Disclaimer: Rifts® and most of the terms used in this story are Registered Trademarks owned and licensed by Palladium Books, Inc. and Kevin Siembieda. I am not Kevin Siembieda, so I do not own Palladium. I merely play in their playground and enjoy doing so. What money I do make is from my job, and not from this story.
With a sense of purpose, the group begins preparations to leave the city for the first time since their arrival. The first stop is the parking garage attached to the party’s apartment building.
Carlie’s Mountaineer ATV is located within the lower level. The 18 ft tall ground vehicle has a unique, 3 wheeled design, with two large wheels up front and one smaller tire in the rear. A heavy laser cannon has been built into the roof, allowing for a gunner to fire from behind cover.
The engine, a custom fusion reactor proving a near unlimited supply of fuel, roars to life via Carlie’s remote starter. The Psionic Spy hops in the driver seat, bringing the 6 ton ATV out of the garage. She heads to the loading dock near the apartment, allowing the men to load up the ATV’s cargo hold with the group’s weapons and equipment.
Once the gear is stowed away safely, Endarrin heads into the garage to retrieve his Speedster Hover Cycle. The Elven Magus fires up the engines, which have been converted to run off of ambient magical energy by a process known locally as Techno-Wizardry. The three turbine engines lift the small vehicle 2 ft off of the ground. Unlike conventional engines, the turbines of Endarrin’s cycle are whisper quiet. The Elf throttles the vehicle forward, rejoining the party on the loading dock.
Meanwhile, Dalryn and Anomen head to the Kingsdale stables nearby. The brothers smile, sensing the growing excitement of their mounts as they approach. Adira, Anomen’s silver male Pegasus, stamps the ground with his front hoof as the Undead Slayer straps a set of enchanted barding over the creature’s flank. Anomen scratches behind the Pegasus’ ear before strapping on a pair of blinders. The headgear come complete with a metal spike, giving Adira an additional weapon.
Dalryn approaches his own mount, a jet black female Gryphon named Onyx. The supernatural predator claws at the dirt while Dalryn suits up the beast with her own custom suit of enchanted armor.
As they saddle up, the brothers get the sense from the stable master that he is relieved to see the two beasts leave. It takes all of their horsemanship skills to settle them down, as the two magical creatures seem eager to spread their wings for the first time in 2 weeks.
Back at the apartment, the last of the party’s vehicles are loaded into the cargo bay of Carlie’s ATV. Fresh out of the Custom Mech Emporium’s body shop comes Eric’s suit of flying power armor. Based off of the Wild Weasel produced by Bandito Arms, Eric’s new suit has been tweaked by his Uncle’s team of gifted Operators.
The standard issue forearm mounted plasma ejectors have been completely removed. The team at the CME has installed a weapon charging station on each of the suits thighs. A pair of Triax TX-30 ion pulse rifles have been modified to snap into the charging stations.
Eric’s cousin, Nate, is helping the party load the Wild Weasel into Carlie’s ATV.
“The rifles run off the suit’s fusion core.” he explains. “Whatever you do, try NOT to take a hit on one of the power cables. I’d hate to be the one ID’ing the DNA samples left after the explosion.”
Eric dismisses his cousin’s concern. “No one hits me when I got my game face on.” he says.
Nate shakes his head. “Anyway. There’s one more thing about the guns that you need to know.” he says. “Because of the energy drain, you’ll only get off four pulse blasts until they need to vent. There’s no way around this. Dad and his team built in a fail safe. Four blasts in less than 30 seconds triggers the heat sinks to vent. You’ll be unable to fire for at least 10 seconds, so make the shots count.”
Eric runs his fingers over each rifle, nodding his head in understanding. He takes note of the helmet. His uncle’s team appears to have completely re-designed it, replacing the standard issue helmet with one that is more hawk-like in design. The visor wraps around the head, providing the pilot with unparalleled peripheral vision.
“We synced the HUD with IR sights on the rifles.” Nate explains. “Should give you better target acquisition and accuracy, too.”
