Flipping through the little black book. Fellaroth scanned the pages looking for anything that might be of interest to them or might give some insight into what was happening in the city leading up to the disappearance of its inhabitants. “This one’s interesting.” He said at last, after what felt like an eternity to Riegert. “It appears to be dated a few weeks ago. It says. ‘We’ve been getting reports of people disappearing without a trace recently. At first, these cases could have been overlooked as being lovers who’d eloped or simply run off, or even people choosing to run from their debts. However, today marks the seventh such event. This can’t be overlooked any longer. I’m going to have to assign more people to these cases. If there is some nefarious force at work behind these disappearances, then we’d best get to the bottom of it before we have more people turning up missing. I’ll need to speak with The Duke as well, he’ll want to be kept abreast of the situation.’.”
“Well, that at least tells us that the people of this city didn’t all just disappear all at once, there was something at work here for a while.”
“I must say, Riegert. I’m surprised to find that the man you’d spoken of so highly, would have allowed seven people to go missing on his watch before deciding that it required his attention. A single disappearance is bad enough, but by the time 3 people had disappeared in quick succession, he should have sat up and taken notice.”
“You shouldn’t be so quick to judge Fell. We don’t know how far apart these disappearances were, for all we know they could have been weeks, days, or even hours apart. At any rate, he did take the matter seriously and even alerted The Duke about what was happening. Does it say anything else?”
“One moment.” He said, turning to the next page. “Truly odd, The Duke refused to see me, even after I had told his attendants that it was a matter regarding the safety of the people. I’ve never known him to not show concern for his people, even if it was only for his own benefit. Come to think of it. I haven’t seen The Duke in some time now. He hasn’t held his usual dinner parties or taken his usual strolls through the gardens. I don’t think I’ve actually seen The Duke in some weeks now. I can’t believe I hadn’t realised it until now!”
“Is that all lit says? Does it end there?”
“No there is more, but not much.” Fellaroth added before continuing. “It’s been two days since I tried to speak with The Duke, and still his attendants bar me from seeing him, they’ve gone as far as to bar me from even entering the Mansion! We’re up to thirty people now who have disappeared. Entire families have vanished without a trace. Men, women, children, people of all races, there isn’t even a pattern here to make sense of. Whoever this is doesn’t appear to be targeting any particular group of people, they just seem to want everyone. I don’t even want to think about what might be happening to these people, are they still alive? Why so many? What could possibly be going on here? Why won’t The Duke see me? Surely by now word of this would have gotten back to him, there’s no way he would not want to get out in front of this, even if only to save face in front of The Queen. His actions of late have led me to have suspicions that he might be somehow involved in this, I personally don’t think that he has it in him to do such things, but I just can’t overlook his actions in this time of crisis in our city. I’m getting a group of my best men together and we’re going to storm the mansion. To hell with the consequences, they can hang me after I’ve gotten my answers out of The Duke.” Fellaroth quietly turned over the page before turning it back, scanning the page one more time and then closing the little black book. “And that’s where it ends.”
“So either they stormed the mansion and forced The Duke’s hand, causing him to dispose of the entire population, or he caught wind of their intentions and wiped out the population before they had the chance to act.”
“I don’t think The Duke had anything to do with what happened here, at least not directly.”
“What would make you say that, Fell? You read those entries; The Duke was acting strangely. He’d started isolating himself and denied the one person in the city with the power to stand up to him from having access to him. Everything points to him being the culprit.”
“Nothing points to him being the culprit, Riegert. So, he was acting out of character. So, he stopped having parties or taking walks in his garden. None of that is evidence of his involvement. For all we know he had fallen ill and was unable to do those things, and perhaps his attendants simply denied The Captain access to The Duke for fear of the stress making his condition worse. At this point, we just don’t have enough evidence to point the finger at anyone! I think our best course of action for right now would be to meet up with Jackson and Calvin and see if their investigation of the adventurer’s guild brought any different information to light. Then, if all of our information lines up, we can investigate the mansion to see if there is any evidence there that might point us in the right direction.”
“Very well, Fell. We should head back toward the centre of town, that’s where the adventurer’s guild is.” Said Riegert, leading the way back to the main door of the building, where he was surprised to see Jackson and Calvin walking up the path toward the. “Were you not able to find any information at the adventurer’s guild?” he asked as they drew nearer.
