Life is Long and Full of Blisters

We grouped back up nearby the necromancer’s tower. We hid behind some rocks and such and Barrel talked us through his plans. Him and the other goblins and some of the folks we got from town was gonna distract the undead out front. Hitting and running, not letting the dead lay a mossy finger on the boys that was still living but trying to do a good amount of damage. He said the priest we got from the temple, Isabel, should come with us since we’d probably be getting hurt the most without horses or wolves to run away on. It was while we was strategizing Vidar showed back up. He looked pleased as all get out cause he figured out the undead goblins don’t put up as much of a fight as the living ones. He’d collected about a dozen more ears while he was gone and had a lot more equipment. He had some healing potions and a new shield made of a real strong door I guess he just.. took from somebody’s house. I guess they wasn’t using it.

Barrel told us to make ourselves a mad dash to the back entrance while the barrow wights was good and distracted. It was still real foggy so it wasn’t hard to be sneaky. Big Clyde carried Sledge the whole way so his big shiny head wasn’t above the fog and so his loud feet didn’t make too much noise. Larry was yelling at us how to be quieter like him. Vidar went and made him mad ‘cause he toppled over this half wall that was in our way, but it made our trip through the creepy as sin graveyard. Vebradu lead the way and I just kept my head down. We got to the tower without nobody noticing and made our way inside.

It was creepy but not as creepy as you’d think it. There was a bunch of art showing weird sacrifices to ghosts and stuff but we mostly just kinda ignored it all and didn’t look too long at it. Except Vebradu, but I guess you kinda learn to expect that sort of thing from him. Me and Sledge and Vidar opened up the door to the rest of the tower. It was sealed shut pretty tight, but it was better than pouring our blood in the bowl. There was this, like, ritual bowl that the ancient folks would’ve put their blood into. Well, normally it’d be animal blood, but person blood would probably work just as good. I think that was how the door was meant to open, but it seemed like a bad omen to give our blood to the tower. Even if the ancient folks was good people, with a necromancer and a bunch of undead it didn’t seem safe. So we avoided the whole thing by digging our fingers into the wall and pulling as hard as we could.

The next room was actually where it got real creepy. There was sarcophaguses all over and a couple of ‘em was opened up without no bodies in them. Vebradu said it was probably because the necromancer could.. how do you call it? Yeah, compel, he could compel only so many undead at once. And barrow wights could also compel undead, but if the necromancer compels a barrow wight to compel an undead then.. it don’t count? So that was what the whole plan was from him. It was when we was poking around Sledge found this bigger sarcophagus that was meant to hole three people. Two mamas and their kid. Only the kiddo and some toys and such was left in there. The kid also had this funny looking copper bucket with some holes cut into the sides for eye holes. Sledge picked it up for about a second before putting it back down and heading out with the rest of us. But when we was making our way out, a gate closed on us trapping us inside. The poor kiddo, part of their spirit was still hanging around and was scared when their mamas wasn’t around. Kid threw a tantrum. A crazy one, wilder than you’ve ever seen. They was throwing stuff all around, they even compelled some undead to get up and fight us for them! I told them they better quit their racket and to just talk to us, that we wasn’t there to hurt them or their mamas. They uh. Didn’t like that. I think I said too much of the “quit your racket” part and not enough of the “we don’t wanna hurt you” part.

Vebradu was better at getting them calm than I was. He had recorded somebody in a calming voice telling a story about a kid who’s parents went off to war, but made it back ok. I never heard it before, but it was a sweet tale. I couldn’t hear much of it over the undead ripping my arm off, but that didn’t matter much. Sledge was able to talk to the kid once they was calm enough. We explained we wasn’t there to hurt them, we knew why their parents weren’t in the grave, and how to get them back. They said they was sorry about causing such a fuss. Vidar.. didn’t like them much. But he called it even since the kid hit him and he hit the kid. The kid was sweet, their name was Luca. Sledge asked for their bucket so that we could show it to their parents and let them know their baby was okay and waiting for them to come back to proper death with them. Kid was real kind about it. They was just going through a lot. Luca lifted the gate that fell and we was able to head on up the tower.

I don’t think you’re ready for this bit, buddy. When we reached the top - the, when we.. I’m sorry, I can’t hold it together whenever I think of him. He - his name was. Femur Frank. Yeah, Femur Frank. He-he did the whole speech. It seemed like he done practiced it the whole time it took us to get up to him. Oh my goodness, no I ain’t pulling your leg. Tell him, Larry, it was.. I ain’t never seen nothing like it. He had a crow that talked and decorated his whole evil lair with skulls that was too neat and perfect to be real. Looked like marble. Oh my goodness, I hate him so much.