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-----Another rush of air is heard. As everyone looks at the skull atop the post on the mound, they can see a reddish glow pulsating in the empty eye sockets.
-----Raven starts for the skull. He lunges toward the mound in order to strike it with his new sword.
-----Taking heart, Sol sees Raven start towards the skull and realizes they must be thinking the same thing. Delaying a second, he turns to Sarah. Gesturing to the east, he yells "Run". He then starts running back towards the mound, sliding his long blade quickly from its sheath.
-----Sarah turns in the direction Sol pointed, but rabid looking animals sitting on their haunches suddenly block her way. The smallish creatures stand about shin-high and their bodies are covered by thick blackish fur. A reddish tinge highlights their eyes as they look at her and hiss. Thick tails rear up behind the small animals.
-----The rest of the party is practically inundated by the calamity of beaks and wings sharply moving all about them. Thalog suffers a scratch to the left side of his face.
-----As Raven makes it to the circle of stones two rats snap at his heels but luckily miss him as he passes. Likewise, as Sol follows Raven in, three more of the rodents scratch and bite at the young man, but to no avail.
-----Standing on each side of the mounted skull, Raven and Sol can see they are quickly surrounded on all sides by a swelling mass of maddened animals. The moving mass seems to pause and then begins to close the gap between them. The reddish glow inside the skull seems to grow while the color of the bone structure blackens.
-----Raven strikes out with his new short sword. The weapon connects solidly with the appalling thing before him. A chunk of bone falls from the side of the long cheekbone. Raven notices the red glow fades in one of the eye sockets. Excited, he thrusts in with his left sword, but a dodging blackbird gets in the way of the strike. The sword impales the bird and Raven tries to shake it loose, while repeating the strike with his right. His new weapon strikes another bird, decapitating it.
-----With a mighty swing, Sol arcs his sword around and hits the skull squarely knocking it off the post. It hits the ground at his feet and the young man, rotating his sword in his hand, thrusts the weapon straight down upon it. The sword slices through the top of the skull cavity, forcing the tip of the weapon into the ground. The force of the blow shatters the remains of the skull and the reddish glow dies out.
-----With that, an ear shattering sound goes up! Not from the destroyed construct, but from every living animal around them. Some in the party hold their ears and look on in shock as every small crawling critter about them squeals and writhes on the ground.
-----All in the party suddenly feel a bird or two hit them, although it does not hurt them. Looking down, they can see the birds merely fell on them and also struggle about on the ground.
-----The rats, long-tailed animals and the burrowing things all roll around with a sound that none of the adventurers thought it was possible for small animals to make. The animals sound as if they are in a great deal of pain. As they look on, some of the animals look as if their bodies are changing in some way.
-----Just as the party is starting to catch their breath, movement about the openings in the ground alerts them. Coming up from below, they see about a dozen more animals, but something about these seems unnatural. Skin and fur seems to be missing in places and in some spots on these animals are exposed bone. As they begin to scurry toward some of the adventurers, two more forms arise from below. Two skeletal warriors pull themselves up atop the ground and draw their weapons.
-----Glancing at Raven, Sol smiles an extremely nervous smile, and remarks, "Time to play king of the castle." Bracing, he yanks his blade out of the ground and waits for the first undead to reach him.
-----Zentil draws his longsword and charges the closest zombie-animal. "Damnit! I hate the dead!" he yells.
-----Sarah gets out her darts and aims for one of the undead animals.
-----"Next time I am going on a quest without ruins or tombs." Thalog readies his weapon and attacks the nearest undead animal.
-----Raven gives Sol a slight smile, "Good hit back there on that skull. Let's see if you do it again on these things." Raven readies himself for the oncoming enemies.
-----A small undead animal creeps up to Sol and the young man slashes down at it, breaking it in the middle of its backbone with a resounding crack.
-----Beside him Raven also hits a skeleton that used to be a cat and decapitates it. The skull keeps snapping its jaws.
-----A medium-sized dead animal leaps at Thalog, but the mage manages to step back avoiding it. Likewise a dog-sized thing stalks Sarah, lashing out at her with sharp claws and barely misses her. However, the jagged claws rip a lower part of her robe.
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