d&d

Group starts by waking up from long rest on side of road 3 days walk from Grimston.
Zerali rolls for stealth to try and sneak past the group.
If successful she is overcome with coughing fit and is heard.

Zerali
Tiefling, ill, coughing, sneezing, bloodshot eyes, wrists appear to have been bound, injured and neatly bandaged arm.
If attacked surrenders.

"I don’t want any trouble, I was kidnapped a week ago and I’m trying to get back to my family.
I don’t know who they were and what they wanted, they never told me anything.
When I woke up I was tied up, and my arm injured but bandaged.
I managed to pick my manacles and sneak off from their camp, they seemed to be preparing cages.
No offense but I don’t know who you people are and I don’t trust you.”

Refuses help, if players insist or try to restrain, will cover face while coughing and spray them with Essence of Ether DC 15 Con.
Will attempt to take hostage nearest / most talkative player and negotiate retreat if any players are still conscious.

Milton
If Zerali escapes the party, she catches up to a resting postman, incapacitates him and steals his horse:
“I don’t remember anything, I just woke up with a bump on my head and a missing horse”
Will join players to get help in town. If not stopped by Zerali, the party will meet him at the town gates.
If Milton is ever bitten, he is guaranteed to be infected.

Arriving in town:
Heavy rain, obscured visibility. Houses have been barricaded but the fortifications have been broken through.
Three corpses in the middle of the road: 2 human guards and a robed dwarf, if Milton is alive, he recognises Saman the town wizard.
If the players investigate thy find that the exposed flesh is covered in bite marks, disemboweled.
Regardless, shortly after they arrive the bodies begin convulsing and are reanimated. Depending on how the players react, start combat, anyone in melee range is attacked with surprise, particularly Milton.

Saman the wizard has a scroll of Disintegrate.

After the three zombies are dispatched:
Imp approaches the party, waving. When near, its demeanour changes, it straightens its back and assumes a more dignified posture. It speaks with an uncharacteristic, female voice: introduces herself as Darvulia, warlock of the Conglomerate of Infernal Abatement.
“We are here to contain an outbreak of the undead plague. You’re all out of luck. As of right now the town is encased under a dome of the Wall of Force. Nothing that moves will be allowed to leave, we cannot risk the plague spreading. We have prepared for this contingency and will purge the town using Staves of Meteor Swarm when our wizards can no longer hold the containment wall - 10PM. The only other uninfected have taken cover in the Baron’s Manor. If you manage to extract them we may consider letting the healthy escape the wall.”
“We intend to avoid murdering innocents if at all possible but if it comes to that we will”
“Containing the living until everyone is dead or infected is the lesser evil to murdering you all”
If the imp is attacked, it gives the group abbreviated information while dying.

On the way to the Manor:
Various imps and familiars are hiding around rooftops and trees, seeming to keep watch over the town.
One of the houses has two lynched tiefling corpses swinging from trees, and xenophobic messages painted in blood on the walls. The lawn has several roaming zombies.

At the manor:
Large number of zombies attacking fortifications.
Ermorn the baron, two guardsmen, about 20 women / children villagers.
“About damn time, some good news. Are you sad bastards all the help Saman could find? Where is he? The tieflings summoned some kind of plague and curse on the town and we’ve been trapped and dying for nearly a week, nobody has managed to escape. We know it was them because the husband ran off before we could catch him. Saman had a bright idea and took off with two of our guards and a scroll of disintegrate to try and break through the barrier and get help. None of the imps around town has said a word to any of us, probably part of the tieflings’ curse. Saman has a magical vault in his basement, dwarves have some kind of hard-on for vaults and he’s no exception, as far as I know it was just a hobby.”
Refuses to cooperate if the group tries to convince him to be escorted to the barrier, is convinced they will be murdered
“You people can go get murdered like Saman did if you want, I’ll take my chances right here"
Will accept being escorted to the vault

At the mage’s house:
Large number of zombies roaming aimlessly, drawn by magical timekeeping device that chimes loudly.
When the number of zombies around the house is decreased, the observing imps begin cackling and attack the timekeeping device causing it to chime like an alarm, and cast bright fireworks above the house, drawing the horde, Ermorn makes a run for the basement, horde approaches.

At the vault:
Ermorn, if he made it here alone, is found dead with throat slit. Party can knock over furniture to block door and make temporary fortifications. The surviving villagers take shelter in the vault. The door doesn’t budge. There is no mechanism inside. The only way to close the vault is from the outside. Ground shakes and explosions are heard in the distance.
Let players argue who to send outside.
If Zerali is alive and there are any surviving villagers, Zerali offers to close the vault, but if there are any guardmen left alive, she also demands that they are sent outside. They can be heard murdering her as the door shuts.
If Zerali is dead, and Milton is alive but infected, he offers to close the vault.

Other endings:
If the group tries to force Ermorn to cooperate, he and the guards attack and the villagers scatter in fear, attracting zombies.
If the group disintegrates the barrier, the horde surprises the mages giving the group a chance to escape, but also the plague is no longer contained.