Top of Round 6
Djack may act. Rocko is asleep.
Looks like I've become immune to your poison, HAG!
Gramms, this one's for you...
Djack takes a step towards the Gnoll while taunting and keeping an eye on the crone... then kicks the furry awake.
WAKE UP, ROCKO! KILL THE WITCH!
Djack has to kick him pretty hard, and hopes Rocko can forgive him later (Rocko takes 1 hp damage, but is now awake. He is prone, and must take a move action to stand, but has a Standard action remaining).
Rocko's action.
Rocko wakes with a start from the boot to the head (na na!)
"WHAT?"
He jumps to his feet and after a quick decision, takes a swipe.
Rocko blinks at his unintended carnage.
"Uh, sorry?"
Rocko shakes the sleep out of his head, jumps up, and hits the witch mid-section with his axe. He hits so powerfully, he fully cleaves her in two mid-torso, both sides, along with plenty of viscera, onto the floor and table.
Unfortunately, the demise of his mistress seems not to have incapacitated Raymundo, who takes a swipe at Spizz.
Flame shoots out at Raymundo once again, but does not finish the Skeleton.
"Yoltzin save friend-Elias? Also, Spizz not feeling so hot either."
Yoltzin's action Round 6. Witch is down. Quince is at -6 hp and continues to bleed. Roof's on fire. Zombies pounding on the door. Storm brewing outside.
Don't worry about Elias, I got him!
"Then stop standing next to it!" Yoltzin chastizes, before raising her holy symbol high. "Blessings of the Black Dog, envelop us!"
Moving backward a half step, she allows space for the spirtual wolf to charge in and lunge for the skeleton.
Channel energy: 2d6 ⇒ (2, 1) = 3 A pittance
The wolf leaps upon the Skeleton and drops it to the floor, and though it's teeth are a poor match for bone, it does manage to inch the creature closer to perma-death.
Top of Round 7
At this point, rain has started leaking through the portion of the roof that is on fire; strong winds also gust into the cottage, threatening to rip portions of the thatched roofing away.
Outside, the zombies seem to have wandered off, as if they've forgotten why they wanted in so bad.
Rocko and Djack are back up at the top of the round. Raymundo is prone, Quince has stabilized, and the roof fire is slowly dwindling due to the rain.
Djack hurries over to Elias and drags him away from Raymundo.
Raymundo makes an attempt to fend the wolf off of him, but swings wildly.
Spizz tires of you! More flames directed at Raymundo/the floor/the door.
Raymundo barely clings to unlife, yet he survives.
The wood singes on the doors, but the water coming in from the hole in the roof keeps them from igniting.
Rocko and Yoltzin may still act in Round 7.
The pair work in tandem, laying down smaller yet still connective attacks.
As Rocko rushes over to try to stomp Raymundo into oblivion, he glances at Quince and asks, "How's he doin'?"
As Rocko rushes over toward the Skeleton, Yoltzin and her summoned wolf bear down upon the vulnerable undead. Though Yoltzin's spear is turned away by its armor, the wolf manages to grab hold of its head and, yanking hard, removes the head from the neck; the evil light leaves Raymundo's eyes.
A second later, Rocko jumps through the air and stomps down on the formerly-undead's remains, but his ankle turns off the hard armor.
Raymundo is no more, and the zombies seem to have moved on. The storm that came up outside rages on stronger than ever, however. Djack can hear Djill whinnying nearby outside.
Spizz, on a hunch, casts Detect Magic and scans the room.
"Dagger is magic!" he says, pointing to Raymundo. "Sword is not, but very shiny."
Moving across the room, he comes to the shelves.
"Ooo! Potions and potions!" Spizz says, looking at the shelf. "Nine potions! And one not magic one."
Finally, he turns to the witch herself.
"Witch's ring magic too!"
Elias is stable but taking a... nap. Please check on him.
I hear Djill, need to make sure they are good.
