The team continues to press forward towards Adderland, the first village they'll be passing through on the day's ride. On the way there, they still encounter the occasional lone, wandering undead, but Atticus and Veros manage to quickly and efficiently eliminate each with ease, having already grown very accustomed to the overly aggressive fighting style of their reanimated enemies. The hostile corpses have been a varied mix of normal inhabitants of the northern Yhordran countryside, Legion soldiers who met an untimely death, and armed Mistwalkers who strayed too far north for their own good. The group soon reaches the southern entrance of their first destination, and as per their normal procedure, they cut through slowly and steadily with Veros and Atticus at the front, and Kellar and Erik at the rear.

The two men on point split up to enter the first set of houses they approach. Atticus passes through the open door of the first home in his path, coming across the extremely familiar sight of household furniture turned over and everyday items messily scattered around in obvious attempts to flee. He turns his attention to the entrance of a bedroom, concealed by curtains. He pushes the dusty cloth aside and is caught off guard by the sudden sight of an unmoving corpse spread across the floor. It seems to be a female villager, simply judging by the pale dress it's wearing, but its flesh is so decomposed, it's hard to make out any further detail. Cautiously, he approaches it, tapping his feet against the wooden floor to try and bait out some sort of reaction from it, assuming it's still capable of movement. When it doesn't react, he lightly kicks its arm, which limply slides away from the force. Upon a closer examination, he notices a gaping stab wound at the base of its neck, leading to its spine.

After confirming that the body is indeed truly dead, he steps over it to inspect the rest of the room, particularly a tall set of five drawers near the bed. Compelled by the desire to find valuables to further assist his teammate, Kellar, in his goal, he pulls them out one by one to check their contents. It's mostly just various clothing and quilts, until he pushes aside a stack of cotton shirts in the bottom drawer to reveal a sheathed dagger that bears incredibly detailed engravings on the heavily polished wooden hilt. He pulls the weapon out of its leather scabbard to reveal further engravings along the flat side of the blade. Satisfied with this finding, Atticus finally leaves the house.

Meanwhile, Veros is also greeted by the sight of an unmoving corpse immediately upon entering the house he chose to inspect – a male that lies near the fire pit in the living room, a small bearded axe rests inches away from his right hand, seemingly dropped after whatever struggle he had lost. To ensure it's truly dead, the veteran kicks its foot and waits a moment for it to stir, but it doesn't. He walks around the body to investigate it further, and its simple clothing and lack of armor suggest, along with its resting place, that it's a normal villager instead of a Mistwalker. He notices the wound that likely finished it off for good: a stab in its neck that's angled toward its brain stem.

The veteran walks down a short hallway leading to two bedrooms and a back door leading outside. He turns to the west bedroom, and sees nothing of note – just more dusty furniture. He backs out and peers into the east bedroom, and is startled by the presence of another still corpse lying on the dry floor, but this one is unlike the first he found. This one was a child, probably about ten to twelve years of age, and equally as rotted as the adult in the living room. Veros's initial reaction is of equal revulsion and sadness, his eyebrows furrowed upward and mouth slightly curved down in a frowning scowl. Though reluctant, he walks up to the small corpse to ensure it's also truly dead. Again, he finds another obvious stab wound in the base of the neck. Noticing it, he becomes curious. However, with nothing else of note in the home, he exits.

Outside, Atticus approaches Kellar with the ornate dagger in hand. “Kellar,” he calls out. “Here, another finding that you could sell.” The knight holds out the sheathed weapon.

“A dagger?” Kellar asks while reaching out and accepting it. He slides it out of its scabbard to inspect the craftsmanship. “It's very fancy, definitely made by a skilled engraver.” He turns the dagger to inspect the blade. “Not very sharp, though. Probably made more for decorative purposes than to be used as a real weapon. Still, it's quite nice.” He looks up at Atticus. “You're sure you don't want to keep this?” The rogue asks the same question he did when he received the ring from the other day.

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The knight nods, firmly reiterating his feelings on the subject of giving his findings away. “I'm sure. I have no use for a decorative dagger.”

“Well, alright.” Kellar places the sheathed weapon in the waist of the trousers. “Thanks again, friend. I really do appreciate you helping me out.”

“No problem.” Atticus casually responds.

“Have you found anything?” Veros asks, approaching the knight. “Any undead?”

“Just one corpse that was already taken care of.”

“Did it have a stab wound in its neck?”

“It did.” The knight answers, curious as to how Veros was able to guess. “How'd you know? Were there bodies in there with the same injury?” He asks, pointing to the house his comrade just came from.

Veros nods. “There were. Two of them. I was wondering if they were done by the same person.” He turns back to the house and rubs his chin in contemplation. “I know that a lone Mistwalker making it out here is unlikely, but something strikes me as a bit odd about it.”

“The wound didn't look particularly fresh.” Atticus adds. “It seemed like the body was there for a very long time. Whoever did it, they're probably long gone, anyway.”

“True.” The veteran concedes. “I guess there's no point in being bothered by it. Let's continue making our way through the village.”

Ultimately deciding against wasting any precious time, the two point men proceed with their usual village-clearing procedure.

In the next home he enters, Atticus discovers a male corpse sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall next to the front door, with a sword resting in its limp hand. Yet again, a stab wound in the neck is seen. Across the road, Veros doesn't see a body in the interior of the house, but he notices various signs of a struggle, such as broken furniture and traces of blood leading out of a back door. He follows it, and it does eventually lead him to another body – a woman with a shield and axe. Once more, a stab wound is seen at the base of the neck.

The two men grow more and more curious, but stay quiet as they continue towards the center of the village. As they do so, the mist clears the way to the sight of additional bodies scattered around the round, some in front of homes and a few in the middle of the road. They approach the unmoving corpses, and as they've begun to expect, they all have clear stab wounds in the neck, angled towards the brain stem.

“Okay.” Veros speaks up. “This is strange. It's definitely starting to look as though this was all done by one person, or at least by a group who was very coordinated.”

“If it means there's no more undead for us to deal with, then I don't mind.” Kellar remarks. “We might as well just cut through without bothering with anymore houses.”

The veteran heaves a short sigh. “I suppose. But still, stay on your toes.”

The Mistwalkers continue northward through the village, still dismounted just in case they encounter undead that haven't been eliminated. Soon, the road leads to an open lot that widens into large village square, but before they reach the center of it, they're stopped by the sudden appearance of an odd shape thinly covered by the grey fog.

“What is that?” Veros asks aloud, pointing at the vague silhouette. It's some sort of black mass resting horizontally across the ground. “There seems to be more behind it.” He squints his eyes, and other strange black masses are barely visible beyond the first one. Suspicious of the mysterious shape, Veros draws his sword and slowly approaches, the others following him.

The mist gradually clears and the finer details of the black silhouettes begin to show. The odd masses are scorched bodies, with the ground surrounding them covered in traces of ash. There's thirteen in total scattered around the empty square.

“Oh, no...” Veros utters. “Everyone, stand back! These might be dangerous!” He suddenly commands, immediately remembering their last encounter with charred undead back at Legarthat. He and Atticus raise their shields defensively, expecting the burned remains to stand and attack. They pause, frozen where they stand, trying to decide how they can approach.

“I don't think we have much of a choice here.” The knights says without peeling his eyes away from the bodies. “Let's go up to them. Carefully.”

“Erik, Zyra.” The veteran calls out to his teammates. “If you see any movement, attack. Okay?”

“Yes, sir.” The young mage responds immediately. Erik nocks an arrow into his bowstring preemptively, prepared to react to any threat.