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Laer T'was a dark and stormy midafternoon, mostly cloudy. It's not actually a thunderstorm; rather, there's a very light flurry of snow.

A meeting location has been provided to those who've accepted the mission requests Laer had put up both with Confederate and Syndicate sources, or had heard about it secondhand, or any other excuse they might have taken to come. Laer's not picky; she's not terribly worried that someone's heroic instincts will make them betray her on this particular mission.

The meeting location involves a campfire that the elf is sitting rather close to, not seeming too concerned that the nearby base full of people she intends to kill, have killed, or mostly just rekill will spot her. This is mostly because she's put up a number of illusions between her and that area as she waits for those who were coming to assist to show up. They shouldn't have too hard a time finding her; it's atop a hill overlooking the ruins, and the smoke is visible from any direction but the ruins for quite a distance even through the snow. It is, however, quite cold for those who did not prepare.
Raine Arland      Raine is always prepared...

     ...Is what he would tell you. But that's not true even a little. But sure, okay. After last night's disaster, he needed to take his mind off that mess. What better way to do that, than to go on ANOTHER mission? Okay! Let's do it!

     ...And so here came Raine, plodding into the campsite dressed as usual. Black pants and overcoat, with a green sweater underneath. A couple belts hanging off his waist. No weapons to be seen at all. Fragarach didn't appear to be present. But focusing the magical senses would tell anyone that she was present in an immaterial form.

     "Yo." He greeted, hand raised in greeting towards Laer. "You the one who wanted help doing that thing, right? I'm not lost, am I? 'cause that would suck." To say the least of things.

     He didn't wait for an answer and assumed it was, and then plopped right down near the fire with a huge sigh.
Sanary Rondel      Sanary's been feeling a little out of sorts lately, mostly from focusing so much on magic training and not really working her arms at all. She's hoping for a change of pace today after hearing the basic details of the mission as well as a chance to get her hands on something that might help her make a breakthrough!

     Arriving at the camp in her lighter cold-weather-ready Lagombi armor, the healer has one massive kite shield worn on her back while wearing a smaller buckler on her wrist. She's certainly looking ready for a fight, glancing around the camp rapidly while lifting her remaining and only free hand for a quick salute towards Laer and Raine.

     "Hey. Nah, you're not lost. I... Don't think. Would be a weird coincidence if we were all lost in the same spot."
Sarah Parsle Sarah's here. She's wearing a puffy winter coat, mittens and earmuffs, as well as a pair of ski goggles and a scarf. She seems almost /over/dressed for this. "Sup." She says, as she approaches. "So, this is a thing that happening. I'm here to give you guys a hand. And maybe laugh at people who screw up." At least she's being honest about it.

She waves to the others who are here. Most of them aren't really people she knows. But that's okay. That's what being a mercenary ecto-youth is all about.
Genya Arikado So... why is Genya here? Anybody's guess. But he has the information network to have heard of it. It would have been easy to just send a group of soldiers out here to investigate. It WAS a tomb, after all, and there was an undead presence here. If he worded it right, the Japanese government probably wouldn't have side-eyed him too hard for the expense. But he doesn't know what's inside, and he he has a bit of a problem with sending soldier to an almost certain death if it's not required. His conscience won't let him. Not that he'd admit that.

So instead it's Genya himself who arrives at the site. Yoko will probably be upset that he didn't tell her where he was going, but he'll deal with that when it happens. He'll just tell her he didn't want the soldiers to mess the place up or release something else that might be sleeping inside. She'd probably see through it... but excuses will be made.

Anyway, Genya is indeed prepared for the cold. Over his usual black suit he wears a black longcoat with a warm white fur ruff at the neck and shoulder, and leather gloves on his hands. His dress shoes have been replaced by high, sturdy winter boots. There are no weapons visible immediately, but he is indeed armed-- there is a gun in a holster under his arm.

He catches the tail end of Sanary's comment as he arrives as well. "It would be," he agrees in his deep voice. "So it's likely we are in the right place." He gives a bit of a smirk, and nods to the assembled crowd.
Valentha Summers     How long has it been since the Great Horned Dragon has walked amongst adventurers down the roads of Palladium, posing as one of them?

    A long-ass time, that's for sure. Today she's ditched the guise of Valentha Summers, chipper and slightly-goofy Techno-Wizard of Lazlo and Union ally.

    But she hasn't come as the awkward, principled, trying-to-be-dignified barely-adult Dragon she actually is, either.

    Instead... a young woman wearing thick, billowing robes dyed the blues and purples of the twilight sky, featuring crimson trim, approaches the meeting place at a sprightly clip. Slender fingers tightly grasp a finely polished staff of white wood. Her other hand adjusts the broach-clasp that binds her robes closed. It's an ornately designed gold and silver broach with a sun-and-moon motif.

    "Good evening. Fairly sure this is the right place, isn't it? Valeska of Bizantium. Certainly were not pulling my leg about the undead trouble, I see. Such a... lovely region this is." Her voice is clear and light. Quite refined, to the more observant sorts. Not a hint of mispronunciation.

    She's wearing a hood that hides about half of her face, but wisps of blonde hair have managed to escape it. And she's smiling with a hint of merry sarcasm. Lovely region indeed.
Laer "Welcome, everyone. You have indeed come to the right place; thank you all for coming." Laer will state, smiling at each in turn, lifting a hand particularly for Sanary and Sarah after recognizing them just a little bit more than the others.

