To get a better understanding of how the map looks like I created a map with (Azgaar's Fantasy Map generator)
Map: (due to FF not allowing links) the image is in Imgur, Search up the username LatinBird & It'll be the image named "Silence of a serpent"
"By my decree I declare Paslus to free from the grip of the BlackPalm Empire. It shall be its own Empire or kingdoms if need be. Those wrongfully convicted in the prison Island may return to Versillia. Those of high rank in the BlackPalm Empire's army will be exiled to the Island and live out your days there. Never to return to Versilia. Do not worry, your families may come along with you if they would like but you may not force them, not under my new rule. Supplies will be sent to help with your construction on building something new for yourselves."
－Letters of Jaxel Speer after the siege of Shadow Fortress and declaring himself the new Emperor. 160 R.D
The warmth of the sun shined on their faces; it gave a good relive to feel some warmth from the everlasting cold the North gives out. The last remains of snow melt into the ground revealing the brown soil with green grass; forest trees begin to grow back their beloved leaves again. The days of burning cold winds are behind them for now, the men knew it, and clear as day…spring has arrived.
"On your feet, lads." Toric said filling his Gourd from the river.
"The mission isn't over yet. We still have to find the Illagers and see why they haven't attacked the Border in months."
"Then let's leave it at that, maybe the savages finally became civilized, we should head back home." Roman lazily said laying on a tree stump.
"You've gotten lazy over the past months Roman, we all have." Veric mockingly stated staring towards Derek eating wild berries from his horse while staring off into the distance from the hill they rested on. It was high enough to have the Lonely Mountain's tips show from above the tree line, Derek starred ignoring his surroundings, eating his fill of wild berries and letting the juices flow through his grey beard with dripping on the ends.
"By the End, The old Derek would be disappointed with you, Derek." Veric said disgustingly. The lack of Border attacks had gotten the worst of Derek out of the six man party. Once a decorated solider from the Blackpalm Empire, now exiled to Estovia after the Rebels won the war; now reaching the ripe age of fifty-two with a plump belly and a receding hair line cursed him as well.
"By the dragon, some wine would be good right now." Derek said lost in thought.
Toric readied his saddle looking over to Roman squatting up with Piper beside him, she was a slim girl not shy of some muscle yet both, no younger than seventeen; equally matched in skill with weapons as well. Orphaned during the Rebellion against the Empire of Blackpalm in Versilia, both Piper and Roman, along with many orphans of the war were sent to Estovia. Piper was the daughter of a vanguard soldier named Renly whom Toric knew closely; he can still see some of Renly's features in Piper, she had his round face, orange hair, light freckles across her nose and blue eyes. She was adopted by a blacksmith family in BlackHarbor, although instead of picking up a hammer, she picked up a sword at age ten and trained with the exiled soldiers of Blackpalm who now guard most of the West of Estovia along with the Border Gate. From her training at the Border Gate Fort came exiled general Roland Hothworth, commander of the Border Gate Fort; he taught her everything he could teach her of sword fighting along with his adopted child Roman, whom trained alongside Piper. Both went through the hardships of training with Roland but both out came the sweat and tears, now they wield their weapons with precision and accuracy, although decision making were up to them to learn.
"Could you rest when we're not in dangerous lands, Roman?" Piper asked.
"Dangerous lands? When Roman Hothworth roams about in the Wildlands, I become the danger." Roman laughed. He quickly grabbed Piper by the waist leaning her back, giving her no time to react, "Don't worry Piper, if you get caught in danger you can always call to Roman to save you." Roman winked.
Piper pulled her dirk out from her leather sheath placing the edged blade near Romans inner thigh carefully not trying to cut him from the embarrassment of trying to woo her , "Next time you do that shitworth, I'll cut your precious pecker off." Smiled Piper.
Jokingly, Roman pulled away with an ending bow off Piper turning to his horse with all the other men who laughed at their lovers quarrel as they sometimes call it.
"Quit fooling around, we have a job to do and I intend to head back to the fort, alive." Said Norge returning up the steep pathway from his scouting.
"No sign of them, no tracks, no camp fires within fifty miles from here. We have another hundred miles to tread before hitting the end of this river; we head back home if we get no contact from them. We'll have to bring more men if we want to venture out further in."
