Community Service
"GOOD IDEA, right?"
That's what Big Red, a member of the Wastrels says with a big old smile on her face.
The idea in question is the renovation of a waystation on the outside of Alexandria. It's part of her community service arrangement with the watch, see, that the Wastrels ought to renovate this place so that they can return to the lives of productive citizens. That's why you're here, and why you're guarding them.
The city watch is a bit undermanned, and frankly, outside the city isn't really their cup of tea or jurisdiction and frankly this particular building, as ramshackle and damaged as it is and covered in vines and ivy, is not one that anyone has considered worth the time or investment in repairing alongside this underused road to the mythwood.
But hey, you're here with a bunch of teenagers.
What can go wrong?
Daechir says nothing to this remark, offering a bland but friendly smile that fades the moment he turns away from her to look at the building in question. It's not much to look at for obvious reasons. Then his red eyes slide over the teenagers and his smile turns mischievously evil. "Well, one does hope that they will behave and tend to their work. Who knows what might happen otherwise." He casually strokes the pommel of his rapier.
"I don't know. I think you might be better off spending your energy taking this old building down and building a brand new one in its place.", offers the green-haired Gnome. Xasany crosses her arms as she eyes the building. "I mean, this thing has patches on its patches. The door looks like it is made up of the best parts of four other doors. And that roof is not stopping anything but some light from getting in."
Donna, not far from teenagedom herself, perches on a section of ruined wall ringing the outpost, eyes a-rolling at 'productive citizens.' "Yeah great idea," she mutters, "just get inside an' hide when something with too many teeth comes thunderin' out."
At Daechir's veiled threat, however, the dark-haired brawler rises to her feet. "Oi. We're supposed t'keep bandits an' such off their backs. You a bandit or an adventurer?" One of the teenagers nearly lost a hand. To the set the scene, the unfortunate incident looks something like this. A seven and a half foot tall lizard of burnished read and matte charcoal scale coloration, was standing in bipedal fashion, perfectly still. Her tail lashed the ground and she was clad in the raiment of the artifice of death, from the armour and spikes in which she was clade to the magitechnological servos which would serve to augment her prodigious strength.
So naturally, one of the kids saw fit to jab at her. "Wot's with this'n?" asked the boy, a young man with dirty blonde (and dirty-blonde) hair and a dubious expression began. His teeth were crooked save for a missing one on the left side of his distinctive smile. "Does it ever mood?" The boy, as brilliant as he was, had a stick. Izpapalotl.
"Seriously. What are you doing? Come on," the boy insisted.
"This one is keeping watch. Return to your work."
"Keeping watch with yer eyes closed?" The boy jabbed his stick at the sith to prove his point.
It is a little known fact that even the most somnolent lizard can move with lightning speed when properly roused. Izpapalotl's yellow, nictitating eyes peeled open and then she lunged, snapping her multiple, glistening rows of razor sharp teeth at the boy as he stumbled backward in terror and fell into the mud. She let out a loud, threatening hiss. Then returned to being stationary, eyes shut once more.
This is going well.
Strike leaves the possibilities unspoken, her only really audible contribution to the musing of people behaving themselves, is the potting of her joints as she stretches, then the staccato crunch of her knuckles cracking. With the upright from the brawler, she turns that way and finally voices, "We should be on task." And then, there is poking, and snapping... and the transbienged soul pinches the bridge of her nose as she feels a headache bring conceived.
Banshee hasn't been a teenager for a while, and she has that look that says I am tired of this already with her mouth pulled into a thin line. She has a spear across her back, her bow in her hands. She wasn't much for taking chances either, especially when outside of where she wanted to be - outside the city that is.
Banshee didn't like being outside the city.
"I think it sounds like a pretty bad idea." His mouth twitches, Banshee turning to look between the rest of the group. "I mean, you didn't end up doing this because of /good/ ideas." He gives a deeper frown and starts heading more toward the trees. He wouldn't go too far though, he'd probably get lost.
There's a whole lotta looks at Daechir from the Wastrels like 'oh hey adventurers are psychopaths'.
This may not be their first time realizing this given the circumstances of their arrest, what, with Azog present and everything. The wastrels approach the house, pulling their tools from the wagon that was drawn along with them.
