Jonah is quite tired after a day of rowing, not used to using those muscles at all.
despite his tiredness, he comes alert when Tonny mentions something clawing the victims. he scans the tree line for danger, then takes a look at the bodies tot ry to determine what caused the damage
Ingolf was also tired from the day of rowing; he was glad to get out of the boat and walk. He approached the bodies and had a look at them.
He could only nod at Tonny's evaluation, "We should look for other signs of survivors; maybe there's some tracks? I only hope we aren't too late!"
He started looking around for tracks.
Name... Name... The druid contemplated it when Adriana asked, "Lightfoot. I think she likes the name Lightfoot." He gave her a little pat and got into the boats, "We will have a good partnership, I can feel it."
The day was long and the rowing was tiring. He was not used to such excitement in the day but knew that he could very well ask for the power to continue on.
Once he gets off the boat and sees the corpses, he is far too tired and a little distracted by Lightfoot climbing on his shoulders to really settle down and look.
Listening to Tonny he refocuses, "This seems like it could prove to be a dangerous landing spot... I wonder if they left the ship and got feasted on in the waters."
He takes a quick gaze over the water to see if anything was disturbing the area.
Finding a comfortable rhythm to keep a steady rowing pace and finding that she agrees with Splits - Lightfoot seemed the right name for the small dinosaur - and attempting to keep her thoughts from wandering too far as they made a steady pace until they found the Cobalt Eye.
With a suitable and safe landing point found on the beach, Adriana pulls the canoe inland just enough to avoid the tide and joins the others at the grisly site of the corpses.
She frowns and nods in agreement with Tonny and looks between the shore and the jungle. "Predators, do you think?" she asks as she looks about to possibly spy something useful
Jonah examines the wounds pointed by Tonny and determines these are not the product of any animal. No jungle beast will treat a body like that.
Ingolf finds marks in the sand pretty easily once he moves away from the area regularly licked by the waves. The marks are a mess though and deciphering a direction is the works of a real tracker.
The tracks pertain to medium humanoid creatures. They all go into the direction of the ship wreckage, but a couple of traces go directly into the water just a bit before the ship.
The air reeks to a mixture of dead meat and marine salt. The Sun in the horizon quickly falls, the light becoming more and more scarce by minutes.
You spot some more dead bodies in the ship wreckage. For a moment you could say two of them moved.
You also spot two shadows from a couple of bodies in the shallow waters of the beach near the ship. They are walking out of the water towards you!
Ingolf examined the tracks and advised the others, "There's tracks of man-sized humanoids, heading towards the ship. I'm going to follow them for a closer look." He followed the tracks and approached the remains of the Cobalt Eye.
"There's a couple heading into the water, just before the ship."
"I think there might be some more bodies in the wreck!"
Jonah joins Ingolf following the tracks
these tracks are leading into the water.... why would they have walked into the water? if the victims weren't attacked by an animal, perhaps they were assaulted by a marine humanoid?
Oh yeah, there's definitely more bodies in the water. that looks bad. wait, Ingolf did you see that? I swear one of them just moved!
a second later
Oh gods, what are those?! To arms! the dead are moving! they're walking this way!
Jonah sees two bloated horrifying corpses walking towards the beach and draws his bow.
Ship enemy stealth: DC 10
Water enemy stealth: DC 19
Tonny's and Ingolf far sight allows them to spot what seems three zombies at the broken hull of the ship. Jonah's skill at tracking lets him direct his sight exactly where he sees a couple of shadows lurking below the waters. Meanwhile, Splits and Adriana, a bit behind, fail to spot anything in the dusk light due to their human eyes.
It is common knowledge that zombies are mindless undead, that move slowly and feast on recently dead corpses. They are very resistant.
You also know they have DR 5/slashing.
The hunter quickly readies his bow while he moves forward to a better position.
The zombies get out of the ship clumsily walking into the sand. Meanwhile, another two creatures emerge slowly raising between the waves. Water gushes from the mouth and nose of these bloated creatures. Broken wood and jagged nails jut from their half-rotted flesh.
These are aquatic undeads. They seem zombies but are something much rarer.
These creatures are Easiges. They are formed in the aftermath of torrential storms linked to the Elemental Planes, especially the Plane of Water. Extraplanar energies warp and twist the mortal souls of those claimed in those disasters, and this eventually animates their bloated corpses as horrid mockeries of life. Their bodies naturally attract and absorb flotsam and debris, wrapping their limbs around. This causes the constant pain that inspires their outrage and bursts of violence.
Their weak saves are Reflex and Fortitude. They have DR 5/slashing or piercing, and Resist cold 5 and fire 5. Undead traits (immune to mind-affecting and any Fortitude save spell, etc.).
The debris on their arms can be sundered (harndess 5, 10 hp) reducing their slam damage to half.
They can create a gush of water from their mouths, hitting anyone beyond 30 feet and maybe tripping it.
Ingolf prepared for battle, calling on Gozreh for aid against these walking dead! "Ebba, defend me!"
Ebba stayed by her master's side, ready to fight the unnatural creatures if they came close.
The druid moves up a little, thankful that his lighter armor allows him to maneuver through the sand.
