The camp is busy with movement and construction, the ditch around the walls is made, not deep enough to be considered a moat but deep enough to slow a charge, wooden walls with gaps for weapons put up arrows made, very basic metal working being done with clay molds making arrow heads, spear heads and javelin heads.
“The guard tower is to have at least one man in it at all times, if you see anything alert the others.” Shouts Raven as he begins to organize his people. During the night they have started burning a large bone fire in the middle of camp and three one north east and south within their arrows range in hopes that the enemy won’t be able to sneak into camp.
Raven orders that three Kobalds head out and scout and return the second they find anything, with all that taken care of Raven sits down and reads the two none spell books he looted from the Kraken horde, skimming the first book it appears to be a book of illustrations of plant life in the area but not much else, the second book appears to be a accountants ledger of money owed and money owned, it lists several names and a great deal of gold it appears who ever owned this book was very wealthy, in assets owned they appear to have amassed a wealth of over twenty thousand gold but owe a few thousand in loans to other, The name listed as the owner of the book is that of a Joshua Theld. It seems this person did a great deal of trading and moving of money within human settlements.
Raven puts the books into his storage and picks up the crossbow looking it over, Asking Keel to come over and look it over as well they try to identify the enchantments. Raven is sure the crossbow is not cursed but other than that can’t figure out the enchantments, Keel agrees that it is not cursed how ever he thinks the enchantment enhances the bolt fired in some way the mana coming off of it is that of destruction some kind of offensive enchantment but other than that even Keel is stumped.
Raven decides working on the settlement for now is best, ordering some farms to be made and a well to be dug, as well as some traps to be built on the outside edge of what is visible from the village, pit falls and dead falls for large targets. Some boulders are placed at the ramp to the tunnel with wedges built underneath to assist to push them down the hill.
That night the first scout comes back to the camp with a crudely drawn map and a rough drawing of a zombie and skeleton, on the map it appears there is a large force marching directly towards Ravens settlement the size of the force makes Raven frown and second guess the accuracy of the report, when asked if they carry weapons the Lesser Kobald simply shakes its head no. “Well there's that at least” Raven says with a sigh.
Jake walks up to Raven “if they do not carry arms there is a good chance there are no intelligent undead in the horde, without one they will simply and mindlessly march attacking any living, that will give us a chance. But I have my doubts about no higher undead in that horde there has to be with the numbers suggested by your scout. There are always high level people dying all over the place and with undead they could have been dead for decades. We will do our best but if they have something to lead them we won’t stand a chance. What we need is someone with the priest class but they are rare if not unheard of from monster races.”
Raven decides its time to recall all his people to the settlement and make final preparations for battle, stockpiling food and water ammo and gear. Pulling the two barrels of soured wine from storage and putting them next to the catapults, Raven soaks a few rags in animal fat and plasters them onto the barrels as a make shift wick. Raven decides his fall back last stand will be the crystal room itself and not any farther as the crystal itself will be their objective and Raven cannot allow the death god even more power.
After a long day of preparation Raven goes back to his room for sleep but it gets very little actual sleep, tossing and turning through out the night. Early morning is when he hears the warning calls, Getting up and running outside he finds a massive wall of fog rolling across the fields and the stench of death on the air. Getting his people armed and ready on the walls and manning the catapults in preparation of the coming battle loading small stone boulders into the catapults. The rumble across the ground can be felt already as the undead march on their location, Raven gulps loudly as Jake walks up to him.
“Well here we go I guess, you ready for this?” Jake says while looking Raven over. “I think so. There will be losses for sure there is no way we don’t have losses, however I think we can win this. We have done everything we can so either way there is nothing to regret.”
The fog thickens and the air grows colder when the moans of the dead can be heard, in the distance the log falls can be heard being tripped and slamming into bodies. The bone fires to the east can just be seen through the fog casting shadows as the dead begin there slow walk past it. “Fire!” Raven shouts to the catapults firing stones into the fog, archers start firing arrows. Nothing can be seen through the fog and yet Raven is sure the amount of undead walking his direction is far to numerous to be defeated with what little defenses he currently has.