GAME: Donna rolls perception: (17)+8: 25 GAME: Strike rolls perception: (20)+10: 30 GAME: Daechir rolls perception: (8)+3: 11 GAME: Xasany rolls perception: (1)+4: 5 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: Banshee rolls Perception: (16)+9: 25
"Oi!" Donna calls, hopping down from the wall and casting a distrustful look at the house. "Hey, Wastrels. Hang back a second, something don't look right." Her gauntlets creak as she pops her knuckles, glancing over her shoulder at her twin. "Hey, D. Keep an eye out for the kids, yeah?"
"Wouldn't it be better to keep an eye out for anything that might try to eat the kids?" Oh yes, Delilah, go ahead and be snarky again. It won't get you punched, really. The blonde sorceress eases her pistol in its holster without actually drawing it; no need to upset the kids, afterall. "Now, where's some high ground..."
GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls perception: (16)+6: 22 GAME: Delilah rolls perception: (2)+0: 2
Strike squints as she notes something... amiss with the building, "Hold!" she calls to the teens, "She's right, something's off, here." She treads closer to the house, plucking a shuriken from the bracer of her staff hand before she draws it back and low, just in case it becomes necessary.
"The plants may try to eat them later," Izpapalotl will observe helpfully if any adventurers ask her. She at least spares the teens the trauma of being informed this directly. It's easy since they give her a wide berth after the stick wielder nearly lost his stick.
The kids are all kinda just hanging back now because, you know, the possibility of plants eating them. Big Red, their leader, just kinda nods.
"...okay, yeah." That'd be the gang of kids.
Daechir stays with the kids, doing as he was bid. Someone needs to keep an eye on them in any case. His sharp red eyes keep a lookout elsewhere however. Just to be on the safe side.
Donna nearly thumps Itzpapalotl's arm at that note... But even Bloodragers, betimes, can decide not to pick a fight with someone nearly twice one's size. Rolling up to the door, she rests a hand on either side of the doorway -- apparently to take the first hit -- and glances over her shoulder. "Anyone got a light they can throw in past me?"
Strike continues moving closer, though her curiosity is piqued by the woman's approach to the dilemma. Wordlessly, she unshoulders her pack to pull and activate her long dormant everburning torch before she reshoulders it. Two paces further to the building and in the torch is tossed.
"As it happens, I uhh, don't." Delilah stands beside Donna, planting her hands on her hips. "I forgot to bring torches. Yes, I know you said remember to bring torches, but I forgot." She pauses, and tilts her head to glance at Itzpapalotl, about to suggest that maybe winding the kids up is a bad plan, but then realizes that A) she started it and B) that person is way bigger than her. Sometimes discretion really is the better part of valor as it turns out.
The overgrowth is evident throughout the main area of the waystation, with vines hanging down from the rafters and dirt everywhere and soil everywhere and weeds poking through the wooden floors and such.
It looks nasty.
It also looks like a lot of work. Still, there's something... ill at ease about the place.
Daechir continues to hang around outside with the teenagers. "Let me know if you find anything in there!" His voice rises just enough to be heard, but he doesn't take even a step in that direction.
Well now there's light! And... oog. Donna and Delilah have bunked in better-looking *jail cells* than this. Wrinkling her nose, the diminutive warrior takes a couple hesitant steps inside, motioning for the others to hang back. "Unno what it is, but it's not just gunge in here..."
On a hunch, and remembering Itzpapalotl's snark, she wraps her fingers around one of the nearest hanging vines.... and pulls.
Strike edges sidelong to get a better angle around that door as she sees the hand go up. She draws back her shuriken hand and watches, ready to put forth if need be. Otherwise, she abides the silent order to hang back.
Izzy turns very slightly to watch as the vines are being pulled. Only her head and eyes move in any way. She remains unblinking. Waiting for something to happen. Letting a jaw full of razors hang op-en as she stands, like an alligator anticipating a mouse simply falling into her waiting maw.
