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You descend into the vale, and a faint scent, as of garbage or rotting meat, grows stronger. You emerge from the trees into a clearing and see ahead of you a rustic cottage nestled between two apple trees. The bucolic scene is spoiled by two great, feathered beasts the size of grizzly bears smashing their forelimbs against the walls of the dwelling. The windows and doors have been boarded up, but the creatures -- doubtless the owlbears Dr. Strang described -- seem determined to get in.
You have emerged from the trees about 160 feet from the cabin.
Initiative Order:
Zac
Beromir
Strang
Owlbear Zombie 2 (Blue)
Avril/Cryxial
Orophin
Dorn
Owlbear Zombie 1 (Red)
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Zac's shot misses. Beromir and Strang move closer to the cottage.
The zombie further away from the group smashes, bites, and claws at the boards covering the window, ripping a few of them away.
Initiative Order:
Zac
Beromir
Strang
Owlbear Zombie 2 (Blue)
Avril/Cryxial
Orophin
Dorn
Owlbear Zombie 1 (Red)
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Cryxial leaps forward, his strong legs carrying him swiftly forward. He doesn't move right up tot he creatures like Dorn, but instead veers slightly off to the side, preparing to charge at the creatures. Avril looks towards Mendev with a question. "Zombies I've fought before have been resistant to bashing and stabbing, are these the same?" Before she focuses her full attention forward again.
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The owlbear that Dorn approached turns away from the cottage and focuses its undying rage at him. Dorn is able to block one claw with his shield, and takes the bite and slams on his armor, but the other claw goes under his breastplate and slashes a nasty wound across his belly. Worse, the claw grabs him under the edge of his armor, and pulls him closer, the owlbear taking partial control of his movements.
Initiative Order:
Zac
Beromir
Strang
Owlbear Zombie 2 (Blue)
Avril/Cryxial
Orophin
Dorn
Owlbear Zombie 1 (Red)
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Dr. Strang moves closer, huffing and puffing a little from the efforts and shaking his head at the foolishness of those rushing so far ahead.
"They appear to be relatively standard animations." He replies to Avril's query. "Though on non-standard fauna of course." He adds.
"Judging by their movements, their creator has chosen to focus on their articulation, rather than their cohesion, so any sort of trauma should be effective."
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An arrow sinks into the owlbear's shoulder, getting its attention. The owl-like head turns past 90 degrees, looking at where the arrow came from. It opens its beak, but manages only a musty groan, like the rusty hinges of a mortuary gate.
Lumbering through the grasping weeds, the owlbear makes its threatening way towards Dr. Strang.
Initiative Order:
Avril/Cryxial
Orophin
Dorn
Owlbear Zombie 1 (Red)
Zac
Beromir
Strang
Owlbear Zombie 2 (Blue)
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Orophin babbles incoherently at the group as he rushes up, taking a position roughly half way between the mystic and the dwarf. As he does so he starts to open himself up to all the life energy that he feels in the world around, the leaves, the grass, the birds and the insects. Not however the horrible voids of unlife that are uncomfortably close.
As he does so, he "borrows" a little bit of their life force, drawing it into himself.
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Seeing Dorn wounded by the beast Avril decides to do her best to save him. She Grabs her lance in both hands and with a mental command Cryxial springs forward. His black scales ripples from the movement of his powerful muscles. "Die foul Abomination!" Avril shouts out as she charges. First Avril's lance connects with the beast, driving deep into it, her powerful muscles putting great force behind it. Moments later Cryxial follows through and with fang and claw he tears chunks out of the beast.
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Dr. Strang watches the second zombie owlbear approach with detached curiosity instead of alarm.
"Interesting." He mutters as it approaches. Only when it is directly beside him, does he seem to become aware of the threat.
"We'll have none of that, then." He says, as if admonishing a child, before stepping back, holding up his anubis-headed staff, and saying a few arcane words.
