Zoom 2021-10-05 21:00

The party decides to carry on securing the streets/houses beyond the checkpoint. We double-check what a 'worse than shadow' looks like - it appears to be a wraith, and the two can be easily distinguished.

Quercuis starts casting a Call Lightning, while the rest of the party (sans Brokev who stays as her bodyguard) carry on up the street towards the next checkpoint (which is 4 blocks away) and check on the first building they come to: It is a warehouse of the sort used to house the slaves/workforce. Francis, Wun and Umar do their standard house clearance - and find the building deserted. (No zombie tracks - just evidence of it being 'checked over' by a 'light footed' humanoid.) They then check out the back door - and get rushed by some 'controlled' zombies - which are immediately dusted by Wun. Francis then does his normal trick of finding their 'controller' and doing him in before he can even think of sacrificing himself to become a shadow.

Meanwhile, the party outside the building have witnessed 3 very impressive (druid CL) lightning bolts land about 400 yards away - where the city wall meets the sea. We also see about 20 Elves dashing across the rooftops heading in that direction.

And then Garaf gets shot. He is hit by a single poisoned crossbow-bolt that incapacitates him - his assailant is seen up on the rooftops running away. So Twoo fires an arrow at the assailant while Bazin cures Garaf and Joshua neut-poisons him. The party is rejoined by Q and Br as another set of 3 lightning bolts go off in the distance. And then we see some guy (who I shall now refer to as 'Fred') on the rooftops  waving a white flag on his crossbow. Brokev tells him to come down which he duly does. Fred says that he some info for us - if we will will save his family. He also claims to have killed the guy who shot Garaf. The party is sufficiently intrigued to talk with Fred further - so several of them go inside the warehouse with him to continue discussions.

Fred explains that he has been co-opted into the SARN cult as one of the 'foot soldiers' (or maybe 'roof soldiers') - armed with a one-shot crossbow, they were told to take out any mages/clerics they could, and then either scarper or finish off their victims if possible. For doing this, they were promised their families would be saved - and they were told to put large, fresh reed mats on the upper floor of theirs houses and shelter underneath. However, the Dekatur priest seems to be going back on his word, and is now "converting" all the living families into zombies as well - which will include his family who are two blocks away. Fred also asks if we are the group from White Beach - and when we say we are, he says that 'there are people out to get us'. He also asks about 'the Dwarf', but we say nothing. Joshua thinks that Fred is telling the truth, and the party agree to help him. Fred tells us that we need to get up on the roofs to get to his family - there are too many groups of zombies at ground level.

The party manage to get up onto the roof tops, and Fred leads us on a circuitous route (including using several strategically placed planks as 'bridges' to cross the streets). We pass the decapitated corpse of the guy who shot Garaf.  After about 10 minutes, we reach the end of the warehouse district and come to a more residential area. There are about 70 zombies in the street below, standing still and doing not a lot. However, to the street off to the left, there are more zombies who are bashing down front doors - there are screams and cries for help coming from the houses, and an ominous patch of darkness in the street (presumably containing the zombie controller.)

Another set of CL lightning bolts go off near where the first set were (it is about 1 turn since the first set.) Fred takes us to his rooftop, and we break through the roof, and Francis leads the way to rescue Fred's family. Having got Fred's wife and 3 children to safety, Francis then bashes through the house walls to the adjacent houses and rescues a man and his two children from one house, and two sisters from another.

On the streets below, another patch of darkness appears - and the previously inactive zombies now start bashing down the doors in their street, while the first set of zombies march off purposefully in the direction of the wall. Fred is ready to lead us back across the roofs via a 'safe route', but the party decide that they ought to stay and do something about these zombies and their controllers. So we ask Fred to give us the information he promised. Fred tells us:

* The Dekatur priests/cultists can operate in the dark. (Well, duh!)
* They are complete wimps physically, but very dangerous. We settle on the term 'glass cannons'. However, if you kill them, they die - ie they only turn into shadows/wraiths if they are able to sacrifice themselves deliberately.
* The main priest of Dekatur is operating in the area around the wall where we saw the Elven elite heading towards.
* The secondary priest is around here organising the zombies - and it is he who broke his word about saving their families, and is now zombifying them instead.
* The plan was for him to come in from the sea, and take the wall from behind.
* The female Ariel we knew as Shamrya (who Fred refers to as the 'stupid bitch') is the head of the SARN cult - she claimed that she had a plan to get rid of the Dekatur priests afterwards, but Fred doubts this very much.
* The 'big guy' can shadow walk. And he will have lots of 'backup' areas of darkness around to shadow walk to.
* Fred describes to us the escape route over the roofs, and gives us a contact address if we want to meet him later.

The party then start planning how to take out a shadow-walking baddie and stop all these zombies. A well placed lightning bolt from Q should to the trick - if only we knew exactly which area of darkness to target.