In his role as the bait, the chosen ranger did not feel like he was being utilized to his full capacity. It was like he was an espresso machine with all these fine knobs that had only been used once. It was hit or miss if he got the zombies to follow him or not. He would look out to see the mage light, judge the distance and then try to pull them in.

He wanted to give what had to be a cleric the best shot he could. This meant he had to pull them away from the direction travel more than once. While the caravan continued on, he steered in a line then zigged and zagged back and forth.

Their numbers dwindled, until only one was left. He wasn't mad that he had lost a wager about the amount of kills.

He was mad that he would have to go back and pick up all of his bolts if he wanted to shoot again. It's just that they had proven so useful in the past couple hours and he was very reluctant part with them.

That was when he remembered that there still might be humanoids stuck in cages. If the zombies didn't get to them.

---

The herd in the caravan were moving in a very slow trot. The two bay mares that had been constant companions to Finley looked like they were about to quit.

Finley himself wanted to quit. When Anthony killed the last of the zombies, he didn't have enough energy for a cheer. He allowed the horses to slow down. Pretty soon they were going to have to rest. Or they would all be the walking dead.

He released his hold on the herd of horses. Though they were free, they didn't begin to run. He looked for two fresh horses to swap in for his bay mares. If they were going to move again tonight, he wanted to be ready

Tinkers always took care of their horses. When one spent their time moving from place to place, they could easily be sold a bad horse. Thus, they had to learn how animal husbandry from an early age. Elder tinkers took pride in the care of the animals, passing on their knowledge to the youths in their caravans.

He cast another mage light, letting it float up. He tied it off to the center of the caravan so it would show everything around.

"Anthony, do you want to come up here?"

"On my way, boss. If I could get another one of those..."

Anthony scrambled to the front.

"You're good."

Finley did not want to spend any more mana casting refresh. He had heard horror stories about people being addicted to card effects. They had, he judged, more important things to do right now.

"We'll do one more loop with my mage light on. I need you to gather up the cards. Either that or or you can handle the reins while I do that. Your choice. Then I want to teach you that-"

He pointed his hand up to show the mage light spell.

"It's something that you should be able to cast."

"That would be very convenient. Are you sure that I can't have one more for old times sake?"

"No."

He was too tired. Not to mention it would take all of his mana to use the spell. They needed actual rest at this point in time. Finley was going to need some sleep even it wasn't that much. Anthony was going to crash very soon. They needed to find a way to get some rest.

---

The two humanoids that had been working with him slowed. One dropped down to pick up cards, but stayed very close. He would walk ahead, staying within the brightest part of the mage light.

The chosen ranger did the same. That spell was hopefully something that he could learn. The herd loosened, moving around the caravan, towards green fields north of the town. He considered letting his horse loose, but they had already been through so much and it still felt restless. His animal handling skill had leveled up. It had felt useless before, but now it was doing a lot of heavy lifting for him.

He patted the horse's mane. Did it have a name before him? It didn't matter.

"I think you need a new name after that baptism in fire. What do you think?"

It neighed, leading him towards the caravan. The elf with the pointed ears looked back to him.

"Human, thank you for your help," he intoned, brushing a hand against the horse's side, "This one too is grateful for your help. It saw some of its siblings die due to a knight? That can't be right. I am Finley, Tinker and traveling trader elf."

"My name is Bob," he said, pulling back his hood to reveal a half bald head, "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm a bit new to the area and would appreciate a map or some direction."

"Maps I have, but I don't know that I'll be accepting any gold pieces at this time. The times are a bit too uncertain. I would trade for some uncommon card pieces."

"Is that what these are? They seemed valuable," Bob patted a pack on the side of his belt. They jingled briefly, the metallic card sound a familiar one. Mork had told him to keep them.

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"They're less useful without the tools to make a card, unless you picked up a card making skill."

Something told Bob to trust the elf. Perhaps it was the blood on the ground that they had shed together. Or it could be his smile or some charisma skill.

"I have not. Is that a thing?"

"It's a thing."

"If you had a card like that, would you trade for it?"

The elf couldn't hide his grimace.

"Oh, they're valuable then, I see."

"Usually it's reserved for trained craftsman. But you can kinda see what's going on right now. Luckily for you I have just the thing to turn those card pieces into cards, if we have some time. You could do it without a frame, but it would be a lot easier with one."

The horses in front of the cart both bent down to eat grass.

Bob, the chosen ranger of Mork, dismounted.

"Shit."

"What?"

"I forgot about the people in cages in this rush."

The elf sucked in a breath.

"People in cages. Where?"

---

Twelve people sat in a wrought iron cage. Their only saving grace from the two zombies that remained were two inches of iron. That was enough to keep the zombies out. They struggled against it. The same undead who had been their jailers before suddenly turned mindless. The pounding became increasingly incessant as their maws drooled more and more.

Sonya huddled in the back with the rest of them. Ever since being summoned to this world two days prior she had been in a living hell. She cursed the trickster god which had given her the cursed card she got her powers from. How was she supposed to know that picking the warlock class would make her useless against them.

