As they walked out of forest, Grarl peered over to look at the farm that Abagail lived in. Safe behind her walls and locked door, family beside her, protection within the walls and now outside them.

His neck hurt.

Triuk noticed the twinge in Grarl’s neck. “Do we need to tend the wound? We need to avoid infection because we have no healer yet.”

Grarl put his hand on the wound, there was still bleeding. He said, “Can you fix the bleeding at least?”

“Not with something that bad. Shall we go to the farmhouse, maybe they will help with it?”

Grarl, with hand on neck, feeling the thick blood move through his hand, looked across the newly cleared land and crop to the house. He wanted to get help, but he also hated asking for help.

“Grarl, lets go to the farmhouse, farmers normally have basic healers.” With that said, Triuk walked out of the cover of the forest into the open ground.

Grarl was about to follow but a skeleton, scimitar raise, sprung out from the forest and attack Triuk from behind.

Skeleton attacks Triuk: 20 (critical hit)

Damage: 3 +1 = 4 x 2 = 8

The skeleton strikes Triuk in the head. Grarl heard the crunch of the head, saw the blood spout from his skull, it was a terrible blow to the head, yet Triuk didn’t fall down.

Initiative Rolls

Skeleton: 5 + 5 = 10

Grarl: 5 + 2 = 7

Triuk: 5 + 2 = 7

The shock of the attack allowed the skeleton to take another hack at Triuk…….

Skeleton Attack Triuk: 2: Miss

…. but he managed to avoid the second swing by rolling forward out of harm’s way. Grarl snapped into action, withdrew his sword rapidly and swung at the skeleton……

Grarl attacks Skeleton: 1 (Fumble)

….. He was not holding the hilt correctly in his haste and it fell to the ground in front of him. Cursing himself, he bent down to pick it, ensuring he held to properly. The skeleton was moving toward Triuk, but he was ready.

Triuk attacks skeleton: 9 + 3 = 12: Miss

Bloody had made its way into his eyes, blurring his vision and forcing a tragic mistake as his sword swung to far to the left. The skeleton was already over him and struck.

Skeleton attacks Triuk: 2: Miss

Grarl had his sword ready, moved onto the skeleton and hoping to hit it in full.

Grarl attacks Skeleton: 19 + 6: Hit

Damage: 8 + 4 = 12

This time he hit, his sword lodging itself in the skull doing enough damage to cease the existence, the skeleton collapsing to the ground to form a heap of bones, as it should.

Experience Earned.

Split evenly.

75xp each

Grarl Total XP: 650

Next Level achieved at 1000xp

Triuk looked at the skeleton, looked at Grarl, then said, “Well, now we both need help with healing.” Then laughed.

Triuk said, “Walking out like that was stupid. We knew there were skeletons around, I should have checked.”

Grarl said, “Yeah, newby mistake. Don’t do it again. Shall we go to the farm now?”

Grarl waited for Triuk to move, when he stood up and started to walk directly to the farm again, Grarl yelled out, “You didn’t check again.”

He yelled back, “I know, you did it for me.”

Grarl said to himself, “Actually, I didn’t.” and chuckled to himself.

He did check before he walked out though, he saw nothing so proceeded to follow the leader. It didn’t take long to reach the farm. Triuk was looking a little fragile and pale, but he kept up the normal pace, approached the door then knocked three times.

A piece of wood opened a spy hole, an old man looked out then said rather gruffly, “What do you want?”

Triuk answered, “We wanted to let you know that we have been to the graveyard and killed three of the zombies and one skeleton. We also killed another skeleton on your farm.”

The eyes kept peering out of the slot. The man said, “Now what?”

“Nothing else, we are here to simply let you know the progress, and that there will still be skeletons walking around, and maybe a few zombies. We have had a few injuries, so we are heading home to get them mended. We will return tomorrow with two more Orckin to finish the job off.”

Triuk waited for the reply, he got one with the spy hole being shut and the man walking away from the door. They both stood there for a while, Grarl was waiting for a thank you or offer of help. None came.

Grarl said, “I really thought they would at least offer a safe place for the night.”

“Yeah, well, nobody like Orckin, even when we do god things for them. Still, we don’t do this for the glory, just the service.”

