"What the heck, this town is being over run with undead!"
Taking a quick peek to make sure nothing is trying to sneak up on them. He fires an arrow at the one Varis is fighting.
"It seems as though these hobgoblins have allied themselves with dark magic. something very foul is afoot."
Feeling energized again Varis lashes out with his Rapier.
The night is a cacophony of chaos with screams, wails, shouts, the ringing bell of The Fort and clash of weapons.
In the midst of the moon shadowed Street, a plucky band of adventurers fight on...
Antal is able to drop Varis' attacker.
Kalia is able to fell her own attacker...
Leaving the Eldritch hobgoblin, fighting on through mortal wounds.
Iocundius calls down power from beyond the grave, flaying it somewhat.
Despite flesh hanging off its head, flensed by Iocundius channeling divine might, it fights on.
Varis then rises from where he had been dropped to the ground and stabs it, with one blow being turned by its armour.
His upward swing catches it under the forearm near the hand and send the appendage flying into the dark. Unfortunately the corrupted hobgoblin still fights on, through a half a dozen wounds which would have killed a normal foe.
...
The two robed humans rise, ignoring their struggling captives to stride forward...
Players UP!
"Smash it's head. That's how the last one died!" calls Kalia as he moves to meet the two robed Humans. She swings at one's head, trying to make sure he doesn't get back up.
"Duly noted, Kalia!", replie Iocundius as he draws his own mace and advances, swinging for the head!
Gaelden didn’t listen, as the magic still clouded his mind. He continued swinging away at anything he saw as an enemy.
Hearing the call of where to put his next shot. Antal fires and arrow it the creatures skull.
Kalia and Iocundius are unable to land a convincing hit... but Gaeldon winds up and the smashes it with a two handed strike.
There is the loud crack of bones and while it is still twitching on the ground, the Goliath has broken enough bones that the monstrous hobgoblin is no longer combat capable
And so Antal puts an arrow into one of the robbed humans instead.
Attack on Kalia
for
Attack on Iocundius
for
Party up!!
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Still under the spell, Gaelden didn’t think. He picked up the twitching body and ran towards the robed figures, swinging it like some sort of club. It would have been much more damaging if he had used...anything else. Even his fists. But he was not capable of such thoughts. Still, given his prodigious strength, the attack was still effective.
Even stupefied, Gaeldon fights like a man possessed!, thinks Iocundius as he tries to cave his own opponent's head in.
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And arrow goes flying over Gaelden's shoulder.
Kalia smashes her hammer into the enemy stupid enough to stand before her and try to stop her.
Watching Gaelden pick up the body they had just hacked apart Varis was a bit horrified. 'I'm going to have to remember to stop shaking hands with these people...' He thought to himself.
Varis uttered a curse at one of the remaining robed figures.
The mocking words do nothing but there is a shocking amount of damage flying in...
the arrow slams into it, as do Gaeldons 'body club' and Iocundius' mace... by all rights it SHOULD be dead!
Then Kalia hacks it...
She hacks its head off! It stops moving!
The remaining one attacks Kalia.
for
Party UP!
Kalia blocked the remaining creature's attack with the haft of her hammer, and then swung it towards the creature's mid section.
It dies... this one? Must have been mortal...
Beyond in the darkness there is still shouting but the screaming has reduced, the sounds of combat have stopped and with it the psychic pressure. In the darkness there is not much that can be gleaned but the captives still remain. One of them twists in the muck and the clouds part enough to allow the moon to illuminate a possibly familiar face.
Please..., the man pleads. Please, they have my daughter.
Looking down Kalia can see her last kill was a human boy... a teenager who will never know what it is to grow a day older. His face is not that of an innocent however - even in death it is twisted into a fanatics grimace of hatred, and whose teeth have been filed to points!
With no enemies left, the Goliath stumbled around in a stupor. Evident confusion was written all over his face, as clear as the blood that covered him.
With no enemies left, the Goliath stumbled around in a stupor. Evident confusion was written all over his face, as clear as the blood that covered him.
"Can you tell us what happened here and where they took her?" Kalia said as she helped the old man up.
Iocundius rushes over to the old man.
"Where did they take her?", he asks brusquely.
The scene of the teenager is troubling but Varis focuses on releasing the bonds securing the captives.
"You can all relax, we have slain your captives." As the words left his mouth Varis tried to sound as calming as he could, even though he didn't believe that anyone was truly safe this night. "We can find your daughter, but what can you tell us about her captors?"
