The Crusade Against the Shade [IC] (GROUP 1)

[Silkenfist]

Cyreon maintains his pace even as the mass of undead becomes visible. So far it didn't seem like they would be able to catch them and haste might be harmful for their guest. He continues to concentrate on keeping the weight balanced and snorts briefly to the leopard at his side. Let's stay calm, Cali. We won't attack these things. Should they reach us...do your best to protect the woman on my back.

[MountainKing]

As the shambling hordes lumbered into view, Robilard's eyes widened, before his face struck with the picture of noble heroism.

"Haste, good Simon, haste! They have come, and draw near to us!" With that, the bard rolled his wrist and sang a few words in Elvish, enchanting his legs with greater speed.

"Master Plumm! Noble Cyreon can bear the woman safely, but Simon is on foot! We must assay the coming undead and see if we cannot draw them away a short distance!" With that, Robilard dashed towards the undead mob, with the intention of using a few arrows to see if the undead would turn en masse... and of course, he makes sure to keep a healthy distance between himself and the undead.

Spoiler

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Cast Expeditious Retreat, duration is 5 minutes.

[MammonAzrael]

Simon

Eyeing the queer and worrisome Robilard, Simon continues heading towards the city. Once the horde crests the hill, he speeds up to a run.

"Wait my good Robilard, we should be able to outdistance them easily, no need to head towards them!"

[Another_Poet]

Plumm

"Master bard! Return!" Plumm bellows in his little voice. For now he sticks close to the horse bearing the pregnant woman.

[MountainKing]

"Ride on, noble Cyreon, ride on!" the bard shouted back, even as he brought his shortbow to the fore. His legs carried him over the grassy plain rapidly, with an inhuman (indeed magical) speed and grace. Once he was some one hundred feet distant from the undead, Robilard begins to fire arrows into the mob, hoping that the sight of living flesh paired with the irritation of stinging arrows would be enough to turn the horde, causing it to alter its direction.

[Regord_Silentflame]

OOC: The undead are very far away, it's going to take Robilard at least a few minutes to get within a hundred feet.

[MountainKing]

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Make it so, number 1.

[Regord_Silentflame]

Which means the rest of you should post something within a day or so, or I'll head straight to combat for him alone.

[Another_Poet]

Plumm

Plumm is visibly conflicted. He looks back and forth between the courageous bard and the woman who's practically in labour in the saddle. Or lack of saddle, as it were. He bites his lower lip hard, and stays by her side. Looking up he tries to sound calm and reassuring. "Don't worry, Ma'am, we've got a good lead and we'll be to town soon."

[Miraqariftsky]

He said 'twould be naught but a swift ride... and ordered me ta hold the line here... blight! BLAST!, runs Vingsturr's thoughts as he paces back and forth some hundred feet from the town's gates, waiting anxiously for his companions' return. ever and anon, he looks up and gazes at the horizon, wary for both charges and threats, all the while passing his throwing hammer from one hand to another.

[Silkenfist]

Cyreon merely shakes his snout as he trots on, beginning to miss his ability to express himself in Common. He tries to keep up the pace in the hope that the Bard returns as soon as their distance to the horde has improved enough. At Cyreon's flank, Cali pays a short look to where Robilard went, then follows her companion nonetheless.

[MammonAzrael]

Simon

Simon turns and stares after Robilard for several long seconds, wondering why he is so eager to run towards the undead. The smell is bad enough from here. With a shrug and a thought to remember to ask him later if he survives, Simon turns and heads back to the village, not worried of being caught at all.

[Regord_Silentflame]

OOC: Alright, seems like everyone's said what they're doing, so we'll skip ahead a little.

The undead are mindless zombies and skeletons, so they possess no effective means of ranged attack of course, so the valiant bard can tell me what his actions are for about 4 rounds before they get within close distance of him.

By that point, the rest of you are 1/2 - 3/4 of the way back to the town, and you should return in about 2 minutes.

