Chapter 30: An Unsettling Request

Belkzen…

Dearest Grym,

I apologize that we haven't talked in quite some time, and now that I am, it's so cryptic. Please meet me at my shop in Trunau. It's of the utmost importance.

I pray this letter finds you well,

Agrit

GRYMLOP

It's been a week since Grymlop Stonebotton received the letter from his old friend and crush. Despite loving her, he let her leave without admitting his true feelings. She left for Trunau to open up a magic items shop. They even came up with the name together at the local tavern—the House of Wonder. Trunau is a small town bordering Lastwall inside the Hold of Belkzen. His feelings for orcs also caused him hesitation. He hated being so close to his most hated enemies. Grym hadn't been there since she first moved out of Thisome Keep. His hand slid into his pocket and rubbed the letter between his fingers. She was usually so eloquent with words. Her vagueness had him worried.

The journey had been long, and although the mines he grew up in were hot, the road his caravan was traveling was scorching. He was relieved when it rained, which created its own problems after a time. Who liked to sit in sopping clothes for hours? As he moved further up to Trunau, it got cooler. The clouds above loomed menacingly. It was early in the morning when they reached Agrit Staginsdar's quaint shop of magical oddities. The sound of soft bells tinkled in his ears as he walked through her door. Shelves lined the back walls, filled to the brim with tonics and elixirs. A large desk jutted off the wall to the side. A steaming teapot and three others sit talking amongst themselves: a beautiful young half-elf who looked to be half his age, an armored human female, and a man whose cloak partially covered his face. The one in the cloak made Grym apprehensive, guarded.

"Grym," a voice behind him called out. He spun around, a smile touching his lips at the sound of her lovely voice. She looked as beautiful as ever. A twinge played in his stomach before willing away how he missed her. She'd married and moved on. So should I, he thought.

The two hugged, and her face turned grim. "Given the circumstances of why I brought you here and its location," Agrit points to the table where the strangers are seated. "I also sent word to the Knights."

A look of surprise flashed over Grymlop's face. If the knights were involved, she suspected this would have something to do with the Whispering Tyrant.

Grym walks to the table with her and explains as she serves them tea. "I have a friend, Jacra Hillwren, who moved to Fiorna's Faith after a raider attack. The town withstood pretty well even after the Tyrant's takeover." She pushes a piece of parchment across the table as Grym, and the others listen intently. "Jacra and I have been communicating via her raven familiar." The piece of paper had blood splattered over it.

"I must be brief, my friend. Something terrible has happened. People are disappearing in Fiorna's Faith. I fear that I'll be ne-" The letter has been ripped.

"What are you looking for us to do." The young half-elf asks. Sympathy displayed on her face.

"I would like you to investigate the town. Find out what happened." A tear slips down Agrit's cheek. She puts her hand on Grym's. It's warm and soft. He covers it with his own. "She had a research book we were working on that could help reconstruct the towns the Tyrant destroyed."

"What does the book look like?" the hooded man asks. His voice was the opposite of his appearance. Calm, peaceful.

Agrit gave the book's description and a map to get to Fiorna's Faith.

ALEK

7:17 A.M.

Alek Ilaryn cursed the rain that had gotten heavier since leaving The House of Wonder. He hated the rain, and so did Taki, his Dweomercat Cub. Taki's midnight coat made him look much thinner than he was now that he was soaking wet. The heaviness of Alek's sodden cloak forced him to uncover his head and tie back his hair. Taki left his side to play at the feet of his other trusted companion Mika. Her foul mouth playfully scolded the mischievous feline. The nearer they got to the outskirts of Fiona's Faith, their playfulness slowed. The rain, which he didn't think could get any heavier, did still. The ground was filling with massive puddles, the bottom of the cloak dirty and frayed.

Alek turned his gaze to Grymlop Stonebottom. He heard about Grymlop from some of the others in his acquaintance. They said he was friendly, reliable, and capable. He was also told the master dwarf acted as a liaison between the Pathfinder Society and the Knights. His eyes peered at the newest member of the Last Knights. She was a part of the Looking Glass. A splinter group of the Knights, known for their powerful divination magic. She was short even for human standards, much less that of her elvish side. She stood nose to the chest on him.

The sky darkened as lightning began to whip across the sky. Sporadic buildings of farms and trapper's huts were abandoned with no recent signs of life.

