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Terrace and the rise of Evil
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<blockquote data-quote="akira1" data-source="post: 4533659" data-attributes="member: 64437"><p><strong>To the Hinterlands</strong></p><p></p><p>Opal waited patiently as she adjusted her mental domination inside of Dr Zhindzhe's mind. She added a little extra twist to the pain he was receiving from her probe for all of the effort he had forced her to go through to get to this point. </p><p></p><p> The vaults of the Doctors mind were tremendous and Opal was more than a little shocked by the information she found stored there in his brain and in psilink memory enhancements. Slowly Opal let her presence sink into the Doctors...... </p><p></p><p> Opal found herself in an altogether different place. She was standing in the middle of a large circular airy rotunda. The ceiling of this building was high and fantastic scenes of fires in the sky and points of cold radiance on a field of black played eternally across the roof. The walls of this room seemed to be semi transparent and understated to the point that unless one were looking directly at them, they seemed to vanish giving the impression of being in a large open room. Opal gaped at the mastery inherent in the work and she even jumped a lightly when the precise clicking of shoes on stone began to echo across the vast hall to her ears. </p><p> "The Dome of Heaven in Shezur, where I grew up as a child." A strong male voice said and from the surrounding darkness Dr Zhindzhe came walking on with his elegant stately pace. The Doctor strode up to Opals side and stood taking in the sight around him. </p><p></p><p> The Doctor was of course immaculately dressed. He breathed a deep sigh and continued, "This is my fondest memory, for it is here that I grew up and knew the most joy of my life." </p><p></p><p> Almost contemptuously Opal sneered, "I have no cares for you past laments Doctor. Quit stalling and take me to the information that I am seeking. I want your notes on the Tainted." </p><p></p><p> As Opal said this she again adjusted the controls she was exercising over the doctor and suddenly Dr Zhindzhe had a heavy silver chain clamped around his neck and held by Opal who viciously yanked on it causing Dr Zhindzhe to stumble and sprawl on the stone floor of the dome of heaven. </p><p></p><p> "Get up Doctor its time to go for a walk through the vaults of your mind!" Opal spat. She then began a determined walk towards the exit to the dome with the doctor running to catch up or be dragged. </p><p></p><p> "Please let me lead." The Doctor replied. "I know where to take you to access the information you seek. " </p><p></p><p> With a wave of her hand Opal destroyed the memory that the Doctor had of the Dome of Heaven and heaving on his chain yanked him up until he was inches from her face and growled, " Do not play any of your games with me Doctor. I will destroy your mind to find what I want." </p><p></p><p> Cowed, Dr Zhindzhe backed up from Opal and turned down a corridor that suddenly appeared behind him. As he went he said, "Come we will find what you are looking for in my office." </p><p></p><p> Opal Mardochan followed the Doctor down the corridor into his mind. This corridor itself was long and filled with file cabinets of varying sizes. Each cabinet had a name ascribed to it and they were alphabetized. Finally the corridor ended at a large heavy red oak door with an immaculate sign bearing Dr Zhindzhe's name on a plaque in the door. pausing to withdraw a key the Doctor opened the door and walked it heading towards a light almost airy looking desk. The doctor removed a large manila folder from the drawer and then took a seat in the leather covered chair that was behind it and began to leaf through sheets of paper completely oblivious to Opals glowering presence. </p><p></p><p> Standing in the middle of the thick carpet that covered the space in between the doctors desk and a large leather couch Opal shifted the focus of her probe slightly and Dr Zhindzhe flinched behind the desk and looked up with pain in his eyes. </p><p></p><p> "Don't waste my time doctor" Opal hissed. " I can take what I want remember the Dome..." As Opal said this as a wicked grin spread across her small pinched face. Opal knew that the doctor would never get the memory of the Dome of Heaven back that she had taken from him but he would