The next day, the guild set out for the valley below Mount Serabuck. Those who wished to, ran. The rest rode.

Zaebos, ridden by Graymuck, tried to race Wen and Naenaeon, losing badly. The pale stag effortlessly outpaced the archer's oversized hyena. Joe was curious if Finn could have kept up with the banderling's companion, knowing the akhlut had no chance of catching Naenaeon. That race would have to be run another day, since the chimera was still in the deep ocean with the rest of his pod. Joe had considered calling him back to help with the quest until he remembered they were going into the ziggurat. It was very likely that the passages within the pyramid were going to be too tight for the big brute. Even Zaebos might be too tall for them, and the scruffy carnivore was half as wide as the sea predator prime.

Hah'roo, Joe, and Reven ran the whole way. Kenda had started with them, but her [Sprinter] skill was designed for combat, not overland travel. After a few miles, she joined the rest of the guild inside Myllo's marching pavilion.

The pagoda that Joe had seen in the training field was now perched on top of a pair of two-story-tall mechanical legs. To Joe, the whole contraption looked like a cross between a fantasy mech unit and a steampunk version of Baba Yaga's hut. Where the structure on top connected with the legs was a spinning junction block that balanced the upper compartment. Even though the trekking pavilion was as fast as the magically enhanced runners, it moved with such a smooth glide that those inside the pagoda were able to have tea on the journey.

When they reached the ancient ward-stone barrier, the legs folded under the canopy. In a matter of minutes, it became obvious that this structure would serve as the command center for the expedition. Ward-posts were driven into the ground around the open-sided lodge, and a giant wand was added to the roof, which Joe realized was the Illuminaria version of a gun turret.

The Hellions headed into the forested basin first, clearing a path to the ziggurat. The undead in the valley, identified as Dirge Wights, were fiercer and more well-formed than those they had encountered in the surrounding woods. The monsters that Joe and Wen had fought looked like undead animals that had been stretched into humanoid forms. The Dirge Wights were not makeshift-looking. These ghastly beasts reminded Joe of Sougath, though not nearly as large. They were ghoulish werebeasts, hairy humanoids with animal heads and taloned hands. The biggest difference between them and Sougath was that these horrors were desiccated, wiry, thin instead of hulking, muscled beasts. Their coats were covered with bald patches, exposing rotting skin. There were no eyes in any sockets, just pale embers that glowed with a dark red spark.

The most dangerous aspect of the ravagers was not their unnatural speed or deadly sharp claws, but the contagion that resided in their attacks. The wounds they inflicted quickly began to putrefy, attempting to turn the victim into another of their ravenous masses. Mortalius was forced to spend a hefty chunk of his mana removing the corruption from his companions. Joe helped with [Dispel Noxa], but his spell was not nearly as quick to implement as the cleric's [Cleansing] was.

The newly minted Howling Voice cleared the area around the base camp. These lesser wights, formed from the corruption leaking out of the valley, were a good warm-up for the team until it was their turn to head in with the Hellions. They gathered at the pagoda and waited on Myllo for final instructions.

He, Puqmup, and Isais were gathering data about the valley from various 'drones' they had looping through the valley. Myllo's constructs were brass spheres about the size of a tennis ball with wings and one large googly eyeball, kind of like an oversized, doofy Quidditch ball. Puq was releasing beautifully carved coral birds that, despite being made of stone, swooped into the eerie azure forest with ease. Each drone returned and relayed what it found to the young elven girl who sketched it onto a large sheet of parchment. Isais was an artist. Her map flowed from her pens effortlessly; her finished sections looked like something that belonged in a museum.

"Alright. We've mapped the path to the ziggurat and the area just around it," the guild leader stated. "The valley is a mess of clefts and dense forest, so getting a complete picture is going to take a while. The Hellions have made it to the pyramid and back, so we know that route. I want the two quest bearers in there as quickly as possible. Let's see if we can't get a clearer picture of why we are here. Vexor has made a beacon for you guys. Activate it, and he can open a gate to you."

"Try not to go too deep," the horned cambion chimed in from the workbench he had set up for himself. Spinning around on his stool, Vex held out an apple-sized red construct. "The valley has tides of an interesting mix of {Wood}, {Death}, and {Time}. The first one is no problem, but the latter pair is eating away at magic that crosses the wards. That is why we have to send scouts in instead of just scrying out the valley." As Kendell plucked the crimson object from his palm, the sorcerer added, "See that glow inside the beacon, Kenda? As long as that's lit, I can reach a portal to you. But the fainter it is, the longer it will take for the signal to reach me and for me to locate where to send the gate. If it's out, get closer to the edge of the structure until it lights back up."

The elected team leader of Howling Voice nodded before handing the object to Tezeno. "You should hold this. The group will be centered around you anyway. Okay, guys. Is everyone ready?"

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"I am," breathed Hah'roo confidently.

"As am I," Wen added with an excited note in her voice.

Tezeno nodded while Yuk tossed an awkward salute.

"I will be in just a second," Joe answered. He lifted Mojo off his shoulder and walked over to the pink-haired, armored defender. "Okay. You have to stay with Kerrig or in the pagoda. It's too dangerous for me to bring you with me this time. Wen's not bringing Naenaeon, either. Do you understand?"

