The Creatures at Ismuth

A gentle knock can be heard at the door of the office of lord Yram. "Yes, you may enter." he says to the person on the other side of the door with a loud domineering voice.

A late forty-year old bespectacled man entered the room hurriedly closing the door behind him. "Forgive me for my intrusion, my lord." Aimsly says with a calm dignified tone fitting for the head butler serving the Harkam Barony.

While keeping his eyes on the documents he's working on, baron Yram raises his left hand forward signaling Aimsly to talk.

"Thank you, my lord." -He lightly lowers his head and quickly stood straight as he continues- "A guard from Ismuth, the town by the Dark woods of Hyla, arrived with urgent news. Ismuth is under attack by monsters that were never before seen, emerged from the woods. He says that they were severely outnumbered and he was tasked to call for aid. If my estimates are correct they would still be engaging in battle as we speak." Aimsly hurriedly relays the message to the baron.

While listening to Aimsly, baron Yram raised his head to listen carefully as he notices the urgency in Aimsly's voice. After hearing the message, he quickly stood up. "Aimsly ready the men and horses! Tell Ren to prepare his best men and two healers to leave immediately and aid the soldiers at Ismuth. Tell him survival is top priority, delay as much as possible and until the rest of the support arrives. Tell Firn to prepare my horse and gear. Bring the guard who delivered the message to my changing room at the barracks! Quickly now Aimsly!"

"Yes, my lord!" Aimsly replies as he quickly leaves the room to perform the task.

The women, children, elderly, those heavily injured, and two soldiers are gathered inside the storage house, the largest building in the village, at the opposite side of the woods. Most of them are shivering in fear, as people normal would when their lives are threatened. Some of the children are crying and their mothers are desperately trying to keep them quiet, talking to them or forcefully covering their mouths for the noise may attract the attention of the unknown monsters.

Heavily wounded, one of the adventurers of the party who first encountered the monsters while doing a quest within the Dark Woods of Hyla, holds a bloodied piece of cloth against the wound where her left hand is supposed to be.

"Quickly Tori! Drink this!!" Her party-mate Rena, a Red haired silver ranked thief, kneels beside her popping a mild diluted potion bottle open and gently places it on Tori's lips and raising it slowly. While drinking the potion Tori winces from intense pain coming from her wounded arm. Steam could be seen coming from the wound as it closes due to potion taking effect. The wound completely close and the blood to stops gushing out.

"Th..thank y..y..you, Re..na.." she says, while trying to catch her breath and stay conscious.

"No! If it wasn't for me you would have been okay and your hand wouldn't.. your hand wouldn't have gotten like that! And M..Matt would still be alive!... If only I used the magic scroll sooner!" Rena wails as she wipes tears from her face.

Tori places her head on Rena's chest "If it wasn't for you I would be dead right now. So don't say that. Mat wouldn't want to see you like this, he sacrificed himself to save me. So if anything is my fault." She says to Rena in a hushed tone as she begins to shed tears as well. Tori holds her tightly as both of them vein to cry silently.

"Dammit!!!!" One of the soldiers yell as he's being chased by a dark grey quadrupedal monster that's as big as a horse. He runs with labored breath, and trips falling down on his face. Sitting himself up he cries out, grunting "ughhah.. Stay away! S...stay awayy!!" while his legs tremble in an attempt to push himself backwards, away from the creature.

The creature slows down as it reacts to soldier's stumble. It moves forward leaving imprints of its four hand-shaped clawed feet on the ground. The hundred eyes on it's grotesque head stare down at the soldier, then it opens its mouth wide revealing several sets of sharp teeth. Countless number of tendril like tongues emerge from its gaping mouth grabbing the soldier's head.

Unable to react nor make sense of the abomination in front him. The soldier's head gets pulled into the mouth of the creature as it closes, cutting the soldiers head clean of from his body.

Screams of villagers and soldiers can be heard all over the village as they desperately try to protect themselves. Some managed to slay the creatures which seem to melt into a disgusting pile of black goo on the ground before it quickly evaporates into smoke leaving no trace of the creature behind. No matter their attempts it was all futile, most of the soldiers were killed and the few that managed so to survive this long were now pushed against the doors of the storage where the villagers are.

On the inside of the storage everyone was quiet not even the children were crying anymore. All of them were too overcome with fear and dread to make a sound. Rena holds Tori tightly in her arms as the screams and the sound of blood gushing and bones being crushed could be heard just outside the door.