I'll just say that John steps forward, places a hand on each door, and shoves with all his strength to force them open.
John pushed the doors open, revealing a pair of guards attacking Desdemona's shadow.
Reine sighed as John shoved the door open, and the situation devolved immediately into chaos and combat.
As her eyes swept the situation for threats, she noticed the mirror. "What the-? She's in the mirror!"
Shadow Blend (Su): In any condition of illumination
other than bright light, the eidolon disappears into the
shadows, giving it concealment (20% miss chance). If
it has the shadow form evolution, it instead gains total
concealment (50% miss chance). The eidolon can suspend
or resume this ability as a free action.
Shadow Form (Su): The eidolon’s body becomes shadowy
and more indistinct. This shadow form grants the eidolon
constant concealment (20% miss chance), and its melee
attacks affect incorporeal creatures as if it had the ghost
touch weapon property. The eidolon’s melee attacks deal
only half damage to corporeal creatures.
This combination means that the shadow has concealment at all times (20%), and total concealment in anything but bright light (50%). Sorry, I misread the thing about the light levels too, earlier.
I'll wait on the miss chance to deal damage to the shadow.
Broom was far to preoccupied with worrying about the guards in the towers and the thought being attacked by zombies to notice anything else.
Des' shadow was in front of one of the guards making it harder for her to see the undead clearly so she dashed over to John's side of the gate. Not wanting to get too close to the guards, she slid past Reine and Des with a quick apology to each as she pushed past them.
With a slightly clearer view of the other guard, she summoned up the feeling of the deep place and the purplish electricity once again played about her fingers before reaching out. The thin black tendril flicked from her wrist towards the zombie.
A brief smile crossed her face, although the zombie guards were terrifying, being able to do this was exciting! A thought crossed her mind "Why can't We use the tendrils all the time?"
Things were getting crowded, and Reine knew that her primary weapon - her bare hands - were far less effective against unliving opponents (though she wasn't sure how she knew that). So she stepped back, unslinging her bow and focusing the rage and terror that were never far from the surface.
All sources of light seemed to flare for a second, even the sun, and a Harrow card appeared in Reine's hand.
She let the card fall unseen, even as she pulled free her bow. It was probably for the best, as the Beating fluttered to the ground, then disappeared.
Desdemona threw a blob of acid that sizzled on stone but not flesh, Reine repositioned, and Broom caught one of the guards with her tendril. Lightning flashed out across it, more than enough to kill a man, but the guard looked none the worse for wear, even as its metal armor smoked from the shock.
Desdemona threw another handful of hungry shadows.
But in the chaos of the melee the sizzling black blob went wide.
The guards stayed focused on Desdemona's shadow, following the command they were given with single-minded determination.
Desdemona's companion flitted the shadows, nearly impossible to hit, and the first guard's sword cut nothing but air. It lashed out with a hard to see fist in response.
The guards were well trained, though, and the shadow's target dodged out of the way.
Broom's eyes went wide with surprise as the armoured figure didn't even acknowledge the crack of electricity that had scorched its armour. As it advanced to attack Des' shadow, she staggered back, reflexively summoning up a pool of black liquid in her hand which she then flung at the undead soldier.
The viscous black substance sputtered and hissed as the scent of strong vinegar filled the air.
"Clear the way!" John says as he steps forward, past Broom, as she clears the path.
In a single motion he reaches up over his shoulder, unslings his longsword, and brings it down in a mighty overhand blow into the unsuspecting zombie.
(2 handed, power attack)
Broom's acid went wide but John stepped up and cleaved entirely through the left-hand guard's head with one blow. The un-dead warrior continued standing for a few moments before realizing that it was dead-dead and collapsing to the floor.
"They're tough, but that just means we have to hit them hard!" John says.
"Let's clear this entrance before more show up!"
"I don't understand why Cesyll has a bunch of zombies guarding the place."
