Fredrik Svanberg
First Post
In the tenth century after the foundation of the church, a crusade was declared. All nations protected by the church were instructed to send soldiers to aid in the holy war. Within a year the greatest force of fighting men and women ever recorded in history had gathered in the distant land where the great portal to the Shadowfell was located. Leaving their own lands drained of experienced warriors, the kings and nobles of all nations marched through the portal and into the land of the dead, for the greater glory of the church, to crush the infidels.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, a group of would-be crusaders find themselves delayed and trapped in a snow-filled mountain valley. They are Kurelie, a high-elf swordmaiden; Elight, a wizard; and Ingrid, a reformed criminal. Baron Gunder - the lord of the valley - has taken his knights and most of his soldiers with him on the crusade, leaving his domain in the hands of his seneschal and a small crew of inexperienced guards.
On this dark and stormy night only the thirstiest villagers have braved the snow and the cold to visit the inn of Dalsvad - "The Bridgehouse" - to get their beer and gossip. The gossip is all about the crusaders congregated near the fire. The mysterious high-elf. The somehow even more mysterious wizard. And the seemingly ordinary ranger. Despite their differences, a few days of drinking and talking in the warm comfort of the inn while the snow kept piling up outside has brought these former strangers together and bound them in an intricate web of fate.
Like so many stories, it begins with a scream. A female scream from outside. "Sounds like Rut in the smithy. What's that all about?" one of the villagers asks as he gets up, opening the door and letting in snow carried on the cold wind. Before anyone else has had time to react, the poor man is grabbed and pulled outside. A shambling thing takes his place in the doorway and walks inside, followed by three more.
They look like dead men, walking on frozen stumps. The ice seems to be all that is keeping their rotting bodies together. At the sight of the undead the remaining inn patrons as well as the staff all try to escape or hide, screaming or cursing. Only the crusaders are brave enough to fight back.
And so they fight.
Elight tries to recall what he knows about the undead, but unfortunately his knowledge of zombies does not provide any particular weakness that might prove useful in this situation. He decides to cast a spell to trap the creatures in the hallway, but the stress of the prospect of having his brain eaten is too great and the grasping shadows fail to manifest themselves.
Kurelie, the swordsmaiden - initially uncertain of how to treat this kind of situation - flies into action. Running up to the door she takes off from a table and springs into the air, cleaving two of the zombies on the way down as she lands in a well-practiced pose. Two more zombies stumble forward, one of them hitting the high-elf with a frozen fist, sending her into a fit of loud protests. Ingrid decides to help the elf at the door, presenting her axe to a zombie's rotting face and putting it to a final rest.
Shuttered windows are smashed by undead arms and more of the creatures crawl inside the inn from three different directions. These zombies look stronger, having recently fed on the living. Two of them catch a hapless villager cowering in a corner and try to grab him, unsuccesfully. The third staggers up to Ingrid but is unable to find a way past her whirling axes.
Kurelie bravely runs away from the door to rescue the villager, stabbing both her short swords into the chest of one of the zombies which distracts it enough to let the poor frightened man scurry away and hide under a table. Elight abandons the advanced spells in favour of the standard magic missile, sending a tight formation of force bolts through the skull of one zombie, killing it instantly and showering Kurelie with frozen brains - again the high-elf complains rather loudly. "So that's their weakness", Elight muses, making a mental note to record this in one of his books later.
A door in the back of the inn opens and another patron enters from a corridor, chased by a zombie. Ingrid dispatches one of the zombies by the door with a quick off-hand strike and gives the other a murderous glance, trying to figure out how to kill it faster. She gives it a quick but effective chop with her other axe and dodges its counterattack easily, running past the villager to protect him.
Both zombies gang up on Ingrid but fail to make any lasting impressions. Kurelie and Elight finish off a third zombie but not before it has slammed the high-elf into a wall, knocking the wind out of her. She takes a moment to catch her breath. The remaining zombies don't provide much of a fight and pretty soon the inn is silent, except for the wind blowing through broken windows. Ingrid looks outside quickly and sees a zombie feeding on the man who was pulled out earlier, so she quickly closes the door to keep it out.
