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“Undead on stilts, oh no!”

Back at the Baron’s church, after the resurrections, we spent a couple days in downtime. Managed to sell off our loot and get some new items we needed. Ricven poured over spellbooks and Locke got stoned. The spellbooks proved to be somewhat similar, in an Eastern style; definitely from the Almor area. The papers and ink came from south of Almor. The books had separate authors, and neither of them noteworthy enough for any of us to remember who they are. The manual though, for making the flesh golem, was a good half century older than the spell books. Considering the origin of all the books we could only assume Ahlyssan mischief. In an attempt to back up our claims we took the tools to a craftsmen to see where they came from. Some of them were Nyrondese…damn.

But the Baron had work for us, so he put us on a boat, damn his eyes, heading down river to Scallot. It was a rebuilt little fishing town on the bay. The worst part was that we didn’t even get to the horrid hovel the first day. The boat Captain wasted time in Meeting chatting up his friends. Some of the party were interested in the built up settlements along the river, bordering on fortified. I just wanted to vomit all over their heavy oak doors. Night fell, the journey continued. Signs of life and habitation dotted the riverbank, fields and houses and crops etc. Right before we get into Scallot the Captain pointed out the remains of an old road that used to service this area before the war.

The town of sixty or seventy was completely dark by the time we made it in. Crawling out onto the delightful steadiness of the dock I slept for the night. Before the sun came up these fools of fisherman kicked me awake as they piled down the dock on their way to their boats. It was a good third of the town gone to the fishing grounds. Since we were awake we decided to start work.

The graveyard was consecrated, which was good. The town itself was half assed, buildings built in among ruins, piles of debris simply moved aside to allow room for a small shack or storehouse. Anyone wandering about was carrying a club or cudgel of some sort. A rooftop was adorned with a few lookouts. Locke asked around and it turned out that the warlock didn’t come through this area. It had been a very long time, four months or so, since adventurers came through Scallot, undead still roam once a week or so. All miscellany information if you ask me. But he did hear about Hast though.

Down the coast a bit there was a city called Hast. No one goes ventured to it anymore. Many a settler’s gang had left for Hast, but none had returned. That could mean they’ve settled, though most assumed the worst. It seemed the only appropriate place for us to go, so off we headed along the old road that follows the coast. The road was in pretty bad shape. But four miles down the road there was a big new manor house. People were working within their small walls, so we passed on by. On down the road we found a couple more. One of them was even built off the coast, in the surf, up on stilts. They were interesting enough to talk to, until we found they were nothing but fisherman. Warning us of rough and nearly non-existent road ahead was their only use.

They were right though. On ahead the road was nearly washed out. About a mile later we found the road again. Fields come in view, about a month unattended. The entire encampment was empty and the back wall was pushed in. It had all the signs of an unpleasant afternoon on the frontier: blood on the porch, weapons strewn about and no sign of bodies; not much imagination necessary to know what happened there. The house was big enough to hold about three families. Home goods were left about, so there was no fleeing the scene. Locke did manage to find a stash of good silver that would fetch a penny or two. We pillaged the food and their homemade rye before heading off.

Half an hour later we found almost the same scene, though much older and already ransacked. It was the most kempt building outside of Hast though, for the town itself had been completely leveled. There were hardly even what could be called a ruin, just rubble. There were no wagons, no sheds or any of the markings of danger. As we headed towards the river Tyr spotted signs of digging in the riverbed. In the silt and under the water a wooden ford. The diggings are likely from a shallow draft boat like the one we took down the river. We crossed the ford and Tyr lead a tracking expedition to see where the people from the boats went. As we wandered Tyr noticed boots and shod horse prints. Suddenly, a crossbow bolt flew by from one of the ruined buildings. We get ready, Locke hid behind a nearby building. Movement and noise from the rubble that shot at us preceded a man in chainmail on a horse riding out from the debris. Tyr slashed at him and Ricven knocked him off his horse. Men in uniform leather armor started rushing out of the trap door that the rider came from. Ricven crushed the first few that showed up. The building across the lane dropped a trap door as well and out popped some guys. Violet cut down one of the new soldiers that were slashing at me, and Tyr pierced the other one next to me through the eye with an arrow. I gave the next closes guy a blast to the face while Ricven was curing some of the fallen enemy. More poured out of the trap doors on both sides. Violet and Tyr each cut one down, and I fred another. Ricven continued to heal the enemy. Violet charged and destroyed the last one fighting; Tyr was holding a survivor at sword point.

