[IC] Table of Monsters

[Eklispe]

Dorisma sat down on a convenient stump and waited as the rest of the party armed themselves. Well that was good and all but she wondered they would do now. It was nice being heros for the day but you couldn't just walk around hoping to find someone in need of help could you? Although given the frequency of the humans excursions into monster owned land it probably wouldn't be that hard to find someone in need of help. She spoke up from her seat, "Fish right, what now?" it seemed the kobold, Robert, was the most knowledgeable among them. Though R'Lyeh certainly displayed a large amount of academic knowledge perhaps his hands on was slightly lacking, the troll was silent for the most part and the bird hadn't had a chance to say or do much of anything.

[Riddles]

The group didn't seem to mind Trey joining them. It seemed like most of them had never seen an Ave before, which was understandable, since they usually don't live in forested areas like this. The Kobold clearly had no idea what an Ave was, and it seemed like the fish had heard about them, but had never actually seen one in person before now.
"I'd prefer that you don't call me 'it'." Trey said to the fish. "It kind of makes it seem like you see me as an animal or something. Know what I mean?"

Trey flew overhead, following the group to wherever they were going. They eventually arrived at a village that happened nearby, and went to a blacksmith, who appeared to have weapons waiting for them. There was nothing there that would be useful to him. He was much better with magic than he would ever be with any melee weapon.

[Lugia]

The blacksmith, of all creatures, overhears our conversation, and adds to it, by saying "Well, I've heard of an old goblin cave to the west of here. There might be some survivors, but I heard it was under attack by humans. You've got no problems dealing with humans, right? Well, those humans might have some better equipment than this," I then look back towards the rest of my group, specifically Trey, and say "Um, maybe? Do you think we should go? I think it would be better if we did, but if nobody else wants to go, then I won't drag you over there," I then remember what he was saying about R'lyeh's rude addressing of him, and the sound of his voice told me that he was male. "You are a 'he', correct, Trey?" I ask, trying not to sound too rude, but honestly I couldn't tell the differences between genders of a creature that I've only ever seen once. If their voices were at least somewhat predictable, then I should be fine, but I just wanted to make sure. Meanwhile, backstabs seemed to enjoy following behind me, which honestly made me very nervous, as her name included the word 'Backstab', and if that wasn't enough, she was also a thief, and had one of the best daggers in our group, it probably didn't help that she was the only one with actual armor, as well. Wherever this cave was, I hoped that we could get to it in time to save those goblins who are probably hiding from the attacking humans, or something. Then again, said goblins might have kidnapped one of their princesses, or something, but, then again, killing their entire cave village was hardly proportionate retribution for a simple kidnapping that might very well have been a mistake, or a miscommunication, and for all the humans knew, the goblins might have just given them the princess without them having to resort to violence.

[Evanist]

Deravan just listened to everything that was being said and though a bit.
"I think going to that goblin cave might be a good idea. Like you said, those humans might have better equipment then what just got, but with the element of surprise, we could actually get rid of them...especially if people in the village decide to go and attack also to get rid of those humans. And anyway, we will need to train while we travel there maybe to be better prepared." he then points out, thinking back at that goblin they let rot in the forest.
"IF we see other creatures like that goblin back there, then it would be good to get use to striking targets that move really fast.... cause we all saw how that goblin in his last will moved..." he then says, breathing deeply afterwards. That was annoying back there, missing all the strikes like that.

[Eklispe]

Dorisma spoke up, "Good plan, kill humans. Take gold and equipment, then kill more humans. Good plan" She stood up, "West yes?" Drosima asked gesturing in that direction and cracking her knuckles. Had to start somewhere after all, besides they could see how trust-worthy the one known as "backstab" was, and how good at combat the one known as Trey was.

[The Grey Dust]

"Well, I could hardly assign gender pronouns until I had verified your species reproductive faculties." R'Lyeh muttered in his defense. "But all that aside, this expedition does seem fruitful, if perhaps these humans may lead us to a human settlement." With an ever unblinking gaze did the S'Augwin observe his party.

"Although we should probably settle on gathering some supplies for the journey ahead. I for one, am in slight need of water." With that, the Aquatic creature ventured forth in the bar to secure some more water for the road, certainly their new goblin friend would be able to guide them to their cave. Unless it was one of those east-coast-west-coast rivalries in which she belonged to a different Goblin clan. Or of course she could just live up to her namesake and beguile them all.

