Outside the inn, approaching the center square from a different road than the one the party had come in on, were two huge humanoid figures.   Standing over eight feet tall, they both wore iron breastplates over leather tunics and breeches.  Their leathers were adorned with metal studs and animal teeth and they held large battleaxes which they dragged behind them as they walked.  White skin, almost translucent, and wild blueish hair, they walked out into the square like they owned the place.

“Who are they?” asked Isiah, as the rest of the group gathered up packs and weapons.

“Rozbit and Skhopit!  They’re bad, very bad,” said the innkeep, backing up with a trembling voice.  “The sons of Shutan.”  He slid away to the side, back towards the kitchen.  “And they’re never alone.”

Outside, one of the sons raised his arms as if expecting the adulation of a roaring crowd.  The few villagers in the square hurried into whatever building they were next to.  He walked out into the middle of the square with his brother behind him.  “You know what we want!  You know who we want!  Tribute!  Tribute for the King!”

“What are they?” asked Miah, cinching her pack down and picking up her quarterstaff.

Kaspar shook his head slightly.  “They look like ogrels but I’ve never seen them colored that way.  We can take them.”

“Half-ogres?” said Isiah.  “Let me guess, Shutan is not their waifish human mother.”

Cley stood tall and looked back at the frightened innkeep.  “Are they looking for us?  Did someone tell them about us already?”

“No,” said the innkeep.  “They don’t want any of you.  They want her.”  With that he dashed back into the kitchen.

Cley shook his head and motioned for the others to join him at the main doors.  He stopped and concentrated for a moment, using his innate paladin abilities.  “Wait!”  He looked up and all around.  “This entire place is surrounded by undead.”

Isiah, Miah, Caelian and Kaspar immediately formed a circle with the paladin included.  Kaspar kicked a table out of the way.  The patrons at the other tables ran for the kitchen.

Caelian had her Mace of Holy Light up and ready.  “Where are they?  Who sees them?”

The last patron to head for the kitchen reached the bar.  In the shadowy place under a nearby table something moved.  A pitch black, man-shaped figure rose up and reached out for him.  It seemed strangely part shadow and part solid.  Caelian launched herself forward with a shout.  Two more shadows rose up from under other tables and another one dislodged itself from the corner where they’d just been sitting.

The first shadow grabbed the man by the kitchen door and he screamed.  Caelian brought her mace down on the shadow’s head.  There was a flash of radiance and the shadow curled up on itself with a wheezing sigh and dissolved into bits of darkness, like a bag of dead leaves had been emptied out.  The man staggered and fell against the bar with black marks on his skin where he’d been grabbed.

One of the shadows nearest Kaspar crouched, half disappearing, as it moved below the window and then rose up with elongated arms stretching towards him.  The fighter saw his opening and lunged straight at it with both blades out.  The points slid into something semi-solid and he pushed hard.  The shadow recoiled up into the light from the window and fell apart with another unsettling wheeze.

The shadow from the corner slid along the wall towards Cley, attacking with outstretched arms that the paladin easily dodged.  He brought his longsword up and slashed across the shadow’s front.

Miah watched another shadow rise up from under a table and shift to one side in order to stay out of the light of a candle.  She pointed at it, shouted a cantrip spell, and a shimmering blue ray of frost shot out, hitting it dead center.  It staggered back into the table and tried to meld into the darkness underneath it.  Isiah jumped at it and stabbed it through with his shortsword.  The shadow wheezed and crumbled.

Outside, Rozpit and Skhopit turned to look back at the inn with broad smiles.  “I think our pretties have found something.  Go get something to eat, Roz.”

Rozpit started walking casually towards the inn.  “My pleasure.”

Inside the inn, Caelian looked over at Cley.  “Any more?”

The paladin concentrated for a moment.  Then he looked up with urgency.  “Back in the kitchen!”

Caelian took two long strides towards the kitchen and saw the lantern light coming from under the door snuff out, followed by screams.  She jumped into the room with her sun-shaped medallion held high, the symbol of Ayanwu and the Force of Light.  Caelian shouted the goddess’s name and the medallion shone with a blazing light.  Four shadows were holding down four men, blackening their skin where they touched them.  The shadows recoiled and tried to slide back into darkness but Caelian’s faith was too great and they all crumbled to the floor.

The innkeep was down on all fours.  “It’s hopeless, it’s hopeless.  They’ll get us all...”

