Graveyard Ambush

After downing my whiskey and getting just tipsy enough to endure Reinfast’s presence, we headed to the graveyard to set up our ambush and wait until nightfall. It was just outside the city walls, opposite the side Sofia and I had gone for the slime quest. The place was completely abandoned, likely due to the rumors of it being haunted, or the news of the gravedigger being attacked here.

“We should try and figure out where we think the one responsible is most likely to start raising the dead, and set up our ambush there.” I said. Sofia and Lucille nodded.

“Well, you have fun with that commoner. I’ll be resting over there,” Reinfast pointed to the gravediggers house. He wasn’t inside at the moment as he was being tended to elsewhere. “You ladies are welcome to join me.” He walked off, leaving us to do all the work.

“Now that he’s gone, maybe we can get something done,” said Lucille spitting in his general direction.

“I would’ve drank a lot more if I knew he was this awful,” Sofia complained.

“Yeah. Let’s just get this over with so we never have to see him again.” I said.

“I got a map of the graveyard from the gravedigger,” Sofia said, pulling out a piece of parchment from her bag. “If this is accurate, the graveyard is mostly separated by how high leveled the adventurers were when they died.”

“That is troubling indeed.” Lucille said.

“Why is that?” I asked.

“An undead’s strength is directly proportional to the power the body had in life. If several high level adventurers were to be raised from the dead, the undead resulting from it would be incredibly powerful.” she said.

“The notice said the undead had grown more powerful each night after the gravedigger was attacked.” Sofia said.

“That means it’s highly likely that whoever brought them back was just testing their powers on the weaker adventurers before going after the big ticket prizes,” I said.

“Exactly,” said Lucille. “So based on this map, the area with the highest leveled adventurers is at the deepest part of the graveyard.”

“Then let’s go and set up some traps.” I said. We headed through the graveyard towards the high level area, passing tombstone after tombstone of fallen adventurers. And they were just from this town. It goes to show that being an adventurer isn’t a joke, your life is truly on the line in this job.

We set up some holy water traps near clusters of gravestones. All we’d have to do is have Sofia cast a spell at the trap, and the holy water would vaporize into a mist that would harm all the undead nearby. Then, we dug a few pitfall traps we could lead groups of undead into to incapacitate them before raining Sofia’s fire down on them.

By the time we finished obscuring the last pitfall, it was dark, almost time for the dead to rise again. Reinfast had come out to join us. Sofia and I hid up in a tree overlooking the high level area. Lucille hid on the ground on one side of the area, Reinfast on the other end, waiting for the signal to attack.

“Any minute now,” I whispered. “You ready Sofia?” She nodded, gripping her staff tightly. Finally, it began. A figure in a hooded cloak went up to a cluster of graves. Their hands glowed with magical green light. Sure enough, the dead began to claw their way out from underground. Within seconds dozens of undead, from zombies to skeletons were surrounding the figure, becoming more numerous by the second.

“Now! Hit the first trap!” I said. Sofia began chanting, casting her firebolt spell, the fire hitting the cluster of holy water vials, causing the glass to shatter and the water inside to heat into a mist and expand, covering the undead who began to howl in pain. The cloaked figure stopped their casting. As part of the plan, Lucille leapt out of hiding and used her lure skill, causing the undead to chase after her. She led them away from the figure to isolate them, and headed towards the farthest away pitfall trap. Once they passed by our tree, Sofia and I jumped down, going after the summoner, alongside Reinfast who...for some reason hadn’t exited his hiding place yet.

“Oi! Reinfast, come on!” I shouted, pulling out my blade as I ran at the summoner. That was when I heard the complaining.

“Dammit commoner!” Reinfast’s distant voice shouted. “Your damn traps!” The idiot had fallen into one of the pitfall traps. Sofia and I were on our own. The figure saw our approach and frantically resumed casting. Three undead popped up in between us.

“Sofia!” I shouted, tossing a holy water vial into the air above them. She sniped it with firebolt, creating another holy mist. The undead recoiled, yet the summoner seemed unfazed. “It isn’t a lich! Plan B!”

I drew the silver dagger, piercing one of the undead in the neck making it crumble to pieces. Sofia lit another ablaze, causing it to flail about wildly, catching the last on fire as well. Before I could reach the summoner, one more undead was raised. An undead in heavy black armor drew a greatsword, taking a fighting stance in front of the summoner.