Eric whistles, eagerly anticipating his first fight in the suit. “What the Hell are these?” he asks, noting the 2 ft tall rectangular objects protruding from the suit’s shoulders.
“Those are the Black Boxes.” Nate explains. “State of the art Electronic Countermeasure system. Activating them will scramble enemy comms & missile guidance systems, encrypt outgoing transmissions, and track absolutely everything in range. Link it up to any friendly units within range, and they’ll see everything that you will. Bandito Arms really outdid themselves. Even we can’t reverse engineer the system.”
The group re-convenes by 10:00 in the morning, with all of their gear ready for travel. The sun shining and a slight breeze in the air. The brothers order their mounts skyward, much to the amazement of nearby travelers. As the beasts circle higher, Anomen and Dalryn see the cemetery in the distance. The tree covered hills of southern Missouri stretch out endlessly to all four points of the compass.
Carlie and Endarrin travel along the gravel road in their ATV and hovercycle respectively. Eric rides in the passenger chair, while Dessius keeps a watchful eye on the surroundings from the roof mounted turret. Heading out of Kingsdale’s western gate, the two vehicles pass over a bridge which spans the Kingsdale river and out onto the western road.
Five minutes later, the entire party arrives at the entrance to the cemetery. A high archway stands before over a metal gate. In the center of the archway is the crest of the city of Kingsdale: a crown in front of two crossed swords.
The sign at the gate is written in English, Elven and Dwarven. A protective concrete wall, topped with metal spikes surround the boundaries of the cemetery. Endarrin and Carlie park their vehicles, while the Twins and hitch up Adira and Onyx on a post. The party is not alone, as there are 2 hovercycles and a robot horse also in the parking area.
As a precaution, the party suits up in their armor and prepares their weapons. Walking through the gate, they are greeted by a middle aged man wearing an Urban Warrior model chest plate, and sporting a cybernetic right hand.
He quickly notices the 6 armed and armored adventurers nearing the gate, and instinctively drops his natural hand to the pistol holstered at his hip.
“Howdy folks.” he says. “Here to pay respects to someone in particular, or is there something else you need?”
“We are looking for a D-bee girl.” Anomen says, approaching the cemetery caretaker cautiously. “She frequents this place often. You seen any sign of her?”
The caretaker raises an eyebrow at Anomen. “Son, we have D-bees of all kinds who frequent this place, young and old.” he says. “You’re gonna have to be a bit more specific.”
He eyes the party, up and down. His hand clenching the pistol’s grip just a bit tighter. “A heavily armed group such as yourselves looking for a girl. eh?” he says in a suspicious tone of voice. Sounds a bit odd to me.”
The caretaker flips a panel open on his cybernetic hand, and types on a keypad. Moments later, three human sized
security robot drones take up position behind the caretaker.
“Tom, Dick, and Harry here help me maintain a bit of order in this place.” he says. “I just have to say the word and the Forest Rangers will gladly come to escort you to your homes. Now, I don’t wanna do that so again, I’ll
ask ya. Can I help you find anyone in particular?”
In an attempt to ease the sudden tension, Dalryn steps forward. “Sir, I apologize for my brother’s abruptness.” He says. “A mother approached us to help find her missing daughter. We are loo king for a young Draykh girl named Marda. We have been told she was last seen near your fine cemetery. Have you seen her?”
The caretaker sighs and seems to relax a bit at the mention of the Draykh girl, but does not let his hand off of his holstered pistol. “You must mean the little lizard girl.” He says. “She’s been here before. She’s missing, huh? Well, you can take a look around, but I’m afraid that the three amigos here will have to follow you around. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
Seeing the three security robots surround the group, Eric can’t help but laugh. “Yeah, chaperones.” He says. “I get it. We could use the protection in case we get ambushed by a fierce lizardling. She may have flowers, and let me tell you, you don’t want to recover from a petal injury. They can be nasty.”
