The main group continued along the Ridge Line with no more interruptions from the wildlife, or other random encounters with intelligent enemies. The narrow ravine gradually opened up exiting into the valley below. At the base was a village but there seemed to no clear signs of anyone traversing it. At least not out in the open.

"I don't like this," Serna whispered to no one in particular, "It's a village but there is no one about. This looks like a trap to me."

"Could be," Lazheros told the Shield Maiden as he scanned the surroundings the closer they came to the village.

The elementalist stopped moving and knelt down touching the ground with the palm of her hand against the earth. "Movement near the center of the village."

"Oh-kay!" The Shield Maiden turned towards the Fairy, "Um, Caliaphy, would you like to turn invisble, fly ahead and see what's happening in the center of the village and come back and tell us?"

Caliaphy gave her a wink and faded from view. The fairy flew into the center of town and saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She stopped and looked in the direction of what she believed to be a dog. The canine started barking loudly in her direction as it could hear the sound of her wings fluttering. It jumped towards the fairy and missed. Growling it snapped in her direction again.

All the commotion attracted more canines but something was off about them. Caliaphy panicked and reappeared suddenly. "AHHHHHHH! N..nice doggie. Nice...ulp...doggie. Serna....ahhhhhhhh!"

"I'm coming, Caliaphy, I'm coming!" Serna charged forward before anyone could stop her. Activating her shield, the Shield Maiden created a protective dome around herself that allowed her to careen through the gathering villagers without them touching her.

A single figure lumbered out into view, then another, and another. Their eyes devoid of any life, and their limbs withered, crusty, lifeless but with claws and gnashing teeth. Behind the lifeless villagers, a wicked laughter echoed in the distance.

Serna was able to make it towards Caliaphy and deactivated her shield only long enough so that the Fairy could get under it. Reactivating it once more, the Shield Maiden stood her ground and created another magical dome to keep the undead from overwhelming her and her friend. "Are you okay, Caliaphy? Are you alright? What happened? And what are these things?"

The Bronze Man reached for his holy symbol and his shield and war hammer materialized right before everyone. "Undead!"

"Serna lies within the heart of them!" Willow pointed to the Shield Maiden's position, "Focus your magicks against her shield and use your combined magicks to reverberate off of her shield and throughout the village. It will allow you to conserve both your magick and your endurance."

*******

"So, Dragolem, how much do you know about the trouble we've gotten ourselves into this time?" Irzen asked the Draconic Elemental.

"Trouble? You haven't seen the horde yet, have you? When you see it, let me know what kind of trouble you think we can get into. First things first, we get these four to where they need to be and take out any of the orc riders along the way." Dragolem said grimly.

"Agreed!" Irzen moved off towards the left flank of the Dwarves keeping his eagle eyes out for any trouble.

Danvald and his kin made haste along the narrow rocky path that lead back down into the valley. Hill dwarves were surprisingly good at running over rough terrain and the valley had plenty to go around. Dragolem kept pace with the hill dwarves easily enough even though he remained on their right flank keeping watch for trouble.

Irzen also was able to keep with the Hill Dwarves as he scanned his surroundings for any signs of trouble.

Danvald and kin maintained a steady pace towards the road and stopped suddenly. The sounds of orcs on worgs were close by. The dwarves crept up to where they had hid one of their supply wagons and armed themselves preparing for a fight. Meanwhile Dragolem climbed up into a gnarled oak tree that gave him a skyline view of the enemy. He snorted from the foul smells on the wind and was able to pinpoint the direction of the noise. Grumbling, he jumped back down to the ground effortlessly next to the Swordsman. "A pack of five riders, ten totally if you included the worgs directly ahead of us on the other side of the road, maybe fifty yards give or take."

"Any way you can see getting around them without them picking up our scent?" The Swordsman asked drawing forth his blade, Evenflow.

"Where's a druid when you need one," The draconian said quietly, "Stay with the dwarves. I will handle the worg pack. All I have to do is find a female worg in season and the worgs will throw off their riders in a heart beat. Nature calls. Back in ten."

"Good luck." Irzen replied quietly.

Just as Dragolem said, the howls of the worgs disappeared leaving behind five angry orc riders wondering what the heck just happened. Several minutes passed and Dragolem stepped out the tree's shadow, "You think you can handle five orcs now? What happened to the infamous leader of the Shadow Riders, have you gone soft?"

"Nah! I just like UNFAIR fights," Irzen smiled from ear to ear, "You know, the fights where the odds are obscenely in MY favor."

Danvald gripped his hammer, "We'll take five orcs over an ogre any day. Lets go!"

"Now we're talking!" The Swordman leapt from the woods and charged towards the Orcs with Evenflow in hand.

Before they could fully process what was happening to them, the Dark Elf did a move-by maneuver with his sword that gutted the nearest Orc to him.

Danvald and his kin charged into three orcs like the defensive tackles on a football team. The only difference was, they pummeled the orcs into the ground. Broken knee caps and bashed in heads made quick work of them.

Dragolem stepped out the shadow of a tree and seized the last orc and snapped its neck. "Hmph!"

"Nice work, everybody," Irzen grinned from ear to ear, "We hit them so hard and so fast that they did not have time to either escape or raise an alarm. Nice work indeed!"

Danvald and his kin went through the bodies of the orcs and found some gold, a couple of maces, and a short sword. "The bodies stay as they are. There's a few natural predators that prowl throughout the valley. They just happened to be in the cross hairs of a couple of owlbears. Let's keeping moving."

"Agreed!" Irzen took up his previous position on the left flank of the Dwarves and largely remained silent as they moved onward.