FFD6 The Dicening, Group 1, Chapter 1, Mission 1

[Krylo]

GROUP 1
Mauve Mage: Dark Knight, Hume
Menarker: Dragoon, Android
IHMN: Blue Mage, Hume
Riin Whitewind: Black Mage, Tarut
phil_: Entertainer, Tarut
BardTheFifthLightWarrior: Red Mage, Hume
Teal Mage: White Mage, Hume

------------

The Adventurer's Guild, being little more than an extremely relaxed mercenary company, of course has briefing rooms and like areas created purely for interaction with potential clients, and it is one of these rooms that you sit now, across from a hume man, well dressed in the attire of an affluent nobleman or merchant who waits patiently for the last of your number to arrive.

You can't be certain which, for while normally the Guild informs you of the status, if not the name and station, of your clients, you were informed only that you had an offer from a client who would prefer to remain anonymous. You were, however, assured of his good standing with the guild, quieting most, if not all, worries of dark motives or insufficient funding.

As the last of you take a seat he clears his throat audibly, wasting no time before drawing your attention. Almost immediately he begins to speak pacing back and forth at the front of the room, "Firstly, allow me to introduce myself. I am Malik Niris, and I represent the Council of Four. The situation is as follows: One week ago the City of Maris went dark. We've had no communications, and no travelers have returned from the area in that time."

Stopping he turns to gauge your facial expressions before continuing, giving you no time to interject quite yet, "We have reason to believe a... clandestine organization may be involved."

"Regardless," He continues as he turns to pace once more, the movement helping keep his mind focused, "An entire township going dark could cause inordinate amounts of panic, and that's why we need you to go in and see what has happened—going through normal channels would be too insecure. The payment shall be three thousand five hundred gil upon satisfactory conclusion. That is five hundred per head. Is this acceptable?"

[phil_]

"A whole town disappeared?! Something incredible must have happened! Or maybe something terrible, but it's gotta be a scoop. Brother, you wouldn't even have to pay me to check that out!"

Bello didn't say any of this. Maybe it was the board room atmosphere, maybe it was Mr. Malik's suit, but, in a rare show of professionalism, Bello reeled back his enthusiasm and answered, in the best business man voice he could muster, "I believe we are all very interested in your offer, Mr. Niris. What costs are we expected to cover ourselves, and how are we getting there?" It would go without saying that trying to sound like a Hume professional was adorable if this weren't written word.

[IHateMakingNames]

An inordinate amount of panic was right. After hearing about an entire town disappearing, Kole looked more visible nervous than he normally does. He covered his face with his blue mage's mask, gripped his katana as though he were going to crush the hilt, and stood like he would attack some one at the slightest movement.

Any further discussions wouldn't hear from Kole. In his mind he was going through every terrible outcome he could think of about how the town disappeared and how they would deal with it. Many of these thoughts had monsters be the cause of it all, despite what the client said about secret cults. Kole felt better thinking that they might have to encounter a monster in this mission.

[Riin Whitewind]

"Wooow." Jhennek's hushed, drawn-out whisper was still clearly audible to everyone. Taking up their own corner of the briefing room stood a circus reject's menagerie - an Android, standing tall under the weight of a diminutive Tarut on one shoulder, and a crystal dragon hatchling on the other.

Leaning forward, the curly-haired Tarut stage-whispered excitedly to the Android. "Did you hear that, Ark? Did you?" She seemed oblivious to the precariousness of her seat, bouncing slightly in place. Her hat, losing its fight with gravity, slid down over her eyes.

The bangles on Jhen's wrists chimed softly as she pushed her hat back into place. "A whole town! And missing travelers!" Her attempts to keep her voice moderated were clearly failing. "We absolutely must discover what happened!"

[mauve]

A heavy hand clamped down on Kole's shoulder.

"Oh, we'd be delighted to investigate the matter," Elsa said with a malicious grin. "It'd be a pleasure. Look how excited this young and promising mage here is about the chance to face the grim unknown." She gave his shoulder a pat. "You're just chompin' at the bit to get started, aren't you?"

She leaned in closer to Kole, her grin widening.

"That IS how you feel about this, yes? Surely you aren't scared..."The grip on his shoulder tightened. "I'd hate to be stuck with a coward out there in the middle of nowhere, cut off from the rest of the world with no outside communication and no one to hear you scream. Personally I can't stand cowards. Can you?"

The smile never faltered.

Elsa was already enjoying herself.

[Bard The 5th LW]

A town with a missing populace? Shady villains involved? A representative from the Council of Four?

Right up the alley of this young adventurer!

Towards the middle, a silver haired figure clad in a red colored tunic stood. Most of his face was hidden under a white scarf, but his bright blue eyes were clear for all to see. He took the moment to unwrap the scarf and place it on the chair aside, allowing his somewhat effeminate face to be more clear before he spoke.

"Why this is quite the precarious situation it seems. I'm certain the lot of us can handle it," he spoke in a soft voice as he made a sweeping motion of the room, skipping over Elsa and Kole, "but some information will indeed be useful. Bello's questions are very important, but you also mentioned a 'clandestine organization'. I am aware that clandestine means secretive, but I'd still like information regarding this statement. Just what is this organization, and its possible involvement?"

[Menarker]

A tall android decked in heavy bone vest armor stood patiently with the eternal unflinching and moderately grim expression on his face as he paid the sharpest attention to Malik's words and pacing movements. On one shoulder was his infant companion, a wyvern with a jovial curiousity that sharply contrasted with its master. The other... a Tarut mage who seemed to likewise have the same personality, while she perched unsolicitated on his shoulder whispering in his ear with what seemed to be a sense of marvel.

"Did you hear that, Ark? Did you?"

He did not stir or return any sort of eye contact, but merely responded simply.

"Affirmative."

Ark's mental framework analyzed all the respective requests and considerations of Malik, taking apart the words, seeking out blanks in the data requiring filling in.

"Stated request as follows: "Go in and see what has happened.""
"Objective Clarification Required."
"Is Mission Objectives strictly Reconnaissance? If so, clarification on communication method and designated receivers of reconnaissance data required."
"If not, are there additional Mission Objectives such as remedying cause of blackout?"
"Additional Objective Clarification Required: Request directive upon encounter of members of declared suspected "clandestine organization". Capture? Kill? Observe from afar for reconnaissance or infiltration purpose?"

Ark had no outward expression on the preconception of the mystery of the town's circumstances or the risks and mysteries to be potentially encountered. There was only the measurement of the declared directives and objectives and promised payment with his measure of strength, resources and the number of willing allies. Only then would he either simply agree or decline once all declarations expectations of the client were provided. The tiny wyvern on his shoulder looked at Ark as it roughly chirped out of sheer emotion of this mechanical guardian talking although not understanding what was going on as well as observing all these unfamiliar faces in the room with rising interest.

[Krylo]

Mr. Niris slowly surveyed the room as the adventurers before shot off questions and spoke amongst each other and basically acted in the undisciplined manner that adventurers were apt to act in. He merely shook his head at the Dark Knight's harassment of the Blue Mage and straightened his coat before speaking, answering their questions in kind.

"Firstly, we only expect you to bring your skills, your bodies, and your own equipment. Transportation will be handled by the council. First you will board a council Airship which should transport you to the city of Altair. From there it is a one day trip by chocobo driven wagon to arrive. You will be furnished 200 gil for the rental of a chocobo driven wagon upon leaving."

Turning to pace once more, with his hands held behind his back, the man let out a slight sigh, "And as for the Organization, I'm afraid the council knows little of them. Currently they are known as 'Case File 576-B, Unknown'. We've been tracking a variety of weapons, grafts, and medical supplies. They've been purchased by various buyers and each funneled to a small number of locations--most without any known residents to receive them. Maris, however, was an exception in that there was a city there."

Stopping to let out a sigh, Mr. Niris's voice took on an air of slight annoyance, "As that we do not even know what has happened in Maris we do not know what involvement the organization may have in it, or even what you may be up against--thus the need to send in a recon team."

"If you run into any members of the organization whom you can identify, you may deal with them as you wish. Capture would be preferable, but the council understands the difficulty of such operations and will be happy merely having you getting the intelligence we need and getting out alive," he continued, his voice softening a bit as he moved to the center of the room to face the assembled group.

"Now, if there are no more questions, there is an airship docked at the east side of the city. I can accompany you there." His arm stretched out toward the exit of the room, hoping he could end these incessant questions.

[phil_]

Bello, fingers crossed in front of his face, answered, "Yes, your terms are more than acceptable. I believe we have a deal, sir."

Then Bello hopped out of his seat and headed for the door. "I think that went pretty well, if I do say so myself," he said to no one in particular.

[IHateMakingNames]

It took a lot for Kole to not swipe back at the Dark Knight out of reaction. But he had calmed down a bit since they weren't in the lost town yet, so he was back to his normal level of worry. However, the sadistic girl was not helping.

Why would she say those things? Aren't we on the same team? Those were some heavy implications she was saying. Could she be part of the secret cult? I better watch out for her. We could have a spy in the guild. I wonder if I should tell some one else? But what if they are also spies?

Kole continued his train of thought on his group betraying him as he headed towards the exit. But he made sure to watch his back.

[mauve]

If Elsa noticed Kole's nonverbal reaction, she did not show it. In all honesty, she was probably judging how much booze she could buy with the 200 Gil that would be supplied for the cost of a chocobo cart. Pity if that money got misplaced. It's not like half of the team couldn't use the walk anyway.

Their prospective employer had stopped talking.

"Hm?" Elsa said, snapping back to attention. "Oh. Yes. We accept."

An entire city dropping off the map. Any way she looked at it, Elsa saw nothing but potential profit here. If it was merely a technical malfunction of some communications equiptment, hey, free paycheck for no actual work. If some sort of "clandestine organization" was holding the town hostage, there'd surely be some fine opportunities for fighting stuff in the name of privately-funded heroism. And wholesale slaughter with a paycheck was what Elsa liked best. And if the blackout was caused by the entire population of the town being wiped out by something.... well, hey, no one would miss the loss of whatever easily-cartable valuables were left behind. Looting with a paycheck was the OTHER thing that Elsa liked best.

[Krylo]

"Very well, then," Malik said simply to the affirmations that they were ready to go.

He led them in relative silence, only speaking when necessary to keep track of any adventurers who had gotten distracted and nearly wandered off, and it wasn't long before they reached a tram station, where Malik paid for their transport to the Airship docks, and within moments they were standing in front of a small, but very luxurious Airship.

The outside seemed somewhat plain other than a stamp denoting it as a diplomatic courier for the Council, but the inside was lushly carpeted and decorated with gold trim and marble furniture, complete with crystal lamps to provide adequate, and comfortable, lighting. There was even a small bar stocked with many types of spirits.

A magitek hand plate on the wall could be used by any mages for the smallest expenditure to make the floor and walls see through from the inside (though still opaque from outside), allowing passengers who wished it, to see everything around them as they flew.

Though the pilot's chamber remained unviewable and completely locked off from the rest of the airship. It seemed they didn't want passengers harassing him.

Malik, however, didn't bother commenting on any of the creature comforts, merely standing outside the door until the last of your number stepped inside. Once the last of you entered he took exactly one step in, pulling a small folder from his jacket, and setting it on a nearby table, before stepping out of the airship once more.

"The folder is Case File 576-B, that is to say, the file on the Organization we suspect is responsible. There have been some redactions, but it is mostly everything I have already told you. Also contained within, is the 200 gil for your wagon upon arrival in Altair, and a computer disk. As you will see in the file, the Organization purchased some rather complicated computer systems which we believe have ended up in Maris. That disk, upon being inserted into their systems, will compress and download as much data as possible. Find the system, bring us the disk. We suspect it to be somewhere in the hospital."

With that he slapped a hand on the side of the airship causing the door to slide shut. "Good luck."

[Teal Mage]

Face hidden in the shadows' cast by the red boarded white cowl of her mage's robe, Arden sat quietly through - what had passed for - their group's negotiation. A blond Tarut - probably Bello, if the brief notes she'd received before her assignment to this team were worth the paper they'd been printed on - had quickly voiced the only concern she'd had. Taking full advantage of the situation, Arden had listened silently from her self-appointed seat, and done her absolute best to cultivate an image of White Magely Serenity.

Which meant doing her best not to snap at her companions when they asked questions that, to her highly trained business senses, seemed less than professional – or important.

Thankfully, their employer - probably little more than a bureaucrat - did not seem to take offense to her group's actions. He quickly acknowledged their acceptance of the contact and led them from the chamber. For her part, Arden silently rose from her seat and, with all the grace and serenity she could muster, followed him from the room.

It was far harder to walk quickly in a full length robe than she remembered.

This is, Arden decided, clenching her teeth to keep herself from biting her lips - the only part of her face visible under her hood's shadows - the last time I try this.

Apparently, Adventurers didn't need to be Professional.


* * * * * *

With Malik gone and the airship in the air, Arden reclined leisurely on one of the sofas. With one hand, she completed the final adjustments needed to return her robes to, what her highly developed business sense told her, was the proper attire for a future ship captain. Which was to say, a tight fitting, mid-drift baring tank-top and billowy black pants. At her waist, her handgun glinted in the room’s crystal lights. Had she been able to see that, Arden would have determined that it too was appropriate.

Her other hand leafed through the papers contained within Case File 576-B. She'd rushed over to the table - completely shattering her carefully prepared illusion of White Mage Serenity in the process - the instant the door had shut. Her expression? Bored.

Arden sighed.

"This Intel sucks." She pronounced decisively. With a disinterested gesture, she shut the folder on her lap. Her gaze shifted toward her companions, "s'like he said, nothing new in here." One of her hands closed over the spine of the folder, before tossing the thing dismissively into the airship's center. "Go check." She added, shrugging.

Flowing smoothly to an upright position, the silver haired woman elegantly pushed herself to her feet. Arden slid a hand into one of her outfit's hidden pockets, drawing the data disk the folder had contained before her green eyes. She'd taken it - and the 200 gil - from the folder the moment she'd gotten her hands on it.

A moment later, she sighed again, "I have no idea how to use this."

She offered the disk in Bello's direction, then Jhennek's. "Either of you scholars want it? I'll be damned if I'm letting this break, but I'd rather the person holding it be able to use computers."

It seemed a reasonable proposition.

[phil_]

Bello blushed and put his hands on his face. "You think I'm a scholar? Heh, no one's ever called me that before." Obviously, he was glad that there was someone who didn't know he wasn't that smart for a Tarut. Hopping over to "Arden, right? Arden Whitemoon?" Bello put out his hand. "Sure, I'll take it. Just one more fragile little thing to keep up my sleeves."

EDIT: And then Teal wanted to post this, but he will be asleep for four more hours.

Seemingly pleased about something she'd said, the blond Tarut scurried over to stand before the shined black leather of Arden's boots. "Arden, right? Arden Whitemoon?" The small little man extended his hand, looking up at her. "Sure, I'll take it. Just one more fragile little thing to keep up my sleeves."

Arden stared down at Bello owlishly for a moment. She blinked her green eyes, once, twice, three-

"Ohmygoditssocutewhydidn'tIseeitbefore!?!"

Letting out a high pierced squeal that would put most fangirls to shame, Arden swept the adorable little blond up into a gleeful embrace. A wide giddy smile was plaster over the silver haired maiden's lips as she rubbed her cheek into the top of Bello's blond hair, messing it up. She was treating the small man little a Teddy Bear-

Arden froze.

No, no, no! This was all wrong, Captains need to show dignity, composure - they need to be Leaders! They can't go around hugging their crew members, no matter how adorable-

Flushing a brighter red than she thought possible, Arden hurried moved to put the small man down on the couch she had been reclining on moments ago.

"Uhm." Clearly embarrassed, the woman offered him the disk sheepishly. "It-it's Bello, right?" She stammered, trying to best to force the color in her cheeks to go away. "I-I, uhm."

"If-if anything happens to that disk-" Oh bloody Espers, why couldn't she remember the threat? She'd perfected it! That had taken- "-I'll see you turned into a throw pillow!" She flushed even brighter.

No, no, no!

Turning on her heel, she hurried over to the nearest magitech console, pretending to examine it while she waited for her skin to stop being red.

[IHateMakingNames]

Kole froze momentarily before entering the airship. Vehicles he got into tended to not make it to their destination. And explode. Regardless, it was part of the mission, so Kole bite the bullet and boarded.

Immediately, the nervous blue mage used the ship's magitek device to make the interior transparent. If the airship were to crash, Kole wanted to see it coming. The next order of business was to check out that case file. He wanted to learn as much as he could about what the group was getting into. Once the rebellious white mage was done with the folder, Kole picked it up.

No real new information was inside, so none of Kole's thoughts were put to ease. The computer disk and 200 gil were also already missing. That white mage didn't steal them did she? She doesn't really look like a white mage, maybe she is a thief in disguise. Maybe she is in coho-

The paranoid mage's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden ear piercing squeal. Before the folder he dropped even hit the group, Kole had already jumped back and pulled out his katana. If he had the magical reserves to do so, he may have Self-Destructed. After seeing there were no threats, just the thief-mage being a tsundere, Kole put his weapon away. He placed the intel folder back onto the table before heading towards the bar. Maybe a drink would calm his nerves. Though it was not likely.

[Krylo]

The airship ride, despite Kole's tendency toward poor luck, was smooth and easy, arriving at the city of Altair a few hours ahead of schedule. The weather was pleasant and though the people seemed a bit frightened, everything seemed fine. It was near dusk and the sky was orange with the colors of the sunset.

Shortly after you left the airship, the pilot stepped out from his compartment as well, only long enough to explain that wagons could be rented on the east side of the city following the main road out of town, and that Maris, itself, was Northeast. Any supplies could be found on the north part of town.

His knowledge given, he bowed quickly and stepped back into the ship barely giving you time to get clear of the area before the airship lifted off and began its return trip to Rios.

All that was left now was to get a wagon, and perhaps do some last second shopping for supplies. Of course getting a room or two at the Inn might not be a bad idea, unless you wanted to pull an all nighter.

[Riin Whitewind]

Once Ark stood upon terra firma again, his young Tarut passenger decided that being carried had lost its initial appeal. It was through no fault of his, she assured him, patting his coarse hair. Anklets chiming together, the Black Mage balanced on the Android's shoulder as easily as most would a level floor. Launching herself off and into a tight flip, Jhennek landed gracefully onto the rough stone streets of Altair.

"We have everything we need already yes? Brought it to the meeting like asked?" Bright blue eyes peered at the group from under her peaked cap. "No need to go shopping yes?" Each word was spoken breathlessly, as if chased from her mouth by the following word. "Perhaps we should see to the chocobo wagon now before we get sidetracked and maybe accidentally spend the wagon money which would be bad 'cause then you'd all have to walk to Maris." She smiled up at the group, the very image of innocence.

She waved her arm in the air regally, the movement accompanied by the jangling of her bracelets. "Besides! Who can resist chocobos? No one, that's who." Her arms folded across her chest, she nodded firmly. It was obvious, no one could resist chocobos.

Kweh.

[phil_]

Bello raised his hand. "Alright, so that makes Jehn leader of Team 'Get the cart.' Team 'Find a room because disappeared towns are only scarier at night' can come with me." Bello put his arm down and cradled his chin in thought for a moment before adding, "Make that 'rooms.' I'm sure Jehn, Raltz, Arden and the Berserker would appreciate having a separate room from us manly men. Shouldn't be too much more expensive..."

[Bard The 5th LW]

"Yeah sure thing," Raltz said rather offhandedly to Bello, mostly preoccupied with adjusting his scarf, "one room would get annoyingly crowded anyways." Correcting people on his gender was never a priority, he just let them go with their initial presumption.

"I'll go help with that cart," he announced to no one in particular. "White Mage, you have the 200 gil right? Come with us then. Anyone particularly good with animals, speak to the chocobos, give them a reassuring kweh?"

[Menarker]

"Rawr Rawr!"

Jugan hopped off Ark's shoulder waddling with both arms outstretched in front of it attempting to flap its barely grown wings following Jehn, in the antipication of joining the cart group and seeing the chocobos, which for all intent and purpose were cute walking drumsticks! Its mouth had a moist quality as it practically drooled with eagerness.

However, his expectation were shattered when Ark wordlessly stepped into position with the other group as if designating himself for the "find the rooms" team, as if knowing ahead of time what sort of chaos would ensue from bringing a dragon in the bird's stable.

"Auuuuwwwgghhhh..." The dragon hobbled back to its master's side as if defeated, waiting patiently at the dragoon's heel.

[mauve]

Elsa was mulling over Bello's statement about rooms. She assumed "The Berserker" was a reference to herself. She wondered whether she should feel flattered or insulted by this.

And she had always assumed Raltz was a man. Oh well. Learn something new every day, she supposed.

Well, she supposed she should go see about the Inn. The chocobo money had sadly been taken by someone else soon after being handed over to them, so there was no chance of Elsa accidentally misplacing it now. That was no fun.

"All right then," she grumbled, stretching as she stood up. "I'll tag along with the Inn-Crowd, I guess."

[Teal Mage]

"White Mage!"

"Hm?" Arden turned toward the speaker - she recognized this one, now that she thought about it, a Red Mage named Raltz. A long time - low ranking - member of the Adventurer's guild. The silver haired woman had only been half listening to the conversation so far; most of her attention had been on the swiftly retreating Council of Four Airship.

"You have the 200 gil right? Come with us then."

Arden frowned.

"Anyone particularly good with animals, speak to the chocobos, give them a reassuring kweh?"

She threw the package of gil at his pretty face.

"If you're going to order me around, at least get my name before hand." Arden stated, clearly miffed. Sniffing, she tossed her head defiantly, silver hair sparkling in the soft orange light of dusk. "I'll go with Bello. This isn't my first time in Altair so I have a good idea where we should start looking for rooms."

"Just don't screw up." She added curtly, "One of us will meet your group back here in an hour; should be able to find a place to stay by then."

That said, Arden started off away from the Airship docks. Unless the city streets had been ripped up and rearranged since she was last here, finding her way around shouldn't have been too difficult. She didn't move very quickly, despite her mood; mostly as a courtesy to the rest of her team.

In retrospect, this mission was having a less than auspicious beginning.

[IHateMakingNames]

Chocobos were, for all intents and purposes, monsters. Perhaps the most tame of them all, but monsters none the less. Thus, Kole's Blue Mage side compelled him to join the chocobo wagon group. Maybe he'd learn something new about Chocobos, or maybe things would go terribly. But even if the simple task turned dangerous, a Choco Ball might hit Kole. Always assuming the worst scenarios, Kole assumed there would be some Choco Balls flying around.

Along with that, the community gil that the group has was given to the sexually ambiguous Red Mage Raltz. Kole assumed it was a man, but Bello called it women. But when told about his group for this mission Kole was told there were three men and three women. Though the thief-mage could be the effeminate man. Or that Dark Knight could be a man with a feminine voice; it is wearing that mask after all, Kole hasn't seen it's face. Taruts are like children, so it's also hard to tell with them. And do Android's have a gender? For now, the suspicious mage would assume everyone had a penis unless he sees otherwise.

But that gil was going to the chocobo group. Going with that group meant he could watch that closer, and make sure no one tried to steal or misuse the money. Plus the traitor Dark Knight was going to the Inn, so he wouldn't have to worry about that.

"I'll go to the chocobos." Kole nervously announced to the group. Though by now everyone had already picked their respective roles, and at least one was on their way. Kole had gotten a bit distracted with his thoughts and was slow to decide.

[Riin Whitewind]

There was a blur, then the soft sound of coin against flesh - Jhennek landed with a chime, the coin pouch securely in her hands. It was a difficult catch, seeing as everyone was so tall, but Ark's arm had made an effective springboard. Laughing and spinning on one heel, she bowed to the White Mage. "Okay, Pretty Lady. We'll be back!"

The wagon money carefully put away, the dimunitive Black Mage danced in place for a moment, impatient to go. The clattering of her bangles was interrupted by a quiet voice in the back of the group. "I'll go to the chocobos." She smiled up at the Blue Mage, what was his name? Coal? Something like? Oh well!

Jhen tugged on his hand, leading him the first few steps towards the east side of the city. "Hurray that's three people! That's enough let's go."

