The Great Cemetery of Raven Hill is just north of the town. An abandoned road covered with wild grass leads directly to the tightly closed large iron gate of the cemetery.
The metal iron decorations on the iron gate and railings are quite intricate and beautiful. This place may have been very lively in the past. Jess can even imagine what it was like here before the great explosion of Karazhan.
A large cemetery where countless veterans and nobles who sacrificed in previous wars are buried. From time to time, relatives of dead heroes or pretentious noble lords would come here in beautiful carriages to pay their respects. The residents of Raven Hill also developed by relying on these tourists and taking good care of the dead. The large cemetery is their gold mine.
Of course, all of this was destroyed with the occurrence of the great explosion, the spread of darkness and the emergence of a series of vague and terrifying legends.
Jess approached the iron railing and peeked inside secretly. Rows of tombstones of different sizes and specifications were placed together. Occasionally, one or two family tombs stood among these tombstones.
There is a small house on the farthest hill. That may be where the so-called gravedigger or the undertaker who dresses up the dead lives.
Judging from the dilapidated condition of that house, it has probably been a long time since anyone entered.
In the game, there is a final goal of a series of quests here named Morladim. He is a skeleton warrior who can release holy light spells and is very powerful.
In the early version, players leveling up here are all low-level characters below level 30. As an elite monster of level 35, he patrols here. If players doing quests at a low level are not careful, they will attract him.
Once he is aggroed, he can kill one player with two sword strokes. Soon there will be corpses everywhere.
Morladim actually has a very tragic experience. In the early days, he was a heroic paladin and participated in the war against the Scourge invasion more than ten years later. After the war ended, he returned to his hometown and found that his wife and two children had died, and his last daughter was nowhere to be found.
After searching everywhere without results, he went crazy in front of his wife's tombstone and accidentally killed several well-meaning night watchmen who tried to comfort him. Realizing his madness, he ended his own life in remorse and despair and became a vengeful incarnation without revenge to wander around, making the already extremely terrifying Raven Hill even more terrifying.
He doesn't know that his daughter, Sarah Ladimore, has left Raven Hill and gone to Grandtown, which is later known as Duskwood Town, and joined the self-defense organization of Duskwood - the Night Watch. But in the end, the two never met.
Thinking about this story, Jess suddenly felt something was strange.
"Gerred."
"Hmm?" The dwarf who was carefully observing the soil and weeds on the ground looked up and asked, "Did you find the herbs?"
"No." Jess asked, "Do you remember the name of the guard last night?"
"Morgan, what... Moore. Who can remember your strange human names."
"Morgan Ladimore." Jess said.
"More or less." Gerred had no interest in this topic. He walked towards the distance along a puddle of water and left Jess alone looking at the lonely old house in the cemetery.
Yes, that boy about the same age as him is Morladim later.
Jess's memory of this terrifying undead warrior is that he already has three children and has been dead for a long time. Even his wife has long become a tombstone, and the only remaining daughter has grown into a graceful young girl.
So logically speaking, he should also be an image of a middle-aged uncle. He didn't associate him with an 18 or 19-year-old boy at all.
"Over here!" Gerred suddenly shouted.
Jess was awakened by a shout and returned to reality. He caught up with the dwarf's footsteps and came to a pit surrounded by tree roots.
Gerred stood on a thick tree root extending above the pit and stopped Jess and said, "Don't go down. See? This is very likely a resting place for wild wolves or bears."
"Resting place?" Jess asked in confusion, "Isn't that a den?"
"No." Gerred said, "Wolf dens or bear dens are mostly caves. Wolves like to live in natural caves, rock caves and so on. Some bears like to dig their own caves... In short, these animals live in caves. But when they go out hunting, they sometimes go very far, so they will find some places suitable for hiding or more comfortable as a resting place in areas far away from their nests, similar to a post station."
He pointed to the pit below and said, "Look at the wolf hair there. I can even smell the stink of wolves here. There should be feces and so on nearby. In short, we set traps here. This way we even save on bait."
"Will wolves find a resting place so close to the cemetery?" Jess asked.
