Ridcully reappears and shares what he has seen with the others, notably not as cheerful as usual.

Shroom smiles, "No cows! Hooray! Oh wait, more undead..." He frowns, "Bleh."

Stralor listening to Ridcully's scouting report, "This place reeks of evil."

Ridcully plops himself down and nibbles on a bit of cracker from his rations as the others digest his report and plan.

OOC: resting more in order to regain any lost HPs.

Fargrim gives Stralor a sideways glance as Shroom mutters out loud about finding cows.

"By Berronar's Ladle!"  Fargrim exclaims after hearing Ridcully's report on the farmhouse.

So.. how would you like to proceed? There are obviously two more of the dwarven skeletons there.

Also, some kind of spectral girl, and the strange zombie.

OOC- Well, as soon as Ridcully is surged up, we'll head up to the farmhouse and take care of business.  Unless, anyone else has something special they would like to do before entering the farmhouse?

OOC- I would like to healing word on Ridcully.

As the group moves forward, Shroom nervously picks up his quarterstaff and proceeds to the farmhouse well behind the others.

OOC: I will roll for initiative and my initial attacks - 3 magic missile and 1 force orb if 3 or more enemies are aligned - here.

Initiative Roll (1d20+1=19)

Magic Missile Attack Rolls (1d20+3=5, 1d20+3=5, 1d20+3=10)

Magic Missile Damage Rolls (2d4+3=8, 2d4+3=6, 2d4+3=11)

Force Orb Primary Attack (1d20+3=22)

Force Orb Secondary Attack Rolls (1d20+3=18, 1d20+3=4, 1d20+3=11, 1d20+3=6, 1d20+3=20, 1d20+3=4, 1d20+3=22, 1d20+3=12)

Force Orb Primary Attack Damage (2d8+3=17)

Force Orb Secondary Attacks Damage (1d10+3=9)

OOC:

Ok, we're going to set a bit of a house rule, because of the nature of play by post, I think it will be easier to say that as long as Edwena is available to assist in healing you guys between encounters, you can heal up to "Surge +3"

Normally you would roll a d6 and add that to a healing surge; the purpose of this is to just eliminate the time it takes to roll.

Tomorrow we'll do the encounter at the farmhouse!

Ridcully thanks Edwena as he hops to his feet and wanders towards the farmhouse.

The five of you now cautiously approach the dilapidated farmhouse along the "safe" route marked by Ridcully. Soon, you find yourselves leaving the orchard entirely, and making your way around to the backyard where you remain outside of a low crumbling stone wall.

At first, you see nothing but the dusty remains of the old backyard- nothing but a porch, some piled debris, and an open area. Across from you is the ruined farmhouse (which looks like it might make a serviceable shelter if you have to spend the night somewhere...)

Looking up, you notice two armored dwarven skeletons standing motionless in the upstairs window...Then, also through the window, you can see the shadow of an oozing zombielike corpse as it seems to enter the room, turn slowly and then walk away. You can't track it's movements from outside the house, but it seems to shuffle up the stairs, walk around for a bit and then walk downstairs, as if patrolling.

When you start to whisper your plans, the ghostly form of the little girl begins to coalesce once again in the middle of the backyard. She still carries her pathetic rag doll, and she is whispering to it.

Just as before the door creaks open to reveal the zombie-like creature. She turns and walks towards the door.. and disappears. The door slams shut.

It becomes apparent that the scene repeats itself every few minutes or so.

The two dwarven skeletons are upstairs.
The zombie patrols the house from upstairs to downstairs.
The spectral girl appears below...
the zombie opens the door.. and the ghost fades away.


How do you wish to proceed?

Stralor mutters, "What kind of cursed place is this?"

OOC: Now, if you choose, you can easily get a surprise round in on the spectral little girl since she is out there for a while alone...

You might also try something else.

All of you *also* notice that the air seems to get really cold just before the little girl appears, and privately, it gives each of you except for Ridcully and Stralor a tinge of unnatural, unreasoning fear whenever she appears.

OCC: Does it seem that any of the creatures notice us?