Toric patted Norge's shoulder in a gesture of gratitude for his scouting, Norge might've been a big lad past the age of forty; his hair gifted with the color of amber with green eyes but by all means can the man quietly come behind somebody and stab them before they can realize it. In truth Norge was one of the best scouts in the Blackpalm Empire before he was bombarded with dynamite a special weapon used by the rebels, now Norge wears a black leather mouth cover strapped mouth – to - neck covering some of his chin too; he wears it at all times to hide his hideous scars from the war he lost, seventeen years of bitterness since.
Rays of sunshine hit the dark black hair of Roman, he took in the breeze of the fresh spring wind touching his face as it passed him through their steep river path. They've traveled since Morning; afternoon came once they left their resting hill yet time never stopped from them, their guards rose every minute that the woods get darker and the glimmer of the river bank shrink with it.
Norge stopped them, he didn't like risks no matter what, the darkness of the woods have crept up, and night time arrived with only sixty miles covered. Ambushes may arise from any side he thought. Continuing on foot was best in his sense as hoofs tend to speak louder than footsteps. The threat of a Illagers hearing the hoofs is something Norge did not want to intake along with the sense of threat of some loose cannibals venturing far off their own forest, its happened before. Groups of three of two spread out a mile from each other throughout the woods with forty miles to cover by foot. Veric moved alongside nearest to the river bank with Derek, keeping up at his best with muffled huffs and puffs, Toric treaded among the main pathway leading Roman with him, Norge lead Piper in the far end of them. Their footsteps crept silently has it became harder to see past the dark forest, miles of darkness covered from where they dismounted and not a sign of life.
Crickets won't arrive until late spring to bring out the sound of the forest but instead have the branches under their feet crack with every few steps; lighting a torch would be too risky for this kind of situation, silent forest of pure darkness and an enemy sees the torch light, they'd be giving them a warning sign to run away or catch them by surprise basically. Stag grunts heard off in the distance yet no presence of Illager life, they regrouped in the main pathway; finishing their designated mile limit, none found anything except for Veric who called behind a large bush, he found an abandoned campsite by the end of the river bank.
"It's crazy I tell you, nobody. Fookin nobody. Food left to rot, salted pork ruined, what mad man would leave such a thing behind?" Cried Derek.
They reached the location Veric lead them to, the camp was set between the river end a few feet of a water gap but quite deep in; tents pitched up with no warmness inside them filled with caches of meat, it seemed big enough for a party of ten people. Toric opened a barrel inside a leather tent positioned far side of the camp, the stench of it gave Toric a quick gag before dumping it in the ground for a quick look around. Salted red rotten meat laid about filling the tent of a nasty odor. A piece of an undefined color lost in the red sea of meat caught Toric's eye, knelling down to grab it for closer inspection; cold sweat poured down his cheek as he held close to face.
Toric held the item high from his head as he exited out the tent,
Everyone watched as he held the human finger high up. "Human meat." Toric said.
"This isn't salted pork, Derek. None of this meat caches are of animal meat. It's all human."
"What are cannibals doing so far out of their woods. Let alone camp?" Piper asked gaging away from the meat cache she opened.
West side of the camp laid scattered meat & blood splatters hidden in the darkness of the field too hard to see without closer inspection, Veric examined thoroughly. A boot lied beneath what could have been a chunk of a poor souls thigh, curious in fact, the tracks went West instead of East where the Border Gate stands. But why Veric thought, Cannibals are very unlike themselves to camp this far off from their woods; Cannibals venturing off this far is one thing but to camp felt too odd for Veric to point out.
"I think they were afraid…they came here to get away from something…I don't think it worked out for them." Norge proclaimed as he examined the same scattered meat Veric was examining.
Norge knew cannibals were fiercer and harder fighters compared to Illagers, to have cannibals fleeing from something worried Norge.
"We should go back, we ventured far enough. Any farther and we might end up surrounded by hundreds of cannibals and I know for sure they'll eat me first." Derek said tired from the long night.
"You're right, we should report this back to Commander Rola-." Veric stopped his words as the grunts of a creature came closer from the shadows of the southern woods.
It voiced something human yet nothing any of them have heard before; it emerged from the shadows, touching the moon light of the open camp area, a green rotten face, patchy hair and maggot filled eye sockets, a tall bulky figure laced with missing cloth of its green cloak & brown tunic, its brown pants burnt of ashy black ends and a missing bot in its right foot. In hand, a Flail proposed of a blooded iron spiked ball with an iron covered wood handle.
