I come to, mid-stride, back at the rear of the train. You can imagine the surprise that just barely flashed across my face when I saw Lt. Cromartie, the leader of “The Punishers”, talking to Cpl. Robin. Offering help. You would then see my utter lack of surprise when I see her faint as a dozen people then start to slowly appear from the treeline.

Zalaz quickly fills me in on the reminder of our encounter with “The Punishers” – wish I’d have been able to help. Apparently the dead rose. They move slowly, and the only (or at least most efficient) way to return them to their restful state is to remove or obliterate their head. Seeing these lumbering figures, I get now why Robin fainted. My instinct is to climb a tree for high ground – bth to be able to target them easier, but I get the feeling they’re not the strongest climbers. Alas, we’re in a clearing and our wagons have been circled. So, I settle for the next best thing and climb up one.

With Robin out of commission, the Lieutenant is now talking to Briff, and after a brief convo, the Lt. summons a few soldiers clad in all black, moving quietly and gracefully.

I see a dozen awakened shuffling in, and some look super fresh – members of “The Punishers” that we’ve recently killed. Others look long dead. I suss out 1 Sfardi in the group. I yell out ‘TWELVE INCOMING!‘ and promptly put an arrow through his eye, dropping him. ‘ELEVEN INCOMING!‘ I yell, nocking an arrow. I drop the one next to him and yell ‘TEN INCOMING!‘

One of the wagons has somehow caught on fire, so Briff has us redirect to handle that. Damn – I’m much better with a bow than a bucket.

Well, it soon because moot as I see a glint of a crossbow, aimed at Briff and Zalaz who are carrying Robin to (greater) safety. I nock an arrow, hide in case they attack and aren’t aiming for an awakened who may be right behind my teammates. I yell at them to get down, and they do just in the nick of time – a bolt barely misses them. There’s no awakened in their proximity, so I pop around the edge of the wagon, fire off an arrow, and hear a death scream as I re-hide. Excellent. Three arrows used, three enemies down.

The Punishers are busy addressing the awakened, so I guess that rules them out as our living assailants. Briff casts shatter – a sound attack – on the three remaining mystery combatants. One of them is more affected than the others. I see Zalaz doing some magic thing at one of them, and a guy grabs his ears and slows. I put arrows into two of them, but don’t put them down. Two of them close on Zalaz, Robin (still unconscious), and Briff. I take out one, and plant an arrow onto the other, who still has enough life in him to attack Zalaz. He doesn’t have long though, as Briff quickly finishes him.

That threat neutralized, I run over to a barrel of water. The cart that’s on fire collapses into a gush of fire, causing the two next to it to start to catch.

Again, firefighting is put on hold as I hear Tmolus call for help, followed quickly by one of his thunderclaps. I pop around a cart, hit an enemy carrying a polearm. There’s someone carrying something obviously heavy – is this all a cover for a mere theft? The three of them take off towards treeline. Tmolus does another thunderclap as I target the runners. I hit the encumbered one who drops whatever he’s carrying. My second arrow finds only night as the one with the polearm skillfully knocks it out of the air. The other is struggling to pick up the box, and is helped by the one with the polearm. Two others close on Tmolus and I. One swipes at me, but misses and Tmolus quickly dispatches the other one. The ones escaping are a higher priority, so I step to the side to target him, giving my immediate attacker a free swipe at me, which he takes. Worth it though – I use Hail of Thorns on the one with the box who again drops it. I miss the other one again – a worthy foe. My immediate attacker hits me again – and I have to say I’m hurting.

I decide to drop my bow and attack him with my rapier. He’s soon on death’s door, and knowing this, starts singing. His hands, slick with blood, drop his sword. He turns to Tmolus, still singing. He knows what’s coming, and shortly he slides off Tmolus’ short sword, and crumples to the ground.

Zalaz meanwhile has closed on those trying to escape. I close on them, and take my rapier to the one with the polearm. He reaches for a pouch, shakes it – it’s filled with coin. He says in heavily accented speech, “let me take that (the box), and this is yours.” It’s not a deal we’ll make, so he disengages and runs into woods.

Perfect. Before I can chase him down, Briff sets him alight. Zalaz loots the corpses as I recover arrows. One thing’s for sure – I need a way to carry more ammunition. Maybe the Quartermaster has some tricks up her sleeve.

We return to the carts, with the box. There are similar sized boxes in wagon it was in, strewn about. They were obviously looking for this specific one – but why? There’s something heavy in the box – but what?

I’m able to loot a useful crossbow and 6 bolts on the way to meet up with The Punishers and see how they’re handling the awakened. They’re lopping the head off the last one as I approach. Three of the nine of them have been beheaded, too. Perhaps they got infected, and precautions were taken. I take them back to wagons, where we talk.

The Lieutenant thinks this was all staged – planned. He says that his men were ambushed, likely by the same people, over by their camp. So, he doesn’t think we were responsible for the earlier events – that works to our favor in multiple ways. Briff rambles a bit, like he does, and Cromartie says that we’ll need to report to our Sergeant, and likely the Captain, too.

I get permission to secure the perimeter, which in my opinion means separate the heads from the bodies of the newly dead. I find a short sword, and secure the area, but do nothing else with these corpses – I want to leave whatever evidence this constitutes in as intact form as possible.

Session Date: 07/03/17
Title Source: Ozzy Osbourne – Zombie Stomp

Sgt. Zayno makes it our responsibility to get the newbie in line. His name is … does it mater? He’s the newbie, so his name is Private Newbie. He’s apparently a gifted lutist.

