A New Begining

[Laharal1]

The world has all but fallen, there is little hope. A group of necromancers in their stupidity and foolishness resurrected a terrible creature. This creature was of Darkness and Death. It warped those who had summoned it turning them into Liches bound to its will. With these mighty servants, it began to send the liches into the rest of the world forcing them to create great armies of Zombies. These armies quickly grew and grew laying waste to land after land. Topping kingdom after kingdom. Soon, only a few pockets of life were left, and these were completely isolated from each other one was forced to travel through the lands of the undead to reach these spots. These few remaining locations were held by the barest of threads and always on the verge of falling to the relentless attacks of the undead. It is this world that has fallen nearly completely to the undead that has become fearful and hateful of those who would dabble in the necromantic magic. Any and all necromancers that were found either were driven off into the land of the undead or slain outright.
Yet, even in this bleak nearly destroyed world, there are those who would seek to create a life for themselves and those who fight for survival in the heart of the undead lands.

A pair of unlikely friends were two such individuals. The Drow elf known as Xeras and the Kenku known as Rhei. They lived in a small village that lay in the mountains connected to a cave network that eventually led to the Underdark. Yet, the zombies when they came, came from all sides. The village was destroyed or eaten and those who were the fortunate few to escape this fate did so at great cost. These two adventurers were no exception. They once had lives and futures, now they only worry about surviving in this new land. The pair were about a week's hard run away from their home village camping by day or night and trying to stay one step ahead of the horde that had destroyed their home. Only time will tell if they can survive.

[Laharal1]

Xeras opened his eyes slowly as he had finished letting his Raven scout the village that he and his friend were coming upon. Frowning he shook his head lightly “There are some zombies there, but there aren’t that many. So long as we have the element of surprise we can get in there. We need to get ahold of some food. Our rations are running low.” He said as he pulled his crossbow up a strap of leather kept it around his chest. Pulling the string back locking it into place, he set a bolt in place and looked to the ravenman wondering what he would do. He and Rhei had been friends for a long time, and he was glad that they had been keeping a low profile long before the outbreak. It was hard to stay friends with a Kenku who liked to steal things like a magpie, and he himself was no better. He was constantly stealing from those who had far more than he did, and he didn’t really have any compunction about blasting those who tried to hurt either of them with his magic. This of course put them at odds with the law.

His raven fluttered back and landed on his right shoulder as Xeras looked at it then towards the little village “We should move quickly whatever we decide. No telling if that horde is still following us.” He said looking to his raven again. He wanted it to fly off and create a small perimeter around them to alert them if any other zombies were going to try and ambush them while they moved into the village.

[killergnome2100]

"Move quickly, no telling" Rhei mimicked in Xeras' voice. In a much lighter, more feminine voice she continued "I agree, there likely won't be a lot but we don't have much of a choice. We might last one day with what we have now." Rhei began walking through the light forestry that ran between them and the town. Small trees, saplings and shrubbery dotted the hilly landscape. They were on the same level as the town, which was a very lavish word for the ramshackle four buildings and several tents that made it up. One large two-story building, which Rhei assumed to be the town hall or inn. There were two smaller storefront like buildings, and lastly a large barn. They were all in a serious state of disrepair.

As the two wayward wanderers approached town they heard some large commotion. As Rhei focused she could make out much more movement than she had before. The dead were on the move, but not towards her and Xeras. “Can you tell what’s going on over there?” Rhei asked, turning to Xeras. “It sounds like we’re not the first ones here, we have to hurry or there might be nothing left for us.”

Rhei began to quicken her pace as the thought of her increasingly hungry belly sank in.

[Laharal1]

Hearing that Rhei agreed with him was more than enough motivation to get him moving. He easily kept pace with her, his leathers making less sound that one would believe. His raven on the other hand kept flying through the air acting as the scout that was desperately needed. The small ‘village’ was so rundown that Xeras was actually surprised that it still stood at all. He was sure that most of the buildings would fall down in the next year or so, and the tents wouldn’t last much longer.