Mirroring her sister's thoughts, Delilah 'ugghhhs' audibly. "This is even worse than that jail cell we spent the night in, in that border town," she observes. "You know, the one where the inn was full and there was a curfew, like that was fair." She starts preparing a spell, then stops; afterall, the kids are here to work, not to get a free ride. "Well, at least we've got lots of folks here to fight anything that fights back against being cleaned." She does rest her hand on her pistol just in case, while Donna is busy being curious. She glances at Izzy, and then in Daechir's direction. "If you hear screaming just take care of the kids!"
Banshee follows along with the people, seeing the vine-hanging and - as Donna pulls - she steps back with her bow already up. She tilts her head to the side, "If it is violent greenery, then maybe we should just burn the whole place down instead of risking the kids?" "...can we get to work now?" asks Big Red from over there with Daechir.
The greenery is just... greenery. It's not DOING anything. Still, the vaguely unsettled feeling some of you have isn't lifting. Something is wrong here, even if what's wrong isn't entirely obvious just yet.
Now that some of you are inside, well, there's a pungent smell.
Really pungent. Seems to be coming from beneath you.
The vine snaps off when its pulled.
"Hey if *you* wanna check for dead folks under the floorboards," Donna calls back, beginning to lose her patience. "We're gettin' paid to put our faces where your might get bit off, so just hang back 'til we tell you it's clear!"
Come to think of it, it does rather smell like death, doesn't it?"
Strike frowns as that sense of 'somethin's wrong heah' isn't resolving itself in any real hurry. She glances back to see that the teens are accounted for, then moves closer to the house, itself, looking up around the edges of the roof. Hmm.
"...did you actually go inside Big Red?" asks one of the other kids of their fearless orange leader.
"No, why the hell would I? It stinks in there."
It really does.
Daed continues to stand in the rear, watching the kids, particularly 'Big Red' as the teen is so aptly called. There's no yelling from inside just yet.
It is indeed apt. Her hair is really big.
Oh... Well if the vine just snaps off, then Banshee shrugs and heads on in looks at this 'Big Red' as she tromps on toward the entrance. A look on the stony expression (literally her skin looks like it's made of stone - Giantborn whatcha gonna do?) that's mostly just conveys amusement of the situation. "That is kinda the point-" He gestures at Donna, "Exactly what she said. So, you can go first if you want, we'll let you be our scouts, but we're not paying you extra. /Or/ you can wait for a bit while we try to figure out why this play feels ooky." It's a technical term.
"I am willing to go in first. Most things will see me and run." The enormous, largely docile lizard turns to look at the entrance, an unblinking eye staring intently. "It would be good to know what is here before it attacks."
Nothing happens when one passes the threshold inside. The hardest part has been accomplished! You have gone through the door.
THROUGH THE DOOR.
The smell is really strong in there, wafting up from... beneath the floorboards, definitely.
Strike, still eyeing the place for lurkers up high, glances sidelong at the larger folk as they just mosey on in. She doesn't like that unshakable wrongness, but she tucks the shuriken back in her bracers and steps into the house with her staff at the ready.
A couple more experimental sniffs, and Donna spits to one side. "Faugh... Well, good thing we got a torch here..." Scooching in a little ways, she drops to one knee, pushing experimentally on those board or that... Then drives her fist directly *through* the floor near one join, grabbing hold of the floorboard and tearing it away. ...oh hey there's a body down there.
Definite dead body. A rotting one.
The smell is obvious, now, worse than before now that no longer has floorboards in the way.
Oh, and it’s moving.
Immediately, the creature, covered in boils and pustules, leaps up out from under the floorboards, skittering out. It's down on all fours. A hideous, deformed, pustule encrusted /thing/ that may once have been human.
GAME: Strike rolls ranged+1: (20)+5+1: 26 (THREAT) GAME: Strike rolls ranged+1: (6)+5+1: 12 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+3: (9)+3: 12
Strike, thinking that perhaps getting into the sloppy caresses of the carbuncled carrion would be a terribly bad idea for the group, pulls one of her tanglefoot bags from the bandolier crossing her body and whips it at the foe with a satisfying, and tactical appealing, SPLAT!
