And so, I got into a pretty violent confrontation with a guard. Normally I'd try to resolve things peacefully, since I was never really the one who thought violence was the only option. However, this was a guard; I didn't jail, and certainly not in these clothes I had JUST bought from a tailor. Cost me nearly all the money I won beforehand.

Anyway, he started to walk towards me with a shiny sword in his hand. I always uncomfortable with having something like that plunge into me, and it certainly didn't help me now. I slipped my hand into my pocket, but that caused the guard to walk more quickly towards me; apparently, these guys were paranoid, and they were correct about me pulling off a trick this time. I pulled out a bunch of darts within my pocket, which I couldn't remember the origin of those things. Nasty pointy things too, what with extra power and being able to teleport back to its user. Was it a curse or blessing? Well, I didn't have anything else to fight off that guard with.

Being rather pragmatic, I always searched for obvious and the not-so-obvious solutions to a problem. This could range from simply talking a man out of a fight or being creative with the surroundings. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't just sway a man from the law from walking away from me, hence I why I looked for another solution - the sign above him. See, that inn next door was robbed poor, by me of course. They've since used rotting ropes to hold that bulky sign up, but they didn't take to me too well and kicked me out on the alley. Oh well, more customers for me then. I take their money, they can't sleep in the inn, both of those parties suffer and I get cash in the end. Win-loss-loss.

Enough of that. That guard was getting dangerously close. I wasn't too confident in hitting the sign above him, and sure enough when I threw it, the dart just bounced off the sign and reappeared in my hand with a purple mist. At that point, the guard lunged at me with that sword in his hand, now convinced I was going to kill him or something. "Okay, I get it now!" I yelled, side-stepping and letting him trip onto his own face. Even more amusingly, his sword actually fell out of his ha-

"Shit!" That followed after a loud series of clanging noises. While he was grunting in pain, I jumped his body and arm to pick up the sword, stupidly by the blade and somehow avoiding cuts to my palms. When he was about to get up with a bruise on his forehead, I was pointing his sword correctly at his face. He seemed rather surprised at me, wondering why his own sword was missing from the ground in front of him. I smirked, telling him to get up: "Oi, you, get the fuck up! You don't want to mess with me, 'cause I got a damn sword now with your name on it! So, get up unless you don't need your pretty nose anymore! Who does?! Probably not you, but I assume you're not deaf and all. You wanker, you wanna bloody die or something? I can guarantee you a world of pain should you choose to disobey me!" ...and that worked. He was at that point absolutely convinced that I'd cut him or something, though really I was a bit of a wimp when it came to killing actual people. Either way, he stumbled somewhat, trying to get up while avoiding provoking me.

Well... that should've happened. I wasn't patient, and I sure as hell didn't need anyone trying to pursue me. So, I bashed his head (as if it wasn't already bruised badly) with the hilt of his own sword) - maybe a bit too hard, 'cause I heard a sickening crunch afterwards. I was both disgusted and worried at what I just did, covering my mouth while crouching down to make sure I didn't just kill someone. Granted someone died near me before, but he was a fucking psychopath who happened to get struck by the inn's sign. Luck? Rotting ropes.

The guard seemed okay, but he definitely took a beating. I sighed, taking his sword and concealing it under my shirt. I definitely got taught a lesson from this, walking away and kicking over a barrel to attract attention to that unfortunate guard.

After a healing spell from Robert, Trey had fully recovered from his injuries. He could see that the last zombie was weak. It would probably only take one more hit to finish him off, now. Unfortunately, most of the others' attacks seemed to be missing a lot. It would be up to him to put an end to this.

Trey lit one of the torches on the wall, and held it in his beak. He then approached the zombie from behind, and swung the torch as hard as he could. This was enough to finish the zombie off, thankfully. It was probably going to say something before turning to dust, since the others did the same.

