"Come with you? I'm afraid I cant not yet at least. I need to coordinate with the teams and with the limited range that involves a lot of moving around. I will give you this thought." she gives you a radio.
"Right now I'm going into the mountains to check on the team that going to the castle." she says.
If you whitin range of one of my teams you can use this to communicate with them and if you need help you can try to call.
Roy looks up as Dom approaches, and he pulls down the bandana. His mouth isn't upturned in a grin, a smile, even quirked at one edge, but it isn't a frown. He blinks a few times and coughs. "It's fine, Dom. Things happen. I signed up so they wouldn't happen as often as they might. We all know that when things go bump in the night, someone's gotta deal with them, and it's us. Sometimes, the bumpers get the best of us." He shrugs and sheathes his knife. "F*ck 'em. We bump back." He puts his bullets back in their box and slips it into a large pocket, stands.
"Ready to go?"
Alisha nods to Ashlyn and says, "If that is what you need to do, go ahead but we have to bring down those Fanes lest we will not be able to save the villagers and may not have the means to defeat the vampire. As for the team at the castle, you need to watch their back. If the werewolf leader feared a direct assault then your team might be in grave danger."
"We plan on starting the castle assault tomorrow during the day today they are only getting into position close to the castle. I will be joining them myself as well. I wish you luck in your fane hunt, hopefully it will make my job easier." says Alisha
You leave the hotel and go see marie and she examines the box. "Bones of a saint" she says
"So the vampire is using the power of the fanes. They were around long before he came along and I studied them a little. You will find a hag guarding each one and a similar box under each pillar. If you wish I can also teach you a ritual that will redirect the power of the fane into one of you rather than simply ending the ritual. With that power defeating the vampire will be much easier."
Heh, I'd take it. I need more convincing that this is not all a dream anyway.
Alisha's eye brighten at the concept of wielding real magical power and she says to Marie, "Indeed, I believe that mere stakes and holy water will not be enough to overcome our foe. I have much knowledge concerning arcane lore so I am the best choice to take the power of the fane into myself and redirect that power to aid in our task. Please teach me the ritual Marie so that may wield the power of the fanes."
"I don't think this is going to do what you expect. The power of the fanes is more subtle than raw power. The mountain fane will harden your skin and make you highly resistant to physical attacks the forest fane makes you impossible to track or find even using magic and the swamp fane gives you immense resistance to all the elements. Still the ritual isn't exactly easy to completely it requires 8 hours of constant chanting to complete. The words are in this book here." She hands you a dusty old tome with a green cover and a picture of a tree on it.
"There are a few other things in here but this is a tome on druid magic not the kind your looking for I think."
Roy clears his throat and speaks up for the first time since leaving the hotel. "Look, norm, you might have a lot of learning from a museum or a university, but that doesn't mean you know what's going on in the real world. Keep talking like you have been and you're gonna find trouble." He looks at the book and shakes his head. "That's some deep, dark stuff, a little closer to what we hunt than I'd like, and besides, it'll take too long. We should get moving to the next fane."
"Look, Alisha, you're an adult. And obviously we don't want to force you into anything. But Roy's got a point. Power always comes at a cost. Always. And we are on a bit of a clock."
"Let's move onto the next Fane. It's wabbit season."
Alisha says to Domingo, "I fully understand that there are risks but each of us have our own strengths. I am not and will never be a fighter like you and Roy here. The only way I will get the edge I need to help the group is to delve into the ways of magic. I do agree however that we do not have eight hours to spare for the ritual. But after we complete our task I will certainly consider taking the power of one of the Fanes. There will be a price but is one I will willingly pay for the hunt."
Alisha's Arcane Lore on the subject . Would the effect of the ritual be permanent?
"You can find the mountain fane north of the village up in the mountains hidden behind a waterfall. You can follow the river to find it but it is very close to the castle so be careful. The swamp fane...You can leave that one to me. It will save you precious time and I am confident I can handle it." says Maria
Dom is suddenly curious why Maria wants to take on a fan herself.
But then he shrugs. Obviously she's just worried about her daughter.
Roy glances at Dom, but seeing that the other man is fine with this, he nods. "Thanks. Let's get moving."
You leave Maria's house and it's still early, around 10 am.
Were too next? Loading up and heading north?
What is the weather like in the mountains and which location is closer?
You pack up and head north into the mountains.
You drive along the road going north into the mountains and you once again reach the forested area around the village. You see something that catches you eye and realize it's a man in old medieval armor not only that but you realize he's fighting something.
You stop and see that he's fighting a veritable horde of undead using only a sword. No less than 30 zombie pursue him and even so he seems to be winning each swing of his sword kills one or two undead and they cant seem to hit him. However he seems to be in trouble when another group of skeletal beings in black cloaks begin to hurl magical bolts at him from behind the zombies.
You still in you vehicle on the road you can try to drive into the zombie horde to kill as many as possible but that does incur some risk.
1. They are in the forest which is of road and there are lots of trees.
2. Ramming zombies damages the vehicle.
3. Zombie can grab on to the vehicle as you try to ram them.
4. You can only move so much per round you may end up stopped in the middle of the horde.
Now you can spend time to prepare as you like the zombie shaven't noticed you but each round you do is another round that guy is fighting on his own.
"Oh, son of a -- Really?! We can't even drive across town without something stupid coming up," Dom grumbled from Xannder's passenger seat. "Stop the car. We can use it as cover. When the coast clears we can go pick up Lancelot. If the tide starts to turn for the worse we get back in our cars and bail."
