[center]First Blow[/center]

It had been an odd sort of journey; they’d started with a number of Queen’s Blades at the start but now their numbers had been slowly whittled down as various groups had departed off to their own mission. Their group; consisting of four people who seemed a matched group for taking out a lich; himself, a walking anti-magic field, Thalien who seemed a capable fighter, Alexandre who seemed to be a spellsword of sorts and finally Maher who by the occasional odd grimace that occurred around him; seemed to be a mage. Erasmus kept to himself during the voyage, choosing to not interact with his two companions which perhaps wasn’t a great option to choose just before taking on a lich, a task that would require a large amount of co-operation, but he just wasn’t feeling particularly chatty. 

He’d noticed the tendency for the Tulerian Witch-Hunters to gather and stay around him; he knew the feeling that they felt were a miniscule comparison of what he felt if he tried to summon even the tiniest shred of magic but it was still a very uncomfortable situation. He spent a fair portion of his journey speculating on their behaviour; eventually deciding that they were drawn like a moth to light, he was an oddity; a source of power to these people and they felt compelled to investigate him. The other possibility which was a very worrying though; brought upon by how distressed some of the crew seemed on the outer regions of his field was that whatever was outside of his field was far, far worse than losing connection to magic. Perhaps what they felt was a corruption of magic; such a thing seemed common with unnatural beings like Liches, creatures who’d sacrificed everything they had to become an avatar of unholy magic.

The further upriver they travelled, the more the fog intensified and the more uneasy the Tulerian mages onboard got; even Erasmus found himself idly playing with a small charm wrapped around his necklace, it was a small silver well and in this unnatural place it was deathly cold in his warm grip. Soon the fog so thick that the people on-board could barely see through it and when they passed through it clung to them with greedy fingers, more than one person seemed to be wearing a suit of fog. The fog seemed to be forced away; dissipating even around him at the point of roughly what would represent a strong anti-magic field so it dawned on Erasmus that this fog was being conjured by something. He rose from his somewhat comfortable perch near the back of the boat and moved to the very prow of the ship; getting some odd looks as they same the blanket of fog thin around him and he even developed a little bit of a following as the people sought refuge from the unnatural fog. Once he was at the prow he leant over the front a little, peering into the murky water; as if he were able to pierce its gloomy miasma. 

Even the river itself seemed tainted by the presence of such unholy magic; Erasmus had seen many lands affected by all manner of unholy and demonic magic but this ranked as one of the worst he’d seen. The very fabric of the land seemed warped; everything seemed to radiate a sense of hopelessness and an almost overwhelming aura of dismay permeated the surroundings; this Lich was either extremely powerful or attempting to scare off any would-be adventurers with the environment. He absentmindedly tugged on his grey leather armour, hopelessly attempting to re-adjust it into a more comfortable position before he gave up with an exasperated sigh; the chestpiece of his armour was starting to wear through a bit and thus felt it deserved to act like a war-torn veteran. 

Eventually the boat slowed to a halt and a flurry of activity began as a row boat was pulled alongside and he was directed onto the row boat; a noticeable number of dismayed looks developed as they saw him leave, clearly missing his presence on the ship. Erasmus was wordless as they travelled towards the beach; in fact the whole scene was deathly silent with the only noise coming from the occasional murmur of conversation and the sluice of the oars into the water that ended with the tiniest of splashes that seemed deafening in the silence. There were no bird-calls, no insect chatter, not even the swaying of the trees; the whole place reeked of death and this occupied Erasmus’ attention. 

The secret to this Lich was buried in just how beyond dead this land truly was; it had been blasted and warped so far from life it didn’t seem like it belonged to this world. When they disembarked onto the beach an inhuman wail pierced the air; Erasmus immediately scanned the horizon, hand straying to the pommel of his sword and the cold, grey sand crunched under his heels as he surveyed the surrounding. A small flurry of movement dragged his attention down to the ground where a gecko ran by; even it was undead and living off the aura of corruption in the land. He smirked slightly, undead geckos was a new occurrence for him and just a little bit entertaining as his mind entertained the thought of purposefully reanimating a gecko. This was most likely far from the truth, the gecko had probably been caught in a widespread spell which had caused such damage to the land; it was either the work of some artefact of power, an ancient scroll or an enormously powerful lich. 

He wandered a few feet from his three companions and reached down to touch a root protruding from the ground; it was a gnarled and withered thing, it seemed to produce the fog which had blanketed the area so effectively. Using his body to block the view of his companions, he grasped the root, watching what transpired, chewing his lip with a rampant curiosity. He stood up again, a contemplative face controlling his face as various thoughts burrowed their way through his head about just what was going on here. Something just seemed completely off with it all; to him it just didn’t seem to add up and to his great consternation and this gave him the slightest niggle of irk at the back of his mind, like an unscratched itch but it was hastily shoved to the side when the green flare was launched into the air with a shrieking hiss; his eyes naturally followed the path of the missile as it pierced the foggy sky , he felt the occasional pulses of magic from it; they hit him like a minor shockwave. There was a quick reply to the first flare as their contact, Wren Vesper if his memory served him right was waiting albeit now very anxiously because Erasmus was sure that they weren’t the only things out here that would have seen that flare.

He left his hand on the pommel of his sword, ready to draw it in an instant should the need arise and turned to his companions and said “Well I guess there’s nothing for it but catching up with her now. But we’re bound to not be the only ones who saw that flair so Wren’s going to have a world of hell coming down on her but we don’t know what’s out there.” Erasmus cursed under his breath before continuing with “so what do you think we do? Charge out there or take our time? Neither seems like a particularly appealing option and I highly doubt we should split up in this fog even with the way it dissipates around me” he said with a wave to illustrate his point. “I personally think we should make it over as fast as we can to Wren; an expert witch-hunter won’t go astray and she knows more than any of us about what’s going on.” His voice stayed calm and even throughout the whole thing; he didn’t quite want to let on about his suspicions about the area until he’d had the chance to talk to Wren.