Reclaiming Ardania, Day One, Part Two

Having fended off the wererats, and snuck a hunk or two of silver ore for themselves, our heroes continued down the road toward Hiddendale, the last safe place in Ardania. On the way, they met up with Fiona, their half-elven ranger friend, who, on hearing the story of Gurdis being the heir to the throne, happily joined the cause, if only because it would give her something interesting to do.

They rounded the last bend towards town, thinking longingly of soft beds, warm meals, and cold beer, but as the town came into view, it was clear all was not well. Smoke from several burning houses poured into air already filled with the screams of frightened people. The wind brought yells of 'the dead! the dead!' And as if all that were not enough, right in front of our heroes a family was being chased from their house by an enormous bear with eyes like lit lanterns.

Fiona immediately let loose an arrow that buried itself deep in the bear's shoulder, eliciting a roar of rage and, importantly, distracting the bear from its current helpless quarry. Gurdis and Tama moved in to flank it, and were greeted by a furious whirlwind of claws. Auric fired blast after blast at it, and Ralkyn surrounded its face with swirling blades, but both found its hide frustratingly impervious to their magic. They bruised and battered it, but it hung on and unleashed another whirlwind of death. Tama, finding himself nearly beaten, retreated to a safe distance to 'scout out the rest of the town,' while his friends finished the deed, but not before Gurdis too was nearly dead.

Luckily, the town priestess of Agrela, the goddess of growth and healing, happened by. With healing magic, she thanked the heroes for saving the family, and then begged them to clear out the undead that had risen in the graveyard while she searched the town for others needing her magical assistance.

To the graveyard, then, our heroes went, and found it swarming with zombies and skeletons. These they defeated handily; Ralkyn in particular found these far less resistant to his fire than the bear was to his blades. Once the graveyard was clear, it was time to tackle the burning houses.

These they doused with water from the town fountain, and quenched with icy magic. The fires were nearly out, when Fiona, who had climbed an as-yet-unburned building to check out the lay of the land, was seen firing arrows into the darkness. As the smoke cleared, the heroes found the culprits who had set the blaze: four more wererats, snarling and laughing in the dirt road behind the houses.

Ralkyn and Auric, both gifted with the ability to step briefly into the Ether and back out again somewhere else, sequestered themselves on the roofs of untouched houses and began raining magical blows upon their enemies. Gurdis and Tama moved to engage the wererats on foot, while Fiona fired arrows from above.

With Fiona and Ralkyn doing most of the damage from the roof of one building, one wererat decided that climbing is what he needed to do. Sadly, he was not particularly good at it, especially after Ralkyn put him to sleep with a spell. Tama got himself badly hurt by one wererat, but then had the presence of mind to remove from his pocket the hunk of silver ore he had sequestered earlier that evening, and strike the wererat with it. The wererat's constant regeneration ability seemed to wane briefly, and the heroes were able to bring the rest of the wererats down.

So the 'safe' town of Hiddendale was neither very safe nor very hidden. The heroes asked around, and learned that everything had been safe and happy until about two weeks ago. At that point the local bears, which normally just ate berries and fish and hardly ever bothered anybody, seemed to go crazy, greatly upsetting the local woodsman Jack Mungstem. The graveyard had been spawning undead every night at dusk, starting about a week ago, despite the efforts of Sue Cudac, the priestess. And rats from the sewers had always been a problem, but recently they had become far more aggressive, and two weeks ago wererats, which had not been seen in decades, joined them. The wererats liked to burn houses down and steal everything of value from them, and had been causing havoc with the local trades.

Pacos, the trader, promised the heroes that more useful items would be available if the wererats could be taken care of. The heroes spent some time trying to convince Jack to help them with the bears, but he was simply too distraught, and urged the heroes to go on without him, even agreeing to pass his magical bow on to Fiona if the heroes could end the bear problem. Sue promised the two magic users that she would teach them all the rituals she knew, if they could help her get rid of the undead once and for all.

Which task will the heroes take on first? Tune in next week to find out!