They neared the edges of the town and that was when they saw that the dead were on the move. He frowned and focused his mind with his raven’s seeing through its eyes. It flew in the direction of the dead and it didn’t take long to find the source of the disturbance. The zombies were all moving towards a tree where a gnome of some kind was sheltering. Xeras rolled his eyes and looked to his companion as they moved “Don’t worry, it is a distraction that we can use. For now, we just need to keep going.” He led the way now taking point with his crossbow at the ready. Deciding that they would first head to the storefronts to see what they had left inside.

The backdoor to one of the fronts was open and rotting out so it took no effort for him to get it to open. As soon as it was open he moved inside closing the door once Rhei had gotten in.

[killergnome2100]

Rhei had the brief thought of what that distraction might have on its person. Whatever it was, maybe it had already made it out of the town with all that it had to offer, and was trying to escape from the resulting attention it had drawn. Rhei shook it out of her mind for now, as they would soon find out for certain.

Inspecting the interior of the store, Rhei could tell this had been picked over several times since becoming dilapidated. This seems to have been some kind of general store, and though the shelves had been picked mostly clean there were still some scraps. Rhei collected enough for the two of them to survive maybe an extra day. “It’s something I guess…” Rhei claimed softly. Upon further investigation, Rhei could tell there had been recent activity here. Whoever is drawing attention out in the woods was clearly here minutes ago.

Focusing her eyes, Rhei picked apart a scene of careful scavenging followed by a struggle. Whoever this was, they were a novice survivalist. Looking out of the windows, only a select few undead remained in town. All of the others seem to have been drawn out by the comotion.

Rhei calmly watched as a zombie limped from around a corner towards her. Between it being night, and them being indoors it had yet to notice her. Deftly, Rhei created the illusion of rustling behind the monster, causing it to stir and turn around. As it let out a moan Rhei slowly slid her knife into its rotting skull. She caught it as it fell limp to the ground. Rhei let it slip slowly out of her grasp, quietly setting it onto the ground.

“Let’s check the other store” Rhei said quietly, motioning to follow her. She stepped over some broken glass as she made her way to the other store.

[Laharal1]

The interior of the store wasn’t all that grand, in face he had seen that it was picked over quite cleanly. He sighed and looked through the remnants and knew that they wouldn’t find much. There were a few copper coins, and a couple of silvers as well. Yet, they were not as useful as they could be. He slid the coins into his pouch smiling softly “You never know when you might need a few extra coins. The least we could do is make sure that we are not poor. At least not anymore.”

Xeras didn’t need to worry about it either. Shaking his head, he looked at the condition of the shop. It was clear that an idiot had gone through this place. It was sloppily done, and he was sure that whomever had been in here before them had made a lot of noise which is likely what attracted all of the zombies towards the little creature.

He did notice that Rhei had slipped out of the store heading towards the zombie that had been slowly creeping towards them. She was very silent, that he had to admit. Still, there wasn’t much that he could do to help her. She honestly didn’t need his help. When she whispered about checking the other store he nodded his head and moved to the other store. The door was broken, and he looked to Rhei shaking his head and holding his hand out to stop her. He pushed the door open ever so slightly with his foot letting his raven fly in. Using his magic, he allowed himself to see through the eyes of his servant. He scanned the interior carefully and sighing in relief.

His eyes flashed normal again and he stepped inside. There was no one inside, and no trace of a zombie. Yet, the door had clearly been forced and broken. He looked back at Rhei whispering “I think this is what caused the zombies to be attracted to the distraction that I saw earlier.” He explained before he slowly moved into the shop. This one hadn’t been nearly as ransacked as the last one. He was able to find two more days of rations for the pair of them. He also found a nice short sword that was polished and while it was a little dull he was sure that it could be used to cut a few zombies’ heads off. Looking to Rhei he tilted his head in query “Are we ready to get going? I don’t want to be here when those zombies get back.” He whispered moving to the exit again pointing his crossbow out of the door looking this way and that way.

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