The approach to Nestrin caused a sinking feeling to work its way into all of the members of this small party. Homes that they passed all seemed to share the same story as Naivara's home, abandoned and ransacked with little to no warning. As they crested a small hill, the main square of Nestrin came into view.
"Hold up guys." Said Akash, breaking their silence. "I think we should scout this part of town out before heading in unprepared. Those alleys could be holding just about anything. I can turn into something small, like a squirrel, and check it out. Just an easy in and out."
"That's actually not a terrible idea." Chimed in Gnoll, "The more information we have the better. I say go for it."
As the others nodded in agreement Akash's form shrunk down into a small, fluffy-tailed red squirrel, and with a squeak, he scurried off to the town.
Many of the buildings that loomed over Akash as he skittered through the abandoned square were much more destroyed than the buildings on the outskirts of town. Most had at least part of the roof caved in, or a wall blown out, a couple appeared to have been completely demolished. Venturing deeper Akash caught a muffled snort coming from one of the alleyways. He quickly climbed one of the neighboring buildings, his sharp claws finding easy purchase in the dry wooden siding. Peering around the building there is a creature hidden in the shadows of the alley. Akash creeps closer, trying to make out the features of the creature. As he gets closer and his eyes adjust to the dim light of the alley he is able to make out the long waxy-skinned ears protruding from each side of the creature's bulbous head. Its snout was wrinkled and misshapen as if it was in the habit of running headlong into walls in its youth, and finally, its entire body was covered with a greasy pale green skin that bunched up around its four-clawed feet. Akash was taken aback by the creature's appearance. In all his time traveling the mountains and the deserts of Covalion, he had never encountered a being such as this. In his moment of fascination, Akash failed to notice the ragged breathing that emanated from the shattered window mere inches from him. With a crash, the meating paw of another nearly identical creature punched through the window frame, grazing Akash's fluffy red tail. The sudden commotion drew the attention of the first creature, its black beady eyes snapped up to Akash as he clung to the building. It unleashed a baleful howl that caused Akash's tail to poof to twice its size as he scrambled around the corner, back into the light in an attempt to escape the creatures. As he fled down the main street it became clear that the alleyways of Nestrin had become home to a great number of these new abominations as more and more joined the chase, aroused by the howl that signaled an intruder. Fortunately, the creatures' heavy-set bodies were built for power, not speed and Akash was able to pull away by jumping from ruin to ruin. However, even with his advantage a few of the creatures were still uncomfortably close as he returned to the party.
As Akash and his pursuers came into view Gnoll and the others lept into action. Charles skewered the lead creature as he and Buck took the lead. "What are these things!" He yelled back at Akash who had just finished shifting back into his blue-skinned Genasi form.
"I have no idea!" Akash responded breathlessly as he attempted to recover from his flight. "They were just roaming around in town. I found the first one in an alley and then they all followed me out when they saw me." He continued to explain as he raised his staff to deflect the claws of one of the creatures that slipped past Charles and Gnoll.
"Kill now, talk later!" Grunted Hal, fending off two of the creatures by himself. Just as he managed to dispatch one of his assailants, the other pulled back its head for a moment before it quickly unleashed a roiling green cloud from its maw. As the fog enveloped Hal he immediately began to retch. Even from his relative distance, Akash could feel the stench coat his sinuses as he suppressed the rising bile in his throat. Holding up an arm over his face Akash launched a blast of radiant energy at the creature that created the cloud, felling it with a whimper.
When it became clear that the tides had shifted in favor of the party the remaining creatures turned and fled back to the city. "Well, I guess we found the cause of this…" said Charles as he turned Buck to face the party while gesturing to their surroundings with his lance.
"We know what happened, but not what caused it." Interjected Akash, "There didn't seem to be any real sign of struggle that I noticed in the city. Just a lot of abandoned buildings, I don't think anyone really got hurt."
"We should go to the city hall," murmured Naivara, her eyes glazed over "there might be survivors, or clues pointing us to where everyone went." The others shared a side-eyed glance between themselves, not daring to dash whatever hope Naivara was clinging onto at this moment.
"That's a great idea." Said Akash, "I didn't make it that far into town so there might still be more to this that we haven't figured out yet."
Silence hung heavy in the air as the party ventured forth towards city hall together, the desolation surrounding the weighing heavily on their minds. The state of the city hall did nothing to relieve the tension, the upper floor was destroyed, collapsing onto the lower floor, with remnants strewn about the alleys and main square before it. The once beautiful windows that had spanned from floor to ceiling were shattered, appearing more as puddles left on cobblestone after a spring storm, than feats of architecture and craftsmanship. However, as they brushed aside the loosely hanging doors they were greeted with a somewhat hopeful sight. The spacious foyer was full of dusty cots, and while there was a distinct lack of occupants, their presence indicated some amount of initial survivors.
"Well at least it's something." Said Hal, as they waded through the small sea of furniture. "We now know that everyone didn't just disappear overnight. Although, I'm not entirely sure where we should go from here."
"I've actually got an idea." Noted Akash, "If they stayed here long enough I might be able to pick-up a scent and track them." Akash fell forward onto all fours as he finished the sentence, his white hair shrinking into a short grey coat of hair that spread across his now oversized, wrinkled skin. Akash's overdeveloped sense of smell opened a whole new world to him, as scents drifted about the space. The scents were weak, even to his hound senses, but with each inhale he could see them ever clearer. Snuffling around the foyer, knocking into the discarded furniture, Akash ,and by extension the rest of the party were drawn out a back door that led into a garden that eventually ran into the wilderness beyond. guiding through the overgrown gardens Akash continued forward into clearing, and then stopped abruptly. A new scent has appeared, one that was much, much newer than that of the villagers, from the far side of the clearing, behind a rather large overgrown topiary camera deep rolling musk that somehow mixed the scents of the snake dens of the desert, and wet bear funk that one was liable to find while exploring caves in the mountains during springtime. Akash sat back on his haunches and let out a small woof, while gesturing to the topiary with his head.
Hal walked up beside Akash and asked, "Something over there? Think it's friendly?"
Akash responded with another woof that finished with a quiet growl.
"I'm going to take that as a no." With that Hal launched a green bolt of energy at the topiary causing a yelp that was quickly followed by a roar as a well sized bugbear riding a massive hyena erupted from the topiary, charging across the clearing at them.