Episode 6: Weapons of Last Resort

**Act I.**

We return to Tatyana jumping out the window to help Nahara. But when she lands, Tatyana is completely alone, and the Mists have closed in. Just as she realizes she’s left her axe inside, she hears a familiar voice and feels blades against her neck and her back. Jibaku, a githyanki with grey hair and pale yellow skin says she taught Tatyana better than that. Recognizing her mentor, Tatyana tries to grab Jibaku’s arm, but Jibaku is gone, now standing between Tatyana and the house. She wears her traditional leather armor and looks older than Tatyana thinks she should be. She tells Jibaku she looks old, but it’s good to see her.

Sheathing her knives, Jibaku asks Tatyana what she’s gotten herself into. She says she knows much more than when they last met, and that Tatyana doesn’t know how much danger she’s in here. Jibaku advises Tatyana to look at the bigger picture, look for the archers in the trees, not just the enemies in front of her. She says a great battle is coming, one worthy of Tatyana, but if she just swings blindly, she and her party will all die here and rise as mindless undead. When Tatyana asks Jibaku to show her how to look for the archers, Jibaku says her power is fading but she will return to Tatyana in her sleep tonight.

Tatyana hears Nahara’s Eldritch Blast go off, and suddenly she’s back with her companions, fighting undead.

**Act II.**

Alone in the attic, Brother Uriah sees two more boneless undead come sliding in to attack him. He casts Toll the Dead on one of them. Out of spells, he draws his mace. Outside the house, Desmond, Fen, Nahara, and Tatyana see a swarm of undead limbs approaching from all directions. Nahara casts Eldritch Blast at the nearest ones, but they scatter, so she only takes out a few. Desmond draws his longbow but his arrow misses. To add insult to injury, one of the severed hands grabs his arrow and crawls forward with it as a weapon.

Remembering Jibaku’s words, Tatyana looks up and sees a wereraven watching them from a nearby tree. She shouts to it to help them, but the wereraven tries to hide. Tatyana climbs the tree, determined to get its attention. Hearing Uriah’s yelp of distress, Fen asks Desmond if he will be alright if she goes to help Uriah. He says he’ll be fine, so Fen rushes to the attic to find Uriah being attacked by boneless. She swings at the one closest to the door, but it dodges her sword.

From her bedroom window, Valentine casts Firebolt at the undead limbs climbing the tree after Tatyana. Several of them fall to the ground on fire. Tatyana shouts ‘thank you,’ and Valentine asks her telepathically not to die. Down below, the limbs swarm Desmond, pulling and tearing at him but not doing any damage. The hand holding Desmond’s arrow stabs Nahara through the neck with it. She casts Hellish Rebuke to push it back. The swarm claws and scratches Tatyana, who makes eye contact with the wereraven as she falls out of the tree, unconscious.

In the attic, Uriah casts Toll the Dead again. The boneless facing him lunges at Uriah and misses, but the other one knocks Fen unconscious and wraps around her. Uriah screams. Outside, Nahara casts Eldritch Blast at the swarm on Tatyana before running inside the house to help Uriah. She shouts to him that she’s coming, and calls him her “poor sweet baby.” On the way to the attic, Nahara sees Valentine and asks her if she’s alright. Valentine says no, looking at the unconscious Tatyana beyond the window.

Seeing Tatyana fall, Desmond loses his temper and transforms. He goes berserk, decimating half of the swarm. In Valentine’s head, Tregrum comments how useful Desmond will be to them. It says it’s sure Tatyana will be fine. Floating in a grey mist, Tatyana feels the familiarity of death. As she worries what will happen to Valentine, a black cat walks by. Tregrum says it is a friend of Valentine’s and Tatyana is important to her. Tregrum asks permission to save her life. When Tatyana consents, Tregrum confirms she is asking it to save her. When Tatyana says this is not how she dies, she feels something like a spider crawling up her spine and settling under Soth’s brand before she wakes up with one hitpoint. As Valentine sees this from the window, she hears Tregrum’s voice in her head telling her she’s welcome. Valentine says they will discuss this later. She casts Dissonant Whispers on the swarm, and black tentacles seep out of her eyes as a nursery melody plays. Psychic energy ripples out from Valentine and the last of the swarm shudders and stops moving.

