Night is falling in Septima, Camus Mattia and Ortho D'artagmion, the leaders of the Caravan have a drink with Liaco, a young knight of the General's Guard who has not gone out to drink with the soldiers in the town square. They have a few laughs amongst glasses of wine from the regimental staff, the inn has been vacated by order of the General, but he has refused to kick the other villagers out of their houses, so the soldiers have been forced to camp in the town hall. Next to the three soldiers are 2 prisoners, female at first glance, they are not shackled since there is little need for it, the prisoners are unarmed and all their equipment is safely stashed in Camus's room. The Paladin, the priest and the knight discuss the next destination of the caravan, the loathed "Anthill" Prison

8:30 PM

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"It will be 5 days as the wolf travels and 4 for the Redclaw from here to the prison. That will make it..." Camus, with a usual frown on his face, calculated the distance the caravan will have to travel and the time needed in his head, "two weeks minimum. Hmph..." Looking down at the map sprawled on the table, the Paladin tried imagining the road ahead and grimaced, clearly unhappy, "This will be difficult. Constant companionship with these rogues is not a pleasant thought." Filling a cup in front of him with Red Ravillan Wine, Camus stared over at his longtime friend Ortho and made an attempt at what he deemed was a smile, but looked more like he was ready to throttle someone, "What do you think, Brother?"

Vineg sat on its chair, brooding. It had its feet up on the chair as well and it leaned its head on its knees as it stared viciously at Camus. It felt uncomfortable at the mentions of their destination, not that the trip was much better either. It winced at the thought of being in a prison again, and even worse, in one from where it would be nearly impossible to escape. "The longer the better", commented Vineg rather quietly to Camus's mention that the trip would take two weeks at minimum. It stared at Ortho with a wicked smirk hidden by its arm before saying plainly and emotionlessly: "I... want... wine."

Keeping his wings wrapped around his form tightly, Cliodhna kept himself sat and silent. His eyes nervously searched the darkness surrounding him for a few moment before reaching up for his hat and lowering slightly. The creaking sounds of the roof were slowly driving him mad, thinking every time it would creak, the people that held him capture would sneak up on him and strip him from his freedom once more. He had been hidden up in the attic since he had seen the prisoner caravan earlier and did not doubt of the sounds below, he was certain it was them and he had to leave. Clutching tightly onto the book he held in his arms, he stood himself slowly, his eyes searching the place once more for a discreet way out. He only hopped the men above were much too busy to hear his footsteps when he would walk.

Rumiko/Liaco sat there, listening silently with one ear to what Camus said. She nodded faintly, her mind a little bit distracted, but being carefull enough to control her movements and keep everyone believeng she was Liaco. She watched Vineg with the corner of her eye, thinking.

Kei'rin quietly sat on an ugly and uncomfortable chair. She stretched her arms, holding tightly from the edges of her chair and keeping her legs firmly attached to each other. Like a radar, she observed the surroundings and of course the three soldiers. Sometimes she looked at Vineg, but never longer than two seconds. She was feeling a bit too charged to just sit on the disgusting chair, so she started moving herself (and the chair with her). Only a little at a time, she lift up her chair silently and moved towards Camus. When she thought she was close enough, she quickly got up and poked the Paladin in the back just to annoy him and please herself. She giggled insanely, leapt backwards and walked a little further away to be ready to run around, in case Camus would really get pissed off.

Ortho takes the red wine Camus had filled his cup with and then slowly poored it into his own, as an attempt to tease Vineg. "Two weeks will be fine. It will give us the time we need to prepare some of the finer details on the criminal's records." Ortho lifted his glass before corking the wine and placing it back in front of Camus. With that gesture, the priest looked back onto the Eolan prisoner briefly awaiting the retracting of the devious, hidden smile nestled away. "Let's just hope that nothing occurs along the way. Who knows what terrors lurks outside our path, even at a distance measured in hundreds." Ortho then took the time to praise his friend Camus' skill, "I much look forward to uneventful voyages."

Whilst Ortho spoke, the black Paladin Camus glared nothing but daggers at his arrogant prisoner... the rogue, Vineg. Half wanting to skewer the Eolan and half wanting to decapitate him (Camus did not know, nor care if he did, that Vineg was an androgyne) right then and there, the Paladin's mood worsened as he tried to restrain himself. It was immediately afterward when he felt a shove and a giggle of laughter from behind that Camus stood up and growled with rage, "Who...!?" Turning around, he stared with loathing and annoyance at the Hydran he deemed completely mad, "Kei'rin... you are naught but a devil's scion! Disrupt us again and I will have you in chains, understand!?" Taking notice that he was making too much of a scene, Camus sighed and breathed in and out deeply before sitting back in his seat, "I just want to get this over with... very well. We leave by tomorrow's dawn, once the fog clears up."

"Fog, it's always bothersome..." Ortho added, unphased by Camus' recent behavior as he'd known the paladin nearly all his professional life. With a sip of his wine, the priest began scribbling away upon the documents concerning prisoner accounts, and anything of note about the town they were in at present. "Camus... this town has a home feel to it, wouldn't you say? At least my home anyway." The priest checked around the inn, taking in brief flashes of memory before returning to his glass.

"Home feel... hm, I suppose." Camus sipped his wine slowly as he reminisced a little, "I've never had the pleasure of truly settling down, though." Looking up at the ceiling idly, he thought of his destination ahead and stroked his well-trimmed beard in some puzzlement, "I have heard rumors of this 'Anthill' place... that it is a bastion of Hell where many a poor soul have entered, but never left. Unfortunately I know little about it, otherwise."

Cliodhna eyes searched the room a little more before coming to the conclusion that the only possible ways out was either to go out: the way he came in and risk getting noticed by the ones downstairs or waste his energy be busing a hole in the wall or roof and getting noticed by just about the whole town. His best bet was to probably go for the way he came in. Taking a few careful steps forward, he attempted to make as little sound as possible while he made his way towards the attic trap door in order to peek down at whoever was there, only hoping for his own sake that the people there were not who he thought they were. He winced every time he felt the floor crack under his feet, stopping himself for a few moments before he would resume his way in order to make it look as if it was normal. Once he managed to make it to the trap door, he opened it slightly and carefully to peek down at the people there.

So he hasn't learned anything about me in chains... Kei'rin thought and imagined herself rattling her chains and annoying everyone. She laughed as quietly as she could behind her hand. While trying to think of more tricks to do, she walked around, smiling to the chairs. She stared every chair for a long time, as if she was very interested in every little atom in them. She then sat on a certain chair, but got up again soon for she was restless. She paced between the chairs, measuring the distances and began braiding her hair.

Vineg stared intently at Ortho as he took the wine, poured himself a cup, placed it back where it had been and left it there. Vineg cursed and called him names under its breath for a short moment before glancing at Camus and his daggery line of sight – and then stared just as horridly back, a wide, evil grin forming on its lips behind the arm as it saw Kei'rin and her intentions. After she had managed to do what she had intended to do, Vineg raised its left arm, pointed magnificently at Camus and roared with laughter, very loudly. It hadn't been that funny, but Vineg was more aiming to embarrass Camus anyway. As they started talking about home, Vineg's face went bitter again and it thought how unfair they were being, judging it and its reasons without knowing anything about what it had to go through years ago. "Oh rumors, eh?" commented Vineg as Camus spoke of 'the Anthill'. "I bet nothing is quite the same as experiencing it yourself, is it not?" Vineg stood up, slowly. "Commit a crime." It took a few short and slow steps toward the table, not wanting anyone to think it was going to do something for now; it only wanted the wine. It laid its left hand on the table while stretching the right one to grab the container the wine was in.

The laughter and singing coming from the town center slowly died down as the night got darker and colder, the soldiers were tucking in for the night, since it would be an early start tomorrow. Liaco's companions had not returned yet, they had probably stayed in the tent of some soldier, drinking and playing cards.

Liaco watched Vineg´s movements with attention, withouth saying a word, a warning written in his face. He was ready to act should it intend to do anything strange. "It´s getting late" he spoke to Ortho and Camus with a calm tone, but without lowering his guard on Vineg. "And tomorrow a long journey expects us..."

