Ludger continues yelling for his crew to wade into the fight even as he swings his axe in a flat plane that intersects with the body of his foe. Watching the zombies fall to his axe, Ludger feels his fear melt away. I don’t know why I was afraid of these things...
[dice=Cool 50]1d100
Seeing his new friend in the thick of it, he tightened up his fear and pushed himself by sheer force of Will back into the house...
He draws his dagger and waits for an opening- if Sandra will let him in? He'll go on the attack.
-1 resolve
Madga takes her dagger and tries to help the others agaisnt the walking corpses
Think about it like you're back in the autopsy room, under the tutelage of Herr Doktor Kenstein..
SL -2
SL -4
Axe buried in the chest of the zombie, Ludger waits to see if the evil green glow from its eyes go out and the zombie goes back to being deaddead.
Axel tries to attack a zombie 1...
SL -4
[dice=Ludger Attack (56)]1d100
[dice=Ludger Attack (56)]1d100
[dice=Ludger Defense (56)]1d100
[dice=End of Round Extended Fear Test (35)]1d100
Ludger continues yelling for his crew to wade into the fight even as he swings his axe in a flat plane that intersects with the body of his foe. Watching the zombies fall to his axe, Ludger feels his fear melt away. I don’t know why I was afraid of these things...
Ludger's attack with the axe carves deeply into the zombie's chest, but it continues to reach out for him!
Madga takes her dagger and tries to help the others agaisnt the walking corpses
Think about it like you're back in the autopsy room, under the tutelage of Herr Doktor Kenstein..
Attack 20 vs roll of 43
dodge 43 vs roll of 82
Magda joins the fray, attempting to help Ludger bring down the zombie he almost finished off.
Magda dashes into the fight and slashes at the zombie attacking Ludger. She scores a blow against its right arm and the monstrosity collapses.
Axel tries to attack a zombie 1...
Melee 30 with roll of 68
Axel moves around the fight to assist Sandra in her combat with the pair of zombies.
Sandra follows up Axel's success and tears a gash out of the zombie's left arm with her boat hook.
Undeterred by the fall of the zombies fighting Ludger & Magda, the remaining undead continue to lash out at their opponents.
Having gained a solid footing in the combat, Sandra easily fends off the remaining zombies. Where once they had seemed terrifying, the attacks of the undead creatures seem almost pathetic, at least for the moment.
The zombie's attack twists its torso about and it lands on its leg awkwardly. The zombie seems unsteady on its feet now.
Achill's screams from outside of the Swordfish House go silent.
*
Having wounded it, he overcame his fear. He cheered and attacked.
... and got massively over confident. (SL -4)
Seeing his friends battering Zombie #1, Ludger moves over to Zombie #3 and swings his axe with all his might.
As Ludger moves forward swinging he begins to sing a stevedore chanty which goes something like ”When you fight a zombie, always remember and never forget, to swing as hard as you can, not just a little bit!” As the chorus concludes with little bit, Ludger buries his axe all the way to the hilt in the loathsome creature which he hopes topples like a tree brought by the loggers.
Ludger dispatches one of the zombies that had been striking at Sandra with another mighty blow. Axel's attempt to hit the remaining zombie comes up short though. Whatever foul art is animating the creatures gave them some ability to fight back.
After the sudden rush of violence, the Swordfish House falls silent.
Cant believe we are still alive! Wow... , he says shaking with adrenaline.
Quickly, he says lighting other candles. Lets find that damned paperwork!.
Panting, Magda says
Is... Is anyone hurt? Avoid to touch the corpses!
Panting, Magda says
Is... Is anyone hurt? Avoid to touch the corpses!
”Hey Dok, mind bandaging this up?” Ludger says as he shows Magda the ragged wound in his arm.
Once he’s bandaged by his favorite Doktor, Ludger will begin to search the apartment for valuables leaving up to the folks that can read to find the materials they came for. ”Be quick everyone, we need to get out of here before the Watch arrives. They’ll make us stop looting, uh, I mean searching for the stuff.”
We're short on coin too... by all means, loot!
As the group looks around them, it quickly becomes obvious that finding the records you seek without the now-deceased Timon will not be a simple task. Despite the recent screaming outside, you don't hear the immediate approach of the city watch.