From a cradled position, Djack lays Elias' head gently down and opens the door looking for his trusty mount.
Over his shoulder, We should probably run down and end those zombies, do everyone a favor.
Djack steps out into the storm and immediately wishes he hadn't. The bog water is flapping at the edges of the witch's little plot of ground like a tide, and cold rain whips in his face so hard it stings. But he has no trouble finding Djill or the draft horse, both of which are trying to crowd closer to the house. One dead zombie lies at Djill's feet, its head bobbing up and down in the bog.
Djack brings the horses up closer to the house so they have a little shelter.
Rocko will hobble up to the door and blink out into the rain, looking to see if his pack donkey is still there. Hopefully Jitters doesn't need rescuing
Djack is outside with the animals.
Bring them inside? He raises his voice above the downpour.
In the time the door was open, the spirit wolf rushed out into the downpour in hunt of already rotting prey. Though Yoltzin had a mental leash around the summon, she let it slack. It only had a limited time on the material plane after all, there was no danger in letting it go free.
"I can keep watch of them in the rain, I am used to resting in the night under these rough conditions." She offered, though some of her attention was drawn to the strange items Spitz identified.
"I say bring 'em in. They'll all be happier and less likin' to get sick.'
He looks over and remembers to add.
"Don't let 'em step on Quince, please"
By the time the storm has taken out its wrath on the little stretch of bog, evening is approaching. If you hurry, you could make it out of the bog (barely) before nightfall, based on how far the mountains looked.
No sign of the remaining zombies can be found.
In addition to the magic items found, a quick check of the now dead witch's effects includes a reasonable bounty of wealth: some 61 pp, 556 gp, 310 sp, 2300 cp, and 776 gp worth of gems.
"Huh, for an old woman livin' nowhere near any store or merchant, she sure had a bundle o' coin."
"But now, Spizz must help new-friend Elias!"
The Kobold pours a potion of cure moderate wounds down the unconscious man's throat. Slowly, Elias Quince returns to consciousness.
Hey, Buddy... Djack offers the awakening Elias. Good to have you back.
He offers him a water skin.
Maybe we go after we fix things up a bit and burn the... well, you know. This can be our shelter on the way back.
The night passes smoothly and in relative comfort. While it's crowded, the old witch's cottage is dry (except right by the door where part of the roof burned) and offers some protection from the chill of the night. Before going to sleep, Yoltzin uses her healing powers and the wand to bring everyone close enough to full that they'll heal overnight.
The next morning, the party hoists their packs and guides the animals through he rest of the bog. Other than a few false steps in soft peat and the muck still klinging to their legs and torsos, the travelers suffer no ill effects and reach solid land safely.
Once outside the bog, the weather patterns for the day can be assessed. A high, cold wind is blowing down out of the mountains. The edge of the bog were crunchy, indicating partially frozen ground, and the party realizes the first clawing fingers of winter are upon the land. But at least the sky is clear, portending no more unusual "storms."
It is still early morning as you stand on a grassy slope at the base of a jagged mountain range, pine trees lining the lower slopes.
Djack passes the morning mostly in silence, unlike him. He, more often than usual, switched which side of Djill he's on... rotating ad rubbing the shoulder that suffered the witch's claw, favoring the other.
Is this it? The End of the World? We supposed to go through those?
Elias' morning is full of aches. Being close to death has a cost, no matter the magic expelled to heal you. Riding on the wagon he bought from Albarra with anyone that cares to join him, he rubs at his ribs where the creatures blade had bitten.
A particularly deep rut jars the wagon and metallic clang resounds from the wagon bed. Elias glances back to check his cargo, the blade and helm of the Skeleton are safe where he stowed them.
As the party pauses at the edge of the mountains,
"Onwards and literally upwards." Djack and Djill go up the hill...
It takes Rocko longer than expected to find a trail that you can reasonably navigate with the wagon that Quince retrieved; about 2 hours after you stop for lunch, he guides you to edge of a stream that leads between mountains for some distance.
