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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Milo Windby" data-source="post: 1708" data-attributes="member: 202">Keep of the Borderlands -part twenty-six (session 6)Back at the "Y" intersection Milo and his friends turned left, up towards the other passage.  There was still no sign of alarm throughout the cavern.  No sentries roamed the hall.  Milo guessed that the undead didn't care.  He did wonder about the mastermind of the caves though.His musings were cut short when they reached another cavern.  The passage terminated in a long room.  As soon as they entered, the inhabitants came alive.  Four zombies on either side of the cave shuffled forward as soon as Jeremiah's foot crossed the threshold.  Milo groaned again.  Milo hated undead, really.  He uttered another quick prayer and waited for the zombies to close in.  Jeremiah was not as patient.  His sword gleamed in the lamplight as he slashed into the nearest oozing undead.  He gouged a great deep cut through its flesh but it kept shambling on, intent on damaging the intruders.  The zombie clawed at Jeremiah, its fingers scrabbling against his armor.  He kicked the zombie away as another heaved its bulk at him.  He dodged the zombie and glanced over to his friends.Mazi moved forward, next to Jeremiah, and slashed at a zombie as it grew near.  Her sword inflicted a lighter wound than Jeremiah's.  It would have given any live opponent reason to pause, but the zombie shambled forward, a low moan emanating from its putrid mouth.  It swiped its heavy arms at Mazi, trying to slam and disorient her.  She spun lithely out of the way.  Another zombie lurched at her but was likewise gracefully avoided.Milo chose that moment to raise his hand and call on the power of his deity.  Nothing happened.  No light shone forth, the zombies didn't even pause in their advance.  Milo shook his hand and looked at it in puzzlement.  He didn't have much time to wonder as two zombies converged on his position.  They took clumsy swipes at the nimble halfling.  He jumped out of the way and readied his short sword.  I guess we'll do this the hard way, he thought.  Two more zombies shuffled forward and Brigit met them.  She hacked at the lead zombie with her war axe.  The head bit deep into the foul creature's flesh, buried into its chest for a moment.  The zombie groped for her while she struggled to free her weapon.  She kicked it away in time to deflect the other zombie's attack.  Milo had a sudden revelation.  He had read in his studies at the keep about another way to combat undead.  Their negative undead energies were the exact opposite of the healing energies he used to cure wounds.  He chanted his most powerful healing spell and reached out to touch one of the zombies.  Just as he was about to place his hand on the creature he was forced to dodge the other.  The healing spell discharged into the air.  Milo cursed his luck.  It was the sword or nothing then.Farther in the room Jeremiah was a sight to behold.  His great sword sped into the wounded zombie, chopping off its half-rotted head.  His sword continued into the torso of the next.  The unholy construct was weakened, but continued on.  Jeremiah narrowly avoided the zombie as it tried to slam into him.  Mazithra pirouetted around a clumsy attack and sunk her long sword into the zombie's flank.  Already limping, the zombie persisted in its offense with a definite angle to its awkward gait.  The other zombie swiped at the agile elf.  She continued in her spin, neatly avoiding the zombie altogether.Both zombies beset Brigit simultaneously.  They threw themselves on her, attempting to bypass her rock solid defense.  She kicked one away with her steel-booted foot.  The zombie stumbled and fell.  It moaned horrifically as it struggled to regain its footing.  Brigit shrugged the other off her shield.  It slid down and backwards before starting to surge forward again.There were still two zombies pressing in on Milo.  He slashed at one, wounding the enemy for the first time in the battle.  It moaned and struck at him.  He switched focus to the other zombie only to see it turn to fight Jeremiah.  Jeremiah slashed at the zombie he had wounded, again scoring a dire hit on the putrescent construct.  The zombie hammered at him again, only to be deflected by his adept swordplay.  Jeremiah wielded his great sword in an impressive display, dealing damage as well as preventing it.Mazi's sword was equally occupied.  She parried a blow from one zombie before turning the blade to strike the already wounded foe before her.  The creature groaned and buffeted her with repeated blows, each expertly fended off.  The zombies were slowly wearing down the adventurer's defenses.Brigit only had one zombie to deal with at the time.  The other was still striving to attain an upright position from where she had kicked it down.  She blocked the pounding fists of the zombie with her magical shield as she readied her own strike.  She brought her axe down in a mighty arc but narrowly missed the oozing beast before her.  