Rummaging through the dead we found that their equipment was all identical and uniform studded leather armor. There were no symbols or insignia to be found on any of their gear. Ricven grabbed the one locked in irons with Tyr, the man struggled and Tyr stabbed him in the heart. He quickly stopped struggling. Ricven gathered up the ones that are still alive. Investigating the areas that the men came from they proved to be carefully built ambush spots, with connecting tunnels and barracks dug underground and everything.

Bringing one of the men to consciousness Locke began to interrogate him. He told us he was a mercenary, hired by the rider (Joseph) to fight undead. Reviving another we separated them. Locke resumed the interrogation. This time though, Locke read his thoughts as the man lies to him and told the same story. Despite all his talk about being a hired mercenary Locke heared in his head that the man is betting on his relief to come before we kill him. In his head Locke revealed that he’s from Ahlyssa, not Relmore like he claimed. He also revealed, in his thoughts, that two necromancers were dispatched from Ahlyssa as private operators in the area. Not much more could be gleaned except that we only had a few days before Gregory Company’s relief showed up.

After a long protracted argument over death or imprisonment we finally decided just to take the survivors along. Packing away the body of the mail clad rider for further questioning, the Baron could do that even though he was dead, we spent the night in their barracks and then headed in a straight-line north to Lake Arden. We exhumed the warlock’s remains and continued on to Meeting then finally Lumin over the course of a few days. We presented the Baron with our prisoners and our corpses for questioning.

We were guests for the speak with dead ritual where it was revealed that the warlock was not an agent of the Ahlyssans, and one more necromancer was still out there. It seemed the warlock was independent and simply sought to eke out his own little enclave. The second Necromancer was supposed to station himself at Cold Falls. Where he went, since he wasn’t there, no one was sure. The Baron wondered if we’d be interested in hunting the last necromancer down. We would agree only if he could pinpoint the necromancer’s location. Since the Baron was unsuccessful we decided not to spend months milling about the wilderness hoping for a needle.

The Baron conceded that the necromancer could be dealt with later, especially now that the supply chain at Hast had been struck and possibly rendered useless for a time. He had another, more important mission for us if we agreed. He proposed that we do reconnaissance on the city of the dead. He’d outfit us well, but he’d be unable to give us further support, such as resurrections.

He wants information, enough, I think, to strike the city. It does require traveling across the continent and then sitting doing nothing but writing logs…but if it goes quickly it could be very profitable.

"Trouser zombies punching the monkey."

After having to cough up the couple gold because of the woodchuck incident we continued down river towards the next thorp on the map. Just our luck, thunderheads were in the distance and a storm was rolling down on us. It started to sprinkle on us a mile or so out of the town. The town itself was nothing special, the standard spread of broken down houses and rubble with a few standing buildings. We decided to cross the river before the rain flooded it, which was smart. By the time we made it to the other side of the river the rain increased. We went wide around the town, entering near a barn close to the cemetery.

Tyr scouted ahead, peeking through the broken walls of the barn. Inside was a newish, at least not forty years old, wagon. We all moved up behind and Tyr opened the door, entering the barn. He was immediately hit in the face with the smell of fresh rotting. Both Tyr and Ricven entered the barn to investigate. From the rafters droped an undead of some sort which set upon Ricven. Before anyone could really do anything, two more, though smaller than the first, dropped from the rafters and engaged. Ricven crushed one with his staff before it could really enter the fight. Arrows and blasts flew and another one fell under Ricven's staff. The big undead let out a horrible scream. Locke told us all in our heads that the big one was a ghast and that scream could attract others. Like bad exposition in second rate novels his warning was immediately followed by a ripple of responses to the shriek. There were more in town...many, many more. Locke created an illusionary wall with spikes around us to try and encourage the undead to come through one door instead of flank us. Ricven crushed the ghast.

