Madness has its place...but is this it?

Thak stood stock still, regarding the man carefully. The Enkidukai\'s eyes flickered to his halberd and then his sword. The latter he slipped back into its sheath, and the former he leaned on like a staff. His breathing was only slightly accelerated as he gazed at each of the seven survivors in turn. The horn sounded again, and to the north the retreat was visible. The skeletons looked as if they had multiplied; at least a thousand pursued the soldiers as they moved to cover the townspeople. Thakaltas ran a claw down the blade of his halberd, eyed it carefully. Finally, he turned to Sengoku.

\"What are the possible benefits?\" Thakaltas asked himself. \"I don\'t know,\" he replied. \"Then why follow the man? Perhaps he could be useful. Yes, useful, but useful how? That remains to be seen. There is no basis to trust him. There is no basis to trust me, either. I\'m different. How? In many ways. Name them. I can\'t. Then I\'m no different. Yes, I am different. No, in the end, I am not.\" His conversation with himself drew to a close, the seven survivors watching him cautiously, and Thak\'s eyes focused on Sengoku. \"I will follow you, though it goes against my better judgement.\" Thak speaks to himself once again. \"No it doesn\'t. You know I\'m my better side.\"

The board is set; the pieces are moving...

Thakaltas had managed to barely outpace the skeletal army that was heading north. He looked forward, and saw the first town north of Hydlaa ahead of him. He glanced backwards, and saw the skeletal army not more than ten minutes\' march behind him. His stride quickened, and he ran, then sprinted, towards the town\'s southern gate.

A few minutes later, he arrived. Rapidly, Thak moved towards the town square,  and announced after a few minutes to catch his breath, \"There\'s a skeletal army coming to kill you all! Run!\" About two of the people in the crowded square seemed to believe him. The rest of them fell silent for a moment, and laughed almost in unison. They stopped laughing, though, when thirty seconds later a town watchman ran into the square and shouted exactly the same message. Chaos ensued as the townspeople ran for their lives in every direction at once. A few armored figures percolated through the crowd towards the southern gate, and Thakaltas followed them.

At the southern gate was assembled a force of some one hundred men, all armed with swords and armored with chain mail shirts, leg plating, vambraces, helmets, and shields. All of them looked nervous. \"Which one of you is the leader?\" Thak asked.

One of the militiamen spoke up. \"Th\' Sergeant\'s not here yet.\" A moment later, the same man spoke again. \"Now he is.\" Thakaltas turned around, and up rode a man on a horse. He was wearing full plate armor, and was armed with a gleaming broadsword.

\"They outnumber you ten to one at the least,\" Thakaltas reported. \"I doubt you will survive this.\"

The man on the horse gazed down imperiously at Thakaltas. \"And who are you, Enkidukai, to make such predictions?\"

\"A nobody,\" Thakaltas replied. \"But a nobody who has been in his fair share of fights.\"

The mounted man continued to stare down at Thak. \"And will you perhaps, Mr. Nobody, fight for us?\"

Thakaltas\' response is quick. \"Four circles. Argue, and it doubles.\"

The man on the horse thought for a moment. \"Some would think it unwise to spend so much on a mercenary they have never seen fight before.\" After a short pause, he continued, \"Although someone who quotes such a fee at the beginning must think very highly of himself indeed to demand it at his first meeting. I accept your fee.\" To all assembled, the began, \"We will fight a delaying action! The citizens will escape through the northern and eastern gates and move to the forest! After they have abandoned the town, those of us who are left will move to keep them safe from further attacks.\" He might have had more to say, but it was not to be known. At that moment, the wooden gate rattled loudly on its hinges. \"They are here! Quickly, brace the gates!\" the man on the horse shouted.

A watchman came running, and reported, \"They\'re tryin\' t\'  surround the city!\"

The mounted man pointed at Thakaltas and a militiaman. \"Each of you, gather thirty men and hold them outside the eastern and western gates!\"

Thakaltas nodded, picked the thirty men closest to him, and set off at a run towards the west gate. Thirty men followed him.

A few minutes later, they were arrayed just outside of the western gate. At least two hundred fifty skeletons moved towards them at a rapid march.

Tune in tomorrow for our next segment: \'This day we fight!\'

------------------------

I\'d reeeeeeally appreciate it if I could write the second section of this too.

Thakaltas stirred, once, twice, and opened his eyes. Light shone into the pit he had fallen into, through the cracked boards that had once covered it. Splinters lay all around the Enkidukai, and his halberd had embedded
itself in the soft dirt of the pit\'s bottom a few feet away.