They came not long after dark... the humans, bloody quisling scum, looked just like travellers or such. Some of them have been here a day or two. I 'member seein' that lads face. I think they came in from the docks... thats where they're dragging folk!
He squirms in the muck and drizzling rain and tries to rise while pointing the way. That way!
Hurrying in the direction pointed out you can see the area is one of carnage. A few Goblin and hobgoblin corpses lie in the streets, while other bodies, likely also either goblinkind have such wounds as to indicate they fought well beyond the bonds of mortality... these are recognised only with effort, such is the amount of Trauma needed to put them down. Other bodies, also nearly smashed, hacked or burned to bits are barely recognisable as human, yet such they are.
Not many friendly faces remain at the humble docks, exhausted and wounded they stare out across the water and into the night, gripping an assortment of weapons in whitened knuckled hands. Others kneel or sit in the wet earth, crying.
They had a raft, one says in a flat dull voice.
We dropped a few of them bastards but I reckon they must have gotten at least a dozen of our folks... gods help them now.
Another, presumably a fisherman from his garb and smell, kicks a robed human body at his feet.
They stole a few of the boats too... feckers...
A guardsman approaches, armour stained jingling and takes a brief report from one of the crowd... Twenty or more got away? I'll report and send a squad back here to guard the docks is what you can hear before the armoured warrior jogs back towards The Fort.
It seems, for now, the raid is over.
Watching the guardsman jog off. Antal looks over to the group and says
"I guess we aren't needed for questioning anymore. So can we find a place to take a breather? I could use a break to rest my feet."
With the haze finally gone, Gaelden merely looked about in confusion. ”What was the purpose of this raid?” He asked no one in particular.
Iocundius glares out at the waters.
"They got away. They lost many. Was that misjudgement - or a price they thought worth paying? Indeed, Gaelden, what *was* the purpose of all this? I think that it may be worth seeking employment towards that very cause."
Thinking of why the raid, Antal offers up.
"Perhaps they were looking for a someone, but did not know who that someone is. So they went after anyone they thought could be the person. You know everyone of the same age, or only had blond hair, or even went to the same church? Maybe we should see if any of the ones that were taken where a match of another one that was taken?"
Remembering that when you raid a jewelry store you don't waste time picking out just the high priced items, you just grab it all and sort it out later.
"Slaves. The purpose of this raid was likely slaves. They came with the purpose to take people, and they succeeded. We need to start searching the bodies they left to see if we can find anything that will tell us where they are from. You lot stay here and search the close bodies, and Gaelden and I will go and bring back farther ones."
Turning to Gaelden, she says "Come on muscles, let's go."
"I am good at finding things." Antal gives a wink as he starts to search and pocket things of value when he can.
"I think we can only speculate as to the motive of these raiders. Gold, supplies, slaves... it could be anything. Are you feeling alright Gaeldn, you did not seem yourself in that skirmish. Well now we need a way to pursue these raiders across the waters."
Varis examines the bodies of one of the headless creatures looking for any information that might shed some light on how they could fight beyond a normal means.
Varis can find little on the mangled bodies that were animated to supernatural feats of combat endurance... most are hacked, slashed, bashed to the point it is difficult to tell.
Most.
Ironically it is Kalia's Second last kill, her decapitating strike that left most of its badly damaged body relatively intact, that yields a curious clue.
A semi healed scar on its chest, right over the heart, with a curious network of black veins around the wound site, which are more pronounced around hole then fade out and disappear as they radiate across the chest.
Now you know what you're looking for? Those bodies that aren't too damaged have the same tell tale sign.
The "mortal" humans who look like they were aiding these inhuman attackers (whether these eldritch foes - be it hobgoblin or human) also bear a signature look. Filed teeth, filed to points. One of them bears a amulet of a disquieting design...
A horizontal oval topped by the stalks radiating upwards, each topped with an 'eye' of gemstone, all red mahogany obsidian, with the entire design enclosed within a circle. The amulet is made of a strange silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge.
Antal triggers a scrabble of looting as the survivors notice him going through pockets... and soon it's close to getting out of hand. A woman crying over the dead body of a family member is savagely pushed aside so that a rough looking thug can wrench at a wedding band, before pulling out a fishing knife to saw at the finger. While distracted, the tough is clubbed from behind, and is looted in turn. Small skirmishes breakout over 'looting' rights while others back down from these confrontations to look for easier prey.
