It was a dawn, when I entered to Greenmark. Sun rays shined upon a stone circle and grassy hills, cairns of long forgotten Ardic warriors. Greenmark was no doubt a town with rich history. At least so it was written in books. Stone circle was a remnant of ancient religion druidism, which used to be very popular among Ards. Nowadays, at kingdom of Ardven, there are zealots of various new gods on every corner.

Town walls seemed unmanned and guards at the gates were sleeping when I rode around. Sound of horse’s hooves on stone pavement could not wake them up. I came early.

I rented a room in the first inn I found. Surly innkeeper cheered up after I paid him with gold coin, universal language of innkeepers from all realms. If I ever meet an innkeeper, who won’t positively react to gold, I’ll pierce him with nearest sword as he would be most likely culprit in disguise.

After that I went to look for town hall. I had to wait a few hours before it was opened. I tried to not draw too much attention. After town hall finally opened, I spend another two hours drowsing at mayor’s waiting room, before he finally came. I won’t bother with his description as I don’t have neither patience nor good memory for average faces. Suffice to say or write at least, he was one of those self delusional lunatics believing they can evaluate person by staring at him. It did not matter though, the contract was published and I was the first to claim it.

It happens from time to time at wilder parts of kingdom. Settlement is plagued by bandits, beasts or other problems of mysterious nature. Keeping trained militia cost too much gold and so does hiring a proper mage. So instead they create a contract, a call for men at arms for hire, which would solve their problems, for appropriate sum of course. The copies of contract are then carried by merchants and hanged on boards at road inns.

So it was with our contract. Halfling was lucky to stand by when it appeared on one such board not far from Greenmark. We could not afford to miss such opportunity as we were running low on funds. I rode through night just to make sure we would be first.

***

“The contract said your town is plagued by some curse, could you now tell me what exactly that means?” I asked, when we finished money talks.

“Aren’t you supposed to know?” he grinned.

The only curse I see in this town is you, how could someone with your attitude became mayor?!

“I am supposed to solve it,” I growled, “not to work as a part-time oracle.”

“We shall see, ” he nodded. When he saw annoyed look in my face, he finally started explaining, “Many honorable members of this town can not sleep at night. ”

Is one’s honor measured by the presence of coin here? It might be their conscience coming alive at night.

“Everyone has the same dreams. The keep telling me about some nonsense with tree covered in blood.”

“How many citizens do we talk about?”

“Enough to put together a sum for some mercenary to ask stupid questions, obviously. Now off with you.” he replied.

I said my goodbyes. It was useless to stay any longer. Mayor did not like either me or the fact that someone started asking questions.

After I returned to inn, I sat to the bar and wanted to ask innkeeper some questions.

“Don’t bother. I already asked. No suspicious travelers, no murders, no missing people and no mead,” I heard jovial voice beyond my back. Group was coming to town gradually, so we would not attract any attention.

This was halfling Itegrin Axeling, the muscle of our group. If you think that halflings are not much of a warrior, you are yet to experience the pain of a good knee injury. Axelings were offspring of some ancient dwarven hero or perhaps villain, who simply prefered halfling women over dwarven. Perhaps it was the beard. Itegrin claims that his clan is known for their technical skill with wood as well as fierceness. I met this little troublemaker at the heart of tavern brawl. Thankfully we were on the same side then and I am glad we are now.

I explained Itegrin our situation.

“Why they just don’t go out and cut every bloody tree around?” he grinned. If Itegrin had a bad dream about tree, he would simply chop down whole forest.

“I don’t think we would find this magic tree so easily. Where is the rest of the group? ”

“They’ll be here soon. I told them to come together. Both need to be watched over so I figured they can at least do it mutually,” he yawned. Says a man who considers tavern brawl a warm up.

“When they finally arrive, tell them to scatter and gather some intel. You know what to do. We’ll decide what to do at night,” I commanded. I had some exploring to do too.

Itegrin told truth, at least partially. Henn Snow was a loose cannon. She was an orphan born at some highland city. As a mute she did not make many friends but fate compensated her with a passion for highly unstable alchemy. When her city was under siege, she joined the militia to help defend it. Then she discovered the life of adventurer, which is almost as unstable as her concoctions. She attracts many problems, but those who try to mess with her tend to find out explosives under their bedroll. She joined us at Fallen forest, when we were trying to drive out pack of basilisks from cavern. Bombing them definitely solved the problem.