Trey, somehow, through some logic, finished off the zombie monk with a torch instead of a spell. As the zombie crumbled to dust, I heard it say "The... treasure... was supposed.... to be... an apology... for stealing... our princess..." that was odd, I didn't notice any princesses among the zombies that attacked us, and, it would almost seem as if the humans were in the right from what I've heard. I tried to mull all of this over while Backstabs went back to mourning the death of her family, crying over the treasure chest that probably once held some giant amount of treasure, or some other thing that they weren't allowed to so much as touch. I started pacing as I tried to figure out what transpired here, and soon enough, start hearing an odd hum... as if someone put up a magical shield, or something. The humming got louder as I approached the... er... which way was I facing? Meh, either way, I followed the sound only to come across a rather noble, though dirty-looking human who seemed too concerned with whatever magical force was repelling the unknown magic that struck this place. I tried to enter her room, which seemed to be the only place not covered in grey dust at this point, however, the shielding was proving too tough to get past. "Uh... guys? I think I found someone important," I then say to the rest of my group, not entirely knowing what to do with her, or what the rest of my team would to with her. I figured that Dorisma would want to cave in her skull, while R'lyeh would most likely want to dissect her... the others would be less predictable. For example, I had no idea whether Deravan would even attack, and I haven't known Trey very long at all... as for Backstabs, who knows, maybe she'd think that the princess' shield-generating power would come in handy for us, or something.

Deravan breath deeply as the last zombies were finished, shaking himself a bit now... thank god that fight was over... he still felt the burn marks from all the fire... He looked at the group and breath deeply.
"Thanks you Trey for putting me out back there..." he says, before going and fallowing Robert, only to see a human generating a shield of some sort. He gets in combat position, annoyed a bit, just in case.
"What the heck... what is a human doing here... is he the one that caused all this!?" he then says, a deep anger in his voice could be heard there. He was not going to attack... but if that guy went and attacked them... then he would make quick work to slit that person's throat... He then sees that the human was female, and having heard the zombie's last words, calmed down slowly, trying to calm himself. He was still on his guard, but he was not going to attack her... unless she attacked them.

Dorisma gave a grunt of satisfaction as the zombie finally went down and she dropped her torch. She watched Backstabs crying over the other goblins with pity, and not some small amount of anger. She heard Robert say something so she came over and found that the kobold had discovered a human. "What human doing here?" Dorisma asked angrily of the human, cracking her knuckles loudly. What the human said next may very well determine if it lived or not.

Trey began to dig through the pile of dust that used to be the mage. It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for. Thankfully, unlike the rest of the equipment, the mage's wand was still in decent condition. When he picked it up, he could feel energy flowing through him. He knew what this meant - this wand had an enchantment on it.

As he tucked the wand into his robes, he noticed that most of the group seemed to be focused on something in another room.
"What's going on over here?" He asked. He walked over, and saw a human that was generating a shield of some sort. Judging from what she was wearing, she must have been a noble or something.

"You can't hide behind that shield forever." Trey said. "There's nowhere to run. We'll get to you eventually."

Well. That was a rather fun battle, despite the minor injuries, validating his theory was a wonderful experience and something he'd have to write about later. Perhaps a small sampling of these remains would work well as he already began to scoop up some of the grey dust the zombies turned into a small vial. Now that the scientific inquiry was sated, perhaps it was time to take a gander at the treasure, for surely the dead had no need for their ramshackle gear now. Although that the flying bird had already seemed to nab a wand of sorts, the S'augwin preferred to see if the treasure itself held clues as to what is going on here. Or perhaps some sort of necromantic artifact. No, just a small bag of holding a he quickly identified, having used several of these himself for expeditions, although they had been looted during his scuffle with humans. And 5 Bronze pieces. Not much of a treasure, probably disturbed across the community to which he left the coppers behind. Well tin and coppers really.

