The arrow sails through the open window and embeds itself deep in the dog's eye socket. The beast slumps motionless to the ground.

He follows the dogs movements with the bow, watching it stalk up and down. He is about to release when a thought suddenly strikes him. These diseased creatures don't seem to feel the pain of an arrow, the blood is drained from them and yet they do not stop. But perhaps the head? Something must be controlling them. He adjusts his aim and let's loose. The arrow flies true, straight through the base of the skull. There is not so much as a yelp as the dog slumps silently to the floor. Jex gestures into the tree line at the others to move forwards and enter through the door. 

As the party enter the cabin, they find something that Jex could not see through the window from outside - a dead woof elf, with its throat torn out. The skin is withered and grey.

Thurston seems a little bit dissapointed that they haven't found the dragonborn. 

"How in Hel did he got infected? Poor soul, may the valkiries guide him to Valhalla. We should burn this place to the ground and go back to our mission." 

"Pro'lly th' ame as th' rest, just made it out o' h' city 'fore they locked 'im down. Got tracks out back there where 'e an' 'is dog came home."

As Bründir enters the cabin where the others are looking around everyone can see Dumdrengi begin to glow again in the dim-light of the cabin, bathing them all in its soft blue light.

Valaith leans down to examine the corpse to get an idea of what happened just as Brundir's sword begins to glow. Before she can think to react, the dead elf suddenly lurches up and grabs hold of her arm and shoulder with a snarl! Getting used to the foul stench that accompanies these demonic undead, Val fights back against the churning of her stomach and allows the always simmering anger to fuel her rage against the undead. As usual her breath fogs in the air as the spirits of the frozen wastelands of her mountainous home endure her and her companions against the suffering of life. She wordlessly roars into the face of the undead elf, drops her hammer, and yanks free one of her handaxes. With her free hand she swipes the blade across the face of the elf as she brings her weapon into the fight!

Jecx leaps up, keen not to be seen to be paralysed by fear again.

"Hold it still, someone smash its skull in."

Jex slashes his shortsword down towards the head of the zombie with both hands, hoping to cleave its skull in two, unfortunately it manages to wriggle aside and he just takes a chunk out of its shoulder instead. 

The zombie thrashes about and tries to bite down on Valaith!

Valaith takes 4 piercing vigour damage, halved to 2, which consumes her temp hp. Note the nature of vigour damage means she was not actually bitten. It just cost her stamina to avoid being bitten.

Anybody may take an action.

Jex raises his shortsword a second time, this time as he brings it down he embeds it in the elfs skull, destroying the brain and it returns to its lifeless state. 

As Jex's attack slices through the shoulder of the zombie elf, Val tries to use that as an opportunity to push away; however, her hands slip off the zombie and it thrashes forward with its face, snapping its jaw towards Val's throat. She is barely able to jam the handle of her axe into the open maw of the zombie and push it away with all her might as Jex brings his shortsword down into the skull of the zombie and ending the threat. Val shoves the creature off her into a heap. "Thank you, Jex. That was... not very smart of me. I'm sorry everyone."

Thurston seems really unsettled. 

"As I said. Let's burn this and continue..." 

He stops by the dead dog and look at him for a second then, he walsk out the lodge.

"Sod it!" Bründir exclaims, "Take what furs ye can, they're worth somethin' at least. Agreed, burn the rest." The dwarf's grim determination is confirmed when he takes a nearby lantern and draws a flask of oil.

"Leave and burn the hides too" says the paladin from the door hearing his friend "I doubt that the stink of the dead will ever go out of them."

"Shame. I'd rather burn'em with that scaly ***** wrapped in'em."

Val looks around with a sad glance, feeling once more the weight of responsibility and the impact of not fully understanding the ramifications (not the word she would choose) of their actions. "I agree. We cannot risk this disease spreading anymore than it already has... Let us do this and go. I'm sorry I drug you all this far for nothing." She wipes the handle of her axe clean and slips it back into her belt as she stoops to collect her maul.

"If ye hadn't, there'd be three of these damned things wanderin' round an' spreading disease. We were lucky to find'em." Bründir sets about splashing oil over every flamable surface and takes up a lantern by the door.

Val stoops to pass through the door as Brundir's words reach and she stops to turn to look at Brundir, a slight smile turning upward on her lips. "Hadn't thought about it that way. Thank you, Brundir." She stoops once more and passes through the door frame into the darkness beyond. Despite the anxieties that threatened to make her sick with worry, Val thought about Brundir's simple, yet profound words. 'He's right. We cannot change what happened, but we can do everything to make it right again.'

Jex grins and waves away the thanks. "Now perhaps we could get some rest?" 

Bründir, Jex, Thurston and Valaith stand and watch as the dull, red glow from within the cabin slowly grows. Smoke starts to trickle up out of the window, door and chimney and tongues of flame lick up the sides of the walls until the entire cabin is consumed in yellow and orange. The four of them return to the party's campsite and even from there they can see the distant light and the pillar of smoke rising over the face of Arden's vast moon.

The rest of the night passes without incident.

The group rises late the next morning and the sun has been up for a few hours before they are underway once more. Moving the wagon through the forest continues to be slow work and it is past midday by the time the break the treeline. The great grass sea of Hróna foothills stretches out before them, rising and falling for many miles into the distance.