Last time, the group had witnessed an attempted rebellion during the burgomaster's Festival, and joined in by attacking both the city guard and Fiona Wachter's rebels, essentially making us our own side. Until the zombies showed up...
The appearance of the zombies distracts Elle from her goal of shooting Izek, and instead she fires at one of the undead clawing at the wall of city guards. The arrow strikes true, piercing through the zombie's shoulder, and then exploding into a hail of thorns which plunge into the flesh of all nearby, zombie and guard alike. The guards cry in pain, but the zombies continue their relentless advance, unperturbed by the damage inflicted on them.
Seeing that her previous attack had little effect on the zombies, Sadun channels her rage into a headlong charge into the nearest walking corpse, swinging Briarblade in a sweeping arc that cleanly removes the zombie's head. The body simply turns and swipes at her with its claws, scraping along her scaly skin. Sadun growls, her rage frustrated at the zombie's refusal to die. Behind her, Gilligan swings his mace, but misjudges the distance and the swing narrowly misses the zombie's hip. Discouraged, the goblin backs away, looking for another opening. Attempting to capitalize on the attacks of the adventurers, the guards renew their efforts, stabbing the zombies repeatedly with their spears. However the zombies continue their implacable advance, clawing and biting at the guards as soon as they can reach them. Several guards fall before the zombies, their lifeless bodies hitting the soft ground with a wet thump.
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On the other side of the town square, Lady Fiona Wachter and four of her bodyguards watch the zombies advance with glee. Nearby, the simmering form of Fiona's spiritual mace swings repeatedly at Talna, as the drowse cleric ducks and dodges away from the blows. Talna attempts to retaliate with her own spiritual weapon, a glowing dove that swoops down to peck at Fiona Wachter, but one of Fiona's guards raises a hand, chanting an incantation that dispels the magical bird. Cursing, Talna raises her hands and summons a skeletal hand amongst Fiona's people, but the hand fails to grab hold of anything solid.
"Crowd control measures!" Jaro shouts, running up to Talna's position, and points at Fiona's group. Thick ropy vines erupt from the ground where Jaro points, grasping and clutching at the feet of the insurgents. Fiona and her two closest guards are able to hack their way free of the entangling vines, but the other two lackeys are less lucky, finding themselves restrained.
"Alright, what's all the commotion about?" Asks a familiar voice near Jaro's ear. Turning, the satyr sees that Balasar has appeared on the scene. "Fight those people!" Jaro suggests, pointing towards Fiona. "Sure, I've nothing better to do," Balasar agrees, and charges at Fiona, swinging his shortsword in a deadly arc and slashing the would-be ruler of the city across the arm. Fiona's unentangled guards react quickly, one of them moving between Balasar and his mistress and trading blows with the dragonborn, while the other charges out of the vines and attacks Jaro, stabbing the satyr in the gut and leaving a deep bleeding wound. Fiona herself directs her spiritual mace to attack Talna again, but when the mace fails to connect, she lets out a growl of frustration. Fiona pulls a dagger from her boot and throws it at Talna, but the weapon falls short of its target to the sound of drowse laughter.
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Despite the confusion, Izek spies Elle and seeks vengeance for the arrows she hit him with before the zombies showed up. Running up to her with a shout, he brings his axe down, biting hard into the gnome's shoulder. Izek them goes to kick her away in disgust, but his foot flies over Elle's head as she ducks away from him.
"If you attack me again, I will be your death," Izek rumbles.
"Ok..." Elle replies, intimidated in spite of herself. Deciding that fighting the undead is the better part of valor, she draws her short swords, and with a cautious look back at the still fuming guard captain, rushes the headless zombie attacking Sadun. With an artful stab and slice, Elle cuts the zombie's legs from its torso, and the once again lifeless body falls to the mud.
Seeing her target fall and not rise again, Sadun turns to the next zombie and carves out a large portion of its side with her greatsword. The zombie barely slows, as it ignores Sadun and claws another guard to death. Gilligan rushes in, attempting to alleviate the pressure on the remaining guards, but his mace seems to bounce off the zombie he hits. As if to make up for that, Elle steps forward, stabbing her blades into the wound Sadun had opened and slicing outwards, eviscerating the zombie in a spray of gore.
Sadun finds herself facing a line of zombies attempting to claw past the spearpoints and shields of the remaining guards, and decides to unleash an ability she has not tried in a long while. Gathering a deep breath, she exhales forcefully, breathing a cone of cold air that freezes the air in front of her. The rain freezes to ice on the zombies where her breath hits them, but again the dead creatures are barely fazed, although one turns and begins clawing at Sadun in return as she holds her head as a brief wave of pain hits her. It has been so long she's given herself brain freeze!
Seeing a chance, Gilligan moves behind the zombie attacking Sadun, finally getting in a good hit with his mace which staggers the zombie a moment before it resumes its attack. Further down the line, another zombie gets its claws past a guard's shield, and breaks the guard's neck. Only two guards remain standing, bravely holding against the undead onslaught.