Death-thrower is not a real name and we tried to persuade him it’s not a good nickname either. To be fair, he is really good at throwing. As a hunter he really disliked the idea, that his target could be protected by some kind of shield, so he utilizes weapons such as throwing axes and javelins, which are good both for ranged and melee combat. He never told us about his whereabouts, but we figured he might be outcast from some snow nomadic tribe. We joined forces when we were bounty hunting demon cultists at mountains. Then he stayed with us, which is probably for the best. Lone wolfs do not survive for long.

I almost forgot to write something about me. I trained as a scribe in one of the so called independent cities. That is the reason why I am the chronicler of our group. I had a taste of some knowledge only books can offer, I even learned few magic tricks, yet I don’t believe I have significant talent for magic. It’s simply not present in my family. Before I could become scribe, war broke out and I was hauled to an army. I spent three years trying to stick a sword to people who tried to stick a sword to me. I guess I wasn’t so bad, because I am still alive. When that pandemonium finally ended I had no home nor family to return to. So I stayed on the road.

***

While searching town for higher grounds, I noticed a neglected temple. Doors however looked like someone uses them from time to time, so I went in.

Normally I don’t seek the company of priests and I don’t worship any god. However I thought it might be good idea to ask local priest if he tried to do something with the curse. Usually it would mean an hour long lecture about sins of man, dangers of magic and idiocy of other religions, but I felt lucky.

Furniture was old and benches looked like it could fall apart if I’d try to sit on them. Windows were so dirty, it almost blocked out the sunset light. Altar was empty. Doors to priest’s room were not locked! I knocked and opened them. Bedroom looked like no human was there for days. Books were written in incomprehensible language. What is the purpose of religious book, if it’s written in temple language?! I returned to main hall and wanted to leave, but feminine voice stopped me: “What are you doing here?”

Stolen novel; please report.

I quickly turned and looked to the face, which could belong to some fair lady. She was dressed in a green tunic decorated with white cross inside circle. I could not estimate her age. Some people look young even in their forties.

“I’ve come here looking for priest. Who are you?” I answered.

“Old man died few days ago, I was the only one attending to his sermons.”

“You don’t look like religious type, why?” once again, my mouth was faster than my mind.

“And what god do you worship here?” I continued asking. So it was the encrypted book what slowed my mind?

“Because someone had to,” she gave me a sad smile and turned to opened doors.

“I do not worship any god and old man… I don’t know. Good luck seeker.” she said her goodbye and left.

I stood there looking at the door and parts of my mind started screaming at me for various reasons. She was definitely suspicious, but what bothered me most was that I wasted a perfect chance to learn more about her. Well I was never the charming one. It took me about twenty seconds to recover and look for her on street, but she vanished.

***

When I returned to inn, group was already waiting for me.

“Had a good walk, Rav?” Itegrin asked me. Henn grinned.

“We wasted an hour waiting for you,” Death-thrower spoke. He’s always grumpy.

“I am sorry, sightseeing local temples takes some time,” I tried to defend.

“You want to become a priest? What church is so desperate to take you in?”  Death-thrower looked confused. Sometimes  he has long lead too.

Henn’s grin turned to smile.

“The day Ravias starts a sermon I’ll stop drinking.” Itegrin laughed. I’d like to see that.

“I found nothing. How about you?” I turned the page.

Henn shrugged. If she knew something, she would write it.

“Itegrin sent me spying on mayor, because you mentioned he does not like you poking around. I tracked him to the whorehouse.”  summarized Death-thrower. So this is why our friendly mayor does not like people poking around.

“And I tried to make contact with local underworld. Turns out everyone here is either too holy or too sleepy to do some crime.” said Itegrin.

“So we have nothing. Someone invades dreams of townspeople every night and we have no clue why or how he would do it.” I frowned.

“Someone? I don’t think we have a mage with a knack for bloody botanics running around. What sensible creature would project you a bleeding tree every night anyway?” objected Itegrin.

“Could there be any tree folk in the area?” I turned to Death-thrower. I supposed he knows a thing or two about ranging.

“No, not so close to human settlement.” he responded. A pity, I always wanted to meet an ent. The problem is that they might not want to meet me.

“So we have no other choice, whose turn it is?”

Henn looked at me. Great, goodbye my sanity, rot in hell.

***

We were going to use one of Henn’s potions. None of us was so skilled spellweaver, that he could track magic, but thanks to Henn we did not had to. After drinking her potion, magical threads were clearly visible. Instead of seeing and hearing everything else.

When we tried it for the first time, Henn insisted on testing it herself. When it started working, we thought she had a shock and because she is mute, she could not let us know what she saw until she woke up with terrible hangover.

