The crescent moons peer out from behind a scudding bank of clouds as you dash across the forest, your steps muffled by the thick blanket of needles carpeting the pine roots below your feet. You travel into a deep hollow, then climb a long, shallow hillside where a grove of hundred-foot pines grow.
From here, you can dimly see to the east, where the path of the Kingsroad cuts into the forest, north to south, then branching to the west. Another junction leads off towards dread Dolgur, climbing into the foothills a few hours to your north.
Not for the first time, Kane wonders what happened to the horse the King gave Thragga.
Far away, above the foothills, you can see the dark shadow of the Shroud, wavering like a black flag in the wind, its borders indistinct, its size indeterminate. Kane grew up under the Shroud of eternal night that protects the Vorghol Lords. It reminds you that this is a cursed land in which you travel.
As you descend from the ridgeline, you can see more greenish light playing off the trees and rocks up ahead. Thragga points. "Another bog. Well, this one will not catch me unawares!"
The green light is more intense than the last marsh, almost as if a green flame is actively burning in the woods up ahead. Thragga races forward. "Come on!" he cries.
Khom-Bei says, "Remember, Thragga, always be sure of your foe!" As you watch the Urag race ahead, you notice a similar greenish light flicker to life in the woods, distantly behind you.
Khom-Bei says, "Hold, Thragga!"
Then another light springs up in the grove to your left, distantly.
Thragga calls back, "Afraid of some marsh gas, Khom-Bei? I break wind worse than that!"
Khom-Bei says, "But your wind doesn't come from three directions at once!"
Kane says, "Thragga this is not the place to charge off blindly!"
Thragga sees the trouble now. He slips his axe off his shoulder and rejoins you. "I am not afraid!" he spits.
Khom-Bei says, "I am sure of that, Thragga. But if the very waters of the swamp are against us here, we must walk carefully indeed."
Another light springs up to your right now. And you hear a sound...like that of hooves. A hundred sets of hooves. Approaching.
The light behind you grows brighter. Something glowing green is coming through the trees, swiftly. The horses stamp and tremble in anticipation.
"Now what??" Thragga demands.
Khom-Bei says, "We cannot escape, our best hope is to go unoticed."
Kane draws his sword and stands ready.
Khom-Bei moves his pony close to a tree and begins to pull it down to the ground. "Quickly, there is no fighting this enemy, we must hide."
The green balefire behind you flows through the trees like a river. The flare blinds you a moment.
Behind it...A cavalry troop, armored, swords drawn, long hair flowing, clad in the garb of the Kingdom of Ress, shines with a green fire, their eyes black soulless pits. Charging, lances lowered, eternally charging, the undead Crusaders race forward...
Thragga hisses, "I am not afraid!"
Khom-Bei says, "Good, Thragga, be not afraid, but get down!"
Thragga points to the fallen bole of a tree for you all to take shelter.
Kane follows Khom-Bei's lead. Khom-Bei drops next to his prone pony and presses himself to the ground behind it.
The ghost troop's light flickers over all of you as they charge past. A hundred dead riders on dead horses, brave warriors on a doomed quest. The stench of them reaches you even here...they reek of death, thirty years or more moldering in the grave. At their head is a tall King, his skin rotted and flaked, eye dangling from one socket. "Valkris!" the former warriors of Ress cry, and the sound is chilling. "The blood of Valkris!"
From where you all hide, silent, watching, Kane's horse gives a small whinny of terror, eyes wide.
Kane stares in disbelief at the ghost troop.
One of the ghost riders looks back at the sound. And almost as one, like a great ship dropping anchor, far too nimbly for human riders, the troop reins in, undead ghost hands sawing at bridles. The tall King at the front...in life, he was called Leonic...stops his horse, grinning. "So...Valkris! You hide from us! You cannot hide, you cursed Vorghol!"
The cry goes up from the others. "Valkris! Valkris! The head of Valkris!" Kane steps out from hiding.
Kane says, "Hold knights. We hunt Valkris and all his kind. We ask for free passage."
In life, these men were tall, well-muscled, blond Reith. Now they are shambling wrecks, mockeries of the heroes they once were.
The ghost King scoffs, "Come, Valkris, do battle! We will finish what we came here to do!"
