Red Dead Annihilation: Campaign Thread

This time stubborn, refusing to die its final death undead got Meili. The smell alone was nauseating but when those rotting teeth bit into her flesh, she had to fight the involuntary urge to scream and frantically shake off the zombie. Instead she tried to kick the thing off again and finally finish with the sword:

Sword: Attack: 16 Damage: 6

Kick: Attack: 12 Damage: 6

Meili succeeds in dispatching another Zombie.  

All of the northern zombies are destroyed and only two of the southern zombies remain standing.

Mica turns at the Deathlock’s cackle and finds his target as the creature blasts its dark energy toward Danica and Velan.  “There you are, you pile of rotten guts. Got you now..”  Mica growls, draws back his bow and sends an arrow at the Deathlock.

Attack: 16 Damage: 8.

.

It was too early, thought the wizard as the undead warlock appeared. As the tendril of energy moved in his direction he almost raised a barrier of arcane energy. Had he done that, Velan knew for sure, he would have completely stopped the attack, taken no damage at all. But instead, he decided to go for the offensive. Ran was holding the zombies and in the worst-case scenario Inete could still heal him. The main enemy seemed unaware of her ability to cure and considering it was now focusing on the arcanist and the druid it was definitely no longer in a comfortable position.

Clehching his teeth as the pain of the spell raced through his flesh, the hexblood focused his mind on the weave. Condensing it, molding it into inescapable darts of pure force. His eyes turned teal and his head moved into the alcolyte of Savras.

“We need to get cover.” He said pointing to the nearest tent. “Heal me only if I alone get down. Otherwise, the others are the priority.” The words carried more than cold rationality. The keen eye would notice the man genuinely had little regard for his life. “Tormenta!”

The shout cut through the air shortly before the Magic Missiles. All three of them chasing the undead caster. Spell released, Velan moved behind the closest tent, careful as to not enter a zombie melee range.  

Notes: Velan uses Magic Missile, then moves behind the closest tent, avoiding the melee range of the zombie and crouching if necessary to get full cover from the Warlock.

1st Dart Damage: 5
2nd Dart Damage: 2
3rd Dart Damage: 4

The tables have turned, and the undead caster has gone from gloating, to severely injured in mere moments.

ROUND SEVEN

• Meili
• Mica 
• Velan
• Danica
• Inete
• Deathlock
• Ran
• Hew
• South Zombies

Danica could swear she sees a glimmer of moonlight shed on the edges of the trees and....there! She just heard a rustle and began moving towards it but then just barely managing to dodge to the right and out of the way as she saw necrotic energy shoot towards her from the direction she was heading. Surely enough the creature's invisibility shed after the attack  and she was about to laugh back in its face about how it missed her when she saw that its other attack certainly didn't miss Velan. Expression twisted into a protective yet murderous snarl, the elf sprinted towards the undead mage, vaulting over the bodies of the felled zombies, darting between Mica and Hew as she made her way straight towards the warlock. She approached just as she saw a barrage of three darts hit their foe with force to surely knock any breath from it if it had any. "Not laughing now, eh?" She asked before slashing upwards at it with her scimitar, aiming for its neck to try and at least damage its vocal chords. Surely it couldn't cast if it couldn't speak? 

Attack:  9 //  Damage:  4

After an arduous battle, the end comes fast.  The undead warlock emerges from invisibility to smite the wizard and druid, only to see his sneak attack fall woefully short.  Then within moments, he takes an arrow to the chest from Mica.  Then three motes of force slam into his back, erupting out through his hollow corpse and sending pieces of rotten tissue flying across the clearing.  It turns to run, abandoning its quest... only for Danica to draw her scimitar across its throat.  Dust and spiders pour from the gaping wound.  It tries to curse you all in its strange tongue, but only rasping whispers emerge.  As the wretch expires, its shadow appears to be torn out from it, soaring off into the jungle with a silent scream on its black face.

The three remaining zombies are dispatched with grim professionalism by Hew, with assistance from all of you.   In less than a minute, the clearing is silent again but for the crackling of your campfire and the groans of the wounded.

Velan:

 And with that, you have a respite to assess all that has happened and tend to those who have been bloodied by this midnight assault.

Ran pokes at the bodies of a couple of the zombies just to make sure they’re really dead. Then he claps his hands together and takes a deep breath.

