Fortification

After Leoric decides to help Nelalwe with some explosives, this causes a massive explosion that attracts a crowd of monsters. Sakiran and Walker head out of the bar and go to investigate. AS they run, a mist forms in the forest. Nelalwe is hiding behind a rock and there is a disturbance in the mist. Shambling figures come through. Walker wonders what it is.

Leoric sees there are a lot of humanoid shapes with negative heat signatures shuffling along. They have jerky motions and a slow gait. They are being held together by black-blue lightning. Walker charges in and cleaves down five with his greataxe. Their upper halves get back up again and he smashes them down.

Leoric wipes down an entire group of zombies with a grenade launcher and Sakiran hacks some apart. They grab with severed hands at the party. The zombies start to swipe back.

Walker is clawed at by zombies.

Domaru dangles whiskey in front of Tasu and leads him towards the gate. He has a moment of realisation and then disappears in a puff of a smoke.

The party continue to fight zombies, but they keep coming through. Domaru sees hundreds of corpses held together by black-blue energy, with a few groups almost past the gate. He sees Walker, Leoric and Sakiran fighting, with Nelalwe throwing the occasional grenade. He hangs back and watches. Walker keeps cleaving through, getting exhausted. He gives ground, leaving Sakiran surrounded. She holds her ground, cleaving through and kicking zombies, then backs into an empty space created by Walker. Zombies claw and swarm at her, leaving her badly injured.

Leoric overcharges his experimental weapon, the gun gets very hot as it fires. Steam vents blast outwards as a blue flame emits from them. A massive plasma shell arcs through the horde and burns a few hordes.

Walker cleaves through again, destroying another group. The horde looks as if it is wavering, with its movement becoming more purposeful. Green energy in the distance gets closer.

A zombie reaches down and picks up a branch, flailing and swinging.

The old town greeter says there's a lot of them and Walker says that is an understatement.

The zombies stop as the green energy comes closer. They see a skeletal figure with a mechanical ribcage, with trees having the life sapped out of them. It points towards Leoric. It says that he blew up his favourite, and he was such a young boy. Leoric clicks his fingers and makes fireworks appear behind the skeletal figure. He turns away and recoils as Leoric shoots him. His head is blown straight off and he calls him rude. Leoric's cigarette falls from his mouth in shock. The skeleton commands the zombies to attack and they go for Sakiran. She kicks it off and dodges the strikes, moving back.

Walker grabs the gate and tries to slide it closed. He manages to close it and the zombie's arm gets caught and crunches off. They have been kept outside for now, bashing the outside. He turns to them and says it won't hold for long. He is covered in sweat. Leoric proposes they fire from above. Walker says it could work. Vae says she has a proposal: This town's defensive measures are insufficient. She could defend the entrance, projecting her shield forward, though she would be defenceless. Leoric asks how much power it will draw. Vae says she will be fine. Sakiran says she is on the verge of death. Vae says she will only malfunction if they breach through.

Sakiran injects herself with a healing stim. Leoric walks away to the workshop backyard. Vae asks Walker and Sakiran to move out of the way. She kneels down and vents open. A shimmering blue field emanates forward from her. The glow from within drains outward and her head is bowed as she does it. She bars the entrance to the gate and cannot move.

It looks like the zombies will take half an hour to tear through the chain link fence. Domaru casts a Minor Illusion to see if the zombies are attracted to it - they sniff but otherwise disregard it.

Leoric says he needs Nelalwe's help in the back. He says they need to use the cannon. Nelalwe asks if he is strong and Leoric shifts uncomfortably. He says it doesn't matter and she needs to get her act together. He gives her a cigarette and she seems to calm down slightly, but is still jittery. He starts angling it upwards, angling it so it can fire low-velocity shells upwards.

He performs a test fire. Sakiran hears a boom come from her workshop. Fifteen seconds later, a shell lands directly on the horde and blows several apart. Sakiran looks at the smoke trail coming from the workshop.

Leoric communicates with Sakiran through the comms device. He asks if it hits and she confirms it. Domaru interjects over the comms and communicates in military jargon.

Leoric modifies the rounds into fragmentation rounds and aims for the horde again. It explodes into the ground, shards raining down upon the zombies. They seem fairly unaffected. They start grabbing the metal chains.

Leoric asks Sakiran if it worked. She said it did not really work. Domaru requests heavy artillery and prepares four Molotovs.

Sakiran searches boxes. She finds materials that can be used for barricading the walls. She finds a few weapons. She asks for Walker's help and they also put Aria to work barricading the wall. It seems that it will hold for a short while.

As it gets light, the energy that holds the creatures together starts to dissipate. When the sun has risen, they are gone.

There are mounds of charred corpses burned by the sun. The green light in the distance is clearer, because the mist has faded. The green light dips underground.

Vae tells Sakiran they are not gone, and the veil is broken. Sakiran is unable to see what she is talking about. Vae says they will revive when the suppressive force of the Estellian sun ceases.

Sakiran sees a lovely, green house on a  hill in the rising sun. It is then crushed by an artillery round. She explains this to Leoric. She says the creatures are dead but not because they hit them. Leoric then cringes.

The party have until nightfall to prepare for the next attack.