After a few minutes of firing blind the fog begins to lift with a strong pulse of win, As Raven gets his first glance at the battle field is when his stomach sinks. Thousands of undead skeletons mostly with the mix of zombies and the odd mix of animal undead, but the large majority of the undead is human, looking across the field Raven can tell the catapults are doing large damage to the enemy crushing the dead and preventing them from continuing, however the arrows are being less than effective they do drop a few undead when striking the head or in the case of skeletons removing the skull.
Raven has the wine barrels loaded and the wicks lit, with a shout the barrels go flying into the horde exploding in a ball of fire covering a large area but sadly it seems less than effective vs the skeletons but the zombies go up in a ball of fire dropping shortly after. Ordering a stop to the arrows and getting fourteen Lesser Kobalds to grab shields swords daggers and spears as well as ten javelins each. The Kobalds form a wall bracing their walls and prepare their spears, the catapults continue firing stones and doing massive damage to the enemy number.
Jake runs to the line wielding one of the war hammers and Keel begins his fire ball castings magic seems overly effective even vs the skeletons where ever the fire hits the undead drop never to stand. As the horde hits the wall the ground shutters, the spears begin stabbing through the spacing in the walls killing some undead but its slow and hard work. Hundreds of undead lay broken along the field and along the wall, but still the number of undead far outnumber the ones destroyed.
One of Keels fire balls hits the ditch and ignites the debris within the ditch thick black smoke rises into the air and a few of the undead drop from the fire but again the fire does very little. The mass of dead start to press on the wooden walls and they begin to creak and loud snaps can be heard Raven rushes to the weakest barrier already leaning into the camp, Raven braces the barrier when his ring starts to shine brightly, with a flash of light a pulse of energy blasts from his hand sending several dozen undead away from the walls shattering the skeletons and breaking apart the zombies.
Raven feels the wall falling as he retreats he shouts the retreat “Fall back to the tunnel! Wall is breached back to the tunnel!” as his forces turn and run the walls begin falling and the dead start to flow through the holes. As Raven looks back to the walls he spots Jake still fighting but strangely enough the undead completely ignore him as if he wasn’t even there, Each hammer blow killing an undead as he fights.
A wall of shields at the tunnel entrance is formed and Javelins begin to get tossed and as they run out the spears are brought back out and stabbed into the dead, knocking heads off skeletons and dropping them, a few zombies in the mix make it a bit harder as the spears get stuck in their flesh. As they scramble fighting breaking down the undead a horn can be heard in the distance Raven looks the direction it came from but sees nothing, quickly forgetting about it as the fight continues, the momentary distraction enough for a zombie to push a shield aside and grab a Kobald throwing him from the group and behind enemy lines, within seconds Raven watches the poor bastard gets ripped apart unable to help him.
Raven blasts a few skeletons in the face with a fire bolt as they get to close for comfort but sadly a crawling zombie grabs a Kobald by the leg dragging him down and pulling him from the line and quickly shredded to bloody pieces. Raven starts to feel the loss of this battle creeping in, yet another Kobald ripped from his lines this time thrown several feet into the air by another zombie, the Kobald lands head first on the stone ground and stops moving, the zombie which tossed him that of an Orc.
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Raven hits the zombie with a fire bolt but it seems to do nothing to it, a spear pierces its head and the zombie simply grabs the spear pulling it from its own skull pulling the spear and launching the Kobald holding it into the swarm of undead. As he goes flying into the horde the Kobald stands up and the swarm seems to circle him but they do not attack.
