Rurik's Mission V
Hippston Strikes Back
Six months had passed since we left for the southern wilds. In that time, we had found our way to the land Lord Lucasson had granted to the Warriors of the Eclipse and had prepared it for construction. The temporary, fifteen foot tall, wooden palisades were just in place when the leaves started to change color in the first days of autumn. The fort was a simple square design, but strong: one hundred feet on a side, complete with barracks, stable, storehouse, multiple shrines, a well, and forge. The Warriors were all there: Seamus and Kwarthian, Arcadius, Hippston, Scout, Rigel, and, of course, I was there, too. Along with the land grant from the humans, the dwarves were doing their part by sending a bimonthly trading caravan down to our little fort to keep us well supplied. The Mithrilheart clan even gave us a starting grant of food and basic supplies, hoping that we would grow to be a strong outpost for them in the future. This first caravan of autumn also brought us our first recruits. Lord Lucasson had kept his word and the name of the Warriors of the Eclipse had spread through the Western Isles. Kreger, a dwarven smith and cleric of Moradin came to work the forge and a Bartemis, young gnomish noble also came to seek his fortune. He claims he won the chance to serve at the fort in a dance contest at High Castle . . . gnomes are a very odd people, but we were happy to have new bodies to help us with the work ahead. With the wooden fort complete, and the caravan having left our storehouse full, the mood was excited as we prepared to brave the wilds for another two months.
That afternoon, as we were sorting our new provisions and setting the fort in order, Scout’s owl (she calls him Ashe) flew overhead, screeching out warning. We ran to the gate to see what caused the alarm. Two small bands of warriors were converging on our fort. Our wagon/gate-on-wheels was open, and Scout was still outside. She fired a volley of arrows at the bandits before retreating in through the gate. I tried to narrow the opening of the gate to control the inflow of bandits, but it was too much weight to move before the bandits hit. Bartemis tried to hold the entry way on his own, but was easily overrun by the larger humans. I left my attempts to close the gate in order to stem the influx of attackers. At this point, an arrow flew over our southern wall and struck the cart, narrowly missing me. I called out warning to the others that archers were attacking from the south, and then went to deal with the more immediate threat. The battle was decided when we disabled the leaders of the two raiding parties. As soon as they fell, the remaining bandits turned and fled. I managed to bring down one of the fleeing bandits with my crossbow, but six of the ten bandits that we saw, plus all of the archers managed to escape. I did manage to staunch the bleeding on the brigand I brought down with the crossbow bolt, so we had a prisoner. I placed him in manacles and locked him in Kwarthian’s shrine until we could deal with him at a more convenient time. Examining the bodies of the fallen bandits revealed that they were a rag-tag bunch, with little coin and poorly maintained equipment. We disposed of the bodies and spent the night on guard in case of further attacks. The night was peaceful, and we woke the next morning to interrogate our prisoner.
That next morning, I stood guard outside the shrine as Scout and Rigel interrogated Ivick, the hobgoblin bandit that had attacked us the day before. He was a difficult nut to crack, mainly because was not the sharpest axe in the armory, but they did manage to find the location of the bandit camp (between Hatchet Hill and Nose Rock, somewhere to the east). Scout, Rigel, Hippston, Bartemis, Arcadius, and I started out in the general direction of the camp, leaving Seamus and Kwarthian to hold down the fort and look after the prisoner. Scout soon found the trail of the retreating bandits and we followed them all the way to a very nice, defensible camp nestled among three hills. Hippston, Scout, and Rigel went to investigate while Bartemis, Arcadius, and I circled the hills to approach from the open side of the niche. Unfortunately, as we neared our position, the sounds of battle could already be heard, so we had to charge in blind. We rounded the hill and, sure enough, the remnant of the bandit force was camped there. I was surprised to see that three gnolls were also in the camp, not only because they were there, but because they seemed well equipped and even had on uniforms with a decorated, black-paw insignia. Despite missing out on surprise, we managed to kill three more bandits and capture one, but the gnolls and last few bandits escaped. The gnolls had dropped their crossbows when they ran, and a quick examination showed them to be well made and in excellent repair. This was a most disturbing development as most of the enemies we had faced in this area had been relatively poorly organized and ill-equipped. We traveled through the night to make it back to the fort then rested for a day to recover from our battle wounds. We interrogated our new prisoner, Tork, and found him to be a loathsome fellow. Not only was he wanted in Lucressia for many crimes including theft, assault, and murder, but he seemed to have no remorse for any of it. Ivick, while seemingly without morals, was simply trying to survive. Tork seemed to genuinely enjoy hurting people. We decided that Tork should be hanged for his crimes, both old and new, and the sentence was carried out that next morning. We decided to release Ivick back into the wild with a warning not to attack our fort again. I tried to be gentle with him, even offering him some rations as we released him, but the others were less tolerant, threatening him with hanging and pummeling him as he was shoved out the gate. They probably had the right of it. I think my time with Kwarthian has softened me up a bit. Later, after dealing with the prisoners, Rigel relayed the useful information he had garnered from his time with Tork. Apparently, the gnolls were the guiding force behind the bandit attack. The gnolls had hired the bandits to attack our fort. They would have to be dealt with before too long.
