They got up at first light, Alice awaking with a start a half form spell on her lips. Somewhere between a fire ball and a fire bite, she hastily cancelled it before she burnt down the inn. Vivian woke up and her artificial eye whirred round until she mentally got a hold of it. Vivian looked at herself in the mirror. There was a certain pressure she felt looking at the scar, she needed to do something she was not sure exactly what.

Even if she paid to have it healed it would be there under her skin, she was not sure how to combat that, strong alcohol hunting a monster talking to a priest? She was not sure of the course of action, but she had to do something. She found Alice and got her to recharge the golem eye with mana. Martin woke up checked his equipment and headed for breakfast David was already there. It was a sort of shellfish hot pot.

When they were mostly finished a woman form the village militia appeared at the table. She directed them to sheriff’s office next to the gate, then left for her duties. They finished their meal and washed it down, then went to meet with the sheriff.

Alyson Appleby's plain looking office was full of stacks of equipment for the militia. Most of it looked like it need to be repaired presumably due to the battle they had just fought for the village. There were piles of bent spears and broken arrows. There were a few more refined additions personal touches an old landscape painting on the west wall of the bay view of north port. Above it was a second painting of a leviathan next to a ship. A third painting of a grand old warship hung next to it. There were some quivers of arrows hanging up, steel needle heads the sheriff’s own preference and a few bits of rough furniture about.

She was quite formal now, “the four masters you have my thanks, for defending my home. Nicole the necromancers Bain took her horse and left early this morning. She had a message relayed to her and had to head off. Now that you are free from her mission you can start to make your journey back to North port and the bishop. I am sure they will reward you; I wish I could offer you something, but the mayor and the trade guild representative out voted the priest”.

She dug out a small piece of paper, she had a map on the wall pointing out a section of road.

“I can point you in the direction of a bounty, see this point there is supposedly a ghoul nest out of the way back hear. A ghoul lord or champion must be leading the nest. Ghouls are not usually smart creatures, but they have hardly been noticed. Yet we are sure they have a high number. It would be best if they were destroyed sooner rather than later”.

“I was half expecting a vampire to arrive with them in tow to help siege our settlement. If It had gone on longer, we might have seen them. There is a reward of 75 silver for clearing them out. Bring the heads back to North port and they would be able to pay you, if you see the sheriff”. Vivian thanked her and off they went.

They checked in with the coach driver, he was ready to go. They had everything that they needed for the journey, rations water in a flask and ale in a small barrel. They headed off out from Lighthouse hill the light would be burning again. They headed off down the trail finding a spot without much game. Heading left up a barely used trail they started to near the ghoul nest.

There were warning posts near the break in the trail and near the entrance to a natural cave. They had been put up a long time ago. This nest was marked, people moved around it, but no one had dealt with it. The coach driver had his horses ready to move off he stayed alert. The group left him and headed off to investigate the ghoul nest.

The entrance to the cave had few tracks, something had gone to the effort of getting a branch and scratching out the tracks. There was some beast that knew the worth of remaining stealthy. Alice activated her ring of light and Martin pulled out a torch lighting it with his tinder box. He lit a second torch and passed it to David. Vivian found her artificial eye could penetrate the caves darkness quite easily.

Martin looked at the group, “we have done this a few times before let’s get the bone chewers”.

They advanced down the cave with David at the front. The ghouls that charged them from the depths were quite well developed. Hardly any trace of their former human features could be detected. They had grown to about seven feet tall, eyes pits of burning hatred and hunger noses mostly gone. There jaw massively warped gaping maws, filled with needle sharp teeth. There limbs exaggerated with the first two fingers and thumbs extended to formidable claws. There muscles bunched and large tense ready to explode into violence. They had clawed feet suited to grip the floor of the cave.

There were five of them lead by A ghoul champion heavier in build and a greyer colour. They had all developed very heavy bony growths a sort of armour around them. It covered the top of their skulls their shoulders spines chests. With plates on their upper arms and upper thighs, giving them some resistance to attacks.