"It's just a couple werewolves, Dom. No big deal," he said in an annoyed, quiet growl, as he drew his Beretta.
Roy slows as he sees the figure, wondering what's going on, and as he hears the cars behind him slow down and stop, he wheels Atlanta around and parks behind them. He quickly dismounts and drops his helmet to the ground, moves to the trunk of Alisha's car, and pulls out the Remington. "I take it we're helping here and moving on?"
Xannder does as instructed and halts the car. He watches Dom go around the car and decides it might be better to stay near the car should they need a quick getaway. He opens the door and quickly steps out positioning his rifle on the roof for stability. Then he takes a shot at a zombie.
Alisha says, "These dammed monsters are always getting in our way. Fine let us help that man but we must do it quickly. We still have two fanes to find and time is growing short."
Alisha takes her position beside Xannder and readies her firearm. Having gotten the hang of firing a gun after her last encounter and learning quickly the basics of marksmanship she clips off a shot at one of the skeletons seeing them as the most serious threat.
Dom sighted a zombie and opened fire.
"Hey! Hey, buddy! Get over here! We'll cover you!"
Sorry should have included more detail.
The forest starts 60 feet from the road, the knight is 90 feet away at the time you spot him. The closest zombies are those around him. I will post a better map soon (tomorrow probably) but for now use this.
Also note for the zombies
they have 12 hp, ac 16 and DR:10/slashing so bullets don't work very well on them but as a special rule if you roll a critical hit on them it's a shot to the head that kills them on the spot. Also you can aim for the head taking a -5 penalty on your attack roll and if you still hit it shoots them in the head and kills them.
Alisha clips a skeleton, Xannder misses, Roy hits but deals no damage.
The knight takes notice of you and slays another zombie before moving 20 feet in your direction.
The skeletons seems to direct the zombies and 6 of them break off towards you while the rest continue to pursue the knight.
The knight takes a hit and the skeletons hit him with another barrage of magical bolts.
You can all post again.
Xannder takes aim at another zombie trying to hit them in the head.
Roy takes aim for one of the zombie's heads and fires the Remington.
The bullet slams into his target, blowing brain, bone, flesh, and blood off the creature's shoulders as it falls to the ground. Roy grimaces under his bandana and prepares to shoot again.
Dom frowns at the pace the Knight is moving. This was going to get dicey real quick. He took aim at a zombie's head, and fired again.
His shot hit the zombie in the neck. A fatal shot for anything else, but wouldn't do diddly to a shuffler.
"I forgot how much I hate these things."
Alisha tries to exploit the weakness of the zombies.
And succeeds using intelligent aiming for the Zombie's most vital point, the head. Spending an Action point.
+
Roy takes down a zombie while everyone else Shoots them to little effect.
"I welcome your aid strangers but you can leave the walking corpses to me focus your wands on those casters instead!" shouts the knight taking down two more zombies before making his way towards you some more.
Still working on the more detailed map in the meantime you can post again you still have another two rounds before the zombies reach you.
Xannder adjusts his aim and takes a shot at the closest caster skeleton.
Which embeds itself into a trunk behind the target.
"Well, you all heard the crazy man. Concentrate your fire on the Ring Wraiths."
Dom holsters his Beretta and took the M14 rifle from the car seat.
"Great, a nutcase in armor," Roy mutters. He takes a shot at another zombie, more concerned about being swarmed than bringing down skeletons in the back.
However, due to aiming specifically for the head, the round misses.
Alisha fires her weapon targeting one of the skeletons.
She manages to hit one but to little apparent effect.
Xannder and Roy miss while Dom changes to a heavier weapon.
The knight continues to hack at the zombies while moving in you direction he has now reached the edged of the forest, he whistles and signals to one zombies heading your way.
"Bartram now! Help them destroy that group!" following his command a larger than average Raven (now huge or anything just about twice as big as your average one) flies out of the trees above and heads towards the closest of the zombies heading your way.
It becomes bathed in light and somehow decapitates a zombie using it's wing and flies up out of their reach.
The zombies continues their attack and the knight continues to evade them.
The skeletons launch another salvo of magical bolts his way.
You can all post again
Updated the encounter map to make it more acurate.
Xannder curses his last miss and takes his time aiming down the sights.
As the bird comes into view, Xannder loses focus and the bullet flies wildly missing all targets.
Alisha continues to shoot the skeletons
The recoil of the gun disrupts her aim and she misses badly, blowing some wood out a nearby tree.
Dom sighted down the barrel of the M4, taking aim at one of the creepy skeletons.
"Hmm. Little rusty."
Roy takes a shot at the closest zombie shooting for the head and takes one down.
The Zombies continue to advance and the knight continues his struggle.
For the time being the skeletons in the back have stopped their magical assault.
Xannder misses another shot at a zombie.
Slitherin stopped casting, could be good or bad... I suggest moving faster!
Alisha pops a shot at one of the skeletons while staying behind whatever cover she can muster.
Dom takes aim and fires at the Skeletons again.
Roy sees Dom and Alisha continuing to shoot at the skeletons and works the action of his rifle, firing at another zombie's head.
The Hunter scowls and gets ready to draw his new revolver.
You all miss or land ineffective shots.
The 4 zombies are heading your way are now and are 20 feet away from you. On their turn they can move up to you, but zombies cannot attack and move on the same turn. (They can however take a 5 foot step and attack)
The knight is now 80 feet away and continues his struggle he is being harassed by 12 zombies still, his bird has turned back and gone to help him. It seems unable to repeat the move that allowed it to kill a zombies and can only distract them now.
The skeletons take cover behind trees and for the time being are simply watching.