Episode 13

Dexter joined the rest of the group, their cheerful attitudes falling off as they saw the expression on the rogue's face. He described in hollow tones what had happened to Walf.

Flo listened carefully, and when Dexter finished his tale, she stepped forward. "I can help. I carry a scroll containing a spell that will raise the dead." Artin Azbek spun to face Flo, and a glimmer of hope sparked to life in the eyes of the others. After a brief discussion, Aravin and Xagoth used their phase step powers to blink across the terror runes along the path described by Dex.

Shortly they reappeared, tossing ropes across the runes and dragging the big fighter's body along behind them. Flo, waiting on the other side of a terror rune, rummaged through her pack, pulling forth a scroll and then a small number of the components necessary for the resurrection ritual: a palm-sized mirror heavily engraved, a silvery ring, a tiny earthenware pot containing a sweet-smelling salve, and finally a small crystal vial.

"Gah!" Flo exclaimed, as she realised this last item had cracked across one corner, its contents long since emptied into her pack. She scrabbled deeper into the pack — hoping perhaps to wring the precious fluid from her spare tunic — but to no avail.

Spug stood silently at the back of the group, his wide eyes flicking from person to person. He listened as Flo described the particular holy water the vial had contained. It was from a particular spring, said to have been created by Pelor, and was a fairly common element for Pelorean rituals. Flo guessed that there could be some in Winterhaven.

There was no other option. Our heroes would have to return to the town. Spug felt extremely uneasy about this plan, but it was clearly necessary for the group. He trudged after the group as they headed back up the stairs toward the exit, dragging Walf's lifeless body with them.

Flinch scouted the path to the surface, helping the group to avoid a patrol of hobgoblins, but soon the team were on the road to Winterhaven. The late afternoon light was bright after the days spent underground, and the breeze was cool. Flinch and Dexter scouted the path ahead; the rest of the group trudged along in silence, Azbek silently shouldering Walf's huge pack while the others shared the burden of the even heavier corpse. The farmhouses on the approach to the town were strangely deserted.

Soon the gates to the village rose before them. It was still light, but the gates were closed. Several figures stood on the parapet above. One of them, Lord Padraig, hailed the group as they approached. "We are in peril! Several villagers have disappeared! The dead in the cemetery have risen! We fear the creatures will emerge to assail the gates and drag us all away!"

No-one in the tired group had an immediate answer, but as they drew closer Padraig was able to identify what they were dragging.

"Gods!" he exclaimed. "What happened?" His eyes flicked between Walf, Spug, and the others.

Padraig listened to the group's explanations, halfway through gesturing to a guard, who disappeared behind the parapet. "I will open the gate, and offer you what resources my town has. I trust that once your companion is restored, you can offer us succor in return."

The gate creaked open, and the group trooped in to the walled village.

Our heroes carried their fellow's body to the chapel, where Flo confirmed with the local priest that the required holy water was available, and she and John stayed to run the ritual and tend to Walf should the ritual succeed.

The remaining team members hung around the chapel for a while, but when John poked his head out and told them the resurrection ritual would take several hours, they eventually drifted over to the inn to wait there.

Given the tense atmosphere in the town, they expected Wrafton's Inn to be mostly empty, but in fact it was crowded, most of the village seeking company for their fears. The group asked after the elven hunter Ninaren, but no-one had seen her -- she was missing now with at least a dozen other residents of the village and surrounding farms. This time when Aravin asked to see Ninaren's room, Sylvana Wrafton was willing to unlock the door of the small room, but the group found nothing out of the ordinary.

Shortly before midnight, a weary looking Flo pushed her way through the inn's front door to announce that Walf had returned to the world, and was resting in the priest's room at the chapel. Dexter and Artin Azbek resolved to immediately visit the big fighter, but on Florence's advice the rest of the group decided to hang back until the next morning, to give Walf some quiet recovery time.

When Dex and Azbek crowded into Walf's small room, John decided to head to the inn himself. John had caught Walf up on the events of the day, but after he left Dexter, who hadn't mentioned the suit of blackiron armour he had discovered in the keep's secret armoury, now told the story of the honour riddle to Walf and Artin.

The next morning, a pale, ragged looking, but definitely alive Walf joined the rest of the group for breakfast at Wrafton's. Adventurers that they were, the breakfast discussion turned quickly to planning the graveyard visit they had agreed to the day before. Florence had agreed to do a small amount of work with the village's priest that morning, but the rest of the group were eager to head to the graveyard and get it dealt with. John volunteered to stay back to accompany Flo.

