Zion: Light of the New Moon, Ch 5.3 Bannihar
Zion - Light of the New Moon Chapter 5.3
Bannihar The Zombie Apoc-Fur-Lypse
The Banniharian Caravan has decided that it would be best to keep Lizzy with them. There's no telling what may still be out there in the Wild Lands and it wouldn't be prudent to deliver her anywhere other than Zion. In the meantime, they have also decided that they should explore the town and see if they can discover why the undead plague began... and why they cannot be laid to rest by Tah'Aveen's divine grace.
Lord Raes called the caravan to a stop once they identified the dirt road leading to Lizzy's town. The wagonmasters joined the huddle as the Champion and Priestess Delier considered their options. Iskiy was sent to fetch Roarg and Elias; the three of them showed up just as Lord Raes was completing the briefing.
"...and that leaves you and your men, Captain Jacob." he noted to a human guard wearing gold-etched field plate armor, "I need you to oversee the perimeter... I want three soundings of the watch horn if there is any immediate threat to the caravan, or if you have reason to believe that there may be trouble heading our way."
"Of course, my Lord." the human saluted with a gauntleted fist.
"What about me?" inquired Elesin, casually strolling her way up the Highway to join the meeting.
"Yea..." Elias mumbled under his breath, "That would be a good enough reason to sound the watch horn."
"Ms. DeQuelz... you will join us in the town." Lord Raes added after a few moments of hesitation.
"Lord Raes!" Elias objected quickly, "She--"
"This isn't an opening for argument, Mr. Hewen." the dog noted tersely.
"Bringing her along would be--" the armadillo began, but Lord Raes cut him off in a quiet but firm tone.
"I don't want her anywhere I can't have someone keeping an eye on her."
The Geomancer snorted, "She's Moon Crazed... I don't trust her."
"All the better that I'm going to assign you the duty of helping me keeping an eye on her then." Lord Raes announced.
"You can't be seri--" Elias challenged, but the glare he received from the dog clarified the seriousness of his order, "If I lose my sideburns I will NOT be happy." he grumbled.
Lord Raes turned to Lizzy, who was seated on the tailgate of a nearby wagon, "You can stay here with--"
"I wanna go home." she interrupted.
"Not a good idea, Morsel." Sebastian noted, perched atop the wagon adjacent to Lizzy's, "You're bite-sized."
"But I wanna!" the bunny reiterated.
"It isn't safe, sweetie." Kayte offered.
"She's not coming." Lord Raes confirmed.
"I need to go home." Lizzy stated.
"Out of the question." the Champion announced with finality.
"But I--" the bunny girl objected.
"She might be able to show us around town, my Lord." Iskiy pointed out, "Having a guide would be helpful."
"No." the dog countered to Iskiy, then looked at Lizzy, "You're not coming."
Lizzy sniffed, her ears drooping, "But..."
"No." Lord Raes repeated.
The bunny's eyes began to glisten wetly, her shoulders shaking as she began to whimper, "I... I wanna go with..."
The Champion of Bannihar crossed his arms over his chest in defiance, "Crying will not help you, Miss. YOu're staying here, and that's final." Lizzy opened her muzzle to speak again, but Lord Raes silenced her with a glare. The two locked gazes in a stare down... and Lizzy burst into tears.
The group traveled as one for nearly two miles from the Highway to the settlement. Lord Raes and Iskiy were at the front of the group, followed by Priestess Delier. Behind her was Sebastian, and riding him was Lizzy. "So much for her not coming with..." Roarg grinned, "That girl has a set of lungs on her." he smirked at Elias. The armadillo shrugged, scowl still on his muzzle as he watched Elesin like a hawk. Roarg and Elias were the rear guard with the kangaroo walking just ahead of them. A half-dozen guards filled out the rest of the party, three on each side. The group encountered no trouble, and found the settlement easily.
Contrary to the caravan's expectations, they did not come across a small collection of huts; the walled town was far greater than anyone had considered. "That's not a village..." Iskiy noted, staring at the walled settlement that lay before them, "It looks more like a city."
"A small city." Lord Raes confirmed, "A wayside... until they lost their Divine Shields."
"Normally the gates are closed." Lizzy spoke up, pointing to the opening in the wall, "But there wasn't anybody left inside to close it when we left."
"That just makes it easier for us." Sebastian noted.
The party passed through the open doors, moving slowly into the cobblestone streets of the town. They remained together until they arrived at the town square, a large, open courtyard ringed by buildings with streets stretching out in every direction. At the center of the square was a large dirt mound with a statute resting atop it.
"My home's that way!" Lizzy announced proudly, pointing to one of the streets.
"Alright..." Lord Raes announced, calling everyone together, "Alexander..." he looked to the cat, who glanced back at him, "Take Elizabeth to her home so we can get her out of here quickly." he looked to Sebastian, "Keep her with you."
