PCs involved: Giganticus, Dan Leonheart, Hector, Rob M. Blind, Monk-E-Dunk

After Irontooths demise, the players decided that it could be fortuitous to explore the rest of the cave and see if they had missed anything.
After heading back through the cave and heading down a different path than where they came from, they found their path blocked. A gap was seen in the top which would be big enough for them to crawl through, even for Giganticus! They squeezed through the gap and, true to form, Dan stumbled on the stairs that led down and took Giganticus and Hector with him!
They brushed themselves down and gazed upon their surroundings, a narrow pathway which led into an open circular shaped cavern.
They edged towards the room, Rob M Blind tentatively edging forwards with Dan and Hector behind. Giganticus alongside Rob stepped forward and the ground began to shake. A spirit arose from a sarcophagus, he was wielding a menacing Scythe that went by the name of Brabo!
The players fought valiantly and brushed aside the spirit, looting the corpse they gained 180 Gil and took the ghosts prize possession, Brabo!
The players decided that they had spent far too much time in here and quickly hurried towards the caves exit. As they neared the exit to the cave, they heard rustling and mumbling in the bushes, Giganticus stepped forward and yelled various statements of profanity towards whatever it was that was lurking there.
The mumbling came to stop and the players were nearing the exit to the cave, the shadows formed on the exit to the cave and the goblin that the players thought had met its untimely demise had returned and he’d bought friends!
Quickly the numbers started turning against the players and they soon looked outnumbered. Giganticus was quickly surrounded by scurries of goblins and he was soon cornered just outside the cave. The goblins began closing in on the rest of the team..then, in the distance, a group of 4 could be seen hurrying towards the aid of the players. They soon rushed to the aid of Giganticus, 2 people wielding axes, 1 a bow and 1 a staff. They fought the goblins of Giganticus and a renewed hope seemed to bestow upon the players as they fought off the goblins. All the goblins fell, a massacre outside the cave only heightened by Hector shooting the goblin several more times to make sure that he was, in fact, dead this time.
The new found friends introduced themselves as Monk-E-Dunk of House Banyan and “The Expendables” who had travelled with him who went by the name of Gustav, Arnold and Lance. They were travelling to the Academy in search of Egraine Foxwald. The players agreed that they could join their party and promptly returned to the academy.
They returned to the academy tired, but swiftly went to Egraine Foxwald to tell him of their exploits.
Monk-E-Dunk requested to see him first and explained his business there. The village of Barovia (which is under the protection of House Banyan) has not been heard from in two weeks. It is not a place of great concern but two messengers sent a few days apart had not returned and with the current tension between the great houses of Orlandes, Lord Renwald wants to get to the bottom of it. Unfortunately the currents tensions also mean that it wouldn’t be wise to move many troops away from their posts (and indeed movement of large numbers could be seen as a potentially aggressive act itself). Lord Renwald Banyan had sent Monk-E-Dunk and the expendables to attain HERO’s from the academy and investigate Barovia.
Egraine Foxwald explained that all HERO’s were already hired out, but the students he had travelled with had proved their worth and were not just ordinary students. He would demand 2000 Gil for their services. Monk-E-Dunk paid 1000 Gil and the rest would be sorted at a later date.
The students were called in by Egraine Foxwald with Monk-E-Dunk waiting outside and it was explained that news of the academies security breach should not be spread.
All players rested at the academy and set off for Barovia the next day, which was half a day’s travel.
Hector shared tales of his experiences of Zombies and Vampires on the way to Barovia whilst Gustav (One of the expendables) shared stories of his childhood.
Zombies
They arrived at the village, thick fog had blinded their path most of the way and it only thickened over the village with visibility down to no more than a couple of dozen feet. A small town awaited, many houses barricaded shut or windows broke with a hay cart blocking the players way. A groan could be heard from the other side “urrrrggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh”
ZOMBIES!
A voice resonated from above “Take off the head or destroy the brain”.
The players soon swept aside their foe, not before Rob M Blind being bitten by one and getting infected.
