Anophth's arrow impales the zombie's head, and it falls to the ground. Moments later, a tiny demon burrows out of the corpse, snarling with rage!
As they pass through the Purse District, Dramm loads a bolt into his crossbow. The groaning of the dead keeps his eyes wary as the group progresses down the chaotic streets.
Dramm remembers what it is like to be overwhelmed by the dead. His hands aren't as steady as they normally are when the first cluster comes into view.
"Fires take me!" He curses, startled by the demon bursting forth. His shot flies wide!
"A house *exploded*!? And a plague of dead!?"
She pauses.
"I'll get my things, Uruuna!"
****************
Joy feels a pang of regret at agreeing to come with the others.
But we have to do this!
The scared girl sees the nearest shambling horror, its last breakfast flopping out of its ruptured belly. She desperately tries to recall the magic she most recently learned.
The witch fire! Yes, that will stop it!
Her hands flex and a green flame appears in the air in front of that zombie's face. And then it rushes towards said head.
The shot is shaky, but meets its target. With a soft spultch it sinks into the zombie's chest.
Tabog has been uncharacteristically quiet during their trip to the Purse District save for his regular humming. You notice that his songs, usually uplifting and happy; have taken on a more sombre, minor tone.
He steels him when the undead approach.
Nothing we haven't seen before.
He looks at Anophth, and smiles as they both draw their arrows and release.
"I betcha I peg more then you. Loser buys the first round after!"
Imedren had been suffering from a migraine since Uruuna had found him earlier that morning.
He couldn't remember exactly what he'd been up to before the apparent late night of drinks. He was aware the situation had been dire, Uruuna had left him alone to go fetch the others, in hopes he'd have some time to recover. Everything had been a haze since she'd come back to fetch him. He recalled vaguely mumbling some sort of greetings at the others.
He remembered seeing Commander Rena and hearing her excuses for her obvious spite against Dramm.
Did she glare at me? Then say something about the disease and the dead bodies... walking? he couldn't think straight and just continued along with the others.
"A plague of dead?!" he said mimicking Joy from earlier, finally coming to some sort of realization of exactly where they were. Looking past his companions, whom he'd been in the middle of he looked ahead at the group of corpses walking. Then even as one fell, something else tore out of the body.
Imedren's vision suddenly swam and he had to lean against the building he was standing by. He threw up, expelling the excess alcohol from his body. He took a fresh breath, feeling better as the world righted itself.
"Now I get it." as his mind began to clear, a piece of his memory from the night before returned and he recalled what he'd been told. "Call forth the chaos and enhance the power. Make them all explode." A red surge of power came, coursing over his body, fueling his magic past what he was used to even now.
The surge didn't stop however, it continued until he clenched his hands into fists and put a stop to the surge with an effort of will.
Imedren was breathing hard, he looked tired as if the effort had taxed him. But more than that, he seemed angry.
Despite her fear, Uruuna draws her sling and bashes the demon with a sling bullet. Tabog and Dramm shoot another zombie, then Joy burns it with her witch fire. Imedren's darts explode, killing the demon and the wounded zombie, but another demon pops out of its ruined corpse!
The demon teleports into your midst, ripping at Imedren with its claws.
The zombies shamble forward, some breaking into a stumbling run to get to you. They reach with grasping hands, and one grabs a hold of Dramm! Another one takes a bite out of his arm!
The small ball of green fire does not disappear when it strikes the zombie but remains in place. Joy thinks, and the fire obeys, zipping towards the back of another zombified skull. The one grasping Dramm!
Dramm's constitution shrugs off infection for now.
He shouts as the teeth tear him and the crossbow drops. He tears the axe from his back and hacks at the biting zombie!
The grabbing hands make it awkward to maneuver, and Dramm's swing does little more than carve off a patch of rotting skin!
Quickly overcoming her fear, Uruuna draws her scimitar and decapitates the demon that scratched her husband!
Did you see that! Did you see That?! It's not a plague, it's demons! They're being controlled by demons!
Anophth grabs his cane and strikes at one.
As the demon appears within the group's defenses, Tabog bounds backwards , pulls an arrow and fires at it.
Unable to stabilize himself in time, his drove his arrow into the ground instead.
"No Anophth, this is a plague. It's just a demonic plague."
He raised his hand, a swirl of multicolored power began to swirl around it, creating an orb but as he released it there was a momentary rush of the feedback energies from before which empowered the spell but held back the spell back before it fired at the zombie grabbing Dramm.
While Joy misses with her witch fire, she offers advice to Dramm, guiding his aim as he chops at the zombie grabbing him. Imedren's chaos bolt strikes the zombie, and it explodes in a shower of body parts and gore! Dramm is released, but another demon appears in the destruction's wake! Anophth smacks another zombie but Tabog misses his shot.
