John looks back at Reine and says: "I can do this all day..."
"Right,"Reine sighed, "you can. Can the rest of us?"
Nevertheless, rather than running to join Des and Broom, Reine focused on the single (for now) remaining zombie. She circled wide as she moved to put the zombie between herself and John. She couldn't quite get completely behind it - the thing was remarkably fast and alert for something that was supposed to be dead - but she hoped John could maneuver himself into an optimal position to strike if she kept the thing distracted.
"Take it down fast," she said, "I don't want his buddy from upstairs stabbing me in the back, OK?"
The zombie slashed at John while the archer burst out of the tower, immediately taking Broom's acid in the face and brushing it off as it closed on Reine.
John easily warded off his opponent's blade while Reine's precognition made it child's play to move out of the way of the other.
John steps up to the purple zombie.
"Push them back to the door. We can hold them there."
(twf, favored enemy,power attack)
(twf, favored enemy, power attack)
John hammered at the undead soldier, slapping its longsword out of line and stabbing it in the chest, Red Destiny parting its well maintained cuirass as easily as slicing through paper. Reine darted it, drawing its attention for one precious second that allowed John to follow that up with a slash across the zombie's neck that nearly severed its head from its shoulders.
But even with its head lolling grotesquely on its shoulder the zombie continued to fight on.
Des flicked her wrist at the zombie, sending tiny, hungry motes of shadow at the monster facing John.
Its armor started to visibly fray as they nibbled off chunks of its shadow but the shadows hardly seemed to bother the zombie.
"Push them back?" there was more than a touch of incredulity in Reine's voice, but she nodded.
She wasn't willing to step between the two zombies and allow herself to be flanked, but she did her best to help John take down the zombie between them, reaching to try and sever the remainder of the thing's neck with her razor-sharp fingernails.
Wand of death knell (18), Wand of infernal healing (20), Wand of bless (15)
As Broom tried to decide what to do, her acid continued to burn away at the zombie before becoming inert.
Seeing Des fling a little shadow at the same zombie Broom followed her lead.
Perhaps fueled by her own self-doubt and a deep seated anger at that lack of confidence, Reine sliced neatly through the few fibers keeping the zombie's lolling head attached to its neck and drops it to the stone.
Broom's acid continued to burn away at the last soldier's undead flesh, the smell an acrid stench that was thankfully pulled away by the wind. She hit it with yet more acid, burning away part of its flaccid grey cheek and melting one milky eyeball.
Outnumbered and with its compatriots all dead, the juju zombie did the only thing it could do- it charged straight at John, the biggest threat it could reach.
The skilled soldier broke through John's defenses with the unexpected charge but didn't do much damage to the wary warrior.
John continues to push forward to block the top of the stairs.
He slices and jabs at the remaining zombie.
(twf, favored enemy,power attack)
(twf, favored enemy, power attack)
John impales the final zombie soldier with Red Destiny, clearing the rooftop for now!
Reine looked down at the fallen re-dead soldiers, idly picking flesh out from under her nails.
"We might want to take what we've found here and head back to town," she said. "We can come back again if we need to, but it's possible that our 'supporters' will need to know what's running around in here. Zombies and fishmen aren't the same thing as 'snuck out in the middle of the night without paying the tab.'"
"These dead men have better swords than I do..." John says as he swaps swords with one of them.
"Me too," Reine said. "But that's probably because I don't have a sword. Might need one." She bent down and pulled the sword belt off of one of the fallen zombies. Then strapped it around her own waist. That done, she picked up the sword that went with it and slid the weapon into place.
"Not my favorite way to fight, but maybe it's a good distraction, at least. Let's take what we can off of these things. Maybe we can sell the weapons, if nothing else."
Wand of death knell (18), Wand of infernal healing (18), Wand of bless (15)
Just as the last zombie fell, Broom rushed forward with the wand of healing in hand and touched both John and Reine with the infernal wand. The stench of Brimstone filled the air as the wounds of both began to burn shut even as they felt the taint of Hell on their souls.