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Apparently satisfied that Elle would not be a threat to him, Izek turns his attention towards Fiona's group. With a shout of warning to the civilians still in the area, he runs straight at Fiona, and hurls a fireball at her. The fireball missed Lady Wachter but impacts the lackey standing next to her trying to fend off Balasar, searing the man's flesh. Pleased by this turn towards burning things, Balsar follows suit, breathing fire on Fiona and the lackey in front of him, setting both of their clothes aflame, although the rain quickly puts the fire out.
"Stay on your feet Jaro!" Talna says, as Jaro staggers under the wound he received. Her words spark a healing wave in the satyr, and the wound knits closed, although Jaro can still feel the impact. Talna turns back towards Fiona and again summons a skeletal hand, but when the fingers brush past Lady Wachter an ethereal barrier blocks it from touching her. The lackey next to her is once more less lucky, as the skeletal fingers bite into his arm and sap life away from him.
Jaro, looking offended that he had been stabbed, grabs the arm of his attacker and channels electricity into the man, shocking him. As the man stumbles backwards, Jaro says another swift incantation, and a shimmering field surrounds his body as he dashes away from the lackey.
Fiona, recognizing the threat of the dragonborn in front of her, casts a spell, then says "Kneel down before me!" Balasar finds himself compelled to fall to his knees, as he hears a familiar rumbling in the back of his head. Fiona's spiritual mace finally manages to land a blow on Talna, causing the drop to shoot a rude gesture in Fiona's direction. Izek follows that up with another fireball, which explodes in Fiona's face.
Meanwhile, Fiona's lackey sees Jaro retreating, and pulls out a crossbow. The bolt hits true, piercing Jaro's leg and halting his movement. Talna, seeing her friend in trouble, runs over to the lackey and smacks him with her mace, sending him reeling backwards, and again sends waves of healing energy to Jaro, stopping the bleeding. Jaro returns, moving behind the crossbow wielder, and swings his quarterstaff, but the blow goes wide. Frustrated, Jaro grabs the man instead, and once again shocks him with Shocking Grasp.
Balasar, finding the compulsion to kneel has faded once he performed the action, stands back up and stabs the lackey attempting to defend Fiona. The lackey attempts to fight back, but the burns and bleeding are adding up, and his feeble attempt misses the dragonborn completely. Fiona, muttering about "doing things herself" draws a second dagger and plunges it into Balasar's side. The spectral mace swings in from behind Talna, smacking her in the head, as the lackey she and Jaro had flanked dodges out of the way, reloading his crossbow as he does, and shoots Jaro once again. Jaro flinches from the hit, and loses concentration on the entangling vines, which dissipate, freeing the other two lackeys of Fiona.
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In the melee of undead flesh and whirling blades, Elle once again dives forward, slashing with wild abandon, and cleaves a zombie into twitching pieces. Sadun, blinded from the blood spray, swings her great sword with great viciousness through the space the zombie had previously occupied. Gilligan has more luck however, smashing his mace into a zombie's side. The goblin then rushes away from the zombies and towards Fiona's group, hoping to add his strength to the cause there now that Jaro's crowd control measures have failed.
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Izek, seeing weakness, swings his battleaxe into the same man Balasar had just stabbed. The man slumps over, his eyes lifeless as Izek works to shake the corpse off of his blade.
Talna attempts another Chill Touch, but once again the skeletal hand misses Fiona. However, one of the newly freed lackeys rushes straight into the skeletal claws and gasps at the sudden deathly cold that grips him. Jaro backs this up by firing a line of blue lightning that strikes Fiona and binds her to him. However, as he prepares to channel another surge of energy through the tether Fiona hurls a blast of energy in return, knocking the satyr unconscious.
Turning from the scene of Izek shaking the corpse from his axe, Balasar swings at the distracted Fiona, his blade stabbing into her side. Izek, his blade free of the dead weight, turns and slashes his blade across Fiona's back as well.
"Help!" Fiona cries out, "this isn't how things were supposed to go!" As the freed lackeys rush to her aid, Lady Wachter retreats from the fight, attempting to escape. The man who had been plaguing Jaro and Talna all this time turns at Fiona's cry and runs up to Balasar, stabbing him in the side.
Talna, seeing the immediate threat distracted, once more channels healing energy into the fallen Satyr. Jaro, opening his eyes, casts a new incantation. Suddenly, Balasar finds himself growing to twice his normal height. Taking a deep breath, Balasar shouts from his new height "I accept!"
On the rooftop nearby, forgotten until now, Strahd smiles, and disappears.
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As Gilligan leaves the fray, one of the remains zombies turns to Sadun and bites her, taking a deep chunk of flesh from her shoulder. Its claws scrape across her arms, leaving ragged bloody welts behind them. Roaring in rage Sadun brings Briarblade up, cleaving the offending zombie cleanly in twain.
