Day 8 of Patchwall:
As Feno and Lhoss nursed the still weak Jack back to health, Niki cast Speak with Animals, in order to understand the meows of her weak feline friend. While still weak, Kyro, having some sympathy towards him, offered a chunk of the displacer meat, which he gobbled up in eager haste. While the rest of the party heard just meows between Niki and Jack, the normally feisty feline relayed to Niki what had recently befallen him. While on a patrol near the borders of the Dim Forest, he was attacked and ambushed by a large horde of undead. He retreated to warn the people of Orlane of this growing threat. Once he warned them, he went back on an exhibition to fight the undead horde but was instead ambushed by a group of necromancers. They attacked him and cut off his paw, (which incidentally was the same paw that had the ring of Jack that allowed him to talk without use of Speak with Animals) and leaving him for dead. Upon finding Niki and the rest of the group he implored them to head towards the town of Orlane, because it was in grave danger. Following his tale, a healing spell, and a full stomach, he promptly falls asleep in company of the party. The group rests for the evening and discuss/digest this new information. They decide to ride to town in a hurry.
Day 9 of Patchwall:
The group awakens to heavy rain and mist, that continues throughout the day. The rain slows the group down quite a bit, as they and their horses have to slog through the mud and muck of the trail. The group enters the Dim Forest, which has become quiet due to the rain.
The rain has made the forest cold, as the group ends their day, finding the good resting spot they used on the start of their journey. They cook and eat more displacer beast stew and settle down for the evening. As they prepare themselves for the evening, each member of the group is hit with a sense of uneasiness at the edge of their senses. Not knowing how to describe it to each other, they brush it off and rest for the evening before starting their hurried journey back to Orlane.
Day 10 of Patchwall:
The skies clear up a bit for the party, but the trail is still muddy and hard to traverse. They arrive near the outskirts of Orlane in the early afternoon and quickly see an unsettling sight. As they travel closer to the familiar city, they see signs of a struggle: what appears to be crimson blood stains along the trail, patches of torn leather and cloth, along with broken metal, seemingly from a weapon or two. Feno kneels down to examine the cloth and leather and discovers that it bears a close resemblance to the clothing worn by the Grey Hawk Knights. The knights were quietly observed heading in this direction while the party was near the town of Wood's Edge a few days ago. Seeing the signs of this recent battle, Lhoss and the group ready themselves for potential conflict. As they march forward, both Lhoss and Feno notice smoke and haze billowing from a nearby farmland. As they continue marching closer, they see piles of bones from some undead, the corpses of slaughtered livestock, with nearby farms and houses found gutted and burned to the ground. As they near the actual town of Orlane, both Lhoss and Feno pick up on the sounds of battle occurring. Whatever happened in the farmlands is occurring in Orlane right this moment. They move quickly and arrive in town, only to see a clash between undead and their friend Alan Clayborne. Alan, along with his wife and a few knights from Grey Hawk are battling against, ghouls, zombies and skeletons. The group ties up their horses (as they are not cavalry fighters), they head and attack the undead horde, saving both Alan and his wife, but some knights fell in the battle. They then move towards Rayne's forest house and are intercepted by foul creatures known as shades. Niki using her Call Lightning spell last battle with great success, moves the thunderous cloud overhead and blasts two of the creatures out of existence. Lhoss destroys one herself, using her spell Continual Light, but not before the creature does damage both Feno and Arnd. The group examines the dead body of Rayne and his familiar, Whiskers. After paying their briefest of respects, they move south near the bridge. As they get near the bridge, their collective anxiety reaches a fever pitch. Just past the bridge is the largest collection of undead that the heroes have ever seen.
Amongst their ranks, is Nanor, and Derek, both villains who have troubled the party for many months, if not years. Nanor and his minions mock the party. The battle between good and evil draws near...
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