"It's getting late, were going to need to stop for the night. Shall we take positions in the remains of the town?"
Varn shakes his head at Tessai's question. "I do not know any spells right now which would allow us to ascertain those answers; however, I can examine her equipment to perhaps see if there is any magic lingering upon the effects. Perhaps I can investigate the area where she was found... were there any visible causes of death? And I wonder why shove her body in the cubert... That is very strange."
While he ponders the curiosity of the dead halfling, Varn casts a simple cantrip to detect any magical auras upon her gear, taking note of the goggles...
Adalric shakes his head as well. "The Inheritor has blessed me with great healing ability, but I can do nothing once the body's spirit has departed."
"Very well then" - Tessai comments after listening to her companions and Irabeth - "Let us move forward as carefully as possible"
Orlando sweeps his hat off and scratches his head.
"Well, I know we're a cavalry regiment, so the open field is best for fighting, but for tonight at least we should camp in town where the shelter is. If the demons have any aerial scouts they might not see us. They tend to like the night."
"The town it is then. We might to want to make sure it is actually abandon first before settling in."
You set up camp for the night. The men making use of the buildings they can and setting up tents in the town plaza.
During the night some men wake you to tell you that the camp is under attack.
It seems that most of the towns population have been turned into zombies and they are swarming the camp coming from every direction...So far the line is holding and there are no casualties among the troops.
Adalric bolts upright, hastily dons his armor, and rushes to the area where the men are being hardest-pressed.
Tessai wakes up in a startle, puts on her armor and rushes towards the fray encouraging the combatants - "Stand fast and strong! We shall prevail, and send the damned souls beck where they belong!"
Othello gathers his equipment and heads to vantage point on top of the nearest building. Something must be controlling this scourge nearby, at least that is what he hope.
Leaping from his bunk, Orlando grabs his sash, his sword, cape, and nothing else; then rushes out to the fight with panache.
"Where away men?" He shouts. He looks around for where he can do the most good.
Varn will likewise join Adalric where the situation appears most dire! "We must gather close by, I have a new spell I would love to try out... I can make you all much faster."
Not bothering to put on his armour, Aeron grabs his sword and heads towards the trouble. "That's it lads! Put 'em back in the ground."
You head out heading towards the front lines to engage the zombie horde. The zombies are coming in the hundreds there are men, woman and even children among the undead.
It looks like the men will have no difficulty holding the line however with so many paladins and clerics the undead are being decimated.
However as you approach you notice a large green that appears on the edge of the battle and sweeps over the combatants.
Some of the men exposed to it instantly die while other begin coughing heavily and stumble becoming easier prey for the undead who are immune and the cloud even obscures vision which has thrown the defenders into chaos.
Cloudkill has been cast
Up above you notice a muscular shirtless man with black leather pants, horns and batwings holding a black scepter. He flies over the courtyard laughing maniacally. "What's this? I was hoping to catch a few stragglers into my trap but this looks like a small army!"
He is an incubus
+2Wis = 19
"And this will be the army that will put you down like the dog you are!" - Tessai shouts defiantly at the creature, trying to shake away the vision of the paladins killed by the poisonous miasma - "Come and face us if you dare!" - she growls as a glow encompasses her body with divine protective magic.
"Somebody take that guy down!" Shouted Orlando, regretting the fact he left his crossbow in his bunk. He continued to fight the undead, trying to hold his breath at the same time.
"Get some arrows on that!!" Aeron shouts at the soldiers, pointing out the flying creature and goes to grab his chakrams.
Adalric calls on the Inheritor for assistance in dealing with the Incubus. Unfortunately, the demon's has guarded itself well - for now....
Varn identifies the spell as cloudkill and shouts for the soldiers to get clear of the deadly fog. "Get clear of the cloud, it's poisonous! Bring down that creature, he is a potent spellcaster!" The wizard gathers in the center of his comrades and conjures up a powerful spell, quickening his allies!
Aravashial arrives and examines the demon but doesn't recognizes it and he proceeds to use dispel magic he manages to dissipate the cloudkill.
"I will help deal with the undead, take care of him" he says indicating the demon.
"So you will face me he says noticing you. Very well lets see what you can do"
He manages to shrug off Adalric's spell easy enough but now recognizes him as a divine caster.
Casting a spell he uses magic to lifts a chunk of debris from a collapse building and hurls it at Adalric. (using telekinesis to lift 225 pounds of debris)
You can all post again. Round 1 start attacking. He is flying 30 feet up above the courtyard.
Rather dazed, Adalric crawls out from under the rubble, stands up, and heals himself. "Hey, fiend! Is that the best you can do?"
Tessai realizes the creature is focusing on Adalric, and jumps in front of her companion at the last possible moment, taking the brunt of the attack.
"You are a fool, if you think I will let you harm those under my protection - and you will pay for even attempting" - in spite of the pain, she shouts defiantly.
