Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wicht" data-source="post: 257701" data-attributes="member: 221">Chapter 2 – Hooberan’s    Before leaving Foorun, the four companions were able to get good directions to Hooberan’s and verify that there had been a man in Fooruns that morning telling a story about men in chains being taken into the small berry village, one of the men being Giovan.  Another person related a tale they had overheard in which a week earlier, a patrol had been fired upon from the village and had left.  The speaker could not remember if the speaker had said why the patrol had not investigated further.    “So there was no evil spirit in the shrine,” Niccolo mused as they traveled, “just a big snake and a rotting head.”  That appeared to be the group consensus.It took them about two hours to travel from Foorun to Hooberan’s but they found the way easy enough and without incident.  They knew they had arrived when they saw the fields of redberry bushes.  Planted in ordered rows in a shallow valley, the bushes stretched out before them for nearly a quarter of a mile.  There were still redberries on some of the bushes and there were many birds flying from bush to bush, filling their bellies with the sweet fruits.  The village itself was located behind a stockade in the middle of the berry fields.  They noticed that there was a well traveled dirt road heading north from the village through the fields and aimed first for the road.  When they reached the road they started down it towards the stockade.    About a hundred yards from the large gate into the village, they saw an arrow sticking in the road.    “This must be the arrow that was fired at the patrol,” said Niccolo.    There was a yellow rag tied to the shaft.    “Plague,” commented Tilliana upon seeing the yellow piece of cloth, “that would explain why the patrol did not investigate further, no one wants to die from plague.”    “The Rot Lord is the god of the plague,” commented Alairic, remembering the rotting head on the altar of Naemae.      “Who would drag a group of men in chains into a town with plague?” asked Niccolo.    They approached the gate of the stockade carefully.  They saw a carrion eagle flying over the top of the stockade, and then another one rose up out of the enclosure even as the first flew down into the unseen village.    “I am not afraid of plague,” said Alairic matter of factly and leaving the other three a bit further back, he walked boldly up to the gate.  The stockade was made of connected logs, buried upright in the ground, their ends pointed, all about fifteen feet tall.  The gate was equally massive and appeared to be barred on the other side.  A large yellow flag fluttered atop the left gate.Looking closely at the gate, Alairic saw that there was no way for him to open it.  Scanning the top of the wall, Alairic noted the two watchtowers at either end of the gate and then at both corners of the wall.  His eye drifted back over the watch tower to his immediate left and he realized that he saw the back of a man’s head just over the wall, not moving.    “Hello!” he called.    There was no answer.    Then even as he waited for an answer, the head twitched.  Alairic was startled but as he watched the man’s head was again still.  It did not seem like he was going to get a response.    “How are we going to get in?” he asked the three behind him, “The gates barred?”    Even as he asked he saw the back of the man’s head jerk again.    “I can climb it,” said Heidon, “Its not that tall.”    “You could climb to the top and lower a rope down and try to latch the bar holding the gate shut,” suggested Niccolo.    Heidon just looked at him and running to the gate he clambered up in a matter of seconds.    “Easy,” he said from atop the gate and started to lower himself down on the other side.  He slipped.    There was an “oof” from the other side of the fence and they heard the sound of a body striking the ground.  A few seconds later the gate swung open and Heidon stared back from the other side sheepishly.    The three on the outside walked in.    “Did you even look to see if there was anyone about to charge you?” asked Niccolo as he walked past Heidon and looked around.    “Oops,” said Heidon.     But there was no one in sight.  To their immediate left was a rather nice house of goodly proportions.  As their eyes traveled from there to the right they saw some smaller houses, then what appeared to be a well (dead center in the stockade).  There were houses behind the well and then some wagons a bit further back and to the right of the well.  