[Bard The 5th LW]

Raltz cringed as the bag of precious money came flinging for his beautiful face. Fortunately, he was rescued by a Tarut. Okay actually that was sort of embarassing, but he wouldn't admit it. "Thanks..." he muttered as he followed the small Black Mage, soon overtaking and leading the way.

"Sorry... I suppose," he said, rather unsure of himself, to the White Mage. He wasn't really sure if he was sorry, but formalities are okay. He made mental note to ask for a name later.

[Krylo]

The stables on the edge of town were large, and surprisingly well kept Only the slightest scent of livestock was in the air, as opposed to the overpowering smell of large dirty birds that establishments of lesser quality were known for.

A stable boy milled about within the fenced in pasture where the chocobo were allowed to room, cleaning the area, as the sun set in the distance. There didn't seem to be anyone else around, though a sign on one of the doors signified it as the entrance to the lobby.

Upon opening the door, your presence is signified by the ringing of a small bell, followed by a deep voice rumbling something from an adjacent room that sounded like 'On my way.' Within moments a large well muscled, but slightly aged, hume came from the back and placed both hands upon a counter upon which lay a good amount of paper work--renter's agreements most likely--with a thud that sent a few papers up into the air, to float back down to, roughly, where they had been.

"Whatcha want?" he inquired as he looked you all over with a critical eye, obviously unhappy with the interruption. One might wonder whether he understood the concept of customer service. "Wer closin' soon. Make it quick."

[Bard The 5th LW]

"Whatcha want?"

'That should really be obvious you dolt,' Raltz thought to himself, but kept his outward expression the same. This guy seemed to be stereotypical enough. Angry shopkeeper guy, probably seen his fair share of chocobo droppings. Often a hard nut to crack. Ralts could handle him though, he was sure of it.

"We're just here to rent out a chocobo wagon," Ralts informed him, "we've been employed to go examine the situation in Maris. Just a wagon suitable for a party of 7. Hopefully it won't take long."

---

Speech Check

[Krylo]

Looking over the small group of adventurers in front of him with a critical eye the man let out something that sounded somewhere between a growl and a sigh. "Aye, and I s'pose ye plannin' to come back in one piece?" Letting out a snort he shook his head.

"Considerin' ain't no one come back from that way in weeks, I'll need ta charge ye two thousand gil. Ye'll get all but two hundred back if you bring back me wagon."

Crossing his arms over his chest he looked over the small group with a look of mild annoyance as he waited for their money--or for them to leave.

---

Marginal success on the speech check. Enough to make him open to the idea of letting you rent a cart, but not enough for him to let you rent a cart without the money necessary to replace it as collateral.

[Bard The 5th LW]

The Red Mage barely held the look of distaste on his face. There was no way they had that kind of gil. He pondered his options for a brief moment. Maybe Steal Heart? No... not now. He can't be to reliant on that.

Maybe his employers would offer leverage? He'd have to hope his reputation would serve as evidence. He moved his scarf away from his mouth as he spoke. "I'm going to be honest, we don't have that money. We were given funds for this by the organization who hired us, the Council of Four. They only gave us enough for the cart though. However, if they put trust in us, then maybe you should as well."

---
Another Speech check maybe?

[Krylo]

"O' Aye? The council? Because they've been so helpful up until now, 'aven't they? Truly, saved many a man's life what with an entire bloody village goin' dark and all!" the large man steamed his face contorting into a dark grimace of something combining rage and loss all at once.

His grimace twitching the large man looked away and let out a long world-weary sigh before speaking once more, his voice broken and weak, "Ach, but it ain't yer fault, and I guess if ye be goin' to help..." When he looked back up at the small party, the rage had run away from his face, leaving only emptiness and a slight pleading in his eyes, "I kinnae risk my wagons like that they're ou... my lifeblood, but I kin have the lad," pointed out into the yard at the boy cleaning the stables, "take ye within' easy walkin' distance for the normal price."

[Teal Mage]

After taking quick stock of their group's resources, a scant 450 gil, it quickly became apparent that getting a room at one of the nicer Inns in Altair was impractical - unless they wanted to burn all their money on it, that is. For her part, Arden was less than thrilled at that prospect. So, after a relatively short time spent searching, the group found themselves at an Inn that - Arden's highly refined business sense judged - was middling in quality.

If nothing else, the tables were clean.

After settling the group's account for the number of rooms they'd need for seven people - and shelling out a little extra to try and arrange a single room for herself - Arden had busied herself mingling with the patrons. Her goal: Get more information.

It wasn't like she had anything better to do.

* * * * * *

((Posting the results of the Speech Check))

Sighing, Arden slid heavily into one of the seats at the table the group had agreed to meet at. This is harder than my Uncle made it out to be. She reflected, resting chin in the palm of her hand and leaning her elbow on the table in front of her.

"Nothing new." Arden offered to the table - perhaps to herself if all of her companions had decided to make use of their time - "No one I talked to seems to know anything other than people don't come back from there lately." The silver haired mage grimaced, as if she'd swallowed something unpleasant. Then, sighing again, turned her attention to trying to flag a server down.

It wasn't like she had anything better to do.

[Riin Whitewind]

Nimbly, the Tarut climbed up onto the counter, careful not to disturb the stacks of papers. She gently patted the man's arm, trying to be comforting. "We are sorry," Jhen began, somber for once. "We did not mean to bring up painful memories for you." The words were still spoken too fast, still rushed out by the next - some things wouldn't change.

Taking off her peaked hat, the Black Mage sat on a particularly large stack. "While we are there - " Jhennek twisted the hat in her hands, the bangles on her arms chiming gently with every wring. "While we are there is there anything or anyone you'd like us to keep an eye out for?" She hurried on, hoping she hadn't offended him in some way. "We can't promise we'll find anything, but it couldn't hurt to look."

[Krylo]

As he looked over to the small Tarut's face, Jhennek could see the pain etched in his face as he brought a hand up to his neck and pulled a small cord from beneath his shirt, on which hung a simple silver twist ring, that looped oddly, almost as though there was supposed to be another, interlocking twist.

He slid it about in his hands, his fingers obviously too large for it, other than perhaps his smallest. "Aye... if ye would... there is something you can do for me," his eyes were averted from the tarut now, locked upon the ring, and his voice seemed to catch in his throat. "Thar's... was... a boy," he caught himself, forcing himself to speak in past tense, "Well... man I s'pose. 'E was blonde, and fair skinned, almost as pretty as that one."

A large well-muscled arm waved toward Raltz, "Though 'e dinnae 'ide 'is face... and 'ad just a bit o' facial 'air. A goatee..." With a sigh he took off the necklace and offered it to Jhennek. "'E wore a necklace like mine... though 'is was gold. The two bands fit together. If ye could find 'im... bring back what's left o' 'im... or at least 'is necklace. I... well I dun 'ave much ta give, but e'd 'ave me gratitude."

His eyes met the tarut's once more. He was too proud to beg, or even to hope. At least not outloud. His eyes, however, gave away his feelings, as he waited for her to accept the necklace and promise to do what they could.

[Riin Whitewind]

Reaching out, Jhennek accepted the ring and cord, looping it around her wrist. "We'll do whatever we can, Mr. Man." Hopping off the counter, she spun on her heel twice, then stopped when she faced the man once more.

The Tarut smiled cheerfully, waving farewell with her opposite arm. "We'll be back tomorrow, bright and early in the morning so we can set out!"

After a scramble, she found herself on Kole's shoulders. Ignoring his flinching, Jhen patted his hair like her stealing rides on others shoulders was the most natural thing in the world. "Let's go find the pretty White Mage lady, and see if she found us an inn!"

[IHateMakingNames]

As important as the negotiations between the gay chocobo peddler and the group of adventurers, Kole had a much more important task to attend with. He was giving a chocobo the ol' evil eye.

This chocobo was clearly a chocobo among chocobos. Strutting around with his powerfully think legs, sticking his large chest out showing his distinctive plume. This was clearly the head honcho of the chocobo stables.

Kole was thinking that maybe, if he gave this chocobo the eye it would throw a Choco Ball his way to keep it's dominance in the stables.

Or maybe Kole was just staring at some chocobo.

And then something landed on Kole's shoulders. The Blue Mage's immediate response was to grab it and bash it against the ground, then probably stab it a few times. Luckily he was able to figure out that the sudden attacker was actually his child-like companion. The paranoia was quickly settled, since Kole figured she would just act as neck armor for an actual surprise attack.

[Bard The 5th LW]

"It sounds like a deal sir," Raltz said in response to the offer for a shorter ride. "I'm sure it won't kill any of us to walk anyways," he said with a bit of a chuckle.

"Anyways, I'll be sure to tell the others to keep an eye open for your friend," he continued, his tone becoming serious. "No reason to not keep an eye out." He walked forward a bit and extended an arm, "didn't catch your name by the way. I'm Raltz." Usually, the Red Mage wouldn't care much for such introductions, but the incident with the White Mage made him a bit more leery about names.

Unfortunately, the moment was broken by the Blue Mage, Kole. Turning his head back slightly, Ralts made a quick halting motion with his free hand, and hissed a "stop that" at the paranoid Mage.

[phil_]

Bello hadn't played his harmonica all day, and it was starting to get to him. "Say guys, how about a little music?" he asked the table before blowing a few tuning notes. "I'm thinking a nice folk song could liven this place up a little; maybe loosen up some tongues. Do you think they know 'In Heaven There is No Beer?' Seems like that kind of place."

Not waiting for answers or comments, Bello hopped out of his seat and started playing a lively drinking tune, dancing his way around the room. If nothing else, Arden would get her server soon.

[mauve]

Bello was dancing. The cuteness was nigh overwhelming. Elsa had to get out of there before she lost her chaotic-evil edge and hugged him or made a girly "squee" noise or some similar reaction to the sheer adorableness. She could feel such an action coming. It must be avoided at all cost. She had a reputation to uphold, after all.

"Right." she said. standing up from her seat at the table. "I figure the others must've found us a suitable mode of transportation by now. At least I hope so." And hopefully they had managed to do so without wracking up a list of irritating sidequests in the process, "S'probably best if someone lets them know where we're staying. I nominate myself." She gave the rest of the table a quick look.

"You. Uh, Ark, I think. Care to come along?" The android seemed like the most likely person to help out without asking questions if Elsa just happened to get herself into trouble along the way.

[Menarker]

Jugan was dancing awkwardly alongside Bello, following in the Tarut's every step with a giddy expression, much amused by the harmonica music. "Rawr Warr ARRRR!"

"... Affirmative." Ark stood up as he fixed a firm glance with Elsa, standing at ready to escort her to the chocobo stables.

Jugan suddenly became conflicted for a brief moment. Now that he just got here, he was having a good time dancing! Now he's being dragged along again to see the chocobos he wanted to see in the first place! His master was SOOOO irritatingly contrary and flighty! But Jugan hopped on top of the table and then again onto Ark's shoulder. He had better get something good to eat later!

[Krylo]

Bello's dancing and singing and general merry making quickly drew a crowd and soon everyone was singing along, even pulling a few people off the street to engage in the festivities. In way of thanks the manager of the establishment lowered the price of the rooms, and, between that and a few tips the young Tarut made, the cost of rooms at the Inn became basically a wash.

(OOC: That is to say, no charge for your three rooms)

The night passed peacefully with the womanfolk entering their room and the menfolk entering theirs and the Ardenfolk entering hers, each room being comfortably furnished, with adequate climate control, and comfortable beds, for those lucky enough to get them. Jhennek may even have something to say for the comfort of the dresser drawers--when properly outfitted with a pillow and enough blankets, that is.

And, as the sun rose up the next day, the group made their way to the stables, where the large stable keeper waited. Upon sight of the group he called over the hand, who pulled out the wagon. Taking your pay, he thanked Jhennek one last time, and assured her, and the rest of the group, that if they could bring back evidence of what happened to Lucian, this being the first mention of his lover's name, they would receive back their money in full.

The ride took some time and morning shifted into afternoon, the group arriving around 3pm, if any of them were to check via rudimentary sun dial (or more esoteric means).

As soon as the City of Maris came into view, however, the wagon stopped and the group was forced to go on foot. At first the city just seemed unnaturally quiet, but soon enough the group came upon the first body, laying well outside the city borders. The more observant of the group (Ark, Raltz, and Kole) notice that the body seemed to be struck down fleeing the village, but there don't seem to be any marks on it.

As your group continues its approach toward the city, more and more bodies begin appearing, some seemingly struck down in battle, some seemingly dead without a struggle. The city streets are particularly thick with corpses, though the few of you who bother to think of it, note that there is no smell.

You can see the hospital in the distance up a hill, and past a park full of trees that appear to be wilting. To your left lie homes, and, a street sign informs you, the mercantile district, while to your right is simply a few houses and a large highway leading back out of town at a slightly different angle than the road you entered on.

The only sound is the wind whistling through the trees.

[Bard The 5th LW]

'Well this explains a lot,' Ralts thought to himself as they made there way deep into Maris. Corpses everywhere, seemingly all of them were dead.

"Probably used magic seeing the lack of wounds," he spoke quietly, mostly to himself as he slowed down, "not sure what spell they could have used though. Maybe a draining spell? Must have been obvious to the rest of the populace."

"Whats this?" The Red Mage suddenly stopped in his tracks, attention focused on a particular corpse. On the cadaver he momentarily saw a glint. Like light reflected from metal. "Hold on," he then proceeded to stray away fro the group to take a closer look at the victim.

Examination revealed that the body was embedded with different pieces of metal. Steel and mythril he wagered. Not shrapnel either, these were implanted on purpose. "They seem to be holding it together," he examined. "Hey,what do you all think of this?" he asked turning his head. Perhaps one of them were better informed on these matters?

[Menarker]

Ark marched silently with the group when he had dismounted the cart before entering Maris. His tiny companion sat on his shoulder with a pensive mood. His sword and shield were already held in hand, expecting the worst from a town already afflicted with its current disaster. As they proceeded down the roads past the increasing number of the... terminally unconscious to put it most accurately, Ark stopped in his footsteps, as if expecting the others to do the same.

"Hey,what do you all think of this?"



"New Data Compiled"
"Among the bodies of the terminally unconscious include representives from several races including Elvaan."
"Advanced Detection Function Observes alarming frequency of alteration among the bodies."
"Clarification of present use of "Alteration": Over 50% of the observed bodies have minimal traces of android based tampering. Alteration severity low among the individual bodies as noted by fewer mechanical functions or grafts when compared to normal androids.
"Said bodies exhibit varying state of tension. Some show fear or resistance or awareness of threat, despite lack of wounds. Others do not possess this quality as depicted by the lack of struggle. This observation has no observable patterns in regards to bodies in possession of alterations or not."
""Previously mentioned circumstances effects wide variety of living targets without collateral impact on surrounding environment."

"Suggested Conclusions Compiled!"
"High possibility of the cause of local circumstances being magical in origin.
"High possibility that if the cause of local circumstances is intentional, the agent or agents intended for their intended target or targets, whether object or individual, to remains undamaged."
"Tertiary Possibility: Due to high numbers of android alteration, it is plausible that the local circumstances may have been designed to interact with it. The purpose of said interaction, whether to create alterations or to attack pre-existing alterations cannot be defined with current data."

"Suggested Course of Action: Accquire more data."
"Suggested Means: Search the marketplace. If cause of this disturbance is due to an intentional act of an outside agent, the probability of finding culprits increases due to possibility of looting, regardless of the agent's primary target. Upon finding culprits, subdue and interrogate."
"Additional Consideration: During suggested course of data collection, remain attentive to identities and locations of potential political or high ranking targets of possible agents and the location of their residence or critical possessions to pinpoint next focus of reconnaissance with minimal waste of time and effort."

Ark finally stopped reciting his findings and remained standing erect and silent as Jugan kept his watchful eyes on the surroundings, rather discouraged by the chilling stillness in the atmosphere.

[IHateMakingNames]

The condition of Maris was roughly the worst condition Kole had expected. Dead people everywhere, yet no clear signs of enemies. Meaning that the killers must of course be hiding, waiting to strike again. Clearly, Kole had turned his nerves to max. His katana was already out, ready to slash at anything threatening. The blue mage made sure that he was roughly in the middle of the group, but away from the traitorous Dark Knight as best he could.

No corner, window, roof, ground, or empty space escaped Kole's darting eyes. After suddenly becoming nervous about a particular spot, the over cautious man turned to check. Some drapes from a house's broken window were flapping from the spot Kole thought he was being watched.

"There's some one over there!" Kole yelled out in a panic, ignoring what was going on he pointed his weapon at the window, standing ready to fight.

[mauve]

Corpses and metal shards. Not much of a welcome wagon. Elsa prodded one of the bodies with the blunt end of her scythe. What had been going on in this city?

Ark started talking, but Elsa wasn't really paying attantion. There was something about this place.... She couldn't immediately put her finger on what it was that felt "off." It wasn't the multitude of corpses, strange as they were, it was something... beyond them. Something about the city, or perhaps something within the city. It was difficult to tell. Nothing looked immediately wrong.

Then it dawned on her. It wasn't something she was seeing; it was a feeling. She was getting a definite dark vibe from that place. She wasn't sure how she could have missed it, actually. It was familiar-- it would have been familiar to anyone who served as a Dark Knight. Something in that city was drawing from the powers of darkness, or perhaps had come from beyond this mortal plane, from a much more sinister place.

"Well now, that's quite interesting." she said to herself. "And here I was starting to worry this trip would be boring."

She took a few steps towards the town's main gate, staring intently up at the silent rooftops. She stood there for a long moment.

"Yep," she finally affirmed to herself, nodding in satisfaction. "No doubt about it."

She turned back to the rest of the party. The blue mage seemed preoccupied with something, but Elsa had been too busy with her own thoughts to notice what he had been saying.


"Somethin's alive in there." she inadvertantly confirmed Kole's discovery, then checked herself. "Well, maybe not alive in the traditional sense, but you get the idea." She rested the massive scythe against her shoulder and grinned. "Whatever it is, it's gotten pretty comfortable with the powers of Shadow."

The grin widened.

"Hope no one here gets squeamish easily."

((Info came from Krylo))

[phil_]

Bello had his hands up like a picture frame, squinting at the hospital. "Well, we know that's not where we want to go. Waaaaay to perfect. The hospital has definitely got to be either the place initial clues lead us or where the final conflict happens. Probably in the basement..."

Bello stopped his musing and put his hands down. "I say we ignore Kole and start this ghost story in the merchant's district." It's important that the first person to see the ghost be ignored for proper build up, he thought better than to add. "I have a good feeling we'll either find looters like Ark said or we'll find some quivering, half-mad survivor. Either one's good." Bello may have sounded a bit too excited about that last part.

[Teal Mage]

The group reached Maris sometime in the afternoon. Expression calculating and composed, Arden's green eyes flicked critically over their surroundings, taking in each individual detail in short order, then promptly discarding most of them. Corpses were strewn randomly and without pattern in their path; not at all unexpected, given the circumstance.

They'd barely entered the city limits when Raltz suddenly stopped. "What's this?" The silver haired Red Mage was staring at one of the corpses that lined the road, expression curious. "Hold on." He stated, moving to examine the body. The rest of the group, politely, waited for him.

What followed next was a series of reports as to what the individual members of the group could determine about their situation. Arden listened politely, taking the opportunity to slip a bronze bullet into her gun. She had little to add to the observations. When the conversation began to turn toward how they should continue however, the silver haired woman looked up - expression darkening slowly as the others began to make plans.

"...I say we ignore Kole and," Bello concluded, "start this ghost story in the merchant's district."

"Why the hell would we do that?" Arden asked, breaking her silence suddenly, "We weren't sent here to capture the people responsible," she shot a pointed look at Ark, "assuming they were still here, they clearly are capable of killing an entire town." The White Mage's eyes moved to Raltz, "How they did it is meaningless; magic, poison or-"

She glanced toward the metal implants in one of the nearby bodies.

"-by bringing an army of Androids to do it for them." There was no evidence that all the bodies belonged to the townsfolk, after all. "And their motives aren't relevant to our mission." She crossed her arms, jerking her head in the direction of the Hospital. "We already know what happened to Maris, and I'll remind you all that this place is still as hostile to travellers as when it first went Dark. Let's just get the data we need and get the hell out."

"Now, come on," she turned in the Hospital's direction, "we have to hurry." Arden glanced over her shoulder toward Jhennek, "We'll investigate any buildings - shallowly - on the way. If we find Lucian's body, we'll take the ring. If not, well, the Wagoneer will understand after we explain what we saw."

She took a step forward, before a thought occurred to her. Arden turned back to the others. "Ark, you should probably go first - especially when we're entering buildings. Bello, Jhennek and myself aren't trained to fight in close quarters, so we'll stay in the middle. Raltz, you should probably stay in the back. Elsa, Kole, put yourselves wherever you think you'll be best."

"We do need to keep moving though." Arden gestured in the hospital's direction - obviously not expecting an objection.

[phil_]

Bello crossed his arms. "Fine," he pouted, "be reasonable; see if I care. I guess we can go fight for justice after we get those files at the hospital."

[Menarker]

"...Affirmative."

Ark ran through the results of the responses of his allies and although there were a few conflicting parameters, they were overridden by the majority rule of his data and the voices of his allies. Holding his shield up in front of him with his blade still ready, he took the foremost position ready to breach whatever entrance he would be expected to open for the group.

[Teal Mage]

Feeling her pride swell as Ark took the place she'd directed, Arden tried to hold back - very unprofessional - sense of glee. Thinking quickly, she drew her simple pistol to her face and opened the cartage case - making a show of examining the weapon. Arden clearly remembered slipping the bronze bullet into the gun earlier.

"Fine, be reasonable; see if I care." Crossing his arms, Bello pouted. "I guess we can go fight for justice after we get those files at the hospital."

Half-skirt trailing, Arden approached the small blond man and knelt down - a small redress to their height difference. "We can seek justice," Arden smiled softly, "by getting the data the Council of Four needs to prosecute those responsible for this. We're out of our league here Bello, but by doing our part, we'll set some of this right."

"Besides," She pushed herself up, turning toward the hospital, "if we're not being attacked after we get the files," Arden's gaze slid to Jhen - expression suddenly unreadable, "we have another contract to fulfil."

"Now," Her voice turned firm, "let's get moving you lot!" Arden waved them forward, starting off - leaving Ark in the Vanguard.

Enough discussion!

[Bard The 5th LW]

"I have to agree with... the White Mage, for the most part," Ralts noted as the discussion went on. He still needed to catch her name. "Exploring the city of the damned would certainly be interesting, but there are probably some dead that were better than us. Best to just move on for now, especially if there are still others here like Elsa and Kole say."

"Anyways, lead the way Ark," he said, taking his position at the back of the group.

[Krylo]

The young white mage wrangled her compatriots into doing their job, and the group moved forward cautiously, but steadily. The silence in the air seemed an almost palpable thing, making even the midday feel somehow like night. Or perhaps it was the effect of something more sinister.

As you approached the hospital you came upon a small park, which the road runs through. The trees seemed ill tended, as though the city had been dead for years, rather than weeks, but not over grown. Quite the opposite, they appeared to be diseased and bug eaten, though no bugs seemed present.

A playground sat in the center of the park, corpses much like the rest of the city's, but much smaller, adorned it. Proof that whatever it was that struck the city left nothing alive. Not even the children.

It wasn't long after that you reached the hospital, entering the reception area, which was just as dead and silent as the rest of the city, though there were only a few corpses here, spread about, still sitting and waiting for their appointments in death.

To your right in the corner sat the receptionist's counter, the young woman who once sat there, slumped against it. Behind the counter were two doors leading out, one on the wall to your right, and one on the wall opposite the entrance. More directly opposite to the entrance was another door, with another to your left. These seem to be the doors that patients and nurses used to see the doctors on the ground floor, or clinic level.

[phil_]

Bello couldn't help but shudder as they surveyed the lobby of the dead. It wasn't the first time today. "Guys, if I never see another dead body, I'll still have seen way to many dead bodies in my life." Rubbing his arms to ward off the chills, he continued, more to the point, "If this Organization installed super-complicated computer systems, I'd expect to find them either on the ground floor or downstairs. No one likes lugging stuff up stairs, not even evil-doers. I say we look for stairs going down, but stick together. The quicker we find a place for this disk, the sooner we can all, I dunno, take in a comedy or something, but splitting up's never a good plan in a ghost story."