Alice cast illusionary allies on herself and a shield spell on Vivian. David charged forwards Martin used a low-level defensive blessing on himself and moved forwards. The ghouls sent a shower of caustic vomit and explosive bile towards the party. Martins defensive blessing and David's shield took up the brunt of the attack. The explosive bile rocked his shield, but the curve directed most of the force away from David. The ghouls didn't hesitate for a second and charged in expecting their prey to be stunned.

They were not even phased; Martin emptied his pistol into the first two ghouls. Two shots a piece into the head and they were out of the fight. Alice threw two acid strikes into the first ghoul melting most of its right arm and face off, it fell to a fire bite collapsing back. David stunned a third ghoul then delivered a cut embedding his sword into its head that sent it staggering back only to drop dead. The last one the ghoul champion aimed for Vivian with another shot of caustic bile the shield Alice had cast did its job. Vivian put two Damascus bodkin arrows into the ghouls and down it went, they briefly checked that the ghouls were all dead then moved on.

They got further into the ghoul nest the place was far more damp than the last ghoul nest that they had tackled. The smell of rotten dead detritus was horrendous, god alone knew how many lonely travellers had been pulled into this cave never to see the light of day. Or worse joined the ranks of the ghouls.

They moved deeper into the cave Vivian used her enhanced perception to note claw marks on one section of the wall. Silently she gestured to the party to look up, Martin had his pistol loaded and ready. Alice had a fire ball spell at her fingertips. A gesture and the fire ball ignited Martin fired all four barrels. Three ghouls fell from the ceiling. One had taken most of the pistol shots and was dead the other two had been caught by the fire ball and were singed, Vivian caught the next with a bodkin arrow. David sliced the one that landed next to him in half at the waist, it crawled half a foot forwards and collapsed.

They moved a few feet forwards, one of the ghouls was faking it pretending to be dead. When Vivian went to pry her arrow free it lurched forwards towards her, trying to rake its claws over her. She had good armour and a backup weapon; she forced her dagger into the ghoul’s brain right through its eye. The poison enchantment did a little extra damage, but it was redundant as she pulled the knife out of the ghoul’s head. “dam fucker gave me a jump, Alice it hit me healing please”. a short healing spell and Vivian's ribs felt a hell of a lot better.

A group of eight ghouls headed for them, a tactic that was probably designed to overwhelm them. Martin held up his holy symbol “smite smite” two lightning bolts hit the first ghoul and it collapsed dead. “Pillar of salt” the next ghoul gripped its sides and collapsed to the ground. Alice deployed her poisonous gas cloud and electric strike spells in the close confines of the corridor, injuring and weakening the ghouls she grinned.

David blocked a stream of immolating breath from one ghoul. The stuff could dissolve steel, but his enchained Damascus was strong enough to resist the attack without damage. His sword cut the injured ghoul down to size. He slashed at the next ghoul wounding it. Vivian finished the rest off with mithril arrows. David checked the bodies giving each one a good stab with his sword, before they were sure that they were not playing dead.

They advanced into a larger open room there was a ghoul overlord he was almost black in colour, a very dark grey in both his skin colouration and bone plating. The ghoul overlord actually had some brains and some sense of self. He wore a cloak that might have been fashioned from a troll skin. He was carrying a shield and sword, the shield looked to have been taken from a militia man then coated with some dark resin that hardened it.

The sword was a two-handed weapon that looked like something used to butcher cattle, rather than a military weapon. For the size of the seven-foot six ghoul it was a one-handed weapon. The almighty alone knew where the ghoul overlord had acquired it from. The ghoul grinned at them another twenty nightmare ghouls were scattered around the chamber. The adventurers would not enter and lose one of their primary advantages, the ability to limit the ghoul’s attacks to a narrow area. They were not foolish enough to charge in.

The ghoul overlord had a crown of bony protrusions over its skull armour. They extended looking a little like teeth or thorns. The ghoul overlord had much thicker bone armour extending to his legs and for arms the backs of his hands and feet, he was far tougher than the nightmare ghouls. He did surprise them as he grinned with a mouth full of needle-sharp teeth. His voice was damp almost squelching with an odour of decay and rot. “Welcome to my court, you will make fine additions, once we have infected you”.