They approach the last farmhouse outside Fiorna's Faith. The house was well built. Its shutters slam against the exterior with the gusts of the wind. Inside was well-made furniture, and several paintings were nailed to the wall. Nowhere were personal photos or memorabilia. The adventurers proceed down a hallway, blood-streaked along the floor, leading to a door slightly ajar. Alek nudges it open to reveal a crushed cow's corpse. The blood around it was already dry but for a small pool directly under it. Cockroaches infest the head as flies swarm around to take advantage of any unoccupied parts. Kana leans past Alek to shiver at the site, her hand gripping his arm for support. He stiffens under her warm touch. His body snaps at attention when the magus notices himself leaning into her. He didn't have to look behind him to know that his champion companion was rolling her eyes at him. Mika would no doubt remind him of this later, he groaned mentally.

" No! I hate cockroaches," she says with a panicked expression. She backs away, bumping into Grymlop.

Mika flits her fingers along the young oracle's arm. Kana yelps and swats Mika on the arm, causing Grym and Mika to chuckle at Kana's expense. Alek shakes his head and enters the room to investigate the strange markings on the cow's carcass. The roaches quickly respond to Alek as a disturbance and scurry toward him and the others.

Alek unsheathes his elven blade and swipes the bugs with a sweeping motion.

Bright yellow light emits from Grym's hand to lance at the swarm, killing the rest.

Hissing from the body grabs Kana and Mika's attention as two giant cockroaches emerge from inside the cow. Mika and Alek enter the kitchen and flank the carcass. Both pounce, one at Mika and the other at Alek. Before Mika could respond, a spear of shining light pierces the roach, cutting it in half. Its innards splatter over Mika's plate armor, some even getting into hair braided down her shoulder. She looks over to Kana, thoroughly disgusted. Kana giggles. Mika, the good-spirited woman she is, laughed and shook her head. Grym nudges Kana, an approving gleam in his eyes. Alek snaps his blade, losing any fluids before sheathing it, downing his cockroach.

Grym enters the kitchen to investigate the cow. Its head is missing, and blood smears across the room to an open door leading to the outside. Upon examination, Grym determines that the cow has been dead for a few days. Alek smells something not quite right. He sensed more than just animal blood. He walks outside and enters a makeshift animal pen. A massive amount of blood in the center indicated the animal fell there and was dragged. The familiar scent was more pungent here. He brushed his foot around the area. Something red and white pops up into view. He bends to pick out the human tooth, holding it between two fingers.

Kana holds out her hand. She inhales sharply as she looks off in the distance for a moment. "What did you see, Kana dear?" Grym asks softly from behind her.

"I'm not sure," Kana says. "It's dark, and all I hear are shrieking sounds." She shivers, shaking her head as if ridding herself of what she saw. Or felt.

8:15 A.M.

They make their way into a valley leading into Fiorna's Faith. This part was made dangerous by the never-ending descent of rain they'd been experiencing since they left for a small village. Multiple times they slipped and slid down the valley. Mika grunted as she jumped off a stone blocking the path, landing in a nearly mid-calf-deep puddle. Alek and Grym followed. Alek looked back at the deceptively delicate oracle, just in time to see her leap off. She skids to stand in front of him. She smiles warmly, brushing her silver hair from her face after regaining her composure. He smiled at her. A strange expression that he didn't use very often. Not much time to do so. The Gravelands was not a place of joy or peace. Hunting the undead gave him pleasure only because his actions would rid the lands of their evil desires. He laughed to himself. How hypocritical for him to kill those with such dark desires when he was what he was. His tongue self-consciously grazed against his fang. His eyes turned crimson as he looked at Kana. He felt a particular desire himself for the oracle. And it wasn't evil in any sense. She shifted her gaze and walked past him with no words. Her smile replaced with uncertainty.

10:15 A.M.

"That damn valley took two hours!" Mika mumbles loud enough for them to hear.

Taki weaves between Alek's legs as they finally reach the town gates. From this angle, they could already see that something was amiss. The gates were swinging, barely held on at the hinges. The buildings nearest them had splintered wooden walls and shattered windows. The doors were left ajar. Another structure is barricaded on the outside. A crude skull was painted on its wall like a dark tapestry, and the smell of rot emanated from within. Alek grimaces. He makes his way to the back of the building, the door crushed, fragments scattered out on the steps he begins to climb.

"Something smashed it from the inside." Grym offers as he creeps up from behind Mika. Mika moves Alek to the side and walks through the entryway. Lightning fills the room with a brightness that affords her light. Grass and dirt muddy the floor, and decay lingers in the air that all the companions can now smell. Taki sniffs and follows a trail of mud leading further into the home. A burrow is found in the back of the building, dirt spilling onto the floor around it. The others follow the cub. The rot in this room is offensive, especially to his sensitive nose of Alek.

Kana tentatively touches the dirt. "Something pushed its way in here," Kana says. A rat scurries from the hole a moment later, running past her. Kana yelps in surprise. The others are just as shaken with their weapons at the ready. Kana groans. "I'm not liking this place."

