Hissing through her teeth, Aleksara comments dryly.
"It doesn't look like they stopped there. Let's move on! I hate spiders."
Studying the berry patch and the spiders, from a respectable distance.
"Yeah, I with Alek lets not tangle with these things if we can avoid it."
"I will make note of this location. Bokken that hermit potion brewing gentleman. Said he would trade for these berries. You know the one with the interesting house."
"If we can find this place again, then let's push on. The sooner we end this threat, the sooner we can get back to Oleg's."
Thorryn surveys the area closely, useing his Survival skill to see if he can gather anymore information.
A muddy path winds up a tall hill strewn with chunks of granite and mossy boulders. Below lies a dark and still lake. Between the lake and the hull is a fog-shrouded fortress with a rough, fifteen foot tall pallisade.
A small, dusty yard separates the palisade from the inner structures. The ground here is of hard-packed barren earth. Dozens of barrels lie stacked against the inner wall of the palisade, each with a wooden or metal bucket sitting nearby.
Tenzi holds up his hand.
"Movement in the rocks."
Readying his crossbow.
Frowning, Aleksara points at the structure.
"That's going to be tough nut to crack. Does anybody have any ideas here?"
"We have those amulets, and some of the clothes of the bandits..."
"I can make illusions and sounds of things."
Studying the fort.
"The disguise gambit might work. With the fog and all.
Hissing quietly Aleksara nods.
"I have some experience disguising myself as a bandit, but this is a little different. They are probably on 'High Alert' or whatever these bandits call it. It might work, but we would need some sort of distraction or good excuse for them to open the gate under the current circumstances."
She waves at the mists and the supposed creatures there.
"Assuming we can even get past whatever that is...could we sneak in? Those walls look pretty rough. A pretty easy climb if needed I think? Heck...we have someone who can FLY into the keep if needed. What ARE those things anyway: Spirits? Guard dogs? REALLY BIG guard dogs?"
"Well Stag Lord has shown a penchant for undead. Something to keep in mind."
"While I can fly over, bandits usually have bows. Unfortunately, I do not have any lasting spells of invisibility yet."
"We need some scouting I think before we decide."
Thinking for a moment, Aleksara clarifies with Quanah her newest idea.
"How about flying high enough they might not even look at you? Out of bow-shot at least? That would at least give us an idea of how the keep looks on the inside. Also you could see if he has another army of bandits, or obvious traps waiting for us. Remember most Bandits are lazy. Especially at night or early morning."
She turns to Tenzi.
"You're our stealthiest member. How close can you get to...whatever those moving things are? Maybe get a good look at the wall and gate too? Heck, they may be just big land turtles moving around in the mist eating plants...although I doubt it."
Pulling her hair back severely, she tightens her hair-band and thinks out loud some more.
"Thorryn? Take your buddy and scout the surrounding lands here quicky and quietly. See if there are any other enemies hiding nearby that could flank us if we try and take the castle. Keep your eye out for anything that could aid us too. I wouldn't mind a few kobold mercenaries to help us out if we could find some."
She then sighs.
"We are all pretty much at full strength and unwounded, so that's our advantage. We have to hope the Lord has depleted his bandit and undead reserves for now, but we will know more once we scout. What are our abilities here that would help in a group combat? I can't throw a Fireball yet, but I can blast one opponent really well before I go down, perform some minor protective and ranged spells too. I also can turn myself invisible for a very short duration: A few moments at best. Give me a night of rest and I can swap some of those out if needs be."
"I can fly above bow-range, but at that range I too will have trouble making out more than tiny figures," says Quanah. "If they can't see me, I probably can't see them. My eyesight is a bit better than a human's, but at three hundred feet it is still looking for small figures in a dense forest or rubble. Still, I can try."
"Not sure. But I'll find out and let you know."
Tenzi heads off into the underbrush toward the boulders.
Tenze darts off toward the boulders. The sound of movement nearby keeps him on his toes, and he swiftly realizes that the figures in the distance are beginning to converge on him.
As Aleksara hears the creatures' approach, she draws her sword as she grabs some cover, then she quickly casts her Mage Armor spell. Then she hisses in anger.
"What the heck? Tenzi barely got any closer to the the keep than we did! What set them off? Are they Guard Hounds possibly? Did they smell him coming?"
Thorryn cast Iron Skin upon himself as he walks up to Naszi, keeping an eye on the movement up ahead.
