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Once he had
returned home, Freki began to plan his attack against RendGrave. All
warriors of the Eastwood clans knew the dragon laired in the Bleeding
Hills. One hill, Redstone Hill, was just outside the entrance of the
cave system RendGrave used as his lair. Freki wanted to first lure the
undead from the caves, defeat them in the open, then move in to find
the dragon's lair. Freki knew he would have to destroy RendGrave
himself. The weapon made him a threat to the ancient wyrm, without it
no one could battle the dragon.
Soon after arriving in the foothills, Freki was ready to
lead the wariors of the united clans against the undead minions of the
death dragon, RendGrave. The army marched in disciplined squads back
into the Wyrmed Hills. Silently creeping through the wooded hills, the
force managed to assemble on the far side of Redstone Hill without
meeting any resistance.
The hill had a gently rising slope facing the caves that
climbed up to a sharp drop-off. The overhanging cliff provided cover
from eyes looking from above. The majority of the warriors were to
remain there and await the return of Freki and his strike force. As
Freki took his men toward the gaping mouth of the caves, he directed a
second group up the hill. Freki led his clansmen into the caves slowly,
watching for any hidden menace to leap to the attack, but none came.
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Unmolested the
warriors delved into the caves of RendGrave. They eventually came to a
pile of white, stripped bones that filled a large chamber. The number
of bodies required to make such a pile was astounding. As they stood
staring at the pile, some of the white bones began to twitch, then
jumped up and came together to make a full skeleton which lumbered
forward to the attack. Many more bones began to dance, then come
together to make more attackers. Soon the room was filled with an
ever-growing number of undead. Freki ordered his men to slowly pull
back.
When they reached a bottleneck in the tunnel, Freki sent
his men retreating to the top of the hill. He held back the skeletons
long enough to allow his men time to reposition, then raced to join
them. The strike force lined up at the edge of the precipice, set to
recieve the slow charge of the skeletons. The skeletons reached the
warriors only to be pushed back into their advancing fellows. The press
of skeletons pushed several ranks to the front at once, knocking the
warriors off the cliff and taking several ranks of skeletons with them.
Nearly all of them slipped off the edge before the defenders realized
the attackers had been killed by the fall. The second group, which had
lain in wait around the side of the hill poured up the slope and
finished off the remaining force of skeletons.
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