Pathfinders of the New World- Knights of the Cross(roads), the Next Generation: Book Two, Chapter Three

Saving Seaside Part Two:
Big Badda Boom

Dramatis Personae:
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
Niss'RizDax Kenarn, the Drow Sword Dancer Priestess of Eilistraee, "the Moonlit Dancer"
Xara, the Dorc Circus Eldritch Knight

Comrades we have lost:
Nyneve, the Water Genasi Druid of the Fountain- eaten by zombies


NOTE: Things will be mostly from Dax's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view, since the priestess can't be everywhere at once.

***** Astron 4, 480, Seaside

       The gnome with the bombs approached us, I learned later that her name was Pinkerton, and she told us we needed to get to the mayor's compound, it was the only place safe from the undead. As we headed toward it, Taryn heard a rattling noise coming from the direction of the basement and realized it sounded like a living person, not a trapped undead. A few moments later, Taryn emerged with another drow; a really tall drow, who was very muscular and had a peculiar under bite, with what appear to be small tusks.

        The poor dear was so frightened by the undead that she couldn't really speak, but through some peculiar gestures, she conveyed to Taryn that she needed her weapons. KlikKlik told us to get to the compound, she'd grab Taryn and fly the two of them there when she came out again. Sonitri, myself, and our newcomer ran toward the compound with the undead hot on our tails. Sonitri and I managed to make it through the gate, but our new friend had a ghoul right on her tail, and it barely missed grabbing her as the gates swung closed.

       Taryn found a ton of stuff in the closet of the barracks where Xara's stuff had been left. She gathered what she could, and was met by KlikKlik the moment she emerged. They decided to stop at the Temple of Apsu before going to the compound, hoping to find holy water, only to find it locked. The person in the Temple was convinced to let them in moments before the undead near that area reached them. They convinced the priest there to give them a cask of holy water before flying back to the compound for the night. 

       When the drow had finally calmed down enough to be able to speak, I learned her name was Xara, and she had been arrested the night of the initial attack for bar fighting. She was a peculiar drow, in general, and I just wasn't sure what to make of her. When I prayed that night, naked under the moon as Eilistraee intended, she watched me- it was a little creepy. Didn't help that some of the guards were also staring.

***** Astron 5, Seaside

       There were too many people who thought they should be in charge in this compound, and none of them could agree on what we should do to finish the damn undead off. While everyone argued, KlikKlik approached the mayor and asked if he had any guns that she could use for the fight, and he did, but tried to extort her into paying far more than she had on the weapon. The kobold was pissed, and began ranting about the lord being nothing but a coward... it was really funny to watch.

       Taryn took KlikKlik's rant as an opportunity to sneak into the lord's house and steal the gun for KlikKlik. She slipped back to the group as KlikKlik was finishing up her rant, and snuck the gun into KlikKlik's bag of holding. 

       Finally we came up with a plan of our own, because we were sick of the jackasses arguing over how to solve this. If we let them continue, we'd die of starvation, or boredom. Our plan was this: Taryn would draw the undead to the barracks, and when they were all there Pinkerton would set off her bombs. KlikKlik and TickTick would shadow Taryn from the air, and get her out of there before Pinkerton's bomb went off. Sonitri, Xara, and I would follow the others on foot, and deal with mopping up what was left of the undead.

       Once everyone was in position, we heard Taryn yell "dickbags" at the undead, which I guess was the signal to the others to prepare for the bomb. Taryn and KlikKlik began picking off what undead they could, being as loud as possible to keep drawing in the undead. It felt like forever before the airstrike was in range to blow the fuckers up, and just like we planned, the three of them got away right before it happened. Most of the undead died in the explosion.

       Sonitri followed the explosion up with a fireball of her own, killing another good chunk of our foes. I unleashed a moonbeam on the undead, using it to mop up the ghouls, and Xara ran out to try to get in melee with the undead. We all unleashed fury on the undead, but it seemed like it was Sonitri's fireballs that made the biggest difference in this fight. Since most of them had been badly damaged in the explosion, we finished all of them off easily.

       There were some stragglers here and there, and probably some hiding in buildings, so we went to go check on all of the buildings. KlikKlik and I took one side of the street, Taryn and Xara taking the other. After the first three houses, we ended up switching up our teams, I was now with Xara and KlikKlik was with Taryn. The next two houses weren't too difficult to clear, but the sixth house- third with Xara- was a different story.

