* And so it was that the party managed to make their way back to Brumswinkle, stealing with them the safe Aaron household.
Upon returning to Brumswinkle, however, it appeared they'd lost something in exchange. Gilga had been through and passed on to somewhere else during their absence, and now the mad squid was torn down, Kane and Barry nowhere to be found.
The town also appeared very intent on securing itself further as Gilga had allegedly been spreading word that a dragon was indeed descending upon it to annihilate them, and that Aryall and co. had betrayed them to him. Proving these allegations incorrect, they steadfastly worked towards helping to calm the town down, as they went about trading and sorting out the riches and spoils they had amassed from their exposure to the dragons den.
It was during this time that Brog returned to attempting to reconstruct his 'Brogs Boys' company, a small idea he had considered awhile ago before the teams trek south had ever begun. His previous venture had cost the lives of a few disturbed friends of the local 'bone' trader, Charlie... one Ree, Rennis and Frank. All burned alive during an 'incident' that took place in the original BB barracks.
While this was being reconstructed in a new area closer to the front gate of town, with the help of Smith, the reformed local drunk and ex-paladin in tow, and Stickyfingers, the aptly named fighter with the cursed swordhand whom once posed as a pursuer of Gilga, some new figures emerged in town. A ranger, from the north west foothills, named Hakache, an alchemist from North Port, named Sebastian, and an orc cleric bearing the corpse of his over, from the northern Dire Peaks.
These characters all appeared in Brumswinkle for unique reasons and slowly started to form a friendship together in the local tavern, The Golden Field. A sorcerer-apprentice from the wizards academy, Kirix, had also been familiarising himself with the grounds outside of the academy during this time, and started to befriend the newcomers, as did Aryall the pure.
The new friends quickly came upon and met the charismatic Brog and were inducted in to his 'organisation' as the new initiates for brogs boys. He advised them they'd be undertaking an initiation within the next few days which he had planned out to test their mettle. This would not eventuate, however, as news soon swept through town that the livestock from the northern farms in town were starting to see disease and plague, which was affecting food and the livelyhood of those nearby.
Aryall banded together the new adventurers, and after some investigating they discovered the source of the plague - a local farmhouse just outside of the towns walls. After purging this, along to the sweet melodies strummed by a bard fan-girl of Aryalls who happened to be in the area, they noticed a zombie crow quickly exiting the scene, north. This was shot down by Hakache, and the group agreed to scout further north.
A half days walk went on over the northern plains along Plibbs path, and the group stopped, towards the evening, noticing that indeed, the entire horizon line was moving. Steadying their eyes and watching closely, the group realised this was an army of the undead... it's destination uncertain to them. To determine the armies exact size and nature, the bard who had followed them summoned some light-globes and sent them outwards towards the disturbing sight, lighting it up! This of course caught the immediate attention of the force and its leader, turning the thousand eyes on the group and their town behind them... .. A quick note to the sudden change in their direction, their speed, and how far away they were, suggested to the ranger of the group that they had approximately 4 days until the arrival of this daunting army.
Racing back, the group commited the next 4 days to alerting town and making preparations. By the night before the assault, they had prepared a mote, thousands of vials of holy water, trained over 500 townsfolk in the basic arts of combat, and readied the wizards and clergy.
- an interesting thing also happened on the night before the assault..
Aryall, amassing a large amount of oil from town and some potions, summoned a steed and headed north, to meet the man whom she assumed was leading the force. And indeed, it was Gilga, bearing his golden crown. Something was different about him, however... he was dead. Dead and walking... And now holding his glave with one hand, the other holding what appeared to be some kind of page or scripture.. his dead eyes, now black holes with tiny red embers within them.
Arriving not 100 meters from the horde, Aryall left her steed and readied herself for the ordeal facing her. Pouring oil over the grass infront of her and lighting it, before stepping back and loosing a potion of frost to construct a small wall infront of her before imbibing a potion of giant growth to become huge, she prepared for undead barbarians arrival, as he had temporarily halted his armies march and started to charge at the woman.
A ray of harsh light was shot out of the paladins sword at Gilgas face, temporarily slowing his ascent, before bowing down to pray, and finally lobbing an explosion potion at the fiend as he continued his deadly sprint. The barbarian was far too agile for the explosive attack and leapt past it, gracefully falling over the paladin with his glave and slicing it straight into her shoulder and down through her armor and over her chest as he landed at her feet, missing with his second attack and connecting with his third, gashing another massive, icey wound out of her.
Realising she had but seconds left, Aryall the pure dropped her sword and shield, raised her hands and started to unbuckle her armor and garb. The act appeared to cause a reaction in the fierce warrior, piercing into some hidden strand of consciousness left behind from his previous self, buried deep in his mind. She continued on, bleeding out copiously and slowly advancing on the warrior, his terrifying screams of rage echoing over the foothills, reaching into every crevice and nook beyond Brumswinkle and the forrest of Aggad'savol. Almost upon the barbarian, Aryall stated calmly to him, 'I like your crown, Gilga.. but what good is a king.. without a queen', and reaching into her bag of holding, she pulled out her hat of hatreds, placing it on her head. <--- (little sidenote here that she had actually forgotten, the hat of hatreds is a cursed hat. it appears to one as a hat which shall change the wearers look to that of something of their choosing. It, however, will only ever make the wearer look like whatever it is the viewer despises and detests most in the universe.)
Upon seeing this vision appear before him, the barbarian flew into a rage she had never seen and sliced the paladin in half. This scene, as it played out, was being watched by the alchemist, Sebastian, and the head of arcane wizardry in the academy, Markis, as sebastian had come to warn him of aryalls sudden, and worrying departure. What they saw horrified them, but what scared them more was what occurred after her slaughter... For Gilga then, in a sort of undead manner, staggered over to the corpse of the girl, lifted up the page in his left hand, and began to read it. A dark, swirling energy swathed out from the dead skin of the grizzly man and entered her fallen flesh, reinvigorating it and stitching it together. After a few minutes, Aryall arose, bent over to pick up her sword, and slowly started marching forward alongside him, as the army caught up with the two and slowly enveloped them.
~~~
Tune in soon for the incursion.
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