Reine swore to herself. She was completely unsuited to this kind of a fight, against this kind of opponent. She'd have to fix that. for now, however, she'd do what she could.
Pulling an arrow with an oddly designed head from her quivver, she took aim and let fly at the zombie John hadn't yet re-killed.
Reine cursed as he attack was completely innefective. "I can't shoot them if you're in the way," she suggested to Des and Broom. Then again, how likely was she to be able to shoot them without her teammates in the way?
Heedless of its partner's head being cleaved from its shoulders, the guard on the right continued to attack Desdemona's shadow.
The guard managed to catch the shadow's partially substantial edge and sheared off a slice of darkness with its blade.
John shifts his stance as the shadow moves to flank the remaining zombie.
Then he makes an upper cut slash across the zombie's midsection.
"Hey guys .... I think these guys are already dead."
(2 handed, power attack,flanking)
Broom watched with a mixture of fascination and horror as John effortlessly cleaved through the zombie guards.
With a quick flick of her fingers she sent black droplets at the last guard.
The droplets spattered on the stone wall where they smoked for a bit before their potency waned.
Broom herself then moved back to get out of Reine's way.
Broom's burning droplets went wide but John sheared through the remaining guard's armor like it was paper. A normal man probably would have gone down but the undead monster in front of them continued to fight.
Desdemona tossed another handful of stone-searing shadows but also missed, while her shadow slipped around the guard and struck at him from behind.
The shadow's oversized fist glanced off the guard's helmet, making the guard stumble but not fall.
Reine moved to try to get a clear shot, and let lose another arrow at the guard, but with all of the moving and maneuvering, her shot flew wide.
The remaining guard spun to ward off John's attacks and managed a counterstrike.
The shadow, its ire raised by the dead thing that dared to strike it, slipped to the side to flank it with John, then lashed out at its shadow with the serpent-shape's "arms" and bite both. The two shadows wrestled on the ground as the combat continued above.
Desdemona, still reeling from its silent shriek, flung out a hand in warding - but new shadows spilled from it. She made a strangled sound as they rushed to the larger shadow's defense.
Defense:
20% miss chance in bright light, 50% miss in any other lower level of light. Immunity to death effects, disease, and poison. Evasion. Cold/electric resistance 10.
Offense:
Slam reach 10', bite reach 5', increased by 5' each when Large. Melee attacks affect incorporeal creatures as if it had the ghost touch weapon property. All attacks are treated as magic. Combat reflexes (3 AOOs).
John curses as the zombie's sword slices his arm.
He crouches, spins, and cuts into the zombie's knees.
(2 handed, power attack,flanking)
Broom's face tightened with concern seeing the zombie's sword leave a bloody wound across John's arm.
Hesitating only a moment to make sure that the last zombie was killed... again she supposed... she drew out the infernal wand and spoke the strange words which conjured up the implement's fiery and unsettling power of healing.
A quick tap and the smell of brimstone once again filled the air as the edges of John's damaged flesh burned like embers.
John's slice opened up the guard's right thigh just above the knee and would've dropped a man to the ground as his muscles snapped loose. The necromantic energy animating the corpse, though, ignored things like biomechanics and the monster stayed on its feet and mobile.
It chopped at him again.
But it was off balance from John's attack and its blade went wide.
The shadow continued to writhe and twist on the ground, savaging the zombie's shadow.
Desdemona continued to try to ward off the shadows, only to summon more of them. They danced about the larger shadows like minnows following a shark - or perhaps, more like piranhas.
John sways back from the zombie's swing, easily evading.
He target's the undead with a two-hand uppercut.
(2 handed, power attack,flanking)
Reine watched as John and Desdemona's shadow tore and cut at the zombie. She held her bow at the ready should anyone else decide to join the party, but decided not to send arrows flying at John's back. She didn't particularly feel the need to further hamper the man by causing him to have to worry about getting shot from behind.
The guard parried John's powerful swipe but was concentrating too hard on the swordsman and got smashed to the floor by Desdemona's shadow. It twitched once, twice, then was still.
