In reply to GM (msg # 125):

Uttering words that I've never heard before, a streak of blue energy wreathed with purple streaks (curse effect) shoots towards the zombie and strikes for 10 damage. From the front, the blast looks like the tentacles of an anemone continuously peeling backward in the shape of a raindrop until the moment it strikes, at which point the tendrils fling forward, briefly enveloping the target before dissipating.

In reply to Fergan (msg # 126):

I think, from here, I'm just going to disengage and kite them around to find some guards while shouting for help, actually--Given that I screwed up and didn't take my full move, they can dash to within range of me from where I'm standing now and I'm not going to take the opportunity attack.

I believe you did take your full move, 30' it can still get to you tho. Unless you mean to not have readied an action...

Both zombies continue toward you and close the distance (move dash).

You here screams from the streets as people look out their widows to see what is going on. You hear zombie pounding on doors and breaking Windows. The browser, apparently. I hate autocorrect.

So, is your strategy to kite with a doublemove then attack/move the following round? That is sound, but you will take two AoO this round.

In reply to GM (msg # 128):

Sorry--by full I meant double.

I intend to disengage and move each round, preventing AoO and keeping them close while I kite them towards guards while yelling for help.

OK, you take them to the next street over, then back up another alley to the first street. While going through the second alley you hear a window break from up above and see glass rain down, "It slides open, Barrok..." says a woman's voice, sufferingly (I appologize for the polysyllabic adverbs), "No time!" comes the jaunty dwarven response.

A javelin and a crossbow bolt follows the broken glass. The javelin hits (6 dam), but the bolt strikes true (8 damage). The zombie seems unphased.

You kite them further along and after they pass the broken window a dwarf jumps down, landing deftly in the alley behind the zombies. He hacks at the zombie with two short swords, landing an attack with one (8dam) on the first zombie which falls to the ground, and to the other with a solid hit. Another xbow bolt hits the second zombie in the head, which twists sickeningly to the side, but has no more effect.

The assailed zombie turns and swings at the offending dwarf, but stumbles over the fallen zombie and is rewarded with a counter-attack, lopping off its head.

OOC: Things got a little wierd on the dice roller because I thought 8's weren't hits, but they are! So, I had to retrofit some stuff and think I got things in the right order applied to the right things. Anyway, both zombies down.

You are back in the first street and you see that the other zombies have broken into a couple houses and you hear screams. There is a man in the street who looks dead, probably the annoyed cart driver. There is some debris in the road and you surmise that the cart turned over, or bumped wildly when the frightened horse ran away over the cobblestones. You see guards coming from both directions. The Dwarf with the shortswords enters the street as well and takes in the scene. I beat later and the door of building he was in bursts open admitting a woman carrying a light crossbow into the street.

In reply to GM (msg # 130):

"They came from there," I say in an outlander's voice while pointing to the inn. I make my way to the inn, listening for the sounds of movement inside and avoiding windows upon my approach because I have seen horror movies and know that windows are how people get snatched.

My goals are to search the inn, first, for zombies. Second, for the registry of guests. Third, for the room in which the man stayed. Fourth, for a personal effect of the man or something that I know he has touched. Fifth, for survivors who may have an account of what occurred, when.

They pursue the sounds of screams and the zombies they can see, the dwarf rushing up to battle and the woman (human) walking forward to find a shot.

You head into the inn, which is quiet. You don't see anybody, dead or otherwise (and all of the sudden I have to go listen to Hurricane, I desperately hope you get caught robbing the register). You don't find a guestbook.

You hear sounds of battle and horror outside.

Where do you search next?, there is a kitchen, a private dining room, and an upstairs with rooms.

In reply to GM (msg # 132):

I want to "clear" the downstairs. Under the assumption that the all three downstairs rooms open to the other two downstairs rooms, I open one of the two (presumed) doors to look in and then, if I see nothing, move to the other door open it and, if I see nothing, move in.

It's arbitrary to me, so I'll poke open the kitchen, take a look, then move to the dining room--stealthily. Please hold while I roll.

In reply to Fergan (msg # 133):

16:12, Today: Fergan rolled 20 using 1d20+1 with rolls of 19.  Stealth.

Ok, sorry for the delay. In the kitchen you find what you assume to be the innkeeper with his head bashed in. It looks like he was preparing food to be cooked the next day and that it was (passive medicine check) at least a couple hours ago that he was brained.

The private dining room is empty.

The bedrooms upstairs are empty with the doors ajar. A couple look like there was a struggle, one has a corpse in it (a man, still in bed), they all have blood. One in particular is a messy mess. The blankets were stripped off the bed, leaving just a sheet (as if those existed in medieval settings...), which is almost completely red with blood. There is a bucket of bloody water with a bloody rag in it next to the bed.