I stopped in my tracks just in time to avoid a devastating overhead strike from the undead. A mere foot farther and he would’ve cleaved me down the middle. I dashed to its side, preparing to lure it into another holy water trap. Sure enough it chased after me, swinging its greatsword, nearly taking my head off, had I not ducked.

I rolled to avoid another swing, slamming into a tombstone. The undead knight continued to pursue me, leaping at me, obliterating the tombstone I was at a mere second earlier. Scrambling to my feet, I threw a vial of holy at it to buy myself Some time. The undead knight deflected the vial with the flat of its blade, only stalled for a few seconds before resuming its charge. Finally, I made it to the next holy water trap.

“Sofia!” I shouted. No response. The knight charged, swinging its blade at me in an overhead strike. I jumped to the side as it’s oversized sword smashed into the cache of water, sending drops of blessed liquid splashing onto the undead’s arms and face. Seizing my opportunity, I swung my sword at one of its elbow joints, taking an arm off, causing it to drop the greatsword. I stomped on the side of its right knee, the weakened joint failing, forcing it down to its knees. Finally, I plunged the silver dagger into its head, the undead disintegrating before me.

Now relatively safe, I looked to see why Sofia hadn’t answered me. She had been attacked by a pair of undead she barely managed to defeat, but had lost her staff in the process, and was now being held at knifepoint by the summoner, using Sofia’s silver dagger.

“Let her go! It’s over!” I shouted, trying to sound like I hadn’t nearly pissed myself while fleeing the undead knight.

“Tch! If you want your friend to live, let me go.” The summoner said. “If not, I’ll slit her throat!” Done with her task, Lucille came up to join me.

“The rest of the undead won’t be coming to help you! Don’t make this worse for yourself.” Lucille shouted, pointing her sword at the summoner. She looked a bit battered, but mostly fine. Then I noticed Sofia’s hands faintly glowing, and her mouthing words to herself.

“Why are you doing this!? Why bring back adventurers as undead?” I demanded, inching closer.

“I’ll never tell you why he asked me to do this!” the summoner said, backing up a bit. Then they realized what they said. “SHIT!”

“Who put you up to this!? What do they want!” Lucille yelled.

“Dammit...if I say something, they’ll- AAAAAGGHH” the summoner screamed as their robes caught fire. They dropped the knife, releasing Sofia in a panic to put out the fire, stumbling backwards and falling directly into the last pitfall we had dug.

“You okay Sofia?” I asked, running up to her.

“Yeah, just got a bit scared.” she said, sighing in relief. I peeked over into the pitfall the summoner has fallen into. The fire had started to spread up their robes as they frantically swatted at the fire. I poured a few vials of holy water down into the hole, dousing the flames.

“Alright, time to clean up,” I said. Sofia, Lucille, and I returned to the pitfall containing the majority of the undead. Inside, they were packed together, laid on top of one another, unable to get out of the deep pit. “I’ll let you do the honors, Sofia.”

“Gladly,” she said, pointing her staff at the undead in the hole. “Raging heat burns within my veins, grant form to my fury, Flare!” The fireball shot down into the pitfall, roasting the undead alive. Wait. Not alive. They’re undead. But, ‘roasting the undead dead’ sounds stupid. Whatever. She lit the undead in fire. You get the point. After a few minutes of frying, the undead crumbled to dust like the others.

“Sofia, can you go report to the guild? I’ll need Lucille to help me get Reinfast out of that pitfall.” I asked. She nodded, heading out of the graveyard. Lucille and I went back to the high level area, stopping to grab a rope from the gravedigger’s house before finding the pitfall Reinfast fell into. “You alive down there?”

“You damn commoner!” he shouted back.

“He’s fine.” I said to Lucille. I tossed one end of the rope into the pitfall. “Grab on, we’ll pull you up.” After a bit of grumbling, he took hold of the rope and we pulled him out of the pitfall.

“What the hell was that doing there!?” Reinfast demanded.

“We told you when we went over the plan, not my fault if you forgot,” I said. “Because of you, we had to fight the undead all alone! Sofia and I nearly died!”

“The red flower? Is she okay?” he said, suddenly concerned.

“Yeah. No thanks to you,” I berated him. “Go report to your father that the mission was a success. Lucille, can you ask the guard to send somebody to take custody of the necromancer?”

“Don’t tell me-” he began.

“Of course,” said Lucille, heading out of the graveyard. I started walking back towards the necromancer’s pit.

“Don’t ignore me! Damn!” Reinfast complained. He marched off in a huff.