GAME: Banshee rolls weapon1-2: (3)+7+-2: 8 GAME: Banshee rolls weapon1-2: (14)+7+-2: 19 GAME: Banshee rolls 1d8+4: (4)+4: 8 GAME: Donna RAGES!, gaining +2 to melee attack/damage/Will saves and 8 temporary HP GAME: Donna rolls finesse+1: (2)+8+1: 11 GAME: Donna rolls 1d4+2+1+2: (3)+2+1+2: 8
"GLAH!" It's one thing to be expecting something nasty. But sometimes what happens is uglier than what you're prepared for, as a rotting, carbuncled corpse boils out of the hole made in the floor. Luckily her hasty backpedal allowed it to be glued to the floor, then shot, and with a looping haymaker she splatters its face across her oversized gauntlet. "Uuuugh," she grouses, shaking the muck off her hand. "SO YEAH KIDS GET TO COVER THERE'S DEAD THINGS IN HERE AND THEY AIN'T STAYING STILL."
GAME: Strike used a Tanglefoot Bag. GAME: Daechir casts Magic Missile. Caster Level: 3 DC: 15
Everyone can rest easy, right? ... well, no, not really, because more floroboards are getting pusherd throiugh as a half-dozen more emerge from beneath the place, and still more are burrowing out from under the ground on the outside, coming up to climb onto the building and they're noticing all alone Dae and the children...
Great..."
GAME: Daechir rolls 2d4+2: (8)+2: 10
The mul'niessa immediately puts his hand out toward the children, motioning them back away from the mounds as they rise upwards. "Get back! RUN!" His voice is a sharp bark urging them to get out of here while they still can. The moment the words are out he is speaking arcane ones, his other hand thrust toward the creatures rising from the ground. Bolts of light stream forth from his dark fingers thrusting into one of the things and blasting a hole therein.
GAME: Itzpapalotl activates her Titan Armor, gaining: +4 Str GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1+1: (4)+8+1+1: 14 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1+1: (14)+8+1+1: 24 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1+1-5: (17)+8+1+1+-5: 22 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls 1d8+5: (1)+5: 6 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls 1d4+2: (2)+2: 4
One of the shamgbling pustule ridden corpses attempts to pass the armoured lizard. She lets out another of those hisses and lunges, much as she did at the boy earlier. This time, however, she doesn't hold back. Hundreds of pounds of steel, artifice, and musclebound saurian warrior pound into the creature. She nears out chunk sof it with her claws, then rips the thing open using those vicious fangs as she bears it down toward the ground. If it weren't undead it would be down for the count, but for now it continues to struggle.
GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (2)+5: 7 GAME: Delilah rolls 2d4+2: (8)+2: 10
"Oh goodness, those things are disgusting!" Delilah is standing just inside the doorway, so she can aid in the fight and keep an eye on the kids at the same time. "Kids! Stay back! These things are gross and they have teeth." She takes a step forwards, the runes on her arm glowing as do her eyes. She chants a few words, drawing a simple, burning rune in the air in front of her before a couple bolts of energy sizzle into the zombie... thing that Daechir already wounded. It dies! Again! Blood and guts and pus everywhere. "...That's even worse but at least it's dead."
GAME: Strike spends ONE point of KI POOL. GAME: Strike rolls weapon1: (9)+5: 14 GAME: Strike rolls weapon1: (8)+5: 13 GAME: Strike rolls weapon1: (5)+5: 10 GAME: Strike rolls 1d6+3: (3)+3: 6
Strike sees this ending badly, and, calling into her reserves, she unleashes a quick flurry of staff blows at one of the foes nearby, though only one lands true. Damn! She needs more training, it seems.
GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls 1d8+5: (5)+5: 10 GAME: Donna rolls cmb: (10)+6: 16 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (19)+4: 23 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d6+3: (3)+3: 6 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (2)+4: 6 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (3)+4: 7 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (9)+4: 13 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (5)+4: 9 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (8)+4: 12 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (6)+4: 10 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (7)+4: 7
The good news.
These things aren't much of a threat, at the moment. They hunker down, their deformed bodies capable of moving like quadrupeds, it seems, as they rush at each of you for a bite. Two of the ones outside hop off the building and begin heading straight for Daechir while others are going for the now-running children.
Orange Hair Girl has energy crackling at her fingertips. Seems she's a caster herself.
"....*Shit,*" Donna breathes as yelling kicks up outside.
