Bring Out Your Dead

One by one, eight heads broke the water’s surface. The pool in this room was only knee deep and we needed to move aside to let the next swimmer through. Kalena drew the everburning torch from her bag and relit the top of her staff. As light spilled over the stone floor, the dark room became a graveyard. Or maybe what a graveyard would look like if it had been torn apart by a giant. Over a dozen bodies, probably sailors at one point, were strewn across the grotto and their glazed eyes reflected the torchlight. There were huge rends on the bodies, as if claws the size of pickaxes had torn through the corpses. The lack of blood from the claw wounds was a sure indication that the majority of the damage had been done after they died. It was a small comfort.

“I don’t like this.” Rhegar said, voice low, “The sirens can’t have made it this far this fast. I’m going to go back and see if Voko knows of another passage.” Garn and Markas grunted their approval and the silver dragonborn slid back under the water. Doubt he finds anything, I thought.

Meanwhile, Travis was getting antsy. “I don’t know what you’re all so afraid of.” He jumped out of the water. “It’s just dead bodies.” The thief moved toward a faintly lit doorway on the side of the room. “Get back here soldier!” Garn growled as he sloughed though the pool. “We don’t know what did this.” Travis scoffed and ignored the command. “You weren’t even here for the last fight. Stuff down here isn’t difficult and I’m tired of waiting around for the lot of you.” He continued toward the door.

I saw two green spots of light flash briefly in the darkness less than five paces away from Travis. Oblivious he made as if to search one of the bodies next to the doorway. A snarl echoed through the cavern as a gray-black blur slammed into the boy. By the time bows were raised or weapons drawn, the screams had been replaced by the sound of a body being dragged across the floor.

Kalena bravely raised the torch higher, light flickering as her arm shook. In the back of the grotto a mangy wolf-like dog crouched over the bloody body, crunching on a forearm. I heard Kalena back away and bump into Kyri, but I couldn’t tear my eyes off the wolf. It was like no wolf I had ever seen. Mottled black fur covered the body in patches, leaving chunks of diseased gray skin exposed. Black saliva mixed with Travis’s blood as it dripped messily onto the wolf’s chest.

“Gravehound.” Kalena and I said at the same time, voices barely above whispers as we stared at the horror in front of us. The green eyes of the gravehound stared back as it stripped a piece of flesh from the ribcage. Markas steadied himself, more than likely hoping we could make a break for the other door while the gravehound was distracted by its meal. But the moment the paladin set his foot on the floor the gravehound let out an unearthly howl. If three animals were to die in extreme pain at the exact moment, it might be close to this sound. The howling stopped but the gravehound continued to stare at something behind us. I followed its gaze to see a spectral form rise from one of the bodies. Its platemail clanked into place and it raised a wicked black spear. Despite the fact that his face remained blank, I could clearly hear the ghost say, “Get up! Get up and get ‘um, me lads!” followed by a cackle of laughter.

Markas moved forward and tried to perform an eyebite attack on the warrior ghost but failed. Simultaneously, Vixi fired off an eldritch blast and Kalena dropped a fireball behind the specter. They both hit but the ghost appeared to absorb some of the damage. Kyri loosened two arrows in quick succession, but one appeared to go through the body without any effect. Of course, he’s phasing in and out. They are only hitting him when he’s corporeal.

Around the cavern four sailors suddered and rose, shuffling toward the party. One took a swipe at Kalena and caught a nasty blow on her shoulder. Three more made a beeline toward Kyri and Vixi. Garn stepped forward to block the squishier members of our party from the main attack. “Help me.” One zombie muttered as it fumbled an attack. The second grabbed Garn’s arm as the third clawed at his chainmail mumbling “Kill me.” Garn struggled but freed himself from the attack as Kalena backed toward the door. I started prayer to take out the zombie chasing Kalena, but the gravehound rushed to attack me. Its hideous jaws passed through my leg and it collapsed under my weight.

I planted my quarterstaff against the floor and pulled myself up. I could see the foul black saliva creeping into the wound, but I ignored it. I won’t get a better chance to do this. I thought as I pulled holy energy into the symbol of Kord. As the assorted undead reached for Kalena and Garn, I released the spell and felt the familiar wind whip around me. The hot breeze caught two zombies and slammed the undead into the grotto walls. The third zombie attacking Garn was thrown screeching down the hallway Travis had tried to leave through. The gravehound too was thrown against the rear of the cavern and it snarled angrily at me. I sent a healing prayer to Kalena and took a moment to prevent the black saliva from causing my wound to fester.

