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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Amaroq" data-source="post: 1406941" data-attributes="member: 15470">Issue #11: The Lizard Men and the Duck - Episode 4 of 5The next morning is the first day of Madrer, the month of Harvest. It is Corday, Corean’s Day. Miriel awakens before dawn, as Goldpetal had the night before for Denev’s Day. She slips out into the swamp to perform a special ritual and greeting to Madriel as the sun rises over the first day of her month. Hands of Fire wakes the rest of the group shortly after dawn, and as we pack we eat a quick breakfast. We are all ready to set out by the time Miriel returns, and without further ado we begin our journey to the ruins which the lizard men believe are a source of infection. With the guidance of Hands of Fire and Goldpetal, we are able to make good time, and avoid all of the worst perils of the swamp. The air is still and cool, and the swamp teems with signs of small life – insects, birds, lizards, and frogs, which can be seen keeping a respectful distance from our noisy passage.After about an hour of traveling we arrive at a large lake. Fog rises off the still surface in the early morning, and we can see, in the distance, a large island. Those with the sharpest eyes, Miriel, Stone, and Goldpetal, can see a ruin in the middle of it. Hands of Fire steps to the edge of the lake, and pulls aside some branches to uncover a canoe. He gestures for all of us to board. It is just large enough for the eight of us, though we doubt that eight of the sizeable lizard men would fit in it. There is only one set of oars, and our guide starts paddling out across the lake. The surface of the lake is very quiet, disturbed only by the ripples of our passage. Something about the solemnity prevents any of us from speaking for the first half of the voyage.Finally, a growing sense of unease prompts Chuck to whisper, “Do you get an odd feeling about this place?”“Definitely,” answers Novalia in the same hush. “Something is wrong.”“There is nothing alive,” Goldpetal observes. “No fish, no insects, no birds.”“Don’t you guys feel anything?” Chuck asks, looking at the others, but his question is met with quick head shakes.Novalia gesticulates and mutters an incantation under her breath. Stone eyes her cautiously, as though he is not yet sure he trusts her, but Telryn puts out a restraining hand. “Detect evil,” he whispers. After a minute of concentration, the young woman shakes her head. “I tried to detect evil,” she says, “But aside from this odd sense of unease, I don’t detect any evil on the lake itself.”Telryn, still the only one who can speak with Hands of Fire, asks a quick question in Draconic. The lizard man responds, and Telryn translates. “He says it is the power of the taboo place.”When we reach the island, we see that the ruin looks like it was once the top of a tower. Crenellated stone walls protrude about three feet from the top of the soil. One wall is crumbled and worn down, and it is easy to step onto the stones which pave the center of the rectangular space. There is a hole in the paving stones, and a ladder leads down into the darkness below.Novalia, Paks, Stone, and Miriel approach the tower, while Hands of Fire and Goldpetal stay near the boat. “I can feel evil emanating up from underneath,” Novalia tells the others.“I sense it, too,” Paks confirms.Novalia concentrates to see if she can determine anything about the source, but she cannot learn anything. Meanwhile, Chuck explores the small confines of the island, seeing what he can observe about it. It is small and surprisingly barren, though some small plants grow about, unnaturally twisted. Telryn inspects the stones of the ruins, but they are covered over and he cannot learn much. Goldpetal stops at the water’s edge, and casts detect poison, a simple spell, on the water of the lake. Though the water is clearly fouled in some way, his spell does not indicate that it has been poisoned. Hands of Fire shouts a warning, and we turn towards him. Three corpses, dripping wet, are shambling out of the water towards him. They are waist deep in the water, and judging from the lichen and grasses streaming from their hair, they have been underwater a long time. Two of the animated bodies used to be human, while the third was once a lizard man. Paks yells, “Zombies!” She is the first to react, drawing her longsword and charging at them. She reaches the first as it reaches ankle depth in the water. Her first blow catches it across the chest, wounding it, but her momentum carries her into its reach. It swipes at her with one arm, and claws dig through her chain mail and into her ribs. Stone is about to charge into the fray, but Miriel restrains him. “Stay and watch the ladder,” she says. “That’s where the real danger is. We can handle these.”Paks continues to fight alone, as the others ready their weapons and knock arrows. She retreats to the solid footing of the beach, trying to stay between the zombie and the solid ground. She yells for Miriel, “Medic!” Two bolts of blue light streaks over