An abandoned town

20th of Shar 358

The past few days have gone a lot smoother than I expected. Nothing happened that we couldn't handle, and we didn't need to worry about food thanks to Hymn's game collection skills. When we reached the clearing, all I could smell was something rotting. It was overpowering and made my eyes water. I had to plug Erafinyr's nose with my fingers. Further out in the clearing, there was a giant hole filled with burned bodies. I had never seen something like this before, it made my gut wrench. Why would someone bury so many bodies together? Why did these people get treated like slaughtered animals? Now, I know that they died from disease rather than being killed by someone or something, but still, they at least deserve a proper burial.

Hornet found a village about half a mile from where we were, and we headed there. The stench from the rotting bodies made my eyes water as we walked around it. After a closer look, I saw that it looked like the skin was eaten off of the bodies, exposing muscle and bone. When we arrived to the village, we found it already looted; there were no signs of any sort of battle, and it was eerily quiet.

Fathom informed us that they found an undead in one of the homes. They said they were fine and that they were going to give the body a proper burial. The group splits up to see what we can find, I walked around town. Erafinyr was very spooked; she wanted to get out of this town as soon as possible. She was right, we shouldn't stay here long. I hated how much this place reminded me of home as I walked through the empty streets.

We then met up in the center of town, and we communicated our findings. Hornet found out that the bodies are people who died to a disease that eats away at the skin as the person is still alive and then turns the person into an undead at nightfall. The disease spreads by touch, so it is best not to touch the bodies. I wouldn't want to touch the bodies in the first place. The scribe had wandered off, back over to the mass grave, so we headed there.

When we arrived, we found… the scarf eating the bodies out of the pile. The scribe remarked that the scarf was hungry. It was disgusting. These are people—well, they were people. The scarf had already eaten half of the pile. The scribe said not to worry about the scarf catching the disease, and we take his word on that. I hope we don't have to deal with an undead mimic in the future.

Before we left the pile, we covered it up with dirt and rocks. On our way out, Hornet once again suggests that the scribe choose a name for us to call them by. They chose the name Sage. Sage, Scribe of Cadence, has a nice ring to it. We left the town just before night fell. We continued on our quest to find the building that Hornet saw the other day. I hope we find it soon. Good night, journal.

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