Deep in the nearby forests, 3 adventurers wondered through the wilderness, preparing to head back to the nearby kingdom as to cash-in their latest quest. “I doubt we’ll get back in time, so if you ask me, I think we should make camp here.” The Elf ranger said, his bow resting over back with his arrows, each of his steps were silent like he knew which leaves made noise when stepped on and avoided them.
“Are you kidding me, Aldeir? No way I want to do that, can’t we just keep moving until we reach a village nearby or something?” The Half-Elf mage responded, her voice angered like even suggesting the decision was absurd.
“Oh, come on, you can’t expect us to be able to move that quickly, right Cerirra?” The Human Fighter said, Darion, he chuckled at her angry attitude.
“Don’t tell me you actually want to be surrounded by all these nasty bugs and dangerous animals in this place, I swear, if I have to do another insectoid quest ever again…ugh, I hate those things.” She groaned, leaning against her staff.
“We can set up camp here, next to the road, and then we can move out and reach the kingdom by tomorrow nightfall, does that make you feel better?” Cerirra contemplated for a few minutes before responding. “Fine, but I’m not doing this because I like it, I’m doing this because I love you.”
“I love you too, Cerirra.” Aldeir responded with a smile, glad for her cooperation.
“Get a room already, ha ha.” Darion laughed, only to earn a slap at the back of his head by Aldeir, to which they all laughed.
A few minutes later, Aldeir and Darion had their bags on the road floor, debating how to set up camp while Cerirra stared outwards, away to where they’re supposed to be going tomorrow. Her thoughts drifted from one thing to another then it was interrupted, not be her husband, Aldeir, not by their friend, Darion but by a presence.
It was something she had never felt before, whatever this thing was, it was dark, old and sinister. She could immediately sense its malicious intent and could feel it’s hatred, it radiated a deep cold feeling that came from her bones, it made her shiver in the summer sky. It was approaching and it was coming fast; she had to act. “Get off the road, quickly.” She yelled to the other two, running to the side of the road, where the land went down before climbing into a small borrow.
Aldeir and Darion were confused by her actions, but they listened and they followed her, leaving their bags in the road for anyone to approach and investigate. Cerrira immediately started reciting incantations for stealth based spells so quietly, the duo could barely hear her speak, “Hide Presence, Conceal Magic, Obscure Vision.” Each was to hide them three so perfectly, it would be as if they aren’t there, she hadn’t needed them before this moment, but each drained away her magic by the second.
The trio laid there for a few seconds before the sound of hooves approached, horses, about 2 in total running forward before slowing down, soon stopping where they once were.
Silence hung in the air, as if both groups were waiting for the other to make the first sound, then footsteps slammed onto the ground before walking. They were slow, not difficult to move slow but rather deliberate, intentional, one of the footsteps approached the trios bags while the other approached the side of the road, right above where the adventurers hid, it climbed down onto one knee and looked out into the dense forest trees, as if looking for the adventuring trio and trying to identify where they had run off to.
Suddenly, the figure leaned his head down to look into borrow where they hid…yet found nothing, its breath was like that of winter that radiated the same cold Cerrira felt just earlier. Darion and Aldeir saw a figure of black armour that hid its body completely, even its helmet let in no light, Cerrira had her eyes sealed shut, like that would stop it from seeing them. It was just as well she had cast those concealment spells just earlier. The armoured figure kept staring for a few seconds longer before pulling itself back up to stare out at the dense forest, the sound of rummaging from seemingly the other of this duo could still be heard from just a few feet away, the seconds seemed to pass by like hours and Cerrira’s magic even faster.
Then as Darion looked up through the roots to observe the figure above them more closely, it spoke in a long, drawn-out and even hoarse voice, like a creature imitating the sound of a humanoid when they spoke, “No prey escape the Zarumogol…” The words loomed over the group like the one who said it, the word ‘Zarumogol’ branded their minds deeply, a word they heard from many ghost stories of the ancient times, undead wraiths buried in the north hundreds of thousands of years ago. The very word, everyone knew the meaning of as it was dark elven for ‘Wight Ghouls’.
Cerrira wanted to cry, to whimper, anything to release her fear as her magic slowly escaped her body. Aldeir, coming up with a plan, picked up a small stone from beside him and threw it to direction in which they had come from towards a small group of squirrels and birds, hoping to startle them. The rock hit a nearby tree and the animals scattered out of fear, Darion watched the armoured figure above him turn his head immediately and the sound of rummaging soon ceased, likely also looking in the direction in which the sound came.
