Tag: zombies

Storming a Castle

On By ravonlockeIn Jin, JournalLeave a comment

Are we storming a castle? Sneaking in? What we doin? Eggy wants inside. Seems like there’s only a couple ways in. I go sneak up to look. The dome has tiny windows way up. The buildings are all shut up with no way in. There’s a little stream coming out one place, but the bars are too close together for me. Sandy comes up to squeeze through. After a while, he comes back and says there’s a well inside, but then in just goes into the mountain. The rest of us can’t get though this way. The big doors are so heavy there’s no sneaking in that way and there’s big things moving around inside. So, we head back to the group.

What if the people inside need help? The blue dwarves are from under the dark not up on the hill. What if they got attacked by the blue ones or just saw them? Maybe they’re not the bad guys. We can’t all sneak up anyway, and that big door is obvious. So, we just start walking up and calling out to them that we’re here to help.

They shoot us. From the dome.

Eggy says it is the blue dwarves after all, so we shoot back. Saalym gets right up on the side of the dome and Sandy goes right inside! The windows are too small for anyone else, but Twitch says he can make me tiny and he can magic himself inside. So, Sandy, Twitch, and me go inside to scout. Doc says he’s going to take a quick nap until we get back, and Leshy makes my eyes glow or something.

WOW! Seeing in the dark is so cool! Is this what Doc sees all the time??? No wonder he’s so sneaky.

We head down the ladders and into a tunnel and back up another ladder. The first room is pretty empty, but the second room has piles of supplies and stuff. And some really big blue dwarves who attack us! We attack them right back. I miss Doc, but we put them down and take their money and stuff. I get some more rope and climbing stuff and Twitch gets some herbs. The next room has even more big blue dwarves, so we have to fight them, too. I guess the others got bored waiting, cuz we hear gunshots from the next room over.

The others had bust in and killed some dead ogres and goats and big blue dwarves. A bunch of them fell in a pit, but not all. Everybody’s tired but it’s really not a good place to stop, there’s doors everywhere! So, I sneak off down a short hall to a bit empty room, there’s a couple doors to another room with a lever in it. I can’t tell what the lever does, but there’s another hall with a door. Sounds like there’s people in there. This seems better than the front area, so I whisper for them to come here.

I really want to find out what this lever does, but I just hold it. The group comes to join me and when Saalym gets in the doorway, someone else pushes the lever down! It wasn’t me, I swear! I stabbed him real good, too, to prove it. the two doors came down with only Saalym getting through to me. A bunch more things come rushing down the hall. Some of the dwarves were inside big metal suits! Eggy gets the door back up so everyone can get through. Nobody wanted to break the suits, I guess, cuz they just kept trying to stab the dwarves inside. I had my hands full with the dwarves not in suits.

One of them ran away down the hall after all his friends were dead. We chased after him and when he opened the door, the hallway caught fire! It hurt a lot, but we kept going. Killed him and his magic friend. This room is nice and quiet. It has pretty rocks in it. This seems like a much better place to rest.

Wait. Where’s Doc?

Wyrms and Worms

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, QuillLeave a comment

Red blasts light out from his flaming sword, and it makes the shadows made. A bunch of shadows, four shadowy dogs, and even a shadowing dragon all come out of the dark to attack us. Well, mostly Red. The dragon is really mad, and it kills all the dogs to try and get Red. But it got the Big Guy instead. We killed it, though, the awful thing.

Nevi and Mary Mouse start cutting it up and Sam starts to pray, or meditate, or something. She mutters to herself, and I swear she’s talking to her Daddy. When she gets back up again, she confirms that. Says her Daddy can fix the Big Guy, for a price. We have to dedicate the Mummy Lord’s death to her Daddy and give him some of its treasure. Her Daddy is some sort of worm that will destroy everything, which seems bad, but Red says that’s a long time from now. I don’t understand if we have to kill the Mummy first, or after he fixes him, but everybody agrees we will. Sam starts praying again, and snakes show up all over the Big Guy’s body and it’s all weird, but eventually, he gets up again. He seems alright, so we move on. Maybe we should have asked for Orange back, too.

There are lots more doors and traps and hallways. One room has a treasure in the middle that makes Red try to kill Nevi, but Sam fixes him before I have to knock him out. Eventually, we run out of places to go and it takes a little bit to find the hidden door.

This room smells awful and is full of corpses. We slip in, and try to find a door, but seven of the corpses stand up and attack us. They spit worms at us! Zombie worms! They are so gross, we spend as much time smashing the worms as we do the zombies, but we get rid of both. Of course we then run into a Pink Toad that turns into a deathly dog when we shoot it, so we have to put that down, too. More rooms and locked doors. Will we ever get out of here?

