Both attacks hit, but don't seem to be causing as much damage as you might have hoped. (DR 5/slashing)
Watching as these creatures now aim to stop him and his companions Tylur draws the bastard sword acquired from the demoness in two hands and swings it at the creature to his left.
Tylur cuts the zombie next to him in half!
The necromancer, hanging on to his zombie escape vehicle, casts another spell as an obscurring mist rises up around him.
René silently notes that the man seems to be slowly fleeing upstairs. With any luck, this was the only way down and to freedom, so he would be easy enough to catch up to. Even with the help of the zombie to guide him, he didn't think he'd be able to run very quickly.
Still, best to try to hurry things along. Half under his breath, René began muttering prayers to all the non-evil aligned gods to help them put down the abominaitons that were these undead things, so that they could serve justice upon one whom preyed on the mentally ill.
"Be careful you oaf!" From within the mist, you hear what is unmistakably the sound of a zombie carrying a blind man falling down the stairs.
Meanwhile, Pink attacks Tylur and Green attacks Skarn. Neither comes close.
Cordwin will continue to try and do his part...
Skarn will move across the room, taking an AOO from green (AC 23) (but not from red, due to Escape Route) and will attack the blind necromancer!
x4
"Call off your beasties, or I will kill your blind self," Skarn demands!
Tylur continues to attack the zombie closest to him .
Pink swings at Skarn, but the dwarf blocks the blow with his shield as he continues on.
Skarn cuts the necromancer as he tumbles down the stairs.
The necromancy stands up, but without his zombie guide, runs into a wall.
”He’s going to regret not surrendering!”
In an attempt to help Skarn prevent the blind man from running away, René yells encouragement even as he steps back to a less exposed position left by the charging dwarf. "Haha, you show'em pal! He ain't goin' no where!"
Pink attacks Tylur.
The other zombie manages to pick up the man and carries him a short distance.
Skarn activates his agile feet ability to safely get down the steps, and he will again attack the (now being carried) blind man using Fortune from Rene...
x4
Thanks to the hex, you make a deep gash in the man. The zombie drops him.
"Ok, ok! I give. Stop killing me!"
"Make your beasts stand down and stop attacking!," Skarn demands!
"Fine! Fine. Zombies, stand down."
The zombies stop moving. Combat is over, you are pretty sure youhave won the day. Dr. Habe seems to be huddling upstairs surrounded by his tiefling bodyguards (support staff).
René gives the remaining zombies a wide berth as he heads downstairs to the now, blind spellcaster. He starts patting the man down, trying to remove his spell components and any weapons he finds. "Now then, why don'tcha be a good fella an' tell us all about what you was up to here afore our good friend here decides he don't like the cut of yer jib."
Not only are his experiments unethical, but he will resort to murder to keep them going! He motions at the zombies. Were these a part of your experiments? Cordwin says with his voice full of disgust!
After some time interrogating the man, who remains blind, you discover that he has cajoled Dr. Habe into letting him experiment on patients that don't survive in a basement laboratory.
You quickly explore the lab, which is really just the basement of this building.
The main large room combines the features of a wizard's laboratory and a catacomb - several tables bearing bodies covered by drapes dominate the room, while tools ranging from shovels to dissection implements sit on shelves against the wall.
Currently there are three bodies on tables, humans who were "patients" in life, and whose bodies are preserved via gentle repose.
The only other item of interest here is a map of the Sandpoint hinterlands that Caizarlu has been using to track what he calls "ghoul activity." The necromancer gathered this information over the past several days, and has noted in particular that there's been an increase in ghoul sightings around the southern farmlands and along Foxglove River. Caizarlu's current research is concerned with developing a method by which one could track a ghoul's lineage back through several "generations" of ghoul attacks. His research has stalled, and he's hoping that Grayst will succumb soon so he'll be able to dissect the body to gather more data before it rises as a ghoul and becomes much more difficult to study. One takeaway from his notes is the very strong possibility of what he calls a "ghoulish source" having risen to prominence in the region.
One of the other rooms was used as Caizarlu's personal quarters. The necromancer spends his nights here, in a relatively stark room that features a simple bed, a study table, and a plain wooden chair. His spellbook sits atop the desk-this book contains:
displacement, stinking cloud, vampiric touch, acid arrow, blindness/deafness, command undead, mirror image, cause fear, false life life, gentle repose, ghoul touch, halt undead, identify, chill touch, mage armor, magic missile, obscuring mist, ray of enfeeblement, bleed, detect magic, light, mage hand, prestidigitation
There are also quite a lot of notes in the spellbook concerning ancient Thassilonian traditions of magic, including a few drawings of the Sihedron rune.
+3 to identify creature abilities and weaknesses
+2 vs unusual stonework, +1 vs giants
While looking through the laboratory, Skarn discovers a wand, which he hands off to Cordwin for inspection. After shuffling through the papers, he asks, ”What can you tell us about this symbol?”
