Xalmann carried a heavy sack over his shoulder, clinking and clanking with the sound of the metal jewelry and other valuables they could pillage from the now open graves. The Lizardman had agreed to help his old friend, Granth, once again. This time, the favor was with helping to rob the graves of the wealthier folk buried in the graveyard near Stargazer Village. It wasn't the most exciting work nor honest work, but Xalmann still agreed to help nonetheless. He wasn't above stealing from the dead. He'd done it before, though the corpses had been a bit fresher. The two had raided a wagon, using some Goblin as a distraction. The whole operation had been very successful. It was the first time the red Lizardman and the bandit had ever worked together, and it hadn't been the last. This time likely wouldn't be either.

Boris, one of Granth's bulkier subordinates, was deep in a hole, shoveling the dirt from it to reach the coffin below. After the shovel finally struck the wooden lid, he let out a short laugh of victory. Boris certainly was more excited about this than Xalmann.

"Let's see what this Shaun Riley guy's got on 'im!" Boris called out from inside the hole as he pried the lid off the coffin and flipped it open to see what was inside.

Granth kept his eyes sharp as Boris pried the lid off, his bow in his hand with an arrow gently nocked. There was plenty of treasure to be had, true, but there was plenty of danger, too, and Granth wasn't one to let greed blind him. He was greed's master, not the other way around. While Boris, Raff, and Xalmann grabbed treasure, Granth remained vigilant.

"Aw, look at that!" declared Boris, laughing raucously as he eyed the insides of the coffin. "He's got rings, an old sword, a shield... Was this Shaun Riley fellow a soldier or something?"

"Don't matter," Granth answered bluntly, keeping his eyes focused on the area around the group. "Just grab the loot."

Boris shrugged, then carefully started pulling the rings away, passing them on up to Raff who passed them to Xalmann. Granth furrowed his brow. Something made the hairs on his arm stand up, and he couldn't tell precisely what it was...

Little did the looters know that something else was in the graveyard that night.

With the corpse stripped of all its valuable, Boris laughed happily at the haul. He even knelt down and gave Shaun a couple slaps on the cheek, or the cheek bone to be more accurate.

"Thanks for the gift, pal." Boris said to the corpse that lie in the coffin, giving no response. 

The man with no respect for the dead reached up out of the pit and grabbed the edge of the grass, Raff grabbing his other hand to help him up. Boris pulled himself up with Raff's help and was about to hook his leg up over the edge, when he suddenly yelped and fell back down into the pit, like he was being pulled from Raff's grip.

Down in the pit, the corpse of Shaun Riley had its arms wrapped around Boris's waist from behind, a groan escaping what remained of its lips. Boris let out a shrill scream at the zombie whose face was looming over his shoulder. The same groaning escaped from all the open graves left behind in the group's wake as bony, decayed hands started to grip the edge of each pit. And the group had indeed left quite a lot of open graves behind...

An arrow zipped out and planted itself in the wrist of the zombie grabbing Boris, snapping the limb off and freeing the terrified bandit. The big brute kicked the weakened zombie away, then threw himself fully out of the pit, gasping as he rolled over on the grass. Raff helped him up to his feet.

All around the graverobbers rose zombies, lurching forward in a disorganized spread, slowly converging into one mass. They made their way toward their looters with mindless hunger, their limbs bending in awkward ways as they tried to reach out and grab that which was still out of reach. It was unnerving.

Granth sucked in a breath, then muttered to Xalmann, "We're going to need that fire of yours."

The one-handed zombie that Boris had just escaped tried to claw its way out of its grave, but a good ol' mace to the face was enough to settle it down with a CRUNCH! There were still plenty of others, however, and Granth nocked an arrow.

"Why the Hell'd these things choose NOW to start getting uppity?!" warbled Raff tremblingly.

"Don't matter! Just shoot, dammit!" Granth commanded.

Raff didn't need further urging. He loaded his sling with trembling hands, then whirled the thong above his head. As Granth loosed several quickly shot arrows into the growing mass of undead, a couple sling stones started whizzing out as well, the fiery projectiles¹ finding their mark and setting zombies ablaze.

"Come on, Red! Get cooking!" growled Granth as the zombies trod over their own fallen to get closer and closer to the miscreants.

---

Abilities used: 1) Enchanting Sigil (Fire)

Before Granth spoke, Xalmann was already unsheathing his axe and dagger, the axe glowing red. He and his allies were close together, and there wasn't much space between them and the growing, groaning horde. He had to hold off on letting his fiery aura ignite for now, else he'd cause more harm to his companions than to the zombies. He threw his burning axe into the crowd, cutting down a line of the undead shambling toward them, before the axe was embedded in the chest of a hulking figure. A large, brutish man with two long, yellowed tusks growing from their fleshless jaw bone. The zombie of a man that was at least half Orc. The flesh sizzled around the axe, but the zombie was unphased.

Xalmann narrowed his eyes and raised his hand to the side. The axe vanished from the chest of the Orcish ghoul and reappeared in the Lizardman's grip. The empty space in front of them was quickly being flooded with more zombies. Behind them was a large, marble building, a mausoleum. It might offer some shelter, but it could also trap them if the horde could break in after them. This situation was dire. The Lizardfolk would need to use everything he had to survive this, including the fiery aura of his, and Granth knew it too, shouting out for him to get cooking.

"Back away or I will burn you too." Xalmann warned the others before his scales began to glow, heating up in a way that was very familiar to the masked man beside him.

