The four men began their long journey East, heading towards Jászberény, planning on stopping there to get more supplies and information about this supposed adventuring party. The horses hooves thumped against the hard dirt road beneath them as the riders advanced at a slow trot, not wishing to tire out the beasts of burden. Not before they even ran into any trouble.

As the journey continued they encountered various travelers and creatures. Some were traveling merchants that had various wares and supplies for sale while others were simply farmers heading to the city market to sell their produce. Others were scholars traveling to different cities to view their libraries and some were simply idle rich nobles traveling the land out of sheer boredom and wondering what each town had to offer.

As they began their last half of the journey to Jászberény they had to traverse through a, supposedly, "haunted" swampland. Thick, muddy, and drenched grounds made traversing hard, the thick tree cannopy blocked out the sun, and various magical creatures lurked in the area. Cientus had to admit, he doubted he'd ever get used to the creatures he'd run into. He looked to his left and right and saw his guards were with him, though their faces showed no fear or curiosity. With how much they'd seen, the lord pondered if they had ever encountered the creatures in the dark swamp.

Suddenly a fierce howl came from their right. Cientus wildly spun his head that way only to be face with what looked like a very large wolf's head. His horse, firghtened by the sound and sight, bucked him off and galloped wildly forward, putting as much distance between it and the wolf looking creature as it could. The man quickly got to his feet and pulled out his sword, looking around wildly for the beast.

A large several wolf heads, with glowing red eyes, stared at him. If he wasn't sweating before, he was drowned in it by then. He gripped his sword tightly, his knuckles turning white as he slowly backed away from the large beasts. They slowly crept out of the murky waters, their bodies glistening as the filthy liquid reflected the bright full moon. Their eight spindley...
Eight legs?
The pale skinned noble shook his head and stared at the four beasts in shock, wondering how a wolf could have eight wirey legs when it suddenly hit him. They weren't wolves at all.
They were Darklings.
The guards, on the other hand, didn't look frightened at all. As the massive ugly beasts raised their large, sharp pincers, one of the guards casually pulled out his sword and jammed it straight inbetween the beasts pincer base. It gave a banshee like screech before it quickly scampered off, fearing further pain.

The other guards pulled out their weapons and began to wrestle with the unholy creatures of the swamp. Their horrible screeches filled the warm night air as the large men began to fight with the equally if not more massive spiders. One of the guards, with his massive battle axe, had been scratched badly by one of the venomous fangs of the spiders. Enraged he glared at it, gave a fierce aniamlistic roar, and smashed it with his axe, gleefully shouting as he was covered in specs of it's blood.

Cientus looked at the fight and almost got caught by surprise by one of the spiders charging him.
"GET OUTTA THE WAY!" One of the guards shouted.
Cientus blinked before he saw the huge rushing spider. He leapt aside, bemoaning how he accidently landed in a massive murky puddle and ruined his fine clothing. He then looked up and saw the black furred creature turn to look at him. He thanked Htraknu that he didn't get killed by it. Getting up he raised his dirty blade and stared at the beast.
"You're nothing next to the power of my God, beast!" He shouted before he let the creature rush him. He looked at it as it rapidly closed the distance, hoping his plan wouldn't be his end.
Finally the spider was right on top of him and began to try and bite his face off. Osvaldus smiled as he watched it's fanged pincers open before he thrust the sword right into his mouth and into its brain.

As the man got up, he looked behind him to see the guards snarling as they glared at the bug corpses. He then watched one of the guards pull out a dagger and begin to cut up the flesh of one of the massive spiders before taking a large bite out of it. The pale and dirty noble quickly got on his horse and ordered the massive men to get back on their own horses before they continued their journey to Jászberény

They still had a long way to go before they caught up to the adventurers.