Bello pointed across the lobby towards the door opposite the entrance. "Let's start with that door, if only in the name of starting somewhere."

[Menarker]

Ark gave one affirmative nod, holding his shield up right in front of him in a warding fashion. Jugan waddled somewhat timidly directly behind the Dragoon's right leg as he pushed open the door with his blade, holding the shield directly in front, ready to shieldbash anything unwary enough to try to ambush him from the doorway. He would lead them go down the stairs, look for anything resembling a clue, and hopefully supplies. The dead have little use for material possessions, and medicine is always a welcome addition. But foremost, he would keep the foremost attention for any sign of movement, living or otherwise.

[Krylo]

Stepping through the doors you find yourself in the clinic portion of the hospital, before you and to your left are hallways, each connected with multiple small rooms used by the doctors to diagnose patients with less serious problems. A nurse's station is down the hallway directly in front of you, a single female elvaan corpse in a nurse's uniform laying in front of it, though you can't make out much more from this distance. Harsh white lights adorn the sides of the hallways, leaving little in the way of shadows, though they at least allow you to assess that there is still power running through the main hospital.

To your right you can see one of the doors used by the receptionists, just before a large double door leading to, presumably, another area of the hospital. A sign above it marks it as the way to the morgue, elevator, stairs, storage, and offices.

[mauve]

The absolute quiet of this village was enough to put even Elsa on edge. No animals. No birds. No sentient beings.

Complete and utter silence.

And yet, despite the apparent lack of other lifeforms, they were not alone in this village. There was something, or someTHINGS, still here. Whether they qualified as "living" or not was anyone's guess; all Elsa could sense was the underlying hum of dark energy emanating from somewhere in this dead city.

The hospital looked no more or less ominously corpse-filled than any other part of the town. Elsa sighed and leaned against her scythe, using it as a cane.

"Well, I guess everything is self-serve, now. Where do you suggest we start looking?" she asked, addressing the group as a whole. In all honesty, she'd probably forgotten what it was they were supposed to be searching for in this hospital in the first place. Such details failed to interest her, and as such, were the first to be ignored. It would probably be best if someone else led the way.

[Teal Mage]

Progress through the apparent ghost-town of Maris was slow, as Arden had expected. As the group left yet another of the dwelling that lined the - more or less - straight route they were taking to the hospital, the green eyed mage was torn between cursing the name of Jhennek for getting them involved in this time-consuming side-venture, or hugging the small woman for forcing the group to keep their movements slow. Thanks to that, Arden - and the rest of the group, she - wouldn't be quite so on edge when they got to the hospital.

Panic was, of course, the worst possible emotion in a Horror Movie.

After passing some moderately disquieting scenery - and starting to wish she had access to a certain White Magic Spell that could be used to repel the effects of the Shadow Element - the group arrived at the hospital.

And found more corpses.

This, Arden reflected, feeling a twinge of annoyance, is getting very old. Distantly, the White Mage considered that frustration was preferable to fear, but that didn't make the vague sense of confusion any easier to deal with.

She also couldn't shake the feeling that, somehow, they were walking into a trap.

Forcing such thoughts from her mind, Arden followed the group through one of the lobby's doors - any direction was as good as any other, all things considered.

"Well," The group's Dark Knight spoke suddenly, "I guess everything is self-serve, now." Elsa was leaning on her scythe, the blade glinting in the harsh lighting of the hospital, "Where do you suggest we start looking?"

Glancing toward the sign on the group's right side, Arden spoke. "Bello's was a good start. We'll begin our search for the computer in the basement, then work our way up." She was, truthfully, tempted to check the morgue. However, her curiosity wasn't worth the added risk it posed. "Ark," She looked toward the Android, "if you sense anything alive in here, tell us immedately." Her gaze moved to the Dark Knight, "Elsa, please tell us if the Shadow Energy you sensed changes. It could be important."

Finally, she threw a quick glance over the rest of her team, "Everyone else, try to check the rooms we pass, but be careful. Try not to open any doors unless you're wearing armor, or prepared to take a hit. But, whatever you do, don't fall behind. I doubt the system's in one of the patient's rooms anyway, so it isn't worth getting seperated."

With that said, Arden turned toward the stairs - using the arrows on the sign as guidance, "We'll take the stairs, there's too many of us for an elevator." She added, by way of explanation. That said, Arden started off - allowing Ark to take his customary position in front of her, of course.

She was too pragmatic to put anyone but an Android out front.

[Krylo]

Walking through the double doors, the group finds themselves in another brightly lit hospital hallway, thankfully free of corpses. Following the hallway they walk past another hallway that leads to another entrance to the receptionist area, and an entrance to what is marked as the hospital offices to their right, and a much longer hallway that leads to a pair of doors connecting the clinic area to the morgue.

Walking a bit further they reach another set of doors, to their left leading into the morgue, and to their right, once more into the offices. The hallway turns to their left as they reach the end, however, and following it along brings them past the medical storage area and yet another entrance to the morgues that leads out directly to the elevator banks and the stairs.

The stairs and elevators both only go up. A sign near each describes each floor:

Second Floor: E.R., O.R., and Pediatrics.

Third Floor: Psychiatry, Admin Offices, Research.

[Teal Mage]

Empty and eerily identical doorlined hallways passed by, as Ark and Arden lead the group further into the seemingly abandoned hospital complex. They'd just passed the Morgue and, what appeared to be, a supply closet, when they arrived at their apparent destination.

Another directory sign.

Arden cursed softly. Story conventions had failed them! How unexpected.

"Alright," The silver haired mage drew her hood up, hands working at the hidden ties that would unfurl her robes to the normal White Mage length, "I'll check the third floor's Research area first, then the rest of that level if I can't find anything there." She turned back toward her allies, "I'd like one of you - preferably Elsa or Ark - to accompany me. The rest of you may join us, or examine another floor. However," Now enfolded completely in the standard baggy white mage's baggy robe - with a long cut visible just above the waist - Arden's voice became hard. "no one is to be left alone. Understood?"

With her new orders imparted, the cowled White Mage opened the door to the stairwell, and began to make the ascent.

[Riin Whitewind]

Bangles and anklets safely stored away, the uncustomarily silent Jhennek trudged along in the middle of the group. The heavy silence, the cold, and sense of impending doom crushed her normally chipper spirits. For the first time in her young life, she had absolutely no desire to do anything - even dancing would be too much effort.

Wrapping a curl of red hair around her fingers, she absently mused on the problem of Maris. In her mind, the pieces of information they had been given and since discovered drifted upon a vast board, showing her the linkages between each piece. There were many blank spaces, but she was confident that they would all be filled in time. To think otherwise would be a betrayal of her upbringing.

At the mention of beloved research, the Tarut's ears perked, and a bit of her normal excitement returned. The Black Mage made her way next to Arden. "I'll go with you!" Bright blue eyes sparkled up at the Hume, temporarily forgetting the heaped bodies and twisted essences of the city in the thrill of knowledge. "Who knows what kind of information will be present there!" Jhen gave the cowled Mage a smile, though it was difficult to tell if she had seen it.

[mauve]

"Right," said Elsa, hefting the scythe. "I'll tag along too." If they were going to split up in this deathtrap of a hospital, Elsa would much rather be in the group with the healer. She may be crazy, but she wasn't stupid.

----------

"Remind me what it is we're looking for in this mess." Elsa grumbled as the trio cautiously made their way upstairs. The change in scenery between the ground floor and this one was almost immediately evident.

Directly across from the stairwell was a corpse. This in itself was obviously nothing new-- by now it would be more of a shock if there WASN'T a pile of corpses on every floor. This particular body, however... was different.

"Hmn." the Dark Knight grunted. She crouched down by the corpse to get a closer look. It was an orderly-- no doubt he came from the psychiatric ward that loomed just beyond. A billy club lay discarded at the dead man's side.

The body was riddled with bloody gashes. His was not the swift and bloodless death of his fellow citizens.

"Well this isn't a good sign." She half-turned back to Arden and Jhen. "Look. Claw marks." She gave the gashes another critical look. "Something didn't much care for the psych ward staff."

The disturbing question was whether the something was trying to get out, or get in. Even more disturbing was the question of where it was now.

"Well," she said, standing back up. "This trip just got more interesting."

[phil_]

"Ok, if we're splitting up..." Bello looked around for a moment, "I'm taking the dragon." Here, he grabbed Jugan in both arms and held him to his chest. "We'll take the second floor, 'cause there's no way I'm staying down here and checking the morgue. Let's go, dragon."

Bello headed up the stairs to the second floor, followed by Ark. Well, Ark was probably following Jugan, not Bello, but whatever. Jugan was excited about this new turn of events, either way.

[Teal Mage]

Cowled and swathed within the nearly shapeless form of her cotton white robes, Arden followed a handful of paces behind the bulky and armor-clad form of Elsa. The White Mage kept her own counsel for much of their trip. When the harsh white hospital lights allowed it, her companions may have caught glimpses of the woman's stern and serious expression. Hidden by the broad sleeve of her robe, the mage's delicate hand gripped the handle of her simple handgun.

The sight of the corpse - and Elsa's report regarding its claw marks - had done much to set her on edge. Something, very clearly, was wrong.

And worse still, Arden had no idea what it was.

The group's progress through the third floor was not slow, though neither was it particularly quick. For much of that time, Arden only broke her silence when the group arrived at an intersection point of some kind, and even then, only long enough to set them in a new direction.

Eventually, after coming across - what appeared to be - a second, locked, elevator, Arden suggested that they return to meet with the others. Though they'd stumbled across the key they'd needed to unlock the - seemingly secret - elevator, something about what they'd found in that room, along with the keycard, made Arden hesitant to return there.

Especially when returning there would force them to touch one of those bodies.

While she didn't know what deathtrap they'd walked into, Arden was going increasingly certain of one thing. None of the bodies they'd stumbled across were really dead.

She just wished she knew whether or not shooting them while they were down would solve the problem. Or make it much, much, worse.

Uncertainty, she reflected, as made her way down the staircase they'd used earlier, on route to the first floor, is thoroughly vexing.

[Menarker]

Ark strode toward Bello who had kidnapped his companion with the impression of a rather annoyed parent. Sheathing his sword, Ark bent down and clenched the Tarut's collar, lifting him cleanly off the floor, turning the entertainer around. Jugan's mood was elated by the ride, but Ark paid no mind as it robotically stared at Bello and recited the data that ran through his mind.

"Violation detected: Unauthorized contact with dragon companion Jugan."
"Threat rating: Minimal with no detected hostile intent."
"Warning issued: Cease and desist future unauthorized contact."
Warning Amendment: Dragon behaviors unpredictable with occasionally life threatening results irrespective of age. Respective risks also present with Dragoons."
"Violators are fully responsible for all results that happen forthwith."

Ark then put the Tarut down, and proceeded toward the second floor with his blade redrawn, expecting the two to follow after him.

Stepping out of the stair case and onto the second floor the lights flicker slightly, enhancing the deserted feelings of the floor. There are a pair of hallways after leaving the stairs, one leading to your right past pediatrics and one in front leading past the O.R. storage area.

In the interest of a through search to find information or resources, Ark entered the storage room almost immediately, and some searching found nothing of real interest. Sterilized scalpels, tubing, doctor's scrubs in all sizes, antiseptic cleaners, etc. However, there appears to be nothing in the way of useful items.

Indifferent to this lack of discovery, the android proceeded down the hall further and turned left into the operating recovery area, where people were supposed to be waiting and getting better. A nurse's station here sports the corpse of the head nurse, and searching behind it reveals a few usable medical supplies. Namely a potion and a remedy.

The rooms, however, appear to all be empty. Not even a corpse in any of them.

Continuing through the oppressive silence, Ark steadily proceeded into the O.R. and I.C.U. proper. Moving through the rooms, there are a few corpses, still hooked up to machines, though there are no attending nurses, doctors, or surgeons. Where the city seemed to have far too many corpses, the hospital seems to have too few.

However, Ark examined carefully and salvaged a single hi-potion and an ether from an anesthesia machine left in one of the hallways.

Moving on, he entered the pediatrics ward. Here there are bodies. Small children laying in nearly every bed, each with a pained expression on their face. They did not go into the dark sleep of death peacefully. Ark examined the faces, comparing mentally to what data he had regarding the stable master's friend told by his allies. No matches... The dragoon then turned toward the entertainer, announcing his results and expecting a report in turn.

"Investigation yields no data."
"Resources found as follows: One potion, one high rank potion, one ether, one remedy."
"Proposed division of resources: You take potion, and ether. You also hold remedy on the contigency that I become unable to defend myself due to restrictive magical conditions."

Ark then slowly started moving back to the stairs, expecting to meet up with the group they had split up from.

[Bard The 5th LW]

As the split up began and Raltz and Kole began their investigation beggining with the morgue, and Raltz found something that had been very pervasive in their search of the town. Dead People. However, these were genuine corpses, mostly elderly folk. They were all tagged as well. He figured that with the town gone, he'd make a search for supplies. All he found in the morgue was a singular revify though. He opted to keep it on his own person.

He and Kole proceeded to move on to the offices in search of anything else, and were met with more dead people. The two took the time to scan over medical records and other papers, but he couldn't find anything important. He considered holding onto them anyways, but it would be more logical to use the space for any supplies he could find.

The nurse's station held a much more prodigious gain however. A search yielded 2 more potions, 2 antidotes, and some craftsmen tools for healing. He kept the fast acting items, the potions and antidotes, on his person once more, but he didn't care to keep the tools on him as he was losing space. "Are you any good with these... Kole is it?" he said, displaying the tools to Kole, "if so you can hold onto them. Otherwise I think we are about done. Do you have any disagreements?"

[IHateMakingNames]

Kole, was usual, was nervous when searching through the ground floor. He chose a group that did not include the evil Dark Knight, so that was off his shoulders, but things were not right here. Everywhere else had been filled with bodies, but this level had only a few bodies. One could only assume something was going around and picking up the bodies on this floor. So Kole had his weapon would ready to fight that things that clearly existed off.

Kole let Raltz take all the supplies they were finding. The blue mage already had emergency potions on his person, and if he's incapacitated he cannot use them anyway. But if another person has them, the items can be used on him.

However, the craftsman tools Kole wanted. Since vehicles tended to crash or monsters would explode, Kole had gotten good at making quick patches and doing first aid. This tools would help him out even more so.

"I can use these." He mumble as he picked up the healing tools. Kole hadn't really been interested in talking to his search partner. He was too busy wondering about the Red Mage's gender to bother.

And with that he headed towards the stairs to meet with the rest of the party.

[Teal Mage]

After the group had reconvened at the base of the stairs, Arden had wasted no time in informing her companions of the mysterious (locked) elevator they'd discovered on the third floor. Receiving little in the way of alternative paths of inquiry, the White Mage collected her six companions and lead them back to the third floor of the hospital. Acquiring the apparent keycard from the hospital administrator’s corpse without incident, the group soon found itself inside of the - formerly - locked elevator. With only one button to press, there wasn't much need for discussion. The descent was entirely uneventful - thankfully.

When the large double doors opened a second time, the group found themselves in another hospital floor, similar to the one they had just left. There was an aura of unfinishedness about this place, patches of unfinished construction were visible. Directly across from them was another room, unfinished pieces of cybernetic hardware was visible from there position, though little else about the chamber was.

A long hallway led off to the the group's right, with a directory hanging above their heads. Arrows indicated that down the hallway was a morgue, an operating room, a room for data storage and analysis, and a room enigmatically titled the Necroeanimation.

This, clearly, was the place they had been searching for.

"Well," Arden offered, looking down the hallway, "I think its safe to assume the Data Storage and Analysis room is where we'll find out mission's objective." She glanced back toward her team, "I'm going straight there - Bello," Arden's green eyes went to the Taru, "you'll either need to come with me, or give me the data disk so I can start the download."

She returned her gaze to the rest of her team, "If any of you would like to investigate a different chamber, please say so now. I think it would be best if everyone split into teams of - at minimum - two as well."

"So?" She concluded, crossing her arms, "How do you lot want to go about what's left of this mission?"

The time for discussion was now!

[Menarker]

After rejoining with the group at the bottom of the stairs, Ark regained the lead role of vanguard, following Arden's guidance toward the elevator. As the doors opened, Ark's attention was on full alert as always, but paid special notice to the room with cybernetic hardware. He continued to lead the rest of the group for a while until they found some of the other rooms.

"If any of you would like to investigate a different chamber, please say so now. I think it would be best if everyone split into teams of - at minimum - two as well."

"So?" She concluded, crossing her arms, "How do you lot want to go about what's left of this mission?"


Ark was silent for the briefest moment and then stated pragmatically and firmly,

"Chosen location: Cybernetic Department"
"Quotation from client as follows regarding the possibility of a clandestine organization: "Currently they are known as 'Case File 576-B, Unknown'. We've been tracking a variety of weapons, grafts, and medical supplies. They've been purchased by various buyers and each funneled to a small number of locations--most without any known residents to receive them. Maris, however, was an exception in that there was a city there.""
Mission Objective Consideration: Affixing and selling grafts is considered a crime. Increased possibility of hospital being used as a front to justify the use of medical supplies which is instead redirected to affixing grafts. Proof of the existence of these grafts has high probability to contribute to mission objectives of providing evidence to the Council of Four regarding the possible involvement of the organization in Maris.
"Additional consideration: Cybernetics components serve to boost the combat and survival parameters of androids such as myself. Boosts in such parameters will increase success rate of current mission and those subsequent."

Ark took one big step toward that room, Jugan jumping to its feet getting ready to follow its master, growling playfully as it looked at the rest of the group.

[Riin Whitewind]

Jhennek peeked out from behind one of Ark's legs, which she had used as an erstatz transport. Unwrapping her arms from the chassis, the childlike Tarut stood with a little spin, ending her rotation beside the commanding figure of the White Mage.

"I'll go with you again!" Jhen's enthusiasm bubbled over into her voice.

"I'll follow you as long as you keep leading me to wonderful, wonderful research." Staring dreamily off into the distance, she raised her small hands to her cheeks and smiled. Research.

One of the over-bright lights above them reflected off the strange ring, one half of a life, spinning lazily on her raised wrist. The smile wilted a little, remembering her promise. You deserve to be found, too! Just like the research. I will keep looking, no worries. Fussing with her hat, the mage ignored the ramblings of Ark. Grafts were nowhere near as important as research! The knowledge one could gain...

[phil_]

"I'm coming, Arden. As much fun as hanging out with Ark is, I've had about enough of this place." Bello took a place at the White mage and Jhennek's side.

[IHateMakingNames]

Kole was waiting to see which group would become bigger. The bigger party would be more likely to fight off the pending attack, thus he would go with that group.. They were in a deserted town filled with corpses, yet nothing bad has happened yet. Clearly something foul would happen soon. At this point Kole wouldn't even care if the Dark Knight was in his group. Maybe the traitorous attack would happen to the group she isn't with, in some kind of divide and conquer plan.

[mauve]

"I'll go wherever my scythe is most needed," Elsa said simply, "although that room called 'necroani.... Necroni... Nec..." She pointed at the door in question, "That one, looks like the culprit to me." She was getting anxious to fight something. The waiting and the quiet were grating on her nerves.

[Menarker]

Ark held out of his hands out toward Bello, whom had opted to go with the other increasingly larger group.

"Prompt: Remedy requested as per prior agreement."


Ark then briefly looked toward the group's current division. The larger group were practically all casters. And he was currently isolated.

"Proposal: The dark knight accompanies data room group to protect casters. The remaining casters" Ark looked toward Kole and Raltz, "can follow me to examine for supplementing evidence and resources. Rejoin data room team once procurement is complete."

Jugan hobbled toward Raltz and Kole curiously, its playful growls still emanating during this momentary peace.

[IHateMakingNames]

Now that he was asked directly, Kole had to state his intentions and reject the android's suggestion.

"I'm going with the bigger group," the blue mage looked around nervously before continuing, "we're do for an ambush or monsters or cult encounter soon, so I want to be in the group with the best chance to survive."

[phil_]

"Prompt: Remedy requested as per prior agreement."

"Oh, right, sure thing," Bello replied. Stretching to place the Remedy in Ark's extended hand, he added, "Sure hope you don't need it."

[Bard The 5th LW]

"The remaining casters" Ark looked toward Kole and Raltz, "can follow me to examine for supplementing evidence and resources. Rejoin data room team once procurement is complete."

"I don't see why not," Raltz responded with a shrug of the shoulders and curious glance cast at the dragon.

"I'm going with the bigger group," Kole said in a paranoid fashion, "we're do for an ambush or monsters or cult encounter soon, so I want to be in the group with the best chance to survive."

"Well someone's gotta get attacked," Raltz replied with a bit of a smirk, "if you just go with the bigger group, your leaving the fall team understaffed. Wouldn't that be a bit counterproductive?" He wasn't really sure they were going to get attacked, but Raltz figured he may as well delve further into this jumpy guy's logic.

[mauve]

"Proposal: The dark knight accompanies data room group to protect casters."

"Fine by me," drawled Elsa. "I'm always happy to follow the healer." In this unnerving hell-hole, Elsa couldn't think of a better place to be.

The nervous blue mage then decided to switch teams, apparently in an effort to put the most teammates in between himself and danger. Elsa grinned and wrapped an arm around the poor man's shoulder.

"Well hello again, friend," she said. "Good to know you'll be on my side this time. Haven't seen you around much lately. Have you been avoiding me? That's not very nice."

The smile widened.

"Well, we're all in this together now. When the horrible enemy finally shows itself, I hope we can count on you to step forward to defend us with your life. I know I will. That's what teamwork is all about, riiiight?"

Oh look. Elsa found something to take her anxiety out on.

[Riin Whitewind]

Jhennek watched with a small frown as Elsa pulled the blue mage into an one-armed embrace he was clearly uncomfortable with. Kole seemed to shrink in on himself the longer she spoke. The scythe-wielding woman smiled, managing to twist the knife deeper into his psyche.

"Well, we're all in this together now. When the horrible enemy finally shows itself, I hope we can count on you to step forward to defend us with your life. I know I will. That's what teamwork is all about, riiiight?"

Bangles restored to both wrists and ankles, the dimunative mage noisily clambered her way up to Kole's shoulder, accidentally tugging on his shirt hard enough to pull him away. All innocent smiles, Jhen looked up at Elsa through her wild, curly copper hair.

"He's gotta stay back and protect me!" Still trying to be comforting, the Tarut patted his blonde hair, even managing to make some of it look brushed. "Can't bring me into the front of the fight, oh no."

"Besides!" The mage looked excited to be talking battle strategy, throwing her arms out into a wide gesture. "There should be someone in the back, guarding the pretty Arden!" Both hands went to her face in simulated horror - the gesture ruined as her hat slipped down over her eyes. She hurriedly fixed her hat. "It would be difficult for the nice White Mage to heal you if she is being menaced from the backlines."

[Teal Mage]

Jhennek, Bello, and Kole each stated their preference to travel with her in turn - for various reasons. Pushing back her hood, the ghost of a frown appeared on Arden's face. She glanced toward the hallway stretching behind them, seemingly in thought.

Raltz spoke up - she couldn't see his smirk, but she could hear it in his tone. "Well someone's gotta get attacked," The red mage observed, "if you just go with the bigger group, your leaving the fall team understaffed. Wouldn't that be a bit counterproductive?"

"Raltz," Arden replied, turning a mild green gaze, "let him make up his mind - there's no need to make fun of him for being cautious."

Elsa had thrown an arm around Kole during this time, and was speaking to the Blue Mage. Her words seemed companionable, though it didn't take a social genius to see that they weren't meant to be reassuring - it seemed the Blue Mage was a popular teasing target. Thinking quickly, Arden opened her mouth to try and rescue him - again.

To the silver haired mage's surprise, Jhennek beat her to it.

"He's gotta stay back and protect me!" The small black mage had clambered up her ally's shirt, and now sat atop his head, patting him companionably. "Can't bring me into the front of the fight, oh no." Eyes shining cheerfully, Jhennek gestured expansively. "Besides! There should be someone in the back, guarding the pretty Arden!" Her hat slipped down from atop her head, covering her eyes for a moment. "It would be difficult for the nice White Mage to heal you if she is being menaced from the backlines." The tarut observed, straightening her cap.

