Jasper was ashamed to admit it, but he was a bit disappointed when he realized the person who appeared through the mist was S̆ams̆ādur. Of course, any friendly face was a welcome one, especially now that he seemed to be trapped in a low-budget horror flick, but the durgu's bearded visage was not the face he'd been hoping to see.

He didn't have time to fret about Ihra, though, as the man was pinned to the ground beneath a dozen howling corpses. With a quick cast of Seraph's Burst, he flashed across the tavern courtyard, with white hot flames billowing around him as he crashed into the dogpile.

The enemy was a tough foe, at least for most. Jasper didn't generally associate zombies with speed, but these particular undead were downright speedsters, and that, paired with their vicious claws and teeth, made them more than capable of quickly overwhelming anyone who couldn't match their speed. He'd been surprised at how easily they'd dodged Naklati's sword, and his own clumsy attacks with the glaive hadn't fared any better, but fortunately, his spells seemed almost custom-made to beat them.

With a twist of his fingers, manacles sprang from the ground, pinning them in position just long enough for him to bulldoze into their heap. Dodge that. He rolled to his feet as the flames spread rapidly through the group piled on top of the durgu, and whipped his glaive in a wide arc in front of them. They were too tightly clustered for them all to dodge, and his weapons sliced through two of them as the others scattered.

Fiery Shackles. Three of the creatures froze in place as the burning claws around their ankles, and Jasper charged toward them. Even trapped in place, the first managed to dodge Jasper's thrust with the glaive, and with a grunt of annoyance, he cast Soul Sear at point-blank range.

The shockwave from the explosions was strong enough to push him a few steps backward, cracking a couple of ribs in the process, but the fire washed over him harmlessly. The same could not be said for the dead villagers, whose bodies were scattered across the tavern courtyard. Ignoring the rattling in his lung as he breathed in, Jasper turned around, prepared to chase down the others who'd escaped his initial attack, but found no need. With a victorious cry, Naklāti intercepted one of the fleeing corpses, cleaving its head from its shoulders with a single blow of her gleaming blow while the others, still burning with the white flames of Jasper's spell, disappeared back into the mist.

The two shared a glance, neither daring to pursue the creatures into the unnatural mist, and Jasper turned to check on Samsadur. The pain in his ribs eased as he cast Circle on himself, though he quickly realized the durgu was in far more need of the spell than him. The prince's quilted jerkin looked like it had gone through the blender; large strips of the tough doublet hung limply where the corpses' long claws had torn them asunder, and entire chunks were missing on the arms and shoulders where their razor-sharp teeth had bit all the way through.

Realizing how much blood the durgu had lost, he cast the healing spell again, twice in quick succession. The prince's skin remained unnaturally pale, but a groan escaped his lips as the wounds sealed up and with a pained grunt, the durgu rolled over.

"You know," Jasper commented wryly, offering S̆ams̆ādur a hand up, "when my horoscope told me I was going to save a damsel in distress today, I didn't think it meant you."

"Oh, kruvas̆ take you," the durgu replied, flipping him a rude gesture as he struggled to his feet on his own and limped over to pick up his fallen axe. "Not all of us have the perfect spell to deal with them."

"I would have thought you'd have the easiest time with them. Can't you just zap 'em with that mind spike spell of yours?" Jasper asked curiously.

"I wish. Turns out they don't have enough of a mind left to harm," S̆ams̆ādur replied darkly, as he hoisted the axe still glistening with poison over his shoulder and glanced around. "They're just instinct and rage at this point."

"You can sense them, though?"

"Aye, I'll know if they're coming," the durgu agreed. "Not that it did me much good when the only thing I had that could hurt them was a bloody axe."

On that, Jasper could sympathize. Without the use of one of his binding spells, he doubted he would have landed a single hit on the fiends. "Yeah, they're shockingly fast. But between the three of us, we should have it handled. Let me know if any more try to sneak up on us."

"Of course," the prince responded distractedly, his eyes widening in disbelief as he finally realized where they were. "Don't tell me we were back at the bloody tavern? How?" he spat angrily. "There's only two roads in this kruvas̆-cursed village."

"It's most likely a trap set by the Bloodspiller," Naklāti spoke up, finally inserting herself into the conversation. "I'm confident I'd made it to the edge of the village when I suddenly found myself back here."

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"Same thing happened to me," Jasper chimed in, and S̆ams̆ādur scratched his head with a scowl.

"I can't rightly say where I was, but I'm certain I didn't run in a bloody circle. Is this the focus of the spell, then?" he asked, turning to face the old tavern.

Whatever magic the stoneflesh mage had used to perform this was far beyond Jasper's skill, so he could only shrug uncertainly. "Maybe? I think we ought to go inside and see if we can break it," he said, trying to ignore the uneasy feeling he got when looking at the tavern.