In death saves, Fen hears Isolde’s voice calling to her, begging her to hold on, telling her help is on the way. Fen promises she won’t leave Isolde. But the boneless wrapped around Fen continues to squeeze her unconscious body. The other one attacks Uriah, but can’t grapple him. He casts Spare the Dying on Fen and Toll the Dead on the boneless attacking him. It slides down into a puddle but keeps pawing at his boot. He shouts at the boneless to let go of Fen. Nahara arrives and casts Witchbolt on the one attacking Fen, blowing half of it away with lightning damage. Fen’s arms and legs shoot out with the electricity and fling off the boneless. No longer surrounded, Desmond climbs up the side of the house and reaches claws into the attic to shred the boneless that had attacked Fen. Seeing Tatyana run into the house, Valentine runs up to the attic and casts Arms of Hadar on the remaining boneless. She holds it while Uriah casts Toll the Dead one last time, turning the last boneless to dust.

**Act III.**

Uriah binds Fen’s wounds, and she returns to consciousness. Stewart teases Nahara for calling Uriah “sweet baby.” Nahara tells Stewart not to be jealous. He tries to make her jealous of Fen, because Uriah is tending to her wounds. Nahara doesn’t understand why Stewart is grumpy and suggests he might need a nap. Fen asks if what just happened was a nightmare. Uriah assures her it was real.

Valentine runs to Tatyana, who is reinforcing the barricades on the first floor. She scolds her for dying and brings Tatyana back upstairs to rejoin the others. Desmond climbs in the attic window and everyone expresses relief that Fen is alright. Tatyana apologizes to Fen for not being able to save her. She wanted to return the favor after Fen pulled her out of the bodytaker plant. Fen leans on Desmond and asks him to help her get downstairs. She’s too weak to make it on her own, but she doesn’t want the others, especially Valentine, to see how weak she is. Desmond asks Fen’s permission to carry her downstairs, and does so with her consent. Uriah notices how beat up Tatyana is, and tells her to sit down. He says she will be the next in line for healing after Fen when his powers return.

Valentine and Tatyana gather everyone in one room for the night, and they make changes to the barricades to keep out boneless zombies. Before they rest, Nahara examines the gem that was buried under the bodytaker plant. She remembers Uriah suggesting it was a seed, and the vision they had of the meteor falling where they later found the plant. Uriah asks Nahara about what he thinks he heard her yell earlier. Nahara admits it, saying she was concerned if he was alright. She’s glad he’s okay, and Uriah is glad Nahara is, too, after the fall she took from the attic. He asks if she’s injured, and Nahara says a little, but she just needs to rest.

Tatyana lies down with her head in Valentine’s lap. She’s ashamed at how much saving she needed today, but brags about jumping out the window to help. Valentine pets her hair until Tatyana falls asleep, purring and snoring. Fen explains to Desmond that she’s not being fresh by asking him to carry her. Desmond understands. He says they need to look out for each other. The party fights well together, but they have to see each other’s weaknesses in order to cover one another. Fen expresses doubt over Valentine’s motivations and falls asleep worrying about failing Isolde.

Valentine hears Fen say this about her, and Stewart asks if he should kill Fen for her. Valentine says no, and she wants him to understand that she could do it herself if she wanted to. Stewart notes the party is a curious group. Valentine says they’re in a strange place, and it’s best to find an ally. Stewart says he will continue to hide his strength, and asks Valentine’s permission to watch over Nahara as well.

