Kieren shouldered his enchanted halberd and looked up at the cloud covered mountains. The guild had received a request recently to handle some bandits, but when they sent out one of their members, he never returned. Something sinister was going on up in the mountains between Oleander and Rivean, and Kieren was going to discover what it was. 

He had commissioned 8 other adventurers to join him on this raid, and felt confident that they could handle any kind of bandit problem they came across. It was odd that in all the years that bandits had supposedly held the mountain communities in an iron grip, that only recently had anyone reported it.

"You lot ready to go yet?" he barked at the others. "We have some bandit scum to kill and some people to save."

The others gave a slight cheer and the 9 adventurers charged up the mountain path. Over the next day they came across some extremely odd things. First, there was a Class 4 monster, a Scarlet Cobra, that lie dead in the middle of the road. It had been decapitated and just left to rot.

"What in the blazes do you think happened with this thing? Who around here could've killed such a thing?" Pyrien asked.

"Don't suppose the bandits killed it? If they did... maybe we didn't bring enough men with us," Byrin chimed in.

Kieren frowned as he circled the corpse. There were burn marks on its head and some stab wounds. This had been done by a mage and probably several fighters by his estimation. "Even if the bandits did take it out, they would've suffered some heavy losses. No use speculating about it, though. We continue onward. I'm sure we'll find out more once we find some people."

****************

After continuing up the road a ways past the dead serpent they had hoped to find some living people in a small cluster of farms, but when they arrived all they found were abandoned houses. Whoever had lived in those homes had sure left in a hurry. They also had found some freshly dug graves near the homes. Maybe something happened and the rest of the farmers had to flee? Kieren assumed that whatever misdeed had occured at those homes, had to be the handiwork of the bandits. 

Some time later, the party came upon a small mountain village. It was surrounded by cattle farms. The party came upon a farmer and his wife in the main street as they entered the town. "Excuse me. We're from the Adventurers Guild and we're here to help with a bandit problem. Can you give us some information on what's been going on?"

A look of fear and hesitation appeared on the faces of the two villagers, but they reluctantly gave them the information they needed. The bandit leader was none other than Tivor, the fallen monk. Several of his men shifted from side to side upon this revelation. Fucking cowards! There are 9 of us and all over level 15, with a good variety of classes. We can take out one damned monk and some bandits. Besides, he has got to be getting old and out of shape by now if he's been holed up in these hills all these years! Kieren thanked the couple for the information and they left the town behind them, heading further up the mountains.

****************

When the party arrived at the site of the dead tree they had been told of, it was clear that some sort of fight had occurred near this location, although all the evidence pointed to the fact that whatever had gone down, happened days ago. After a little poking around they found a few corpses that had been nearly picked clean by carrion eaters. They had to shoo them off the bodies to get a better look. 

"What do ya think happened here Cap'n?" Ivor asked.

"Nothing good. Get your weapons ready, everyone. I want our casters to take up the rear. We're going in."

It didn't take long for them to get to a narrow part of the path which wound around a corner. The fortress the bandits were holed up in had to be right ahead of here. It was time to charge into battle. "Irenis, be ready to throw up your barrier spell in an instant, okay?"

"I'm ready whenever!"

Kieren nodded, and the group of brave adventurers charged in to save the day. Only... when they arrived at the fortress it was filled with nothing but corpses. Flies and carrion eaters covered the grounds of the fortress. The place smelled horrible and he had to hold back some vomit as they proceeded. The strange thing was that it looked as though several of the corpses had literally exploded. There were a number of spells and techniques that could do this, but most likely it had been Tivor's fabled Exploding Palm technique. 

The party was in absolute shock when they found no resistance at all inside the building either. Just more of the same blood and gore that they had seen outside. Some sort of crazy battle had occurred here. Maybe the bandits rebelled against Tivor and they wiped each other out? This whole thing doesn't make any damned sense!

"Cap'n! Over here!" 

Kieren went over to see what the commotion was. Laying on the ground with a burnt out chest was none other than Tivor, the fallen monk. It had to be him, as the body fit the description perfectly. Not only that, but the beaded necklace that lay in fragments around the man also hinted at his identity. 

"By the gods, who could have done this to him? It would have taken an army to storm this place and take all these people out. Why aren't there any corpses other than what appear to be bandits? Why wasn't it reported that Tivor had been dealt with? These bodies have been here for days, Cap'n!" 

"I don't know, Ivor. I'm just as stumped as the rest of you. Fan out and search the building in pairs! Maybe we'll get lucky and find some sort of clue. I'll wait here."

While he waited he contemplated all the odd things that had been going on lately in addition to this. A dungeon core had been stolen for the first time in a generation. Then, a short while after that, the city of Bridgeport had basically imploded upon itself as nobles acted like ravaging beasts, attacking each other in the streets. Apparently a low level adventurer and a necromancer fled the town during the disturbance. His face twisted in disgust at both the thought of a necromancer and at the traitor who had betrayed his oaths.

A couple weeks after that a ship full of dead pirates ran itself ashore north of Oleander and now this. The world needed the Adventurers Guild to help keep order in the world more than ever. With odd occurrences happening so frequently, it was important for people to have something to rely on. 

Two of his men appeared out of one of the side corridors, dragging a sobbing man. He was kicking and screaming. "Let me go! I need to hide! She's going to kill us all!"

Kieren marched over to the man and stood in front of him. His clothes were covered in blood and it was likely that this man had been a bandit. He slapped the sobbing man with the back of his gauntleted hand. "Pull yourself together you piece of filth! What in the fuck happened here?"

The man was clearly in a state of shock. What could have struck such fear into the heart of this man that he could be in this state days after the event?

"Who is going to kill us all?"

"The necromancer! She killed Tivor and everyone! She's going to kill us all! I need to get back to my hiding spot!"

A necromancer? Could it be the same one as in Bridgeport? Why in the fuck would she slaughter a group of bandits? And how strong would she have to be to do that? Maybe she had an army of undead? Even so... where would she have gotten it? No graveyards had been reported defiled or anything. Tivor was no pushover and there had to have been over fifty men here according to the remains strewn about. 

"Do you know how long ago this happened?" he asked.

"Three days I've been hiding in that closet. She might come back! I need to escape!"

"The only place you'll be escaping to is the prison down in Oleander. Ivor, we need to get word to the guild about what's happened here. That necromancer might have killed these men so that she could set up her own nefarious plans. Take Lynn, Pyrien and Byrin as well as this prisoner and head to Oleander. The rest of us will continue on to Rivean."

"Cap'n, won't you need us?" Ivor asked.

"Don't worry, we're just going to get some information for now. If that necromancer could do all this single handedly, then we're going to need help from the higher-ups. Get a move on!"

His lieutenant saluted and they all headed back to the main road. The two groups split off and Kirien looked warily up the mountain road. Just what kind of vile plans do you have for my country? The Adventurers Guild won't just stand idly by and let you do what you want!