A Dragon and a Necromancer

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, Quill1 Comment

Spymaster!

Did you know there’s a dragon in the bay?! He’s Bronze and his name is Zelapharn and I gave him some of the flat shinies because he said he was hungry. He has a stomach just for shiny things! He said that sailors drop things in the water and he collects them if Umberlee doesn’t get them first. Did you know she’s the Queen of the Sea? He’s going to go hibernate soon, but he was really fun.

The City of the Dead is not fun. It’s creepy and scary and the dead things walk around sometimes. There was a big necromancer guy in the House of the Homeless trying to raise a bunch of mommies and their unborn children. Candlekeep called them zombies, and said it would have been really bad. We smashed him, but Ambrose said it was okay because he was really bad.

There was also a big scary vampire up in the Deep Winter vault. He left though. Let us leave, too, because Red convinced him we were too much trouble to bother with. Red’s real smart.

~QS

Gunshots, Surgery, and Strange Invitations

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, TristiaLeave a comment

We head south, with Durance, his minions, and fifty men in tow. It is fairly easy travel for several days, until we enter the forest. It is dark in there, darker than it should be. Everyone is on high alert, but that doesn’t stop the ambush.

Shots ring out one afternoon that is nearly as dim as night. A fireball from Dalish and some lightning from myself light up the forest, and more fires spring up as the others join the fray. The Lt. is hit right off, and he goes down hard. I have to drag him into the brush and pump all my healing magic into him. He’s alive but he doesn’t wake up. Nat starts shouting that they’re intelligent undead, and points Klyce, who’s turned into an elephant at them. The fight didn’t last long, but the repercussions were huge.

Remy and Gerhardt spend the eight hours doing surgeries on the road side to save the Lt’s life, Remy’s eye, and Klyce’s guts. I pump what little healing I have left into our injured men, and it does them more good than it did the Lt. at least. Remy asks me to keep an eye on Klyce, as he will need my magics, and may not ask. The Lt is in a coma, so we’ll have to wait here for a day at least before we move him.

The next day is a big discussion about what to do. Marybeth wants to send the Lt back to the army. Strang and Providance argue that he will be very upset when he wakes if we try that. Klyce asks for the trees he downed and a few more, so he can make a wagon and a defensible wall here to protect us for one more day of rest. He’s got a new spell that doesn’t require him to move to create things. We dig in for the night, as I pray to the Dawnmother for my injured friends and the Lt.

The next day, the Lt is looking better, so with the help of a waggoneer’s son, we get the wagon rolling. With a spell for a floating platform, and another for ghostly horses, we move on. The forest continues to darken. HeyHey returns that day, though most of us had hardly noticed him gone. He saw loads of dead things around the house ahead of us.

We rest that night and then next morning, the Lt is in and out of consciousness. We move on and late afternoon, Durance wakes up and asks for a report. We fill him in, and he gives us orders to find a secure position in view of the house and then wake him up again.

We get to the mansion, with its wrought iron gates, and look ahead to se the lawn choked with hundreds of zombies. We step back to a good vantage point and let Nat send HeyHey and her invisible eye forward. Through the eye she notes royalist uniforms and notices some of the creatures have red eyes and aren’t behaving like the rest. It also sees the front door open and a zombie come out. When she tries to send her eye through the door it winks out.

The zombie that came out of the house is heading right for our position, so Nat heads out to meet it with Remy insistant on keep guard on her. When they return, Nat tells us a rather disgusting tale of it’s head splitting open and her brother’s voice coming out. We, Nat and her friends, are invited to dinner and parlay. Anyone else or any tricks will result in annihilation.

We wake Durance to fill him in, and he projects outside his body to talk to us. We all defend Stephen, and say we’ll be safe, and he’s killed 200 Royalists, afterall. Durance isn’t keen on giving us into his hands, thinks we’d make good hostages. He asks Nat to see what the fates have to say. It says bad things if she goes with only one escort, but good things if we all go in together.

Durance then gives Major Dalish a list of questions he wants answered: Why is he here? What are his ties to the Royalists? What was here before? What are his intentions toward the magocracy? Will he take citizenship in exchange for leniency? When Klyce quiestions this last, Durance reminds us all that other mages have come here and none have returned, punishment must be had.

We all clean up for dinner. I don’t have any of my fancy dressed, but I do have one that’s not my official uniform at least. We walk slowly through the zombie throng, with none of them moving towards us. A massive ghoul opens the door for us, and a line of undead servants await. Stephen comes down the stairs to grett us, calling the servants prototypes when someone notes the runes on their necks.

He leads us to the dining room where we all sit down for a sumptuous dinner. Klyce asks if his food can be blended, his guts are still a bit tetchy, and it is done. It is a fabulous dinner and Nat talks with him about their family. After dessert drinks, he allows it’s time for business.

