Fight the Good Fight

Adventure of Conflict and
Betrayal for The End

Part Four:
Gravedigging

by Serge Stelmack
Artwork by Mary Lee Bryning


Returning to Outland the characters meet up with David and Jim Parchuk who immediately confer with them beyond Chip's earshot. When they hear about the weapon they look at each other unhappily, then Jim gives the characters the bad news.

"Soon after we got together with Chip, the demon told us to go ask the men if there was anybody willing to guard something for him. He told us to say that whoever took the job would get to spend all their time keeping an eye on his property, and wouldn't have to do any other work.

"Dave and I didn't quite like the sound of that, but we did as he asked and got a volunteer--a big fella named Greg Pankerton. Chip went into his shed and brought out something wrapper in some old sack-cloth, he gave it to Greg to carry. By the looks of how Pankerton was wrestling with it, it must have been real heavy.

"Anyway, Chip took one of our shovels and the two of them headed out across the tracks. Looking through my binoculars from the top of one of the silos I was able to see Chip digging a hole while Greg stood there holding Chip's package. When the demon was done he waved his hands over the hole like he was casting a spell, and then before Greg could do a thing Chip grabbed him, threw him into the hole, and whacked him over the head with the shovel.

Old Greg got buried with the thing he was guarding, and just like Chip said, he hasn't had to do a day of work since."

Grave Work

David tells the characters that he would be happy to get them some shovels so that they can go check if what Chip buried was indeed the sword. Neither the Parchuks nor their bandits are at all interested in helping, but are quick to point out how easily the characters could wind up in graves of their own unless they get to work.

As added motivation Jim points out that Chip has already asked once about when the brothers are going to give him Julie. If he asks again they will have to hand her over in order to avert suspicion: they don't want the demon to figure out what they are up to.

The Parchuks send a couple of their larger bandits out with the characters to show them where Greg's grave is. The plot is unmarked and is only visible by the fact that no vegetation has grown over the site since the burial. As soon as the characters know where to dig the bandits leave them, not wanting to find out exactly what kind of hex the demon cast over the grave.

As they start digging the characters quickly discover that the grave reeks of death and decay. The deeper they go the more the earth becomes black and slimey, until it seems that they are shoveling tar.

When they get about three feet down Greg Pankerton comes up to greet them, attacking them with claws, teeth, and punches. Though Greg is still technically mortal, and can therefore be killed, the absence of firearms is going to make this task a challenge.

Once Greg has been defeated, the characters discover Chip's package laying amidst the filthy toxic slime of the grave. Unwrapping it, they discover that it is indeed Dianta's sword--a wonderous blade forged from the purest silver and engraved with the message Timothy, 6:12:

    "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses."

Unfortunately, the blade is extremely heavy--more heavy than any normal sword of its size could possibly be. Not even the strongest character should have any chance of wielding it, though this does not mean that the holy artifact is of no use to them...


Greg Pankerton

DEX: 4END: 6
HER: 5STR: 6
CHA: 0PER: 3
KNO: 1FRE: 3
Hand-To-Hand Combat: 4
Special Notes: Anyone hit by the weapon's undead guardian has a 20% chance of catching a horrible nameless rotting disease (severity rating 6). Victims who succumb to the disease slowly rot away in the most horrible manner, and short of divine intervention, there is no cure.

More Fight

Back to Shadis #35 Table of Contents
Back to Shadis List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines
© Copyright 1997 by Alderac Entertainment Group

This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com