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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sniffles" data-source="post: 2689981" data-attributes="member: 30035">Horrors Within the WallsWith the sounds of battle gone, all fell silent. The wall of ice to the west faded into nothingness - Erim told us that this was because the demons that had created it were now destroyed. Nekaya confirmed that none of the two dozen or so townsfolk that lay before the gates had survived. They had managed to slay two of the bearded devils before they fell, small consolation though this knowledge was to us.As we began to move cautiously toward the gate, we saw that there were no bodies beyond it within our field of sight. Phaele warned us that the greenish cloud we saw hovering over the town was a type of spell called a 'cloudkill', though it seemed oddly streaked with black in a manner she did not recognize. We dared not breathe this green cloud, for it was poisonous. To our fortune it did not cover the entrance to the town. Then Rock hear the sound of metal striking on metal coming from the militia barracks and broke into a run.As we raced into the barracks we were met by a startling sight: the dwarven defender Stone, who had always manned the walls so faithfully in his stolid manner, his unarmored form now pierced by many arrows and with a sword embedded full to the hilt in his side. It was obvious that he no longer lived, yet he still moved. Rock rushed forward to free his kinsman from this horrid unlife. Nikos added his many darts to the blows of my friend's hammer. Nekaya turned down another corridor and proceeded toward the muffled sounds of battle.Phaele hurled a jet of flame at Stone as Liadan ran past me, calling out to me to aid Rock. But seeing that my friend did not need my assistance, I turned instead down the corridor to the right and followed Liadan and Nekaya. I am able to move more swiftly than Liadan in her heavy banded armor, and thus saw at once that Nekaya faced a crowd of the town militiamen, all of them now reduced to an undead state as was Stone. They had been attempting to climb over a table that had been overturned in the stairwell, but when Nekaya approached they turned to meet her. She called upon the power of Horus-Re and they cowered away from her. I leapt forward and slashed one of these poor unfortunates to pieces with my longsword. I heard Nikos running down the hallway behind us, indicating to me that Rock must have sent Stone to the halls of his ancestors. Then Liadan cried out in the name of Lathander, commanding the undead things to be gone, and they all fell as one. When they lay still we saw that none of them bore any wound beyond the one man I had struck. Phaele speculated that the strange appearance of the 'cloudkill' might explain this: the spell had somehow been combined with another, one that turned those slain by the poison into unliving minions of evil.It was silent again, the sounds of combat we had heard now gone. Nekaya called out but received no response. We clambered over the bodies and the overturned table and proceeded into Serrah Puffleweis's office. Many had fallen there, hacked to pieces but with little blood - they must have been transformed by the cloud before they fell. There was no sign of Commander Puffleweis herself, but Rock found a trail of blood leading up the stairway toward the barracks roof. Rock rushed up onto the roof and found Serrah in the northest corner, breathing with difficulty. Liadan and Nekaya both called upon the healing mercies of their gods to aid Serrah, but they could not entirely remove the effects of the poisoned cloud. The captain was very weak. She advised us hoarsely that any other survivors would have retreated to the winter shelter beneath the town hall.Nekaya reminded Rock of the tea leaves the druids of Silvanus had given him, and with Erim's magical aid he quickly brewed a restorative tea for Serrah to consume. Nikos and I scanned the town during this time and saw that there were in fact three or four of the greenish-black clouds hovering about. We also saw that one structure had been almost entirely destroyed, though I could not determine what building it had been.Once Serrah had recovered somewhat, she told us that the attack had come quite abruptly, preceded by the appearance of a strange symbol in the air outside the gate. We then carried her down and out of the walls to where our horses awaited us. Rock placed her on his placid pony Spirit and insisted that she flee at once, but she refused to go until other survivors had been found within the walls. The little group we had met outside when we arrived appeared to surround her, their number having now increased to nine. Liadan then suggested that perhaps the temple of Chauntea might have some potions