The shug monkey ruffed an affirming bark and jumped onto the warrior's arm. Joe could feel through their connection that the pup understood the danger. Even though he did not want to get left behind and felt a bit nervous that many of his favorite people were heading into danger, he knew he had to stay. One thing broodlings were good at was survival, and Mojo knew he was too young to survive where they were going.

Joe gave the little guy one more serious mushing before taking his place in the line of the two excursion teams. The trailbreakers were Graymuck and Zaebos first, followed by Naragash, Reven, and Kendell. Joe found it odd that there were far more axes on the crew than there were swords. In the middle of the pack were Hah'roo and Wen, along with Broon, Mortalus, and Lexaroth. Joe and Tezeno brought up the rear.

The Hellion commander had devised this formation to counter the lightning-fast wights. The frontliners, after the lead scout, cut the path wider, giving them more room to maneuver, all the while intercepting the majority of the feral forms that launched themselves out of the foliage. Tezeno blocked anything coming at them from behind long enough for it to be obliterated. Joe and Morty purged the rotting contagion off anyone who received one of the necrotic bites or scratches.

The last member of the team flitted through the woods on either side of the combined group as two separate discorporated insectoid multitudes. Yuk had gifted him with another tick, reestablishing their slightly creepy telepathic connection. This allowed Joe to announce early warnings of flanking attacks from the Dirge Wights.

Though small groups of wights had been constantly striking at the group, mostly the front of the line, they encountered their first serious challenge when they crossed a small creek running through the valley. Before Naragash could follow the vanguard across the stream, a massive pack of scabby, gray-skinned ghouls charged out of the smoking underbrush.

Graymuck vanished into a skill he called [Hunter's Blind], an instant extradimensional shelter he could shoot out of. Those who tried to grapple with Reven burned. Kenda's tactical reflexes allowed her to step back behind Naragash and launch attacks while the pale demoness warrior scythed her huge axe through the first line of wights.

At the back, Tez formed [Steely Redoubt], his open-sided bubble-barrier around himself and Joe, the opening pointing forward this time. This allowed Joe to use his amber paws to both attack and cure everyone in front of them from the shielded safety of the mostly enclosed force sphere. The shrill screeching of the feral ghasts' talons on the force effect was as bad as nails on a chalkboard, but there was no denying how effective Tezeno's mini gray force bunker was.

Whenever a wight fell, it shed its flesh and stood up to attack those it had been allied with a moment before. Broon's [Raise the Bones] skill added every downed enemy to the ranks of the Hellions and the Howling Voice. The skeletal reanimations did not last long against the more powerful wights, but the necromancer was more than happy to sacrifice the bony constructs to shield the team and inflict damage. Almost as quickly as the gravewalker's fleshless minions were falling, the necromancer added more from the fallen wights. When one of the controlled cadavers was on its last leg, Broon gestured towards it like a symphony conductor, and the skeleton exploded. Shards of jagged bones tore through the ghouls, obliterating any standing immediately beside the detonating dead.

The most surprising moment for Joe came from Lexaroth. For most of the fight, the goatee-sporting mage had been debuffing enemies and firing purple damage rays. As the number of wights started to overwhelm the team, the warlock stopped and began a more lengthy spell. It took about as long as Joe's notoriously slow [Grit Razor], manifesting into a dark, rippling curse. A twisting black blot appeared between Lexaroth's hands; its churning shadows writhed and slashed at the air. A second later, the warlock tossed the jagged orb at a wight, causing the magic mass to instantly latch onto the ghoul's face. The spiky spell split apart, leaving a bunch of oily shadows that burrowed into the undead head, while two blots launched themselves onto the foreheads of two new wights. Streamers of squiggling black curse magic connected each inky mass to the one that it came from. These two black blobs split to launch four new facehuggers. The seven became fifteen. The fifteen connected to any that were left in range. The entire mob of wights was bound by the squirming black web.

"Nice work, Kid," Naragash shouted. "Hit 'em hard, everyone!"

Joe's [Witch Sight] showed him exactly what was going on with the warlock's curse. It was almost the reverse of the formation magic the soldiers on the beach had used during Cauldrakon's attacks. Instead of sharing health, the curse duplicated damage. As Naragash hacked off the arm of an opponent, the same limb flew off all the other ghouls as well. Reven's burns appeared on the whole host. Rips and holes appeared on each ghoul, matching the wounds inflicted on a specific undead.

In seconds, the wights, who had been a severe threat moments ago, were wiped out, en masse..

Mortalius tossed [Mana Burst] on Lex, who had a palm pressed against the corner of his eyesocket. Joe sympathized with the normally obnoxious caster. He knew that feeling of massive mana drain all too well. That curse, which Joe identified as [Chain of Black Wrath], must be a beast to keep powered up.

Joe took over healing while Mortalius removed the corruption since the cleric had a divine spell that dissolved the taint. It took longer and was far messier if Joe used [Dispel Noxa] to drive out the necrotic putrefaction.

The two most deeply tainted turned out to be Earcellwen and Zaebos. Joe got a chuckle as he watched the elven archer and the massive hyena sitting together to be cleansed, chatting away in beastspeech. Even though no one but Greymuck actually understood the duo, it was clear the pair was having a friendly bitching contest over who was in worse shape.

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