Justin looks at Alessia,
"You feel, stronger? Like, what? Like on the negative Plane?"
When the thud sound Comes form the stall, Justin looks at Mel, then Martin, Then Avrahim.
"STILL feeling evil, undead and hungry?" He asks, nodding at the stall.
Avrahim shakes his head
“Mel’s energy has destroyed it”
Martin nods to the others and advances. Avrahim readies his crossbow and Mel gets his mace ready. Martin unsheathes Trueheart and takes a quick look over the stall door. He grimaces and then reaches in to unbolt the door.
The body inside is a withered blackened thing, almost mummified in the dry hot air of the room. It was a man. He is dressed in a strangely patterned outfit of pale yellows and tans. There is a stubby metal weapon slung across his sunken chest. The party has seen Blaze in action to recognize a firearm of some type, but this is a strange make, very plain yet deadly. The man’s skin is blackened from age, but there are several ugly-looking bite marks visible. His clothing is caked with old blood. He must have been dead for over a month, all the juices a recent body would evidence are long dried up. Behind him on the tank of the strange restroom throne is a knapsack
Avrahim shakes his head
“Mel’s energy has destroyed it”
"Thank goodness for THAT!"
Justin looks the scene over, and, after a moment where he manfully resists the urge to lose his breakfast, points a slim finger at the tableau before them.
"Sooo,... what's wrong with THIS picture?" he asks, looking around.
"Anyone? OK. So your a person fighting off an undead attack, and you fail. Despite being armed." Justin indicates the strange firearm.
"Your dying, BUT you have the presence of mind to seal the door to the room,..." Justin points to the infant swaddling board nailed across the doorway,...
"Leave a warning, in your own blood, that by the time you are found you will be UNdead and dangerous. And THEN, you lock yourself in a stall, to try and contain yourself even more once you die."
Justin looks around at everyone. "OK Martin. I'll admit that sometimes I'm the first go looking for the haystack hiding a needle. But my question is,... IF your the kind of person who goes to all that trouble to try and make sure that once you 'turn' you do not become the same threat to anyone else,... WHAT could be so important that you keep your carry-sack with you til the end?!?"
"Either he couldn't let go of the last comforting thing from his life and he couldn't bear to part with it?,... OR,... It is something he considered so valuable that he felt he had to protect it from, whatever, until the end? Well. Only one way to find out!"
And after one more look to make SURE the corpse remaines 'dead & harmless' (if disgusting) as opposed to 'UNDead and still dangerous', Justin reaches over the body to grab the knapsack from the strange throne.
Once back OUT of the stall, he tucks away his wand, and carefully opens the bag,...
The knapsack has oddments within it: several pairs of socks, some wrinkled clothes , some bullets in a box, some foil-wrapped bars, and a battered notebook.
The notebook has several bookmarks in it, pictures mostly. It is bound with a rubber band.
The notebook is full of scrawled writing, diary entries of a man watching his world fall apart. He was a soldier, stationed near this city. A plague came upon the land, and all the magical scenes that the party had seen ground to a halt. Those affected by the disease changed. When they died they came back to life as murderous undead. The man called them Walkers, but they sounded like zombies. Unlike the ones raised by necromancers that the party were familiar with, these ones acted independently. And their bite infected people. Who then became Walkers in turn. These Walker zombies hungered for life, sought it out relentlessly. They overwhelmed this city, and presumably the world. The soldier had begun the plague with a group, which slowly winnowed down through the months until it was just him. His entries got more hurried, and he seemed more and more desperate. The final entry catches the party’s eye
.....I was looking at getting to the storage rooms in the Excalibur when I saw them. I thought they were Walkers at first, but then they started acting as a group. They were dirty and disheveled, but they weren’t mindless like Walkers. They spotted me, and came after me. They moved like demons, and they weren’t human. I don’t know what they were but the Walkers didn’t bother them. I had to run a gauntlet of Walkers to escape. I got bit bad. I’m in the Luxor. I’m trapped now, and it’s all over. If you find this, my name is Jeremy Petersen Make sure whatever my corpse becomes you kill it. Don’t let me wander like those damned souls and beware the Fast Walkers.