The remaining two zombies finally prove too much, overwhelming the remaining guards resistance and killing both of them. In response, Elle steps forward, her short swords a dazzling display as she removes the head of one zombie, disembowls the other, and turns for a return swing that hacks the legs from both zombies. Finding themselves alone amidst a scene of carnage, Elle and Sadun stop to catch their breath.
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At Balasar's words, Izek, Talna and Jaro look on in horror as the enlarged dragonborn is surrounded by a swirling dark energy which engulfs him, flowing across his body and coalescing at the stump of his left arm. The energy gathers there, and seems to solidify into the form of a hand, holding a short sword, also of dark energy.
"Hellsteeth Balasar!" Talna shouts, "We paid a lot of money for your new hand!" Under her breath, she continues "I'm cutting that new hand off, or we're getting our money back..."
With a grunt of pleasure, Balasar turns to the dumbfounded lackey who had stabbed him and eviscerated the man with both metal and dark swords.
"Is that normal for dragonborn?" Jaro asks innocently. Talna curses again.
Fiona, seeing the power surrounding Balasar, increases her pace. She chants a spell, and her feet begin to leave the ground. As she moves to fly back to the safety of her home however, a small green figure leaps up at her. Howling a prayer to helm and swinging his mace, Gilligan bludgeons Fiona in the side of the head, and a stroke of thunder breaks out over the town square. Both figures fall to the ground, but only the goblin stands up afterward.
Seeing all that had unfolded, one of the two lackeys still standing breaks away and runs off into the misty streets. The other, looking from Balasar to Izek and back, drops her weapons and holds up her hands in surrender.
Seeing the fighting has finally exhausted itself, Talna turns towards the church. "There was a commotion that way a few minutes ago, we need to make sure Irena is safe!" she calls out. With that, the drowse cleric begins to run to the church, Sadun, Gilligan and Jaro close on her heels. Gilligan shouts over his shoulder as he leaves "Izek! Strahd might still be in the area!"
Elle shrugs, and begins looting the bodies in the square, while Izek and Balasar glare at each other in barely disguised hatred.
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Pressing through the frightened crowd moving away from the church, Talna and her companions discover the doors to the church broken, hanging open at odd angles. As they move inside, they find a chaotic scene, pews and tables overturned and books scattered around the floor. In the back of the church, they see Irena, kneeling over a body and apparently attempting to stop the bleeding from several wounds.
"Oh no, Ismarck?" Talna breathes, as they approach. However it is not her brother, but the body of Father Lucian.
"No, Father Lucian! Our only friend!" Jaro cries out in sadness.
"He's not dead," Sadun points out, "not yet."
Talna moves to Irena's side and channels the last divine energy available to her to close up the priests wounds and steady his breathing. Irena sits back, looking haggard and exhausted. The priest's eyes open, and he tries to speak, but only unintelligible babble comes out.
"Peace Father Lucian," Irena says, "please don't exert yourself." She turns to the adventurers next to her. "A few people dressed in bright clothing came in earlier today, looking to speak to Father Lucian," she begins.
"The Vistani?" Talna gasps.
Irena nods. "They spoke to Father Lucian for quite some time, but when we heard the commotion outside, they became angry and violent. They said something about 'the bones', and one of them pulled a knife. Ismarck tried to stop them, but they stabbed Father Lucian. They ransacked the place, and then they left. I assume they got what they wanted..."
"It's not safe in the church anymore, especially if they took the bones again," Talna says. "Maybe we should keep you with us, Irena? It's not the safest, but we can fight better than poor Father Lucian if it comes to it."
"Maybe they took the bones for another reason than to expose Irena?" Gilligan ponders out loud.
"What other reason could they have? They work for Strahd!" Talna shouts back.
"But maybe the bones are part of Madam Eva's fortune," Gilligan said. "Maybe they're necessary for stopping Strahd."
He pulls out a piece of paper from his pouch. "I wrote it all down, here. Let's try to figure this out before we get distracted again!"
Here I will print the whole of Madame Eva's fortune:
The first card tells of history. Knowledge of the ancient will help you better understand your enemy. The card is the 4 of Glyphs, the Shepherd. You must find the mother, she who gave birth to evil.
The second card tells of a powerful force for good and protection, a symbol of great hope you must collect. The card is the 3 of Coins, the Trader. Look to the wizards of wines; in the wood and the sand the treasure hides.
The third card is a card of power and strength. It tells of a weapon of vengeance: A sword of sunlight. The card is the 3 of Glyphs, the Healer. Look to the west. Find a pool blessed by the light of the white sun.
The fourth card sheds light on one who will help you greatly in your battle against darkness. The card is... blank. The Worst of All Truths, you must face the evil of this land alone.
Your enemy is a creature of darkness whose powers are beyond mortality. This card will lead you to him, drawn from the High Deck. The Ghost. Look to the father's tomb.
To be continued!
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