"Hey. Anna." Amadeo leans down, gently shaking the dark elf from her sleep. "Come on. It's night time now."

Anna groans, sitting up. "Hrrmm, okie day." She yawns, rubbing her eyes while Tyrion prepares to light a torch. "This isn't gonna mess with your eyes, is it?"

"We'll be fine. It's mostly shades of grey anyway. In our case, we can just see beyond the range of your torch in a different spectrum." Hope's pupils expand, dilating to the point she almost seems to have solid black eyes, her emerald hues pushed back to allow more light in like a cat.

Tyrion makes a face. "That's creepy as all hell."

He shudders as Hope turns to him, her face moulding into a pout. "Oh, sorry. I don't get a chance to use this all that much. Should I stop?"

"No, you're fine, I've just never actually seen that before." Tyrion shakes his head, then turns to Amadeo.

The wizard holds up a glowworm like Anna did before, waving it through the air to create four small orbs of shimmering light that proceed to hover above each person's head. "This should at least help us not to lose each other. Just don't exceed twenty feet of anyone else with a light."

"What happens if I do?" Tyrion asks curiously, stepping back a few paces.

"Your light goes poof and we have to make new ones. They don't last very long, either, only a minute or so." Anna clarifies.

"Ah, so stick with the group then. Good to know." Tyrion strokes his chin and hoists up his pack. "Are we all ready then?"

"Let's get moving. Stick together and be wary. No telling what we'll find in the darkness." Hope steps forward, hands at her sides. "Anna, keep your eyes peeled."

Anna's pupils contract and she nods. "I've got it. All clear for a ways off."

They move slowly, careful not to make too much noise in the dark of the night. From a tree, an owl hoots as it watches them pass by. In the fields nearby, the grass rustles here and there as nocturnal predators hunt for small game. There's a soft cry of a prey animal as it's caught, and as the troop moves further on, they're graced by the sounds of something in the dark screeching, but unlike any animal in their experience.

"What's that?" Anna asks, clinging to Hope's arm. The devilkin merely mumbles, "Gibbets." They soon come upon the source; hanging from tall posts nearly 10 feet off the ground are three metal cages of roughly humanoid shape. "You'd think the new king could remove these. Or that the locals would knock them down or something."

"This point is a contested place between Mysthaven and Kaina. The locals won't handle it and the king is too busy cooling tensions with Sumai after the crap our last sovereign pulled." Amadeo retorts, covering his nose. "I swear you can still smell it."

"What did they put in there?" Anna looks around at the group, and Tyrion shakes his head. "Come on, lass, you don't want to know about that." Anna looks to Hope. "What was it?" Hope also shakes her head. Amadeo answers in her stead.

"Criminals. Thieves, killers, traitors especially. Anyone who committed exceptional crimes. They wouldn't execute them outright, no. They'd lock them in these cages so they could starve to death."

"Gods, that's horrible." Anna shivers. "Let's go. This is creeping me out."

"Creeping me out." Comes a voice in the distance, and the elf jumps. "What was that?!"

"Dunno. Let's just stick together." Amadeo relights the spheres over their heads and they move on.

"Creeping me out. You can still smell it." Another voice calls out, closer this time. The wizard readies a firebolt, the flickering flame flaring along his fingertips. "This is nuts."

"This is nuts. Keep your eyes peeled." A third voice, like a whisper, passes them by within inches.

"I can't see anything. I don't like this!" Tyrion draws his crossbows, pointing one forward and the other behind.

Hope draws her blade as the collection of voices turns from whispering to giggling. "Faster, people."

The party quickens their pace as the giggles turn to murmurs now so loud as to be a swarm of flies. Anna points ahead of them. "I see a light! A hundred feet ahead of us!"

They break into a sprint, Tyrion's smaller form having a hard time keeping up as the buzzing grows into a dull drone. He stumbles and Hope reaches down, grabbing the halfling up under her arm. "This ain't the time, little man!"

"You don't think I know that, devil woman?!" Tyrion's little legs kick as Hope carries him the rest of the way to the light ahead before she stops abruptly.

"What? What is it? I can't see it!" Tyrion tries to look around as Hope sets him down. He rounds about to face their foe, only to be greeted by a light. Just a light. No candle, no lantern. Just a floating sphere of light. "Amadeo, did you-"

The wizard shakes his head, shuddering. "N-no. I didn't." The flame he had readied flickers and goes out as the light hovers silently before them. A little wind blows, and another light appears next to the first. Then another, then a fourth.

"I didn't." Says one. "Devil woman!" Cries another. "Faster, people. Faster faster faster faster!" Shouts another, picking up speed every time it says 'faster'. The four lights circle the party.

"There's no way around it. Everyone get ready. This is gonna hurt." Hope draws her blade, the wispy spheres droning on with incoherent babbling as their forms begin to arc with lightning.