Nanaar nods to the others and shakes hands when offered.  'No sense starting off on the odd foot,' he thought as he looked each arrival up and down. 

Slowly turning in place, the blue dragonborn spreads his arms wide as he smiles broadly -

(friendly smile.. not toothy,  ** I plan to chew off your arm ** smile). 

"What a motley crew we aspire to be.  May the Gods smile upon us and the days all be as sun filled and calm."

Among you is a human looking female, young and blond.  Young enough to guess she’s recently graduated whatever school gave her her martial training.  She moves like she knows which end of a sword to use.  She’s decked out in chainmail with a sword, shield and mace among her gear.  The amulet of a woman with a nimbus of red hair is worn at her throat.

Her fair complexion is so naturally blushed, and lips so red it looks like she’s wearing makeup when she isn’t.  Her platinum blond hair seems to glow when the sunlight hits it.  Night confirms it.  It glows a soft halo around her face in darkness.  One may be forgiven the assumption of Celestial ancestry.

“I’m Knell.  Warrior of Light.  Pleased to meet you.  I love your music”, she introduces herself to Jem, the first time she hears her play.  Indeed, Knell was humming along and tapping her feet.  Even (scandalously, to some) swaying with the music.

With a martial bow (keeping eyes on them), she introduces herself to the others.  “Hello…” (Zendrith…Nanaar…Thisselaar…Finn…)  “I’m Knell.  Warrior of Light.  Pleased to meet you.  May the Gods indeed smile upon us in the fight for good.”

Thisselaar sneers down at the pretend celestial, a sneer that only an uncle could provide. The kind that casts judgment before the details are understood. The details in fact meant nothing, a complication only if useful at all. The hooded man, his porcelain mask revealing nothing of what truly lay beneath afforded a bare glance Knell's way. "Good" he said with a chuckle born of a sneer. "Good is nothing but a construct child. A means of classifying the desired from the undesirable. Truly the acceptance of good is dependent upon the one who makes the judgment." His tone haughty, all knowing, insufferably correct. "Is an action, to be justified, considered good. Of course, to the one perpetrating the action, but to others. The confused, the naive, they may call an action evil. For what, Fear". He looks to the domineering structure before them. Several of the others already making their way forth. "Let us not tarry, we have our reason for coming, and I am sure none of you will find it upon this dock" Thiss looks back over the waves, then joins the others.

"Isn't it a bit early for moral relativism?  Or shall we skip straight to "What's good to the spider is evil to the fly"?  But you're right.  Might as well see what this is about."

Knell energetically heads for the temple.

Jem is delighted by the broad spectrum of characters she finds herself with. This journey will be anything but dull, and she looks excited about seeing how it will unfold.

She chuckles lightly at the praise received from Zendrith and Knell. "Aw, shucks. Well thank you kindly for the words of praise. I'll play for you guys any time! You know, when it's prudent."

Jem will pick up her belongings and prepares to move towards the temple, like Nanaar suggested.

"Speaking of prudence, let us make our way towards the temple and pay our respects to gram- Bahamut," she corrects herself. "I'm sure we all have different reasons for being here. So let's get going, shall we?"

As you’re about to leave the beach and start your climb, you hear a ruckus of splashing and a wet, gurgling moan behind you. Three figures are shambling up from the water’s edge, about thirty feet away. They’re dressed as sailors, but their skin is gray and they look drowned. Sea water drools from their slack mouths as they lurch toward you.

Jem looks genuinely concerned for these sailors and will ask them:

"Are you alright? Do you need assistance?"

She will place her backpack and fiddle (inside the case) on the ground. And slowly begins to walk towards them.

Zendrith turns around at the sound of the drowned sailors approaching from behind them. Seeing Jem address the creatures, walking toward them, his years of defensive training and innate protective instincts kick in. "Shall we parley with these new arrivals, Jem?" he asks confidently, as he strides forward to get as near as possible to the tiefling girl. "Perhaps they are here to welcome us, though I fear we may have no more than a fight on our hands."

Zendrith doubts the sailors are capable of intelligible speech -- every indication seems to him that they are mindless undead. But he does not draw sword or shield as of yet, but waits to see if Jem's genuine expressions of concern have any positive effect.

Nanaar turns to face the scene before him.  Three gray skinned, shambling figures emerging from the water's edge.  Nanaar sighs and mutters to himself, "I knew this beautiful day was too good to be true."  

He shrugs his pack off his back and prepares his crossbow.

Knell uses  Divine Sense to confirm that they're undead and evil, since Jem wasn't sure.

(Assuming they are, since it seems obvious)

"They're undead!  Corpses reanimated by necromancy.  None of the people they were is left but the shambling corpse."

Turning to Thisselaar.  "I'll let you explain that they aren't evil but misunderstood."  

Drawing her sword & advancing toward the zombies.

"Alright you dead!  If you DON'T  want to kill us, better stop & try to talk before I get there."

[ OOC: I'm pretty sure this is when initiative is going to be rolled, but I'll say the following anyways. ]

Jem looks shocked after Knell yells out that they're undead husks. She'll mutter something in infernal to herself, making an expression that makes it evident she has realized the mistake she has made. Swiftly, Jem will try to make her way over to her Fiddle (Viol) and gets ready to use it, should combat commence. 

Thisselaar turns ever so, a slight regard to the words of Knell. With a loud and commanding voice that bespeaks of a master orator, the monotone he uses however is better suited to a long and extremly boring lecturer. "Evil, yes you are right, these mindless creatures before as are neither good nor evil. They can not be. I am glad you are able to understand this concept as so few do. Evil, truly is a choice, just as right or wrong are choices we make every day. A mindless creature such as this can not be Evil any more then the rock you tread upon can be 'good'" He starts again, then realizes Knell never cared, it was a jest, a witticism as she rushes forward.

Thisselaar advances back towards the beach, a slow steady tread. He will continue, well behind the line and only as far as needed. (120')

Yep, that does it. Roll initiative!

Here goes nothing...  Initiative Roll:  2

Thisselaar Initiative : 16

Zendrith 21

Edit: sorry, I messed up the tooltip. No dice were manipulated.

[ OOC: I rolled a 14 on the gamelog for initiative but here's another roll if I was supposed to roll in the thread: 16 ]

Initiative 4 rolled on cha sheet.  

(wait, Were we supposed to roll here?  19)

(possibly after Zombies attack first)

Attack 18

Damage 12

2, 1, 10

We'll do the in-thread rolls for now.

Initiative:

Zendrith 21

Jem 16

Knell 10

Zombie 10

Thisselaar 7

Zombie 2

Nanaar 2

Zombie 1

Combat will start in a bit, I need to get my map ready.

after like 6 attempts

we have the map