Krovek at least tries to grab the ghoul, but realizes it's already belowground. Instead, he grabs ahold of Hambley's wife, helping in a cruel game of tug-of-war.
Cator rushes over to assist in pulling Hambley's wife out
Cator gets the sense that Rogors is not pulling as hard as he can, and Hambley's wife's screams seem somehow off. Cator says "Rogors, I have a feeling you are putting on a show for us and I am not usually wrong about these things. If you fess up now we're fine but if not and I find out this is some kind of trick I will cut your head off."
Rogors grimaces and mutters, straining, ”I’m tryin’ to save her, boy! How dare you question me!” his voice rising a bit as he exhales and strains.
With a start, the woman slips from your grasp and slips into the soil, her voice silenced. There is a short noise as if someone is attempting to scream, but the sound is muffled.
Rogors drops to his knees, clawing and slamming the ground, ”damn them! The bastards!” he turns and glowers at Cator. ”If you hadn’t spent so long blathering’ maybe she would’ve been safe!” He raises his arm as if to sock Cator, and looks down, angrily. Then his eyes light up
”Wait… this… I can track them!” He points out that they must be relatively close to the surface. The soil looks disturbed ”Look, I don’t know much about you folks - can some of you help me? I bet they need her alive for whatever foulness they want. I am a hell of a tracker - but those folks -“ He jerks his hand towards the other survivors on the horse ”someone should get them to safety.”
He looks like he’s watching the ground, and it seems the disturbance is moving slowly away, to the west. He looks about to leave to follow them.
Cator srutinizes Rogors' demeanor
Cator can tell that Rogors is hiding something and loses his patience. "I am not warning you again. I know you are hiding something, you were holding back just there and now you are trying to separate us. You don't want to make me angry."
Rogors flares his nostrils and then narrows his gaze at Cator, ”… fine. If you must know, I follow Alocer, the duke of the hunt, if you get my meaning. Sold my soul, in fact, to protect my family many years ago. It worked. They remained unsullied.” He folds his arms, ”look, people give me a funny look when I say that - but I wasn’t usin’ it anyway. Fact of the matter is - I’m obliged to rescue her and I’m goin’ ta try, with or without you lot.” He turns and it looks like he’s trying to follow the “trail,” but the disturbance of the soil indicates that it’s moving much faster than before. He moves to leave.
Cator assesses this answer as well as trying to remember who Alocer is
Lunal was not strong enough to help with pulling, and their magic was too dangerous to throw at such a small target grappling the woman. "We can't let them go, not only is her life at risk, it may lead us to the source of all of this. Lead on Rogors."
Cator is stunned to hear mention of the "Pack Lord" demon Alocer. He agrees with Lunal "Right, we all need to go, no telling what we might be facing. The sick can hide in the house until we get back."
He then catches up with Rogers and says "Lord Foxglove is mixed up with Alocer too, isn't he, and he is behind these ghouls, too, right?"
Shaedeen awaits the man's answer while sticking close to Hollie and Drax. She doesn't want to abandon the kidnapped woman to the ghouls, but...she sniffs some sort of ambush or trap.
"I don't know what the f!&* is going on here, but we gotta save her." Krovek just focuses on tracking the abducted woman. And trap or not, it was a lead.
Rogors is watching something, though it seems less obvious to others now what trail he's following, and he says, half paying attention "Lord Foxglove is an undead, yes sir, don't know what type, but he doesn't have nothin' to do with Alocer. The Pack Lord and I have our own arragement. Foxglove's been tryin' to make an army of these ghouls I suppose." He keeps moving west.
Some ghouls have the ability to burrow, of course, but they can't move very quickly through the soil. It should be easy to follow them if they plan on emerging soon.
Krovek saw the soil disturbances for a while, but they grow fainter now. He gets the impression that Rogors must be extraordinarily sharp eyed.
Cator considers what sort of undead could create ghouls like Lord Foxglove
Continuing to run alongside Rogors, Cator continues to talk to him "We'll help to rescue this woman. But it would help to understand Lord Foxglove's game. If he is not mixed up with Alocer, why was he leaving notes talking about the pack and calling himself lordship?"