live with the anguish of that missing memory. </p><p></p><p> "Here is what you are looking for I believe." Dr Zhindzhe gasped. </p><p> Opal walked over to Dr Zhindzhe's desk and snatched the papers out of his hands dated Day 1 of Kefolds 5th year New Era. Now were getting somewhere Opal thought as she walked over to the couch and sank down into the leather plushness of it and began to read the report on the Tainted as composed by Dr Zhindzhe. </p><p></p><p>Z: It has been a long time gentlemen. I see that you all seem a little more confident in yourselves than the last time we met. </p><p></p><p>I: Can we get on with this. There are matters that must be attended to. </p><p></p><p>Z: I understand so lets begin then. What have you been up to? </p><p></p><p>D: Well, we have finally met up and all of us are in the employment of a Turf Boss in the 9th district of Rath named Brickface. </p><p></p><p>Z: Yes, I have spoken to him. Quite a remarkable fellow. </p><p></p><p>K: They say he is extremely smart but that would not be obvious looking at him. </p><p></p><p>Z: So what is it you are doing for Brickface? </p><p></p><p>I: He asked us towards the end of last month, Skullsflame, if we wanted to take a mission of high importance that would take us out of the city- state for a while. </p><p></p><p>Z: I see. </p><p></p><p>D: We decided to take it because things were getting a little hot in the city for us. (Shoots a look at Ivanor) </p><p></p><p>Z: What is that look for? </p><p></p><p>K: *Chuckles* Lets say some people don't know how to keep their mouths shut.</p><p> </p><p>I: I don't quite understand what your talking about. If you are referring to me not taking any crap from the people in this city ...... </p><p></p><p>D: Not that, just the total lack of anything resembling caution when dealing with unknown factors. </p><p></p><p>Z: Is there some tension here? </p><p>D: I may be CE but i'm not stupid. </p><p></p><p>I: Are you saying that I am stupid! </p><p></p><p>Z: Allow me to intervene here gentlemen. I think what Damien is saying is that a lot of undo attention has been paid to you all because of certain behaviors you possess such as smarting off to the Scions Priestesses. </p><p></p><p>K: That is not the smartest thing in these situations. </p><p></p><p>Z: In any event you all accepted the mission *rifles through some pages* at the behest of Mr Sleep, herself. </p><p></p><p>D: Yeah Ivanor was winking at her when Brickface announced who she was.</p><p></p><p>K: LOL </p><p></p><p>Z: Ivanor? </p><p></p><p>I: What! She was always there after a point looking everybody up and down I had had enough. </p><p></p><p>Z: I see. So you left Rath..... </p><p></p><p>I: Yeah we left on the 1st day of Kefolds and traveled for 2.5 days to the NE to the port town of Orin. </p><p></p><p>K: On the night of our first day out, we encountered a band of dire wolves led by a Cinder Wolf. </p><p></p><p>D: Yeah they very nearly killed us before we were able to finish them off. </p><p>All that tripping and provoking attacks of opportunity, and then the Cinder Wolf could breath fire. </p><p></p><p>Z: I have heard of such creatures. </p><p></p><p>K: Well they attacked and Damien alerted us to their presence. The 3 dire wolves rushed right out at us and a round later the Cinder Wolf showed up. </p><p></p><p>I: We took out the first 2 fairly easily and the third one as well. The cinder wolf fled after his pack had been slain. I was gonna chase him but decided against it. </p><p></p><p>Z: How do you mean? </p><p></p><p>D: We used tactical fighting flanking and positioning to regain the advantage we lost to the Dire wolves when they charged us. </p><p></p><p>K: In other words we out fought them. </p><p></p><p>Z: I see. </p><p></p><p>I: Well nothing happened over the next 1.5 days on our way to Orin. There was a swarm of vampire bats on the second night but they were nowhere near us. </p><p></p><p>D: Just as an aside the terrain up there is pretty ugly. it went from broken scrub land to a lot more uneven ground and buttes and plateaus. We reached the forest on the evening of our third day. </p><p></p><p>K: Things picked up a little bit in here. First off We all were noticing that something was wrong with this forest and only later did it occur to us that the bark on the trees was covered with millions of blood flies. </p><p></p><p>D: We stayed on the path and did not disturb them. </p><p></p><p>I: Then the raven