Taking that moment of respite we started leading the horses into the barn. Once my horse was inside I hopped up onto the wagon. From the wagon I started working on climbing up into the rafters, which proved more difficult than I expected. Ricven exited the barn and we could see through the holes in the walls as he doubled in size. Locke fiddled with his enveloping pit, struggling to get it open. He finally did and they put the horses in there. What with Ricven being taller than the wall Locke let the wall disappear.

Tyr attempted to help me up as a flailed about, managed to startle me into letting go and had to throw me into the loft. All involved were surprised I didn't come crashing right back through. Meanwhile, outside, Ricven prepared for battle by embroiling a large swath of the town and alleyways in tangling vines. It's a good thing to because ghouls and ghasts were already coming at him. Only one of them got stuck though. The others skirted the perimeter of the spell and swarmed Ricven. To his credit two of the ghouls crumple just trying to get near him.

From the loft I found a decent hole to fight through. Looking outside wasn't a comforting thing seeing as there was a hoard of twenty plus marching toward the barn doors. A couple of them looked more menacing than the rest of the skeletons and ghasts and ghouls. Taking a shot at one of them I proved they weren't dumb, since it ducked behind a corner. About this same time Locke broadcasted that there were vampire spawn in the mix, as well as a couple zombie horses. At the back door Ricven crushed another two, but more just filled the spaces. One only managed to show up before being beaten down. Violet came to Ricven's aid and with coursing holy power incinerated three of them immediately. One fled before the cleric. Ricven didn't let him though and busted him to pieces.

On our side of the barn I started trying to soften up the zombie horses as they came plodding towards us. The doors were already swarming and the sound of the wagon moving rose from under my feet. Violet turned her holy symbol to the fight between Tyr up on the wagon and the undead that have just flooded in through the opening. Four of them went up in a puff of smoke...making just enough room for the horses to burst into the barn. Tyr pierced a ghast and then the entire barn was alight with fireworks.

Violet had turned the undead, including the horses and spawn, but instead of just melting away under holy light they each burst into a nova of sickening negative energy. A ghast, a horse and three of the vampire spawn no longer existed, but we sure felt them go.

In this fight there was no rest for the weary. Skeletons poured in and took up the spots of every fallen enemy. Tyr droped one on its way in and boom, it lit up. The last zombie horse, struggling to get in, simply pushed the wagon even deeper into the barn. Two zombie bugbears appeared out of thin air at the barn door. I started blasting them. Locke landed on a nearby building. Ricven waited for one of the undead to come around the corner and knocked it out of the park. It exploded as well. Ricven, having defeated all enemies in sight of the back doors, returned to the barn. Reaching through the door, he was too big to fit inside, he began to assist in the battle at the wagon. Violet unleashed another turn and impressively destroyed six skeletons and one of the bugbear zombies. The skeletons in turn impressively exploded and caused us all manner of unpleasantness. Except the bugbear, it just poofed into nothingness. 

The horse fled, which gave nearly a dozen more skeletons room to swarm in on them again, wave after wave. Another bugbear zombie appeared. In the middle of the clearing before the barn doors Locke glitterdusted a figure no one, obviously, noticed there before. Ricven's staff broke a skeleton to pieces, which retaliates with another explosion of sick, dark light. Luckily the open space gave Violet a path out of the barn. Ricven took down the bugbear for good measure, who poofed as the otherone did.

Safely out of range Violet turned the room once again, destroyed seven of the denizens, which all exploded. The bugbear zombie that had just entered fled. Of the undead that remained Ricven smacked down one before it could make a pace.

The glitter dusted figure withdrew deeper into town. I hopped down out of the loft since there was nothing I could hit from there anymore. Locke took to the air in pursuit of whatever the glitter dust revealed. Using his old illusion box trick he traped the cloud of dust. Violet, having a moment to breathe, let loose with healing magics and Ricven used his belt to help cure Tyr, who was busy using his belt to cure himself. I left them to it and headed out of the barn to see what the glitter dusted creature was. Seeing nothing but a box I had a moment to blast at the zombie horse that got itself caught up on an outbuilding in its escape.