The gryphon nodded, turning to follow after Alexander; the cat was already making his way down the indicated street. Sebastian looked over his shoulder at his passenger, keeping his wings partly flexed to make certain she didn't careen either direction off of his back, "Come on, Morsel... let's get you back home." and he increased his speed, catching up with the cat before they both rounded a corner and disappeared out of sight.
"Mr Hewen... Ms DeQuelz, you're staying here with me. We are going to maintain the square as a rally point, just in case we encounter any of the Corpses we saw earlier."
"It DOES seem rather quiet." Elias acknowledged, glancing around for a moment before returning his gaze to Elesin, who simply yawned.
"I could keep this square by myself... what a waste of manpower." the kangaroo noted.
Lord Raes continued his directions, "Priestess... take Iskiy and Roarg with you... see if you can find out anything at the civic center we passed on our way in."
With that, the conversation had come to an end. While Raes, Elias, and Elesin remained by the statue, Kayte and her two guardians made their way back the way they had come. Four blocks later and they entered through the opened door to the building. The inside had several desks, a dozen book shelves, and several large shelves with crossed slats of wood, creating diamond-shaped cubbyholes. Roarg paused, looking at one such piece of furniture.
"Scroll depository." Kayte announced, moving past the badger to begin checking the desks.
Roarg scratched the back of his head and shrugged, then moved further into the building. Iskiy followed closely, not speaking until the two of them were out of earshot of the priestess, "Sir... did you notice how nothing here looks disturbed?"
"I'm not a guardsman or shoulder, Iskiy--" Roarg announced, "You can just call me Roarg." he rubbed his muzzle, looking around, "And, now that you mention it... yea... everything does look pretty orderly."
"If a town were overrun by Corpses I would expect it to be a little less clean and more... well..." the antlered wolf paused, eyes moving back and forth as if visually searching for the right way to describe it. In the end he settled on, "... violent."
Roarg nodded, "Yea... not a single undead so far." he glanced around the room as if speaking of them would suddenly create them. "Let's just keep an eye out." he suggested.
"Over here." Kayte called to them, pulling their attention back to the search. She motioned to Iskiy and Roarg, holding up a slightly browned piece of paper.
"What did you find, Priestess?" Iskiy asked moving immediately to her side. She offered up the paper, which the antlered wolf stared at, "Um... it's scribbles..."
"I think it's elven." the priestess offered, "Different than everything else in here, anyway. I saw some elven symbols a few years ago and it looks a lot like that." she looked back to the remaining papers on the desk, "I didn't see anything else here that wasn't in imperial common."
"May I?" Roarg asked, holding out an arm to receive the letter. The scout put it into the badger's paw, and Roarg began looking it over, "Nin ore bein gin aglar--"
Iskiy interrupted, "That doesn't sound like imperial... how can you read that?"
The badger shrugged in response, "It's not very difficult... it's elven. Their written language has the same number of characters as the imperial alphabet... the only real difference is that they have one less vowel, and one more semivowel."
"Semivowel?" Kayte asked, glancing to the badger.
"Right." Roarg nodded, "Like 'y'."
"Oh..." Iskiy flicked an ear, "So the 'and sometimes y' makes 'y' a 'semivowel'?"
"You're more learned than you let on, aren't you, Roarg Stoneclan?" Kayte smirked.
Roarg shrugged in response, "I don't try to hide it... I just don't believe in showing off." and he held the paper out to Iskiy, "See this symbol here? It's pronounced like an 'a'... and this one here is an 's'." and the badger rapidly began sounding out each of the words.
"Well, it's pretty to listen to," Kayte acknowledged, "but it doesn't get us any closer to understanding it."
"Oh..." the badger noted, "It's a letter from a scholar here to someone traveling through."
"Are you sure?" Kayte questioned.
Roarg nodded, "Yea... right here." he showed her the paper, following along with his finger, as he translated the elven script "I can't begin to express my gratitude at your willingness to help me practice my elven penmanship."
Iskiy's jaw dropped, "You can speak elven?"
The badger shrugged in response, "A little... I guess." and he looked back to the letter, "More than this man, apparently... he misspelled 'lle'."
"I thought you were a quarry worker." Iskiy cocked his head to the side, "How do you find time to learn so many languages?"
"Focus please." Kayte interrupted the discussion, "I don't want to be here any longer than I have to..." she glanced around, her fur puffing up slightly as she shuddered, "I keep feeling like we're being watched."
Iskiy retrieved his bow from his back in one smooth, liquid motion, having the arrow knocked long before the weapon was even raised. He loosed the shot the moment the bow snapped into place, and the arrow streaked unerringly to the target; a Corpse fell off the top of a ceiling-height bookcase, landing on the floor with a wet thud.