Controlling his murderous intent toward Vineg, Camus put up a calm face and spoke idly, "I have already committed the crime of allowing your wretched self to live this long. Now hold your tongue... else you want to feel the brutality of justice from my fist again." As he spoke this, he heard a few creaks from the ceiling, but paid little mind as he thought the sources of the sounds to be rats scurrying about. Standing up, he glanced over at the highly promising, but rather effeminate, soldier near him and nodded his head slightly, in indication that he heard him, "Very well, Liaco. Report to the others that lights out shall be in fifteen minutes. Take the deranged one, Kei'rin, with you to the prisoners' quarters. I'll follow shortly with this scoundrel." Camus gestured toward Vineg as he spoke, "Brother Ortho, if you may be kind enough to accompany three of our men to make a five minute go-around throughtown? Just to make certain things are in order here... the last thing we need are unnecessary disturbances."

"Yes Sir" said Liaco and stood up. He dissapeared a moment into the soldier´s quarters and then came back and approached Kei´rin. "Come on, you already heard" he spoke.

Cliodhna had managed to get to the trapdoor pretty much unnoticed and without much noise, when he was about to open it, he noticed a small beam of light emerging from under him, too late did he see the crack on the floor just between his feet. He tried to stand up, but before he could even think of flapping his wings the floor gave in. Camus and Ortho turned to the table as a gigantic bat-like creature fell on Vineg's chair from an opening in the ceiling, spilling wine all over the table and floor.

Vineg felt a rage building up inside its mind. It was certain it would in no way be a match to Camus as it currently was. It was if this brute had only waited so long to see Vineg get corrupted, commit crimes and just then captured it, pretty much at the worst imaginable moment. It couldn't believe it has that lousy luck. "Why don't you then? End my misery if you really think you'd be so righteous in doing it, you bloody bastard!" it snapped right before something fell loudly right near it. Vineg tried to leap to the floor away from whatever was it that had dropped.


Vineg's keen senses urged it to throw itself on the floor, but it miscalculated and was hit on the noggin by debris and the falling body halfway through its jump. The chair collapsed under the weight and Vineg and Cliodhna lay on the floor covered by white dust, splinters and some pieces of wood.

"Yeah yeah yeah..." Kei'rin mumbled and moved towards Liaco, but before she could take her third step, she saw someone fall through the ceiling to the floor. She blinked and stood there silently for a few seconds and then burst out into a very joyous and loud laugh.

Camus stared in silence as the ceiling broke through and continued to do so as a large bat-like form fell on Vineg's head shortly after it spoke. A few seconds has passed, with the only sound being Kei'rin's laughter, before the Paladin cleared his throat and spoke mildly, "I believe, Vineg, that The Mother decided to end it for me." Striding toward the Eolan and the fallen creature next to it, Camus looked down at them and growled some orders, "Liaco, summon the guards. Four will do. Have them block all exits. We will find out who it is that was spying on us." Crouching low, the Paladin attempted to grab Cliodhna by the collar.

Letting out a groan, Cliodhna shifted slightly in the broken pieces of the chair not much caring for the one under him. One hand clutched onto his book tightly, the other moving to take a hold of his hat and set it back on his head. A laugh echoed in his mind and once he managed to shake off the shock of his fall. He remained still for a moment, only his hand moving discreetly along the side of his form as he heard someone move near. As the man near him attempted to reach of his collar, he attempted to push himself away to the side and slash at the reaching hand after taking a hold of one of his shurikens.

Cliodhna felt Camus lifting him up like a rag doll and tried to slash him in the arm with one of his Shurikens, but the edge jus bounced off the Paladin's heavily armored forearm. Ok, so... Shurikens are not that good against inch thick plate armor... now Cliodhna knows..

Vineg groaned after having been landed on and was feeling furious. "You're a sick bloody monster, you hideous paladin", it mumbled quietly but angrily at Camus as it tried to wriggle from under Clíodhna and kick both him and Camus away from it.

Liaco turned around quickly as he heard the ceiling collapse. He took a quick glance at the stranger and chuckled at Camus comment about what had happened to Vineg. "Yes Sir" he said to Camus and told Kei´rin not to move from there, and hurried away to look for the soldiers.

Ignoring Vineg's kicks, Camus shook his head slowly as he looked at the being he was holding in front of him, "A man, hm? Or a woman? What is your name and your business here, you scoundrel?" As he spoke, he calmly waited for Liaco to return with the reinforcements.

Cliodhna squirmed under the man's graps and flapped his wings slightly, attempting to get away. He roared at the kick, shifting violently in attempt to get a hold of Vineg and strangle him though found himself simply choking on own clothes, still being held by Camus. He let out a light hiss and a snarl, glaring at Camus. He had no intention of responding to the paladin and even less to cooperate.


At the very least, Vineg kicked itself away from Camus and Clíodhna. Having accomplished that, it stumbled upright and stepped a few steps back, staring loathingly at Camus. It then looked at the creature that had just dropped through the ceiling, and grinned. It recognized him as a Hauken, having seen one several years ago, even if this one had very unusual wings. It then chuckled slightly, crossed its arms on its chest and stood still.

Still giggling a little, Kei'rin leaned against a chair. She didn't really hear Liaco's words over her laughing, but she didn't have intentions to move anyway. Finally, still smiling widely, she looked up and watched the scene go on.

Ortho sat quietly, though with widened eyes at the sight of a bat falling on a bird. With a slight chuckle, he took another sip of his wine and then walked over to Vineg. "I think you may need this more than I after your ordeal." The priest proclaimed, and with a laugh he offered a hand to Camus as a sign of his starting the rounds as he walked towards the door. Ortho stopped before exiting, and spins along the back edge of his foot towards Camus, "Not that this is a problem for you, but do you think you may require my assistance?" He smirked at the paladin in struggle and awaited a reply.

Looking at the wriggling thing he held up in the air, over at a smirking Vineg, then a half-crazed and smiling Kei'rin, Camus turned one eye over toward Ortho, "I can't handle all this alone!"

Cliodhna squirmed a little more, snarling and holding onto both the book he carried and the shuriken while pulling on his shirt a little. After a few moments of wasted efforts, he calmed himself slightly. Concentrating, he attempted to cast imposed voice aiming to create some kind of distraction by creating face voice above in the attic.

Liaco came back in walking fast. He placed himself besides Vineg, watching he wouldn´t try anything strange, before starting to talk. "Sir" he said to Camus, "I can´t wake the soldiers. There is something wrong... unnatural. The fog that covers the town looks worse, and there is this strange smell now..." Liaco looked at each one of the people in the room. It seemed they were the only ones awake around...

As Ortho came to Vineg, it snatched the cup of wine, bolted what was left of the drink and threw the cup somewhere behind it with a small elegant gesture. "Ahhh..." As Liaco came in and positioned himself next to Vineg, it glanced at him but didn't pay him much attention otherwise. Vineg found him a little interesting, but couldn't really do anything about that as it currently was. It suspected by his figure and voice that he was really a female pretending to be a male for some reason. That issue bothered it the least anyway, what was more on its mind was that why he was doing it if its assumptions were correct. Nevertheless, it had graver issues to think about. As of now, it merely stood there, some distance away from Camus and Clíodhna, watching them closely. It didn't shift its eyes when Liaco had finished whatever he was saying. "Oh really? This could be interesting", it said suggestively, but knew there had to be something wrong.

Ortho focused on the bat-like Clíodhna, then closed his eyes and then began to roll his ornate staff around upon its base. The priest suddenly lifted his stave and pointed it directly at the struggling creature in the paladin's grip. "Be calm, creature!" Ortho shouted briefly.

Camus stroked his beard in thought as he listened to Liaco's report, "They will not awaken? This is troublesome... what about the prisoners? And the rest of the village?" As he spoke, he noticed the wriggling man or woman that he held was acting worse and worse. His limited patience had been breached by then, and he roared furiously at his most recent captive, "ENOUGH!!!!", as well as try to pin whatever it was to the nearest wall.

Just then, as Camus barely managed to get a hold of Clíodhna, a loud knock was heard on the door of the Inn, then it was all silence, everyone in the room held their breath and stared at the door for a few seconds, then the mysterious knock repeated itself. As some ochre colored mist began to pour into the room from under the door, a third knock was heard.

Vineg wasn't too alerted at the first knock, but what Liaco had said had made it a little nervous. It stepped two steps further from the door once it saw the fume coming in. It seemed alert, but felt annoyingly helpless. As it wasn't exactly in a position to do anything, it merely waited for the others to act.

Liaco advanced some steps closer to the door and left Vineg momentarily alone. He grabbed the handle, but kept the door closed. "What´s this fog?" he asked in a low voice, more to himself than to the others. "Priest" he said then, looking at Ortho. "Do you have any spells able to clean the air? I don´t have a good feeling about this". He then waited for Camus to decide what to do next. He just looked at him, asking with the eyes if he should open or not.