Rogors furrows his brow, "he's nobility, young man, old nobility. He is, or was a real lord. If I weren't already damned, I'd be to know what happened to him." He lifts off the key from his neck, "this is the key to the manor - past the misgivings on the coast." His face darkens, "though that's become a foul place, we'd better hope we can stop them..."
The man looks quietly ahead and seems to tilt his head, and then sniffs a bit at the ground. A few minutes pass and he seems to have caught a trail.
He points ahead, "look!". The woman's head emerges some distance away, gasping for air, it isn't clear how they got so far, but Rogors redoubles his effort and tries to grab her, but she disappears after just a moment.
He snarls in rage, and claws at the ground where she descended. His hair and beard are desheveled. The moon is high, and his grimace shows of a pair of rows of pointed teeth. It is also apparent that his long dirty fingernails are hard as iron, and he's close to being able to dig as well as the creatures.
****************************
Shaedeen, Hollie and Drax hurry quickly back to Sandpoint with the two scarecrow survivors on a horse. As they pass the rows upon rows of corn and wheat, Drax spots indentations in the grain from, as if a creature is moving through, heading towards them. They ride hard, along the road, their stout steeds moving quickly, and a ghoul leaps out with a hiss, across the path behind them! It grasps empty air as the party spurs their steeds forward.
Then another, catching one of the horse's tail with its rotten claws, and tumbling to the dirt. The rear horse rolls its eyes, frothing and champing at the bit, maddened by fear, and barrels forward, but the two ghouls run behind, slower than the horses but tireless.
"Hey, hey! Stop, you need to keep tracking, they have to come up again somewhere. Stay focused."
Rogors turns his head to Lunal, a look of hunger on his face, and snarls, "...MIN-" but catches himself. He straightens himself up and nods, "of course. Come." He blinks, and turns back towards whatever it is he sees. And the chase begins anew.
Before too long the small group reaches the Foxglove river, with the road following the northern bank. Rogors watches, frantically. It looks like he's hoping they'll emerge. The hunter mutters, "the bastards can't burrow under the water. They'll cross there -" he points a little downstream towards a sturdy-looking arched stone bridge, and then further, in the distance, "or near the manor."
Rogors snaps his fingers, and gestures for all to spread out, waving for the party to cover the bridge while he stands a few hundred feet west. It looks like he's trying to spot the underside. He puts his filthy finger to his mouth, as if asking for quiet, and watches.
”Keep riding!” Drax calls out from above. Whenever one of the ghouls begins to close distance, he circles and flies at it, snapping at it with ah is jaws, remaining out of their reach.
He does this a few times, sometimes missing, others ripping away chunks of their flesh away. Once one is down, he lands turns his attention to the last one in pursuit. He descends upon it in a fury, his draconic form silhouetted against the moon as he lands on it like a terror of the night! He rips it apart in a matter of seconds before closing the small gap back to Hollie and Shaedeen. As he comes up alongside, he spits out a few remaining bits of ghoulish gore in disgust.
"Be careful!" Shae yells to Drax, their rivalry a thing of the past. She keeps Thunderclap moving, occasionally glancing over her shoulder to check on the ghouls.
Cator follows Rogors' silent instructions, draws his sword, and takes a position covering the bridge.
Krovek and Kazaht follow, the half-orc readying his greataxe.
Drax tears into the two trailing ghouls, ripping them to pieces. His long neck left them defenseless, and they are rapidly dispatched. Draxtherian takes flight again, quickly following the fleeing women as they wind their way on the dirt roads between fields of grain. After a few moments, a handful of more ghouls emerge from behind, but are again torn to pieces.
Finally, just as they are approaching the ford over the Soggy River, a ghoul leaps forward into the horse's path. Leering, with a squamous tongue, it extends its claws, but the noble beasts, maddened with anger and fear, trample the miserable creature in their flight from the horror. Draxtherian decapitates the creature before it can rise.