Enraged by Imedren's magic, the demon teleports behind him and out of Uruuna's reach. It tears at Imedren's belly.
The zombies assault the front line, a damaged one moving to take the fallen one's place. Anophth and Dramm are grabbed, and a zombie takes a big bite out of the goblin!
Dramm grimaces as he sees the weight of the bodies closing in. He quickly changes to his knife and carves out a protective barrier around himself.
"Imedren, the swarm!"
"Dramm, push it back so I can get its head!", Joy calls, as she directs the fiery ball.
When a creature that can hear you and understand what you say would make a challenge roll, you can use a triggered action to offer that creature guidance. The creature makes the roll with 2 boons.
The young witch concentrates, trying to focus even with the horrors so close! The witch fire darts again, racing for the back of the zombie before it can bite Dramm again!
The witch fire incinerates the zombie grabbing Dramm, releasing another shrieking demon!
Uruuna falls back from the zombies to get to the demon savaging her husband.
Tabog sees the undead and the demons begin to converge on his friends, he begins his song to Uruuna, bolstering her offense.
Imedren, nodded to Dramm. "Right! When I move, you dive away from them Dramm!"
Imedren disappeared from view in the blink of an eye. Though he had not gone far.
He opened himself to the flow of magic, then he called to it, the familiar surge of raw magical power filled him yet again.
"Now Dramm!"
The energy was building to dangerous levels but his training and determination of willpower the last few weeks had left him stronger than before and he cut himself off from the flow of raw magic.
Imedren's fire blast scorches the enemies. One zombie collapses, a demon clawing free of the burning corpse!
Anophth Disappears as soon as he gets bit, completely gone from sight.
The zombie likely doesn't even notice, as it is still grabbing him, but from all other perspectives, Anophth is gone.
Invisible, he smacks the thing that bite him.
Once Anophth strikes the creature, he returns to visibility, standing exactly where he was.
The zombie falls as Anophth smacks it, unleashing yet another demon! Seeing it close by, Uruuna quickly shifts tactics, killing that fiend before it can attack.
One demon teleports to stay on Imedren while the others attack Anophth and Dramm in a frenzy! Imedren and Anophth each take a hit.
The zombies attack, but neither hits!
Anophth Disappears again when the demon attacks him.
Taking advantage, he immediately strikes at the demon.
Anophth returns to the land of the seeing.
Tabog rolls again, hiding behind the low wall of the well.
Too bad he's not so sneaky.
He takes a shot at the zombie in front of Uruuna!
Anophth and Tabog both drop their foes, though the fallen zombie spawns another demon.
With growing confidence, but a realisation of a dangerous tactical situation, Joy shouts:
"We need to smash the demons before they overwhelm us, but my fire is slower! Dramm, get that thing off you!"
Dramm lets out a vicious snarl and shoves the zombie back. As loses its grip and stumbles away, he drives his knife into its head. He prepares himself for another demon as the zombie collapse. Killing the thing seems to restore his confidence.
"Good." he spits. "They can't hurt me. Help Imedren."
He hadn't been sure when he'd seen it last time but after seeing it a second time now he was convinced.
"The demons are resilient to direct magic." he says, warning the others. "But let's see how you handle the fusion." he lashed out with his spear.
Uruuna narrowly misses her foe!
Imedren smashes the demon attacking him to pulp! Dramm scores a head shot with his knife, killing the last zombie and releasing the final demon. Joy scorches it with witch fire.
The demons fly into a frenzy, biting and slashing at everybody nearby! Uruuna takes two hits and Anophth takes one.
Tabog takes Joy's suggestion in stride and begins firing off arrows at the vile creatures!
Dramm smiles widely when the demonic claws fail to pierce his armor. His tattoos begin to glow gently as he carves and dashes a sigil in the air, sending destructive energy out at the north-most creature.
Dramm's smile falters. The tattoos on his arms glow brighter and brighter. His arm reflexively outstretches towards the alley way in a vain attempt to direct the rampant power. His eyes widen in surprise at the flux of power and waves of energy lash out explosively at everything around him!
"Wha-" KABOOM Dramm's face is almost comically shocked as his hair is blown backwards.
WhIle Tabog's arrows bring down a demon, Uruuna comes up short again. (No pun intended.)
"... I should stop wearing sleeves."
Ouch! F~~$er! Anophth yells out at the demon, as he disappears from sight. He whacks it back, reappearing.
Dramm's detonation finishes off the demon Anophth struck! The last one is slightly wounded by the sorcerer's destructive spell.