"I'm sure whatever is controlling these things will be directing more towards us." John says.
He crouches and takes a quick look at the two corpses to see if they're recent conversions or older dead guys.
"Did the mercenaries that guarded this place leave, or did someone kill them and bring them back from the dead." he asks.
Desdemona, muttering to herself and twitching, walked past the injured John to the mirror, flinching when her shadow re-attached itself to her feet. It seemed a bit wispy in places, as though its battle with the zombie's shadow had taken some kind of toll on it.
Desdemona's curiosity, however, was stronger even than her loathing of the dark. She peered into the mirror, trying to see where the woman had gone, or judge what the mirror was. And what was she looking at within it? Another world? Another dimension?
"I don't imagine there's anyone left alive here, if these are what's left of the guards," she said, diffident.
Broom gingerly stepped around the fallen guards and peeked around inside of the courtyard.
"There are more guards all along the wall and that woman isn't here any more. She's probably getting help. Maybe we should go?" she whispered hopefully.
Despite her desire to leave, she peered with curiosity into the mirror that Reine had indicated the woman disappeared into.
Despite the reasonable suggestion, Desdemona found herself unwilling to drop the bone now that they were gnawing on it.
"We've managed to get in... who knows if we'll have a second chance? I think we should search the fort, even if we don't learn where the mirror-walking woman went." She glanced Broom's way, but her gaze was drawn inexorably back to the mysterious mirror.
Broom looked at the mirror for a few more moments before an uncomfortable suspicion as to what was coming next crossed her mind.
Doffing her pack, she reached in and pulled out one of the sheets that she had acquired from the orderly's closet back at Briarstone. Quickly and with care she wrapped the mirror tightly in the sheet and then wound a length of rope around the sheets securing them in place.
Even with the mirror wrapped tightly around the mirror, she still took the extra time to gently lay the mirror face down on the ground in an out of the way place next to a wall.
"There we go, no more worrying about anyone walking through that mirror" she said, looking at everyone hoping that it was enough to satisfy them.
"I'm not leaving without talking with Constable Cesyll. We were never good friends, but I don't think I ever did anything to her that would warrant having the living dead set on me." John says.
He goes over to the double doors and tries to open them.
Desdemona was pretty sure the mirror itself wasn't magical, and that together with Reine's description of what she'd seen made a series of lightning fast connections in Des's head.
In Des's estimation, soulslivers are a little more powerful than the group as a whole (CR 5). They can see perfectly well in the dark and their low light vision is as acute as an elf's. They typically attack with their borrowed form's weapons, though they are mirror images of their copied prey, not perfect copies (so a scar on the person's left side would appear on the soulsliver's right side, for example). Additionally, they are resistant to acid and fire.
John found the double doors unlocked and he opened them up onto a large open air courtyard. It was muddy and beaten down by years of use as a practice yard, with patches of grass and weeds sprouting along the walls. A brick well stood at the center of the courtyard, a grill for cooking food stood against the south wall, and four large doghouses just east of the grill. A pair of equally large dogs lolled in the sun near the doghouses, looking up alertly as John regarded them.
"Nice doggies....." John says in a calm voice.
"Nobody wants any trouble today..."
He steps forward.
Reine stepped up beside John, and there was a brief look of relief that crossed her face. Undead warriors and mirror-walking people she wasn't much use against, but living creatures? Particularly creatures that lived mostly in response to basic urges and emotions? Those, she could handle.
She looked at the dogs, and her bearing and manner shifted. She didn't do what so many who tried to back down dangerous animals would do - she didn't make aggressive eye contact and try to challenge them - that would likely only lead to a contest of dominance. Instead, Reine merely assumed the Alpha position. She walked past John, and deliberately did not make eye contact with the dogs. Instead, she glanced at them, then away, and turned slightly away from them, showing them her back as she turned to talk to the others.