Lightfoot treads unsteadily on the ground but her faster movement is less impaired, her tiny platinum ring dangling in the dusk.
He recognizes the zombies but is unsure about what the creatures in the water are, his guess is that they don't need to breathe judging by the look of them...
Splits the Leaves readies a blast of wind should any of the undead approach within 10 feet.
Jonah's call of warning about the dead draws Adriana's attention to where the hunter had pointed out the now moving bodies, and with a nod to Splits she moves closer to the water to prepare for the fight, scimitar in hand as she focuses on herself and her movements, ready to put what she'd learned of the Sarenrea dervishes into practice.
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"Ho boy, we got zombies!" Tonny yelps. "Cut them down - they're much harder to smash or poke!" Finally processing what Jonah said, he whips around towards the sea. "Wait, there's MORE!?" The half-elf slogs through the sand as quickly as he can to stand next to Adriana before peering at the figures rising from the surf and raising his whip in preparation.
"Easiges!" Alright, calm down, remember your lessons. "They're, uh, a type of undead formed from formed in the aftermath of torrential storms linked to the Elemental Planes, especially the Plane of Water. Extraplanar energies warp and twist the mortal souls of those claimed in those disasters, and this eventually animates their bloated corpses as horrid mockeries of life. Their bodies naturally attract and absorb flotsam and debris, wrapping their limbs around. This causes the constant pain that inspires their outrage and bursts of violence." Tonny's tone takes on more and more of a lecturing tone as he continues. "If escape is not an option, note that the creature's debris collection protects it from damage with blunt weapons, so cut or poke through it if at all possible. While it may be possible to sunder the debris on the creature's arms, this will take a significant amount of effort and leave you next to the creature, so I cannot recommend this approach except as a last resort." Professor Xavier always was a pragmatic one, if a bit stuffy.
Hearing Tonny's advice about the zombies, Jonah struggles to make sense of the large amount of info in a short amount of time. but he does latch on to the phrase "poke through it" and figures this is a good time to test the new longbow for real.
He quickly fires two arrows into the closer (green) water zombie
he then whistles to rosemary who swoops in and attacks yellow, fighting for her master even against unnatural things like these water undead
With a quick movement and a prayer Ingolf blesses the party while Ebba readies herself to defend her master.
Splits readies a wind blast in case the zombies approach too much. He observes there are some posidonia oceanica on the shore below water.
Adriana moves forward taking cover behind a rock while drawing her scimitar.
Tonny extensively recognizes the creatures in the water as Eaisges, and readies his whip for their approach.
Seeing no other than foes to hunt and despite the rock cover, Jonah puts two well aimed arrows through one of the eaisge's wicked mouths. The undead falls back into the water slayed.
Meanwhile Rosemary descends from the rocks she was surveying and cuts the face of the other eaisge with her talon!
The ship zombies are first ones to react. They slog through the sand and debris absentmindedly extending their arms towards Ingolf.
The still standing eaisge claps with its arms full of debris trying to catch Rosemary in the middle.
The swing is terrible, the wood crashes on the hawk, splinters jumping all over, leaving the flying bird staggered.
Ingolf moved towards Adriana and readied to strike the zombie moving around the back end of the nearby rowboat. "Walking dead coming this way!"
Ebba followed the gnome, unwilling to leave him unprotected.
Adriana focused on the approaching Easiges and nods as Tonny explains what they are and what to do.
"Cut or poke. Easily done, just let them get close." Adriana says as the creatures approach the shore, flicking her wrist and adjusting for the scimitars weight while keeping herself properly balanced.
The druid moves slowly through the sand and readies a blast of air if Adriana gets jumped on by the zombies.
The Storm heroes reposition in the beach and wait for the zombies to come by.
Fearing for her life, Rosemary withdraws flying away from the Eaisge's reach.
The red zombi is the first one to drag its feet through the beach around the broken boat and reach Ingolf who receives him with a resolved succession of swings. One is deflected by the zombi's tough skin, but the other strikes true in its face causing some damage.
The other two zombies also approach, one slowly wading through the sand around, while the other violently jumping over the boat!
The remaining eaisge let's the hawk be and advances to the beach, it gets slightly more out of the sea as it walks, and by when it is next to a formation of rocks, it opens its mouth, the filthy tongue filled with algae and human meat. A sudden gush of putrid water is spit at the faithful of Sarenrae!
Despite her surprise Adriana manages to duck behind the rocks in front of her. She cannot launch her attack yet as the eaisge is far away, but she avoided the water jet.
Ingolf lunged at the zombie coming over the boat, trusting Ebba to defend him against the zombie next to him (which was too close to attack with his polearm). "Get the close one, Ebba!"
Ebba furiously attacked the unnatural creature attacking Ingolf.
Jonah whistles for Rosemary to retreat, seeing that the zombie was going to be too much for her to handle. seeing how successful he was the first time he shoots the second water zombie with two more arrows
the zombie keeps coming and Jonah keeps firing at it
Watching Jonah's arrows strike against the sea-soaked creature and thinking it a good enough distraction Adriana makes for the shoreline and the rock the creature is caught against, hoping to use herself as bait and draw it out to give Jonah a better shot.
