Night of the dead

[psycho_leo]

For the lack of a better title I'm gong with this. Heh.
Anyways.. this happened about 8 months ago. It was the first good break Doc and the others involved in the undead war got. That session lasted for about 6-7 hours. I started writing this back then and sort of forgot/let it go. Eight months later I decided to finish. So there.

We were ready to go to Orlumbor and deliver the staff. I was just waiting for John.
Then I heard all the commotion as someone simply dropped through the roof. Aurum was there, right in the middle of the inn. For someone that managed to stay hidden for such a long time he made quite the entrance. Something was very wrong.

He walked in my direction ands asked for the staff. I said I had the staff and asked why he was there. I was supposed to deliver the staff and he was supposed to stay hidden until the right time. But I already knew the answer. Nyevage knew I had taken the staff, and somehow he found out the reason. Orlumbor was overrun by the undead and Aurum was shut off the island. Wards were placed to ensure he wouldn’t go back. That was the consequence for his involvement. Orlumbor would suffer.

One large mansion was full of many powerful undead he said and many of the island’s children were missing. Necrid was there he said. That could only mean one thing. Experiments… on the children. That could not be allowed. He also mentioned something about a stolen artifact. An ancient elven blade from Evermeet he said. How could he even care about a sword when children were being tortured was beyond me, but I agreed to recover it if possible.

The ones gathered at the inn decided to help. A small band of warriors. I knew most of them. Most of them have been fighting this war for a while. Didn’t know the dwarf, but he looked capable enough and I never met a dwarf that couldn’t fight before. Sylvia and Dalia, the young Ilmateri worried me a little, but they wanted to help. Maybe this could be done after all. After preparations were made we set off to the boat.

We reached the island. The harbor was quiet… nothing moved, but I could feel death around us. I told the captain to get away from the shore, but to stay close enough so he could see us. We made out way out of the harbor. Not a living soul on the streets… not a sound to be heard… until we heard the moaning… undead… surrounding us. They closed us on a circle. There were too many for me. Too many for us. Then I heard a familiar voice… and I watched as powerful spells reduced a group of zombies to ash. John came. The gods smiled and the odds were getting better. Blades were drawn and spells were cast. Magic and steel against the zombies’ rotten flesh. We were outnumbered but with fought them to a stand. I could feel the wrath of the gods on our side. The undead were falling left and right. They could not resist us. Moments later the battle was over. We were mostly unscathed saved for a few minor wounds. We pressed for the mansion. One guard outside. It wasn’t a man. Was one of them… seconds later vampires were pouring through the door. Another battle started. Again we prevailed. There was no doubt about it. That was the house we were seeking. We said our prayers and walked in.

We found ourselves in a large room. Three doors… all locked. One would lead to the library, one to the guest wing and the other to the Lady’s chambers, or so said the signs.
We decided for the guest wing. Nobody was able to open the door. It had to be bashed down. Not that stealth mattered much anymore. They new of our presence already. The dwarf moved for the door with his war hammer held high. As his first hit stuck the door acid spit from it hitting him square in the chest. Trapped. As we put down this door and found others we discovered that most of them were trapped as well. The whole house was trapped. Necrid was indeed waiting for us and was well prepared. We pushed forward, fighting the undead we found until the last room on that wing. We could hear screams as we approached it. No time for caution this time. Door went down with a single hit, thankfully no trap went off. There were children in there. Screaming… terrified. Vampires there too. We made short work of them. But now we had half a dozen children to take care of and we couldn’t be sure that was all of them. We had to keep going. A decision had to be made quickly. We couldn’t send them outside. Would be dangerous. There could be more undead. So we decided to lock them in a room until we could go back for them. Sylvia and the Ilmateri girl volunteered to watch over them. I was glad for that, because the chances of protecting both of them in battle were getting close to null. We locked them all in an empty room and continued to press on.

We pushed forward, exploring the rest of the house. We found more undead, powerful ones. The resistance was fierce. They also had constructs, made of human flesh stitched together. We were quickly being worn out. No more spells to be cast, no more potions to be used. Our resources were at the end. We had to make a decision. We would have to rest and we could do it there or away from the mansion. I wanted to stay, there could be more children and they would likely die if we just left, even if we were to come back later. The others were afraid of resting there, the only that had shared my opinion was John, but we couldn’t go on by ourselves. It would be suicide. We took the children we found back to the boat and back to Daggerford. We needed to rest and we needed supplies. A few hours later some of us returned. The others didn’t want to go back there. They were tired and afraid. I didn’t blame them. I was feeling the same… fear… exhaustion… I couldn’t rest that night…but I had to go back. I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t. I gathered what I could from my home. Potions… scrolls. We were going to need it all.

We got back to the house. This time only myself, Banu, John and Sylvia. More undead waiting for us. But this time we were prepared for them. We kept going until we found him. Necrid. I could feel his stench before we opened the door. We heard screams. There was another child alive there and Necrid was standing between her and us. There was no choice to be made. There was no time to be wasted. We protected ourselves the best way we could and charged the room. He managed to let out a few spells before we swarmed him. His magic hurt us, but our blades were hurting him even more. I did not care about my life that moment. I cared only for one life. The life of the little girl that stared at me with pleading eyes. She was terrified… and I was enraged. Within minutes the battle was over. Necrid was powerful but not even he could stand against our full force combined. Not this night he could not. Within minutes all that was left of him was ash and the foul smell that still lingered. The child was safe now.

As we stumbled out of the house we could see the sunrise. A new day to Orlumbor. A great victory for us. The first great victory we had on this war. I just sat there and watched the sky. I watched as the sun made its way to its throne among the clouds, removing the scourge of the undead and bringing a shining new hope to the people of Orlumbor.