A day that just kept on giving!

1456 Date Unknown...
 
Part 2
 
Upon leaving the underground of the now ruined church, we arose to find ourselves surrounded. Zombies! Must have been about 12, fully armoured and wielding crossbows, and at the centre of them a familiar looking mage. It was the one we slighted on our way to Arno-Mot. He started by demanding we surrender and apologise for the destruction of his tower. As he finished his little speech, a large boulder flew overhead and hit the ruins of the church. The mage gave a creepy chuckle and proclaimed this was a feat of his making and that if we don't surrender now, we'll be next! I can't recall if I was feeling gallant or just pissed off, but I wasted no time in charging in. I managed to scarper past most of the zombies and challenged the mage directly. Upon seeing this the others, including Bombastus surprisingly, sprung into action. As we set about the skirmish another boulder came crashing down. The zombies were slow and inaccurate with their crossbows making them easy enough for the others to deal with. Ilemahg, now a rat remember, could somehow still wield his greataxe and made short work of any zombie he faced. Albert wasted no time in setting his little flame spitting spider to work, I had to keep one eye on it to keep out of it's range, and Bombastus simply crushed any zombie he faced with his maul.
 
The mage was a bit more difficult to deal with. His magic spells seemed to drain the very life from me, and one of the zombies managed to grab hold of me. It was difficult to fight it off but once I got free I finished off the mage stabbing my rapier through his chest. He tried to escape using some dark amulet, but I managed to grab it and pulled it from around his neck. With his last groaning breath he cursed and collapsed dead on the floor, dropping his staff on the ground. I thought once he fell the zombies would fall also, but they stayed and carried on their assault. Whilst we finished dispatching the zombies, the boulders kept flying in from afar. The dwarf was hit by two of them, and for a moment I thought the second one had finished him off. Bombastus made no delay in trying to seize the mages staff for himself, but Ilemahg managed to pick it up first. I pocketed the amulet I'd tore from the mages neck and with that we immediately set off to find whatever device we throwing the boulders at us. We all piled in Bombastus' wagon and headed in the direction of the boulders origin. In the distance we could see a large frame with two zombies stood at it's base, a trebuchet! As we approached the zombies launched another boulder sending it straight at us, it completed obliterated the carriage. The impact threw us from the wreckage and badly hurt the dwarf, knocking him unconscious. Whilst Ilemahg tended to Albert, myself and Bombastus along with Jumbo charged the trebuchet quickly dispatching the zombies and claimed the weapon for ourselves. Albert regained consciousness and managed to cast a healing spell on himself, but he still looked on deaths door.
 
After attaching the trebuchet to Bombastus' elephant, we made our way back to the ruined church and began looting the dead. We removed the armor from zombies and collected up their crossbows securing it as best we could to Jumbo. For safety sake and peace of mind I drew my sabre and removed the mages head, and once we'd finished we headed into town to try and rest and sell what we could of our spoils. We headed to the inn where we'd fought the basilisk and managed to find a trader who bought all of the armor and crossbows we'd secured, totalling 300 platinum, split between myself, Albert and Ilemahg a grand reward for a hard days killing. Once we finished our business we headed outside and saw the mayor preparing to speak and townsfolk gathering round. He made a speech regarding the new tunnel and new tolls in the area. Whilst he was waffling on I noticed an odd patch of ground near to the ruins of the church, and once he'd finished we headed back there to investigate. Upon arriving two Bullywogs now guarded the area and demanded half a gold for each person who passed through the gate. If I wasn't still wounded from the days fighting, I'd have cut them both down where they stood.
 
As they opened the gate a frail looking tortle was stood there looking somewhat confused. He started rambling on asking where he was and how he got here, I didn't pay him much attention honestly. He did take a shining to Ilemahg though, thinking he was some sort of dog, perhaps he's gone senile with old age. We arrived at the site and now it didn't seem like anything was there, and I started to question if I'd just imagined it. Bombastus shouted out to us and I gestured him over asking if he noticed anything strange about the area. He suggested we leave it for now and call it a night. He also mentioned he'd hired out the finest accommodation in the city, which upon hearing I decided to leave it be and follow him. We found ourselves at a grand guesthouse with staff on hand, and fine food and drink. Whilst the others headed upstairs to rest, I headed to the bar. The staff notified me that Bombastus was covering all expenses and handed me a 150 year old bottle of Red Whiskey, supposedly brewed in the 9 hells! It packed a punch because I don't recall much more of the night... I only recall waking on a nearby sofa to the smell of a fine breakfast.
 
JH