"Now just calm down, and hold still." He adds. "Let's have a look at you."
"Hold your weapons for a minute please," He says absently over his shoulder to the others. "I've overridden its core nature for the moment, but if you start with the violence, it will quickly re-assert itself."
Assuming no one gets suddenly violent, he pulls out a journal and starts taking some notes.
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After wresting her weapon loose from the now unmoving corpse Avril and Cryxial turns around in haste to charge at the other beast. As they do so they suddenly discover that Dr. Strang has taken control of it. Avril's mouth fall open and her eyes go wide in shock at the sight. After a second she stammers. "You... Necromancer... Were these beasts yours all along?"
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Strang has his measuring string out again, is walking around the owlbear studying it from various angles.
"Necromancer?" He responds, absently to Avril's surprised comment, "I am a devoted priest of Anubis. The dead are his purview, certainly. One can learn a great deal preparing a body for proper burial."
"As I told you before," He adds, with a faint smile. "The more you understand your foe, the easier they are to defeat."
"Usually prefer working without the flesh, mind you. You get a better idea of skeletal wear and mobility." He laughs for a moment, finding something humorous.
He makes a few more sketches in his journal, then closes it, looking back at the others. "Based on past studies, I should have control over this subject for just under a fortnight, if you think it might prove useful."
He frowns slightly, wrinkling his nose. "Though I can do little about the smell."
"Otherwise, we probably want to dispose of it somewhere out of the way. Can't have it running amok unsupervised."
He shrugs slightly, clearly not concerned either way.
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Orophin looks horrified at the creature, but finds his words returning to him at any rate, with the stress of the situation removed.
"It is an abomination. Set the creature to rest."
He advances to Dorn, and rests a gentle hand on the dwarfs shoulder.
"Will you accept back some of the life that undead took from you?"
Assuming he says yes.
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After Orophin's knock, a moment of silence occurs. Just before he feels like knocking again, one of the boards reinforcing a cottage window is pried open from the inside, and the light-green face of a gnome woman peeks out. "Are they gone? Oh my! There's one, but it's holding still! Good, that must mean it's safe!" She begins worming her way through the window, though you can hear voices from inside telling her to wait. Eventually the little gnome wriggles her way through the gap, landing on her rear end, then bounds to her feat and addresses you in a rapid-fire voice:
"Finally! I was getting thirsty in there. Did you bring any wine? Bloody owlbears. You’d think they'd know better than to trifle with me! Is that my packhorse? I'll settle for grog, if you have it."
The dishevelled gnome climbs directly over the rotten corpse of an owlbear and starts rummaging through the packhorse's saddlebags. Meanwhile, a shocked group of young Pathfinders emerge from the cottage, surveying the carnage with horror.
"Been like this for a week, you know. Nothing but undead and southeastern winds. Wretched awful smell. And me without my astrolabe. You should hear these youngsters whinge and complain. One little undead horde and they go all to pot. By the Eldest, I'm thirsty. I'd drink a flask of ink at this point! Bloody zombos did drag off one of the youngsters, though. You should hear them complain: 'Oooh, we're all about to die! Oh my, what's-her-face was abducted by zombos! Oh, I don't want to be eaten.' And they call themselves Pathfinders!
"Aha!" The gnome triumphantly holds up a bottle of dark red wine. She whirls around, addressing the assembled group, "You youngsters, burn these carcasses. Bloody awful stink. You lot with the weapons, unpack this horse, build a nice fire, and pull some turnips from the garden. Then come have a drink and tell me how fat Sheila's gotten."
With that, the renowned researcher Ignizi Dinnelletter scuttles back into the cottage, uncorking her newly acquired wine along the way.
The news that one of the researchers has been abducted is unexpected, and unfortunate, and some of you wonder why Ignizi is not sending you after her right away. However, it is getting on towards the early evening, and it could well be that she doesn't want to send you out when it'll soon be dark.