Magda tries her best to clean and wraps up Ludger's wounds
”Ouch!” exclaims Ludger as Magda applies the bandage. ”Dok, that doesn’t feel much better. Hopefully a good nights sleep will help.”
Ludger whistles a merry tune as he proceeds to tear the place apart looking for loot. Not being the sharpest tool in the toolshed, Ludger concentrates on things he knows have value (coins, jewelry, and weapons). If he spots any maps he’ll point them out to one of the smart ones that can read.
”That’s odd, I can’t seem to find many of them valuables we be looking for, argh,” Ludger says in his best pirate imitation.
Throughout his efforts to search the Swordfish House, Ludger finds himself constantly on edge and his efforts make little in the way of progress he was hoping for. A lingering chill about the place reminds him of the horror he felt at seeing the zombies initially. Still, he isn't entirely blind. Timon's former bedroom has been thoroughly ransacked, and even some of the bedding was hacked with something sharp. The bedroom has a hearth large enough that the dead bodies could be forced inside and burned, if someone wanted to do so. There aren't any dead bodies in the place beside the ones that attacked the group early as zombies.
He looks around for anything promising after asking Magda to show him what som key words looked like but most things just went over his head.
SL -3
Frustrated by his illiteracy and inability to find the documents he turns his attention to the corpses, examining them and wracking his brains for ANYTHING his grandfather may have taught on necromancy...
Despite his frustrating inability to read, Axel's search of the area isn't entirely fruitless. As he sifts through a few papers, he notices a small leatherbound book on the floor not in one of the stacks scattered about the room. He can't read the contents, but as he flips through it's obvious that one of the pages has been torn out.
Meanwhile, Magda medical curiosity pulls her toward the now finally dead zombies.
She tries to understand what happened to their bodies
The first corpse Magda examines is that of a young woman. She estimates that the woman hasn't been dead for more than two weeks. Ignoring the wounds caused by the group in defeating the zombies, the only apparent cause of death is a deep but narrow slit to the woman's abdomen consistent with the shape of a dagger blade or the tip of a sword. The necrotic flesh seems to extend outward from that point, with the parts of the body further away from the wound being more rotten & less preserved.
The second corpse Magda examines is somewhat of a hopeless case. The rags the man is wearing might suggest a riverfolk, but she can't determine how long they have been dead or what killed them.
The third corpse Magda examines is by far the most degraded of the four. She can't be certain exactly how necrotic flesh degrades over time, but her best guess is that this person has been dead for hundreds of years. Likely they were a zombie for much of that time. Determining a cause of death for a corpse this old is hopeless.
The fourth corpse is the one that she believes Achill identified as Timon. Both of the other male zombies (second and third) are probably beyond recognition at this point. The time of death is harder to nail down than the first corpse, but she'd guess between a few days and three weeks. Like the first corpse, Timon's body has a thin wound that seems to be the center of the necrotic flesh to his back. The wound severed one of his ribs, although it isn't obvious that enough force was applied to slice through bone.
Going through the pockets of the deceased is a traditional task, and Magda finds 9 shillings & 7 pfennings in one of Timon's pockets.
Despite his frustrating inability to read, Axel's search of the area isn't entirely fruitless. As he sifts through a few papers, he notices a small leatherbound book on the floor not in one of the stacks scattered about the room. He can't read the contents, but as he flips through it's obvious that one of the pages has been torn out.
Here Magda... can you please look at this..., he says passing her the found book to read.
Ludger keeps his distance as Magda examines the squishy bodies. ”Find anything Dok? I’m glad you’re here to do that. I don’t mind killing ‘em again but I don’t want to get personal with their rotting bodies.”
After watching Magda work for a while, Ludger looks around again and still sees nothing of interest but then he has an idea, ”Aren’t the priests of Morr supposed to care about zombies and vampires and zombie vampires? Maybe we should stroll out to the Garden and see if the priest has any idea of what’s going on.” Ludger looks at the others expectantly hoping his bright idea is acknowledged since he has so few.
