Thirty minutes of leg-burning climbing later, they finally crested the slope the altar's cave sat on. The rocky terrain had alternated between areas of loose shingle and jagged rocks, making it difficult to progress in places. Looking down from the top, John could see a few places where a bit of work could smooth out the path and make the whole affair much more comfortable, but that was for another time.
Turning away from the slope, John was surprised to see that they stood on a small ridge that acted as the edge of a basin that stretched for several miles into the mountain. The basin had a smooth round shape to it, the curvature of the wall stretching off for quite a distance before being obscured. The floor of the basin was a good thirty feet down from them, giving him a good view of the woodland that filled it, an effective spot indeed for a watchtower or something similar.
Glorg gestured off to one side, and John looked over to where he pointed to see a curving path lead down from the wall they stood on to the interior of this area, it's smoothed surface telling him that something used it to move in and out of the basin regularly.
Nodding in response to Glorg's questioning look, John followed the big hobgoblin around the lip of the basin and down the path to its interior, marvelling as he did at how quickly it changed from whistling cold wind to the earthy smell of a woodland. What caught his attention though was the plant life in the basin, from up above he'd seen a lot of trees and generic undergrowth, but as they descended he saw several clumps of bushes with black dots on them that he immediately headed for. A slow smile spread across his face as they got close enough for him to make out more detail; they were blackberry bushes.
'Right, spread out and see how many berry bushes we can find, I want an idea of the resources of this area. Meet back here in ten minutes, understood?' John said as he casually ate a few blackberries, his first food since he'd spoken with Morden in that grey cube.
'Your will Lord,' Glorg said with a fist over his heart, dispatching the other two hobgoblins in different directions with curt nods of his head.
'It's nice to have minions,' John muttered to himself as he watched the three hobgoblins stride off into the woods. The ordered and disciplined nature of the hobgoblins didn't really lend itself to moving stealthily through the undergrowth, and if it wasn't so silly, he could have sworn that they were all still marching in step somehow. Shaking his head, John took a last berry from the bush and headed north, spotting a few more bushes almost straight away, those there were for blueberries this time.
One small diversion later and he was happily throwing blueberries into his mouth as he kept on heading north.
John was no tracker, but he could see that there were marks on the ground as he went further in, and he thought he saw a flicker of movement up ahead at one point. It would make sense for anywhere like this to have a decent population of animals after all. The lip protected the interior from the worst weather, making this a comfortable environment in comparison to outside. The ten minute time soon passed, however, and John returned to the original bushes they'd found, albeit somewhat reluctantly.
'What did we find?' John asked once they were all gathered again.
'There are a significant number of bushes of various types in the area, more than I would expect to find,' Glorg said with a neutral expression that was utterly ruined by the smudge of blue around his mouth. His red skin almost concealed it, but there was just enough for John to see it and smirk at the beefy hobgoblin, who of course ignored the situation completely. 'There was no sign of any predators but some indication of prey, potentially rabbits and deer.'
'Well, let's head further in and see what we find shall we,' John said as he made an exaggerated motion of wiping his lips before turning away as he retraced his steps. Glorg appeared by his side a few moments later, the smudged blue around his lips now suspiciously absent.
They retraced John's steps with ease, he hadn't exactly been trying to hide his passage and continued deeper into the woods as a group, still keeping a lookout for anything unusual, different or eye-catching. They were new to The Realm after all, who knew what strange things they would find hidden away in places like this.
'Do you hear that,' John muttered after half a mile of moving through the steadily thickening undergrowth. There was a slight amount of birdsong here and there, but underneath it was something like a constant dull roar that seemed to be coming from further up ahead.
'Yes, it sounds like a waterfall, but different,' Glorg said after cocking his head to listen intently for a moment.
Intrigued, John picked up the pace a little and soon led them out through a break in the trees to a small clearing that was filled with what he could only describe as an underground waterfall. A gentle curving river came down from further north, the water lazily moving through to a forty-foot wide pool, the edge of which seemed to slope off to disappear underground. The roar they could hear was much louder now and seemed to be coming from inside the underground portion of the river, which would also roughly line up with the river that was near their camp. It was a fascinating natural feature in John's eyes, but he could see that the hobgoblins weren't interested now that they'd worked the cause of the sound.
'Let's follow the river, it'll act as a good landmark to coordinate our search if needed,' John suggested, earning himself an approving look from Glorg.
They followed the river further north for another few minutes before one of the hobgoblin guards gave a low whistle and pointed off to one side. Following the gesture, John saw the outline of something through the trees, it was too obscured for him to make out clearly, but it looked too angular and regular in its shape to be natural.
'I advise caution,' Glorg stated, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword as he observed their surroundings.
'I agree, let's take it slow and steady guys,' John followed Glorg's advice and kept one hand on his sword as well as they carefully made their way towards whatever it was that the other hobgoblin had spotted.
The regular shape soon became the outline of a small, moss and ivy-covered, building that resembled a storehouse of sorts. More importantly, however, the storehouse was just the outer edge of a small, and heavily overgrown, estate from the looks of it. A central two-storey building overlooked a series of smaller ones, several of which resembled the storehouse they had already seen, while there was also a long and wide building that had an attached pen. The wooden fencing of the pen was damaged and rotted, looking as though it would crumble with the slightest impact. It still gave enough of an indication of the size of the area that had been fenced off initially, however.
'Interesting,' John muttered, slowly keeping moving until he was level with the first storehouse they had seen. Part of the ivy had grown over the door into the building, but that could be solved with ease.
The moment his hand touched the ivy, he felt a familiar piercing sensation in his mind and let the information flow over him.
*
Ruined Hunting Estate
This long-abandoned estate has no owner and is currently classed as a Ruin.
To claim this Ruin, clear the estate of its inhabitants.
Reward- 1SP, Hunting Estate.
*
'Well, shit,' John said, paused in mid pull on the ivy.
'What is wrong?' Glorg asked, looking between John and the ivy in confusion.
John was saved from having to answer as the door to the storehouse rattled in its frame from a heavy impact. There was a slight pause before it came again and again, and again. By the third impact, the door was breaking open, and John was already twenty feet away, sword in hand and watching anxiously for whatever would reveal itself.
The rotted wood of the door finally gave way to the impacts and splintered open as a humanoid form lurched through, it's movements ungainly and awkward as it dragged itself towards them. The creature might have been human once, but most of its leathery flesh had long since rotted away, the remnants hung on its carcass like a poorly fitting tunic, most of the remaining parts covering its chest. The empty eye sockets of the undead tracked eerily onto John as it continued to lurch towards them, the mix of flesh and bone on its frame making it move in odd ways.
Glorg and his men were quick to act, one of them moving to place himself between John and the zombie, while the other two flanked it and began harrying at it with quick slashes of their weapons. The attacks themselves seemed to be doing little to the undead, but as it turned to lash out at one of them, John caught a glimpse of its still intact heart in its chest, the flesh of the organ necrotic and almost pulsing in time to its movements. Moving up to support his men, John waited until the creature had turned almost entirely away from him before lunging forward to thrust his blade through it's back and pierce the heart.
The zombie started to turn as he lunged in, but his aim was true, and steel met necrotic flesh with a horrible scraping sound that ended with the heart pumping black, viscous ichor out onto the floor and the zombie collapsing a moment later. John gingerly flicked the ichor that had gotten on his sword away and turned to look at the hunting estate; this was going to be a horrible job.