Round Eight
(this is preceded by round seven, followed by round nine)
Kazzak continues to tap his sword on his shield, though perhaps now he is mocking his last opponent,
Dean the zombie. He steps away from the clumsy corpse and hurries into the thick fog still filling the farmhouse. He feels for the door and swings it shut, leaning his considerable weight against it to hold the door closed.
After
Kazzak leaves,
Dean dithers. Then the zombie jerks and stumbles after the dwarf, moving toward the foggy interior of the farmhouse, too.
Dean Dashes in an attempt to catch up to the fighter, but pushes up against the door that
Kazzak is holding closed. It begins to bash on the door.
Grallaria reports to
Amnestria that
::all the Big People are leaving::
Upstairs in the farmhouse, flanked by two
Dungeon Busters,
Don picks a target. Jerking around in a circle, its flailing arms batter the wizard, who casts
Shield to block the blows! The zombie's arms stop just short of her face, slamming into the invisible barrier!
Out in the woods,
Dina and
Dvan continue pursuing
Dell deeper into the pitch-black
Dim Forest. At the end of their turns of
Move and
Dash,
Dvan is 30' away from the rogue, and
Dina is 50' away.
No longer dying,
Sora moans loudly in
Antonius' arms.
"Only one..." Antonius mutters as watches
Fern run toward the woods, wondering how she got a dagger and whether
Ene still lives.
"Where are you hiding?"
Upstairs in the farmhouse,
Berthold addresses
Amnestria:
"Dame Elyphara, please step aside. Our guest has overstayed his welcome." "Whatever you're doing," Amnestria says to
Berthold, despite being pretty sure she understands his intent,
"do it now!" She's so sure that she drops down to her hands and knees in front of the open window.
Down in the yard,
Antonius drags
Sora's body back into the fog, hoping that he's right in thinking that
Ene is already gone, and not waiting in the mist to stick him with a knife. He's grateful that the monk wears no armor; the backpack and the bag of brewing supplies are heavy enough. Feeling his way along the side of the house, he finds the open front door and hikes the dwarf woman's heels over the threshold. Then he sits Sora up so that she is leaning against the wall, and closes both the front door and the window shutters over her head. Behind him,
Antonius hears a struggle of a body hitting wood (
Kazzak holding the back door against
Dean) and calls out
"Kazzak! Answer me! Is that you, or one of the dead?" Kazzak replies:
"It’s Kazzak! There’s still a zombie outside the door! He can’t get in right now!"
Seeing that the
zombie is trying to follow the dwarf into the farmhouse,
Morton continues for the barn, crashing through the plants and
Dashing to emerge out of the fields, cross past the well, and arrive at the corner of the barn. From here, he sees the open barn doors, a fog bank partially obscuring a wagon, and a
woman (
Fern) running full-tilt for the woods. He can hear the person who shouted before (
Dell) still making noise in the northern woods on the other side of the barn, and
Morton hears the raised voices of
four people in the farmhouse (
Amnestria,
Berthold,
Kazzak and
Antonius having different conversations).
Dell reminisces about night hunting with
Chase as he continues blindly smashing through the undergrowth of the
Dim Forest to make noise and keep ahead of the two zombies,
Dina and
Dvan, to lead them away from the
Jarl homestead. It's a novel experience, trying to draw attention rather than being as silent as possible...but he can hardly help it, as
Dell can't see anything in the darkness. Luckily the
zombies are no quieter than he is, crashing through the foliage, so the rogue knows where they are behind him. At the end of his turn,
Dell is 90' ahead of
Dvan, and 110' ahead of
Dina.
Grallaria the owl lands on the roof and keeps her eyes on the back of the house, watching
Dean hammering on the closed back door below her.
Inside and on the second floor, with the great set-up of the wizard,
Berthold tries to shove
Don so that the zombie will trip over
Amnestria and fall out the window.
"Reynald!" the knight calls to his squire behind the closed southern bedroom door,
"Get ready to bring the crossbow here as soon as I tell you to!" Zombie Don attempts to resist going out the window (contested Athletics). But the shove is too hard, and the wizard too much of an obstacle;
Don's upper corpse continues forward as
Amnestria blocks its legs, and the
zombie falls forward out of the window, momentum and gravity taking it the rest of the way out. Its body falls and disappears into the fog, though everyone can hear the thuds as it hits the roof, bounces off, and then hits the ground outside the front door.
Zombie Don takes 6 falling damage!
Figuring there's nothing to see in the fog below the window,
Berthold slams the window shutter closed and calls
"Reynald, my crossbow! Guilbert, bring my armor!" He then turns to
Amnestria and offers his hand to help her up, adding in a softer voice,
"You have my gratitude, Dame Elyphara. As soon as the immediate threat is handled, we will tend to your wounds."
Olyena quickly shifts the furniture they'd used to bar the door so that
Reynald and
Guilbert can rush across the hallway to bring
Berthold the requested items.
Fern runs the rest of the way into the forest and begins blindly crashing through the undergrowth.
Ene runs out of the barn doors to follow her, then stops for a moment, puzzled at the dimly-seen sight of
Morton, standing at the edge of the light cast by
Amnestria's coin diffused by the fog.
::Who's this guy, now?:: she boggles, then turns and sprints after
Fern. If he's a bandit, he's not part of her gang!
Morton sees this
disheveled human girl look at him, eyes wide, then turn and flee in terror. She's halfway across the yard toward the trees with her
Dash.
19 - Kazzak (12/12)
18 - The dead Dave (Dead), Dean (-15), Dina (-62), Don (-41), Duke (Dead), Dvan
16 - Sora (0/12) Stable, Unconscious
7 - Amnestria (9/9)
7 - Antonius (3/10)
7 - Morton (1/15, 5 temp HP)
6 - Dell (6/9)
4 - Grallaria (1/1)
3 - Berthold (1/11)
0 - Reynald (4/4), Guilbert (4/4), Olyena (4/4)
0 - Bandit Ene
