The many Trails of Elrith

Game Master icehawk333

La'vassa views the falling woman land on the balcony with some measure of grace and flies over to her "it is to La'Vassa's understanding that persons without wings should avoid jumping from high heights, is you needing helps?"

Adya jestures to the approaching Antony and morrigan.

"Have either of you seen Jo'Vassa or ruby?"
Adya shouts out as she kicks a zombie she impaled off her katana.

"I think I saw a pillar of fire that I hope was him"

"Alright. So, what do you two know of undead, anyway? How can anyone create and maintain this many?"
Adya looks out over the carnage. Everyone seems to be fighting just fine- the life out here has Made them rather tough, several of them without weapons and still destroying of incapacitating zombies. This doesn't last long though, as a laugh rings out from the lower district of town, and people start running. Adya pales.
"Charlie has left his workshop! Everyone evacuate the district!"
a rocket of some discription comes down moments later and and crashes into a horde of zombies, setting them on fire.
"And do it fast. Charlie doesn't waste any time."

"Well, not all of them need to be under his control, and some of them could only be under his control temporarily, like with command undead spells.... And there are ways to boost this further, magic items and training and whatnot... But even still this is a lot..."
Upon seeing the new explosions he pales slightly before bellowing out orders
"Ah no...Everyone move! everyone go to the gardens! Charlie is out! Repeat Charlie is out!"

"Controling that many is possible with the right tools as well, though this world is much more primitive in terms of tools so I don't the specifics he might be using." Rockets go flying, "Or maybe not always so primitive. Don't see much of that level of advancement around here though."

"If you look hard enough or have enough coin you can probably find whatever tech you want or magic that'll work in the tech's place... That guy is dangerous though and we need to help evacuate"

"I think we all need some help, I don't see any end or beginning to this horde and I doubt the people here can-" Charlie's explosion rocks the city "- what in the seven hells! We need to find Adya and make a plan, I doubt that was friendly."

"Maybe I should help direct him away from collatoral damage. Which gates are the zombies entering from?"

"I don't think there's much that can be done to direct him away from collateral until we find another target for him. Finding out where they're coming from would be a step in the right direction for that"

"La'Vassa has idea, La'Vassa can carry Ruby into the sky and thus Ruby and La'Vassa can see them most easy!"

Ruby smile mischievously letting her loose cloak fall to the ground. Won't be needing that. "You sure you're strong enough La'Vassa? Crescent Rose is pretty heavy."

La'Vassa grins "only one way to find out!" Before she grabs under her arms and jumps into the air.

adya and thr group aren't far, still talking about what to do with Charlie.

"There's no "directing" Charlie once they're out of thier house."

a winged goblin flies high into the air, a large, lumpy sack dragged behind.
"Always wanted to go ice skating. Zombies are a nice plus."
goblin says as he opens up his pack, tosses it in the air, and hits it with some sort of bomb- it pulls the bag in, then explodes, sending vials of some sort of alchemical substance flying everywhere ala carpet bombing. The flying goblin starts to put on ice skates.

La'Vassa mostly ignores Charlie, merely noting that he appeared to be in a form with functioning hands and vocal chords as she dives down to adya and the others are located and lands somewhat clumsily "La'Vassa has found the pretty boy paladin as promised! And as a bonus La'Vassa also finds scaly ones!"

"Winged goblins, always the winged goblins. So, ideas then?"

"great job La'Vassa." ruby turns to Morrigan."we need to cut these creatures off at the source. the problem with that is they don't seem to have a source. i was up on the tower could only see the carnage."

La'Vassa preens at the simple praise.

all the alchemical vials come crashing down, splattering achecmical "liquid ice" everywhere. The whole district is covered in a sheet of ice, now.

Adya shakes a bit, disliking the sudden cold a lot.
"She's right, though."
the zombies shambling about start to trip and fall. The ice seems rather effective at keeping the clumsy things on the floor.
"I can't find any source at all.... But, it's a Mage, right? There might be a chance they're invisible. Morrigan? You have any clue how to find invisible things?"

"My alignment senses still function on those who I can't see with my eyes" Conner offers.

