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Nadia backs up against the corridor wall, giving the others room to maneuver in front of her. Alex waits quietly at the corner. Eber slips in through the opening, stepping to the side to let Rolf and Penelope pass. The two of them move slowly into the hallway and start moving deliberately towards the open area where the gnolls are having their dinner.

There is the clank of metal on metal as Penelope accidentally bumps into Rolf in the gloomy, unlit corridor. The room becomes deathly silent as the gnolls stop eating, food halfway to their mouths, and Rolf and Penelope freeze in their tracks. The two gnolls facing the open area look up from their meal to see the advancing enemy.

Alex smiles at the grim efficiency of the initial attack, even if his own attack managed to miss its mark. He nocks another arrow and sends it whistling between Rolf and Penelope toward the gnoll at the back. The arrow smacks into the gnoll’s upper arm.

The other gnoll, the one who had barked out the orders, takes aim at the woman in front of him and let’s loose an arrow. It flies past her, just missing her head and clatters against the wall before falling to the floor near Nadia. There’s nothing left to do now but fight close-in. He drops his bow and pulls out his battleaxe.

All her initial strategizing over placement and teaming up to whittle down the opposition's numbers turns to dust and blows away as the first two gnoll are cut down as easily as wheat stalks confronting a harvesting reaper. Pen flinches as an arrow aimed for her whizzes by before reverting back to her old ways and attacking the next guy she sees. Whichever's closest. The one with Alex's arrow protruding out of his furry skin will do. She takes another wide swing and the gnoll is too busy switching from bow to axe to put up an effective parry. Penelope connects, leaving a deep gash in his side.

Seeing the ease with which Pen and Rolf cut down the first two gnolls, and hearing the bell ring in the distance, Eber decides his best course of action is to simply keep things lit up and let the others sort out the last two.

A loud bell rings out, apparently coming from the nearby room at the end of the corridor. More shouting erupts. “We’re coming!” Footsteps echo in the corridor. A couple of human warriors, armed with bastard swords rush forward towards the battle.

Rolf smiles as he hears the bell, since it was part of their plan to hole up and take out defenders as they come by. But he quickly brings his mind back to the situation at hand. Figuring it is much better to have one gnoll down then two wounded gnolls, he gets himself within reach and takes a swing at the one who is wounded. The blow from the halberd knocks the axe out of the gnoll’s hand. It drives through armor and flesh, dropping the third gnoll to the ground like the first two. Only one left standing now.

Nadia looks toward the sound of the distant, clanging alarm, and sees another set of guards hurrying around the corner. She realizes suddenly that they will most likely head straight for Eber - standing there like a beacon with his lantern in hand!

"Reinforcements coming!" she shouts out for Rolf and Penny's benefit. She's itching to draw her saber and intercept the guards, but instead she steps out of the way of where they will probably go.

The last gnoll shouts out. “Over here, help!” He slashes at Rolf with his axe, but Rolf’s armor and skill are too much for the feeble blow.

"Easy, boys, there's plenty for everyone," Alex says as he casually parries a slash. Knowing there's no way he could hope to fight all three at once, he falls back a step to stand shoulder to shoulder with Rolf. He deflects another strike and makes a quick counterattack at the nearest human who manages to parry the blow.

“Retreat!” the man calls out to the others. Making the best use of his sword and shield to fend off any parting blows from the invaders, the man follows his own advice and heads towards the door.

A retreat has been called....but none of the guards has started to run yet. So, Pen figures it's fair to continue the fight - even for a Paladin sticking to the Code.

She races up, knocking into the invisible Nadia with an 'oof', and then maneuvering around her and the corner to strike out at an injured guard. Her sword slashes through the man’s thigh, driving him to the ground where he lies still. Then she throws herself toward the wall on her right to give Rolf's halberd a chance to get by if he wishes.

“Damnation!” The other warrior turns away from the slaughter of his companion. These people are too tough for them. He rushes back towards the doorway.

Smiling as the humans sound a hasty retreat Eber moves forward picks up his crossbow, and slings it back at his waist.

"You'd think they'd at least have tried to fight."

Seeing the humans flee in disarray just as he arrives next to them, Rolf decide to press the issue further. Pushing slightly pass Penelope, he charges the first human to have left the scene. The last warrior in the corridor, already starting to backpedal a bit in response to the first man’s order, slashes out at the dwarf who rushes past him. Rolf is intent on catching up with his victim and fails to block the blow. It only does a little damage, but it’s just enough to throw off Rolf’s balance in the charge. His halberd slams down into the hard stone floor instead of into the soft flesh of the retreating human.