With a horrid cry, one that sounded almost human but wrong in places, it was a wail like that of a fox but with the intensity and tone of something wrong, nearly human but distorted still and carried the weight of raw horror and dreadful death. The footsteps ran back to their horses immediately, climbing onto the steeds and chasing after the source of the sound. Cerrira opened her eyes to lookout one last time, she saw the backs of two horses and human or elflike figures in the same black armour Aldeir and Darion saw, fleeing towards what they believed to be their prey.
“You both still want to camp in this place?” She asked as she climbed out the small borrow.
“Yeah, I’m with you on this one, especially after that.” Darion responded, having no intention of running into those creatures again.
Aldeir was the last to leave, his tone was serious and contemplating, “Zarumogol…was it just me who heard him say that?”
Cerrira shook her head while Darion openly spoke, “Nope, I heard that too, but I thought they were dead…like dead dead, buried hundreds of thousands of years ago.” Aldeir could only sigh solemnly, knowing what his friend said was true but not wanting to openly say it.
Cerrira responded too, “That’s how the story goes…let’s just get to some village, I’d rather sleep with other people around than stay out here alone."
2 days later, the trio were speaking to another party in the adventurer’s reception base, a place where adventurers gathered, where people registers as adventurer’s, got promoted and generally just came to collect new quests, they sat opposite another guild of 4, all women and much higher ranked overall, while the trio known as ‘Skyward’ were merely gold level adventurer’s, while this group opposite them, ‘The White Lions’, were a Diamond ranked group, powerful and trustworthy and a group they had connections and history with.
“You wanted to speak with us?” The leader of the group spoke, she had minimal armour with a small, silver and thin band on her head that served more magical protection than physical.
“Thank you for speaking with us, Layris, yes…we had an incident in the north of the Feldon forest roads.” Aldeir said, the words sounded begrudging. “I see, what happened?” She asked, the other three women sat nearby silently listening to the conversation.
“We were moving through the North roads in Feldon Forests, near that village on the hill, Rearil Village…we were planning on resting in the woods when we were approached by…something.” The word ‘something’ came out like even that was too human-like for whatever he was thinking of, Layris raised an eyebrow, beckoning him to continue.
“It wore black robes- no, armour and its body was hidden were no light would see it…its voice was almost like a normal creature but wrong, impossibly arranged like a sound that was never meant to exist…it called itself ‘Zarumogol’.” He whispered that final word, knowing it could get the attention of anyone who heard it.
The group of women suddenly shot up and looked to him, as if wanting him to clarify what he said without having to say it. “We’ll investigate it.” The masked woman said, people only knew her as ‘Elithil’, “Thank you for your help.” Cerrira said, looking at the masked woman.
Hours had passed and the White Lions now alone and prepared to leave. “You know, it’s weird to think we’re going to this tomb and all…I mean, it’s one of the most famous historical sites ever.” The Tank of the group said, Gargonia, she was a tall woman, around seven feet with muscles comparable to an Orc, she was the woman in the group who lived closest to that place, as she spent many years growing up with the dwarves after becoming an orphan, their kingdom was only a few miles west of that tomb.
“Indeed, it’s an ancient place that no-ones been to for many centuries, so I want all of you prepared as best you can before we leave, is that understood?” Layris said, leaning forward in her seat, the others nodded, knowing the seriousness of a situation like this one. “We should arrive in a week if we leave tonight, rest smart and all.” Arseil, the assassin of the group said, she spoke rarely but when she did, it was always something important, the kind of person to remain quiet, observe a situation and decide her opinion after she fully understands what’s going on.
“That sounds about right.” Layris responded, thinking to herself before responding. “Alright, we’ll move first thing tomorrow morning, we rest in villages and towns, never alone or in the wilderness, we keep moving until we reach the destinations we intend to reach, regardless of the what’s happened throughout the day.” The orders were absolute, no room for objection or questions, but everyone knew the danger of a quest like this one, arguably the most dangerous one they had ever taken.
If it was safe and found nothing, the worst thing about it was a waste of time, if they found the tombs unsealed however, they didn’t even want to think about the possibility, even if they already knew the answer, like they already knew what they would find if the tombs and hated that fact.