Sona herself was put at ease when Thorn backed away from Titus. She would shake her head no in response to Thorn's question.
"I have no idea. Forgot, sorry. I think we grabbed everything else but a map."
She would look guilty at that. The vast amount of things they had grabbed and neither of them thought to figure out where they were. That was likely because they didn't expect the mansion to disappear.
"I'm okay heading west if that's where you want to go. I'll admit, that hole did make me rather nervous. My only concern is Mavis, but if you think he can handle himself, then I'm okay going wherever you want to lead."
She was not a leader. If they all agreed with Thorn to follow Jelissa, Sona would follow too. As she was being alert and mindful, her walking would bring her closer to Titus. The two seemed to speak to him privately for a brief moment with no ill will between them and then Sona would return to Constance's side.
"I think they said he was going to...die...when he was finished summoning people." Azana shuddered as she slowly drifted to one side. "They said he'd take out most of the zombies nearby on his death, too. Maybe the rain of spells that cause all these explosions was his final spell?"
She wasn't sure that having an undead fight undead was the greatest of plans, but Titus seemed dedicated to fighting them for now. The problem would appear when he got hungry, but hopefully he would have the self-control not to drain her like a toddler with a juice box. She didn't want to be drained and she suspected he was a whole lot stronger than she was.
"No map. But if we have no better places to go I suppose we could back, look at those shafts? I mean, I don't really know where we are, so I'm not sure how much use a map will be, but we could probably find something if we had to..."
She pulled her smartphone out to see if she could connect to the Mighty Google and find out where they are. She'd just have to stay off Google Earth. It would be depressing to look at what was.
"I agree forward is best. Come stay behind me and keep alert."
No connection...Azana you have all your apps and information that was on your smartphone but with no connection you could not collect any new information.
The group continues forward taking care not to step on bodies. Then you come upon Jelissa. She is standing before a concrete wall about 3 feet tall. Upon it is a mangled form of metal. You can see where some poles had started but the chain link and tops of the pole were all melted. Bones can be seen within the metal and around it. As you get within 10 feet of the metal mass you can tell it is still very hot.
She turns to the group covered in some gore and blood, her weapon fully covered. Then she states, "Well unless one of you is fire resistant this will take some time. I can produce water but it just evaporates. I think we found the epicenter of the explosions and fire."
To Jelissa she would respond, ”I am not, nor do I feel like burning myself to see. Perhaps if we go to the side there will be a less warm section if this spans a great distance?” She then would look around, trying to stay as clean as possible. Primarily she was looking for a source that could have set something off.
"You are welcome to go see, I will be here putting water on this hot... metal? I feel like I should call it an oven... I don't know. May your font never be dry!" she states seeing that both matters are practically unfinishable soon and praying at the end. Her holy symbol around her neck glows, as does the one on the palm of her glove. Then several gallons of water materializes but quickly turns to steam before even reaching the metal.
There are several piles of bodies about 50 feet away that you might be able to get a vantage to look from. Besides that it is pretty flat land. You can see the wall and melted metal runs either way for as far as you can see in the dark,
He stands at Jelissa's back and watches for any movement.
"I know that look. Don't do it, are ya mad?" Constance will say to her friend. She'd seen enough zombie movies to know what happened when you went off alone.
With a smile, Sona assured her friend with that adventurous look in her eyes, "I can see far away, and I can be fast if I need to be. You know that. If I get into trouble, I'll just run. Stay here."
It seemed this still worried Constance, but with a hug given to her friend, Sona moved away from the group. "I'll be back. I'm going to check out some things and then come back to report. It won't take me but a little bit."
With that, she would head out toward the piles of bodies and hopefully, she could see some sign of something actually alive that was not undead, or perhaps a higher view that didn't involve her climbing undead bodies.
If alone, it would be the first time in many years that she could be free to be as the kitsune fox she was. To be free under the power of the moon and night air. Once out of sight, she would shapechange into her fox form move silently through the dark. She still wasn't sure if she could trust her change in front of them.
With her scent, she would try to sniff out her next meal, and otherwise, she would just be sneaking along the fence line, but not too close to be burnt.
"So the way through or over is superheated? I will go take a look from on top of one of the mounds of the dead. If I am a vampire I will heal and could possibly leap over the wall but to what end if none can follow. Could it be possible to pile enough dead along with your water creation to shield the heat enough for us all to run over? Let's call that plan B after I go see what I can see."
