Victa followed the edge of a dry riverbed watching several long smooth creatures run in panic the other way. Fire fell from the airships above. She could see close to a dozen in the early morning sun. No sign of the undead yet, but if fire was falling, it was probably aimed at something.
The dry riverbed descended into an actual river and from the overlooking crest of that bend Victa could finally see them. At this distance they looked almost like a human army. Ghostly forms floated above the mass of mostly humanoid forms. She could pick out other things among them. Mounds of flesh and bone that had come together from bodies too damaged to move on their own.
Forms that seemed to defy logic, moving in unnatural patternless lurches. Fire landed among them and they seemed not to care, burning bodies curled up and morphed into new shapes that launched themselves up at the airships in unliving fireballs. From other groups a grey mist rose into the air, swarms of what used to be small creatures, insects, rats, bats, and flying pieces of larger creatures, rising through the air towards the above ships.
None grew close to Victa yet, and they were moving toward the city, so perhaps they would just pass her by. There was something mesmerizing about watching the way they moved, the way they reacted to their surroundings while unseeing eyes had nothing to do with perception
The dark cloud rising from the mob was growing thick and forming into tendrils that reached for the above airships. One of the airships began to drop, then another. Flashes of light from above meant a light mage or two, probably visiting from Heaven's Reach. Another airship began to involuntarily descend, the balloon holding it up visibly starting to warp as air escaped it.
One airship had turned directly above her, seeking to escape the dark cloud. For a moment Victa wondered how they had spotted her, and then realized that they were probably just trying to get to the other side of the river in hopes that the undead would have trouble crossing it. Victa felt this was more desperation than tactics, but in either case, she'd been spotted.
The airship crunched against some trees before lodging itself in the dry ravine leading into the river. Several of the crew waved to Victa and she waved back, something that undead wouldn't do, hopefully.
They wore no uniforms, though some had armor and looked like experienced fighters. One older man, balding and with dark narrow eyes presented himself. He wore simple grey robes that hugged tight to his body, but also gave him lots of extra padding, exaggerating his form.
"You look lost. Grab a pack and get it loaded so we can get back to the city."
"It's not my city," said Victa. "And you'll have a better chance avoiding the undead if you move away from it. What's your name?"
"I'm captain Shaz from Heaven's Reach. Everyone with combat experience in the city was forcibly enlisted. Grab a pack and get marching. You a fighter, lady?"
"I was outside the city, and I'm more of a scavenger than a lady. I can fight, but only if you want them to be on fire more than you want to not be on fire."
Shaz laughed and picked up a pack that one of the air crew handed him. "Novice pyromancer then? What's your name?"
"Victa, and no, but might as well be. I'm on my own, but I'll stick with you until things are safe."
Shaz shrugged and made sure everyone was out of the ship. The undead were focused on reaching the city, but the sounds of screams echoed from over the river.
"This makes no sense," said Shaz. "There are no leaders, no necromancers. The zombies shouldn't be able to do anything without them, but that mob is adapting with no sign of leadership. Nothing like what I read about in the Death War."
"The undead I run into out in the wilds always left me alone, what happened to them?" asked Victa.
"I sure don't know. It smells political to me. The rulers always send out the soldiers, and think nothing will happen to them. The undead don't care about treaties or who's in charge."
"You can see them on the other side of the river," said Victa. "Have they attacked you without you attacking first?"
Shaz immediately understood what she was getting at. "We were in the ships the whole time, so it's hard to say. Let's keep our distance for now and try to get back to the city."
It took an hour of hiking, and the terrain slowed them down. It would have been easy for Victa to get ahead but she stuck with the group for the moment. By the time they reached the walls it was already clear that the undead were already inside the city. Ramps of wood and stone had been shoved up against the wall, gouged out of the earth, and fortified with the same dark magic that animated the corpses and constructs that now flowed into the city.
The sound from inside the city was unnaturally quiet.
