Solo Investigation Of A Destroyed Village

    The sun is on the horizon, slowly setting down over the open fields. As the light rays dance across the tall grass it soon shines over the wreckage broken down homes. Birds pecking at the remains of corpses of women, men, and even children.

These were all simple villages in their humble farm homes when they were attacked. Many don't even have weapons in hand. They all died painfully and without mercy.

As the sun continues to become lower in the horizon, a gentle fog starts to roll in from the water banks, casting the area in foggy light. It will be dark soon, and even the birds are starting to take flight.

What could be found here?
What could someone discover?

That is what one lone adventure has come to seek out. This is their story of an investigation on an unknown mystery...

On one of Shaskur's regular visits to Dun Loiraeg to resupply her personal stock of candy she heard mention of undead forces. Her gut told her this was somehow linked to past events she was involved in, and decided to make a bit of a detour to scout out the area a little herself before she headed back to the land of the Outcasts.

Now in the field Shaskur is fully wrapped in her black leathers, a facemask over her mouth and hooded cloak over her head. An unnatural darkness clings and rolls off of her as she stealthily moves through the fields, an ability she gain from months worth of work, and it obscures her further as she moves.

Were the reports true? Was it undead or other monsters? And if so then where were they coming from? There were many questions, and hopefully there would be a few answers before the night was through.

    As Shaskur moves in closer, she can see the broken windows on some of the homes. Doors that have broken down; If not fully torn to shreds.

The dead bodies were not in the best shape, there was that starting smell of rotting flesh from the bodies left in the sun. Many tracks could be seen in the dirt that made the village's roads. Large, small, man, and woman alike. Perhaps even child.

While nothing was stirring, the animals that normally would come to life at this hour was deathly silent. Nothing was even carrying on the wind.

The question now is what will Shaskur do now? Would she investigate the homes closer? Perhaps the bodies? Maybe the tracks? There was several different points she could choose to start from.

As Shaskur approaches the town and sees the bodies it is clear there was a conflict, but not what attacked. She decides to inspect the bodies more closely to see if she can identify the cause of death. Was there any resistance in this town? Any signs of a battle? If it is the undead then some corpses may be significantly more decayed or perhaps even transformed by the magic animating them.

While passing by the tracks she checks to see if any are obviously not human or would indicate other monsters were present, but remains on high alert in case there are any straggling undead or if the corpses are only pretending to be unanimated.

    Shaskur finds herself moving toward one of the undead bodies. Her steps were quiet, along with her movements with such care, should wouldn't even wake a sleeping baby.

The imp would investigate the first body she has come upon. A young male, it looks like his face was clawed, but there is also cuts across he body. Perhaps from a sword or an axe. Bladed weapon of some type of least.

He seem to be carrying no weapons.

    The same with the next, a woman. She too has been cut down while trying to get away, this time a weapon directly to her skull. While some had signs of 'claw attacks', it seems the murdering choice was bladed weaponry.

There was also a mix of tracks around these bodies. Perhaps they too could give some clues? Though it be tricky to decide what belonged to who, but perhaps if a track could be found leading to the town... Maybe then these murderers could be identified or perhaps, at least the direction.

As Shaskur approaches the bodies she inspects and sees that they have clearly fatal wounds, but as it dawns on her that normally Landers don't leave bodies at all she backs off. As she does she watches the bodies warily, perhaps this is part of whatever magic animates them. Instead of breaking up into motes of light like normal their bodies remain and become undead. She had an idea to test this theory, but it would wait until she had some more information.

Backing out to the perimeter of the town she slowly and stealthily circles around the outskirts, keeping a close eye on the ground for where there are obvious tracks. She figures that any force numerous enough to wipe out a town should have left a trail, and possible a couple as they both enter and exit. There may be the occasional lone set of tracks, but she was mostly interested in larger groups right now.

    Shaskur may realized that being among all these dead bodies could be trouble, after all in Elder Tale, dead bodies should vanish; Not stay in place. It is a common knowledge among those that hunt the undead that ghouls can transfer the zombie virus by simply biting.

That means that all these dead bodies could be ghouls waiting to rise up, and the sun is creeping ever lower in the horizon. Soon the imp will find herself in darkness and that fog creeping every closer.

As she goes around the edge, she will find several different types of 'shoes' if not bare feet. The grass has been easily crushed down by marching numbers, some dirt dragged as if by dragging feet.

It was hard to say how many came marching in, but it looks like they came from the north, maybe north-east? Perhaps north-west? Northern direction was at least the obvious part.

It seemed the tracks came from a northernly direction, that was enough for Shaskur, she would start to follow the path of prints that came into town. As she quietly treads along she moves slightly off the obvious path, focusing more on stealth and remaining in the tall grasses then directly following the undeads trail.

