Remi was cornered, having left the group downstairs to spy on the camp up in the ruins. She had rushed in, and now she saw the hulking shape of an undead ogre, a Zombie Hulk coming at her fast. Before she could react, it had her in a tight grip. Fight as she did, she was unable to get away from the undead foe. In only a few seconds, she was put down in the middle of the camp. Facing her was the cleric Brother Malden of The Divine Order, and two of his personal guards.
“Surrender, or die.” He said.
Half an hour went by before the others dared come up to see what had happened to their friend. They were cautious, moving slowly with weapons drawn. Outside the ruin, they saw Malden holding a badly beaten, tied up Eremia with a knife to her throat. Calling for an exchange, he would let the Elven ranger live if Adarra Starhand surrendered and willingly took her place. Needless to say, the heroes were not keen on this idea.
An infuriated Adarra fought to keep her cool as she exchanged heated words with the evil cleric. It seemed The Divine Order had somehow found out, that Adarra had been appointed the task of personally seeing to the elimination of its 8 head clerics. Of which Malden was one. Tension rose and Malden’s guards got edgy. The tension was not eased any by Draven or Rhed, who each was staring down a guard, taunting them to make the first move. So they did.
Adarra managed to get the helpless Remi away from Malden, so she could engage him in combat without fear of losing her friend in the process. At the same time, Winston and Melisandra had gone out the side, through a broken down wall, and come out right behind the Zombie Hulk. Before it could intervene and run to its master’s aid, the two engaged it. Winston fought elegantly with his odd combination of axe and sword, and with the ranged support from Melisandra’s magic. When it became obvious that Winston was more than holding his own against his much larger opponent, Melisandra left him to go aid the others.
As Winston chopped the ogre’s half-rotten head off, he took a step back, knowing that this was not the end. The undead creature somehow managed to pull itself up to fight again. He had seen it before. He gritted his teeth and beckoned the thing forward. Just then, the tide turned and Remi not only managed to free herself from her ropes, but also recover her weapon. And she was not wasting time. The two guards fell within seconds of each other, and fear spread on Malden’s face. Rhed turned and launched a javelin at the Zombie Hulk, which took its heart out and finally killed it, as Malden too faced death at the hands of the heroes he had attempted to ambush.
After the fight, the exhaustion was almost thick enough that they could taste it. Four times had they faced death and overcome it, all in one day. They tended their wounds and got ready to finally bed down, when Melisandra noticed a fine mist rising from her backpack…