The sky continues to open up as the storm becomes more fierce—lightning battles in the sky, followed by thunder. The group walks back out to the road. The water is a bit higher now, and Alek is glad for the leather boots. They continue looking for any of the villagers.

Overlooking the town from a rolling hill is a humble estate. It is made from a mixture of light wood and stone. The wood is fractured, but the stone is untouched. The barricade in front takes from its humble beauty. Its defenses prepared much better than the house they'd seen previously. The back corner of the house was singed, embers still smoldering inside the damaged room. Blood splatters the ground and bits of other things that Alek didn't want to contemplate. Water drips slowly in the kitchen sink, the sound almost masked by the gale-force winds outside. The table holds rotted food. Rats and other critters are partaking in the feast.

Cracking from the planks that splintered from the fire creaks above them to the second story. Drag marks skew the ground into the next room, with no body found. The wind howls louder, and parts of the flooring above in the corner of the kitchen fall to the ground. A dresser falls to collapse and shatters on the floor. Its contents spill out.

The dining room table in the next room was fully set and untouched with beautiful porcelain plates and gold-plated cutlery.

The next room held so much blood that it had yet to dry. The smell of the fluid assailed Alek's senses, and his skin tightened. Mika put her hand on his shoulder. "Whatever happened here…" Mika's voice trailed off.

Water sprayed into the room from a broken hole in the front door. Several pieces of armor and weapons lie in a pile to the side. The adventurers enter a two-storied library. As Mika steps further into the room, crunching sounds underneath her feet. Grym opens the curtain to the side as the pale light streams in to illuminate the room. Alek can see Mika walking over a broken wine glass and a decanter. The wine mixed with blood and a dagger lying amongst the razor-edged shards.

Kana bends to touch the knife. She gasps for breath. "The woman who owned this," Kana indicated the blade and shook her head. "She killed herself."

Grymlop Stonebottom grimaced. "What would have been so bad to have done that?"

"They've not seen the horrors we've been accustomed to," Mika adds.

"Such pain," Grym sighs.

Two ornate chairs flank a small wooden table. Taki scratches on the floor near one of the chairs. Grym spots the object of the cub's attention. He picks it up, turning to the others. "A dawnlight." They all said in unison.

A creeping feeling works its way up Alek's spine. "The rot. All the blood." Alek begins.

"Don't say it," Mika says. The champion shifts uncomfortably in her armor.

The group searches through the rest of the rooms with no survivors or evidence of where they may have gone. One of the upper rooms contained building deeds, a few healing potions, and 120 gold pieces worth of jewels.

12:01 P.M

The street now covers most of their feet, causing Taki to meow his protests. The sky, though early afternoon, looked like the night was almost on them. A small pouch lies in the street, tattered, the shoulder strap ripped. Mika lifts and opens it. A gold locket with a picture that's been too waterlogged is placed inside, along with food and clothing to last a few days.

Mika drops the pack with a shake of the head. "We're going to need to barricade ourselves. Nighttime will be upon us in no time." The path out of the village is covered by water.

Kana scoffs," Because that worked out so well for them." She sweeps out her arms to encompass the village.

"No one here has the training we have." Alek counters.

"The manor is the only building so far that could be useful." Grym offers. "But we would have to start with the reinforcements now."

Grym, Kana, and Taki walked several feet back to the manor, pulling apart the lesser damaged wood and reusing them together. Mika and Alek went to three of the nearby building they'd investigated to grab some usable lumber. They boarded the windows and reinforced five compromised areas of concern. They repaired the spiked walls lined outside the front door. Kana and Alek arranged a backup plan to strengthen the stairs and set up a spiked barrier they can swing closed as they go to the second story if overrun.

5:11 P.M

It is now fully dark despite not being nightfall yet. Alek peeks through a small hold in one of the boards attached to a window. "Best to get some rest," Alek says quietly." "I'll take the first watch." Alek needed only a fraction of the time to rest as they did. It was also much too early for him to sleep. Kana, Mika, and Taki move upstairs, where they take one of the bedrooms.

"I'll sleep down here." Grymlop states. He climbed the stairs and returned with a small blanket and pillow a moment later. The master dwarf propped the pillow behind him and covered himself.

9:03 P.M.

Grim relieves the magus to tend to his own needs for sleep. Alek guessed he should have been grateful for getting almost an hour of sleep before his senses went wild. He snapped to his feet, startling the dwarf cleric. Eyes turning crimson, teeth elongating further. Alek's deep voice breaks the silence of the night. "They're here."

10:00 P.M


The full mini-adventure can be found in the 'Book of the Dead' (towards the back). I wanted to use it in my story as a foundation to introduce some new characters. Also, I thought it was really cool. Byeee! -Tigerblaize :D