As Thekt waited, he noticed a shadow moving behind a ruined building. As he drew closer to it, it became clear that the shadow was in fact a goblin, injured and close to death. Thekt put his axe to its throat.
"Who was that horseman who sent you?! Speak or I'll strike your head from your shoulders!"
"Ha!" The goblin gurgled. "I'm as good as dead anyway. Your town is in ruins, you might as well give up now!" Thekt pressed his axe down harder. The goblin was practically dead now, but it forced out a last few words.
"You're.........all......dead.......men" It then died where it lay. Thekt, in anger, picked up the limp body and threw it against the wall, yelling with rage, before giving it a final stamp to the face and rejoining the rest of the group.
"Little bastard didn't budge".

Hubbin and Stubbin were contentedly snoozing behind a large barn and just beginning to come out of their slumber. Rising slowly to their feet they look in astonishment at the destroyed buildings. They walk to Kris and tap him on the shoulder.

"Did we miss something?" Stubbin says, "We seem to have dozed off for a bit."

Before Stubbin could say anything, Hubbin was already rushing over to the pile of weapons lying next to the bodies. The group laughed as they watched the Ettin half sprint, half stumble before settling in front of the weapons and sifting through them. After a minute, the creature threw a long staff over towards Kris, who leant forward and tried to catch it. He missed and it fell to the floor in front of him. Leaning down, he picked it up before testing it and, deciding it would do, relaxed his stance.

'We're ready to leave when you are, guys,' he called to the pair.

"We are ready to go as well." Stubbin announced. He gingerly plucks the sack from Hubbin and closes it with an air of finality. "I'm sure there will much more loot to be had brother"

Hubbin harrumphs and takes back his sack. "Why leave good look lyin round?" He picks up another dagger and slips it into the sack before getting up. "Kay, I'm ready."

"I think we're all ready, to where do we journey?" Thekt said, leaning on his gnarled wooden staff.

The group moved forward, leaving the ruins of Saturnalia behind them as they started their journey. Thinking onward, Kris remembered that he had gone roughly in this direction on his travels years ago. If they continued in this direction, then they would likely come upon Ravendale, which was about 8 days on foot. It seemed as good a place as any to go.

Thekt studied his ancient map long and hard.
"From what I can tell, the quickest way to Ravendale would begin by taking us through the Wailing Forest. Bear in mind comrades, that evil things lurk there, shadows creep and lost souls cry, and the risk of danger is great, but going around would add another two or three days to our journey. I leave this matter open to debate, but be quick about it! Kris, what do you think?"
He lit his pipe once again, and pondered the issue.

'I say we go through the forest, and slaughter any who hinder our progress.' Authoros intoned viciously, making a gesture with his armoured guantlet signifying the death of any fool he may encounter.

Kris shrugged. 'Through the forest it is then.' A shudder went down his spine. He hoped it would be more friendly then the last time he heard of anyone entering it. He leant on his staff as he turned to face Thekt.

'Since you have the map, may I suggest you guide us through?'

Krolk reached into his pack and pulled out a pair of ear plugs. Lost souls could cry, moan or drag ghostly chains within 10 metres of him and he wouldn't hear anything with these babies. However, it could leave him in a sticky situation if anything ambushed them, pretty likely in a dark forest. While he was musing on the possibilities Rhino started talking again.

"Thought of another of your multifarious flaws. You can't think more than ten minutes ahead. Most sane people would see an Ettin, what with the size and the psychoticness, and resolve not to steal anything from .."

This decided the matter. Imminent death by ambush would at least be quick. Being talked to death by a schizophrenic cow and scared to death by ghosts would be slow and tedious. The Gnoll plugged his ears and everything was muffled into a blissfull silence.

Hubbin and Stubbin plod along behind the group, their longer legs meaning the pace was nearly a crawl for them. Hubbin sorts through his pilfered weapons while Stubbin gazes off into the forest. "You know brother, ectoplasm makes such wonderful spell material." He peers into the gloom, "I do hope we run into a ghost."

Hubbin grunts nocommittedly and continues rifling through his sack. He looks over at Stubbin, "Oi, it's gettin' dark, do yer magic vision thing."

Stubbin sighs, "It's not a 'magic vision thing' brother. It's called Nighteye, very well." He mutters a cantrip and both sets of eyes flash once before settling into the infared spectrum with the telltale red glow of infravision.

The first thing Stubbin notices upon completing his spell is that the woods look much more interesting in infravision. The second thing is that a dozen cold spots roughly shaped like bipeds are pacing the party through the woods. "Shades!" Stubbin bellows. He begins to mutter an incantation and finger his spell components.

"Very well, I'll lead us" Thekt said. "But first to deal with these bloody shades. Hubbin, Stubbin, act as our spotters, and we'll fire spells to the best of our abilities. I suggest spells that cover a large area, by the way. Oh and Stubbin, feel free to use whatever magic you possess while you're spotting for us."

With that, Thekt muttered an ancient Orc incantation (one of few, as most Orcs distrust magic). A huge stone obelisk pierced the ground and began to glow bright red.

"Shade, North-West of us! Near the forest border!" yelled Stubbin. Thekt focused all his energy onto that spot, as the red light from the obelisk appeared to flow back and forth through Thekt and the obelisk. Suddenly Thekt's eyes flashed a bright red, and a magical explosion of red light erupted where the Ettin had pointed. A chorus of ethereal screams could be heard, as puffs of grey smoke appeared where a few Shades had been destroyed.
"I can't do this all on my own you know!" yelled Thekt.

Since Thekt had, unsurprisingly, not included Krolk in his battle plan the Gnoll was left to his own devices. He kicked his spurs into Rhino's flanks to steer towards the rear of the group.

