CHOCOLATE DESTINY, ARC 3

After the two men crash to the ground she starts bashing on the ghouls head and torso with her club.

Amos stays a couple meters away from the wagon in case it goes up in a ball of flame. He begins frantically writing runes and esoteric scrawlings on parchment, preparing the enchantment.

The ghoul is quickly reduced to an inanimate pulp. Amos' spell begins to take shape on the parchment, but the tension of the situation slows his calculations. Two of the thugs have circled around to get a look from either side. "He's writin' something down boss!"
"What are you waiting for? Stop him!"
Meanwhile the mustache man's numerous bite wounds are being tended to by his companion. "Noo....Jorge..." he groans.

Amos slides the paper away and leaps up with sword at the ready. He prepares to counter attack against the first thug to step behind the cover of the caravan. "Seriously? The mustached fellow is soon to turn ghoul as well and we're still going to fight? Fuck it." Amos lets out a battlecry as situation intensifies.

Her target reduced to chunked bits, she turns her attention to the bandits and starts running toward them, dragging her club behind her.

The first unlucky thug waddles around from the left. The sudden change in demeanor from nervous talking man to fierce warrior surprises the ruffian so much he is easily cut down by Amos' skillful swordplay.

The bandits all start backing away, thoroughly cowed by Touka's resilience and brutality.
The fat leader does not appear to be thinking clearly anymore, if he ever was in the first place. He points the stick at Touka, shouting "DAGDA!", and once again a yellow projectile streaks forth.

Even with her clouded mind her instincts scream at her to dodge the light. As she is running she drops and rolls into the crowd of bandots to try and dodge the ball of light.

The "bandots" are not quite a crowd anymore, already running away from her. Touka tries to dodge...

The member 'Corenat Rovarnus' has done the following action : Dice Roll\'d

'fudge' :

The projectile hits the ground right next to her. The explosion knocks her prone and stokes the still burning flames on her body. Touka's muscles are beginning to fail her, and her body senses that death will not be far behind unless something is done.

"Ha! Look, I got her guys. Guys? Come back!" The fat bandit looks around, but his companions are still fleeing.

Amos slips around the caravan charging forwards with his bloodied blade and eager to kill the fat bastard that's been trying to rob him.

"You'll pay for this!" the fat man snarls, and points his stick at Amos.
"DAGDA!"
Nothing happens.
"DAGDA!"
He looks at the stick in disbelief, then turns and runs.
What looks like a group of cavalry is approaching from the north on the road.

The drugs finally wearing off she groans from the pain. Noticing she is on fire still, she tries to roll around a few times to put the fire out.

Touka smothers the flames on her body, then lies still in exhaustion. Amos chases the fat man off the road.

Amos gives the chase another five hundred feet. The humiliation this man wanted to put him through brings out a rage in Amos that is not easily abated.

Amos runs his rage through. The fat man is panting and wheezing but continues to flee after a glance backwards. Meanwhile, the mounted group continues along the road, nearing the wagon and the bodies on the ground, some living, some dead, and some in between.

"We're saved!" the woman cries, leaping up from her husband's body. "Sir knights! We need your aid!"

Amos returns still wheezing and gasping for air. "Damn sure wish I'd kept up the training regimen..." he thinks to himself. Finally he catches his breath and regains his composure. Amos approaches the band of travelers but stays a couple meters away for fear of another risen dead leaping up and trying to claim him. He calls out "Back away from the body! Your betrothed has either sorrowfully passed on from this life or is soon to return as a bloodthirsty shell of man. Speak your prayers with haste and turn your husbands body over to the welcoming touch of fire."

Upon hearing the approaching men she tries to at least sit up so they don't think she is dead.

"He is correct! Stay away from the bodies!" an authoritative voice commands.
The cavalry group arrives on the scene, at least 20 fully armored knights wielding various banners and gleaming steel weaponry. They are led by a broad shouldered man mounted on a sleek brown courser, his full plate painted red and white. "That goes for you as well, goodman," he addresses the mustached man's companion.
A kite shield rests at his side, displaying a flaming claw and a four pointed star on its face.
"I am Sir Mattimeo, ordained Quinate paladin and scion of House Inez. Heed my words and your souls may yet be saved."
His features seem vaguely familiar to Amos, almost as if they had met before.
Around his neck hangs a similar symbol to the one on his shield, which glows as he holds it aloft.
The mustached man lets out a long, continuous groan, and Amos feels a constricting sensation in his chest.