Antal is able to snatch a dagger with decorative scabbard, and a purse (containing a pair of gold coins, and 8 silver coins) before it gets risky.
Then the docks area becomes violently chaotic!
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Seeing others turning into a savage loot fest. Antal jump up on a wooden box with the word soap on it and yells out.
Kalia looked over at the Humans looting and waited to see what they did.
Iocundius glares at the attempted looters, with his mace raised, and makes his own very simple, very clear addition to Antal's words.
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Seeing that his words are falling on greed-deafened ears, Iocundius grasps his iron holy symbol of Law and holds it up. He glares at the would-be thieves...
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to exert an intimidating presence over others.
As an action, you present your holy symbol, and each creature of your choice that can see or hear you within 30 feet of you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by you until the end of your next turn or until the charmed creature takes any damage. You can also cause any of the charmed creatures to drop what they are holding when they fail the saving throw.
All around the priest order is restored... weapons (and looted goods) fall from hands and the people look around sheep faced and ashamed. Even those on the outskirts of the docks pay attention to the sight of Iocundius wielding his holy symbol, and hearing his booming voice... and they too stop.
Between Antal's words and Iocundius the riot is ended.
An old woman pushes a pair of fine boots into the Halflings hands.
Not sure who these belong to dearie, she mutters.
"I am sure we can find the right full owner Miss. And thank you." Antal says and smiles at the old woman.
Only if the owner gives me some good coin for those boots
Antal thinks to himself.
Order restored a squad of the guard return.
They stand ready to guard the docks as well as organise triage and so on.
One of them asks you to take shelter in a currently unoccupied home as they are using the Inn as a makeshift hospital.
The next morning isn't much better. The Sargeant from before, weary with a stitched face and left arm in a sling knocks then enters.
Hope you slept - Gods know I didn't, he says, fatigue and pain in his voice. Hoping we can have that chat now. Turns out you may have inadvertently done some good by kicking a bees nest in that Inn... I warmed up another squad before I went over to see you in case you didn't want to play nice. That squad... , he pauses and chokes up slightly. That squad, Gods rest their souls, managed to do the work of three last night.
He looks at each of you.
I hear you did us proud last night too - thank you.
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Gaelden nodded back, awkwardly. He had been quiet since the battle, for the cloud over his mind had left him uneasy. He didn’t like the feeling of not being in control, and even worse he could barely remember any of what happened. It was the first time he had ever faced such power, and if he was honest with himself, it was terrifying.
With the looter dispersed, Iocundius untenses slightly.
He is still ready to bring the full wrath of Law down on any who would challenge Antal's impassioned speech or his own command. He takes the amulet into his custody, to safeguard it.
Before he goes to sleep, he provides what healing he has remaining to whomever needs it.
*********
Satisfied that order has been restored, he is still glad to see the guard sargeant.
"Sargeant. My condolences for your loss. We have made the invaders pay the highest price we could take from their sorry hides. Foul magic was used here. These bodies -"
He points to the examined corpses the group discovered and reveals the amuelt.
"-had their hearts tainted by something. See the black veins radiating from the scars? And this amulet, of clearly foul provenance, found on one of these curs."
"We need to speak with the Lord Commander, if he was not struck down in the attack."
As everyone starts to move away. Antal glances at the boots checking for size, to replace his trail worn pair. But seeing that it came from someone much taller than him "Bhaa, tall folk. He mumbles to himself. And becomes content with just figuring out what price he can get for them.
"If you have any priests about, you should have them bless the bodies so that they can't rise again like these creatures."
Bless them? Bugger that! We'll Burn them... that said, something weird is happening to the bodies. Come see, then I'll take you over to the Lord Commander... well, to the Captain first but then you'll see our Lord.
He takes you to where one of the body lies in the street, well illuminated by the early morning sun. It's slow... very slow... BUT it is perceptible. The skin, and exposed flesh of the corpse is breaking down into some sort of green mould.
Looking at another lying off to the side, it seems the same thing is happening. Again it's slow - it's Slow progress needing to be observed over Minutes but there's no doubt about the process.
Ain't that one for a tavern tale eh?, the Sargeant barks.
"Agreed, cleansing them with Fire is the best option, but it looks as though you will have to act quickly. Unless this mould is flammable?" Varis looked puzzled as the body slowly turned into the green material. "Sargeant, may I suggest that you immediately start covering these bodies? Whatever these bodies are turning into could spread easily."
"Burn it all, is my recommendation."