Turning, she pelts away from the closing monsters, edging less-than-politely around her twin sister to get through the door."Scuse me sorry coming through back up EVERYBODY OUT! THERE'S MORE OUT HERE!" Arcane tattoos are flaring in the darkness as she pelts toward and beyond the outer ring of flesh-eating monsters... But not quickly enough to avoid one tearing a strip off her arm, and standing taller as the bloody scrap is swallowed down.
But she doesn't have time for that nonsense. Hopping mid-stride, she plants her boot into a crevasse between two knotty growths on the zombie dead ahead of her, then *pushes* off, sending her into the air and the creature to the ground as she places herself between the monsters and the children.
GAME: Daechir casts Magic Missile. Caster Level: 3 DC: 15 GAME: Daechir rolls 2d4+2: (4)+2: 6 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls unarmed0+1: (14)+unarmed0+1: 15 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls unarmed0+1: (12)+unarmed0+1: 13 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls unarmed0+1: (3)+unarmed0+1: 4 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls 1d8+5: (6)+5: 11
Daechir sees the monsters coming, heading right for him really, but the kids are the priority. Sure he'd threatened them, but that was then. This is now. Now he picks a target headed for one of the teens and throws another set of light-bolts in its direction.
The pile of redead corpses is growing around Izpapalotl. She grabs a second and literally tears it in half with her claws, the gears in those artifice enhanced limbs groaning as they grind with the strain. Pieces of pustule covered monster are thrown in all directions and then it collapses above the first of her foes.
GAME: Delilah casts Magic Missile. Caster Level: 4 DC: 16 GAME: Delilah casts Scorching Ray. Caster Level: 4 DC: 17 GAME: Delilah rolls ranged: (19)+5: 24 GAME: Delilah rolls 4d6: (10): 10
"Donna! Careful! Don't let them eat you!" ...Too late. Delilah watches, aghast, as one of the zombies tears a piece off her sister's arm and literally eats it. "GET BACK FROM MY SISTER!" screams the blond haired mage, already weaving a more intricate set of glowing runes in the air. The runes form into a blast of flame that sears through the air to the pustulent wretch, but in Delilah's burst of emotion she didn't aim it quite as well as she could, so it doesn't cause quite as much burning as it might have otherwise. Either way, the young sorceress is on the move, positioning herself solidly between the kids and the icky things. "Keep behind us!" she instructs, as if it were necessary.
GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (4)+5: 9 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (6)+5: 11 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (11)+5: 16 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d6+2: (3)+2: 5
Strike lashes out, wound one with her fist! Boils ooze pus as she finally strikes it down. Strikingly.
GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+7: (18)+7: 25 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+6: (6)+6: 12 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d8+4: (8)+4: 12
An arrow strikes one closely, pustules erupting as it collapses to the ground. Thankfully, Banshee wasn't close enough, having stepped back, to get sprayed by it.
GAME: Donna casts Thunderstomp. Caster Level: 4 DC: 13 GAME: Donna rolls cmb: (9)+6: 15 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (18)+4: 22 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (1)+4: 5 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (3)+4: 7 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (6)+4: 10 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (1)+4: 5 (EPIC FAIL) GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (5)+4: 9 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (11)+4: 15 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (15)+4: 19 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d6+3: (5)+3: 8
Now that the twins are together and between the monsters and the children, Donna can focus her fury where it belongs; on the monsters. Noting that their fellow explorer seems to be holding off *two* creatures by his lonesome, the dark twin decides to even the odds.
Her eyes and tattoos flare brightly for a moment. She raises her foot, and snarls a guttural "Fucking...
"NOPE."
And the foot smashes downward, creating a ripple of arcane energy that tears along the ground, knocking the feet out from under one of Daechir's foes and toppling it over.
GAME: Daechir casts Magic Missile. Caster Level: 3 DC: 15 GAME: Daechir rolls 2d4+2: (4)+2: 6
Big Orange ltes out off a crackling blast of energy on one, scorching it badly! It collapses in a smoking husk. Shocking spells are a good thing.
"AHhhhh," she yells, then promptly turns around, doubles over, and throws up messily. It's the violence and the smell.