Justin reads the last entry aloud.
"Soooooo,.... 'Beware the Fast Walkers' Huh? Yeah. That can't POSSIBLY be good."
Justin looks to his 3 'experts' for confirmation. His raised eyebrow expressing his sincere hope that they say he's wrong.
"So this is a variation of the Prime we were just in. Only in THIS world, an undead contagion took over? Sounds a lot like Ranais to me. And not in any good way."
Karrin reaches into the stall and picks up the gun, sliding it into her bow quiver, and she grabs the extra bullets sticking them in her haversack.
"Zombies maybe?" Karrin says with a shrug, "I hear they got smart zombies, but that's clearly not these vampires you're looking for, I don't think anyone would mistake vampires for "walkers", so maybe this guy came from another portal? Question is, is where he came from connected to where ever the monsters that got your friend? Seems like if Alessia was getting waves of energy off this guy then this would be a great place for vampires to hang out at."
Mel frowns
“We’re headed your, Yeh’ll? Did we mark a path in the other pyramid? If the outside is swarming I can godbomb a path, but we’ll have to move fast. “
He looks over to Alessia
“Hey, weird thought. If these ‘Walkers’ like life, maybe you could scout ahead and find us a path up? They probably won’t be interested in you if they are mindless “
"These 'Walkers' sound like 'normal' zombies , but I've never been unfortunate enough to run into a SMART zombie. Zombies that are both smart AND contagious? NOOOO thenk yew!"
Justin Nods at Mels' comments.
"Yes, IF this world is a copy of the one we just left, I can remember the layout well enough. To go back the way we came. But we ARE going up, and we didn't know to scout the path for that in advance."
The wizard turns to Alessia.
"Mel has a good idea, IF your willing. Mindless zombies should have no reason to bother you. And even a smart one may not notice you, or pay you any mind if you just move slowly. What do you say Alessia? Care to do a little scouting? If you scout ahead and we move carefully, we can stay close enough to help you if needed."
Justin looks at Alessia, and self-consciously clears his throat a little bit.
"Not that you WOULD need any help, but, you know, Just in case."
Justin looks at Alessia,
"You feel, stronger? Like, what? Like on the negative Plane?"
Alessia visibly tenses.
"Something like that. Though, perhaps closer to when I was... became as I am now. At first."
"Either he couldn't let go of the last comforting thing from his life and he couldn't bear to part with it?,... OR,... It is something he considered so valuable that he felt he had to protect it from, whatever, until the end? Well. Only one way to find out!"
Justin reads the last entry aloud.
"So this is a variation of the Prime we were just in. Only in THIS world, an undead contagion took over? Sounds a lot like Ranais to me. And not in any good way."
"I know. I felt the same thing as soon as we entered this place. This world is cursed. What is here is dangerous and repulsive."
The wizard turns to Alessia.
"Mel has a good idea, IF you're willing. Mindless zombies should have no reason to bother you. And even a smart one may not notice you, or pay you any mind if you just move slowly. What do you say Alessia? Care to do a little scouting? If you scout ahead and we move carefully, we can stay close enough to help you if needed."
Justin looks at Alessia, and self-consciously clears his throat a little bit.
"Not that you WOULD need any help, but, you know, Just in case."
Alessia stares at Justin for a short while before letting out a soft creaking sound that could possibly be a laugh.
"Yes... Perhaps this would be the best course of action. I will go ahead."
Michael and Mel grab the nailed up changing table and slowly ease it off the door. Alessia slips out into the dark, hot hallway. The air is roasting, not that the heat really bothers her, but she notices that in the other pyramid, the air had been quite cool. She heads down the hallway and peers into the central plaza.
It is like a scene from some mad gods dream. The massive hollow pyramid is crammed with slowly shuffling corpses. They are dressed in the style of that other pyramid, but the clothing is stained and crusted with old blood. There is a faint sound in the air, like a tuneless humming. Alessia guesses that it comes from the corpses.
