Kadin sat in silence for a few moments before telling himself to focus on the task at hand and he brought his horse up to a gallop as the town of Ashvale slowly disappeared behind him, the north east of the country was sparsely inhabited as the stigma of the blasted lands still brought fear to most humans, but that being said there were still some rugged inhabitants who forced out a living in this area but as he was getting further away from the main settlements of the kingdom the areas he was passing gave way to more open and rugged ground the area around him began to get more rocky and the road would twist and turn to stay on the smoother even ground gone were the roads, paths and worn tracks that lead between the villages and towns closer to the capital, clusters of stone and boulders seemed to huddle together in small random groupings. Kadin was on guard as the rock and stone formations while seeming natural still offered a lot of cover and concealment and given more and more people have been falling under the control of the Necromancer he felt that the chance of a road side ambush were getting greater and greater as he made his way away from civilisation. His destination was now the small village of Lynwood and Kadin thought he would make it there in just over two days, enough he hoped to catch up with his contract. It would normally be a three day journey but he thought that pushing himself on till late in the nights and setting over early in the morning would let him catch up.

Kadin was pretty sure that the Necromancer was able to see and influence what went on with the battle at Ashvale and he hoped that Norman would assume Kadin would take a day or two to rest which would allow him to close the gap. Luck would still need to be on his side as he travelled as the rugged country around him held its own dangers, the mountains to the south still held orcs, goblins and cave trolls and the forest ended before the mountains the magical energies leaking through the barriers from the ice caps to the north and desert to the east caused a lot of storms enough to blow down trees or cause fires to burn them away, And to the north there were ice trolls, yadred and chimeras that normally stuck to the frozen tundra but would on occasion forage out with.

But as his first night ended his luck held – it was well past sun down and he had poured magical power for stamina regeneration into his horse but even still he and his mount were tiring, the two moons were bright in the sky and there was even more light from borealis caused by the magical storms from the blasted lands, so Kadin had a good view of the landscape around him and with is long sense he found a small gnarled thicket of trees the was somewhat sheltered by some sizable boulders to the side so he decided this would be as good a place as any to camp for the night. As he got closer to the little thicket he dismounted so he could lead his horse off the road and keep an eye out for any burrows, or dips created by the rough landscape. He made it to the trees without issue and had a look around, there were a few large boulders that were blocking the winds from the north and east, there was also a fallen tree leaning against them and a little clearing under it. He tied off his horse and there was still the occasional blast of bitter cold wind from the north and as he looked he seen a bunch of crumbled rocks that looked as if they had previously been built up to block the little gaps that the wind came through – so he spent a little time building it back up and placing a few of the branches from the still living trees in front. Once complete he had a little space of a few paces across where he would be sheltered from the wind, he set a small fire from the branches of the dead trees, then he fed the horse and gave it a rubdown with a few of the errant branches around. As he was doing that he also ate a little of the provisions that Roy had game him, some dried meat that was well seasons and some tack bread that was very dry. So he took out one of the water skins he had for traveling and took big drink only to discover it was wine, Kadin quietly smiled to himself at the extra effort Roy put in. That being said he quickly stowed it away and grabbed another that actually had water in it this time and took a long drink of that too, finally he took out his stamina potion and noticed that the light bright green liquid had darkened quite a bit – already spoiling, he popped off the stopper and poured half the liquid into the water he was preparing for the horse and drank the other half himself. The potion was earthy and bitter tasting but even right away he could feel it working his thoughts became more focused the weariness across his shoulders and legs eased but he didn’t have the time to fully enjoy it as he needed to move out again soon. He took another mouthful of wine and set a timer glyph in the rock besides him the would go off in a few hours, then leaving his cloak on and hood up rested his back against the bolder and drifted off.

In what felt like a few moments he was awoken to the light chimes of the glyph he placed, it was noticeably darker now the borealis having gone from the sky but after standing, stretching and giving himself a quick shake he untied the reigns and started pulling the horse back towards the road, the two moon had moved across the sky and were still glowing to provide light but not enough so he quickly cast night sight on himself. He scanned the area around him with his long sense and his magic sense, he felt the edges of some magical beasts but they were still a long way off but other than that everything seemed clear. Once back on the road he mounted and started on his onwards journey. The stamina potion had a bigger effect than he had expected as he actually felt very well rested – but he know the one he took next time he stopped would be less effective so he pushed on trying to make the best of things.