"This shows that the rumors you heard are likely to be true." Gerred said, "That is to say, the wolves here do eat human flesh, so they regard the cemetery as their hunting ground. If our trap works... the chance of finding the so-called Evil Claw is much higher."
"Then let's set the trap." Jess said.
The dwarf responded and threw the iron beast trap on his back down and then slid into the pit. After setting it up, he simply covered it with soil, weeds and animal hair.
Jess asked, "But will the wolves abandon this resting place because they smell your scent?"
"You have the potential to be a hunter, young man." Gerred said, "If I were in Hinterlands, I would do these things covered in bear shit. But it should be fine here. The wolves here should not have smelled the scent of dwarves. If they smell a strange smell, they will only suspect for a short time. As long as they observe that there is no danger, they will relax their vigilance. But if they encounter the smell of hunters who often hunt them, such as you humans, in the resting place, they may abandon the resting place and leave directly as you said."
He climbed up to the edge of the pit and patted the dust and dirt on his body and said, "We don't need to care about this place anymore. Let's go find herbs in other places. We can come back and check tomorrow. Did you find anything?"
"No." Jess supported himself on the handle of the logging axe and leaned on an protruding bluestone. After taking a breath, he said, "This place is still too close to Raven Hill. Just the townspeople here or passing travelers may have pulled out all the herbs here. And most laymen don't know how to leave the roots. When they pick herbs, they pull them up by the roots. Over time, even if there were originally some, there will be none left. In short, there is not much chance of finding herbs here. We should go to a more secluded place and take a look."
Gerred glanced at the faintly visible cemetery railing shaded by the forest in the distance and said, "What about Grave Moss?"
Jess also looked over there. He realized that subconsciously he still had some resistance to walking into the cemetery.
Especially after finding traces of wolves nearby, he felt that this cemetery was even stranger.
After all, even if wolves want to gnaw on bones, they will gnaw on fresh bones with meat, not rotten bones that have been buried in the cemetery for many years and are in a terrible state.
That is to say, there is a considerable amount of rotting meat in this cemetery.
What situation would cause there to still be meat that wolves are willing to eat in a cemetery so many years after the war?
It can only mean that there are not only undead creatures here, but there may be many, very many, so that the wolves in the forest regard this place as their hunting ground.
But the good news is that generally speaking, predatory animals will not attack particularly threatening enemies. For example, wolves like to eat rabbits, but when they encounter deer, they will think twice. After all, deer are still somewhat dangerous for wolves.
The purpose of carnivorous animals is to obtain food, not to fight desperately with anyone they see. They also need to consider the possibility of getting injured.
For animals, being seriously injured often means death. Even if they are lucky and the wound heals, it will seriously affect the efficiency of hunting.
If the wolf pack regards the cemetery as their hunting ground, it means that even if there are necromantic creatures inside, they may not be so powerful. At least they are not as terrifying as gnolls. No wild animal is willing to be an enemy of gnolls.
"It's still morning." Gerred said, "If we act immediately, we still have at least six or seven hours before nightfall."
Gerred is right. Jess took a look at the sky obscured by branches. In fact, after getting used to the darkness here, it will be found that there are still some differences between day and night in Duskwood.
Last night was especially dark. If it weren't for the constantly lit lights in the town, it would be pitch black. And now, at least some faint light like sunlight can break through the layers of darkness wrapped by the tree shade and cast spots of light on the gray-green grass.
Jess shook the axe in his hand and said, "Then let's go."
"Relax." Gerred stared at the swaying axe blade and said, "Don't forget what you said yesterday. We only pick herbs and don't take the initiative to fight. If it's not the most dangerous situation... don't cause trouble."
"I still remember." Jess said, "Even you remember it so clearly. How could I forget?"
The dwarf laughed and took the lead to walk towards the cemetery.
Jess followed behind. After the two returned to the fence of the cemetery, they walked a long way along the fence but didn't reach the end.
This is indeed the largest cemetery in the entire Stormwind Kingdom. In fact, it is likely to be the largest cemetery on the entire continent. At least in Lordaeron, Jess doesn't remember such a large-scale place.