[Riddles]

"Just to clarify, I'm male." Trey said. "You can tell from the sound of our voices most of the time. We aren't as different from the other races as you might think."
The blacksmith mentioned a cave west of their current location. According to him, there was a goblin town there that had fallen victim to a human attack. The rest of the group was eager to go there, Trey included.
"Let's go. I want to see those humans burn." he said.
He took to the skies once again, soaring above the group as they made their way to the goblin cave.

[Lugia]

After trying and failing to get more supplies for myself, well, other than me spending my last bronze on some more of that mystery gumbo, I waited for the rest of the group to get ready, and started to head where I was pointed towards by the blacksmith. I apparently had no inkling of which direction was actually where at the moment, so I had to literally ask which way 'west' was. Apparently, it was back the way we came, which kind of disappointed me, as I wanted to see more of the world, rather than just always being sent off in the same direction, and then back. After heading back to the campsite, the cave wasn't too hard to find, as it was just sort of there. How did we not notice this earlier, when we spent an entire day here? Did we just not care that there was a cave here? I think before hearing someone from behind me say "Well, here it is, home sweet cave," I turn around and notice Backstabs, who must have been following directly behind me this whole time without me noticing. I really have to get better at noticing her, given that she's overdue for a certain action which requires someone to not notice your presence. I then wait for the rest of the group to get here, and finally ask "Hey, Riley, you were talking about that potion earlier when the goblins were attacking, what did you find out about it?" I kinda forgot about the potion for a while, but I finally remembered, and I remembered him starting to say something about that potion, as if he figured out what it did. Either way, I looked into the cave, and see the entire place covered in what appeared to be some sort of greyish dust covering the entire cave. I then walk over to what appeared to once be a goblin, and poke it with my rapier, after which the entire corpse just decomposes into more of that dust. "What in the world...?" Backstabs asks. She does the same with her dagger, and another corpse with basically the same effect. I then recall the odd, grey grass I saw earlier, and end up making comparisons to this. Little did I know, however, that there were a couple zombified goblins behind me, all of whom were going to attack while I was focused on what this stuff could be, and how dangerous it was.

---[Our turn: Backstabs + Enemy's turn]---
Backstabs seemed to be poking at me, trying to get my attention, but I was far too focused on this strange dust, let alone how quickly the corpses decomposed when I touched them. I then notice her run off, and try to attack one of them, however, some dust must have gotten in her eye, as she seemed to miss the target completely, despite just how slow-moving the thing was... wait, there was something attacking us? I turned around just in time for one of them to uppercut me, and then punch me in the gut, finishing off with a blow to my heart, which left me nearly dead. I could barely breathe just from the sheer strength of the attack, and my vision was darkening "...help?" I manage to say through the choking, and through the blood. The other zombies seemed to be leaving the cave to attack two others in my group, from what I could tell, they were going for R'lyeh and Deravan.

[Riddles]

The cave, or what was left of it, was pretty close to the place where Trey first ran into the group. It seemed like they were too late, though. There wasn't a single human in sight, and the entire place was covered in grey dust and rotting corpses.
"This was done by the humans, without a doubt." Trey said. "They're vicious, cold-blooded killers. All of them."
The corpses seemed to instantly decompose when they were touched. To make matters worse, a few of them had reanimated, and began stumbling towards them.

The Goblin tried to attack one of the zombies, but she ended up missing, and that same zombie went and attacked the Kobold. He was caught completely off guard, and fell to the ground after taking a few hits. Trey flew over them, casting a Fire spell on the zombie below. It stumbled around for a moment as it was consumed by the flames, then finally dropped dead.
"That's one down." Trey said. He then looked over at his fallen teammate. "Please tell me one of you knows healing magic, because I don't."

[Evanist]

Deravan, who saw that Robert had been striked hard by a zombie by a surprise attack, quickly turned to Riley. Seriously.... they had to go and get attacked by the walking dead now... This was no time to go and stay idle. If nothing was done, then Robert might die. He quickly rushed to Riley and then swipped the potion out of his belt, the one that he said was a healing potion.
"Sorry Riley, but he needs it more then anyone right now." he says as he rushed to Robert and then kneel down to him, making him drink the potion as fast as he could.
"Come on Robert.... don't die on me...." he says, on his guard as he was ready to dodge a zombie's attack, ready to strike hard. He hoped he could do something to those things.... Maybe.... The place did seem rather.... dry. Although right now it was not important for him. He hoped the potion would save Robert... Just then one of the zombie arrived and attempted to strike Deravan in the back, only for Deravan to move out of the way and jump to the side, getting his daggers out, ready to fight.
"Freaken zombie" he says.