"That's not all of them." Kayte quickly noted, glancing around the room as more and more undead seemed to stream out of every hiding place. She rolled the letter and slid it into her belt.
"Let's go find the others." Roarg acknowledged. Neither wolf objected, and the three made their way quickly toward the exit to the civic building, shambling Corpses moving purposefully after them.
Across the plaza and down the street, Lizzy giggled gleefully as she rode on Sebastian's back, the gryphon following after Alexander, who was guided by the little bunny's directions. "It's that one." she noted, pointing toward a modest but well kept row house. The cat moved up to the door as Lizzy looked to Sebastian, "I don't know how we'll get in... Daddy locked the door before we--" but her words were cut off as Alexander pulled up on the door handle with one paw, the other holding a blade wedged between it and the door frame. The door opened effortlessly.
"Remind me to have you around next time the city guards set out rat traps..." Sebastian noted, licking his beak, "you can make them even easier to empty."
Alexander didn't bother responding as he pushed the door open and entered without a word. Sebastian followed after him, stopping just long enough at the doorway for Lizzy to dismount. The bunny went straight to a small ladder and ascended it.
"Hey, Morsel... where you going?" Sebastian inquired, rising up onto his back legs to grip one of the ladder rungs with his talons, watching after Lizzy as she disappeared through the hole in the ceiling.
Her head reappeared in the opening, "My room."
"Alright... just be careful." Sebastian noted, and he went back down to all fours. The gryphon meandered around the ground floor, watching Alexander as the cat methodically sifted through books, papers, and scrolls atop a writing desk. Once that search didn't turn anything up, Alexander began looking through the desk's drawers. Yawning, Sebastian about-faced and wandered off to the opposite side of the ground level and began sticking his beak into various cabinets in the food preparation area.
"Hmm... looks like Roarg's place." the gryphon mumbled, "Almost all the cabinets are empty."
"Don't eat anything." Alexander said impassively.
Sebastian looked up and over his shoulder at the cat, who was still sifting through the desk, "Why not? It's not like they need it anymore."
"What if the food is the cause of what happened?" Alexander asked without even bothering to look back at him.
Sebastian's fur and feathers puffed up, "I... think I'm going to check on the bunny." and he padded over to the ladder. Rising up again onto his hind legs, the gryphon craned his head this-way-and-that, trying to get a better view of the second floor through the open trapdoor in the ceiling, "Hey! Morsel! Where are ya?"
"I'm here." Lizzy noted, coming back into view, "I wanted my dolly and my comb." she announced, turning around so she could climb back down the ladder, "Daddy took me away so fast I didn't get my dolly and comb when we left." she explained.
"Dollies and combs are important?" Sebastian inquired.
"Yep." the bunny acknowledged with certainty.
"Oh." the gryphon stated, backing away from the ladder before lowering once more to all fours, "What's a dolly and a comb?" he cocked his head to the side, feathery ear tufts rising in curiosity.
In response, Lizzy held up each of her treasures: a little off-white stuffed rabbit doll and an ivory comb with a single inset faux-moonstone. "This is my dolly... and this is a comb." she noted, holding each one up toward Sebastian in turn as she identified it, "Daddy made me my dolly, and he said that this was my mama's comb."
"What is this?" Alexander inquired, his voice a little louder than it had been previously. Sebastian and Lizzy turned to regard the cat, who stood by the desk, a golden locket dangling from one of his paws.
"That is a necklace." Sebastian offered with a beaky grin, "Fashionable people wear them around their necks." Alexander didn't react to the humor; his eyes went to the bunny girl instead.
"It's my daddy's locket." Lizzy explained.
Sebastian trotted over to where Alexander was standing and looked at the locket first with one eye and then, turning his head aside, looked at it with his other one, "It looks kinda 'girly' for a guy to be wearing..."
"He didn't wear it, silly." Lizzy giggled, "It belonged to my mommy and she gave it to him." and she held our her paws for it.
Alexander continued eying it then, hesitantly, dropped it into the little bunny girl's outstretched paws, "It's elven." he noted with certainty.
Lizzy put the locket away in her pocket, "Daddy was really good with elf stuff... he studied lots of stuff about them."
"Why would he study elves? They've been gone for a long time." Sebastian questioned the girl.
"I dunno..." she shrugged, "but he really liked elf stuff... and even learned to read their words and speak the way they did."
"Don't say that around Lord Raes," Sebastian noted with a beaky grin, "he'd probably call him a heretic."
"A what?" the bunny asked.
"Quiet." Alexander ordered, his blades coming quickly to paw at the sound of a low groan.
"I think someone's in the mud room." Lizzy whispered. Scarcely a moment after the words escaped her muzzle, a Corpse stumbled in from an adjoining doorway.
"It's time to go." Alexander announced.