"I won't beat around the bush too much. I don't actually care that there's a gang of necromancers terrorizing the countryside, killing the innocent and raising them as zombies. What I do care about is that they've holed up here, in a place that used to be the center of a kingdom. Normally, I'd deal with a place like this by raining fire upon it, but that's not really an option for me."

She'll gesture out towards the ruins again. "There's a book I need that was last known to be here. It's not information that would be useful to anyone else, and I very much doubt the necromancers have touched it, but I don't talk to zombies or people who make them who aren't paying me as a life rule. So, I've decided to hire out some others to deal with the situation. Trade with them, or kill or rekill or whatever you want to call all of them, without damaging the book I need and you can have anything in there in addition to the very generous sum of money I am offering. There are a lot of them, as a warning, but I don't think they're all that strong. Just.. kind of gross."

She'll make a face, and this might betray why the elf is actually hiring out people, and intends very much to stay by the cozy fire herself.
Raine Arland      "Huh." Raine intoned casually at the explanation. "So we go in, kill a bunch of undead assholes, grab a book, and anything else that strikes our fancy, and get out?" Pause. "Oh and don't just nuke the place. That about right?" He asked from where he sat, giving the others a raised hand in greeting.

     "Sounds like business as usual to me. Let's go and get this crap over with then." He stated, standing up to his feet before brushing off the snow.
Sanary Rondel      More familiar face... Face! Sarah gets a brief nod of recognition, although Genya and Valeska... Well, they don't really bring up any warning flags in Sanary's mind. That's probably good, at least! "Don't mention it. We haven't finished the job yet." Checking to make sure her charge blade and two staves are still attached to her waist and back-shield respectively, she goes quiet as Laer goes over the details of today's mission.

     It doesn't take very long for her expression to sour. "... Assholes. I thought it'd be easier to just kill 'em all, but now? I kinda want the necromancers alive." She speaks with a rather blatant undertone of 'they're not going to like being alive', but she does restrain herself enough not to outright say that.

     "So we get your book, smear them on the walls, and... Put down the villagers. Great." It's all bringing back rather unpleasant memories for the healer, but it's not all going to be bad. After all, she'll finally have a chance to let off some steam!
Valentha Summers     Valeska purses her lips, a hint of a frown forming as Laer speaks about not caring much about the necromancer mayhem. "A distasteful stance to take about the necromancers... yet we both profit from this arrangement. Very canny, miss Laer." She's...

    Not going to comment about figuring out the real reason Laer wants help. It would be rude.

    And it's totally understandable.

    The hooded mage turns to look Genya's way with a critical eye, as if maybe she sees something funny about him... but the look passes quickly.

    Her ideas surrounding how to deal with rampaging Necromancers likely have little in common with the others, but dealing with them at all is a plus in her book. Her staff-grip shifts slightly. A bit of anxiety bleeding out, perhaps.

    But she whispers a few spells under her breath, taking her time... and reaches out to put a hand on Sanary's shoulder.

    "Have you faced wizards of any caliber before, miss? Do not underestimate them. The talented ones know not to fight fair."

    The touch brings with it a surge of power though. Sanary will suddenly feel... protected, like she's wearing thick plate mail. Except... if it's there, it's weightless and doesn't encumber her at all.
Sarah Parsle Sarah knows Laer. She's kind of famous in her world, after all. Still, she doesn't seem intent to kowtow to the woman. Sarah isn't a kowtow kind of person. She does, however, get respect. Which is probably more vaulable when dealing with someone like Sarah. "You want the book and you don't care how we get it as long as it's not harmed. Solid. This is a good mission. Nice and straightforward."

She looks to the others, and focuses on Sanary. "I'm not going to judge whatever you want to do, just keep focused on the mission, okay?"

At that,she waits for one of those other people to get in front. Sarah's squishy.
Genya Arikado As Laer begins to speak, Genya draws his gun from its holster, beginning to load it. It's a pretty large firearm, a large pistol, but nothing out of the ordinary. Granted, it does look like, with Genya's thin frame, it should probably knock him on his ass the first time he fires it. But either he hasn't realized it or he doesn't think it's a problem. He loads and prepares the firearm with a practiced hand.

"Undead do tend to be gross in varying ways," he remarks, to Laer's comment along those lines. And he nods to Raine's appraisal of the situation. It sounds pretty standard. Though he smirks at Sanary's words. "They're not going to like being legitimately dead, either." There's undertones in HIS words that suggest he's not fond of necromancers. Valentha's look gets one in return, a quirked brow. But he too says nothing, and the look passes without comment.

Much like Sarah, Genya's not going to go in the lead. He's not exactly what one would call squishy, but... well, in his present state he can't exactly tank a nuke or anything like that.
Laer "In any case, I'll be waiting for you all here, but you can contact me if you run into trouble." She'll give over the radio frequency that had been prearranged, and then proceed to keep sitting there by the fire, making it quite clear that paying means she doesn't plan to do any of the work.

It's only fair, now that she's graduated from adventurer to quest giver. And at such a young age.

In any case, there's no shortage of ways in. There's one particularly obvious set of doors in the side of what had once been the main tower, what look like storm cellar doors, wide and heavy, but there are other smaller ones as well, at other towers and at the side of the main one. No signs of life are visible above the ground. There are some bones strewn about, though, and a lot of the bricks up close have obvious scorch marks on them, very old ones, if inspected through the snow.

It will be up to the group whether they stay together or split apart.
Raine Arland      "Right, we'll contact you if shit hits the fan." Raine mumbled, waving a hand off as he proceeded to head off. Shit always hit the fan of course. He jus hoped it happened later and not sooner. Sooner always sucked.