her shoulder as Telryn casts a magic missile, further wounding Paks’ zombie. She has just enough attention to spare to realize that it was two bolts, not one. Goldpetal’s hawks dive to attack the other human zombie, and one successfully claws it. It swipes at them, but misses its footing, and falls into the water with a splash. Novalia pulls out her bow and arrow. “Tanil, help me,” she says, invoking her god’s assistance as she knocks an arrow. Chuck wastes no time in speech, as he unleashes two shots into the melee. Both of his arrows strike true. One wounds the lizard man zombie, while the other dispatches Paks’ opponent. Hands of Fire rushes at the fallen zombie and clubs it over the head as it struggles to regain its feet. It slips, unmoving, beneath the water’s surface. Goldpetal engages the lizard man zombie with his scimitar, but the seven-foot tall monster’s claws have much more reach than the slight elf’s arms, even extended by a blade, and he is unable to get in a telling blow.Miriel rushes up behind Paks, who positions herself between the priestess and the remaining zombie. “Madriel, heal this warrior,” she pleads, and Paks’ wounds close under her hands.  Three more zombies appear; two of these corpses were once ratmen. They begin to close in on Paks, and for a brief moment, she and Miriel are almost surrounded. The young warrior lays about desperately with her longsword, unable to wound any of them, but keeping them at bay. The eldest one tries to bite her, but it meets her shield and loses its footing on the wet earth. As it falls, Telryn’s second magic missile hits it in the chest, and the twin bolts of magical energy ensure that it will never rise again.Chuck draws his two swords and charges, with a wordless cry, into the fray. Hands of Fire and Goldpetal are right behind him. Chuck’s initial rush catches two of the slow-moving undead, injuring both, and Hands of Fire finishes one off with his great club. Goldpetal’s rush helps push the two survivors back into the water. They are trapped knee-deep in the water, which seems to be slowing them somewhat, while the defenders are able to stand on the firm ground of the beach. Both of the hawks dart in and out of the fray, ripping chunks of degenerating flesh from one of the ratman zombies.Miriel raises Madriel’s symbol above her head, and shouts, “In the name of Madriel, be gone!” It is an attempt to turn the undead, but they ignore her. Novalia steps around the other side of the ruin with Stone, to make sure there are not more zombies approaching, unseen, from the other side. She sees none. Telryn draws his crossbow and begins loading it.Just as it looks like we are making progress, three more zombies clamber out of the lake. As they approach, Goldpetal hits one of them, cutting a deep gash across its chest with his scimitar. The three zombies of the third wave crash into the fray, and one of them hits Paks, driving her backwards. The other two attack Goldpetal, but he nimbly steps to the side. Telryn shoots his crossbow at the zombies, but misses. Chuck steps back from the front line, sheathing his swords and drawing his bow. He fires two rapid shots at a zombie attacking Goldpetal. He hits with the first arrow, but the second shot goes horribly awry as the bowstring clips his hand on release, numbing his hand.Hands of Fire goes berserk, as he misses a zombie with his great club, but then leaps upon it and bites it, ripping a big chunk out of it as it falls, lifeless, beneath his weight. Miriel again calls, “In the name of Madriel, be gone!” but fails to turn undead. Novalia steps into the top of the tower, taking cover behind the crenellations. She continues to wait for a clear shot.Goldpetal shifts around to get shoulder to shoulder with Paks, but can do little more than keeping the zombies at bay with his scimitar. The hawks dive to his aid, attacking the two zombies he faces. One of the hawks claws a chunk of rotting flesh off of the ratman zombie, and the hawks’ attack distracts the zombies from pressing the attack against the elf.Paks stabs one of the zombies in front of her, but the other takes advantage of the opening to rake her across the shoulder. Hands of Fire splashes through the shallow water to her side, and brings his club down across the skull of one of her opponents. The zombie collapses into the water.Three more zombies are staggering out of the water towards us, and it looks grim for us. Telryn fires his crossbow, wounding one of the newcomers. Stone loads his crossbow, abandoning his watch of the ladder, and fires, but at that range, he narrowly misses. Novalia casts guidance on herself, asking Tanil to guide her arrow, still knocked but unfired.“Madriel, hear my plea!” Miriel cries, raising her holy symbol above her head. “Be gone, vile beasts!” This time she succeeds in turning all of the zombies, and they turn to flee. We all attack them as they flee. Chuck wounds one of the zombies in front of Paks with his arrows. Paks hits one, and the hawks harass a third, tearing chunks of it away repeatedly until it submerges beneath the water.All of the zombies escape underwater, moving further away and out of sight.  