"Ah. I can certainly try to sir. For the mostpart I've just been following the materials that I have, but I'm sure that I can figure out some kind of proper hardening process for it"
Hearing the sounds of battle and Dairkal's cries, Aemur rushes in to the house. Still leery of Officer Coward behind him, he doesn't completely ignore his defenses; but upon seeing the... thing... attacking Dairkal he attacks.
Sorry, in this case Cayden stayed downtown talking with the baron while the two halflings followed the cop to the far north end of town. He's nowhere near hearing distance.
Aemur's hasty slash misses its mark.
Aemur did not hit, but keeps his focus on the enemy, threatening him... it... with his blade.
With his muscles starting to lock up from the ghoul paralysis, and still shocked at the sudden onslaught and narrow escape, Dairkal fails to make good on his counterattack.
The monster turns at Aemur's intervention, abandoning its former target in favor of this new threat. It seems to realize that Aemur, focused on assisting Dairkal, will be unable to bring his glaive back up in time to intercept its movement.
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Aemur grunts in pain from the sudden attack, the switch of focus taking him by surprise. He steps back to swing his glaive to a ready position, and then attacks.
Aemur steps back to get room for a swing, carefully keeping away from the thing's slashing claws. His powerful slash cleaves halfway to the monster's spine, leaving it open to Dairkal's rapier.
Despite its horrific wound, the ghoul's ferocity doesn't seem to have lessened at all.
Dair slashes at the crazed creature's hamstring, hoping to hobble it.
The ghoul steps forward right on the heels of Aemur's step back, determined to pay him back for that slash of the glaive.
After his attack failed to land, Dair steps back slightly and yells "Officer Coward, help!"
Aemur grunts in pain as the ghoulish creature lands another blow. The pain of it staggers him, and the accumulated wounds are starting to take their toll on him.
5/10 HP and 3 pt Dex damage.
The cry for him evidently ruins Coward's attempt at stealth, and instead of skulking in to strike the creature unaware, he is forced to rush forward before it can maneuver away from his line of attack. Coward swings his mace in a strange overhand grip, almost like he's throwing it, and it huffs in the air as the weighted head comes down.
The ghoul rushes him as he comes, and the head of the mace whiffs past its shoulder, to smash a heavy table to matchwood.
Oleg, seeing the identity of this latest attacker, seems to ignore the halflings completely in its desire to tear apart the watchman.
The creature's attack is relatively weak, and Coward's physical injuries are minimal, but the ghoul paralysis quickly sets in, making him a clumsy mockery of his usual self.
Aemur is grateful to see Officer Coward come in, though he is surprised by both the officer's name and by the ... thing's.... reaction to the officer. He takes advantage of the distraction to swing his glaive in attack.
Aemur's second swing finishes what his first one started; the thing goes down.
Officer Coward looks at you closely. "Would have probably been better to arrest him and get a confession, but I guess it's easier this way."
Holding up a red backpack, he adds "I found this in the ravine. Let's search the house and then call in the coroner and crime scene squad."
Aemur isn't queasy about blood, but he's not exactly an expert either. Knowing he is out of his depth in examining the body, he looks around the room instead.
I'm still not sure I trust this officer.. but he did come in when we called for help. Aemur is not sure what to think of the situation, on the whole; something that looked to be a simple arrest was turning out to be more complex than he had imagined it could get.
Bleeding, and breathing a bit heavily due to the nasty wounds inflicted by the deranged creature, Dair smiles weakly. "Would have loved to, but that thing ambushed me before I could even speak." He says in between ragged breaths. He looks over the fallen form of what he assumes is Oleg. "I'm not sure it's capable of giving a confession."
Meanwhile on the other side of town...
Cayden parted ways with the Baron, assuming somewhat that he probably wasn't going to get any more information from him (and knowing the he was taking up an important man's precious time). He... Still felt a bit on edge for some reason. He was happy to get closure, but still was hungry for more. To know just what was going on, who would try to kidnap people, and why... He pondered these questions as he headed back towards the tavern and the places he had previously seen the two newcomers.
Dairkal:
Aemur does not see anything of note, and turns his attention to bandaging his wounds and keeping an eye on Officer Coward. He voices some curiosity as he does so.
Officer, have you ever seen anything like this? I know that I have not... I was not expecting something like this. I find myself in agreement with this gentleman; I do not think this ... thing... was capable of a confession at this stage.
"They say sometimes people get infected by stuff left over from the Days of Darkness. I don't know the truth or falsehood of it. Anyway, confession may not be needed -- got the boy's backpack here, unless I'm mistaken."
You manage to restore 10 hp to yourself, but realize it will take an hour of massaging your locked muscles to do anything about the attribute damage, and you'll probably fail anyway -- it might be better to just sleep it off.
You also look at your handiwork on the ghoul.