"The Morrites would be interested in what happened here. Possibly too interested. It might be hard to search this place for the shipping records we need if they decide to investigate closely. But on the other hand, it's at least possible they might decide to help us sort through all of...this," Sandra says as she gestures at Timon's 'filing' system.
"We could use more pairs of eyes to get through this. Preferably a scholar of some sort."
Ludger keeps his distance as Magda examines the squishy bodies. ”Find anything Dok? I’m glad you’re here to do that. I don’t mind killing ‘em again but I don’t want to get personal with their rotting bodies.”
After watching Magda work for a while, Ludger looks around again and still sees nothing of interest but then he has an idea, ”Aren’t the priests of Morr supposed to care about zombies and vampires and zombie vampires? Maybe we should stroll out to the Garden and see if the priest has any idea of what’s going on.” Ludger looks at the others expectantly hoping his bright idea is acknowledged since he has so few.
Axel looks nervous.
Are we sure we want official attention? I'm thinking of a cleansing fire when we are done... no proof of this man being zombified and no questions about the Dark Arts... or whatever it's called.
I might be wrong, but if we go to see the priests of Morr, we ought to be totally honest. We came here to find papers about a ship, and fell into an ambush by zombies, their master nowhere to be seen. I guess this one is Timon. Fortunatly for us, this one is very old, I would say hundred of years, so we couldn't be accused of animating him.
"Hello? Is anyone alive in there?" you hear someone calling from outside the building.
S!&%!, Alex curses running to a window, moving the shutter slightly to peer out.
Looking out the window, Axel sees Achill Kayserling standing in the darkened shadows of the street. He seems to be trying to keep a safe distance from the Swordfish House.
Hey... HE reads! That will help.
He opens the door and waves him in.
All is well. Hurry in, we could use you, hoping the smell from the place when he entered wouldn't scare him off.
Achill looks very apprehensive about the entire notion, but comes back inside the dimly lit Swordfish House. He blanches at the sight of the re-slain zombies but doesn't run away.
"Oh Timon...what happened to you?" he moans as he looks at the corpse of his friend.
Achill looks very apprehensive about the entire notion, but comes back inside the dimly lit Swordfish House. He blanches at the sight of the re-slain zombies but doesn't run away.
"Oh Timon...what happened to you?" he moans as he looks at the corpse of his friend.
"So Achill, heard about any necromancers roaming around? Obviously one got to your friend and maybe the necromancer comes after your friend's friends next, if you get my drift."
Yeah, and the key to this mystery is finding a book in particular... so maybe you can help us?
Achill seems highly alarmed by Ludger's talk of necromancers and the implied threat. ”No! I don't know anything about such witchery. I'd have nothing to do with it!” he exclaims. ”Neither did Timon, I'm sure of it.”
”You are looking for a book? What book? Who are you people anyway?”
”Shipping manifests from the Earl of Harwich? How would that solve anything?”
"Achill, don't you see, this is all tied together...your friend's death, the necromancer, the zombies and the shipping manifests. The necromancer is also after that information and must have killed your friend when he refused to cooperate. We'll get the monster who did this but we need your help, we need those records."
SL 3
Magda gets her head out of the books and scrolls
An orgy of knowledge, surely, but some things are better left unknown. I assure you your help would be greatly appreciated, Herr Achill, if only to clean your name from any misunderstanding, as guilt by association for example... The death of your friend, especially in such dire and grim circumstances, has surely been a blow to a gentle soul like you. Whoever killed your friend will stop at nothing, and maybe, maybe, will try to get at you too. We think the cause of your dear friend demise is linked to the Earl of Harwich location. If you have any information about it, or know where we could find information about it, now is the time to speak.
What she said
Magda's evasiveness seems to put the old man on his guard.
Achill looks very skeptical about the whole operation, but sighs. "This whole thing stinks, and I don't want to see any more of you lot. But I'll do it for Timon."
He begins looking over the cluttered stacks of paper about the room. "Wish I knew how he organized all of this. Would be just like him to have some odd method."
Achill spends some time trying to figure out what Timon had been up to but isn't able to make any sense of it. His efforts do involve looking over some of the records, though.
Despite the late hour, Achill seems ready to continue his work.
Alex helps by raiding the pantry and feeds everyone... while quietly looking for coins etc.