At first following was easy, it was a group of undead shuffling along, but as it gets later the fog increases. Soon even moving over to where she last saw tracks they seem to have vanished. The fog thick in the air.

    Shaskur would see the sun was starting to go down and the fog has moved into the city. In the fog she might see a figure or two.

Though as quickly as she saw them, they almost saw her, but the Imp seems to hide from their gaze. They move back into the fog, becoming unseen. It was not long till another would be seen.

The air was also getting unnaturally cold. Dark magic was entering the area or some type of magic at least. To remain here could be dangerous.

For as the sun vanishes over the horizon in full, the sound of te dead could be heard. Their moans slowly starting to fill the air, along with the sounds of their shambling feet.

A flicker of movement in the fog. The swirl of fog at the passage. Shaskur quickly crouched low and remained silent and aware. And then the temperature started to drop. Considerably. Shaskur could now see her breath in the cold air.

Still, this was nothing but another training exercise for her. The fog perhaps aiding to some degree in keeping her hidden, she now moved forward cautiously. Her own magics once again causing darkness to wrap around herself. There were undead, and instead of following tracks maybe the undead themselves would lead back to the source. But this was their territory, could she really move unseen through it?

    Shaskur attempts to use the undead to get an idea of where she should go, however what does she find-- well-- she finds herself running into 'someone'.

The fog makes it hard to see the features, but a pair of golden red eyes peer at the Imp. "Well, hello there." A voice says before coming into view. Then Shaskur would find another individual, this time a man coming in from behind her.

The woman lets out a hiss, showing her long canine fangs. The imp will need to act fast!

Oh uh! Spotted. The golden red eyes peer at Shaskur through the fog and she notices another large presence quickly moving up behind her. Immediately leaping to evade, rather than trying to dodge to the side she instead leaps forward towards the glowing eyes, away from the figure coming up behind her. As she leaps forward dark arming dagger that tappers to sharp points are in her hands.

As she lunges forward she also calls out. "Hi, hi. Who are you?" More as a layer of distraction than anything else. This may not turn out all the well for her, but she hopes to either land a strike or get close enough to identify who this was as she tried to INSPECT the individual as she closes in.

    Shaskur would soon find herself in a very bad position, as she attempts to evade, the woman moves quickly where the Imp was going and catches her.

The creature grins and what Shaskur finds under an inspect is that she is dealing with two vampires.

    "We should just kill her now." The woman says, her nails becoming like daggers. However the man shakes his head, "You know our orders." He hisses back before continuing. "If an Adventurer shows up..."

    "Silence! The both of you!" A third voice comes as she steps out of the fog. "You both talk to much." The new vampires eyes fall on Shaskur. This ones hair was fiery red, and her eyes were glowing emerald-green. "My dear little Imp," She says to Shaskur, "You should run along now before we /force/ you to run along."

The red-head shrugs her shoulders, "Your choice!"

Shaskur looks at the third vampire as it arrives, her eyes widening. "Wait, wait. You are intelligent? I thought it was just monsters out here, but you can talk?" She look around at the vampires, feigning surprise. "And you will even let me go? Sure, sure, I will leave. I was just curious about what was going on out here. And you know, you guys are pretty sneaky, I can respect that."

If they let her go then she will immediately start to make some distance between them, but until then she will try her best to get some info. "But why would you guys be roaming around out here? If you're already dead then wouldn't you not need anything any more?" She wonders aloud. "Oh, oh, and I'm looking to learn some new skills, I don't suppose you guys are training at all?" She tries to keep them talking.

    The male vampire snorts softly, "Oh look, she is complimenting us! Do you think she means it?"

    The woman holding Shaskur rolls her eyes, "Of course not you dult! She is just trying to flatter that massive ego of yours."

    "You don't have to be so rude you know!" He growls at her.

    "Why I outta..."

    Then the red-head snarls at them both, "ENOUGH!" She roars out. "Let the imp go. Now." Then she looks at Shaskur directly, "And you best run, as we are hungry and you are looking /very/ tasty. Now leave this place and next time we may not be so hospitable!"

The other female vampire frowns and lets Shaskur go. "Yes. Run along little impy. Don't write or we /will/ eat you up next time." Before she laughs, then gets smacked in the back of the head by the red-head.

Shaskur wasn't sure why they were letting her go, but it must be they wanted news to spread. They seemed to have specific orders on how to deal with adventurers if they found any. Something was very suspicious, but at night they had too much of an advantage. Time to retreat for the moment, take the strange opportunity provided.

"Well, it is nice meeting you fine people." Shaskur replied as she backs up further. "But I suppose I will take your kind offer to depart. I hope you have a peaceful night." And then raising her hand in a parting gesture "Later!" and quickly turns and darts off into the night. Time to get far enough out that she was sure to be safe from the undead and then wait for a new day. Curious as to what was going on.