An Unexpected Return: Chapter One

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kintire
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Post by kintire »

Marilee's eyes narrow and she grins in delight, shifting her weight forwards, drawing her long sword and hefting her shield.

"Time to dance once more it seems!"

She bounds swiftly forward towards the sounds of battle

[Punishing Stance and advance!]
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Post by Ail »

Robert unsheathes his sword with a grim smile and enters the cemetery too, but keeping silent.
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Post by A G Thing »

A little unnerved by the previous encounter in this very ground before, still Josem sets about the task of readying his spell book and begins to advance as well but looks carefully to take in all that is going on. One advantage of falling to the rear of any pursuit is that he often has a chance to change his tactics if he is careful to look ahead.

OOC: Spot check sent!

OOC: Sites for easy reference for later while my bookmarks are unavailable...

Die Roller: http://www.pbegames.com/roller/

Josem's Sheet: http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.p ... tid=164089
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Post by steveflam »

The party pushes bravely into the cemetery. A few yards into the cemetery, near where their first encounter occured, Marilee and Josem are overwhelmed with such despair and fear that they turn around and run as fast as they can! Both exit the cemetery and keep running as fast as their feet will carry them.

Thomas and Robert notice this but have a chance to observe what is transpiring deeper inside the cemetery. First observed atop a mausoleum
top is a figure Thomas feels he has seen before but can't for the life of him remember where he has seen this person before. It does come back to him quickly, and the lads face flushes red. He knows who the man on the Mausoleum is!

In front of the Mausoleum a battle ensues. Jebediah is indeed there, battling a woman with a quarterstaff. He appears to be quite fast, fast as his undead opponent in fact. His opponent, is obviously a Vampire, her fangs bared and taloned hands trying to harm the man.


Not far off is a very large man, appearing crazed, grunting and growling. He holds a massive Great Sword embedded with a gem in its hilt. Four beasts battle him, obviously undead by their decomposed flesh. Bodies litter the ground in front of the crazed man with the sword. His massive balde slices through the air, slicing one of the undead in half. As it falls, his blade moves up and across, cutting another foe in half!


The figure atop the Mausoleum moves his head towards both Robert and Thomas, grinning. He beckons you both to join in the battle, laughing. "Would you care to join in and help these not so helpless men?"
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Post by Ail »

Robert answers sternly at the words of the mysterious figure.
"You'll never hear of me that I forsook a fair challenge, but it is not fair when I do not know my opponent. Why don't you tell us who you are, and what your games?"

He hopes to create a distraction, if indeed this man is controlling the undead perhaps engaging in a conversation will distract him enough for the monsters to be overcome. He realises Diplomacy may not be his strongest point, but plunging straight ahead into battle seemed more like suicide at this point.
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Post by steveflam »

The figure atop looks at Robert with bemusement. Eyes as red as blood, his tilts back and he laughs heartily. "My name is unimportant, young man. I do know yours however, Robert and that is Thomas, son of William I believe. Now, doesn't my cannon fodder fight well?"

And before either Robert or Thomas can react, the man atop the mausoleum disappears. Even worst is the both of you are now grasped in each of his hands and lifted from the ground! Turning you now see the figure close up. Both Robert and Thomas now feel the same sense of despair that Marilee and Josem felt a moment ago. "Oh how sad, you've both wet your pantaloons. Begone from here lest I end your miserable lives. Tell everyone you know that Strahd Von Zarovich has returned!" With little or no effort he throws the both of you back through the open entrance! Landing awkwardly, Robert and Thomas take more bruises than real damage.
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Post by Ail »

Robert shakes in fear and runs away from where he landed. Then, as he recomposes himself and shakes his clothes, he mutters to himself.

"Lesson learned today: keep my mouth shut!"

He rises, a grimmer man.
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Post by Ail »

Robert then looks for Thomas, and sees if he's well. If needed, he helps the man get up, but then sternly (and still a bit ashamed, so not very loud) he says

"I have to beg your forgiveness. Twice tonight I've ruined your plans. I'll try and be wiser from now on, I've learned this lesson."

"At least we've learned something important, it seems."
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Post by A G Thing »

Whether a memory of the past failure or not, when Josem catches his breath he is near crying. His face is cold from the run through the night air and he exhales sharply looking around to try and place where he is.

"Is my courage so lacking?"