     Finishing up some radio business, he moved along, checking out the locale and it's various ways in. "....." God, this was annoying. Having to think of ways in! What was strategy? Let's just go for the main tower's doors!

     ...And that's exactly what he decided to do.
Sanary Rondel      Glancing over at Valeska as she puts the hand on her shoulder, Sanary doesn't even have to think for a moment before nodding. "With and against. Types like these really... Mmrnm. I'm not expecting them to, anyway. Especially if they know we're coming." She does grin for a moment, although it's quickly replaced with that more focused expression. "If any of you get hurt, let me know. I got healing magic, so..."

     A pause. She considers asking about their specialties, but that'll come out in due time. She does direct a bit of her own energy back to Valeska, however, giving her a slight boost to her natural health and magic regeneration. "I'll keep focused, don't worry. Mission first, revenge second. You've seen how focused I can get, Sarah." Sanary grins, some of that earlier intensity fading. "I'm all about focusing on the mission and getting people out alive, even if they don't want to be."

     Some of that grin is directed at Genya as well, although it's quickly replaced by an awkward clearing of her throat. "... Meaning that I'll make them not want it, not that you.. Er." She was doing so well before, too. Giving up on trying to look like a complete pro, the healer turns her attention back to the main doors.

     "Got some ways in. Maybe... Me and Raine can lure them out front while the rest of you head in from somewhere else?" She says with a brief shrug before starting in after Raine. Someone has to back him up, at least!"
Sarah Parsle Sarah heads up, taking a long arc to look over the environment in detail. Those bones get a look. Any obvious cause of death? Recent? The scorchmarks are suggestive, but they're old. Sarah shakes her head. Likely too old to be relevant.

She does, however, stick with the group. She might have recommended the other entrance, but whatever. This is fine. "Stick together." She says. "Worst comes to worst, we can have the superpower team just blast through." As it stands, she keeps an eye out for things.
Valentha Summers     "Ahhhh... so you do!" Valeska seems to shiver at Sanary's efforts, but her lips curl into a grateful smile. "Good. I did not look forward to explaining some of the despicable tricks to guard against." Speaking of despicable tricks...

    She didn't just cast Armor of Ithan.

    As she approaches the Tower, she casually stacks up a series of spells: Sense Danger, Sense Traps and Poison, Detect Magic.

    She's not in the mood to be surprised by whatever foul defenses the place has.

    As for her approach... she's marching towards the main gate like some kind of moron, nevertheless. Regarding it carefully with all of her senses... physical, magical, and otherwise.

    "We have doubtlessly already crossed the threshold of their mystic alarms." Sharp eyes catch the state the ancient stone is in... "Who abandons perfectly serviceable stone dwellings for just anyone to move in, I must wonder."

    The question remains though: what dangers present themselves to her, as she nears the main gate?
Genya Arikado Genya nods to Laer's words. He doesn't act surprised that she's not coming with them. He rather prefers that, actually. If she gets killed she can't pay them. Yes, this does cross his mind. He might have a strong sense of right and wrong, but that doesn't extend to individuals. He's kind of an ass that way.

Turning a look at Sanary, he offers a bit of a smirk. But he nods to her words. "Good, a healer will probably be needed." Sarah's suggestion gets a nod. And since everybody seems to be keen on sticking together, so Genya does so as well, remaining at the side of the group where he can. He holds the firearm at the ready.

He's got a great deal of his magical power suppressed at the moment. But his 'natural' senses, if a vampire's keen senses can be called that, are as sharp as ever. He watches for movement, keeps his ears alert for the sounds of undead, even tries to discern by smell if there are any dangers nearby.
Laer It looks as though the main door is the group decision, and they're not obviously trapped, at least. Other than the fact that they are quite heavy. They're not even locked; it's possible that the necromancers within would not be concerned about the odd person wondering by to get eaten by zombies.

Within the doors are what were once stairs. They're now closer to a slope, and snow has gotten through the cracks in the door, coating the top few. It'll be quite easy for someone to slide down, and rather more effort to get up. It's also quite dark within.

Whether or not someone slips, though, at the bottom of the stairs are a trio of people. And by people, we mean zombies. One of them will attempt diplomacy with the first person to get down there.

"Raaarrrrrrgh." There are teeth, as well, involved.
Raine Arland      Into the tower! ...And wow, these stairs suck. In fact, that's exactly what Raine said. "...Wow these stairs suck." He mumbled aloud, peering down them to see three people. ...Or what used to be people. "Yo. Protip. Don't fall. Bad shit at the bottom." He spoke plainly, holding out an arm and materializing a sword into his grasp.

     That sword was stabbed into the slop to use as a foot hold. "I don't suppose anyone can just earth magic up some stairs, huh?"
Valentha Summers     Blink blink. Valeska seems... well. A bit suspicious of the strangely unguarded doors. "Perhaps they are only worried about the haphazard wanderer..." Or maybe... they're not too competent at all?

    But then down the steps, through the snow. Her staff comes in handy for making sure she's got solid footing on the way down... but then...

    Well. By this point she's accompanied by a wispy ball that casts a slowly pulsing golden-white light on everything, moving where she wills it.

    Not that she she needs it. She has natural nightvision after all.

    "Oh. Look. The welcoming party!" The robed 'elf' declares with mock joy.

    This group though? She's pretty sure they can handle themselves.

    So she simply extends a hand and begins chanting Words of Power from an ancient language with all the drama such calls for. And clarity. And, oddly, SPEED. Any wizard worth their salt knows that SPEED CHANTING is an absolutely necessary skill for combat casting.

