It’s a still morning at the party’s camp in the woods near Lake Varda.
Knowing that they face a possible sorcerer and an undead horde weighs heavy on all their minds.
The group spends the morning preparing for the fight to come. Sturmberg and Lucia train in combat, the veteran dwarf teaching the druid better ways to defend herself.
Meanwhile, Halinde strikes out into the woods, hoping to find an animal for food and for spell ingredients. She tracks a nice fat deer and brings it down with a swift shot from her bow.
The meat and leather it provides will keep them well feed and new material for her town smith to make armor.
Kristov spends the morning hiking around the temple ruins. He dare not get close enough to be seen, but finds a trail through a dense thicket that could give them the element of surprise against whatever lies in wait at the ruins.
Later, Kristov, Halinde, and Sturmberg sleep while Bodlo keeps watch. Lucia is too agitated by the tension and forages the area near the camp. Hidden in the dirt, she comes across a worn and tattered holy symbol. The thong of the necklace is broken, but the symbol itself is merely dirty.
Taking it back to the campsite, she’s met by an ecstatic Halinde. The fellow druid explains that the symbol is that of the god Clay – an aspect of her faith. After cleaning the trinket, they see that a small red piece of glass is inlaid into the symbol.
Unknown to the rest of the group, this symbol holds special meaning for Halinde. She recognizes that it is from the order of Shardmaidens, of which she is a member. She asks Lucia if she could have the treasure, and the Ravensister happily agrees.
In the evening, they group decides to strike while light is still in the sky. Halinde and Kristov are able to lead the group through the brush to the unwatched side of the ruins. Unfortunately, the thick growth viciously scrapes against them, and the two leaders suffer in silence.
Once to the ruins, Sturmberg takes the lead, and steps into a broken down side room of the former temple. Through a doorway, he spots what at first seems like a guard, but he quickly realizes the figure is an undead.
Stalking as quietly as he can, the dwarves warrior gets behind the zombie and bashes it mightily with his longsword. The blow is enough to almost cleave the undead in two and it slumps to the floor with a loud rattle.
The party almost immediately hears groans, shuffling, and screeches from other undead in the area.
It’s not long before a spear-wielding undead ambles toward them, and they watch with horror as a Death Knight descends the stairs from a low tower. The die is cast now and there is no going back.
The men trade blow with the undead horror, while Lucia and Halinde call upon their holy power to send the abomination back to the underworld. At last, with one final blow, Kristov smashes the undead knight with his hammer, bring the last of the foul energy out of the monster.
The timing is fortunate as more undead were making their way up the hill toward the ruins. As the last arcane light leaves the knight, the rest of the undead fall lifeless to the ground.
It’s only after the battle that Halinde realizes with horror that the undead were the men from her village. She sighs with relief that none of the zombies were her husband, but she is almost undone with grief at the grim discovery.
While the rest of the party searches the area, Halinde performs last rites on the villagers she finds, promising to give them a final burial once the quest is over. The druid tears strips of her clothes and fastens them to the bodies of the villagers to mark their connection to her, as she hopes it echoes on into the afterlife.
The battle is not without some good news. Sturmberg finds that the death knight had a large golden shield. They also find several pieces of copper, and a strange pieces of amber with weird inscriptions on the gem.
As the dwarf goes to pick the shield up, Halinde tries to stop him.
“The symbols on this shield show the knight was once a member of the faith of Clay, which is part of my religion. I won’t stop you from keeping the shield, but I would like it if you can wait to use it until we can repair it, and I can copy the symbols,” Stillmoon says.
The warrior ponders the human’s request for a long moment and replies, “While I am not religious, I will do my best to respect your faith. That said, this shield would provide mighty protection in combat, so I will use it. But I promise to do my best not to unnecessarily damage it.”
Halinde is disappointed but respects the decision as Lucia scoffs at the dwarf’s lack of social cues.
It’s then that Kristov motions to the group, “Listen,” he says, “there’s something going on down below.”
Peeking around the corner, the group looks into the shadowy depths of a crypt as they hear chanting coming from the chamber…
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