"That's a great idea, Jhen!" Seizing on the opening the Tarut created, Arden smiled broadly, clapping her free hand crisply against the hilt of her still-loaded-firearm. "Its settled, Kole will guard the Taruts while they explore the Data Storage and Analysis room and download the files we need. Elsa?" She turned toward, the Dark Knight, "While they're handling that, should look into the Necroeanimation - you mentioned wanting to see it, right?" Moving quickly, the White Mage grasped hold of the Dark Knight's wrist and began to - try - and draw her away.

Wait, how was that Jhen's idea?

"Ark, you and Raltz take care of scouting the other rooms when you're finished looting stolen goods!" Arden called cheerfully to the Android and Red Mage - she decided that now was not the time to lecture them on the immoralities of what they were transparently planning to do.

Now, as long as Elsa didn't resist her, Arden started down the hallway!

"Let's finish this mission!"

[IHateMakingNames]

Apparently Kole's decision became the group's focus point, which he did not like. It wouldn't surprise anyone to learn that he did not like the be the center of attention. Harder to figure out if anyone with ill intent is watching you.

Kole was going to answer Raltz, but then the likely cultist Dark Knight decided to draw the blue mage into her talons. Obviously, to a normal person, even if Elsa was evil she wouldn't try anything right now. But paranoid Kole was wishing he had the magic resources to self destruct, just in case.

Again, Kole's potential response was interrupted by another party member. This time the energetic child had climbed onto his shoulders again. This calmed the blue mage a bit, since now any surprise arrows from the angle the little black mage roosted on would be blocked. Jhen suggested that Kole stay to protect the youngling, which he had no problem with as if the group did actually travel together for once, that was the role he saw himself in. Though Jhen also suggested Kole protect Arden, due to her being a white mage, but he was pretty sure that she was actually a thief.

Kole didn't even try to speak this time, since as he expected Arden then took the floor. She once again split the group into three smaller groups. Perhaps it was the paranoia, but Kole was beginning to think that this thief white mage may also be a cultist. The best way to ambush would be to divide the groups and attack the smaller ones, as Raltz mentioned.

"You know..." Kole finally spoke up, but with little authority. "Maybe we should stay together and just finish the mission with the data files. Then if it still seems safe maybe we can do extra searching. We are in an abandoned building filled with corpses and evil cultist lurking about, after all... Seems dangerous to keep splitting up."

[phil_]

"Don't be silly, Blue Mage," Bello said while reassuringly patting Kole on the back of the leg (his shoulder was far too high to be worth the effort). "Nothing's happened so far, right?"

...

"Ok, yeah, that's not exactly convincing. But still, you have us," he gestured up to the other Tarut on Kole's shoulders. "Tarut are protected by the espers, you know? We'll be fine. Let's just go get this data; we can meet up with Arden and the berserker afterward."

Now was the time Bello had been waiting for. Now it was time for his secret technique which rendered the taller races putty in his hands. His eyes were shining. His smile was like a child's. The glow in his cheeks lit up the darkness. Clasping Kole's hand between his, Bello looked up at the neurotic mage and, gathering all his powers of cuteness into one manipulative syllable, asked, "Kay?"

[mauve]

"Oh fine," sighed Elsa, shoulders sagging in defeat. "Ruin all my fun." Further torment of the poor Blue Mage would have to wait.

To be honest, Elsa was looking forward to exploring the Necroanimation chamber. It was probably a bad idea to send two people into the most likely spot for danger instead of entering as a group, but the Dark Knight was okay with that. It wouldn't be the first foolhardy thing she'd ever done, and with a great deal of luck, it wouldn't be the last either.

"I'm fine with exploring that room," she said, nodding towards the door Arden was dragging her towards. "Does anyone object, or want to join in the fun? If not, Necroanimation Chamber, here we come."

[Krylo]

CYBERNETICS RESEARCH
Ark and Raltz

As the two step into the room they find mechanical limbs of all sorts, robotic eyes, strange tentacles, robotic versions of organs, and weapons that look something like cannons all mounted about the room. However, they are all highly specialized. The cannons lack a function to turn back into hands, for instance, and the tentacles seem to replace entire arms with groups of whipping robotic cables.

Upon closer inspection of the objects Ark realizes that they can't be interfaced with a living android--or anyone else for that matter. The standard life or magitek energy used to power grafts would be ineffective. They all seem to be reversed--requiring energy of a more perverse nature.

NECROREANIMATION
Elsa, and Arden

The room, as they step in, is about quarter the size of an entire hospital floor. Beds lie all across, most with corpses that have been hacked open, strange machines placed within the open cavities. Strange metallic tubes connect them to even larger machines.

The feeling of shadow energies in this room is stronger than it's been anywhere else, and many of the corpses look like they're in the process of being altered in the same way the corpses in the rest of the city had been altered--though on a larger scale.

DATA STORAGE
Kole, Jhen, Bello

The ceiling in this room is unfinished, ducting and braces being visible, along with multiple magitek power conduits, all leading to a massive computer that seems to use roughly a quarter of this entire floor. Data terminals line the room, and they each flicker on one by one, giving the room an eery green glow, as the small group enters. Placing the disk into one of the drives, 'causes all the readouts to change, data spilling over them more quickly than can possibly be read, and, in a moment, it's over.

As the disk is removed Kole, in his nervousness, glances up to see a small collection of metal wires dropping from the duct work directly toward him. In a combination of quick thinking and paranoia, he jumps backward, letting them hit the ground, where they quickly knot up together and leap at him again.

The wires quickly wraps around Kole arm and form a sort of drill on one end, which they use to begin burrowing into his skin.

---------------
Round 1!

Wires- Latched onto Kole. Have done no damage... yet.

---------------

NECROREANIMATION
Elsa, and Arden

All around them the bodies start rising up, tearing themselves away from the machines, they turn slowly turn toward the pair. A single reanimated corpse marches in front of the door, this one bearing a large sword rather than a right arm.

More corpses seemed ready to rise at any moment.

----------------
Round 1!

Two unaugmented corpses short range from Arden and Elsa, Sword armed one short range and behind them.

Five unaugmented corpses in medium range. Five two rounds of, along with two more augmented corpses. Another 3 augmented corpses and 3 unaugmented corpses three rounds away.

----------------
CYBERNETICS RESEARCH
Ark and Raltz

As they study the objects in the room, the two doors facing further into the area burst open, and animated corpses begin to saunter in.

--------------
Round 1

One augmented corpse two rounds off, two unaugmented corpses at medium range.

[Menarker]

As Ark stepped into the cybernetic department, sword and shield readied, his cold robotic gaze were roughly transfixed on the various objects in the proximity. As he scanned through the specifications, the results were pretty clear. The sheer raw internal resource needed to keep these highly specialized grafts could not be sustained by mere technology or from the marginally sustainable life energy of the user. He took a few of those specific ones as evidence.

The Android looked toward Jugan and Raltz periodically, but in Jugan's case, the wyvern remained content to stay in its master's shadow, the atmosphere remaining as silent and chilled as the entire mission had been so far.


Then the doors burst open with a few corpses gaiting through toward them. Jugan growled violently as it hobbled to Ark's 5 o'clock position to avoid being caught underfoot.

ALERT: NEW ENTITIES DETECTED.
LACK OF LIFE ENERGY. CLASSIFYING AS UNDEAD.
DESIGNATE AS HOSTILE.
AGGRESSION PROTOCOL INITIATED.
TARGET OUT OF RANGE. ADOPT DEFENSIVE TACTIC.

Ark put himself between the hobbling corpses and Raltz, shield especially at ready to fend off their blows.

INCOMING DATA: PROCESSING...
EVIDENCE OBSERVED: DANGEROUSLY MODIFIED GRAFTS, PRESENCE OF NECROANIMATION ROOM, MASS AVAILABILITY OF CORPSES IN TOWN VINCITY, ANIMATED CORPSES.
POSSIBLE HYPOTHESIS REACHED: SUSPECT AGENCY MASS-ACQUIRING and OUTFITTING CORPSES TO FORM ARMY CAPABLE OF REPLENISHING ITS FORCES BY CREATING MORE CORPSES.
WARNING: MISSING LINK IN DATA. CAUSE OF UNMARKED DEATHS UNKNOWN.
ADVISED COURSE OF ACTION: DEAL WITH PRESENT THREAT AND REGROUP.





---------------
Would it be possible for Ark to have taken one of the hand-cannons and one of the arm tentacles as evidence prior to battle start? Perverse power sources are very suspect!
Also, is there any sort of identifying mark like a brand symbol or something like that on them?

Defensive formation, in case they suddenly can charge or something.

[Teal Mage]

Bello's cuteness quickly convinced Kole to quietly accept - the admittedly hastily - drawn up plan to explore this floor. Arden breathed a soft sigh of relief, releasing Elsa's wrist as she did, and motioning for her to take the lead. Between the two of them, the Dark Knight was the one most likely to survive a hit. Formation settled, Arden waved a cheerful farewell to Raltz and Ark, before starting off. Idly, the White Mage's free hand busied itself with her robe, tucking and rolling it into her trade-mark skin baring attire - she'd had enough trying to negotiate long skirts for the day.

After parting ways with Kole and the Taruts, Arden and Elsa made their way down the short hallway that - apparently - would lead them into the Necroeranimation Chamber. Though they met no resistance, Arden's grip on her weapon's handle tightened. The shadow elemental force was strongest here - her finely tuned business sense told her that she might have made a bad call, coming here with Elsa alone.

Too late for regrets! The flat chested silver haired mage reflected, shrugging, as she followed her dauntless companion into the Shadow filled room.

Bathed in the stark white light of the Hospital, the room she found herself in was large and decidedly more mundane than she expected. Ranks of beds filled the chamber - most had a corpse on them. Unlike the ones they'd encountered earlier, these bodies were clearly damaged - apparently having been ripped over, with cybernetic implants placed within them. They hadn't been sewed up yet - bodies cavities just left open.

Like the rest of the city, there was neither the smell of decay, or any signs that scavenger animals had been here. "Definitely Shadow Magic." Arden murmured, "Too unnatural to be anything else." Her green eyes critically surveyed the room.

"I wonder if the corpse Raltz found by the gate was sewn up." She continued, mostly talking to herself, "If this is where the bodies get those implants..."

A chill swept through her suddenly, as the name of the room came to her with chilling clarity. Necroreanimation. An image of the undamaged corpse they'd discovered at the city's edge filled her mind. Dead Reanimation, Shadow Magic, Dead-

"Elsa-" She felt real panic for the first time since they'd arrived. Not poison, not drain spells, but-

And that was when she heard shuffling behind her. The screech of metal dragging against the unfinished floor of the hospital basement filled the air, as around them, eviscerated corpses rose haltingly from their beds. Arden didn't need to count them to know they were horrendously out-numbered. She did glance over her shoulder long enough to confirm that, yes, their way out was blocked by a corpse that seemed far more complete. That was bad.

"- Death Spells, they were killed by Death Spells!" Arden exclaimed hurriedly, feeling a cold sweat break out on her back. Eyes darting to the only other door in the room - it was only blocked by three of the less complete corpses, which weren't clear of their beds yet. "We have to rejoin the others - there's too many of them here!"

If they all start casting...

"Move!" Black boots pounding on the hospital floor, Arden darted toward the doorway that - hopefully - would lead to a cleared hallway, and the entrance to the data analysis room. She suddenly wished she'd spent more time training her body - and hoped that the corpses blocking the door were as clumsy as they looked.

Damn it, that Blue Mage was right.

* * * * * *

> Arden tries an Escape from Combat Roll. Aiming for junction in the hallway between the Necroreanimation and the Data Analysis rooms. Not sure how these rolls work.

[phil_]

As Bello deposited the presumably full Data Disc back into his pocket he heard something like "Tak, whump, Eeeeeee! Dr-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!" He didn't like what he saw when he whipped around.

"Holy body horror, Kole! I'll save you!" Bello whipped his knife out of his sleeve and leaped up at the wires around Kole's arm, grabbing on and stabbing for all his scrawny artist arms were worth.

--------------
Bello attacks the drill-wires (5+1d6 dmg).

[IHateMakingNames]

We're going to get attacked. We're going to get attacked. We're going to get attacked.

Kole was thinking this roughly every two seconds, which was double the amount he was thinking it in the last room. He was getting really nervous now. Despite getting the biggest group, he was expecting at least four people. Now he was alone with the two Taruts, who by weight only add up to one person. And Taruts hate Blue Magic, so clearly, in Kole's mind, these two must despise him and may be planning to get him killed. Perhaps they were cultist?

The blue mage was far to busy watching his back, and front, and every other side to deal with the data. Once the disk was filled, a normal person may have breath a sigh of relief. Maybe the mission would go without incident? But instead of that, Kole decided he needed to check the ceiling.

A collection of wires was falling from the ceiling at Kole. Not bothering to even think that they may just be normal wires falling out of a partially built roof, the nervous man jumped to the side to avoid them. He was right in dodging, as the wires then came to life and leap at him. The wires were unfortunately faster than Kole, and latched onto his arm before he could recover from his initial dodge. The wires formed a drill on one end and aimed for his arm.

In mostly a state of panic, Kole grabbed as close as he could to the end of the drill and pulled. He couldn't attack the wires as he had a katana and they were attached to his arm, plus it looked like one of the Taruts was about to leap onto his arm. The two forms of friendly fire ruled out the katana. All he had left was to brace for the drill, or try to pull the drill away and possibly the wires off completely. Kole went for the latter.

If only he could self-destruct.

-----------------

Strength check on wire pulling(?).

[Riin Whitewind]

Watching the computer monitors pulse with barely-constrained glee, Jhen clapped her hands together. The data disc ejected itself when it was finished, falling into Bello's waiting hands. Still turned towards the gigantic computer, she failed to notice the animated wiring hitting the floor.

Luckily, the attack wasn't aimed at her - and she was quickly brought up to speed by Bello's yell and Kole's panicked flailing. Not knowing much about magitek, the young Black Mage assumed it needed a control point - either a living controller from a distance, or say, the very large, conspicuous bank of computers at her side...

Wincing, and hoping all of the information was safely stored in Bello's data disc, Jhennek whipped her arm out to its full length and pointed a tiny finger at the 'main' section of the console.

-----
Jhennek begins to cast Thunder at the large computer.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Following behind the android, Raltz was content to lazily hold his sword and allow Ark to be the first one to step inside.

"Woo I smell some dirty secrets in here," Raltz said as he took a gander at the assortment of mechanical limbs and grafts. "I wonder how many laws this room breaks. Maybe some evidence gathering is in order? The people deserve the know right?"

INCOMING DATA: PROCESSING...
EVIDENCE OBSERVED: DANGEROUSLY MODIFIED GRAFTS, PRESENCE OF NECROANIMATION ROOM, MASS AVAILABILITY OF CORPSES IN TOWN VINCITY, ANIMATED CORPSES.
POSSIBLE HYPOTHESIS REACHED: SUSPECT AGENCY MASS-ACQUIRING and OUTFITTING CORPSES TO FORM ARMY CAPABLE OF REPLENISHING ITS FORCES BY CREATING MORE CORPSES.
WARNING: MISSING LINK IN DATA. CAUSE OR ORIGIN OF UNMARKED DEATHS EVIDENT IN PREVIOUS CORPSES UNKNOWN.
ADVISED COURSE OF ACTION: DEAL WITH PRESENT THREAT AND REGROUP.


"...yeah what you said," Raltz replied, raising an eyebrow. "Anyways, our employers are powerful guys. We can probably get a hold of one of these and they can figure it out." With nary a second thought, Raltz reached out and snatched one of the mechanical tentavle-whips on the shelf. It had crossed his mind that these things may be valuable, but the android's description gave the impression that there wouldn't a great market for them. Also he is a good guy(?), so no black market sales for him.

*Slam*

Upon the sound the door opening, Raltz immediately spun around to the sight (and smell) of the now moving corpses. "Oh godsdammit," he muttered, "I was only joking." In any case, it appeared Ark was playing his role as guard well and put himself between Raltz and the undead. The hume dropped the tentacle to the ground for the moment to grip his sword with both hands.

INCOMING DATA: PROCESSING...
EVIDENCE OBSERVED: DANGEROUSLY MODIFIED GRAFTS, PRESENCE OF NECROANIMATION ROOM, MASS AVAILABILITY OF CORPSES IN TOWN VINCITY, ANIMATED CORPSES.
POSSIBLE HYPOTHESIS REACHED: SUSPECT AGENCY MASS-ACQUIRING and OUTFITTING CORPSES TO FORM ARMY CAPABLE OF REPLENISHING ITS FORCES BY CREATING MORE CORPSES.
WARNING: MISSING LINK IN DATA. CAUSE OF UNMARKED DEATHS UNKNOWN.
ADVISED COURSE OF ACTION: DEAL WITH PRESENT THREAT AND REGROUP.

"Mhhm thats nice big guy," Raltz responded, standing his ground. "I'm willing to bet there will be more of them outside the hospital to, so I agree, lets find the others and get the fuck out of this fucking cemetery of a town before Kole's cultists come by. At the moment all I can think to do besides chopping is to heal them. Guess we should hold position?"

---

Follows suit with Ark.

[mauve]

"Ah," said Elsa as the corpses shuddered to life all around them, "Well, this explains a few things."

The room practically oozed dark magic. The sensation she had first felt at the city's gates was stronger than ever here. Of course, the presence of the mutilated and now animated corpses should have been a real telltale sign anyway.

"I've never liked hospitals," she grumbled. "I've always figured this kind of thing went on in the back rooms, you know? Funny to find out I was right."

Her companion, however, was absorbed in more pressing matters-- namely, the matter of being outnumbered in a room full of undead monstrosities. Hmph. Some people and their priorities.

"Death spells..." the White Mage gasped. "They were killed by death spells!"

"Hm. Sucks to be them, eh?" Elsa eyed the zombie who had stepped between them and the door. It appeared to be missing an arm, taking a sword on as a replacement limb. Elsa decided to call him Stabby.

"Right. I'll take care of Stabby here and we'll exit through the way we came--" She looked back over her shoulder in time to watch Arden make a break for the opposite door, across the room. "Oh. That way works too, I suppose." She shrugged. "No offense, Stabby, but it looks like plans have changed."

Not wanting to let the healer out of her sight, Elsa took off after Arden.

--------------
Moving to Arden's location. Escape roll? Regular movement? Both? I dunno. Your call, Krylo.

[Menarker]

"I'm willing to bet there will be more of them outside the hospital to, so I agree, lets find the others and get the fuck out of this fucking cemetery of a town before Kole's cultists come by. At the moment all I can think to do besides chopping is to heal them. Guess we should hold position?"


Jugan stood by Raltz in a mixed cacaphony of vicious growling and high pitched babyish babbling as Ark processed the alternative request considering the locations of the various facilities he observed along the way back to the cybernetic room.


ALTERNATIVE ACTION CONSIDERED.
SURROUNDING FACILITIES NEAR DATA ROOM CONSIST OF: FREEZER ROOM, OPERATION ROOM, NECROANIMATION ROOM.
SITUATION ANALYSIS: ALLIES IN OTHER GROUPS IN DANGEROUS PROBABILITY OF BEING SURROUNDED AND HAVING BLOCKED RETREAT ROUTE.
REVISED COURSE OF ACTION:
NEW PROTOCOL ACTIVATED: RETREAT AND REGROUP.

Ark stepped back and ran full distance back toward the entrance, stopping only for an instant to scoop Jugan onto his shoulder.

------------------
Retreat to back toward Data room, since Raltz is following suit with Ark.

[Krylo]

CYBERNETICS RESEARCH
Ark and Raltz

Backing out from the room and into the hallway you quickly realize that this isn't going to be as easy as seemed at first. Corpses are spilling out of the morgue and operating room in droves, mostly heading in your direction. The closest few are still a distance off, and unaugmented, but you can see more beyond them that have strange additions added to their bodies.

-----------
25 corpses. Closest are as follows:

2 unaugmented at medium distance, 1 sword zombie and three unaugmented within two rounds.
----------

NECROREANIMATION
Elsa, and Arden

Rushing forward, the two make to he door on the otherside of the room, though not quite through it yet, as a few of the corpses take swats at the passing pair, one of them even getting his necrotic hands on Elsa, though they, unsurprisingly, failed to penetrate her armor.

More corpses are awakening with every moment, though.

-------------
Four zombies short range.

Mook Zombie- 0 Damage to Elsa.

-------------
DATA STORAGE
Kole, Jhen, Bello

Kole attempts to pull the wires away, but to no avail. Luckily, the small tarut comes up to the rescue, his blade stabbing down through them, leaving only bits of broken wire to fall to the ground. Unfortunately, the blade also cuts into Kole's arm quite deeply.

As Bello pulls his knife out (probably with apologies?), more five more bundles of wires fall down to the ground about the room, each too far to attack yet, but they quickly begin to slither toward the small group.

Meanwhile, Jhen fires off a lightning spell into the computer banks, overloading and frying the entire system. However, it seems to have no effect on the cybernetic terrors moving in on them.
-------------
Kole fails strength check to remove.

Bello does 1 damage to wires, killing them.

Bello's overflow damage deals 6 damage to Kole.

Jhen- Does infinity +1 damage to computer. Computer is dead.

1 wires in short range of the party, 4 at medium range.

Kole- 17/23 hp

[Bard The 5th LW]

Seeing as how the android liked the "run away" idea, Raltz picked up the tentacle he had previously dropped and fled the area with the android and dragon. It would be good to leave with something.

As soon as they left though, Raltz fears were realized. There were certainly more. In fact, Raltz would bet his gil that every corpse in the entire area were going to soon rise up and eat their faces. "Seems we're outnumbered," Raltz noted, pointing towards the larger amount of corpses in the distance.

"Well I made the last decision," Raltz decided, "you're turn robot boy. Make it quick though, they're closing in. Do we run more, hide, or make a sort of last stand? I'm cool with whatever so long as our bodies are easy to identify when its all done with."

[IHateMakingNames]

"Thanks." Kole gave insincere, but not sarcastic, gratitude towards Bello. Though the little Tarut had just stabbed him in the arm, probably on purpose, Kole tried to stick with the obligatory politeness when it was due. In case his Tarut teammates were actually his teammates who didn't hate him, he needed it to stay like that.

Any moment of calm the Taruts, but not Kole, may have had was shortly lived when more wires fell from the ceiling. Already expecting it, the blue mage had his katana at the ready in both hands to fight them off. The little bard managed to cut the wires on Kole's arm easily, so it shouldn't be to hard to kill these wires. The issue was that they were outnumbered, and destroying them before they drilled into the less combat oriented little ones.

Kole took the initiative and slashed at the wires that dropped closest to the group.

------

Attack short range wires.

[Menarker]

"your turn robot boy. Make it quick though, they're closing in. Do we run more, hide, or make a sort of last stand? I'm cool with whatever so long as our bodies are easy to identify when its all done with."


Ark's normal eye suddenly glimmered brightly as his insight as a dragoon melded with the unerring and calculating drive of technology.

ENEMY SCANNED: ...

-------------
Ark scans animated corpses as an instant action. Will decide whether to attack or flee after you tell me its stats and such.

[mauve]

"Nice try," Elsa offered to the zombie who was ineffectively trying to claw her arm off. "Not going to work, though." As the corpse relinquished is hold, Elsa readied her scythe.

She winced slightly, hearing movement out in the hallway behind them. It didn't sound like the kind of noise an ally rushing to their aid would make.

"Sounds like our escape route is being cut off," she said. Arden's warnings about death spells surfaced again in her mind. Her armor might protect her from zombie claws, but a wall of death-spell-casting corpses wasn't something she felt confident about.

Well, if she was going to go down, she was going to go down fighting off a horde of zombies with a glorified farming tool, dammit. She raised her scythe and swung at one of the corpses which had moved in front of the door.

"So... do we have any plans aside from hitting things and trying not to die?" she asked.

-----------

Attacks zombie near the door.

[phil_]

Bello dropped down and was about to apologize for stabbing Kole's arm, but the wires dropping from the ceiling proved more pressing. Instead, he pulled out his harmonica in his left hand and played a chord. "DrmmM~?! Blue Mage! Time to run!" At odds with what he just said, Bello started to belt out a tune. "We gotta regroup!"

-----------

Herculean Etude is go!