Back at the barn Tyr switched belts and continues to heal. Ricven left the barn and went around to join me in the clearing. The only ghoul that was entangled by Ricven's spell managed to get free just in time to attack Ricven the moment Ricvent came around the building. Seeing as Ricven and I were there to deal with it Locke dismissed the box. It turned out to be very empty. Locke broadcasted that he sees it with his mind sight underneath the building, then flew away to a different building. Tyr exited the barn and turned the ghoul pestering Ricven into a pincushion. Violet went over and turned the horse and fleeing bugbear to dust. The horse exploded, the other disappeared.

So we stood there outside that building that the vampire was supposedly in and the monkey decides on a very monkey like approach to things. He decides to smash down the nearest corner of the building. Surprisingly the building came down easily, but there was notable new re-enforcement on the inside. He also exposed a naked women, chained to a rock. Violet, suspecting a trap of sorts, sent holy power at the building, but nothing happened.

"Come and get me." Is heard from inside the building. Before we could respond to such a cliche the world erupted into fire. It hurt, sure, but I was mostly worried about my hat. Luckily it was only a little bit singed. I retreated behind a nearby building to use a charge off my belt and when I looked back over I saw Tyr approaching the stone. There was a moment when the world slowed down, at that moment we all saw a little flashing stone next to the boulder and then there was a rocking explosion. Far enough away as not to get hit all I saw was fire engulfs the party again and chunks of chained woman scattered everywhere. Ricven withdrew, having been hurt terribly by both explosions.

Violet, in an attempt to end it right there, bravely entered the building and used her most powerful turning techniques. Unfortunately it just didn't do anything. The Vampire responded with a series of attacks at Violet and Tyr, draining them of life as well as injuring them. As Locke comes near he casted mirror image and a half dozen of him were then flying around. I took a shot at the vampire, but she seeed impossible to hit. Tyr likewise failed to pierce her with arrows and ducked behind burning wall. Hurt physically, but also drained to the core, Violet retreated leaving nothing between the vampire and myself. The vampire pulled a wand and hit me in the face with an orb of acid. I promptly got out of the way.

Locke steped forward and pestered the vampire with dispel magic, which seemed to have done some good. The next few arrows that Tyr launcheed at her sunk in. From behind the vampire there resonated a sudden shuddering sound. The building shook and the opposite corner of the building tumbled down as Ricven pounded at it. Violet ran over to Ricven, getting ready to heal him. The vampire moved away from us and within sight of Ricven. Pointing at him she saped his strength with a ray of enfeeblement. I blasted her again and hit shielding, but Tyr got through so I had hope. Locke attempted to slow her, which failed. Tyr, realized that, though his arrows hit they were not doing her any real harm. He switched his bow to his sword and rushed the room. Ricven smacked her with his stick. Just as Violet healed some of Ricven's wounds, in a blink of the eye, the vampire is toe and toe with Ricven. She smacked him across his monkey face with her terrible draining slam. I managed to get through and cause her some pain with my blast. 

Locke made everyone pause for a moment when he offered a truce. She seemed completely uninterested. The battle continued, long and protracted. Locke swooped by and hasted Ricven to try and turn the tide. Tyr likewise tried a desperate move and reached out, groping the vampire with the holy power of his healing belt charging his palm. He left a burning hand print on her ass cheek. The vampire, almost spitefully in response to the use of healing magics on her, reached out and drains the remaining life essence from Ricven, who slowly shrank as he fell back. The towering, ferocious monkey hit the dirt as a dead old man. Violet retreated and drew her bow. The vampire tagged her with the wand.

With Ricven dead, things were not going our way. I took to the air to give myself an easy escape if need be. Locke returned with his enveloping pit from where we had left it on the wall of the barn. When he left I can't rightly remember. Violet withdrew to the air as well, but the multi-imaged man carrying a giant extra-dimensional space seemed more inviting to the vampire. She launched an orb at him, obliterating one of his images. Locke droped in front of the vampire, laying the pit out in front of her. Tyr slamed his shoulder into her chest, knocking her in. Damn her though, she climbed out before Locke could get the pit closed!

Tyr tried again to get her down in the pit, but couldn't manage to do the same trick twice. Violet swooped down glaive in hand. Her attack was an utter failure and was responded to by an orb of acid in the face. Luckily though my continuing harassment of blasts and violets sudden swooping charge distracted the vampire. It gave Tyr the window he needed to knock her into the pit, again.