"As an adventuring party, the rest of us seem a bit under focused here, why worry about the dead and something which is clearly not an imminent threat. The goblin really ought to stop crying over the dead and the past, it's not like they can be brought back after all. Well, they were I suppose, but after this state of dust I highly doubt a necromancer can resurrect them again once more unless they were quite the skilled magus who would have had to have some training in advance multispecies anatomy. To reorganize these assorted dead cell particles into complete tissues would be a nearly impossible task. As for the human, given that she, yes I can discern human genders mind you all, is behind a ward, I highly doubt she is of threat to us. And if there is something generating this impass, it is either originating from her or she is a prisoner trapped by it to which she is of no threat. If sourced from her, we can simply wait while the barrier either fades, or she lacks the energy to sustain herself. Of which sounds like a wonderful idea right now as I could use a short break to replenish my magical energies... Oh and if she is a threat, and has acquired a similar condition to these zombies, a simple healing spell should work against her. Or if she is a living human being, perhaps It will heal her injuries at which we are free to interrogate her and quite possibly vivisect her for a closer study of effects of necromanctic energies due to her possible exposure?"

Brilliant. I knocked out the guard, took his sword, and I'm probably gonna be marked as some criminal. Well, I was already one, but now the village is gonna put a bounty on my damned head. Guards will roam more often, and I'll probably be finally caught rather than given fines around this place.

Now what? Run. Get away from this place, don't talk to anyone, and most importantly make a profit from your losses. I was gonna be marked as a dangerous fugitive now, at least in this place.

Shuffling my cards in my hands, I was still shaking. I leaned against the wall to stop myself falling, yet I nearly dropped one of my cards while not paying attention, sending me back to where I was now. I hid the sword well in my clothing, but I was gonna be recognisable what with my clothes and face. At least I wasn't petty and tried to kill someone; violence against others is just not my thing. You see, I believe everyone has some value, whether that be through friendship or hard labour. Killing them ends their legacy, and... well, I take the fact I'm still alive as a bit of a message from whatever lies above.

Either way, whatever lies above better treats me nicely. I just lost my way of life to... myself. I didn't even know what happened. I just... acted out of impunity. I should've run, but I felt as if I needed to stand my ground or something. Whatever the hell happened, its gotten me into this situation.

I scratched the tip of my snout, rubbing my eyes and looking at the alley I had just left. That guard was knocked out cold, but sooner or later someone was going to see him and help him up. I needed to plan my escape; just simply running out of the village wasn't a good idea. I mean, what would you do OUTSIDE of the village? At least this place was fortified against the monsters within this forest, but frankly I knew I'd be stuck between claws and a hard place once I got out of here. I had a sword and a few darts, and some leftover change from earlier. I would need a bag, some armour, and some food and water to keep myself alive in the outside world.

Right. I'd be charged with theft and robbery. Not as bad as killing someone though; thank goodness that never happened.

Yawning, I pushed myself from the cobblestone walls of the village, slipping my deck of cards within my coat-pocket. I looked around, wondering if I could get some more money to prepare myself for the journey. Sure enough, some hunter with a bag of coins was present, trotting his bow and quiver while walking beside the buildings of Birchvale. He seemed a bit tipsy, but aggravated robbery probably wasn't a good idea, especially in the daylight.

"Oi, you wanna double your cash lad? You win, you'll get the best bow of your dreams!"