"Well that's the end of that," said Shaz. "Let's head south to Heaven's Reach. I can get us in."
"I want to see what's going on inside," said Victa. "Something strange is going on here."
"And just how do you plan on getting in?" Shaz was amused that she'd even try.
"I have ways. And a hunch. Go ahead and go on south. If I survive, I'll catch up. Unless I decide to go somewhere else."
"Don't throw your life away, we could use you," said Shaz.
"You're ready to condemn a whole city, why does my life matter to you?"
"You're here and alive, not there. And..." His eyes said all that needed to say.
"You like me? Then come with me. I think you can keep up." Victa started to walk toward the ramp, and left Shaz and the rest of the assorted soldiers and refugees behind. Not entirely to her surprise, he followed after her.
"Did you tell everyone to wait for us, or to go on without us?" asked Victa.
"I told them to go on without us if we're not back by the time the sun is three hands past noon. What's your plan?"
"Don't fight them. I want to see if they are hostile when we leave them alone," said Victa. The ramp was still flooded with undead, scuttling up it in all manner of unnatural gaits, many walking on limbs that didn't fit on their original bodies, or with the corpses of animals mixed with humanoids.
Closer and closer, there was no reaction. Shaz stayed several strides behind her, ready to run if something happened, or maybe he would try to rescue her. Lust made men do stupid things. She reached the ramp. She was close enough to touch the undead. Still no reaction. They didn't look at her, but that didn't mean that they didn't see her. She touched one. Nothing. She touched another and it stopped and touched her back.
The sensation was disgusting, but didn't seem hostile. The smell was unique. It was not the rot of decaying flesh, but something more elemental, something unpleasant, something that made the inside of her nose itch, but it was not the smell of natural corpses.
Among them she saw fresh corpses, men from the downed ships. She touched one and the reaction was still nothing. She joined the flow and walked up the ramp. Soon Shaz was at her side.
"What is going on here? Why aren't they attacking?"
"Because we aren't attacking them, I think," said Victa. "No necromancers controlling them."
"But something is going on here," said Shaz. "Something is making them attack the city."
"Is that what they're really doing? Look..." There were people in the streets, with clusters of undead creatures following them, but not attacking. There were others that had been part of the defenders, and whose bodies were still warm when the necromancy animating the invaders spread to them as well. Some of the undead were already becoming dormant again. Most people were still securely barricaded in their homes.
A living soldier sees them and comes running, a lanky youth wearing padded armor. "Thank the Eternals, someone living. What is going on here?"
Shaz shook his head. "Not what we thought. This makes me nervous though. I feel like they could turn on us at any moment. I'm heading to Heaven's Reach, you're welcome to come with us. Seen enough yet?"
Victa took a moment to stare at a hulking undead behemoth, melded together from countless smaller creatures. "Alright, let's go," she said. She wasn't one to spend time with the living, but this was worse. Her skin tingled, eager to lash out at the walking corpses surrounding them, but she restrained herself, suspecting it would mean death for them. But if the undead only attacked those who attacked them... why were they here? And what happened to the countless others that roamed the wilds around the world?
As they continued their journey south they met with other refugees heading the same direction. She would leave the north for now. Something big was happening, and the tingling in her skin was eager to be part of it, which worried her far more than the undead.
-----
The details of the battle were tricky in this one, and I had to simply fall back on my own creative writing skills, which knit all this together in the first place. Once again, this is a result of using a system that is designed to react to players actions rather than narrate a series of events. I'll add a new table for event segments.
There are several choices Victa could have made here. A more cautious player may have tried to get out of the area, which Chaotica certainly would have allowed, since generating new maps is easy. Conversation was much easier, since I have heuristics for it and context makes it easy to write. The other chapters are already planned out, except for the last one, I just need to turn them into regular text and fill in the holes.
I also recently had a game in Start playing Games, if anyone would like to try it for themselves.