The remainder of the hard ride back to Sandpoint is largely uneventful, though the two survivors almost fall from the saddle occasionally. They're able to ride up to the new cathedral, by about midnight.
Clutching the woman, who appears to be passed out, the ghouls emerge from the bank just west of the bridge, as Rogors suspect. They glance east and west, and then seem to creep towards the bridge. Their sharp claws seem quite adept at climbing too, and it looks like they intend to climb up the side while carrying the woman, still unconscious.
They cackle a bit, but it doesn't look like they see the group crouched on the bridge yet, nor Rogors, who's nearly invisible in a bush nearby.
”Father Zantus!” Hollie calls out as she dismounts in a hurry. She turns to help the sick rider down as best she can before turning to help support them against her as she heads inside. Once through the front doors she calls out again ”Father Zantus! Someone! Please hurry! We have people here in need of help!”
Shaedeen helps the infected folks as well, but she's quiet and distracted, expecting to see more lurking ghouls in every shadow.
Father Zantus emerges from the rectory, somwhat bleary-eyed, and seems startled. "What? What's happening now?" He sees the dying people and starts, "my word! Oh, well, I have some emergency supplies..." He returns to the rectory and emerges after a moment, holding a wand. He flicks it, and then touches each of them in turn. The second doesn't seem to do much, so he does it again.
Nodding, he puts the wand into his robe. "now, what happened to these people? Hollie, miss Shaedeen - what are we dealing with here?"
"Ghouls!" Shaedeen exclaims, as if that explains everything. "Lots of them!"
Lunal knows that undead cannot be stunned by their powerful sonic screams, so focuses on damage, letting loose another cloud of electricity on the further ghoul.
Hollie nods at Shaedeens exclamation, hoping nobody heard and starts a panic. But just in case, she adds ”We destroyed most of them, and the boys are out dealing with the few stragglers that remained. They will be along shortly with hopefully a couple more survivors. But these two seemed too ill to risk waiting to return, so we hurried back here for help tending their ailment.”
"We think the head ghoul may be trying to create a small army of minions by infecting people and letting them slowly die and turn into ghouls themselves," Shae adds, this time remembering to keep her voice down.
The furthest ghoul was more injured still, and dies.
Zantus nods, "it's good you rushed back here then - I'll mind these two - they should survive until tomorrow, but someone will have to help cure their disease - such a thing is beyond my power - "
He gestures, "you may want to fill in Hemlock as soon as you can."
Cator runs to the remaining ghoul and strikes at it
Krovek steps over a bit and tries to blast the ghoul to free the woman.
Kazaht moves to engage.
Rogors leaps from his hiding place, somehow also baring fangs, and with his own clawed hands, and charges at the ghoul. His eyes are red, and he's frenzied.
But Rogors misses.
It seems obvious now that Rogors is a type of undead, some type of advanced ghast. Why it didn't seem that way before is unclear. He's snarling in rage and looks to be trying to tear the ghoul near him apart.
Lunal's eyes open at the realization of what Rogors is. How did I confuse him with a werewolf?! They angrily direct the cloud back onto the other hostile undead, and throw out a jolt of lightning to go with it.
The ghoul dodges out of the way of the lightning ball, despite grabbing onto his prisoner.
Cator again attempts to strike down the ghoul
Hollie nods and goes to the Garrison to find and report to Hemlock. She informs him of the events at the farm, as well as the odd man at the Sanatorium’s strange request. She adds that the others are hunting down the few ghouls that are trying to escape with hostages, and that they are supposed to meet back in town as soon as they finish.
She and Drax then begin making her way back to her house. This whole time, she had been doing her best to maintain an air of confidence and composure. But there were so many of them. And these were once people, families, fathers, children. All turned into ravenous monsters with the facade of humanity stretched thin and twisted into something vile.
And she had helped kill them all, as a mercy.