Broom nodded firmly at Reine. "Right, you just rest and we will.. Oh! Here, let Us take care of that for you!" Seeing Reine cleaning her nails Broom cast her cleaning spell and tended to the pale woman's fingers.
With that matter done she set about complying with Reine's suggestion. She proceeded to remove the equipment and armour of each of the zombies. She took care to clean each piece of equipment and folded and organized each piece of armour. She then made sure to once again neatly arrange the bodies along side the others she had already arranged.
Finally, having dealt with the bodies of the soldiers she inspected the corpses of the fish men. Of particular interest she examined the puddle of goo that had been on of the icthyan assailant.
Her brow furrowed as she cast her mind out looking for answers to this odd development. Are they supposed to do that?
While Broom was pretty sure the fish men weren't supposed to melt into puddles of translucent goo, she didn't know what was supposed to do that.
The mercenaries' armor was unremarkable studded leather but they each carried an excellently made sword and bow.
"I could use a better suit of armor, once we wash his goo off of it." John says as Reine searches the skummy leader.
"Do we have a plan after leaving? Report back to the detective agency and then come back?"
"Maybe do a little shopping along the way?" Reine suggested. She held up the wand. "I think you're the only one who knows how to use one of these," she said to John. "This really isn't a suit of armor, but the shirt looks too good not to be magical. Better'n yours, anyway."
Heading back down the stairs, out the kitchen through the courtyard for John to pick up his friendly new pup , then out the front doors, the group found nothing but inanimate corpses.
It didn't look like anyone outside had noticed the sounds of battle through the fort's thick walls. Heading back to the Sleepless Agency's headquarters, the escapees saw nothing out of the ordinary and were soon being let back inside their temporary home's guarded front doors. Their old friend Meg was once again the door sentry and she let them past without any trouble this time.
"I'm bringing these dogs ...."
"I don't want to come back and find them turned into zombie dogs."
"I could use a better suit of armor, once we wash his goo off of it." John says as Reine searches the skummy leader.
Surprising nobody, at the mention that something was unacceptably dirty Broom immediately began to fret over the chain shirt. "We can get this cleaned up. But it might take some time, all the little rings make it hard to get everything, but don't worry. We will make sure there isn't a hint of fish smell when We are done!."
She took the mail shirt and carefully wrapped it in a towel so that its smell wouldn't get on anything else in her pack before safely stowing it away for future tending.
"If we are leaving, everyone can give Us whatever needs mending and cleaning and We will take care of that this evening."
"I think you're the only one who knows how to use one of these,"
Broom looked at Reine quizzically. "We can use wands too. Some are a little bit trickier than others, but We should be able to use any that we find. Its just a matter of finding the right thoughts." she concluded with a smile.
Broom looked at Reine quizzically. "We can use wands too. Some are a little bit trickier than others, but We should be able to use any that we find. Its just a matter of finding the right thoughts." she concluded with a smile.
Reine gave Broom an odd look, but it was perhaps only odd because it was so rare to see anything close to apology on Reine's face.
"I thought I remembered John using the last wand like this one," she said, "but memory isn't exactly our strongest asset these days, is it? If it makes more sense for you to carry it, Broom, then by all means. I trust you to keep us alive as much as I trust anyone."
'As much as Reine trusted anyone' was, perhaps, not quite the strongest of statements, but it meant something, at least.
Lachen intro:
It had been days since the yellow fog lifted, since the Apostles in Orpiment's prophet-leader Zandalus had been killed by members of the other group of survivors in the Asylum. Everyone's first priority was getting off the cursed island, but in spite of there being two boats available- a 60 foot work scow and a 27 foot whaler- there was no one on the island who knew how to sail the scow, so there was an interminable wait for the row boat to make its way across the channel to Thrushmoor and then return.
Add to that problem was that someone had alerted the authorities and there was a squad of large, intimidating, heavily armed uniformed detectives writing down names and intended destinations as people got in the boat who saw to it that the survivors in the chapel were prioritized before any of those who took to Zandalus's yellow, and it was three days before Lachen found himself stepping off the whaler's gunwale onto Thrushmoor's working docks. Lachen was lucky- he had seen the detectives, with one or two of the asylum's staff- take a few people out of line, apparently those considered too dangerous or too fragile to leave.