With her psionic abilities, Carlie gets the sense that the caretaker isn’t being very forthcoming with the group. Carlie takes a step forward putting her best most welcoming smile on. “I am sure a man as observant as you may have noticed a bit more about the girl other than her lizard-like qualities.” she says in a flirtatious tone. “Is there
anything else you could tell us to help us out? We would greatly appreciate it.”
Carlie awkwardly twirls her hair, causing the caretaker to shake his head and smile. “You folks are relentless I reckon” he says, signaling the 3 robots to resume their normal patrol routes. “Fine. My wife always said I was a sucker for redheads. Yeah, I know Marda. She comes here a lot. She says it’s to get away from her doting parents. Sometimes she comes alone, sometimes she comes with her friends, human and d-bee alike.”
“You know, she usually stops by the guardhouse to give me some wild flowers that she picks.” he says, scratching his head. “Two days ago, her and her friends stopped by, but I don’t remember seeing them leave. They like to hang out near the western gate of the cemetery. It’s locked most of the time. If it was unlocked for some reason, they could have gone into the western woods to pick flowers.”
“There’s an old cave system in the woods, but the Forest Rangers sealed them off two years ago.” he continues. “We had a problem with a nest of Grave Ghouls around that time. Haven’t seen ’em since. If the grave ghouls managed to dig themselves out of the caves, Marda could’ve run into them.”
“Grave Ghouls are cowards, though.” he says, noting the growing concern on Dalryn’s face. “They wouldn’t openly attack the living, even a group of children. Tell you what, check out the western edge of the cemetery while I call in a Ranger Patrol to search the southern woods. Marda may be a D-Bee, but she has a good heart. I’d hate for anything to happen to her”
The caretaker quickly heads off to his post to hail the Forest Rangers, while Dalryn is able to confirm to the group that what the caretaker said about Grave Ghoul behavior is true.
“The cowardly creatures would only attack a living being for the sole purpose of driving them off.” says the priest. “They prefer to eat the flesh of the dead, which would explain their interest in visiting the cemetery.”
The party sets off towards the western gate of the cemetery, hoping to find signs of the children’s whereabouts. As they reach the halfway point, the breeze picks up a bit as the sun ducks behind a lone cloud.
Endarrin stops in his tracks, shivering as if the breeze chills him to the bone. The rest of the party stops as well, looking quizzically at the Elf.
“There is magic in this place.” Endarrin says. “A Ley Line Nexus is nearby. We should be cautious.”
The Twins also sense the Nexus Point. “That’ll help us, brother.” says Anomen. “A boost to our abilities can only help us in a fight.”
“Enough talk, you monkeys.” Dessius growls. “We have children to save. You can gab about the Nexus later.”
The Wolfen starts to move out, when the sound of screaming can be heard from the western edge of the cemetery. Rushing to investigate, the party intercepts 2 human women and a male Elf running in the opposite direction.
“THE DEAD!!!” shouts the elf. “They’re rising from their graves. Get out while you can!!!!”
Endarrin reaches out to calm the man. “Peace, friend.” he says in the Elven tongue. “We can help. Please tell us what has happened.”
The Elf takes a moment to collect himself. “Six bodies just started rising from the Earth.” he says, still trying to catch his breath. “They ignored us and headed towards the western gate.”
Endarrin translates for the rest of the party, drawing a grin from Anomen and Dessius. “Time to play.” says the Undead Slayer.
Grinning in excitement, Anomen touches the tattoo of a Heart Wrapped in Chains located on his left shoulder. Closing his eyes, Anomen channels the mystic energy coursing through his body and sends it through the tattoo. The image glows with a soft blue light, which soon covers his whole body in a form fitting shield of magical energy.
He starts to run toward the western gate, while arming his Techno-Wizard enhanced Ion rifle. Dessius follows close behind, powering up his dual NE-4 pistols.
“Zombies…Gotta love ’em,” Dessius deadpans, starting the recording device embedded in his cybernetic eye. He knows Eric will enjoy reviewing the highlight reel when the battle is over.
As Anomen and Dessius head towards the western gate, Eric heads in the opposite direction. “Don’t wait for me” he calls out to the rest of the party. “I’ll catch up!”
