"Yeah, they're mostly pests. Have you ever found something good on one?" She keeps making conversation as they walk along, she's not trying to look mysterious right now.

"Sometimes you find decent stuff, mostly what they've stolen off people. Usually it's just junk."

"So where is this door supposed to be? And what are you expecting inside? I have Detect Magic if we need to look for things, but if we're about to walk into a zombie lair we should get ready for it in advance. Best to have the marbles all laid out before they come at us."

"The door's in here somewhere, flush with the stone walls. It should be magical. Tencednil, lay out your marbles. Julio, see if you can find the door."

Julio runs along the sides of the walls with detect magic. "Aha, abjuration! This must be it. Mika, over here, see if you can't get us inside."

Marbles marbles marbles. Yay preparing for your fights, it makes everything much easier.

The stench of rotting flesh fills the air.

"Zombie—"

A zombie shambles into the central room of Matei's lair.

Groan...

You know, she really thought having done this once before would mean she was better at it this time! But again, somehow, she's still optimizing her marble distribution when the zombies come out.

Mika pulls a dagger from his belt and throws it. The dagger whirrs through the air, missing the zombie.

He walks back into the hallway and around the corner. "Everyone back it up!"

A second zombie shambles into the central room of Matei's lair. It's a few feet behind the first.

Anton's disrupt undead and Julio's acid splash both fail to hit the zombie.

They back up thirty paces.

Both zombies lurch forward, making it to the door of the lair, but no further.

Unlike apparently everyone else here, she has halfway decent aim. Acid Splash doesn't hit that hard, but she can hear the sizzle. Backing up sounds good though.

(Just like in her memories, the blob is bouncing up and down, ready for something to happen. She still doesn't know what.)

Mika flings another dagger. It embeds itself in the first zombie's chest.

He backs up through the marbles, slowly.

Julio's glob of acid burns a hole through the first zombie's arm.

He slowly crosses the marbles.

Anton's grey beam washes over the first zombie's head. It burns with invisible fire and turns to ash. A headless corpse slams into the floor.

He slowly crosses the marbles, following Julio.

The second zombie lunges forward, fearless as the dead are—

It slips on the marbles and goes crashing to the ground. Twisted arms begin trying to push it back up.

She launches a Splash, but it whizzes by overhead. The downside of toppled zombies is that they're harder to hit from a distance. And, of course, she also edges back across the marbles, slowly enough to not risk a fall.

Mika's dagger flies overhead. It seems he also has trouble with prone targets.

Julio's acid splash sizzles against the zombie's back.

He backs up further.

Anton's disrupt undead goes wide, shining against the floor.

He backs up further.