Going further to the right in an arc of vision they then saw a large building that appeared to be a shed, or perhaps it was a barn, two large houses, and then some corrals and then to their immediate right there was a barn.      In the corrals behind the barn on their right they saw a mass of birds.  Carrion eagles in great numbers feasting on something.    Alairic turned his attention to the small lookout tower atop which he had seen the back of the man’s head.  The lookout tower was a simple wood platform twelve feet of the ground, reachable by a ladder and covered with a straw roof.  As Alairic looked up there he saw the front of the man’s face, though he could make out nothing of the body lower then the neck.  The man appeared to be dead.  But even as looked, the head jerked again.    “I am going to check out up there.”    “Careful,” said Niccolo, “could be plague ridden.”    “I am not scared of the plague,” said Alairic again, “Naemae will watch over me.”    “Oh right, meanwhile the rest of us can drop dead.”    Alairic started to climb the ladder.    “I will go up with you,” said Heidon, beginning to climb up after the paladin.    Alairic reached the edged of the platform and looked over.  He saw the face of the man.  It was chewed, bloody and disfigured.  Maggots crawled on the eyes.  He was clearly dead.  And then Alairic saw the rats that were chewing on the man’s legs.  They were huge, over a foot and a half in length.  There were two of them and they tugged and chewed on the dead flesh in front of them.  That would explain the twitching, thought Alairic.  And then the rats turned.    As one they hissed at him, baring bloodied fangs.  Alairic did not have his sword drawn and he was holding on to the ladder with both hands.  Realizing his predicament he went to grab at the hilt of his sword even as the rats reached his face.  One he elbowed aside but the other landed on his shoulder and bit at his face.  Alairic clutched at it, realized what he was doing and failed completely to catch himself as he tumbled backwards, the rat chewing at his cheek.      Heidon broke his fall and all three, thief, paladin, and rat hit the ground, one after the other.  The rat, landing on its back, rolled over and hissed.  Heidon groaned and sat up.  Alairic wasted no time.  He rolled to his feet, pulled his sword out, and swung the huge blade in a fierce overhand arc that split the rat in two.  Blood sprayed out everywhere.    Alairic laid his hand on his cheek and felt the shallow cut.      “Please Naemae,” he whispered and felt the pain ease as the cut healed itself.      “Are you alright,” he asked Heidon who was limping to his feet.    “What do you think?” asked the younger man moodily.    “Hold still,” said Alairic and laying his hand on the other and uttering another brief prayer Heidon felt the pain from the hard landing flee from his joints.  Overhead the other rat hissed at all of them for a few moments longer and then went back to its grotesque feast.    “Ugh, I don’t want to do that again,” muttered Alairic.    “Shame on you,” scolded Tilliana, “scared of a rat!  Remember, we must be brave.”  Then, wanting to be an example of bravery, the diminutive woman warrior-priest drew her own greatsword and, holding it in one hand, started up the ladder.    “We could just shoot it from the other platform,” said Niccolo but Heidon,  thinking ahead of him, was already scaling up the ladder on the other side of the gate.  Shrugging Niccolo followed him up.      Tilliana reached the top of her ladder first.  Clearing the top of the platform, she gripped her sword with both hands and swung at the rat.  She missed and tore a chunk out of the floor, her sword’s momentum more than she could control.  Heidon reached the top of the other platform a moment later, readied his bow and nocked an arrow.      “Careful,” said Niccolo, “Don’t hit Tilliana.”    Heidon just smiled and steadied his aim.  The rat snapped at Tilliana and missed even as Tilliana swung wild again and hacked into one of the support beams for the roof.  The arrow flew from Heidon’s bow, covering the short distance and tore through the rat.  It was a flesh shot.    “Good try,” said Niccolo.  Tilliana was still swinging wild.  Heidon let lose a second arrow but this one missed.    “Rats,” said Heidon and as he readied a third arrow Tilliana, dancing around the platform with the rat nipping at her leg finally managed to connect.  A single blow of the mighty sword was all it took to dispatch the rat.      “That swords a little big for you,” commented Niccolo gruffly to Tilliana.        The dead man on the watchtower platform clutched a beautiful composite long bow in his right hand.  At his side was a quiver filled with arrows and a bundle of yellow rags.  His face had been partially chewn off and most of his legs were missing below the knees.  There was no indication of what he had died of.Tilliana grabbed the dead man’s bow and clambered down the ladder.  Heidon, looking at the corpse from the other platform breifly considered taking the wonderfully crafted studded leather armor the dead man was wearing but the thought of peeling it off of a grisly corpse unnerved him and so it remained where it was. Looking around at the empty stockade, devoid of all life but the horde of carrion eagles, Tilliana said, “I have a feeling that whoever desecrated the shrine in Foorun sent the plague to this town.”    “This is creepy,” agreed Niccolo, “Its like nobody is here.”    After some discussion, they looked first in the barn.  It was filled with hay and barrels of grain, but other then a large pile of berry stained buckets they saw nothing interesting.  Even the loft held nothing but sweet smelling hay.  Exiting the barn, they walked over to the edge of one of the corrals next to the barn and leaning on the fence, they observed the birds feasting.  A leg and a hoof sticking out from one group of carrion eagles informed them that the birds were feeding on the carcasses of dead cows.  There were about fifty birds, all told and Alairic, noting their eight foot wing span, sharp talons and even sharper beaks, advised his companions against disturbing them.      Niccolo agreed, “We don’t need to get between fifty birds and their meal.  Let them eat.”  The other two agreed and after some more discussion they decided instead to look in the large house across from the barn.       The door was unlocked and one of the windows on the front of the house was busted in.  Heidon expressed disappointment.  He had wanted to try his hand at picking another lock.  They entered the house.  Noone seemed to be home.  They looked through the various rooms downstairs but found nothing.    “Here are steps going upstairs.” Said Niccolo.    “Here are steps leading down into the basement,” said Alairic, opening a door.    “Look,” said Tilliana, she pointed over Alairic’s shoulder to some blood on one of the basement steps.      “Something was dragged into the basement,” said Heidon.  He pointed to a dried streak of blood across the floor.    “Let’s split up,” suggested Alairic, “We can look faster that way.  Me and Tilliana can look downstairs.  Niccolo, you and Heidon can search upstairs.”    “Sounds good,” said Niccolo.    Heidon and Tilliana agreed.      Tilliana and Alairic were at the bottom of the basement steps when they realized they had no light and could not see in the darkness.      “Wait, I have torches,” said Alairic and pulling off his backpack he rummaged through it for a torch and his flint and steel.  He struck a few times at the flint until a spark caught the torch alight.      “There we go.”  Alairic looked around.  His eye first went to the body of a young girl, dead and partially eaten.  It lay only a few feet in front of him.  Next to the dead girl was the corpse of a boy.  And then the corpse of a woman, and then a man’s corpse and then…    Bending over the body of another man were two creatures.  Bloodied fangs and red beady eyes with blotchy yellowed skin were the chief features Alairic noticed.  They were certainly not human, though they might have been once.  They had been eating at the body before them.  At the moment however they were staring savagely at the Paladin.    Tilliana, rushed past him with a wild battle cry, her sword out.  Alairic, noting the floor was dirt, threw the torch down and joined her in attacking.  The creatures were not to be taken so easily.  Both swords missed and the creatures struck out.  Tilliana was struck with a claw.  The cut burned but even more so, Tilliana felt an icy coldness as the creature touched her flesh.      “Are they undead?” asked Alairic as he fought.    “They could be.”    Pushing away the creature with a boot, Tilliana reached to her side and lifted up her divine focus, attempting to channel the energy of her god.  There was a momentary flare of light and the creatures flinched, but then the light was gone and the creatures rushed back angrily.  Tilliana avoided being hit but Alairic was not so lucky.  The monster he fought bit into his shoulder even as it clawed at his chest.  