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(Story by Koviell Sashermasock)

"Arkum! Draselth! We got a very, very big problem here."

Behind us we can see Nova, with a bloody axe in hand.

"What happened? And why this weapon? Why is it bloodied?"


"My Husband wanted to bury the corpse of the gnome at the inn. When I got back with a shovel, the gnome was biting his throat. I'm pretty sure he was raised to be a creature of the unlife." Explains Nova.

"An undead? Here?"

"After banishing this filthy creature, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there would be a necromant in this city." Mentions Draselth

"Could this be related to the disease?"

"That is another possibility. I would need to see another victim. Let's go to the chapel!" Commands Draselth.

We hurry up and rush to the chapel. The door leading to the mausoleum is on the ground. Either it fell down again or someone went there. In any case, we get to the main entrance of the chapel only to face a man, wearing vestments covered in blood, wandering between the rows of seats.

"Is that... that's Richard? No doubt, or at least it was him" Mentions Nova.

"He was dead when we first visited the chapel. Now he's restless." States Draselth.

The undead man notices us and slowly walk in our direction.

"We can't leave him that way..." Draselth places his hand on his sword hilt, but Nova gets in his way.

"He was my friend; I should be the one doing this." Says Nova as she raises her axe in the direction of the walking corpse. She waits for it to come to her reach and chops his head in a single strike. The corpse falls on the ground and stops moving.

Draselth walks to the corpse. "May he rest in peace. Now we shall..."

Then we hear a strong cry outside, right in front of the chapel. A man is getting assaulted by a pack or people. As we get a better look at them, the pack of people is biting the man. They must be undead too.

Draselth stepped out with his lantern in hand and his sword in the other one. "This cannot be forgotten."

The pack of moving corpses left the Man on the ground, now that they noticed us. They slowly walk to us as they moan unintelligible things. I unsheate my sabre and longknife.

"I'm here to help."

"Same for me." Adds Nova.

We were ready to fight. The undeads were close to us and Nova hacked through one of them with her axe; he falls down loudly. Draselth cuts through the leg of one of them. When he falls down, he thrust his blade into the corpse's head. I slash the forearms of the undead in front of me and push him down to the ground; Nova delivers the final strike with her axe.

"May those loose spirit rest in peace." Whispers Draselth.

Then we notices that the Man is still moving a bit.

"Frantz?!" Says Nova.

The Man weakly turned his head to us. His wounds are way too severe to be treated.

"Nova... I won't make it... Please... There... There are people..."

Frantz weakly raises his arm to a building before leaving his final breath.

Draselth plants his sword into Frantz's neck. "May he rest in piece. If only we had time to give him proper bur... Holy... It's a nightmare..."

Draselth is staring to the streets. There are walking corpses everywhere. Some seem to be biting corpses on the ground, other are wandering across the streets. We can see one building getting assaulted by a mob of those unliving beings. We can see lights and moving shadows there. They might be survivors.

"What will we do? We can't simply leave them to their faith!"

"It would require to distract that mob long enough so we can break in the place, save the survivors and run to a safe place." Mentions Nova.

"I... I will distract them." Says Draselth.

"This would be horribly dangerous, even suicidal if you..."

"I run faster than you, I will be alright. I can deal with the force of the undeath." Tells Draselth.

"Look, there are ways to..."

"This is my duty. We're losing much time arguing while the survivors are waiting!" Shouts Draselth.

Nova and I are looking each other.

"Be careful little man, be safe." Whispers Nova.

"We will see each other again."

I can see a tear dropping on Draselth's cheek.

"I can run very fast..." Draselth then runs down the street, attracting the attention the walking corpses on his way.

"He's a brave little guy." States Nova.

"Indeed. Now, we must get in place."

We sneakily walk across the street, trying to not catch the attention of those walking abominations. Draselth's diversion seems to be working, the undead are slowly dragged away.

"Do you think that he will be okay?" Asks Nova.

I didn't know the answer, I didn't know what to answer.

"He gave us time, we better not waste it. Look, we could break in by the upper window. Are you a good climber?"

Nova looks up to the window open. "I can reach it. Go first and take a look, just in case."

I wait a little bit so the place gets clear and march to the house wall and climb it up. Just a few bits and I reach the window to take a look. There are bodies laying on the ground and blood everywhere. We're too late. Curses. I climb back down to the ground level only to see Nova's worried look.

"We're too late..."

"I understand." Nova sighs and a tear runs from her eye. "This was useless at the end."

"We can't stay there. We..."

Suddenly there was a huge flash of light coming from behind the building, where the mob was being dragged.

"Was that...?" Asks Nova, wondering.

"We can't stay there. Draselth gave us time to save the survivors, we're the survivors. We must flee."
"Let's get to the woods, I can lead us to Maedawara, this would be a safe place." Says Nova, before pointing up the forest to the north.

"Lead the way, before they come back at us"

I hope you will make it... I really hope you will... There is nothing else we can do here, with this plague of the undeath...