[MountainKing]

OOC: Robilard's plan is as previously posted. Shoot a couple arrows in the general direction of the undead, see if they notice him, then start moving and hope that they follow him rather than continue rambling toward the village. Sort of a pied piper act, except with pointy sticks and running away instead of playing a flute.

[Regord_Silentflame]

Alright, well many undead react to being fired at, and a few score start to follow after Robilard, but there are many many more, and they continue on their path unperturbed.

[Another_Poet]

Plumm

Plumm escorts the horse back to town. When they approach the gates he lets the horse amd rider go in alone, wishing the woman a safe delivery as she goes. He takes a moment to give his pit trap a final inspection.

((Regord if you need to see the specs and my roll for it see post 98. Did the villagers pitch in? Did we get it dug and covered?))

((Also I don't think anyone said whether or not they had Aided Another during the three days of work. The pregnant woman thing came up and we got off the topic. If anyone was helping me dig it, let me know, because I only rolled an 11 on my own.))

[MountainKing]

"Right," Robilard muttered, clearing his throat softly. Pointing at the nearest batch of undead who had opted to ignore the plucky bard, Robilard suddenly cut loose with a piercing cry, the magic of the music flowing through him.

"HoiYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAH!"

And with that sudden, defiant outburst, the bard quickly moved himself to a safer distance.

Spoiler

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Casting Sound Burst on nearby zombies; Robilard will not be ignored! Then, of course... running away.

(1d8)[6] points of sonic damage to a group of undead in a 10 ft radius area, preferably all undead who are ignoring Robilard.

[Regord_Silentflame]

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Plumm: yeah, it was finished exactly how you wanted. The Villagers helped, but they're worse at it than you, so how effective it is is dependent on the other players, but even if they didn't help, it will work.

Robilard: A sound burst doesn't even nearly hit all the undead, but I do admire your spirit

When Robilard bursted the undead sonically, a few were knocked about a little, and one of them was even unfortunate enough to shake apart, it's split body still wriggling on the ground.

He got what he wanted. When the zombie hit the ground, it was as if every single one of those lifeless creatures turned, staring directly at him. As he ran away from the horde it responded, the skeletons bursting forth from the back of zombies and charging straight for him, and if he ever bothered to look back, he'd realize that he wasn't gaining any ground on them.

[MountainKing]

OOC: Yeah, I figured it wouldn't, but when all else fails in the art of getting somethings attention, just yell really loud.

Robilard paused, only long enough to take a glance... then the bard yelped, and suddenly he was running even faster than before.

Discretion lad, that's the better part of valor! By Fharlagn's codpiece, run!

Spoiler

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Robilard will now be taking a Run action, and I'd like an estimate on how much time is left on my Expeditious Retreat.

[Miraqariftsky]

Suddenly, Vingsturr hears the sounds of battle from beyond the field of tall grass. The wandering warrior hears the furious retreat of his comrades, Cyreon's earth-eating hoofbeats, the blast of magic from Robilard and the unmistakable stench of the damned dead.

Jumping and hopping to get a better vantage point, the son of Swifthammer sees the writhing mass of accursed undead striding slowly, ominously, purposely in pursuit of his comrades. Seeing that a single dwarven arrow would make little difference against such a horde, he prepares to throw it nevertheless and draw his axe afterwards. Breaking into a charge towards them, his short legs pumping the dirt. "Baruk ai khazad! Khazad ai menu!"

[Regord_Silentflame]

OOC: Yeah, I figured it wouldn't, but when all else fails in the art of getting somethings attention, just yell really loud.

Robilard paused, only long enough to take a glance... then the bard yelped, and suddenly he was running even faster than before.

Discretion lad, that's the better part of valor! By Fharlagn's codpiece, run!

Spoiler

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Robilard will now be taking a Run action, and I'd like an estimate on how much time is left on my Expeditious Retreat.

Don't worry about it, with expeditious retreat, you can get back before 5 minutes is up, especially if you start it running.