One corpse wanders close to her. It is a skeletal man, large sections of a once-round belly burrowed out. Desiccated innards trail from the cavern of his stomach. The man halts his shuffling, seeming to sense the strange form of Alessia. After a moment, he wanders onwards.
Alessia can see a stairway leading up across the plaza. If they can make a run up to it , the hallways that lead upwards are only about ten feet wide. It should be simple to cut down any of these dead fools who get in the way. The only tricky part is making it to the stairs
"I suppose we could try sneaking past?"
"Yeaaaaaaahh,... Um. I'm not sure i'm THAT good at 'sneaking'. Where's a blasted scroll of 'Invisibility to Undead' when you NEED one?" Justin shakes his head.
"If these were 'normal' zombies, sure, Karrin and Allessia could clean house and we could just walk on through. But according to that journal it might only take ONE bite to get infected and turn into,... THAT. No matter how many we take out, if one of us gets surprised from behind,... Ugh. No."
Justin looks at Martin, Mel and the others. "Anyone has any genius ideas, now's the time to speak up. Anyone? Anybody?" He asks hopefully.
"Well,... between a couple of fireballs, and Mel's 'Holy-Power-Bombs', we might be able to open a path, but it wouldn't stay open long. If we're all Hasted we could blast a path and run for it." Justin's head bobs back and forth as he does math, considering variables,...
"Yeah. We should make it. If we prep all our defensive spells, and IF we take enough out in the first few seconds, we can be halfway there before they start trying to swarm us. SHould work. Long as there aren't any of those so-called 'Fast & Smart Zombies' around. I just can't figure out how to counter something I haven't SEEN yet."
"Yeaaaaaaahh,... Um. I'm not sure i'm THAT good at 'sneaking'. Where's a blasted scroll of 'Invisibility to Undead' when you NEED one?" Justin shakes his head.
"Who needs a scroll that specific when you can just cast a better version normally?" Merle sounding pretty smug.
Justin raises an eyebrow and looks at Merle.
"Oh ho, Somebody learned some new tricks? Seph, is Merle holding out on me?" Justin asks grinning. The wizard winks at Seph.
"Whatcha got Merle?"
"Oh just invisability but better just in case you do want to go blasting anyway. I'm sure you know all about it." Merle sounding more and more smug
Alessia can see a stairway leading up across the plaza. If they can make a run up to it , the hallways that lead upwards are only about ten feet wide. It should be simple to cut down any of these dead fools who get in the way. The only tricky part is making it to the stairs
"Hmmm..."
Afer scouting the area, Alessia returns to the group and informs them of the results of her reconnaissance.
"There is a stairway leading to a narrow upper level. Once there, I will be able to destroy any opposition. However, between here and there..."
She pauses briefly.
"...many abominations."
Justin looks at Martin, Mel and the others. "Anyone has any genius ideas, now's the time to speak up. Anyone? Anybody?" He asks hopefully.
"Well,... between a couple of fireballs, and Mel's 'Holy-Power-Bombs', we might be able to open a path, but it wouldn't stay open long. If we're all Hasted we could blast a path and run for it." Justin's head bobs back and forth as he does math, considering variables,...
"Yeah. We should make it. If we prep all our defensive spells, and IF we take enough out in the first few seconds, we can be halfway there before they start trying to swarm us. SHould work. Long as there aren't any of those so-called 'Fast & Smart Zombies' around. I just can't figure out how to counter something I haven't SEEN yet."
"Oh, just invisibility, but better just in case you do want to go blasting anyway. I'm sure you know all about it."
After remaining silent for quite some time, Alessia tilts her head to one side, as if thinking, then turns to Justin.
"I may remember from... a very long time ago. I do not know if this... spell? It was a spell. Yes. If it is still well known by the priests, it will allow those touched to hide from the... undead."
She shrinks back, her hand on her sword hilt, visibly uncomfortable.
"Perhaps the man of Suel knows this. Or one of the others."
Though still showing some discomfort (possibly even shame?), Alessia straightens, tightening her grasp on her sword.
"In my opinion, we should slay them all. Swiftly and without mercy. The creatures will show us none."
Justin's eyebrows are raised by his grin at Merle.