Daechir dips his head in acknowledgement to Donna, appreciating her efforts to stall the creatures trying to attack him. The mage steps back again, focused on hitting the creatures targeting the teens as best he can. He's running out of this spell however, and he knows what that means.
GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls cmb+1: (5)+7+1: 13 GAME: Delilah casts Magic Missile. Caster Level: 4 DC: 16 GAME: Delilah rolls 2d4+2: (6)+2: 8 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (20)+5: 25 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (8)+5: 13 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (11)+5: 16 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (8)+5: 13 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d6+2: (3)+2: 5 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d6+2: (6)+2: 8
Strike's fists batter another one of the creatures down as she backs away from the others!
Delilah moves to stand closer to her sister, almost shoulder to shoulder aside from the fact that she's standing further back. Hey, Donna's the one who likes punching things. "Careful!" she shouts, back to the kids and to her companions alike. She traces a simpler rune in the air, conjuring magical projectiles once again; they slam hard into one of the zombies, the second one causing it to just sort of... implode, showering pus all over the place. "That is so gross," she complains.
GAME: Banshee rolls weapon5-1: (9)+8+-1: 16 GAME: Banshee rolls damage5+3: aliased to 1D8+7+3: (3)+7+3: 13
Banshee gives a snort, since she sees the creatures moving toward the kids again. Advancing toward one she tosses the bow toward the zombie's feet - hoping to trip it up as she swiftly drew out her spear. A practiced move that brought her in striking range. The bow gave it just enough pause for her to whip the bladed end around and cut deeply into its neck - sending it falling to the ground with that ooze of ichor. "It is not pretty." He agrees with Delilah.
GAME: Donna rolls finesse+2+1+2+2: (13)+8+2+1+2+2: 28 GAME: Donna rolls 1d4+2+1+2: (3)+2+1+2: 8
Careful, Delilah says. Unfortunately, 'careful' only goes so far when applying to a pint-sized brawler with arcane-empowered anger issues. Soon all that's next to Delilah is a puff of disturbed ground, as Donna hurls herself toward the embattled Daechir. One step, two, three, leap, and she comes down with her fist cracking the skull of the downed zombie.
GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (11)+4: 15 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (10)+4: 14 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (6)+4: 10 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (2)+4: 6 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (7)+4: 11 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d6+4: (6)+4: 10
Their numbers are thinning greatly, now, and one of them turns and lunges at Donna while the others outside work on Daechir and Delilah as well, though to little success.
Still, Donna is again bit by sharp, sharp teeth that badly wound her, tearing a long strip of flesh from her arm.
GAME: Daechir casts Magic Missile. Caster Level: 3 DC: 15 GAME: Daechir rolls 2d4+2: (5)+2: 7
Daechir growls forth more arcane words, the same words that he has been uttering for what seems like forever for all that it's only been a few seconds. Another creature explodes into forceful bits of goo that spray in every direction. Only this time it's one that he has slain. It brings a low grin to his face, a hungry one that's filled with little remorse for the things they're slaying.
GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1: (4)+8+1: 13 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1: (20)+8+1: 29 (THREAT) GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1: (2)+8+1: 11 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1-5: (16)+8+1+-5: 20 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls 1d8+5: (6)+5: 11 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls 1d4+2: (3)+2: 5 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls fortitude: (16)+5: 21 GAME: Delilah rolls ranged: (17)+5: 22 GAME: Delilah rolls 4d6: (12): 12
Izzy bites one of the corpses in half as she pins it with her claws. There's a brief pause as the pus floods her mouth along with rotting flesh. She squints slightly and sways a bit and then leans forward and spews monster guts and vitriol all over the floor in front of her. She blinks a couple times and tilts her head, staring at it. Izzy even actually blinks. It's the first time she's stopped in her rampage since the fighting began. She seems to regard the regurgitation as utterly normal, however.
GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (14)+5: 19 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d8: (3): 3 GAME: Delilah casts Scorching Ray. Caster Level: 4 DC: 17 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (8)+5: 13 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (16)+5: 21 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+5: (17)+5: 22 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d6+2: (5)+2: 7 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d6+2: (2)+2: 4
Strike manages to take another one down, herself, covered in gore now as well.
This is just awful.
