Session 1 - First Battle

General Summary

Excerpted from Laura's journal.
22 Februarius, AUC 2103. A bit after noon.
Well that was quite a morning... I lost 2 arrows! And zombies are disgusting and hard to stop. I would say hard to kill, but as they appear to be already dead, so I think stop is the right word.
I suppose I should start at the beginning of the day, rather than in the middle, but ick! Having trouble getting that out of my head. They just kept coming, arrows in them and all. So, I have been traveling with the oldster for quite a while, ever since the squirrel told me he was dying in the woods and I patched him up 4 years ago or so. Bandua is gruff and thinks he is hale and hearty; hopefully now he is -- it took long enough. He is also over-fond of money, but he is kind underneath all that focus on money and bounty.
We came into Nemasus to drop off the most recent bounty... Bandua made me do the delivery (and count the money! he seems to think my reluctance to deliver bounties is because I think it hard to do. I just don’t like turning some of these folks in. It seems dishonest somehow, guess it is like Mama said there are rules and law and Law and you have to be careful of all. This next one, this zombie director or whatever, I will be delighted to catch. Animating the dead and setting those things on a town is just wrong! Going after the goblins that kidnap folk, that sounds like a good idea too. These zombies aren’t like woodland critters that attack people for normal reasons like food or territory and can be talked out of it!
If the oldster catches me at this, he will be after me to re-write it in an orderly fashion...(perhaps I should not write in common?) so I had better put some order in.
So, we came into town, ditched the bounty and got paid. We went back out into the forum and saw that a crowd was gathering with major fuss about something. We approached to hear what was what. Bandua was probably trying to sniff out money... I would have been glad to hang back and listen, see what’s known about Lugdunum, if anyone was spouting any rumors of survivors. I know better than to ask in a new town until I get the feel of the place, but I keep hoping. Town and country folk both were complaining about no soldiers going across the river, and the Prefect, Sextus Satrienus, I think his name is, was playing dumb, and hiding behind “orders”. Fuss was building when the filthy zombies attacked. There were 3 in the town, in the forum. Shot at them to cover the oldster. Following his orders in a fight is good, however I totally missed my footing on the run. Stupid! Towns are not as nice as woods. And I should not have lost both arrows, got the third one that hit the tree back at least. It scared me when the one zombie got a good whack in on Bandua. I have patched him up and put him back together and I don’t want to have it to do all over again!
Luckily that Aarakocra, Kleeck, and Hassan, who seems to be some sort of sorcerer, were there and had joined in the fray. I was focused on the zombies and had not noticed those two at first. Apollo is generous to Kleeck. I am glad he healed Bandua. And that that Hassan fellow cleaned him up! Was a little worried that the ineffective Prefect Sextus Satrienus would fuss about that, but apparently, he was rattled enough not to notice/care. The centurion seems more observant. I wonder what she thinks of this all. But hey, they are willing to pay for us to hunt, that will make the oldster happy and get us out of town again quickly. Wish we had a tad more news of the lands beyond the now border, but Kleeck seems interested in North and West too, so perhaps we can get a better idea down the road. Not sure about those two: are they really traveling together or are they more alongside each other? Something seems a little indistinct somehow. Will have to get more history out of them if we travel with them a while. Will see how long it takes us to figure out the local trouble as a foursome anyhow.
Seems as if the oldster wants to go shopping for a new bedroll… not sure what he did with the last one! Maybe we will pick up more info in the general store, although it doesn’t look to be doing a ton of business with all the excitement in the forum this morning. Perhaps someone will have a loose tongue at the inn tonight.

Rewards Granted

100 Experience Points

Missions/Quests Completed

• Major Milestone - Defeat the Zombie Invasion
• Minor Milestone - Form a Party

Notes

Before the zombie battle, while Laura and Bandua were delivering the bounty, Hassan and Kleeck had arrived in town and going to visit the temple of Apollo. Kleeck had the impression that he was to study prophecy at the Temple. Hassan is following Kleeck over something that happened with an amulet or necklace of some sort. At the Temple when they talked to the clerics the augury suggested something else, so Kleeck and Hassan remain on the road. Our four heroes met in the course of the battle defeating the three zombies that got into the forum.

Report Date

21 Mar 2020

Primary Location

Nemasus