"Bloody spells! Totally useless, waste of time.", he curses. "My god sends me to this miserable mission, but he doesn't give me any useful spells." Karmuk shakes his fist at sky. "Are you mocking me?"
"He's just testing you," Petra says with a rare laugh, still grinning at being in proper battle at last. "The gods make us stronger through failure, hammering out our imperfections!"
Which is a nice philosophical comfort if her own blow missed.
"Surely the divine also experience boredom," comments Aurengil drily from well out of the combat. "And we are but their amusing distractions from time to time?"
He smiles. The horror of the situation really hasn't touched Aurengil in any permanent way. He is as light-hearted as only an elf can be.
Petra takes a mighty swing that would surly have severed the vile things head had it hit, however, the axe blade misses the zombies neck by inches.
(OOC: Jon, Deng, Aurengil and Kyranda are free to post in any order)
Deng also steps up, starting around the beast, but not circling behind it, and attempts to hurt the foul creature. He swings his longsword, but the blade is higher than he intended, and it goes over the zombie's shoulder instead of into the torso. "Well, that wasn't right."
Jon moves around the zombie so his friends do not block his shot
Dengs blade slices into the zombies supple decaying flesh with ease. The the undead creature takes a few steps then lazily drops, its gurgling rage finished. As the zombie falls, Jon blasts the creature with a ray of positive energy causing the things decaying flesh to blister and burn.
Now, only peaceful sounds remain. Waves lap lazily against the shore; the wooden pier creaks as if talking to the small cutter rubbing against its moorings...
(OOC: Knowledge Engineering –trained only (if anyone has it?), otherwise proceed)
Oblivious to the finer points of engineering, Aurengil makes for the boat.
Karmuk continues to the boat, holding dagger in his hand.
Petra calls back to Zandu. "Stay near the gate while we make sure your boat's clear! We'll signal. Yell like the devil if you see any more of the rotters, meanwhile!"
She will also move down to the pier to the boat, trying to stay in the middle of the dock in case any grasping rotting hands rise from the water.
"Eyes on the water, folks! Gods help White Keep if they really can swim."
, , , , , , , , , , ,
The White Keep companions walk onto the pier and head for the cutter. The creaky wooden planks groan beneath your feet as the sun shines warmly upon you.
In the shallows of the shore on both sides of the pier, zombies begin to emerge from the lake, at first, only their heads are visible. In total a quick scan counts at least 5 of the undead creatures slowly walking their way out of the lake.
As you make for the small sailing ship, you can hear Zandu begin to cry out, Cayden help us, hurry, board the cutter! A look in Zandus direction sees her and Kyranda sprinting toward the pier.
Karmuk waits for Zandu and Kyranda, trying to make sure that the pier stays open from zombies, to ensure that everyone can make it into the cutter.
As the zombie before them falls, Deng sheaths his sword and reaches down for the body, planning to move it away from the water, just starting to get the shoulders up off of the pier when the alarm is sounded. He glances up and around before dropping the body back where it fell. "Come on, quick, on board!"
He hops onto the boat, turning to help others board.
Jon jogs gently to the boat.
I can outrun a zombie any day, but if I put my put through one of these boards I'm a dead man
"Torag wept," Petra curses when Zandu begins running for the boat-- in contradiction of what she'd just told the woman. Running for the boat, from the gate, means essentially running for the pack of five zombies, since anyone getting on the pier will pass through the zombie-gauntlet. It's true Zandu hadn't agreed to follow her orders, but...
She gives Karmuk a short, approving nod when she sees him approaching a guard position to let Zandu and Kyranda through. She does the same on the opposite side, attempting to give defensive cover to Kyranda and Zandu when they get through.
Zandu and Kyranda rush onto the pier and toward the cutter.
Kyranda jumps into the sailing ship, while Zandu moves to the front turnbuckle and begins to untie the fore line mooring the ship to the dock .
As Zandu works the line she shouts at Jon, who has yet to board, “Untie the aft line, then get aboard the cutter!” (OOC: Give me a wisdom check for this action, please.)
"Kyranda, put the starboard side oar out and man it!"