The symbol seems to be coming up quite often as of late. The Sihedron Rune is the ancient symbol of all seven schools of Thassilonian magic.
This looks like everything I would imagine a necromancer lab would look like!
René stands, looking at the map. "Foxglove agin. If these here charts are correct, yet 'nother sign that manor is the next place we look inta. Though we might wanna prepare ta deal with ghouls. Very least, git sommat to help deal with the nausua 'n' p'ralisis. In the meantime, may as well turn this fella over ta the sheriff. I reckon they kin at least handle that, yeah?" The man's lab and activities only further strengthened his belief that he was right to blind the man.
Woot!
Despite his protests, you hand the necromancer over to the sheriff, who is very interested in the illegal activities the man has been involved with. Dr. Habe has apparently now disappeared as well, leaving the sanitarium without leadership. The sheriff enlisted the two tiefling staff to maintain the place for a short time while other arrangements could be made.
You manage to sell the spellbook for a tidy sum (250 gp). As you prepare to leave for Foxglove Manor, you spend some time shopping for supplies.
As you go about your business, the sheriff comes to enlist your aid once more. Local farmers began talking about walking scarecrows that came out of the fields at night to feed-nothing was seen, but plenty was heard. Screams in the dark, glimpses of people being chased through fields and out over the moors by. . . things. When neighbors visited farms in the morning, they found them empty. At first, the fiercely independent farmers thought they could deal with the unseen menace themselves, but yesterday it became too much. A group of farmers armed with torches went to inspect the Hambley place, and only one survived.
Farmer Grump breaks into frantic babbling as soon as you arrive, nervously muttering about walking scarecrows. Calming him down requires a few minutes of work, at which point he tells a short but harrowing story, speaking of how the southern farmlands have become plagued by foul walking scarecrows that stalk the night. All the farmers knew that the problems were coming from the old Hambley place-"things just ain't been right there for a few days now"-but when a group of locals paid the Hambley farm a visit yesterday evening, they were attacked by folk that looked like corpses but fed like starving animals. At this point in the telling, Grump's worked himself into a lather again and shrieks,
"They even ate the dogs!"
Skarn has heard enough, "dog-eating zombie scarecrows! What is this world coming to? I, for one, am game to go out to the Hambley place and see about this! We can't have the poor canines of the land being terrorized by scarecrows! If they had stuck to the avians, that would be all fine and well." He looks to his compatriots for their support.
"I 'spect the root cause is still the Manor. Even if we clear out this here farm, more'll probably just show up. I pr'pose we handle that place first 'n' then check out the Hambley place."
As it turns out, you are passing many farms along the way to Foxglove Manor. Most seem to be deserted, and the few that have not been refuse to come out an speak with you... they fear for their safety, based on what they have heard about the other farms.
As it gets dark, you come close to the Hambley farm. You can press on, or check it out, as you like.
As Cordwin mentions that they are passing the Hambley Place you can see Tylur grabbing his symbol of Sarenrae closing his eyes. Opening them he suggests, "If we are already passing this place we should investigate it. Travelling through the night it is probably best to approach Fox Manor by day if the undead presence is strong there."
Skarn checks his holy symbol and weapon, just in case.
Giving the sigh of the long-suffering, René agrees. But only because it's "on the way."
Fields of tall-stalked plants transform the paths between them into oppressive tunnels, making it dangerously easy for visitors to become lost. The Hambley farmhouse and barn sit in the western portion of these fields. Both house and barn seem unremarkable from the outside.
As you approach, you see a scarecrow hanging in the tall plants.
Skarn gives the scarecrow a good look...
"Who wants ta bet as soon as we go in them there tunnels, whatever scared the farmers jumps out at us from the corn? Too bad field's so big or I'd suggest we burn it all down, stop anythin' from hidin' innit."
"Oy, if you burn down the fields, you may end up being worse to the farmers than whatever plagues them now. A fire across these fields could spread to all of the farms and kill the people, and their livestock, and maybe not kill whatever is at them now."
Putting aside the comments from his companions he can't but help feel there is some truth to what they are saying.
"Let's just get about to finding if the problem is originating from this farm. I don't think it is but there might be some answers here as well."
This scarecrow looks to be pretty normal.
There are a couple more up ahead, and it seems weird to put a pair together, one on either side of the path.
"Well, if ya worried 'bout them straw-men, we could just stick'em like porcupines an' see if they flinch." René pulls out his sling and begins lobbing rocks at them.
Skarn likes Rene's suggestion, and watches to see if the sling bullets have any effect on the scarecrows.
Skarn waits expectantly.
Skarn looks around to see if any of the local grains would make a great beer.
Maybe we should tear them apart. You know in case they come alive?
"It seems unnecessarily destructive. We are not petty vandals, are we?"