Yep, I’m a bastard. No question about it.
Speaks felt his heart falter at the horror he witnessed. Another faithful animal companion struck down only to arise as an unspeakable abomination of undeath. It was almost more than he could bear, but he knew what must be done. His hands tightened on the haft of his spear.
Back at the Temple entrance, unaware of the grief of their companion, Scar and Raven closed with the remaining druid. For his part, the druid guided the ball of fire he had conjured into Raven once again and the dwarf faltered for a moment but pressed forward heedless of the pain.
In but a moment he and Scar had cut the druid off from escape and were bringing their mighty hammers to bear on the foe. The Dark Druid tried to use more of his magic to save himself but a hammer blow from Scar smote the manna from his grasp. The Druid drew his sickle and attempted to make a battle of it but the relentless assault of Scar and Raven quickly overcame him and in moments he was on the ground unconscious.
The pair of warriors stood panting for a moment at the Temple entrance, barely capable of standing after all they had been through within the evil walls of the place. They started to turn to go back inside to check on Speaks when the Druid emerged from the darkness, his face stained with sweat, grime and tears. He held his longspear limply in his hand, it’s point covered with the blood of a friend. “I need your help,” he said.
A short while later, a pyre had been built and the heavy body of Scrubs had been lifted atop it through the combined strength of the companions. Nearby lay the unconscious body of one of the elven druids they had battled. He would have much to answer for when he awoke.
A torch was lit and the black branches gathered from the dead forest around the temple reluctantly caught fire. A dense black smoke poured into the sky as the flames began to consume the remains of Scrubs the bear.
Raven broke the silence. “We have what we came for. Let us depart this accursed place and never come back!” Scar bent and without a hint of gentleness threw the body of the elf over his shoulder. Then, somberly and without further comment, the trio moved off into the black woods headed in the general direction of Greatroot. Anywhere but here.
Their travels soon took them beyond the edge of the dead area surrounding the Temple and to the man they all took a deep breath of relief. But their weary bodies could carry them little further that day. The group collapsed with exhaustion and ate a few fistfuls of rations before settling into their normal night-watch routine.
Scar was dutifully keeping watch several hours later, paying especially close attention to the bound and still unconscious form of the elf. Speaks had warned each of them that if he came to while unattended he could very likely alter his form and escape. Scar secretly hoped that the elf would awaken and try to escape. Better to end his useless existence now. After all, what knowledge was there to gain? He was the enemy and deserved only death and the same could be said for the rest of his kind.
Scar was snapped from his reverie of vengeance by the sound of something large moving through the woods toward them. He listened more closely – several somethings large. He moved quickly to rouse Raven and Speaks from their sleep. The pair groggily awakened as Scar informed them in hushed tones that something approached.
The group hastened to grab their weapons. There was no time to don their armor and the best they could do was to shove it into sacks in case they had to flee. A moment later, three skeletons the size of ogres crashed through the trees.
[I have to make a side comment here. You have to understand that since the last time the party had any rest they fought the Statues guarding the temple entrance, encountered many of the traps in the Sanctuary and the rooms extending from it, fought a half dozen skeletal archers, the entire Chamber of Bone thing including 11 lemures, the Osyluth and somewhere around 40 skeletons. After that they battled the undead creature that Macer had become before emerging from the depths of the temple only to encounter the pair of Elven Dark Druids and their skeletal wolves.
I have no idea what the CR’s of the various encounters tally up to, nor do I want to. But it will likely come as no surprise that when I announced that the Ogre Skeletons had smashed their way into their encampment, they looked like they were ready to kill me. And frankly I probably deserved it.]
NEXT: All Hope Is Lost