showed up. </p><p></p><p>Z: A raven!? </p><p></p><p>I: Yeah it gave us the evil eye and then cawed once and flew directly at the trees with the Blood flies causing them to swarm all over us biting and stinging. </p><p></p><p>D: We reached Orin shortly after that and that place was a mess. </p><p></p><p>K: It was like something out of Resident Evil. </p><p></p><p>Z: I am not quite following, what is Resident Evil? </p><p></p><p>D: There were vultures on the walls. They had eaten so much they were to fat to fly and could barely move. I kicked one down when I climbed the wall to get a look into the town. </p><p></p><p>I: It looked like there had been a series of battles within Orin itself and finally everyone either got killed or carried off. There were broken barricades and some of them had been set on fire. </p><p></p><p>Z: What did you all do next. </p><p></p><p>D: Well I set off to search the town for survivors. </p><p></p><p>K: No you didn't, you were gonna look for treasure.</p><p> </p><p>D: Loot survivors, semantics. </p><p></p><p>I: *Clears throat* Anyway, we moved into the town proper and found the mayors house/city hall. It was still fairly intact and Kalanaghar had seen movement in one of the upper story rooms. </p><p></p><p>K: Yeah this place was deserted. There was glass from the windows that had been broken out and claw marks in the doors that still remained on their hinges. We decided to barricade the other entrances out of the mayors home and were in the process of doing this when Ivanor went and got himself attacked again. </p><p></p><p>I: That dead dog came out of nowhere. Well, this undead dog came after me. I had some strange modifications done to it. Its back legs had been lengthened and its fore legs shortened to increase its running speed and it had extra muscle added to its jaw area, and it was drooling this green slime. I kicked its butt. </p><p></p><p>K: I helped a little. </p><p></p><p>D: I watched. </p><p></p><p>I: Little being the operative word here. </p><p></p><p>Z: Gentlemen can we please stay focused. What did you find in the mayors house? </p><p></p><p>D: The mayors son. Peldrin. He had a sweet set up. He was holed up in the attic of the house with all of the liquor he could find. He rigged up several crossbows with rags that he could light on them as well as throwing alcohol bombs when we opened the stairs to go up into the attic. </p><p></p><p>K: If he had of had porn it would have been complete. </p><p></p><p>Z: Had what? </p><p></p><p>D; he set me on fire. </p><p></p><p>Z: ! </p><p></p><p>D: *flexes wings* It didn't hurt doctor. </p><p></p><p>Z: I see.... </p><p></p><p>I: *Exasperated sigh* Never mind Dr Zhindzhe. Peldrin told us that we were all going to die and that they were going to come for us. </p><p></p><p>Z: Who? </p><p></p><p>K: The undead. We found Peldrins fathers town log and apparently 2 weeks before we came to this town there was a plague of some sort that killed off all of the young children and old people. The children and old people came back to life after a couple of days as udead. </p><p></p><p>Z; Thats hideous. </p><p></p><p>K; Yeah, it gets worse. At first the townspeople of Orin did not know a difference and allowed their dead relative to return. Thats when it got bad. </p><p></p><p>I: I despise the undead. </p><p></p><p>D: Is that why you wouldn't use your turning ability on them? </p><p></p><p>I: I did use my turning ability. </p><p></p><p>K: So the undead began to spread like a plague in this town. </p><p></p><p>Z; What started this plague? </p><p></p><p>D: We think theres a Necromancer somewhere around there. </p><p></p><p>Z: Did you find out for sure and neutralize him? </p><p></p><p>I: No, we were otherwise occupied. </p><p></p><p>Z: How do you mean. </p><p></p><p>K: Someone was trying to steal our food wile we were in the mayors house talking with Peldrin. I climbed down a rope out of the attic window and went after them. Ivanor and Damien followed. </p><p></p><p>I: Whoever it was, they cloaked themselves in invisibility as they fled. It was a Hobgoblin named Skoldiz and a human named Sven. </p><p></p><p>D; We were able to still follow them because they had been looting the town and had several jingling bags of loot on them. </p><p></p><p>Z: Goodness. </p><p></p><p>D; they stopped outside of a shop and when they appeared, they were ready to fight. The Hobgoblin had his war staff and a dagger that was crackling with