Encounter at Ivy Point part 1

The group had their first job for the Screaming Eagle company. They had to go across this huge primordial forest to this manor known as Ivy Point. Determine if the lady of the house; Countess Angela Krang was still amongst the living, and then if she was not, bring back her will so that her heirs could descend on her property like dragons at a halfing picnic. They gather the essentials and Morton buys a donkey to carry it all.

A nature walk .

They begin their descent into the forest at 6 am. The forest looks like a combination between a jungle and a stately English oak forest, it is teeming with all sorts of life, noises all around them making them jumpy. It takes about a day to get through the forest to the Manor. During that time there are a few mood enhancing encounters. They see a group of giant albino legless ape creatures swinging through the vines in the canopy 200 feet above them. At one point they see what looks like a Tyrannosaurus Rex barreling through the forest about 400 yards to their right. Eventually they get to where they should be coming out of the woods soon, and twilight is setting in. Then they get jumped by a jaguar. Actually, Perdita got jumped by a jaguar and it bit her face, which she wasn't thrilled about at ALL. Tokor thinks quickly and throws his net over the jaguar, the jaguar is knocked to the ground and they quickly kill the noble beast.

Spelunking with Dwarves .

Finally they are out of the woods, and are walking across once manicured grounds that are overgrown and neglected. In the distance they see the white walls of what must be Ivy Point.
So they warily trudge through the knee high (Since most of the group is height challenged waist and neck high respectively.) They get to the walls and the gate is collapsed into a pile of rubble blocking the entrance. Perdita gets a chill up her spine that lets her know that magic was used here. Kaedryn glances beside the gate and finds a secret door, so they tie the donkey up and open the door and it decends into a cavern. Inside the cavern they find another cleverly hidden door, inside of which looks like a combination barracks / Panic room of some sort. They eventually come out in what looks like the pantry of the house, old dusty shelves and rat infested grain.

The lady is in.

They explore the pantry and surrounding servants quarters, Ugly Sal meticulously searching for any sign of trap or hidden passage. Satisfied there is nothing they move onto what looks like a grand dining hall and sitting at the head of the table there is a woman who is obviously dead, she looks like her insides have been sucked out, and all that remains is her skin, she almost looks like a china doll, sitting there in an opulent, baroque dress, made of white silk, covered in rubies. Ugly Sal and Kaedryn walk over there, Kaedryn deftly cuts four rubies off of her dress, Ugly Sal cuts a slit up the side and takes the whole dress. What remains of her deflates into a pile of skin. Tokor scowls at both Ugly Sal and Kaedryn and spits on the floor. "I don't like this" he mutters. Morton quickly offers a prayer to Estanna to guide this woman to a comfortable celestial split level bungalow, even though he knows that only pious followers get to live in her glorious heavenly housing development.

Jealous Bones.

They move on, they come upon a long hallway with four doors adjacent to it; two on the right two on the left. There are huge floor to ceiling windows every six feet or so. One of the doors leads to an old and dusty, but opulent theater room. Perdita sneaks in there while Ugly Sal is making sure the hall is safe. She gets on stages and starts dancing provocatively and singing, working on a new number, she gets into it, swaying and moving to the music like she was a member of the Miami sound machine. She hears clicking and scraping come from behind her, and she sees six skeletons dressed in mock theater finery dancing behind her, they all stop, and look at her in one synchronized movement, their skeletal grins mocking and terrifying her. She runs and get the rest of the group and they dispatch the skeletons with no problem.

He's coming to get you, Perdita!

Walking further down the hall, they come to a large set of double doors, Ugly Sal starts checking them for any sort of trap, and he hears moaning and shuffling of many feet behind the doors.
30 minutes later, after determining that there are no traps on this door, he opens it and peaks inside; where he sees a sea of dead and bloated faces, zombies, and they all start moving towards the door. He closes it quickly, and the party moves back about 20 ft. Ponto runs up and opens the door to let the horde out, Kaedryn deftly launching arrows through the heads and necks of the approaching tidal wave of necrotic flesh. These arrows don't even seem to irritate the zombies. The party braces for battle.

Their finest hour.

The part is arranged with Tokor, Kaedryn, Ponto, and Ugly Sal up front with Perdita and Morton holding up the rear. Within seconds the first group of zombies is dispatched, also, Tokor has buried his trident through Ponto's gut, and Perdita, trying to be useful, has accidentally stabbed Tokor in the face. For the next few minutes, Morton is trying to stabilize Ponto, and while this is happening every other member of the group goes down at least once. Morton does his best to call upon the grace of Estanna to get them healed, but he is frankly overwhelmed with the task. Meanwhile, the zombies are still pouring out of the room, the group makes a decision to smash a window. Morton finally gets Ponto's intestines back in his body, and Perdita picks him up and they leap out of the window into the over grown rose garden outside.

The smell of death and roses.

Quickly a defensive line is formed and Kaedryn, Tokor, and Ugly Sal get to work hacking away at the undead. It works too, everytime one of them is injured, Morton is there to get them back going. The thing is, the zombies just keep mindlessly trudging forward, and Morton is really at the end of his rope. Suddenly, Kaedryn goes down, and the odds are totally starting to stack against the party, Perdita grabs Ponto, and Tokor grabs Kaedryn and they start retreating into the rose garden.

Just call me Borg.

Just when it is really starting to look hopeless, a man on a armored war horse rides up waving the a symbol of the war god Kratos* (Don't be a hater) The zombies are hit with the inexorable force of his faith and are dropped. The rest of the group thanks him and exchanges greetings. He agrees to help them get back to the panic room so that they can rest. He ties his horse up in a relatively safe place and they head back to the cavern. Kaedryn and Ponto are both hurt bad, so they let them sleep, but Borg helps the rest of them heal by calling upon his god. Perdita goes out to bathe in a fresh water spring that they found, and when she comes back, she has fish to eat and reports that when she went back to the donkey to get some clothes that weren't covered in dead flesh that the donkey was gone. Perdita cooks the fish and everyone gets a small piece, the battle weary group then retires for the evening.