The overlord was smart enough to think and had been quiet for some time, he directed his minions forward. Martin used his blessings hallowed earth field of wrath and circle of consecration to fill the entrance of the chamber with holy damage. To unmake the abominations barrelling down upon him. Alice hit the area with electric strike and poison gas cloud. David switched to a purely defensive fighting style to hold the ghouls back while Vivian started to put mithril arrows into the attacking horde. Hitting the first rank and penetrating strait through to the ones behind.

It took Vivian a moment to realise that these were not very sensible tactics for a thinking monster. Where they had no idea of the total number of ghouls they could be lured into a trap of some sort. She spun around just as a ghoul was a foot away from her. Her Adamantine arrow went straight through its head and struck the one behind it knocking that ghoul to the floor.

The ghouls pressed the attack, Martin was hit with caustic vomit and exploding bile. He fired back with his four barrelled pistol and his other weapons. He recovered healing himself with divine favour. There were several patches on his jacket and clothes where he had been hit. The mask he took from the archanist did an excellent job of protecting his face. Alice desperately cast fire balls at the ghouls streaming towards her. Vivian loosed more of her high-end arrows and David was left holding back twenty odd injured ghouls that were rapidly healing.

The ghouls had sneaked around them from a short high-up side passage they had not noticed. There were no claw marks on the walls. It had been a well-prepared ambush, the ghoul overlord didn't have a full grasp of the calibre of the adventures he was facing. Martin threw his octium blades precise head shots with the high-end weapons and four ghouls were down. A fire ball spell and an electric strike filled the corridor behind them with sparks of electricity and burning fire that left a handful of ghouls to be finished off by Vivian.

David had done a sterling job of keeping the other twenty ghouls at bay. He launched a shield block that sent ghouls hurtling back into their own ranks. Scythe like cuts with his blade that ended more than one ghoul.

The ghoul overlord could see his horde taken apart and he was far less assured of his position. He stood ready to face them, occasionally he would spew his immolating breath at David. Only for him to block it with his shield. Martin reloaded his pistol from behind David then sent a hail of silver balls towards the ghouls killing three of them. Two mithril arrows sailed over David's shoulder hit a ghoul and continued on to the ghoul behind them.

Alice let lose a poison gas cloud spell then rained acid strikes down on the remaining ghouls. The ghoul overlord tried to aim over David to the back line. Alice had already cast a shield spell over herself. The torrent of caustic bile ran down her shield and sizzled on the floor. The ghoul overlord was out of minions, David cut through the last two and advanced. The ghoul overlord backed away slowly.

He was a high-level opponent with substantial armour and weapon to hand. It meant very little in the end. Vivian shot his shield to pieces with two broad head iron arrows. The crude shield split from the impacts. The next arrows hit it in the shoulder they were Adamantine. The ghoul overlord was hit by Alice's icy tomb spell. The cold damage would not do that much to him, but the freezing effect would leave the ghoul almost completely open to attack.

Martin was quick to take advantage giving the ghoul all four barrels from his pistol David rushed forwards he blocked the ghoul's blade with his own and stopped the ghouls immolating breath with his shield. He cut into its chest with two adrenalin powered strikes and the battle was over. Vivian had to wonder the direction the ghoul was retreating. Did it have more troops that way, had it prepared a secondary line of defence.

Vivian looked at the dead nightmare ghouls thankfully they were genderless. Wither they were men women or children after the infection took hold, they were all the same. It was best not to dwell on it. Martin looked at the dead ghouls consulting his book of monsters, “with the exploding bile the bone armour and the size of the spines these things were level 35 nightmare ghouls they don't come much tougher”. He looked at David, “good job immolating breath can be blocked with enchanted Damascus”. They very carefully moved down the chamber. There were two exits one of them seemed to be a latrine they backed off and headed down the other foul-smelling dank passage.

They found two people a man and a woman buried up to their shoulders in a pit covered over with rocks and some sort of bile like resin. They were changing their skin was growing pail some of their teeth elongating their hair starting to fall out. An animalistic look flashed in their eyes. The man looked at them, “please help us we can be saved”. They were infected but they might be ok if treated, Martin held his holy symbol up to one then the other “purify, purify”.