[The Grey Dust]

"Well... I suppose. I could have just healed him you know, no need to waste a perfectly good potion. Besides it would have been quite fascinating to observe the physiological effects if any on Wasskal from the exposure to this undead creature. That being said, please in the future, do more careful Wasskal." A poorly timed lecture? "It would have also been far better to use magic as I do not believe I have anything that can possibly inflict damage of sufficient effect given the undead nature of our foes. That is to say, our new flighty friend here will be the mage capable of doing that."

Somewhere in that semi-absent-minded chat, R'Lyeh managed to poke one of the attacking zombies with his shiny new spear. A good practice when examining new creatures. Use a long stick and try to introduce stimuli. "So they do happen to bleed. It would appear these specimens are relatively fresh..."

[Eklispe]

Dorisma rushed into combat attempting to roar ferociously but the noise caught in her throat causing her to instead cough in a mildly aggressive fashion. Ignoring the small failure she quickly made her way in front of Robert blocking the zombies from attacking him while he fully recovered and assuming a defensive stance ready to brutally retaliate against any attacks made against her. Dorisma was willing to bet she could take a hit better than him and besides, his magic would probably be more useful without a rotting corpse in his face

[Lugia]

A lot happened, first, I was nearly killed by a surprise attack from a zombie, next, Deravan decides to take our healing potion and basically jam it down my throat, after that, R'lyeh gave a lecture about not wasting our potion on something like this, and while I was slightly offended, apparently not worth having a potion used on, he continued and said that magic would have been the better choice, and I end up agreeing with him. Finally, Dorisma decides to block me off from the zombies, which was probably for the better, given that they nearly killed me in one hit, not too long ago. "Thanks," I say to Dorisma, and then Deravan. I then focus, and use the last bit of my magical energy to cast a lightning spell on the nearest zombie, particularly, the one that R'lyeh didn't carelessly poke with his spear. The magic nearly goes out of control, and not only reduces the zombie to ash, but lights a nearby torch which was, obviously not lit until just now. Said torch seemed to be burning just fine in this dusty air, and was on a wall off to my left. For some reason, I almost felt like saying something along the lines of 'crit for crit, punk', but something in my mind told me to not say that for some reason. I instead ended up saying "Hey, they're a lot weaker when they're not attacking," I then grin to myself, awaiting everyone else's actions. I really should be more perceptive in the future, even in places that seem dead... ESPECIALLY in places that seem dead. Backstabs seemed to be running around, trying to get behind one, however, she couldn't, and just settled on attacking its knee, instead. While she missed any part of the knee that would otherwise slow down the zombie if hit, she still seemed to do some damage to the creature, even if it didn't know it yet. The one remaining zombie headed right for R'lyeh, apparently proving my theory that these undead just like bullying squishy wizards.

[Riddles]

The Kobold was back on his feet, thanks to the potion that Deravan gave him. He killed one of the zombies with a bolt of lightning, leaving just one left. Seeing how little damage the fish's spear did, the zombies were probably resistant to physical attacks, so it would be up to the mages to end this battle.
"I've got this one." Trey said, casting another Fire spell. Unfortunately, this one missed. "Okay, never mind."

[Evanist]

Deravan, now ready to react after that little incident with Robert, quickly rushed to the 2th zombie. Using his daggers, he quickly jumped and the attacked with his dagger, striking quickly once with his new steel dagger, actually hurting the zombie a bit with that strike. Then he attempted to attack once again, only to fail completely. having the zombie move to the side to move towards his target, making Deravan strike in the void. He grumbles at this.
"Seriously.... a dodging zombie.... what with me not being able to hit targets that don't move that much." he then ays, annoyed. He then saw the torch from before. Fire... and this place was rather dry... maybe... He had a idea now. Next step would be to use the torch as a weapon if possible.

[The Grey Dust]

"You know, according to the laws I had mentioned earlier. Given our party has expanded by 50%, I'd imagine the odds are not in our favour at all given the allocation values. Wait did I explain this theory to the party yet or was that that an internal thought I had before we met? Odd, I could have sworn I explained it all out as to why the attacks of the Magi managed to dispatch the enemies in a single stroke and the last melee attempt would seem to have failed against the creature." Get on with fish. Seriously, sometimes one could just get so tired of hearing his scholarly commentaries in the middle of battle that one could mount him on a wall as some kitsch art deco?