---

Arcane Soul
Always There
Heat Cloak

Granth wasted no time once the heat rose around Xalmann. He started rushing toward the mausoleum up the hill, drawing forth a couple green-feathered arrows with little vials inside their arrowheads. He came to a sudden stop, letting Boris and Raff run past him as he turned back toward the encroaching zombies. The archer took aim, then he loosed.

The two arrows landed in the biggest clumps of zombies. They didn't fell any of them outright, but as the vials inside the arrows struck, they shattered, spraying acid that washed over the undead horde in all directions.¹ The waves of zombies slowed to a crawl as their skin sizzled and popped, buying the bandits time to get to the mausoleum.

"Xal! Get over here!" Granth shouted, taking aim with another arrow toward the zombies the lizardman was fighting. "I'll cover you!"

Granth held his aim, waiting for the perfect moment to loose. He didn't want to accidentally hit his friend. That wouldn't end well for anyone.

Boris and Raff focused their efforts on taking down a couple zombies that managed to avoid the acid, buying as much time as they could for everyone to make their escape.

---

Abilities used: 1) Blighter's Arrow (x2)

The zombies burst into flames as they near the glowing Lizardman, slowly stumbling and collapsing to the ground, but it was still a difficult fight. They didn't go down immediately from the flames. They still swarmed in, trying to scratch and bite at him as he cut them down with his axe and his dagger. They also didn't seem affected at all by by his dagger, like people usually were. They didn't freeze in horror, giving Xalmann no time to take a breath during this struggle.

While he fought, the arrows and stones from his companions helped, but he couldn't keep this fight up forever. The others had retreated into the mausoleum. At least the burning bodies piling up in front of him slowed the horde down somewhat, but soon the Orcish zombie would approach. He doubted his chances of fighting that one while surrounded by so many more undead. He would have to follow the others into the mausoleum if he wanted a chance at surviving this ordeal.

He backed up toward the door and away from the crowd, sheathing his dagger. In one hand, he conjured a small flame that rapidly expanded into a sphere of flame larger than his head. He threw it high, arcing over the frontmost zombies to land on the larger Orcish zombie, setting it and the nearest other zombies ablaze. Immediately after tossing the fire bolt, he also threw his axe forward into the crowd, cutting down another line of them before turning and running toward the mausoleum, his axe reappearing in his hand again as he crossed the threshold, the glow of his scales fading to not harm his allies in the small space.

He hoped the Orc would burn and collapse before it reached the door of the building. If it didn't, they wouldn't be very safe in here for long.

---

Heat Cloak
Conflagration
Fire Bolt
Always There

One more green feathered arrow soared out as Xalmann made his hasty retreat.¹ It smashed into the group Xalmann had just been fighting, and the advance of the throng became even more clumsy and slow as acid splashed over the undead. But the orcish zombie still advanced, still marched with steadfast determination toward the ground with its huge, grasping arms outstretched. It felt no pain. It felt no fear. It knew only hunger, and it would not be stopped so easily.

Then a fiery stone² flew out and struck the monster in the foot, tearing a huge chunk clean off. Suddenly unable to maintain its balance, the massive zombie collapsed forward onto its stomach, groaning as its jaw slammed into the dirt. Unable to stand, it grabbed the earth before it and pulled itself slowly toward the bandits, dead eyes staring emptily ahead.

Still, the creature had been slowed down enough. As Borish smashed one zombie that got too close away with his mace, Granth started leading everyone inside the mausoleum. As soon as everyone was safely within, he slammed the doors shut, bound it in place with an old, disused bar, and caught his breath as the weight of the horde slowly gathered outside.

Granth looked around. It was pitch black. He frowned, then grabbed an unlit torch off the wall, holding it out to Xalmann.

"Got a light?" he asked wearily, chuckling as he did. "We're going to have to find another way out of here. Dropped the treasure, yeah...? No matter."

Granth took a deep breath, then listened to the sounds of the mausoleum, hearing a distant squeak. He smiled thinly.

"You see a rat, don't kill it," he told the group firmly. "Critter might just help us find the way out."

---

Abilities used: 1) Blighter's Arrow (x1); 2) Enchanting Sigil (Fire)

In the nearly pitch black interior of the mausoleum, the only visible thing was the Lizardfolk. The gaps between his scales, like the glowing cracks in a cooling pool of lava, his bright yellow eyes, and the red hot blade of his battle axe. It was a startling sight for anyone that wasn't already acquainted with the fiery Lizardman.

A bit of light filled the dark room as the scales on Xalmann's hands and forearms began to glow, but the burning aura was contained to only his clawed hands this time. The heat wouldn't be enough to harm anyone that didn't come into direct contact with them. He pressed the flat of his glowing axe against the torch Granth held out until it burst to life, the Lizardman willing the flames to grow to a decent size from the small embers.

He simply nodded at Granth when he said not to kill any rats they might find and turned toward the stairs at the back of the mausoleum, holding one hand up to help light the path ahead while the other gripped his axe at his side. His grip tightened as the distant sound of a groan echoed up from the mausoleum's depths. Of course, they should have know zombies would already be in here too. What purpose does a mausoleum serve other than containing corpses?

"We are not safe here." The Lizardfolk said over his shoulder as he cautiously descended. Even with zombies inside, the only way to go was forward. The zombies outside were already piling up against the door, blocking any hope of going back that way. They'd just have to hope there was another exit to this tomb or it might become theirs as well.

---

Scorching Touch
Arcane Soul
Control Flames