Kane says, "I tell you I am no Vorghol! This I swear on all I hold dear!"
The ghostly voice echoes: "The Vorghol Lord wears a disguise, men! But we have dealt with his kind before...many times! Haven't we?"
Thragga hisses at Khom-Bei, "Kane is trying to distract him, so we can make a break for it!"
Kane says, "I assure you I am a man. Would you hinder one who fights for the same cause as you?"
The ghost King sneers, "A man? We are men! You, Vorghol, are a travesty, a thing that should never have been made. These are your woods, are they not? Is that not your castle yonder?"
Kane says, "I told you it is not. We travel through these wood to gain a lead on our quarry. We hunt Vorghol. I knew this wood would be dangerous, but I never dreamed we would be attacked by brothers in our cause."
The ghost flickers and wavers as he approaches Kane slowly on his ghost horse. "Brothers? You are Crusaders? With what realm? Under which King?"
Kane says, "We serve King Henrick of Anghara!"
Some laughter goes up among the dead men. "Never heard of him!" they cry. "I think we should spit this Vorghol, Your Grace!" urges one of them.
Kane says, "It has been long since you and your men were among the living sire. Much has changed across the land. Henrick is indeed King in Anghara and a good King he is."
The dead King seems in disbelief. "Living?? Are you mad? It's you that's dead, Vorghol monster!"
Kane says, "How long have you and your men ridden through these woods?"
The King scratches his peeling scalp. "We left Ress some three months ago. A long hard battle. But victory is in sight!"
Kane says, "Three months? Does it seem like three months since you stood in your own keep?"
The King shrugs. "You try to bewitch us, Vorghol! You will rue this!"
Kane says, "How can I prove to you that I am no Vorghol?"
"What is that sword you bear?" the dead King demands.
Kane says, "This sword is called Light Bringer. It was blessed and lays destruction on all undead."
Thragga's knuckles are white as he grips his axe, staring at the troop of ghost riders as he crouches. "Now is our chance, Northerling!"
Dead King Leonic, hero of Ress, replies, "A worthy weapon for a Crusader! But only a Vorghol would haunt these woods." He steps forward, ghostly eyes glowing with mad green balefire. "But I am no undead, but living man, and therefore do not fear your sword!"
Kane says, "No undead creature could even mearly touch this sword without feeling pain."
"Kill him, Your Grace! Then we will take our revenge on Valkris!" cry some of the soldiers in the troop.
Kane says, "I will speak truth to you, even at my own peril. You and your men are dead. It is your ghost that stands before me know."
The ghosts snicker and mock the tall man in black. "He'll be a ghost soon enough, I trow!" one dead knight cries, eyeball hanging by a sinew on his undead cheek.
Thragga spits on his hands so his grip won't loosen on his axe. "Khom-Bei..Kane may need our help."
Kane says, "I pay homage to you and your men great King. We have come here to battle in the same fight as you, against the cruel Vorghol Lords."
Leonic steps forward again, light issuing from his skin. "Let me see this weapon of destruction!" he booms. In life, he must have been fearsome and impressive indeed.
Khom-Bei readies his hammer and nods to Thragga. "Let him take it as far as he can."
Kane hands Leonic his sword hilt first. "I do this trusting your honor as one man to another."
The ghostly King seizes Lightbringer. The sword's blade flares with holy light, searing your eyes in the dark forest. Leonic hurls it away with a cry and a roar.
The ghost warriors crowd near, and one hairless rotted one tries to pick up the sword, only to hurl it away as well.
"It cannot be! Valkris, this is some trick! Death to Valkris!" cry the warriors.
Kane says, "As I've said great King you and your men are no more. Pass on to a more peaceful place, in the knowledge that others have taken up your fight."
Leonic is on his knees. Understanding comes to him as he rises.
Kane stoops down and picks up Light Bringer.
"What is your name, warrior?" the ghost King asks.
Kane says, "I am Kane. My friends are Thragga and Khom-Bei."
At the mention of his name, Khom-bei stands and moves to take a place at Kane's shoulder.
Kane says, "Let it be known great King, without the sacrifice that you and your men made, none of us would be standing here free on the tyranny of the evil Vorghol. You did not die in vain. Your name is still sung in the halls of free men."