electricity at the ready and the human,Sven, had a Spear. </p><p></p><p>Z: Did violence break out? </p><p></p><p>K: No, we talked and decided to make a deal with them instead. We asked for a safe place to stay in exchange for the food that we had on the horses. </p><p></p><p>D; Yeah we would not be able to take it with us. </p><p></p><p>I: The only problem is that the safe place they knew of was there own hide out. They told us general stuff like stay near the wharves the smell there throws off the undeads scent. So we went to the wharves and naturally enough there was a cannery. </p><p></p><p>D; The hobgoblin wizard and the human were there. They agreed to let us stay and then we made another deal to fix one of the boats. </p><p></p><p>I; In one of the undead attacks, the undead had sank all of the ships in the Orin harbor effectively blocking it. Sven turned out to be a sailor and we made a deal with him to sail us across the Cloven Straights and into the Hinterlands. </p><p></p><p>D: That Hobgoblin was most likely going to kill Sven, he kept giving him these looks and whenever something had to be done he gave Sven a look. </p><p></p><p>K: Yeah Sven was not long for the world. </p><p></p><p>I; We stayed the night there because Peldrin had told us the udnead come at night and that they already knew we were there anyway so they would come. </p><p></p><p>Z: Did they come? </p><p></p><p>D: Yeah but they just kinda wandered around aimlessly until the Spellstitched Ghouls showed up. </p><p></p><p>Z: Spellstitched Ghoul? </p><p></p><p>K: Yeah their leaders, they are like normal ghouls except they have some minor arcane power. </p><p></p><p>I; The Ghouls directed the Zombies on a relatively thorough search for us but they found nothing. </p><p></p><p>D: yeah and the next day, we went out to fix the boat the Hobgoblin armed himself with several items from the loot they had gathered. </p><p></p><p>K: We went out and used our horses to help beach one of the sunken boats and then Sven and us went to work fixing it. </p><p></p><p>I: We were disrupted by a surprise return of the undead. </p><p></p><p>K: Well it wasn't exactly a surprise, one of those Dead Dogs came back and told us that we were going to die then it left. </p><p></p><p>Z: Those things can talk! </p><p></p><p>K: We think it was the Necromancer that created him talking through it. </p><p></p><p>I: We gathered up our stuff and as a group we began to move towards the Cannery. Before we got there though, the streets filled with Undead and Spellstitched Ghouls. </p><p></p><p>D: The hobgoblin and Sven apparently had worked out there own escape plane before hand. </p><p></p><p>Z; What do you mean? </p><p></p><p>K; The Hobgoblin began casting a spell and motioned for Sven to come over to him and drink a potion. </p><p></p><p>D: The potion was a potion of flight and Sven flew up taking the hobgoblin with him as the flew over the undead. </p><p></p><p>Z: They abandoned you. </p><p></p><p>I: Not exactly the spell the Hobgoblin had been casting was fireball and he wiped out 1/3 of the zombies with ease. </p><p></p><p>Z: I guess that has to count for something. What did the rest of you do. </p><p></p><p>D: I fled. </p><p></p><p>K: I fled. </p><p></p><p>I: I stayed to fight. Undead are an abomination to my church. Peldrin stayed with me. </p><p></p><p>Z: You stayed against what odds? </p><p></p><p>I: About 26 to 2. </p><p></p><p>D: I tumbled through all of these ghouls that Ivanor had turned and got past 2 Spellstittched ghouls as well. The ghouls cast acid arrow at All of us but only got Ivanor and Kalanaghar. Once I was clear of them I sprinted for the Cannery. </p><p></p><p>K: I ran after Ivanor had turned a lot of them too. One of the Ghouls chased me back to the cannery. </p><p></p><p>Z: It did. </p><p></p><p>K: yeah but the Hobgoblin had two flaming spheres that he was controlling and he sent them after the Ghoul which went up in flames. </p><p></p><p>Z: Alright Ivanor what happened back with you. </p><p></p><p>I: I fought two of the ghouls but before this began, Peldrin did something extraordinary. </p><p></p><p>Z; How do you mean? </p><p></p><p>I: Well he had been talking to me about my faith whenever we had a free moment and apparently he gained faith in my deity. He used his faith to keep the Ghouls at bay. </p><p></p><p>Z: I have heard of the phenomenon of spontaneous faith before but you witnessed it. What was it like. </p><p></p><p>I: Well it was kind of like he channeled positive energy but not so much like that. </p><p></p><p>K: hes going to become Ivanors cohort later on. </p><p></p><p>Z: A cohort? </p><p></p><p>D: Follower. </p><p></p><p>Z: I see. </p><p></p><p>I: Anyway he had to do this because when the undead came he got unhinged and began attacking. I had cast an Invisibility to Undead on us but he did not know and attacked them breaking my spell. </p><p></p><p>K: After that they simply walked away. </p><p></p><p>D: After Ivanor realized that he would not be able to defeat the 2 Ghouls in hand to hand combat. 