Everyone on the team seemed ready to attack her, and so, in response I assumed a fighting stance, as well, R'lyeh, however, must have had other plans, as after he looted the treasure chest for a small bag, and placed a sample of zombie dust in there, and took a short rest, one which I had no trouble joining him in, he explained that she wasn't an immediate threat. He also told Backstabs to get over the loss of her parents, but I knew better, I knew it wouldn't be that easy. I opened my eyes for a moment to notice her trying to, well, backstab R'lyeh, but I put a stop to that, saying "He's an ally. As rude as he was to you, you do have to admit, he's right. I know it's not easy, but you will have to get over their deaths at some point, killing Riley isn't going to solve anything," Backstabs cried for a moment, and then nodded, agreeing with me. Once we were finished resting, R'lyeh, for some reason decided to cure her. This seemed to get her attention, and the barrier faded away. "Hm? Oh, are you the group they sent to take me back home?" She asked, apparently ignoring the fact that we looked ready to fight her. "Uh, no, not exactly, miss," I respond to her, which seemed to make her laugh more than intimidate her. "Oh, you're just too cute, and, of course you are. They must be running out of humans, because the last group they sent me all succumbed to some sort of evil magic, and died right on the spot," I wasn't sure if she could even hear me, as she didn't really respond to what I said more than she just said whatever was on her mind at the time. "Either way, I'm going to follow you guys until we get back to my home, the Torentian castle... and thanks to the enchantments on my dress, there's nothing you can do about that," I, just a little more than annoyed, decided to test that by attacking her with my rapier, however, the attack just seemed to bounce off of the dress, or, more appropriately, off of a barrier created by the dress, prompting her to laugh again, this time at my weakness.

Dorimsa snorted disdainfully, "Arrogant woman isn't she, I say we head as far away from whatever this castle place is and leave her to her own whims. Clearly if her dress is as impressive as she boasts she has no need for us. It seems we were not fast enough to save this village but perhaps we can avenge it, we should move on and see if we can find the source of the black magic." She surprised herself with the competency of her speech. She was getting better at this speaking thing. Dorisma began walking past the woman deeper into the cave, holding her torch in front of her lighting the way.

Deravan sighed as he heard what the woman said, about her dress and all protecting her. He breath deeply, annoyed a bit but how she acted.
"Lets just go... we need to find who the heck killed all these people here... and avenge them." he says, a bit mad right now. He looked at Backstab and sighed calmly.
"We will find out who did this and they will pay... don't worry about that Backstab..." he then says to her, rather calm now, hiding his anger. That woman with the dress sure was arrogant, like Dorimsa said, but it was no use to go and attack her... He could probably throw sometihng at her and have it hit her... but that he was not sure about. He then though about something, and took some rocks and bones with him, having a idea for later. Maybe he could work on something along the way to wherever they would go. He then though about something and looked at Robert.
"I hate to say it... but if we don't have any leads... maybe that castle could give us information... if she dosen't decide to throw us to the guards after all that." he then says looking at her. He then started to work on the stones and bones, failing to make anything with the bones, but able to make some simple stone darts with the stones. He then placed them in his bag. Basic but should do the trick.

Trey glared at the princess. Robert's rapier just bounced off of her, and he had a feeling that his magic attacks would also do nothing. There was no way he was going to help a human, though.
"What makes you think we're going to help you?" Trey asked. "I agree with Dorisma. We should go as far away from the castle as possible."
Deravan, unfortunately, wanted to bring her to the castle, for some reason. There was no way the others would want to help her though. Or, at least Trey hoped they wouldn't.

"Wonderful. I believe the human shall be and wonderful addition to the party. We do require a beast of burden for my sample vials, and other party surplus items, to which I believe if her dress is indeed as useful as she claims, we have found ourselves the perfect meatshield for the attention of any enemies we come to pass by." R'lyeh mused as he looked to the rest of the group, the reactions were mixed so far. "Although I am still unsure if her assets outweigh the cost of keeping her in our travels. Using a simple Gygaxxian analysis tends towards leaving her here..."