Alairic felt that same icy coldness that Tilliana had felt and it was too much for him.  His limbs froze up and he collapsed, rigid.    The two creatures snarled at the wounded Tilliana, sensing easy prey.      Bravely Tilliana faced them and as they rushed at her, she swung.  Her blow connected and her sword cut into one of them.  At the same time an arrow flew from the bottom of the steps and sank into the other.  Help had arrived.  Niccolo and Heidon had heard the noise of battle and rushed down the stairs as quick as they could.One of the creatures rushed past Tilliana to attack the Heidon, who had fired the shot.  It connected with a savage claw and Heidon had to fight his muscles as they threatened to freeze up. . Niccolo swung his sword and hit the creature, killing it.  But it looked as if help might have arrived too late.  The other monster, despite the sword stroke, had laid Tilliana low.  She lay on the ground, blood dripping from two different wounds.“Use your sword now,” said Niccolo as he rushed to attack the other monster.  Heidon obeyed and drawing his sword he rushed in.  The creature snarled and swung at Heidon but the two swords cut deeply and the creature fell dead.Tilliana and Alairic were not dead.  Niccolo managed to stop Tilliana’s bleeding and bring her around.  Alairic simply seemed frozen.  As Niccolo examined Alairic, Tilliana uttered a prayer and her wounds slowly closed.  A little stronger, the priestess went to Alairic.  “Perhaps healing his wounds will help him,” said Tilliana, channeling divine healing energies into Alairic.  The paladin’s wounds closed but his limbs remained paralyzed.“I think we just have to wait,” said Niccolo.  That proved to be the case.  About five minutes later, Alairic was moving again.  They left the basement with its grisly inhabitants.  “There are four bedrooms upstairs,” said Niccolo.  They searched the bedrooms.  In one, perhaps the servants quarters, they found a small sack of coins in a locked chest under some clothes.  Two of the bedrooms seemed to belong to the children.  The master bedroom turned out to be a bit more interesting.  In addition to a locked safe at the foot of the bed, there was a full suit of half-plate armor on a mannequin besides the bed.  A greatsword of superior quality leaned against the armor.  As Niccolo and Heidon examined the safe, Tilliana examined the sword and Alairic examined the armor.  “A little big,” murmured Alairic, “but it could be adjusted.”  The paladin started to take his own armor off to exchange it with the armor on the mannequin.  A brief doubt about the morality of looting someone’s house was shrugged off with the realization that the former owners were dead.  Heidon opened the safe, revealing two sacks of coins.  Niccolo grabbed those and started looking through them.  “A large sack of gold and a larger sack of silver.”“Here, use a real sword,” said Tilliana to Heidon, handing him her own greatsword.  She had already strapped the better quality greatsword to her back.Heidon took the proffered sword with a smile.  The sun was setting when they left the manor house.  Tilliana noticed somebody propped against the stone well in the middle of town.  Walking closer she saw it was another corpse, a gnome, and it was already mostly picked clean by the scavengers.  A few unwholesome maggots crawled in some of the still meaty portions of the deceased.“Let’s not stay here after the sun goes down,” said Niccolo.The others seemed to agree and as dusk settled heavily over the area, the small group left the stockade.  They were torn between whether to camp amongst the berry bushes where they would have some protection.  Eventually it was decided to remove themselves from the stockade completely and they camped at the edge of the berry fields, just off the dirt trail going north.  As Niccolo counted out the money they had found in the house, Alairic made a fire.  Heidon practiced swinging the heavy greatsword.  “230 gold and 1700 silver,” announced Niccolo.“I will take first watch,” said Alairic.Niccolo volunteered for the second watch.  He heard heard horses to the north during his watch but they passed into the distance and meant nothing to him. Heidon took the third watch and Tilliana had the final watch. The sun was just start to creep over the horizon when Tilliana heard footsteps on the road coming towards them.  Standing she saw that it was a gnome, a wood gnome she realized as he drew closer and she could see his darker skin and simple clothing.  “Good morning,” said the gnome cheerfully.  He was not armed.