6 attacks against 1 attack is not good odds. </p><p></p><p>Z: I would have to agree. In any event. </p><p></p><p>K: We fixed the ship and Sven was going to sail us across the straits. Peldrin and the Hobgoblin decided to go back to Rath. </p><p></p><p>D: yeah Peldrin is probably dead under a bush now on the way to Rath. </p><p></p><p>K: yeah I don't give him very good odds. </p><p></p><p>I: I gave him directions to my church in Rath and directed him to seek out the Cusp. Then we all parted ways. </p><p></p><p>Z: Fascinating.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="akira1, post: 4533659, member: 64437"] [b]To the Hinterlands[/b] Opal waited patiently as she adjusted her mental domination inside of Dr Zhindzhe's mind. She added a little extra twist to the pain he was receiving from her probe for all of the effort he had forced her to go through to get to this point. The vaults of the Doctors mind were tremendous and Opal was more than a little shocked by the information she found stored there in his brain and in psilink memory enhancements. Slowly Opal let her presence sink into the Doctors...... Opal found herself in an altogether different place. She was standing in the middle of a large circular airy rotunda. The ceiling of this building was high and fantastic scenes of fires in the sky and points of cold radiance on a field of black played eternally across the roof. The walls of this room seemed to be semi transparent and understated to the point that unless one were looking directly at them, they seemed to vanish giving the impression of being in a large open room. Opal gaped at the mastery inherent in the work and she even jumped a lightly when the precise clicking of shoes on stone began to echo across the vast hall to her ears. "The Dome of Heaven in Shezur, where I grew up as a child." A strong male voice said and from the surrounding darkness Dr Zhindzhe came walking on with his elegant stately pace. The Doctor strode up to Opals side and stood taking in the sight around him. The Doctor was of course immaculately dressed. He breathed a deep sigh and continued, "This is my fondest memory, for it is here that I grew up and knew the most joy of my life." Almost contemptuously Opal sneered, "I have no cares for you past laments Doctor. Quit stalling and take me to the information that I am seeking. I want your notes on the Tainted." As Opal said this she again adjusted the controls she was exercising over the doctor and suddenly Dr Zhindzhe had a heavy silver chain clamped around his neck and held by Opal who viciously yanked on it causing Dr Zhindzhe to stumble and sprawl on the stone floor of the dome of heaven. "Get up Doctor its time to go for a walk through the vaults of your mind!" Opal spat. She then began a determined walk towards the exit to the dome with the doctor running to catch up or be dragged. "Please let me lead." The Doctor replied. "I know where to take you to access the information you seek. " With a wave of her hand Opal destroyed the memory that the Doctor had of the Dome of Heaven and heaving on his chain yanked him up until he was inches from her face and growled, " Do not play any of your games with me Doctor. I will destroy your mind to find what I want." Cowed, Dr Zhindzhe backed up from Opal and turned down a corridor that suddenly appeared behind him. As he went he said, "Come we will find what you are looking for in my office." Opal Mardochan followed the Doctor down the corridor into his mind. This corridor itself was long and filled with file cabinets of varying sizes. Each cabinet had a name ascribed to it and they were alphabetized. Finally the corridor ended at a large heavy red oak door with an immaculate sign bearing Dr Zhindzhe's name on a plaque in the door. pausing to withdraw a key the Doctor opened the door and walked it heading