After everyone who sleeps is asleep, Nahara asks if Valentine is alright. Valentine makes a telepathic link so they don’t wake the others and asks about Nahara. She says it’s hard to wrap her mind around all the strange events that have been happening. Nahara asks if Valentine has heard something strange lately. Valentine says she always does, and Nahara asks if Valentine remembers how she got this way. She asks Valentine if coming back was painful. Valentine says it was more painful going out, and she doesn’t understand why it happened, so she sympathizes with Nahara’s search for answers. Nahara says it’s comforting to know someone else who’s experienced being reborn. She doesn’t understand why some souls pass on and some don’t. Valentine says she doesn’t think resting peacefully was an option for her, but she’d rather be here even if it means being a puppet. Valentine says people who were good in life don’t laugh like Nahara does when they kill people. Nahara says her conscience is clean.

The two reborn sit in silence for a moment before they hear a rumble of thunder. The air in the room begins to tingle with electricity, and suddenly black-blue lightning fills the room, coursing through them. They see a metal behemoth rampaging through the Mists. It’s the Mourning Rail, a train like a force of nature, and suddenly they’re gone.

(This is where the bonus episode The Mourning Rail takes place)

**Act IV.**

Desmond, Fen, Nahara, Uriah, and Valentine return from their adventure aboard The Mourning Rail, still wearing their magical darkness glasses. Tatyana has been asleep in the house the entire time. They wake her, and Uriah notices Tatyana has scratches and bruises she did not have last night. Tatyana sees Valentine holding a blade that is made of shadow, and touches it to find it’s real and very sharp. Valentine makes a sheath for it with her dress ties. Nahara is wearing all of the jewelry she stole on the train and still has the portrait she was given of her former self. She asks Uriah how the artist knew about her, but he has no answers. Tatyana is jealous the others got to go on an adventure without her. As consolation, Nahara gives Tatyana her glasses, which give low light vision to those without darkvision.

Tatyana mentions something about being taken to the astral plane last night, but refuses to answer questions about it. Tregrum asks Valentine if she wants to know what Tatyana was doing. After it tells her, Valentine asks how it knows. Tregrum says it’s its job to keep an eye on Tatyana. Valentine asks if Tregrum is in Tatyana’s head, too. Tregrum says yes. When Valentine asks what the consequences are, Tregrum is evasive, so she ignores it as punishment. Cat Tregrum appears to give Valentine the cold shoulder, and she nudges it away with her foot.

The party sets out for Lekar, but they walk for nearly two hours and don’t seem to be getting anywhere. They test Desmond’s theory that they’re not actually moving, and listen for sounds of animals. There are none, but markers they leave are left behind as they move. Uriah suggests Nahara’s Mist Walking might work within a domain as well as between domains. Nahara fishes out the zombie flesh and tries it, looking at the map and thinking of Leskar. After they walk another fifty feet, the tree line breaks and a valley in ruins lies before them.

Disturbed graves and destroyed homes lie in the town half a mile away. Carrion birds circle above, and a pack of something is skulking in the distance. Fen uses Hunter’s Bane and senses that the pack is undead. Uriah warns that if he has to Turn Undead, they may want to keep their distance. Fen, Nahara, and Valentine tell him to just give them a heads-up first.

Uriah says he doesn’t think this town is Lekar. With Fen urging caution, they agree to sneak toward the town and see what’s there. The crops around the town are well-tended, though the town itself shows signs of protracted battle. Up close, they see that everyone in the town is undead, but they are going about their business just as they would if they were living. Tatyana urges Uriah to Turn Undead. Uriah says it only works at close range, and he doesn’t want to draw the attention of the whole town. Valentine and Nahara want to walk through the town, presuming it safe for them, at least. Tatyana wants to fight all of the undead. But Desmond doesn’t want to draw the attention of the undead, and Fen is not eager for a fight after the day they’ve had. The majority of the party agrees to cross the corn field that lies between the town and the pack of undead somewhere nearby. Tatyana is upset, calling them “skulky little babies” for avoiding combat with the town. Nahara convinces Tatyana to go along with their plan by saying the undead are no match for her. She adds that they shouldn’t just attack the town because the people are undead, speaking up for undead rights.