"Huh, alright. That works just fine. Let's do that again!" Focusing his own innate energies into the attack, Imedren waits for the last demon to turn it's attention as it's struck by Dramm's spell before striking at it himself.
Imedren crushes the demon's skull with a mighty swing of his staff! It crumples to the ground, lying broken and bloodied alongside its brethren. The streets fall into relative silence once more as the last threat is neutralized!
Dramm looks around at his wounded companions. His tattoos have dimmed once more and returned to faint, broken lines.
"We can't keep this pace. Gotta be more careful. I don't have enough magic to keep up." He offers healing to those who need it. "Maybe I should take point. Your armor isn't enough."
He looked down at his hands, the demons had hit him much harder than he'd expected.
"Thanks Dramm, those damn demons popping out of the bodies made this a lot more dangerous. This has to be that Cult's work. Not only do we need to stop what's happening here, but we need to find and capture the cultists responsible for this. We've got to. Then we can bring them to Inquisitor Randolfus."
He put his hand to his head.
"Commander Rena certainly didn't seem in the mood to help us earlier. I'd say we could use a real priest on our side right about now, if only we knew one." Imedren blinks and seems momentarily uncomfortable with his own statement.
"Never mind, let's get moving. Whenever everyone's ready."
Tabog listens to his friends discuss their next move as he collects any arrows, unbroken by use.
"Perhaps we move quietly around the back allies? I can't imagine these things can see or hear very well... At the very least let's not walk down the middle of the street... Anophth and I can scout ahead here, here or even there; and hopefully find a safe passage or a decent ambush to set."
Anophth and Tabog scout ahead a bit, allowing you to dodge a few more wandering groups of zombies without incident. After several more minutes, you ascend the tall hill to the smoking ruins of the Katandramus House. Once one of the most striking
homes in the district, it is now all but destroyed, the top floor having collapsed to fill the main floor with rubble.
A path has been cleared through the rubble to a set of stairs descending into the cellar. A bright light shines from down below, and you can hear the voice of Inquisitor Randolfus calling out. "Steady, men! Steady!"
Descending the stairs, you find a landing from which two more staircases offer access to a large room. A mosaic on the floor depicts the horned demon skull that the Brotherhood of Shadows uses as its symbol. Randolfus stands in the center of the symbol with three warriors clustered closely around him. The inquisitor holds an open box carved with prayers and symbols of the New God. Sunlight shines forth from it in a short radius around the men.
At the edge of the light, two horrid creatures lurk. They look like nothing so much as undulating masses of gloom and shadow, but as they notice you, the spectral creatures assume vaguely demonic visages and begin to drift towards you!
The creatures drive into Anophth's mind, reminding him of horrors past. No, no, no, no, no.... he mumbles to himself.
Anophth hooks his cane to his belt and pulls out his bow to fire an arrow.
The shot goes wide.
A minute has passed since Joy summoned the witch fire. It pops out of existence - and so does she. But only for the briefest of moments, as she reappears near where the witch fire was.
"A little effect of the fire.", she says out loud, cheerier with the fearful zombies and demons defeated.
Joy sees the shadow creatures, and feels a shriek welling in her.
NO! My friends need me!
Joy concentrates, and the fire appears again, rushing towards the nearest shadow creature!
"Dramm, use your magic on them!"
Dramm steadies himself from the initial reeling. Joy's voice urges him to move between her and the creature, stepping forward to face it. He carves the air quickly and tears the burning sigil with a shower of sparks. His tattoos come to life, connecting as dimly glowing lines of power.
"Stay behind me." Dramm says to Joy. "We'll be alright."
He points at the creature in front of him, the shredded cloth emanating a crackling glow, then a burst of multicolored flames.
"Gah! It's just never ending!"
Tabog glides through his companions and into the lit circle. He takes a reprising breadth, notches his arrow and fires at the demon threatening Uruuna.
Not waiting for his eyes to adjust to the brilliance of the light, his arrow whips past the demon.
Imedren gritted his teeth upon seeing the shadowy Demons
but between his recent undertakings and use of dark magic, his strength of will held.
Inquisitor Randolphus? Wait, is he holding the demons at bay?
Imedren moved forward into the room. The radiant light cast by the Inquisitor making him hopeful but nervous all the same.
"Inquisitor Randolphus, I'm glad to see you're here already. Let us assist you." Imedren let out a deep breath as he opened himself to the chaotic flow for a third time today.
Imedren had thought he would be able to retain control. But this time the flow of power proved to be too much. His eyes widened as he began to coalesce with raw chaos magic.
"No, no no no!" In the last seconds he leaped into the flow of magic in order to move away from the others. He hoped it would be enough.
As he reappeared the energy released out from him in a wide area from him.