Geez, sounds rough. Welcome back and glad things have calmed.
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"Friendly sounds ideal. And it's lovely to meet you, Hes, Bod and Tor." Perhaps the village used to have a tradition of only using three letters when naming there children? It wasn't the oddest quirk she'd ever heard of. "I'm Tarial." Tarial chattered away in a low, cheerful tone as they travelled, making sure to keep things friendly and seeing what information such chatter could gently shake free. Her eyes flickered around the the environment, however, and she stayed near the cart - the artificial high ground would be an excellent place to cast from.
Dodododoooo *Rise from your Grave*.
Fighting fictional plagues can wait while fighting real plagues takes place.
Zombie bears could be unplasant. Then again, so were zombies cows, sheep and horses - they had powerful jaws and enough mass to cause issues. Bears just had so much more of both. "Bears, alive or undead, should probably be avoided. Thank you for the warning."
True, that.
Clarifying Question about the Spoilered info?:
Do you mean all four rings match, suggestion a group relationship or the like, or two different sets of matching rings so the two guys are one obvious couple and the man and the woman are another?
Well, that was aggressive. Tarial wasn't shocked - she suspected that the young man was hiding his fear, pain and sadness under the anger and bravado - so she simply smiled and stepped forward, offering her hand - the one that wasn't glowing, since some people didn't like the warmth. "Thank you, Jed. We'll be happy to listen to you. Is there anything you can tell us about the enviroment that might not be on the maps, anything we might want to be wary of"?" Engage, ask for advice, make sure they felt included and needed. Hopefully it would improve the man's mood and opinion of them...but the information would also be useful.
I am fine with stuff. I'm a huge horror fan and suspect I have seen every possible nightmare version of zombies that the human mind can create, from pregnant zombies to pregnant zombies that have melded with there zombie fetus into a new, grotesque creature. I look forward to being proved wrong and running into something I haven't seen, though! Are we simply roleplaying how this is going to utterly mess our characters up, or are you thinking of adding some mechanical stuff into our characters slow mental and physical degradation? Last time I ran horror in Pathfinder I worked with the players to add basically custom drawbacks onto there characters after especially traumatic encounters, for example.
Who has the best UMD? Not it.
Tarial nodding, her fiery tattoos glowing warmly as she looked up. "The suns still there. I can feel it, sometimes, I think. It sings to my blood." Catching herself, she stopped, looking mildly embarrassed, and added, "Yes, I'll see you at the gates."
Man, shame you didn't start a Call of Cthulhu game instead, it would have you in just the right mindset.
I have 200 or so I can contribute.
Just cheat and use Latin. 'Sine fine Nocte' and 'Quadratum' are easy and fun for all! Or maybe 'Oidhche gun Chrìoch' and 'Ciùb'?
Glowing gently, Tarial considered. She had, herself, enough food to last another month of so if she was careful. But having additional food meant her own supplies would last longer, and others would be less likely to attack her for food...or, in truly dire straits, as food. Leaving was always an option, of course, but being behind well manned walls was a lot easier than living out there when a band did find you. A lot of the undead were slow, but if enough were in an area it didn't matter, and there were enough kinds that counting on them being slow was a fools game. Glancing at the gathered people, she knew enough of them - or enough about them - to know they were not the desperate dregs who hoped to die bravely as much, or more than, completing the task. She might be in a minority but dying of hunger seemed much kinder than joining the undead. Of course, that was another part of the problem. If the Horde was close enough then dying of anything - poison, hunger, bites or blade - would see you rise as an undead to join them. They might not even need to get close enough to attack for that effect to reach the town. "I'll go," she said quietly. "Do we have anyone to serve as our guide, so we know best where to focus our efforts? And do we have some maps?" Knowing the best way in and all the ways out was essential. Standing and dying bravely was the very last thing she intended to do.
Stealth Synergy does make a lot of sense. If we run into a nation's worth of zombies it's gonna take all week to set them on fire, and the smell...
I think Tarial is ready to go, bar any changes to Teamwork Feats. It's worth keeping in mind that we're scheduled to get another one next level, if that has any bearing.
This is Jon's application. Popped in Elemental Commixture as my Teamwork feat for now if anyone else can do fun spellcastery things, but we shall see what the final group.
"I can see in the dark, so I can guide us if we need it," Tarial offered.
Tarial pointed out the rings. "That must be how they're moving the rafts." The implications were a bit disturbing - how was there a whole waterway system set up like this under town that none of them knew about? - but she hoped onto the first raft anyway.
Satisfied that, even if she couldn't revive the Ratfolk she could at least make him more comfortable, Tarial scanned the area near the raft to be careful.