"Yep! Going back to the statue sounds pretty good about now." Sebastian noted, "Come on, Morsel... no getting eaten today." Wheeling about, he grabbed the back of Lizzy's tunic in his beak and quickly loped out of the building. Alexander didn't delay either, and they made their escape as a second, then third, then fourth corpse joined the first in pursuit.
Back at the square, Lord Raes maintained the guards at the ready, one facing each street. Elias was moving about the open ground, alternating between eying Elesin and running his hands through the air over various, oddly-colored cobblestones, mumbling to himself about the different traits of each stone he inspected magically. Everyone remained on alert and at attention, except for Elesin, who was regarding the statute curiously.
The monument appeared to be a strikingly beautiful rabbit woman, adorned in a simple wrap-around robe or long-tunic of some sort. Despite the aesthetic appeal of the subject of the statue, the pose suggested a topic less appealing; hers legs were shoulder-width apart, one behind the other, back leg slightly bent. She had her paws held before her defensively, head pulled back. Overall it looked as though she were cowering; it made the statue much less appealing.
"A pretty woman." Lord Raes noted, pulling Elesin out of her inspection of the statue, "And incredible craftsmanship... but I don't understand the purpose."
"It isn't craftsmanship." Elesin answered, "It is flawless... it was created with magic." she glanced sidelong at the dog, "And, as for purpose... I'm willing to bet it's a warning of some sort... or a commemoration of some great battle or victory."
"More like intimidation." Elias spoke up from behind them. The dog and kangaroo turned around to regard him, "It's just like how some Wild Landers put the decapitated heads of their foes on pikes... this isn't a statue."
"It looks like a statue to me." Elesin countered.
"It IS a statue now... but it wasn't always." the armadillo noted, stepping past a set of benches so he could climb onto the dirt pile, "No stand or base or pedistal..." he brushed the dirt near the statue's feet with one of his own, "She used to be a living person."
"You mean..." Lord Raes asked, ears falling sideways.
"She was turned to stone!" Elesin gasped, "THAT is some powerful magic." she noted.
"It's barbaric." Elias countered. He opened his muzzle to continue his debasement of the practice, but he was cut short.
"We've got company!" Sebastian squawked, racing toward the group with Lizzy on his back and Alexander at his side; behind them a small army of Corpses shambled after them.
"Raes!" Kayte shouted toward the group from the other direction. Roarg ran beside her, the two sprinting toward the square with Iskiy retreating backward at a slower pace, stalling the advance of a small undead horde with arrow after arrow, "We've got trouble!"
* * * * * *
It looks like the Banniharian party is in a bit of a bind. Situated in the middle of the city, surrounded by a growing mob of undead, it's going to take a miracle for the group to get out unscathed. The time has come to decide on what to do... and THIS time, there are no set options for the readers.
Contributing readers, please comment with your suggestions on what the party can or should do. You are not all required to agree... in fact, there's nothing wrong with stating that your character will NOT do what the rest of the party does and, instead, decides to go it alone. You have until Friday, September 9th to come up with a plan and/or agree what characters will be doing together.
The quality of the plan will be based on its complexity, and characters' abilities to follow it (ie: the higher the Combat+Tactics of a given character, the more likely things will go well). Incredibly complex plans have the possibility of being going horribly wrong if there are too many bad rolls, so keeping things simplistic will help limit the fumbles. Please see below for individual Author Contributed Character thoughts on the matter, but also note that they may change their suggestions based on what Contributing Readers suggest.
Also, since combat is a very real and very pressing possibility, I will require a Stance from each of you. Stance is given on a rating of 0-5 where 5 is full offense, 4 is aggressive, 3 is neutral, 2 is conservative, and 1 is reserved, A rating of 0 indicates that the character will NOT be taking part in combat (not even in a support role). Please bear in mind that these ratings will increase your Offense the higher your Stance number and increase your Defense the lower your Stance number (or, in the case of 0, have the character try to avoid combat altogether)-- the opposite sub-trait decreases conversely (Defense goes down if the number is high; Offense goes down if the number is low).
I will also require a Utilization number for those characters that have an 11 or higher in combined Magic + Sub-Trait or Faith + Sub-Trait. Like Stance, Utilization ranges from 0-5. Utilization is a numerical equivalent of how free your contributed character is with their magic and/or prayers-- a charater with a higher Utilization is more inclined to use their abilities often and more powerfully while a character that elects a lower Utilization is less likely to depend on them (Utilization of 0 will result in the character foregoing any such abilities). Bear in mind that the higher the level of Utilization the more likely a character is to suffer from fatigue. Characters with higher Attribute + Sub-Skill totals are able less likely to be affected by fatigue unless they use a higher score of Utilization.
For an example of how to declare Stance and Utilization, please view the actions taken by the Author-Contributed characters below.