We decided to explore the lands surrounding our fort. Hopefully, we would run into the gnolls that were trying to destroy our hold on the land, but at the very least we might be able to root out some of the more dangerous elements in the area. Since we had already traveled east to the bandit camp, we decided to follow the river that protected our southern flank. We reached the banks of the river and turned southeast. After half a day’s travel, scout noticed that the forest seemed unwell. She showed us the disproportionate number of dead trees in the area, and the patches of dried and dying vegetation in the undergrowth. The further we traveled, the more prominent the blight became. Then, in a small copse of the dead trees, we saw a large stag. It was most definitely sick, as it stumbled around, running into the dead trees, just trying to keep its feet. Rigel and Scout both ran forward and tried to interact with the poor creature, but it was beyond their abilities to help. Rigel gave a sudden cry of alarm as a massive ogre charged from deeper in the woods. The group ran forward to aid in the imminent battle, but two of the large, dead trees started moving and interposed themselves between the two groups. Then five skeletons and 3 zombies burst from the ground and attacked our flanks. We had walked into an unholy place and would have to fight for our very souls.
We were able to hold the undead back for a while, but we could not save the stag. It stumbled about for a few more minutes before falling over dead, a victim of whatever disease was destroying the forest. As soon as its head hit the ground, it was struggling to stand back up, no longer a beast to be pitied, but an abomination like the others attacking us. We slowly reduced the skeletons and zombies to shattered fragments on the ground, but it seemed like for every living corpse we destroyed, two more would spring from the earth, or another tree would awaken. We could not keep up with the terrible pace of their ever renewing numbers, and were soon overwhelmed. The rot of the place started seeping into our bones, sapping us of the will to fight. We had to escape and regroup. Both Bartemis and Hippston had taken serious wounds during the fight and fell unconscious. Scout, Rigel, and Arcadius tried to save them, but the undead were too many. Scout managed to grab Hippston and started dragging him out, but no one could reach the gnome. I was separated from the group and had to make my own retreat. Fortunately, undead trees are not very fast, and I was able to keep ahead, even destroying a few zombies and undead trees along the way. As I slowly made my way out of the blighted copse, a potion fell from the sky, dropped by Scout’s owl. It hit me in the helmet and fell to the forest floor. I was unable to retrieve it as I was being chased and had already taken some serious wounds. I ran until the blight was no longer visible in the trees, and turned to discover that the tree had broken off its pursuit. I back tracked and found that it was still trying to chase me, but was being stopped by some invisible barrier. I decided that since only one tree had followed me, I had a chance to get the gnome out of there. I managed to run by the undead tree and tried to make it back to the copse, all the while keeping an eye out for more of the undead. I found the gnome lying on the river bank, undead worms starting to crawl on his non-responsive body. I quickly gathered him up and ran directly away from the river so as to avoid the undead tree quickly closing from the west. As I ran, a sparkle caught my eye from the leaf litter. Of course, the dropped potion! I scooped it up and fed it to the gnome as I ran. He didn’t wake up, but the potion seemed to strengthen him as he became more responsive. I ran for what seemed like forever, and the forest around me seemed more alive. I thought we were free from the undead when, suddenly, the one dead tree in the area sprang to life right in my path. I threw my body into a hard turn, no small feat for a loaded down dwarf in full plate, and just did make it past the tree before it cut our escape off completely. The tree tried to follow us, but it once again seemed to be stopped by the barrier between the blighted part of the forest and the still healthy part. I slowed my pace a little, but cut a path even deeper into the healthy part, just in case the barrier was temporary. I made my way back to the Fort, happy to find that my fellow Warriors had also made it back. Well, most of them. It seems that Hippston had not survived this encounter. In fact, the blight had devoured him as Scout had tried to drag him to safety and he rose as a zombie, attacking his former allies. Scout was so upset by this that she used an entire quiver of arrows to kill the zombie Hippston. The happiness that I had felt at being able to save the gnome was deadened by this news. We spent a somber night at the fort, paying our respects to our fallen comrade, and trying to recover from our failure to cleanse the blight from the forest. We spent three days recuperating and preparing to head back into the blight to avenge our fallen friend and to restore the land to its natural state.