"Ouch" said one of the cow's heads. "Bloody idiot" the other agreed.

With his comrades shielding him from the Shades he pulled out a flint and started trying to set fire to the end of his broom. The sparks stubbornly refused to light the straw broom head and he feverishly struck the flint against the timber, as a Shade ducked under Authoros' guard and quickly covered the distance towards the mounted Gnoll.

As the Shade made for Krolk and his stead, Kris swung his sword ineffectually through the creature. 'Damn!' he cursed, spinning so as to strike again at the creature with the staff in the other hand. As the wooden pole touched the shadowy creature, it screamed and collapsed in a puff of smoke.

Kris and Krolk looked at each other, a surprised look on their faces. Presumably the staff had some sort of magical enchantment placed on it. Had there been more time, Kris would have investigated further, but instead he spun back round and covered Krolk. 'If you have a plan, then enact it fast,' he screamed. 'I cannot hold these things off you for long.'

Stubbin nods to Thekt and finishes his incantation. With a stinging invective and a puff of spell ingredients he sends a flurry of magic missiles spinning into the forest. The stinging attacks smash into two shades and disperse them into diffuse fog.

Hubbin smashes a nearby shade with his club but it just passes through ineffectually and hits the ground. The Shade rushes toward him and phases through his arm, numbing it to the shoulder with biting cold. He sweeps his club through their bodies to keep them at bay while Stubbin prepares another spell.

Authoros turned round to kris as he yelled these words, and then he knew what he must do.. With a furious battlecry, he charged at the oncoming shades with his sword held aloft and as he came closer they turned their insatiable hatred of the living upon him. Even though he was half undead, they loathed his half demon heritage and they lashed their ghostly claws over him in the hopes to cause him pain and eventually death. He resisted these weak but relatively cold attacks, and he swung his sword wildy at them in the hopes to attract their attention away from kris and the other spellcasters, even though the creatures had an immunity to nonmagical blades such as his.

Suddenly, silence erupted from the wood. The Shades had been vanquished.
"They've gone!" he yelled. "They've bloody gone!".
He pulled out his map and studied it for a while. Finally he came to a conclusion.
"We've got to go....that way" He said, pointing to the West. "Be wary, though, for it is the area known as Carrion's Swamp, so called because, well, it's full of zombies."
And so they journeyed, heading West, towards hope.

'It's a healing spell!' Kris managed to calm himself, though he couldn't stop himself from ginning like a lunatic. 'It heals people every time you whack them with it! Typically goblin!'

The others chuckled to themselves and the party continued on.

hey, is it too late for me to join in?
EDIT: it look like this one has stopped for now...

As they journeyed on, Thekt noticed he could smell a disgusting repugnant smell. It seemed to be coming from a large mound in the distance. They ventured towards it, the smell growing ever stronger. As they neared it, a sign stood in their path. It read:

"Here lie the dead from the Reaping of Willhollow, who paid no heed to the Great Esinder."

Suddenly Thekt saw what truly lay before them. It was a pile of bodies, a matter of weeks old. Vacant eyes stared in a gruesome imitation of life. Shrivelled skin hung from lifeless facades, limp hands hung down, touching the air. There also were bodies suspended by hooks from wooden crosses, and speared on pikes all around. The stench was unbearable. All Thekt could do was stand and stare at the grisly spectacle, despite wanting nothing more than to look away, and never to see again what had just blighted his eyes....

Krolk was annoyed that he hadn't had a chance to employ his cunning plan to defend himself from the Shades with a burning broom but couldn't complain since he'd come out of the encounter unscathed. However, this made up for it entirely.

The other members of the party watched horrified as the Gnoll took one of the less unsavoury looking corpses and diced it into bite sized pieces with his knife. As he stuffed the meat into his bag he looked around at the appalled faces:

"Gnolls gotta eat, you know."

Stubbin bouces the small bag of ectoplasm on his palm, "With this I'll be able to cast that vampiric touch spell I told you about." He puts the sack in his pocket. "Just need to remember where I put that scroll and take the time to memorize it.

Hubbin plods along glumly, so far this trip had been completely unprofitible for him. Undead had little in the way of loot and were not very satisfying to smash.

The others were quick to take him up on his offer, and the group swiftly moved on, not waiting for Krolk to finish up.

Authoros stared at the pile. What he saw was gruesome, but if the corpses were in better shape and not festering he would happily devour them. It is common for beasts such as demons to eat the corpses of their enemies after battle, though some tasting better than others of course.

As he looked away he caught a flash of movement in the corner of his eye. He turned his head around so he could see if it was a threat, but it seemed his eyes had decieved him.. It was probably just an animal anyway. He followed the rest of the group as they continued their grim march westbound.

Thekt trudged further on still, the image of the corpses seared in his mind. He knew they would reach Carrion's swamp soon, and was apprehensive.

As he walked, his foot fell upon something, and it made a sharp crunching sound. As he looked down, he realised it was a skull, now shattered into pieces. This meant they were at the borders of Carrion's Swamp. Further along there was another skull, stuck to a pike. A sign next to it read:

"Keep your eyes peeled and keep also your head,
As you must always...b​eware​ the undead.

Darkness falls here, across the land,
A chilling cold, you fear, is close at hand.

They'll take your blood and make you weak,
And turn this lonely world cold and bleak.

When you get that overwhelmi​ng​ sense of dread,
You have so been warned...b​eware​ the undead!"

Without warning, moans and cries of despair erupted all around them. shambling cadavers appeared on the edge of their vision, blood staining their tattered rags. as they drew closer, the group readied their weapons.