[MammonAzrael]

Simon

Simon looks on from the gate as the dwarf charges off towards the undead. "My, but everyone seems to be so eager to rush off, don't they. Quite strange really, since they're coming to us anyways. It looks like Robilard made sure of that. I would have thought he would try to lead them away. Oh well, I guess sometimes plans can go bad. Oh well, I guess this is a good of time as any to gt a handle on what we're facing!

Spoiler

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Spot - (1d20-6)[4]
Knowledge Religion - (1d20+11)[31] (for Knowledge Devotion feat)

With that Simon will a charge when skeletons get within range (assuming he knows that none of them are crazy strong or something)

[MountainKing]

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To make it clear, Robilard IS trying to divert the undead away from the town. He isn't particularly worried about Expeditious Retreat running out on him, as once he's a run action or two away from the undead, he'll have plenty of time to recast it if it's necessary. That's why I asked, because Robilard's plan is to lead the undead in a direction that is different from the destination of the party bearing a pregnant, helpless woman.

[Regord_Silentflame]

I don't think I've made this clear. There are nearly 1000 undead in the vicinity, although many of them are very far away, there are still several hundred nearby. They're rather spread out, and unless you're running generally towards the party (45 degrees to either side) then even with your expeditious retreat, they'll catch you, simply because there are that many spread so wide. Your tactic will cause them to not be moving towards the other players, or the town, but unless you want to literally wade through the undead, they'll still be heading towards them, just much slower.

[Another_Poet]

Plumm

As the woman is taken safelhy inside the town, Plumm rides his sheepdog back and forth between his several over-eager allies urging them to get back inside the town walls (that's Vingsturr Simon, not Robilard, whom I trust has a plan).

"We can mow them down from in there! Out here it's us who'll get the mowing!"

[MountainKing]

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And a plan he has, indeed! ...maybe? I mean, bloody hell, that's a lot more undead than it sounded like it was going to be.

Robilard's eyes widened as he ran, realization sinking in with alarming speed... this was a much larger swarm of undead than the priest at the temple had made it out to be. Frowning, the plucky bard decided that, chances were, Cyreon and company had gotten enough use out of his distraction... it was time to go!

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That'll be a Run action back toward town then... bloody hell, thousands of undead...

[Regord_Silentflame]

Robilard gets back to the gates, they've been left open for him, and he has a hundred feet or so between him and the charging skeletons.

[Miraqariftsky]

Suddenly, Vingsturr stops in shock as he crests the nearest clump of tall grass and sees the truth of the graveness of the situation. The dwarf dashes back to the relative safety of the gates and pants out to Robilard, "Ho there! Meheard some bangin' an' clangourin' an' methought ta join th' fray... se... be... ho... Ah... Cyreon's back, mesees... Se noo, do we maek a stan' haer or got ye somma trick oppa yer sleevin'?"

[Another_Poet]

Plumm

Plumm's mount pads up beside the bard and the dwarf. "I've got a trench dug outside of town that should trap thirty or for--holy **** on a **** sandwich! There's how many?" He stares in disbelief at the growing horde sweeping over the hills. "If we're to make a stand then let's get to the wall. The villagers said they can't get over it so we should be able to poke, pelt and snipe all day."

[MountainKing]

Robilard skidded to a halt inside the gates, breathing hard and slapping his hands to his knees.

"By... the gods... thousands of 'em! Shut the gates, by Heironeous' tin-covered backside, SHUT THE GATES!" Blowing out one final heavy breath, the bard straightened and continued to breath, albeit gradually catching his breath.

"I have no idea Plumm, Vingsturr... can skeletons climb walls?" The bard looked around, beginning to worry, "Oi! Does anyone know if skeletons can climb walls?!" The bard's mind began to race as he tried to think through what little religious schooling he'd gotten.

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Quick little Knowledge (Religion) check, if I can. Trying to see if Robilard knows if skeletons can climb walls... or at least, if these ones look like they were exceptional in the realm of skeletonhood.
(1d20+5)[25]