"The benefits of traveling with a her include having a porter to haul our extra effects, abusing her array of enchanted articles of clothing and accessories to provide a living shield to absorb enemy assaults, and quite possibly a lead as to what forces were responsible for the events here to which we may yet learn something. Given these three reasons for taking her, I analyze the costs being her possible requirements for food and supplies at which pack animals are the least of our concerns to keep alive, another consideration becomes of her effects that is to say that perhaps we should deduce all the enchantments on her person and the height of her magical abilities in case she becomes a detriment to our party by magical means. My concern regarding her last statement suggests her dress is far more capable than it seems, and as such should be treated with caution especially if it is made of Fateweave Silk which is impossible to penetrate, tear, cut, crush, as well as having very powerful enchantments which render the wishes of the wearer true. And of course traveling with a human does not generally generate good rapport for us, especially given her highbrow additutude towards our party which suggests she will be more than happy to reunite with her own species once encountered and as such we may find ourselves in a rather similar fate to these goblinoids. So it seems the cases against her so far outweigh the possible benefits. Could we just leave her here and get on with the adventure? Although I could use some more water, do tell is there a clean source of water in this village? Oh and since the rest of your kin are dead, any foodstores and surplus supplies we may take from the village to assist us in our travels? In when a S'Augwin dies, our possessions are pooled back into the community to be used by those who require it as we have no actual families but rather clutches of the same age we associate with. Is this not the same with terrestrial societies?"

The consensus among my team seemed to be to abandon the castle, and simply go in the opposite direction from it, and who was I to argue? I mean, we can't just go around helping the same creatures that basically see us as a plague, right? I nod, and say "That sounds like a plan, we'll make sure to never approach the city for any reason, whatsoever. I just kinda wish I knew which direction it was so I could avoid it," the princess laughs, and says "Then I suppose I'm going on an adventure. Need I remind you that there's nothing you can do about me following you?" I grumble a bit, and pass by Backstabs on the way out. I overhear her explain to R'lyeh "No, that's not how it is around here, most of us only have one young per... well..." she then whispers something, which I can only guess was an explanation of the birds and the bees, and once she was done, she continued with "And due to that, we are usually very close to our families... we'd usually pass down any money, housing, or whatever to our next in kin, but I wouldn't mind if you could raid the place for food and such, as you've said, everyone here is dead, except for me, of course," she then started following me, dragging her feet, and with her head hung low, a sure sign that she still wasn't quite over the death of her entire village. Of course, Ms. Princess decided to follow along as well, but she seemed to be in a much happier mood, and seemed to occasionally hum a tune as she walked, almost as if she knew nothing was a danger to her. I checked from house to house, and could only come up with a couple loaves of bread, and one cup of some... weird... purple drink that didn't seem like a potion, but simply some sort of alcoholic goblin drink. It smelled incredibly spicy, which was weird, given that goblins, as mammals, would be repelled, or repulsed by the spice. I simply knew the smell of 'spicy', but couldn't taste it, myself, given that the chemical that causes the sensation doesn't work too well, if at all on kobolds... or even aves for that matter.

Dorimsa growled, "Stupid peasant girl." before resuming their trek. She scanned the area as they traveled with her torch seeking for some sort of tracks or clues as to the source of death. The girl's tunes were mildly irritating but suspecting she would only gain pleasure, or worse increase in volume if she learned it was a source of annoyance Dorisma wisely held her tongue. Somewhere in the back of her head Dorisma wondered that if the girl was as invincible as she believed why she didn't make her own way back. There were really only two explanations, either the dress had some sort of weakness, or the girl didn't know the way back. Two interesting theories, at least one of which she would have to thoroughly test...

Deravan sighed before continuing to move forwards, knowing they would not get to the castle any time soon. They could have also just go and stay near enough and have her run inside without the group fallowing. Then they would be off with her... but it seemed that she wanted to fallow the group, and with how annoying she was being right now... I would have been best to have stayed hidden and not even attract her attention at all. Attacking her would not be good at anything, cause her robe probably was enchanted with defense against almost everything... then a idea came in his head.... a cliff... if they ever get to one, they could just push her over it and hope to make her fall to her death. That would be a good way to get rid of her... Either way, he didn't really like having her fallow the group around. He then heard what Backstab said and breath deeply. Family.... He stayed silent there. He didn't want to speak about it either, the images of their death still fresh in his brain. He stayed cold as ice there, not wanting to even show any emotions at all

They began heading out of the cave, and the princess, unfortunately, followed them. She began humming an annoying tune, and seemed to be completely oblivious to the fact that she was walking through a graveyard. Trey decided to search the houses, mostly to get away from the princess for as long as possible. He didn't find anything that would be useful to them, though. All of the food seemed to be rotten, and the weapons were heavily damaged, rendering them useless. Robert had also searched the houses, but unlike Trey, though, he seemed to found something.
"What did you find, Robert?" Trey asked.