Even after being told to calm himself, to shut up, of being yelled at and being pinned to the nearest wall, Cliodhna continued to squirm. It was only when Liaco made his announcment that he shut himself and stopped moving. He tightened his grip to the book he held and slipped away his shuriken, moving his hand to take a hold of Camus's wrist, pulling it downwards. The knock only made his heart jump lightly. He began squirming some more, pulling at the wrist further and pushing himself back against the wall while flapping his wings. He simply couldn't hold himself any longer to the sigh of the ochre colored mist. "Don't open the door!!" He let out, tunring his face away form the sight of the mist.

The priest set his hand on the door as the mist seeped in through the cracks. "I... I'm not sure what this is..." Ortho replied to Liaco. He turned to see concerned faces and then replied, "But I'll see what I can do." The priest then folded his hands together, and whispered a prayer to Nesha. With a single touch of his palm to the floor, Ortho prepared to consecrate the entire Inn but unknowing whether the spell would be powerful enough.

Deathly quiet as he considered what to do next, Camus looked at Cliodhna silently before releasing his grip and glancing over at Liaco, "Don't open it yet. Stay together. Liaco, ask who it is on the other side. Stranger..." As he spoke this, he stared directly toward Cliodhna's eyes, "You seem to know more than any of us. What is going on? Answer!"

Ortho placed his hand on the floor and a wave of white energy emerged from it, Vineg felt its legs burn as if they were aflame for an instant. A light moan was heard outside the door and the fog inside dissipated but some more began to seep in at once. The group held their breath once more, and almost 30 seconds later came another knock.

Once released, Cliodhna immediately moved to replace his shirt, remaining against the wall as he watched the other. He hissed over at Camus as he was spoken to, squinting his eyes slightly. He brought the book up to his chest, hugging it slightly as he still held on to it dearly. He considered refusing to speak but judged it was best if he did, knowing that either way he'd have to if he wanted out alive. He let out a lightly grunt and looked away, eyeing the door by the corner of his eyes. "The problem is quite obvious. Men do not simply sleep to never awake and ochre mist does not naturally float around." He stopped himself, frowning to the knock. "They are trying to get in. The men are gone." He simply added, giving no further hint onto what he meant.

Gazing with incredulity at the stranger and his/her (Camus was leaning toward 'it' being a he) response, Camus looked over at the door and Liaco. A split second afterward, the full meaning hit him hard and he nearly reeled in shock, "My men... they're all dead!?" Growling with murderous intent, he took a step toward Cliodhna, "How do you know of this!? What have you done!?"

The sound of breaking glass came from Camus's room, Vineg's and Kei'rin's minds immediately turned towards their equipment, captive in the Paladin's chest and now unprotected against whoever had broken into the room. Ochre mist began to pour in from under Camus's door as well as the main entrance. As if they had been conspiring to unleash hell all at once, several loud knocks could be heard on the door and the walls, accompanied by the ghastly whinning of the horses parked behind the Inn.

"Arrrghmmgrmbl" groaned Vineg as Ortho's spell made its legs hurt. It rubbed them a little and stared maliciously at the Priest. It stared around the inn, trying to think of something it could do. It observed the ordeal between Clíodhna and Camus, but its attention was immediately turned toward Camus's room as it heard the shattering of glass. "My stuff!" it shrieked as it ran to the door and was about to open the door (though it knew it was likely that the thing was locked anyway) when it saw the mist again. "You! Priest! Come and consecrate this room at once!" yelled Vineg, seeming rather helpless. "My stuff is in better hands with me than them! Even from your point of view", it added as it continued to fidget anxiously in front of the door, but trying to avoid the mist.

Rolls his eyes, Cliodhna let out another light grunt and reached up to the rim of his hat, pulling it down over his eyes. "Heh, you already jump to the conclusion that I am the one responsible for whatever has happened to the men outside and yet I was here the whole time simply trying to leave this place. Can you not use your own mind and piece clues together? How can I have shut off a whole town while I was up in the attic the whole time? Do you not think I would have taken your lives by not if I had managed to take down all of your men?" He closed his eyes and frowned. "I've done nothing!" He hissed his last words, opening his eyes to glare over at Vineg as he messed with Camus's room door. "The men have become the chosen army of the dead." He said in a calmer tone, listening to the noises caused behind the door as he eyes the mist from under the door.

Until now, Kei'rin had only been standing there emotionlessly, wondering all the things that were happening. As she heard the glass break and saw Vineg running to the door and yelling, she woke up from her 'trance' and said: "Hey, yeah! I've got things in there too!" In a blink of an eye, she was standing near the door. "If they're gone, I'll strangle everyone here and eat the whole world", she growled and glared at the three soldiers.

Liaco watched everything with a somewhat puzzled face, but remained calm. He was about to yell to the stranger to identify himself, but then he heard the noise coming from Camus' room. Rumiko listened to Clíodna and tried to remember, the men didn´t look dead when she saw them, but asleep. "What are you trying to do? I saw them. They were not dead" she said as Liaco, hoping that Camus would believe him and calm down a little. "If you don´t know anything about what´s going on then shut up and try to be of use. We´re all trapped here now" he then turned to the door. "WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU WANT?" he asked to the air around, and waited for an answer.

Just then, the group noticed a blow on the door, they turned only to find the blade of a halberd poking in from outside through a breach it has just opened. The knocks on the walls became frenetic and the moaning around the building increased. The fog began to build up and reach the group's noses. The only fog-free place right now was the attic where Cliodhna had been hiding.

"May the Mother have mercy on us now..." Frowning in confusion and anger, Camus picked up his Cross Redemption near his chair and headed toward the door in his room. Briefly stopping to look at the others, the Paladin thought a little before giving out his next orders, "Liaco! Ortho! Guard the front door! Let nothing in!" Turning to Cliodhna, Camus was silent for a second before speaking in a more milder tone, "It seems I have been too rash in my judgement. For that I apologize." At this point, however, his voice picked up and he growled the following, "Now, if we are to all make it out of here in one piece, we shall need your cooperation. That said, guard the door with the others." Looking over at Kei'rin and Vineg, Camus glared for a moment and contemplated whether to trust them or not. Making up his mind a moment afterward, he motioned his Cross Redemption toward the Hydran, "Kei'rin, come with me." Walking up to the door leading to his room, the Paladin attempted to smash it open with his free fist.

Ortho shouted back to Camus, "Take the others with you, I shall hold the front here!" The priest then began crafting a second spell as he rolled his sleeves up his arms. Ortho attempting to bring up from Nesha a spell to dispel this evil that became known to the priest by his consecration. "Pray my skills shall save us..." he whispered to Liaco as he held his breath to resist the fog and began the spell.

Without saying anything, Kei'rin stood there, near the door to Camus' room. She followed Camus with her look, ready to go with him if he got the door opened.

"I will" said Liaco as he nodded to Ortho. He was concerned about the ocre mist. If the priest's spell didn't work, they should try to find a way out to breathe the fresh air of the night. He held the door and prepared to receive whatever was coming.

Vineg stared about anxiously as the mist floated across the floors, filling the inn. However, since it didn't seem to be doing actual damage at the moment, it wasn't too alerted. As Camus spoke to Kei'rin, Vineg's expression grew furious. "And what about me?!" it snapped as it stepped away from his way, being in front of the door. It moved back a few steps, but not too far. It wanted its equipment back now, as it was so close. "I will help! I have no intention of simply dying because of this ...whatever it is that is going on!" whined Vineg in a high tone. "I will help! It's not like I could stop you anyway if we make it", it added quietly but resentfully.

Camus bashed the door open and more fog poured in from the room into the main hall of the inn. Inside the room, Camus saw a villager trying to enter through the broken glass. Though it had cuts and bruises, and even a glass shard sticking out of one of his eyesockets, the villager kept forcing his way into the room. His good eye stared around erratically, it had a milky white tone and no distinguishable pupil. When Ortho cast his dispel evil spell, the creature wailed and partly disintegrated, its lower half just dropping out of the window, the mist receded, as if it had been consumed by a flame, but then began pouring back in. Though the only thing that could be seen outside the window was the brownish fog, Camus could notice some shapes moving around. Liaco stood in guard by the door, wondering if she would be able to fight in her man costume, since monks are not used to wearing armor or wielding swords. She covered her head from the splinters that flew in from the door as the halberd hacked its way mercilessly through the wood. On the other side of the door she saw Mikhail, one of the general's guards, bobbing back and forth in his plate armor as he hacked away the door.