The old building was nothing special. Agur-Alamittu had been a simple farming village, too far from the nearest cities to have the luxuries they offered and too close to the ruined fort to receive much benefit from the merchant caravans that passed through. Still, it had been the center of the community, the only house in the small village to be painted, its bright blue coat glossy despite the lack of sunlight. There was nothing threatening about the building, and yet Jasper felt a pang of fear as he looked at it.

"Well, are we going to go in?" S̆ams̆ādur finally broke the silence.

"Yes, but we should wait for the others," Jasper objected. "The spell should loop them back here, and we'll be safer together."

He expected Naklāti to back him up, knowing her previous apprehension about entering the tavern, but with a long sigh, she shook her head. "If they haven't shown up here by now…" she said softly.

"No," Jasper erupted, understanding all too well what she was hinting at. "There's no way they're dead. We've fought off way worse than this; we just need to hunker down, and once everyone's joined up-" He paused as S̆ams̆ādur clasped a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sure they're fine - the lasses can handle themselves," he agreed, "but we're here now. Everyone will be better off if we put an end to this nonsense."

Jasper scowled, wanting to object, but he knew the durgu had a point. As worried as he was about the others, waiting around would only put them at risk longer. "Alright," he gave in, "let's check out the creepy tavern."

Ihra hadn't been particularly alarmed when the mist had swallowed her up. The weather here was generally atrocious, and a little bit of fog didn't seem too out of place.

Plus, she was kind of focused on the howling corpse who was somehow catching up to her, despite Keres' full-fledged gallop. Snatching the bow off her saddle, she pivoted in her seat and fired off a shot. She wasn't used to mounted combat, and the first arrow barely nicked the leg of her before burying itself in the mud, but the second connected, striking it squarely in the heart, but the creature didn't even stumble.

With a curse, Ihra adjusted her strategy, quantity over quality, as she racked up the hits. The creature caught up with her quickly, increasingly resembling some monstrous fusion of a human and porcupine as her arrows failed to down it, but as it drew within striking range of the two, Ihra finally hit enough piercing to shoot Executioner's Arrow.

The creature may have shrugged off her other attacks, but as the arrow's tip expanded into a red-hot blade that sliced through its neck, the corpse finally ceased movement. With a muttered thanks to Selene, she spun around, and that was when she realized she was all alone.

It wasn't just that she couldn't see the others through the mist. She couldn't hear them - couldn't hear the sound of their mounts clacking against the rough pavement stones, couldn't hear the shouts of combat, couldn't even hear the eery howls that had pursued her. She was surrounded by silence, silence and an endless sea of mist.

Ihra slowed Keres̆ to a trot as she strained her ears, so focused on trying to catch any hint of her friends that she almost missed the dark blur that emerged through the fog. It was only the faint streak out of the corner of her eye that warned, pure instinct taking over as she threw herself to the side.

Keres̆ bucked as the creature landed half on her and half on the stag's back, its claws digging deep into their flesh, and Ihra was flung free. She let the momentum carry her into a roll, landing on her feet and drawing her bow in one smooth motion, and the creature lost interest in the stag as her arrow caught it in the back.

With an inhuman howl, it leapt off the stag's back and closed the distance much faster than she'd expected. There was no time to get a second shot off, no time even to draw her dagger, as the dead villager struck her and, instead, she was forced to use the only thing on hand. Matching its howl with a cry of her own, Ihra stabbed her arrow through its eye as she pivoted to the side.

She wasn't quite fast enough to avoid its strike altogether, and pain flooded her senses as the creature's unnatural claws raked across her stomach, but adrenaline powered her through. With a quick kick, infused with more strength than normal from The Still Pond, Ihra sent it reeling to the ground. Aphora's dagger flew into her hand as she pounced on it, stabbing again and again at its neck. She wasn't sure when it stopped moving, but eventually she realized she was striking more dirt than flesh, as the dead villager's head was now connected by little more than a thin strip of ligament.

Coming back to her senses, she pried herself off the mutilated corpse and limped over to Keres̆. The stag danced nervously as she approached, its side torn upon the creature's attacks, and she rubbed its head soothingly as she retrieved a healing potion. The stag drank first, and then she took her turn, wincing as she felt bones pop back into place. It was a decided step down from Jasper's spell, but it was better than nothing, and she fed the stag the last dribbles before tossing it away.

The unsettling still surrounded her, and in the chaos of the fight, she had lost her sense of direction. Unsure of where to go, she mounted Keres and nudged him in the direction she hoped led out of the village, but after several minutes of riding without encountering any of the planted fields she knew surrounded it, she began to fear she was wrong.

Then she saw something looming in the shadows ahead - an all too familiar blue building, lit up by a flash of lightning as a pair of familiar faces fended off a small horde of the dead. Thank Selene.

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