Sometimes They Come Back - Act 1

On arrival in the settlement of Narmaren the patrol find their way to the Inn which is the only permanent stone structure in the village, the Church is a large wooden structure and the rest of the village is tented, albeit long-term tentage.

After they have stabled the horses and entered the main room of the inn the patrol get talking to some of the locals and hear a variety of stories about strange things happening near the old battlefield (lights, noise etc). They also hear that therehave been a few disappearances in the last few weeks.

After a bit they are approached by a priest who, recognising them as MIA agents from their robes, asks them to find his missing servant Vrilnd. The priest introduces himself as Alin, a Ministry of Food functionary, and tells them that he is just passing through on his way to Templeton and is very worried about the boy who is only 16.

The patrol decide that they perhaps ought to go speak to the local priest, and perhaps have a look at the battlefield. A couple of them go over to the Church and find no-one there. The three of them that go to the battlefield however find someone there, and they aren't friendly. They get there just as night falls and see some tents just as the light fails, but before they get all the way up.

They creep up the treeline from the road, after dismounting a couple of hundred metres from where they saw the tents. On closer inspection is transpires that there is on tent, a new wooden temple and a much older temple constructed from stone. There is also a pen with some animals in it. The clearing is surrounded with trees, although they are thinner towards one side which leads onto the main battlefield.

As they become accustomed to the darkness some figures become apparent, although they are not moving. Slowly they steal up to the tent, during which time the figures animate themselves and start to attack. There are six zombies, fortunately they manage to remember the lessons fomr the training camp, after a bit at any rate, and rebuke the zombies. While the zombies are being used as archery targets the Necromancer makes his entrance complete with large scythe. He takes on Flynn and Ostler and gets in a few good blows before they manage to drive him off in a cloud of smoke.

At this point Ashrem, who has been holding the horses, catches up with the others. He finds Flynn unconscious and together with Ostler and {another} they investigate the temple buildings. Inside they find seven skeletons, but remembering the lessons they've just used these don't pose a problem. They also destroy some skeletons in the new temple building.

On opening the door to the stone temple building they find some prisoners inside. It takes some coaxing to get them to come out, but after about ten minutes they manage it. These are the people that went missing from the local area, including the boy the priest asked them to find. There are five of them in total.

Given the lateness of the hour and the fact that one of their members is unconscious the patrol decide to return to the village with the people that they have just rescued. This they do and get everyone healed up.

Meanwhile the necromancer is still at large.

Read on...