[center][h1][b][i]Rylia Ainsberg[/i][/b][/h1]
[h2][i]Paladin of Reon[/i][/h2][/center]

Hmph. At least standing watch let me have some time away from that idiot. And that other idiot!

Why did so many idiots have to come on this job? Surely there's plenty of non-idiot adventurers, aren't there?

That stupid curse-user ingvarr, the snake with no sense personal space, isn't there other jobs they couldn't have gone with? There certainly should have been!

... In any case, nothing particularly happened over night, either. Not during my shift, and not during anyone else's. At least it wasn't too uncomfortable to sleep here, and I didn't have to deal with any stupidity either.

---Still, it's frustrating. I was hoping we'd have a quick handle on where to go to find the source of the curse and what to do, but so far that hasn't materialized. Aside from the curse being directly on the land, we still don't really have any solid information. Who, exactly, would plant this curse in the first place, anyway?

Did someone have a grudge against this farmer and his cute sheep?

---Not that them being cute is important, but it's true. Watching them sleep and gently walk around the field, it's pretty hard not to notice. The look like fluffy clouds wandering around, what's even the purpose of making them sick and disappear to begin with?

Well, it's not as if I can't think of a reason. There's plenty of dark rituals someone could perform with the blood of animals, as unpleasant as a thought that may be. As a paladin, I've been instructed on how to recognize and destroy such wickedness. Of course, animal blood is used in some regular magic as well, but surely they would just go to a butcher or something in those cases, wouldn't they?

If I didn't know already, this place certainly wouldn't look cursed during the day. Right now, none of the sheep are frightened, and the fields around Fletcher's farm look entirely peaceful. The only disturbance is the light breeze, making the grass move like a wave.

"I agree, it's for the best if we get to see as much of your land as possible," I say in response, "Especially if there's anywhere that you don't take care of all the time."

If there was anywhere a curse might be planted, it would be somewhere that was often left out of sight. It stood to reason.

[@Raineh Daze][@ERode][@Octo][@Rune_Alchemist]

[hr]

[center][h1][b][i]Fort Magrial[/i][/b][/h1][/center]

With the opening assault commenced, many of the goblins were simply unable to fight back. It was no surprise, for creatures for eyes suited to darkness and such large ears, light and sound was an excellent weapon for their disruption. The archers, who had been further from the initial blast, were the first to recover, but Reeva's swift archery proved to be more than enough to dispatch them before they were capable of locating any targets.

With so many goblins dead so swiftly, and many still disoriented, the goblins who had their senses overwhelmed the least were beginning to retreat make into the fort, making rough, scratchy calls in their tongue for some response to the invasion of the structure they had claimed.

There were other sounds from within the fort. The shuffling feet of further goblins, likely attempting to take up positions within to try and put together a defense, but another noise as well.

As strangle rattling, almost hollow sound. It grew louder, and more cacophonous, as if multiple sticks were being brought together and struck against one another.

What next loomed out of the dark of the fort's interior swiftly made the source clear.

A fixed grin. Empty sockets. Worn, white, and thin.

The first animated skeleton raised a rusty sword, clad in rusted and weak plate and gripping a half-distintegrated wooden shield. It was followed by another, this one raising a spear, a pitted helmet sitting upon its fleshless head. And still more animated dead were emerging from the depths, their number difficult to gauge.

The goblins, it seemed, and a mage among their ranks, and the unscrupulous creatures were hardly hesitant to employ necromancy.

[@Raineh Daze][@Animal][@Psyker Landshark][@Eisenhorn][@The Otter]