The zombie readily ignites.
Kwava fires two more arrows at the zombie attacking Brenin, striking it with one of them. Still the relentless undead comes on.
Gabbro's blow breaks the back of the bizarre lion, sending it to oblivion.
The zombies close in on Brenin, clawing with their grotesque nails. Brenin suffers two hits between the two of them. .
The headless corpse pursuing Lia swings its arms drunkenly and misses with its attacks.
Lia is startled for a second by the zombie in front of her catching fire. She moves a little and takes a short stab at it, but remains transfixed by the flames. "Damn Rees, men must love you...smokin' hot!"
Brenin howls at the hits. "Damn these things! We need to finish this now."
It's the shot that kills the tongue that kills the zombie. That much is clear as Brenin's shot explodes through the wriggling purple thing.
Sam keeps the hand on Rees's shoulder, granting the vision for another round.
Lets see how you like the flame. I give the creep the F$$& you stare and hope he burns just like his brother.
The zombie in front of Lia disintegrates into burning pieces, adding a charming new undertone to the stench of Witchlight village.
The newest arrival catches fire as it draws Rees's attention.
On the opposite side of the combat, Kwava shifts across the street to take a more direct shot and bullseyes the hideous tongue. The smoldering thing collapses to the ground and twitches.
Gabbro looks around at the faces of his traveling companions, the odd roar of applause accompanying him, as if the very ground chanted his name.
"See? I don't know what the problem was."
Brenin looks at the metal man and grunts. "I think I'm going to need stitches. There's someone in that tower. We saw each other when the lions attacked."
Kwava trains his bow on the tower and its sinister-looking arrow slits. He walks slowly down the road toward the tower.
"Did you notice Brenin," he calls out without taking his eyes off the tower, "that the cats didn't draw breath? What manner of creature neither breathes nor makes any noise? And allies itself with undead?"
"I'll go with demon which would lead us back to drow?"
Reese is having a hard time switching gears, but after a few moments, she is able to concentrate hard on happy life force kinds of stuff and feels her eyes start to glow with healing instead of fire and death.
I'm going to need a few more moments if you guys want me to fire bomb the tower???
There's no sign of life from the tower. An unsettling silence falls over the ruined village. The sun is dipping at this stage and a glance past the tower to the harbor beyond shows the Flying Cloud still standing in the road.
Lia doesn't know much, if anything, about demons and monsters. At one time, she was an expert on her city. Now, she doesn't know where she's sleeping, what she's eating, or what other vile things will rise up to face them this evening. She turns to Rees, "Thanks for the pick-me-up, girl. I needed it." She pats her on the back as she goes to follow the men. She is uneasy and doesn't like the vibe from her surroundings. "It seems the tower is bother the nature boys," she says as she trods off with her rapier at the ready.
Witchlight tower is perhaps 50' tall and stands on a spur of rock at the crest of the ridge. The slope behind the ridge is a very steep drop to the ocean. The view from inside the tower must be impressive.
There's one apparent entrance to the tower, at ground level in front of you. The door is shut. The ground all around the tower is littered with tile shingles from the roof many floors above.
Brenin surveys the scene as the party approaches the door. "We probably have a few more suprises in front of us. Let's be careful."
He'll move ahead to one side of the door, but will stop short of touching it.
"Lia, you want to check this out?"
Gabbro adds, "I'll open the door when you're ready."
Here we go again...
Lia looks at the door.
Lia senses no traps on the door. She attempts to make the lock do her bidding.
Lia bends to the task and is done in a matter of seconds. "I still got it baby! Now, if only there was something of value behind the door instead the inevitable creepies..." She stands back and lets Gabbro at the door.
"You opened it already?" Brenin shakes his head and smiles. "You must have been real popular among your neighbors. I'm glad you're on our side."
"Watch your step Gabbro. Drow lay nasty traps."
"Who said anything about drow?" Gabbro observes. "We got cats and zombies here."
Gabbro opens the door, ready for destruction.
Gabbro throws the door wide, revealing a destitute interior. A single rickety chair and some kindling is all that remains of the room's furniture. A stone staircase to the left climbs up to higher floors. As you step into the building a male voice sobs from above.
"Nooo! Don't open the door! Shut the door!" He comes barreling down the stairs toward the landing with wide, bat-shit crazy eyes and spittle flying. "Not even for a second! You must shut the door!"
"This ain't the drow's house is it?"
"Easy old man. Nothing is coming in this door except through us."
.
Brenin quickly steps inside before he gets the door slammed in his face.
"Geez, what is this, are you some mad scientist making zombies by accident?"
"Let's secure him and the building before anything else."
Securing the man is not hard. He plows into the group and is easily halted - he can't top a hundred pounds wet. He flails with his bony elbows, trying to get at the door to close it.
"If you let one of them in, it'll be the death of us all! Shut the door and lock it! You're in now and now ye've got to stay! Close the door afore the demon cats come back!"
"Yeah, saw them," Gabbro lackadaisically admits. "Killed them and their zombies, too. Their bones seem oddly rubbery, you know?"
If shutting the door appeases the poor fellow, then we'll shut it. The drow obviously isn't here, but this looks like it will be interesting enough anyway.
"How long ago did you start seeing the cats?"
