The winds howled in the barren landscape. The vegetation was sparse, with only a few trees dotting the land. The terrain itself was charred black, a far cry from its lush past. Zrimm now realized why the alliance had fought so desperately against the dark army, they feared their lands would become hellscapes like in the Dark Dominion. It wasn’t always this way, he knew, once it was green and full of plant life. But the dark army had since drained the land of its life force to power its undead army.

Velatha took out a compass and map from inside her cloak, she examined the map for a few moments, ‘It will take us three days of walking to get to Blackhill.”

“Will Blackhill be able to hold out for long?” Zrimm asked.

“Blackhill relied on shipments of food to keep their citizens fed. I Imagine the alliance put a stop to their shipments to starve them out.” Nasrul answered.

“We will have to hurry then,” Zrimm said as he looked up at the sun that was faintly obscured by the smog,” We only have a few more hours of daylight left.” The four walked northwest for a couple of hours before the sun set over the horizon.

“We should make camp,” Nasrul suggested. It was almost completely dark and soon they would not be able to see. Not to mention all of them were tired, and so they decided to make camp. They chose the bottom of an incline to be their sleeping spot.

“I will take the first watch,” Nasrul announced. It was important for a sleeping party to have somebody watch over them in case of sneaking enemies. While Zrimm did not fully trust Nasrul and Velatha, he decided he had no other choice but to put his life in the hands of strangers. After all, if Nasrul wanted him dead, he would have just left him to the hobgoblin. With that thought consoling his fears, Zrimm pulled his thin blanket over his body and went to sleep. After a few hours of sleep, he felt someone tugging on his arm, it was Nasrul.

“Your turn Zrimm,” Nasrul said in a dutiful tone. Zrimm rubbed his eyes and yawned, it had felt to him that he had only slept for a few minutes. He got up anyhow and Nasrul went to receive his well-deserved rest.

Zrimm made his way to the top of the incline and sat down on the uncomfortable ground. He surveyed the landscape, being able to see through the darkness better with his night vision. He spotted a few critters that prowled in the darkness, but all of them went on their way and did not disturb him and the sleeping party. After an hour, Zrimm had begun to get bored. He began reminiscing to occupy his mind. He thought back to his early life, before the Dark war. His home village, Dasnir, was verdant and lush with plant life. Zrimm wondered if it still was, or if it too was charred and lifeless like the landscape that stood before him.

A figure in the distance knocked Zrimm out of his daydreaming. Who or what was it? He asked himself. Goblins had good night vision but the figure had to at least be eighty meters far from him, too far for zrimm to make out any details. He decided to wake his party. He went and shook Nasrul awake first.

“I already did my watch.” He mumbled out without opening his eyes.

“I spotted someone out in the distance.” Zrimm hurriedly whispered. Nasrul quickly opened his eyes and got up.

“We must wake the others,” Nasrul said as he went over to Velaltha to wake her. Zrimm went over to wake up Drann. As he neared the sleeping undead-- his eyes opened, freaking out Zrimm for a moment. How did the undead sense him? He wondered, did the undead have some sixth sense, or did the sound of Zrimm waking Nasrul wake him? One thing was for sure, the undead unsettled Zrimm despite working alongside them for three years. Most undead he had met throughout his service in the dark army were intelligent, being able to hold conversations like humans or elves. However, Zrimm and many others thought there was had an odd and otherworldly sense of them, and thus tried to keep away from them.

They all went and peered over the incline, however, only Zrimm and Drann could see far enough in the darkness, with Velatha and Nasrul only being able to see ten meters in front of them. He had to be fifty meters away now, thirty meters closer than before.

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“Can you see the figure? What does he look like?” Velatha whispered to Zrimm. Zrimm could now see it was a man, but he still could not make out his uniform or any other features to distinguish him from friend or foe.

“I can’t tell if he is part of the alliance or the dark army or neither,” Zrimm whispered.

“What if he is a scout or a spy? He could report our location.” Nasrul said.

“Or he could be a lost dark army soldier,” Velatha suggested.

“We can’t take that chance. We have to take him out. Anyone got any ideas?” Nasrul said.

“You are an archer, right? We could kill him from a distance without making any noise.” Zrimm said.