“Good morning,” said Tilliana cautiously “I’m Tolo, and what may I ask are you fine folks doing camped outside Hooberan’s stockade?  I would have thought they would have let you in.  Great man is Hooberan!  My cousin lives within and I go to visit him this morning.”The sound of a cheerful voice brought the other three from their slumber.“Everyone inside seems to be dead,” said Niccolo gruffly from his bed roll.“Everyone?”“It seems to have been the plague,” said Tilliana, “There’s a yellow flag flying over the gate.  We went inside yesterday evening but there are monsters feasting on the corpses.”“The plague!  Ah, and I see that you are a Servant of the great Knight of the Gods.  Doubtlessly here to discover what evil is within.  Very well, I will wait here for you and see to my cousins property when you have declared it safe to enter.  I know I wish not to catch the plague.”“When is the last time you saw your cousin?” asked Niccolo.“Its been two years or so.”“That awful suspicious,” muttered Alairic groggily, “What are the odds of a long lost relative showing up on the very same day we discover everyone to be dead?  What are the odds?  Why didn’t he show up last week?”The gnome cheerfully ignored the paladin’s comments and made himself busy setting up a little camp.  Tilliana prayed and prepared some spells for the day and then proceeded to finish healing herself and Heidon, neither of whom had fully recovered from their fight with the flesh eating undead of the previous evening.  Niccolo hefted the two sacks of coins, not trusting to leave them with the gnome.  They were heavy but he managed them.  They left camp and headed back to the village.They had locked the stockade again the night before in an attempt to insure that whatever was inside the stockade stayed inside.  But Heidon easily scaled the wall and let them back in.  The carrion eagles were still at work on the dead cows, but they seemed to be fewer in number.  “We have to check all the houses,” said Alairic.Tilliana agreed, “We have to make sure that they are all dead, perhaps there may be somebody alive.”  They began going through the houses.  The first house contained only dead bodies, sprawled on their beds, children and adults.  Covering the bodies were feasting rats.  But these were of the more mundane size and they did not bother the living.  Heidon found some gold hidden and they took it.  The next house was the same.  Again Heidon managed to figure out where money was hidden and again they took it.  They entered a third house.  This one had a corpse in a chair downstairs as well as two corpses upstairs.  Along with the normal rats however were two rodents of immense size, at least two feet long.  These savagely snarled at the party and Alairic in front charged them.  The others followed behind and soon their swords had finished off the two beasts.  They left the corpses where they lay and left the house.  Though not before Heidon turned up a few more gold coins.  They were making easy money, but they were no closer to figuring out what had happened in the village of Hooberan’s.  They went through two more houses and then noticed the burnt house.  In the middle of the village, a single structure had been burnt to the ground.  The houses around it had some smoke damage but were unscorched.  “Let’s check out the blacksmith’s place,” said Niccolo, referring to a structure nearer to the manor they had gone through the previous night.  The others agreed and they backtracked.  The actual smithy was located next to the smithy’s house and Niccolo spent a moment eyeing the quality tools by the forge.  Then they went in.  The downstairs was pristine.  They went upstairs.  Like the rest of the houses in the village, the bedrooms seemed located on the second floor.  As they climbed the stairs, weapons at the ready, Alairic in front, Alairic motioned for them to stop.“Giant rats,” he said and then he charged forward eagerly.Tilliana smiled at the young paladin’s enthusiasm and then she joined him.  By the time she entered the room, Alairic had dispatched one of the creatures.  Another soon followed the first and Tilliana dispatched a third with her sword.  Alairic had been bitten but it was not serious.“Woohoo,” said Alairic happily.As they were leaving, Heidon informed them, “I found a mess of coins in this cookie jar.”  He proudly carried the jar out with him.  It was stacked to the brim with gold coins.  They worked through three more houses finding only more dead, more feasting rats (and Heidon of course finding more loose change).  At the end of the row of houses there was a house with a shrine on its west side.  