Connor plants his polearm in the door handle, using it for leverage as he helps Feinmeir pry open the door. As the wood snaps, shambling forms lurch out of the now open portal and both land nasty punches into Connor and the dwarf. The stench of rot hits Connor's nose as the cold flesh slams into his chest and the dirty nails dig into his armor. A deep growl, something more akin to what one would expect from a wild dog or wolf, rolls out of the young man's throat as he drops his polearm onto the ground by his feet and rips free the large axe attached to his pack on his back.
Pupils constricting as the world goes into shades of red before his eyes, Connor swings out with horizontal cut at the zombie's midriff, putting all his weight and strength behind the blow while exhaling his breath in an angry roar.
"Keep them inside the carriage!" Demona shouts and unleashes a bolt of fire at the carriage.
Hopefully enough to hit an immobile carriage.
Since I don't think an unattended carriage can even attempt a Reflex save, it also catches fire.
Round 1
I wounder is that dwarf is any good at fighting ? she thinks to herself as she sees him being heavily wounded and not able to hit a zombie in front of him, the creature only barely moving
Did they sound over confident? At least the one called connor killed his
She approaches the dwarf and lightly touch him on his shoulder from the back as she does she slam's her power into him
Connor's blow slices the zombie in half while Feinmeir's axe bounces harmlessless off the carriage. The flame that Demona hopes to start seems confined to one area as the wood of the carriage has become too wet from being exposed to all the snow over night. The zombie that Feinmeir attempted to attack follows him out of the carriage while the last of the zombies moves forward to face Connor.
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Arthrax is watching the road as the zombies first come out, only turning to look when he hears the sounds of combat starting. "Aw hell..."
Then his charge lets loose with a bolt of flame and his eyes widen...that was a new trick. He scans the immediate vicinity for any other threats before he turns back to the danger at hand.
Get shield? No time! He grabs the cold iron axe with both hands and charges to the area just under the pressed dwarf, swinging his axe down in a glittering arc, sacrificing a bit of accuracy to make sure the undead creature stays dead this time around.
Arthrax's axe drive deep into the zombie's skull, cutting the frozen bag of meat from head to navel before collapsing to the ground.
What's happening doesn't really register to Ikkis at first. The door bursting open, seeing some sort of shambling creatures coming out of the carriage, but then he sees them both attempt to collide with his travel-mates. Then the gears begin to click in his mind...
The storybooks and religious texts that Ikkis had read throughout his youth came back to mind, and he muttered a single frightened word under his breath: "Undead?"
Amazement and fear quickly turned into concern, however, as he realized his friends had not yet dispatched all of the unholy horrors. Not knowing quite what he's doing, Ikkis holds his gloved hands at chest level, and suddenly begins to speak words that he did not know he knew: "Gozreh, hjälpa mig att slå mina fiender."
At his last word, an orb of pure, white light appears between his two palms. Ikkis grasps it with his right hand, as though it were a round river-rock, and strides towards the remaining abomination. He reaches with the orb, attempting to just make contact with the creature's frame.
Round 2:
Merisiel
Connor
Demona
Feinmeir
Zombie 3
Arthrax
Ikkis
Completely oblivious to his comrades around him, Connor's vision narrows on the last shambling dead man as he raises his axe for an overhead chop that would cut a tree stump into kindling. Another roar of rage escapes from his lips as he swings.
With a sickening thunk, Connor's axe cuts through the final undead as if he was slicing butter.
Feinmeir stows his battleaxe after watching Connor chop the last zombie in half, and steps up to the carriage to find his throwing axe lying in the snow.
A bit of dead flesh and congealed blood flies into Ikkis's face from Connor's blow. He begins spluttering curses and tries to wipe the pieces of rotted humors off of his cheek.
After he completely (or mostly) removes it, he admits, "So... I have absolutely no idea how I did that shiny-orb-thingy, but it seemed completely useless. Most of the time my powers do a far better job of wrecking things than that."
With the final enemy lying on the ground in quivering pieces, Connor plants his axe in the ground and bends over it to catch his breath for a minute. Between breathes, which seem to cause the young man to wince from the huge bruise blossoming on his chest courtesy of the zombie's fist, Connor speaks to the others, "The dead rising up to fight the living, that isn't right. Are we facing black magic or are the spirits of these dead souls that angry at their fate?" Once he has caught his breath, Connor cleanses the edge of his axe using the garments the zombies were wearing and re-secures it to his backpack before picking up his discarded polearm.
With the last of the zombies killed you can see better into the overturned carriage. The lavishly decorated interior is littered with debris and arrows form the fight that took the zombies life the first time.
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Arthrax follows suit, rubbing the gore off his axe on the dead man's clothing before returning to Demona's side, axe still in hand. He looks around nervously at all the corpses, now, expecting any of them to get up and start shambling toward him. Every moment of this little expedition seemed like a worse and worse idea.
"Apparentley I need to work on me aim, and so do them bandits." Feinmeir says while tossing his axe in his hand and inspecting the cabin.
"Well, that was something you don't see every day!" Demona exclaims. "Arthrax, you fought very well."
Demona "Eagle-Eyes" Flint pokes around as well.
As Demona noses around the overturned carriage she notices a small jewlry box under one of the seats, missed by the bandits as the raided the place.