**Act V.**

The party stealths through a cornfield, where Fen and Uriah make hardly a sound, but everyone else makes a terrible racket. The undead townsfolk all stop and turn to look at them. Nahara is greeted by a voice in her ear asking what they are doing here. She tells it they’re just passing through. The voice asks if they’re deserters of the Falkovnian military, and she tells it they are a special task force on a covert operation. The voice says she’s lying, and armed and armored people stand up all over the corn field, each bearing a tattoo of a red talon. A tall man in red silk robes steps forward to address them out loud. He is the one who messaged Nahara. When he asks where they’re from, Uriah introduces himself in such a way that the man thinks he is an emissary from Darkon. The man, Vjorn Horstman, says he can arrange a guard to take them safely to Lekar, but first he wants to show Uriah what they’re doing here. He leads them into town where they descend hidden stairs to a giant laboratory that is a mirror image of the town above. Horstman says they do the experiments here because of earlier incidents in Leskar.

Tatyana is afraid of the dark, but she descends with the help of Valentine and her new glasses. Desmond immediately scents other weres in the laboratory, and tells the others. They ask what he wants them to do, ready to defend any shifters being experimented on, but Desmond says they have to be smart about it. The underground town reminds Fen of home, but she notices no smells of cooking, just chemical smells. It makes her uneasy, and she tells Desmond.

Uriah asks Horstman about his experiments, and he explains that the undead workers above are part of it. Since they couldn’t stop the oncoming hordes, they decided to domesticate them. He says in war, no sacrifice is too great, and orders his soldiers to “show them the beasts.” A row of cages is revealed, half of them containing filthy werebeasts: a boar, a tiger, a rat, and a wolf. They all have red talon tattoos over their hearts. Horstman says he created a primal serum to bless soldiers with lycanthropy, though they’ve been having trouble controlling them. He calls them weapons of last resort, and says not all of his experiments were a success. There are four cages that are empty, but show blood stains.

As Uriah and Horstman talk about the penalty for not volunteering to serve Falkovnia (impalement), Valentine makes a telepathic link with the werewolf. She says he’s not looking too good, and he says he’s better in the full moon, and looks forward to fighting and dying as a warrior. Valentine asks if they’re being held against their will, and he says they get extra rations for themselves and their families for volunteering. She asks him if they will spare her friends if she opens the cages. He says yes, but Horstman will never let them go before the next wave. Valentine asks what if Horstman were killed, and the were warns her Vjorn is more dangerous than he looks. He asks what her mission is, and Valentine mentions the missing scouts. He says if they came here, they were either killed by the undead, conscripted, or impaled on the city walls.

Horstmann tells Uriah he hopes Darkon will be an ally to Falkovnia. He asks how Uriah tamed the three undead in his party. Horstman asks Fen if she has her wits about her or is under Uriah’s thrall, and she laughs out loud. Horstman is impressed with Darkon’s undead technology. He also asks Desmond about his wolf’s tooth pendant, saying others he met with such a pendant were cursed with lycanthropy. He offers to test Desmond for lycanthropy, and Desmond declines. He also asks how Uriah turned Tatyana’s skin blue.

When Uriah asks, Horstman says the new moon is in two days, but he can arrange faster passage for them to Lekar. He invites the party to eat first, and demands the were be put away because they are distracting their guests. Horstman tells them the weres will be unstoppable when the war comes. They are an effective weapon against the undead because he discovered through his experiments that lycanthropes can’t become zombies. The rations they are offered are all tightly sealed. Horstman theorizes that the smell of cooking attracts undead. Tatyana suggests the weres are demoralized because no one cheers for them when they fight. Horstman says chances are she’ll die a glorious death in Falkovnia in two days. Tatyana says no, she will go fight Jibaku after this. As Horstman leaves the party to their meal, B. Dave tells us it’s a good place for us to stop.

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