Rurik's Mission VI
Down a Scout in Forested Hills
The next dwarven caravan arrived ahead of schedule, so we were able to replenish some of our supplies while we where refreshing our bodies and minds. When the caravan left, three dwarves stayed behind. Baridin, a paladin of Clangeddin, asked to join us on our next excursion against the blight. Barmock and Chargug, were stone masons from Mithril Anvil who had come here to make a name for themselves by opening the stone quarry and starting construction on our permanent fortress.
Fully healed and with a new warrior in the mix, we decided to return to the forest to find the source of the blight. We followed our same path, hoping to travel beyond, searching for the center of the blighted area, which might hold the answers we sought. But it was not to be. Even before we made it to the original battle site, a huge, undead snake lifted its head from the water and ambushed our group. As we turned to deal with this threat, a giant spider attacked from the forest. Once again, our focus was split as we tried to deal with two enemies at once. In the confusion, Rigel was bitten by the snake and fell to the ground, paralyzed by its venom. Suddenly, the forest came alive as two more of the undead trees joined the battle. As they approached, undead spiders poured from their branches. We were quickly becoming outnumbered again. Arcadius was able to put his religious studies to good use, scaring off a number of spiders. Baridin, taking his cue from Arcadius, managed to repel more spiders, but even as they ran, more spiders fell from the trees and started to overpower Bartemis. Another spider was thrown high into the air, a move I have only seen accomplished by Rigel and his mind abilities. Fortunately for us, despite his body being paralyzed, Rigel’s mind was still just as active as ever. Just when the battle seemed to be favoring us again, I felt the chill of cold water dripping down the back of my armor. I looked up just in time to see a second massive snake had risen from the river, dripping a fetid mixture of water and rotten snake flesh. Baridin was helping me deal with the snakes, but was bitten. The venom weakened him so much that he could no longer support his massive plate armor, and he collapsed under its weight. The snake started to consume Baridin, and although I tried, I could not prevent his ingestion. I now refocused all my energy on rescuing my fellow dwarf. I had managed to open a few more gashes in the already rotten flesh of the giant snake when it burst into flame. The fire weakened its physical form enough that weight of Baridin and his armor simply tore a hole through the rotting tissue of the snake’s gut, freeing him. I could then turn my attention to the second snake.
Just as in the previous encounter, the longer we fought, the more the blight began to work on us, draining our will and animating more corpses to join the battle. Two skeletons erupted from the river bank and started to attack the immobilized Baridin. Fortunately, his armor, while heavy, was also strong, and was able to protect him from the skeletons, even though he was unable to move. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught the shadow of something gliding from the woods. The hairs on the back of my neck all jumped to attention as I realized that I wasn’t seeing the shadow of something, but rather the shadow was the something. But I had no time to contemplate this new horror. I was still dealing with plenty of undead snakes, all the while, trying to level the many zombies and skeletons that kept erupting from the riverbank. Another tree started moving in the forest and joined the fray, striking Bartemis until he was once again unconscious. Scout and I were pinned on the riverbank, fighting the undead snakes on one side, and being pressed by the undead trees and fresh zombies from the other. As the last snake fell, another, even more massive shape could be seen swimming just under the surface of the river. For the dwarves, the river was already a barrier, but for the more lightly armored of us, the river might have been a way to escape. This new creature now made the river a barrier for us all. Scout was able to break away from the riverbank and join Arcadius who had just revived Bartemis. They tried to flee combat, but yet another eruption of zombies cut off their path. With no chance to escape, we were forced to battle the remaining undead, and finally managed to destroy them all. As soon as the last zombie fell, the life draining presence of the blight seemed to recede, and we all felt much better, though severely battered. Once again we retreated to the fort, avoiding battles. The only sign of danger was a swarm of undead locusts, much closer to the fort than any sign we had been before. The blight was definitely spreading. We rested for several days at the fort. Three days into our recuperation, skeletons attacked our gate. They were few in number, so easily vanquished, but we were all uneasy . . . The blight had reached our walls.
