Chapter 1-4: Inviting Friends to a Humble Fire (1/2)

I flicked up a Detect Undead, making sure there was nothing hiding out of sight to the sides... or rather, confirming three of them were there, now being held back by burning corpses turning to white dust in front of them.

I poked my arm around the corner, and shot the first one in its jawless head, dropping it with a flaming stump, pulling back from the grabs of two zombies, and as they lunged into the burning corpses and caught on vivic fire, I backed away, shot the first one as it stumbled on the corpses, and let the second one tumble down, start to get up, and vivic fires blew out its empty eye sockets.

It fell back down, and I moved forwards to keep the rest of the zombies in the hallway in range.

I heard a bang, and looked sideways as the door down there slammed wide open, and something with purple skin and nearly two feet of extended tongue leapt out of it, leading a spill of other zombies behind it. It was big and rather bloated, with a bulging gut and unnatural energy about its movements, especially compared to the zombies behind it. I wasn’t going to let it get close enough to smell it, as it was certainly coming this way, hunched over and almost leaping as it bounded at me.

I was pretty sure it was a basic ghast, and I couldn’t risk the paralysis of its touch or the power of its stench. It was halfway to me when all four Shards hit it for 7d6+18, blasting both arms and its extended mouth and head off in bursts of white on black, and putting a big hole in its chest.

The twitching carcass slid to a halt just outside the pile of burning zombies that I was sort of standing on, vivic fire doing no harm to me, and I proceeded to start shooting the dozen others as they came into range.

I couldn’t get them all before they got to the pile, of course, but that wasn’t the idea. The idea was to litter the ground, make them divert, and stay inside the vivic flames if they decided to take a swing at me.

Their moans were pretty hoarse and dry, and they certainly didn’t weigh all that much as they came at me. Happily, they didn’t move fast, and if they didn’t divert around the ones in front of them, they were set on unwhite fire and became quick-burning vivic candles.

I just pulled back inside the door, onto the disintegrating undead there, and if they clambered up at me, the bonfire of burning corpses basically did my work for me in under ten seconds. The irregular ‘ground’ wasn’t kind to things whose nervous systems were necroic wrecks.

Hoping there wasn’t something I had to spend a Valence on, I kept shooting down everything I could see, and they kept dying and burning, setting one another on fire, and clearing the area around me.

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It was several minutes before there was nothing moving left. At least fifty zombies were burning and staining the ground white around me.

I couldn’t stay there and let them burn down, because I might need to come back to this spot and use it for cover, as it were, and the first undead had already burned to dust and bone ash. Sighing and wincing, I moved out, using Detect Undead to sense around corners and through the thin walls for anything hiding there.

There were a couple zombies wandering around, or trapped inside closed rooms they hadn’t gotten out of, clearly not the super-muscled kind. Knowing they were there, it was easy enough to just open the door and shoot them, then close it and continue on my way.

There weren’t many signs of fighting, just dust and scuff marks here and there. Of course, it was technically pitch black, so I couldn’t make out blood stains or anything, but there was none of the smashed and broken shit that would have indicated fighting, nor were the zombies mangled, hacked, burned, or anything.

They had died and been Animated pretty intact; they were just weathered with age.

I finally dared to take the time to look at my Assay again.

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The Traveler, Halvyri/1 (Elf/1)

Classes: Expert/Wizard/Sorcerer/Witch 1/1/1/1

Strength: 8 (7) -1(-2)

Dexterity: 18 (13) +4 (+1)

Constitution: 16 (13) +3 (+1)

Intellect: 22 +6

Wisdom: 14 +2

Charisma: 14 +2

Health: 14 (9)

Soak: 13 (10)

Talent: Naturally Centered

Racial Benefits: Low Light Vision, Keen Senses, 2 Favored Classes (Wizard/Sorc); immune to Sleep Effects; Dual-Minded; Skill Affinity: Wary; Elven Spell Lore; Elven Senses; Quickfoot; Arcane Empowerment

Traits:Experienced Warrior (Racial, Elf); Mark of Doom (Quest); Favored by Faith (Religion); Magical Lineage (Magic); Undead Killer (Combat); Warcaster Tradition (Social)

Karma: Current Two, Reserve Ten (100%)

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