The Mants recede and are long gone as the party trudges onwards. The time passes and soon the rusty tracks are completely lost, buried beneath the sands of time and the vines of the forest that has grown around them in the years.
It is here that the expertise of Juffi-Wup, Sheldon and Nic all become invaluable. None of the others had ever ventured this far. The small outlying farms that ring the village are far behind.
While mass chaos has not ensued, there are definitely signs that things are Not Right
TM. Animals found eaten where normally none would be. Signs that the wildlife is hungry.
Twice, on this trek so far, Nic has warned the party and avoided dangers unseen. Once, a patch of tall grass that, only after skirting it, skeletons could be seen pierced by its blades. The second time, a stream that looked normal, but objects that fell within sizzled and smoked, and all the vegetation around it was brown and dead. After each warning, though, Nic looked pained and weakened.
Overhead, the sky remains grey and gloomy, as requested by Desi and provided by Kaden. The jungle - which fills much of the valley between the hills and the Taboo land - grows increasingly twisted. The animal noises grow more cacophonous and the trees, vines and plants are wilder, more bizarre. Small bits of refuse dot what can only be described as a loose path, although the vegetation has grown around any visible tracks.
At last, the party reaches a point familiar to only one of them...
A humanoid body, slumped against the roots of a gnarled and twisted tree.
It had been there a long time. Vines had grown up and around and through the bones, but the remnants of clothing could still be seen.
The cause of death wasn't hard to determine. There was a gaping hole punched in the skull, about the size of a golf ball.
