Riven purchased rations x4, a waterskin, and a bedroll.
Right well lets gets things moving along. So after you have purchased supplies you head out of the city heading towards the old keep.
At first everything seems normal but as you get there you notice dark clouds above and the air getting colder. Your marks begin to shine as you notice a group of four zombies shambling along up ahead.
"That doesn't look good, Ideas?"
Riven readied her long spear for combat.
Cynthia glanced towards Thalion, readying her crossbow as she did so. "We may need your power more later." she noted. It wasn't really instruction or advice, just... more of a general note, a reminder that they should all pace themselves carefully since they didn't know how many enemies lay ahead. Still, she trusted him to do as he thought was best, and at the end of the day, that was really all you could do.
"Aha! Vile undeads! Master Joley..." A pang of sorrow stirs with Thalion as he continues, "...Master Joley warned me to be prepared against the likes of these. Let's see now, we strike those who retain flesh with blunt...no...we strike with bladed...no...argh!" Thalion pulls out his dagger and his morningstar, unsure which would be more effective.
Noting the glowing marks, as well as the shambling undead shuffling towards them, Victor opens up from range, hurling one of his bombs at the group of undead, hoping the splash would hit some if not all of them.
Waiting until they get close Victor trows a bomb at the zombies and the hit he hits is nearly blow apart and the others are badly damaged but they all continue forward.
Flare moved to the forefront of the group, and readied her polearm to strike at whichever zombie came into range first... then, whichever Zombie tried to move through her threatened range would get the next swipe.
"They look like normal zombies, so if the stories are right, removing limbs works best. Cold and Mind stuff, and stuff that people resist bodily won't work as well, or at all... I think."
Thalion decides that, if he remembered Victor correctly, there was nothing to try to remember. So, he flings the dagger at one of the zombies, and then switches the morningstar from the buckler hand to his right hand in preparation to engage in melee with the undeads.
Cynthia focused her gaze on the closest enemy, aiming to sap its ability to attack and help her friends destroy them. That was about all she could do for now - she wasn't much of a fighter - and she was surprisingly content with that knowledge.
Fumble: If you roll a natural 1 on your attack roll, make a dexterity check. If you get less than 10 you fumble. If you get more than 10 your attack simply misses very badly. If you roll a natural 20 you get your attack back, roll another attack roll!
Super crits: If you roll a natural 20 on a critical and when you roll another 20 to confirm this is a super crit, increase your weapons modifier by 1. (ex: X2 becomes X3)
Flare takes down a zombie but Thalion misses with his dagger.
The remain three zombies move up to Flare (two of them) and Thalion (one) (they are adjacent) They cannot move and attack so your go again.
Cynthia turned her hexing eye to a second zombie, intending to reduce its accuracy in combat as well. "Try to avoid letting them hit you - some undead carry strange diseases, and it's best to be in the habit of never taking them lightly." she said cautiously.
Riven would try to hit one of them with her ray of frost since she still had time until they were in spear range.
"Thanks for the warning!" The cleric shouts back as he swings at the zombie that managed to get right up in his face.
Flare grumbled angrily as not only did her polearm get lodged in the undead as she took it down, forcing her to waste time pulling it out, and missing her shot at punishing the undead as they came into range, but as Riven and Thalion both ignored her advice.
She shifts back, and brings the weapon hard and across, horizontally, in a vicious stroke that cleanly lopped off the head of one of the zombies.
Flare was noticing a pattern. Every time she got angry, things started working right. She was totally going to go Dark Side before all was said and done.
Riven misses the shambling zombies and flare manages to take down another and even Thalion manages to finish one off even thought his weapon was not very suited for the job.
The remaining zombie steps up and tries to slam Flare.
your go again.
Flare Grunted as the zombie checked her. She was glad the thing opted to try to bludgeon her rather than unleash whatever might be in its mouth. Another slash, this one less precise, but likely to do the job. Flare sighs. "Remove, not crush and impale. You'll get it caught in them."
She carefully wiped clean whatever ichor was on her blade.
The last zombie is down thought you can hear and see more in the distance thought none seem to be coming your way at the moment. Up ahead you can see the shape of the fortress.
Thalion hurries and retrieves his dagger before rejoining the group. "Hmm, I could never quite remember these things. So next time I should stick with the dagger?"
The cleric looks over to the milling zombies. "Why are there so many of them here? Ooh, Flare, one of them got you. Hold still a moment." Thalion grips his holy symbol and calls forth a touch of healing energy for his friend.
"Thanks. It's a bit easier to breathe again." She looked off into the distance as she continued to make sure her weapon was spotless, then returned it to walking-staff-position. "Break bones to bits, slice off the fleshy... is a good general rule. But it only holds up for weaker things."
"I don't really have anything besides impale and frost."
She motioned with her spear.
"Should we wait until you can do something, then?" Flare tilted her head. "Surely you have something more effective against undead." She frowned a little, chewing her lip.