    Mystical power sizzles up her whole body, even flowing through her robes and making them drift as if weightless and blowed about in faint winds as they glow a striking, brilliant blue.

    Her open palm's the focal point of most of this congealing power. Lightning arcs between her fingers... and in a few seconds--

    There's a horrific, awful SHRIEKING noise like the air itself's being torn apart. Not unlike a lightning strike.

    A crackling beam several times thicker than her arm, blindingly bright, flies from her palm towards one of the zombies. Anything in its way is likely to be just vaporized.

    She's pretty sure the others can handle zombies. So she's only going to play around with one of them.
Sanary Rondel      Sticking together it is! With everyone relatively close together, it's not too hard for Sanary to dedicate herself fully to supporting the group. She keeps that energy flowing ready for healing or recharging at a moment's notice, keeping her hands full with a Physic staff in one and the Charge Blade in the other. "I'll stab anything that gets close. Don't know if the shields'll help, but... We'll see."

     Just their luck, then, that the first things they encounter are not necromancers, but zombies! Peering at the trio at the bottom of the slope, Sanary swaps the staff for the massive shield before readying it in front of her. "Stairs? Uh... Not me. Sorry. Still trying to learn the basics." There's not much of a need for subtlety with zombies, at least, and she takes a deep breath before...

     Running down the slope. Or it's running at first, anyway, until one of her steps just sends her hurtling downwards, but it's all according to plan! Why? Because she has a giant shield. She's falling at a zombie.
Genya Arikado Genya navigates the stairs carefully. He doesn't want to fall. Raine's words get a smirk. "Quite a gift you have for stating the obvious," he points out flatly. As for magic'ing up some stairs? "I'm afraid not." Also there are zombies right there. Sadly, there is a failure to communicate between Genya and the zombie diplomatic party. He aims the firearm, about to take a shot, but pauses. He isn't hesitating, no. He wants to make absolutely certain who's hitting what before he fires.

Though when Sanary goes barrelling forward, he sighs a little, and fires at one of the zombies himself, one that doesn't look like it's going to be hit either by Val's lightning or Sanary's charge. He has to fire before she gets in the crossfire, though. It's a loud shot. But the weapon hand doesn't move at the shot. The scrawny businessman is stronger than he looks, apparently.
Valentha Summers     "You do not, at all, seem to be made of typical adventurer fare, sir." Valeska comments Genya's way. She's remarkably calm despite there being zombies about. Or at least appears so.

    Her eyes are fixed sharply on Sanary's antics. She's ready to react at a moment's notice if she's bitten off more than she can chew.
Sarah Parsle Raine's acknowledgement of the dangers of stairs gets a nod from Sarah. "Listen to him, he actually seems to be paying attention." She says... And doesn't go fully inside yet, letting the others deal with the initial hazard of CRAPPY STAIRS with a BASIC ZOMBIE ENCOUNTER at the bottom. "I admit, that setup is pretty efficient. I bet there's zombies down at the bottom of these stairs all the time, waiting for coolkids to walk in and deliver themselves for dinner."
Laer These zombies are not particularly strong. Who would keep the strong zombies right at the front door? As such, the party is likely to make short work of them.

Especially throwing around lasers and such. Zombies may not have an elemental weakness to lasers, but given most of its body is going to disintegrate at the 'elf's' spell, it probably counts as close enough.

Sanary, on the other hand, will be facing the one with the teeth. Facing being a relative thing. A shield is not going to be enough to just instantly dismiss the undead creature, though it does quite a lot of damage; there will be clawing and nashing and struggling, the zombie trying to get a hold of Sanary's neck before it gets put down by her.

The third one is going to be lurching towards Genya, continuing to rraaarrgh and such. The shot echoes quite loudly in the confined space, and the zombie will go down, though another shot to finish it may be the safest. Still, as the initial fighting wave dies down, the group will probably hear some background noise.

At the bottom of the stairs, a hallway splits in three directions; straight, left, and right. From all three directions are coming the sounds of alarms and undead starting to stir. Attention is being paid, it seems.
Valentha Summers     Valeska sighs with an amount of disgust at Sanary's struggles. As if startled she's not simply finishing the creature off. But there's flickers of worry in her eyes. Nevertheless... as Sanary seems to be competent, Valeska follows her ears.

    They're sharper than most.

    And here... three pathways. She steps with haste up to the split, gazing down the corridors.

    Once again she brings tremendous spellcraft to bear. Chanting yet again, channeling yet more power into both hands. No gestures, but those aren't necessary. Nor is the audible chant, exactly... but they do serve to accelerate spellcasting. All that is TRULY necessary... is concentration.

    With centuries of practice she has THAT in spades.

    With a brief cry she sends beams of icy power flying from each hand at the left pathway. It strikes the ground right in the archway and EVERYTHING frosts over. There's a rumbling... then a thick wall of ice forms. It's far from indestructible, but skeletons and zombies will probably take quite some time to break it down. Assuming that's what's coming. Val assumes that!
Sanary Rondel      After that rough landing and a brief scuffle involving a massive shield to the teeth and an ice-infused sword to the torso, Sanary emerges victorious over the zombie! Not that she'd have trouble over such a thing normally, of course, but... She's a little rusty, what with being busy with the magic training and all.

     "There... Bleh. Alright, that's.. Not sounding great." Peering down the hallways and wiping some zombie chunks off her sword, she swaps the blade out for the Physic staff and glances at the others once again. "Everyone okay? Need any healing?" It doesn't look like anyone's harmed, at least, leaving the healer to get herself ready to hold the line against one of the hallways that's undoubtedly going to be swarming soon.