“No, we were able to find some rather interesting information.” Answered Calvin, meeting Riegert and Fellaroth at the bottom of the stairs to the Order of Knight’s building. “It turns out that The Captain of the order had been in touch with The Guild Master regarding the recent spate of disappearances. He had asked The Guild Master if he might be able to spare a few good men to help The Order look into things. Their investigation stalled pretty quickly, much like The Order’s investigation, apparently. It turned out that there were too many people vanishing too quickly, and with nothing that appeared to link the various cases together.”
“So, not much different from what we had found here then. Was there anything else?” asked Fellaroth.
“There was!” answered Jackson. “The final record that we were able to find in The Guild Master’s notes, was of another request that they had received from The Captain of The Order. This was one that The Guild Master was asked to keep very secret and to only assign those members of his guild that he trusted and held in the highest regard. The Captain of The Order wanted to storm The Lord’s Manor! It turns out that both The Captain of The Order and The Guild Master had somewhat of a good relationship with The Lord of this land, and reported to him on a regular basis, however, as of late, The Duke had started acting out of character and had even gone so far as to stop seeing either The Captain or The Guild Master. The Guild Master believed that something must have happened to The Duke, as it was highly irregular for the man to not take an interest in the wellbeing of his people, so when he got the request from The Captain, he immediately gathered his men and made his way here.”
“Verry well, it looks like our next course of action is clear. We need to investigate the mansion and see if there is any evidence there that might point us in a direction that might shed some light on what really happened, and if this could possibly be reversed.”
“Reversed? What do you mean, Fell? Do you think these people could be brought back? It appears to have been weeks since this has happened, do you really think there’s a chance that these people could be rescued?”
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“I couldn’t be certain, Calvin, but at this point in time we don’t have any clear indication that the people of this town came to harm, for now, all we know for certain is that the people have vanished. We should work under the assumption, for the time being at least, that they have been taken somewhere, and are still alive, in which case, we should be able to return them to their homes. That mindset should be kept until we find evidence to the contrary.” Answered Fellaroth, leading the way to the main building. “There’s something off-putting about this place, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I could feel a strange lingering presence here since we first entered the courtyard. It's not quite alive, and yet I can still feel its presence. Something truly awful has happened here. We best keep our guard up!”
“The pieces are starting to fall into place now. The duke was the cause of what happened here, this strange feeling you’re getting is proof!”
“No, Riegert! I’ve already told you that I can’t place my finger on what it was that is causing this uneasy feeling. That is not cause enough to condemn someone. We need to properly investigate this place with open and unbiased minds if we really do want to get to the bottom of this.” Said Fellaroth, placing a hand on the handle of the extravagant door. A flash of dread shot through his body causing Fellaroth to instinctively draw his weapon, causing the others to do the same.
“Is everything alright, Fell? Did you hear something?” asked Jackson with his favourite axe clenched tightly in both hands. Without answering, Fellaroth gently eased the door open and stepped over the threshold, taking care to scan his surroundings as he did so. Noting that the area was clear, Fellaroth motioned for the others to enter, before turning to the door and pointing out the damage he had seen earlier. “The Duke’s guards clearly didn’t take kindly to The Captain and his men trying to enter the mansion. This door was kicked in with great force, and it had clearly been barred from the inside.”
“There’s also clear signs of a struggle having taken place in here!” remarked Jackson, examining scratches and dried blood on the walls nearest the stairs to the second level. These scratches were made by a large sword, by the looks of the blood here, the sword passed through a person before leaving these marks on the wall. They really didn’t want The Knight’s Order or the adventurers in here!”
“A wound like that should have easily killed a person, so where exactly is the body? For that matter, where are all of the other bodies? From the looks of this place, there was quite an intense battle in here. Blood is splattered on every wall and across the floors, there’s even some on the stairs leading upstairs. And yet there’s not a single body to be found. Do you think that they could have vanished like all of the other people?”
“We can’t be sure at this point, what I can tell you is that since we have entered this mansion there has been a very strong aura of malice, indicating that something doesn’t want us here!”
“I don’t understand, Fell. When we arrived in this city, you told us that you couldn’t sense any life in this city, did you somehow miss this one?”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Riegert, not all things give off life essence, some things in this world simply exist, they are not alive and therefore don’t give off life essence, making them far harder to trace, particularly when you are not actively looking for them.”
