Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
The rotting head on the platter opened one eye, the other orb twitched to reveal a small dessicated lump of gristle. The distended purple tongue twitched, and blackened teeth chewed upon it as it yelled out “INTRUDERS!” at deafening volume. We froze.
Most of us froze, anyway. Morgan dashed from the rotting head, knocked the spellbook to the floor, and then snatched it up with a cry of “Yahoo!”
Suddenly, hasty footsteps could be heard from the floor above us. Flynn turned to the small window, took five paces, and dived out of it, falling with a wailing cry to the floor 20 feet below. The cries of the rotting head and the footsteps above continued as we all clustered to the window to see Flynn getting up, dusting himself off, and dashing back into the observatory. A minute later, he came pounding back up the stairs looking bruised and sheepish.
As he crept up the next floor to scout out the room above for us, we heard a male voice cry out “Arise, my beautiful monstrosities!”, together with the smashing of an awful lot of glass. We ran up the stairs, drawing weapons as we went.
[Flynn’s player can’t be blamed for diving out of the window. He fumbled a horrifically difficult climb check, and this was just how we all visualised it…]
.oOo.
We couldn’t get to the top of the stairs, as our path was blocked by four hulking zombie forms. The zombies were fresh, not humanoid, and massive. They were also dripping slime, and had clearly just broken out of the four large glass tanks which could just be seen on the floor we were coming to. Filge himself could just be seen, hiding behind a skeletal form which clutched a sword.
Whilst Flynn managed to hurt one almost immediately by throwing one of Torvig’s enchanted pebbles, the necromancer at the top of the tower returned fire by hurling a green line of vile energy at Niccoli, causing his knees to sag under the weight of his armour. Our own mage pointed at one of the zombies and said a few words of power, causing it to shake, and to make the spirit trapped within the rotting flesh try to pull its way free. We could briefly see the spiritual form rise screaming from under the skin, but Morgan’s magics were not enough to truly disrupt the binding spells on the zombie.
My first shot flew true, and injured Filge, who responded by pulling some sort of syringe from his robes and injecting himself in the arm. Suddenly looking restored, he dashed out of our sight, leaving us to his zombies.
As Torvig did his best to turn the undead before him, we proved quite ineffectual. Morgan’s crossbow and Flynn and my bowshots all went wide, and the positive energies from Torvig’s holy symbol washed straight over the zombies before devastating the skeleton, bringing it straight to the floor.
Filge summoned a floating ghostly hand, which began to float towards Morgan, whilst yelling at us “You have made an enemy for life by violating my sanctuary”.
Whilst Torvig and Niccoli hacked away at the hulking masses above them on the stairs, taking vicious wounds themselves in turn, Filge continued to cast spells from concealment, sending his ghostly hand (now glowing with vile dark powers) to swipe at Morgan, who shuddered but shook off the worst of the spell cast upon him.
Morgan’s own spell of life-draining terror seemed to have no effect on the necromancer in turn, whilst I used what little magical powers I had to restore Niccoli to some semblance of health.
Finally, after still more hacking, shooting and flailing, two of the zombies crashed messily to the floor, followed almost immediately by Morgan as Filge’s disembodied ghost-hand brought him to the floor with a series of nasty ice-covered wounds.
Leaving the badly-wounded Niccoli to deal with the zombies, Torvig, Flynn and I pushed forwards into the room, Torvig and I taking wounds as we pushed past the undead.
One more spell was cast by the necromancer, this one causing Torvig to run and cower in the corner of the room in fear, before Flynn reached Filge, cowering on the floor behind one of the massive smashed glass chambers. Flynn’s sword flashed to Filge’s throat, and the necromancer cowered.
“I surrender!” Filge yelled.
At our shouted demands, he called off the zombies, and stood mutely as Niccoli smashed them to pieces. He then begged with us to spare his life, promising to tell us all that he knew.
Most of us froze, anyway. Morgan dashed from the rotting head, knocked the spellbook to the floor, and then snatched it up with a cry of “Yahoo!”
Suddenly, hasty footsteps could be heard from the floor above us. Flynn turned to the small window, took five paces, and dived out of it, falling with a wailing cry to the floor 20 feet below. The cries of the rotting head and the footsteps above continued as we all clustered to the window to see Flynn getting up, dusting himself off, and dashing back into the observatory. A minute later, he came pounding back up the stairs looking bruised and sheepish.
As he crept up the next floor to scout out the room above for us, we heard a male voice cry out “Arise, my beautiful monstrosities!”, together with the smashing of an awful lot of glass. We ran up the stairs, drawing weapons as we went.
[Flynn’s player can’t be blamed for diving out of the window. He fumbled a horrifically difficult climb check, and this was just how we all visualised it…]
.oOo.
We couldn’t get to the top of the stairs, as our path was blocked by four hulking zombie forms. The zombies were fresh, not humanoid, and massive. They were also dripping slime, and had clearly just broken out of the four large glass tanks which could just be seen on the floor we were coming to. Filge himself could just be seen, hiding behind a skeletal form which clutched a sword.
Whilst Flynn managed to hurt one almost immediately by throwing one of Torvig’s enchanted pebbles, the necromancer at the top of the tower returned fire by hurling a green line of vile energy at Niccoli, causing his knees to sag under the weight of his armour. Our own mage pointed at one of the zombies and said a few words of power, causing it to shake, and to make the spirit trapped within the rotting flesh try to pull its way free. We could briefly see the spiritual form rise screaming from under the skin, but Morgan’s magics were not enough to truly disrupt the binding spells on the zombie.
My first shot flew true, and injured Filge, who responded by pulling some sort of syringe from his robes and injecting himself in the arm. Suddenly looking restored, he dashed out of our sight, leaving us to his zombies.
As Torvig did his best to turn the undead before him, we proved quite ineffectual. Morgan’s crossbow and Flynn and my bowshots all went wide, and the positive energies from Torvig’s holy symbol washed straight over the zombies before devastating the skeleton, bringing it straight to the floor.
Filge summoned a floating ghostly hand, which began to float towards Morgan, whilst yelling at us “You have made an enemy for life by violating my sanctuary”.
Whilst Torvig and Niccoli hacked away at the hulking masses above them on the stairs, taking vicious wounds themselves in turn, Filge continued to cast spells from concealment, sending his ghostly hand (now glowing with vile dark powers) to swipe at Morgan, who shuddered but shook off the worst of the spell cast upon him.
Morgan’s own spell of life-draining terror seemed to have no effect on the necromancer in turn, whilst I used what little magical powers I had to restore Niccoli to some semblance of health.
Finally, after still more hacking, shooting and flailing, two of the zombies crashed messily to the floor, followed almost immediately by Morgan as Filge’s disembodied ghost-hand brought him to the floor with a series of nasty ice-covered wounds.
Leaving the badly-wounded Niccoli to deal with the zombies, Torvig, Flynn and I pushed forwards into the room, Torvig and I taking wounds as we pushed past the undead.
One more spell was cast by the necromancer, this one causing Torvig to run and cower in the corner of the room in fear, before Flynn reached Filge, cowering on the floor behind one of the massive smashed glass chambers. Flynn’s sword flashed to Filge’s throat, and the necromancer cowered.
“I surrender!” Filge yelled.
At our shouted demands, he called off the zombies, and stood mutely as Niccoli smashed them to pieces. He then begged with us to spare his life, promising to tell us all that he knew.
