Deadcember is upon us and what better time for the undead to rise.... against eachother.
The Cult of Necromancers had been hard at work, researching the location of the elusive unholy relic, the skull amulet of Krell, its true powers yet unknown.
They have tracked down the most likely hiding place in an old forgotten graveyard and the three, Roderich, Mortimer and Faust, set out to retrive the item. When they arrived, it seemed they were not the only ones to learn of the relic's whereabouts.
Upon reaching the graveyard walls, Faust curses as the three vampires, Barbs, Whiskii and Ghoulia have also made an appearance, obviously acting on information from spies. They bring with them vampire bats, ghouls, and skeletal contingients of spears, swords and cavalry.
The necromancers are not ill prepared, having raised a small zombie horde, their own skeletal contingents, a gargoyle they constructed and have enlisted the service of two harpies.
Both sides advance to the graveyard, eager to begin searching the tombs, but also willing to put a stop to their opponents similar efforts.
The first to attack is the gargoyle, swooping down to smash into the cavalry on the flank, tearing bones and ripping through armour.
The vampire bats seize the opportunity for a rear strike and descend upon the gargoyle, scratching and gouging at its stony exterior with razor sharp talons of their own.
The necromancers flank cavalry waste no time in charging the vampire bats in the rear, outright lancing one of their number through spine and rib. A massive furore ensues, with all sides stabbing, clawing, shredding and tearing, bloodless but for the bats.
Barbs, followed by her undead cat familliar, Felix, summons a swarm of rats from the catacombs beneath the graves and sends them to harrass Faust. Swarming over him, they bite and gnaw his flesh and he curses again, stomping and slashing them till none remain moving.
Ghoulia marches her skeleton contingent into the opposite side of the graveyard and heads for the nearest tomb, while Whiskii searches a grave to find it empty.
Whiskii summons a restless spirit, but Roderich blasts the ghost with his skull-artifact of life draining, turning it into ethereal nothingness.
As Barbs searches the first inlaid tomb, she discovers it to be devoid of the relic and orders the spear skeletons to charge the zombies. The zombies prove to be no match for the spearmen, adept at striking the head and destroying the brain.
The harpies descend upon the sword and shield skeleton unit as Ghoulia is careful to stay behind her boney protectorates. With several losses, the skeletons eventually cut down the harpies, leaving their corpses on the ground in a pool of blood-soaked feathers.
Enraged by the loss of her summoned spirit, Whiskii fires a chilling missile from her staff at Roderich, whose flesh ices over instantly, causing him to topple face first into the ground and shatter into large, frozen chunks of dead necromancer.
Satisfied, Whiskii then summons another ghost, who rises from the vault and begins to claw at the zombies. They being to freeze and seize up at the touch of the ghost and though they try to claw and bite, the zombies physical attacks pass right through the ethereal being.
Mortimer searches the vault and then another grave, but alas, no relic is to be found.
On the flank, the gargoyle is finally destroyed, crumbling into chunks of stone, and the vampire bats are vanquished, leaving the skeletal horsmen locked in a final combat that would see the last three standing belong to the vampires.
On the other flank, the necromancers cavalry win their engangement, with two remaining.
As the battle rages on, it is Barbs who finally discovers the relic in a dilapidated sarcophagus. She truns to Felix, her cat, and ushers him on home.
In the middle of the graveyard, Faust drinks a healing potion and challenges Whiskii to a duel. With zombies and ghouls on one side and skeletons on the other, the altercations begin.
Faust wounds Whiskii with his necrotic sword, but is in turn wounded by her staff. Whiskii casts her life draining frost spell, but it is diminshed and absorbed by Fausts' proctevie ward.
The ghouls make short work of the zombies, tearing them limb from limb and feasting upn their rotted corpses. The spear skeletons outclass the sword unit, but cannot defeat them. The ghouls round the vault and smash into the sword unit, destroying them.
With a final blow, Whiskii jabs Faust in the head, which begins to freeze down through the rest of his body. Licking the blood from her wounds, she kicks him over and watches as he breaks apart into frozen pieces.
On the flank, the skeletons fight back the sword and shield contingent, and Ghoulia overreachers her fighting abilities and is pierced through the heart by a spear. She collapses to the ground, screaming, her body turns to ash, blown away by the wind.
With his fellow necromancers dead, and the army defeated, Mortimer attempts to flee, only to have the ghost claw at his robes. He uses all his strength to summon a second spirit and orders it to fight, escaping only to be chased down by the ghouls.
He makes his final stand, fending off all the attacks, blocking filthy claws and corpse-meat jaws with an amazing display of quarterstaff prowess.
Seeing this, Whiskii lets loose another chilling blast from her staff, caring not a jot for the ghouls, for as the bolt of magic strikes, the surrounding grass and moss and creeping ivy turn white with ice crystals, and both ghouls and necromancer freeze in seconds. With the wave of her hand, all explode into icy fragments.
With the Necromancers defeated and the relic attained, Barbs, Felix and Whiskii return to their haven to sip on nobleman blood from golden chalices whist laughing in the moonlight.
"I never liked Ghoulia anyway." said Barbs, patting Felix gently on his half expsoed skull.