Judging from hangover, Itegrin thought it works similar way as alcohol. After he finally woke up, he declared that he will not take a nap of this hellish mixture ever again.

Death-thrower tried to dodge the aftereffects by using some of his herbs. He was stoned for a whole week.

And now, in our rented room,  I was drinking this poison. It tasted like my attempt for cooked lunch. I have to ask Henn if she could add some better flavour to it. I felt a cold sensation in my head. Then everything turned black. Last thing I heard was halfling’s: “Oh crap.” Then colors returned. Well, some colors. I saw a little human shaped cloud of white light not far from from me. I had a feeling it was watching me. Could he be on the street?

My vision turned brighter. Now I saw what I wanted too! Everywhere around me, perhaps on whole town, was raining. Raindrops were golden. Could it be the dreams? I had a feeling it was not a harmful magic. And something inside me even doubted that it even is magic. At least the magic I am familiar with.

I focused on the raindrops. Suddenly I could see, from where they were coming from. Of course, it was obvious. “Prepare the torches, ” I said hoping my voice still works, “we are going to check those cairns around stone circle.”

***

It was about 5 am. We stood before stuck stone doors leading to cairn, which I believed was the source. In comparison with others I recovered quickly. Even better, I felt no headache. Perhaps the potion had to mature for some time. Death-thrower and me tried to force them to open. We would bring pickaxes, but that would attract too much attention. I didn’t know how local law punishes graverobbers and I had no intent to find out. In the end Henn had to spill acid on the edges. After that we pushed and stone board finally started to tilt. We could not catch it as it fell in the direction we were pushing. Resulting thud scared a few birds but most of the sound went inside. If there’s something inside, we could as well knock.

It had no sense to wait, we already notified everything inside, so we ignited torches and went in. Air was heavy, stone walls were covered with moss and cobwebs - thankfully the small ones, I hate great spiders. Anything with more than four legs always means trouble. Corridor was heading deeper. Finally we came to a circular room with a stone coffin in the middle. I checked the wall. I just noticed the doors when they busted open. We expected undead as crypts are usually swarming with them. Nobody expects bunch of skutts in the middle of underground ruin. Well, the word underground might be the key.

Skutt is a cousin race of goblins. Unlike goblins they are however taller, uglier, stronger and much more cruel. Usually they are denizens of Caveworld, which is only good thing about them, at least for us surfacers. That and the fact they die just as fast as any human. You could negotiate with a band of angry goblins. When it comes to skutts, you would already have inside more spears than fingers before you said a first word.

They knew we will come. We knew something will try to swoop upon us. I managed to partially unsheathe my longsword before first one came to me. He reached to me with spear, but I managed to parry it down and put a leg on its top. Before he could escape this lock, I turned my parry to stab and pushed to his neck. When he collapsed, I had a moment to check on my companions.  Death-thrower harassed their archers, which could not even draw their shortbows due to constant stream of flying throwing axes. Halfling did his favourite technique against taller people, which composed of hitting opponent’s knee with his axe and then cutting fallen enemy with shortsword. It’s fascinating, no warrior ever guards his legs until he encounters someone like Itegrin. Then it is usually late. I could not see Henn, but screaming skutt running around with his hand pressed to his melting face assured me she’s alright. No one told him to bother our alchemist.

We held our ground. Then I noticed an enemy who wasn’t fighting. He was concentrating. A psion! I tried to send few sparky spells his way, but I was too late. Psionic blast spread through whole room knocking out both skutts and us alike. I knew about it before, so I stayed conscious. My head hurt like I’d just spent a day headbutting bulls though. He was aware of me. He closed his eyes and started concentrating again. I could barely walk. I would not reached him in time. I didn’t had to. I unscrewed pommel of my sword and threw it at his head. He collapsed.

I wasted no time and finished off the rest of his group. Headache was slowly fading.  There was about ten of them. Probably a scouting party from Caveworld.

***

Henn planted an explosives, we were going to collapse the tunnel they came from. Unstable reaction with about eighteen minutes to critical point served us as detonator. We were quickly leaving. Before we started heading for exit, I finally examined the coffin. There was a circle with a weird cross engraved on it. Now I finally begun to understand. I would not be surprised, if it was empty.

We heard a sound of explosion even outside. Then there was a lot explaining to do. The fact, that there may be entrance to the Caveworld in the area was not taken with ease, but nightmares finally stopped. After two days we were leaving town alive with our purses heavier.

I saw a shape waving at me on one of the cairns. It was against sun, so I could not see much. Halfling looked for what I am staring at, but saw nothing.