Occult of Shadows

As the group continued deeper into the woods alight giggling could be heard from the trees.

It sounded vaguely spirit-like, like as if it were fading in and out.

It didn't help that their visible had dropped by a large margin, the sun setting overhead.

Regardless of all the supernatural events surrounding them, the Head Merchant, or Mr. Branson, as they had come to know him, remained calm.

Reasurredly he told the people around him that they had been guided onto this path by a Knight of Pollock.

Surely a Knight of Pollock wouldn't stray from their path and lead them astray! Right?

And while the doubts had been staved off, for now, there was still a large cloud of uneasiness settling in.

They proceeded onwards, the horses' eyes wandering around frantically, skittering around nervously.

"Okay if it wasn't obvious enough already. Something's wrong here guys," remarked Edgar.

"Damn, way to state the obvious here. Not like we can really do anything. We'll just get thrown to what appears to be the literal wolves at the first sign of danger," snarked Ken.

Adding in what he had to think of the situation, Eidiri said "Just stay alert. If we get jumped, prioritize ourselves and each other okay?"

"We're not that far until we reach the village," called Mr. Branson.

"We'll take a brief rest at the clearing up ahead. Let the horses have some water and hay. Get some grub and then we're heading out once again.

The clearing was an empty stone circle in the middle of a damn woods.

If this didn't scream, "Oh God somethings going to happen soon," then what does?

On the stone circle, there were no grasses, no leaves, completely barren...

A coupled withered husks of what appeared to be weeds dotted the stone as well.

"Almost as if they were stripped of their life..." whispered Eidiri.

A lot of things were beginning to connect for him, and quickly he called for everyone to draw their weapons.

They all unsheathed their weapons, looking around for imminent danger.

Seeing that there was nothing nearby, one of the players asked him, "Hey what's your deal? What's going on here?"

"Something's wrong about this," Eidiri replied.

The players, not including Ken, Edgar, and Eidiri, lowered their weapons, "And we're just supposed to follow your orders based on a feeling?" the player asked sarcastically.

"Yea no, screw that. You can screw off with you and your loony crew."

The trio are left by themselves, seemingly ostracized from the rest of the group.

Ignoring the group's attitude towards them, Eidiri orders for them to stand with their backs to each other, still maintaining an air of caution.

Then a sharp cry of pain pierces the air, and the clearing is lit up.

Torturous screams of pain are being cried from one of the players who was currently on fire.

"An attack! An attack!" he yells.

As if that were a queue, suddenly dark magic flies out of the woods surrounding them.

Chaos ensues, panic taking over the player's actions.

Some tried to rush through the bombardment and slay the magics but they were quickly felled.

Others tried to flee but died in a similar manner to those who engaged in a reckless charge.

Mr. Branson yells out in fury, "Knights! Kill them!"

A beacon of hope goes through the members of the caravan, Knights were highly recognized professionals, and despite there only being two of them, they should be able to deal with the threat.

Eidiri, Edgar, and Ken were all currently huddled behind one of the carriages for cover.

Peeking out from cover, a strange sight fell before them, as well as a crazy one.

Instead of the knights charging towards the attackers, they were instead attacking the caravan instead.

Then Mr. Branson walked forward, talking as if he were delivering a sermon, speaking with a great deal of fanaticism.

"The moment we have been awaiting has arrived brothers and sisters. It is a time to rejoice! The Old Gods shall walk the lands once more!"

His voice grew louder with fervent passion as he spoke, "With the sacrifices of the people here, Andhaka shall be birthed anew!"

Recalling his previous experiences, Eidiri muttered, "It all makes sense now... Everything makes sense."

"What makes sense? You're in a trance. Come on man snap out of it," said Edgar.

"No no, everything doesn't make sense," Eidiri remarked.

"From the very start, we weren't recruited as cannon fodder, we were recruited as sacrifices."

"Not to mention how that Knight of Pollock said that there were occult dealings. Then he even further said that the journey to Fallrow would take 2 extra hours."

"He did, and what about it?" asked Ken.

"The question that now presents itself, is, how did he know we were going to Fallrow?"

"It can't be a coincidence that he happens to mention occult dealings, but sends us to the actual cult site. Not to mention he knew our destination! That bloody bastard was probably in on it!"

"The fact that this is a conspiracy is only added to once only weak players were recruited instead of seasoned mercenaries!"

"They didn't want us to be able to defend ourselves," Edgar said in realization.

"Okay while all this realization is nice and all, it's not going to help us survive right now is it?" said Ken, mild frustration seeping into his words.

"I vote we run. We have no information, and not much combat strength," Edgar proposed.

"We can't run though, they have us surrounded, there's nowhere to run. This clearing is too open, we'll be free game once we leave cover," Ken said dashing that plan.

"There's a pattern to the magic attacks," Eidiri said after quickly withdrawing his head back into cover.

"Just took a look outside, things aren't looking good."

"But thankfully I noticed a little thing, it seems like they only have 1 magic caster. The rest are melee warriors and all that."

"The mage just circles the battlefield to make it appear like there are many from multiple directions."

"If we charge the mage, we should be able to get out of here, follow the route back and all that. Maybe even kill all of them by laying ambushes in the forest as they hunt us down if we're ambitious enough."

"Sound like a plan?" Eidiri asked, looking for their reactions.

The other two solemnly nodded their heads.

"On three then," Eidiri said