"Improved Invisibility? Nice. And that might come in REAL handy when we get to where we're going." Justin nods at Merle.
Justin listens to Allessia's scouting report, and her suggestions, with a solemn look on his face. He nods thoughtfully, looks at the others for any thoughts,...
"Well,... I can't disagree with you there Alessia." Justin agrees, cautiously. He holds up the discovered journal, which he has apparently been flipping through while she was scouting.
"They have no mercy. But I don't think we're really prepared to deal with ALL of the creatures. According to these notes, this,... 'Zombie Plague' is worldwide. They may die just as easy as a normal zombie. BUT they're contagious. It would be like trying to reclaim Ranias. With a team of 7 people."
"However. On our way to the stairway, We can take out a lot of the ones right here in front of us. At least put some of these d@#%ed souls to rest. MIght not be much. I dont know if this world CAN be saved. But every little bit helps." He says with a small smirk.
Justin then starts asking questions, figuring out how many fireballs he (And Merle) can cast without burning his scrolls, how many times Mel can area channel before being to tired to do it again, and if any of the others have any area-effect undead-harming spells.
"It might be a good idea if You went ahead of us to the stairway Alessia. We wouldn't want you get caught in one of Mel's 'Power-Bombs'." He says with a small smile.
Justin then starts asking questions, figuring out how many fireballs he (And Merle) can cast without burning his scrollse.
Merle quite happily (and more than a little smugly) tell him she can cast it 7 times easilly
Justin raises an eyebrow at that.
(It may be at Merle's smug tone when she says it? But The wizard does look suitably impressed by that number.)
Justin nods slowly at Merle.
"Then If we need it, your laying the covering fire. No way I can cast that many unless I memorize only that one spell. And burn a scroll." Justin admits matter-of-factly.
The small washroom is searingly hot. The smell of the old corpse is nauseating. The party begins to sweat heavily, save for Karrin. Her axe seems to have cranked up its frostiness to encompass her in an envelope of cool air that smelled of fresh fallen snow
Justin gives Karrin's axe the side-eye.
"That thing is full of surprises".
The wizard looks around at the group. He nods.
"Unless anyone has any other ideas to add, or another dozen fireballs they want to share, I think we should get going. I have a feeling that staying put in one place is NOT conducive to long-life in this world."
"Alessia, take us to as close as we can get to the horde before they spot us. And then make your way across to the stairway. When your ready, Merle will blanket us in invisibility veils, and we'll make our way across. If we're spotted anyway,..." Justin gives a wry smile. "Then it's back to 'Standard Operating Procedure', and we'll find out how many of these poor souls we can put to rest in record time."
"Just because, let's presume that once we get to the stairway we will be in 'beat feet' mode. Alessia you'll lead the charge up, Karrin will cover the back, and the rest of us will help wherever we can. Once we get to the very top, everyone join hands with me and jump off. OK?"
Justin nods to Alessia to lead the way,...
Alessia has previously mentioned that the short hallway is free of zombies, but just past there are quite a few. The notes left by the unfortunate bathroom dweller seemed to indicate that the ‘Walkers’ detected living creatures through smell and sound. If the bodies were fresh enough they could use sight, but the eyes were usually one of the first things to rot out. One disgusting tactic the man had used to survive was to drape himself in Walker parts to confuse their sense of smell
Justin flips through the journal, frowning as he re-reads a part.
"Oh,... please no." He mutters. He gives a small involuntarily shudder.
Justin holds up the notebook.
"Says here that these 'Walkers' seem to use sound or smell to find fresh meat, since the eyes is one of the first things to rot. And he, um,... would confuse their sense of smell by wearing parts of defeated Walkers."
"Unless your superior Invisibility spell can filter out smell, it may not help us here as much as we'd hoped. Waitaminute! What we need here is something,... like a good old fashioned Stinking Cloud spell."
“While the thought is rather grotesque, it may be the easiest way to conserve our strength. Expending a lot of magic getting by what seems to be more of an environmental hazard than anything else seems wasteful. After all, we still have the worst part to go, yes? We might not have a chance to rest until we face these vampires. “
Avrahim looks to Justin
“I assume you have prestidigitation, yes?”
