Ghastful predators stalked the night in Hungrytown.
Gravestones overturned as the restless dead emerged, heeding the call of more powerful monsters to come forth. Ghouls emerged from their crypts, no longer content to chew on old bones. Tonight was special. A creature of hunger and death had emerged from where it had been chained below the ground. Atop one of the larger tombs, a Dreadwulf had appeared. Its howls summoned the lesser creatures and infected them with its hunger, for such creatures were forever hungry.
Formed from the body and cursed soul of a werewolf that had starved to death, the creatures were mostly unheard of in the rest of the world but more common in Gadobhra. Legend said that Mama Laveau hated the were creatures with a cold passion after they took one of her family from her. When she caught them, they were entombed alive, and the door was sealed with silver etched runes. Dozens of the abominations were rumored to be buried in the graveyards around Hungrytown, and tonight one of them was loose.
A shiver went down Diego's spine. The old Inquisitor had seen many horrors in his time, but as the monster stood on its misshapen legs and howled at the sky, something deep inside of him was begging him to run and hide. Luckily, he wasn't alone in the old graveyard. During the hours of daylight, the local defenders had organized. Signs and portents had warned them of the emergence of a greater spirit that would gather an army to attack their small village. They had called on the Baron for aid, and William responded enthusiastically. Baron William of Gadobhra nursed a deeply held grudge against the undead of Hungrytown. It was whispered that one had challenged him for his city, and William had vowed to eradicate the nightwalkers forever.
Diego was thankful for the thick shadows that hid the small group of defenders. Added to the darkness of the night and the ever-present fog of Hungrytown, the spell was highly effective at hiding their large group of living creatures. That a barmaid had cast the magical protection had surprised him. He had to remind himself that the girl was also the village mayor and an adventurer. He'd asked questions a few times about her odd assortment of magic but never gotten much of an answer except for a shy smile and a shrug. Benjamin had been a better source of information, as usual. The sharp-eyed courier had helped the old Inquisitor answer many questions he had about the town. The story of how a circle of white witches had come together to fight a menace from beyond the stars had been enthralling. He mentioned it in his reports while not mentioning specific names. Too many of his peers would focus on 'witch' and forget about their color.
Ben had pointed out several of them, and Diego saw the pattern. A milkmaid who followed in the footsteps of a local saint. An elderly woman who baked cookies for the children to make sure they had good dreams, and a village mayor who learned what magics she could find in order to protect her town. Good women, all of them, carrying on with their mundane lives and coming together in times of trouble. Such as tonight.
The winds were also cooperating, carrying the stench of the undead their way but carrying their scents away from the monsters. One of the town's defenders worked in the tannery and had learned to cast an air aspected spell that would carry the foul smell of the tannery away from the town. It worked equally well here. He would include the use of this spell in his next report. Every legion outpost had a tanner, but few had an Air Mage.
The night before the full moon, they had seen a gathering of undead in Hungrytown. Baron William had led a small raid to keep the ghouls in check and trim their number. When the largest of them died, the creature laughed and claimed a greater evil would destroy them the next night. The quest immediately followed.
A Doom Foretold!
The undead that crawl from the crypts of Hungrytown are gathering in secret, awaiting the first night of the full moon. Spirits whisper that a foul beast will slip its chains and lead them as they lay siege to the village of Sedgewick for three nights. Bar the windows and lock your doors! A call goes out for Heroes to defend the Village from the evil that marches from Gadobhra.
Baron William had immediately made plans to deal with the undead while they were in his city. He had put out a quest calling for adventurers, but only a few had responded. The Thunderpunks were already preparing for a raid into the Lair of the Under-rodent that had been in the works for a month. A few local adventurers had shown up and clustered in two groups of half a dozen players on either flank. They were a nervous and excited bunch, with levels between five and eight. The Baron assigned them as flanking forces, knowing he would get little in the way of cooperation from them.
The Baron and Baroness had rallied the forces of Sedgewick. Diego looked around him, where stone masons, loggers, and bakers were waiting to ambush the undead. Curiously, all of them were carrying large cleavers. He knew many of them had little in the way of weapons training. Ben had told him of the Baron's plan to appease one of the dungeons by sending in meat for the local monsters to feast on. The courier packed a cleaver on his belt and was often in the city's stockyards all night long to keep the dungeon under control. Obviously, many of the local villagers had helped with the chore and gained skill in wielding the traditional tool of a butcher. A cleaver was a poor weapon compared to a sword, but better than nothing.
As the sun set, more help arrived. Two princes of the Ironwoods came from the forests, wearing hard armor made from the bark of those trees. They carried axes and cleavers, prepared to aid their allies from the village. With them came a trio of long-eared adventurers, two unicorns, and three dryads. A contingent from the First Strike! Guild arrived from Rowan Keep, the Baron having paid their teleport fees. They joined a group of carpenters setting up war machines near the ACME building.
The Baron had gathered what help he could. Diego hoped it would be enough. He had sent word to Rowan keep but heard nothing back. A worrying sign. There were arguments for and against helping the Baron of Gadobhra with anything at all. Politics wormed its way into both the Inquisition and the Legion, and Diego hated it. Retirement was sounding better and better. If they let him retire.
Stolen novel; please report.
The Baron gathered some defenders around him, and Diego listened in, staying next to the Courier.
