Before noon, the roughshod caravan and it's people were finally on the road again. The compelling need to eat something eventually wore on them after an early lunch. By the time that the sun was up, their trek through the woods between Dunnamore and Plainsmount was nearly through.
They hadn't been pushing the horses as a vanguard of six people rode slightly ahead of the carts. Behind them, the remaining horses in the herd trotted along. They had their reasons for sticking with the humans and Finley didn't blame them for it. Once he stopped pushing them to join, he was surprised how willing they were to tag along. It was an unexpected use of his handle animal skill that getting the skill to level three had afforded him. Each level felt like an evolution past the previous skill. He had never imagined controlling horses before, except for the two he had been with.
It was when they were nearly three span away from Plainsmount when the first hint that things were amiss appeared. Unlike Dunnamore, which was largely a town meant to service the local farming population, Plainsmount was a trading town. As such, there were traders' estates and suburban sprawl. It wasn't anything that Finley hadn't seen before. Rich merchants wanted to show off by owning rich looking estates. When the first one came into the horizon, it was easy to tell that the doors were missing. As well, all of the windows were either smashed or open.
Bob called a halt. As he did so, Finley pushed the herd to spread out on the sides. If nothing else, they would spook easily, and in turn alert the entire party. Bob and Anthony shared a glance.
That was enough to get everyone moving. Among the many side goals that Bob and Anthony set out was to get a third wagon set up. They had enough spare wheels to replace any losses. What they didn't have yet was room to transport the amount of food they were going to need.
Stella and Sophie jumped down. They hugged a large long garden hedge as they approached the two story building. Bob followed right behind them. Finley was tempted to follow them but knew that he had to stay by the horses. He was hoping for some more canvas material and perhaps some clothes and blankets for the humans. To find a working wagon would be a dream.
The sun was well on its way down and he considered that it was well past lunch time. He was grateful for the large breakfast. He could only take so many potatoes.
While the rogues and rangers did their thing, he took stock of the horses. He felt like it was time to swap some of them out. Whenever he did that, it would be a time when they were exposed. The least he could do was to make sure that they were drinking water, but that too seemed like too much for the time.
Really, it was the uncertainty that made him feel ill at ease. There was no telling if the people of of this mansion were still there or if they had moved on. Stella and Sophie could run right out screaming with Bob on their tail. Or they could find that there was nothing useful inside.
So Bob waited patiently. He didn't have much of a choice. They were close enough. They were within spitting distance of the outskirts of town. The amount of packed dirt roads that connected to cobblestone walking pathways made it clear that dwarves lived here.
Bob ducked into the building and almost immediately ran back towards the caravan. Behind him Stella and Sophie sprinted all out. Behind them, three zombies ambled slowly.
Finley tapped into his class powers, readying a skill.
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Bob, chosen ranger of Mork and Olympic level sprinter, ran like hell. As he stepped, his crossbow slapped against his back. He got far enough away that he could brandish the weapon, waiting for Stella to get behind him.
"Ice magic ready?" He said placing a bolt into the crossbow.
Stella's hands crackled.
"You're up," she said.
Bob sighted down the lead zombie of the three. He loosed the bolt and it nearly knocked the zombie into the two behind it. He had to aim slightly down to hit the dwarf zombies.
Its head lolled to the side as it continued to move.
Stella blasted the ground ahead of the zombies with a thick layer of ice. Once again, Bob was facing zombies sliding on ice. The ice was only two meters long, just enough for them to fall. The rear zombies fell on their fronts, tangling up the mostly headless one.
"Get the heads!" Sophie said, a long green dagger in each hand.
"Bob! Watch our backs!" Stella said, pulling out an ice dagger.
Both women took out a face down dwarven zombie, then in sync plunged daggers into the thirds head.
"Ah! Freaking sweet!" Bob said.
All three of them caught their breath. Finley and Sonya came up behind them. For a long moment, everyone stayed tense. Finley clapped Bob on the shoulder, scanning around for more threats.
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"Bob, are you going to extract their cards? I want to do their last rites. It hurt me that I wasn't able to do so for the horde that we lost."
"Of course. Let me summon her."
Bob concentrated on the Eldritch being known as Ca'at. A small silver summoning circle appeared in front of him, as loopy runes rose up from the ground.
"Well that's new," Stella said.
The black beast appeared in front of him. It quickly assessed the situation and Bob could feel the idea of a question forming in the back of his mind.
"Take their cards and card shards," he directed the house cat sized beast.
Ca'at purred.
"I hope that we don't have another hairball incident," Stella said, coming to stand next to Bob.
Bob's heart rate sped up as she linked arms with him. They watched as the summoned creature eviscerated the zombies, removing their cards and card pieces.
It only had to go skin deep to get the cards. Its butchery looked like a lost practical art that had been banned by several religions before being forgotten and excised. The creature moves with surgical precision, every movement exacting. Each cut with its tiny claws had a purpose.