Triuk walked toward the track that led to the path heading South. Grarl remained by the door a bit longer, hoping it was some kind of trick. He knew it wasn’t, but he waited anyway. As Triuk began to disappear into the darkness, he decided the lesser side of humans had shown itself.

He did a quick jog to catch up, then fell in beside his friend as they marched their way home.

“So, looks like Orckin are still the worst thing ever, even when we almost die doing it.”

Triuk kept walking silently.

Grarl asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yes. I am a paladin. I do what I do for internal reasons. Not to get acknowledgement, fame or wealth. If a human needs help with zombies, I help them. If orcs need help not starting a losing war with humans, I stand between the orcs and humans to prevent it. It is who I am and what I do.”

They kept making footsteps. Grarl listened to the crunch of gravel as the took their steps back home. Eventually, he said, “I was just thinking. We have no gold because we are making a house to protect humans from orcs. The orcs hate us, the humans hate us, nobody is paying us, we could easily die and probably will. I, for one, am not here to the fun factor, I just want to go home.”

Triuk asked, “Then why don’t you go home?”

“I don’t know where it is.”

They kept walking in silence. Then Triuk said, “When you said Walking Dead back there, did that saying come from your home?”

Grarl stopped walking. Triuk turned to look back at him.

Grarl answered, “It is. Is it the same where you come from?”

“Yes.”

Jason was jumping for joy. He had found another player, he had real company.

“Do you know where home is?”

“Not yet, but I am looking.” They started the walk again. “I have been lost for two weeks now. This is a brutal world, with plenty of ways to die, and I do not want to die.”

“So, why put yourself in the middle of a tense situation, why risk it?”

Triuk said, “I am here to play my part, I came here for a reason. But I wasn’t aware of what I was doing until it was too late. And I have been busted three times finding help, it isn’t worth it. So, I decided to do this instead. Let them show me the way home, and I will go there. Two weeks in, this time I am going all the way.

“What is the context of this conversation?”

Grarl answered out loud, “Home, it is all about home.”

Triuk looked at Grarl. Grarl rolled his eyes to indicate Anna was curious. He got the message.

Triuk said, “We need a Cleric, badly. As I told you before, I heard a rumor about one, Orckin, not orc inclined and doing good things. We will sort the skeletons and zombies out tomorrow night with the other two. Then Masin can stay back to finish the house with the builders while you, me and Nunda go looking for this cleric orckin.”

Grarl waited for Anna to keep talking, to tell him that he was breaching the rules, but she remained silent.

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

With that said, and Jason overjoyed within his own mind, they made their way back home. They had only been gone four or five hours, but Masin and the ten builders were already laying down the first layer of the log house. Nunda was chopping a tree down with strokes that outmatched the men.

When Masin spotted them, he approached to greet them, saw the wounds they both had and called over one of the builders then said, “Can you fix their wounds?”

The builder arrived, looked shocked, then ran away.

Grarl said, “Well, he obviously isn’t up for it.”

Then the man came running back with a small pack, sat beside Grarl, removed a sharp knife then said, “I am going to cut the bandages off. Please trust me.”

Grarl nodded.

Within minutes the builder had the bandages off, cleaned the wound, stitched the gaping hole up, put some sort of foul smelling ointment on it, and bandaged it up again.

Bind Wounds: Successful.

Add 2hp to bring current HP to 5

He moved straight onto Triuk and repeated the process. Grarl was surprised at the level of skill he had. He asked, “Where did you learn to tend wounds so well?”

“I was in the army for five years, I had to learn to fix wounds because there were never enough clerics. I got good at it because I had too. I hate seeing people die.”

Grarl asked Triuk, “Can we take him with us?”

The builder answered, “No, I am a builder. If you need help again, I will help. But I won’t put myself in danger again.”

Triuk said, “Fair enough.”

The night air gradually went from cool to cold. Blankets were brought out, the work stopped, meals made, beds set up and food eaten. The humans stayed together, the Orckin sat to the sides.

Grarl said, “Time to sleep. We can talk about what happened in the morning.”

Nunda said, “Yeah, looks like a story for daylight anyway. I will take first watch.”

As Grarl threw his winter blanket over himself, Anna said, “Day two is over. You have been playing for twenty minutes.”

Jason felt too tired, too sore and to emotional for it to only be twenty minutes. As he fell asleep, his greatest fear was never getting out of the game.