The man struggles until you let him go. He retreats across the floor and takes shelter behind the pathetic chair, refusing to talk to you until you show him your tongue. His eyes dart around as he speaks and his breathing is erratic.
"Folks was disappearing from the moment Goldhammer landed us on this cursed island," he whisper-shouts across the room. "Those things don't make any sound. They don't even breathe! Goldhammer said folks was running off with what they found, but 'where to?' was what I asked. Then the ones that 'run off' started coming back as monsters themselves."
"Slow down. Breathe. Nothing is going to get you while we're here. Where are the others, Goldhammer?"
"What else can you tell us about the island, the monsters, any possible survivors?"
"Whoa up there guys, first up is there anyone else in this building with us??? If not please continue on with the conversation."
Reese moves toward Gabbro. "I think we should stay here tonight, you want to take a look through this place with me?"
Kwava lays a new arrow across his bow and covers anyone advancing upstairs with Rees.
"Agreed," he says staring up the winding staircase. "Let's get up to the top of this thing and see what we see."
Brenin stows his bow and draws his sword. "After you Gabbro. Let's see what's up there."
Lia stays behind and talks to the man. She moves as close to him as she thinks he can take. "My friends can keep you safe while they're here. Breathe easy." She pauses for a moment to see if he calms, then continues. "What's your name?" Lia talks to him like you would the feeble minded or a wounded animal. She tries to get any information out of him she can, without spooking him more. She reassures him, "When we leave this place, you may come with us. We have a ship." To herself she thinks about where the ship will take her when she's done here. Home has been destroyed, and she's never been anywhere else in her life.
Your group ascends in force. As you gain the first floor, the stranger speaks softly to Lia.
"Name's Jarek. I'm the only one here. The only one left from our expedition. Came here on Trondheim's orders to get the skymetal, but these monsters got us instead. Then Zincher came along and they tried to press us to work. They wouldn't listen, but they found our for themselves. And a few of us made it back to the tower here."
"But we got powerful hungry, and the others left to find food. And didn't come back."
True to the survivors word, there's no one else in the tower. The view from the top floor is spectacular. The tower is built on the highest spot on the island, so you this is the best view of the island shy of flight. The broad disk of the sea is visible in 360 degrees.
Brenin circles the tower looking out the windows then gets an idea. He walks to the top of the stairs and yells down to Kwava, "Any signals you can send to the captain to let him know we're here and spending the night? He could probably see a light from here."
"We don't have much, but maybe we can find what we're looking for tomorrow and get us all off this island. What happened to Zincher? I'd love to find him on this rock, dead that is."
Lia isn't in the mood for company right now, and wanders around by herself. She wanders aimlessly while the others plan.
Gabbro shrugs at Rees's revelation. "They still die when you slice them. One of them bit me, and it was weird for a moment with a bit of extra glowing, but nothing happened."
He stands with Rees. "Let's go check things out."
Staring out one of the windows on the top floor of the tower, Gabbro picks up the scent of a wood fire on the breeze. As he stands there gazing upwind looking for the source of the smell, he sees light flashes out in the trees in the direction of the crater. A few moments later there are more flashes along the ridge to the east of the tower.
Below, Jarek devours everything he's given. When he's eaten all of it, he leans back and takes on slightly saner airs.
He shrugs at the question of Zincher's fate.
"Since we ran, I haven't seen any sight of him. And I haven't looked!"
He sits there, chewing his thoughts and picking his teeth for a moment.
"I can't understand Zincher, though. He didn't seem that put out by the lack of skymetal. He was more upset that there was no stone from the sky. Just fragments and debris. Little pieces of some kind of skymetal, but nothing of any substance."
He puts a hand to an interior pocket and pulls out a shiny green fragment. The fragment is cool to the touch, smooth, and reflective. One side of it comes to a 120 degree angle, but breaks off just outside the seem.
"Hmm, Hey Rees," Gabbro says quietly, contemplatively. "Can you see those fires from here? What do you think?"
"Uh fires, what fires?" Straining her eyes, Reese says, "Man you have some good eyesight Gabbro. We should check that out in AM maybe someone has decided to fry up Zincher. " Reese ends this with a big fat yawn and decideds to sit her butt down.
Kwava comes up beside Gabbro and looks on.
"There's a thin bit of smoke coming off the ridgeline, maybe three miles up the way. Someone's campfire I'm guessing."
He stays at the top of the tower next to Gabbro and Rees as the sun starts to set.
"The flickers out in the woods - the ones out by the crater and such. Take a look," he points down into the woods. "Those are our feline friends, I'm guessing."
You look out on the darkening woods that cover the island. Here and there in every direction you can see twinkling colored lights. They flash in bursts, like little groups of multi-colored firecrackers going off, but without any sound at all.
Lia wanders up and joins the group. As she looks at what Kwava points out, she wonders, "So, how many of them are there, you think? I'm guessing this is somehow related to the drow we've been searching for. She couldn't call these things up on her own, could she? And if not, who do you think she has working with her?" As she looks out over the woods, she gets goosebumps.
"A score or more of them," Kwava estimates.
"We should get some rest before we try to take on the lions. Leaving before sunrise seems to make the most sense." Reese yawns again and decides where shes at is a good place to try to sleep. "Wake me when its my turn to watch."