Bob stood transfixed, until Stella snapped him out of it. He realized that he had been staring.
"Oh, what's going on?" He said.
"Your cat just sliced and diced these bodies like it was a custom made machine. You don't have any problems with that?" Stella said.
"No, not really. Nothing here makes sense."
"That seems about right."
Finley walked up on the side of them.
"Do you sense any more of them inside?" He said.
"I don't. And something tells me that Ca'at will not kill them for us. Maybe I can get her to run through the mansion?"
"That would be a good use of a summon. Now if you'll excuse me, I don't want to have a cat throw up on my good boots."
"What did you mean Finley-aww-"
The Eldritch being below him was retching card pieces onto his feet. He was glad to have the card pieces. He was far less enthusiastic about the hair and vomit. Bob could do without those. Stella, for her part squatted down to give it the requisite head pats. Someone had to do it.
"Where did it get so much hair?" She mused.
Bob turned back to the entrance to the mansion. He had hoped for a quest to raid the house, but he got no such luck. Perhaps it was his intent? They hadn't set out to raid this particular mansion.
He checked his class card. The emblem of a bow flashed in front of a corpse of trees, gold glinting off of it.
Rare Class Card: Ranger Level 2
Skills:
Divine Spellcasting Level 1
Animal Handling Level 2
Favored Enemy Level 1 (Zombies)
Field Craft Level 2
Weapon Proficiency Level 3
This card grants mana.
As a ranger you may pick another favored enemy at each level.
This is a soul card cannot be removed.
It was a combination of his Field Craft skill, favored enemy and his pathfinder card that let him track so well.
He felt a bit lost in the suburban area. Perhaps there was a suburban ranger subclass? He smiled at Weapon Proficiency reaching level three. At least one thing was working for him.
"Stella, you want to take the lead? Sophie, right behind her ready to blast them with magic? I'll pull rear guard."
"Only the best boyfriends let their girls lead the expedition," Stella said, squeezing his arm. She released it and draw her daggers.
"I know you both have an evasion or dodge skill," He said, loading another bolt.
Stella walked to the front entrance, Sophie right behind her. At the wide open door, they paused. Stella checked the door, then stepped into the large room.
Stella pointed to the closest door and they made a beeline for it. Seeing nothing in the small room, she moved on the next room on her left.
"Clear," she said.
Bob gave her a look.
"What? It sounded cool in my head. If I'm going to be clearing dwarvish mansions, then-"
Sophie sighed.
"I don't hear anything and I got my perception skill up to level two. Let's clear a few more rooms," Sophie said, pushing Stella to move forward.
They continued on, every so often whispering to each other.
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Anthony set up what he was calling a stage left. All it mean was the caravan was pointed in a direction to quickly depart. After seeing how long it took to change directions, he appreciated how large the roads were. Rather than pointing towards the interior of Plainsmount, the caravans were pointed away. If they were clearly about to be overrun, they would head back and try to kill as many as they could.
Next to him, Sonya was casting a complicated spell to build a wall. Once that was done, he would post up a guard on top. The horses had been swapped around and all were eating as much as they could. The grass around here was perfectly dry and crunchy, just what the horses seemed to want.
The wall wouldn't stop anything dedicated, it was cover for the caravans. No one could tell him if zombies had a good perception or not. Perhaps they would smell them. It was more than likely that dwarven zombies used their vision as their primary sense. Anthony was just trying to figure it out. If they could see the caravan, would they still be drawn to it?
It took Bob's team five minutes to declare the mansion clear and ready for a raid. Anthony nearly smiled. It was a piece of good news in a week of horrors. Zan took the warriors in to do a more thorough search.
"Hey. We can go house to house for a bit," Bob said upon returning, "Or we can go right for the recon now. Stella and Sophie both have their stealth skill at level two. It can't be more than two miles from here to the nearest card shop. Oh, and I found this."
Bob held up what looked like a picture frame without a picture. It took Anthony a minute to figure out what the thing was that he was holding. When he figured it out, he grinned.
"This is good. Finley was worried that if his broke we would have to do things the hard way-in his word-though whatever that means, I have not the foggiest."
"I know, right? I told Stella to raid what passes for their freezer and then we'll see what we do next."
"I was thinking hit another mansion if possible. The closest one is what, half a mile down the road?"
They walked over to the dirt wall. It was taller than both of them, but stopped by the road. More than anything it was just obfuscation by obstruction.
"That's about half a mile. I can see where the town starts."
Trust to his words, Anthony-if he squinted- could see multiple buildings, increasing in density.
"It's a long walk while you're exposed," Anthony said, "I think the rest of us will try to get everything we can from here, and then if you're not done then, try that next one."
Anthony thought to the multiple contingency plans that they had in place. If anything happened, he could trust Bob to follow Stella to the right place.