NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Old One" data-source="post: 1670007" data-attributes="member: 83">Session 24 (Part Two)Greetings All,Short update today...working on more!Blame and CircumstanceRowan cursed and slowed his pace.  Three of his companions – Cragen and the two Emorians – stood before the undead tide.  Not even Moradin’s powerful aid would prevail against that overwhelming number.  Sextus had fled, Quintus was down and the enemy was escaping.  The ranger’s overwrought brain nearly imploded from the strain.A flicker of motion in his peripheral vision to his right saved Rowan’s sanity.  A momentary cackle escaped his lips as Röse’s bleeding, battered form staggered into view.  His eyes snapped from the Brigante to Drusilla to trio of stalwarts about to be overwhelmed in the space of three grains.  20 paces…15 paces…10 paces.  A nagging thought and fragmentary memory wormed its way through Rowan’s thought…something their enemy said.  Desperate inspiration struck the ranger’s mind like a hammer-blow.  He screamed at the top of his lungs.“FALL DOWN!”He threw himself to the ground, praying aloud that the others followed suit.  Drusilla, burdened by the child, complied immediately.Cragen bought himself, Metallus and Bato a few grains of breathing room as Moradin’s power created a small island of skeleton dust around them…a small, shrinking island.  He felt his patron’s blessings waning and sensed he could call on the violet surge but one or two more times.  Bitter despair welled in the dwarf’s mouth as he wearily gathered his faltering holy power.  ‘Moradin, I have failed you.’Rowan’s call reached the dwarf’s ears just as another rank of undead melted away.  Confusion and fear warred for a brief moment inside Cragen before he dropped, pulling his shield over his head and shoulders.  Bato and the Junior Tribune shared a momentary glance of disbelief as their clerical companion lay down, turned and ran to the south and west.Röse, barely conscious, staggered toward the fray with naught but a dagger and a loincloth, saw Rowan and Cragen drop prone and the Emorians running directly towards him, a horde of skeletal warriors in their wake.  It took a few grains for Rowan’s command to register in his exhausted mind.  The briefest smile creased his bloody lips and the young barbarian reclined in the grass; his hands behind his head.  ‘I am too tired to fight anymore anyway!’ He thought, as the pounding of skeletal footsteps grew closer.The Junior Tribune and Optio shared a desperate glance as their companions, seemingly gripped by madness, fell to the ground one after another.  “Are they insane?” wailed Metallus.“Shut up and run faster, sir.” Bato growled.  “They’re gaining on us.”The Emorians half-ran, half-fell down the steep banks of the stream spanned by the bridge.  In unspoken agreement, they stripped off their heavy lorica segmentatas, slashing straps to speed the process and dove into the water just ahead of outstretched skeletal claws and rusty swords.  The strength of the current bore them out of harm’s way even as it battered their bodies against rock after rock.Behind them, on the field of battle, upward of 200 undead legionnaires quartered and searched the battlefield.  A turn of the hourglass later, convinced that no enemies were still standing, they formed up and marched north up the Lords Road.  After their departure, most of the companions slowly stirred and rose, first crouching and then standing.Rowan, Drusilla and Röse met Junior Tribune Metallus and Bato as they emerged from the rocky gorge, angry black and blue welts covering their bodies.  The young officer thrust his damaged panoply towards the Optio and instructed him, in rather imperious tones, to see to its repair.  For a moment, the ranger thought Bato was going to strangle his superior, but the Optio merely sighed heavily and took the armor while shooting a deadly look towards the Junior Tribune.They found Cragen sitting near Quintus’s body.  The cleric had crawled to the sorcerer beneath the feet of the roaming skeletons in time to save the sorcerer’s life, but the elder Scipio was still unconscious.  He ruefully eyed the group and his empty brandy flask.  “Ach…I need a stiff drink.”(DM’s Note: I can’t recall who figured it out (although I credited Rowan), but I had given them an “out” with the instructions left by the necromancer to “Leave None Standing”…but wasn’t sure if they would catch it.  Fortunately they did and simply lay down until the skeletons left.  Who said I was a RBDM <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />?To Be Continued…Next: Session 25 (Part One) – From The Sky! Enjoy!~ Old One</blockquote>

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