towards a light almost airy looking desk. The doctor removed a large manila folder from the drawer and then took a seat in the leather covered chair that was behind it and began to leaf through sheets of paper completely oblivious to Opals glowering presence. Standing in the middle of the thick carpet that covered the space in between the doctors desk and a large leather couch Opal shifted the focus of her probe slightly and Dr Zhindzhe flinched behind the desk and looked up with pain in his eyes. "Don't waste my time doctor" Opal hissed. " I can take what I want remember the Dome..." As Opal said this as a wicked grin spread across her small pinched face. Opal knew that the doctor would never get the memory of the Dome of Heaven back that she had taken from him but he would live with the anguish of that missing memory. "Here is what you are looking for I believe." Dr Zhindzhe gasped. Opal walked over to Dr Zhindzhe's desk and snatched the papers out of his hands dated Day 1 of Kefolds 5th year New Era. Now were getting somewhere Opal thought as she walked over to the couch and sank down into the leather plushness of it and began to read the report on the Tainted as composed by Dr Zhindzhe. Z: It has been a long time gentlemen. I see that you all seem a little more confident in yourselves than the last time we met. I: Can we get on with this. There are matters that must be attended to. Z: I understand so lets begin then. What have you been up to? D: Well, we have finally met up and all of us are in the employment of a Turf Boss in the 9th district of Rath named Brickface. Z: Yes, I have spoken to him. Quite a remarkable fellow. K: They say he is extremely smart but that would not be obvious looking at him. Z: So what is it you are doing for Brickface? I: He asked us towards the end of last month, Skullsflame, if we wanted to take a mission of high importance that would take us out of the city- state for a while. Z: I see. D: We decided to take it because things were getting a little hot in the city for us. (Shoots a look at Ivanor) Z: What is that look for? K: *Chuckles* Lets say some people don't know how to keep their mouths shut. I: I don't quite understand what your talking about. If you are referring to me not taking any crap from the people in this city ...... D: Not that, just the total lack of anything resembling caution when dealing with unknown factors. Z: Is there some tension here? D: I may be CE but i'm not stupid. I: Are you saying that I am stupid! Z: Allow me to intervene here gentlemen. I think what Damien is saying is that a lot of undo attention has been paid to you all because of certain behaviors you possess such as smarting off to the Scions Priestesses. K: That is not the smartest thing in these situations. Z: In any event you all accepted the mission *rifles through some pages* at the behest of Mr Sleep, herself. D: Yeah Ivanor was winking at her when Brickface announced who she was. K: LOL Z: Ivanor? I: What! She was always there after a point looking everybody up and down I had had enough. Z: I see. So you left Rath..... I: Yeah we left on the 1st day of Kefolds and traveled for 2.5 days to the NE to the port town of Orin. K: On the night of our first day out, we encountered a band of dire wolves led by a Cinder Wolf. D: Yeah they very nearly killed us before we were able to finish them off. All that tripping and provoking attacks of opportunity, and then the Cinder Wolf could breath fire. Z: I have heard of such creatures. K: Well they attacked and Damien alerted us to their presence. The 3 dire wolves rushed right out at us and a round later the Cinder Wolf showed up. I: We took out the first 2 fairly easily and the third one as well. The cinder wolf fled after his pack had been slain. I was gonna chase him but decided against it. Z: How do you mean? D: We used tactical fighting flanking and positioning to regain the advantage we lost to the Dire wolves when they charged us. K: In other words we out fought them. Z: I see. I: Well nothing happened over the next 1.5 days on our way to Orin. There was a swarm of vampire bats on the second night but they were nowhere near us. D: Just as an aside the terrain up there is pretty ugly. it went from broken scrub land to a lot more uneven ground and buttes and plateaus. We reached the forest on the evening of our third day. K: Things picked up a little bit in here. First off We all were noticing that something