A sinking feeling fills Ravens very soul as he watches the undead watching his lesser Kobald, a human female walks from the horde pail skinned and dressed in expensive looking clothing covering her. She walks up to the Kobald who tries to swing at her, she raises a hand and the Kobald goes limp standing there looking at her. She walks up and seems to kiss his neck, a few seconds go by and she leans back the Kobald drops to his knees pail as he could get. A moment later the Kobald stands turns towards Raven and his forces and charges attacking his line, a feral look in his eyes.
The woman smiles at Raven blows him a kiss and walks back away from the fighting to watch, as if to not get her clothes and hands dirty. Raven scowls and blasts the poor Kobald with a fire bolt dropping it to the ground dead. “Rest in peace brother” Raven mutters under his breath. Jake jumps over the shield wall and stumbles to his knees he shouts loud “they have generals, several of them and they are strong, things are about to get a lot worse!”
Looking over the battle field Raven spots several figures that stand out, one an Orc on a bone horse, a Giant over twenty feet tall, the Vampire female, and a figure shrouded in darkness. Looking at the figure in shadow Raven can hear dark whispers in his mind as he turns away from the figure the whispers stop. So far of the fight has claimed several hundred undead but there are still thousands out there marching his direction.
A Horn can be heard yet again in the distance this time loud and lasting several seconds, Raven again looks north looking for the source of it, looking back to the battle he finds the female vampire standing directly in front of him with a smile on her face she waves her hand and Ravens body starts to tingle and go numb, unable to move his arms drop to his side. The vampire stares into his eyes smiling as she approaches him she reaches out with her hands to draw Raven in when Jake slams his war hammer into her arms breaking them.
The woman jumps back and screams in pain glaring at Jake when Keel steps up and hits her with a fire ball in the face, her cloths catch fire and she runs from the three of them returning to her forces as she steps out from the shadow of the mountain into the sun light her exposed skin erupts into even more fire she screams even more she casts some spell and begins turning into fog as if her body began to melt into water vapor.
As she begins to fade and her burnt clothing drops to the ground the small patch of fog drifts away and leaves to the east, the undead around her seemingly pause for a moment and Ravens people continue to fight managing to kill several undead before they start to move again, the undead Orc on the horse charging the line. The horse charges right into the shields and spears the rider swinging with a long sword severing the head of a Kobald the body dropping to the ground. The rider looks at Raven with a blue flame burning in his eye sockets and grins his tusks bone white and sharpened with steep barbs added to the ends.
“The death god offers you this chance to surrender, allow us to destroy the seal and you may live, refuse and we will march over your corpses and destroy it anyways.” The Orc stares down at Raven. “Well I simply can’t trust you, besides you have already killed several of my people and that cannot go unanswered, not to mention destroying the crystal would essentially spell out my death anyways. Its the only thing protecting my people from the wilds, and the creatures out there are hungry.”
The Orc general nods, rears his horse it kicks one of the lesser Kobalds in the head killing him instantly then jumps back behind enemy lines. Raven curses at the Orc firing a fire bolt at the Orc but misses as he dashes to the side. Ravens eye catches the Giant lifting a boulder from the catapults and tossing it towards his forces Raven turns to shout when Keel lifts his hand casting a spell, The stone in mid flight turns instantly into mud splattering the shields knocking a few to the ground but they quickly find their feet and manage to hold the line.
The giant starts to walk towards the line crushing undead underfoot Raven fires another fire bolt striking the giant in the cheek but other than a small scorch mark it continues on walking, with a giant club in hand it swings straight down pancaking a poor Kobald that didn’t move out of the way fast enough spraying blood everywhere.
Jake fills in the space of the fallen Kobald and begins fighting the Giant with the war hammer, every time the giant swings Jake hits his club away with his war hammer. The physics of it all boggle the mind, Jake is not a man of large build and not only that he is a zombie, he is missing chunks of flesh all over including muscles on his arm it doesn’t make sense to Raven it must be system tom foolery.