"Deng, put the port side oar out!" (OOC: This would be a move action-so you’ve got a standard to play with if you want to help Petra and Karmuk from range. Zombies 1, and 2 are @20 feet away from you, but you’d take a -4 penalty for shooting into melee and the zombs have soft cover(ill deduct penalties it comes down to that))
Zandu looks back and you all see two of the five zombies rushing down the pier, they close fast upon your position and shlorp into melee with Petra and Karmuk, who stand in their way. (OOC: Petra and Karmuk, you can take your readied actions to attack zombie #1 and zombie #2 for this round, as well as your actions/attack for next round in the same post-so essentially you get two attacks each. Specify your target, #1, or #2)
Three more zombies trail far behind and have yet to walk up onto the pier.
(OOC:@everyone, ultimately, you are all free to do what you want, you don’t have to obey your captain Zandu)
When zombie climbs to the pier Karmuk tries to slice it with his knive .
No more tinkering with spells!
What is dead will die again!
"Well struck, Karmuk!" Petra calls out with a fierce grin, swinging her axe at the other.
The axe lands a solid strike through rotting flesh; Petra pivots and swings again.
"Deng, put the port side oar out!" (OOC: This would be a move action-so you’ve got a standard to play with if you want to help Petra and Karmuk from range. Zombies 1, and 2 are @20 feet away from you, but you’d take a -4 penalty for shooting into melee and the zombs have soft cover(ill deduct penalties it comes down to that))
Deng moves to try to get that port side oar out, but as he goes, he says simply "Fill the empty vessels with life!" and glows momentarily.
Jon fumbles with the aft line as instructed Who tied this thing? What's Deng doing? SON OF A OW!
Jon stumbles to one knee as the wave of power washes over him.
Already embarrassingly low on spells, Aurengil husbands his limited power and helps Kyranda man an oar.
One of the zombies, a woman with the flesh torn away from her cheeks wades in at Karmuk; her mouth opening and closing as if she is already chewing on the dwarfs flesh. Karmuk stabs the undead creature twice, once in each eye socket. After the second hit the creature falls away, now devoid of whatever foul negative magics once possessing it.
Petra swings at the other zombie with her axe, chopping the undead creatures arm away at the elbow with her first hit.
The dwarfs axe flashes again, this time severing the zombies head from its shoulders.
Deng grabs the port side oar next to the pier, as he does so, he calls upon the mysteries of the universe, of which the half-orc has been blessed and cursed. The result is a wave of positive energy that pulses outward from the oracle. The wave cooks all undead in its path, including Jon.
Jon, cursed by the plague, resists the positive energy for the most part, but he stills gets a small taste of the pain. It feels as if he had just stepped into a cooking kiln for a few seconds.
Jon shakes off the brief taste of pain and manages to untie the aft line...
Zandu holds the fore line and waits for every one to jump aboard her small sailing ship...
The three foul and decaying humanoids, hungry for your flesh stiffly walk upon the wooden pier and head toward the companions who stand on the pier…
(3 zombies at 30ft, cutter is within a single move action of everyone standing on the pier)
Zandu is on the pier (north of Petra and Karmuk) holding the front line. It looks like she can step on the boat from her position and push off. It also looks like she is waiting for everyone to board before she steps over with the line in hand.
Zandu looks at Jon, Petra and Karmuk, if any make eye contact with her, she makes a sidelong motioning gesture with her head for you to board the cutter.
Petra grits her teeth. First-in-last-out is always her motto, but she offers a short nod at Zandu's gesture.
"Into the boat!" she yells at Karmuk, and suits deed to word herself, turning to scramble into the cutter.
"Yes ma'am!"
Karmuk follows close behind Petra.
"Is the vessel ready?" he shouts on his way.
"Hope so," Petra yells over her shoulder. "Torag never told me hell's bells about boats!"
They're unnatural, in Petra's humble opinion.
Jon releases a bolt of positive energy at the nearest zombie, then jumps aboard the boat.
Not understanding any of what he hears around him, but knowing what works, Deng channels positive energy in an attempt to help sweep the zombies away from the ship and the other survivors. He says something in a very light and soft language.
Aurengil keeps easy pace with the warriors, heading for the boat.
Jon leaps over the boat, lands and is wracked by pain from Deng's blast of positive energy. His skin blackens and cracks. As he stumbles to his hands and knees blood pools in the cracks and falls on the deck.