"Don't attack them, but don't back away or look fearful. Predators don't react well to either one." She would know... "The latter is prey, the former is a challenger. Both invite - require - attack. Instead, be so far above them that they don't concern you in the slightest. Pick a direction, and let's go that way. Quickly. Indecision looks a lot like prey."
Keeping Reine close (but not too close) John moves up to the corner and tries the door in the south wall.
The more Desdemona had stared at the mirror until Broom covered it, the deeper the furrow between her brows had grown. It... it wasn't magical at all. But that meant...
"A soulsliver," she breathed, not yet questioning how she knew. But... did that mean they would find John's erstwhile rival somewhere here, dead?
She followed John, meaning to speak to him, only dimly cognizant of Reine's warning as her focus was absorbed with her train of thought. "John, wait. That wasn't the constable. It was a mirror-walking creature that can take on the appearance of others - a soulsliver. Be wary of reflections, inside. It can travel between and through them, and we don't know what it wanted, or where it has gone."
Her shadow, still trailing wisps, sullenly followed her every move.
"We wonder what it is like to walk through mirrors, that sounds like it might be a fun ability. Do you think that the reason We can't is because Ourselves from the the other side keeps getting in the way as They try to get to Our side at the same time?"
She pondered this for a few moments until the large dogs caught her attention. "If the guards are zombies and the captain is a Soul thing, do you think these dogs are just dogs?"
"Hmm? The dogs...? -Oh!" Abruptly returning to reality, Desdemona tried to recall what Reine had said, replaying the last minute of conversation in her head - but more importantly, she tried to sidle behind the protection the other woman likely offered. At least, SHE wouldn't want to get on Reine's bad side, so she doubted the dogs would either... if they were dogs. She peered at the beasts suspiciously from around Reine's shoulder, giving serious thought to Broom's words.
Luckily for everyone involved, it appeared that the dogs were just dogs. Large dogs, bred and trained to attack if it came to that, but still just dogs. They had probably been the mercenaries guard dogs, and in spite of their fearsome demeanor they had no desire to pick a fight with the much more fearsome Reine. John recognized that they looked hungry and demoralized, like they'd been abandoned.
The door to the south revealed a small kitchen fitted with a cabinet and a stone worktable. A blackened iron cauldron hung in the fireplace and a set of stairs led up to the next floor.
"Check the kitchen and see if they've left anything." John says.
"I'm going to see if I can help these dogs, so try to turn down the fright factor." he says to Reine.
He reaches into his pack and pulls out a package of beef jerky.
He steps towards the dogs, crouches down and offers them some food.
Broom's unease about being inside the keep was still apparent as she kept glancing with concern up to the walls where more zombie soldiers stood watch. She was relieved to hear that the dogs themselves were just dogs.
At the revelation that the room held a kitchen, her mood perked up considerably, especially after being specifically asked to examine it. "We can do that!" she exclaimed cheerfully in response to John's command and immediately began rummaging through the the utensils and provisions.
Of course, in addition to having a look for anything unusual she also set about cleaning any cutlery and pots while arranging everything as nicely as she could in the very short time she was afforded.
"Is anyone hungry? We can prepare something quick."
Looking around the kitchen, Broom found a bunch of trash in the corners of the room- it almost looked like someone had been using the kitchen as a garbage dump as well as a place to cook- and some recently butchered meat in the icebox. She couldn't place it at first but then she realized why- she wasn't looking at meat from any domesticated animal, she was looking at meat that had been carved off a human, and probably within the last few days.
With that terrible realization, Broom realized the trash she had glanced at with the thought of cleaning up wasn't just trash, it was ripped and bloody clothes.
1/5
"I don't think these dogs like me ...."
As yet pleasantly unaware of Broom's find, Desdemona shot the other woman a smile from the doorway, where she hadn't yet turned her back on the dogs. "I'm sure that at least John might be a bit peckish," she joked. "John, why not feed them something from the larder here? It's bound to be more tempting than jerky."