We were just about ready to leave on a third expedition into the blighted lands when I remembered a tactic we had used back in Rema. I quickly ran to find Seamus, and asked him to use his magic to search for the source of the blight. After a few hours in his study, Seamus returned and described a site no more than 500 yards away from the site of our first battle with the undead. He said that there was a circle of black with three runes marking its outline. Inside of this circle was a massive, skeletal gnoll with bones made of obsidian. We now had a target, and left one more time to destroy that target. We traveled along the river until five of the shadowy beings silently drifted out of the forest and attacked. We slowly reduced the number of shades when zombies started rising from their shallow graves in the forest floor. “Not again,” I sighed as we continued to pummel and slash our enemies. We had managed to dissipate the shades and we had all converged on the zombie, when another of the undead trees awoke and attacked us from behind. The zombie did not last much longer, but the tree was very tough, and while we fought it, a skeleton came bounding out of the underbrush. No sooner than I felled the tree that another tree animated and marched toward us followed by another of the shadowy creatures. Two more trees and two more shades joined the battle, perhaps attracted by the sounds of fighting, or drawn to our life force. The shades were quickly destroyed, and one of the trees had fallen. Two zombies and two skeletons no more than broke the surface when they were quickly dispatched. Once again, I turned to face our final enemy so that we might end the madness. As I hacked at the tree, Baridin stopped to cast some restorative spells on the group. So intense was his prayer that he didn’t even see the skeletons and shade move in to attack him. I continued hacking the tree, hoping that the others could handle themselves, when four more zombies erupted at my feet. Finally, we were able to vanquish all of the foes, and the dead stopped animating for a while.
We continued on toward the location Seamus gave us for the circle of desecration. Sure enough, the scene was exactly as Seamus had described. In a large clearing was the circle of black with red runes. Inside the circle, a massive, black skeleton danced in a complex pattern to the beat of its own feet. We started our approach, but were immediately cut off by skeletons. We all split up and charged the circle. It seemed like no matter how fast we moved or where we went, our path was blocked by undead that seemed to materialize from nothing. Scout led the charge, calling for us to follow. Wincing at the memory of the last time we destroyed negative energy node, I followed Scout, knowing that our only chance was to draw attention away from Arcadius. Scout and I reached the circle at about the same time, but were extremely cautious, testing the boundary first. Spells continued flying overhead, sounds of battle rang around us, and suddenly everything happened at once. The sense of horrible drain that the circle of desecration seemed to emit suddenly disappeared. Baridin charged directly into the circle. A particularly nasty spider, known only from the Underdark, suddenly materialized on my breast plate, and the dancing gnoll skeleton was suddenly thrown into the air and out of the circle. The next thing I knew, a massive explosion of light hit me square in the face and horrible, infected cuts just opened up all over my body. Baridin and Arcadius also took damage in the blast, but Scout took the worst of it. Just looking at here half dissolved corpse brought back horrible memories of Arcadius at the cemetery outside of Willow Ridge. We gathered what we could, and carried Scout’s body back to the fort. We passed the first battle site on the way, finding and collecting what we could of Hippston’s belongings. We then set up a small cairn to mark the spot where he fell, as his body had already been completely devoured by the blight. We made it to the fort just as the first few snowflakes of winter began to fall. Rigel made mind contact with the dwarves to ask for an emergency caravan as soon as the snow stopped. Meanwhile, we rested for the winter. Scouts body was left out in the snow to help preserve it as much as possible. During the winter months, Baridin asked for a breastplate to be made, so Kreger and I set to work. It was completed with plenty of time to spare. Unfortunately, young Bartemis had had enough. He had been severly beaten several times and, it seemed, that all he could expect was more of the same. He decided to leave with the next caravan and go back to his gnomish home where he could live out his life in comfort. I wished him well, sorry to lose such a brave gnome from our number.