Gerred was getting a bit tired of walking. He grabbed the railing and shook it. The metal fence bars were still strong and firm even after being abandoned for many years, and he couldn't easily shake them.
"How can we get in?"
"If those wolves can get in, then we should be able to get in too." Jess looked at the ground and said, "Pay attention to the bottom. Maybe there are holes dug by them or something..."
"That makes sense."
Gerred nodded and continued walking. After the two had walked for more than ten minutes, Jess suddenly saw a large cluster of rather unusual plants at the base of the wall under the fence.
Its long stems grow densely outward, forming clusters of thin leaves at the ends. The leaves are like silver-white coarse hairs, and when gathered together, they look like chrysanthemums, squeezing against each other and turning into an overturned silver cluster, swaying with the breeze.
This is... Silverleaf?
His understanding of Silverleaf basically comes only from the herbal atlas he browsed in the library. Because the rough textures and interlaced ancient models in the game are not very helpful for identifying most herbs in this world.
"Wait." Jess called Gerred to stop, took out the scroll, found the simple drawing and description of Silverleaf, and compared it. It should be almost right. "This is Silverleaf, right?"
"Let me take a look." Gerred pulled out a small piece, rubbed it in his hand, smelled it, and said, "It's very likely. I know a brother who likes to add dried Silverleaf to bitter wine to add fragrance. It seems to be this smell."
"One pound of Silverleaf can sell for more than two silver coins." Jess took out a small knife and asked, "How much is this?"
"It's hard to say." Gerred flipped through this plant and said, "But it's definitely far less than one pound. When we bring it back to Stormwind City, it may be even lighter after the dew on it dries."
"Okay, but at least it's a start."
As Jess was speaking, he bent down and was about to cut off a plant. Suddenly, there was a movement in the grass, which startled him so much that he shouted "Damn" and withdrew his hand, taking a step back.
"What did you say?" Gerred, who was observing the surrounding situation, turned around and asked, "What's going on?"
Jess swallowed and said, "There was something moving inside just now."
"Are you sure?" Gerred came over and slowly raised his sword, pointing the tip at the Silverleaf grass.
He looked around and didn't notice anything abnormal. He pouted and motioned for Jess to take a look again.
Jess nodded and slowly reached out his hand. As soon as the blade of the knife parted a leaf, the grass inside really trembled again!
Gerred thrust his sword directly and accurately into it. It seemed to have stabbed something hard and made a clattering sound... The thing in the grass began to toss about wildly. Gerred forcefully lifted it up into the air. It turned out to be a broken arm!
When Gerred saw this arm struggling like a big worm, his face immediately turned pale and he was so scared that he threw away his sword. Seeing that the arm flew far away from the tip of the sword, he quickly picked up the sword again.
He cursed in Dwarvish a few times and then said, "Quick, cut down the Silverleaf. Let's go!"
Jess quickly bent down and started cutting the grass. After cutting off this large bunch, he actually found a soil hole on the wall behind the grass that was almost big enough for a person to crawl through!
"Gerred, here's a hole!"
"You go in first! I'll follow soon!"
Gerred held up his sword and pointed at the arm rolling back and forth on the ground. Jess glanced back and felt that it was like the tail of a big lizard.
However, this thought made him shudder. If the tail is here, where is the big lizard?
This thought just flashed through his mind. He resolutely crawled into the hole. Fortunately, he was thin and could easily get through. When it was the dwarf's turn, this iron bucket took a lot of effort. Jess had to dig out a lot of soil with an axe to pull him out completely.
The two stood up and leaned against the wall for a while. Jess glanced sideways at the dwarf and asked, "Why are you so scared too?"
Gerred said unhappily, "I'm not afraid when I see a complete zombie. Such an arm twisting around on its own. Who wouldn't feel numb all over when seeing it?"
"On the contrary, you are scared like a little cat at the slightest sign of trouble. It's really embarrassing. Hmph, but I didn't have much expectation for humans anyway."
After saying that, the dwarf took a deep breath and stood up. He glanced outside the fence again and looked at the bag in Jess's hand and asked, "How about it? How much do you think this is?"
Jess lifted the bag and said, "It doesn't feel as heavy as the bag."
"As expected."