       In the basement of the sixth house were six ghouls. I attempted to scare them so we could pick them off easier, but it only worked on one of them. Seeing this, Xara backed partway up the stairs, leaving me standing alone, just inside the doorway. They were on me in an instant, and pain bloomed throughout my body as everything went dark. The next thing I knew, Xara was kneeling over me, removing an empty vial from my lips. Then the ghouls swarmed Xara, and I bolted up the stairs so they wouldn't drop me again, stepping over the corpse of one ghoul- she must have dropped it while I was down. Xara followed me, and I think she intended to use the stairs as a choke point; I confess I wasn't paying too much attention to what she was doing, I was busy healing myself. She killed a second ghoul before the others hurt her so badly that for a moment I thought she was going to die. We were both drenched in blood and badly injured, so we ran out of the house and to the street, calling for KlikKlik and Taryn; they killed the other ghouls with ease.

***** Astron 6, Crossroads

       We got back to Crossroads later in the day, and reported in. They told us to come back tomorrow afternoon, and to just take the rest of today and tomorrow morning to rest.

Pathfinders of the New World- Knights of the Cross(roads), the Next Generation: Book Two, Chapter Two

Saving Seaside, Part One:
The Barracks

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
Niss'RizDax Kenarn, the Drow Sword Dancer Priestess of Eilistraee, "the Moonlit Dancer"


NOTE: Things will be mostly from Nyneve's perspective, switching later to Dax's, anything in italics is from a third party view, since they can't be everywhere at once.

***** Astron 4, 480, Seaside

       We decided that we would enter Seaside through the main road, and head to the barracks first; the others would come to town from the side. We thought we could cover the most ground that way.

       When we got to the barracks the door was broken down. KlikKlik flew up to the roof, thinking that was most likely where any survivors would be, and I sent my Rope of Climbing up after her; Sonitri and I both began to climb. Taryn was going to enter the main door, but decided not to after seeing how many undead were filling the room.

       It turns out the roof was not where we should have started... instead of survivors we found three skeletons, three zombies, three ghouls, and one ogre. We instantly began slinging spells and bullets at the undead, and just before a group of them got to where Sonitri and I were standing, she vanished, leaving me as the only target. Pain went screaming through my body as the zombies began to rip into me, and everything went dark.

       The next thing I remember is Taryn standing over me, removing a vial from my lips. I needed to get away from the zombies or I'd be down again, so I turned into a mouse and ran away, and once I was far enough, I turned back into myself to heal some more- which made the ghouls take notice of me. Bollocks. The zombies I'd just run from dropped poor Taryn, but KlikKlik rushed to aid her as soon as she went down. The ghouls ripped into my flesh again and I descended into darkness. Nyneve was dead.

       Taryn, Sonitri, and KlikKlik found a trap door on the roof, and a group of survivors inside. They persuaded the people to let them in, and got a before reprieve from the undead. 

***** Dax*****

       An interesting trio came in through the trap door that leads to the roof of the barracks I've been trapped in for the last three days, since the undead attacks began. I can destroy some undead, through the powers granted to me by Eilistraee, but not enough to make much of a difference with so many about; I had been doing what I could to keep the people I was trapped with safe, but it didn't feel like I was doing enough.

       I was relieved that we had a group of rescuers, now I could finally get out there and fight. We formed a plan with the three of them, in hopes it would be enough to get us all out of this damn building. I would fly out there with KlikKlik and TickTick, using my gift to destroy the undead, and Taryn would organize the rest of the guard to come out for ranged support.

       TickTick grabbed onto my shoulders and flew me to right above the biggest group of them, and I dusted six skeletons and I scared two ghouls. KlikKlik began taking shots at the undead, and I continued letting loose my sacred flame, which hurts undead.

       Once the guards were outside and had formed their line, TickTick set me down so he could aid in the attack. We were definitely dishing out some damage to the undead, but there just didn't seem to be and end to the fuckers. It didn't seem to matter how many we dropped, more would just rise in their place- but how the fuck were they even getting on the roof? Do zombies now have spider climb? I mean really, what the fuck?

       We were taking heavy damage, and I began debating if we should call for a retreat when an explosion blossomed just out of sight on the other side of the roof. A gnome and a group of humans were there, helping us now to clear out the hoarde. We just barely managed to take out what was left on the roof.

Pathfinders of the New World- Knights of the Cross(roads), the Next Generation: Book Two, Chapter One

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.