It being the mid-morning, almost lunch, there were people hard at work but the docks weren't particularly busy since the fishing fleet was out on the Bay's dark waters. The large detective at the head of the pier was saying "Look for transport by the Builder's Hall, follow the road north. You need healing, find the Healer's House, take your third left once you get off the docks. Looking for work, try the Depository, first left after you get on the mainland. Come on, keep moving." He kept repeating himself and gesturing for the Briarstone survivors to keep moving, sounding bored, like he'd said it a hundred times.
John confirms: "I can use the healing wand. I know that kind of magic."
Reine idly held out the wand for whichever of John or Broom wanted to take it. Her attention had become focused more on the amulet and the keyring. Mostly, the amulet.
"I feel like this thing might make me a little more useful if we wind up getting close to more zombies," she said. After a few moments of measured thought, she pulled the necklace she'd been wearing since pulling it off of... whoever it had been that they'd killed at the asylum... up over her head.
Almost instantly, Reine felt her skin soften somehow. And she knew, without knowing how, that her bones weren't quite as solid as they'd been. The amulet she'd removed had been magically toughening her body, she knew that. But it hadn't done her a lot of good - she still remembered the impact of the zombie soldier's sword strike, and winced when she did.
"Desdemona," she called, "maybe this'll keep you alive longer." She tossed the necklace to the diminutive woman, then slipped the new one - a leather thong with a silver amulet shaped like a fist made out of stone - around her own neck.
"Let's see how that does us, shall we?
After three, hard, long and boring days, Lachen was finally free. On the morning, he gives himself a flawless shave, seething at his reflection in the mirror.
That was close. I didn't think I could escape that asylum. I hate being shackled.
The young blonde man was walking on the docks, not caring a bit about the odd looks here and there.
Sure, he was heavily armed, but that wasn't what attracted said odd looks. It was the fact that, while working, he was mindlessly playing with a set of manacles.
And probably, of course, the tattered guard uniform he was wearing.
He asks the large detective
And where do I have to go to find some fun? A game of dice, a few ladies, some decent beer and grub?
Desdemona's hand snaked out to catch the thrown amulet despite her attention obviously being on every shadow she could see, and she lifted her own amulet off and settled the new one about her throat without shifting her gaze. "My thanks, Reine," she said with her usual brittle cheer, not quite able to believe her unnatural shadow was really gone. If the amulet had toughened her, it didn't show.
Tearing her eyes away for a brief glance of acknowledgement, she added, "We'd best hurry out before something new pops up."
"I need to find a home for a couple of these dogs while we're in town."
He shrugs
"Maybe the detective agency will have a use for them."
Broom watched with disappointment as John took the wand, but quickly cheered up again when Reine asked Broom to fix her leather and chain vest.
Once back at the agency Broom reported on the matters at the Fort. She took the matter as seriously she liked having the important sounding title of detective. She provided useful information as best she could, however it was often buried in either wild speculation on events, an unusual focus on mundane minutia or was filtered through her peculiar way of seeing things.
Once the debriefing was over, she collected up all the things that would need to be cleaned and mended that evening. "Hi Des, so um... what happens now that the shadow is gone?" she asked as she picked up Des' stuff. Broom was a little uncertain if this was the right time to ask a potentially sensitive question, but her curiosity overcame her better judgement.
Desdemona was fairly quiet during the debriefing, but then, she was generally quiet. All her thoughts swarmed with questions, and she nodded absently along to Broom's speculations and sometimes odd remarks. Her fingers traced the amulet she wore, her old one tucked away.
When Broom asked her question, Des smiled charmingly, pulled Broom into the nearest unobstructed beam of light, and turned them to face it head-on. "I think I may have finally left it behind!" she said, her lips barely moving over her smile, her eyes bright and manic. "For good! Those dead men may have been too much for it! And we're so far from the fort, now... If I - no don't turn, the dark will see what we're saying - if I can stay in the light for a few days, lamplight at night of course, it might be enough to be free!" She rolled her eyes over to look at Broom sidelong, smiling widely into the sunlight.