[Teal Mage]

Silver hair swirling around her face, Arden lithely dodged the slow and clumsy strikes of the corpses near her chosen escape route. Landing with cat-like grace before the door, Arden chanced a glance behind herself - Elsa had followed her, good. The Dark Knight effortlessly tore herself free of one of the Undead's clutches. "Nice try," the armored woman breathed, "Not going to work, though." Her Sycthe's blade glittered wickedly in the chilling light of the Necroreanimation Chamber.

"Sounds like our escape route is being cut off," Elsa observed, gaze fixing on the single reanimated corpse blocking one half of the double doors. Her scythe flashed, a wicked arc of dark steel striking toward the enemy in her path.

"We can't get bogged down here then!" Arden called, whirling in place and stepping toward the door in front of her. The white mage's bared arm lashed out, as she threw all her weight against the swinging door before herself, throwing it wide open. Any Undead in the way of that would be sorry. Without wasting a second, Arden leapt into the door-cleared section of the hallway beyond, green eyes wary and alert.

"So... do we have any plans aside from hitting things and trying not to die?" Elsa called after her.

Arden thought telling the Dark Knight that she was just making this stuff up as she went along wasn't a very Captain-like response. She'd get back to Elsa on it later!

* * * * * *

> Improvised Attack using the Door on possible enemies outside of the Necroreanimation Room.

> Arden Moves into the hallway. Possibly using an Escape roll still?

[Menarker]

"ENEMY SCANNED: STRENGTH AND STAMINA IS HIGH.
ZOMBIES POSSESSING EXTRA ALTERATIONS AS PRESENT BY EXTRA METAL PLATINGS ARE VIRULENT ZOMBIES. HEURISTICS INDICATE POSSIBILITY OF POISON.
VIRULENT ZOMBIES CONGREGATING FROM THE OR ROOM.
COURSE OF ACTION: DELAY AND THIN CROWD. CREATE RETREAT ROUTE FOR ALLIES. YOU PREPARE ELEVATOR FOR BOTTLENECK SIEGE!"

Ark rushed toward the elevator, waiting for Raltz to get in, as he readied himself to mostly seal the doors, creating an extremely tight bottleneck. Jugan merely watched in disturbed silence from Ark's shoulder.

--------------------
Retreat to elevator, expecting Raltz to follow him. Mostly close doors, but leave very tight opening to gradually thin the numbers.

[Riin Whitewind]

Still wimpering at the apparently wasted destruction of the computer, Jhen watched more - unaffected! - animatronic wires crawl down from the roof. Bleeding from his arm, Kole took a swing at one of the closer ones, trying to avoid getting grabbed a second time.

She raised her hand into the air, light glinting in sparks off her armlets, preparing to launch another blaze of lightning into her foes. Bello intervened before she wasted any mana - suggesting they retreat for now and regroup with the rest of the party.

Well, he really said it to the Blue Mage, but Jhen was going to give him the benefit of the doubt! He wouldn't leave out the wonderful and helpful and kind and awesome Black Mage, Jhennek Scriven on purpose! It was just the stress, it got to people.

Reaching up on the tips of her toes, Jhen tried to get the only door to the room open, keeping an eye out for more strange wire-things.

----

Escape from combat roll to leave the Data Room and move into the hall next to Necroreanimation.

[Krylo]

NECROREANIMATION
Arden, Elsa

Elsa's scythe arcs true, slicing the zombie between her and Arden and the exit from shoulder to hip, cleanly in two. Taking no time to take head of this development, Arden charges directly out the door, kicking it open, and charging out to the sound of a sickening crack as the stainless steel door slammed viciously into the skull of a zombie just on the otherside.

Down the hallway, away from the data storage room, he can see a pair of corpses, their bodies a patchwork of flesh and machinery, obviously altered far more than normal. As they see her, they raise their arms, the flesh pulsing and writhing as though something is moving beneath. The sickening display quickening and becoming more grotesque and obvious, appearing as though a colony of large worms are writhing just below the surface--this can't be good.

Meanwhile, the rest of the zombies in the room close in on Elsa, their clumsy hands grabbing at the warrior with deadly, if inept, intent.
---------
PC Round

Elsa- Fuck you crit damage at Mook Zombie at the door.

Arden- 5 damage at zombie just outside door.

Inside Door Zombie- Reaped.

Outise Door Zombie- Come on dude, that was just embarrassing. You got killed by a door.

2x Virulent Zombie, Medium range from Arden. Door to data storage room, short range.

Elsa- 25/26 hp

ARDEN LEAVES COMBAT!

---------
NPC Round

Mook Zombie A- 1 Damage Elsa

Mook Zombie B- Miss

Mook Zombie C- Miss

Mook Zombie D, E, F- Moves to Short Range

Sword Zombie A- Moves to Short Range

All others- Move one round closer.

Map- Becomes unreadable because fuck you I'm not redrawing/selecting them all individually.

---------

DATA STORAGE
Kole, Bello, Jhen

Kole's Katana smashes the small bundle of wires to bits with ease, as Bello begins his song, even as he suggests that the group 'exit stage right'. Listening to his, most likely sagacious advice, Jhenneck moves with surprising speed to the door and swings it open to reveal Arden, with a pair of heavily altered corpses targetting the poor white mage with something that can not be good.

----------
PC Round

Jhen- Move to/open door

Bello- Herc. Etude

Kole- 13 Damage, Wires A

Wires A- Dead

Wires B, C, D- Move to short range of Kole/Bello.

Virulent Zombie A/B- Begins 'casting' infection

A WILD ARDEN APPEARS! It is short range from Jhen.

-----------

SOUTH HALLWAY
Raltz, Ark

Thinking, or computing, perhaps, quickly, the pair rush into an elevator, forming a choke point. Though they lose sight of most of the undead, they can still hear the shuffling footsteps, and it isn't long until a few come into view.

----------
PC Round
Raltz/Ark- Enter Elevator.

----------
NPC Round

Zombies, move closer. Distance between zombies and PCs remains consistent.

[IHateMakingNames]

Kole didn't particularly agree with retreating. Running is always a good option, but there were only four wires left and despite being alive they weren't any more resistant to breaking than normal wires. If the bard just pulled out his knife instead of playing a song the two could destroy all the wires. Even the little black mage could probably bash a bundle of wires apart with her staff, but she already started running.

Confused on what to do, since one of the Taruts ran but the other remained, Kole wasn't sure if he should stay and cut the wires or just run. He decided to take the middle road by swiping at the lone wires behind the group, and moving as close to the door as he could.

----

Attack wires behind group, move to door as much as possible.

[mauve]

Elsa admired her handiwork as the zombie's upper half slid free of its lower half. The two piles of flesh and machinery landed on the lab floor with a disgusting squelch of dead tissue.

"Now THAT," she said, "is how it's done, my friends." To her immense disappointment, the remaining horde seemed unmmoved by her victory.

"Don't all run away in terror at once," she said flatly. Apparently they were just war machines, as unfeeling as the mechanical devices implanted within them. Well that was a pity. Showboating wasn't fun if there wasn't a decent audience. Well, at least she had Arden.

"Well, I'm glad at least you can appreciate the work I put into th--Oh. You're gone." She turned to adress the white mage only to find an empty doorway. A shattered zombie skull which matched a pattern of shattered zombie brains on the steel door was the only evidence that the mage had been there moments before.

Elsa looked back at the horde. The zombies had trampled their fallen comrade's grisley remains and were advancing. There were a lot of them.

"......dammit all."Elsa spun on her heel and made for the hallway. She wasn't about to be caught without a healer in a room full of certain death. The zombies had other plans. Elsa avoided two pairs of flailing arms, but was caught off guard as a third zombie grabbed her arm.

"Augh. Hands off!" Elsa snarled, pulling herself free before it could do any major damage. She took off down the hall, trying to get to Arden before anything unfortunate happened.

The zombies surrounding the White Mage looked significantly less friendly.

-----
Escape (?), moving to Arden's position.

[Riin Whitewind]

Opening the door, the Tarut was tempted to shut it again at the sight of ambulent corpses milling about. Better to stay in a corner than risk getting flanked! Before she could, the door in front of her leading to the Necroreanimation Room slammed open, pulping a zombie between it and the wall.

And who should have opened it but Arden! Overjoyed at seeing the White Mage again, Jhen started to cheer, ignoring the pale, panicked look on her face. "Arden! Arden! We've got the -" Spotting the mostly-mechanized monstrocities looming behind, she cut herself off mid-jubilation. Nothing that twitched and jerked in such an unsightly manner would threaten her pretty Hume!

All movement and cheer gone, Jhennek leveled her arm at one of the zombies. Sparks danced around her hair and feet, while her eyes filled with a strange yellow glow. Concentrating, the miniature Black Mage prepared another bolt of lightning - this time, she wanted it to hurt.

----

Cast Thunder at Virulent Zombie B, please.

[phil_]

Bello wanted to run, but images of Kole learning some kind of drill Blue Magic kept filling his head. Between chords, Bello took a few swipes at the wires.

------

Attacking some wires that Kole isn't attacking because it seems like less of a dick move than running and leaving him alone.

[Teal Mage]

Steel struck flesh and shattered bone, as Arden landed lightly in the north-most hallway of the basement. Moments after, with a dull thud, the corpse of the unfortunate undead she'd defeated with the Necroreanimation's door struck the smooth hospital basement, where it lay unmoving. Not so tough after all. A triumphant grin spread over Arden's face, as the mage spun-

"Oh, Espers damnit."

Two Undead - apparently complete, their bodies a confused mess of grafts and shadow magic preserved skin - stood a short distance away, at the hallway's south end. Arden's smile became cheerfully tight, her foot sliding backwards on the floor, and face paling. "Right, I'll just get out of your wa-"

Their arms started to ripple. "Espers damnit!" She made to run!

"Arden! Arden! We've got the -" Jhennek appeared in the doorway behind her.

If I move then she'll -

Growling, Arden's green eyes flashed with pale light. Her legs tensed, hair swirling, as she leveled her gaze on the enemies at the far end of the hallway. Her black boots pushed off the floor beneath her, as the White Mage threw out an explosive burst of speed. Dashing forward, silver mane and cotton half-skirt billowing in her wake, Arden made for the space directly between the Undead Monstrosities. Dimly, she registered the sounds of doors swinging open and armor clanking - Elsa was entering the hallway. She also felt magical energies - Jhen, most likely - stir at her back.

But not her front.

Even as she neared the undead, half expecting to be thrown screaming into oblivion by one of the darkest spells she knew of every second, Arden carefully tracked the shadow magic saturated air around her. There were no changes - the creatures weren't casting.

Has to work. She thought desperately coming to a stop between them. Weight balanced on her toes, the silver haired mage prepared to spring away in a backflip. With luck, she'd avoid getting hit.

With a lot of luck, this would make the Undead creatures hit each other with whatever they had up their sleeves.

In retrospect, Arden had to wonder if this was the stupidest thing she’d ever done.

Probably was.

* * * * * *

> Arden: Move Medium Distance, end move between Zombies.

> Unusual Manuevers: Try to get the Virulent Zombies to hit each other with Infection/Dodge their Attack! Hope for the best!

[Krylo]

DATA STORAGE
Kole, Bello, Jhen, Arden

As the two zombies prepare some kind of vile attack, Jhen prepares one of her own, magical energy crackling about her tiny body like lightning. And, as she focuses her spell, Arden dashes past the newly arriving Elsa, sliding to a stop between the two zombies, whom track the dashing white mage with their pulsing fleshy hands. The white mage tenses, and suddenly the creature's arms to either side of her erupt, bundles of wires streaking out.

Attempting to backflip out of the way of the attacks, Arden finds herself moving just a fraction too slow, one of the bundles of wires wrapping around her ankle just before it can get out of the way, as the other misses her entirely and wraps itself around the throat of of the zombie opposite of her. Though it quickly unravels itself.

Meanwhile, Elsa finds she has her own problems, as a pair of corpses follows her into the hallway.

Just as Arden lands, a streak of pure elemental energy rips through the air with a crack of thunder, and strikes one of the zombies near him. The energy rips through the creature, and the smell of burning flesh permeates the hallway, but it somehow maintains its footing.

In the Data Room proper, however, Kole and Bello easily dispatch their pair of wires. The last bundle of wires leaps toward Kole, only to have the blue mage sidestep the thing, which falls on the ground nearby.
----------
PC Round

Arden moves medium distance to Virulent Zombies.

Kole/Bello Kill Wires B/C.

A WILD ELSA APPEARS! It is Medium Distance from Jhen and Arden (in opposite directions).

Mook Zombie A/B/C/D/E/F and Sword Zombie A- Medium Distance from Elsa, Long Distance from Arden/Jhen
-----------
NPC Round

Virulent Zombie A/B spawn Wires E and F and Launch them.

Wires E- Attached to Arden, prepares to infect leg.

Wires F- Thwaps Virulent Zombie A in the face and then falls to the ground.

Wires D- Attack Kole, Miss.

Mook Zombie A/B, Move to short range of Elsa.
-----------
PC Round

Jhen- 45 Damage, Virulent Zombie B.

Virulent Zombie B- 18/63

SOUTH HALLWAY
Raltz, Ark

As the pair wait, the zombies move closer.

----------
PC Round
Raltz/Ark- Defend.

----------
NPC Round

Zombies, move closer. Mook Zombie A/B move to short range. Only one zombie may be attacked/attack via melee. Mook Zombie C moves to medium range.

[Teal Mage]

Landing lightly, Arden growled her frustration, eyes flicking to the Undead struck by Jhen's spell. "Let's see how you like it!" The White Mage snapped, darting forward. Throwing herself in to a quick, vicious spin, Arden's wire-wrapped ankle snapped out, as she launched at kick at the Undead who'd managed to hit her with...whatever the wires were.

Using the momentum of her kick, attack successful or not, Arden threw herself backward, into another backflip. Agilely springing off her hands, Arden landed a short distance away from the pair of Undead. Hopefully, without a mass of wires on her ankle.

"Jhen, Bello, Kole! Get the hell out of that room and run!"

* * * * * *

> Arden makes an Unarmed attack on Zombie B - and an Improvised Attack on the Wires around her Ankle, simultaneously.

> Arden moves a short-range away from the Zombies.

[Menarker]

Ark quickly placed down his Remedy on the floor beside him for Raltz to hold.

CONDITIONAL USE: TO BE EXPENDED IF I MALFUNCTION.

Ark then slashed powerfully with the intent to try to sever the top torso from the legs, rendering it immobile if not dead.

-----------------
Ark makes Remedy available to Raltz.

Ark attacks the zombie that is first in entering the bottleneck.

[Bard The 5th LW]

"Alright, we're cornered now, this has its ups and downs," Raltz said with a forced grin. Ark didn't seem to run, so Raltz figured they'd be best standing back.

CONDITIONAL USE: TO BE EXPENDED IF I MALFUNCTION.

"...you can malfunction?" this was not doing much for the Red Mage's situation. Ark shortly after went in for the strike "Alright, I got you then" Raltz said, dropping the tentacle to get the Remedy.

Taking a brief step forward, Raltz raised his sword and went for a stab to the torso the moment after Ark's slice was concluded.

---

Attacks same zombie as Ark

[phil_]

The flash of Jhennek's lightening burst through the door to the Data Storage room. Arden's words followed shortly thereafter. It was kind of like thunder and lightening, except the thunder was an angry White Mage yelling at Bello and Kole. The lightening was still lightening, though.

Bello paused his playing long enough to yell, "Forget the wires; everyone's waiting!" He then made his way to the door as quickly as one playing a harmonica can.

------

Bello's headed for the hall. Movement and all that.

[IHateMakingNames]

Apparently, there were issues happening outside of the data room as well. Hundreds of dangerous scenarios went through Kole's mind. he narrowed the likely suspects down to evil wire robots, corpse reanimation, or cultist attack.

It didn't seem wise to leave a single wire left, but Kole figured if it became an issue he could cut it apart when that happens. For now he ran with Bello towards the door.

---

Run to door.

[Riin Whitewind]

Jhennek heard the frantic command from her White Mage friend, but found she couldn't comply just yet. Bello and Kole were still in the room - if she ran now, they'd be stuck behind the zombies without back-up. And that just wouldn't be right!

Shifting her focus away from the zombie she'd blasted before - a sturdy thing, for a corpse! - a stubby finger pointed at the one next to it. As before, shining gold filled her eyes as lightning streaked over her frame, waiting for release.

---

Cast Thunder on Virulent Zombie A.

[Krylo]

DATA STORAGE
Kole, Bello, Jhen, Arden

Letting out a surprisingly powerful kick, Arden's ankle smashes against the skull of the target of her choice, knocking it reeling as well as shattering the wires off her ankle. Unfortunately, it isn't exactly comfortable for her leg.

As Arden regains her footing, she finds a tower of black steel between her and her adversaries. A welcome diversion to be sure, especially as the creatures move to attack their new target. The zombies' attacks remained as clumsy as ever, and were easily sidestepped, but the small bundle of wires proved to be more agile as it leapt from the ground, and quickly squirmed up to the break in armor between Elsa's breast plate and her helmet. She could feel them wrapping about her neck with potentially deadly intent.

In the Data Room proper, Kole and Bello ran to the the door way, a small bundle of wires following close behind. They were persistant little things, if nothing else. They all arrived just in time for the flash of light that followed Jhenneck's calling upon the powers of magic once more, shaping them into a deadly bolt with her mind alone, to much the same effect as before.
----------
PC Round

Arden- 7 Damage Zombie B, 6 Damage to Self, 1 Damage to Wires

Elsa- Move to Short Distance from Arden. Medium Distance from Jhen.

Kole/Bello-Move to Short Range from Jhen. Medium Distance from Arden/Elsa/Zombies

Mook Zombie A/B- Move to Short Distance from Jhen, Medium Distance from Arden/Elsa/Virulent Zombies

Virulent Zombie B- 11/63

Wires E- Dead

Arden- 14/20

Kole- 17/23
-----------
NPC Round

Virulent Zombie A/B-Miss Elsa like bitches.

Wires F- Latch onto Elsa.

Wires D- Follow Kole/Bellow.

Mook Zombies C/D- Move to short range of Jhen

Mook Zombie A/B, Move to short range of Elsa.

Virulent Zombie B- 11/63

Arden- 14/20

Kole- 17/23
-----------
PC Round

Jhen- 47 Damage, Virulent Zombie B.

Virulent Zombie B-16/63

Virulent Zombie B- 11/63

Arden- 14/20


SOUTH HALLWAY
Raltz, Ark

Hacking with his blade, Ark slashes a zombie directly in half, two lifeless chunks falling to the ground. Its ally moves in to take its place, but coming from over the android's shoulder is Raltz's blade, piercing it through the eye, leaving it too, to fall onto the ground, returned to the sweet sleep of death.

But the battle was far from over, as another creature moved against the door, and yet more could be seen gathering further away.

----------
PC Round

Ark- 15 Damage Mook Zombie A

Raltz- 12 Damage Mook Zombie B

Both are dead.

----------
NPC Round

Mook Zombie C moves to Short Range.

Mook Zombie D/E and Sword Zombie A move to medium range.

[Teal Mage]

Her ankle throbbed as she hit the ground; Arden felt her balance slip for an instant. Not good. The mage's eyes flashed toward the Zombies - only to find a tower of black-stained bone armor interposing itself between Arden and the undead menace. "Elsa!" Relief flooded the mage - though it was short lived, as she spied motion from the Living Wire the undead had spawned earlier.

"Look ou-" Arden's warning came a second too late, as the device found its way past Elsa's armored case. The White growled again, pupils dilating to slits. "Sorry about this!" She leveled her gun at her ally's wire-coated neck. "I'll heal you right away, I promise!"

Gunfire erupted.

It was a good thing bronze bullets sucked at penetrating skin.

"'ware the doors!" Arden shouted over her shoulder, toward where her allies would be gathering. "There was an Undead with a sword in there when we left!"

* * * * * *

> Attack Wires F.

[Menarker]

Jugan jumped up and down excitably as Ark and Raltz both made their respective smelly mean bullies fall to the floor in dead clumps!

Ark readied his blade as more zombies approached.

"EVIDENCE OBSERVED!
RATING OF UNALTERED CORPSES' STAMINA: INFERIOR!
PRIOR VISUAL DATA RETRIEVED: UNALTERED CORPSES COMPROMISE THE LARGEST PROPORTIONS OF ENEMY FORCES.
NEW PROPOSED PLAN: EXTERMINATE UNALTERED CORPSES.
CURRENT FORCES EXIT ELEVATOR JUST PRIOR TO PRESENCE OF ALTERED ZOMBIES. PROCURE EXIT ROUTE FOR ALLIES."

Ark swung his blade once again, as his calcuating mentality steered his arm's motor coordination to repeat the performance of the prior attack that had been successful seconds ago.

[mauve]

Elsa barreled through the growing crowd of zombies, aiming for the White Mage's attackers. If Arden fell, their group was out of a healer. If they lost their healer, there was no one to keep Elsa from dying. And if Elsa died, she couldn't get paid. Elsa liked money almost as much as she liked killing things. Therefore, keeping Arden alive was now a priority.

Oh yeah, and those other folks on her team too, she guessed.

The armor-clad woman slid to a halt between Arden and the attacking horde, easily dodging their clumsy attacks. Her face erupted into a wicked grin as her grip tightened on the scythe's haft.

"Come and fight me!" she roared. "I'll--Acckhh!" A flash of silver from her left, the sound of steel scraping armor, and Elsa felt something wrap around her throat. One hand flew to her neck as she staggered backwards, feeling her breath being cut off by steel wires wrapping tighter around her throat. Well, this wasn't going well.

"Sorry about this!"

Elsa heard the White Mage offer an apology. Uh oh. Elsa was getting killed and the resident healer was apologizing for something. This did not bode well.

The Dark Knight turned just in time to see the Mage level a gun at her.

FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU----


-------

Defend, I guess?

[Riin Whitewind]

Copper-colored curls bristling with static, the young Black Mage looked a sight. Panting, one hand clutched to her chest, Jhen let her arm fall to her side with a jingle of bracelets. Throwing lightning took a toll on her, but didn't seem to faze either of her targets - and more could be seen clambering to join them.

We should go find Ark and Raltz... Fretting wasn't going to do any of them any good, but she couldn't help feel a twinge of worry. If the five of them were having trouble, the duo couldn't be much better off. They didn't have her there providing artillery, after all!

Raising her arm again, lightning once again filling the air with the scent of ozone, she pointed a finger at one of the injured zombies. If they couldn't find a path, she'd blast one open for them.

Of course, she watched where Elsa and Arden were very carefully! It wouldn't do to accidentally hit them, that would be very painful. Friends don't strike friends! But... What was Arden doing? Why was she sorry?

Agast, the Tarut watched as Arden leveled her gun at her Black Knight friend. Jhen's finger shifted - from the zombie. To Arden. To the zombie. To Arden. She couldn't just let Arden fire at her friend! But she was a friend, too!

Dropping her arm again, the light and charge of lightning fading away to nothing, Jhennek carefully ran towards the pair. She couldn't bring herself to fire at her friend! But maybe she could go see what would cause such a horrible darkening of heart in the White Mage.

As she moved around the mechanized corpses attempting to close in on her, Jhen took a moment to examine them. A pity she didn't have more time! Though, she had so many questions, could time really answer them all? Reanimation sounded like an enlightening experience, at the least!


----

Escape from mooks, to head towards Elsa/Arden, a bit past them if possible.

[IHateMakingNames]

Kole's retreat to the door revealed the threat his party faced. Cyborg zombies. All those bodies had to do something. And those of those corpses were standing near the little black mage. Kole prepared to cut one of the zombies in half, but then Jhen took off running again. Not wanting to waste any valuable retreating time, he ran off after the little girl and towards the cat fight with the other women in his party.

---

Run down hallway.

[phil_]

Not wanting to be left behind in this strange new world of zombies and mega-zombie, Bello hustled along with Kole to join Arden and Elsa's little love-in with the wires.

------

Run down hallway x2.

[Krylo]

DATA STORAGE
Kole, Bello, Jhen, Arden

Raising her gun uncomfortably the white mage fired off an amazingly controlled shot, skimming by Elsa's skin and blasting off the collection of wires with not more than a mere scratch appearing from the passing bullet. The two didn't have long to rest however, as Elsa was forced to sidestep attacks from the pair of zombies that had followed her from the last room, and the Taruts and Blue Mage came running in, with their own set of zombies (and another bundle of wires following.)

