3. Wyvern Tor

Deep Night, 1 Tarsakh
Alex, you settle into the midnight watch. The hills are quiet beneath the stars, and for a while nothing disturbs the camp.

Then you hear something. A low scrape of earth and bones. You turn toward a shallow depression a short distance from the camp. Scattered there are the old, weathered bones of a warg. The remains have clearly been exposed to the elements for a long time. So long that the bones are bleached and dry...

Except one of them just moved.

A foreleg shifts against the dirt. Then the skull jerks slightly, its empty jaws scraping against the ground. Soon, more bones begin to twitch and pull themselves together, as though some invisible force is drawing the remains back into their original shape.

The dead warg (S1) is reassembling itself.

Upon being woken by Boggart, Alex thumps the little druid on his shoulder and says "pleasant dreams, my friend." At the beginning of his watch, Alex ran through various rapier forms and then had a spirited bout of knife juggling. Working up a light sweat, Alex takes a drink of water and settles in to the watch, his back to the flames so as not to be night blinded.

The night is cool, yet comfortable, with the faint scent of greenery in the crisp air. Alex takes a deep breath, savoring it. What a beautiful night, Alex thinks as he gazed around. The campfire makes strange shadows dance along the ground. A boulder here; some old bones there, the interplay of the low red light and the dark shadow was mesmerizing. Alex watched as the night performed a shadow puppet play, just for him. Letting his eyes wander over the nearby ground, they suddenly jerked back to one of the boulders. Shadows shouldn't act like that, he thought. The base on the ground should stay the same and only the part above ground should flicker. Standing up, he took a step forward, and then saw to his horror that the bones themselves were moving! There was only one possibility of which Alex could conceive. Running back to the camp Alex yelled at the top of his lungs:
'WARE! THE UNDEAD ARE AMONGST US! GET YOUR BLUDGEONING WEAPONRY, WE ARE ATTACKED!.
Alex grabs for his sling as he frantically tries to wake the rest of the party.

"I'm up!" Boggart startles awake from Alex's booming voice, sitting bolt upright before he has a chance to comprehend his actions. His mind is still hazy with the fog of deep dreams, and it takes him painful moments to wrest his consciousness back to alertness, rubbing his eyes until they focus on the undead beast reanimating before them. He scrambles to his feet and grabs for his mace and shield, shaking the last bits of heaviness from his limbs as he steps in front of the party and squares up for a fight.

Redhawk being a very light sleeper is up and ready with bow out. He has no bludgeoning weapons so arrows will have to do.

Igrem gets up in a hurry, not happy to be forcibly awaken in these already precarious parts. "What new devilry is this? I knew staying here was risky!" Shaking the disappointment en sleepiness, he appraises the position of the enemy.

Alex is hyperventilating. He knows of the undead; he even has friends who have come across them in some of the more deserted Waterdhavian necropoli. However, he has specifically not frequented those areas. If I wanted to deal with the undead, I would have become a Luckbringer. He wound up and let the slingstone fly [Action 1: Attack].

Watching the pebble knock into the pile of bones, Alex assessed the unholy being's movement and instinctually calculated angles and trajectories [Action 2: Create an Opening - Finesse].

Redhawk will mark the skeleton and the fire his bow at its head since that is the biggest target. If the arrow does nothing maybe he will pick up rocks and throw them.

Alex, you let the slingstone fly, and it cracks against the reassembling bones. The impact knocks a few fragments loose, but the creature continues pulling itself together.

Redhawk, you draw and fire at the skull as the creature finally pulls itself upright. The arrow strikes, yet the damage is surprisingly minor. The bones are not protected by any obvious magical resistance; the arrow simply fails to do much harm. Bad luck, perhaps.

The skeletal warg then emits a high, unnatural howl, a dry, rasping imitation of the sound a living warg might make. The cry carries across the dark hills.

A moment later, another howl answers from somewhere in the distance.

Then another...

HP lost
S1: 8

Frightened by the howl in the distance, Igrem elects to use Lightning magic, hoping to shatter the undead enemy and possibly some of its nearby companions.

Igrem, you rise abruptly at the sound of the answering howls and reach for your lightning magic, but fear and exhaustion make the casting clumsy. The spell twists as it leaves your hands, arcs wildly, and strikes you instead. The shock leaves you stunned and smoking, but still standing.Then the darkness beyond the camp begins to move. One pair of pale bones emerges from the scrub, followed by another and another, until seven more skeletal wargs stalk into view, and spread through the darkness around the camp.

The first undead warg advances...

Boggart, you barely have time to raise your shield before the skeletal warg lunges. Its very fast (Speed 10). The first swipe passes wide, claws scraping harmlessly through the air, but the second catches you across the side with a sharp rake of bone and claw.HP lost
S1: 8

"Puck!" Boggart intones as the undead Warg closes with vicious attacks, and the golden marten coalesces from the divine energy of nature around him. Puck attacks [S1], flashing golden fangs biting down on the nearest rotting limb. Boggart channels the authority of the Lady into a mighty rebuke, which seems to echo over the hills as it buffets the undead in front of him. "Begone!"

Boggart, you watch Puck's luminous fangs clamp down on the skeletal warg, followed by the force of your divine rebuke.

A living warg might have fled after such punishment, especially with an unfamiliar golden creature tearing at it and divine power driving it back. But this thing shows no such instinct. It simply turns its empty skull toward you and keeps fighting, utterly indifferent to pain, fear, or self-preservation.HP lost
S1: 20

Since S1 charged and is right there Redhawk will quickly shoulder his bow draw his short sword and attack.

Redhawk, you see the battered skeletal warg lunge again, already within striking distance. You sling your bow over your shoulder, draw your short sword, and step into the creature's path. Your blade catches the undead beast with a decisive strike, smashing through its brittle bones. The skeleton collapses into a scattered heap.

---

Igrem, you feel somewhat stronger than you did during the night. Your rest has allowed some of the wounds from the owlbear to heal, though the memory of that battle is still painfully fresh. As you look beyond the first skeleton, you notice several of the remaining undead wargs moving toward Daisy and Gertrude, their empty jaws snapping as they close on the mules.

"NO!" - you say, using your magic to prevent S8 from attacking Daisy. Then, you move back, quickly raising your hands as you attempt to summon lightning once more. This time, your spell answers your call. A violent bolt tears through the darkness and catches two of the skeletal wargs, (S7, S8) blasting fragments of bone into the surrounding grass. Both stagger from the impact, but neither is destroyed.

HP lost
Igrem: 12 of 20 (Bloodied, Charged)
Daisy: 0

S7: 19 (Bloodied)
S8: 19 (Bloodied)