"May be we should head back and pick up a few more weapons just in case?" Thalion checks over his gear as he offers the suggestion. "We'd lose a little time, but we'd also be better prepared then."
Cynthia - having essentially no practical weaponry or powers to use on the undead - followed along a little bit behind the others, deciding instead to keep an eye out for problems, solutions, and anything else that needed observing.
"It definitely wouldn't hurt. I was going to have to use my weapon as a club if it was skeletons. I should have prepared for that, it's not like we're lacking in money for that sort of thing."
Riven mumbled about losing her frost spell but nodded.
"Fine."
You turn back and heads towards town. As soon as you leave the swamp a group of six thugs approach you blocking the way to the city. Five of them have clubs and the other has a ranseur.
"We heard you're looking for Sloanne and Malcom. Our boss would like to have words with you." says the one with the ranseur.
Flare's eyes narrow at the perceived threat. She's still using the polearm as a walking stick. There's really no better way to handle it when walking, to be perfectly fair.
"We're not flies, so the vinegar thing isn't going to work. If I didn't think you were threatening us, you might have succeeded in offering us information, too. Kind of a shame. Who's your boss, and what does he have to offer us?
Victor smirks slightly at the sight, "Wonderful, these guys operate just like those bounty hunters I read about, except the look much less professional. I imagine they believe themselves fairly well equipped, but like all mercenaries, they forgot the one piece of equipment that they cannot afford to do without...."
At this, Victor's eyes and turn turn ice cold. "An ambulance".
Thalion holds his weapon at the ready as he eyes the hostile group warily, all the frustrations of these past days simmering beneath his calm exterior. "So, are they like the man who betrayed us before? I feel a sudden need to enlighten them...with my morningstar."
Cynthia's lips twitched slightly.
"As you can see, my friends aren't inclined to go along peacefully." Cynthia said, smiling at the thugs. "However, has your boss asked himself whether going against Mr. Tammerhawk is really the best thing to do? You see, that's where we got our information... and I've been lead to understand that threatening his interests, even the minor ones, isn't the best long-term move in this town. I don't believe your boss thank you for bringing that kind of trouble down on your... group." That last bit was said quite pointedly as she stared at them, looking to see the reactions on their faces as she spoke.
"We aint afraid of a good brawl an no mr.tammerhawk. Last chance come with us to meet the boss or get ready for a bruising!"
You get the impression he doesn't know who tammerhawk is. Unusual for someone from riddleport.
"Be gone! You are starting to bother us. Well, me at least. We are not afraid of defending ourselves, and we're rather busy and frustrated right now. The cleric looks clearly annoyed, wishing the bad part of the world would just leave them along so the group can continue on being heroes at their leisure.
"Look. I already asked who your boss was, and what he could do to help us. I have no idea how you could miss that, but it plainly addressed what you needed to do to get us to go see him without putting zombie juice in one of your stomaches. I don't want to deal with this right now, so talk, or get lost."
"Fair enough get them boys" says the leader of the thugs.
The thugs hesitate giving you a chance to attack first.
Thalion draws on the power of Erastil, and divine power surges through the cleric as he eyes the threats before him.
"Look, you guys -really- don't want to do this." Flare moved forward, and slipped into a lower stance, to center her balance. "I get that your friend with the spear is a moron, but any one of you can just answer my questions. I don't want to have to hurt you."
Cynthia calmly raised her crossbow and fired a bolt straight downwards, aiming for the pirate she had the clearest line of sight to.
for
Unfortunately, it wasn't a very good shot, and she growled a bit as she reloaded her weapon for another shot. "Unfortunately, we don't seem to have a choice." she said in response to her friend's words, sounding genuinely regretful about that.
Irritated, Victor sees the large force against them and quickly chugs his extract of Reduce Person, shrinking down in size.
Riven casts grease in front of her allies so that any of the men trying to get to them would have to run through it.
A light blue liquid pour out from what looked like Riven's sleeve covering the area, it looks slick and difficult to walk on.
Cynthia actually just missed by about an inch almost getting the thug with her crossbow.
The thugs come forward going around the grease. They all move without charging.
Two of them (who are now adjacent to Flare) provoke attacks for Flare who has a reach weapon.
Assuming she doesn't down one..The one cynthia shot at attacks cynthia, the other two attack Flare.
on the other side two thugs rush Thalion and Victor while the leader gets in position to attack from behind his partner with his reach weapon.
Cynthia is struck by a thug for 5 non-lethal.
Thalion is also struck a severe blow to the side of the head. Taking 14 non-lethal.
and Victor is also struck for 3 non-lethal.
Your go again.
A dizzying ring works its way from the blow to the head. The cleric steps towards the leader, and strikes with his morningstar.
Round 1:
Round 2:
Flare holds her ground and begins shifting her weight, as her spear begins to weave around along with her movements.