Chapter 4.2: The Dim Journey to Orlane

Round eight, continued...

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 field, 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 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.

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.

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 the 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 thud as it hits the ground outside the front door.
Zombie Don takes 6 falling damage!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.

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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 (18/18)

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 thud as it hits the ground outside the front door.
Zombie Don takes 6 falling damage!

Round eight, completed

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.

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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 (18/18)

Round Nine
(this is preceded by round eight, followed by round ten)

"Secure all openings!" Kazzak says, holding the door and feeling around blindly until he finds the bar for the door. Lifting it up, he slots it in place to keep the door closed against the weight of the zombie trying to beat the door down. "Back door is done!" The dwarf steps away; the pounding on the door continues, giving audible proof that the bar is doing its job. "I'm moving to the front. Who's here? Call out!" Kazzak feels his way along the kitchen table and finds a chair in his way, moves around it. "And where did this fog come from?"

Outside the back door, Dean continues to hammer against the door.
Outside the front door, Don rises awkwardly to its feet and starts moving toward the sound. It hits the front of the house and starts to pound, trying to break a way in. Antonius hears the wooden shutters on the window he just closed rattling with each blow.
Able to sense the rogue despite the deep darkness of the Dim Forest at night, Dina and Dvan continue to smash their way through the undergrowth in Dell's wake. At the end of their turns, Dvan is 50' behind Dell, Dina 70' behind him.

Leaned up against the wall under the window that Don is trying to enter, Sora slumbers on, dreaming of mountains.

Upstairs, "Good," Amnestria responds to the knight at his offer of eventual healing. "If you don't mind, I'll stay here and keep an eye on things." Saying this, Amnestria concentrates on her familiar. Her eyes roll back in her head, and suddenly the wizard is looking down through the owl's eyes, looking at the zombie pounding on the back door to the farmhouse.
Amnestria has fully opened her connection with Grallaria; she cannot hear or see with her own senses until the start of her next turn.
She narrates what she sees (it's not necessary to describe the sound, since everyone upstairs was already hearing the zombies trying to break their way in): "There's a zombie pounding on the back door. I'm going to fly around - uh, have Grallaria fly around, to see what else we can see."

Hearing that the zombie is focused on breaking open the window shutters, Antonius opens the front door a crack and peers out in the hopes of seeing Don. All is glowing grey mist; he can't see Don, because the fog still obscures everything.
Closing the door again, Antonius yells "Kazzak! I have the other door, but I can't see it. The fog is too thick—I cannot bring Wee Jas' judgment upon what I cannot see." Grallaria hears this shout, and therefore so does Amnestria. Though the wizard cannot hear or see her surroundings, she doesn't need to see or hear to stop maintaining her spell. She stops concentrating on the fog, and it immediately disappears. Now the light of Antonius' shield illuminates the downstairs kitchen/dining room: unconscious Sora sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall under a front window, Antonius by the front door, Kazzak in the middle of the room. Antonius immediately turns back, opens the front door a crack, and lays eyes on zombie Don. He releases the power of Wee Jas on the animated corpse and it is wracked with the knell of judgment.
Don takes 2 force damage!
Antonius closes the door again and straddles Sora's body, shoving his shield against the shutters that are rattling with each of the undead thing's blows.

"Stop running; you will die out here!" Morton yells, but the terrified girl shows no sign of stopping. Morton runs away from the Fog Cloud after the fleeing murderous bandit girl, Ene. Easily catching up to the girl (still hobbling a little from cut-off circulation in her legs) before she leaves the circle of light cast by Amnestria's glowing coin (diffused by the fog cloud), Morton shoves her in the back. All her fears are realized as she is attacked from behind and hits the ground face-first, sliding to a stop. "Now stay there while I save the other." Morton says, and keeps running for the rest of his move toward the Dim Forest after Fern.

Dell continues to crash blindly through the deep dark forest, away from the zombies that are falling further and further behind him. After Dashing, Dell is 110' ahead of Dvan and 130' ahead of Dina.

"The night is alive with many small things..." Amnestria says aloud, her eyes rolled back in her head as she is seeing and hearing through her owl familiar, Grallaria. "I'm ignoring the bugs and rodents as she takes off and flies over the house. I can see into the yard in front of the house. There's the wagon, but there's no sign of Sora. The hammering of the zombie below is very loud." Berthold can hear it, but it is muffled, coming from downstairs. "I'm looking at the barn from above as she swoops down. Who's that?? There's somebody yelling at the bandits very loudly; he just knocked her down to the ground. Which one is that? Ene - it's clearly Ene. I don't know who attacked her - he looks like an elf. Somebody is smashing through the trees. No, more than one - there are at least four crashing around, making so much noise. She's in the barn now, landing on a beam; there's no sign of anybody in here. How did the bandits get free? Where did Dell and Sora go? Didn't Dell say that Sora was 'down?' How did she get away? Did Dell have some healing? They must be the ones stumbling around in the forest, them and the zombies chasing them. But it doesn't sound like they're together. Why would they have split up?"

As the wizard continues her narrative, "Amnestria and I are upstairs!" Berthold yells, which means it is both audible to Kazzak and Antonius down on the ground floor and to Grallaria perched on a crossbeam in the barn. But when Berthold turns back and addresses Amnestria in a normal voice, she cannot hear it, as her senses are far away, outside. "I'm going down to help them, but I’ll have one of my men relay what you see." Amnestria continues narrating without pause. Stepping out of the bedroom with his retainers, Berthold takes the crossbow from Reynald. He looks from face to face, each one scared and dim in the faint illumination bleeding from the stairwell illuminated by Antonius' shield somewhere below. "Once I’ve shot this, I’ll need you to reload it. At the first sign of any zombie inside, you and the others barricade yourselves with Lady Amnestria, understood?" Terse nods from the shadowed faces. Crossbow in hand, Berthold plunges into the stairwell and descends. He sees Sora on the floor, Antonius standing above her, Kazzak in the middle of the room by the dining table, and hears the splintering of wooden shutters on one side and the booming of the back door on the other. Berthold rushes towards the dwarven monk, adding "Where is Dell? I can heal Sora a bit, if needed!"

Reynald returns to the bedroom with the wizard, who hasn't stopped talking this whole time. Olyena dithers, and then follows him rather than enter the fog. They exchange a glance; this elven woman is a little creepy. Guilbert follows Berthold down the stairs, arms loaded with the knight's armor, quiver full of crossbow bolts at his hip. Everyone downstairs can hear the groom before they see him, clanking and rattling as he teeters his way down the stairs with his heavy load, bumping into walls and grunting with each impact.

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19 - Kazzak (12/12)
18 - The dead Dave (Dead), Dean (-15), Dina (-62), Don (-43), 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 Prone