CH. 01 - A Night on the Town

[Matt4]

Giunona Scarletbark

HP: 9/23 - AC: 18 - CD: 0/1 - Inspiration: No

"Good." - she smiles at him with a mixture of sternness and tough motherly love.

"Now, this was the easy part. On to the next one."

Giunona murmurs some sort of prayer to herself (*), before reaching for Shanna.
"What about you?" - It's not like she wants Shanna to go with them, it's just that she doesn't trust her enough to leave her alone with the others.
She still has bad feelings about her, and her guts are never wrong.

Giunona takes her aside and, lowering her voice, she says to the half-elven woman: "I know you'd prefer to stay here, but all the best combatants are going, are you sure you want to stay with them?" - she nods to Aubrey and the others. - "You saw what I'm capable of, you'd be safe with me, and we could use your help to arrive to the temple."


OOC Actions

* Giunona casts Guidance on herself.

[Daos]

"You don't know that," Shanna says.  "The temple could be completely overrun, and even more dangerous than here.  Why should I risk my life on such a gamble?"

[Matt4]

Giunona Scarletbark

HP: 9/23 - AC: 18 - CD: 0/1 - Inspiration: No

"Well, staying here is as much as a gamble." - she makes a gesture to Shanna to look outside the window, pointing to a couple of zombies which were dragging a screaming man. - "For some reason they seem intentioned in capturing people instead of killing them. And if they were to realize that there are nine defenseless people behind this door, which with a group of noisy, crying, children doesn't seem so far-fetched..." - she paused a couple seconds, to give time to her interlocutor to finish the sentence in her mind. - "Now I don't know where you were before the attack, but I was in my room behind a locked door and I can tell you... All it took one of them to tear it down were a few seconds and a couple of punches, imagine what a more numerous group could do." - the more she tried to convince Shanna, the more convinced she became that they needed to act fast if she were to save everyone.

"If it's not the temple, we could try the mayor's home, or for Moradin's beard, we could make our way to the woods, climb a tree and wait for sunlight. But we need to act now, Shanna. So, what will you do?"

[Daos]

Shanna thinks it over.  It's not clear if Giunona's words are reaching her or not.  However, it becomes very clear that they reached Aubrey.  She looks about ready to break into tears.  "Oh, gods help us, she's right!" Aubrey says.  "We're doomed if we stay here, especially without any protection!  We need to go with you--all of us!"  She gathers the little ones up close to her.

George tries to calm her down.  "You'll be safe here.  The root cellar is reinforced, they won't get in."

"You just heard her!" Aubrey snaps, becoming increasingly panicked.  "She's the expert, she would know!  They'll easily tear in here and kill us all!"

[Matt4]

Giunona Scarletbark

HP: 9/23 - AC: 18 - CD: 0/1 - Inspiration: No

Ugh, nosy woman. But still, her worries were sadly justified.
"Aubrey, if you'd heard me you should also have heard the part about not making noise!" - she says as she motions to the woman to keep her voice down.
"And I didn't know you had a root cellar, if you all go there the walls will help muffle the noise. And we can lock you in before we go, put some furniture in front of the cellar so we'll make it harder for the sound to come in and for the undead to come out. It's a gamble, like Shanna said, but it's one we have to take." (*)

She pause, then look across the room, metting all those people eyes. She prayed to Marthammor Duin, to Moradin, to every God from the dwarven pantheon.
"Please, let all those eyes see the sun in the morning."

"There is no time to argue anymore. We'll have to split. The smaller the groups, the lesser the noise. Aubrey, make sure the children keep quiet. George, you have to stay with her, bring everyone who remains here in the cellar. Marco, Captain, Nicholas, get ready to move the furniture in front of the cellar. I'll distract the undead in the meantime. Shanna last chance, choose your gamble and bet everything on it."

As she is finished she goes at the window, points her finger toward the other side of the street. (**) Loud screams started to come from different alleys.
"Don't worry." - she says to the others. "It's just a trick to cover up the noise you'll make, but hurry."

OOC Actions

(*) Should I roll something to calm her down or is this, hopefully enough?

(**) Thaumaturgy to create the effects that hopefully will buy us some time.

[Daos]

"Someone should stay and watch over the little ones," Shanna says.  "I'll stay and do that."