They could tell it was a shrine because over the door of both the house and the shrine was the symbol of the Raiser, goddess of the harvest and fertility.  The symbol was a sheaf of grain and over each door the sheaf was painted on a background of redberries.  The door to the house was opened.  The door to the shrine was nailed shut.“This shrine is evil,” said Alairic.“Like the shrine in Foorun?” asked Tilliana.“Yes.”“Let’s check out the house first,” suggested Niccolo.The house was empty though.  Heidon managed to find a pouch with some coinage and Tilliana found a copy of the scriptures used by the priests of the Mother of Tellene.  She stuck the book in her backpack.They pried the boards off of the door to the shrine and readied themselves to go in.“Let us remember to be brave,” said Tilliana, “There is no obstacle Naemae will not let us face if we do so with courage and with honor.”  She looked pointedly at Heidon who was already readying his bow.  Her words encouraged them and Alairic kicked open the door eagerly.  There, standing in front of him was the corpse of a priest.  It was dressed in the brown clerical robes of the raiser and its flesh was rotting.  The dead man lifted his arms and shuffled forward.“Undead!” cried Alairic and rushed forward.  Tilliana slipped in through the door behind him.  But the lone zombie was not alone.  There were four others inside.  All shuffled towards the two holy warriors.  Alairic, startled by the number of undead missed.  Tilliana fared no better.“Shoot them!” said Niccolo to Heidon.“Your in the way!” he shouted back.One of the zombies struck Alairic a crippling blow.  His new armor kept him from being hurt worse.  Tilliana moved to the side as one of the zombies went after her and decided against using her sword.  She instead lifted up her holy symbol, but she was panicked and could not clear her head enough to call upon Naemae.  Niccolo slipped in through the door behind Alairic and sliced at one of the creatures.  Alairic missed again and even as Heidon shot an arrow past the paladin and into the flesh of one of the zombies, several strong blows laid the paladin low.  Heidon planted another arrow in the zombie and then dropping his bow he drew out the greatsword Tilliana had given him and charged forward.  Niccolo again sliced at a zombie and then with a third blow slew it.  Tilliana again tried to focus but as she dodged the blow from a zombie she let her divine focus fall against her waist again, gripped her sword and with a powerful swing cut the zombie in front of her in half from top to bottom. “Wow,” said Niccolo, and then a blow from a zombie shattered his jaw and he fell to the floor.  Heidon chopped at the zombie he had stuck two arrows in and it too ceased to move, falling to the floor.  Tilliana, seeing both Niccolo and Alairic on the floor and Heidon holding two zombies at bay took a moment to offer up a prayer for healing and laid her hand on the half-elf.  Niccolo crawled to his knees just as Heidon was pummeled by a zombie.  Niccolo looked at the unconscious paladin next to him and tried to take a moment to see if he could tend to Alairic’s wounds.But the two zombies were upon him and Tilliana too quickly and taking up his sword again he sliced into one of the animated corpses.  Tilliana also swung, her sword dispatching one of the walking undead.  Niccolo swung again and Tilliana swung and the fifth zombie was felled.  They quickly turned to tending to their fallen comrades.  Neither was dead and Tilliana had just enough energy left to bring them back from the brink of death with a healing touch.  They surveyed the shrine.  There was a box for offerings in one corner of the shrine.  There was a hearth at the southern end, with a podium on one side and an altar on the other.  Before the hearth was a rotting human head.  Alairic carried the head out of the shrine.“The Rot Lord again,” said Tilliana.“What about the money in the offering box?” asked Niccolo.“We leave it,” said Alairic.“It belongs to the Raiser,” said Tilliana.  It was one thing to loot the houses of those dead and gone.  But it was another thing to loot the shrine of a god.Badly injured they limped out of the stockade and back to their camp.  The rest of the village would have to wait until Tilliana could heal them more fully.  Heidon and Niccolo in particular were bad off.Tolo, the gnome was waiting for them when they returned.“I’ll cook supper,” he said cheerfully and set to it.“That’s uncommonly nice of him,” said Niccolo pleased.</blockquote>

Verification