"As far as I can tell, this operation is good to go. We hit them hard, knock the stuffing out of them, and then mop up what's left. And when it all goes to hell, kill anything you can. Ignore any lone monsters running for the front gate. The college faculty has prepared a surprise for them in exchange for getting to keep one for experiments." He turned to his Courier. "When I give the word, Ben, you have ten seconds until your spell needs to land. Timing is everything. Which is why I told the adventuring groups that they don't get any rewards if they charge early."
All of the information was familiar; they had gone over it before. Everyone nodded and waited for the Baron's signal. When it came, Ben started moving forward. Diego watched as Benjamin stood up and cast his first spell, bringing down a torrent of Phoenix Fire from the sky, hitting the Dreadwulf, and splashing onto the assembled undead. Howls of hunger turned to cries of pain as the radiance-tinged fire burned and couldn't be put out. The Courier's spells had become more and more powerful since the day Diego had taught him how to heal, and he had been blessed by no less than the Maid of Orleans. Diego would always be proud of his part in that battle, and it was delightful to watch his one-time student unleash a blast of holy fire onto the undead horde and then run for safety as only a Courier could.
Within a second of the spell hitting the undead, four barrels of catapult-launched flaming death hit the crypt the Dreadwulf was standing on. The Inquisitor wondered about their accuracy. The Baron would admit to him later that he had picked that crypt as a prime target and had his catapults calibrated to hitting it as a target. Piles of fresh bones had been piled around and on the crypt to encourage the undead to gather there. The barrels broke, spilling the sticky substance within that splashed the monsters, adding another source of the fire. Lower-level ghouls, ghasts, and zombies would be dead before they could attack, and the stronger undead would be weakened.
Ben took a step back, staggering. He'd used over half of his huge mana pool to cast that spell. A risk he would not have taken if it had been only the two of them in the graveyard. He recovered quickly and sprinted for safety as a howling horde of fire-maddened ghouls chased him, and a fanged beast leaped from the top of the crypt. The Dreadwulf was burning still, losing part of its flesh and fur, but far from dead. It had decided to start its rampage with the infuriating white-clad human that had hurt it.
Ben made it to the front line of the defenders and kept moving. From behind tombs and gravestones where they had hidden in the gloom and the fog, more fighters emerged, led by the Baron and Baroness. Both were clad in gleaming plate mail over chain hauberks. The work had been done in Sedgewick by his armor smiths. Diego had examined the armor while it was being made. It wasn't as fancy as what any other noble would go to battle in. It was practical armor for a warrior that expected to get hit. Baron William preferred protection over looks. But it was well made of Dark Steel and cured Sedge Hide.
The Dreadwulf outpaced the other undead, running on all fours to the center of the army. The Baron took a step several steps forward. "Come get me, Fido. Time to teach an old dog some new tricks." Whether the lupine monster understood or not, he recognized a challenger. He howled and raced at the Baron. William stood firm and braced his shield. Not one step back! The Dreadwulf charged and was stopped by the Baron, who blocked his slavering jaws with his shield. From an elevated position behind the line of defenders came the 'crack' of high-tension cables being released and the groan of metal and steel. Four oversized ballistae that would someday sit on the ramparts of Rowan Keep took aim and fired missiles at the Dreadwulf. One was off target and continued onward to plow through half a dozen ghouls. The second, the Dreadwulf swatted aside with contemptuous ease before screaming as the silver-tipped head of the spear tore off three of its claws. The last two struck the monster in the chest area, shattering ribs and tearing through undead sinews.
The creature screamed, and then the scream turned into a dreadful howl. Diego felt himself freeze up, paralyzed for a few seconds by the howl. The effect on the assembled players was worse. They stopped moving, unable to move anything but their eyes as the ghouls raced at them. The Baron and Baroness seemed only partially affected. This was their seat of power, and all other powers in Gadobhra had less or no effect upon them. The werewolf picked up the Baron, and its jaws bit down on his midsection. The Baron screamed. The Dreadwulf also screamed. Jorges had put layered silver between the layers of dark steel as he forged the armored plates. The Dreadwulf's teeth chipped and broke as it poisoned itself. The Baron found himself thrown away like a bad piece of meat.
None of the contract workers were affected by the howl. The same mental nudging that made it easy for them to work a 12-hour day also protected them from fear and terror. It wasn't total, and the newer workers found themselves edging away from the battle, but the workers in the second tier just smiled and charged. The Dreadwulf was attacked by a dozen cleaver-armed workers using Hack Undead to start cutting it quickly down to size. And as it went to strike back, a gleaming arrow of light struck it in the face, blinding it. As the junior butchers hacked away at the Dreadwulf, Suzette put several Solar Arrow spells into its eyes, blinding it for the duration of the fight.
Not to be outdone, the Baroness summoned a glowing two-handed sword that gleamed red in the moonlight and dripped blood. As the Dreadwulf stumbled back under the assault, she raced forward, leaped onto the shoulders of one of the workers, and slashed the Dreadwulf in the neck, taking its last bit of health and severing its head. She kicked out at the headless monster and rode the body down to the ground. Turning, she posed with her sword in one hand and the Dreadwulf's body under her foot. Then she turned and pointed at the charging undead. "To me, my butchers! Let's finish this." The Baroness and her workers charged the ghoul horde, joined by the players on either flank. The killing would go on for an hour until the last ghoul was hacked and destroyed.
Ben cast a healing spell on Billy, stopping the flow of blood and resetting his ribs. "Careful, you took a nasty hit." Billy lit a cigar. "Worth it. I made sure I had one of the players take a screenshot of me stopping the wolf thing. Layla upstaged me with her kill-stealing and posing at the end, but I'm getting both pictures framed for my office and sending copies to Vern."