Resurrectionist Escort Part 5

Log Info

• Title: Resurrectionist Escort Part 5
• Emitter: Whirlpool
• Characters: Dirk, Slixvah, Zofija, Shilde, Robert, Aavhash
• Place: North of Alexandria
• Time: May 16th, 2022
• Summary: The party figures out how to remove the wards trapping the person they are supposed to meet, them finding out that the wights have dug a tunnel under the safe meeting grounds. Acting quickly, they gird themselves and destroy the warding runes, dropping the field and make battle with the trapped wights to clear the place. Thankfully, they all fell in the hole that Shilde made, making them easy pickings for the group.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=    The Players    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Aavhash      1m      7'4"     198 Lb     Sith-Makar        Female    
    Sleek, slender, black-scaled, with a short frill between horns.   
Dirk         20m     4'11"    295 Lb     Mountain Dwarf    Male      
    A rugged old dwarf, dressed for the outdoors.                              
Robert       47s     6'3"     235 Lb     Human             Male      
    A middle-aged Cerenzan with a friendly, fatherly vibe.                     
Shilde       4m      4'4"     160 Lb     Khazad-Aul        Female    
    Tall for a dwarf, long blonde hair in a thick braid, big blue eyes.        
Slixvah      0s      5'8"     130 Lb     Eaglefolk         Female    
    A rust red and white Egalrin covered in veils, ribbons, and shawls.                         
Zofija       11m     5'8"     225 Lb     Hobgoblin         Female    
    A well-dressed Arvek-Nar with a big hammer.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=  As the GM  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Whirlpool    20m     5'0"      Lb        Otyugh                      
    I am stinky!                                                             
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=

"Uhuh." Shilde says, trying not to look impressed. Definitely sounding unimpressed. "Sure yer not a gnome?" she asks, loudly, of the halfling across the barriers while she and Rocky move forward to inspect the one on their side. Her hand reaches forward to touch it.

Zofija, who was at the front of the group, stares down into the stairs, and the arvek-nar grunts. "Well, shit. Guess there's more of them to deal with here, explains the absence."

"Shilde, you're one of those druid types, right? You got anything that can get us around those barriers without going through the wights? I'd rather not put anyone at risk of being drained by those things again if it can be helped."

Slixvah slows to a stop, her scratching the side of her head. "Uh... ya lookin' like ya stuck in a pickle there bud. How uh... how do we turn this witchcraft off?" she asks as an addendum. "Plus, we can prep we know how to and all that jazz."

She looks off to the side, confused. ".. what /is/ jazz?"

Dirk boggles a little bit at the halfling's predicament. Particularly the part where the wights are trapped in the magicked field. "Er... maybe we put the deaders down -afore- we help the lad out?" he says. "Just my thought on the matter." He grips his thunderbelcher in a white-knuckled grip. "Think I like 'em better where they -can't- suck me soul out o' me arse."

"Nahhh.." Shilde says, drawing it out a little bit as she looks around the edges. "Anything I can think've'll just release the deeaders," she comments. "Might be DIrk's suggestion is the best one."

"...YES," is the grouchy looking halfling's response to Shilde on the matter of his not being a gnome. He's deeply offended.

"And no, I don't know. I was caught on the other side here, remember? I didn't MAKE this hole in the ground. Too much stone for me to dig through, too. So, no, we're gonna have to disable the fields to get me out. I can't disable them without being eaten. Maybe you can find a way to disable just your side? You're considerably more armed than I am."

Trizia just groans.

Slixvah quietly groans as well, looking like she took up part of the soul sucking on a test drive and crashed it. "Right. Yeah. Neat. Cool. Wonder-ful. Well, let's find how to turn this off and get situated before we go smashing again."

GAME: Shilde casts Stone Shape. Caster Level: 5 DC: 17

"Well.. one thing I might try," Shilde then admits. "Stand back ever'one.." she says, shooing Rocky back as well before standing roughly in the middle of the hallway. Then she kneels and starts.. praying? No, chanting. Druidic syllables fall from her lips as she seeks communion with the earth and the stone.. and then, magically, the stone begins to ripple and reform.

Slixvah blinks. "Oh, uh, aight sugar," she murmurs, stepping back to give /plenty/ of space. Her crossbow pointed at the trapped wights behind the force field.

... wait, when the hell did she pull out a crossbow?

"I thought you might have an idea of what to do, Shilde." Zofi grunts, stepping aside to give the dwarf room to work. "Worth a try really, better than those things draining any more people if we can manage it. And the less time spent fighting here, the less chance any are following us down."

"Still, no telling how long that ward'll last for. I don't like leaving them down here, but I think we might need to send some people better equipped to deal with the undead."

Dirk takes a step back as well. Magicking still makes him a mite bit skittish, even if it's one of his own kin performing the spell. Instead, he hefts his rifle, ready to train it on the wights -just- in case they manage to break out of the trap.

"Hey, that's great!" The halfling looks relieved while Trizia and her goblin companion stay on guard.