Their faces seemed to return to normal, even if it did look very painful. They pulled the rock around them apart the resin snapped, then they dug them out. Vivian spoke to them, they claimed that they had run from an archanist attack on their village. Vivian sent them on their way back to the coach driver. They could then drop them off at a village. She vaguely remembered a report of two people unaccounted for when the masks constructs had attacked. For now, they could wait with the coach driver.

The woman turned to them before heading for the exit, “be careful there was a real fat ghoul. It looked really big it went down there, led by another one. The smart one, they brought it some corpses a dear and a cow. I could hear the sound; it ate them so it must be really massive now”. Martin had to make a guess there was a siege ghoul that was about to metamorphose from a regular ghoul. That would be a pain to deal with, especially in a tight tunnel. He loaded each barrel of his pistol with an overload shot and the group headed further down.

There was a cocoon that seemed to be made from ghoul skin. It was open, split apart by something coming out. The something was quite obvious it was about twelve feet tall. A very strong opponent, a young siege ghoul. Its flesh was wet and glistening half formed it couldn't have finished its metamorphosis more than a few days ago. It still had a long way to grow to become the kind of monster that could cleave through city walls, but it had its first foot on the ladder. Fighting it in an enclosed space was a bad idea. They had a lot of offensive spells and blessings and high-end arrows to take something like that down quickly.

Martin spelled out a basic plan, “Alice let me hit it with my pillar of fire. Then you hit it with your icy tomb David try to distract it, Vivian can you get it in the eye. The beast had colossal regeneration like a troll, but it lacked a big troll's thicker hide”.

David rushed forwards towards the siege ghoul, it was unsure of what was going on exactly. The mass of armour plating moved around the cave easily avoided its lunge and sliced into its leg. Martin held his holy symbol forwards he longed to use a blessing as powerful as pillar of fire. To feel the divine spark pass through him for even a second. “Pillar of fire” the beast was suddenly immersed inside a pillar of roaring fire, it was potent enough to burn away its skin and char its flesh.

The beast panicked screwing its eyes tightly shut to protect them. It screamed in pain and tried to use its hands to pat the flames down stomping away at random. David circled around at a safe distance. Ready to rush in and start stabbing away as soon as the holy fire ended. Alice took the opportunity to cast defensive spells on herself, her illusionary allies her shield spell. Vivian fired arrows into the beast’s skull it tried to protect its head with one hand.

The fire ended and Alice hit it with her icy tomb spell. The siege ghoul identified a target in front of it and launched a stream of corrosive bile. Only to eliminate the nearest illusionary copy of Alice, she completed her spell and the ghoul's massive body began to freeze over. Its movements slowed and it started to realise how badly wounded it really was. David carved away at its leg with adrenalin strikes carving into its left leg. Martin emptied all four barrels from his pistol into its skull, Vivian put three Adamantine arrows into its skull the beast was already on deaths door.

It started to panic and flail about as Vivian hit her mark on its eye. Its clawed arms hit the ceiling bring chunks of it down onto itself. A large piece struck it head moments after it brought down part of the ceiling crashing down on itself. It was dead a huge shard of rock embedded into its skull and chest. David checked it was dead putting his blade through its other eye without any reaction.

The level up hit they all gained two levels for that monster, the ghoul champion and the rest of the nightmare ghouls that they had killed. Martin took Another level in combat medic and gained the focus stitch ability. Allowing him to rapidly close wounds without the need for a healing blessing. He gained another class level at level 75. A very important one he was now a grand master he could see why vampires didn't like fighting a grand master. His body and mind were assaulted with the change. His mind hummed as if every neuron every cell every cluster was reworked straightened out cleared.

Alice had descried something similar when she first got the ability to wield more than one spell at a time. It was the most noticeable his focus was improved, instead of having to use three points of focus to utilise an ability he could now do it with 2 points. He was now able to focus a third more efficiently on his tasks and on the use of his focus abilities. He could use his chain smite blessing for 50% longer greatly increasing its power.

His body was hardened he had gained the second level of the vitality ability. It was quite a bit more potent than the werewolf's vitality he had just over 2500 hit points. Every cell in his body had protested as it was re-forged stronger. There was an ache in his bones a twang in his sinew. He had such high endurance that he could ignore it, withstand the entire lot and stay standing.