Locke, with a stunned look on his face, realized he couldn't close the pit that day and the plan has to change, and change fast. I flew down to the edge of the pit on the off chance I might be able to close it for him. She got out before I could get there. Tyr, in an all or nothing charge repositioned himself for a last push into the hole. Sadly he was struck twice by the vampire. He crumpled at her feet. Like waves on a rock Violet likewise blinked over to the vampire and charged. The vampire deftly slapped and drained and killed.

With three of us dead, there was no way I was going to let myself die. We were running out of spells and options. So, in an unspoken rationalization between Locke and myself, we started to pull out all the stops. Fearing she'd clean us up by going invisible again I pulled out my dust of appearance and coated her with it in one deep blow. Locke drew out his wand of magic missile and aimed it at the vampire. She grabed it from his hand and snaped it in two. The wand sparkled a bit as it died. We scrambled. Locke dived for the bodies as I flew up into the air. As soon as Locke made it to the bodies he was covered in a thick fog.

The vampire leveled her wand at me. I respond in the same kind. We played back and forth until Locke shouted out "I've almost got Tyr's body in the pit. Once I get him in there we'll run for it!" The vampire took the bait. Abandoning the game she was playing with me the vampire walked into the mist where I could no longer see her. According to Locke it went according to plan. She fell into the hole that Locke had deftly slid into her path. The moment she fell in Locke teleported into the river nearby.

After a few beats of no sound and no activity I hauled for the river. By the time I got there the vampire had just thrown off Locke, one of his images fading into mist. Ha had been trying to hold her under the water after she climbed out of the pit. Locke, now without a wand, used his own magic missiles to harass her. She responded with an acid orb.  I sent a blast right down her throat and turned her into a fine mist. Not completely sure if she was destroyed we blasted at the mist a few times...just to be sure. After a moment we settled on following the mist back to town. In the re-enforced building there was a grate to the basement. It was short work to turn that into shards of nothingness. It took a while for the body to re-form in her coffin. Once it did I coated the stake I had procured on the way with the last of my sovereign glue, to make sure it stuck in there. Then I took great pleasure in staking her through the heart. Then Locke and I, just for good measure, (after looting her) carried her out to the river and dropped her in. We watched her melt away before we were satisfied. We dragged the pit out of the river and back to the town, stripped our companions of their gear, just in case they raise, closed up the pit. Once we had everything we wanted we flew as fast as we could back to the chapel and the Baron.

We told him the story and he was deeply sympathetic. He was also willing to do the powerful magic for us, as long as we remove the undead threat once and for all. Which meant he required that we surrender the robe of bones and all the onyx we found so that they could be properly destroyed. He was even willing to help recouperate our losses in equipment. He offered us gear from the citadel, though he had no cash to provide.  (see quartermaster's report for details)

So that was all well and good, fun and happy. We won the day, defeated the threat of new undead and destroyed a vampire, which wasn't easy. Unfortunately no story has a happy ending. We, and by we I mean Locke and I in additiuon to almost all of the Baron's army, were all standing in the room as the Baron performed the resurrections. He was taking no chances with the mage slayers. Partway through Ricven's resurrection Locke and I felt a tingle and we could see the Baron felt it too. We were all being watched, the entire citadel was being watched, by the mage slayers. No assassins appeared, and there's nothing tangible to prove it, but the mage slayers know about us now, they are watching us. They are no longer watching us in the 'the mage slayers watch the world' fashion, they are watching us personally, they likely know us by name by now. We need to be very...very careful.

So after an uncomfortable time standing at the hole feeling sheepish about summoning the Vrock someone decided to do something. Tyr found tracks by the hole headed off towards Lake Arden. Since we were not completely sure how to deal with the hole we decided to get back to it later when Violet had a consecrate memorised. As we headed away from the hill towards Lake Arden Locke spots someone trying to stay hidden as it slinks along. It notices us, charges, and Tyr drops it with a few arrows. Upon inspection it's an emaciated string of a thing. It's been a while since it's feasted.

Making it to Lake Arden we find the standard ruinous buildings, except that there was a rather new looking shack and and wagons. We decided to round the town and find the graveyard to check to see if it was consecrated like the others. It was not, and with two hours to sunset, we hadn't time to go anywhere else. To add onto that some of the graves were empty and dug out.

