We travelled through the jungle and to the coastline, then followed it eastward and northward, seeing many new people and places as we went. It has been wonderful, learning about the wider world, especially with my new husband by my side. And it’s a wide world, indeed, with no jungle canopy close around us.

As one evening fell, we reached a small town near the Lake of Steam (a very strong-smelling body of water). The place seemed to be populated by farmers, although we could see a dark and evil-looking tower rising in the distance. Still, it was not near, and the town had an inn, the Green Griffin. I offered to pay for dinner and a room, so Charzth and I settled down in the common room to watch new people.

The place was mostly full of farmers, relaxing after a long day’s work. There were some other races, too - all of them shorter than us! I pointed to the halfling, standing in his chair to reach his plate(s), and the dwarf at the bar, and the gnome with the funny-colored hair. Charzth decided to flip potatoes off his kukri at the poor gnome, who luckily didn’t seem to mind too much.

Suddenly, a giant potato appeared behind our chairs! I boggled at it a moment, then gave it a cautious poke. Finding that it was both real, and not attacking us, I happily carved off a slice for my plate. Charzth followed suit. The potato, however, disappeared when the gnome arrived in front of our table. I was very disappointed to see that my plate was empty, too! Charzth, the gnome, and I argued about the disappearance of the critter until a new plate of fried potatoes was served at our table, with “compliments from the halfling” across the room. Potatoes were soon flying over to the halfling in thanks.

The new potatoes, however tasty, had a new twist. Now they screamed when we ate them. The gnome, who was still at our table, seemed disturbed that this didn’t stop us from eating. I explained to her that a lot of the food at home screams, which disturbed her more (though she did stop talking to us like we were children!).

At this point, the door opened, and a female half-elf entered the room, heading right for the bar. She sat next to the dwarf (who had been studiously ignoring the rest of the room in favor of his drink), and they had a quiet chat. Realizing she was wearing some kind of uniform, I quickly stopped Charzth from flinging dinner at her. Instead, we headed upstairs, to a bed-room. I was a little disappointed to find that the window was very small. I’m amazed at the stars we can see at night, now! In Chult, you had to climb for a long time to see them, and even then, they were not so clear. And you never knew what might come flying along to pick you out of the treetop for dinner.

It seemed like we’d hardly gone to sleep, when I woke to the sound of fighting in the hallway. Leaping out of bed and grabbing my kukri (always close at hand), I kicked the door open to see what was the matter. A rotting, smelly undead reached out towards me even as I attacked! I could hear Charzth waking up as I fought the thing, while hearing more than seeing, that more were fighting down the hall.

Charzth charged into the undead, grappling with it and bouncing it off the wall, while a loud *BOOM* filled the hallway! I stabbed the undead with my kukri once more, and Charzth used the now-limp carcass to pummel his way down the hall. I could see the dwarf and the gnome, and more undead, especially the one my husband fought at the end of the hall. Arrows flew from under the bed in that room, hitting both the undead and Charzth. He didn’t seem to notice.. much.

I was soon battling another creature, and I was glad to see that the dwarf seemed to be a cleric. He waved a holy symbol at the things, and some of them turned and shuffled down the stairs, away from the fight. This gave us room to finish off the ones still in the hall. We were soon charging into the streets! Charzth, at this point, was berserk with rage. He was pummelling the things into the ground and throwing them as weapons. The dwarf and I helped, but then the town guard appeared, shouting for everyone to retreat to the town shrine for safety.

I realized that the place was full of zombies, chasing living folk through the town. While they ran for the shrine, the dwarf and Charzth ran down the block to fight the largest concentration of zombies, and give everyone else a chance to escape. I was horrified, and proud! Charzth shouted for his gear, especially torches, and I raced back up the stairs to get our things. I staggered back down the steps, dropped everything but our kukris by the door, and raced to help the dwarf and my husband as they fought a pack of undead. Charzth gladly took his weapon but refused to leave the fight, so I stood my ground with them, hoping he’d soon snap out of his rage.

The dwarf kept trying to turn the zombies, but there were too many, now. Arrows flew into the pack from behind (a quick glance showed me the halfling - was he the one under the bed before?), and the rest of the town seemed to have gone on ahead; we could hear the gnome shouting from a distance. Finally, Charzth broke off his fight after killing the zombie attacking me, and all of us ran for safety. We grabbed our gear and staggered for the shrine, my husband barely on his feet. He still thought to throw his flasks of oil into the crowd behind us, and when we made it to the temple, one of the villagers set the mass ablaze. Thank Ubtao!

I collapsed inside the temple for a moment, watching Charzth, a paladin, and others from the town guard defending us on the steps. Someone healed me, which was a relief, and I sat up to pull on my clothes and armor. I got out my short bow and joined the defenders in the doorway, but they’d decided everyone who was going to had already made it to safety, and barricaded us in for the night.

The gnome, Sprocket, asked the townsfolk about any recent unusual events. She seemed to think that there would be clues as to why the local cemetary had disgorged itself on Midsummer Night’s Eve. I heard something about a cleric on pilgrimage, and the tower or wizard outside of town, but I was more interested in introducing ourselves properly to our other fighting companions. The dwarf was Bryrgar, and the halfling, Roscoe. He’s determined to buy Charzth a drink to apologize for shooting him by mistake. Charzth tried to growl about it, but he wasn’t really mad.

After a few hours, the pounding on the doors stopped. The paladin carefully opened them, and we all saw the remaining undead shuffling back to the graveyard in the early-morning light. The others wanted to get their gear from the inn, and talk about a plan to deal with this abomination, but Charzth wanted to kill more zombies. He headed off after any stragglers, and I headed off after him. We killed a couple before reaching the cemetary, and found a terrible sight!

I was glad Charzth had followed the undead; there were three live human hostages at the cemetary, and a more alert-looking zombie killing them one by one. I shot at it several times, missing, although I think my concentration was a little off from the loud *BOOM* the gnome kept producing. I finally figured out it was a projectile weapon of some kind, when part of the lead zombie was shot off. Still, with Charzth back in a berserk rage and the rest of us wading into the fight, I decided to use my kukri again.

Seeing how outnumbered we were, and that the lead zombie was headed for the last victim, I made a mad dash around the fight and prayed that I had the right idea.. that killing the head zombie would kill or confuse the rest. As I came up behind the thing, a red mist seemed to come over my vision; with a mighty swing, I killed the creature with one blow! As it and the other undead collapsed, we saw a green ball of light streak off to the northeast. As the mist cleared from my sight, I realized that the dwarf was on the other side of the head zombie. No wonder I was able to kill it so quickly!

I gave Charzth a kiss, glad to see that he was all right. I needed a rest, badly, but we agreed that the light had headed for that strange tower, and ought to be checked out. Apparently, Charzth and I have made some new friends!

Posted by Kate on September 18, 2004, 23:39 | Nosila’s Journal