Well, after a quick ransack of the ramshackle remains of the village, or perhaps more aptly classified the recently discovered ruins, there was not so much a breadcrumb left behind. In fact, there were three and a half loaves of bread. Or at least what appeared to be three loaves of bread of definite size and physical properties, and a portion of bread with similar physical properties as the aforementioned bearing dimensions of approximately half the quantity of volume (and thus when coupled with the previous knowledge at similar densities yielding reduced mass) as the other three. Hence the conclusion that the raid had produced three and a half loaves of bread, and not much more which would not be considered rubbish and refuse to be discarded.

"It appears they are fresh out of water. Although I did manage to find carbohydrate provisions. Of which, we may distribute amongst ourselves later this day for meal?" R'lyeh returned, waving the loaves of bread in the air as if a prize specimen in a preservation jar. Or something like that. "I also bring unfortunate news that I have been unable to locate my research anyways, or any more humans to attempt and procure samples from."

I rejoin my group and soon after, Trey asks me what I found. I answer simply with "A couple loaves of bread, and this strange drink," I hold up the drink, and Backstabs, who was following behind me much to my discomfort instantly takes it from my hand, and starts drinking it. "Okay, well, I found two loaves of bread, then..." I correct myself as I continue to head out of the cave. Turning back to see Backstabs, I notice her looking a little... well, drunk. She didn't look AS sad as she used to, however, she already couldn't walk in a straight line. How strong was that stuff that only one cup of it is enough to make someone this drunk? Nothing of interest happens, and I find myself back at the entrance, which is now the exit. Looking down, I notice that some of the area around the cave seems to have succumbed to whatever the heck this grey stuff was, with the grass looking just as drained as the grass I used to finish off that goblin thief, and even the dirt changed to a grey color, as well as a cracked, dry texture. "Is... is this stuff spreading? We have to warn Birchvale about this, I mean, this place isn't too far from there, and if it's spreading... well... I don't want to find out whether or not this... whatever it is can kill on its own or not," I tell everyone. I would have simply ran off towards Birchvale, but I didn't want to abandon the few friends I had to head there as fast as I could, after all, I could end up fighting someone, and it would be nice to have everyone fighting, rather than just myself. The princess then speaks "Ooh... now this looks like a nice little plot point. The possible destruction of our world by an unknown menace... I like it," I ignored her for the most part, as her well-being was of little importance to me, heck, for all I knew that dress had some enchantment that kept her well-fed, or something, too.

Deravan sighed at the comment of the princess, looking at the grass thing, a bit worried now about that thing. If it wouldn't have spread, he could have gathered some of it and possibly make something out of it... like a poison or such. But it was too risky to even go and use it. He sighed as he then fallows Robert, but then stopped, looking at Backstab, who seemed rather... drunk. He sighed as he then move close to her and help her walk forwards.
"Seriously... I hope that stuff you just took isn't going to last all day." he says to Backstab. He was going to actually lift her up and carry her if she was going to be really too drunk to move properly. Well it was understandable... she just saw her parent's and family dead right in front of her eyes. The shock it must have been, especially with how Goblin's were so close together. A bit the same with trolls... or at least with his family. It hurt him that he left his sister, but she wanted to move away and forget about what happened with their parent's. Saying that it was best to try and not seek revenge against humans, because of how out strength they were compare to monsters. Well, that is not anymore, now that some of them started to use jobs like himself...