He had gained a few extra blessings two more uses of the smite blessing, one more use of the pillar of salt blessing but most importantly a ranged blessing called word of judgement. An attack that did equal parts sonic and holy damage but also stunned a target for five seconds, the perfect way of putting a high-level opponent out of a fight to give them a breather.

Alice reached level 66 she gained a spell bonus vitality and then the improved version of it. A suggestion form lady Imoline she could use it on herself to protect her with the extra temporary toughness. Or she could use it on David to buff up the front-line fighter, it could also be used to stabilise someone badly wounded, so that a healing spell could be utilised to bring them back up to strength.

David reached level 62 gaining two ranks in the skill counter shield defence. He remembered fighting the demon before, he was focused on improving his martial abilities against a wide assortment of foes. But some were harder to counter some more prevalent than others. Vivian reached level 64 she got her strike through target skill up to level 4. It had certainly helped against the ghouls tightly packed in the tunnels, hitting the front ranks and the back ranks a moment later.

David looked about “well that's good seventy-five silver in the bank. Alice can you sense anything magical maybe dropped by anyone else that was hear before us, Martin what bits of ghouls do alchemists use”? Martin looked through his monster book using the torch light, “apparently the heart can be used for alchemy the ghoul bladder, I mean gallbladder as well. It might be worth five to ten silver for the effort. If we get them out of this lot especially the siege ghoul, Vivian you still have that axe we took from the basilisk bandits in your pack”? “yes, I still have it”. Martin had one of his octium knives, “David you collect the heads including the siege ghoul, Vivian if you cut them open and crack the ribs, I will harvest the organs”.

Alice was not really wanting to get involved in dismembering the monsters. She checked with the two rescued people then set about searching the ghoul nest for anything in the remains that could have been taken from human victims. These ghouls had kept a low profile no teams of adventures had taken them on even with the bounty, there were no prizes hidden in the remains. The ghouls had been targeting very poor people or perhaps lone travellers. There was nothing but a few mangled belt buckles clasps and a very rusty dagger. Martin snagged a couple of pieces from the remains, but the rest was junk not worth taking back.

The ghouls were reduced to a bag of heads and a bag of organs. There gutted carcases were piled up by the side of the road, the siege ghoul was dismembered and added to the pile. It was too much of a risk to leave it a prime target for a necromancer or the like. They pulled down a couple of scraggly bushes a bit of oil and a spark and the ghouls were a burning pyre. Martin said a brief prayer for the people that they had been, before they were changed.

Martin used his purify blessing on Alice David and Vivian, just to be on the safe side. They ate there meal mostly smoked fish and a shellfish stew. sharing with the survivors and the coach driver, the man and woman were betrothed. They had been catching a private moment when the attack happened. So they fled over the wall using a blanket as a makeshift rope. Then they headed for lighthouse hill as the biggest local settlement. But on the road the ghouls had grabbed them and decided to change them.

They stopped off at spring wall, a quick check and they were let in. The village had already been visited by extra troops from Northport, who had told them about the massacre at Sand Point. The villagers had already figured as much from the size of the attack that they survived, others would not be so lucky. They saw a few more caravans on the road a brief conversation they were moving Some of the food stores from Sand Point to redistributed to Light House Hill. Then they would move the freed slaves from light house hill and try to resettle them at Sand point to start building the village back up again.

It was getting quite dark when they got back to North port, they went through the usual checks. Word of their successful defence of light house hill was already spreading. Their names were already better known. Martin purified the ghouls remains so that no infection could spread. They could sell them as ingredients which they did, netting them 10 silver at the merchant’s guild. They saw the deputy sheriff and claimed the bounty on the ghoul’s heads, most were burnt but the siege ghoul and the ghoul overlord were kept as trophies for the sheriff’s office.

The driver took them through the darkened streets to a large fancy but well-fortified residence. They were being put up in the guest rooms. It was very comfortable and a welcome break from the road. They had beer and bread in the servant’s quarters. They turned in for bed apart from Alice who read then reluctantly turned in for bed.