Staring in surprise as the creature dissipated, Camus halted for a second before shaking his head and striding quickly into the room. Hearing Vineg's voice, the Paladin sighed a little to himself and growled out, "Come along then." The sound of the front door being broken into startled him, but he paid little mind as he headed directly for the chest near his bed, "This is consecrated. Only a white elemental can open it." That said, Camus flung the chest open with ease and immediately headed toward the nearby window, watching for any more undead creatures, "Grab your equipment. Hurry! We have little time!"

Kei'rin followed Camus closely and blinked as the creature's lower half of its body dropped out of the window. After this short moment, she dashed past Camus to the chest, taking her stuff and putting them on as quickly as she could. She kept Hedgehog in her hand and put the other two swords hanging down from her belt. She stepped aside, so Vineg could take its equipment without pushing her out of the way.

Cliodhna pushed himself further up against the wall, frowning as the others attempted to order him around. Placing his hands in front of his face he he attempted to breath in as less of the mist as possible. "I could get out of here alive with out a problem. If it were not for you holding me back, I would be gone by now." He spat out at Camus, removing his hands from his face as he spoke before placing them back once he finished. He knew too well why the mist felt so harmless and watched quietly as they all moved to follow Camus's orders. "Fools." He hissed silently, moving to return up in the attic in order to get out of the inn. "Do not allow yourselves be wounded. The mist may seem harmless but if one is to pass out they should be executed." He let out in a quiet tone, clmibing back up where he first fell from.

Vineg nearly gleed as Camus approved of it taking its equipment as well. It stared at the zombie-like vision in the window once the door was open, but immediately went to the chest to pick out its stuff after Camus had opened it. As soon as it had most things equipped, it sighed in relief and stared evilly at Camus. "You suck", it said quietly and walked out, back into the main room, where it saw Clíodhna trying to get back to the attic and something coming violently through the door. "Undead-creating mist eh? Nice", it said and thought that this would be a good place to kill Camus, even though the success of that was unlikely as it was anyway. It glanced quickly and hesitatingly between the door and the hole in the ceiling (seeing as there didn't seem to be any mist up there) before deciding to follow Clíodhna, attempting to climb to the attic after him.

Camus and Kei'rin were getting out of the room when they saw a shadow run past the window, it was the shape of a slender man riding some sort of medium sized animal, not a horse, though. A horrible wailing filled the hall as the shadow disappeared once more into the mist and the door flew open, the green mist filled the room, and a huge man in armor plate ran in, slashing out at Liaco/Rumi. At the same time Camus noticed one of his own soldiers, only a lot more dead, had just jumped in through the window!

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Combat has started!

Special Conditions -> Zombie Fog - No one can see more than 3 squares in any direction, if someone is wounded, it has a chance of 25% of contracting a zombie infection every turn!.

The turns and positions are as following! -
Zombie Knight (every other turn) - M8 (*_*)
Cliodhna (D6)
Vineg (L11)
Rumi (M3)
Kei'rin (M4)
Ortho (J10)
Camus (M7)
Zombie Soldier - J6 (*_*)
Zombie Soldier - L4 (*_*)
Zombie Sodlier - M2 (*_*)
Zombie - D5 (*_*)
Zombie - L9 (*_*)
Zombie - K9 (*_*)
Zombie - L10 (*_*)

The zombie knight who broke through the door lifts its heavy halberd and, while moaning, slashes out at Rumi!


Rumi yells something ununderstandable as she sees the attack coming and tries to dodge the knight´s weapon.

Though encumbered by the armor she is wearing (which, to make matters worse, is too big for her) Rumi manages to jump out of the way with her Monk speed and evade the clumsy blow!

Cliodhna's turn! -

Unable to see any of the zombies around himself, Cliodhna simply continued his way towards the attic while keeping his hands in front of his face to prevent the smoke from getting to him. He wasn't tooo alerted by the sound of the zombies barging in and simply wanted to get the hell out of the room. Moving up the attic, he glanced around and made sure it was fine before inspecting the floor in order to make sure he wouldn't fall through again.

Vineg's turn! -

Vineg didn't see anyone but Clíodhna moving on its right and knew that Camus and Kei'rin were behind it. It heard somthing come through the window behind it, but paid no attention to it as of now, surely it would stop at Camus. Thus, Vineg followed the weird Hauken to the attic.

Rumi's turn! -

Rumiko decided to move away from the zombie knight and the three zombies at the door, since she couldn´t defeat them all by herself and without having her equipment with her. She didn´t see anything, but moved to where she remembered the rooms were. As she found the door of her room, she opened it.

"Hey you weird Hauken person you!" snapped Vineg at Clíodhna. "What is going on in here? You seem to know much about the situation."

Frowning lightly at how he was adressed as, Clíodhna rolled his eyes and looked away. "Isn't it obvious or are you just as blind and brainless as that pack of muscles?" he replied with a light hiss, his eyes retuning to look down the stairs leading to the first floor. "They want our souls and bodies for their army. They've already gotten every resident on the outside of the building. If you wish to leave this place alive you have to fight off the walking dead before they make you one of theirs."

"Do you really think I am that stupid?" Vineg growled, glaring at Clíodhna fiercely. "If killing the things is the only way to get out alive, why aren't you down there fighting, you nitwit? Eh?" it snapped tensely.

"Well, apparently you are that stupid." Clíodhna stated calmly. "If you would bother listening you would have noticed that I said: "If you wish to leave this place alive" and not if we wished to leave this place alive. Obviously, I can simply fly away." He bothered explaning, his eyes locked onto the stairs.

"Thundering idiot, you!" exclaimed Vineg. "What makes you think I could not fly?" it growled, glaring at the Hauken menacingly.

Rumiko opened the door and noticed two more zombie soldiers squeezing themselves through the window!

Kei'rin's Turn! -

As kind of a reflex after seeing the zombie, Kei'rin immediately casted the Steam Jet -spell on the Zombie Soldier.

Kei'rin raised her hands and a jet of boiling water emerged from in-between them, as a miniature geyser it struck the zombie in the face and sent his head out the window, dealing 4 damage!

Clíodhna blinked slightly and looked over at Vineg. He observed him for a few moments. "Well, you don't really seem able to fly at first glance." He gave a shrug.

Vineg had momentarily felt like jumping on Clíodhna and hitting him across the face, but seeing as he gave up (from Vineg's perspective), it just smirked very smugly and scoffed slightly. "Well, you still do seem to know more about what's going on. So tell me, if you know, what exactly is this strange mist and its source? And who or what is behind this zombie business?"

Clíodhna sighed, moving his wings slightly and pulling his hat down over his eyes. "I thought you had understood what the mist was earlier. The walking dead, they brought it and those white skinned men with empty black eyes... they are the ones. The dead acts for it's own." He glared at the stairway, his wings twitching slightly.

Vineg sighed in frustration. "I meant besides that. But apparently you don't know after all", it said, glaring at him meanly.

Shrugging, Clíodhna watch the other by the corner of his eyes, frowning slightly. "Or maybe your capacity to understand is too undeveloped." He replied quietly, looking back at the stairway.

Vineg growled again. "Maybe your capacity to express yourself clearly is even more undeveloped", it snapped.

Clíodhna gave a shrug. "I believe I've given enough keywords to express my exact thoughts", he replied calmly, fixing his book in his belt and making sure it wouldnt fall no matter how he moved.

"Sure you have!" said Vineg, clearly amusedly. "You don't really know what's going on and additionally you're too stupid to express that clearly! Or, alternatively you're just being stupid because you like coming off as a retard", it went on, crossing its arms on its chest.

Clíodhna gave a shrug, his hand moving over to one of his claws, inspecting it carefully. "I've answered all your questions clearly and I will not repeat myself. I've given warnings, named the consequences and whatever there is to be needed to do if those happen. I've told you whatever you wanted to know." He sighed, taking a hold of his other claw to inspect it as well. "You're the one that is simply getting frustrated over a situation you can't understand because obviously you are the one with the low understanding capacity thus making you, as you would say, a retard." He looked over at the other, squinting his eyes. "A person your age should be able to act maturely in such situations instead of pouting like a mere child."

Ortho's turn! -

Ortho hears the sounds of zombies within the fog, unsure of how many there were. Without a sure target nearby, he shouts out to his ally, Camus. Awaiting a response, he prepares to bless his paladin friend upon hearing his voice in the thick fog.

