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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Radiating Gnome" data-source="post: 357679" data-attributes="member: 150">I want a TankThe party listened to the barrage of machinegun fire that followed the German Officer’s speech, and settled uneasily down to rest and recover from the battle at the train station.  Crys, Pah, and Uri fussed over Irk.  Crys and Uri conferred in hushed tones about some magical solution for Irk, but for the time being the best that could be done was to fashion a crude crutch for Irk from an old broom Eli found in a closet.  Patched up as best as possible, the weary adventurers tried to sleep.  But it was a restless night.   For hours the sound of Soldiers marching through the city could be heard, but despite the worry of the sentries, none of the patrols that passed their hideaway took any interest in it.  A few hours later, the town again explored with noise – it sounded like the whole town was mobilizing at once.  Many trucks and halftracks passed their hideout, heading out of town.  Then, when they were gone, it was quiet as death.Those on watched waked their replacements and settled down for some uneasy sleep.  Irk was muttering dwarven curses in his sleep.  Minimonk, on guard duty, spotted something moving in the still, dark, street.  A little girl was hiding behind a rain barrel not far from the hideout, peeking out and apparently looking at the house.  Trying to see her more clearly, Minimonk peeked his head a bit further out the window.  There he saw more than a handful of stiff-legged, nearly silent silhouettes shuffling down the street towards him.  As they passed into a patch of moonlight it was clear that they were townsfolk, but dead ones, animated by some dark power and shuffling towards the party’s hideout.  Minimonk shouted an alarm, and things started moving very quickly.It was quickly apparent that the group of zombies that were shambling towards the party were not the only group – another half-dozen was coming up towards the party from the other direction.  Ulric, wanting to explore a few other options, raced to the back door of the shop and threw the door open.  It looked much worse in the back alley.In the alley there were two horrifying figures, humanoid figures swaddled in writhing, slithering, hooked chains, chains that reached out in all directions like probing tentacles.  Ulric shut the door.They quickly decided to try to get past the Zombies.  Eli handed Irk a sword to fight with.  It would be slow, and awkward, to fight and hobbled along on his crutch, but it was much better than lying on his back waiting to die.  They charged out onto the street into the wall of dead flesh.  At first it seemed like they were making good progress against the undead, but as soon as a handful had been knocked down by flashing swords and singing bows, they rose again, in some cases short and arm or a bit of skull, but rising again to claw and grab at the party.  They fought on, slashing at the undead as the rose again for a third and fourth time.Crys, who was trying to lead Gortie’s mother and keep her from harm, tried to sort out how the Zombies kept rising.  Pah had a theory – always suspicious of children out after curfew, she jumped and tumbled through ranks of Zombies to try to get close to the young girl, but ended up caught in a swarm of zombies all alone when the Chain-men, the Kytons, finally made their way to the front of the street and joined the fray.  The little girl, seeing Pah’s efforts to close, and enjoying the bravado, shifted into her true form, that of an Erinyes – an infernal seductress with bare breasts and leathery wings that she used to hover above the street.  Eli and Irk, kneed deep in the recurring Zombies, called out to Pah.  Minimonk tried to fight his way closer but was cut off.  Then Uri whipped out his favorite big gun.  Evard’s Black Tentacles.  The tentacles quickly immobilized the zombies around Pah, and a lucky pair managed to grab the kyton closest to Pah.  Pah skipped around to take advantage of the Kyton’s misfortune, driving her sword through the chains over and over again.  Her thrusts hurt the Kyton, that much was clear, but after a few rounds she could see that his wounds were closing and healing before her eyes.Ulric, seeing Pah saved by Uri’s spell, decided to face off with the Erinyes hovering above the street. With a bound he shapeshifted into the form of a great eagle, pounded up into the air and screeched towards the Erinyes.Meanwhile Crys, holding her own with her wand of magic missiles, figured that there must be another devil of some sort in the area, one that was reanimating the undead over and over.  She called out her theory to Uri, pointing to a likely spot, and Uri tossed Glitterdust at the spot.  There, outlined in the bright, shimmering magical light was the form of another Erinyes, blinded by the spell.  Eli and hobbling Irk charged, forcing the Erinyes to teleport away to safety or be killed.  With one Erinyes engaged by the great eagle, and the other driven off, the tide quickly turned in favor of the party.  The Zombies no longer got back up once knocked down, and the remaining Kyton was struggling under the weight of many swords.  Finally the remaining Erinyes also disappeared.  The Party did not take time to enjoy their victory.  Leaving the Kytons badly wounded but slowly healing, they shuffled off towards the edge of town, hoping to make it out to the woods, where they thought they’d find a place to hide that felt less like a trap.They dragged their battered selves to the edge of town and looked out.  And stopped in their tracks.The soldiers in the town – hundreds of soldiers that had been sent to Selinka for a few days of R&R – had been pulled out earlier in the night.  But they hadn’t left.  The Army had set up a permimiter – trenches and fortified positions – in a ring that apparently surrounded the entire town, with a hundred yards of killing ground between the town walls and the first trench.  All eyes watched the city, waiting for something to peek out.  Irk spat out a bit of bloody phlem and sat down on a crate.  “F**k.”-rg</blockquote>

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