“Either way, it appears that we’re not alone in this place, so we should proceed with caution.” Announced Calvin, starting to ascend the stairs with Jackson right behind him. Try as they might, the wooden boards creaked and groaned beneath their feet, announcing to all who might be in the mansion that they were there and were continuing deeper into the building. Reaching the top of the grand staircase, Calvin proceeded to his left, following the signs of devastation that had marked the once lavish interior of this magnificent stately home. Large gouges and blood splatters scarred the floors and walls, painting a ghastly tale of the grizzly events that had taken place here.
“Are we sure that the Knights Order and Adventurers came here to speak with The Duke? By the looks of this place, they had come here to execute him!” said Jackson upon turning the next corner and seeing that the disturbing scene had continued. “Just how many men lost their lives in the course of this single skirmish?”
“Quiet, there’s movement up ahead, be on your guard!” announced Fellaroth in a harsh whisper, leaving the group to proceed in utter silence. Floorboards creaked underfoot as the sounds of shuffling came from the room up ahead. Slowing their pace, Jackson approached the broken door, sliding his feet along the floor in an attempt to further reduce the sound of his approach. With his weapon raised, he eased his head through the door and carefully scanned the room before pulling his head back quickly and thrusting his axe into the air, just in time to counter the approaching sword that had been on a collision course with his neck.
The sound of metal cleaving metal filled the air and was quickly followed by the sound of metal being imbedded in wood, as the axe that had been expertly crafted by Fellaroth had effortlessly sliced through the approaching sword, leaving half of its blade to imbed itself in the floor at Jackson’s feet, while what was left of the sword got lodged in the doorframe. Seizing the opportunity, Jackson stormed into the room and brought his axe down on his assailant with such force that he had managed to slice them in two.
“This isn’t a human!” he proclaimed on seeing the body of his dead attacker lying on the floor.
“None of them are!” exclaimed Riegert, who had by now entered the room along with the others, and was actively engaged in battle with what could only have been described as misshapen rotten corpses that fought with the fury of a mother dragon finding intruders in her nest. These bizarre creatures who looked like they may once have been human, and yet still looked like they may never have been human, had tattered and torn flesh that hung from their bones, with maggots dropping from them with every movement, seemed to still have the poise and dexterity of a living breathing man. The smell of rotting flesh filled the large room, as swarms of flies buzzed around the decomposing militia. Trying their best not to let the eye-watering stench get to them, the four adventurers squared up to their seven attackers and made very quick work of dispatching them, with effortless grace and precision.
“They’re not that hard to beat once you're aware of them!” said Calvin, pulling his sword from the head of the last dead warrior to have fallen.
“Surprisingly agile for dead people!” added Jackson. “Do you think they’re the adventurers or the mansion’s guards?”
“It’s hard to tell!” said Riegert, kneeling down to get a better look at one of them. “The ooze and rotting flesh has soiled their clothing, it's no longer distinguishable from a common rag.” He noted, before noticing a single finger on one of its hand's twitch, causing him to lurch back with his sword at the ready before he saw a faint white light start to form from within the chest of the corpse. Before he could question what was happening, the dull white light had quickly erupted into a bright white flame that quickly consumed the entire body, burning away any trace of it having ever existed, apart from the weapon it had once wielded.
“Apologies for not giving you a heads up, but if I had not dispatched their bodies, then they would simply have risen again. The only way to ensure that the undead do not rise again is to completely destroy the body, either by cleaving them in two or by burning their bodies to ash.”
“So those things were undead! I’ve never seen the undead before. I have to say, they’re not nearly as terrifying as people have made them out to be.”
“In small numbers, they’re quite manageable, Riegert, but when you’re facing down a horde of them, they’re not so easily defeated. Fighting off scores of beings that feel no pain, have no fear of death and exist for the sole purpose of killing others, can be quite terrifying, I assure you.”
“Well, when you put it that way, Fell, you might well be right.”
“This is all very interesting, but exactly what room is this?” asked Calvin, looking around the large square room and noting that distinct lack of furnishings.
“The one time that I had come here, a few years ago now, this room had been fitted with several couches and was a sort of waiting area for people who wanted to speak with The Duke.” Answered Riegert, looking around the strangely empty room.
“Which means that the room beyond those doors is likely where we will discover what became of The Duke, The Captain, The Guild Master, and their men!” announced Fellaroth, proceeding toward the large double doors at the other end of the large room.