But that stranger had cut off the head of the snake and now, she had rested enough to try another eldritch blast. The damn contract card made it so she didn't have a choice to try to survive here. It had taken everything she had to just wriggle out of the magic sapping cuffs. It helped that her hyperhydrosis had made it to this new world. Another curse.

She had just gotten the cuffs off when the two zombies changed their behavior. She wasn't looking at them when the scraping stopped.

"Holy bolt!"

Then a flood light lit up the entire cage and the rest of the humans and dwarves that had been thrown in with her. And for a brief moment, hope welled up inside of her. She might get out of this place intact. She quashed that feeling. There had been too much hope and she needed that part to die. Cara, god of drug deals and overland transportation, was probably smiling at her indecision. There was a chance that the archer had returned, whether to kill them or not, she didn't know.

She was prepared to die again. She didn't want to, but the thought not longer bothered her.

"Hey! Dwarves of Dunnamore are you okay in there? Oh a human!" The cloak hid the man's face, but the voice was distinctly an accent she knew, but just couldn't place.

"Not just dwarves," she said weakly, her lips cracking with the exertion to talk.

How she thought that she would be able to pull off some more magic was beyond her. She settled back down as the man fiddled with the lock.

"The guard over there has the key. The one you just decapitated," a dwarf next to her said, "Free us and we shall thank you, stranger."

The dwarf put a hand on her shoulder, she could feel that he needed a push to get up. She might have been tossed into the large cage, but she was sure as Cara going to walk out. The dwarf probably felt the same.

The man had the keys out and they could hear him fiddling with the lock.

"Hey can you shine that light a little closer? The locks are not on the side that the bonfire would help." The cloaked figure dropped his hood to show off a sweaty half bald pate.

Behind him a second figure appeared. This one, a tall green tinted elvenoid was clearly casting the magic light. Sonya was jealous. That would have been a nice talent. The bonfire's heat and light had been the only thing keeping her from shivering in the cool breeze wherever they were.

"There it is. You're all welcome to come out now. We have a healer outside that can help you. He is on guard duty right now or we would all be there," the elf said. "Does anyone need immediate healing? If not, is anyone here from Dunnamore?"

"We're thirsty and hungry," Sonya said, "if anything. I'm not from here."

"Ah. Another human. And so far into Irumian territory as well," the elf said, glancing at the balding man in the cloak. "Bob can you lead them out? Can everyone walk?"

Sonya stood up and held the dwarf's hand. She stepped through, then pulled him through.

"I thought we would die in there," she said.

"Aye lass, that's what we all thought."

They followed Bob out. Sonya idly wondered how many heroes were named Bob. Every step away from the cage felt like a step towards freedom. That combined with the feeling of her magic returning to her made her feel nigh invincible.

Arriving behind a caravan, and seeing that she had made it, she promptly passed out as her legs gave out on her.

---

"She's just exhausted," Anthony said, "She needs rest. Now we have enough horses for everyone, if they were all able to ride, but we can only fit what, four people on the back? And even then they're packed in."

It was hours later after all of the former prisoners had collapsed in the relative safety of the caravan. Six slept underneath the caravan, three were in it and the final three just couldn't sleep and had joined the sleepy council.

They sat around a small bonfire. This one was outside of the town. One of the former prisoners had an earth power which led them shape a sitting structure around the circle. Combined with the druid's powers, they were able to stoke a good flame.

"Bob you went through and ransacked the interior? Besides the houses outside of the inner courtyard, do you think that we might find anything in any of the houses? I can't believe that none of these people are from here. I've heard of one or two heroes summoned from beyond, but fourteen in two days? What the hell happened, exactly?"

"Mork summoned me. He gave me a class card. Told me that I was his chosen ranger. This is of course after I selected ranger from the options he gave me. He said that I was needed."

"Mork? As in the god of death? The one who hates necromancy with a passion?"

"Mork said that they're also the god of fertility, mathematics and scouting? That just seems to be a lot."

"How many things are the gods in your world responsible for?"

"That's a bit of a loaded question."

One of the men around the camp that hadn't spoken yet looked up.

"Everything and anything. But there aren't so many."

"I think we can talk about this while we decide what our next steps are. We still have all the cards from our raid. And I'll go through the town when the sun goes up again."

"Were there by chance, any class cards in that pile?" Finley said, leaning in.

"I see several artisan class cards. There were a lot of skill cards as well."

"I think we're going to need to use them all. As much as I want to hold up in here, I don't think this is going to be good for long-term. We need to get as much food as possible into the caravan," Anthony said.

"What are we going to do about the people?" Bob said.

"I honestly don't know. If we have enough animal handling cards we can get those out. It's a good skill-" Finley said.

"Yeah I love that skill. I thought it would be a dud but it saved my life back there. It's one of the reasons I chose ranger."

"Alright let's make a plan then. We're helping them, I take it?"

"As much as we can," Bob said.