The barely muttered words are left unanswered, but he glances around and starts to look for Marilee somewhere. Her legs are remembered in his somewhat panicked glances as she passed him for a moment in their flight. He turns and begins walking his way back to the cemetery though rubbing his shoulders as if to warm himself. But the chill is not from the cold.
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Post by BigBadQDaddy »

Ail wrote:Robert then looks for Thomas, and sees if he's well. If needed, he helps the man get up, but then sternly (and still a bit ashamed, so not very loud) he says

"I have to beg your forgiveness. Twice tonight I've ruined your plans. I'll try and be wiser from now on, I've learned this lesson."

"At least we've learned something important, it seems."
"Noted, Robert." Thomas gets to his feet doing his best to keep his legs underneath himself. They tremble like an earthquake.
"It seems as if our situation has worsened, I'm afraid. I hope you are aware of who our friend has identified himself as. The dread Count of Barovia. From the expression on your face it seems as if you have not heard of the creature. I envy you."
Thomas takes a few steps towards where he last saw the battle being fought.
"We really are in quite over our heads. Regardless, we may have potential allies in our doomed endeavor." With that he heads off in an attempt to lend aid to Jebediah and his crazed cohort.
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Post by steveflam »

Once arrived at the cemetery together, the sounds of battle still sound. Arriving at the scene, you find Von Zarovich gone, but something else is among the foes of Jebediah and the crazed mountain of a man. A Lycanthrope! It is fighting the huge man while Jebediah still fights the female Vampire.


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Last edited by steveflam on Tue Mar 23, 2010 11:02 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by BigBadQDaddy »

Thomas takes a knee, pulling his pack in off his shoulders and placing it in front of him. He rifles through it quickly, and after a few short moments, pulls three sharpened wooden stakes from the contents of the bag. After tucking one in his belt, he turns to the others, "Here! Take these! If you get the chance, drive it through the woman's heart! Don't hesitate, just do it! And only if you have an opportunity! If she gets a hold of you, your finished!"
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Post by Ail »

The stake Thomas gives Robert feels like freezing ice in his hand. This has been a night of strong emotions for Robert, as if someone inside him were finally maturing and dissipating away the tendrils of naïveté that still encroached within him.

I must be a man, and stop being a witless brat

He now understood how foolish he had been with Jebediah and Strahd. The names meant nothing to him, but from what he gathered from earlier conversations and Thomas's implications, he now understood this Strahd fellow must be not only a necromancer, but maybe a creature of the night himself.

He shuddered in horror as he recalled the dark master's hand on his throat, and flinched involuntarily in disgust. It had been easy to play the valiant when he did not know what he was up against. That, after all, was what a man should always do, he had always thought.

He looked at the stake in his hand: the implication was obvious!
But now as Thomas looked up at him, with deadly serious intent expecting him to actually contribute to the fight and maybe strike the vampire himself, he felt his blood turning to water and his legs faltering.

But I must be a man!

The thought kept echoing in his mind, and resonated like the heavy poundings of a bell in a Kartakan valley. He held the stake with ever more strength, hoping to compensate for the courage he did not feel, until his nails brought out a trickle of blood from his palm.
He didn't speak another word, but turned to the fight, looking for an opening.

I will! ...
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Post by kintire »

Marilee returns, scarlet with shame, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. She grabs the stake, thrusts it through her belt and takes a deep breath. Her eyes seem to focus on something not there, and then with a sudden ululating howl she charges the lycanthrope, sword held high
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Post by BigBadQDaddy »

Mixed emotions ran through Thomas' mind as he turned to face his enemies. One being that of cool determination and calculating resolve. Before him two potential allies in the cause to stem the tide of the creatures born of darkness do battle with the creatures themselves. The inner conflict comes at the realization of what has joined the fray. Battling the large mountain of a man is a lycanthrope. A shape changing creature of an evil and bestial nature. His sworn enemies and favored prey amongst the creatures who dwell in darkness.

In the span of a second he recalls his mother's nightmares, her screams rending through the house in the late hours of there home in Mordent over the years. And worse, his mother and father explaining to him why the nightmares occurred. He had been preparing for this his whole life. This creature represented the savage beasts who had tested his dear mother's resolve and never left her a peaceful nights sleep after that near tragic encounter.

Hands shaking with the onset of adrenaline, he felt his hand grip tightly over the grip of his fathers pistol. The "Gift", as he had been known to call it, was loaded with a single round silver bullet. Ammunition devised for the single purpose of eliminating lycanthropes. As he began to move forward, closing the distance between himself and the beast, his own lips began to curl back in determination, he raised the pistol and readied his aim...
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