As we are still standing around in silence, there’s one thing that’s growing louder and louder by the second, the continuous march of time. We are on our third day and every moment we spend doing nothing is just less time we are able to spend on solving whatever the heck is going on.
“So we just move on? Without Ami’s teleport?” My sister finally breaks the silence.
“What’s the alternative?” Nikki asks. “It’s not like we can go back, right? At least not without having found out anything. Or am I wrong about that?”
“I do think we should go further.” I share my opinion which seems to surprise my party members. “Something that can block my powers or make corruption that’s that hard to deal with, even for me… It must be really powerful. We probably won’t have time to do much about it, but it will help us next time if we know what we are up against at least.”
Sam nods. “That makes sense to me. But if we proceed we should move on with even more caution. If it’s as powerful as we think it is, it will probably not be hard for it to detect our presence.”
“Yeah.” Max supports her friend’s point. “If we are going to look for the source of this evil, I would rather do it quietly. And that’s coming from the person who carries the big axe.”
“I don’t have anything that can help with that, sadly.” Carol comments.
“I might actually have something that might help. But I will need to invest some skill points into it first.” Hilda nods, holding her chin in her hand.
“Whatcha got, Hilda?” My sister asks.
“It’s a skill I saw pop up in my skill choice window last time, but I didn’t have enough points to go for it yet, however, with our ghastly encounter from yesterday…” She looks in front of her as if she’s looking at some panels. “Yes. That will just about do it. I am very glad that experience gets shared throughout the party and not only to those actively fighting.” She smiles and taps her finger into nothingness.
“You still haven’t told us what it does.” Nikki comments.
“Right.” She nods. “Do you know what the ‘Move without a mark’ spell does in Catacombs & Chimeras?”
“It gives your party a bonus to stealth checks?” Sam offers.
“Yes, and this works very similarly, at least from what the description said. It makes us harder to detect, both by magical means, as from physical spotting. You do need to keep close to me.”
“I take it we shouldn’t be casting anything either in the meantime.” Lise tilts her head slightly.
“And don’t start yelling or jumping around either.” Hilda nods and then puts her hands together while she starts whispering some words into her hands. It takes a second before I start noticing that we are somehow becoming transparent. Not completely and I still keep all my sense of touch, but it’s still very creepy.
“Wow, this is incredibly fucky.” My sister speaks my mind as she is holding her hands out in front of her. Her voice also sounds muffled a little. Probably also an effect of Hilda’s newfound skill.
Our wolves don’t really seem to be bothered at all weirdly enough. One would think that it would make them freak out at least a little.
“I wasn’t quite expecting this either. Going to be completely honest with y’all.” Hilda chuckles lightly. “But, it’s definitely not bad.”
“This is going to make sneaking about a hell of a lot easier.” My girlfriend agrees with a confident nod.
My sister nods too. “As long as I don’t trip and fall off a mountain or something like that. I doubt even Hilda’s shenanigans could muffle that amount of sound.”
“Also, you would probably get out of range of it too, real fast.”
“Yeah. So just keep me away from mountains or hillsides.”
With our confidence back up and our bodies translucent we decide to move on, past the ruined city, past the graveyards and into the forest beyond towards where we think our final destination lies.
We try to keep talking to an absolute minimum as we don’t want to betray ourselves, even if it’s as muffled as it is now. Without the sound of familiar footsteps, it makes trekking through the forest an even weirder sensation. It does help to amplify the sounds of nature around us though. Rustling of the trees and the leaves on the forest floor that get blown around by the bit of wind that is present. Little forest critters scurrying about which we can see from a bit closer than usual too as the skill also helps to mask us from them. When we get too close to them however, they do notice us in the end and quickly run off. That’s definitely the fun part about this forest walk.
For a couple of hours we don’t really notice anything until Sam, who is walking in the front, holds up her hand, making our entire group stop behind her. She then beckons us all to come closer.
“What’s up, Sam?” Hilda whispers.
Hilda perks up as I see her nostrils move a little. “I don’t smell anything.”
“Me neither.” Nikki comments.
“It’s a bit faint. But I do clearly smell sulfur.”
“Now that you say it…” Carol sniffs the air a couple of times. “I think I smell it too.”
I give it a try myself and just as Sam says, when the wind picks up just a tiny bit, the smell of sulfur is quite clearly in the air. “Is it coming from over there?” I point in the direction of where the wind came from, to our 3 o’clock.
“Sulfur, huh. That makes me wonder.” Hilda scratches her cheek. “In pop culture that’s the distinct smell of devils and demons.”
“Are you insinuating what I think you are insinuating?” I ask.
“If Gods exist, devils probably do too.” Hilda nods. “Or at least, there’s a distinct possibility that they do.”
“Perhaps they are just making gunpowder.” My sister proposes. “Guns do exist in this world too after all.”
“Which would also not bode well, but I like that theory more than the devils.” Nikki replies. “Devils and demons generally don’t mind fire magic, do they? At least I can blow up gunpowder…”
“There’s only one way to find out what they are up to.” Sam replies and points her nose in the direction from where the stench of sulfur is coming from. “And that’s to head over there to check.”
“We are right behind you.” Hilda nods.
Sam nods back and starts walking, with us following closely behind her. We are walking even slower than before now as what we are looking for might be very closeby.
The smell of sulfur grows stronger the longer we walk in our set direction, it doesn’t take long at all before even our non-Nekote party members are starting to get a whiff of the less than pleasant smell. I can sense our wolves are also getting annoyed by it as they start snorting softly more and more.
After twenty minutes from our last stop we start hearing sounds in the distance too, the sounds of the forest are now replaced by the sounds of the chopping of wood, the yelling of people and other sounds I can’t really place very well.
It’s a sign for us to start moving at a snail’s pace.
I’m not going to lie, my heart does start beating a lot more rapidly now. A feeling that didn’t get helped when we actually laid our eyes upon the enemy camp from the treeline a couple of minutes later.
An entire area of forest has been cut clean in front of us and from the looks of it, laborers are continuing expanding said area in all directions. Even though these people look human, there’s something very inhuman about them. Their movements are mechanical, their eyes blank, and they all don’t appear to be saying anything. The people we heard yelling before are standing on top of towers, shouting directions at the ant-like mass of people below who just appear to follow their order without any hesitation.
But the most disturbing thing of all is what I can see that is poking over the stone wall which appears to be the center of the encampment. Two stone pillars, made of some sort of dark red stone, and in between those two, what appears to be a purple portal of sorts. Out of it spills purple miasma, not unlike the corruption I have cleansed yesterday evening. Staring too long at it makes my head start to hurt. It makes me almost certain that that portal is what is fucking with my teleportation.
“This does not look like a temporary base…” Max comments.
“Mhmm.” Carol nods. “It looks to me like they are done running away from the army.”
-And that’s not a good sign at all….-