     That doesn't mean she can't prepare her own methods of mitigating the pressure, of course. As she takes a position int he rightmost hallway, the cleric plants her giant kite-shield on the ground before charging magical energy into her eye. Once she sees movement, she'll fire off an explosive heat laser over the shield right into their ranks!
Raine Arland      "Well....that's one way to do it." Leap down into the jaws of danger and fight your way out. Okay, that works. Whatever floats yer boat. No need to stick around here then. Pulling his sword out of the slope, Raine slid down the rest of the way, following after the group till they got to...three corridors.

     "Okay, if You got the left, and you got the right..." He looked to Val, and then Sanary. "...Then center it is." Looks like it would be up to him to take point. Not like there was anyone else to reasonably do it. Bah.

     With sword raised, the young man stepped forward and proceeded down the center path carefully. "And bullshit in three....two....one...."
Genya Arikado "Hm?" This is to Valeska's mention of him not being 'typical adventurer fare'. "My organization has an interest in this. I saw no reason to call a whole squad out when there would doubtless be other Elites on-site."

Genya seems to think another shot is a good idea too, and so when the zombie he shot falls, he puts another round into it, this one into its head. It's likely going to cause a mess, but he doesn't even blink. And he can get his pants dry-cleaned later. His cleaning bill is pretty high anyway; this is nothing new.

His eyes narrow however, at the sound of the things further in awakening. Though he looks at Valeska with a slight tinge of surprise coloring his features as she summons up so much magical power a second time. And he seems impressed as she seals off the one corridor with ice.

Sanary's question gets a shake of his head. "Not yet. Take care of yourself too. You're a more valuable healer the healthier you are," he remarks. He's kind of warning her against any further behavior like earlier. But as Raine advances so too does he, staying back and to the side enough that if he has to fire he won't hit Raine.
Sarah Parsle There's a lack of distinguishing features about the corridors, and without anything to work on, Sarah is inclined to just ignore the situation and head down the center. The book they're looking for is probably not going to be found in the outer wall area, she thinks. With the way the building is, any book repository will be farther inside.
Laer The group dividing up the rooms may make things easier. There are a few moment of silence, after the initial alarms, maybe even enough for people to relax just a little bit. Then.. well, Laer had warned that it was going to be gross and zombie-filled.

She hadn't been lying, this time. A few moments later, there is a flood of zombies, dozens upon dozens of them, coming from all three of the directions. They're not fast, and they're not strong, aside from the smell. One, along the right side, rapidly goes down to the heat laser. But more and more are coming, and behind the ones down the center area there is the sound of cackling.

The necromancers seem to be traditionalist; the cackling is coming from shadowy figures in black robes. They're not otherwise contributing for the moment, because they're busy urging on the zombies, who shall assault the group through sheer force of numbers. None of them are very threatening alone, at least.

There's just the whole horde thing. Also, it's super duper gross almost no matter how they're dealt with.
Laer Along the corridor that has been sealed with ice, the zombies do not make terribly much progress right away. There's banging and cracking at it, though, and they are certainly persistant about it. It's almost as though they had nowhere else to be. This does serve to break up the flood a little bit.
Laer Sarah, if she procedes forward quickly enough along the center corridor, can reach a door before the zombies start to flood down the center. This leads to a rather dank room, but one that is presently zombie free, allowing her to take shelter rather than be overwhelmed. There are a number of spare robes and equipment in here, all of which looks quite worthless and indeed almost of negative value. Necromancers are not big on hygeine.
Raine Arland      Raine blinked at the swarm of zombies coming from the center corridor. As well as the sound of cackling. "Really... Why can't they have cooler laughs?" He grumbled, flipping his sword into reverse grip. No need to bother Fragarach for these guys. Raw magic would do the job just fine.

     And do with blade held back, a shimmering red aura forming on it. "Don't got time for this shit! We got stuff to grab!" And with a single inwards swing, he released a wave of cutting energy that hurtled down the center corridor, aiming to slice any zombies in the way apart.

     It was stronger in the middle, but less so along each side, and it would putter out near the end of the stretch of corridor. ...After Sarah takes cover, of course.
Sanary Rondel      "Don't worry. I'll be fine as long as the fire-oh." That's a lot of zombies! Turning from Genya back to the oncoming horde, the cleric takes a deep breath before readying her kite shield at an angle to block off as much of the hallway as she can. Luckily, Sanary's got more energy to spare both physically and magically, and she lets a grunt as she slams her shield forward against the wave of zombies.

     Even though she's firing lasers above the shield to try and take the undead swarm with the resulting explosions, there's quite a lot of them and only one of her! She can't even afford to switch her staff out with the sword again, just bracing both arms against the shield to try and keep them as jammed into the hallway as she can.

     "Holy... Okay! New plan!" Pushing off the zombies in the front to give her a boost, Sanary backs out of the rightmost hallway as quickly as she can before firing a more concentrated blast at the ceiling inside it, trying to destabilize enough of it to collapse that hallway outright instead of dealing with the mass of zombies directly.
Valentha Summers     Valeska's lips peel back in a display of sheer disgust. Though... she brings a hand up to her hood and pulls it back off, revealing her head in full. Her hair is long and blonde, textured finely - almost like strands of gold. Her eyes are brown though, and her incredibly fair face is almost unrealistically symmetrical and blemishless. Perhaps explaining the unusual beauty though... are a pair of pointy ears.