Some quick catch-up, since its been a bit. We were ordered to reinforce an army laying siege to the capital of Urartu. Tmolus went through the forests to take out some enemies, all stealthy-like like. Like he do. Coincidentally, my mission was to support an assassin’s mission to disrupt the enemy – as it turns out, it was Tmolus. I had his back from afar and took down commanders as he was sneaking around camps up close, doing similar things. Have to say, we make a pretty good pairing. Thankfully, I got to hermit a bit – get some alone time while on mission. Kinda re-center a bit – which is good. It gave me time to work on a new technique I’d been mulling around. I think I’ll call it Hail of Thorns™.

Upon my return, I learned that Pen had invented “trucknuts” and then invented the codpeice to hang the nuts from. He … he has issues. And I have a feeling they’re only going to get worse.

And, back to the now. We’ve been on the road for close to two weeks now. Two rainy weeks. We’re learning that the army’s methods for estimating time/distance/troop strength are more of an exact art than observation and data based. We also learn that our ranks are indeed rife with spies. It’s mostly our duty to protect the rear by taking out traitors.

Our current stretch has found us in the forest, and it’s been raining for three days straight. Raining enough that two flash floods have come through that took out a fair amount of supplies. Couple that with the natural dwindling of supplies, and morale seems to be pretty low. Well, low for most groups – I’ve been foraging, so my unit is not hungry. Plus, I can get a fire going at night even with wet wood – something that even the boisterous cleric of the death god (Pen) dare not mock. It’s drizzling now, but there’s a downpour imminent – we’re in for a long cold wet night. Sgt. Zayno shows up, knowing we’ll have a good fire, and hunkers down with us. He has word about Pen – he’d fallen and injured himself bad enough to warrant a stay with medical. A runaway horse spooked him, and he fall-down-go-boom. Apparently he was taken from medical?

Sarge asks how we are, and reports that other units are not doing so well. Do I detect the faintest sense of pride? While we’re eating well and having a fire every night (you’re wecome), the other units are suffering from trench rot, low morale, etc. And in fact, he has another mission for us. It’s completely off the books, and he will disavow the very orders he’s giving us if we’re discovered. He knows full well that war is hell, and a certain amount of ill behavior is to be expected. But, when troops get too far out of line, it affects discipline. The Captain knows there’s a rogue unit taking the opportunity to plunder while on our march. Not “requisitioning” as normal – taking. We’re now asked to “chastise” them. According to reports, these abusers have an insignia of sorts – a skull (Punisher-like) scarred onto their forearm.

In fact, Briff has seen them. He’s seen at least one lieutenant, three sergeants, a number of corporals, and a slew of privates. Roughly thirty to forty in total.

Tmolus and I investigate around. They have a notorious reputation – badasses. Bullies, even – they’re known for messing with other units. It also looks like they’ve taken shelter in a series of caves, two ravines over. And like us, they are hardened vets. This won’t be easy. Although, it would seem that we have a new advantage – apparently Briff can change his appearance. From this, we develop a rudimentary plan: I track the Sfardi members of this unit, show where they lead to Tmolus and Briff, and watch them impersonate and draw out a few true members at a time. We take those out, rinse, and repeat. We also want to make sure they can’t yell for help, so death will need to be quick. And just to make sure they get the message, also cut an X through their scar marker, rubbing dirt/charcoal into the wound. Also, we take their tongue.

After picking up on their tracks, I lead us across some difficult terrain, since we’re in a forest, we get to proceed at a normal pace. It’s raining and raining and muddy, but this doesn’t deter us. We sneak through a camp on way with ease, and come to the ravine where we believe they are. There’s even a clearing in front of their supposed caves. We find a spot we like, and I climb a suitable tree for a better overview. We’re far enough away from the caves that hopefully between swift kills and the rain, that anyone still in the caves will not hear any screams. We detect that seven are coming through, two in chains. Not sure what’s in store for those in chains, but it can’t be good.

(By the way, SCAT isn’t army-wide, but specops. We have our own “dialect”)

Briff summons some dancing lights in the form of a person somehow, and throws voice his voice to the area of the shape. He make the shape act drunken, cursing loudly and vowing revenge. It works – they notice, and all stop and crouch down. One is clearly the leader – he talks (whispers) and two others peel off with him towards the illusion, while the other two knock out and stay with the prisoners.

Even though we have the element of surprise, Tmolus throws a dagger and misses. I plant an arrow through the neck of one (Nat20!) with my Hail of Thorns, tagging him to a tree and bursting damage to the other. I quickly knock a second arrow and loose it on the other combatant (Horde Breaker) and hit him, but Robin puts an arrow through his eye and silences him.

Two quietly down, three to go.

The other three start returning. I can’t who is in charge, but can see that one is on Tmolus, so I plant an arrow in him and then duck back behind the tree. When I next look, I can see two running through the clearing, towards the caves. I hit one (Nat20!) with Hail of Thorns and he stumbles. My second arrow goes aimlessly into the grass. The other yells, and three men come out. Tmolus finishes puts one down, and Robin hits one of the runners with arrow. An odd crown of iron appears on his head, and he turns and chases the one running towards cave. I don’t how Robin “turned” him, but he tackles closes and tackles the guy, and starts stabbing him. (We’ll have sneak attack against guy getting stabbed.)

Session Date: 06/05/17
Title Source: Megadeth – Holy Wars … The Punishment Due