[Pathfinder] The Adventure Begins...

[Dave ST]

The chilly, damp mist seemed to cling to her tightly. The scales of her armor barely were audible as she moved slowly into position, far from her prey. The air was chilly but her nervousness made her sweat which only caused her armor to cling tightly and almost become unbearable in the dark night. Silently the string of her bow creaked as she pulled it back, the arrow nocked and balancing gracefully upon her thumb. She exhaled a calm breath and took aim.

The vile beast ravenously gorged itself on the flesh of the hapless merchant and his poor (and some could argue too slow) body guard. The monster was humanoid, its skin pale and its features twisted and vile. Jagged teeth tore into flesh and its long tongue, nearly a foot in length, slurped into cracked bones and sucked out marrow. The ghoulish fiend snarled and hissed at itself as it tore clothing and chewed organs like they were a delacacy.

The vile scene was abruptly ended when the whistling of an arrow alerted the creature as it sunk heavily into a nearby tree. Its head jerked towards where the arrow has landed and then jerked again in the opposite direction. It let out a hiss and a snarl, leaping from its perch above the corpse and ran swiftly into the night...

[Liana Draechen]

With a muffled curse uttered under her breath, Liana vaulted over the deadfall where she'd been crouching and darted after the undead thing, her boots snapping small branches and sending leaves flying in her wake. The missed shot was a mistake that needed remedying, and swiftly. It was far more agile than she in her armor, clad as it was only in the ragged remnants of had once been a beautifully embroidered tunic. Leaping from boulder to bough, darting and weaving amongst the fog-shrouded trunks, it fled with startling alacrity, hissing and snarling at her as she struggled to keep pace, or even keep it in sight.

She grimaced at the sting of a branch's spindly fingers snapping back as the creature forged ahead, drawing a line of welling blood across her cheek. She needed to close the distance between herself and the ghoulish thing, but if she wasn't careful, she might end up driving it toward the city; the thought of another panic in Solanis like the one only a few weeks past lent her pursuit a heightened sense of urgency. The unwieldy longbow she carried mocked her efforts to outmaneuver the unnatural abomination, and with a twinge of regret she let it fall. With luck, she'd be able to retrieve it after the sun rose, but she had more pressing concerns.

She could hear it racing through the bracken ahead, the snapping and crackling of the underbrush suddenly giving rise to a short series of muted splashes. Instantly, she knew where they were, and swerved left, feet narrowly finding purchase on an ancient oak that bridged the river. Blood pounded in her ears and her chest ached, and still the creature managed to outpace her as her boots thudded heavily on the damp earth underfoot. Briefly, she regretted abandoning the bow, but there was no direct line of sight to the target, and it was more a hindrance than a help to her now.

Liana's lungs burned with the strain of such prolonged, intense exertion. She was going to have to bring it down soon or pass out, but the limitations of mortality no longer plagued the ghoulish beast. Alone, it would flee a perceived threat, running tirelessly until it found some dark, quiet hole in which it could hide. Already, she could feel her muscles beginning to fight against her as she pushed them to the brink of exhaustion. She was beginning to despair of ever catching up, instead formulating plans to canvass the area after dawn, when she realized the only sounds of passage were her own.

Ears perked and panting heavily, she skidded to a stop and slowly drew an elegant, curving blade from its scabbard, straining her eyes to see through the swirling pools of mist. Leaves rustled softly as she made a slow circuit through the clearing, and the overcast skies were a murky violet-grey through which the moonlight shone only dimly. A low, croaking growl filled the night air, but nothing stirred in the shadows of the clearing. The young paladin inhaled slowly, forcing her breathing to regulate if only to better pinpoint the direction from which the growl was coming... if she got another warning.

Breathlessly, she waited there in the dark, gloved hands gripping the hilt of her sword.

The canopy whispered ominously as a frigid breeze snaked through the branches overhead, and she turned suddenly at the sound of claws scrabbling on stone. Something dark and shapeless rose from the earth just outside the clearing in which she stood, a tall, formless lump of blackness silhouetted against the cloudy midnight sky. Warily, the lone young elf approached the hillock, and stumbled gracelessly over a half-buried stone pillar. Something hissed nearby, and the scraping of talons became a flurry of furious noise just over-

From the collapsed entrance of the long-forgotten barrow, it surged up out of the darkness at her, screeching hideously. There was no time to regain her footing. Its milky, jaundiced eyes burned with preternatural fury as she faltered, and it launched itself at its half-prone victim with a shrill cry of triumph.

Liana flinched, grimacing as the frantic flailing of its wiry arms and the gnashing of its broken teeth slowed to mere spasmodic twitching. Its twisted features, even in repose, bore little resemblance to the elven man it had once been, and the foetid stench of its shrivelled innards would leave the taste of bile in her mouth for the rest of the day. With a grunt, she rolled onto her side and up onto her knees, her lip curled in disgust as the shrunken body slid with a final, unneeded gasp from the bright steel of her blade.

This didn't bode well, she reflected, for her people. She'd been far too busy as of late, and as the lone paladin in a near-ageless city nestled deep in the forest, the frequency of these incidents was becoming rather alarming. The Galadhwen's "sister" forest to the north, the Rhovanion, was known to be a haven for lost souls and the horrors of an unsettled tragedy, but so many, so often, and so close to Solanis...

With a grim shake of her head, Liana brought the arcing blade down in a swift, silent stroke, deftly ending the creature's unnatural existence. As she wiped her blade clean, she murmured a quiet prayer that the soul of the wretched husk might finally find rest. Weariness slowed her steps, and a creeping sense of dread weighed heavily on her heart as she sought the path back to the merchant's campsite.