Thak sat up and instantly regretted it, as pain blossomed through his head. A quick glance upward confirmed that he had fallen around thirty-five feet, landed on his back, and survived. A quick glance at
himself confirmed that he had suffered no lasting ill effects from the fall. His head, however, pounded. \"Must\'ve cracked it off something on the
way down,\" he muttered to himself. He shook his head as if to clear it, and stood. A few shaky steps brought him to his halberd, which he tugged out of the ground. He smiled unconsciously; when he was armed, he could be dangerous.

Thak glanced around the pit, noting a few tunnels that led from it. He glanced up, and barely had time to blink at the zombie rapidly falling towards him. The undead creature fell directly onto Thak\'s halberd, and it quickly slid down the spear tip and over the blade before coming to rest on Thak\'s paw. The Enkidukai shifted his grip on his weapon so that his paw was above the zombie, and the creature slid the rest of the way down the halberd\'s wooden shaft. Thak moved his paw back to his normal grip on his halberd nonchalantly, pulling the end of the weapon from the zombie\'s body. He glanced up again, and this time danced out of the way of the next falling undead. He swung himself completely around once, and using the momentum built up, separated the zombie\'s head from its shoulders as it
stood.

A quick glance up confirmed that the undead beasts would not soon tire of throwing themselves down into the pit. Thak looked over the three tunnels that could accomodate a running Enkidukai, picked the only one that looked like it went generally up, and ran for it.

---Fifteen minutes later---

\"I\'m beginning to doubt the wisdom of coming this way,\" Thak said to himself conspiratorially. \"Actually, I think I started to doubt ten minutes ago. Now I realize I was wrong.\"

Thak was carrying on a conversation with himself as he ran through Hydlaa\'s sewer system. The smell was the least annoying thing about the sewers. Slightly more annoying was the prevalence of the citizens-turned-zombies in the dark sewer tunnels. Most annoying was the fact that he had not seen a single way out of the sewers for fifteen minutes.

A group of six undead pulled up one of the sewer grates ten feet in front of Thakaltas, and dropped through into the tunnels. \"Yet another annoying thing,\" the Enkidukai observed. \"They can get in much more easily than I can get out.\" He paused, and continued a few moments later. \"Six on one? Unfair.\" He offered a warcry at the group of six undead, and charged. The first one fell as it was impaled by the tip of Thakaltas\' halberd. The other five charged all at once. Thak took a few steps back, swinging down at two of them with the halberd\'s blade. \"Three on one. Still unfair,\" he said. Another zombie fell as Thak swung his halberd diagonally across the thing\'s neck. The last two had closed to ranges close enough to seriously hamper the Enkidukai\'s efforts to hurt them. One had moved into position behind him, and the other was in front. Thakaltas\' arm shot forward, putting the first zombie out of the fight, and then backward, cracking the second creature across the face. Thak spun quickly, and a moment later the fight was over. \"Unfair for them.\"


Five minutes later, Thakaltas once again faced a group of undead, this time only four. \"Persistant, aren\'t they?\" the Enkidukai commented. It took him a moment to realize how the zombies had entered-down a ladder. Thakaltas threw caution to the wind, running straight through the middle of the undead creatures. They seemed as surprised, at least to the extent a reanimated hunk of flesh can seem surprised. Thakaltas wasted no time in climbing the ladder.

An Enkidukai head poked up from a manhole, followed a moment later by the entire Enkidukai. All seemed clear in front of him. He turned, to see Moogie following Seperot away. Thakaltas saw Moogie begin to turn, perhaps hearing a footstep, so Thak brought the back of his halberd up to connect with the back of Moogie\'s head, hard. Thak found the resulting \'thunk\' oddly satisfying. He dashed into a closeby alley, and two minutes later, had scaled the side of a building. He lay flat on the roof, looking out over the burning city.

Name: Thakaltas

Race: Enkidukai

Personality and Alignment: At least partially insane. Tends to see everything as a threat, and thusly tends towards killing over asking questions. Chaotic Neutral.

Background: Lived just outside of Hydlaa for much of his life.

Weapon: Mainly the more interesting polearms (halberds and bills). Can fight with a sword, but usually doesn\'t.

Armor: Medium armor, to allow him to move quickly as well as providing decent protection.

Strengths: Fast, agile. Good with a halberd. Infravision.

Weaknesses: Weak against magic in general. Not very resilient.