Chasing down zombies

* The next morning, our party gathered downstairs for breakfast. Addorm also provided ale to compliment our breakfast.
 
* While eating, a male entered the tavern. He wore a fur cloak (looked to be a fox) and had a neat beard and well-tended hair. His left arm was enclosed in a solid wooden shield with some wood beast painted on it. In his right hand, he grasped a wooden branch with the effigy of an eagle atop, shielded by its wings a purple gem sits at its heart. He eyed everyone in the inn and settled upon our table. He strode over and stopped just before us. He eyed all of us then settled on Struth. "Who is your master?" Struth was quick to take out a gold coin then put it away. "That is my master." This made the male laugh and agree that it was a good choice.
 
* He then looked at me and asked the same thing, I replied with 'the sea'. He nodded and commented that the sea was tumultuous but could also be calm. He then turned to Mal and asked the same question again. Mal in turn asked the male who he answered to. "The woods..." He eyed Mary for a moment then looked at all of us again. "I am need of people like you. I cannot offer coin. My name is Adwar." With that, he sat down at our table and spoke of eradicating some zombies. for him. Turns out the creatures that we had faced at the other inn were zombies.
 
* Mal got him to buy us another round as he could not offer coin and the only thing he could offer was to be a guide for us. Adwar told us about the infestation and that he had a group of companions that he had lost. He needed help to wipe the zombie nest out. After much discussion and questions, we agreed to assist up to a certain point then would make our final decision from there. He agreed.
 
* We set off towards the river (which he did show on a map he drew) and could see that there were six zombies. They were quickly taken down by long range by my companions. I felt useless at this stage as I was a close range fighter and the plan was to take them out from across the river.
 
* "Now, we have a day's ride to the zombie nest," Adwar commented. "Lucky we have horses," I remarked. We saddled up and rode for most of the day before we set up camp.
 
* Adwar began to collect rocks to make a ring around a fire, so I went to collect twigs and tinder for the fire itself. Mal went off to catch some food for us all.
 
* Collecting enough wood for the fire and for spare, I sat down as Adwar skinned the rabbits to make our meal. After we all ate a hearty meal, it was decided that Adwar and Mal would do the first watch. That meant that Struth and I would take second watch.
 
* I was woken up by Mal for our watch so I rolled my bedroll back up then sat by the fire. I added some more wood to it. Looking over at Mary, it seemed that she was awake. Getting up, I walked over to her and could see that she was definitely awake. "If you cannot sleep, why don't you sit by the fire?" "It is too warm for that and besides, I can watch the stars from here." I nodded then sat back down by the fire with Struth.
 
* The next morning, we ate breakfast then packed up to continue on our way, After some time, we passed some farms. I could see that one of the farm houses was burned down and that there were burnt corpses around the fields. Another farm house was still alight and I could see a person dragging them self up the path. Stopping my horses, I hopped off and went over to the person. As I was getting closer, I could see that the bottom half was all burnt and that the man only had half a face. He made the same groaning noise as all the other zombies had made. Mal had come with me and stepped closer, he poked the zombie on the forehead and healed it. It's body healed over where there were open wounds but it remained a zombie. "Valiant effort but alas," Adwar yelled.
 
* Mal backed up in time just as the zombie lashed out, narrowly missing Mal. It now was intent on chasing Mal. Going around behind it, I pulled my rapier out and stuck my weapon into its head. The rapier sliced cleanly through, killing the zombie. I drew the rapier out and cleaned it on the back of the zombie's clothes.
 
" I started to go back to my horse when Adwar commented that he also had the same weapon. He drew out a rapier which I could hear sing. I knew that it had some sort of magical effect on it. "Ahhh.. very nice but I can see that it has some sort of magic and mine does not." Adwar explained that the sword was passed down from generation to generation and gave him some bonus when he wielded it. I took out my rapier and commented that mine was a masterwork, not magical, but that I had two, as I drew out my other rapier. This made him laugh.
 
* Hoping back onto my horse, we rode further on before Adwar advised that we should stop here and leave the horses to continue on foot. Tying them up, we made ready to approach the zombie encampment.