was wrong with this forest and only later did it occur to us that the bark on the trees was covered with millions of blood flies. D: We stayed on the path and did not disturb them. I: Then the raven showed up. Z: A raven!? I: Yeah it gave us the evil eye and then cawed once and flew directly at the trees with the Blood flies causing them to swarm all over us biting and stinging. D: We reached Orin shortly after that and that place was a mess. K: It was like something out of Resident Evil. Z: I am not quite following, what is Resident Evil? D: There were vultures on the walls. They had eaten so much they were to fat to fly and could barely move. I kicked one down when I climbed the wall to get a look into the town. I: It looked like there had been a series of battles within Orin itself and finally everyone either got killed or carried off. There were broken barricades and some of them had been set on fire. Z: What did you all do next. D: Well I set off to search the town for survivors. K: No you didn't, you were gonna look for treasure. D: Loot survivors, semantics. I: *Clears throat* Anyway, we moved into the town proper and found the mayors house/city hall. It was still fairly intact and Kalanaghar had seen movement in one of the upper story rooms. K: Yeah this place was deserted. There was glass from the windows that had been broken out and claw marks in the doors that still remained on their hinges. We decided to barricade the other entrances out of the mayors home and were in the process of doing this when Ivanor went and got himself attacked again. I: That dead dog came out of nowhere. Well, this undead dog came after me. I had some strange modifications done to it. Its back legs had been lengthened and its fore legs shortened to increase its running speed and it had extra muscle added to its jaw area, and it was drooling this green slime. I kicked its butt. K: I helped a little. D: I watched. I: Little being the operative word here. Z: Gentlemen can we please stay focused. What did you find in the mayors house? D: The mayors son. Peldrin. He had a sweet set up. He was holed up in the attic of the house with all of the liquor he could find. He rigged up several crossbows with rags that he could light on them as well as throwing alcohol bombs when we opened the stairs to go up into the attic. K: If he had of had porn it would have been complete. Z: Had what? D; he set me on fire. Z: ! D: *flexes wings* It didn't hurt doctor. Z: I see.... I: *Exasperated sigh* Never mind Dr Zhindzhe. Peldrin told us that we were all going to die and that they were going to come for us. Z: Who? K: The undead. We found Peldrins fathers town log and apparently 2 weeks before we came to this town there was a plague of some sort that killed off all of the young children and old people. The children and old people came back to life after a couple of days as udead. Z; Thats hideous. K; Yeah, it gets worse. At first the townspeople of Orin did not know a difference and allowed their dead relative to return. Thats when it got bad. I: I despise the undead. D: Is that why you wouldn't use your turning ability on them? I: I did use my turning ability. K: So the undead began to spread like a plague in this town. Z; What started this plague? D: We think theres a Necromancer somewhere around there. Z: Did you find out for sure and neutralize him? I: No, we were otherwise occupied. Z: How do you mean. K: Someone was trying to steal our food wile we were in the mayors house talking with Peldrin. I climbed down a rope out of the attic window and went after them. Ivanor and Damien followed. I: Whoever it was, they cloaked themselves in invisibility as they fled. It was a Hobgoblin named Skoldiz and a human named Sven. D; We were able to still follow them because they had been looting the town and had several jingling bags of loot on them. Z: Goodness. D; they stopped outside of a shop and when they appeared, they were ready to fight. The Hobgoblin had his war staff and a dagger that was crackling with electricity at the ready and the human,Sven, had a Spear. Z: Did violence break out? K: No, we talked and decided to make a deal with them instead. We asked for a safe place to stay in exchange for the food that we had on the horses. D; Yeah we would not be able to take it with us. I: The only problem is that the safe place they knew of was there own hide out. They told us general stuff like stay near the