Low Light.
If Titus sees nothing of interest he returns dragging as many bodies as he can, creating a pile at the wall.
"We will need to work quickly if the bodies are being burned up too fast. It could be possible to shield yourself with a body long enough to hurdle over, though I'm sure some burn will still be inevitable. A third solution could be to pole vault over with some of the metal fencing. The water turns to steam about in this area."
He points about where he saw the steam.
"If the pole is long enough it could provide enough distance to lessen the burn as well. Or we chose left or right and start walking in that direction until we find a break or a change as we have no reason to cross here, though it is likely fortified for a reason. Possible survivors."
Titus you find that amongst the pile of bodies undead are there. The first one waits for you to get close enough to grab your ankle. As after the movement happens others begin moving and straining to get to you. You easily dodge the attack,
After about 10 minutes of pouring water on the super heated metal it begins to cool off. You can approach this section of the wall without taking damage. But touching it is still a problem.
Sona would pass on the rats for the moment, preferring a snake or something that didn't feed on the dead, like a rabbit, but when she saw the oppressively large zombie moving toward the hole, she paused and observed what she could of it. After all, this was a reconnaissance mission. The kitsune was glad they didn't go back toward the mansion now. Thankfully, she had rung the Bell of Mercy in that area, and she knew that big beast would likely be affected by it as that holy tone continued to spread. Even Titus likely would have been affected by it if they had gone that way, so she was settled in heading westward now.
After observing it meander away, she would continue on for about five more minutes, sneaking as best she could at a double pace (), all the while, she was sizing up how big this blast radius was and where the chain link fence seemed to stop its molten state.
One of her main goals on this mission, in addition to seeing what was over here, was to find out whether she was considered a tasty snack as well. For that reason, she wanted to find a regular, non-mutated, standing zombie. If such a thing could be seen, she then would present herself to it in fox form without sneaking, yet keeping her distance.
The normal looking zombie looks at you and does come after you but you are too fast for it as it stumbles ahead not looking where it follows you. After the 5 minutes you have gone likely about a mile. Heading North from the group you continue to find the 3 foot tall concrete wall, molten metal atop of it and heaps of bodies about 40 feet from the wall on either side. Much more bodies on the other side. You do see one snake.
Sona was furious that the zombie charged at her. That meant that anything that likely moved was targeted. Deer, bears, elk as well as humans were all being hunted.
It seemed strange to Sona just how massive the blast radius was. This was a nuclear explosion in essentials. At least she found something digestible and dependent on what the snake was (anything other than a rattlesnake or something her size), she'd grab it up as a snack to eat right there and then would head back, sneaking at the same pace. If nothing was in front of her the whole way, she would stop at about 130ft from the main group and change back to her normal human self before coming into their range.
Titus bats the hand away from his ankle. He steps back and decides best to avoid climbing. So he collects a few of the actual dead bodies and drags them back with the intention to create a barrier on the now somewhat cooler area.
"There were undead in the pile. I felt it best to not stir up a swarm. I dragged a few bodies back to throw over the cooler area here and create a heat shield of sorts we can now jump across."
"Well, that's horrifying," Azana said as she hovered near the wall. She didn't have any desire to walk across the dead barefoot. It didn't seem...respectful.
You likely realize that it is not venomous and quickly have a snack.
Thorn helps out collecting a few bodies too making a bridge with the corpses. They got enough bodies on this side to make the walk over bearable, by the time Sona returns.
It had been so long that she had been in her true form, she almost had forgotten the smell of rot. Her chances of getting a meal were far easier now, as there were undead all over the place. She just settled for the snake rather than putting herself in danger while away from the group. Crunch snakey goodness. It even did a little squiggle as it went down. Ah, life's simple pleasures. As a fox, everything just seemed to taste better to her. Perhaps it was a consistency thing, as humans chopped, cubed, and diced up their food. There was something satisfying about being a predator and just ripping apart things.
It was a quick journey back, and yet still she marveled at the heat of the remaining fence the whole way back. The smell of undead was strong once more as she drew close to the piles of dead bodies. If it wasn't for that snake, she would have been quite hungry. By the time she returned, she had licked her chops clean and settled into the mode and mindset of a human once more. With that, she changed back and moved from the shadows.
