Saving Hubert

Perhaps only an hour away from the village, the boys notice someone walking toward them on the road ahead. Only Vincent and Vae noticed that something was wrong. Horribly wrong. This person was no longer a person, what was clattering towards them had long since died, yet still walked!

Their first inclination was to flee, but Vincent cried out “HOLD YOUR GROUND! We can’t let this thing attack innocent people.”

They very bravely confronted the thing, Bar and Vae quickly learning that arrows were of little use against a thing made of bones. Still, they managed to vanquish it, but not before Vincent was wounded.

It looked as though he called up to the heavens, and a pale green light surrouned his uplifted hand, and when he placed it on his chest, the light suffused his being, and his wounds were healed!

Meanwhile, Lan quickly moved to calm the horses, as they were about to flee at the sight of the undead, this took him out of the fight, but probably saved Vae’s life. On foot, they likely never would reach Wavemeet, let alone the coven in time.

Out of respect for the body, Lan thought they should try some sort of burial, but with little time to spare, he instead built a cairn with some rocks that were about.

They moved along the road, more warily now.  Up ahead, they spotted Hubert’s cart, broken down on the side of the road, with two figures in front of it.

Lan, with his keen eyes, realised that once again, these were no longer to be considered people. They were rotting flesh and puss, and he could see that they were feasting on the unlucky horses.

Hubert was nowhere to be seen.

They decided that once again, they would have to eliminate these things, despite the danger to themselves.

This time, they had the good sense to tie up the horses, a little farther away, before creeping towards them.

Lan decided to pull out his sword, and started marching towards them. Behind him, Vincent cast a spell, and they both turned their glowing eyes toward the group, now aware of their presence.

Lan and Vicent engage them with their melee weapons, while Vae and Bar fire at them. After a few missed shots, they start to get a feel for their weapons, and land some serious blows, staggering the zombies.

It’s not long before they were defeated, and the brothers walked away, relatively unscathed.

They searched the carnage, but there was no sign of Hubert, or his animal of unknown origin, Rexy. Only a bloody trail leading away to the south, where the lake was.

Bar and Vae went slightly ahead, to scout things out, and Vincent decided to use his magic to create a tremor under them, thinking he could communicate, but as this was relatively new to him, he didn’t realize some prompting beforehand would have been useful.

The other two came back, and asked about the ground shaking, but things were quickly cleared up. They then proceeded forward again, with Lan and Vincent about 20 or 30 paces back, talking.

Finally, the two scouts saw the slope down towards the lake, and Hubert lying in the grass, with blood staining the ground around him. Bar noticed that he was still breathing! They weren’t too late!

In his excitement, he decided to just run forward towards him, and Vae noticed, and did the same, being a little faster than his brother.

Unfortunately, what they failed to notice was an ambush awaiting them, and two blue, tentacled creatures leapt out and attacked Vae, slashing at him with their claws. He very quickly succumbed and fell to the ground.

Bar was quick to defend his brother, letting loose a bolt into the side of one of the creatures, hurting it badly. The others came running up as fast as they could.

They engaged the creatures, and Vincent healed Bar, saving his life. Though they were all fearful, they put on a brave show, trading blows back and forth, and began to understand their bodies and weapons a bit better.

This was a most difficult fight, as these creatures were both agile and strong, but in the end, they managed to defeat them as well.

They rushed over to tend to Hubert’s wounds, but Lan hung back, examining the scene for any other potential dangers, and while there were no other things moving about, he did notice a large glowing crystal from just beyond where Hubert was laying, and two broken ones beside it.

Vincent healed Hubert, returning his vitality, and he told the boys that he was attacked by those creatures, and that’s the last thing he remembered.

Lan then pointed out the crystals, and that another of the same species seemed to be growing inside it, so they decided to destroy it immediately.

Hubert was disconsolate after learning about his horses, and that Rexy was nowhere to be found, but they decided to get back to the cart, take what they could, and make their way to Wavemeet.

Once there, Lan decides he can fix it up well enough that their horses can pull it back to town, and the others start scouting about to see if they can find Rexy. As luck would have it, Rexy bounded up shortly after, sensing her friend’s presence. Hubert was overcome with Joy.

Lan was able to fix the cart much faster than he had anticipated, all his time spent doing manual labour was paying off, and he was much more adept than even he knew.

Vincent examined Hubert, and noticed there was a lasting effect from his attack, and that he was infected by something. The quicker they got to Wavemeet, the better.

There was a very long, drawn out conversation on what they should and shouldn’t tell Hubert about their story, Hubert looking on bemusedly.

Eventually, they spilled the beans, as it were, and though Hubert looked frightened, he took it all pretty well. He had never seen this level of oddity or violence on the roads, and cautioned that they should talk to Desidarius, and that he might know more.

They finally started their trek anew, almost at Wavemeet. Strange to think of all that happened in a day…