In the Great Northern Woods slept peacefully a woman in a dark cloak laying on her back in the late afternoon sun. The knee high grass around her swaying gently in the breeze, scavenger birds circling lazily overhead.

She sleepily opened her eyes, noting that she felt like she just had a full meal. Looking to her right, she sees gently swaying pine trees. Then looking to her left she sees a badly mutilated corpse hanging by its own intestines from a nearby tree.

She closed her eyes and faced the sky before taking a deep breath then letting loose a scream that that echoed off the surrounding hills.

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“HolyshitholyshitholyshitholyshiT” A Blood splattered woman in black rapidly chanted to herself as she curled into a ball and proceeded to hyperventilate. With each breath she fell further into panic and nearly passed out before she began to calm. Sitting up, she hugged her knees tightly. 

“This can’t be happening... so much blood... and it’s was so so sweet...” she said between gasps. 

“To think, the first thing I tasted in years was to be so sweet...” she raised   a bloodied hand to her face. 

Rising shakily to her feet, she staggered into the woods.

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“Boss, the blood trail is only a few hours old, we’ll have him before the end of the day!” eagerly stated a young man in leather armor.

“Good!” Grunted a man that some may mistake for a bear, with his size and bear skin cloak.

They once again started setting forth into the Great Northern Woods on the trail of a wanted brigand. A group of adventurers had tracked bandits to their layer for a considerable bounty.

This particular group of brigands earned the personal ire of the Baron of Lastwatch by kidnaping and brutalizing  his daughter before she managed to escape.

The two adventurers were pushing steadily forward through the forest on the trail of their last remaining quarry when they heard it. A woman’s shriek from up ahead of them. It made their blood run cold.

They looked at each other before nodding, they continued onward at double the pace, fearing for the worst. After several minutes of continuous running they reached a clearing and what they found shocked them.

A haunting sight greeted them, a dismembered torso entangled in intestines hanging between trees and covered in bite marks. The ground was littered with scraps of flesh and armor with a severed head impaled upon a broken sword as a centerpiece. Though strangely, there was little in the way of blood. No pools, only individual drops.

The young scout looked to the grizzled warrior in question. “What could of have done this?”

The warrior responded quietly. “The Northern forest frequently produces strange beasts. Our man must of stumbled upon one, which I can’t discern.”

The scout nodded and inquired. “The jobs done then?”

“Yeah, grab the head and let’s hurry back to the others, we need to report this and I’d rather not stick around incase what ever did this comes back.” Responded the warrior as he hefted his great axe up on to his shoulder.

”Agreed” said the leather clad adventurer as he steped forward to claim the head for it’s bounty and unceremoniously shoving it into a burlap sack.