"You believe his god will support us over its brethren? It does not escape my notice that to many, the Antinium ourselves would fall under the classification of 'naturally evil creatures'. You are courting trouble."

"We are running out of time. It is more effective to make allies than enemies. This is something we have forgotten in recent centuries."

The Free Queen chitters.

"You will need to justify this to the Grand Queen."

Klbkch clicks his mandibles.

"I will need to justify this to Xrn and Wrymvr," he corrects, mildly.

"I do not know if the Grand Queen will agree with that assessment," she warns. "As you said. The Queens speak of recalling us to the Hivelands. Idly, for now, but this experiment has seen a decade of failure. If we do not produce tangible results in the next few years..."

Ten years ago, he would have been in favor.

"If I may offer my counsel, I do not believe that abandoning relations with the surface races is to the Antinium's advantage."

The Free Queen rustles. How many times has she said this herself? Yet all things have a cost. It is a curious inversion that they have come to.

"I will send the Grand Hive and the Twisted Hive. But you are Centenium, and my Prognugator. I will trust you to handle the human as you see fit."

Klbkch bows his head.

"Thank you, my Queen. I will not betray your trust in me."

Another week later, a few hours after the midday channel, Blai will hear distant screaming coming from the northwest. There's more than one voice.

- okay. He has Create Water, if it's a fire, but if it's not a fire, he wants his armor. He rushes it on, it's not packed away deeply just not on him at this moment - done - grabs the mace - runs toward the screams.

There's smoke in the distance, towards the edge of the city, but not enough to suggest a large fire.

He'll catch someone on the street, fleeing in the opposite direction, too terrified to run straight.

...dragon, maybe? Or some local equivalent. He isn't prepped for combat outside his domain spells, but he casts himself an Owl's to make it likelier he'll land a Qualm, and then he adds a Divine Favor, still running.

The screams get louder as he runs towards them. It's mixed with shouting and barked orders. The streets are empty: stores shut down, stalls abandoned, some of them still with wares in them left unattended. He'll make out a makeshift barricade of wagons, tables and everything, all the down the main street. It's being held by Drakes and Gnolls, some equipped for battle but many not, and they're fighting—a bit hard to tell from a distance. It doesn't look like they're faring that well. Something manages to vault the line and tries to make a break for it before being shot down by archers on the roofs.

When he passes an alley, a zombie jumps out at him.

Welp, time to smash a zombie in the face with a mace.

The zombie is surprisingly fast. It twists, doesn't manage to evade the blow, but is intact enough to attempt to tackle Blai from the ground. It won't be difficult to take it out, but it's definitely not staggered in the same way Golarion zombies usually are.

There are a lot of kinds of zombies. It might take a few rounds to kill this one, especially since under the circumstances (unclarity about the energetic underpinnings of the undead on this plane, and also the probability that a lot of people will be badly injured after the dust settles) he'd like to save his channel.

Someone in light armor thanks him from a rooftop once they see he's clear.

"Are you a fighter?" He points east. "Gemscale Street needs reinforce—shit!" He looses an arrow at a skeleton, then two more, and then he's not paying attention to Blai anymore.

Who kills skeletons with arrows - is it working? - he'll fight his way in the general direction of Gemscale Street, pausing to smash this skeleton on the way if the arrows are not working.

The first two go in the ribcage and don't seem to do much; the third hits and shatters the skull, and the skeleton drops.

Gemscale Street is overrun by the time he gets there. He'll actually have to take down more undead in the side streets before he can get to the main part of the action, if he follows the loud hollering. The defenders have abandoned the collapsing barricade and are forced into a fighting retreat, and less holding a line than clogging the street with a living-versus-undead free-for-all. People are dying.

Once he's in the thick of it, Prayer. Is there a visible necromancer controlling them or just lots of individual undead?

They didn't hear anyone call a Skill, but by the way their hits start landing better and the undead's get worse, it's obvious someone used a buff. The defenders rally and start pushing back. In the thick of it, it's obvious that half of these people are adventurers or just random people good in a fight, and whatever coordination there might have been in the past, right now it's just a free-for-all.

Most of them don't register Blai's arrival, but those that do are pretty confused what the cheap healing guy is doing out here. They stop being confused once they see him introduce some zombies to his mace.

There's no living necromancer visible, but coming towards them is some sort of horrible patchwork monstrosity made of bones and rotting flesh, towering over the other undead, with giant eye sockets filled with amalgamated, darting eyes. Its stolen body is bloated and sagging, but it's moving fast, trampling lesser undead as it advances. It roars—groans, more like, but earth-rattlingly loud—and the zombies and skeletons move faster, as if spurred on by its command. Maybe it's controlling them?

Someone throws a spear through one of its knees, but the monster only pulls it out and barely slows. Its black blood hisses and corrodes as it sprays the undead beneath it. (The spear seems to vanish into thin air after a second.)

- he's not actually positive the creature has a mind he can snare in the enchantment, unfortunately, even though it would be convenient if it were out of the action. He will stall a few rounds in case a necromancer appears. If none does, though: qualm.

It has no apparent effect.

It was a long shot. Mace it is. Prayer comes to an end after thirty seconds.

The defense flags again when the buff expires. Morale also isn't helped by the goddamn Crypt Lord, a party-killer even with a well-prepared team, and here they're already having trouble fighting off the sea of minions. A lot of them are wondering about staging a retreat and hoping someone else will take the lead on the problem.

The archers are making a valiant effort at slowing it down, but it's splattering the street with blood which makes it hard for anyone to advance in melee. Someone must have dug up a scroll of [Fireball] or an explosive potion, because the thing is briefly engulfed in a blast of fire, which slows it even more, but it's still moving despite its scoured and charred torso.