Working together, George, Aubrey and Shanna gather up the rest of the family downstairs into the cellar, while Marco, Miles and Nicholas assist.  Marco gathers up the leg of a broken table in the common room to wield as a club.  "I think we're all ready now," he says.

[Matt4]

Giunona Scarletbark

HP: 9/23 - AC: 18 - CD: 0/1 - Inspiration: No

Giunona nods: "Is there a backdoor we can go out from?"

OOC Actions

I don't believe we had enough time for a short rest, right?

In any case I'll roll a d8, if we had a short rest it's a Hit Die (+4 from CON), if we hadn't it's a Cure Wounds (+3 from WIS).


 f8qQfFbn1d81d8

[Daos]

After Giunona heals herself a bit, Marco says, "We can go through the kitchen.  It's this way."

Leading the way through the back, Marco takes the group through the kitchen to a backdoor.  Currently, a few chairs from the common room have been used to block it, likely set up by George and the others.  But it would be an easy task to remove them from this side.

[Matt4]

Giunona Scarletbark

HP: 16/23 - AC: 18 - CD: 0/1 - Inspiration: No

Giunona at this point starts to whisper to avoid making too much noise.
"Nicholas, remove the so we can go out, be careful. I'll check what's outside."

As Nicholas moves the chairs out of the way, the dwarf stands beside the door, a flicker of light in her hand ready to be thrown should an undead wait for them behind that door.

OOC Actions

As soon as Nicholas removes the chairs, Giunona will open the door. She has readied Sacred Flame in case there are undead right on the other side.

[Daos]

Nicholas dismantles the barricade and then opens the door.  Marco sticks his head out and looks around.  "Looks like it's clear, at least for now.  So which path should we take?" he asks.  "The main road is the fastest way to the temple.  But we may run into more of those things that way."

[Matt4]

Giunona Scarletbark

HP: 16/23 - AC: 18 - CD: 0/1 - Inspiration: No

Giunona shakes her head. - "Our goal is to find the safest route to the temple, so we can bring the others there safely later. And if we take the main road we'd be too much in the open, I think. Let's move through the smaller alleys."

OOC

Is there something on the outside that we could put in front of the door? In a way that it's not left completely exposed.

[Daos]

"We could cut across those trees to the north to reach Trade Road," Marco says.  "From there, we can keep heading north to Hill Road, then take that to the temple."

============

(OOC:  Nothing that the zombies couldn't easily knock down.  Barricading from the outside wouldn't really accomplish anything other than preventing the family from escaping if they have to.

Click the map to enlarge.  The party is currently on the west side of building 7.)

[Matt4]

Giunona Scarletbark

HP: 16/23 - AC: 18 - CD: 0/1 - Inspiration: No

Giunona nods, trusting the young man knowledge of the town.
"Lead the way, I'll stay beside you. Maybe I can help you with my old eyes. Captain, Nicholas, cover our backs. But first..."

Noticing an old blanket hidden under the porch, Giunona grabs it, opens the door and throws the blanket over the top rail just enough to secure it.
"It's not much, but it should be enough to make it harder to spot for those creatures. They don't seem the sharpest... We can go now." - she says to Marco and the others.


OOC 

No no, I explained myself badly... I didn't mean to block it, I just want to conceal it (?) if it was possible.

[Daos]

The party darts northward, toward a small patch of trees that make for good cover from the roaming zombies.  Just as they reach the edge of the treeline, they hear a woman's scream.  About fifty feet to the north, a swarm of eight zombies have surrounded a young couple with a small child.  It looks like they were trying to make a break for it, when the zombies noticed and cornered them.  The zombies are so distracted by their prey, they have not noticed the party at all.

[Matt4]

Giunona Scarletbark

HP: 16/23 - AC: 18 - CD: 0/1 - Inspiration: No

Giunona gives a meaningful look to the others.
Next, she murmurs a blessing to herself, then banging her glowing quarterstaff on her shield, trying to get the undead attention, she charges toward them.

OOC Actions

EIGHT zombies? Damn

Casting Protection from Good and Evil on myself, and Shillelagh on my quarterstaff, then Giunona moves forward.

Initiative: btxJ4I2i1d201d20