wharves the smell there throws off the undeads scent. So we went to the wharves and naturally enough there was a cannery. D; The hobgoblin wizard and the human were there. They agreed to let us stay and then we made another deal to fix one of the boats. I; In one of the undead attacks, the undead had sank all of the ships in the Orin harbor effectively blocking it. Sven turned out to be a sailor and we made a deal with him to sail us across the Cloven Straights and into the Hinterlands. D: That Hobgoblin was most likely going to kill Sven, he kept giving him these looks and whenever something had to be done he gave Sven a look. K: Yeah Sven was not long for the world. I; We stayed the night there because Peldrin had told us the udnead come at night and that they already knew we were there anyway so they would come. Z: Did they come? D: Yeah but they just kinda wandered around aimlessly until the Spellstitched Ghouls showed up. Z: Spellstitched Ghoul? K: Yeah their leaders, they are like normal ghouls except they have some minor arcane power. I; The Ghouls directed the Zombies on a relatively thorough search for us but they found nothing. D: yeah and the next day, we went out to fix the boat the Hobgoblin armed himself with several items from the loot they had gathered. K: We went out and used our horses to help beach one of the sunken boats and then Sven and us went to work fixing it. I: We were disrupted by a surprise return of the undead. K: Well it wasn't exactly a surprise, one of those Dead Dogs came back and told us that we were going to die then it left. Z: Those things can talk! K: We think it was the Necromancer that created him talking through it. I: We gathered up our stuff and as a group we began to move towards the Cannery. Before we got there though, the streets filled with Undead and Spellstitched Ghouls. D: The hobgoblin and Sven apparently had worked out there own escape plane before hand. Z; What do you mean? K; The Hobgoblin began casting a spell and motioned for Sven to come over to him and drink a potion. D: The potion was a potion of flight and Sven flew up taking the hobgoblin with him as the flew over the undead. Z: They abandoned you. I: Not exactly the spell the Hobgoblin had been casting was fireball and he wiped out 1/3 of the zombies with ease. Z: I guess that has to count for something. What did the rest of you do. D: I fled. K: I fled. I: I stayed to fight. Undead are an abomination to my church. Peldrin stayed with me. Z: You stayed against what odds? I: About 26 to 2. D: I tumbled through all of these ghouls that Ivanor had turned and got past 2 Spellstittched ghouls as well. The ghouls cast acid arrow at All of us but only got Ivanor and Kalanaghar. Once I was clear of them I sprinted for the Cannery. K: I ran after Ivanor had turned a lot of them too. One of the Ghouls chased me back to the cannery. Z: It did. K: yeah but the Hobgoblin had two flaming spheres that he was controlling and he sent them after the Ghoul which went up in flames. Z: Alright Ivanor what happened back with you. I: I fought two of the ghouls but before this began, Peldrin did something extraordinary. Z; How do you mean? I: Well he had been talking to me about my faith whenever we had a free moment and apparently he gained faith in my deity. He used his faith to keep the Ghouls at bay. Z: I have heard of the phenomenon of spontaneous faith before but you witnessed it. What was it like. I: Well it was kind of like he channeled positive energy but not so much like that. K: hes going to become Ivanors cohort later on. Z: A cohort? D: Follower. Z: I see. I: Anyway he had to do this because when the undead came he got unhinged and began attacking. I had cast an Invisibility to Undead on us but he did not know and attacked them breaking my spell. K: After that they simply walked away. D: After Ivanor realized that he would not be able to defeat the 2 Ghouls in hand to hand combat. 6 attacks against 1 attack is not good odds. Z: I would have to agree. In any event. K: We fixed the ship and Sven was going to sail us across the straits. Peldrin and the Hobgoblin decided to go back to Rath. D: yeah Peldrin is probably dead under a bush now on the way to Rath. K: yeah I don't give him very good odds. I: I gave him directions to my church in Rath and directed him to seek out the Cusp. Then we all parted ways. Z: Fascinating. [/QUOTE]
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