When Undead Attack
Dramatis Personae:
Nyneve, the Water Genasi Druid of the Fountain
KlikKlick BoomBoom, the Kobold Beastmaster
TickTick, KlikKlik's Giant Bat animal companion
Sonitri, the Samsaran Arcane Prodigy Sorcerer
Taryn Al'Maera, the Drow Assassin and future Ralliakkan
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Nyneve's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view, since the druid can't be everywhere at once.
***** Astron 1, 480, Forest near River Glenn
It was near dark as I was patrolling my woods, everything had been pretty quiet lately, so I was enjoying the peace of this spring evening, when I saw a figure coming toward me in the woods. The figure was shambling toward me, almost stumbling, and I called out to it, asking if it needed help. When it didn't answer, I hurried toward it, thinking it was hurt and needed help.
By the time I noticed it wasn't alive, it was too late; I was surrounded by three bloody zombies. They grabbed me and began to bite, so I shifted into an ape to attempt to throw them off me, but apparently they were too strong. Instead they ripped into me, causing pain erupt as if lava throughout my body, as they hurt me enough to revert me back to my normal genasi form. I knew if I couldn't escape it would mean my death, so I turned into a cat and bolted; they couldn't hold onto me suddenly changing shape and shrinking like that.
As I ran away from the zombies, a fucking giant bat picked me up- it thought I was prey. Once it reached the tree that it planned to eat me in, I escaped from it, climbed down the tree, and turned back into myself. I bolted for town and went to the tavern where I knew guards would be.
I breathlessly told the guards in the tavern what had happened, and that the zombies were likely heading to town. A group playing dice in the room looked up at my story and said they'd come with me. The guards hurried to prepare for if the zombies made it into town.
On the way to meet the zombies, I learned that my companion's names were Taryn, Sonitri, and KlikKlik, and that the bat who'd grabbed me earlier was TickTick, KlikKlik's companion.
When we finally reached the zombies Taryn and KlikKlik began shooting at them, while I dropped a moonbeam on a group and Sonitri blew a bunch of them up with fireballs- which then set the forest on fire. I'd have to take care of that later. The zombies didn't seem to appreciate Sonitri's fireballs, as they surrounded her and began tearing into her flesh. She seemed badly injured, so I rushed to her side to heal her, allowing a zombie to slash at me as I passed it.
Sonitri used a spell that allowed her to get away from the zombies on her- which left me swarmed and alone. They began ripping into me right away, and it was only my healing magics that kept them from killing me; I couldn't shift to get away or anything, I was trapped. TickTick swooped in and grabbed me to pull me from the swarm, that bat is a life saver- pun intended.
Once I was clear we began to retreat back toward town, and realized that many of the zombies we'd just slain were wearing the uniforms of the Red Keep- not good.
Back in town we gathered everyone who could fight, which was a very small lot. We had eight drunks from the tavern, six guards, the captain of the guard, two hunters, and ten other people. I hoped we wouldn't need more than that. KlikKlik attempted to requisition goods from the merchants, but this is a small village, so there weren't many. She did get us a few kegs of oil though. We set up a barricade in the center of town, leaving those we'd rallied down below while we took to the roofs. I set myself up on the mayor's roof, KlikKlik was on the tavern's roof, and Sonitri and Taryn were on Sonitri's roof.
When the zombies began shambling toward our barricades we all opened fire, in one way or another. I set a moonbeam down on top of one of them, and began frying them with radiant light. As a group drew near one of KlikKlik's oil kegs, she shot the keg and set off a massive explosion. We kept slinging spells and ammo at them, and after a few breaths, KlikKlik set another explosion off. While we were holding our own, there didn't seem to be an end to the onslaught of undead, and I began to worry that we wouldn't be able to end the assault.
In the distance I could make out a massive figure shambling toward us, moments before a little ball of white light, that resembled a tiny sun, appeared over the center of town. It expanded into a huge explosion of fire, killing all undead in its path, and somehow putting out all of the fires in the forest. The ball then condensed and turned into a human looking figure, with half of his face looking like it was made of living fire.
