-1Armin and the other dwarves sat around the campfire. Haldis managed to catch a few rabbits, and they now sat spitted over the fire. Dark clouds were rolling in over the mountains and thunder could be heard in the distance. Strom, still bandaged and bleeding from his unfortunate magical item from Kendrac, leaned back against a large rock.

"I'm gonna kill him, ye know?" He said to Armin.

Armin shook his head. "Take it easy, Strom. He had good intentions. 'sides, he's tryin' to fix ye."

Strom nodded. "Aye...that's what I'm afraid of."

Kendrac chose that moment to come over to Strom, holding something in his one hand, and holding up his new robes in the other.

"Klerk fix Grumpy!" He grinned.

Strom glared, but said nothing. Kendrac kneeled at his side and began rolling a small object around in his hands as he began muttering. Swaying back and forth he dramatically raised his hands to the heavens, then slammed his hand down on the maligned dwarf. Strom blinked and looked down. The little blond dwarf had covered the dragonclaw amulet with a handful of mud.

"Wha?" Strom began. He stood up, lifting Kendrac up by his beard "That's it. Yer..." He stopped suddenly, staring at the grinning little dwarf.

Wil, watching, spoke up. "What's wrong?"

Strom slowly lowered Kendrac. "I didn't cut 'im! The little goofball actually did it." He grinned, then glared at the magic wielding dwarf. "Keep yer distance, ye got me?"

Kendrac shook his head and tapped the hand Strom was still holding on to him with, and grinned. "Nopenope...you gots me!"

Strom growled and shoved the little dwarf back towards Rom, then looked at Armin. "I'll take first watch."

Armin could not help but chuckle a bit as he pulled the rabbits from the spit. He ripped meat from the carcasses and passed it around to the other dwarves. They ate in silence, until the storm reached their campsite. Lightning flashed in the sky, illuminating the skyline. Soon the sky opened, and rain began to fall on the dwarves. Still grumbling, Strom stood and walked off into the night, to begin his patrol of the surrounding area. Haldis thumped Toren on the shoulder.

"What are ye starin' at?" She asked.

He pointed up towards the mountains above them. "What a sec...there!" Lightning flashed again. "Did ye see it?"

Armin peered into the darkness. "See what?"

"The castle from the wall rug. I just seen it!" Toren insisted.

Wil chuckled. "Yer daft..." She trailed off as another flash of lightning lit up the area, revealing the castle depicted in the tapestry they found in the bandit's lair. Her jaw dropped open a bit. "Well...how 'bout that?"

Armin, looking in the direction the others were looking, shook his head. "Huh...thats kinda spooky."

Rom and Kendrac, not seeing anything of course, just giggled. "Ooooooooooo!" intoned Rom.

From outside the camp, someone or something imitated Rom's sound. Armin, Toren, Haldis and Wil were up in an instant, reaching for weapons. Rom and Kendrac grabbed each other.

"What dat?" Rom asked.

"Werewolf?" Replied Kendrac

"Where a wolf?"

A twig snapped. Kendrac pointed into the darkness. "There a wolf!" He turned and ran, muttering as Rom followed closely on his heels.

The others readied their weapons. From the darkness a figure appeared. It was no werewolf, but some variant of undead. Rotting flesh hung loosely from its bones. One eye hung from an eye socket, and a sickly green glow emanated from the empty socket. Four arms hung from the shoulders, as the creature shuffled towards them through the rain on three mismatched legs. Armin had a look of disgust as he raised his axe.

"Dinna bother." Haldis said casually. She lifted a medallion from around her neck and raised it towards the creature and spoke a word of power. The undead creature twitched, then, with an unholy howl, collapsed into dust.

Toren tilted his head somewhat towards Haldis. "A good trick."

She grinned. "Aye."

Armin walked over to the pile of now mud that was the undead abomination. "What do ye s'pose that was?" He asked.

Whil shrugged, looking around a bit. "I dunno, but somehow I think its connected to that castle."

Toren's shoulders slumped. "I knew someone was gonna say that."

Armin opened his mouth to comment, but stopped as the sound of something crashing through the wet branches. He readied his axe. A shape burst into the light of the campfire, and Armin raised his axe to attack.

Strom skidded to a sudden stop, arms raised. "Woah! don' kill me!"

Armin shook his head, lowering his head and axe. "Don't do that!"

Strom, out of breath, nodded. "Aye...but i gotta tell ye that this place is haunted. I just seen some sorta nasty zombie thing shufflin towards th' camp!"

"Haldis turnt it into dust already." Toren motioned to the pile of mud.

Catching his breath, Strom nodded, then looked around. "Hey...where are th' loons?"

Armin and the others looked around, then Armin groaned, pointing towards a tree. "There's Rom, hiding behind a tree."

Strom looked. "Oh...and th' other one?"

Whil shook her head. "He IS the tree."

Toren blinked. "oh!"