Grabbing cover behind a nearby boulder, Tenzi readies his crossbow. Then flashing Alek a smile.
"This close."
Following the others' lead, Jerrik summoned his own defensive magic to shield him from harm.
"You can ask them when they get here" Jerrik said, in response to Aleksara before he moved forward and drew his sword, gripping it tightly with both hands.
Quanah likewise casts a preperatory mage armor spell for defense and then takes to the air.
Tenze pulls back as all of the heroes activate their magical defenses. The figures shamble through the mists with dull groans, moving closer by inches. One of the creatures grunts loudly and rushes through the fog. It is the large skeleton that stood with The Eternal Stag Lord. He's holding a sapling as a club.
Aleksara quickly enchants Mountain Cutter (swift action). Stepping into range, she then blasts the skeletal monster!
Thorryn gives Nasze the command to guard Tenze, as he cast Sheilligh and moves forward.
"Yep, more undead."
Not enough targets for grease yet, so...
Jerrik briefly closed his eyes, focusing his concentration inward. He searched his subconscious for a distant memory, trying to remember a particular combat form. His eyes open an instant later and he stepped forward, preparing to meet their oncoming foes.
Quanah looks for a spot from which she can launch her beams of positive energy from above at the undead.
The massive skeleton is pelted from Quanah's spell, Tenze's crossbow bolt, and Aleksara's electricity. It seems to have suffered significant damage from the assault, but it pushes forward towards the nearest target, Thorryn.
Behind the large skeleton a horde of reanimated corpses shambles out of the fog.
With Quanah taking to the skies, Aleksara charges the zombie closest Jerrik to help close the gap in the group lines!
"That's a lot of undead. Yep time for grease." Says Tenzi to no one in particular. Stepping back he conjures the magic.
Thorryn narrowly side steps the massive tree club. Drawing upon his arcane pool Thorryn enchants his club and takes a swing at the massive skeleton.
Quanah blasts away at the towering undead again, her wings flapping hard to keep her up while she tries to bring it down.
Jerrik stepped up next to Aleksara to seal the line. His longsword sliced through the air before slicing into the zombie in front of him.
Aleksara and Jerrik hack into the zombie nearest them. Alek's blade takes a good chunk out of the creature's head, but Jerrik's blow finishes it off.
As Quanah lines up a shot on the large skeleton, she watches the druid's shillelagh come down on Auchs' head, crushing the skull and much of his spine. She quickly adjusts her aim so that the spell causes significant damage to one of the zombies behind the skeleton.
The two zombies the gnome targeted with his magic manage to move forward with their heavy, foot-dragging gait unaffected by the slick ground to close with the large cat standing before the gnome.
One of the other zombies entering the area is less fortunate. The animated corpse hits the ground heavily with a moaning grunt.
The rest of the zombies plod forward, grimly determined to crack open the skulls of the chartered adventurers and feast on their brains.
Quanah gains a little elevation and blasts at the same zombie again.
Swinging again, Aleksara hisses through her teeth.
"I hate zombies too!"
Thorryn takes a 5 foot step to sure up the front line and takes a swing at one of the zombies in front of him.
Nasze stands his ground defending the Gnome, taking swipes at the zombies below.
Looking somewhat perturbed at the marginal success of his grease spell. "Well maybe this will help." Hoping back behind the boulder Tenzi conjured five illusionary warriors to distract the zombies.
Jerrik continued his onslaught, his longsword seeking the flesh of the zombie before him.
One zombie falls beneath Nasze's teeth and claws as the other heroes pepper the undead mass with attacks. Many of the zombies are left damaged, but only the cat's is destroyed.
The zombie in Tenze's grease cannot seem to get up, almost comically resembling a turtle flipped onto it's back, but smelling like death. The gnome's magic distracts two of the zombies nearest the cat. One even slams hard into the figment, but the mindless undead is unable to realize it's foe is not real.
The zombie in front of Jerrik gets a lucky hit, but Jerrik himself is even more lucky because the blow could have been far worse.
Aleksara likewise finds a zombie slipping through her defenses, but Thorryn witnesses the zombies converging on his flank.
Thorryn finds himself mostly protected by his defensive magic, but one zombie manages to land a solid blow on the druid.
Thorryn attacks the same zombie he failed to put down last time, then takes a 5 foot step back out of being flanked.
Nasze stands fierce, holding her ground, attacking the only zombie in reach.
Quanah keeps blasting away at the same zombie; eventually it has to go down.