Chapter 4 – Over the Graveyard and Through the Woods

              With the cave, and newly acquired headquarters, cleaned of blood and ash, a messenger from Lord Danish arrived at the cave with a writ allowing the troop safe passage for the next two weeks along with a map of suspected locations of the bandits outside of Randic.   Suiting up the wagon, and hitching up the mare and Wyyntr’s horse, the group set off of on their next adventure.

                Passing on the edge of Randic, the party needed to acquire some supplies.  Food and cloth were required, as well as getting a new ribbed covering for their wagon.   Stepping up to the general store on the outskirts, the party notices that Randic survives solely on the farm lands that surround the town, and most of the inhabitants seem to be living in poverty.   This was totally a severe case of The Farmers kids going without food, as guards and troops could been seen keeping a heavy eye on the population.

                Looking at the map, there was a spot in the woods marked off to where the bandits were suspected of hiding.  Roughly, ten miles south of Randic, in a heavily forested area, the faction of warriors began to trek to the woods.

                Arriving, the path forked in three different paths, showing tracks of human and animal going in all three directions.  Wanting an aerial view, Embry took to the skys on the back of his hippogryph.   Two of the paths were obstructed by the heavy canopies of Oak and Maple trees.  The Third path showed what appeared to be old stones with three old stone buildings at the head of this clearing.  With that being the only visible area, The Ranger came back to ground and reported on his findings to the group. 

After a brief discussion, they all decided to venture to the visible clearing.   Making camp where the paths all split, the horses were hitched with the hippogryph, traps were set by the trap making gnome, the party was set to see what lay ahead. 

                Walking through the woods, and into the clearing, Alandel the Druid with his raptor Mercedes, took the lead followed by Wyyntr and the Dog, Mouse, carrying Alistair upon his back.  Embry decided to take a sneakier approach and walk on the outskirts of the clearing in the trees, and Rangers are ought to do.  

                Through the dim light of night, the group could hear chanting coming from the clearing.  A woman’s voice was chanting something strange in an ancient language.  Alandel and Alistair were both at a loss for what was being chanted, but Wyyntr was all too familiar with this language.  The tongue was speaking the language of the dead. 

                Traveling farther in, the party could see a dim, pulsating light coming from the tip of the roof of one of the stone buildings.  The chanting grew louder as the gang moved in closer, noticing that these were not stones at all.  What Embry thought were simple stones from on high, were really tombstones that time had taken. 

                With the chanting hitting a fever pitch,  moaning and crackling began to erupt.  Skeletons rose from the graves, bumbling and lashing.  Alandel and Alistair went forward and stood tall against the shambling horde, fighting and blasting what they could.  Wyyntr, on the other hand, had a more practical approach.  Using her arcane knowledge of all things dead, she was able to take control of all but a few of the skeletons, making them her puppets.  Turning the skeletons on each other, the first wave was finished.  

                The chanting began to repeat itself, and through the door of the small stone buildings shambled more skeletons and one fresh zombie, all looking towards the intrepid fighters.

                With the fighting continued, Embry had managed to sneak around in the woods.  Making his way to the small stone buildings, he was able to see the glowing stone attached to the roof of one of the buildings.  Climbing on top of the roof, The Ranger was able to let the roof free of the red, glowing stone.  

                Examining the stone, The Elf was able to see a face staring back at him.  The chanting had stopped, while the eyes in the stone peered back at Embry.

                “You Again!” hissed the face in the stone.

                Embry simply smiled and waved back

                “I have had it with you, Ranger!” the face said.   And with that, the stone went silent.

                The Zombie and skeletons had already been awoken, but this was no match for these four.  Wyyntr was able to enslave a few more skeletons, while Alistair, Alandel and Mercedes finished off what remained.

                Regrouping, in the heart of the cemetery, Embry gave the stone to Wyyntr for examination.   Three skulls had been imprinted on one side of the stone, while the front of it now appeared to be no more than a simple ruby.   No more voice and no more face could be found inside the stone.

                Gathering themselves and their new skeletal crew, the team decided to journey west to the next spot on the map.  However, not wanting to be found in the dead of night, the group decided to march through the woods.  Embry took the lead, followed by six skeletal troops, while the other 3 brought up the rear.

                Coming upon the next location, a clearing under the tree tops could be seen.   A small rock formation with a miniature cave could be seen at the edge of the clearing.  Embry took the fore-front and asked the others to stay behind so he could asses what was near or in the cave.  Looking at the ground, he could see tracks of blood and were-bears could be seen leading inwards.

                Going back and reporting to the party, the group decided to flush out the beasts by making a lot of noise from behind the skeletal troops.  Easily awoken, and angered, three werebears crawled out of the cave.  Furious that their evening was being wrecked by a band of interlopers, the monsters lashed out at the first thing they saw.  The skeletons stood their ground and took a beating, while The Druid and his Raptor advanced and attacked momma bear.  Embry decided to square off with Papa bear, while Alistair and Wyyntr duked it out with baby bear.  

                After a flurry of teeth, bone, spears, and magic, Papa bear and Baby bear fell to the warriors.  Mama bear, angry but realizing she was in danger, ran away through the forest and escaped to safety.   The night was won.

                Not wanting to waste a good corpse, before the werebears could change back, the gang was able to skin the were-bears of their pelts and keep them for themselves.  Additionally, Embry was able to find a two sided steel battle ax in the cave. 

                With dawn approaching, the travelers walked back to camp and decided to eat, rest, position the skeletons as watchmen, and wait to search the final clearing.

                XP gained – (someone remind me of the nights final calculations so I can imput it.  I really need a record keeper)

                Treasure acquired – Battle Ax, Mysterious Ruby.