This seemed to be the least of their problems, however, as the two more altered corpses' arms began to ripple and pulse once more, this time with one pointing toward Jhennek and the other toward Elsa. Behind them, more walking corpses spilled from the necroreanimation chamber.
----------
PC Round

Arden- 1 Damage Wires F. 1 Damage Elsa.

Elsa- Defend. Take 1 Damage from Arden.

Kole/Bello/Jhen-Move to Short Range from Arden/Elsa/Virulent Zombies.

Virulent Zombie A-16/63

Virulent Zombie B- 11/63

Wires F- Dead

Arden- 14/20

Elsa- 24/26
-----------
NPC Round

Virulent Zombie A-Begin casting Infection at Jhennek

Virulent Zombie B-Begin casting Infection at Elsa

Wires D- Follow Kole/Bello/Jhen.

Mook Zombie A/B- Miss Elsa

Mook Zombie C/D-Move to Short Range of everyone.

Sword Zombie A-Move to Medium Range of everyone.

Mook Zombie E- Move to Medium Range of everyone

Virulent Zombie A- 16/63

Virulent Zombie B- 11/63

Elsa- 24/26

Arden- 14/20
-----------



SOUTH HALLWAY
Raltz, Ark

They say that a sign of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different circumstances. The logical inverse of this statement was proven true as Ark swung his blade in exactly the same way, and cut down another zombie in much the same manner.

Meanwhile, Raltz called upon the powers of holy in this dark place to burn the flesh of the more altered zombie, hoping to weaken it before it could come too close, though it did little to slow it as it continued to advance with its allies.

----------
PC Round

Ark- 18 Damage Mook Zombie C

Raltz- Cast Cure, Sword Zombie A. 13 Damage.

Mook Zombie C- Dead

Sword Zombie A- 50/63
----------
NPC Round

Mook Zombie D/E and Sword Zombie A move to Short range. Attackable order-Mook Zombie D, Mook Zombie E, Sword Zombie. Can not attack, either, outside of that order. (Don't kill zombies D AND E unless you want Sword Zombie A to attack you on its round.)

[phil_]

Bello glared angrily at the wires. "I thought we left you behind. It didn't have to be this way, wires!"

Or, he would've said that, but it wasn't worth interrupting his playing. Instead, he opted to show his disappointment with the stupid wires by stabbing them dead.

------

Use Dagger on Wires D.

[IHateMakingNames]

The retreat had to come to a halt when the two cybernetically enhanced zombies started preparing for zombie attack. One was aiming at Jhen, and the other at Elsa. Jhen was a small Tarut Black Mage that Kole felt responsible for guarding, and the other was a potentially cultist Dark Knight. Kole didn't even break his stride to decide which zombie to attack. He gripped his katana with both hands and swung down on the cyber-zombie aiming it's menacing pulsing arm at Jhennek.

And hey, if Kole accidentally got hit by the attack, maybe his Blue Mage blood would react. But the thought to protect his teammates came first, if only by a small margin.

---

Attack Virulent Zombie A.

[mauve]

Elsa let out a sigh of relief, finding that the wires around her neck were gone and she herself was amazingly not full of bullets.

But even so.

"Don't. Ever. Do. That. Again." That was as close to a thank-you as Arden would be getting for saving Elsa's life.

She hefted the scythe once more, returning her focus to the zombies. One was particularly worrying-- a zombie had pointed a grisley finger at her, the flesh along its arm rippling unnaturally. Well THAT probably wasn't good.

Kole flung himself at the wormy-zombie's counterpart, looking ready to slice it to ribbons. Here now. Elsa couldn't let herself be outdone by HIM, could she?

"Of course not! RRRAAAAAGHHH!" Answering her inner monologue aloud, the Dark Knight rushed her undead attacker, scythe raised high.

----
Attack Virulent Zombie B

[Menarker]

Jugan's mood was increasingly jubliant as corpses hit the floor. Ark however remained as stoic as ever, the task of survival still very much incomplete. He slashed powerfully at one of the weak undeads trying to force their way in. The Android then took one single step in, blocking the doorway and kept his shield up close to the entrance of the door, fending off the other weak zombie that was also in its comrade's way while preventing Raltz from trying to attack it.


PRESENT OPPOSING FORCES INCLUDE ENHANCED CORPSES!
REVISING TACTICS!
RED MAGE: CEASE MAGIC CASTING CURRENTLY!
PROPOSED TACTICS: REMAIN PRESENT UNTIL SIGNALED! UPON THAT SIGNAL, ATTACK UNENHANCED ZOMBIE! MY SUBSEQUENT ACTION IS TO FORCE THE ENHANCED UNDEAD ASIDE AND SURVEY THE CURRENT FORCES FOR FAVORABLE CONDITIONS!
IF TRUE: YOU EXIT ELEVATOR AND ELIMINATE UNENHANCED CORPSES.
END RESULT: PREVENT ALLIES ESCAPE ROUTE BEING BLOCKED WITH APPROACHING FORCES!"

---------------------------
Ark attacks closest mook undead. Prevents Raltz from trying to attack the other remaining mook zombie (which is preventing the sword zombie from approaching) and advises Raltz to be in defensive position and wait for next turn's action.

[Teal Mage]

The evil animatronic wire had been mortally wounded by her bronze bullet, and even now, lay still on the floor of the hallway. Beside it, Elsa let out a sigh of relief - one which Arden echoed. She didn't know what those wires did, but when Shadow Magic was involved, it was always better to shoot first and treat mortal wounds right after, questions were for-

"Don't. Ever. Do. That. Again." Elsa growled, turning her attention back to the Undead blocking their path.

Following the Dark Knight's gaze, Arden grimaced, feeling herself lose color again. The skin of their cybernetically enhanced foes were crawling again. "No promises." Arden muttered, flicking another bronze bullet into the weapon's chamber. She might have to shoot more of her allies before this was over!

Kole charged past her! It looked like he meant business. Arden had wondered if his katana was just for show, the way he jumped at the slightest sound. She hoped for Jhennek's sake that he could manage it.

Shrugging, Arden's eyes began to glow with pale blue light. Lips moving in a soundless incantation, the colors of her cotton robes and silver hair brightened and intensified, responding to the Holy Magic that stirred around her. She raised her hand over her head, faint aquamarine sparkles appearing at her fingertips...

"Everyone, get ready to run!" Arden called, trying to keep an eye on the Undead behind, and in front of, her at the same time.

It was a difficult proposition.

* * * * * *

> Arden casts Cure on herself.

[Krylo]

DATA STORAGE
Kole, Bello, Jhen, Arden

Slashing downward with his little dagger, Bello cleanly ends the existance of the small bundle of wires, even as Elsa's scythe rends through the burnt flesh of one of the zombies infront of the small group, and Jhennek begins calling on the powers of the elements once more. Unfortunately, Kole's strike goes wide, and the zombie's arm continues to pulse.

Arden begins to gather the energy to heal her own wounds as the undead horde moves in, swiping at the white mage, its heavy blow nearly breaking her concentration, but the spell still finishes, nearly all of her wounds healing. Meanwhile, other zombies move in on Elsa, Kole, and Bello. The black knight's armor easily deflected the creature's clumsy blows, while Kole was able to remove himself from the path of the strike with ease, but Bello was not so lucky, catching the zombie's hand against his small face.

The zombie Kole failed to strike down, meanwhile, gains the chance to launch another bundle of wires, along with a burst of blood, from its pulsing arm, that quickly wrap themselves around Jhennek's arm.

However, just as they do so, her spell finishes and her body becomes covered in an aura of elemental energies that spike out and destroy the small creature.
----------
PC Round

Bello- Kill wires D

Kole- Miss

Elsa- 23 Damage, Virulent Zombie B

Jhennek- Begin casting elemental spikes.

Virulent Zombie A-16/63

Virulent Zombie B- Dead

Arden- Begins casting cure.

Wires D- Dead

Arden- 14/20

Elsa- 24/26
-----------
NPC Round

Virulent Zombie A-Spawns Wires A, Launches at Jhennek

Wires A-Wrap around Jhennek's arm.

Mook Zombie A- Hit Elsa for 0 Damage

Mook Zombie B- Hit Arden for 6 Damage

Mook Zombie C- Hit Bello for 7 Damage

Mook Zombie D- Miss Kole

Sword Zombie A/Mook Zombie E-Can move no closer

Virulent Zombie A- 16/63

Elsa- 24/26

Arden- 8/20

Bello- 15/22
-----------
PC Round

Jhennek Finishes casting Elemental Spikes. Leaving it up to Riin which element.

Wires A- Dead.

Arden- Cures self for 9 hp.

Virulent Zombie A- 16/63

Elsa- 24/26

Arden- 17/20

Bello- 15/22



SOUTH HALLWAY
Raltz, Ark

With a powerful blow, Ark sends the head of the nearest zombie spinning to the ground, but the next moves in to take its place, its blow coming with surprising strength--enough to be felt even through the Android's heavy armor. Directly on his augmented arm.

----------
PC Round

Ark- Kills Mook Zombie D

Raltz- Defend

Mook Zombie D- Dead

Sword Zombie A- 50/63
----------
NPC Round

Mook Zombie E- 0 Damage. Breaks Ark's Heavy Arm graft. Ark suffers -2 Strength until it can be repaired. -2 Dex penalty remains as per graft rules.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Raltz hung back content to let Ark handle it, and watched as he took the attack. He didn't seem too injured, at least externally, but the attack looked like it may have hurt under the armor. its always good to lend a hand, right?

"Hey big guy, you okay?" Raltz asked, hoping fervently for a yes. "How about I give you a helping hand?" Making his way back to the front lines, he raised his sword and went for a straight horizontal slash across the neck of the zombie. Ark would follow right up with an attack of his own, right?

---

Ralts - attack mook zombie E

[Menarker]

Jugan rapidly shifting contanence shifted to a vicious glare as the dragon started scraping its clawed feet against the elevator floor.

"Hey big guy, you okay? How about I give you a helping hand?"

POWER ARM SUFFER INTERNAL DAMAGE!
REROUTING POWER FROM FULL POWER TO BASIC FUNCTIONALITY UNTIL REPAIRED!

Ark then braced his foot against the floor for a briefest moment, holding the shield between himself and the sword zombie. With an unconscious grunt of effort, Ark bolted through the door, throwing his body weight against the weaponbearing zombie in the attempt to push it back, maybe even knock it over.

Jugan followed the steel warrior, pumping its arm up and down with excitement, oblivious to how he and Ark were practically playing at being trains.

DESIGNATED TACTIC: EXIT ELEVATOR! EXTERMINATE UNENHANCED ZOMBIES. CLEAR EXIT ROUTE FOR ALLIED UNITS!

-----------------

Ok, let me explain what I'm trying to do...

Raltz attacked the closest zombie (the unenhanced zombie), thus removing another attacker (assuming he didn't miss) but also making room for the sword zombie.
Ark is combining his move action and strength check to do a full out charge attack using the shield to push it back and maybe knock it over.

Awareness check on surrounding zombies if able.

Trying to get Raltz to exit elevator and start attacking mook zombies, or otherwise, clearing/drawing away zombies that would block the exit route of the other group members.

[Teal Mage]

"Son of a -" Arden bit off her curse, quickly regaining her balance from the surprisingly strong blow. Around her, the faint holy aura of white magic steadied, jostled by the unexpected burst of pain, before flaring brightly. "Cure!" Arden's arm snapped out to the side, motes of white, green and aquamarine energy sparkled, filling the air around her for an instant. Her bruises faded, the throbbing in her leg vanishing entirely, and tenderness in her chest lessening to a dull ache.

There was a break in the ring of Undead around them. "Bello, Jhennek, get on Kole and Elsa!" Arden called, jamming her pistol into the holster at her waist. "We've stayed here too long!" The way the Undead from the Necroreanimation room had surrounded them probably made her point obvious. "I'll try to draw their attention - heal yourselves with potions if things get tight. Make for the Elevator!" Arden added, darting forward.

The mage flashed a cheerful salute - which she didn't really feel - over her shoulder, before dashing off, boots pounding a quick rhythm down the Undead clogged hallway.

Maybe she'd even survive!

Why, she wondered idly, am I doing so many stupid things today?

* * * * * *

> Escape Roll.

> Arden moves a Medium Distance toward the Elevator.

[Riin Whitewind]

Clad in a shimmering cloak of lightning, Jhen scooped up a piece of the wires that so recently threatened her. Holding it up towards the steady light above, she squinted at it. I wonder if this section holds anything important..?

And then dropped it at Arden's yell. "Bello, Jhennek, get on Kole and Elsa!" Surprised, the Tarut sized up both potential mounts. Elsa was covered in heavy armor - which if necessary would conduct lightning so very well!

It was decided! With a bound and a leap, the tiny mage latched onto Elsa's belt and started climbing her way up to the shoulder. Seating herself securely, Jhennek gleefully pointed after the retreating Arden - "Follow that mage!"

---

Do I need to make a roll to climb or escape? Not sure.

[mauve]

"Right-o," Elsa replied to Jhen, choosing to ignore the fact that she had just been demoted to the role of packmule. Zombies were coming and the white mage was leaving. Time to make an escape with whatever dignity she could muster while running away from a fight with a Tarut on her shoulder.

Breaking into a run, Elsa went for the elevator.

-------------

Escape!

[IHateMakingNames]

Kole, deeply upset that he completely missed the zombie, had little time to mull over that fact. So he only had a bit of time to worry about it. How the team may now die because of it, regardless of the black mage rendering the zombie attack useless. And if it was obvious he missed to everyone else, he may become ridiculed or kicked off the team. Worse yet, that may have been a spell he could have absorbed, despite it's mechanical nature.

Regardless, Kole grabbed the little bard and ran.

---

Pick up Bello and escape.

[phil_]

"Hey! Wait! What-!" was all Bello could spit out as Kole grabbed him like a sack of potatoes. "Ok, I can roll with this. Time for a change of pace, anyway," he thought before taking a breath and reversing his song.

------

Bello plays Reversed Herculean Etude.

[Krylo]

Dashing down the hall way, the small group of of adventurers struggles through swathes of zombies, and near misses. Only two of the creatures manage to lay hands upon them, despite their numbers. One upon Kole, leaving little more than a bruise, and one upon Jhennek, the weakened zombie's pawing hardly noticeable through her thick robes--though the lightning that traveled back through them was certainly noticeable to it, as it fell to the ground burnt and twitching.

As they ran, they quickly came into sight of their Android and Red Mage companions, who were busy attempting to thin the numbers of the horde, and they had succeeded admirably, surrounded by corpses. The android seemed to have fared with almost no wounds, and Raltz was nearly as healthy, bearing only a few bruises.

Seeing the rest of the small group coming, however, they quickly retreated into the elevator, and soon the small box was carrying them up stairs. The doors opened back onto the research lab on the third floor, and nothing seemed out of place.

There are, thankfully, no zombies here.
-------------

Rolled five athletics rolls for everyone (35 rolls altogether), added together, added combined--and multipled by five--athletics score of the group, compared to target numbers to see how many rounds it would take to get to the elevator (315, meaning an average of 9 on every roll, would have gotten you there in 5 rounds, you rolled 296, so 10), I had you get hit for each critical failure (two), and subtracted a round for each crit success (1, so 9 rounds). I then, because I was rolling them as batches of 14 die at a time, used a random number generator to decide who would be hit.

Then I took the number of rounds and used that to guesstimate how many times Raltz and Ark would be open to attack in that time. I assumed all mook zombies, because I'm nice like that. I then rolled the attacks, divied them up evenly (Ark got hit once more than Raltz thanks to losing the coin toss), and applied damage.

All damage was applied after the effects of Phil's song.

Thank Phil, everyone, but especially Raltz. Who was saved from 9 extra damage.

ALSO: I will be considering it 'end of combat' once you get out of this city in so far as effects and what not go. That means that Jhen still has her lightning shield.

EDIT: I GUESS I SHOULD POST HOW MUCH DAMAGE WAS TAKEN:

Kole- 3 damage
Jhen- 0 Damage (zombie who did this is dead)
Ark- 0 Damage
Raltz- 7 damage (May have tossed himself a cure or something during that if he likes and reduce damage taken to 0 in exchange for 5 mp

[phil_]

Still under Kole's arm, Bello looked around the elevator and asked with a smirk, "So, did you guys find anything interesting?"

------

I guess the song ended for now. We don't need extra elevator music.

[Teal Mage]

The Elevator doors closed behind them, their heavy metal effectively cutting the - miraculously alive still - group off from the undead filled basement. Leaning against one of the elevator's walls, Arden breathed a relieved sigh, slumping slightly. I never, ever, what to do that again. She was quiet for a few moments, while the Elevator rose, as she allowed her breathing to calm.

Soon after, she nodded to herself, and straightened, surveying the worst of the damage from the run. Elsa was okay, the Dark Knight might have a bruise or two through her armor, but nothing worth expending magic on. Jhennek on the other hand looked a little fatigued; not so much to be a problem yet, but she'd need to monitor her. If Jhennek ran out of magical strength before this was over, it would be a problem.

Meanwhile, the Mage's eyes moved to her other companions. Ark's mechanical arm looked a little off, but her Cure Spell wouldn't work on machines. Raltz looked pretty beat up, but he was supposed to know Healing Magic, so he'd be able to take care of his own wounds. Bello...the little Bard had taken a pretty nasty hit back before they'd run off, but would probably be alright as long as he stayed near the back of the group. With a town likely full of undead to contend with, she'd have to be conservative with her spells.

Which left Kole. The Blue Mage was pretty bruised and had a few cuts. She didn't really like him, but they were still a fair distance from the town's exit, and with the threat of Death Magic still present, a Blue Mage might be useful. The profile said he was resistant to lethal magic, Arden considered, nodding slowly.

Bello asked if any one had anything to report - Elsa could answer for her.

"Kole," Arden stated, "I'm going to heal you, don't move." She began to chant softly...

* * * * * *

"Cure." Sparkling motes of pale blue-green glittered around Kole, as the Blue's wounds vanished. By then, the Elevator's doors had opened. Nothing seemed to have changed, but...

"Ark," The White Mage stated, "please take point. Elsa, Kole, I'd like you both to follow him a pace or so behind him. Watch out for casting monsters - the amount of Shadow Energy around us means Death spells remain a possibility. Raltz, I realize you use a sword, but please try to stay back from the fighting, you're a stronger healer than I am. Bello, if you'd stay at the back near me? Jhennek, you as well."

"I'd just like to remind everyone that we're definitely in hostile territory, so our first priority is to get out." Arden continued, "But please be cautious, we found an Orderly on the third floor that had been torn up by claws of some kind. None of the undead below had them, so its a fair assumption that there are varieties of enemies we haven't come across yet." She paused, a thought occurring to her, "Oh, and watch out for the Hospital Administrator. His corpse had a Mana Cannon graft - I suspect we'll encounter him before we escape."

Orders - and advice - imparted, Arden nodded to herself, gesturing toward the still-open-doors. "We should get moving. Unless you think its vital, please save further discussion until we're safe."

* * * * * *

> Arden casts Cure on Kole. Current MP: 15/25 - three spells left.

> She exits the elevator at the back of the group.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Fortunately, before anything else could find Raltz and Ark in the elevator, the party came across them. He had been wounded a bit, but he wasn't in critical condition. "Welcome aboard the party train friends, no going back for quite a while," he said, hitting the up button. Once inside, it seemed they were all safe, several started up chatter and Arden began healing Kole and gave out orders. He had several means of healing at the moment, but he could rough it a bit until it got worse.

"Raltz, I realize you use a sword, but please try to stay back from the fighting, you're a stronger healer than I am."

"Believe me friend," the hume responded, "I have no problems hanging back for the time being. Also, Ark and I did find something neat," he said, retrieving the tentacle graft from the floor and showing it for all to see. "It isn't your typical graft as you can tell. I'm not really an expert, but I'm pretty sure most hospitals don't normally have these in stock. Do you guys think I should keep keep lugging it around? The boys paying us might have something to say about it."

After his little explanation, he took his position behind Kole in the line, still waiting for a verdict on the graft in hand.

---

exits elevator behind Kole, towards the back.

[Menarker]

"It isn't your typical graft as you can tell. I'm not really an expert, but I'm pretty sure most hospitals don't normally have these in stock. Do you guys think I should keep keep lugging it around? The boys paying us might have something to say about it."

Ark then presented the other graft, a hand cannon like Arden was probably thinking of, which he also took from that room.

SUPPLEMENTARY EVIDENCE!
ACCORDING TO SCANS AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE FROM DEALING WITH GRAFTS, THESE PARTICULAR ONES ARE DANGEROUSLY MODIFIED.
AFOREMENTIONED MODIFICATIONS DRAW UPON EXCESS POWER WHICH CANNOT BE PROVIDED BY NORMAL TECHNOLOGY OR BASIC LIFE FUNCTION. PROBABILITY HIGH THAT SUCH GRAFTS ARE POWERED BY MORE ILLICIT MEANS AS DEMOSTRATED BY THE HOSTILES WE ENCOUNTERED WITH ALTERATIONS.
SUCH EVIDENCE IS RELEVANT TO CLIENT, REGARDING POSSIBLE ORGANIZATIONS OR OTHERWISE DANGEROUS AND ILLEGAL CONDUCTS.

Ark meanwhile took the vanguard position as normal, Jugan riding on his shoulder feeling much more at ease now that everyone was together again.

-------------
Ark leading the way, awareness check as always, weapon and shield drawn.
Keeping the two unusable grafts as presentable evidence.

[Teal Mage]

"Believe me friend," Raltz replied as the group exited the elevator, causing Arden's eyebrow to arc in slight surprise. She hadn't been aware the Red Mage liked her. "I have no problems hanging back for the time being." He knelt, "Also, Ark and I did find something neat," then returned to his feet, holding something that looked like a mechanical tendril of some kind.

"It isn't your typical graft as you can tell. I'm not really an expert, but I'm pretty sure most hospitals don't normally have these in stock." That sort of graft was probably illegal, Arden nodded minutely. "Do you guys think I should keep lugging it around? The boys paying us might have something to say about it." Raltz had started walking by this time.

Slipping from the elevator, a few paces behind the red, Arden opened her mouth to respond. But, at the front of their group, Ark paused and withdrew something from his...Arden suddenly wondered where he'd been keeping that Hand-Cannon, especially while fighting undead hordes. Ask him after we get out of Zombie-Land. She chided herself, now was not the time to wonder about Androids with strange pockets!

"Supplementary Evidence!" The Android boomed in his usual emotionless and tone. "According to Scans and personal experience from dealing with grafts, these particular ones are dangerously modified." He really did sound more like a read-out than a person sometimes. "Aforementioned modifications drawn upon excess power which cannot be provided by normal technology. Probability high that-"

He sounded more robotic than usual! Maybe Arden just hadn't paid any attention to the mandroid before? She suddenly found herself wondering if Androids really had genders, it wasn't as though they slept around. Could they do it even if they wanted to?

"-evidence is relevant to client, regarding possible organizations or otherwise dangerous and illegal conducts."

And then he was done talking!

"Ah," Arden blinked in surprise. "well, I think the Council of Four already had suspicions of illegal grafting procedures," The White Mage offered, trying to cover up her own momentary zone-out with an opinion, "so I don't think that bringing them the grafts for the sake of evidence would be worth it. However," she shrugged, "if they're unusual, it can't hurt to give them samples. We'd likely get a bigger bonus for finding out how everyone died, and a means to avoid it in the future, though."

"But Ark?" Arden added, "In the future, I would like you to better endeavor to emulate our patterns of speech." She absently drew her gun, flicking open the chamber to check that it was still loaded. "Just because you are an android doesn't mean you need to sound like one." She explained, shrugging. "I'm sure our employers would appreciate the effort, at least."

And so the group keep walking through the starkly lit corridors. Small talk did ease the nerves!

[Krylo]

As the small group exited the research area they were quickly disappointed to find that there were, indeed, more animatronic corpses about, as the administrator's secretary hobbled out of the room, her back twisted at an odd angle, and her arms hanging limp at her sides with her hair obscuring her face.