The inn-keeper ushers everyone into the cellar where they plan to hide until it's safe to come out. She asks the heroes to find her husband, Markus, who is also the town sheriff and captain of the guards. He should be in the customs office on the other side of the bridge.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, a group of would-be crusaders find themselves delayed and trapped in a snow-filled mountain valley. They are Kurelie, a high-elf swordmaiden; Elight, a wizard; and Ingrid, a reformed criminal. Baron Gunder - the lord of the valley - has taken his knights and most of his soldiers with him on the crusade, leaving his domain in the hands of his seneschal and a small crew of inexperienced guards.
On this dark and stormy night only the thirstiest villagers have braved the snow and the cold to visit the inn of Dalsvad - "The Bridgehouse" - to get their beer and gossip. The gossip is all about the crusaders congregated near the fire. The mysterious high-elf. The somehow even more mysterious wizard. And the seemingly ordinary ranger. Despite their differences, a few days of drinking and talking in the warm comfort of the inn while the snow kept piling up outside has brought these former strangers together and bound them in an intricate web of fate.
Like so many stories, it begins with a scream. A female scream from outside. "Sounds like Rut in the smithy. What's that all about?" one of the villagers asks as he gets up, opening the door and letting in snow carried on the cold wind. Before anyone else has had time to react, the poor man is grabbed and pulled outside. A shambling thing takes his place in the doorway and walks inside, followed by three more.
They look like dead men, walking on frozen stumps. The ice seems to be all that is keeping their rotting bodies together. At the sight of the undead the remaining inn patrons as well as the staff all try to escape or hide, screaming or cursing. Only the crusaders are brave enough to fight back.
And so they fight.
Elight tries to recall what he knows about the undead, but unfortunately his knowledge of zombies does not provide any particular weakness that might prove useful in this situation. He decides to cast a spell to trap the creatures in the hallway, but the stress of the prospect of having his brain eaten is too great and the grasping shadows fail to manifest themselves.
Kurelie, the swordsmaiden - initially uncertain of how to treat this kind of situation - flies into action. Running up to the door she takes off from a table and springs into the air, cleaving two of the zombies on the way down as she lands in a well-practiced pose. Two more zombies stumble forward, one of them hitting the high-elf with a frozen fist, sending her into a fit of loud protests. Ingrid decides to help the elf at the door, presenting her axe to a zombie's rotting face and putting it to a final rest.
Shuttered windows are smashed by undead arms and more of the creatures crawl inside the inn from three different directions. These zombies look stronger, having recently fed on the living. Two of them catch a hapless villager cowering in a corner and try to grab him, unsuccesfully. The third staggers up to Ingrid but is unable to find a way past her whirling axes.
Kurelie bravely runs away from the door to rescue the villager, stabbing both her short swords into the chest of one of the zombies which distracts it enough to let the poor frightened man scurry away and hide under a table. Elight abandons the advanced spells in favour of the standard magic missile, sending a tight formation of force bolts through the skull of one zombie, killing it instantly and showering Kurelie with frozen brains - again the high-elf complains rather loudly. "So that's their weakness", Elight muses, making a mental note to record this in one of his books later.
A door in the back of the inn opens and another patron enters from a corridor, chased by a zombie. Ingrid dispatches one of the zombies by the door with a quick off-hand strike and gives the other a murderous glance, trying to figure out how to kill it faster. She gives it a quick but effective chop with her other axe and dodges its counterattack easily, running past the villager to protect him.
Both zombies gang up on Ingrid but fail to make any lasting impressions. Kurelie and Elight finish off a third zombie but not before it has slammed the high-elf into a wall, knocking the wind out of her. She takes a moment to catch her breath. The remaining zombies don't provide much of a fight and pretty soon the inn is silent, except for the wind blowing through broken windows. Ingrid looks outside quickly and sees a zombie feeding on the man who was pulled out earlier, so she quickly closes the door to keep it out.
The inn-keeper ushers everyone into the cellar where they plan to hide until it's safe to come out. She asks the heroes to find her husband, Markus, who is also the town sheriff and captain of the guards. He should be in the customs office on the other side of the bridge.