to counter the effects of the poison cloud. Though we were reluctant to separate, we decided to divide ourselves into two groups that we might search the town more swiftly. Phaele, Nikos and Nekaya would seek the home of the wizard Olson, as Phaele knew that he kept anti-venom always in supply due to his fear of snakes. The rest of our number, myself included, would go to the temple. Once our searches were completed we would meet at the town hall.As we hurried toward the temple we saw that one of the clouds was also moving in that direction. Phaele had already warned us that these clouds seemed to have an intelligence of sorts, being 'living' spells, or so it seemed. Erim created a magical disk on which Liadan could ride so she would not fall behind. We made all haste to the temple. In the courtyard we found yet another sight to turn the stomach of even the hardiest warrior: a young girl, whom we recognized as Missy Briar, lay dead and being devoured by one of the town's many roaming dogs. The dog too was no longer living, its stomach horribly bloated with the flesh it had consumed, wisps of green gas still flowing off its body. The undead dog let out an eerie howl and charged us. Its cry brought the rest of our companions running to our aid. Nekaya and I both rushed to meet the bloated hound, while Nikos fired swift arrows at it and it fell. Then a great pack of other undead dogs appeared, summoned by the howl, and advanced on us in a hideous parody of life. Phaele summoned a wall of flames between us and the dogs. Some of the dogs attempted to leap through it, but within moments all of the terrible beasts had been consumed by fire. Both groups broke into a run, my immediate companions and I hurrying into the temple to complete our task. Rock remained at the door to watch for the advancing cloud. Liadan quickly uncovered several potions and a wand that would aid us. She distributed these among us, handing three potions of lesser healing to me and one of slightly greater power. She also employed the wand to heal some of Rock's wounds, for he was still suffering from the effects of battling the demons.While we gathered up these items at the temple, our other friends ran to the home of the younger wizard Olson. There they found to their dismay that his corpse had been pinned to the door of his own workshop by large arrows, which they suspected had come from the bow of the mysterious stranger called Wyrstalker who had arrived on the previous evening. Olson still grasped a magic wand in one hand, and another had fallen at his feet. Phaele took up these. Within his shop they found several vials of anti-venom, as well as a staff, a magical pouch, and Stone's dwarven armor, which was apparently in the process of being enchanted. Nikos wrapped up the armor with the intention of presenting it to Rock.When they had taken what they could from Olson's workshop, they departed for the shop of the elder wizard, Master Sonnohm. In the street nearby they found one of the visitors to the town, a woman warrior who had been serving as bodyguard to the Halruuan elder. She had evidently been slain by magic. When they came to Sonnohm's tower they found that it was the destroyed building Nikos and I had seen from the barracks roof. Nothing remained but a box chained to the foundations, which gave Nikos a shock when he attempted to touch it. They left it and turned toward the town hall.As my party made our way toward the town hall ourselves, we came upon two more of the strangers, the two rough warrior men from Amn. They had both been slain by arrows, it seemed, but the arrows had been removed. One man bore a look of extreme horror upon his face, while his companion had been burned in a manner the mages identified as electrical damage. Erim determined that a hammer and one man's breastplate were enchanted, so Liadan took up the hammer and flung the body onto Erim's magic disk beside her. As we continued our journey she set the magic disk to wobbling as she tried to remove the man's breastplate.When we met our friends in the courtyard outside the town hall, Nikos handed Stone's armor to Rock. Phaele and Liadan distributed the vials of anti-venom and potions among our party, and we debated whether to swallow some of the potions now, for they were intended to prevent the effects of poison rather than to heal such effects. We noted that one of the clouds was approaching. Phaele remarked that she felt we should attempt to destroy it as soon as we could. Then we heard a male voice speaking to someone named Mirrus. A female voice replied to him that "the signs point to it being here". Then the cloud dispersed, revealing a woman clad in dark armor - and just for a moment, the form of Elder Furnael of Halruua.</blockquote>

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