"Has everything gone alright here?" she whispered loudly to present herself to those who weren't paying attention as well. She could now see the walkway of bodies being made. It seemed to be working.
"I'm not sure this counts as 'alright' by any stretch," Azana replied as she watched the bridge's contruction in horror, "But I think it's working." She looked around for something to put on her feet, and finally noticed she was floating a few inches off the ground. "Oh." She paused. "Since when have I been doing that?"
"Well its something," he quickly states nodding to Titus and continues, "What did you find Sona. Wait! What! She floats?!"
Continuing to pray and produce water she looks over and replies, "She has been floating for, well, since the implosion of the mansion at least. Thorn you really need to be more observant. We should be able to cross with little amount of pain, it might get warm. Quickly now if you do want to go over, jump!"
Sona would give Constance a big hug after reading the worry, and now relief, on her face. Sona would chuckle about Azana, "You didn't notice that?" Jelissa's poke toward Thorn made her grin widely. At the urgency displayed by her though, she would jump immediately with Constance.
On the other side, she would explain, "To be honest, it's the least strange thing I've seen since then," she grunted as she recovered.
"What I've found...Okay, well, you won't like it. It goes like this. Not far away, there are piles of bodies. Big piles. Among them are numerous undead and...um," she tried to think what they'd be. "...mutant undead? They survived the blast. One very large one too. About three-hundred meters away."
She would explain just how tall he was (), as well as his physical features of having extremely long arms that dragged on the ground. "He was heading toward the hole in the ground by the mansion. I ran quite a ways further North. At least one and a half kilometers I'd say, and still the fence went on, as did the blast radius. I don't know how long it was, but it seemed to go on forever. Perhaps if it was daytime I could see the end of it, but I didn't feel too safe to keep running and putting distance between us. Anyways...let us not go North, and hope that westward there will be less undead. Also, the undead are attacking anything living, not just humans."
"I didn't used to float," Azana said by way of eplaining things. Which didn't especially explain much. She started bobbing up and down to see how things worked. She wondered what had happened, and what else she could do? There was...something. Instinct? Something like that, anyway, in the back of her mind. Like how she could see the Ley Lines that she drew her strength from. Now she was thinking to look for it she knew she could do a few other things, too.
"If the undead are attacking everything food is going to be a problem." Domestic cows and sheep were not exactly the most survival minded creatures, after all. "I wonder what the big one means? Maybe we should go and check it. But then we'd waste the...bridge." Azana brightened noticibly as she realized she wasn't going to have to walk over that.
Titus wastes little time heading over the bridge of the dead and helping his wife across.
"It's going to burn up soon, Please hurry across. I'm not sure if it was a barrier for the mansion or someplace we are going. The dead should have a hard time passing over it though."
He helps the group to get over before he himself goes over last. Then hurrying to get to the front of the group to take point once again. "No one here knows of the area let along really this world. Let's just move forward and keep an eye out for a place of solitude."
As you walk you find that the scorch marks continue for a good 200 feet away from the fence line on this side. The bodies were very few next to the melted fence. Then the piles of bodies grows. You can see several groups of zombies milling about. Three groups are closest to you.
Sona nodded with Thorn in an answer to Kyrie. She had no idea where they were going, but she moved as quietly as she could. The further away from the mansion, it seemed, the better. After seeing the lurching huge zombie that was headed toward it, she didn't mind at all. Hopefully, they could find a nice place in nature far from whatever this place was. As they walked, there were numerous bodies everywhere--among them, zombies. Sona agreed with a nod to Kyrie's intent for combat. As she peered out, she managed to spot a woman among the zombies.
"Watch out...that woman over there...she's commanding those zombies," she would whisper.
With that, she would try to discern what these zombies were, as well as their leader. Was she undead too?
Azana squinted. "Do the cowboy zombies have cowboy guns, too? That might be a problem. Zombies probably aren't very good shots, but quantity of fire has a quality all of its own. So I've heard. If we stand back and hammer them with long ranged attacks they might mow one or two of us down."
Nothing in their arms that you can see. Though the cowboys start moving towards your group and several others from nearby.