Inside the box are a signet ring, a pair of earrings worth, a set of pearl-inlaid bracelets worth, assorted gold and silver necklaces, and one sapphire pendant.
Connor rubs his chest as he gives the dead zombies a once over before he heads back over to the frozen statue. He notes the breastplate the dead guard is wearing under a layer of ice and ponders for a moment. After a few moments of thought, Connor calls back over to the others, "Hey, Ikkis and anyone else who has a weak stomach. Don't look this way." Fair warning given, Connor starts smashing the ice statue in an attempt to recover the armor off the man.
"Oooh! Her Ladyship's jewels. I suppose we'll have to return them when we rescue her, but I'm sure she won't mind if I..." she trails off as she selects a silver necklace and the sapphire pendant and puts them on.
"Hm? Sorry, don't look at wha-OH... yuck."
Ikkis looks away as he is bid to, and trying to distract himself, goes to speak to Demona.
"Hey, so... that fire thing you did earlier? What exactly was that? I've apparently got a little fire magic in me too, and I was wondering if you had any pointers, I suppose.
Also, that looks good on you! You should definitely keep it if we don't... I mean until we find Lady Argentea."
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Arthrax looks at Connor and the work he is about to begin and nods in approval. The breastplate was of no help to the dead man, but was an upgrade for anyone in the group.
His focus returns closer as he sees Demona find a small box. The girl opens it and oohs and ahhs like he would expect a lady to, then proceeds to put on some of the gems. Arthrax disapproves. If the noblewoman was alive they would have to return the items. If she was dead, they should be split amongst the group, in his mind.
Still, he says nothing, vigilance seeming a more important task than arguing with the head-strong woman at the moment. He would speak with her later, assuming there was not an uproar amongst their companions.
"Pointers? Um...put the fire on the other guy?" She chuckles. "I'm kidding you. I am a fire mage, specialized in the study of fire magic in all its forms. That flame jet isn't a spell so much, as an ability I've developed in channeling pure fire itself. I'd be happy to talk fire magic with you any time you like, though I think Connor's about finished chipping through Iceman there, so we'll be on the move in a moment."
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Arthrax glares at the squeamish young man as he sidles over and makes his complements. The man had just made his talk later that much more difficult with one simple statement.
Once Connor claims the breastplate, Arthrax is ready to move out. He keeps his shield stowed, but will brave the snow with cold iron battleaxe at the ready.
Shaking the last of the bits of frozen man out of the breastplate, Connor puts his prize in his pack to clean later and refit for use by one of them. While in there, he pulls out his winter gear and starts changing out of his clothing into warmer material in full view of anyone that turns that way. Once finished, the young man looks at everyone else, "So there was an ambush as Yuln said. The guards died defending the lady, who seems to be the only target for them since the handmaidens were quickly discarded. Some form of witchery was in use as the frozen bodies and shambling corpses can attest to. Are we ready to a little foray into the woods to hunt these murderers down? It seems they have left us a clear trail to follow so best we make use of it." If no one has anything else they need to do around the ambush site, Connor will lead them into the woods.
Having just watched a rather enjoyable show, Demona, without a bit of shame, replies, "Oh, I'd follow you anywhere!"
Feinmeir looks at connor as he trys to makes sense of the tracks. "Lad let me do that."
"I'd be happy to talk fire magic with you any time you like, though I think Connor's about finished chipping through Iceman there, so we'll be on the move in a moment."
"Thank you. And you're right: this is definitely a conversation for another time."
Considering the danger they just faced, Ikkis dons his shield and takes the dagger from his waist into his dominant hand. Both actions cause enough pain to make him wince, but he tries to hide his difficulties from his compatriots. He then goes to pick up the longsword that he had all-too-readily dropped upon Connor's handing it to him. He examines the blade and calls to the others:
"Does anyone want this? It's a bit heavy for me, and I really have no idea how to use it."
As you enter the full expanse of the Border Wood, the trail passes through a small clearing among the trees before continuing uphill and out of site. A large chest lies half-buried in the snow, apparently dropped or discarded by those who hastily passed this way.
Arthrax snorts in amusement at the bloodrager's lack of modesty, but he is a veteran of the road. This was not uncommon once away from civilization. More alarming is Demona's comment. This was bad enough already without hormones getting in the mix.
"Lead on, good Connor."
Connor frowns at the discarded chest in the midst of the forest clearing, "Why carry it all this way to just drop it?"
"Too heavy for them? Or perhaps they couldn't open it?"
Ikkis peers at the chest, but doesn't get too close. He's not sure what "Fey" do or look like, and remembers how opening the carriage door too soon turned out for Connor and Feinmeir. Surprises were not something he looked forward to.
Neither Ikky nor Arthrax notice anything out of the ordinary. Just a trunk buried in the snow.
"I'll take that off your hands lad." Feinmeir said taking taking the longsword from Ikkis.
Feinmeir slaps the chest with the flat of the longsword, listening for anything moving about inside.
Feinmeir doesn't hear anything nor see anything odd about the chest.
Feinmeir opens the chest hoping he doesn't find a zombie head ready to bite him.
As Feinmeir opens the chest he hears a snap as a rope breaks. Tree branches rustle and shake lose snow from their rest. A log swings down towards Feinmeir.