* With the skeletal wolves behind them, the Order was able to continue uphill until they reached a sort of crossroads. The hill appeared to have two peaks, and between the falling of night and the lack of any signs of habitation, the troops agreed to split into two groups. * Klizurk and Dral1 comprise one of those groups, and when Klizurk's vision--unimpeded by darkness--discerns what appears to be the silhouette of a ruined chimney in the moonlit gloom, it becomes apparent that theirs will be the more successful team in this search. That's definitely a habitation of some kind up there. Undoubtedly there's some sort of surprise waiting for us. Great! Let's go find out what! Which way? * Klizurk points in the direction of it and heads off! * Dral1 follows along carefully behind Klizurk * The pair are able to pick their way halfway across an overgrown clearing when Klizurk's foot comes down on a log. The log is buried and rotted clear through, so the kith's leg plunges into the ground up to her knee with a soft 'crunch.' * Dral1's foot obliterates the other end of the same log, though he's not inconvenienced nearly as much as the other trooper. * Klizurk hisses at the collapsing log and tries to pull her leg back up. * Dral1 looks down at the log, shrugs, and steps forward anyway. * The log is quietly obliterated, and the trooper's feet are freed. However, the rotted wooden fragments seem to glow in the darkness. Then again, maybe it's just the way they're reflecting moonlight in the cold fog. * Klizurk takes a closer inspection at these glowing wooden fragments. * Dral1 is completely oblivious and keeps heading carefully forward. * Even Klizurk's eyes aren't able to spot anything out of the ordinary among the wooden fragments. Aside, of course, from the glowing. * Meanwhile, Dral1's foot strikes something else. This time, though, that something feels much harder than a rotted log. * Dral1 blinks and looks down. * Klizurk shrugs and keeps trekking along. * Dral1 seems to have stepped on a masonry stone of some kind, though it's hard to tell much more than that in the darkness. Hey Klizurk, how big is this stone? * Dral1 feels around for the edges of the stone * Klizurk walks forward and tries to get a good estimate, knocking on it a few times. * The stone is larger than a human's head, and from the feel of it, it's only stone. Think there's anything under it? * Dral1 shrugs and answers his own question by trying to pry up the stone. * Klizurk gets off of the stone as he does that. "I really doubt it. It's more like something from a stone building." You know, some sort of wall that collapsed and left a stone here. Maybe. Or maybe it's a secret storage space with evil artifacts underneath. * The stone comes up easily enough in Dral1's hands, and the dirt and moss clinging to the underside of it seems to validate Klizurk's analysis. Or maybe it's just dirt and moss. Hey, I could have been right. * Dral1 puts the stone down. This is true. Unlikely, but true. * Dral1 keeps walking in that direction. * Klizurk continues in the direction of the house! * Klizurk pulls on Dral1's, uh... shoulder and motions for him to stop. * Dral1 stops. * Klizurk points at some very large massive object, possibly visible by Dral1, maybe not, that's moving towards them into the clearing. It looks like it's actually going for that rotted log, but... * Dral1 blinks. What's that? * As the shape--whatever it is--gets closer to the log, it does indeed become visible to Dral1. It appears to be a bear, but its fur hangs off it as if it were made for an even larger creature. I don't know, but getting in its way is probably a dangerous idea. That looks tough. Let's kill it. Er, un-kill it. Um. Re-kill it? Destroy. Don't try and think about killing undead too hard. Yeah. Let's do it! * Klizurk takes out her maul and gets ready to beat down some undead yo. * The bear paws at the remnants of the log, but when Dral1 shouts about killing it, it lifts his head and snarls silently in their direction. * Klizurk charges forward with her maul readied as she smashes it to the side of the very large creature, roaring at it in the process. * The bear rears up on its hind legs slowly, like an old man. Klizurk's heavy strike would have crushed the bones of a normal creature, but the bear merely lets out a putrid cough as the air is smashed out of its torso. * Dral1 leaps into combat after Klizurk, wrapping his chain around one of the bear's hind paws and yanking mightily. The bear, being a gigantic freaking undead bear, goes NOWHERE. That, uh... that didn't work so well. No, no it didn't. Right! Change of plans! Adaptability is important! * Klizurk roars again as she takes her maul and smashes it again into the creature's legs. * Dral1 dances to the side to flank the great beast, and gets his arm torn open for his trouble. "Okay, note to self: Tickling a bear may be more difficult than I thought." * The bear snarls silently at Dral1's attempted flanking. At this distance, it becomes apparent that the right side of the animal's face is completely furless and covered in a complex pattern of scars. Okay, yes, definitely undead. ish. * The creature swipes at Klizurk's head, but only the air pushed around by its paw actually touches the kith's scales. * Klizurk ducks subtly and uppercuts the creature's head with a jarring smash from her hammer as it glows, healing some of Dral1's wounds with the strike. * Dral1 momentarily blinds everybody as his chain blazes with fire, and then he brings all four heads of the chain down into the bear's flanks, shredding it with fire. * The bear does react this time, staggering a bit as its fur splits and smolders under Dral1's attacks. Come on, right here! * In response, the monstrous bear swats Dral1 with one of its mighty paws. The ragged forelimb connects with a thumping sound that could probably be heard as far over as the hill's other peak. * Dral1 drops like a felled tree. Which, actually, come to think of it, he is. * Klizurk growls as Dral1 hits the ground. "Come on, you want some? Come and get me!" She starts running back to the trees, trying to use them as cover as best she can to trip up the creature's movement. * The bear lashes out at Klizurk, smashing her across the shoulders when she runs. The beast drops to all fours to pursue her, but its lumbering pace is not quite enough to keep up. By the time Klizurk has left the clearing, the