The toll was heavy on her, and her color was fading as she made her way inside. She didn’t even close the door all the way. She just stood in the small living area, staring at the floor. She looked down at herself, flecks of ghoulish gore and muck still clinging to her clothes, armor, and skin. It suddenly all felt so repulsive. She began frantically unclasping what was once her sisters armor and let it fall to the floor unceremoniously, along with her sword belt.
She was breathing heavy in an emotional frenzy as she stepped over to the wash basin and began splashing water desperately on herself to remove the disgusting stuff from her as her eyes began welling up with tears. In so doing, she accidentally knocked it off and it fell to the floor with a clatter, and Hollie leaned onto the small table as she began to cry, slowly slumping down to the floor in a heap.
Draxtherian watched the whole thing with a stoic sadness. He knew she was hurting, but this hurt was an important part of her growth. As she slumped to the floor, he lightly stepped over and coiled his tail and neck around her to try and provide some comfort.
While Hollie reported to Father Zantus and Sheriff Hemlock, Shaedeen tended to their frightened and tired mounts at the Goblin Squash Stables. She chatted a bit with the owner, warning him of the ghoul infestation. Eventually, she made her way warily to Hollie's new house, always expecting to see lurking ghouls creeping from the shadows. When she saw the front door hanging ajar, the young rogue drew her rapier, clenched her teeth while steeling her will, and quietly entered.
************************************
Seeing Hollie crying while being comforted by Drax, Shae pauses. Sheathing her weapon, she approaches openly. Knowing her own tendency to say exactly the wrong thing at absolutely the wrong time, the teen simply places a hand atop each of her friends' heads briefly. Seeing the overturned wash basin, she gives Drax a nod of thanks and says, "I'll see to cleaning that up." First, however, she closes the door and locks it against ghoul intrusions.
Hollie didn’t seem to notice anything at first. As Shaedeen turned to the door, Drax gives her a nod in return.
When the door clicks closed in the jam and the lock twists into place, Hollie jumps and turns to see Shaedeen before she turns away and begins wiping her tears away with her hands. ”S-sorry. I didn’t hear you come in,” she says as she stands back up. ”I...I must have slipped when I spilled the water...” she adds as she picks up the large bowl.
Shae explains where she was before asking how things went with Zanthus and the sheriff. She scowls a bit and says, "We probably should've told Father Zanthus to treat the sick inside a cell at the jail...in case they turn suddenly."
Shae tries to observe Hollie out of the corner of her eye as she mops up the mess. This madness is eating her up inside.
Another thought suddenly strikes the teen: Does she think me a monster for only worrying about my own life while Foxglove populates the countryside with ghouls because I won't go to him?
"We need to take the fight to Foxglove," Shaedeen says resolutely. Then some of her fighting spirit seems to drain away as she asks, "Where are the others?"
Hollie kneels down and begins drying the floor with a towel also, trying to avoid letting Shaedeen see her tear filled eyes.
When Shaedeen mentions Foxglove, Hollie pauses. After a moment, she replies ”If he is really behind this...I’m going to make him pay for what he’s done.”
After Shae asks about the others, she resumes trying to dry the floor. ”They’ll be along shortly. They are good at what they do. I have faith in them.”
Kazaht tries to gore the ghoul.
Then it steps out of the way to make room for Krovek.
With a vicious slice, Krovek beheads the last remaining ghoul.
***
The woman collapses on the ground, her breathing shallow. It's obvious that she may not survive the night.
Rogors grits his teeth, and turns to everyone, nodding. "I am ... feeling a calling. To return. She is almost dead - can you get her to safety in time?"
His eyes seem to glow, as trembles and lifts up the woman gently, handing her to Krovek, then steps unsteadily back and licks his lips. His teeth are jagged, and his skin is sallow, "We are close to the seat of his power - if... I cannot control myself - " He seems to think for a moment.
"Kill me. Coming this close to the manor has reawoken something - I do not understand - " He kneels in front of the group, bowing his head, his voice rasping "...quickly..."
Lunal gasps at his request. "Oh come now, you can't figure out a better solution than that? It would be easy for us to tie you up and haul you away from here until we get far enough away or it's long enough that you're not longer pulled by it."