Aemur finishes bandaging his wounds, but is still stiff and moving slowly. He is eager to get back to the tavern and lay down for the night, but is still curious about the house - and especially about the pack discovered by Officer Coward. He takes a moment to congratulate Dairkal on the probable puncture wound, deciding that the other halfling is unlikely to be upset at being given some credit. That puncture on the things back looks pretty nasty - looks like you handled things well before the Officer and I came on the scene!
The innkeeper is still awake when you make your ways downstairs. He nods towards a sideboard, where there is a basket of rolls, butter, thinly-sliced sausage of some kind, cheese, and a pot of tea, along with cups and plates.
Aemur smiles in thanks at the innkeeper, and stiffly makes his way to a seat after putting a selection from the sideboard on the plate. He's still feeling the effects of the battle, and feeling a little more cautious about jumping into a situation with no background information.
If the day was coming to a close, Cayden would probably get back home, though he was still rather nervous about things, he had a bad feeling that he'd put responsibilities off longer than he should have..
He'd probably tell some family members about what he had seen that day, and the news of what had happened, about the new visitors and about what he'd heard from the baron.
Cayden's youthful energy allows him to easily get up early, ready to get going, despite the late night. It had been a very long day -- his stop at the inn for a quick pint after work had lasted longer than he'd intended, talking with the newcomers, and, after two of them had left for the Bengal Palace, with the stout halfling. It was probably after one AM by the time the Baron came out of the Bengal Palace with the other two newcomers, and Cayden could voice his misgivings.
It occurs to him that these newcomers seem to be taking a very active role in things -- the stout halfling had joined a dog-riding halfling and Bob Coward on some kind of errand, and the two humans had been in the Palace with Baron Garstang for quite a long meeting. He thinks that these visitors are probably worth keeping up with.
Kolmac wakes at dawn with just a hint of a hangover from the previous night's meeting. He stumbles into the common room with his spellbook under one arm and settles into a corner after procuring a slice of bread and some cold water. Opening the tome, he sets aside several loose pages of notes and ideas for the Baron's project and reviews his spells.
Dairkal slowly limps back to the inn he had a room at, and crashes hard for the night.
He sleeps several hours past dawn, then makes his way downstairs for breakfast. He grabs a couple of rolls, some sausage, a few pieces of cheese, and a cup of tea, then sits down to dig in. Being nearly killed works up quite the appetite!!
Oh, is the party finally coming together? Wow. This entire thing has been such an ordeal that I hope we level up from it, heh.LOL! OK, yeah, maybe not one of my best ideas, as it turns out.
I mean, the idea of having the party come together naturally is an interesting idea, and I KNOW there's probably some intriguing mystery and a bit of eventual undead slaying to come out of this. It's just that when you need a group of four strangers to come together to form a long term bond that takes a rather long time, and most GMs just throw it into the backstory.
Admittedly I am both excited and loathing the moment that he says he's going on an adventure, since I'd imagine that in regards to that and his backstory he caused quite a ruckus with it. His mother getting into an argument with his grandfather and it turning into a minor screaming match. However I loathe the idea of stealing the spotlight that hard.
The innkeeper looks at Dairkal. In the morning light, he can see the halfling's injuries more clearly, and says, "Rough night?"
Aemur looks up at the innkeepers voice, and notes Dairkal standing there. He grins and waves at him to grab a seat nearby.
Good morning, good fellow! And how are you after our adventure yesterday? I confess I rather foolishly jumped in unprepared for the action we saw, and am still feeling the effects of it!
Despite his stiffness, Aemur is in a good mood; he's alive, relatively uninjured from the battle, and while he doesn't understand everything going on it kept his mind from dwelling on the devastation of the goblin camp and his powerlessness to do anything about it.
In the morning, Eshkeval will review the build site. He'll attempt to take every possible measurement of the area, in order to create an accurate 3D negative space model. With that information, he'll head back to find Kolmac and give him the information.
After that, he'll simply aid in coming up with fantastical ideas for the structure. He doesn't know much about basic architecture, but he's experienced in works of art and in Spellcraft, so he'll aid Kolmac's knowledge in any conceivable means.
The new build site is far enough outside of town to be peaceful and have the air of a country estate, but close enough that the new downtown area is an easy carriage ride (or longer walk) away. Most of the trees have been cleared away, with a few stately elms remaining on the rolling landscape. The extent of the plot is about ten acres, staked off. The location for the actual building is already enclosed inside a wooden fence, to keep out curious passers-by.
You promised the innkeeper some new door fittings, and swing by to deliver them. There, you're with the party! And nails aren't too hard to make; your apprentice smiths can handle that business for you.
Dair flashes the innkeeper a grin "Yeah, but you should see the other guy!"
Turning to Aemur, he takes the proffered seat and sits down gingerly, but with a sigh of contentment. "Yeah, that was definitely not what I was expecting. Went in to serve a simple warrant, got attacked by some crazed creature."
"Creature, you say?" grunts the innkeeper with surprise.