The Skinsaw Murders

Malvick advances down the southern trail as Xer and Wertz try to dispatch the surviving ghoul to the north.  His bow is nocked and aimed at the fast apporaching noises to the west.  Sasha heeds Yola's words and dashes to the front past Grump and Weasel, rapier at the ready.

Suddenly there is snarling and tearing directly ahead of Malvick.  Ahead are two more scarecrow ghouls, struggling to rip free of their crosses.  He raises his bow and fires as the first one jumps to the ground.  The arrow strikes it squarly in the chest, but it does not stop, and Malvick drops his bow,diving to his left to avoid the thing's frenzied clawing.  He comes up with his short sword drawn and drives it through the ghoul's chest as it leaps at him.  He frees his blade and regains his feet just as the other one tears loose of its ropes.  Malvick steps forward to meet it but it batts away his thrust and claws him across the shoulder.

A momment later more ghouls break from the western edge of the field.  Two jump at Ariva and Sasha.  The rogue avoids her attacker's clumbsy swipes but is unable to stab the thing in return. Sasha knows she is not playing to her strengths.  With allies restricting her movement to the left and right and facing an opponent head on she cannot use her natural mobility to her advantage.  Frustrated, she takes a wild unguarded lunge at the undead in front of her and for a momment her gambit seems to pay off.  Her rapier pierces the thing's left chest, sliding between two ribs and into its heart.  She smiles triumphantly, then remembers a momment too late that undead don't need hearts.  The ghoul slashes out with its clawed hand and rakes her painfully along her sword arm.

The second ghoul pounces upon the snarling dog and sinks its rotten yellow teeth into Ariva's hide.  Ariva yelps then fights back, snarling viciously and pulling the ghoul all the way to the ground where they roll in a confused tangle of fur and rags, savaging each other with tooth and fang and claw.

Xer and Wertz close in on the wounded ghoul on the party's flank.  But then a pair of undead arms reach out from the corn and grab Wertz from behind.  The new ghoul sinks its teeth into the man's shoulder.  Wertz's scream turns into a foamy gurgle as he begins to convulse.  His limbs go rigid and he falls to the dirt under the weight of his attacker.  Xer whirls around to help him, mommentarily forgetting the wounded ghoul in front of her.  The creature seizes the opportunity and grabs Xer by the wrist, clamping down with its filthy jaws on her forearm.  She gasps and spins back around, breaking the thing's grip and delivering a fatal roundhouse to its lowered head in one fluid motion.  The ghoul drops liefelessly to the dirt, and Xer steps back to help Wertz.  The ghoul that attacked him is now trying to drag him back into the fields, but when it sees Xer it drops him and leaps at her with a feral yell instead.  Xer blocks one swipe after another but one of its claws gets through her guard, leaving a deep row of bloody scratches.  In retaliation she reaches out and catches the ghoul around the head, and uses the momentum of her step to wrench hard.  She feels its spine crack and the thing slumps to the ground. 

Weasel stands stock still in the middle of the party, clearly terrified.  Yola slaps him hard on the shoulder as she moves up. "Don't just stand there boy!  Use that sword like we taught you!"  she shouts as she pushes him towards the front.  Her words have the desired effect and he runs forward, trying to get a clean sword thrust on the ghoul that is wrestling with Ariva.  He can't find an opening, and the fight between Ariva and the ghoul grows more desperate.  Ariva has gotten on top of it, and savages the ceature with bite after bite as she tries to clamp down on its throat, but the ghoul has locked its claws deep into the dog's neck and shoulders trying to push her back, and her blood streams down over its arms in alarming amounts.

Yola  continues moving forward.  Next in line is Grump.  She grabs the blubbering farmer and spins him around.  "I told him!"  he screams, pointing back to the battle, "I told him they'd eat his dog!"

"Get ahold of yourself old man!" Yola yells back.  Yola could not respect fear in the face of the enemy.  Back on the steppes where she grew up you either took action or you died.  She grabs the hunting knife from Grump's belt and thrusts it into his hand.  "Fight!"

"No!"  Grump twists away from her with suprising strength and dashes away into the corn field, disappearing from sight in seconds.  Yola curses loudly.  Her companions ahead were all fighting for their lives.  But she could still hear more ghouls closing in on them from behind and that idiot farmer was running right towards them.

Yola only considers for a second.  Her companions were trained warriors. Grump was defenceless.  And she didn't think her uncle would approve of her letting him get eaten by ghouls, even if he was a coward.  With a signle quick glance back over her shoulder, Yola charges off after the fleeing farmer.  "Grump, get back here!"

She heard his high pitched scream up ahead, followed by the snarling of ghouls.  She breaks onto the scene and see Grump on the ground at the base of a scarecrow pole.  The figure bound to it is harmless straw, but the two sack cloth covered apperitions circling him are not.  Beyond rises yet another scarecrow cross, its victim still struggling weakly against its bonds.  "Hold on!" she yells, and she runs to help Grump.  But the creatures pounce on the farmer.  He flails with his knife against them but his kicking limbs quickly start to shake and then freeze up as they sink their teeth into his flesh.  "Get away from him!" she yells, almost there.  One of the ghouls looks up and grinns a blood stained grin, eagerly loping towards Yola, as the second tries to drag Grump deeper into the corn.