"I suppose telling someone 'be careful' in a big fight is kind of silly." Delilah shrugs her shoulders, keeping an eye on the kids and making sure the zombies aren't getting to them. With that checked, she picks one of the ones picking on Daechir, and follows her sister's lead; a quick spell, and a lot of fire. Fatal fire, as it turns out.
GAME: Banshee rolls weapon5-1: (5)+8+-1: 12
With her confidence high, he turns toward another. A frown and she hazards a glance back toward some of her companions in the group. It seems that they're doing alright, though Donna is being attacked. The distraction costs though, breaking the focus Banshee had on the next strike and sending it wiffling off in a stab that skates by the creatures neck. "Verdamit."
GAME: Donna rolls finesse+2+1+2: (11)+8+2+1+2: 24 GAME: Donna rolls 1d4+2+1+2: (1)+2+1+2: 6 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (5)+4: 9 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (18)+4: 22 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d20+4: (14)+4: 18 GAME: NeverSleepsPool rolls 1d6+3: (1)+3: 4
Only three of them are left, really, but they are eagerly continuing their attack like the hungry dead they are, pus and ooze rolling off their skin, splattering you as you fight near to them.
Big Orange is rushing off to grab her compatriots at this point before they get too separated.
GAME: Daechir casts Magic Missile. Caster Level: 3 DC: 15 GAME: Daechir rolls 2d4+2: (6)+2: 8
The mul'niessan mage lets loose with one last string of magic missles and looks rather harried. He's managed to remain largely splat-free by virtue of staying out of combat range with the creatures, but the toll of casting so many spells in a row shows. It's not as easy as it looks remembering all the right words while an exploding horde of puss-monsters clamors after you. Particularly when you have no weapon drawn.
GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1: (11)+8+1: 20 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls weapon0+1: (13)+8+1: 22 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls 1d8+5: (7)+5: 12 GAME: Itzpapalotl rolls 1d8+5: (8)+5: 13 GAME: Delilah rolls ranged: (13)+5: 18 GAME: Delilah rolls 1d8: (6): 6
The monsters see their chance as the lizard is projectile vomiting all over the floor. They come dashing at her, lesions oozing, their decaying bodies ready to burst with pestilence. She looks up as two of them leap at her. Then the lizard lets out a tremendous hiss. It's verging on a vicious roar, and then the Sith-Makar picks up one of the corpses into each of her taloned hands. The gears on her arms are screaming with the pressure as the artifice works over time. The sith-Makar's shoulders flex and her arms shake. There's a sickening snap. The corpses, now flopping instead of being rigid, are smashed into each other and tossed into Izzy's heap of redeceased foes.
Strike finally runs out of the house, covered in gore.
GAME: Banshee rolls weapon5-1: (17)+8+-1: 24 GAME: Banshee rolls damage5+3: aliased to 1D8+7+3: (3)+7+3: 13
"Donna! We're winning!" Delilah backpedals, moving to cover Itzapapalotl, but... maybe the Sith Makar doesn't need covering, it looks like she's got things under control Daechir seems to have things in hand as well, so she picks one of the zombies that's left; she's about to cast a spell, when instead she just shrugs, and finally gets around to pulling her pistol from its holster. "Chew on this," she suggests to the zombie, and with a pull of the trigger and a loud bang with a bright flash, she blasts a hole in its head. ...Of course, it's a zombie, and apparently that doesn't matter. "Well, bugger."
Banshee stepped again to the side, with the zombie getting shot badly in the head. She turns her head, looking off to Delilah, and gives a half-grimace. "Blinded it at least." He shrugs and steps back deeply, his hands working in unison to draw the spear back and then up and over his back. She reaches up to grab the bottom haft, and whips the bladed end down in a fast arc that cuts deeply into the creature's neck, finishing it off.
“Thank you for that." Her hands return to the spear and Banshee whips the tip to the side to clear off the ichor before looking for the bow she dropped earlier in the fight.
So.
The undead are dead. A quick search of the surrounding area reveals no indication of why they were there, initially, though their clothes, upon closer examination, shows them to be miners of some kind. Uniforms, you see, and traces of copper ore upon them.
Checking the map reveals a copper mine none too far from here...
It bears investigation.
-End