Krovek looks at the others uncertainly, but lacking other options, seems willing to behead the guy. He raises his greataxe.
"Lunal, if Rogors is sure this is the only way..." Cator turns to Krovek and nods.
"Did...did nobody just hear me?" Lunal looks around at the cavemen around them. "Tie. Him. Up. Now! Ugh. No brains at all."
Rogors blinks, and shakes his head, "nothing you can do for me - but I will... try to control myself as long as I can." He grits his teeth, anger in his eyes, which glow with unearthly red light.
He seems like he's barely able to control whatever mad power has taken hold of him. He snarls, "quickly, you fools, if you value your lives, take me from here!" He kneels prostrate, showing what self control as he can. His nails and teeth seem to have grown slightly, sharper and harder, and he looks more feral.
Krovek quickly binds the ghast as tightly as he can.
The plain hemp rope is simple, but the knots that Krovek uses seem to hold. Straining, Rogors tries to get out. "Away, away from the manor! Grab the woman and let us go - I hunger for her flesh - it is consuming my mind!"
The woman is unconscious, and obviously needs treatment as soon as possible.
Krovek tries to stabilize her disease.
He straps the woman to the back of Cator's steed, and tries to do so with Rogors to his own, but the horse bucks and tries to flee. He spends a little time trying to calm the horse down, but it may be a difficult task. Even after binding the ghast's hands, the animals, other than Kazaht, seem terrified of him. Krovek asks, "brother, can you ride her to Sandpoint, quickly?
"Of course. You handle Rogors. I will see you back in town." Cator says, then takes off on his horse.
Cator rides quickly back to Sandpoint, and the trip is thankfully relatively uneventful. He arrives in about four hours of hard riding, his horse exhausted, and rushes her to the cathedral. It's about 2:00 am.
Father Zantus opens the door, confounded, blinking sleepily, "what? More folks? Is this it?" He sees how close the woman is to death, his mouth a thin line.
"any later and she would have died. I will get a scroll." He rushes into the cathedral and comes back. The woman's breathing strengthens as she leaves death's door.
Zantus runs his fingers through his hair, "look, I can't cure the disease. There's three of these folks now - I can keep them here and keep curing what I can - but it's going to catch up with them before too long. Do you folks have a plan?"
********
The trip back to Sandpoint is substantially longer for Krovek and Lunal. Lunal leads the horses far ahead, and Rogors' glowing red eyes are filled with hatred, and he struggles against his binding. Continuously, he tries to free himself, muffled curses coming from his bound mouth.
After a few minutes of walking, he's chewed through his gag and bitten Krovek on the shoulder. The wound seems to be clean though, and the snapping, dangerous man is let down. He grimaces, and shakes his head, then gestures at Krovek, with gritted teeth adding, "bind my mouth again, with a steel bar if you can, like a bit."
Krovek improvises something using rope and a piece of adventuring gear, but it takes some time to finish. After about another thirty minutes, they move on, the damned ghoul struggling to free himself the entire time. Eventually Krovek grabs him again, and they and Lunal continue. The trip to Sandpoint is uneventful, though the moon is high and they see nocturnal creatures creeping about, nothing is threatening. The trip is quite long, however, and they are quite tired when they reach Sandpoint, just after dawn.
By this time Rogors has long returned to his old 'self' and has even been walking of his own accord, since at least the Hambley farm. He shakes his head, and concentrates a moment, and his skin ripples, deforming slightly - he looks again like the thin and wasted humanoid that you met earlier, instead of the obvious ghast.
Krovek removes the bit, and Rogors says, "the jail, or what they have for a jail. It should be safe enough for others there." He frowns, "though if Foxglove returns to Sandpoint - I can't say what will happen."
When word reaches Hollie of the fact that the villagers need more help to fix their ailment, Hollie returns to the Cathedral and seeks out Father Zantus. ”Father. What do you need to save them?”
Cator asks Well, what would it take to cure the disease. Is there something you need? Or someone we could bring?"