The limping tank continues to make her way up the steps.
Double 20' move.
Camillo continues moving to rejoin the group at the front door. If he gets there with an action left, he will join the magus in attacking the new ghoul using his arcane strike even as the flash of Vidar's ray leaves an afterimage in his retina.
Rullis digs into his scroll case and withdraws a scroll. He prepares to cast it upon Kithian if the spellcaster shows his face. He doesn't want to waste it if he doesn't. He'll follow Kithian if he advances.
SAyniek reaches the top of the stairs to see a dog summoned forth and Rullis preparing a spell via a scroll.
Cristiel turns and offers a wide blow but Cam charges from the hallway and lunges at the creature with a solid strike. The ghoul offers a sort of empty wail scream type noise at the violence and turns its attention on the bard.
That attention proves useless as the ghoul finds no flesh for all of its flailing about.
"Divide its attention with me, lady warrior. Vidar, I am not versed in these things, but I thought they only rose after burial on the night of a full moon or something like that. Isn't he a bit precocious?"
The limpy tin can continues to get to the fighting.
Growling: If everyone else would slow down it would make things much easier.
Move/double move to get to the combat. Not sure if I am within 20' yet to attack. I will charge if that is an option, then I can attack from 40'.
Kithian points down the hall and and raises his falchion. "Find him!"
Cam barely misses the ghoul as it thrashes about attempting to find its footing but Cristiel and the bard have done good work surrounding it. Reggie growls fiercely but seems unwilling to take a bite.
Sayniek arrives up the steps to see Kithian, the new dog, and Rullis.
The dog takes off with the command and starts snuffling about, leading on down the hallway and (I assume you follo) around the corner. The corner ends in a dead end with a single door that leads "in" to the center of the building much like the downstairs. Kithian cannot quite make it to the door to see what the dog is barking at.
Cristiel calms her breathing against the rising anger at the ghast fleeing into the night. Anger makes a soldier's work sloppy; a saying her father had taught her over a century ago. Regaining her center, the elven woman slides the fingers of her free hand down Manartyelo's length as she dips her head slightly at the rising ghoul, "No more time for regrets, lost soul. Now is the moment of release. Go in peace." With the part-prayer, part-eulogy finished, Cristiel sweeps her sword out at the ghoul's neck.
Emblazoned in fire and burning the ghoul is sent to final rest s Manartyelo cuts the ghoul down.
All is quiet in the foyer as the the living guard and farmer look about in fear. Upstairs (I assume) Kithian approaches the hall way with Rullis in tow and Sayniek a few feet behind. The barbarian sees his summoned animal snuffling about the doorway and whining. On his approach he sees the interior doorway leads to another interior hall with a series of three doors on each side and a door at the end of the hall. Clearly these are cells.
Yes, Rullis will follow staying behind the barbarian, scroll in one hand, spear in the other.
Kithian glances around the corner into the hall then pulls back waiting on the others. "I don't see him."
"Shall we get the others and return?"
How long can someone stay invisible? Perhaps we can simply wait until it is gone. If we guard the doors, he should not be able to escape.
Sayniek begins to scan the area for any evil presences.
Detect Evil and begin to scan the room and then the hallway following the others.
Cristiel wipes her blade clean on the burnt shirt of the dead guard turned ghoul before looking to Cam, "Are the rest of the dead silenced down below?" Meanwhile, she stalks back over to the open door into the rainy night, once more taking watch beside it. She spares the mass of the giant ghoul a brief look before gazing back into the darkness, "When next we meet, the fallen one is mine. I shall no longer suffer him to exist."
Nothing registers as evil to Sayniek.
"Let us close and bar this door, whatever else may pass this night, I would prefer no more foe would sneak up on us this way."
Wiggling his finger rapidly and blowing on them, like the heat from his spell had singed his fingers, Vidar does not quite manage to supress a pleased smirk.
My magic prowess is growing...
Seeing the Assimar scanning the room, he decides he should do the same. Putting the scroll back in its case, he begins chanting, holds his spear tightly, and advances into the room.
Camillo shrugs. "The ogre ghouls have fallen, but there was a spellcaster that cast a spell and disappeared. The others are searching for him, but we could hear fighting down here and I came to assist. There is another one out there?"
Sayniek would like to hunt down all the evil and destroy it. But, she is not going to march off alone into the dark rain.
Cristiel keeps her post at the door as she guards it against further assault. She spares a glance behind her to the rest in the orom, "Best we finish up here before dawn. Our mounts are no doubt all dead by this point and it will be a long walk to return the injuried to Sandpoint."
"If you want to leave here while it's still dark, you need your head examined. Daylight aids us. I'm not going anywhere until I see some sunlight."
"As I stated, we should wrap up our business here before daylight so that once dawn breaks, we can make haste to escort the injured to town."
"Whew - you had me worried. I thought you were trying to leave before dawn so we would reach our destination sooner. I mean, I appreciate your passion to get to the bottom of things, but there comes a time to ease up, you know?"
"Which in this particular case has not yet arrived.
