Eries sighs and gestures for the bartender, who, grumbling, moves over to the woman, and helps her up as the party leaves, moving her to another booth. Eries continues to watch the party, sipping her beer as everyone leaves.
The trip to the south shore manor is uneventful; the streets are the most quiet they have been. The trip takes about an hour, leaving the only outside light being the lamplight from the gas lamps, with the grounds very dark, as the closest one is fifty feet from the entrance to the manor.
Festooned with cinderberry garlands and bright red drapery, the limestone facade of Carowyn Manor faces Shoreline Way. The sturdy front doors are made of Bloodsworn mahogany. Brass banisters of a balcony rise 15 feet above the front door.
A garden hedge extends to the south from the building towards a squat building with no visible entrance. The manor seems completely dark, with no sounds coming from within, and all curtains tightly drawn to entirely block sight. As the party approaches, the stench from within becomes obvious.
"Where is this Marble-Dome?"
"Nice part of the city. Lot of performances. I've sent some men up there as bodyguards." He responds shortly.
As they approach the building Marcus's frown deepens. He quietly steps in front of their more diplomatic members, the stench and the quiet making it clear that he should be the one in front here.
First he scans the area for any ambushes or traps.
"We'll clear that side building first." He says, jerking his head towards the squat building with no clear entrance. Not that it mattered, he could make one.
"Hold on..." Magda lets her senses slip back into the past, asking what happened here today, who lives here (she assumes there are hundreds since the place is so big), any disturbances, rumors and concerns.
Then after asking the city for more help, she'll look over the front of the manor for dangers and entrances.
Erasmo looks around, worried and ready for trouble.
While Marcus had already set his sights on the buildings beyond the fence, Yaziyah examines the fence itself and the gate. "I hope nobody calls the guards on us this time for breaking in," the Shoanti mutters.
Vera casts a range of preparatory magics.
Mage Armor - 36 charges left
Heightened Awareness - 46 charges left
Dancing Lights
She holds her nose as they approach the smelly building. "I think we have a better explanation this time," she says with a nasal voice. "More undead?" she wonders aloud. She tries to place the scent she's smelling.
Following Marcus's lead, she looks around as well for danger.
The party moves to the south a little with the dancing lights to see if there's an entrance. The hedge continues for some distance, but ends with another stone building, with no obvious door. In fact, a circuit around the property and Magda's phenomenal perception skills do not reveal any other entrances or exits from within the enclosed yard. The hedge is too tall to be seen over easily.
Magda sees from the street that many nobility entered the building a few days ago, but does not see anyone leave since then. The spirits only seem to know what happened outside of the mansion. It looks like they arrived at the start of the epidemic.
"No one's left in days. The city... thinks this might be the starting place of the sickness." Mags says softly.
"This place is so huge!" Vera laments as the property extends far beyond the furthest reaches of her dancing lights. "Anyone want to try something creative with the hedges, or do we try the front door?"
Erasmo points to a window on the upper floor. "Perhaps we should enter from above... if people are trapped inside, I believe they are up there, otherwise they could have smashed a window to escape. I can climb it and then throw a rope for you."
Marcus nods to Erasmo's plan. Coming from an unexpected egress would nip any ambushes in the bud.
Erasmo climbs up the side of the building, and examines one of the windows. He can’t see inside but notices it’s locked tightly.
"Oh, he's like a squirrel, an Oaklegged Squirrel" Mags whispers with no small amount of Awe.
Erasmo gets his tools and starts to work on the windows.
As he manages to open them, he peeks inside as he tosses a rope to the others.
Marcus follows up the rope first to make sure he's there for reinforcements if need be.
Vera seems happy to stay in the back, although she's ready to help speed up everyone's ascent if that starts to seem necessary.
Many of the windows on the second floor are quite small, but Erasmo pops one of the door/window systems on the balcony above the front door open with ease, and allows all to climb up after him before he starts to enter.
Finely framed works of art cover the walls of this gallery, looking down upon the hall below. Great windows look out to the west and south, and
an alcove to the east is set with chairs for musicians. In mockery of the room’s beauty, several costumed corpses are positioned about the hall, some posed like ghastly statues while others are rigged to look like contemplative critics. It appears that four, what it appears to be corpse-like humanoid figures, are wandering around the hall when Erasmo slips in, seemingly pantomiming appreciating the 'artwork' on display as they stumble over the corpses of various nobles that are strewn about.
