Chapter 16 - Zombies!!!
Night 35
The awakened party returned to the main floor of the tavern, how hearing a low moaning that seemed to emanate from all directions. Peering out a front window of the tavern, Aldur spotted what appeared to be several zombies moving through the street outside. Not seeing any zombies out of a back window, Neela broke the glass out and dove through the small window into the yard beyond. She quickly realized that this was not the best move to have made, as zombies moved to attack her from where they had been pressed up against the building, out of sight of the window. Quickly surrounded and attacked, Neela dove back through the window, but not before suffering the rending bite from one of her undead attackers.
Alerted to the presence of the humans inside the building, and the feeding cries of their brethren, the zombies surged against the building, breaking and crawling through the windows. Fighting off the attackers, the party regrouped, but Neela and Aldur were suffering the worst of the assault at their position in the tavernkeeper's former quarters. The zombies were exhibiting a variety of characteristics; human zombies, adult and child alike, were accompanied by the occasional zombie dogs and cats, and some moved with greater speed or healed their wounds. Trykaar went to the aid of Neela and Aldur while the others prepared to sortie against the zombies outside. An exploratory look out the door revealed a number of zombies pressed against it, but Leandrie revealed his holy symbol and drove off the worst of the number and with Jrak's assistance was able to safely close the door.
Having finally regrouped, the group pushed out the door, guided (appropriately one might say) by the light from cleric of Isten's lantern and his powerful voice driving away the undead ahead of them. But the beasts attacked from all directions, and it was a few hundred feet to the edge of town and the highway beyond. A desperate race ensued as the party wove through the zombies, risking their raking claw-like hands and viscious bites in order to move past them with greatest speed. But in short order, they were safely running down the road, the moans of the undead fading behind them.
When the signs of pursuit had faded, the party sought out shelter to rest for the remainder of the night. Finding the ruins of a keep, they bedded down in the ruins of an ancient tower. Neela volunteered to keep the first watch, but soon found her eyelids drooping heavily. She tried for a moment to fight the sudden fatigue, but was unsuccessful and succumbed to a deep sleep.
The party awoke to disorientation and the sound of a door opening. They had bedded down in a a grassy hollow amidst the ruins, but now found themselves laying on a hard stone floor. A human shape was silhouetted by daylight, and he sounded none to pleased. In accented common, he angrily demanded why they were in the keep, and how they had gained access, then called for the captain of the guard. As their eyes adjusted to the light, the party could see a small open yard behind him, surrounded by stone walls and at least one more tower. Heavily armoured shapes patrolled the walls.
As the stranger continued to berrate them, demanding answers, the party attempted to assuage his anger. Leandrie and Aldur attempted to explain how they had come to be there, transported from the ruins of the night before, and of the previous zombie attack. Their explanation was hindered by the fact that in the initial moments of the encounter, the party members had spoken variously of entering via an unguarded main gate, which upset the man. Once their story became clearer, it still did not seem to ring true with the man who, from the deference paid him by the captain of the guard, appeared to be a lord or other high-ranking official.
Eventually, the lord calmed down, but he was still obviosly displeased that strangers had somehow penetrated his keep. His short replies revealed that he was a lord of the Magocracy of Gena, and that there was no Empire, suggesting that more had changed than the condition of the keep. Finally, he allowed the party to leave, but on the conditiont that their items be searched for anything that they might have stolen from the keep. While doing so, he was interested to see the Trykaar's headband, asking why he had not identified himself as a diplomat.
Emerging from the keep, the party found a short path leading down to the highway, where clean paving stones stretched off in either direction. A considerable amount of foot, horse, and wagon traffic could be seen in either direction, through a landscape that retained much of its forests, but also featured well-maintained fields.
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