The zombie had just lurched backwards in an attempt to get a bigger swing of it's arms as it assaulted the dwarf.Jeremiah and Milo fought side by side.  Three zombies assailed their stand.  In a splendid display of teamwork Milo reached in and sliced at one of the moldering creatures as Jeremiah swung his own sword.  Both blades met the foe at once and the zombie fell to the floor in a rank heap.  Jeremiah continued his attack and brought down the other zombie that had attacked him.  His sword dripped black and green muck from the wounds he had inflicted.  One of the two zombies fighting Mazithra turned at the happening and struck at Milo.  He found his position very perilous all of a sudden.  He ducked under the blow and fended off another from his original assailant.  For her part Mazi slashed down at the one zombie that continued to attack her.  Her sword sliced into the unwounded construct.  It oozed green slime from the fresh wound across its chest.  The injury did not prevent it from pounding at Mazi.  She stepped away from the zombie's swinging arms just before its meaty fists pummeled her.Brigit swung hard at the wounded zombie, finally driving her axe home.  The creature all but exploded in a shower of decomposed flesh.  The other zombie bashed at Brigit as she pulled back her axe.  Its large fists bruised her through her armor.  She roared at the pain and brought her axe back around, slicing deep into the zombie's hide.  The construct faltered but did not fall.Milo and Jeremiah continued to work together.  Milo slashed in at the zombie, wounding and distracting it, while Jeremiah brought his sword into play.  The huge blade sliced deep into the zombie and it fell, twice dead and never to rise again.Mazi moved slightly to work with Brigit.  Her long sword sliced deep into the zombie's flesh, causing green and grey ichor to leak from the grotesque humanoid.  Brigit weighed in with her axe then, chopping through the creature like so much soggy firewood.  The zombie could not withstand their combined assault and fell as the rest.  Two remaining zombies faced the females.  They had different ways of avoiding the damage, but both brought about the same results.  Brigit stood stoically in the path of the oncoming zombie, warding against its blows with her magic shield.  Mazithra was a picture of grace and elegance in the ugly background of the grisly battle.  She spun and danced around the zombie's clumsy blows as though in tune with an inner music.Milo moved in to assist his friends, stepping behind one of the zombies.  He slashed ineffectively at the zombie, his sword slashing at the tatters that were the remains of its clothes during its living days.  Jeremiah moved in likewise.  His great sword was much more effective against the zombies than Milo's shorter weapon.  The blade sliced down upon the shoulder of one of the wounded zombies.  It sunk as far as its breastbone before the creature slid to the earth, unmoving.  Mazithra, still twirling to the beat in her mind dealt a similar blow to the last standing zombie.  Her sword did not sink quite as deep but the final effect was the same and they all watched the last zombie slump to the ground, truly dead.The four friends were all breathing heavily when the battle was over.  The zombies proved to be formidable opponents.  Jeremiah actually looked disappointed that he wasn't able to use his technique to mow through the enemies like he had in the past.  Milo stooped over one of the stinking corpses to do a quick search.  As he had suspected there was nothing on the bodies worth noting.  Not many pockets in the tatters they wore.  It seemed the room was merely a guardhouse of sorts.  The zombies had stood lining the walls until they were needed, not requiring food, sleep, or other upkeep.The room was empty save the bodies of the undead.  Milo and Brigit searched the walls for any secret catches or doors but came back to the others with no news.  After a brief assessment of their condition it was decided that they would continue on.  Though the zombies were hard to kill, none had dealt much damage to the crew.  Milo conserved his remaining spells in case they were needed for more vital matters.They followed the hall all the way back to the door they had entered through.  Around the corner past the smoking room where the mages books and belongings still burnt they trooped.  The hall opened into a wide intersection.  The rough walls continued in its blood vein pattern, the veins of ore seemed to become more numerous as they continued.  The pulsing through the ore was very disconcerting.  They looked either way down the new hall.  The vaulted ceilings spanned down to the left and opened into a large room.  Milo mentioned that the room was probably full of skeletons like the other.  They could see two doors down the other way, both on the right side, before the hall curved to the right.  Never one to pass up a closed door, Milo voted for the right-hand hall.  The group agreed and they set off for the nearer of the two closed doors.  An open invitation if Milo had ever seen one.</blockquote>

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