Petra and Karmuk step onto the cutter giving Jon a clear shot at the fast approaching zombie trio. A bolt of positive energy pierces the nearest creatures stomach causing it to reel, but only for a moment.
Deng curses the corpses filled with
unlife as he calls down a wave of positive energy that rolls out to fry all of the undead with in its range.
Caught within Dengs channeled wave of positive energy Jon wretches in pain.(ooc: Dhampir has a CON, and are half human & undead, so I assume the heal skill works as usual?That said, I defer to Jon)
Kyranda makes room for Aurengil. The priestess of Calistra strokes the oar while she flirtatiously molests the elf with her big black doe like eyes.
Zandu pushes off the piling and jumps aboard the ship, which drifts away slowly .
There is a slight breeze that seems to pick up now and fill the sail full when you meed it most. The fetid whiff of sour stinking death begins to whisk away and is replaced by the cooling briny smell of Dragon Mere lake . Suddenly, the cutter begins to pick up speed and you are propelled to the vast open waters of the lake.
Back on the pier, two of the three zombies try to charge the cutter, as if they could walk on water. The other zombie seems to think differently. Rather than walking into the water, the half naked rotting corpse simply stops to stare in the direction of the cutter as a cat would watch for a mouse in a hole.
The sun cast a large shadow of the ships sail upon the waters and soon it will meet the horizon ushering the darkness.
Petra stares warily from the stern, watching that last zombie. The fact that it doesn't mindlessly chase after the other two into the water makes a chill run up her back, an ominous sensation of something bad building here.
She tries to shake it off, and takes stock of 'her' crew.
"Anyone injured?" she calls, and blinks when she registers... Jon, and his blistered skin.
"--what the hell happened to him?" Petra cries out. She was sure Jon hadn't so much as been grabbed by any of the undead. Petra hurries to him, keeping her axe drawn.
If whatever Jon's got in him is gettin' worse.... and gods know he looks like he's near death's door right now, with his skin blackened.... yes. Better keep that axe very close.
"Jon! You alright?!"
Because if you're not, Petra has the eternal solution to all your woes right here in her right hand.
"No. Cure... " Jon coughs up blood "seems to react badly to Deng's energy..." "Aurengil!"
Petra looks to the elf. "Can you do anything for him?" she asks, and then clears out of his way since she is no healer herself.
Seven rotters, Petra thinks grimly. Under the water, waitin'. Spells trouble sure as a dead canary in the mineshaft does. And that one sittin', watchin'.... she shivers again.
She shades her eyes with her hand and looks back towards the receding battlements. If Groll is watching over the edge, then he would have seen the battle, and, she hopes, told Derth of the potentially increased threat at their very gates.
But maybe he didn't see. Well, she could scratch down a summary of the problem into one of the back pages of her journal, tear the page out, wrap it around an arrow, and fire it over the battlement walls...
Petra reaches for her pack to do just that, and then remembers where her bow is. It's right where she dropped it. In the sand. Hundreds of feet away and getting further by the moment.
"Za'hik kask graun Toraggin ga delBAKH!" she yells, with feeling, as her palm hits the stern railing forcefully.
Still keeping dagger in hand. "Jon! You are harmed by Deng's spells? What is this?" Karmuk is clearly confused.
"I was right, you are one of then after all?" He is getting little bit scared as well.
"No i can't believe it. What's going on?"
"I used no spells. I simply released the power of Life to harm the undead. No living creature is hurt by the force of Life like this. None that I've heard of before, anyway."
Deng looks confused. and starts muttering to himself under his breath.
The elf hastens to his friend's side and grimaces at the burns.
"It is his curse," he sighs. "It is worse than I thought. He fights the curse, but it has changed him. Deng channeled the life-giving power of his god and it hurt Jon as if he were one of the dead."
Age-old eyes look into the depths of Jon's dark gaze. "This is not good news, Jon. How do you feel?"
Turning to gaze up at Deng, the elf says "You will have to be careful of where Jon is when you invoke that power. It can kill him.
Rising, he addresses the party as they hasten to cast off. "Jon is my friend, and a good man. Moreover, he is one of us. Cursed or not, he fights for what we fight for. Be glad we do not all suffer his curse."
