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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 574284" data-attributes="member: 1674">Ruins of Sky Keep- part 2In the narrow corridor, all arrows hit the Halforc. Fortunately, three of them got stuck in his armor and only one found a way through the chainshirt. Ignoring the pain for now, he came down upon the Ratmen like a force of nature. While his friends caught up, he kept the ratmen at bay with the chain’s superior range.Once the Slitheren had lost the advantage of their cover, they were no match for the adventurers, and even though Niklas and Torn got wounded, they never lost control over the situation. By the time when Ben had crossed half of the corridor, looking for openings for him to shoot bullets with his sling, Niklas kicked down another Slitheren,  and there was only one ratman left standing. Already, this last slitheren was bleeding badly from the shoulder, where he had been hit by the spiked chain. Darting around with his eyes in desperation, he dropped his sword and ran down the bend of the corridor.Torn wanted to follow suit, but Trepat layed a hand on his right shoulder:“ Don’t. We should wait for Ben to catch up. There have been too many ambushes so far. He could lead us to just another one.“„Sure,“ the halforc answered „but I don’t want to take the chance of him telling his boss either. Those ratmen here aren’t exactly a real danger. About as trained as fresh recruits in an army... But I am certain that spellcaster and the big guy are much more of a danger.“.As Ben had almost reached them, Trepat nodded:“ Sure. But it is not as if we would lose this Ratman, here either“. And as Torn followed the outstretched finger of his Elven friend, he saw a fresh trail of blood that the fleeing Ratman had left behind, and nodding in acknowledgement, he smiled. Following him would be easy, indeed.They turned around the corner, and saw that the tunnel split into two. Here, the walls were covered in a slick, translucent slime. As they followed the trail, they were soon happy to have this lead, since the corridors were coming together in various twists and turns, forming a labyrinth.Then, as they turned yet another corner, they stood in front of the lifeless remnants of the ratman who they had chased. He was laying facedown in a pool of blood, his killers still crouching over him, intent to feast on their victim.The killers were small goblinoids with four arms and several facetous eyes, and all of the friends recognized them as Spider-Eyed Goblins right away. Yet, something was wrong with them- their flesh was rotting away, they all had wounds which no humanoid should survive, and they were stinking of death and decay. These goblins had ceased living long ago, and had now returned to a state of unlife.Sensing new flesh, the zombies got up, but before they could even lay a claw on any of the friends, they were all ready chopped and hacked down. Yet, now, something was changing in the corridors. When they had entered, all had been silent here, but now the heroes could hear hectic shuffling of feet, groaning and the sound of bodies bumping into each other in a mindless, frantic run for fresh flesh coming from all directions.Niklas, Ben and Torn took position at each of the entrances to the intersection where they were standing, and as Trepat cast a spell of mage armor on the monk, they got braced themselves for the upcoming battle, trying to shield the sorceror. And then they came, each of the zombies throwing themselves forward without any plan, only motivated by their mindless greed for flesh. For everyone who got his head split before he arrived, another zombie made it through, clawing and biting at their opponents. As wave after wave of the undead hit them, the heroes were soon bleeding from too many wounds to count, and their arms got heavy from swinging their weapons.It seemed like there was no end to the number of spidereyed goblin zombies the corridors around them could spawn, and as the battle raged on, each of the friends fought his own battle against a rising feeling of panic and despair.The smashed, cut, pierced or burnt remnants of the zombies piled up around them, and still more came. With more and more of the mindless creatures coming, and some of them squeezing through to Trepat who collapsed from the many wounds and the loss of blood, they had to change tactics. For a while, Niklas and Torn fought on alone, as Ben first took care of Trepat, and then made sure that the others would be able to keep on fighting by magically healing them.They hardly noticed how the flood of zombies coming towards them became weaker and weaker until no new arrived anymore. They were so focused on the automatic movements of striking and dodging that they were surprised by the sudden end of the battle that was marked by Torn splitting the head of a zombie. The corridors were silent again.For a while none of them spoke a word. They were panting heavily in the middle of the piles of reeking corpses until Torn was the first to come to life. He grunted with disgust as he kicked at the pile in front of them, and when he had made a path without having to resort to touching the dead, he said:“ The ratman headed this way. I guess we will find his boss there.“.Stepping over the rotting flesh, trying not to touch anything, they headed down the corridor. After the first turn, when the stench had gotten less, Ben took care of their wounds before they moved on. They all had the feeling that they weren’t through the worst just yet...</blockquote>

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