The Orc rider charges the lines again killing another Kobald and riding directly at Raven, Raven dodges the strike aimed for his neck swinging his sword up and pinging off the bone of the horse, Raven rolls standing up inside the tunnel he sighs drawing the crossbow “I really hope this doesn’t kill me…” he grumbles and fires.
The bolt flies from the crossbow with a screech and a flash of light, When Ravens vision clears all that is left of the rider is the legs in the horses stirrups the horse rears then turns to dust. “You have killed Orc Zombie General level twenty and gain 300 EXP.”
The battle field seems to have paused as everyone stares at Raven with the crossbow in his hands “holy hell that thing kicks” putting the crossbow back in storage. The figure cloaked in shadow begins approaching the front lines, the hordes of skeletons and zombies leaving a wide birth around this being one skeleton slipped on a rock as it charged falling within ten feet of it and is instantly turned to dust.
Jake fighting the giant continues to parry his attacks but makes no progress Keel appears to be low on mana as is Raven, only ten Kobalds remain and the press of the undead is pushing them into the tunnel they brace for one last stand when they hear another horn this time very close. The ground begins to shake and roars can be heard but nothing can be seen past the press of the undead holding the line Keel fires another fire ball into the horde killing several undead when a loud clash outside can be heard weapons clanging and people screaming.
The push of undead seems to slowly ebb with the occasional fire bolt and fire ball hitting the mass and the occasional lucky spear catching the dead head dropping them. Jake comes flying through the tunnel entrance his chest clearly crushed he slams against the opposite wall and slumps to the floor unconscious. Raven looks to Jake and back to the fighting and is about to call a retreat when he sees two of the elven women walking up from the lower tunnels.
The elven women look to the Kobalds fighting and to the undead, as soon as their eyes catch the undead they start waving their hands and white mana begins leaking from around them and they both shout “repel undead!” the light blinds everyone and hits the undead the skeletons bones turn black and start to crumble the zombies flesh begins to turn to ash and the undead stop their push.
Raven rushes forward thrusting his hand forward the ring flashing with more white light blasting a wave of energy out and destroying several undead. “You have killed seven skeletal warriors level five and four zombie warriors level seven and gain no EXP” Raven quickly falls back and refills his lines. The undead seem to be on pause not pushing forward but fighting enemies in their flanks.
Raven takes this chance and orders his people forward pushing with their shields and spears they begin pushing out the tunnel as they push Raven finally gets a glimpse of his village or what's left of it. Looking around he finds the undead fighting with a horde of Orcs and the Orcs are winning rather steadily the shaded figure seems to be gone and the Giant has an arm missing and both legs are heavily damaged.
The undead are focusing their attention on the Orcs but the giant turns towards Raven grabbing an Orc squeezing him till he stopped thrashing then throwing his broken body at Raven, with a tuck and roll Raven dodges the body and fires a fire bolt into the giants face taking out its right eye but the giant doesn’t even blink. It begins to stomp towards Raven swinging its club but Raven raises the ring yet again and blasts a wave at the giant its knocked back but manages to stay on its feet and begins to walk towards him yet again, Raven raises his hand and tries to blast again but nothing happens.
“Fuck…” is all Raven manages to say before the club swipe hits him in the chest sending him flying pain exploding from his ribs as he slaps against the cliff side. As he slips in and out of consciousness he can see his people fighting Keel hits the giant with a fire ball and the two elven women hit the giant with their holy light spell burning flesh off the thing but it continues to fight.
Raven stumbles to his feet barely able to stand and vomits a large amount of blood on the ground he begins stumbling towards the giant, it stares at him with its one eye and charges at him its club seems to have been lost at some point. Grabbing Raven in its giant hand it lifts him from the ground and squeezes breaking bones as it does so Raven screams in agony squirming trying to free himself he lays his hand on its and uses all his mana on a vamperic drain as it heals him the giant continues to squeeze rebreaking healed bones and rupturing healed organs in a vicious cycle of heal and damage. As Ravens mana hits zero he passes out thinking he will never awaken again.
