After the success of our first battle…
Sorry, I went into too much detail
a couple of our men found the time to work on some new skills. Randolph brushed up on his melee defense, meditated to strengthen his resolve, and worked on some techniques to improve his health. Since he was already pretty effective at hitting his target with his spear, he worked on his ability to cause wounds with each strike (crippling strikes).
Ulfert the Dog, armed with his crossbow took some target practice to become more skilled at hitting his target, sharpened his senses to become a little quicker on the draw, and did laps around our camp to reduce how fast he gets fatigued. We told him to shut up and sit down because he was going to draw unwanted attention, but he wouldn’t listen. Then he surprised us. Drawing diagrams into the dirt, he went over the scenarios where he missed his shots and visualized what he should have done differently. He felt he would learn from his mistakes during the battle now and after a bad shot be able to correct for it (fast adaptation).
Before we left the current town, I stopped by and bought some drinks for the local townfolk. They let us know that Tiefenhaven was looking for guys like us to solve some problem, so off we went - after restocking some supplies. It was only around a days journey.
We learned that they were having some problems with grave robbers so we traveled to the site immediately. When we approached, be could’t see anyone there. As we entered the graveyard we realized that maybe we didn’t see anything because we were looking for an ‘anyone’, instead of looking for an ‘anything’.
6 Nachzehrers (ghouls) charges at us from just beyond our vision. They moved quickly. Never having actually seen one of these things I didn’t know how dangerous they were, but I could tell how terrifying they are. They had been feasting on the bodies of the recently buried. I’m proud of my men for not fleeing at that moment.
Ulfert, the man you don’t really want to be left out on his own, was… well… left out on his own. He took to some high ground and missed his first shot (57%).
Randolph took up position between a tree and a rock, plugging a hole to their approach. He had time to ready his spear for their charge (spearwall). Rebe, with his pitchfork, fell into position behind him. Reimond and Hagen also approached but didn’t take the front line.
They moved faster than we expected and closed the distance to Ulfert. The enemies clawed at Berthold’s patched shirt, but met the sharpt end of Randolph’s spearwall on multiple occasions, getting wounded. The rest were ineffective, but did manage to give Berthold second thoughts (wavering).
Ulfert tried to bide his time, hoping that his allies could take care of the enemy that was in front of him. Berthold tried to stun it, but missed his shot. Luckily Hagen split it in half with his ax and left its corpse where it once stood. Rabe wounded another with his pitchfork, but Reimond couldn’t finish it with his bow. Randolph took up the task and felled it while also wounding another. Ulfert was now able to get of his shot without a monster in his face and pierced the hand of another ghoul.
Armor and shields absorbed the enemy’s blows with other attacks completely missed.
Rabe Hagen missed a attacks they should have made. Once again Ulfert has an enemy in his face, preventing a shot with his crossbow. I’m beginning to think that Reimond has never shot a shortbow before, because I could tell he wasn’t comfortable with it. Randolph was able to hit another one. Ulfert was still blocked by the enemy, which had multiple wounds, so Ulfert decided to risk moving out its range. The monster missed. Ulfert moved away and reloaded.
One of the ghouls feasted on the corpse right in front of our eyes. We weren’t expecting that. We also didn’t expect the horns that grew out of his head and his body seemingly repairing itself. The other enemies missed. Their wounds probably reducing their abilities.
Rabe should have stayed on the farm, because he missed again with his pitchfork. Hagen hacked at another, severing some arm sinew. It tried to flee and was rewarded with another blow from the ax. Another feasted. I’d like to say that you get used to it, but you don’t. More enemies were injured, but none fell.
The enemy tore at Berthold, destroying his hat and cutting the flesh on his head. Another ripped through Randolph’s padded leather. Hagen, Reimond and Berthold missed, but Ulfert landed a shot with his crossbow. Randolph struck back and hit another ghoul. Two enemies try to flee and are cut down.
Now that our armor has been taking a beating, blows are more frequently cutting our flesh. Hagen fells one more.
Smooth sailing the rest of the way.