The last human to have arrived on the scene turns. Concentrating on preserving himself at all costs, he moves towards the wall to the left trying to keep as far away from the dwarf as he can while he slides towards the door. The sideways motion is enough to get him past Nadia without bumping into her, but it’s not enough to keep him out of reach of Rolf’s halberd. Angered at having his charge disrupted Rolf lashes out one more time with his halberd. This time his feet are firmly planted and the deadly weapon proves its value again. One more enemy is laid out at Rolf’s feet.

Whistling at the list of oncoming enemies, Eber whispers a quick prayer to Moradin.

"Well, its what we wanted..." he says, trailing off.

Thinking quickly, Eber readies his last major spell of the day. Figuring that it would be most effective on the half-elf, Eber waits for him to show up.

Meanwhile, the zombies continue to shuffle forwards bearing down on Rolf and the doorway. One of the zombies lurches at Rolf trying to slam into him and rake him with its claw-like fingers, but Rolf dodges the clumsy attempt easily.

Another arrow clatters off the wall near Rolf. A sorry bunch of archers this lot seems to be. They can’t even hit his armor.

A troglodyte appears, stepping out of the corridor with the zombies. His black robes are covered in full plate-mail. Slung over his shoulder is a large steel shield with the symbol of the upside-down ziggurat on it. A morningstar is tucked into his belt. He is holding a scroll in his hands. He glances at Rolf and then begins to read from the scroll. For a moment, Rolf feels his muscles tightening, becoming rigid. But he fights the feeling and shrugs off the effect of the spell, just in time to twist out of the way of another arrow.

Another zombie stumbles forwards, moving right past the invisible Nadia and slamming into Rolf. But once again the clumsy attack is unable to affect the sturdy, well-armored dwarf. Still, there are plenty of zombies bearing down on him now. A fifth one emerges from the corridor heading his way…


I should have known that I shouldn't have said it couldn't be that easy, Alex thinks grimly as the reinforcements to the reinforcements arrive. Nothing for it now but to mow them down as they come in.

Alex moves to the doorway and slashes at the zombie standing directly on the other side. He lops off some of its decaying flesh.

The faint odor of rotting flesh assaults Nadia's nose as a putrefying, shambling undead THING steps into view and attacks Rolf. If she'd had a weapon in her hand at that moment the good cleric of Lathander would have instinctively struck out at the zombie, and in the process blown the invisibility spell that kept her hidden. As it is, it takes every ounce of will-power she has to step back and keep from drawing her blade. With gritted teeth, she takes the healing wand from her belt and readies it instead, knowing that she will most likely have need of it very soon.

"Penny! There are zombies here!" she shouts out to the paladin as she moves back away from the door. "Can you turn them away? I'll try to help!"

The zombies are still coming. A sixth one appears as one of the original one moves up to within reach of Rolf. An arrow bounces off Rolf’s armor. Looks as if the archers are finally getting their act together. One of the advancing gnolls steps up too. Taking advantage of Rolf’s momentary distraction with all the zombies pressing in on him, the gnoll manages to swing his axe under Rolf’s defenses. The armor prevents it from cutting into Rolf’s flesh, but it does give him a nasty bruise.

As he prepares to retreat into the room, Rolf hears Nadia's suggestion to Penelope. Remembering how the skeletons simply exploded when confronted with clerical power back in Saltmarsh, Rolf figures he might as well ignore the zombies for now, until he sees what happen, and concentrate on his one live foe.

He be the only one who cut me, anyway!

So, before retreating carefully back into the room, he swings his halberd at the snarling dog-face, bringing him down and giving the others something to think about.

The remaining gnolls pause in their advance, quailing at the sight of the powerful dwarf who can slice them to bits with one swing. The half-elf has maneuvered his mount up into the corridor just behind them. He’s seen the carnage Rolf just unleashed as well.

“Bah!” he calls out. “Gnolls. To the gates and the trail!” He turns at points at two of the archers. “You, Frank and Forrel, give them support.” To the ogre nearby he growls, “Wormspike, take care of that miserable dwarf.”

The remaining gnolls and two of the archers move off to the left into the corridor leading to the main gate.

Pen agrees with Nadia's disembodied voice about what to do. She steps up into the doorway, squeezing her way to a position alongside Rolf, to greet the shambling undead with a greeting from the etched holy symbol on her shield. The symbol charges with energy and blankets the hallway with divine light over the creatures while Penelope bellows, "Flee. Behold this true symbol of justice and goodness and be turned."

Powerful light erupts from the holy symbol on Pen’s shield. She can feel a surge of energy both from herself and Nadia blasting towards the zombies. Nadia feels it too. For a moment, Pen and Nadia feel a burst of confidence in their ability to overcome these zombies. At first they throw their arms up over their eyes to block the light. There is a moment’s hesitation. But then they start pushing forwards again. The light fades. The troglodyte bestows them with a feral grin. The ogre advances.