Nat tears into him about the last time we met and how could he not tell her. He fires back that he woke up desperately hungry, and nearly killed their mother, so he had to get away from them all. They go back and forth a bit until Nat runs out of steam.

Dalish picks up the conversation and starts asking Durance’s questions. He’s here to get away from his family and the magocracy. This place was interesting and because we were starting to go after the Royalists, most of the folk had already abandoned it. The mages had left the rest of the troops poorly defended, so he was able to easily overtake the place. They had escaped with their research, which he won’t tell us about just yet. Stephen claims no Royalist ties and wishes to just stay free of the magocracy, too. He did kill the other mages who came here, and used them to make his prototype servants.

Then our talk turns to citizenship, punishment, and service. He has no interest in serving as we do, but thinks he might have valuable information instead. We explain a bit about running off to Italy and our service as punishment. Klyce points out that any information Stephen might have about the Royalists in the area could help his case. Marybeth suggests any new arcane research he has done. Remy asks for information on forces in New Calay.

Stephen asks us to send a message out to Durance, because a mind palace just won’t do. He offers information on the magic of this place and Royalist movements in the area. Klyce asks about his necromatic research, and he says it’s negotiable. So, I send out to Strang, since Durance was asleep last time I saw him.

He accepts citizenship, not service. He offers info on Longwood mages studies. Info on Royalist positions. Info on Royalist troop movements. Cessation of magocracy hostilities.

Strang sends back to me: That may be enough. Depending on the nature of the information.

Stephen accepts this and leads us from the hall to see what he offers.

Military Service: Genocide or Treason

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, TristiaLeave a comment

We sink into the mire of military service. Ten hours of marching a day, under spells that make us go further than we should and longer than we ought. We are instructed to use as much mana as possible to stress test the device. Our first goal is Gainswood, and then on to the south. Dalish takes a turn on the machine, while Remy heads off to find Aranea.

When Remy gets back, he gathers us all up to talk. We have to destroy the machine, he insists. We have to do it in a way that doesn’t seem like sabotage, so they think the design is faulty. We discuss various transmutation options with Klyce. Using various spells to mask what he’s doing, so he can weaken the machine and then we can quickly destroy it. We decide to start in the morning.

Nat looks into our futures the next morning, just to see. She stop the plan in its tracks. Our plan is a Bad Idea. Simply blowing it up with fireballs, as suspected, is also a Bad Idea. Remy decides to try and have a chat with Lt. Colonel Durance. I really don’t understand why he thinks this will work, but it’s Remy. He goes to try.

He returns and gives the expected answer — do your job, and also, Durance has been spying on us, and heard the entire conversation last night. We’ll have to be more careful. Then it devolves into a political discussion about systems of oppression, and one being just like the others. Someone suggests turning everyone into mages, for equality and Dalish pipes up. He says he’s been feeding bits of flesh that used to be Garion to people and it gives them magic for a short while. What the hell, Dalish??? I don’t want to hear any more about this, and engage Nat in conversation about where her Grandmother’s caravan travels, and if Canada is nice this time of year. She brings up the darkness and the six stars, and we try to remember the names of all six gods from the cave so many months ago.

Nat decides to scry on her brother, but similar to my messaging, nothing goes through. She tries her parents, but quickly drops the spell, and doesn’t try anymore for a while. Then she tries a new spell, pulling us all inside her head for a chat. It’s super strange. Remy and Klyce do not have good time, but it could be useful later. Nat and Marybeth decide to dream together, so I sit up and keep watch for them. Marybeth does not seem to be having good dreams, but at least no one goes wandering off, and they both wake up in the morning.

Once we’ve been traveling for a while. Durance lets us know that the Mage Corp will be splitting off from the main force, and splitting up. He and the other three will be going after one target while the rest of us go aver Gainswood Plantation. Our orders are to assess their strength and determine if there are any mages. If there are, execute them. If there aren’t, just leave the troops and civilians alone. We are mage hunting, nothing more. In two weeks, we will meet up on the other side. The Majors will be in charge, and are expected to handle any disputes like well-reasoned adults. The mana tanker will be traveling with the main force while we’re on assignment. We will have forty soldiers in our detachment. We are to keep them safe.

We gather up and head out. Sargeant Clem is in charge of our soliders, and he seems reasonable enough. We march through hot, sticky, wet swamplands. It is awful, but I do my best to keep the wind moving for us. The first night, while on my watch, I hear things all around us. I shout for everyone to get up as zombies charge in. We keep them men out of the fight, the zombies are focused on us, and we don’t fancy getting shot, or losing any of the men. Marybeth falls in the fight, and before we can help her, darkness gathers round.

“Who dis who has trespassed in my swamp”? the darkness asks.