Round 1________________
Biting off a curse, Orlando pulls his old sling, puts a Thunderstone in it, revs it up and unleashes it at the caster.
for a possible crush damage and Thunderstone sonic effect (Fort save DC15 or Deaf 1 hour).
Aeron grabs his chakrams from his pack and hustles back to the fray, drawing on his magical reserves, he dashes beneath the demon and launches one of the disks
"Anyone know what that is?"
Varn glares up at the flying demon and flinches as it brings down rubble atop Adalric. The wizard quickly conjures up some magic missiles and sends them flying to strike the incubus!
Othelo and Raven?
Othello will draw an cold-iron arrow and fire at the demon. "You'll regret attacking us, demon!"
The thunderstone strikes the demon but has no apparent effect. The demon is struck by the chakram and the magic missile both bypassing his defense and he finally hurt.
Several paladins in the area target him with arrow and Irabeth shoots him as well. Their paladins powers allowing them to bypass his natural protection.
"Seems I will need more than walking corpses to defeat this force...If you want to save the survivors of this town you will find them at the temple of St.Elias if you dare to come." he says and vanishes teleporting away.
Orlando snarled and spat.
"Well then, my lords and ladies, that sounded like a challenge."
He put his sling away and took up his rapier again.
"Shall we attend to this loose end?" He grinned.
Aeron tracks down his tossed chakram. "If there are survivors we should save them. Even if the demon is lying, best not to leave him behind us."
Orlando nods.
"Yes. We need to recover who we can and crush him while he's still overconfident. He won't send messages to his demon bosses while he thinks he can win."
Then he notices he's naked. He wraps his cape around his waist and nods.
"Carry on." He said before he returned to his bunk to dress.
Caladire narrows his eyes in disgust at the demon teleports away and spits on the ground. "Coward." He looks at his comrades. "Where is this temple of St. Elias? We should save the survivors, assuming there are any and this is not just a simple trap. Yet, we also have a mission to complete."
"The temple of St.Elias? I once dwelt there when I was still early in my studies. It is built into a canyon wall two days ride north of here."
If we go it would delay our arrival to Drezen by a day at most as it is a small detour...Going into the canyon will benefit us if we need to fight a large force head on but it may leave us vulnerable to attack from above. There is a a bridge we will need to cross to go to the other side of the river but we needed to cross it to get to Drezen anyway. Last I heard there was a garrison of crusaders protecting the bridge but it was most likely attacked, there has been no word from them since Kenabres fell.
"Let us make sure we send two forward scouting parties to guarantee we are safe traversing the canyon. If the ridges above are verified we can move swiftly and investigate what foul dealings are afoot at the temple of St. Elias"
"Sounds like a plan to me. I'll head one of the parties to give them a fighting chance if they run across demons. Can't have causalities before we get Drezen."
"The canyon walls are several hundred feet tall. How will we communicate with the scouts? Do you have something we can use to do so? Regardless crossing the bridge comes first. Lets get some rest we will journey on at dawn."
Irabeth looks out to the crusaders putting down the remaining zombies.
"In a way this works to our advantage. The demon will expect us to continue on into the worldwound because of his challenge. He does not suspect we meant to go that way all along and he has no idea we plan to assault Drezen."
"I must admit I do not" - Tessai replies - "Very well then Dame Irabeth - we will rest and depart come morrow. We should double our efforts in keeping guard. I will be joining the watch during the night, and assist as best as I can"
He nods at the paladin's words regarding the demon's knowledge of their plans - "I hope you are right"
Turning to Othello she adds - "Unless you can fathom a solution for the communication difficulties my friend? On the other hand..." - she turns back to Irabeth - "A fast moving scout team can most likely move much faster than the army does - checking the way ahead and doubling back to report?"
Ranks:
Knights->The party
Captains->Irabeth, Aravashial
Lieutenants->Sociel, Aeron, Nurah, Anivia
"That will work initially but will no longer be possible after we enter the canyon as it goes on for miles. There is also the fact that most demons can teleport at will. We could check to see that it's clear only to have the demons to teleport up there when the army arrives. The idea does have some merit if we have scouts who can keep and eye for trouble while remaining unseen and can communicate at long distance. At the very least they should be very good climbers who can scale the canyon walls."
Varn had been following the conversation quietly, pondering the tactical decisions on splitting their party. "Unfortunately, Lady Irabeth is correct. With the demons being able to teleport anywhere they want, having a group of scouts would likely be more beneficial to our enemies. They could single out and surround our small group and eliminate them before they even have a chance to report. I do not yet know any spells to allow me to fly, otherwise I would volunteer to fly above and report..." He thinks over his spells that may be useful in their coming assault. "I can cast a spell that allows messages to be sent over a short distance, but only up to 150 no further." He shrugs, a little irritated at his inability to provide a magical answer.
Adalric frowns thoughtfully. "I can cast a spell to make someone levitate - but not fly. I can also conjure an illusion that might help mask a small party of scouts. Still, as the others have said, communication would be an issue."