Behind her came the administrator himself, standing tall, almost normal, if not for large cannon that replaced his left arm. However, surprisingly it is not that arm which he holds up, but rather his normal one, black tendrils of energy crackling along it like black lightning, gathering into a ball in the palm of his hand.

---------------
New Combat, Round 1

Secretary and Administrator are medium distance from Kole, Ark, and Raltz Elsa. Long from everyone else.

[phil_]

"Ok guys, this is a song about that rat bastard, Lightening Bolt, and how, no matter where I go, he always steals my Baby away."

Bello played a warm up chord.

"It isn't true, by the way," he added, as he started the Lightening Bolt Blues.

------

Performance of Lightening starts. Fry'em, Jhennek.

[Teal Mage]

Swearing softly, Arden lowered her pistol, Too far. She realized, a shot from this distance would be futile - as likely to hit her allies as her enemies. "We'll need to get closer." Arden stated, glancing toward Jhennek and Raltz - magic wouldn't cover the distance any better than her bullets.

Not waiting for a response, the White Mage dashed forward. Short, thin, lines of crackling energy began to appear at random throughout the hall - likely a side effect of Bello's current song. I'll need to ask him what his spells do. She'd make a point of it once this battle ended.

Her green eyes narrowed as she arrived a few paces back from where her more melee inclined allies stood. The black lightning around the Admin's hand was unmistakable. Shadow Magic. Arden realized - it was a little too late for any warning she voiced to help, unfortunately. She'd have to hope the others had recognized the danger already.

* * * * * *

> Arden moves to Medium Range of the enemies.

[IHateMakingNames]

Kole immediately dashed towards the new zombie enemies. Was it to close the distance for his katana? Perhaps. Keeping formation with the white mage already moving behind him? Also likely. Making sure that the threat would have to go through him before his more vulnerable teammates? Seems reasonable. Those reasons were part of why Kole took action, but not the main reason.

The admin was casting magic. Not weird grafting wires like before. This was honest to goodness magic. And maybe this magic was something Kole's blue mage blood would react to. Ignoring all the paranoid thoughts he had about any other outcome, Kole stuck with the possibility of blue magic. His interest in monsters and their abilities always beat the paranoia.

---

Move to short distance.

[Riin Whitewind]

"We'll need to get closer." So saying, Arden strode forward, intent in every step.

Jhen nodded sagely, in full agreement with her green-eyed friend. Getting closer would allow for such improved observation! Perhaps it could answer the question of why that reanimated Hume had such terrible posture.

Moving forward with Arden, the Black Mage swirled her cloak of lightning around her shoulders. It popped faintly, emitting small crackles of energy. Waiting. She could feel the very air around her charge as Bello played a few notes - another few moments to get into position, and this hospital would be shaking with thunder.

-----
Follow Arden to Medium Distance.

[Menarker]

Jugan jumped off the android promptly landing roughly on the floor as the dragon knight charged as close as his speed was able to take him. His shield was held protectively in front of him.

HOSTILES DETECTED!
DESIGNATED TARGET: CORPSE WITH MODIFIED HAND CANNON GRAFT.

Ark's arm still lacked the previous strength that it had before. If one solid good hit could render his arm function null, then perhaps the same could be said for the experiemental graft which powered his magic.
-------------------
Move as close as possible to Administrator.
Maybe an Athlethic roll or something to move faster.

[Krylo]

As most of the small group moved closer, Elsa began channeling black magic through her hands, targetting the administrator, but still a black beam of concussive 'anti-light' streaked from corpse's arm, and smashed directly into Kole. The beam shattered against him, bolts of black lightning ripping apart the walls, ceiling, and floor in his immediate vicinity.

As the dust cleared, Kole still stood, but his skin was paler, and his countenance darker. He looked hardly any better than the creatures they had been fighting before.

Meanwhile, the secretary claws outward, her fingers deflecting painlessly against Ark's armor, even as ghostly chains of light wrap themselves around the administrator, holding his arms tight to his body, and removing the risk, for now.

---------------------
PC Round 1
Everyone but Elsa moves closer, going from long to medium, and from medium to short.

Elsa-begin casting Lock.

---------------
NPC Round 2

Administrator-Fire Necrotic Beam at Kole dealing 17 damage and causing status effect Zombie.

Kole- LEARN BLUE MAGIC NECROTIC BEAM:
Necrotic Beam (10 mp, 5 hp)
Target: Single
Type: Shadow
Reflectable: Yes
The caster raises their arm and black energy begins to crackle around it draining out their very life force into the attack and corrupting it. The energy then solidifies into an orb in their hand before exploding outward in a beam of pure darkness doing (VIT x 2) + 1d6 damage and has a chance of inflicting the zombie status effect.

Arden- 17/20
Raltz- 15/27
Kole- 6/23, Zombie
Elsa- 24/26
Ark- 26/29
Bello- 15/22
Jhen- 20/20

---------------
PC Round 2

Elsa- LOCK DOWN ADMINISTRATOR

[IHateMakingNames]

Kole's sudden desire to feast on his teammates to spread the pain of the attack he just received made him realize he was done with this fight. The especially almost dead blue mage stumbled back as best he could from the zombie enemies he was almost like. Despite that, it was worth it. He could feel his blue magic blood stirring around. Kole could shoot zombies beams now, and this pleased him. Once he was less injured and undead.

--

Move medium range from zombies/short of most party members.

[Riin Whitewind]

Horrified, Jhen could only watch as Kole was hit with a blast of dark energy. His attacker found himself bound - for now - with psychic locks from the quick-thinking Elsa, removing him and his arm-cannon from being an immediate threat. Planting her feet firmly, Jhennek took up a spellcasting stance of her own as Kole reeled around, looking wan. For a brief moment, she wished she had the skills of a white mage. Is he okay? That really looked like it hurt.

Ignoring the plight she could not fix, the Tarut resumed her cast. Lightning leapt and cracked around her, her arm pointed stiffly toward the secretary. Best to take out this one while the other is incapacitated. She could feel the energy in the air rise. Time to make this place shake.

----
Cast Thunder on Secretary.

[Teal Mage]

Between the fingers of her free hand, Arden rolled a slim vial of Revivify. "No." She murmured, expression grave. The recovery item returned itself to a pocket in her robes, "Not just yet." Silver hair rippling, she brought her handgun up with a flourish, training the weapon on the Secretary's hidden face.

"After you go down!" Arden pulled the trigger.

Gunfire sounded.

* * * * * *

> Attack the Secretary

[Menarker]

Noticing the sudden favorable change of circumstances, the android opted to switch his target while the magic was still effective. Ark swung his body weight roughly from the momentum of the run as he twisted this torso and swung his blade at a decapitating height.

---------------------------

Attacking Secretary.

[mauve]

Spectral chains wrapped around the administrator, holding him in place. It wasn't fast enough to stop him from casting the necrotic beam, but at least it stopped him from casting it again. Now it was time to pile on some damage before he could free himself.

Elsa moved forwards as Kole shambled off to one side. Hmm. The blue mage was a zombie now. That couldn't be good. Well, they'd have to deal with this latest problem when they had more free time. Hopefully it was an ailment that could be easily-remedied.

Oh well. First thing's first: Beat the everloving daylights out of some zombies. Hefting the scythe once more, Elsa moved into range.

-----

Move to short range

[phil_]

Bello, in his rush to start his new song, had forgotten something very important: when your audience runs away, you have to to follow them. Chase them to the ends of Ivalice, if need be. Acting on this much practiced wisdom, Bello joined the others in the fray. Or, moved to do so, anyway.

------

Now Bello moves toward the monsters.

[Bard The 5th LW]

It seemed that good ol' Kole was soon to join the ranks of the zombies he feared so much. He was also banged up quite a bit. Raltz indeed had a revify from their combined search earlier, but he also noticed that Arden had one that she apparently wanted to refrain from using. Maybe they should focus on the enemies for now.

Following suit with the others, Ralts moved in and took a strike at the Secretary's heart.

---

Raltz attacks the secretary

[Krylo]

Arden's shot tears through the secretary's flesh, causing her to stumble back a bit, as Ark's sword moves to decapitate her. However, with surprising speed, considering her sluggish gait, the corpse moves its arm to intercede the blow, Ark's sword biting deep into her forearm, a mixture of blood and oil leaking out onto the floor.

Just as the undead frees her arm from the blade, Raltz lances into her chest with a vicious stab that leaves her bleeding, but still standing, as she begins to scream, a bundle of wires wriggling out of her mouth, ready to leap forward.

However, the attack is cut short, as lighting races through her body, arcing through her flesh, and up into the lighting and through the walls. Light fixtures through the hallway burst with power, and for just a moment all is dark, before the hospital begins to burn.
---------------
PC Round 2

Kole- move to medium range

Jhen- Start Casting Thundeeeeeeer

Arden- 6 Damage, Secretary

Ark- 10 Damage, Secretary

Mauve- Move to short range

Bello- Move to medium range

Raltz- 8 damage, Secretary.

Secretary- (-24)/??

Arden- 17/20
Raltz- 15/27
Kole- 6/23, Zombie
Elsa- 24/26
Ark- 26/29
Bello- 15/22
Jhen- 20/20

----------------
NPC Round 2

Administrator- Struggle against bonds fruitlessly

Secretary- Begin casting infection

Arden- 17/20
Raltz- 15/27
Kole- 6/23, Zombie
Elsa- 24/26
Ark- 26/29
Bello- 15/22
Jhen- 20/20

-----------------

Jhennek- 60 Damage Secretary

Secretary- Dead

Arden- 17/20
Raltz- 15/27
Kole- 6/23, Zombie
Elsa- 24/26
Ark- 26/29
Bello- 15/22
Jhen- 20/20

Hospital becomes Difficult Terrain. Athletics checks receive -2 modifier. Hospital is also fire, lightning, and shadow elemental terrain.

[Teal Mage]

The Hospital was on Fire.

Arden stumbled back a pace; mind quickly making the connection to the undead's spilled body fluids and the resulting blaze. Her instincts ran wild with panic; fire was something they couldn't fight. They had to run before it spread. Her eyes went to the Hospital Administator, bound by Elsa's Black Magic spell, he was harmless for the moment.

But...Her mind returned to the crackling beam of black light that had struck Kole. The Blue was wearing warded clothing, stronger than her's, and he'd still taken a bad hit. ...the chains can't last forever. Tightening her jaw, Arden jerked a nod.

"Jhennek!" She snapped, glancing toward the small mage, "Cast your spell again, but focus it through mine this time!" Arden thrust her hand out, eyes blazing to life with the pale blue light of holy energy. "I won't have that abomination firing on while our backs are turned!" The cotton in her robes and silver in her hair intensified, burning brightly in the stark light of hospital.

"Everyone else, get moving!" Arden shouted, "We'll be right behind you!"

Her eyes shut, as she began to focus all her attention on melding her power with Jhennek's own. She had to shape Restore into a field of transformative power to bless Jhennek's Thunder spell. With some luck, she could make this work. Jhennek was a good mage after all - hopefully, the Tarut would pick up on her casting cues. Without her Thunder spell, Restore wouldn't do a damned thing here. But with it...

That thing will fry.

She needed to stop trying risky things.

* * * * * *

> Begin Combination Magic, Restore+Thunder!

> Blast the Admin!

[Riin Whitewind]

"Jhennek!"

At the sound of her name, the Tarut's eyes locked onto Arden's. She was a little surprised by the force of the exclamation - was she upset about the hospital burning? Because it would be completely understandable if so but she really couldn't have known that the orderly's blood would ignite so q-

"Cast your spell again, but focus it through mine this time!"

Oh! Was that all? She could do that! She watched closely as light coalesced in the White Mage's hand, growing brighter every second. Jhen stood close, and placed her tiny hand palm up next to Arden's. Concentrating, she started to draw lightning from the air around them. When she had enough for a solid blast, she would focus it through her friend's spell as asked.

"I won't have that abomination firing on us while our backs are turned!"

It was a good plan!

---
Cast Thunder to combo with Arden!

[Menarker]

As the structure around them blazed, Jugan waddled as fast as he was able toward Ark. The flames themselves did not scare the young dragon. In fact, the flaring sensation of warmth that exuded from the walls caressed the young wyvern, a comforting sensation. But the explosions of light fixtures, the sudden cut in power and light and the resulting panic of those around him made him uneasy.

More pressed with concern that the administrator might break out of his bonds, Ark rushed toward the Administrator who was locked in place and swung his blade downward, attempting to cleave its head off its defenseless corpse.

------------------------
Attacking the Administrator. Since it is locked, I assume it has some sort of penalty to dodging or whatnot.

[Krylo]

Swinging his blade powerfully at the Administrator, Ark is surprised to find zombie shifting ever so slightly and interposing one of Elsa's chains between himself and the Android's sword--noticed too late for Ark to pull back. Within a moment, Elsa's ghostly chains fade away from the administrator, however, her Scythe finds purchase in his flesh, tearing a weeping wound in his unaltered shoulder as Raltz's blade marks a gash across his chest.

Stumbling back, the creature shows some flicker of intelligence as it realizes it is outmatched and aims its cannon skyward, blasting the burning ceiling apart with a ball of light that explodes with furious force against the roof and brings it crashing down between the administrator and the small group of heroes, tearing through the floor and leaving a gaping hole where once a line of attack existed.

Through the hole the second floor of the hospital could be seen, fire spreading swiftly toward the I.C.U. from the fallen parts of this floor.

However, the corpse's ploy was in vain as lightning crackled from Jhennek's fingertips with amazing power, and arced directly through the purifying light of Arden's holy magic becoming a bolt of pure heavenly wrath that wrapped itself about the impure form of the undead hospital administrator, tearing and arcing through his flesh and grafts. At first there was only the sizzle and popping of burning flesh, but then he raised his arm once more, and his graft began to whine like a steam kettle... and then there was a ball of fire, tearing apart the hallway, and a concussive wave of force smashed into the group of adventurer's.

The sound was followed swiftly by the sounds of explosions below them, and through the hole they could see the fire roaring ever brighter, but this was hardly a concern as the floor began to buckle and warp, the hole spreading, as chunks of the ceiling broke away. The research lab began to sag as though it was about to slide from the building, but the bank of windows, and its slow speed promised a greater chance of survival than staying here and being crushed under burning rubble.
---------------
PC Round 3

Ark- Critical Failure. Free the Administrator.

Elsa- 12 damage, Administrator

Raltz- 7 Damage, Administrator

Bello- Move to Short Range of Administrator.

Kole- Try to look like someone who doesn't need to be shot.

Arden/Jhen, Combo Get

Administrator- (-19)/???

Arden- 17/20
Raltz- 15/27
Kole- 6/23, Zombie
Elsa- 24/26
Ark- 26/29
Bello- 15/22
Jhen- 20/20

Hospital is Difficult Terrain. Athletics check recieve -2 modifier. Hospital is also fire, lightning, and shadow elemental terrain.

----------------
NPC Round 3

Administrator- Fires... on Ceiling, dropping chunk of the roof between himself and attackers, ripping a hole in the ground.

Arden- 17/20
Raltz- 15/27
Kole- 6/23, Zombie
Elsa- 24/26
Ark- 26/29
Bello- 15/22
Jhen- 20/20

Hospital is Difficult Terrain. Athletics check recieve -2 modifier. Hospital is also fire, lightning, and shadow elemental terrain.

Athletics roll of 9+ required to cross over.

----------------
PC Round 4

Jhennek/Arden- 112 damage to Administrator.

Administrator- Blow the fuck up.

Hospital- Collapse

Collapsing hospital- 3 damage Arden, 2 damage Raltz, 0 damage Kole (crit success), 5 damage Elsa, 2 damage Ark, 4 damage Bello, 2 damage Jhen


Arden- 14/20
Raltz- 13/27
Kole- 6/23, Zombie
Elsa- 19/26
Ark- 24/29
Bello- 11/22
Jhen- 18/20

[Teal Mage]

Diffuse holy energy poured into the air before Arden, faintly green, as the White Mage chanted softly. She called her fist, eyes tightly shut, and willed that power to condense. Her spell casting aura grew in brilliance as the power of restore collected itself into a lens-like form.

Lightning flashed from Jhennek's hand, pouring through the holy lens. Purified and magnified, the spell raced down the hallway, consuming the Administrator at its end in a crackling mass of incandescence. Flesh sizzled, as holy lightning damaged grafts and surged through the man's shadow twisted form.

A mana cannon - heavily damage - was thrust from the spell's peak. A high pitched whine reached Arden's ears, wiping away her cocky expression and causing her to stumble backward. Flames, a fast spreading ball of fire, burst from the graft as it overloaded and exploded. The hallway's walls and floor disintegrated, as a solid wave of concussive force raced outward, knocking Arden to the floor.

...which started to fall apart.

Cursing softly, Arden pushed herself to her feet - and grabbed Jhennek in the process. She swept the small mage into her arms.

"Move!" She shouted - hopefully it wasn't necessary - and took off back toward the Research Lab. The ceiling was collapsing around them - but things looked more stable the way they had come.

A chunk of stone fell into her path, spraying jagged shards of tile and plaster into the air. Biting her lip, Arden did her best to shield Jhennek from them with her body. The debris cut shallowly into her skin - it stung. But, she'd reached the Research Area, which seemed to be trembling a little, but, was holding itself together otherwise, luckily.

Ignoring the strange vibrations for the moment, she moved deeper into the room. Carefully, she knelt and set Jhennek down. Was the shaking getting worse? And why did it feel like things were slanted? Maybe that blast did more damage than I thought…

Putting such concerns aside for the moment, Arden pushed herself to her feet. "Are you alright?" She glanced back toward the hallway to check on the other-

The whole lab seemed to be sliding away from the connecting hallway. The hole was spreading.

Eyes slightly wide, Arden turned back toward Jhennek. "We should move further into the room."

Walking quickly, it was quickly becoming apart that the slanting was growing more pronounced - At least I wasn't imagining it. It was getting harder to stand. Her feet were sliding. Wait, that means...

"Grab onto something!"

Arden really hoped that she hadn't imagined shouting that.

* * * * * *

Miraculously, after the dust settled and the shaking stopped, Arden realized that, aside from a dull ache everywhere, she was still alive. More miraculous still, she was outside the hospital, in a mostly in-tact research lab.

How lucky.

"Is everyone here?" She called, pushing herself - still a little unsteady - to her feet. Arden dusted herself off - moving a little gingerly.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Along with the other adventurers with blades, Raltz valiantly cut a bitch in the form of the locked up administrator. However, things seemed to go from good to bad when two of his fellow mages decided to be creative and formed a holy lightning bolt of destruction. Raltz was too busy trying to get away from the heavenly blast's target to really see what happened, but some went boom, and he felt the whole area shaking around him. He rose to his feet, stumbling, and tried to run away from the hole in the ground. He felt himself fall again though with an even greater thud as he ran. after that he blacked out for a moment. He wasn't quite sure where he was at the point he heard Arden's voice again.

"Is everyone here?"

"That depends, is my hat okay?" Raltz responded a bit feebly as he got back up, feeling around his rather excessive head of hair for his red hat. It appeared to be gone, allowing all of his hair to be shown from the bangs to his shoulders. "Whatever, I guess I'm here," he said despondedly as he searched around for his jaunty headpiece. It wasn't long before he came across it some feet from where he landed. He quickly scooped it up and dusted it off to the best of his abilities. After that, he mounted it once more.

"Anywho," the red mage said offhandedly as he tucked some stray strands of hair away, "where is Zombie boy? The two of us found a revify earlier, and if he's still alive I can probably give it to him as an alternative to shooting him in the face."

[Menarker]

Ark scooped Jugan in his arm and ran with the group into the Research lab as the tiny wyvern clenched on desperately tight to the small gaps in his armor's joints.

WARNING: STRUCTURE STABILITY FAILURE.
WARNING: UNSECURED OBJECTS TO SLIDE TOWARD DESCENDING SIDE.

Ark placed himself near Arden and Jhen and braced his shield in front of himself and thus themselves as well. Whether tables or chairs or falling bottles would fall in their direction, he'd take the brunt of the blow with his own barrier.

----
"Is everyone here?"

Ark stabbed his blade into the floor and pushed himself up, Jugan still attached to his chest with a low fearful growl that slowly started to die down. Ark self examined his armor and framework, and otherwise said nothing as he looked at their immediate surroundings.

[mauve]

One minute they were fighting zombies and the next the floor was moving beneath them. Elsa had just enough time to let out a suitable curse before a trio of displaced supply crates and a handful of shattered ceiling tiles chose to introduce themselves to her.

Then everything went sideways and upside down for a few minutes.

Finally, the room stopped dancing around and hurling things at them. That was good. That meant Elsa was no longer at risk of losing her lunch.

"Is everyone alright?"

"Close enough," Elsa grumbled, freeing herself from the small pile of rubble she found herself in. She yanked off her helmet, letting it fall to the ground with a dull clank. She still felt a bit motion-sick.

"Let's not do that again. Ever." She retrieved the helmet and pulled her scythe from where it had been lodged in a pile of rubble and followed after the others.

[IHateMakingNames]

Kole remained in the back, waiting for some one to fix his zombie problem. That magic really did a number on the blue mage's innards, and the undead affliction wouldn't even let him drink a potion.

Then the building caught on fire and crumbled. Paranoid thought 192. Despite his poor health, Kole's mental preparation made avoiding the fire, rubble, and staying upright despite the floor tumbling a breeze for him.

As everyone else got the rubble and fire off of them, they explained their health situations. Kole didn't want to be rude so he waited for his turn.

"I could use something to get the zombie off me."

[phil_]

If one listened closely, one could hear several bumps and thuds as Bello tried to dramatically burst out from the rubble. Failing this, he opted to crawl weakly from where he lay. "Man, the last thing I'd expect from a ghost story is for the building to burn down with the good guys inside," he muttered to no one in particular. Patting the ash and rubble from his clothes, he limped to rejoin the group. "So, I guess we can go now, right? Er, once someone more White Magic-inclined helps our Blue Mage, I mean."

[Riin Whitewind]

"Is everyone alright?"

Jhen patted herself down, checking for any injuries. Everything seemed okay! Arden had done a swell job protecting her. As she gingerly touched her hair, she frowned.

Her hair was frazzled, sure, but it always was from the lightning. Even the singed edges were acceptable. But this! This! She looked around frantically, pushing aside loose rubble.

Misery dripped from her voice as she reported in. "I... can't find my hat."

[Bard The 5th LW]

"I could use something to get the zombie off me."

"There you are!" Raltz responded, Pulling out the vial, "I got just the thing. Now hold still while the doctor works." Moving forward with just a bit of caution and a sleeve covering his hand, Raltz lifted the vial and handed it to Kole with his arm outstretched as far as he could.

"Just take it and drink up like a good boy," he said, "once you get the death out of your system and I can loan you a potion."

---

Gives Revify and potion to Kole.

[Teal Mage]

A relieved smile appeared on Arden's lips, slowly growing wider as more of her crew turned up. Raltz, Elsa, Kole - The Red was already heading toward the aforementioned, mostly dead, Blue Mage. He'd apparently found a Revivify while searching the hospital, which was good, because that meant they still had her's for emergencies. - Jhennek, Ark and Bel-

"Bello!" Arden suddenly remembered that he'd been hurt before the hospital collapsed.

Hurrying over, the White Mage knelt in front of the dust coated Tarut. "Sorry, I'll heal you now -" She raised her hands, eyes closing in concentration, "- don't move." Light blue sparkles began to appear over the small man's body.

"We're not out of the woods yet everyone," Arden continued, speaking louder than before, "we still have a body to find and nearly every house we checked on the way over had a corpse in it. So, stay sharp everyone!" She paused momentarily, "And make sure to kill the casters first!"

Back to finishing the spell.

* * * * * *

> Arden casts Cure on Bello (5/25 Remaining)

[IHateMakingNames]

Kole took the vial offered by the red mage. And after a quick inspection to make sure it was actually a Revivify, and not poison, he downed it. Once he could tell his body was back to acting like it was alive, the blue mage pulled out one of his potions and drank that. He had to fix the damage that zombie spell did to his organs as well.

---

Use Revivify and then Potion

[Teal Mage]

Bello's wounds faded, and Arden pushed herself to her full height. Not much magic left. She noted, with a pang of concern. Her Ether could restore her, but for the moment, it made more sense to save it for Raltz or Jhennek - both were more powerful than she was. Shaking her head to dispel her growing concerns, she cleared her throat.