As Touka's blackened, fire-scarred form sits up, several knights immediately swivel to face her.
"Already a corpse rises under unholy duress!" Sir Mattimeo exclaims. "To arms!"
Swords are drawn and lances are leveled.

"I plead you to stay your weapons! She is scarred not by plague but by magic flame. I promise you a form of humanity still resides within her! She took to defending this caravan from brigands wielding a wand of bursting fires, she is a good soul."

Amos tries to push through the pain and detect how many magical sources are present in the knight brigade.

Sir Mattimeo shakes his head. "I'm sorry goodman, but it seems you have been blinded by love as well. That thing over there is no longer your friend or family. Do you not see how it should be dead, yet it still moves? It is an undead abomination, and must be destroyed. You may sheathe your sword, and let us take care of it."

Besides Mattimeo, Amos detects magic radiating from two of the knights, each on one side of the formation. Their armor looks roughly identical to their nearby comrades, except that they are wearing halfhelms and their arms sport only lightly plated bracers instead of gauntlets.
One of them breaks away with three others to approach Touka, while the rest continue to the wagon, where the woman is on her knees in thankful prayer.

Amos puts away his blade. "Give her a moment to convince you in her own words. She will not fail to convey that breath of life is still fresh in her. Separately I ask, who are the house of Inez? I am strange to this corner of Jaqim and do not know who to pay respect and reverence to."

She raises a one finger salute to the man before she coughs a few times before speaking, her voice coming out roughly. "Will take a little more than fire to kill an oni." She reaches over to her club to use it as a cane to stand.

Sir Mattimeo's expression changes from worry to surprise. "Perhaps I was mistaken. Rodrigo, check her for plague."
The mage knight takes out a smooth cyan staff with a circular head of a darker shade. He murmurs something to himself, and Touka sees a small glittering spark form in its hollow center.
"She's living," Rodrigo says after a minute, incredulous. "Wash a few bits off, and she'll be clear."
"This one's too far gone," his counterpart calls. "He'll die before a proper healer arrives."
"Wait, no-" *CRUNCH* Mustache man is kill
The groaning, convulsing mustached man is put out of his misery by a lance through the head.

Mattimeo turns back to Amos. "You must be from quite far away, to have not heard of us. My kin are all known as peerless warriors throughout the realm. No contest or tourney is held without an Inez challenger. From where do you hail?"

"Hooray I won't be killed." Pauses to grunt in pain. "Do you have a healer I can go to?"

"Our footmen will be here within the hour with a full medical complement. They will tend to you." He dispatches a messenger back down the road to notify them of the situation.
"Sam!" the woman cries. Her husband has gotten up, but is now clearly a ghoul. "Watch out!"
Strangely enough, the ghoul turns and runs off the road. Four horsemen quickly catch up, skewer and behead the creature with no issue.
Sir Mattimeo scratches his chin.
"I didn't think the undead scourge had penetrated this far inland, but we are charged with striking down the unholy wherever we find it. Nevertheless, I fear for the safety of our realm."

"I cannot lay claim to a homeland any longer. I am Amos Daniels, a wanderer and a vagrant. I have not traveled in the realms of the higher echelons of society and have not had the exposure necessary to know of heraldry and aristocratic history."

Amos wipes off the singes and charred portions of his jacket.

"The disease is not a peril of nature Sir Mattimeo. A group of malicious individuals have put this plague into motion. No doubt they work from behind the curtains of secrecy to expedite the spread of this terrible sickness."

"Well at least I'm not going to die. If you need me im going to go sit somewhere and try and stay absolutely still." She wanders off to the wagon and sits against it, coursing abit of morphine through her system to dull the pain.

"Really, where are you headed? To face the undead tide head on?"

"But of course! You haven't heard? Saint Anthony and his paladins are already locked in battle with them. Although, to let these plague-bearers slip so far...In any case, we ride to reinforce him!"

"How many have rallied under the banner of this Saint Anthony? What of the war on the southern front?"

"From what we've last heard, he took two entire legions to contain the horde's spread to the east coast, including several fists like this one. Four high lords have already pledged their support to him, and even Duke Flynnfield is considering pitching in."

Rodrigo rides up to Amos. "What do you know about the 'malicious individuals' you say are behind the attack?"