Composing herself, she blinked and turned back to Broom with an airy laugh. "But come, Doctor! Have you decided to become a detective now as well? I suspect you'd be well-suited to it." It proved that she had been listening, at least a little, though she hadn't said much. Broom noticed that Des' attention was still somewhat aborbed by tracking any moving shadows, though. "I'm certain you'd clean up the town in no time." Her grey eyes twinkled with a hint of mirth at that last.
"Oh! Do detectives do that as well?" Broom asked excitedly. "It would be such a big job! How would one even start such a thing? Cleaning a whole town would take forever, even with all the invisible helpers We could call. And by the time We got to the end of the town, the start would be dirty again."
Broom pondered the conundrum for a moment "Maybe We could hire people to help. The Agency sure gave Us a lot of money for returning all the guard's equipment."
Broom reached into her pack and pulled out a few shiny gold coins. "Hey, how would you like to go shopping with Us? We could buy you a really nice lantern. Maybe one of those magical ones that never go out!"
Desdemona's smile melted into a more genuine expression. Touched by Broom's gesture, she nodded. "Why, that would be lovely, Broom! I daresay we've earned a bit of a treat after dealing with such horrid things for so long." She nodded toward the others as well. "Would you like to invite Reine and John along, or shall I?"
There was something to be said about safety in numbers, after all.
"That sounds like a great idea!"
Broom carefully dropped the items to be cleaned and repaired off in her room before seeking out John and Reine.
"Des and Us were going to do some shopping with the gold that the Agency gave us. Would you like to come along?"
Reine didn't even quirk an eyebrow any more at Broom's use of the self-referential plurals. She just nodded.
"Sounds like a good idea. I'll come along."
Winter and Cesadia Wrentz looked shocked at the news that the Fort had been taken over by fish-men and undead, but both seemed relieved that the four survivors had been the ones to find out. Winter offered to meet them back at the Fort when they went to clear out the rest of it, and she and Wrentz said they would try to get reinforcements into town to deal with whatever was going on. At best, that would take several days and more probably weeks, though.
Wrentz seemed to finally accept the group and gave the group full access to the Sleepless Agency's armory and facilities, including buying the trove of masterwork weapons from them and offering to sell them supplies at cost. Of course, the Agency didn't have everything an adventurer needed. Hence the shopping trip.
He asks the large detective
And where do I have to go to find some fun? A game of dice, a few ladies, some decent beer and grub?
The large, uniformed man stops his spiel to take in the armored and heavily armed young man before him. "You probably want the Stain. Tavern overlooking the water at the west end of town. Cross the bridge, first left, all the way to the end. I don't think you're gonna find what you're lookin' for, though."
"This early in the day, Emman's gonna be serving lunch to workin' folks. And most folks go in and stay in once the sun starts gettin' near the horizon. You'd be well advised to find a place to stay long before sunset. People been goin' missing at night."
John asks Winter and Cesadia Wrentz: "Can you guys look after these two dogs. They were up at the fort and I couldn't leave them behind with the fish people."
"I'm taking this third one with me."
He tells Des and Broom: "I've got most of the gear I need, but I'm glad to come along with you on your shopping trip."
People missing? Just ordinary people or only some specific people are targeted? I won't try my luck and find a hole to hide into. Thanks for the directions.
Lachen walks toward the Stain, aching for a few drinks, a few games, a few ladies, in whichever order it might come.
"Ordinary people, right off the street. Somebody'd be heading home from the Stain or somewhere and just never be seen again. That's why people are shutting their doors as soon as the sun starts to set these days." The detective nods at Lachen. "You watch yourself out there."
John asks Winter and Cesadia Wrentz: "Can you guys look after these two dogs. They were up at the fort and I couldn't leave them behind with the fish people."
"I'm taking this third one with me."
He tells Des and Broom: "I've got most of the gear I need, but I'm glad to come along with you on your shopping trip."
Cesadia nods. "We can always do with a couple more working dogs, and these boys seem well trained already. Thank you."