bear is a few long strides behind. * Klizurk keeps moving away from the clearing and taunting the bear, trying to get it to follow her through the difficult terrain and to, hopefully, some help. * LaughingBear, having found nothing on the other peak, is heading back when he hears Klizurk, and he breaks into a run to meet her. * Dral2 follows LaughingBear. * The bear lumbers after Klizurk, falling a bit farther behind as the kith outpaces and outmaneuvers it. * Klizurk is visibly damaged from the blood tainting her left shoulder through the scales and armor. "Go get the Dral, he's in the clearing. Took one hit too bad from that bear. Watch out, it hits *really* hard." * The four of them meet up--for lack of a better term--somewhere among the trees. The bear is about 40 feet from the others, and still lumbering single mindedly at the kith. Go get him! I'll keep the bear busy! Will you be all right? Yeah, this bear is stupid and slow. Just hurry! I just need to keep its attention. We'll do our best. Take care of yourself! * Klizurk nods as she yells again. "Come after me you overgrown ursine bastard!" * Klizurk keeps running through the trees, making sure to keep it so the bear can't reach her. * LaughingBear continues to run as fast as he can toward Dral1's location. Come on! Your mother was a lummox, and your father smells worse than an Otyugh! * Dral2 strides through the forest, ignoring the bear as he lumbers toward his fallen comrade. Luckily, the bear's attention is fixed on Klizurk. * The bear's attention remains focused on Klizurk, and it turns and lumbers after the kith without sparing even a glance at the other troopers. * Dral2 is filled with healing magics, which he channels into his barky brother-in-arms. "Do not let this one be lost," he whispers. * LaughingBear reaches the edge of the clearing as Dral2 reaches Dral1's body. * The dral's healing magics flow into his comrade, but the warrior does not appear to respond. It does, however, appear to stop oozing blood onto the already darkly-soaked clearing floor. * LaughingBear, huffing a bit from the sprint, finally reaches the two dral. * Dral1 lies still, its expression a curious mixture of excitement and pain. Meanwhile, the sounds of Klizurk leading the bear around the hilltop begin to grow louder once again. * Dral2 turns to Laughing Bear. "My friend, take care of our comrade here. I will try to assist Klizurk in battle." * LaughingBear nods. "I will. Don't get yourself or Klizurk killed, all right?" * LaughingBear kneels by the fallen dral, closes his eyes, and channels healing spiritual energy into his still form. * Klizurk starts approaching the clearing, but still stays near the trees, strategically using them to slow the bear down and get a good range FROM the bear. * Dral2 moves away from the dazed Dral and begins preparing his druidic magics. * At this point, several things happen at once: The bear comes bursting through the underbrush in pursuit of Klizurk, and the druidic dral finishes his natural magics. Low branches, tall weeds, and brambles and ivy of varying lengths reaches out, grasping at the lumbering thing's legs. And Laughing Bear cries out "Dral! Klizurk! Something's wrong here; I can't heal the dral!" * Klizurk curses loudly in draconic. "Can you figure out what's wrong?" * LaughingBear stands up. "He's dead!" * Klizurk puts her maul away, taking out a bow and firing it at the creature from outside of the entangled area while periodically moving to keep the creature close to the center of the area. Well FUCK. * The kith's first shot buries itself in the bear's hide, but the creature's response is unchanged. It snarls silently and struggles a step at a time toward Klizurk through the grasping foliage. * Dral2 begins searching around for things of interest while Klizurk keeps the bear occupied. * LaughingBear turns away from the expired Dral1 out of necessity and begins to search for the research materials the Runesmith requested. * The ruins of the hut are difficult to search with only the moonlight to guide them, but fortunately the hut was fairly small when it was intact, and there is even less to search through among the ruins. * While searching, Dral2 kicks aside a stone that makes a strange 'clank' sound audible even above the sound of Klizurk's skirmishing. Laughing Bear, I may have something here. * Dral2 examines the stone more carefully. * Dral2 quickly realizes that it isn't the stone that 'clanked', but what the stone rolled onto: a rusted metal footlocker, partially buried in the hut's rubble. What did you find? A storage container of some kind. * Dral2 examines the footlocker with caution. * LaughingBear stoops down to examine the footlocker with Dral2. * The container is heavily rusted, as well as severely dented and half-buried. It's impossible to tell anything else without digging it up and examining it in a well-lit environment. Well, let's dig it up. * Dral2 is brought to his senses by the sounds of battle. "We must make haste, my friend." He begins digging out the container, pulling on it every so often to try to lift it up. * LaughingBear aids the dral in the digging. * The container comes free in the hands of the dral and vriak. * LaughingBear scans the outside of the box quickly for any runes before trying to open it. Perhaps we should simply take it with us. * The box has no visible hinges or locks. Instead it appears to have a series of rusted or melted metal lumps where such things might once have been. Opening it will be a challenge. Sure, let's do that. We should get out of here. Someone needs to get dral's body, too... * LaughingBear picks up the box and heads out. * Dral2 rushes over to the fallen dral's body. "We're getting out of here, Klizurk!" Good! I can't make a dent in this thing with my bow. * Klizurk puts her bow away. "You have the body?" * Dral2 lifts up the Dral and begins the slow, painful task of carrying him back the way they came. Yes, and a box that should have what we came for. * Klizurk helps carry the body. "Good. We wouldn't want this trip to be for naught." * The bear struggles against its vegetable bonds as the troopers gather their fallen comrade and the container and leave the hilltop. * LaughingBear nods and is suddenly gloomily silent. We should stop in town for the night. We're in no condition to keep going. Good idea. Or rather, I'm not. And we need to consider what we've lost.