"Right then! We better get moving." Arden turned toward the exit, starting forward, "Ark, you and Elsa take point as usual. Elsa, please be careful - Raltz or myself will need to heal you if your wounds get worse, and I don't know about him, but I'm nearly dry." She glanced at the others, "Like I said, the city was full of corpses, and if the Administrator and his Secretary were any indication, they're all up and coming for us."

"So! Our first priority is speed. Jhennek, that means you'll need to hold back on those Thunder Spells of your's. We'll need to avoid combat unless it's absolutely necessary - like frying our secondary objective's corpse enough that it'll stay down long enough to let us loot him."

Pausing near the exit to the lab, Arden continued, "Raltz, Kole, Bello, I'd prefer if the three of you would support us from the rear, and guard our backs. I'll stay Jhennek in the middle - and carry her if we need to run." She surveyed the group, "If any of you would like to object to those arrangements, please do so while we're moving."

"Let's go." Arden concluded, waving them forward, and stepping out into the necropolis that passed for Maris.

The research lab really was pretty beat up. After falling two stories, they were pretty lucky that it hadn't collapsed on them already. Arden figured they'd pressed their luck enough – at least as far as abandoned buildings were concerned – for one day.

[mauve]

Elsa passed Kole on her way out of the crumbling ruins. She paused, a thought coming to her. She picked up the empty Revivify vial from where the blue mage had dropped it, pretending to give it a careful inspection.

"Oh, no." she said. "Well, we can only hope you're not one of THOSE people... You know... after all the stories you hear about these things." She rolled the vial between her fingers and gave Kole a sympathetic look.

"I mean, you seem okay right now, so I guess we can assume you're not the type who suffers from those horrible side effects from these things. But you really won't know for, oh, I'd say a good twenty-four hours. That's when the really awful stuff starts up. You know, the internal bleeding and the slow decomposition of the brain tissues. But I'm sure you'll be fine. It only happens to a small fraction of the population. The really unlucky ones, you know? You'll be fine."

She patted him on the shoulder and continued on, leaving him behind. She made one last comment over her shoulder;

"I wouldn't make any long-term plans though."

Following after Arden and Company, Elsa pulled a Potion from her pack and downed it in a gulp. No use rushing into Zombie Town with open wounds, minor as they may be.

---------
Harass Kole, use Potion

[Krylo]

Elsa and Bello's wounds both heal fully under the effects of Arden's magic and alchemical compounds, respectively, and the small group makes its way through some broken windows and out into the lot next to the hospital. Behind them, some rubble crumbles off the research center, and what is left of the hospital burns, the occasional shifting piece of concrete causing more of the building to collapse into itself.

The City below them stretches out much as it had before, but it is no longer so quiet. The corpses move. Nearly all of them have taken to their feet, and are moving toward the hospital. Behind them there is a crash, and on turning, they see a few living corpses stumbling out, their bodies on fire, yet still moving.

They weren't out of this yet.

[Teal Mage]

Snatching up Jhennek, Arden threw a cheerful glance toward her allies.

"Looks like we're running again!"

And they were off!

* * * * * *

> Escape Roll. Arden is willing to jostle Jhennek - if it means evading enemies, if it matters.

[phil_]

Bello fumbled through his sleeves and pulled out his (thankfully unbroken) harmonica again. "Hey, Blue Mage, remember that time we ran away from zombies and you carried me? Let's do that again." Bello started up a jazzy tune that went well with running from zombies. "Otherwise, I'll have to catch up."

------

Reverse Herculean Etude again.

[Menarker]

The android put the tiny wyvern down from his chest while he listened to their unofficial leader giving instructions as the pet grew calmer and wandered around for a while. It seemed quite sound so the robot really had nothing to say, not even a voice of affirmation.

Ark merely took point as it was starting to be customary for him to lead the group, his blade and shield held at ready as he started his dash. From his peripheral vision, Ark looked to the side and analyzed the curious sight. A hat skimming along the ground, with tiny little dragon feets. Jugan apparently located Jhen's misplaced hat and tried to run alongside its master carrying the loot over its head as much as its small arms could manage, proud of its new toy. Ark merely ignored what might have been mildly cute or amusing sight and led the way without comment.

-----------------------
Escape roll, leading the vanguard as normal.

[Riin Whitewind]

Feeling like a worn-out teddy bear, Jhen hung limply in the arms of the White Mage. Despite the occasional jostle, she felt secure - her friend wouldn't drop her! She spread her arms out like she was flying, the bangles on her wrists jingling with every step Arden took.

"I don't think there's anywhere really safe in the city to take a rest, do you? And we should probably take one, we're not quite dry but another tough enemy and we will be. And really, we only destroyed one building! There's no excuse for this kind of inefficiency."

The Tarut pulled her arms back in, holding her hand to her chin in a pantomime of heavy thought. Whether anyone could hear her over the running and jingling was a tertiary concern.

"Shall we see if the zombies will follow us outside the city? We should discover that anyway, it would be a horrible tragedy if we led them to an innocent town!"

[mauve]

The zombie-to-living-people ratio had once again jumped to alarming proportions. Undeads were practically - and literally - coming out of the woodwork on every side. It was, as Arden so accurately noted, a good time to leave.

"Go," Elsa said bluntly, shoving Raltz, Kole and Bello in the direction Ark and Arden had gone. "I'll bring up the rear."

-------

Runnin.'

[Krylo]

Moving through the streets, the small group finds it relatively easy to avoid the corpses. There are many of them, innumerable, and of all shapes, sizes, and living ages... including the children who had been in the park before, now up and walking, but the streets were wider, more easily navigable, and the living dead somewhat slow.

Though even so, it all seemed a little too easy, perhaps, until they came within sight of the city limits. A wall of undead flesh stood before them, with one more creature standing a few feet before it. Its flesh was a hodge podge of elvaan, hume, and viera stitched together like some sort of Frankenstein's monster, and one of its arms was replaced by a large blade like some of the other creatures.

But, what was truly interesting was only noticeable once the group got a bit closer... and two fold. Firstly, was the pendant it wore about its neck, the ring they were seeking, and bits of blond hair on its scalp and chin. Second, was the fact that it spoke.

"Why do you resist?" it asked, its voice devoid of human emotion, sounding almost robotic in its calm. "You could be one with us. Never lonely. Never dying. Why do you resist?"

It seemed genuinely confused, and did not move to attack, but behind the small group more of the undead were coming.

-------
OOC: Battle hasn't started yet. Front liners (probably Ark and Kole) are medium distance from the talking zombie, long from the ones behind him (he is medium from them). Everyone else is long distance from everyone. There's the talking zombie and he has five zombies behind him. Behind you is an entire city full of undead heading your way.

[Teal Mage]

"Shall we see if the zombies will follow us outside the city?" Jhennek asked, shortly after they'd left the ruins of the Research Lab. "We should discover that anyway, it would be a horrible tragedy if we led them to an innocent town!"

"We should be safe passed the city limits." Arden replied, keeping a firm hold on her hatless Taru passenger. "The only body outside Maris looked like it had run away - with luck, it's the Shadow Element suffusing the area that keeps them going. They may not be able to function outside its reach." It was a faint hope, but given the situation, it was also all they had.

"Besides," Arden added, "Altair's guards should be capable of handling these things." Certainly, the seven of them had survived on their own; a city full of trained soldiers would be more than a match for these undead wimps!

She hoped they wouldn't need to find out, just the same.

* * *

Arden's steps slowed as they neared the final blockage of Undead Flesh between them and, what the White Mage hoped, was safety. Arms tightening on Jhennek, Arden continued to press forward, undaunted, toward her more melee inclined counterparts. Her expression grew hard as her eyes fell on the talking creature's necklace. Frustratingly good, she reflected, or bad, luck. The amalgamation’s movements were more coordinated than most of the Undead she'd seen, but at least they'd found their secondary objective.

"Jhennek," Arden murmured softly, fingers digging into one of her outfit's hidden pockets, "I want you to be careful with your Thunder Spells - we don't need to accidentally destroy the ring." Withdrawing the Ether she'd saved for such an eventually, she offered it to the Black Mage, "Test your magic on the others, then take this when you're dry."

Arriving a pace or so behind the front-liners of her team, she carefully set Jhennek down. "Ark," she stated, voice still low, "scan the talking one. We need to immobilize him quickly and break through." Her now-free hand gripped her pistol's hilt, the weapon's holster still mostly hidden by her cotton half-skirt.

She wondered if any one would try to talk their way out of this.

* * *

> Move a Medium Distance toward the Enemy.

> Transfer Ether to Jhennek's Inventory.

> Set Jhennek down.

> Disguise check to hide Arden's intent.

[phil_]

Bello took the harmonica out of his mouth and started tap-tapping the beat of his song on his tiny chest, keeping the music alive but allowing him to talk.

Stepping up to Arden, he spoke. "Let me try to talk to him. I just need a second to think of what to say." He took another step forward to the front of the group and added, "Though, it's a little embarrassing to admit that I need a moment." He cleared his throat and tried to come up with a few good words.

------

Move medium distance towards Ark and Kole (since Kole apparently didn't pick Bello up). I'll either edit in some talky-talk towards Adam or I'll post it within this turn if someone posts after this in such a way that talking is still on the table.

[IHateMakingNames]

Kole was clearly ready to just slice at something. Walking through a city filled with enemies he could clearly see did not bode well for him. For every enemy Kole seems he assume there are three he can't. On top of that, they were surrounded by zombies the entire time. Despite the easy time they had avoiding the zombies, the blue mage was expecting something to happen the entire time.

The talking franken zombie is not what he expected. He recognized the pendant on the lead zombie as the one the stable owner had asked the group to find. How much of that zombie was his lover was questionable., but the ring was still usable.

For now, Kole stood still, as the group seemed to be making plans for how to handle this. The blue mage only planned to make sure no zombies got past him. Except all those zombies filling the city behind them, but he tried (and failed) to not think about that.

---

Do nothing.

[Riin Whitewind]

Jhen took the Ether with slightly numb hands, nodding in acceptance of the plan. It was so disappointing, though! All the hope symbolized by the ring, dashed with a few spoken sentences. Destroyed. Putting the Ether in a pocket, she sighed.

She was willing to let Bello talk - so long as it got them the other half of the ring! But being hemmed in by zombies was making her lightning finger itchy.

---

Accept Ether.

No combat actions.

[Bard The 5th LW]

"I guess this is nice," Raltz said to the others rather quietly, "we can at least claim we've seen him. Or part of him" It took no genius to realize they found the stable runners special friend.

It seemed the Tarut was on his way to make negotiations. Just as well. The monstrosity wanted to talk, who was he to deny that last wish? For the moment, the Red Mage stood down. Idly, he cast cure upon himself in case anything happened. For a brief moment, he was covered in a light shower of cleansing sparkles as some of his wounds slowly closed.

--

Raltz casts cure on self. No combat actions.

[phil_]

Bello nodded sagely, satisfied with what he would say. Throwing his arms out at his sides, he addressed the magic talking zombie and the horde surrounding them as a seasoned actor would address a packed theater. "Esteemed representative of the Once-again Living, you ask a difficult question. Sages since before the first stones of Cornelia were laid have struggled with the concept of the individual self. Aren't we all, in the end, truly alone, irreversibly separated in a vast ocean from all others by the sad accident of being born with individual consciousness? And yet you offer a solution to this impossible problem. We could even say that you offer us a miracle; a chance to truly know another living being and not just the concept of that being. A chance to be something, rather than live on the endless path of becoming. A chance at knowing that which even the espers cannot ken.

"Yet we have rejected your offer from the start, and we will continue to reject your offer. We may not be as wise as the ancient Foo Soo Ya, or as strong of spirit as Ahnas the Holy, but we can all see an obvious truth." Bello thumped his chest with his fist. "A truth, resonating in our souls, that draws us together just as much as your abominable miracle. My truth! And my comrades' truth!" Bello's hand shot from his heart, cutting the air with one outstretched finger. The following words came out like the blast of a trumpet, carrying all the conviction that could fit into his tiny frame.

"Zombies are gross!"

------

Speech roll to- yeah, not enough dice in the world.

[mauve]

"Yes, I imagine that'll go over well with the current audience." Elsa said, rocking back on her heels. "Your line of reasoning, however, is flawless."

Elsa was pleased, all things considering. Sure, they were surrounded by horrible mutated cyborg-undead and would possibly be torn limb from limb. But she was alive, and she intended to raise as much hell as possible as long as she still fit that descriptor. And thanks to Bello, it seemed diplomatic negotiations were completely out of the question now. Elsa was so proud of him!

The Dark Knight let out a chuckle and strode to the front of the group. She gripped the haft of scythe, holding it aloft before her.

"Well now, that's a lovely necklace you're got there!" she said brightly to the zombie. "I don't suppose you'll be missing it much once you've been torn limb from limb..." She paused, eyeing the zigzagging stitches that ran across the zombie's body "....again."

She crouched slightly, grinning beneath her helmet, silently daring him to do his worst.

--------

Move to short range, defend.

[Menarker]

"Scan the talking one. We need to immobilize him quickly and break through."

SCANNING!

Ark obediently analyzed the unusual zombie, the results coming swiftly from the combined effort of his robotic eye and the instincts of a dragoon. Jugan watched curiously as the android's android eye buzzed with a constantly darting red hue and the other eye seemed to shimmered naturally.


SCAN COMPLETE!
HOSTILE TARGET POSSESS ALL AROUND HIGH PHYSICAL AND MENTAL ATTRIBUTES INCLUDING SPELLCASTING POTENTIAL. STANDARD WEAKNESS TO HOLY AND FIRE TYPE ELEMENTS. HIGH STAMINA BUT VULNERABLE EXTERIOR TO BOTH PHYSICAL TRAUMA AND MAGICAL FORCE!
ALERT! IMMUNITY TO EXTERNAL HEALING EFFECTS! TRACE AMOUNT OF TOXIN ON ITS SKIN AND BLADE. HIGH STAMINA REINFORCED BY POWERFUL REGENERATION PROPERTY!


Ark held his blade cautiously, trying to keep a little distance from his poisonous touch, his shield and blade held like a ward.

-----------------
Scanned the Ring Possessing Zombie, move short distance toward target and defend.

[Teal Mage]

"Zombies are gross!" Bello concluded, small voice echoing strangely in afternoon air.

Arden's composure was shattered for an instant, as she stared down at the most adorable of the group's adorable mana cannons. Eyes wide, expression blank and mouth slightly agape - revealing a smile on the edge of laughter - Arden's head lolled to side. He did not just say... In her moment of mute shock, she'd forgotten she was trying to hide her gun - the firearm baring hand had slipped into the open, and was hanging at her side.

Elsa strode forward, seemingly unaffected. Ark offered his scan read-out - Poison, immune to healing and self regenerating! How wonderful - then darted forward, charging at the zombie.

Jolted out of her shock by the Android's sudden movement, Arden growled softly. "Alright." She took a firing stance, leveling her weapon at the Overlord Zombie, "Let's make this quick!" Careful to keep her shot well wide of the ring, she pulled the trigger.

Gunfire echoed!

* * *

> Shoot the Overlord Zombie.

[Krylo]

Diplomacy seemed to be falling apart, and Arden raised her gun to fire, just as the creature began to speak. "I don't un--" it was cut off by the sound of gunfire, and a bullet entered its shoulder, 'causing it to look down at the wound impassively, and then raise an arm toward the white mage. "We will be one, and then we will understand." Black energy crackled up his arm collasing into a black ball in his palm, just the administrator had done before firing on Kole.

As he prepared, the undead who had stood behind him moved up to defend the talking abomination. A closer inspection would reveal that all of them had flesh writhing with something just beneath the surface.
---------------
PC Round 1

Jhen- Ether Get

Arden- 10 Damage, Zombie Lord.

Raltz- Cure Self to Full

Mauve/Ark- Advance

-

Everyone is medium distance from Zombie other than MAYBE Mauve/Ark, depending on whether they are still moving short distances and defending (still at medium) or moving a full medium distance. I will assume the latter if I don't hear from them).

-

Zomblord- 128/138

Arden- 14/20
Raltz- 22/22 17(?)/27mp
Elsa- 26/26 23/25mp
Ark- 24/29
Jhennek- 18/20 11/31mp


---------------
NPC Round 1

Zomblord- Cast begin.

All five zombies behind Zomblord- Advance medium distance. Now occupy same space as Zomblord.

-

Zomblord- 128/138

Arden- 14/20
Raltz- 22/22 17(?)/27mp
Elsa- 26/26 23/25mp
Ark- 24/29
Jhennek- 18/20 11/31mp

[Teal Mage]

"We will be one," The Zombie Overlord raised his hand toward the silver haired white mage, "and then we will understand." Black Lightning began to crackle around the creature's arm; he was casting Necrotic Beam - the spell that had nearly killed Kole in a single cast, when he'd been fully healed. With Arden's possessing less stamina than the Blue, and also less powerful Wards - it meant there was only one sensible course of action!

"Be right back sorry!" Arden ran away! She did remember to offer a cheerful wave, just before sprinting in the direction they'd come like her life depended on it.

Coincidentally, it did!

At the moment when Arden sensed the Shadow Magic Surge behind her, the White Mage threw herself forward, skidding a short distance on the street. A small cloud of dust was flung up around her, and she suddenly became very familiar with one truth, streets were not soft.

With luck, it would be the last unpleasant truth she found herself exposed to.

* * * * * *

> Run. Run to Long Range! Fleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

> Be cheerful.

[Riin Whitewind]

"Belllloooo," Jhennek gave the Performer a sad expression. "That wasn't very nice! Why, you never know when you might meet a perfectly nice, agreeable zombie to be your friend!"

She leveled her arm at one of the zombies coming up to support their leader, eyes taking on the golden glow of a Black Mage mid-cast.

"But I suppose these zombies didn't want to be friends, anyway."


----
Thunder a mook, one that isn't standing next to the 'lord.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Raltz took the chance to cast cure once more and leave himself at top condition once more, seeing as how Bello declared war on the mutant zombie. Once his act of self-preservation was complete he looked around to gauge actions of the others. It seemed Arden was moving back to shoot from a distance, and the Black Mage was picking off the little zombies from a distance. The two big fighters, Elsa and the android, were moving in to fight the big guy up close. They would likely be able to do a lot of damage to him, but they would still have to focus on the zombie lord alone. Someone had to take down the little zombies!

Deciding he was among those meant for the role, the silver haired mage raised his sword and started to close some distance between himself and some of the lesser beasts.

---

Moves medium distance towards mook zombies. Defends.

[Menarker]

VISUAL CONFIRMATION OF RING ACQUIRED!
SEIZE ANCILLARY OBJECTIVE!
DELIVER TO SECONDARY CLIENT: STABLEMASTER OF ALTAIR!

Ark continued his charge toward the Zombie Lord, his shield held in front as per his signature style. He then leapt as high as he could manage with sheer force, blade raised up high only to be swung viciously down, attempting to sever the bladed arm from the undead leader.

-------------
Attack Zombie Lord. Athlethic bonus to jumping for increased power?

[Krylo]

Swinging their weapons powerfully, Ark and Elsa each slash deep into the talking corpse's flesh, but the creature seems unimpressed by their attacks as his flesh stitches itself back together almost as quickly as they can damage him, and his attack is fired without incident. Thankfully without incident to Arden either, who dives to the ground as the shadow energy dissipates over her head, unable to reach any further. Of course, she could hardly fire accurately from this distance as well.

Meanwhile, the lord's vanguard reacts, the two closest to their master lashing out at Ark and Elsa, though with Bello's music weakening their arms, they barely manage to scuff the armor of the warriors. Their allies, however, seem to be preparing something more dangerous, their flesh bubbling and squirming, just as those in the basement had done, their hands aimed one each toward Elsa, Ark, and Raltz.

At the sight, Jhennek released her built up power, the energy surging through the zombie aiming toward Raltz, but when the smoke cleared, the creature stood still, though obviously much worse for wear.
---------------
PC Round 2

Arden- Run, Forrest, Run!

Jhen- Begin castin'

Raltz- Move into short range of enemy combatants.

Ark- 11 Damage Zomblord

Elsa- 13 Damage Zomblord

Kole- Defend

Bello- Defend while playin' that thar weakenin' tune.

-

Zomblord- 114/138

Arden- 14/20
Raltz- 22/22 17(?)/27mp
Elsa- 26/26 23/25mp
Ark- 24/29
Jhennek- 18/20 11/31mp


---------------
NPC Round 2

Zomblord- Cast Finish. Miss. Regen.

Zombies 1-3, Prepare to spawn wires.

Zombie 4- 1 Damage, Ark

Zombie 5- 0 Damage, Elsa

-

Zomblord- 134/138

Arden- 14/20
Raltz- 22/22 17(?)/27mp
Elsa- 26/26 23/25mp
Ark- 23/29
Jhennek- 18/20 11/31mp

------------------
PC Round 3

Jhen- 40 Damage, Zombie 1

-

Zomblord- 134/138

Zombie 1- 23/63

Arden- 14/20
Raltz- 22/22 17(?)/27mp
Elsa- 24/26 23/25mp
Ark- 20/29
Jhennek- 18/20 8/31mp

[phil_]

Bello finished sizing up the situation and decided that he should never try a morality speech on a zombie ever again. With his best effort shot and the rotten horde advancing, Bello mentally scratched through Plan A, and went with Plan B: Get the Evidence and Get Out.

Bello charged the talking zombie with a sword arm. The trick to Plan B was that it only looked suicidal. Mascot characters never die, after all.

------
Bello makes his (medium) move to the Zomblord. Next turn: snatch & grab.

Or, if you wanna move things along and be dramatic, may I suggest treating the combination of running and ring-snatching as a slow action?

[Bard The 5th LW]

"Well this is a fine kettle of fish," Raltz muttered to himself at the sight of a undead about to do to him presumably what they had done to Kole earlier. Maybe worse. He was about to retaliate when suddenly a blast of light arrived and capped that bitch.

"Much appreciated!" He shouted to Jhennek offhandedly as he lifted his blade. As he moved for the kill, he registered a few things: aiming at him with hands, energy coming out of hands, must mean hands form energy. With this hastily drawn conclusion, he swinged the blade and dropped it right across the zombie's arm.

---

Raltz attempts to disarm zombie 1

[Teal Mage]

Now at a long distance from the enemy, Arden pushed herself to her feet. Miraculously, she was no more injured than when the hospital had collapsed on her! Her finely tuned business sense told her that this was clearly an oversight of the laws of physics, but, it was also the sort of oversight that a White Mage like herself was happy to encourage! Dusting herself off, the silver haired woman turned toward the zombie road block.

"Well," she muttered, flicking another bronze bullet into her weapon's chamber, "can only live once."

She began to run back in the direction she had just come!

* * *

Move to Medium Range from the enemy.

[Menarker]

Ark spied the tiny Tarut rushing toward the zombie leader in what looked like a suicide dash. Running the mental simulations of the viable reasons why the Tarut would behave this way, and tentatively ruling out fits of insanity, the android came to the conclusion that he was going to attempt to snatch the ring off, given that it was the only reason why the group was taking a risk being swarmed to fight with this extraordinarily powerful individual. However, the risks seemed just as suicidal as the act would appear to be.

Ark charged head on into extreme close range with the zombie-lord, accepting the risks of a blow or two to somehow grapple or pin the target down under his own weight, attempting to shove his shield down at its shoulder to prevent it from getting up or swinging its weapon effectively.

-----------------------

Attempt to support Bello in attempting to snatch the ring off by trying to reduce/prevent the target's ability to defend against the stealing by limiting his mobility/strength (Leave him flat-footed?)! I'd assume a strength check is what is required or something.

[Riin Whitewind]

"Much appreciated!"

Jhen squeaked and clapped her hands together, the bangles on each clattering in her enthusiasm. Even that light praise was enough to bolster her spirits. Horde of zombies? What did it matter! She could blast through them all day, every da- MP was a problem.

She felt she had another cast or two in her before she needed to take Arden's ether - best not to waste any of it!

Pointing a finger at the next zombie in line, Jhennek prepared to weaken another combatant for her team to take down. It was unlikely she could stop any of them by herself - and it was unlikely they felt intimidated by pain - but a weak enemy was one easily dispatched with a sword.

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Cast Thunder at Zombie 2