"Don't worry, the odds should be in my favour now." Another Poke with a spear to pretentiously aggravate the zombie a bit more. "Be happy now, you are going to be examined very soon by me. Your death and undeath will be a fantastic opportunity to study the nature of necromancy in respect to biological functions. You know necromancy is banned in good S'Augwin social circles. How about in Kobold circles Wasskal?"

[Eklispe]

Dorisma grinned savagely, good only one left, seemed to would still get to hit something. She charged forward since Robert seemed to be fully recovered fists pumping at the last zombies ugly face. The rotting corpse managed to avoid her first blow by some fluke, but the second punched managed to glance it's head sending decayed flesh flying backwards in a satisfactory manner.

[Lugia]

I gesture for R'lyeh to wait for my response as I notice the zombie stumble around from Dorisma's attack. The thing seemed dazed, confused, and ready to drop, so I rushed in there with my rapier, and, forgoing any of the fancier moves, I simply thrust my rapier right into the thing's jaw, apparently with enough strength to finish it off. It seemed to reduce to dust as it hit the ground, along with its former comrades, which struck me as a bit odd. I then respond to R'lyeh's question with "Well, I heard that the desert kobolds don't mind necromancers, however, most kobold cities don't appreciate their dead rising from their grave, to say the least. As far as I'm concerned, it's just another power to use, just like magic, even if it's a bit weird, well, so's magic... of course, I'd prefer if THIS necromancer, whoever or whatever he may be, could stop, and find a grave, himself," Backstabs looked around in the areas where the zombies used to be, but apparently didn't find anything worthwhile as she started complaining "Hey, where's our loot!? Don't adventurers usually get loot after they beat their enemies?" She looked towards me, and I simply shrugged, and said "Hey, we're probably going to be facing more of those zombies, and zombies generally don't like fire, so, maybe we should grab any torch we see, you know, so we can light the next batch of zombies on fire... a rest might also be a good idea, I feel like I'm out of magical energy, and don't feel like I can cast any more spells," Who knows, maybe my injury could heal while we rest, as well. I then remember something, R'lyeh said something about that mystery potion earlier today, and I end up commenting "Hey, Riley, maybe while we rest, you could tell me what you found out about that potion we got off of that knight," I then head towards one of the torches, and take it. It was one of the unlit ones, on the opposite wall, so I didn't have to extinguish the flame before I put it away, though, all I really did was put it up my sleeve. We really needed a bag to hold our stuff, maybe even a bag of holding... that would be nice.

[The Grey Dust]

"Ah right, sorry, new experiences. Allow me to tend to your wounds, you wouldn't mind if I examine the exposed anatomy and make the proper mental notes before my magic seals them up would you? Such fascinating insights into terrestrials...No? Very well then, perhaps some other time." R'Lyeh was morally ambiguous, it seems the pursuit of greater understanding transcended cultural norms. Even for S'Augwin standards. Then again, his friends were not quite S'Augwin and thus were subject to study.

"So given the nature of the potion, I had tested on local animalcules mind you in micro-scale amounts. Now before I go into greater detail about the experimental set up and rationalizations, I'll skip my methods in favour of presenting the results. From a data point of 12 insubstantial creatures, arthropods common to the area I assume, the potion is of a polymorphic origin. That is to say appropriate scaling of dosing has created matter beyond the normal form, albeit unable to maintain the new form for very long. The polymorph lasted about 10 seconds given the minuscule amounts of potion I had tested with."

And from there, R'lyeh took a swig of water, examining the injured and injuries sustained in battle.

"All that being said, the potency of this alchemic mixture is evident and, appears to trend to polymorphize the test subjects into larger reptilian creatures. And as for our loot, I shall take this time to study the undead corpses here while we recuperate. Would you care for some internal organs or viscera? A Necromancer's touch should preserve the body from advance necrosis for a decent amount of time." The fish was all too excited, and had already began to cut into one of the fallen zombies.
Something about the potion seems to have something to do with reptiles.
Something about the potion seems to have something to do with immense power.

[Riddles]

Trey was ready to burn that last zombie to death, but the others managed to finish it off before he got a chance. He noticed that the fish was cutting into one of the fallen zombies, hoping to study it or something. That guy kind of creeped Trey out. He could only hope that he wouldn't end up being experimented on.

He looked around, scanning the area around them to see if there were any more zombies nearby. If there was any, someone would probably notice before they got too close, but it was best to stay alert. If they weren't careful, someone else could take a hit like that Kobold did back there.