Seeing Vineg dash away, Camus frowned even more so than usual and uttered a single word, "Coward." Hearing sounds emanating from the main room, the Paladin bellowed out a response as he eyed the undead soldier, one of his comrades, with grief and anger all boiled into one.

With Camus' location known, Ortho casts a courage spell on his ally to increase his already deadly compatriot's battle prowess.

Vineg was too frustrated to even listen to Clíodhna properly. "BLAH BLAH BLAH! Don't you ever actually say anything clearly, you bloody weird Hauken! I don't care about your riddles and I definitely am not fully educated in the cultural delicacies of the zombie kind, so excuse me for not knowing everything there is to know already or interpreting your cryptic speech like you meant it to! May you find yourself in a Dah'kin cesspit the next time you wake up", it went on.

"It would sound clear if you'd bother trying to listen..." Clíodhna watched the other as it continued to act as it had previously, a real idiotic child refusing to listen. He'd practically given up on the slightest efforts he'd been doing to cooporate until a specific word struck him, a word he didn't know. Blinking, he frowned slightly and tilted his head to the side. "Dah... kin?" He repeated, unsure of what the meaning of the word meant or what it was at that.

"You listen you damned riddler, if you spoke even half as clearly as the rest of us, you MIGHT actually risk someone else than yourself listening to you!" shouted Vineg, being quite ready to jump on him on now. "I might not act like your self-proclaimed 'child' if you didn't act like an all-knowing parent!" it went on fiercely until he asked about the Dah'kin. "You should've stayed on your own continent, you ignorant fool! The Dah'kin are like I am, except without feathers, they have pale skin and blac– –OH!!!" it exclaimed, suddenly realizing that Clíodhna had indeed said who were behind this mess, but had been unable to comprehend due to its bad temper. It pointed at him fiercely, its face turning slightly red of anger and even slight embarrassment. "You... BLOODY! Imbecile!"

Clíodhna blinked and simply watched the one before him going on with his ranting, simply waiting for his answer. "Hmm..." He looked down, his tongue flicking out ot run over his lower lip. "So that't what they're claled, Dah'kins." He spoke to himself. He gave a slight short smirk as he watched the other's face grow red, the smirk disappearing not even a mere second after even appearing. "I think that between us both, you are the imbecile. What are you anyway?" He tilted his head to the side, observing the other's features carefully.

"I AM NOT", exclaimed Vineg firmly, its face growing slightly more red. "You thrice-damned moron and your unclear riddles would've made anyone else lose temper and miss the point just as easily!" it squalled, pointing at Clíodhna triumphantly but shaking with anger. "Stop glaring at me, you peeper!!"

Clíodhna gave a shrug. "I think it's just you and your short temper." He replied clamly, continuing to stare at the other. "Peeper? I doubt I'm even trying to furtively glare at you. If you'd answer my question then maybe I would stop though." He looked back up at the other's facial features.

Vineg lowered its hand but still stared at him fiercely. As he started talking about something else, Vineg didn't bother to stick to the other issue, especally since it had in a way humiliated itself with it already. It felt strange as Clíodhna studied its features, somewhat disgusted and weirded out but still flattered in some twisted way. "What am I? I'm a rarity", it said in a mischievous tone, not being able to help being cryptic itself now.

Though Camus was not really afraid, Ortho's spell expelled temporarilly the grief in his heart, and it was immediately replaced by a murderous rage!

Camus's Turn! -

Raising the Cross Redemption high in the air, Camus bellowed a terrifying roar and brought down the weapon toward the Zombie Soldier's skull.

The zombie raised his sight at the huge poleaxe descending unto its head and quickly protected himself with the his buckler, unlickily for Camus, the axe could not break the shield and the zombie did not take damage, however, immediately after striking the monster, a loud cracking sound was heard and the zombie plumetted down into the basement, leaving only a dark hole in the wooden floor of the inn!

The zombie soldier in M2 moved over to M4
The zombie soldier in L2 moved over to L4
The zombie in N9 moved over to L9
The zombie in O9 moved over to M9
The zombie in O10 moved over to M10!

Cliodhna's turn! -

Raising a brow at Vineg's comment, Clíodhna gave a shrug. "Alright." Looking away, he concentrated casting haste in himself. "I'm going down to play." He added preparing himself to head back down.

Cliodhna now has 19/15 speed
Cliodhna now has 34/36MP.

Vineg's turn! -


Vineg raised a brow as Clíodhna said he was going back down – what for had he come up anyway if he just intended to go back down? Truthfully Vineg didn't really even care, being still so angry, and didn't think about it more clearly than that. For the moment, just smashing something around a bit sounded a pretty good idea. "Hah! You're slow", it said sarcastically as it ran back down, trying to head toward the main doors as precisely as it remembered, since it had heard some zombie screeching there. It noticed the door to Camus's room on its way, but didn't care about that, Camus could rot there. It ran forward, spotting Liaco and a zombie. An evil smirk on its face, it headed straight for the zombie, slashing at it fiercely with the saber.

The zombie manages to see Vineg approaching and it immediately raises his arms to meet the attack, swinging one arm violently as if it was nothing but a rag, the zombie strikes the side of the sabre, deflecting the slash!

Rumi's turn! -

Rumiko found out it wouldn't be that easy to get her stuff out of the room. She faced the zombie right at the door (M4) and attacked with her fists, since she couldn't really use the sword, trying to knock him back. If that should work, she would go in and get her stuff out of the room as fast as she could.

Rumiko leapt towards the zombie and punched him squarely in the face with her right fist dealing 7 damage and tossing him back to M2!

Followup Strike!

Immediately afterwards she ran towards the zombie and tried to bash him in the face with her foot but the zombie managed to raise his buckler and meet the attack! In the same spot, Rumi turned to her chest and opened it, quickly donning her chain mail (she was wearing her black leather underneath) and exposing her female figure almost immediately, she retrieved her staff!

Kei'rin's turn! -

Kei'rin giggled as she heard Camus roar and saw the floor break. She took a few quick steps past Camus and looked down the hole. She was thinking about jumping after the zombie, but saw the fog only getting thicker down there, so she just shrugged and walked out of the room.

Ortho's turn! -

The priest rolls his sleeves high and shows his rockbreaker gloves. With great haste, he moves through the fog, towards the entrance of the inn.

After taking a few steps within the fog (J10), Ortho spotted a man dragging himself towards a nearby table.

Ortho paused for a moment and examined the man. "Are you injured?" the priest asked the crawling figure, "Perhaps I can be of help?"

As Ortho approaches he notices the man's face contorted in pain and his body disgustingly swollen, the man pounds and claws at Ortho even though he is still sveral feet away.

"Zombie..." Ortho whispered, "I cannot help you, unless you wish me to do so." The priest then continued to watch the anguished figure for a response, if indeed there was anything sentient remaining within him.

The zombie seemed oblivious to Ortho's words, it continued to drag himself around as he took deep breaths of the noxious mist, there was nothing of Nesha left in this body.

Saddened by the pathetic appearance of a creature of Nesha, Ortho backs away from the creature to return on his path to the entrance. Though leaving the creature behind, the priest knew at this tense moment he was needed elsewhere.

GM note -> Ortho is now in K10

Camus's turn! -

Seeing no danger in the room he's in, Camus turned around and ran as far as his clunky armor and heavy weapon could take him, heading for M7. Along the way, he looked around in order to see about him, grumbling about the fog while doing so.

From his vantage point Camus can see several things, to his right he can see several zombies pouring in from the main entrance, amongst them is Mikhail, one of his own personal guards, though because of his heavy armor it is impossible to see if he, in fact, became a zombie too, Camus also spots Ortho, apparently talking to a zombie who is drawing dangerously close. To his left he can see the guard's room overrun by fog, but in it there are several shapes moving about, one of them moves as lightning through the other, larger ones, and seems to belong to a small and slender woman, perhaphs Kei'rin fighting her way through some enemies.

Eyeing the situation carefully, Camus looked over at Ortho and at the pitiful creature wriggling toward the gentle priest. Without a moment's hesitation, the Paladin called out to his long-time comrade, "Is he still alive? Is anyone hurt?"

Ortho heard the voice of his ally and shouted back in reply, "They are becoming zombies! I could not help him!"