Finally, that trail becomes too rough to maintain as the mountains close in around the stream and you reach the point where it is, in frozen fits, tumbling down from above. Here, the climb is steep, but eventually you come across an old mountain trail, probably forged by settlers hundreds of years ago, who disappeared into history somewhere west. Surprisingly, the trail allows you to keep the wagon, for now.
At sunset, having traveled about 12 miles as the crow flies, but closer to 20 in distance walked, you stop to set up camp in an area sheltered by the rise of the mountain on the left, and a clump of trees and rocks to the right. As you prepare your evening meal, Yoltzin notifies the party that she's noticed three very large eagles circling overhead. One of them appears to be descending toward the party.
"Rocko, you know anything about these types? I've heard tales of The Eagles of the mountains, some say they can talk and give good advice, some say they'll rip your head off to feed to their chicks on sight. Some say both."
Elias keeps his eyes to the sky
"Unless we have a forrest speaker among us, we should be ready for violence. Teroritial beasts will oust us if they view us as a threat." The elf spoke, bow already in hand.
Rocko is obviously uncomfortable seeing the giant eagles, especially one approaching.
"I still gots some mean scars on my head 'n shoulders from the last time one of those beasties chased me across the plains. Never did know what I did to rile her up."
Just the memory alone makes him scratch absent-mindedly at the back of his neck.
"Can't say I recall 'er talking, but there was something about her skreachin' that did seem almost talky-like. And it sure did seem like she was right smart about what she was doin'. Maybe I just didn't know 'er language?"
Either way, Rocko is not too keen to repeat the experience. He's all for taking shelter, if not flat out running and hiding
As Yoltzin sits tensely, her bow ready without being drawn to fire, and Rocko ponders places they might take shelter, the large eagle approaches the trail, flapping its wings to slow to a landing.
It stands about 20' from the party, nearly 10' tall. It wears around its neck a collar with a red gem. It looks at the party, and in each of your minds, you hear the following:
"I am Wings-of-Thunder, speaker for the Piestewek Peaks Eyrie. What brings you to these mountains, landlings?"
Elias takes a moment to appraise himself of this new creature, before stepping forward. and clearing his throat
"Let's see what I can mess up here..."
"I am Elias Quince, of the lands North-East. But one so keen of sight as you has doubtless seen us approaching from afar. We are on a quest Wings-of-Thunder, to save the world we believe. We have opposed unnatural foes that twist the natural order of life and death in the marshes and now we move on to the next part of our journey. We know little of the lands ahead of us, but for certain we mean you and your eyrie no harm."
He maintains eye contact with the beast and holds his height, finishing with a deferential bow, eyes still locked.
The elf blinks, her bowstring going slack as the mental words register. Somehow, she hadn't considered the reverse option of plains-talker. Thinking upon and considering the creature, Yoltzin tried to recall if any of this rang familiar to her. Then again, she never did pay much attention to the druids.
Whatever Yoltzin may have known about the great Eagles, such knowledge is lost in the distant past of her childhood.
Wings-of-Thunder cackles slightly, almost as if laughing.
"Oh, saving the world for us! Yes! Landlings are always saving and destroying the world. Another party of landlings traveled along the western side of the mountain range not two suns past. A small group of knights traveling under a holy banner; doubtless they also saved the world!"
Quince can tell that the Eagle is dealing forthrightly with them, if maybe being a little flippant. He does not appear hostile, merely curious.
Djack is fascinated. He hadn't heard the stories... and he'd heard a lot of stories.
He waits, silently.
Knights?
The Eagle continues.
"Very well, Elias Quince. You have explained your position and I believe you. But take care. There have been more creatures about in these mountains lately. Especially on the western side. We have seen them running like mice; we have picked some up and dashed them upon the rocks when they seem up to evil deeds. Beware."