Oh, and one more room which is empty, but disheveled, like someone packed up and left, probably duder's room. You investigate it... (17) ... and find some scraps of food which have been knocked off a desk, a note with some names listed on it and subsequently crossed off, and a book titled 'Modern Political History of the Sword Coast".

and... *dice*

13 electrum pieces minted with the symbol you saw on the guys hand on it.

In reply to GM (msg # 135):

OOC: Now the conundrum of whether to leverage the resources of the state or to try to keep a secret...

I take the note, the book, and 11 electrum. The remaining two I put on the eyes of the messy dead. I look for personal effects of the victims, as well--a small token that might be used to identify them magically or otherwise. In particular, I would spend time looking for such a thing in the very messy room.

I would then make haste out of the inn by the back door, back to the theater, where I would check the list of names with my mentor and detail what happened, but leave out the detail about the electrum, which I will attempt to plant somewhere among his personal effects--as an insurance policy, of course.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:36, Thu 10 May 2018.

In reply to Fergan (msg # 136):

And, to be clear, I want the coins among his possessions but not in a place that anyone but I would think to look--My intentions truly are insurance in the event that my mentor and the lordling are in cahoots.

The messy blood room did not have a body. There was one dead person in a room, and the dead innkeeper.

In reply to GM (msg # 138):

Missed that. Then I leave the two coins on the floor like they fell off the eyes of a corpse that was rising from the bed--meaning that I let them fall off my face from a squatting position over the bed, but I make sure at least one is visible to people examining the room.

The remainder of the plan is unchanged.

Method AF!

OK, let's see if we get that far.

By the time you are done searching the inn, etc, you can hear that the fighting has ended in the streets. You can hear a woman wailing in sorrow and perhaps the sound of someone dying.

You hear someone else say, "I think the came out of the Inn."

You are in the common room, and there is a back exit through the kitchen. Your spidey sense tells you that getting out without being heard will involve a roll, though you are not sure the difficulty and it may depend on how you trade off speed for stealth.

You have the coins, and various (which you may define, any common or possibly uncommon mundane items that someone might have in their hotel room while sleeping).

In reply to GM (msg # 140):

OOC: Actor feat, yo. Darn about not getting away. Wherever the voice was from, inside or outside the inn, I would do something like the following

Disappointed, I call down the stairs as I walk (intending to be heard) toward and down the stairs: "They did. None in here that I found, and no survivors upstairs. It's..horrible up there. I'm think I'm going to be sick."

I say the last two sentences once I make eye contact with another living thing. If it isn't a guard, I try to excuse myself out the back, like I'm afraid I'm going to barf. If it is a guard, I just sit down at a table.

If I make it outside, I'm going to leave.

OOC: I'm hoping my curse comes with some kind of pallor that helps me sell the illness.

Just to be clear, you are in the common room when you hear that from outside. There is a chance you can get out. This doesn't have to change anything you did.

In reply to GM (msg # 142):

In that case, I walk shaking my head and say much the same--but instead try to excuse myself to an alley to barf.

Ok, you get out to the alley, someone entered as you were waking through the kitchen. You hear them follow saying, "Hey, who are you what did you see...?" Then you hear him stop in the kitchen and say, "God's, who did this?"

Do you make yourself barf and dry heave or something? Both are doable without rolls.

In reply to GM (msg # 144):

I do make dry heaving noises and, between heaves, say: "Upstairs...no survivors."

Ok, the guy comes back, a guard, and says, "Were you staying here at the inn? What did you see?" Before you can answer the adventurer woman with the crossbow enters the alley and says, "We saw him being chased in the streets by one of those things. He ran for cover when we killed a couple. Not sure why he decided this would be a good place to hide..."

In reply to GM (msg # 146):

I try to let the conversation pass over that moment, as I was not addressed.

It proves to be a good tactic and they leave.

In reply to GM (msg # 148):

Do I have the sense of whether they left or went upstairs?

Regardless, I leave through the alley, forcing myself to walk at a casual pace and take trips to parts of the city that a workman (which I think is my disguise) would go to. I take a circuitous route, stop for breakfast, and generally mill about for a couple hours (keeping an eye out for anyone keeping an eye on me) and then make my way back to the theater.

While walking around, I want to see if I can locate enough materials to approximate a guard's uniform--or whatever passes for a "detective" in these parts. If guards have to purchase their own uniforms, I would see if I can do that but not actually divulge my interest, meaning that I locate the shops and such. If the guards have a laundry service for their uniforms, I would want to watch for where their clothes are taken. Etc.

Anyway, I ultimately want to make it back to the theater in a fashion that would bore the heck out of a tail but still be productive in terms of info gathering without giving myself away. Once I get to the theater, I would tell my mentor about what happened and show him the note, but I would not divulge that I had the coins and would go through with the plan of hiding them on the premises among his personal effects in a place he would not look. Back of a closet. Bottom of a chest. Top of a bookshelf--Something that is crazy dusty would be best.

Creating such a disguise will cost... about 10gp. It's all authority is all about being functional and a cut above the rest.

More to come.