”Seems like the insects are getting a bit bigger the further out into the middle of fraking nowhere we get.”

He offers to sit a watch during what’s left of the night.

Perception: 9  

As he dove behind the barrack the undead caster decided to escape and Danica finished it with her blade. The shadow leaving the corpse made little to calm his nerves, but at least the remaining zombies proved to be little challenge and even the winged creature, Ninlil said, had gone away. An omen both good and bad, he believed. Hurt and curious he approached the warlock.

“It should have a magic item. A powerful one.” He said remembering the onslaught of Magic Missiles the exanimate released upon them. Thinking back on it, he never saw so many darts of force used in a same fight. Both him and the enemy had ensured a show of lights. “The flying creature at the palms left after the conflict. I would guess it was sent to watch if the things ended us or things happened the other way around. Hew, are we anywhere close an area where the Red Wizards could be?”

If they weren’t then Velan would bet the whole thing was orchestrated by the hag sisters. Either way he had to agree with Ran the insects are getting bigger and chances were, they would grow larger, stronger and more challenging. Maybe they should ask Inete to divine who was watching then back there.

“We can check the corpses for loot, and we need to burn them while we still have a chance.” The wizard spoke sitting by the rest of the group. Pain and effort numbing his body, cold sweat covering his brow. “If any of you is so kind as to put them in a pile no farther than a hundred and twenty feet from me, I can produce the flames.”

It was Meili's second real brush with death. That wizard - or whoever the dead magic user was - almost killed her and Mica. Meili checked her hurriedly dressed wounds. She would live, provided no new assault would happen soon. "Mica, do you want some heal or should we wait till morning?" Obviously, bleeding could be stopped but a real healing would use the meager resources the group had.

"Velan, forgive me for saying this, but your obsession with Red wizards clouds your judgement again. They do not expect us, they do not know about us. YOU did not know about them not long ago. The only reason we go their way is that Inete needs to be there and it is on the way to the main target. We were warned about sisters, and other dangers, that had nothing to do with red wizards. If you concentrate only on them, you might miss the real threat."

It was way too long of a speech. Meili lowered her head in a short gesture, indicating an apology, and changed the subject. "How many times one can raise a dead body?"

Examining the corpses, you discover the zombies were devoid of anything of value.  On the body of the undead warlock, you find the following:

• A yellowed yew wand
• A spell scroll
• A pickled tentacle
• A package of cut herbs tied neatly
• A pouch containing: a pearl worth 100gp; assorted other gems worth 10gp; and 25 silver pieces

Working together you are able to pile the corpses a short distance from camp and set them alight.  In the dampness they don't burn well, but they do burn, and by morning there is little left.

[There are no further incidents tonight.  Congratulations.  With the rising sun, you all awaken at LEVEL THREE.]

Hew goes to the water's edge and washes off some of the wounds inflicted on him by the undead.  "We are still far from the Aldani Basin... three days more.  If that's where the girl expects to find the Red Wizards."  He looks up at Meili's comments.  "It sounds like a ptera-folk.  Unlikely to be related to these wizards.  Most like, it heard the commotion.  If it wasn't alone, we likely would have been set upon by them all once we defeated the undead.  With luck, it was impressed enough that it won't come back with a dozen friends tomorrow night and hunt us."  He lets that linger without further comment and goes back to washing his wounds.  

***

In the morning, Inete goes to the water as well.  She is looking at her reflection in the surface and brushing at her hair.  She looks disturbed.

Ran stretches, flexes and moves through a few feints and pivots with his swords in the morning.

"Anyone else starting to feel some of the stiffness fading away?" Ran asks. "The longer we're out here the last of slog it feels."

He takes a look at the herb packet the zombie-warlock/wizard had left behind, seeing if he recognizes anything.

"These anything like what you wizards use when you do your abracadabra?" Ran asks Velan, gesturing at the pickled tentacle and the herbs.

