Liliana Vess Defiant Necromancer

Two of her elite cathars had been pressed into holding the map up against the wall for the assembled group to study. It felt odd using a map when everything was happening right below them, but it was important to be able to visualize what was happening.

"So, the Outer Wall encircles almost all of Thraben, terminating at this part of the mesa that juts out over the Lake of Herons, where the Cathedral is located" she explained. "The Outer Wall actually joins up with the Cathedral itself, so there's no gap on the outside. There's about a quarter mile between the Outer Wall and the wall we're standing on, that makes up Thraben's Outer Ring. The main mass of the army is positioned at the front gate, thought my lookouts have also heard noises from this cistern and this sewer entrance." She pointed at two sections of the Outer Wall, one about five hundred feet to the right of the main gate, the other about seven hundred and fifty feet to the left of it. "While there may be stragglers wandering around the Outer Wall, the main force is clustered between these two points." She tapped the cistern and the sewers again.

"There are four gates on this wall that lead further into the city: the south-facing directly below us, and the other three at the remaining cardinal directions. It is, unfortunately, a straight shot from the main gate on the Outer Wall to this one, and we can be certain that that's where the bulk of the army will aim for. If they're coming to conquer Thraben, they'll want to get as far inside as they can before sending the ghouls to terrorize the city. Fifteen to twenty percent of Thraben's population lives in the Outer Ring, so somewhere between somewhere around...ten thousand people, I'd guess. And, unfortunately, the largest population density is right here, because of the Main Gate." Grabbing a pencil, she marked off two thick sections of the Outer Ring, one on the far side of the cistern, the other on the far side of the sewer. "We have two teams currently collapsing buildings at these points, which should keep the zombies corralled in this general area. If the army is allowed to scatter, they'll tear through the populace and we'll need people defending the other three gates. Unfortunately, doing so also cuts off escape of everyone in this section of the Outer Ring; they can no longer flee to the Eastern or Western gates, which means we're have about four thousand people all trying to get through the gate below."

There were already throngs of panicked civilians trying to make their way through, but there was no organization to their movements. The cathars below were trying the best they could, but fights had already broken out as people pushed and shoved, people trying to bring furniture or other belongings with them often ended up dropping things in their rush, which led to impediments and hold ups as people had to push their way through the crush to get around abandoned chairs and trunks and even an oversized wardrobe.

In short, it was a mess.

"Estimates give us as somewhere between a half to forty-five minutes before the Main Gate is lost to Grimgrin and we can't get decent estimates on how long it will take them to break through the bars protecting the cistern and the sewer. So, conservatively, we're looking at twenty minutes to evacuate as many citizens as we can and come up with a way to stop five thousand zombies from overwhelming our defenses and breaking through to the inner city."

Thalia set down her pointer and looked at the assembled people. "Any ideas?"

[Second verse, same as the first. NFI, NFB, OOC = love. Many thanks to the best co-conspirator, chef_chocobro for continuing to be a champ and juggling three character, omg. Previous posts are here and here and the next here.]