“Guys, what is that sloshing sound?” Naya asked as she held her ear towards the wind.

“I do not fucking like that sentence,” Mavec said as he cast an arcane armor spell on himself. Alvec finished strapping on his buckler and followed suit, bringing up an ethereal, almost ghostlike chainmail that glowed a faint blue. He hopped on out ahead of her and walked up to join Illaria. Illaria had brought the wagon to rest on a large raised earthen mound sparsely rung by trees. A road ran around this embarkment, but as far as his Tiefling eyes could see, there was water and reeds.

Sarbie gulped and grabbed the crossbow and her quiver of bolts. She hoped that, like last time, they’d get lucky, and there wouldn’t be any issues. She hopped down and remained at the rear of the wagon.

“Fuck are those Zombies?” Mavec asked as humanoid figures came into sight. They were shambling and sloshing through the rice fields with little concern for themselves. They were still too far away to see any clear details about them.

“No,” Naya barked out. “Look at their movements; they’re too flexible. If they were dead, their joints would be stiff. If anything, it looks... Oh fuck, it looks like they’re sleepwalking!”

“Not this fucking shit again,” Mavec replied.

“It looks like an entire Lom’s worth of people,” Illaria noted.

“And we’re sure they aren’t zombies; I’d almost rather have the zombies than another mystery on our hands,” Mavec replied.

“Bait test? Bait shoot, if blood, not zombie?”

“Absolutely not Bait. You shoot them, and they aren’t zombies, and we’ll be answering to a town guard for murder,” Illaria shouted.

“I’m not getting any necromancy; this is the sleepwalking phenomenon again,” Alvec stated.

“What the hell is going on Alvec?” Sarbie asked as she crept up behind him and glanced into the distance. About forty of fifty people were sloshing through the rice fields, swiftly approaching their position on this small hill.

“We’re not really sure, to be honest,” Alvec said. “It happened to us once before we came to Sha-Laial. Something compels them to sleep, walk, and lay in strange patterns.”

“So far, we’re just recording it and trying to decode it. No luck so far, but we’re still early in our investigation.” Mavec said. As the group of villagers neared the hill they were camped on, the sound of a sword being unsheathed caught everyone's attention before loud footsteps thundered on ahead of the group walking through the fields.

“Release them!” A man bellowed as he reached the crest of the hill. He looked in his 40s with graying brown hair and a fairly muscular build. He wore leather and wielded a single long sword. They were close enough now, that looking down the hill it was clear that these were all living people. There eyes were closed all but a slit, and they struggled to ascend the hill, all accept the man with the sword.

“Hey, we’d love to, but uh, this isn’t us, friend,” Mavec replied.

Alvec stepped forward with Illaria. Her hand rested gently on her Wakizashi. “I’m Avec Snaptail, member of the Cheese Acolytes, winner of the Festival of Blades in Sha-Laial, and this is...”

“Illaria, also a member of the Cheese Acolytes, in addition to a member of the Blue Banners Coffin Flotilla.”

The man hesitated. “This is magic... and you’ve got two magic users I can see.”

“Sorry, we overreacted; we thought it might be a horde of zombies the way they were shambling,” Mavec replied.

“You’re claiming you didn’t do this?” The man asked.

“Yeah, we’re the winners of the Festival of Blades in Sha-Laial. What do we need with a bunch of sleepwalking people?” Mavec said.

“I... I want to believe you, but this is all a bit much.” The man said.

“Anyway, I’m Illaria, and these are my associates,” Illaria said as she pointed out each member of the group and gave a brief description of each member of the team.

The man sheathed his sword and walked up over to Illaria.

“So what do we think is going on then? Do you guys know anything of this?” He asked.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Not much, I’m afraid. We were victims of this same circumstance ourselves about a month ago. We woke up in a field. Thankfully, our animal companions protected us throughout the night... Praise be to Echo the most, for he is a wolf and strong enough to scare away most predators.”

“Everyone woke up?” He asked.

Illaria nodded. “I’m sure our wizards are going to do what they can to investigate. Make yourself comfortable here at our campfire. We could use another sword hand or pair of eyes for the watch tonight. Taking on their safety is going to make it much harder for us to respond to threats.”

“What sort of threats are you expecting?” he asked.

“Can’t be sure, really. Hopefully, nothing, but we can’t be taking chances now, can we? What can you tell me about the village anyway?” he dusted himself off a bit.

“I’m Tareef the lochmaster here at Lom-cilic We’re just a small pastoral village. We trade in cows, rice, and river fish mostly.”

“A typical river town understood,” Illaria noted.