"Ok ok, I trust you. But we should keep eye on him anyway, for the sake of all of us... To see if he is getting better or worse, I mean. How can we then heal him?"
I get to my feet. It's hard - I feel as if I had aged ten years. Everything hurts. I smell blood in the air and know it for mine - but I feel hunger anyway.
I look at the elf. More than just my friend, he is my hope. But that hope is fading.
"If I'm getting worse then we need to get Aurengil the supplies to copy this. It's as close to a cure as we've got. Even if it only buys a few extra months, that makes a difference."
He looks over at Petra
"What did I miss?"
Karmuk asks aloud how in the world can Jon be helped? Asking the question as well as hearing it stirs the dwarf’s unconscious mind bringing forth knowledge of a similar case studied earlier in life.
Oddly, this creature would also recover health naturally overtime if cared for.
At the helm, Zandu steers the cutter to a point on the horizon, adjacent to the suns vector, no shore is yet visible.
"What did I miss?"
Zandu looks at Jon sitting there and says, I was going to say we could sleep on the cutter tonight, its safer on the water in my opinion, but looking at you now, Jon, I dont feel safe thinking about doing just that. We can make shore in four hours...
"Jon is no danger to you or your crew," says Aurengil, looking past Zandu to Petra. "We should stay on board until he is healed."
Petra listens to the discussion of Jon's condition with a furrowed brow. Fantastic. She's been 'in command' for less than an hour, and things are already falling apart in her hands, or so it feels.
Mentally, Petra lists everything that's happened, to be written down in her journal later.
- Healin' hurts Jon, an' he looks close to dead on his feet;
- Lost my flippin' bow;
- Rotters can swim, or somehow get to the island anyhow;
- Rotters can think, maybe;
- We got dissentin' thoughts between folk on how we gonna deal with Jon. 'Division in the ranks', that's what you call it, right?
The dwarf pinches at the bridge of her nose, exhales, and steps back to the near the center of the cutter, giving a look around to everyone.
"Alright. We got one wounded, and... and it looks like how we're used to fixin' folk don't work on him. Jon..." Petra bites her lip, letting that sentence trail off. What does she mean to ask, anyway? You about ready to try eatin' our flesh like a bone-biter?
Deep breath. "Alright, first things first: we had seven dead back there on the beach. Seven, that we SAW. We don't know how many were in the water hidin'. That means they've gotten to the gates of White Keep, and it means they can swim, or somehow muck about in the water, anyway.
"Plus..." she takes another deep breath. "Plus, that last one, I dunno if y'all saw, but it was-- watchin' us, in a way I don't like none at all. It was watchin' like it was thinkin'. Like it was comin' up with a plan.
"All th' dead I fought so far been dumber'n animals. Ain't got no minds, just hunger-- but it's made 'em easy to fight, you know? Well.... if that's changin', we're in a world of trouble. And so's the folk at White Keep.
"We got to proceed like our enemy just got the ability to reckon, at least until we see proof otherwise. I hope they can't."
Petra puts her axe away and cracks her knuckles absently, thinking hard.
"I don't like travelin' with one of us wounded, but as I see it, we may not have a choice. How many days would we have to wait in the boat tryin' to patch him, to get Jon back to fit? Can we spend a week? Can we even spend three days? I don't know if we got that luxury, with undead already at White Keep's gates.
"And let's be clear here: th' boat may not be as safe as we think. If these rotters can swim.... or climb an anchor chain.... I don't like the thought of tryin' to fight 'em off from climbin' on board, during the night." She shudders a little.
Petra cracks her knuckles again, then looks around to the others. "My thoughts on what we ought to do are get to shore as quick as we can. Rest one night at most on the boat. But we have got to keep movin'. Time may be our enemy here too.
"That said... I know Derth put me as leader, but I don't reckon I know everything. You've got other thoughts, give 'em to me now."
Deng joins the group examining Jon, unless they push him away.
As he stands up and turns to face Petra, he mumbles under his breath.
Looking Petra in the eyes, he gives his best understanding of the situation. "Well, since he's still moving on his own, a good day of dedicated rest and care should do wonders for him. Another night after that and he should be right as rain. So, if you think there's a spot on shore where we can hole up for a couple of nights, we can get him feelin', well, as good as he normally does."