Closing his eyes briefly, head slunk downward, Camus murmured a prayer before speaking up again, "When you get the chance, cast your 'Bless' ability on me.... and be careful." Looking around some more, the Paladin noticed Vineg and scowled a little, "The other one... whatever it is... where is it!?"

Vineg glanced annoyedly at the Paladin and swung its saber toward him once in a circular motion before returning it to a ready position. "The bat-winged Hauken? He's upstairs doing stuff to himself."

The first zombie soldier raises his sword and slashes out at Rumiko, who is still retrieving her equipment!

Rumi stops getting her stuff out of the chest and tries to dodge the attack!

Rumi doesn't even need to sidestep, with her natural monk agility, she bends herself over almost entirely and dodges the slash, then continues to calmly retrieve her equipment.


The second Zombie soldier lifts his longsword and lashes out at Rumi as well!!

Rumiko tries to evade the attack of the other zombie too.

Without so much as looking at the zobie, Rumiko ducks and dodges the blade, then kicks the zombie in the groin as she stands up, pushing him away without dealing any damage. Unperturbed bu the attacks, Rumi goes on with her business.

The door of Ortho's room opens and standing there is yet another zombie, which probably entered through the window!

The first zombie, after being spoken to by Ortho, throws himself on the priest, attempting to bite him!

Ortho shouts after being grabbed by the zombie but then slides his staff, the Antanukas, down his back to block the horrid, undead creature's teeth from sinking into his skin.

With a swift movement Ortho manages to bash the still human-looking zombie in the head, disjointing his jaw. The zombie pauses for a few seconds and pushes his jaw back into place with a crack

The second zombie drags himself over to L8 and tries to pound Vineg with his claws!

Vineg smirked and tried to simply evade.

Moving as lightning, Vineg easily sidestepped the blow!

The third zombie steps forward and tries to kick Ortho in the stomach!

The priest watches as another zombie attempts to get him. With a quick sidestep, Ortho hopes to evade the undead creature's advance.

Ortho stumbles back into the mist, evading the kick, but breathing in some of the foul smell. The sulfurous gas made him cough and wheeze for an instant, but left no other remarkable effect.

The zombie knight cumbersomely moves to M9, the behemoth raises its halberd and slashes vertically at Camus with all his might!

Glaring at the zombie knight intending on attacking him, Camus raised his shield in an attempt to deflect the blow, while at the same time push back the knight.

Camus lifts his buckler and bashes the side of the zombie's blade, the zombie does not manage to pierce the paladin's defenses!

Cliodhna's turn! -

Stretching out his wings, Clíodhna headed down the stairs of the attic calmly, searching the mist carefully for anything near and keeping an ear out for any sound, near or far. Gripping to his claws tightly, it didn't take time before he noticed the Zombie in the room next to him (D5) and quickly, he attempted to slash at it with his poision claw.

Cliodhna lashes out at the zombie with his plague claw, making three horizontal cuts at the length of the stomach, the claw's poison seeps into the zombie's body, but it is unable to sicken the undead warrior, nevertheless, the zombie takes 12 damage from the deep cuts!

Vineg's turn! -

Vineg rolled its eyes at Ortho's attempt to talk to the zombie, and again as he got pushed back by it. Vineg dashed quickly between the zombies to L11 and faced the third zombie. "Get behind me, Priest. And don't waste your time talking to these things", it said while preparing to use the magical ability of its saber on the zombie. It then slashed fiercely at the creature and hoped it would hit the second zombie also.

Vineg lashes out at the zombie right in front of it and a blast of air comes forth from the blade of the windlash Sabre, the razor wind strikes the first zombie, then continues through the floor, ripping the floor panels and striking the second zombie, dealing 11 damage!

Rumi's turn! -

Having her stuff now, Rumi attacks the zombie at M2 with her staff.

The zombie raises his sword to block the attack, Rumiko's staff easily bashes the sword out of the way, but is not able to penetrate the zombie's splint armor defence!

Kei'irin's turn! -

Kei'rin moves around lazily and watches curiously as Camus fights the zombies. She smiles weirdly and then enters the room where Rumi and the two zombies are. "YO!" She yells and tries to slash off the other zombie's (ZS2) head with Hedgehog.

The zombie tries to block Kei'rin's attack with his buckler, but Kei'rin quickly changes the direction of the attack and slashes the zombie under the arm! dealing 11 damage!

Ortho's turn! -

Ortho rolls up his sleeves and punches at the zombie (Z1) aside from him with his rockbreaker gloves.

The zombie did not expect Ortho to attack him all of the sudden, with his eyes set upon the priest's staff, he did not notice the incoming fist, which struck him in the face dealing 5 damage!

Camus's turn! -

Noticing the alarming increase of undead warriors, Camus shifted eyes toward the zombie knight in front of him and the zombie nearby. After a quick pause, the Paladin decided to take down the weaker of the two. Holding Cross Redemption with both hands high above his head, Camus bellowed a thunderous war cry and attempted to smash through the head of the zombie (in L8) in a cleaving motion.

Cross redemption glows with white lights as it reaps through the zombie's side, tearing apart most of its torso and dealing 21 damage! The zombie wails as it tris to hold itself together!

The door in J5 opens and a zombie soldier slowly drags himself into the room, moving to J6!

The zombie soldier in L4 tries to stab Kei'rin in the stomach with his longsword! -

Kei'rin tried to block the attack by clashing the zombie's sword out of its course with her own.


Kei'rin swiftly bashes the skeleton's sword away with Hedgehog! The sword's thorn aura comes into effect and Hedhegod immediately grows several hundred magical needles, noticeable only as a haze of brown light, which barrage the zombie dealing 8 damage!

The Zombie Soldier in M2 tries to slash Rumi with his longsword! -

Rumi was quite surprised to see Kei'rin enter the room where she was. Now the prisioners were free and armed. She thought she wouldn't have another choice anymore than revealing Liaco was a she, if they managed to get away from the zombies. Maybe she would get a chance to find Vineg in all the confusion. Then she saw the zombie trying to attack her, and attempted to dodge once again.


Rumi, now comfortable in her own, woman clothes. Dodged the slash with ease, moving and bending herself as if she was made out of rubber.


The first zombie tries to pound Ortho with both claws at once!

The priest holds the antanukas in front of him as the zombie closes in. As the undead creature nears, Ortho grasps his stave with both hands and prepares to throw the zombie aside as it rushes towards him.

Ortho placed his staff in front of him, holding the zombie's body away from him, unfortunately the zombie's arms were rather long, they reached out and clawed the priest in the chest, dealing 7 damage!

"I bet you wish you'd dragged yourself behind me", commented Vineg with a scoff as Ortho got clawed.

The zombie in L8, smelling blood, drags himself and its open stomach over to L9 and throws himself on Ortho, trying to bite the priest in the arm!

Ortho pulls away his staff and forces it between himself and the ravenous corpse. "They're relentlous!" he shouts while defending himself from the leaping cadaver.

Terrified at the fact that he was being attacked from two flanks, Ortho tried to use his staff to fend off the second zombie, however he realized too late that he was using his staff to push the first zombie away at the first time, he desperately tried to pull his staff closer and then use it to bsh the second zombie, but by the time he managed to free his staff from between him and the first zombie, the second one had already bitten him in the left arm, dealing 5 damage!

The zombie in L10 wails at the smell of freshly spilled blood, completely forgetting about Vineg, it ravenously turns to Ortho and tries to claw his back, as he faced the other two zombies!

As he is attacked from all sides by zombified beings, Ortho begins to have flashbacks from times of war long ago. He felt as if he were falling as a brave paladin had done before him. With that thought fresh in his mind, the priest lashes out at the zombies and in a panic darts away as quickly as he can.

Finally, Ortho manages to escape the zombie's attacks, wounded and bleeding, he stumbles back to J10, ready to run as soon as he gets a chance!

The fourth zombie replies to Cliodhna's attack, trying to bite the Hauken! -

Quickly, Clíodhna attempts to evade the incomming bite by tossing himself ot one side and using his other claw, Anyo, to push the zombie away if it were to get too close.

Moving like lightning, Cliodhna docks and easily evades the zombie's teeth!

Cliodhna's turn! -

After evading the attack with ease, Clíodhna crosses his arms in a horizontal away in front of himself, turning to face the zombie and uncrossing both at one to slash at the undead creature with both claws.

Cliodhna lashes out at the zombie, drawing several cuts across its chest and dealing 13 damage!