“I actually would like to take a look into this. I was unconscious last time... maybe it's not arcane after all. Sarbie, once they settle down, let's look at one of them.” The people around them started to lie down, forming a pattern on the ground.

“I’ll chart the pattern,” Mavec said as he began sketching onto a piece of canvas.

Alvec walked over to one of the people near the end of the chain with Sarbie. He knelt down and began inspecting them.

“It's not arcane, and it doesn’t look properly divine either. It reminds me most of Naya’s magic. Looks related to the spirits to me.” Alvec declared loudly. “What about their health? Do they seem okay? Physically?” Alvec asked as Sarbie began to look them over.

“Yeah, other than some scrapes and bruises from stumbling their way here, they seem fine. Heartbeats feel strong, and their breathing fine,” she said. “Regarding divine magic, I’m not exactly getting anything either. It feels similar, and yet wildly different.”

“Sounds like spirits to me,” Alvec said. “Would make some degree of sense. We suspect the spirits are involved with Naya’s village turning to plants.”

“Excuse me?” Sarbie asked, blinking in surprise. He hadn’t just said her whole village had turned to plants.

“Oh, right, we haven’t had much time to go over this sort of stuff. Yeah, that's why she started adventuring. I picked her up in a tavern in the boonies.”

“Do the armies know this? The Church?” she asked.

“Naya told a bunch of people, but Lom-Itoti is so small it doesn’t even have a proper road. They’re known for trapping and selling furs. They were so isolated that several seasons could pass before anyone would even think to go looking for them.” Alvec replied. “The Banners and even the church never bothered to investigate. I doubt it was out of any malice, but it's just so small.”

“And this sleepwalking thing, you’ve encountered this before?”

“Yeah, last time we were the victims, though. Rem was kind enough to keep as good of a record as possible.”

“Speaking of that, Alvec. The patterns are different. NO fucking idea what that means, but the design is different, “Mavec said before walking away and lighting a cigarette.

“I’m just hoping that this isn’t somehow connected to the flesh abominations,” Alvec said, shaking his head.

“The what?!”

“We can save that one for later.” Alvec insisted.

“No, no, no, no, you don’t, Alvec Snaptail Reynore. You do NOT get to say something like that and walk away!” she said, grabbing him by the coat.

“Ok, ok. I’ll answer, I’ll answer,” said Alvec “We’ve run across a couple of strange creatures. They don’t seem to have been recorded in any field guides or monster manuals we could track down in Sha-Laial. Vato called them invaders or intruders.

“Vato?” asked Sarbie. “Who’s Vato?”

“Vanished Archwizard from the Anarchy. We found his tomb,” Mavec said, taking a drag from his cigarette.

“And his journal,” Alvec said. “I forget the exact verbiage, but he indicated they were strong enough to fight Red Banner patrols independently. So far, we’ve encountered... a tripod-legged creature with a scorpion-esc tale and a glowing orb surrounded by what looked like floating seaweed. Human-sized flatworms with human teeth at both ends. A long floating skull and several sets of detached teeth just floating about... and a tongue. A giant tongue with teeth growing out of it and fly eyeballs near where it would connect to the throat. Yeah, they’re pretty fucking strange.”

“...Alvec, this isn’t funny,” said Sarbie. “You had me till you hit the detached teeth.”

“Sarbie, I assure you. I’m not joking. Ask the others if you doubt me.”

“Seriously, stop it. You’re freaking me out.” He had to be joking. There wasn’t anything like what he described in existence. This had to be some hazing ritual for newcomers. Tell them tall stories and see how they react. A series of loud sloshing noises caught her attention. “More villagers?” she asked.

Alvec held his hand up to his lips, pressing a single finger gently against hers as he mirrored, doing the same to his mouth. While she couldn’t see the rest of the group, she could practically feel the tension as conversations came to a sudden stop. The sloshing was loud and frantic. Too loud to possibly be a sleepwalking crowd of humans.

She felt Alvec’s magic rush around her. She nervously grabbed her crossbow and fiddled with it. Her hands were shaking. “Stay with me, and try to stay behind me. I’ll protect you.”

Those words, even in the face of some threat, resonated with her. While he may not have looked it, Alvec was worthy of trusting. He was Alvec the Unyielding after all. From where the pair were standing behind the wagon, they could not see what was coming.

“Spread out!” Illaria bellowed.

“We’ve got the south western edge!” Alvec shouted back.

“I’ve got the Northwestern edge” Came the voice of the Lochmaster.

“Bait, Mavec and I will take the east then!” Illaria bellowed again.