The chaos had obviously disrupted this party’s once calm nature, as talk of burning the town to the ground was only halted due to Monk-E-Dunk’s mission to investigate Barovia and find out what happened!
They slowly made their way into the village, taking the right as they heard screaming from a house. An old man could be seen lying on the ground with 4 zombies attempting to get into this house, the screams continued “Help us!” the people cried.
Gustav volunteered to go and investigate the body on the floor; he began to jump up and down repeatedly on the old man’s head, remembering that an infection could lead to becoming a zombie himself! This repeated stamping had alerted the zombies near the house. They were quickly brushed aside and discussion began as to what would be done with the villagers inside. Again, many cries to burn the house and rape the daughters came from Hector and Gustav..Monk-E-Dunk calmed these venomous cries and Rob M Blind and Lance (One of the expendables) were issued to stand by the house and guard until help arrived. The family explained that a few weeks ago, these creatures had begun to roam the town and most of the villagers had managed to get to safety in the town square. Arnold (another one of the expendables) was sent back to the academy to tell them of his findings and gain the antidotes and potions that had been forgotten.

A ghoul appeared at the end of the road, he was quickly polished off and the players hurried on towards the town square. The town square resembled many a market town, houses, stalls and a tavern (Gustav approves of the tavern and its many wenches).
But it no longer resembled a market town, zombies everywhere and a woman on top of a hay cart who looked in trouble! The players soon came to the decision to fight their way. Several rounds of battle followed, Giganticus and Gustav lead the way using brute force to use the zombie’s heads as bowling balls. Hector and Dan stayed in the back firing arrows from afar and firing holy bolts when needed. Monk-E-Dunk lead the charge towards the hay cart where the woman stood atop, with zombies attempting to climb the hay cart, her power seemed unmatched, firing off spells and keeping the zombies at bay. The players were victorious and the woman introduced herself as Ashlyn, she was part of a group that found and fought the undead and was on her way to Ravenloft when she stumbled across Barovia and learned of its demise. She explained many people had taken refuge in the tavern and that she had been fighting there single headedly for almost two week now. She explained that the villagers her said the priest had been acting weird these past few weeks and wouldn’t come out of the church; they questioned his involvement with strange occurrence. Ashlyn rushed off to Rob M Blind and Lances aid to help bring the family trapped to safety and restore Rob and Lance with the party. The players moved on, without Rob and Lance for now, onto the church where the priest, Aldric, was said to be dwelling.
The players came to the church and Aldric came bursting out of the door “What do you want!” Hector and Monk-E-Dunk began questioning him and why he had not been helping his people, Dan and Giganticus echoed these thoughts and also wondered why the priest had locked himself in the church.
2 Skeletons rose from the ground, Aldric’s intentions were there for all to see. Giganticus and Gustav charged towards the priest. Dan, Hector and Monk-E-Dunk dealt with the skeletons. Aldric summoned several foul waves of skeletons and Aldric summoned the spirit that was seen in the caves earlier on to cast DOOM on Giganticus, the only way to cure this was to defeat Aldric within an allotted time! Aldrics strength was tough to match, several instances of dark magic were used on the players and they became weak, Dan had run dry of MP and the players looked tired. A fatal blow was dealt to Gustav, a true, brave warrior slain doing what he did best! This seemed to rein vigour the players as they unloaded everything they had on the priest, Hector noticeable shooting an arrow straight through Aldrics lung which pinned him to the church door landing a fatal blow, Aldric muttered the words “Strahd will kill you all!!”. Gustavs body arose, he had been bitten before his death and became a Zombie. Monk-E-Dunk’s love for Gustav could not be hidden but he knew what he had to do, he smashed Gustav head clean off his block and piled the body infront of the priests lifeless body, still pinned upon the church door. The players dealt with the skeletons and Monk-E-Dunk’s last action was to somersault and kick both Gustav and the Priest into the church before the players burnt the church down…just to be sure!
The adventure ended with the players making their way back to the tavern for some much needed rest!