After a few more hours of uneventful travel the light of dawn slowly crept over the horizon, looking like it would be another clear and calm day. As the day went on he ate some provisions and would randomly push out his senses to scan the area around him, at one point he thought he could see a basilisk far in the distance off to the south he kept an eye on the dust trail it kicked up as it went and it seemed to be heading in the other direction. At about midday he stopped for a quick break he fed and watered the horse seeing that it too seemed to be getting the benefits from the stamina potion. Kadin poured fire magic into a small cluster or rocks and used that to cook himself some warm food as the finished its own meal. Using the dried meat and a little of the wine Kadin cooked a basic meal added some precooked rice and scooped it up with bread, by the time the stones had diffused the heat his meal was gone; He took a another drink of water then set off again.

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As the afternoon started to ware on into early evening Kadin decided to use the other stamina potion, it had been about a day and a half and the potion had totally changed it was now a very dark green – but he thought ‘its only going to get worse’ so he drank the whole thing in one gulp. It still had the earthy bitter taste but there was another undercurrent to the flavour of sourness, he could feel his stomach start to roil ant turn and thought for a moment that he had left it too long … but it only lasted for a few second and then settled. He again could feel the effect of it starting to perk him up but not fully removing the weariness and tiredness through his body.

Again as the sun started to set and the moons appeared on the horizon, it was an uneventful day would it be all his travels were so .. but that’s not the life he chose. Kadin pressed on as the moons rose and the borealis started again - all being well he would arrive at Lynwood in just about a days’ time and hopefully would have caught up to his target. But as the night wore on he started looking for a place to make camp the area around him was barren and rocky there were no longer the occasional thicket of trees, there was the occasional cluster of shrubs grouping together here and there off the road but nowhere that would give protection from the elements and if he was to try am put up a magical shelter it would need a constant feed of magical energies so there was really no point as he wouldn’t get any sleep.

So onwards he trudged using his long sense to scan the area around him, at one point he considered heading a bit south to the base of the mountains, but he quickly put that thought from his head as there was still a lot of goblins, Orcs and Trolls that lived in the mountain range so the abundance of caves and hills would be more likely to hold them than be empty. Just as he was considering riding through the night he noticed something far off in the distance, just off the road – it looked like the remains of a house or maybe even an old guard station. He needed to get closer to get a better look so he hurried the horse up and made his way.

Once he got close enough to get a good view of it, it did indeed seem to be an attempt at a small farm house, there were remains of fencing around the property and the rocky land had been cleared to give a relatively flat even field, which was now baron with a few thickets of weeds and clumps of grass clinging onto life where it could. The farmhouse itself had no roof and it looked as if one of the walls had also caved in as rocks had scattered around the house with a few bigger ones having broken down the door that was now little more than a few planks of rotting wood. The two windows that had been built into it was small and empty making them look like two empty eye sockets of a massive skull.

Kadin got off his horse and tethered it to a still sturdy looking bit of fence and made his way towards the house. His magic sense wasn’t picking up anything so he expected the place to be empty and abandon – as he got to where the door use to be he created a magical light ball above his hand and peered inside, there was the remains of a small fireplace that had almost survived the roof cave in, there was also a broken table to one side by one of the window, and in the far corner the remains of a bed plus its previous occupant, a broken and cracked wooden headboard leaning against the wall and a splintered remains of the bed frame with a patchwork of what was a green blanket not mostly brown from dried blood. The occupant of the bed was just skeletal remains of a person with the occasional piece of skin clinging to the bones but looking like old cracked leather.

He didn’t have time to stop and bury the poor fool who tried to eak out a living here, but he couldn’t just leave him either. So he enchanted a fire rune into the stone beneath the bed the sent his own elemental fire at it, where the rune activated and sent the flames back out, he poured magical energies into it for a few moments when the rune reached it limit and burst – but by that time his job had been done the fire dissipated leaving being dark soot stained stone and a light dusting of ash. Now having cleared the house Kadin decided to set up a quick camp, he retrieved the horse and brought it to the stone home where he tethered it again at the side of the house away from the wind there he fed and watered it speaking quietly to it as he poured out the water.

“Sorry girl, no stamina potion today.” Before getting on and finishing up by giving her a quick rubdown. He had a quick meal himself of dried meat and bread and had another few mouthfuls of wine before he settled into a corner of the home still with an overhand of a roof and after making sure it wouldn’t collapse on him he set his precaution traps and the timer alarm. He pulled his hood up and set down to rest. It felt like he had only just closed his eyes when he awoke again, it wasn’t his alarm that woke him it was a massive wave of magical energy that had washed over him and sent the primal parts of his brain into flight mode. He reached out with his senses not feeling anything around but there was still a massive pouring of magical energy coming from far ahead. He struggled to comprehend the amount of energy that was washing over him and after a few seconds it just stopped … there was only silence and stillness in the air about him. But he knew what it was – the necromancer had reached Lynwood.