We pause to catch our breath for a moment.When everyone’s heart rate returns to normal, and it is clear that the zombies are not returning, Miriel and Telryn gather around Paks, who was wounded. “I’m all right,” she insists, as Miriel inspects the wound. Miriel can see from the wounds that the young warrior is being less than honest. She bandages the wound, and then asks Madriel to heal the young warrior. The wound on her shoulder closes under the healing hands of the priestess.  “Here, perhaps this will help prevent the need for that,” Telryn says, and casts mage armor on her again. While they are working, Goldpetal and Stone look down into the dark hollow. “It looks like a sewer,” Stone says, and Goldpetal mentally agrees with the half-orc. The floor is wet, with puddles of standing water and mud. The elf drops a sling bullet down into the hole, and it lands with a splash in the mud, but it doesn’t sink.“Solid enough to stand on,” he says, and Stone nods in agreement.When Miriel and Telryn are finished tending to her, Paks suggests, “Let’s see if there’s something around to cover the hole with, in case those things come back after we go into the ruin. I don’t want them coming upon us from behind.” She looks around to see if there’s something around to cover the hole with, but the island is fairly barren, and she doesn’t see anything better than our rowboat. “Here, Paks,” Chuck offers, “Let’s use Stone’s canvas. We can hold it in place with some rocks.”Miriel lights a torch and we all gather around the hole in the tower roof. Paks leads the way, sitting over the hole and dropping herself in. She finds herself in the northwest corner of a room twenty feet wide and perhaps double that in length. The walls are stone, fitting her mental image of it as ‘a tower’ even though the bulk of the space lies under the surface of the island. As she looks around, she sees a staircase in the southeast corner, going down. In the center of the hall, against the east wall, there are two doorways, with the remains of shattered doors. She steps out into the room and calls for the next people to follow. Judging from the wooden rubble on the floor, any furniture which was once there is broken, and yields few hints as to its former use.As Chuck and Miriel climb down after her, Paks looks through the doors for movement. All she can see from the doorway is standing water and the rubble of more broken furniture. Behind her, Novalia comes down next, then Stone, then Telryn. Goldpetal comes down last, affixing the canvas over the hole to hide us from the zombies, if they return. He also picks his bullet out of the mud.“Goldpetal, Stone,” Paks says, “You guard the doors here, while Chuck, Novalia, and I check out the next rooms. Miriel, Telryn, you stay behind us.”Paks walks into the second room with Chuck at her back. The room is a twenty foot square, aligned with half of the first room. Before she has time to recognize much more, a swarm of small creatures leaps from the floor to fly towards her. They are rusty-red, with a bulbous, furry body about a foot long. They have bat-like wings, with a two-foot span, and a huge proboscis and insectoid yellow eyes. They swarm on Paks, using their small, pincer-like legs to try to clamp onto her body.Paks, with horror in her voice, shouts out, “Stirges! Get them off!” as they swarm over her. There are four of them. One hits, sucking her blood, and weakening her. Luckily for us, however, two of them collide with each other, in mid-air, and appear a bit stunned by the collision. Outside, Telryn backs into a corner of the first room, getting a solid wall behind his back. Goldpetal summons a swarm of rats on the other side of the stirges. Chuck steps in next to Paks and grabs the stirge sucking on her. He pulls it off, holding it with two arms as far from his body as he can. Before he can do anything with it, Novalia fires an arrow at it, which goes straight into the small, bulbous head, killing it. Paks staggers back out of the room, and slumps against the opposite wall, next to Telryn, while her companions battle the stirges. Miriel steps over to see if she needs help, but Paks weakly waves her away. Hands of Fire moves into her place, and swings wildly at the stirges, but he fails to connect. There’s not enough room for Stone to join the melee, so he goes to the staircase to stand guard lest something come in response to the noise.Telryn moves up behind Chuck and casts a magic missile at the stirges. Two iridescent blue bolts streak from his fingertips, killing one of the stunned ones. One of the stirges latches itself onto Hands of Fire, sucking his blood. Chuck attacks it with his bare hands, ripping it free of Hands of Fire and killing it by breaking its neck. Goldpetal’s swarm of rats clambers onto the stunned stirge, the only one they could reach, but before they can do much to it, Hands of Fire brings his great two-handed club down on it in a furious overhand swing, smashing it. All of the stirges are dead.</blockquote>

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