    "This is what I was WAITING for."

    She seems to have a similar idea to Raine Arland. Channeling a massive upwelling of magic and shaping it swiftly with will and words, she HURLS a sizzling GLOB behind the advancing front lines. It coats the ground in a supernaturally sticky 'glue'.

    Zombie paper is now a thing.

    Then she gestures, sending a hurricane GUST down the corridor with enough force to sweep zombies off their feet and splat them onto the Carpet of Adhesion.

    And finally she gestures again with a few more quick chants. Her wooden staff comes apart... or rather, the tip of it separates, revealing a long, thinblade. It was a cane sword? Something like that. The needle-like blade glows a ghostly blue and begins spinning like a BUZZSAW. With a gesture she sends it flying at the Zombie Paper zone.

    Yeah. That's going to make a ruthless mess, it is.
Sarah Parsle Sarah doesn't have much in the way of weapons and she sure isn't going to go melee with zombies. "Someone with a gun deal with those cackling assholes back there. If you don't they're probably just going to being the zombies back because cheating." As they begin flooding in, the ecto-youth dives into that side room and she looks around. "Storage." She mutters, and looks around at the stuff there. "This stuff is crap." She says, quickly assessing its use...

But she does get an idea. She pulls on a spare robe and puts the cowl over her head, obscuring herself as, perhaps, a /very short/ necromancer.

When she gets a chance, she'll dive out into the corridor and try to mingle in the chaos so she can penetrate the back lines.
Genya Arikado Genya sees the source of the zombies pretty quickly. He'll depend on the others just for a moment. He draws back from the approaching press of undead forms, and starts aiming for the figures in the black robes. It may not stop the zombies-- from his experience, even mindless undead can cause a problem-- but maybe it'll stop the necromancers from directing the horde.

This is going to take some doing. It's a '''really long shot'''. His eyes are sharp, his brain is quick, and he can account for the air resistance fast enough. Hopefully he has enough time when drawing back to take a few of them out. He's trying to headshot the robed figures, if possible.
Laer Raine will manage to inflict quite a lot of damage, zombies coming apart at the seems. This only helps but so much, given that limbs are still wriggling and grabbing and such, but it may open up a path to the figures in robes. Even if one of the figures in robes just might be Sarah in disguise, as she's able to make her way out. The zombies have been given clear instructions about not attacking others in those robes after an Incident the year before, and so Sarah's going to be able to try and slip back.

She should probably practice cackling if she wants to fit in longterm.

The area is not particularly stable as it is; Sanary is able to get a part of the hallway to collapse. The issue may more be not getting the entire area to collapse once things are started in that direction. A large number of the rotting abominations are caught in the stone coming down; hopefully, the group won't need to go that way to complete the mission!
Laer Valeska manages to get a carpet full of zombies, which is every bit as appealing as it sounds even before they become diced zombies. This manages to clear out a nice group of them, and between that and Raine's earlier effots, a sightline will open for a moment to the quartet of necromancers in the back, the gunshot seeming to take one in the head. He'll collapse, of course, and the leader-ish one with slightly nicer robes will state, in a booming voice:

"FOOLS! You dare to try to kill the masters of death? We shall rend every limb asunder from your body, with no fear of passing! Your puny weapons will do nothing!"

This is interrupted by one of the other necromancers, who says in something of a stage whisper. "Hey, I think Liam's actually dead."
Sanary Rondel      Grinning in satisfaction at the right hallway becoming much more manageable, Sanary shifts her focus to chopping up whatever zombies still manage to get through the rubble. She also throws some more renegerative magic at Raine, Valentha, and Genya just in case! "This side's clear! Ish. Uh... Where'd Sarah go?" She actually sounds somewhat worried while peeking over at the middle hallway, wincing just a bit at the sight of all those diced up zombie parts. Not so much at all the limbs and guts strewn about, but at the brutality of it all.

     She definitely needs to learn some of that. But first: Chopping up more zombies with the ice-infused slashes from the Charge Blade and keeping the rest of the group's backs covered! That, at least, is easy enough even with her level of skill with a sword.
Valentha Summers     Once again Valeska blinks. Several times. Disgust shifts to anger however... in no time at all.

    "You... you dare?!" Raw power crackles and flares from her flesh, infuses her outfit just as it did with her first spell. She levitates clear off the floor as the aura of power thickens and swirls, illuminating the gloomy corridor.

    "You would DARE to desecrate the fallen with such callousness... yet when your lives are on the line you puff up and put on airs? Are you blind? Or simply stupid? Is fighting for your lives nothing more than ENTERTAINMENT to you?"

    White fire leaks from her eyes as her hair joins her outfit in seeming to half-float weightlessly in the updraft of magical energy drifting from her.

    She IS deliberately putting on a show with some spellcraft of her own here. But some of that is simply a release of raw power... no illusion.

    "I expected to find at the very least dignified, organized sorcerers... not... pompous children. You have two choices. Unconditional surrender and forsaking this lifestyle or... ... joining your fallen member there. Do not fool yourselves into believing I will allow any of you to return from death in any state, either..."
Raine Arland      "...Uh-huh" Well, that sorta did the trick. Hopefully Sarah was okay down there. He wasn't about to write an apology letter to whatever parents or guardians she had. Nope. Nosiree.

     ...That cackling was pissing him off though! And so after a brief radio exchange, he dove forward into a dash after Valeska completed her spell and mowed down the rest of the zombies. better avoid that sticky floor though.

