"These unholy creatures shall bring hardship and doom. We must go and inform the bishop for if we delay it may prove too late to stop this threat. For the legends speak of ancient demons wreaking havoc on the lands.
When creatures of chaos come,
fight or hide for the great calamity has begun.
The ancient demons love to play,
only queer monster they will portray.
With destruction and fury we can't delay
we oft can do nothing but hide and pray" We stopped gathering the corpses after his speech and rested for a bit we all had an eerie feeling after hearing the legend. Luckily some survivors from the village pulled us from those thoughts.
They heard the commotion from the fight and tried to peek to see if help had arrived. Once they saw us they immediately ran to us crying.
They said the creatures took the women and only the women into the forest. To do what? No one knows. The priest healed their injuries and we took our time going back. The five survivors of my village were all weak and starving.
They survived off of wild berries and any puddle they could find. We dropped the survivors off in the town. Then the priest insisted we take some of the corpses to the monastery in the city. This type of devilish creature emerging is an ill omen.
We prepared for 3 days to go towards Renuder City. It is the closest city with a monastery and the all-knowing sages. The priest asked us to go with him to tell him about the creatures we confronted and to ask a bishop and a sage about what to do.
More help to kill these fuckers can't hurt so I readily agreed to go there and meet with these characters I only heard of in stories as a child. After all a farmer commoner boy would have almost no chance in seeing a bishop or a sage, much less meeting one.
In the end I drove a carriage near the back carrying some of the dead creatures so we can show them the seriousness of this. The smell is terrible but I don't complain. After all knowing they're dead fills me with a sense of accomplishment and joy, doubly so knowing I'm taking them so the country can best decide how to exterminate them.
The journey to city went by without anything shocking happening. We couldn't even see a bandit the entire way there. After all who would want to mess with a caravan with more than 20 armed men flying the official flag of the church?
Not everyone was a pious believer of Vera but openly attacking one of the convoys of the church can only lead to calamity for yourself and your family. After all if you attack a convoy of the church you would be tracked by their enforcers for months until they find you or your family. I don't know what happens when they catch you or your family but it can't be anything good.
Rumor has it they are converted into part of their immortal army they use at the front lines against the elves. They trap their souls and bodies into a set of enchanted armor and make them fight until their eternal soul is destroyed forever rejected by the great cycle of reincarnation.
Truly a fate worse than death.
We finally arrive at the gates. This entire city is truly something I could have never imagined. I had heard some merchants talk about this great city but I thought they exaggerated. It made the town look like my village.
The entrance alone contained huge walls about 8 meters tall according to the priest. There were fields that fed everyone inside surrounding them. Huge buildings taller than walls could be seen in the distance, with foreign architecture decorating many of them. This city was a village during the age of great conflict that grew into what I was now a millennium later. It is said the very walls are enchanted in case another great war comes near this majestic god blessed land.
As I was stupefied the gates opened to us without having us stop and guards in partial plate armor covering only their torsos and shins guide us to the monastery. This is most likely the effect of coming with official business regarding the church.
I was awestruck by the majesty of the buildings I was about to enter. It was a four level building surrounded by buildings of descending height, the walls and pillars were painted a clean red with no dirt or dust staining them. The outer roofs were blue and yellow with at an angle that would allow the rain and snow to slide off of the tiles with ease. The gardens in front of the building had all sorts of plants I had never seen before and some statues of past heroes and saints of this church littered the garden.
As my mind was stunned by the majesty of the Renuder Monastery they guided us inside the main building. It took me a few minutes to gather my bearings but it was enough to be calm before the meeting. 20 minutes after we arrived we were all ushered into a room were a tall strong priest was waiting for us. I assume he was the bishop.
Next to him was a short scholarly man holding a scroll with incomprehensible runes and some strange instruments whose function I could not venture to guess.
We all prostate ourselves when we arrive in front of the bishop. His position demands this respect from us and his aura reinforces this idea.
"Rise fellow faithful, for Vera requires us to destroy any calamity that aims what is hers."
The priest rapidly responds "Glory to her divine visage! Glory to her divine wisdom, Glory to her divine vision! We have come to you respected bishop to inform you of the great calamity that befell a village on the outskirts of the territory of Obern. We have brought the corpses of some of the invaders so we may identify them with your divine vision and the knowledge of the sages."
"We will go with the sage so he can interpret the will of the world on the origins of these ungodly creatures." I couldn't even get a word in for the meeting. Maybe they'll ask me after they determined what these enemies are?
We were lead outside the main building into a small research room in one of the side buildings. The rotten corpses were already prepared. They were arranged in five tables with their arms and legs spread over runic inscriptions.
This appears to be the research room of the sage.
The sage who hadn't spoken yet pulled out some of the tools he had earlier; a small circular thing that looked similar to a compass that many merchants bragged of having, then a page made of some strange material.
He used a knife to open up a corpse. He checked books in his study about things only a sage could know. He compared images that appeared in his book to what he was seeing. He inserted parts of the organs into jars and arranged them in particular places in his runic inscription. He then read his books again and again until he seemed certain of his result.
He chanted for what felt like hours in a long forgotten language. This entire time the bishop was looking on as if this was expected, as I felt increasingly more nervous. The guards around me looked the same with ashen faces and nervous expressions. Obviously I wasn't the only one who had never witnessed this type of sorcery.
A white light emerged from the center of the runic inscriptions. You could see black words inside the light. With constantly changing scenery until it showed the entrance of a cave.
The priest and bishop began holding their heads screaming! Their voices turning hoarse from the volume and tone of the scream until no sound could come out of their mouths. We were astonished at this scene. From their eyes black blood came out blinding them from eternity. The sage started worriedly speaking.
"Shit! I should have told them to look away. There was a heretical curse ritual in that cave. A heretical curse should be no problem but this was more sinister. More foreign.
Never had I sensed a power that was antithetical of our faith so I looked away. But I was able to discern what happened from the images I saw and the will of the world. I will help the bishop and priest recover as much as I can. These brave heroes must describe what they saw in detail so we may form a complete idea of what happened. Unfortunately our closeness to the goddess made the backlash from the scene far too powerful.
Well announce what we saw in 3 days so we may fight the horrors whichever unholy sect created. Go now and rest, do not tell anyone what you witnessed here."