The diminutive Princess huffs
“I will NOT be bathing in corpse entrails”
She looks at the group
“I can take us through the Shadow realm for a short distance. I will get us to the hallway. I was hoping not to consume this power until it was needed, but it is better than this brute force approach “
She gestures and a vertical flat black line appears in the air
“Join hands and follow. Do not let go or you will be lost in Shadow”
Justin nods at Avrahim,
"Yes, of course, that would work. Gross, but effective. I'm hoping that we'll get to take a break before we actually have to deal with the vamps, but yes. Better to presume that we won't."
"Sarastra"]
The diminutive Princess huffs
“I will NOT be bathing in corpse entrails”
She looks at the group
“I can take us through the Shadow realm for a short distance. I will get us to the hallway. I was hoping not to consume this power until it was needed, but it is better than this brute force approach “
She gestures and a vertical flat black line appears in the air
“Join hands and follow. Do not let go or you will be lost in Shadow”
"You know, I like HER answer too." Justin admits with a raised eyebrow, joining hands as ordered.
Merle takes the hand
The group daisy chains and heads into the ebon tear in reality. They emerge in a dark shadow realm. Vague outlines seem to indicate walls and halls, but they can be walked through. The feeling is odd, like parting thick cobwebs. As they flicker into the main plaza a haunting sight greets them. Spectral figures dressed in the odd clothing of this realm stand and slowly shuffle. As a group they turn their black eyes to the party. A whispered moan comes to the party
heeeelp us
Suddenly a bright light expands in front of them. They emerge into the dusty twilight interior of the hollow pyramid. They are on the hallway and their appearance brings forth moans from the nearby Walkers. The horrid undead creatures shuffle closer, tendons crackling like dry kindling as they try to accelerate
Justin shudders as they exit the darkness into the light. He briefly makes spastic, sweeping motions as if trying to brush off cobwebs.
"Help them? Help them what?!?" He mutters.
It finally dawns on the slightly shaky wizard that the eyes of the undead are still on them. And moving closer!
Martin raises Truehart, and shudders
“By Iomedae’s sword, the souls of those people are still tied to their undead mortal shells. What monstrosity is this?”
The moans of the nearby Walkers are taken up by the larger group below in the plaza. Although the sound isn’t loud, that many creatures moaning makes an echoing sound that fills the large space. The Walkers crowd the stairs leading to the hallway the party is on. They seem to have an issue with climbing the stairs, but as the first rank tumbles to the ground, another rank walks over them, creating a grotesque ramp of writhing bodies that slowly extends over the stairs
Martin raises Truehart, and shudders
“By Iomedae’s sword, the souls of those people are still tied to their undead mortal shells. What monstrosity is this?”
Justin shakes his head grimly, but he can't stop his mouth.
"The bad kind. You know, the usual."
The wizard all but starts shoving people forward. "Come on, the stairs aren't getting any shorter!" he says briskly, Giving no indication of any sense of terror at the approaching horde. At all. And nothing you can say will make him admit otherwise.
But it's Justin, he can't help but look back over his shoulder, and voicing theories as fast as he can form them.
"So, the souls are still tied to the zombies, instead of going on to their reward. Might even be THAT which is actually maintaining the zombies bodies' function, instead of 'standard' necromancy. SO the souls are searching, reaching out to others to help them,... but the zombies mindless hunger, and apparently contagion, destroy any they find who might be able to help them. That IS monstrous."
Justin tilts his head, "Evilly brilliant if your a Necromancer with a capital 'N'. A self-sustaining, self-replicating, Zombie horde that continuously searches for and creates new members. Brilliant. Sick and Twisted, but brilliant. Monstrous indeed."
Martin raises Truehart, and shudders
“By Iomedae’s sword, the souls of those people are still tied to their undead mortal shells. What monstrosity is this?”
"Don't," Alessia mutters, half to Martin, half to herself. "Don't help them. No point. Ignore it."
But it's Justin, he can't help but look back over his shoulder, and voicing theories as fast as he can form them.