     "Fragarach, gimme a boost!" He called out as he leapt aside and began...running on the corridor wall? Ah, there was a green glow on his shoes that appeared after a brief surge of magic energy. Seemed like it was aiding him it doing that. He ran across the wall, and then jumped, landing on the other side of the sticky, messy, zombie pile.

     Without wasting a second, Raine immediately dove in, sword at the ready to cleave into the nearest necromancer. He'd leave the important looking one for last, if the others didn't murder him first.
Genya Arikado He got one, it seems. Genya's having to take his shots where he can. Unfortunately there's not many opportunities coming up for him to have a shot like that again. The horde presses in close again, and Genya's forced to dodge the zombies' lashing out in some improbable ways. Pity he's not wearing sunglasses...

Anyway, with the press of the horde of zombies so close, he needs to make some breathing room and fast. It's hard to see what he's doing, the zombies are getting in the way. But suddenly there's a twinge of magic in the air around him, his longcoat swises as if it were a cloak... and then there is fire.

The fire is aimed at the zombies pressing close to the party. Especially those pressing close to him.
Sarah Parsle Sarah scurries down the hall past the dead necromancers (they just haven't realized it yet), separating herself from the incoming murdeflagaration. Of course, there's the matter of that laughing. It's so ANNOYING.

"Ugh. I guess I need to do my best Noa impression..." She mutters. "Bwa ha ha ha! Fools! Your deaths are super inevitable once we have unveiled the secret weapon!" She calls out in a vague attempt to establish cred... And then she simply turns and heads farther into the keep. These guys always have a secret weapon, so she feels comfortable in declaring that as she heads off to go actually try to 'complete the mission'. And maybe troll some necromancers.
Laer The one who had looked over the corpse seems inclined to surrender at the offer, mostly because he was unfamiliar with a gun and is feeling somewhat outmatched. The others, though, are a bit less eager to just give in.

The zombies are all but cleared out now, with Sanary and Genya making serious progress towards hampering or eliminating the last few in the immediate area. Gunfire to the head is quite effect; holy would be better, but it's not necessary.

Raine, meanwhile, will cut down one of the necromancers, the one that is neither trying to surrender nor making booming threats. Also, luckily, not Sarah. As he's cut into, there'll be an explosion of dark energy; this necromancer had been a bit further along and had managed death curses. Raine may take a pretty significant backlash from the murderation.

Valeska on the other hand seems to be just trying to draw attention from the remaining ones, and while the one may be near surrender, the leader is decidedly not. "Oh, do shut up, hag. This is why we don't allow elves to join our zombie horde." This is maybe less threatening than the previous shouts, or the nodding at Sarah about the secret weapon, but a hiss will escape from him and a spell that Sarah may have heard of Laer using once or twice in the past will escape from his hands, a black wave of evil energy going straight at the 'elf'. This will be attempting to make her sick to her stomach, comatose, and dead.

Sarah will, meanwhile, be able to explore a bit. There's some assorted treasures and foul looking foods, but she'll also find a library. In this, among other things, is a ring made out of shelves marking off an area where the necromancers had been pitting zombie fights.
Sarah Parsle Everyone else is busy. Good. Sarah grans some miscellaneous treasure. She leaves the food. The library, however, is more important. This is where a book would LOGICALLY be. We'll see how logical these guys are.

She grunts at the sight of the zombie fight ring. "Oh yeah. Totally necromancer classy." She mutters. "Degenerate assholes."

Turning, she looks to the stacks, beginning to work her way through them in order to locate the desired book so she can stick it in her SYLLADEX for safe keeping.

Very safe keeping. So safe that even /she/ isn't going to be able to produce it for about a half hour while she cracks her Fetch Modus to get it back out.
Valentha Summers     "H-...hag...?!" Valeska's been called many things in this guise.

    Hag is not one of them.

    Her entire dramatic speech mood poofs like smoke, just like that. Her eyes no longer burn with power. It's JUST enough of a distraction - the sheer, dumbfounded shock - that she's a half-second late in getting her defenses strengthened!

    A filmy blue shield deflects some of that wave around her, sizzles and evaporates some of the rest of it... but at least half of the spell gets through the flimsy defense and slams into, seeps through Valeska's body.

    The Aura of power dims and she drops, coughing and gagging, to one knee. Woozy and naseous.

    There's only one thing really going for her here.

    It takes a HELL of a lot to sicken an adult dragon. What might've knocked her into a coma or straight to death's door succeeds only in giving her a throbbing headache, and an overwhelming urge to vomit.

    That's pretty crippling when you're a mage. You kinda need to be able to gesture, chant, and focus to do anything.

    She flails an arm inelegantly at the veteran Necromancer. Gasps raggedly. Coughs up a few splutters of bile...

    Then, with an expression that's just 'oh **** it, there goes all dignity!' she gives up to the urge to spew.

    That's perhaps... not the best thing for the Necromancers. Because what comes from her mouth isn't her lunch.

    It's a HUGE, thick plume of scorching flame. Hot enough that the fallen zombies are instantly reduced to ash and the stone hallways melt, cut stones fusing together and cooling with a glassy surface shimmer.

    Right at the Necromancer horde.

    Well. Maybe the one who's pondering surrender will uh. Duck for cover? Maybe?
Genya Arikado Sadly, holy is a little beyond Genya's ability without outside help. Now he wishes he'd brought that Holy Rod. Too late now, though. However, as he notes the evil magic sent towards Valeska, his eyes narrow in the direction of the necromancer who sent it.