@DM

 ”What do you know about spellcraft and divination? Have you heard about the Find Familiar spell?” He asked to Meili, too tired to be less than blunt. “Let me give a demonstration.” He says snapping his fingers and making Ninlil appear in front of the group as if from thing air. “Spellcasters have the ability to summon spirits on the form of beasts and use them for monitoring. The possibility such beast is a familiar is real and in case you forgot we are dealing with two groups of hostile spellcasters.  Asking about one of them is not obsession. It is called considering the possibilities or, in more condensed terms, being prudent. Now do think twice about questioning my judgement about magicians and Thay. In case you failed to realize, I know quite a bit about both and when it comes to raising undead it is not impossible to do it more than once. We better not taking any chances.”

Hew’s answer brought an optimistic possibility, but ultimately made him more inclined to believe the creature was sent by the hags. One thing was to find zombies roaming the jungle. Another was to be attacked by a large group contained of them led by a clearly intelligent undead warlock. That attack didn’t see coincidental. Velan kept it in mind as he went to sleep. By the morning his wounds had closed and his mind, rested, allowed him for progress on his arcane studies. As was routine he woke early, casted Mage Armor upon himself and rested enough to restore the energy used on the enchantment. Outside his tent Ran indagated about the loot.

“Some spells consume materials. For example, to call Ninlil I had to use the incenses I bought on the day we met, so yeah. This pearl, for example, can allow me to use the spell to identify materials so I would like to have it and use it to identify the scroll and wand.”

"I do not question your knowledge of magicians of Thay, whatever they are. I am asking you to look past your personal vendetta. When you see everything as an act of only one enemy you care about, you can miss all others."

Meili did not claim anything from the findings but helped with piling up bodies and then tried to get some rest.

By the morning the worst was clearly behind (health-wise) and once all the routines were done she was ready to go. Except... "Are you all right?" Meili was talking quietly in case Inete did not want anyone to notice her worries. "You seem unbalanced."

Ran listens to a bit of the back and forth between Meili and Velan.

"You two would make good siblings," he finally says with a smile.

He then nods over at the still smoldering pile of undead.

"Let's just treat everything as the enemy. Smack it hard. Then figure out afterwards if we missed anyone."

Velan:

Inete looks up at Meili's question, then over at Danica.  "I don't know.  Someone... something... was cutting my hair last night."  Indeed, it looks like someone clipped off a fair amount of hair, leaving a short patch where her bangs would be and along the right side of her head.

Hew meanwhile begins packing up camp... then stops when he sees storm clouds gathering.  "Let's linger a bit and fill the rain catchers, then get back to the river."

Meili never had actual siblings, but the meaning was clear. She stopped arguing entirely, not even commenting on Ran's rather questionable (if not sarcastic) suggestion and concentrating on Inete.

"Something? Like one of the zombies from last night?" That attack looked more and more bizarre, and what is worst - more targeting. "Whatever for?" Hew's idea of preparing rain catchers and following sitting and waiting off the rain left plenty of time to speculate, and Meili was ready if not to get personally to the bottom of it, then at least "lend her ears" for more versed in subject to find the answer by speaking out loud.  

“You don’t know which vendettas I hold so don’t go assuming I am merely looking at one. How cloistered you were to not know that a single reply carries many answers?” He asked on an acid tone as the monk leaves. Ran subsequent comment described quite well the exchange of words. They did sound like siblings bickering. That made Velan think if he had any actual siblings. Not that it would make difference. “Who do you think would be the elder?”

The wizard asked with a half-smile, before, noticing the lack of resistance, taking the pearl and starting the ritual. The wand was exactly what he expected, save for the strange trace of dark magic on it. Spellcraft strong enough to meddle with a magic item… Last night was definitely not a coincidence. The spell scroll looked on brand with the Warlock.

“So, inventory time. The wand allows the user to use Magic Missile, a damage dealing spell that conjure darts that never miss the target. Normally it would allow for up to seven casts of the spell but you could increase the number of darts in exchange for decreasing the number of castings. This one was exhausted by our friend last night so until recharging further it can be used for a cast and after it, well, the thing may crumble to dust. I would suggest saving it for tomorrow or later and giving to one of our healers.” Then he gets the pouch of herbs. “This is thecki root, you chew to ease stomach ache or use in simple antitoxins. The tentacle was the spell component for Hunger of Hadar.” As soon as he said that he noticed that his friends could not know the magic by name. “The strange darkness the undead conjured. The scroll allows a single use of the Cause fear which, well, causes fear on the target. I could transcribe it on my spellbook if I had the paper and ink for it, but that is not the case.”