near shock towards Chett and safe cover from the Stag's horrible arrows. She pulls a potion out of her belt as she moves and offers it to the big cat.
"Come on Chett! I've got something here that will make you feel better!"
Feeling invincible William charges at the human standing in front of the Stag Lord.
Seeing so many of his allies in such dire straights Alfentinius takes a deep breath and decides to try something a bit desperate. He steps further behind the wall ducking lower praying that the allies still up will draw the attention of the two men giving him time to finish chanting a spell.
Teeth gritted against the rage swelling within, Jerrik stalked forward. Both Aibreann and Prunus were down, fallen at the hands of these bandits. William was charging head long into danger and Arim looked like death had passed right through and was coming back to finish the job. Time was running out. The zombies would soon be upon them. The sleeping bandits would come to. They desperately needed to end this threat, now. He raised his sword and lunged for the Staglord.
Arim is driven back by the undead pair but he is determined not to let them get past him. Breathing heavily he drags his blade across the shins of the nearest.
But he knows his strength is spent...
The Stag Lord steps back and sneers at Jerrik as he misses, "Huuman, damn you dirty bastard, shaming my fort by trying to raid me! ME! I"M THE LORD OF THESE LANDS!" The Stag proceeds to launch a full volley into Jerrik.
Meanwhile, Akiros is completely surprised, "What?! A, a goat? Really?!" He takes a shot at William, in disbelief over what is happening. "Yaw! Scram! I'm going to bloody trip ov'r ya!"
The zombies continue mindlessly after Arim, one staying prone and snatching at his legs while the other stands and shambles over to him hungrily.
Having been hit by the human warrior William stops for a second seeming to be stunned by the fact that someone would hurt him... then he turns tail and runs away.
Alfentinius finishes casting his spell and prays that they are not too powerful to resist the spells effects.
Then the gnome turns his attention to helping Arim by using his wand on one of the zombies attacking the barbarian
Running to get to Arim as she sees him fall, Aleksara swings desperately at one of the zombies!
Crit?
"Coward!" Jerrik shouted at the retreating Staglord. He shifted his weight and slid to his left, focusing more of his positive energy into the arrow wound to staunch the bleeding. Using the other man as cover, Jerrik stabbed forward with his blade.
Arim lies where he fell, no third miraculous recovery this time around...
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Wendell watches as Arim is overcome by the two zombies that emerge under the cart. Unable to see that Aleksara has rushed to his aid, the hunter calls for Chett to protect their fallen friend, then notches an arrow and fires it at the red zombie.
"Gods, why've you forsaken me!" The hunter begins to re-evaluate his life in the blink of an eye.