Vera and Yazi know that the corpse-creatures are zombies, but that's all.
Erasmo gestures the others to follow as he slips inside, trying to hide behind curtains in order to allow the others to better position themselves.
He makes a silent prayer to Pharasma, knowing this night they'd do Her work, so a blessing would be welcomed.
Magda slips in behind him, thinking quiet people first.
Vera begins to stretch her fingers impulsively, trying to work out the anticipation that would otherwise encourage her to dash forward before her much sturdier allies!
Yaziyah waits for a sign from the reconnaissance team, contemplating with dread the task of trying to make her lanky frame fit through the window.
Mags puts her head out the window and whispers "dead people walking, we need someone who knows things in here please"
"Ancestors help me, more undead?" Yaziyah whispers back, huffing as she puts one leg then the other through the window, using the long handle of her hammer to keep herself from falling over.
"Oof!" Her limbs get tangled in themselves as she tries to squeeze through the opening, and she clatters to the floor.
Swearing softly, she raises her eyes, seeking the dead people that Magda mentioned, then swearing some more.
"Zombies. Use edged weapons if you have them."
She herself reaches for the battleaxe strapped to her back, calling upon the ancestors to bless their endeavour of cleansing the world of the undead abominations.
As Yazi stumbles into the room, she recognizes all the zombies and their peculiar subtypes. The zombies are, in fact, the nobles pantomiming critiques of the corpses displayed grotesquely, but they shuffle over to attack her when she gets into the room.
Mags concentrates her city's favor on Ersmo, granting him fortune.
Marcus shoves through and gets to crowd control.
Marcus crushes every zombie, and in the process, releases a blast of horrific necrotic gas from one of the zombies, which badly hurts almost everyone. In addition, a teeming mass of cockroaches emerges from the body of one of the zombies, buzzing and seeking to devour the flesh of everyone.
Marcus swears explosively at the exploding zombie. Seeing the swarm he reaches into his pack. "I've got two alchemist fires and two repellents, if we have enough supplies we can kill them!" He roars questioningly at the party.
Yaziyah hacks and coughs as the poisonous cloud envelops them. "Damn... *khff* roaches! No use hitting them with weapons, get a torch if you can!" She mutters a few syllables as her skin hardens and gains a greyish sheen.
"BUGS! Bad ones." Mags does feel the needs to separate good and bad bugs, since they are quite different. She knows plenty of people and animals that eat them for instance and NO meal is a bad meal... well mostly.
To prove her point she asks the city to bring out some bats to eat the bugs.
. Vera shares anything she knows about these dastardly bugs!
The two swarms share the same space - just on top of Marcus.
Seeing the condition of his comrades, Marcus calls the retreat, making sure he was last out the door.
Her bats are being eaten way too quickly, so Mags reluctantly rushes out the window.
"Darn bugs!" With no real way to deal with the cockroaches, Vera makes her escape along with the others.
"That was... unexpected," grumbles Yaziyah as she squeezes herself back out the window, fervently slapping at her clothes in case any errant roaches are clinging to them.
Erasmo closes his eyes as he tries to fight the poison.
The party heads back out to the balcony, and closes the door. The creatures continue to devour each other.
Seeing the horrors of poison tear through her friends and herself, Mags is stunned for a moment of choice. Her eyes take in Vera first and she was spared. So quickly before the other woman can say anything, she presses her hand on Yazi and forces the toxin out of her.
"Hang in there, Mags!" The ritual of restoring someone's physical or mental abilities took a while, so Yaziyah first calls upon the heroic spirits of the ancestors to aid Magda.
Mags starts to slump more than you have ever seen her do so, her grin is still present though, resting against the balcony as Yazi's super-powered energy hits her. "That is lovely, ain't it?", Vera's giving her a potion to drink makes it even better. Concentrating on her city's voice is all she can do at this point as the posion tears through her.
With the help of her friends and her city, the poison passes, and the half-orc sighs in relief. Death isn't that scary to her, as long as those she loves are still breathing. But still, it is nice it held off another day.
"Thanks." she says, softy.
"I'm glad everyone's mostly okay," says Vera. "But that was horrible!