Vineg's turn! -

Rolling its eyes at Ortho as he got further up beaten, Vineg decided to stay where it was and, again using the magical ability of the saber, slashed at the third zombie again, hoping the second zombie behind it would die now. Eyeing the ripped floor panels, it tried to keep away from them in case the floor was to collapse.

Once more, Vineg swung the Windlash Sabre as if it was a fan, a large ripple of wind emerged from the weapon and continued straight, dealing 31 and 11 damage at the zombies ahead and ripping them to shreds! Parts of the floor flew around the room as the fog near Vineg receeded for a few seconds at the furious wind!

Rumi's turn! -

Rumi forgetts about Kei'rin and attempts to hit the zombie at M2 on the head with her staff.

Rumi tries to bash the zombie soldier with her staff, but the creature raises his sword and bashes the staff to the side, deflecting the attack!

Kei'rin's turn! -

Kei'rin stabs (with Hedgehog) the zombie in front of her again , hoping it dies this time.

Kei'rin drives the hedhehog's blade into the zombie's stomach, going through its scale armor and dealing 11 damage, the guts and insides of the zombie spill across the wooden floor as the creature wails, almost destroyed.

Ortho's turn! -

Realizing his fresh wounds are drawing zombies to him, Ortho shows his healing skills as he tries to patch his wounds up. At the very least to mask the smell of blood in the air.

Ortho masterfully rips some cloth from the pants he wears under his robes, the takes the cloth and applies it as a bandage to tourniquet the wound on his arm, stopping the bleeding and healing 4 points of damage!

Camus's turn! -

Unaware that Ortho was being overwhelmed by zombies, Camus was focused primarily on the zombie and zombie knight in his line of sight. Noticing their distance from one another and the furniture in the room, the Paladin calculated the space among them and himself and found a promising answer. Moving to K7, Camus held Cross Redemption with one hand and, with a great feat of effort and strength, attempted to obliterate zombie 1 and the zombie knight with a horizontal sweep of the weapon.

Cross flies across the room as Camus spins it, destroying everything in its path, it strikes the first zombie in the chest, completely crushing it and nearly making the zombie's upper half explode, dealing 50 damage, then it continues straight, cleaving into the Zombie Knight's plate armor, where it finally stops, not before penetrating the armor and opening a gap in the zombie's skin, dealing 17 damage and forcing foul smelling intestines and liquids out of the zombie!

The soldier in L4 tries to keep its torso attached to the rest of his body with one hand and tries to stab Kei'rin in the stomach with the sword on his other hand!

Kei'rin stuck out her tongue at the zombie, grinned evilly and like before, she swang the Hedgehog against the zombie's Longsword to move it out of its course.

Kei'rin easily fends the Zombie Soldier's attack off, bashing his sword away with Hedgehog, the magical sword's defense mecanism activated once more, shooting its ethereal needles at the zombie, dealing 6 damage, and ripping it into pieces!

The Zombie soldier in M2 tries to bash Rumiko in the face with his shield!

Rumiko tries to move to the side and avoid the attack of the zombie.

Once more, with a simple maneuver, Rumiko dodges the blow, escapig unscathed.

The zombie in D5 tries to bite Cliodhna on the neck!

Clíodhna takes a step to the side while crouching down, pushing himself away and attempting to dodge the zombie's attack and get behind it.

Cliodhna easily sidesteps in amazement of the zombie's lack of speed whatsoever, he mocks the zombie as he manages to position himself behind it!

The Zombie Knight slowly moves to L9 and, ignoring the parts of his body seeping through the armor, swirls his halberd around in a half circle, targeting both Vineg and Ortho!

Vineg attempted to dodge again.

Ortho hops backwards to dodge, as the halberd looks to be very difficult to block.

Vineg easily ducks and lets the halberd's blade fly over its head, evading all damage, Ortho, however, is not that lucky, he tries to dodge but he is not fast enough, luckily for him he manages to avoid the blade of the poleaze, however the upper part of the pole strikes him in the head, dealing 8 damage and knocking him to the ground, to the thickest of the mist.

Cliodhna's turn! -

Having an advantage for being behind the zombie, Clíodhna moves with out hesitation, opening his wings widely as if it was to help push himself forward with more speed, swining one blade horizontally, aiming for the back of the zombie's head and follows with the other, aiming to stab around the creature's neck and upper back area.

Cliodhna dashes towards the zombie's back and breathes in as he is about to lash out to the zombie when he inhaled some of the mist, realizing this, the Hauken panicked and began coughing as he tried to flap his wings to push the mist away from him, completely forgetting about the zombie

Vineg's turn! -

Seeing that its swishing had cleared the air a bit, Vineg breathed in a couple of lungfuls beofre the mist came about again. Looking over at Ortho when he was hit, it mumbled "incompetent crap" before turning its attention toward the zombie that had hit him. It dashed toward the creature to K10, trying to slash at it and finish it for good.

Vineg pierced the creature's armor with its windlash Sabre dealing 5 damage and more foul liquid and guts came rushed out unto its hand, covering it with a slimey and smelly substance. Vineg pulled out its weapon as the zombie turned towards him, his moaning making an echo within his helmet

Rumi's turn! -

Rumi attacks the zombie in M2 with her staff once again.

Once more the zombie manages to avoid damage by blocking Rumi's attack with his shield!

Kei'rin's turn! -

Kei'rin laughed at the zombie, poking its pieces with her sword. Then she looked at Rumi, thinking where she had come from and who she was. After wondering those things for a while she just shrugged and walked out of the room, leaving her to fight the zombie alone. She walked to M7 where she could see the Zombie Knight clearly. "Yay!" she cried, ran to the zombie and tried to stab the Hedgehog through its torso.

Kei'rin managed to reach the Zombie knight amongst the fog, she lunged towards him and pierced the armor on his back. The blow, however, didn't strike any important part of the zombie's body and dealt only 3 damage as it broke some skin and spilled more of the zombie's putrid blood!

Ortho's turn! -

After recovering from his head wound, Ortho rises slowly and gazes back onto the zombie knight. With both his hands held high into the air, the priest begins a spell of Divine punishment to unleash the holy fires onto the undead abomination.

Ortho calls upon the powers of Nesha to aid him and punish his enemy. A bright light emerges from under Ortho's feet, creting an ascending circle of light around the priest. As his words begin to echo, another circle of light materializes around the zombie knight, the light cascades upwards in both circles, but the zombie's body reacts different than Ortho's. As if the light was some sort of electrical current, the zombie begins to convulse and smoke comes out from the joints of the armor dealing 45 damage! After the light disipates, the smoking armor remains standing for a few seconds after falling apart on the floor, whatever was inside is now completely undone.

Camus's turn! -

Staring with some surprise as the zombie knight was obliterated, Camus managed a half smile soon afterward, knowing the attack was Ortho's work. Turning around, the Paladin noted a zombie soldier moaning idly by in J6. Still holding Cross Redemption in one hand, Camus swung the mightly weapon like a golf club toward the creature, attempting to send the zombie sky-high through the ceiling.

As Camus strides towards the zombie, Cross redemption bagins to glow with a warm silver light. Camus swings the halberd and the light becomes stronger, towards the end of the attack, both Camus and the weapon are merged together, covered in rays of silver light! Cross Redemption slices through the zombie and seems to ignite the poisonous gas around it, dealing 563 damage! The resulting explosion of white elemental energy blinds the whole group and entirely clears the room of zombie fog! After the light fades, the group finds itself in a once more clean room, though the fog begins to slowly filter into the room!

The Zombie soldier in M2 tries to stab Rumiko with his longsword! -

Rumi intents to dodge again.

Again and again, Rumi proves her dexterity by easily avoiding the zombie's blade, after several minutes of continues tumbling and striking the iron armor of the soldier with her staff, however, Rumi begins to show signs of exhaustion.

The last remaining soldier, sick with Cliodhna's movign around, tries to stop the Hauken by throwing himself on top of him and biting his neck!

Having totaly forgotten about the zombie for several moments, Clíodhna only realised what position he had put himself in when he noticed it jumping at him. Letting out a light gasp, he pulled his arms in front of himself as quickly as he could react. Holding his claws tightly in front of himself, he attempted to keep the zombie form getting too close as it landed on him and maybe push it back.

Cliodhna easily pushes the zombie back using his claws!

Cliodhna's turn! -

After managing to push the zombie back successfully, Clíodhna took a step back before pushing himself forward to dash at the undead creature, letting out a loud war cry making it sound as if he was more in pain than anger even though he wasn't and sliced at it with both claws in a horizontal manner.