Looking at the researchers, you recall the dossiers that Shiela Heidmarch provided you with.
(male halfling) Lemmy was recommended for the Sanos post by a Magnimarian alchemist who wanted only to be rid of him. He’s a bit of a bungler, and while he thinks of himself as a bard, his singing is wretched. Lemmy aspires to one day be a full-fledged Pathfinder.
(female human) Hailing
from Tamran on the shores of Lake Encarthan, Leona ventured all the way from Nirmathas just to study with Ignizi. Leona is hoping to learn something in Sanos that will help her people fight the blight-corrupted fey of the Fangwood.
(male half-elf) This haughty half-elf grew up in the nearby town of Nybor, which is known for its large interracial population. Bored with small-town life, he journeyed to Magnimar, where he hoped to start a career as a Pathfinder adventurer. To his dismay, his familiarity with the area landed him right back in Sanos.
(female human) The most starry-eyed and earnest of the group, Marsia grew up in a village in northern Molthune. As a child she loved to roam the Backar Forest (after which her family is named), and has a special affinity for the fey. Obsessed with First World research, Marsia is clearly excited to be working under the renowned Ignizi Dinnelletter.
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"How long ago was your student dragged off?" asks Orophin, somewhat concerned at the scholars lack of care for her charge.
"We could go after her now..."
Quickly he looks over the students, observing if they bare any injuries.
Slapping his head, he takes out the letter for the druid and hands it over.
"We were also asked to give you this."
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Dorn grimaces at ... everything, a vein bulging on his forehead as he glowers at Strang and the motionless owlbear. "Grah, just lemme kill it! Shouldn't be walkin' around!" he yells.
When Orophin approaches and offers healing, Dorn twitches a little, taking deep breaths of air with his barrel chest. "....aye.... aye... just... let me calm down a bit....."
Once he's calmer, he signals with a slightly sheepish nod to Orophin to go ahead. "....got a stick in my pack," he mutters. "Don't care for it myself but if you want to use it..."
Dorn continues to glower at Strang, giving him and the owlbear a wide berth. Before he can say much, however, Ignizi makes her appearance. Dorn squints suspiciously her way.
"Who the hell are you?" he says, brow furrowed. "--hang on."
He rummages in his pack, finds the journal he took from Sheila Heidmarch's study, and thumbs through to his own entry made a week ago. "...oh, right...."
He lets the others manage the introductions, busying himself with hacking apart the owlbear that had hurt him, in order to render the pieces smaller and more easily handled and burned. Or because he just wants to chop up an owlbear. Just as likely, really. He glowers at Strang and his pet the entire time.
He frowns he parses Igniz's rapid chatter. "Hang on.... they dragged off one of the nippers? Seems like they're more 'eat now' kinda monsters..."
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At Orophin's obvious reticence, Strang nods slightly. "Disposal it is then. Probably for the best, if we do meet any fey, they might react negatively... and the smell is only going to get stronger."
Strang looks up as the gnomish woman works her way out of the hut, slightly taken aback at her bedraggled nature. He had been expecting someone a little more scholarly. "Research on the fringes, I suppose." He mutters.
He listens to her story with surprise. "More? How strange." He muses. "There is also the possibility of site-based influences." He adds thoughtfully. "Though unlikely, I suppose. Dorn is correct, left to their own devices, it seems highly unlikely they'd drag off a subject alive."
The good doctor quickly introduces himself to the elder druid.
"I've been looking forward to seeing the research you've managed to do here! Though it would appear there have been interruptions."
When she mentions disposal of the dead owlbear, he interrupts. "Oh, let me handle that." He points to the motionless zombie. "Might as well put that subject to use before we retire it."
He commands the owlbear zombie to drag along the dead one, then heads towards the woods.
"Mr. Gritstone, I will need your assistance, if you can lay off the dismemberment for a moment." He adds to Dorn as he follows the owlbear. "Bring your axe."