All stood still with swords in hand hesitate to make a move to a creature they've never seen before. Though the creature limped slowly towards them, its flail chain length – longer than its handle gave weary caution to everyone, dare attack recklessly to someone with a flail & it'll come swing behind your back and none brought shields with them, a reckless mistake by them to not bring an important piece of equipment for the mission.
"Fook me, what do we do now? We can't fookin' attack it head on!" screamed Derek, annoyed by the lack of shields they didn't bring.
"Calm your nerves. Use the trees, we must let it swing first. The creature will lunge its flail's head and trap it the bark." Norge urged closing to a tree he was closest to.
The cold air of the night crept in their nervous sweat, eyes crossed back to forth amongst each other; awaiting to see who the creature would choose attack. It limped, howling growls of humanoid sounds from its maggot filled mouth, sounds of pudgy flesh puss squeezed with every step it took, the sort of sounds you hear when smashing bugs beneath your feet.
It chose its target, Piper & Roman, hugging the same tree, preparing themselves to dodge the incoming swing. The creature gave a slight jump bringing its flail downward from atop its head; Piper threw herself belly first into the ground away from the impact turning in disbelief, Norge's plan failed to succeed, the creature had some intelligence to it turns out.
In the open field Piper found herself now, no other option but to fight for her life against the creature. Others came to surround the creature, screeching at them a deathly howl; turning and shifting its head around the others; frozen it was, prepared to counter attack, waiting for an attack to face it, a bait of sorts.
"What now? It's waiting for us to attack it." Said Piper crawling back up from the ground "We can't use the trees, it knows what we want it to do with that."
"Quit your sniffling little girl." Norge replied.
Roman approached it slightly,
"What the fuck are you doing boy, get back!" commanded Norge.
Roman looked foolish to Norge, a cocky boy who thought himself to be a great warrior stepping up to a unknown creature as if challenging it to a duel.
Its eyeless sockets stared at Roman grunting with every step he took, Norge followed up with his approach as well, he had no other choice but to follow Roman's foolish decisions; others followed with them.
"This is a shit idea." Muttered Veric.
Close enough the creature howled its screech once more swinging its flail against Roman's side, he swayed back to dodge yet leveled the edge of the sword which was leaned forward to catch the connected chains of the flail spinning around his blade. Roman pulled closer pulling out his dirk from its sheath digging it into the creature's right eye socket. Its grunts and howls faded with the sharp steel sliding out of its socket dropping like a ragdoll, broken bones of pulled out flesh came about in its impact. Everyone took a breather, never in their lives have they seen something like this, the unknown left them uncertain of what to do but not for Roman, his I can pull anything in a fight attitude gave him a confidant boost in fights pulling off stunts that some would call impressive but most would call it dumb luck.
Norge infuriated with Roman heavily walked towards him with every step feeling the tremble of them, he pulled Roman by his neck holds of his tunic,
"You think you're some kind of warrior ignoring my command, Hothworth? You're lucky little stunt could've gotten you killed you t'wat. Just because you've killed a few Illagers in your few years of ranging doesn't make you a warrior, next time, you'll lose your live." Roman stared back into Norge's eyes unflinched of his anger.
"Let the kid go." Veric said squatting next to the creature.
Norge unclenched Romans neck holds turning to the dead creature beside them.
"It's an undead…a zombie in fact." claimed Toric.
"Zombies? Those only reside in Eupira along with the other disgusting monsters." Said Piper scratching her head.
Curiosity hit them wondering why a monster originally from Eupira would be in the land of Paslus, three hundred miles of sea separated Eupira & Paslus from their closest lands. Norge gave the command to bring the rotten monster back to Estovia, it'll show as prove of their findings and willingness of the scholar at BlackHarbor to give them the answers they need.
Tied by hands to feet, Roman, ordered by Norge to carry it back to their horses, it was to be covered with a cloak once there. Piper paced behind Roman in case of falling behind the pack dragging the body by rope. The darkness of the forest still lingered around them. Silent once again, not even the stags grunted anymore; moonlight still shined from above, the Full moon still visible in the sky from passing clouds. Fatigue crept on everyone, they'll have to make camp soon; hoping for a restful sleep of no interruptions of the living dead.