The villagers of Winterhaven were gloomy and the adventurers were secretly happy to leave the fearfulness behind them as they slipped through the gate in the village wall. The path to the graveyard led through a grove of trees, and as the group approached the trees two skeletons emerged, clattering along the shadowy path toward the heroes. There was an eerie blue glow in the hollow eye sockets.

Glow or not, two skeletons were no match for our seasoned warriors, however, and the threat was soon reduced to scattered bones on the path. A few minutes later the wrought iron fence of the graveyard was distinguishable through the dappled shade. A third skeleton was lurching through the gate, a foe that proved no challenge to the group.

Having destroyed the lone skeleton, the adventurers approached the cemetery gate. The path led through the open iron gates and curved between several stone mausoleums and densely packed gravestones. The sun was bright but did little to warm the air, and from deeper in the cemetery a cold blue glow confirmed to the heroes that something unnatural was happening here.

No more skeletons or other undead were in sight, and the group cautiously followed the path into the cemetery. the path curved past a couple of smaller mausoleums, and led to the doorway of a large mausoleum at the north end of the burial ground. Over toward the east fence, some kind of circular markings scribed into the ground radiated a sickly blue light.

Before they had a chance to investigate the symbol, someone hailed them from that dark portal of the mausoleum.

"Hey! Thank the gods you came by! Come here, I need help!" It was Ninaren, the elven hunter from Winterhaven.

Suspicious, Walf called back, "What is it?"

Ninaren seemed distracted by something inside the mausoleum. "I think we can stop this!" she called.

Xagoth caught Aravin's eye. "Trap," the warlock hissed. Walf heard this and considered for a second, perhaps waiting for a cunning plan to spring fully formed into his little brain. But nothing suggested itself. So he shrugged, and strode forward to either help the elf, or trigger a trap.

Aravin, for whom cunning plans were a speciality, quickly cast a light spell over Ninaren's shoulder into the gloom of the mausoleum. The light flared, illuminating several dog-like creatures, clearly undead and slavering for living flesh.

Ninaren's stern features tightened into a look of hatred, and she chanted a few obscure syllables; the ground around the graveyard erupted with skeletons, clawing up from their graves. Walf accepted this with a shrug, and managed to smash his sword into Ninaren twice before she managed to slip past him and sprint down the path.

Xagoth blasted a bolt of energy at the fleeing elf, but missed by a mile, while Dexter and Flinch, each scouting alone in different areas of the graveyard, suddenly found themselves surrounded by skeletons with menacing grins and blue glowing eyesockets. They moved to engage their foes.

Skeletons struck at all of the heroes with swords and arrows, only Spug and Dexter took damage from the initial attacks. Aravin's inevitable fire destroyed a skeleton, while Dexter's cunning attack claimed another undead.

Flinch, thinking quickly, snapped the point off an arrow and sent it at Ninaren, striking her in the head. The elf fell limp into the dust.

Walf kicked the carved stone doors of the mausoleum shut just in time to hear the zombie gravehounds slam against the closed doors. The sound of their claws on the stone floor faded briefly as they retreated, but unfortunately there were a couple of broken down areas of wall and the evil creatures emerged from these breaches. The mausoleum's back wall bordered the graveyard, so one gravehound found himself outside the fence, and immediately started sprinting around the fence toward the gate.

His two fellows burst into the graveyard through a side wall, immediately running to attack the main group of heroes. More skeletons moved to attack, Xagoth and Flinch dodging aside but Spug again taking a skeleton blade. He struck back but failed to destroy his attacker.

A savage bite from a gravehound tore into Xagoth's side, and the corruption sank deep into his flesh. A hail of skeleton arrows struck Xagoth, Spug and Flinch, while Walf ran to attack the gravehound that had wounded Xagoth. Aravin backed into the mausoleum entryway, blasting two more skeletons into ash.

Dexter’s shuriken bit into the nearest gravehound’s flesh as the second zombie dog sprinted at Flinch. The elf calmly took out the nearest skeleton with one arrow and fired a second into the gravehound charging toward her. The hound was on her a second later, its teeth tearing through her leather armour, then leaped away to join the other hound.

Xagoth, Walf and Aravin all destroyed skeletons, but Spug again suffered a blow from his own skeleton nemesis. Walf was now dominating his gravehound foe, his sword weaving a cage of steel about it, punishing it for any move it attempted. Dexter landed a hit on Walf's dog but received a bit from the hound that had bitten Flinch. Meanwhile, Spug finally landed a spear thrust on the skeleton that faced him, separating vertebrae and dimming the glow in the undead eye sockets forever.

Only one skeleton remained, but the gravehounds were still a serious threat. What will happened when the third gravehound zombie, running the perimeter fence toward the gate, entered the fray? Stay tuned for Episode 14 to find out!