As Shilde digs away at the stone, she does in fact find a place where she's breaking through into another tunnel beneath this one. Looks like you have a way down to get directly under them now...

Shilde rises from her work, looking down in the hole.. then she shrugs at the others. "Well. Might not be what we wanted. Wasn't much t'work with there." She hefts her shield, then eyes the wights. "Could hop down an' see if there's a way up on th'other wise.. or maybe just try t'drop the barriers."

Slixvah grins with her eyes. "Ooooh, right great idea!" she coos. "I can give it a looksie down there if ya want. Though... I'd rather get rid of these things on our own speed than it suddenly turning off from pokin' 'round at random baubles."

"I say check it out, then try and turn it off if we ain't find anything. Dunno if there's more wights outside sooooooooo.... on a timer friends."

"Worth a try. But you did build a home here, so you should know it better. What was even the point of making a secret tunnel with a dead end at the end if you didn't have a plan for when you needed to use it?" The Arvek-nar grunts. "Anyways, I don't know if we can reach them from below. No clue what's down there either, so might just have to suck it up and bring down the barrier."

Dirk squints as the wights. "Suppose me just stickin' me thunderbelcher tae their heads an' pullin' the trigger won't be much use," he says. "Like as not tae get snared meself, I shouldn't wonder. Bah. How'd these deaders even -get- here, anyroad?"

"They chased me in," answers the trapped halfling. "I went out to pick some fresh vegetables and roots and so on and ... well ... they were here. All over the forest. I'm surprised you made it in. I was really worried about you, Trizia."

"IT's all right," replices Trizia, "We're safe now. You're safe now. We're going to get out of here. These wights, though, they're Dragonieri.. and you s aid there were more out there?"

""Lots. How many have you seen?"

"Just a handful."

There's silence for a moment as what that might portend hangs over the hallway.

"...let's get you out of here, then we've got to get back to the city and warn them. If a band of dragonier wights hads made it into the area, there's gonna need to be an alarm raised."

GAME: Zofija rolls sense motive: (5)+1: 6

"Oh, I didn't build this place," A beat, "not myself, anyway. I didn't even know there's a tunnel down there. It's just a good meeting space. It's older than either of us. Dates back to the reign of the Witch-Queen, Altima. There's a lot of little hidey holes like this for the rebels who were fighting her."

He scratches his head.

Shilde scratches her head, too, looking down the hole. "Aye.. lass.. a looksee wouldn't hurt, I'm thinkin'. Can look fer somethin' to turn off the barrier up here.. but it could be anything, aye? Maybe look for loose stones.. or odd objects embedded in th'walls."

GAME: Slixvah casts Light. Caster Level: 3 DC: 13
GAME: Slixvah rolls alertness: aliased to perception+2: (2)+9+2: 13

Slixvah peers from behind Shilde. "Lemme see lemme see, with a little iglth lemme see~" she hums as the crossbow she holds starts to shine a faint shimmer of white.

A pair of blue eyes peek over the hole. "Oh I can totes-m'goats squeeze on in there with a little bit o' mojo! Slix goblin time! Leeeeet's go-"

She squawks. Squints. "... ay uh, loves? This is hand dug. And..."

She glances to something on the side of the tunnel, then perks up. "Aw fiddle fuck, they dug in here, where'd them little shits pop out of?" she says quickly as she starts to search around the space. "We gotta get the outta here soon."

Dirk squats down on his haunches, peering into the tunnel after Slix. "Wait. -Who- dug in there?" he says. "The deaders?" He straightens, gripping his rifle a bit more tightly. "Can we get the lad out o' there?" he asks. "I'd really -really- like tae be hightailin' it back tae Alex right about now..."

"Just a bit odd that you were going to gather vegetables mid meal, and the door leading here was closed behind you, but the wights are in here as well." Zofi shrugs. "Could have closed automatically, who knows. Still don't know how to get the barriers down anyways, so if there isn't anything up here, who knows what's going on."

"If we find how this barrier opens, we need some people up here still, in case both go down at the same time. You said they tunneled in? Well, that's concerning. I'm with Shilde, I want to get out of here."

Shilde starts ticking things off on her fingers. "Okay. So.. were a bunch outside before. Not so many when we get 'ere. Two down 'ere, snuck in through the tunnel. Many deaders missin'." She narrows her eyes. "Oi. Best get 'way from that tunnel now. Might have't'try just beatin' on that field. Might not even be a switch. Might be a timer." That said, she starts searching in earnest for something, anything.

GAME: Shilde rolls perception: (19)+12: 31
GAME: Shilde rolls spellcraft: (7)+10: 17

Shilde keeps feeling along the magical barrier. "Usually runes..." she mutters to herself, reaching the wall on one side. She starts brushing at it with her thick fingers, then blows on it to push away more dust. "Aye. Check th'other side for a rune like this one," she tells the others. Anyone. "Thinkin' if we smash'em, the ward'll come down."