Our adversary has so far revealed a combination of willingly throwing a vast amount of resources at us, in combination with at least elemental grasps of strategy and tactics.
Either we are nearing the final push, or he has yet more ghouls to spare...."
The group hunkers down as best they can as the rest of the night unfolds. The other caster seems to have disappeared and a search of the top floor reveals holding rooms for mental patients and little else.
The farmer details the struggle of nearby farms and practically begs the group to look in after his family though he is sure all is lost considering the general chaos at the Sanitorium.
The prisoner awakens and pretty much proves immune to intimidation though it is clear he seems "out of it" whether that is just being beat up, in a fight or something else is unclear.
There is enough night time (being just a shade after midnight) that the group could get enough rest in shifts to leave soon after the sunrise to make way to their next objective. The horses are indeed all dead, each of them slaughtered in a particularly brutal fashion.
"The first thing we should do is report this back to the Sherriff, he will need to know.
I would like to pass by the farmstead of our guest here to see if we can do anything for his family.
Once we are safely back in Sandpoint we will need to go more thoroughly over what we have uncovered here."
Vidar, full of energy and purpose begins to get ready to leave, packing up the various journals and such.
"Breakfast will have to wait for a while longer, I have no intention of eating in this accursed place.."
"Agreed. We shall eat when we get back to the Rusty Dragon. I have some nuts and dried beef here to hold me over."
Sayniek did not use any of her spells, so she is good to go once we have some rest.
"Oh, you misunderstand me. I don't want to let this thing go, but following it into the night or fleeing toward Sandpoint seem foolhardy. I realize we give it an advantage by sitting tight, but we retain the advantage of these walls by remaining within."
"Thank you for the blessings, my friend. I had not realized how beaten up I was until Gozreh's breeze blew through me."
"No, I do not believe we retain any advantage at all from these walls.
Remember, they infiltrated this place before, and they know it far better than we do.
The more time we stay here, the more time we give our foe to make it that much more difficult for us to leave.
We have only two advantages now, and that is that he needs time to rebuilt his forces, or at least move them here.
The second is our mobility.
And...forgive me for saying this, but the longer we stay here, the more time our foe has to attack outlying farms to create more ghouls.
If we remain too long, we may end up having to fight all of Sandpoint in the form of undeads."
Camillo definitely looks unconvinced, but he doesn't respond.
Sayniek looks from one new party member to the next:
I can see in the dark, so I have no problem moving out at night. However, our resources are fairly depleted and we can secure this room fairly well. My vote would be to rest until morning. If the horrible wizard returns, I shall be prepared to eliminate him. If we leave now, where will we go in the dark rain? We could easily be ambushed or attacked. And in the end, we will just be wet, and hopefully alive, but not much farther toward Sandpoint than we are now.
"I agree with the wee one. Barricade ourselves near an exit, then leave at dawn. We do not know what ambushes await us outside and the light will aid us in the morning."
Cristiel sleeps lightly that night between shifts at watching the entrances and exits from the room. With the first of dawn's light, the elf makes her way outside to examine the bodies of the dead horses and salvage any of her gear that can be recovered amongst her saddle bags and pack. It was a pity that the gift she only so recently received was so quickly lost as she closes her mount's open eyes with a soft prayer.
Cristiel looks to the others as they prepare to head out, "I find myself in agreement with checking the closer farms on the way back to Sandpoint. Better we quickly stamp out any growing infestations before they do become an army of the damned. However, I do possess some alternate motivation in this regards as I hope to run into the fallen one that taunted me last eve. Manartyelo shall part his head from his shoulders, this I swear. So take my opinion on our course with that in mind."
Even with the aid of prolific roads and trails the reality is the hinterlands of Sandpoint are not the most friendly for on foot travel. In many ways an untamed frontier teeming with vegetation that can make progress slow. Coming back to the main road and heading north most of the day is spent heading to the local farms.
Sadly in this case the group's pace is hindered not only by Sayniek's unfortunate lameness but also the farmer and guardsman who, despite being helaed physically, do not have the stalwart reserves physically or emotionally for all that has happened. The caster prisoner also struggles at times with basic commands and lucidity and it occurs to those trained in healing if some of the poison in that tooth didn't make its way into the man or if he was always of less than lucid mind. As such your progress is slow with the first farm being reached in the late afternoon.
From here there are a series of farm houses, 6 total that are spread over roughly a mile with various crops ranging from corn and wheat to cvarious vegetable beds and "sustenance" plantings of herbs and specialty plants at various states of cultivation. A series of light foot paths criss-cross each farm and into the neighboring land creating easy places to walk around the various crops and to each home.
Scarecrows can be seen doted along the landscape, 10 in all and the light breeze moves an ocean of wheat that serves as the most prolific planting.
The nearest house according to the farmer (whose name is Ivan Sudderson) belongs to another family (the Conrains) with Ivan's house being the second closest were you to move in a clockwise path from the first house.
Even at 100 yards to the house the sound of wood knocking on wood can be heard in time with the ebb and flow of the wind.
[ooc]SO how do you want to handle this marching wise with prisoners and followers and what not?