Approaching the shack we hang behind as Tyr investigates. In the middle of town a tiger of deep color appears and begins to stalk Tyr. Tyr engages with arrows and Ricven rounds the nearest building, attempting to bind it with his vines. Pouncing upon Ricven they begin to fight. From an old building on the other side of town a towering fleshy monstrosity lumbers out and joins the fray of tiger and ape. As the fight carries on a spellcaster of some manner steps out of the same building and pummels Ricven with an arcane blast, magic the same as my own! It was fantastic to watch a warlock of power, until I remembered he was trying to kill me and our monkey. Locke hides him in an illusionary box which gives us respite to focus on the two foes on Ricven. Throwing off the tiger Ricven binds both with the vines that failed before and Violet dispatches the tiger. The beast pops out of existence. After a time the warlock walks through the illusion and resumes the fight. Ricven clobbers the golem to pieces and the warlock takes refuge behind a building after Locke causes him some problem with a hesitate spell.

We pursue, the monkey grabs him and he tries to destroy them all with an unholy blight. Violet had the most to fear but suffered well enough. In the grib of Ricven the warlock is made short work of, sliced to bits by Tyr.

We go to investigate the shed and it's filled with bodies, hung upside down and eviscerated. They are only a few days old. The wagon is still full of supplies. We assume he used the settlers as muscle to build the shack and dig up graves so he could build his monster. What he intended to use them for is beyond me. Tyr said he was going to eat them and the way they were strung up like pigs I can't expect that's too far from the truth. We cut them down and bury them in some of the open graves. Nightfall is approaching and so we store our horses in the shack and then take refuge on the roof of the big building in town and the shack. Tonight, it seems, we get to see what shifts about in the night.

Tyr took first watch. He woke us all up as a shadow set upon Violet in her sleep. By the time we were awake he had killed it, though Violet did not escape unscathed. We had to spend some time pacifying the horses. They don't like spooks. We went back to sleep and an hour later Tyr is up in arms again, some creature slinking across the town at the sound of the horses. He challenges the thing and it runs for him, walking up the wall like it were a floor. Hissing and swinging with its claws again it's nothing but ashes as Tyr cuts it down the moment we're actually awake. Locke identified it as a vampire spawn and promptly went back to sleep. There is no incident the rest of the night. Locke collects the ashes of the vampire spawn and we set out to the pit.

She consecrates it and we test it. No demons popped out. Collecting the skeletons of the children we rode back to Lake Arden and bury them with the settlers. Violet consecrates the graveyard and we spend the night in peace. The next morning we returned to see what became of the pit in the night and found nothign but a grassy hilltop where the pit was. Returning to Lake Arden we gather the supplies from the wagon and head off down the river to the next thorp. On the way we find a skeleton trapped in the roots of a tree on the river bank, unable to break through them and too dumb to go around. The monkey has fun throwing rocks at it until it falls apart.

Further down the river we find a Dretch, the lowest form of demon imaginable, torturing and brutalizing a woodchuck. Right before I was about to destroy the Dretch Locke bet me two gold that the dretch would die before the woodchuck. I took an easy bet (and easy bet to cheat at) and blasted the woodchuck. I'm not completely sure what happened but the Dretch blew to green chunky pieces. I suspect Locke had something to do with it.

Searching an number of old abandoned thorps the party arrived at Cold Falls, a waterfall and what looked to be mill on the northern edge of fresh zombie territory. It seemed a decent place to begin looking, especially since Tyr found week or so old tracks in the riverbank. We searched the manner first. The floor was too weak to walk on, or at least for the monkey to walk on, so we opted to go around the back where the kitchen area was. As expected the kitchen seemed to be built on hard earth instead of over a basement. Tyr found a set of stairs inside and, with help from Locke and Ricven, cleared away the staircase of debris. The basement wasn’t nearly as big as we expected, and was filled with skeletons. A secret door was revealed by rot and age, so it was excavated and found to be a secret wine cellar with some more skeletons, this time a woman and three children. The wine seemed to have spoiled but the woman’s jewelry had not, so we swiped it.