The ghost warrior struck Markas with his spear, leaving the same kind of grayed flesh the gravehound’s jaws had left in my leg. He returned with a blow of his own. Vixi threw a curse and an eldritch blast at the zombie chasing Kalena. In response, the grateful wizard sent a chilling strike against the ghost. It hit but caused the ghost to become insubstantial just as Kyri’s arrows arrived. With our zombies still incapacitated for the moment Garn and I threw attacks at the ghostly warrior. The damage was enough to destroy the spirit. The ghostly body vaporized and the platemail and spear clattered onto the grotto floor.

Freed from his opponent, Markas moved in to flank with the warlord. I could hear the zombies chanting “Told you. Should have killed me.” Next to me, the dragonborn muttered. “If you come closer, I will.” Unfortunately for our brown haired wizard, the eldritch blast had done little to stop the zombie behind her and it grabbed out for her again. She dodged and Vixi hurled another crackling bolt at the zombie. This time the blast hit true and the zombie fell face first into the pool. Markas mentioned something about running to the door, but it was hard hear him over the battle.

The creatures I had hit with the Turn Undead prayer were recovering. The gravehound began to slinking toward the party but two of Kyri's arrows thudded into the gravehound. It stumbled and snarled at the pale elf. Two of the zombies grabbed Garn while one heads for me, its diseased brain remembering I was the one who caused the searing wind. Garn couldn’t shake out of the zombie’s grip but swung his halbard all the same. The blade managed to almost severe the arm that gripped his throat but the zombie still clung on pleading, “End me now.” The gravehound moved in closer but I slammed my quarterstaff into its head. The wolf crumbled into dust but before its jaws disappeared completely they clamped around my injured leg once again.

Markas moved through the party with a grace befitting of his elven heritage and his spiked chain flew into rotting flesh. Vixi blasted the one near me with an attack that causes white light to stream from its eyes and mouth. Kalena manages to cleverly place a fireball that fried the zombies yet missed the half-elf paladin, causing the one holding Garn to crumble. He yanked the disembodied arm from his neck as an arrow penetrated the skull of zombie on his other side. Vixi teleported to my side as I struck the undead next to me with a lance of fate. A final blow from Markas and the zombie dropped to the ground, not to rise again.

“No more of that.” Said the paladin. “Hack the bodies apart so they can’t rise again.” We set about the task with perhaps a bit more enthusiasm than necessary. Or maybe not. We had just gone through two zombie attacks. I doubt it’s the last time we meet undead down here. The bodies were maybe a month old, still fresh enough to have risen as zombies but not yet skeletal. “You know, they might be the crew of the Silver Talon.” Kyri mused. “Let’s not worry about that for now. We have a still have a task to complete.” Garn said as he moved over to Travis’s body. “Does anyone know if he had any family?” he asked, unsure what to do. “He was a teenage theif who was probably headed to Aurincia to pick pockets and got sucked into joining the Order. What do you think?” I remarked, unable to keep the cynicism out of my voice. Calmly, Markas severed Travis’s head, preventing the corpse from being able to rise again, and made a small sign of devotion to the Raven Queen.

Since she had no weapon other than a dagger, Kalena had been examining the armor and spear for magical traps while we had hacked up the bodies. “Neither seem to have negative enchantments. In fact the plate has an armor bonus. The spear might be a lifedrinker weapon.” Garn picked up the spear, testing the balance and heft. “We should make use this stuff then. Here, it looks like the suit will fit you, Markas.” It did and the paladin exchanged his scale armor for the better protection of the plate.

Of the two doorways leading from the room, one went up and one went down. The upper corridor looked rough. Crumbly pumice covered the hallway, making for bad footing if we encountered a fight. The stream flowing from the pool into the downward passage was wide enough for the sirens to have been able to slither down on their own power. It was pretty obvious to me which way we should go, and pretty obvious to the rest of the Order as well. We gathered our gear, took one last look around, and headed down the passageway.