The halfling nods his head, "I can drop the field on my side, like I said, but I can't do more than that. Fortunately, the wights are dumb."

He looks wry about it.

Trizia glances at the others, nodidng her head. She and her goblin friend are talking. The goblin points at the runes Shilde has identified.

"I can disable the rune son this side if we want to deal with the wights."

Dirk swallows hard. "Do we -have- to?" he squeaks, eyes flicking from wight to wight. He saw what those things did to the poor woodland critters out front. And it's not like he has an abundance of life force left in him to get drained. He squares up his shoulders and lifts his rifle, cocking the hammer back with his thumb. "A'right... I got a bead on 'em. Drop it when yer ready," he says, trying his very best to keep his tone from quavering. He gulps hard, coiled like a spring and ready to pounce. Or bolt. He's still making up his mind about that whole fight-or-flight thing.

"Well, we have a way to open it, unless there's any clue to a non destructive way to destroy the runes, might not even be one." Zofija shrugs as she readies her hammer. "Either way, we're going to need to get them down. If the runes on this side will only open our side, that makes it easier. So lets get going, aye? The sooner the better, there's no telling what that noise brought around, or when."

Slixvah rubs her face. "Right. Right. Okay. Here. Sorry Trizia, gotta slide my good vibes to the left. Hope ya understand, just stay back from these things, aight?"

She raises a hand, then swooshes it to the side. A brief gale wafts from Trizia to Zofija.

She cracks her knuckles, stepping up behind people as she boops everyone in the room on the shoulder. "Do." Bop. "Your." Tap. "Best." Boop. "Pleeeease~!"

"I'm ready cuties," she announces, rolling her shoulders as ribbon like feathers elongate from her wings as she shoulders her crossbow.

<OOC> Slixvah casts Guidance x number of times on everyone in the room
GAME: Slixvah casts Guidance. Caster Level: 3 DC: 13
<OOC> Slixvah also moves Hex: Ward over to Zofija

GAME: Shilde casts Bull's Strength. Caster Level: 5 DC: 16

"Think it's the best way m'self," Shilde says, stepping away from the rune she found, finding her dog.. bolstering his strength with druid magic. "Me'n Rocky're ready too."

The wights have been laser focused on the halfling this whole time, pushing against the boundary. Such delicious life force. Such delicious life force.

They're hammering it, and ignoring you and the conversation. Bam bam bam. It's no good, of course.

The tunnel you've dug, on the other hand, is right there in front of the wards. As soon as the goblin releases them, the wights sense you, turn, and run and fall straight into it, rolling down it.

This moment buys you a precious moment or tw. Hey, you can't really blame them. The tunnel wasn't there earlier.

Slix tenses as the wall is dropped and the wights venture forth, seeking out new life to feast upon! To gorge and fuel the never ending quench of unlife within them...-!

Kerplunk.

"Oh. Shit. Well... as the gobbers down in Goblin town say, 'fuck 'em up!'" she mimics a nasally sounding individual as she pulls out a fistful of crossbow bolts and haphazardly unloads volley after volley into the hole.

Some probably miss. Actually, a lot. She'll just pretend she aced them all and dad would be proud of her.

As the wights crash down the tunnel, Trizia tries to hold back a guffaw. She's only mortal, though, but the sounds of them rolling down the slope created by Shilde is enough to make her face scrunch up despite the seriouness of the situation.

Then, the wights comer scrambling back up. It's not going to behard to butcher them as they make their way out of the tunnel, let's be honest about that, but they're still dangerous and not to be underestimated.

More magic missiles from Trizia. A crossbow bolt from the goblin.

Shilde looks almost disappointed when the Wights go tumbling down. "Ah well," she mutters, backing away from the hole to give the bigger ones.. namely Zofija.. room to swing, and the others room to shoot. "Oi! Halfer! Y'can probably drop yer spell, now!"

Zofija remains at the front of the group as the wights fell down into the hole and clambered back up. Just disorganized enough and slow to be in perfect range of the hammer. The Arvek-nar smashes and crushes skulls and bones until they stopped attempting to climb back up. "Alright, yeah, we should get going, _now_, because I don't want to linger around for any that are less easy targets." She calls out over the small gap.

Dirk skitters back a step as the wights come down. And another when they come clawing back up. "Shit shit shit here we go here we -go-!" he cries in a strangled tone. He swings his rifle and fires on instinct. CHK-BOOM! The round hits one of the deaders square in the forehead, exploding it's noggin like a rotten melon. He gapes for a moment--he actually hit something and put it down! "Beards o' me fathers!" he breathes, marveling at his rifle for a moment. But his awe is cut short as one of the wights swings its talons at him. "HEEK!" He ducks and rolls back, coming up to one knee. He fumbles a fresh round out of his hip satchel, loads it, and brings his rifle back up to fire. BOOM! The wight staggers back, where it will surely be finished off by one of his comrades. "I -am- good at this!" he crows, his confidence slowly returning.

-End Scene-