Eric rushes back to Carlie’s ATV and begin suiting up into the Wild Weasel power armor. As he brings the suit into the air, Eric can feel the difference in performance thanks to the Wild Weasel’s vector thrust system.
The patented technology provides a level of speed and agility that a standard Coalition suit cannot even begin to match. It takes a minute for him to get the feel of the suit, but soon, Eric is in full control. “Whoa, this thing really moves.” he says, heading towards the western gate to rejoin the group.
Anomen and Dessius are the first to arrive on the scene. They see the 6 empty grave sites near the gate. Further searching reveals that the Mega-Steel chain and lock used to secure the western gate has been broken, and the double gate has been thrown wide open.
As Endarrin, Dalryn and Carlie catch up, they see a farmer standing dumbstruck on the dirt path outside of the gate. He looks at the group and points to the trail as it enters a patch of forest to the northwest. “They went that way” he says in a flat voice.
At that moment, the sound of rocket boosters can be heard above. Looking up, they see the figure of Eric’s power armor suit circling above. He begins a steady descent, landing just outside of the open gate with his twin Ion
rifles at the ready. The sunlight gleams off the suit’s polished blue trim. “Let’s do this.” he says to the group as they enter the woods
The party quickly catches up to the 6 rotting and decaying figures from the cemetery. They appear completely oblivious to the group and anything else in the surrounding area.
The walking corpses are in various stages of natural decay and decomposition. What seems odd to Anomen and
Dalryn is that these walking corpses do not demonstrate the typical behavior of the zombies for which they’ve read about in the textbooks.
Three facts don’t match up to what they’ve learned: these corpses are too decayed, they don’t exhibit the irresistible urge to attack and consume living flesh, and they are walking at a normal pace and not the shambling steps of normal zombies.
The twins can’t figure out why or how, but these walking corpses seem to be drawn towards something (or someone).
Anomen throws his rifle over his shoulder and says, “Let’s follow them to their leader and then we cut their undead asses down”. he says, slinging his rifle over his shoulder.
Dessius, impatient with the ambiguity of the situation, lifts his NE-4 and takes aim at the nearest corpse. As he prepares to squeeze the trigger, he glances at Anomen and raises an eyebrow. “You have two seconds to call me off.
The huge Wolfen says. “And if you do, you better have a damn good reason.”
The Undead Slayer takes a deep breath, realizing that he must diffuse the situation. “They are scuffing along as if they are being summoned.” he says to Dessius. “I noticed something strange back at the gate. Dalryn can verify this. There was a voice on the wind and something tells me there was a ritual being performed.”
Endarrin also steps forward. “I heard it too, Dessius.” says the Elf. “I recognized the feel of the ritual as well. There is true necromancy involved in this. I believe that if we let these corpses go, they will lead us to the Necromancer who is responsible, and perhaps, to the Draykh girl.”
Eric steps in between Dessius and Anomen, hoping to ease the tension. “Fine.” He says. “Des, put the gun down. We’ll play nice with the small fish to fry the big fish.”
“If these things don’t try to eat your brains soon, Des here is going to get really pissed off.” he says to Anomen. “I know, we ran out of the wet food yesterday and he always gets cranky when he has to switch to the dry stuff.”
Dessius removes his finger from the trigger and sighs. “Ok, talking monkeys.” He says. “We’ll do it your way… this time.”
With the debate settled for now, the party continues to follow the walking corpses deeper into the woods. The game trail begins to slope downhill for five minutes until it ends at the mouth of a cave.
Large stones and slabs of concrete are strewn about the cave’s entrance as if thrown by some great force. As they follow the corpses to the cave entrance, Anomen notices that an open door made of bones has been fixed onto the stone walls.
The corpses enter the dark cave through the door, but the party remains outside. Inspecting the bone door reveals that it is made of material as strong as Mega-Steel, and is able to withstand the pressure of Dessius’ and Anomen’s powerful grip.
“Well, shall we?” asks Anomen. “We have a Necromancer to take care of.”