"So, the souls are still tied to the zombies, instead of going on to their reward. Might even be THAT which is actually maintaining the zombies bodies' function, instead of 'standard' necromancy. SO the souls are searching, reaching out to others to help them,... but the zombies mindless hunger, and apparently contagion, destroy any they find who might be able to help them. That IS monstrous."
Justin tilts his head, "Evilly brilliant if your a Necromancer with a capital 'N'. A self-sustaining, self-replicating, Zombie horde that continuously searches for and creates new members. Brilliant. Sick and Twisted, but brilliant. Monstrous indeed."
Alessia turns her head sharply in Justin's direction, letting out an angry hiss as she draws her sword.
"Magic-user, you think too much. You think them monstrous? Help me return them to the dust. Otherwise, stand out of my way and do not trouble me with your inane theory."
Justin absolutely does not yelp like a little girl at Alessia's sudden angry hiss of words, or swiftly drawn steel. That came from one of the zombies.
"At ease Alessia. I'm not judging." He says far more calmly than anyone might expect.
"I'm just thinking out loud. Occupational hazard."
"Although it's been a LONG time since anyone accused him of thinking too much!" Pipes up a muffled voice from a large pouch on his belt.
Justin raps the crystal skull on the noggin through the pouch, drawing a muffled yelp of surprise.
"REALLY not the time Mem,..."
Justin looks at Martin, but seems to still be speaking to Alessia.
"If anyone could figure out a way to help these, people, we probably could. Eventually. But I don't realistically think that we could cure or save an entire Prime of these poor souls." He glances down the stairs.
"AND I don't think they're interested in giving us time to figure it out even we could! Your right Alessia! Onward and upward! After you,..."
Memnon pops out of the bag and flies about Justin
“By all the Forgotten Powers will you quit putting me in a bag! “
[ooc]LOL. Unlike his doppelgänger Bob, Memnon has the power of flight[/i]
Memnon pops out of the bag and flies about Justin
“By all the Forgotten Powers will you quit putting me in a bag! “
Justin shrugs. "Hey, if you WANT to be a highly-visible target for clueless Primes and mindless zombie hordes, be my guest."
The wizard makes a grand gesture towards the afore-mentioned horde on the steps below.
"Either way, you might wanna move your non-existent crystal keister!" He adds with enthusiasm. And not panic.
“Pish. Like I care about zombies. What they gonna do, dribble pus on me?”
The crystal skull zips over time the nearest Walker and rests on a deteriorating shoulder.
“What’s cooking, Jackson?”
The Walker attempts to turn its head to look at the skull, and the effort proves too much for its enervated tendons. There is a sharp *CRACK* sound and the Walker’s head tumbles to the brown-stained carpet of the hallway. The body collapses, but the group notices that the severed head is still moving its mouth rhythmically
“BOOM BABY! I drew first blood!” The skull crows
Justin shakes his head.
He does not smile. Not even a little.
OK. Maybe a smirk.
"NOW your just showing off. The rest of us are NOT bite-proof!"
"Alessia, Karrin, same plan, but maybe you two should make sure our way forward is clear? I think the rest of us can keep the slow crawlers from catching up. At least on the stairway. Martin, rear guard?"
Justin turns to Merle, whose eyes seem to be getting wider at every zombie step, and touches her shoulder. "Merle, Seph, if they get too close, and aren't in our path, grease them. THAT should make them ALL fall down." He whispers as they move to follow the warrior-women forward.
"Hey! Memnon! Since you aren't afraid of Zombies, how about you ZIP on ahead and see how crowded our way up to the top is?" He grins at the floating crystal skull.
“You got it boss!”
The crystal skull zips on your the hall, weaving around a couple of approaching zombies
Memnon zips back
“A few in the hallway, a few open doors with some in the rooms. I doubt they’ll be much issue. There’s a stairway door down the hall. “
The few close hallway Walkers approach
Alessia:21
Martin: 18
Justin: 16
Sarasota: 15
Karrin: 13
Avrahim: 11
Merle:
Walkers: Always bottom of init