Adriana reaches the eaisge and can still attack.
Ingolf fails to strike with his long reaching hammer, but Ebba gores the zombie leaving it in a bad shape, barely able to stand on feet. The gore attack did less damage as it is a piercing attack.
Tonny whips the same zombie distracting it enough to fail on Ingolf.
Meanwhile Jonah shots as many arrows as he can, one of them striking true on the eaisge, while the others hit the rocks the zombie is behind.
Scimitar balanced in hand and keeping as steady as she could in the wet watery shore sand, Adriana uses her momentum to give her blade extra heft as she slashes at the sea zombie.
Seeing Adriana's attack go somewhat wide the druid attempts to help her disengage.
He gives a look to Lightfoot and she moves beside Adriana.
"Let us become a force of nature!"
Magic swirls around the small dinosaur and it suddenly grows to the size of a fairly hefty mastiff.
Adriana swings with strength but her blade goes amiss and only strikes the rock in front of the eaisge.
Splits moves his hands and a blast of wind pushes back the eaisge that barely manages to keep its stand on the water.
Lightfoot suddenly grows in size without other explanation than because Splits' shout!
The red zombie attacks Ingolf with its bare hands!
But Tonny whips the zombi hand and it has to retreat before it can touch the gnome.
Meanwhile the zombie in the boat walks over clumsily, which Ingolf profits to scrap it with the long reach of its lucerne hammer. The skin is too tough though and despite the direct hit, there is no damage.
The last zombie surrounds the boat through the south, wadding slowly through the sand, promising a terrible attack that never seems to arrive.
The eaisge moves around the rock after being pushed and tries to attack Adriana nevertheless.
It reaches the woman and the debris in his hands crack on her bones with a myriad of splinters spraying around.
Ingolf switched targets to the zombie coming around the back of the boat. "Could use a little help here!"
Ebba tried to finish off the zombie she was fighting. I'm helping, I'm helping!
Adriana grunts with pain but shakes it off as she remains focused on the sea zombie, unaware of Lightfoot's sudden growth as she attempts to keep her footing in the shallows.
Ingolf swings his long hammer and again hits the zombie with the help of Tonny, and again the skin of the zombie is too tough that as Tonny said, it is most probable to have an effect with a cutting edge.
Ebba though is very successful and stabs with her gore the red zombie that falls to the ground with a big hole on its belly.
Seeing this, Tonny redirects his whip to the zombie over the boat.
On the other theater of battle Adriana cuts through the eaisge with her scimitar, and the blade cuts true through debris and opens the animated corpse pouring out all the putrid water inside it. The sea zombie falls into the water destroyed.
The druid nods. With a bond the two move through the sand as close as they can hoping to close the distance and help them out as soon as they can.
Jonah steps back slightly, turning his attention to the zombies on the land now.
Lightfoot repositions while Splits readies to heal.
Jonah's second arrow is a clean shot, and despite the zombie's tough skin, there is a considerable damage on the one fighting Ebba.
The zombie in the boat attempts to tear Ingolf into pieces.
But Ingolf profits his shorter height to duck below the boat escaping the attack.
While the damaged zombie attacks Ebba.
And the zombie clumsily stumbles with a log and nearly falls.
Ingolf dropped his polearm and drew his dagger, needing something shorter and sharper to fight the zombie clambering over the boat.
Ebba turned her attention to the remaining zombie on the sand.
Stepping backwards as the sea zombie dissolves into sluice from her attack, Adriana wades back to the shore and towards the land zombies.
encouraged by his last hit, Jonah tries again to shoot the zombie on the edge of the combat, not able to draw a good line to the blue one.
The druid maintains his hold on the positive enegry while Lightfoot goes in for a bite.
"These abominations make me wonder what happened here."
Despite Ingolf's new weapon is much less heavier, the dagger seems to cut nicely through the tough skin. With Tonny's whip help, the gnome opens a small cut on the zombie.
Ebba though does not calculate the zombie's distance and gets stranded in the sun as she tries to attack.
Adriana moves forward, her steps sinking in the sand of the beach as she gets out of the waving water. Breathing deeply from the effort, she finally reaches the other line of combat.
Jonah's first arrow lodges on the zombie's belly, but not as deep as he wanted. The second one traverses the zombie's head that falls to the ground slayed.
Splits holds his position, ready to heal, while Lightfoot moves forward to fight the zombies. Not used to this strange size she has grown, the dinosaur falls behind and does not reach to hit any of the zombies.
Mindless and not aware it is failed fight already, the zombie in the boat tries to feed on Ingolf.
The nails of the zombie scratch Ingolf's skin and leaves ugly bruises due to the strength of the hit.
Jonah circles around the fight, trying for a cleaner shot at the last zombie.
Ingolf continued to slash at the last zombie. "The dead shouldn't walk!"
Ebba turned her attention to the final remaining threat.
Puffing from the effort of navigating the soft sinky sand and the difficulty in keeping good footing, Adriana decides against attempting her more dervish-like footwork and simply slashes at the walking corpse.