The sun stood high in the sky, casting its light upon six people wandering the deserted Countryside. Out in front walks the old Zakariah, treasure hunter and adventurer and the guide on this quest. He carries a short, broad, curved blade with which he is not particularly skilled, a huge backpack filled with all kinds of adventuring requirements and an old, wooden cane which he uses for walking. He’s followed by five of Arcadia’s best men. Tristan Daranis, a young knight wielding a one handed blade in combination with a big, steel shield. Sir Varius Darren, Royal Scoutmaster and King Riven’s most trusted counselor, wielding two sharp daggers. Rhyddion Lux, a living legend who has seen more than his fair share of combat. He always wields his trusted two handed greatsword. Shanondarion Rectus, Archmage and also a trusted advisor of King Riven. Shannon wields one of his own inventions, a staff with a shard of Arcadium on top of it. He uses this weapon to channel his magic and cast powerful spells at his enemies. Last but not least, there’s Simon, one of the Messengergod Raven’s followers. He has an exceptional memory which he can use to transfer messages back to Arcadia. His weapon is a single, short axe. They were weary of their long travels. All day they had been traveling across the wide open countryside, seeing nothing but misery and poverty on their path. The countryside was the place where the people who can’t afford a home in Arcadia live, usually in homemade farms. The trees of the Autumnwoods were slowly getting closer and closer, but they were still miles away. The Countryside seemed to be completely devoid of life, but the graveyard they were passing through now suggested otherwise. At night, this would have been a blood chilling sight, but the light of the sun took away its darkness until nothing but sadness remained. There was something strange about the place, however, for not all graves were closed…

‘Why are those graves still open, Rhyddion?’ asked Tristan.

‘Graverobbers, probably, the people out here do everything for a bit of coin.’

A few steps ahead, they found their path blocked by a relatively large coffin. It was wrapped in chains and sealed with a heavy lock. The lid was nailed to the coffin, making it almost impossible to open.

‘Where does this thing come from?’ said Simon as he examined the interesting sight.

‘Probably came down from that hill over there, washed up by the rain or something,’ said Darren as he pointed towards a small hill beside the road.

‘Someone really wanted to keep this body from being looted,’ said Tristan as he was messing with the chain around it.

‘Not necessarily,’ said Rhyddion. ‘There have been rumors about weird things happening out here. Mostly just superstitious mumbo jumbo, though.’

‘Superstitious? Not so fast, Rhyddion,’ replied Darren. ‘My scouts reported some strange creatures coming down from the Autumnwoods, not that long ago. They claimed that they saw one attack a villager. They say that after the creature seemed to suck off the poor fellow’s face, the man appeared to be dead. Nevertheless, he rose again the next night, ripped off the arm of one of my men and took off into the night, so maybe the lock isn’t to keep someone from getting in, but to keep someone from getting out…’

‘Aye, Scoutmaster,’ said Zakariah. ‘That’ll be the Leeches you’re talking about.’ He took a bunch of papers from his oversized backpack. There were drawings of all kinds of strange creatures upon them, creatures they had never seen before. ‘These are all kinds of beasts and monstrosities that I have encountered during my long journeys.’

‘Than you must have traveled for miles and miles, Zakariah?’ asked Tristan who seemed to be very interested in the drawings.

‘That I have, dear boy! I am one of the original few that can draw the entire map of our world! Have you ever seen King Riven’s map? That’s all my work, but I’ll tell you more about my adventures when we’ve found a place to rest.’ Zakariah grabbed the drawings and put them back in his backpack. ‘But yes, Scoutmaster Darren, these things are very real and I have also witnessed similar events in which they tore off their victim’s face, they seem to feed on something inside the, not necessarily human, body of their prey and they access this food source through the mouth. However, this undoubtedly painful process does not kill the victim, but it does not leave them quite alive either. They turn in to some sort of undead state. It’s truly a marvel to behold!’

‘Yeah, I’m sure those poor people felt the same way,’ said Varius Darren. ‘Let’s keep moving. Lead the way, Zakariah.’

They left the coffin for what it was and moved on across the wide open plains.

The sun was slowly going under and the sky turned into a reddish blue. A cold wind started to sweep across the empty lands. It was strange, though, the fact that the land was still empty. It disturbed Rhyddion, something was wrong. The others did not sense it, hell, Archmage Shannon wouldn’t even care if he did, but Rhyddion knew this place. Rhyddion had been here before and these empty plains were nothing like the place he knew as the Countryside. The people here might have been poor, but they were contempt. They never knew another way of life, so this was good enough for them. Something those rich folk would never learn. Suddenly, they spotted something not too far away. It was a small village, more like a gathering of wooden shacks really. In the center of the village grew a large tree. It was dead. The town was deserted, there was not one living soul to be found.

‘Deserted, again…’ said Shannon with a light sneer in his voice. ‘Every single damn place we’ve found is deserted. I thought there were supposed to be people here, Varius?’

‘There were people here, Shannon,’ replied Rhyddion. ‘They’re gone for some reason.’

‘I do believe I just said that, Lux.’

Tristan opened one of the doors and started checking inside the shack. The furniture was still there and there was some sort of rotten breakfast on the table.

‘There’s food on the table, almost as if they left in a sudden hurry.’

‘Left…or taken,’ said Zakariah with a grim look on his face as he was searching the place for some useful items. ‘I’ve seen this kind of scenes before on my travels.’

‘Maybe we’re already too late,’ said Tristan. ‘Maybe the Werewolves already found what they were looking for, maybe they took away the villagers.’

‘I doubt that, young one,’ said the old treasure hunter as he cleared the table and pulled out one of his drawings. It had a Werewolf on it and some kind of temple-like structure. ‘The Werewolves of the Autumnwoods are mostly peaceful creatures. They worship the Moon and their Goddess and Creator, Eria. I’ve actually had the privilege to meet Eria, the Lady of Growth, she is a beautiful and kind woman. You wouldn’t say that she is in any way related to the horrible creatures such as Furnox and Skar.’

‘Werewolves, peaceful? Yeah, right!’ sneered the Archmage again. ‘They’re savages, half-beasts that’s what they are! And that Eria is just as savage. They’re ferocious and cannot be trusted.’

‘You might say that, Shanondarion, but I don’t believe you’ve ever gone beyond the safe walls of that shitpile of a city you call home, so don’t judge about things you’ve never even seen before.’

Shannon’s blood seemed to boil beneath his skin, but he managed to stay calm. He turned away from the old man and walked outside while mumbling all kinds of foul language.

‘Anyway, the Werewolves are also very skilled architects. Look for example at this beautiful temple complex.’ Zakariah pointed with his finger at the drawing as he described the way it was used and what it looked like. The temple looked like some gigantic stairs with a shrine on top of it. The shrine was covered by a stone roof with a hole in the top. ‘The light of the moon falls right through this hole and onto this crystal here. The crystal projects the light and serves as a beacon! It’s truly amazing!’

‘We’d better find some shelter for the night.’ said Shannon as he came back inside again.

‘Can’t we stay here?’ asked Tristan.

‘No, we cannot. Unless you want to wake up in a huge puddle of mud and water, be my guest, but the roof is riddled with holes and mold.’

‘I think we should keep moving. The faster we arrive in the Autumnwoods, the better.’ replied Varius.

‘There’s a storm coming, Darren. We need to find shelter.’

‘Oh so now you can predict the weather as well. What did you do, Shannon? Taste the air or something?’

‘No, I see those dark clouds coming our way, Darren.’

‘…’