Next on the list here in cold falls was the church, which was burnt down to almost nothing except rubble, some standing walls and a rather clean and shiny altar. Once we stepped into the chapel a ghost appeared. Lucky for us he was the old cleric of this church when it was burnt down and just wanted us to stay away from the alter. We talked for a bit and he gave us some history of the area. The temple was devoted to Pholtus. He told us how Captain Zavis and his men razed the down, using cloud kill spells to kill everyone holed up in the manner. He also told us that the wife of the estate and her three children managed to escape…no one informed him otherwise. Just as he was telling us that he couldn’t be freed if Captain Zavis wasn’t put to judgment there was an awful scream coming from the horses.

Running back to the horses we encountered wights attacking, and having already killed, one of our mounts. We split up around the mill, Tyr and I taking one side, Violet and Locke going over and Ricven taking the other side of the building. Ricven immobilized two of the wights and Tyr and I dispatched the third. A fourth, this one armored, rose from the lake but with the two still kicking entangled the one in armor likewise ensnared it was short work for all of us to bring the rest of them to the ground. The armored one’s shield had the emblem of the Great Kingdom on it. When we went to talk to the ghost priest about it, he did not manifest. Definitely received our answer on that one.

We spent some time making graves for all the skeletons from the basement. In the middle of our efforts a lone zombie strolls into camp. It slowly shambled towards us and it was more of an exercise in marksmanship than a fight to destroy it. We returned to burying the dead then decided to spend the rest of the day following the tracks the zombie left. It was moving in a straight line, to the point where it actually seemed to go for a week just pounding at the wall of a shed only to have to do it all over again when it got through the shed and to the other wall. In the field near the farm house a ghoul rose up, makes for Ricven and is immediately destroyed by the monkey’s stick. We continue to track the zombie’s trail for about an hour until there’s another ghoul, which I smoked into bits and pieces. We decided to turn around and head back to the graveyard before dark. On the way back we didn’t find a ghoul but a large ogre’s skeleton just plodding along. That was short work and Tyr took it to bits with his sword.

Making it back to cold falls we spend the night without incident. Next morning we follow the river banks, half the party to each side, and encounter some ghoul tracks a short ways down. Ten minutes farther down the creek the ghoul itself was meandering about. Try drops him with a few arrows and it immediately rots away. Yet another old corpse…with the exception of the three wights, which were a year old, we’ve yet to meet anything like the Baron described.

We make it to where the rivers join, which is where we head off towards Lake Arden. On the way Locke notices an odd rock formation from the air. Since it’s on the way regardless we go to check it out. It turns out to be a low ridge with a sixty foot depression. Aerial scouting shows it to be filled with skeletons, rusty colored at the outside gradually getting more red and then dark towards the center. At the center it’s a pulsing absence of light. Locke describes it as a strong evil and then I remember reading about something just like this in a book. A planar gate…though I never could get how it was supposed to work. Sticking my hand over the threshold managed to get it working, and the darkness in the centre began to balloon. Once it got big enough it popped and there stood a winged purple vulture headed devil. I’d seen sketches of Vrocks before, but didn’t expect them to be that chilling in real life.

We reacted as one would expect and began to attack it. Locke took a completely different route and used a charm spell on it. Surprisingly enough it worked. They had a conversation in Abyssal that we only got sparse translations of. Supposedly he was Gort, of the Abyss, warrior of renown and quite excited about his being summoned and able to fulfill a destiny of mayhem and destruction and murder. He explained to Locke that the gate was a sacrificial summoning circle, created by a sacrifice and activated any time a life form entered it (like, case in point, me and every other poor sap of a skeleton in that crater.) Somehow, and you’ll never get me to understand quite how, Locke convinced the Vrock that he was going to cast a beneficial spell upon it. Instead the beast began vomiting its devilish guts all over its feet. We didn’t need much more of an invitation than that to rip the creature to ribbons. Arrows and blasts from us softened it up, a well placed spell from Lock set us up and a frighteningly savage flurry of attacks from the monkey sent the purple monstrosity straight back to hell. Lesson of the day, don’t poke pulsing evil darkness unless you’re ready for a good time.

((So I have no idea wtf these full page width lines are or why they appear randomly...))