Well, Tarial had no idea what the symbol or the scrolls were, as her self-taught abilities were somewhat lacking in those areas. Instead she knelt beside the wounded ratman, trying to be careful it wasn't a trap...but if it wasn't maybe she could help. If she could wake him up without hurting him, he might be able to answer some questions.
Tarial followed along, giving a quick Detect Magic on the bloody area just to be safe.
"How are we going to get any of that at the moment, though?" Tarial frowned slightly. "And before the adults start shoving us in safe places?"
Tarial tried her best not to arse over teakettle as she headed down the slippy slope.
"I'd be -huff- in a lot of -wheeze- without those. It's muscles I don't -gasp- have enough of." Tarial continued to go down the rope in better shape that she had expected, but still winding the little illusionist.
Tarial looked at the rope with trepidation, as she wasn't that great at climbing. She tended to keep her pranks ground-based. But she didn't have much choice, and would just have to go slow.
"If we're going to go we need to go now," Tarial muttered to the others. "We should follow the blood."
"I guess the entrance is in a cellar. Maybe near where we found those runes?" Tarial shrugged.
Tarial looked blankly at the retreating creature. "Where would we go?" There was no other place to be.
Tarial created the illusion of a bird moving across the water in front of the...whatever it was, hoping to get the creature to poke it's head out and snap at the tasty. Maybe they could get a better look that way. ...more likely it would be ignored, but it was worth a try.
Well, they could always rebuild the docks. Tarial headed for the sounds of screaming.
"Nae, ye dinnae need fash yerself over us," Tarial replied cheerfully in an excellent approximation of the old Dwarf's accent. She grinned at him.
Tarial picked up a sling. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.
Grinning in relief, Tarial said, "Sounds good to me. We can try and avoid getting into trouble together." Considering for a moment, she added, "Not normally how I like to do stuff, but I think getting into trouble here will be a bit too exciting."
Tarial looked around to see who was there, and if anyone seemed likely to want to team up with her. She wasn't the most effective in terms of fighting - in fact, she was almost useless - and she didn't want to impose on one of the others unless they felt strong enough to make up for that.
Tarial wandered over to join the others, having snuck out of the house earlier.
Still here.
Sighing, Tarial replied, "He met some woman in green, and she used him to try and get a bag guarded by the undead." Who may well have been the last victim of whatever this disease was. OK...so they couldn't help anyone else who got infected. Wonderful. "Does it say how long someone will have before the disease sets in without any treatment?"
Tarial was not terribly happy about the idea that whatever had happened with the tree and the corpse could be repeated. Hopefully the healer could do something before they needed to fetch a sword or an axe.
Tarial tried to remember if there were any 'surprises' she'd set up that might be the cause of such a commotion, but she couldn't remember any. That didn't mean it wasn't an old one she'd forgotten, but... "Best go see what's happening." She headed upstairs and out.
Tarial moved over, casting both spells. "The stone is magic but the writing isn't." Unfortunately her magical training didn't allow her to learn much more about them.
"I think the words on the stone and the rod are part of the same phrase," she muttered after a minute. "They start on the stone and continue on the rod, but I don't know if there's another part to this."
Tarial began to poke around at knee height. The others could spot things better in high places, obviously. Sadly she had already used her Dancing Lights today, or she'd have added them in too.
Shrugging, Tarial followed along.
"I suppose something doesn't have to be magical to function as a kind of key," Tarial suggested. "Maybe it's a clue of some kind." She glanced over the rod, casting Read Magic as she did in case it was a spell or incantation. She also knew Common, Gnomish, Elven, Orc and Goblin. She might be able to read it anyway.
Holding the bag up to Berold, Tarial replied, "The bag's empty, I think. Unless there's a trick to getting things out of it." She shook it upside down again just to be sure.
Tarial smiled. "It was our pleasure." Still, this left the disturbing idea that there was a strange magical woman who was enemies of an undead somewhere in the forest, who felt tricking young men into danger was acceptable. It wasn't. But Tarial knew no one would let her, or her friends, help find such a woman.
Tarial looked at the bag she'd been checking suspiciously. It was magical, certainly - but was it worth feeding a young man to an undead tree? It didn't seem that way to her. But it was empty. Maybe it, or one of the other items, was emotionally important? "You were just trying to help the lady, Jennus." Tarial smiled reassuringly at him. "No one can fault you for kindness. But anything else you can tell us about her would be a great help."
"It will be a big help if you tell us anything you can," Tarial supported Valerie as best she could. "We want to make sure nothing like this can happen again."
Finding nothing of interest in the magic bag - a shame, but not a surprise - Tarial simply listened as the others reported in.
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