Cliodhna's claws shredded through the zombie's skin dealing 19 and 12 damage! The zombie's limbs hung loosely from little shreds of skin before the undead man collapsed!

Vineg's turn! -

Rather dumbfounded, Vineg stared wide-eyed as Ortho and Camus obliterated the two remaining zombies in their surroundings. It didn't say anything though, but turned to see if there were any more zombies around, now that they could see the room clearly. Thinking that it could check the rooms one by one, Vineg stepped to the right to look in the fourth room, seeing an unrecognizable figure and the last zombie. With a somewhat confused look, it ran into the room. "Who are – – wait... oh, I was right", it said with a smirk as it recognized a part of Rumi's face, pieced together with its suspicions. Vineg positioned itself in L3 and slashed at the zombie, using the magical ability of the Windlash saber.

As Vineg lashed out with the Sabre, the razor wind it produced advanmced mercilessly towards the zombie, ripping floor panels and hardwood from the floor, finally, the wind struck the zombie soldier in the back, though it did not cut his armor, it crushed his body inside it, dealing 14 damage!

Rumi's turn! -

Rumi startled at first as she saw Vineg approach. Then she thought this could be her chance. But first, she would take care of the zombie. As now, Vineg couldn't possibly suspect what her intentions were. She put away her staff and attacked the zombie standing in M2 using martial arts.

Noticing that the zombie soldier was almost defeated, Rumiko turned and did a rapid back kick, aiming for the soldier's head! He foot struck the side of the soldier's helmet as if it was a charging fellram, dealing 19 damage and kicking the head away, into the next room!

Battle has ended!
Everyone gains 1566 XP!

---

"There aren't any more zombies, are there?" asked Vineg idly, looking back into the main room and breathing the clear air. It then eyed Rumiko some more, with an evil smirk on its face, thinking how much trouble Camus and Ortho would give her. "So, what's your name?" it asked, liking how the question was rather out of place at the moment.

Kei'rin enjoyed the lack of the zombie fog while she could and looked around for more beatable zombies. She didn't see any, or hear any (and decided to leave alone the one she knew to be down in the basement), so she moved all her attention to the head that just rolled into the room and laughed at it. She went poking it with her sword as if it was such a funny sight. Soon enough she noticed Vineg talking to Rumi in the other room and leant against the closest wall, listening to them.

As the fog in the room cleared away for the time being, Camus breathed in deeply and promptly tried to relax himself as he stared about. Paying little heed to Kei'rin's usual prater, the Paladin noticed an injured Ortho with alarm and strode toward the priest, "How are your wounds? Should I heal you with this blade?" As he spoke, Camus indicated toward his healing blade, Salve of the Faithful, strapped to his side.

Once more, slowly, but relentlessly, the mist began so seep into the room, and moans could be heard just outside the door.

Rumi turned to Vineg with a frown on her face. "My name is none of your concern, you despicable creature" she said. Kei'rin's presence there irritated her aswell. She would have liked to grab its neck and break it right away, but then she heard the noise outside. "No more zombies in here, but many outside. We can't stay in this place."

Vineg stared at Rumi a little aggravated, thinking that her reaction sounded slightly strange. However, it was not really that exceptional, so Vineg shrugged it off, saying loudly: "Whatever, bitch!" It then walked out of the room and turned right, intending to head back to the attic to find Clíodhna. At reaching the first room and the remains of the zombie, it looked to its right, seeing him in the room. Vineg smirked and leaned on the doorframe. "Hi, wiseass."

Ortho coughed and winced a little as he began to limp towards Camus. "We are surrounded... I doubt we can fend off another raid of these undead." The priest began noting his own pessimism and then smirked, "Then again, we've lived through much more dangerous instances."

"Yes... and I intend for us to live through this." Camus's frown grew deeper as he heard the moans of the walking dead outside. Hearing what appeared to be Vineg shouting at someone, the Paladin scowled and tightly gripped his weapon. A moment passed before he calmed himself, figuring now was not the time, and decided to call for those he considered still loyal... or as close to being loyal as one can get, in any case, "Kei'rin! Liaco! How's your status?"

"I'm fine yet a little bored", Kei'rin said and smiled to Camus. She was still leaning against the wall, observing Vineg go around teasing people. She glanced at Rumi with an insane-looking grin and said: "I don't know about HER though."

Once he had finished off with the creature he had been taken care of, Clíodhna let out a heavy sigh before closing his eyes and recomposing himself, gathering his thoughts once more. Vineg's irritating voice only came along to push him out of his calming process, causing him to frown slightly. Opening his eyes, he looked up at the other. "Psh... What do you want? I would have hoped the walking dead would have eaten you more than to see you alive." Hissing silently, he moved out of the room, past Vineg and glanced around at the others shortly, his wings shuddering slightly before he moved to go back up in the attic.

"Get in the line", said Vineg with a wide smirk on its face and let him go past it. "What do I want? Peace and quiet", it went on, glaring at Camus and Ortho. It then followed Clíodhna to the attic and looked around, wanting to find a window where it could see outside.

As Cliodhna walked up to the attic, the mist began seeping in once more, covering most of the room's floors. Amongst the muffled moans of hundreds of zombies just outside the inn walls, Cliodhna noticed that he felt slightly lighter. Only then did he realize he was not carrying his ledger anymore, it must've fallen into the mist during the battle!

Rumiko walked to the main room. She couldn't hide any longer. "I'm good. And there's no time for explanations now" she said simply to Camus. Then she looked at Clíodhna moving to the attic. Hearing the zombies outside, she said "We can try to get out using the door or climb to the roof like the hauken..."

It took a little while for Clíodhna to realise he had dropped his priceless ledger. He froze on his steps, a light gasp escaping him, his eyes wide as his hands moved to attempt and reasure himself he acrually still had the book but, despite his effforts, he knew too well he had dropped it. Turning suddently, he practically pushed Vineg out fo the way and dashed back down the stairs and into the room to look for his ledger.

"Hey! What the!" exclaimed Vineg as Clíodhna dashed down again. "Damned..." It didn't much care about that, however, but kept on looking around for a window.

Cliodhna came into the room once more and spotted what seemed to be his ledger under the mist in the area where he had been fighting the zombie.

Camus was shocked for a couple of seconds as he stared at Rumiko before shaking his head in slight despair, "How much longer must I remain in the dark...?" Sighing and deciding he'll question the girl later, the Paladin replied, "You're right... lead on.."

Quickly moving over to the area he had been fighting the zombie and where he ledger lied, Clíodhna proceeded into reaching out for it while making sure he didn't fill his lungs in with the colored mist.

Cliodhna dived into the mist and retrieved his ledger, which felt strangely warm to touch.

Rumiko watched Clíodhna as he came back down, wondering why did he do so, but as he grabbed his ledger she understood. "Let's get up there then" she said walking to the attic.

Camus stood silent as he watched Rumiko go. Shortly afterward, he turned his head to look at Kei'rin and Ortho, "I'll follow shortly after the two of you. With that Eolan and the other up there, it's best to stay on your guard."

Kei'rin raised her eyebrows and giggled slightly. Being her energetic self, she quickly had made her way to the attic. She enjoyed the at least a bit clearer air, yet would have enjoyed it more if Vineg wasn't there.

Marching onward, Ortho patted Camus's shoulder as he passed before him. "I think this inn may need renovating, the zombie service was a little disappointing..." the priest laughed, and then coughed quite a bit. With a sigh, he looked around and then asked, "So the plan is to hide in the attic until sunrise?" Ortho held his chin in question and then just shrugged, continuing on into the attic.

Camus nodded somewhat seriously as he stared about the room keenly for signs of any intruders. Seeing none for the time being, the Paladin looked up toward the attic, heaved a weary sigh, and went up.

Clíodhna blinked slightly, the ledger feeling oddly warm in his hand. He stared at it for several minutes, attempting to understand why it felt so warm. He figured it was probably just because it was close to him while he battled. Shrugging the though off, he turned and moved out of the room to follow Camus up the stairs to the attic.

"So.. you are my new master?"
asked a voice in the back of Cliodhna's head. "I have awakened, and I am ready to server master, speak thy command..." said the voice once more, no one able to hear it other than Cliodhna.

---

[Lunnie] - Clíodhna Donnachaidh
[Levoton] - Kei'rin Feluria
[Sturmi] - Rumiko Tenku
[Grengo] - Camus Matia
[Veltzeh] - Vineg Tor'eael
[Adaman] - Ortho D'Artagmion
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