"At the present I accompany the respected lady who looks like she should be dead but only a few days ago I was at the very heart of the outbreak. There are monsters enacting a plot, one that may have terrible implications for the heartland. I speak vaguely only because this is not the place to discuss such matters. If you think my knowledge may be of any use then let us setup a camp before any further details are discussed."

"Not to be a bother, but any of you gents got anything to drink? Preferably alcohol." She slurs her words somewhat high off the morphine going through her body.

One of the knights lends Touka a leather wineskin, and she is soon happily guzzling expensive fluid.

"Yes, we will be stopping soon, but I'd prefer to stay at a town. Any recommendations?"

After a few more gulps she finishes the wineskin. After the question is asked she suddenly blurts out "Enarou! *hic* That was a good place to stay, I vote for there!"

Amos steps over to Touka and offers a helping hand to keep her standing. "Sorry Touka, it'll be a little bit more than a bother to organize a round of drinks in Enarou." He turns his head to the knights "Belle's crossing is a little ways back from where we came. With the lady's wounds I doubt she'll be making her travels to the capital now, let us find rest there if it pleases you."

She pauses a minuet to let her drug and booze addled mind think of a new place to stay. "How bout that Toren place , the people were sooo nice there. I'm sure they would be thrilled to see us again."

"Err ... let's not bother these knights here with Torean. An uphill trek can be tough on steeds, doubly so when they support the weight of their armored riders."

Sir Mattimeo rushes back over at the mention of the port town. "You were at Enarou before the disaster? My brother was stationed there, Sir Tanvor Inez. I haven't heard from him in a while, do you know what became of him?"

"Nope never herad of him." She yawns and sits back against the wagon, struggling to stay awake.

Amos swallows down his nervousness "... Grim news, but I beg you that we speak of it in private. Your lordship should have the right to decide what to do with the information after learning it."

"Very well then."

Several hours later Amos and the paladin's vanguard are being wined and dined at the finest inn in all of Belle's Cross, while Touka receives intensive medical treatment.

Mattimeo takes Amos aside to a private booth, instructing Rodrigo to keep watch outside and drawing the curtains shut. "Now, what can you tell me about my brother, and why couldn't you tell me in public?"

Amos sets down his drink and puts on a solemn expression. "A group of travelers I was with at the time paid a visit to the local baron. Through means wholly unique to a noble in the group we gained entrance to the keep. For the longest time we were kept in the courtyard under watch of guards ... the whole affair was suspicious. A few of us slipped away to find out what was going on. We though it was just bureaucracy ... but we stumbled onto something much darker and greater than that. The noble in our group found and confronted the baron ... he lopped off his head before our eyes! We thought he was mad, and make no mistake, he was. But the baron's body revealed to us what words would not. His ... It's body shifted into a man sized portion of ground meat. The another "man" came in bearing the name of your family and when he was struck down his body as well morphed into ground meat. It was shapeshifters sir. They had infiltrated port Enarou and taken the positions of political and martial power in the city. Shortly after the ghoul plague broke out, I haven't been prey to any shapeshifter schemes since escaping the borders of the Enarou. I'm sorry I don't have better news for you. Perhaps the shifters keep those they substitute as prisoner somewhere. Perhaps there is still a chance for your lordship to find him."

"Viva la magic!" She yells before being taken away.

Sir Mattimeo leans in, trying to discern something in Amos' eyes. "Are you joking with me? My brother is no shapeshifter! And what was the name of this noble who supposedly uncovered this scheme? It sounds as if you are trying to protect him."

"It was not your brother! That thing took on his image. And I protest accusations of protection. That "noble" prince Ali of the Swaggafids was a barbarian, he murdered one of our group and I would be dead on the road if I hadn't escaped him. I do not know what's become of the swaggafid royalty, only that he seeks to commit regicide. Still I insist, what was met and murdered was not your brother, nor was it human. Most likely it was the shapeshifters that spread the plague in Enarou, afterall, what sort of plague sweeps through a town in a single night?"

"You are straying from the point. You said you had information about my brother, but instead you give me a mummer's farce of shapeshifters and Swaggafids. Do you take me for a fool? Have you even a morsel of proof behind your ridiculous story?"

"What reason do I have to tell you of a meeting with a shapeshifter in the guise of your brother? If I didn't meet him why would I claim that I had? As for the plague, do you think this was the simple work of nature?"

"Do not ask me to explain your far-fetched reasoning. Shapeshifters are a children's tale. Even our strongest illusionists cannot replicate another man's exact likeness. And what does this have to do with the plague? You try my patience, commoner."