“Great idea, except I can’t see as far as you in the night,” Velatha said.

“I could spot for you,” Zrimm said.

“That might just work. Or I might just end missing all my shots. Ah, what the hell. Might as well give it a try.” Zrimm and Velatha both got up, Vel unholstered her bow and nocked an arrow into it, she pointed an arrow straight forward.

“Alright, call the adjustments,” Vel said. Zrimm now noticed that the stranger was around thirty meters away from them.

“Turn a little left, a little more. There.” Zrimm said. “Now go down a bit, you have him directly in your sights.” Velatha aimed a little higher to account for arrow drop and then drew her arrow back. She then let loose that arrow, it flew a few milliseconds before hitting the man square in the chest, making him instantly drop.

“We got him. I can’t believe that worked. I will examine him to see who he was.” Zrimm said. He made sure to look around to see if there were any more strangers and seeing none, he approached the man.

He was a human, wearing chainmail armor and a nasal helm made out of leather. He was not part of the dark army. Unless he was a mercenary working for them, but that was unlikely. With the mystery man’s identity being confirmed, Zrimm made his way back to his allies.

“He was alliance all right,” Zrimm said.

“Should we hide the body?” Velahta asked.

“No, the scavengers will eat the corpse by morning,” Zrimm said.

“So does that mean I get to go back to sleep?” Nasrul said.

“I will take the rest of my watch,” Zrimm said as the rest went back to sleep. An uneventful hour passed by as Zrimm did his watch. Only being interrupted by seeing a scavenger take the body of the man into its maw. His shift finally ended, and so he went to wake Velatha. The elf used her green cloak as a makeshift blanket, covering her upper body but leaving her legs and feet exposed. Zrimm nudged her awake. She opened her eyes and smiled at Zrimm, which wasn’t the usual reaction for most people when being woken up by a goblin.

“My watch?” She said.

“Yes.” Vel got up and dusted herself off.

“I’ll leave you to your sleep.” As Zrimm went off to his sleeping spot, Velatha said something else to him, “That plan of yours. That was pretty clever.”

“Yeah, well I wasn’t sure if it would work.”

“Still pretty clever. Anyways, I’ll leave you to your sleep.” Vel said as she strolled to the sentry spot. Zrimm then laid down and went to sleep.

It was morning when Zrimm was awoken by Nasrul. They set off once again towards the northwest, hoping to reach Blackhill in two days. As they walked, they neared a forest made up of dead trees, which was unusual for the normally sparse landscape.

“You see that forest over there? That place is haunted.” Velatha said.

“Haunted?” Zrimm asked.

“There used to be a thriving mining town in the middle of it. They mined void ore, which was used to power the dwarve’s machines. There were tales, however, that the ore contained spirits of a different realm. The miners would see them, hiding in the darkness.” Vel continued.

“Superstitious nonsense! The ore probably made them hallucinate.” Zrimm said.

“Then how do you explain the whole town disappearing? Some say that spirits made the dwarves go insane and kill each other. Others say that the spirits that resided in the ore took them to their realm for some unknown purpose.” Vel said.

“Where did you get this information?” Zrimm asked.

“From whisperings and rumors. Most people would rather not believe it.” Vel said.

“What about you Nasrul? Do you believe in this spirit stuff?” Zrimm said.

“I am not afraid of spirits. But it is good to have a healthy respect for them.” He said.

“Wait! Do you hear that?” Zrimm put his ear to the ground and heard what sounded to him like hooves cleaning on the ground. “Cavalry!”

“Are you sure?” Nasrul asked.

“Yes. Goblins have better hearing and this sounds like horse hooves.” Zrimm said.

“What do we do then? We can’t outrun horses! And we’re out in the open plain, we will be easy to spot.” Nasrul said.

“What if we hide in the woods?” Zrimm suggested.

“Didn’t we just talk about how it’s said to be haunted?” Velatha said.

“What are you scared of more? Some made up ghosts, or cavalry with sharp lances?” Zrimm said, and as if on cue, they all spotted several figures in the distance. The rumbling increased and Zrimm could a large dust cloud that was presumably made by the horses.

“Haunted forest it is then!” Vel said and no one disagreed. They ran inside the forest for refuge, unknowing of the horrors that await.