"I don't have any appropriate spells, but mundane means would be notice indirect signs, such as making snow and looking for footprints that appear with no appearent source, or filling the air with light dust and noticing either the volume that remains unfilled or watching the air currents as the invisible person moves. The latter is difficult to use on a large scale and snow is quickly trampled making it hard to spot new tracks. Are there any lycanthropes or other persons with strong non-visual senses?" Morrigan asks, unphased by the new ice, though she does rise over the border as the ice forms so she is on the ice rather then having the ice form around her, a much greater potential issue for her than the bipeds around her.

"Or maybe another mage around here has the right spells."

"Oh! If they is dead or dying, La'Vassa's nose is a strong one! Problem is it's hard to tell one smell from a thousand."

Ruby reaches in her sleeves pulling out a red and black cloak which she fastens against the cold. "La'Vassa if Antony can give you a general direction do you think you could find the smell of that man from last night? You do owe him a beating."

Adya smiles.
"That's all really good to know. Guess we should stsrt searching here? The ice Charlie made might be good for something after all."
Adya looks at ruby, and nods.

"You know, a thought just occurred to me. How can a caster control so many undead? Well, unless he basically spent his entire life building up his control, he is probably using something to expand his breadth of control. We could try keeping an eye out for very strong auras that might be such an amplifier. Also, the source of the undead may actually be the graveyard. If the consecration there was broken, he might be pulling them from there, thus already being inside the walls rather then the guards spotting an undead horde before it actually got here. I'll go check out the graveyard. Sending a few priests over there might be a good idea if only to keep the enemy from pulling reinforcements from there." Morrigan kind of leans side to side as she talks and thinks at the same time, glancing at the crazy goblin every once in a while.

"La'Vassa does owe him a beating!"

"sadly my ability to sense evil has a rather limited range, but the Graveyard is a decent place to check, it's possible that instead of just sending all of these monsters at once he's been reanimating them in waves in response to our destroying the originals"

Anthony activates his ability to sense evil in spite of it's limited range

everything seems to flare with the glow of evil in reply, eveey zombie notable.
"Everyone have thier senses up? Might be wise so we can catch him if he's on the way..."
malwoa quietly mutters.

"My holy powers are activated, though they require some level of consentration so we'll need to go a little slower than we otherwise would."

"La'Vassa's nose always works, but there are so many strong smells La'Vassa cannot tell one foe from another."

as the group's heads off to the graveyard, Antony senses an evil aura somewhere it really shoudlnt be- namely, in the air, with nothing tied to it.

"ghost or invisible caster above us and to the left."

La'Vassa looks excited "Oh Oh! La'Vassa has spell for this!" she shouts as a rapidly expanding sphere of chaotic flames come out from the end of her Pimp Cane casting campfire wall

Without hesitation Morrigan sends rainbow lightning in the general direction Anthony indicted. She doesn't expect a hit but she might get lucky, and it hopefully puts the evil presence on the defensive.

there's a gust of wind as something moves, the invisible creature behind a sudden wall of fire.

"... What's with the fire? How are we supposed to get At the creature?"

"Ah... Right... La'Vassa maybe not think this through" she sighs and picks up the pimp cane causing the fire to turn to embers

there's a ring and a flash in midair, giving an idea of where the creature is.

roll initative

initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18 Ruby readies her rifle searching the sky.perception: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

initiative: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16Anthony braces himself for attack

La'Vassa yanks her cane out of the ground with a whirl initiative: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3

Initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21
Morrigan is already in combat mode and preparing to strike again.

initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

everyone can take thier actions or postpone save Jo'Vassa.

Antony settles into a defensive stance and shouts "Come and get me you cowardly rat! Face me like a man!" Hoping to provoke the invisible creature to come within range of his weapon.
total defense action

Ruby continues looking for her adversary. Postponing actions

Morrigan tries to discern the creatures location, waiting for the creature to do something detectable (cast a spell, throw something, pass through the smoke of the flame wall, etc) and targeting it with another rainbow bolt.

Perception: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (7) + 11 = 18