Suddenly he's not there. A beam of light seems to take him, his form folding away in the space where he had been standing. He reappears much as he'd disappeared, this time nearer the robed mages, and extends a hand to the necromancers himself. A few small fireballs spring from the air around his hands and fly towards the necromancers. Of course, that's just not even the main course.

There's suddenly OH GOD SO MUCH FIRE, and it's not Genya's. His eyes go a bit wide, and he disappears again, reappearing out of the area of Valeska's flame breath. And as soon as he reappears, he winces, wobbling slightly. "...Gh--" Drawing on great deals of magic in this state is difficult and painful, since most of his magic is 'bottlenecked' in this form. This is the last place he needs to have his disguise fail.

Once he can draw breath again, he looks to Valeska. "A warning next time might be polite," he notes calmly, as if he hadn't almost been barbequed.
Sanary Rondel      After putting down the last of the zombies that actually get through the right hallway, Sanary's finally able to turn her attention entirely on the middle hallway. "This side's definitely done.. Ah. There they are." She quickly shifts back into healer-mode, taking a position at the side of the hallway with her staff and shield (just in case) while starting to channel her magic once more.

     "I got you, don't worry!" The cleric channels energy into the Physic staff rapidly and waves it around her, sending some focused healing magic towards Valeska shortly after she gets hit with that blast of dark magic. She even channels some of that energy into her eye to activate the Esuna matrix, hoping that some of that'll help with the flaming vomit coming from the elf!

     ... Flaming vomit? That's just fire breath, isn't it? Sanary stares at Valeska for a short while, eventually turning her attention back to healing to send some staff-based healing magic Genya's and Raine's ways as well!
Raine Arland      No time for listening to villainous posturing, gotta kill necromancers! Which he does cut into one. ...And is rewarded for his efforts with a burst of dark energy lashing back at him.

     "Whoa!" He exclaimed, immediately raising his blade to shield against the backlash. It struck against the flat of the weapon, the majority of it getting sucked into the weapon like a vacuum. The rest that washed over the sides burned and lashed at his shoulders and sides, drawing blood and tearing cloth. "Tch-!"

     God damn it.

     But at least Sanary's here with healing magic. He nods her way. "Thanks, Sanary!" She was helpful. Unlike a certain invisible, lazy companion of his. "Okay so...." Wow, he had nothing for this. Valeska looked like she was going to handle it. ...Like handle handle it. Let's watch!

     After getting out of the way. That's important.
Laer The fire is going to be quite enough, finishing off the leader, who'll begin to scream and shout and make all sorts of mess and noise. He does not seem very happy with the way this has gone, probably because of being both on fire and dead.

It also catches the one that's attempting to surrender. He probably deserved it, anyway, but Sanary may get annoyed at his escaping justice by instead being burned out.

Once Sanary and Genya have lent their aid, the area seems quite finished. They'll have plenty of time to loot, though the stench has moved from horrific to worse, but Sarah will eventually find the book requested tucked away in a far, neglected corner of the library, handwritten and in quite fragile condition.
Valentha Summers     Valeska looks up after she can open her eyes again and beholds what happened. Well. She's got Genya chiding her and others diving out of the way. Guilt and regret simultaneous clash across her face. "my... my deepest apologies."

    She's none too apologetic about the Necromancers though. Although she flinches at the screams and the stench.

    With some help from Sanary's spellwork though, she gets to her feet, gasping for breath and rubbing her head. Just leaning against the moldy wall. "Uuuuuuuugh."
Genya Arikado Genya notes the healing magic sent his way, and looks in Sanary's direction, with a nod of thanks. Then he turns back to see how the necromancers dealt with Valeska's fiery anger. He seems to breathe a sigh of relief once he's noted both the necromancers and the zombies are pretty well incinerated. Holstering that firearm at his side, he looks to take stock of who's all right, who isn't, and the like.

To note, his voice on the radio wasn't really all that angry or aggressive. But with the flat way he regards the word around him, it might be hard to tell if he was angry. "No harm done, this time," he notes. "They're the ones on fire, not me." He'd never hear the end of it from Yoko if he came back on fire. Mostly because of the carpets, he figures. They're expensive.

But yes. Looting. Thankfully there's plenty of time. Because, well. He didn't come here to leave empty-handed. Mind, he's not going to squabble with anyone else over anything, but he is going to look through these scrolls and books. If the haul is even a few pieces of knowledge about the procedures used to create these undead, he'll be satisfied with that.
Raine Arland      Well, looks like that's done. For better or worse. "...Never seen an elf vomit up fire before." He mumbled as he stepped forward, dematerializing his blade as he proceeded to investigate the surroundings for anything of use, besides the books and scrolls.

     Actually, let's look at the books and scrolls too. Any interesting titles? They gotta have something other than how to raise then dead volume one to three hundred.
Sanary Rondel      Sanary's hard at work keeping that healing magic flowing around the group, looking only mildly disappointed that none of the necromancers are still alive to torture. "Fun times, fun times... Everyone doing okay? Holler if you still need healing." As she lowers her staff, the cleric's curiousity gets the better of her! She follows the others and seaching the area for things that might be useful, mostly trying to seek out anything that might actually help her cast magic properly on the most basic level.

     She's still got a lot of work to do.
Valentha Summers     "Uuuuuurgh. This endeavor had better be worth it." Despite the power of that necromantic blast, Valeska seems to be in remarkably good health... even without Sanary's assistance. That's simply turned a much longer recovery period into a very short one.

    She still has a throbbing headache. "That spell... should be... outlawed!" Still a bit woozy, it seems, too. What good would that do to already-outlaws?

    Well. It's probably already outlawed.