Thragga rises and looms behind his two companions.
The dead King rises. "Vengeance!" Leonic cries. "I remember now. Valkris slew us, and cursed us to wander this forest, a glamor upon us. We never returned to the prairies of Ress. Vengeance, we demand it! It falls to you to exact it!" He sets cold green hands on Kane's shoulders. The chill is numbing, even though his cloak.
Kane does not flinch from the touch. "I swear to you on this day oh great King that vengeance will be yours."
Kane kneels before Leonic and places his brow to Light Bringer.
The King tells Kane. "I place this upon you. The Crusade must continue. The lands must be free of the Curse that the Dragha spawned. Tell it to your King."
Kane says, "I have already and will again. King Henrick is pledged to the defeat of the Vorghol. We ride at the fore of his vanguard."
"And you, Northerling, and you, Urag, swear to this!" the dead man commands. "Or a dead man's curse will be upon you!"
Khom-Bei kneels before the ghost-King and bows his head; "I swear on the bones of my mother, I shall not rest while a Vorghol King lives."
Thragga kneels and bows his head. "Before He-Who-Watches, I so swear! Destruction to the Vorghol!"
Khom-Bei stands and returns to his place at Kane's shoulder.
Leonic orders his men, "Mount up! We ride!" The dead Ressi turn their horses for one last charge. He adds, "My spear. The spear of Garrovic, forged in Dragha blood and death to any Vorghol who touches it. Lost when we were slain. Taken with my bones to Dolgur. Your King may find it useful."
Kane says, "We shall attempt to regain it for him great King."
"Vengeance!" cry the warriors. A breeze blows up in the night. The ghosts shout the Ress words. "We are Ress! We guard!" Then the troop turns to ride off, a blaze of green light. They cross the hollow, disappear behind a stand of trees, and are gone.
"We guard! We guard!" echo the voices. Then, silence.
Thragga exhales.
Khom-Bei says, "Kane, you really should let me teach that horse some manners."
Kane says, "Anytime friend, anytime."
"You should let me kill that beast...it would make an excellent breakfast." Thragga rumbles, thumbing the edge of his axe.
Khom-Bei shakes the remaining cold from his cloak. "Well, there is the task at hand to deal with first, but soon."
Kane says, "This is good news, if this spear of Garrovic still exists."
Khom-Bei says, "Yes, we should do whatever we can to bring it back to King Henrick."
Thragga says, "Aye...and only all of Dolgur between us and it..."
It will be dawn soon. Your Vorghol quarry must go to ground in Valkris' castle, or the sun, enemy of all Vorghol, will return him to dust.
Gazing up to the sky, Khom-bei shakes his head; "We must move quickly."
Kane says, "Shall we press on then? I would be clear of this forest."
The northern edge of the forest slopes away into a narrow valley, bounded by the foothills to the north. The Blados River runs through the valley north to south, and a spur of the Kingsroad runs east and west down its center. A walled town, Far Hisveth, and a sturdy old keep stand just on the other side of the river. Valkris' castle, surely. You crouch on a low ridge overlooKing the Kingsroad, which runs just below, with the woods to your back. Thragga stares intently to the east.
The big Urag points. In the dim light, lit by twin crescent moons, you can see a party of riders pounding up the Kingsroad toward you. The road is perhaps twenty feet below, rimmed by the sharp ridge on which you crouch, holding your horses reins with one hand and weapons with another.
Three riders, on white horses, trailed by a small cart, a tumbrel really, drawn by a draft horse. A figure crouches in the cage in the tumbrel. They make a steady but intent pace, with perhaps half an hour till the sun's first rays creep over the hills to the east.
The riders approach, headed for the village. It will be scant minutes before they pass your position. But the steep dropoff below you doesn't seem to allow any clear way to get your horses down.
"I will kill them all..." Thragga says. "You may watch."
Kane says, "This is our chance. I think we should take them now before they reach the keep. Shall we charge?" He looks to Khom-Bei for an answer, already knowing Thragga's.
Khom-Bei rises in his saddle and smiles a grim smile. "We shall."
Thragga bares his teeth. "For Taggart!"
Kane raises Light Bringer above his head and spurs his horse into action.