“Get out here with us,” Caelian shouted.  “It’s never hopeless!”

In the main room, Cley was looking out a window at the approaching ogrel.  “I’ll go straight at him, Kaspar and Isiah flank, Miah hit with spells.”

Right then an older man wearing what was once fine clothing burst out of the church doors.  “No more!” he screamed.  “No more!”  He ran at Skhopit with what looked like a kitchen knife in his hand.

Skhopit leapt forward and reached out to grab the man around the throat.  The man got in a couple stabs at the ogrel’s arm before he kicked and struggled and went limp.  His face and neck blackened and split open like a putrefying wound.  Within seconds his upper torso dissolved into a rotting mess and dropped to the ground.

Cley opened the doors to the inn and stepped out with Kaspar and Isiah beside him.

A figure came leaping out of a second story window of the church.  Human female, with short black hair and brown skin, loose fitting yellow and red clothing, dark red gloves and boots, golden bracers on her forearms.  She landed on a gazebo out in front of the church in a lethal looking crouch.  Even from a hundred feet away they could tell she was furious.  “He said no more!”

Skhopit tossed aside the man’s remaining remains and wiped his hand off on his breeches.  “Finally!  I’ll get her, you get them.”

Skhopit launched himself forward in running bounds, his battleaxe trailing behind and ready to swing.  She leapt off the gazebo at him, landed on the stone walkway, and raised a fist.  A bolt of radiant light shot out and hit him square in the chest.  He staggered only a bit and then started swinging his axe overhead.  She spun out of the way and planted a kick into his leading knee.  The axehead smashed into the stonework steps of the church with sparks and flying dust.  His knee bent backward and all eight feet of him tumbled over and sprawled on the walkway.  She jumped in close to his head and struck him with two punches.

Rozpit came closer to the inn with battleaxe ready.  Miah reached a hand out and pointed at him while the others charged.  She whispered some spell words and a dart shape on her quarterstaff glowed blue.  Three bolts shot out from her finger and hit Rozpit dead center, leaving sizzling black marks.

Caelian came out beside Miah, the patrons and the innkeep huddled behind her by the doors.

Rozpit swung his axe too early and Cley easily dodged it.  The paladin chopped at the ogrel’s arm, drawing a long streak of blood across his leathers, and sliced into its leg with his backswing.  Kaspar stabbed it straight in the chest with his longsword.  Rozpit started to stagger forward and Kaspar brought his shortsword up in a thrust that entered under the ogrel’s chin and went up through the top of its head.  The fighter sidestepped and let the huge body drop beside him.

Back at the church steps Skhopit put an arm out and tried to push himself back up.  The woman kicked his forearm out with a sweep and spun around to bring her other foot down on the back of his head.  His face was crunched into the stone and he quivered slightly in death.

Across the square Miah saw a shadow rise up from behind a vendor’s stall and grab one of the villagers.  The villager screamed in pain.  Miah stepped forward with an outstretched hand and called up another ray of frost cantrip.  The icy blue beam shot out and hit the shadow in the back.  It let go and tried to duck back down behind the stall.

The woman in yellow and red stepped up on Skhopit’s body and reached out with a fist.  A bolt of bright light flew out and hit the shadow in the head.  It staggered, splintered apart with a wheezing cough, and vanished.  The woman stayed on Skhopit’s back and looked all around the square.  “They’re gone.”

Cley nodded to the others.  “Anything undead is fleeing to the south.”

Caelian took off her pack and reached inside for her healing kit while nodding to Kaspar that he should go across and gather up the wounded villager.

Cley and Isiah sheathed their swords and started walking towards the church, Miah following.  The woman stepped down off Skhopit’s back and met them half way.  She was still fuming mad and looking over at the rotten body of the man with the knife.  “He was the only thing still good in this village.  The only one that still had an ounce of courage.”  She looked up at them and breathed in deeply to control her emotions.  “You all are a very welcome sight.”

Miah stepped forward, between her brother and the paladin.  “You’re a Radiant Monk, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she nodded.  “Marisol Caine, from the Temple of the Sunrise in Nastareth.”  She looked Cley up and down.  “SkyKnight?”

“Cley Alexandros.  Loreholm Chapterhouse.”

Marisol smiled without warmth.  “Well, Cley, you’re a little late.”

The paladin glanced over at Miah.  “So I’ve been told.”