The man introduced himself to us as Major General Ember from the Red Keep's military. He told us that the border to the Scourge Lands had been breached and the Keep had been under heavy siege for the last day. Ember said the military was in need of aid and we should head to Crossroads tomorrow and talk to Captain Hayes Addington. He gave Taryn a bag of coins as a sign-on bonus, and gave the rest of us a gem each, then the odd man left.
We decided we needed to get good and drunk after that battle, so we headed to the tavern for the night.
***** Astron 2, Crossroads
When we reported in to Captain Addington a little while after we got to Crossroads, he told us to report to 1st Lieutenant Sudryl Glyntris in the morning for our assignment. Since we were free for the evening, we headed to the Underhearth to grab a drink. I stayed the night in Kelani's garden, and slept marvelously.
***** Astron 3, Crossroads
This morning we got off to a later start than the military approves of apparently, and after being chided for reporting in a little late, Glyntris asked for a demonstration of our skills. Taryn and KlikKlik each shot at targets, then Sonitri shot a bolt of flame at the target, setting it alight. I created a fountain of water to put her fire out, and then TickTick destroyed what was left of the scorched target. Glyntris thought TickTick was the cutest thing ever- which I'm inclined to agree with.
We were assigned to 2nd Lieutenant Kiersten Pinkerton's group, which Glyntris said was outside the city. Once we exited the city we heard some explosions, and followed them to the source- a gnome, Pinkerton. She told us that Seaside was badly infested with undead and we had been assigned to help clear it out, along with another group of adventurers: Luth Dotsk, Seipora Dumein, Silifrey Helder, and Zashieda Kulenov.
As we traveled toward Seaside, we saw a couple groups of zombies shambling in our direction, we took one group while the others took the second group. Turns out it wasn't just zombies this time, there were ghouls and ogre zombies too. Bollocks. I heard explosions from behind us as Taryn killed (re-killed?) one of the ghouls. I summoned my moonbeam on a ghoul and KlikKlik finished that one off. Sonitri unleashed a trio of arcane darts at one of the undead, while KlikKlik and Taryn shot again. I moved my moonbeam to an ogre, since I knew it would take a little while to kill that one. Ogres are hard enough to kill alive, so I was certain that rekilling them would prove to be just as difficult.
Turns out ghouls are a lot faster than zombies, and they ran right up to us- I hadn't been expecting that. I put shillelagh on my staff and whacked the ghoul with it, but it didn't seem to hurt the bugger much. TickTick dove at an ogre, and almost got grabbed by the bugger in the process. By this point most of the undead were in our faces. Sonitri used a fireball on them, taking out a few; turns out ghouls are harder to kill than zombies too. Two of the ghouls went right for me, and hurt me so badly I felt near death; I managed to get away from them to heal myself. KlikKlik and TickTick were concentrating their fire on a single ogre, who looked like it was about to die again. A group of the zombies surrounded Sonitri, but she used that mist spell that let her escape from them; then she dropped another fireball on them. She really needs to teach me that mist spell.
Taryn tossed a dagger at the almost redead ogre, and somehow managed to hit KlikKlik instead... maybe she was actually aiming for KlikKlik, I've heard drow aren't trustworthy before. TickTick finished off the ogre that was going for KlikKlik, as I saw the undead who Sonitri had just escaped from follow her. She dropped one of the zombies, and Taryn dropped one of the ghouls that were after her. I created a tidal wave and killed the ogre and ghoul that were after her. There was only one ghoul left at this point. Sonitri aimed a bolt of fire at it and hit Taryn instead... then Taryn finished off the ghoul.
We heard a chuckle from behind us and turned to find the others laughing at us. They had killed their group much quicker, because they had a cleric equipped to deal with undead. Zashieda healed us all before we continued on our way.
A couple of hours later we spotted some skeletons near the main road that leads to Seaside. We picked them off quickly, from a safe distance. And a few hours after that we were at Seaside. In the distance we could see figures shambling about in the city. Since it was almost dark, we decided to camp for the night and head in in the morning.
**** Astron 4, Seaside
When we got up this morning, Taryn and KlikKlik decided to sneak into town to see how bad the infestation was. Turns out it was worse than we'd thought. The pair had seen eight ogres, eighteen ghouls, thirty zombies, and thirty skeletons. Bollocks. This wasn't going to be an easy fight.
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