The other zombies pick up on the movement and follow at a slower rate. Two packs at 80 feet away as the cowboy pack is only 30 feet away after their movement. They moan and cry out more than the others, almost like a hunting cry. Then you hear a shrieking wail come from the woman left behind from the cowboy pack, her mouth is easily twice as long as any normal human.
Surprise Round
He nods to Kyrie and states, "Go for it, just let me know when you want me between them and you." He pulls out his longsword and slashes the air.
Round Surprise
"Well said Thorn... we wait then." She adds and waits. Then she notices something takes a few steps forward and smashes her scythe down upon a crawler.
Round Surprise:
"Yes Kyrie, I'm almost certain she is a necromancer. I'm also fairly certain the woman is undead. Keep that in mind with your spells and attacks." While most in her world could not affect undead, she could.
On the largest group of zombies within 10ft of each other, she would cast sleep. As she does, she pulls out some quicksilver along with some fine sand and tosses it into the air. Consumed by the spell, it unleashes a wave of lethargy, hopefully rendering them ineffective.
Round 1
Most of the cowboy zombies in front slow down and drop to the ground in a pile. One continues forward with a few stragglers following it. Then the other two packs.
Azana watched the zombies weird behaviour and tried to figure out what the hell was going on. Why was the...nercomancer? Where did that come from? But why was she dropping them in the pit.
Round 1 Action:
Sona would move forward some strides, though not far from the frontline, as her intention was to retreat back behind them. Now in range of the deadly necromancer, she attempted to hack her mind and perceptions. The flowing words out of Sona's mouth easing the tormented undead and hopefully changing her perceptions to that of an ally.
"Please don't harm us, nor allow your minions to harm me or my friends. That would hurt my feelings..."
The haunting words then were repeated in Necril if she didn't understand. It was the language of the dead in her dimension. Only the intelligent spoke it, but usually the most evil. Perhaps it was the same here? It was likely though that they spoke English.
Surprise Round
Titus shifts forms growling and letting out a low roar.
Round 1
Titus moves to the front to protect Sona.
Current Status: HP 52/52 AC 32
ReCON
It is still night, the full moon is brightly lit in the night sky. As you walk you find that the scorch marks continue for a good 200 feet away from the fence line on this side. The bodies were very few next to the melted fence. Then the piles of bodies grows.
Presently you are half way across the blown landscape.
If it wasn't for the strange burnt range she had experienced, the zombies she had seen, and the piles of bodies far to the north she had seen, the evening actually would have been a nice one. Sona took in a deep breath as she coninuted forward. Her eyes remained peeled for danger as they moved further away from the mansion's property.
Sona kept as quiet as she could as she moved along, and with her low-light vision, she looked out over the vast expanse ahead of them basked in a beautiful moonlight to see not so much the details, but to see if they were headed toward anything large such as a mountainous area or forest, perhaps an abandoned city--something of large scale that she could see from far away.
"What I wouldn't give for a hot bath...," she whispered to herself with a tired yawn. She had been up since early that morning, and here it was nighttime.
In the far distance you can see some tall hills that seem rather smooth, very few trees.
With the light spell cast upon an object it shines like a torch with a 20 foot radius.
The group walks forward hearing some movement beyond the piles of bodies that come into view.
Ever being ready to flirt he throws out at Sona, "At first chance I will get one ready for us!"
With his heavy armor he still does his best at being stealthy while he looks for threat.
Sona hadn't realized her whisper to herself was so audible, but as Thorn replied, she turned beet-red. "Oh uh...," she stammered and then gave a chuckle to play it off, but afterward, when he wasn't looking, bit her lip. It was pretty evident even in the moonlight she had been flustered--more from the shock of a surprise than from his words.
While she was faster than most, she still would not move faster than the slowest person. Thorn in his armor was not going to be left behind. Sneaky and together was better than fast and dead. Perhaps it was Thorn's comment that led to her being so distracted, or it was her thoughts on the terrain ahead, or on the bit of trauma in seeing so many dead bodies earlier, but whatever it was, sneaking and keeping an eye out wasn't going well for her. While she was trying, she clearly did not have her head on right.
Floating along, Azana resisted the urge to chatter. It was her natural instinct. But before she could could start humming the Mission Impossible theme she spotted a bunch of figures.
"Hey, there are some people over there. Or some maybe people."