27th day of the 356th Avagast Month

I spent a few days exploring the abandoned stronghold, hoping to get more answers. However, there were no other traces other than the dust markings on the floor. The only thing I found was a piece of gold coin of unknown origins sitting just outside the stronghold entrance.

On the coin was a face of a skull and above it was the Ancient Commons letter for ‘B’. Since it was found outside of the stronghold, I concluded that the stronghold was looted some time ago, but not long enough for the coin to be buried underground.

Could it be a lich, the source of the thick essence of death in the air, found the stronghold, looted everything, and ran off with the treasure? Impossible. The Holy City of Aon would’ve taken action to burn the lich into ashes as soon as it entered its bordered.

Thus I assumed that it came from within. Now, the only problem was tracking the undead. The scent of the dead led outwards from the stronghold and back into the forest. Not only did my senses guided me, there were also disturbed pathways in the forest. Broken branches, opened bushes, as well as bones from a deer that died relatively recently. I would guess that these were all made a few months ago, less than a year ago.

The strangest thing was that, the strongest scent led towards Aon itself. Was it attacked? If it was, every western nation would have been alerted by Aon; whether for the purpose of asking for reinforcements or announcing that they had annihilated a lich near the Holy City. After all, if there was a lich near Aon, it meant that it slipped past all of the nations surrounding Aon.

Questions would only lead to doubt, so I stopped questioning for now and simply followed the strongest scent. It took me a few hours to get out of Maze Forest until I stumbled upon a long forgotten road.

It wasn’t just a road that I stumbled upon. I found a patrolling Aonian guard on horseback. Although it was questionable that a lone guard would be patrolling this road, he mentioned that he recently received and guided groups of pilgrims going through this path.

My curiosity sparked something inside of my mind. I asked more about these ‘pilgrims’ and their origins. The pilgrims mostly wore white robes, hooded or not. I clicked my tongue since there wasn’t anything remarkable about pilgrims wearing white, since it was extremely common knowledge to wear white during a pilgrim to Aon. Some of the pilgrims wore full plate armor, supposedly guards or escorts. As for the answer to their origins, the guard couldn’t tell me.

Not because he didn’t want to, but because all the pilgrims gave him different answers. Some said they came from the east, some said they came from the west. But one thing was for sure, they all came from the exit I used from the Maze Forest.

Furthermore, the guard found them in batches, sometimes in intervals of six to seven days between each find. The last batch was around a few weeks ago. I wish I had better ways to correlate what I got with what I found. I wanted to believe that the used torches I found in the stronghold were used around the same time the pilgrims were found, but I couldn’t just make baseless conclusions. After all, coincidences weren’t uncommon.

Walking silently alongside the guard who was guiding me to Aon, he asked if I was going to ‘take a picture’ of him. I didn’t know what that meant but apparently all the pilgrims had these strange orbs that they kept pointing at… everything including the guard. The pilgrims explained that they were ‘taking a picture’, whatever that meant.

After thinking about it, I realized that, instead of asking for people wearing white robes, I could ask around about people that pointed weird orbs at people. This should make my life much easier.

28th day of the 356th Avagast Month

As much as I wanted to enjoy the view of Aon, I had to concentrate on my task. A demon lord was rumored to have immediately disintegrated upon seeing the cathedral, but it could just be exaggerations and myths. What was true, on the other hand, was its warding effect against the undead. The constant prayers and hymns of the devoted within the walls had inadvertently strengthened the walls so much with the essence of life, which disgusted the undead.

In fact, death and life would collide against each other, so essences of life and death would cause a reaction. Yet the essence of death present within the cathedral stayed undisturbed. There were plenty essence of death scattered all over the place, but I continued to follow the strongest scent.

Even with the holy light, the smell of the undead wouldn’t get any better. I was made to track the undead, but was it really necessary to let me smell the stinking decay of rot?

My mind was scrambled by not only the smell, but the fact that my tracks had to be cut short as it continued deeper into forbidden areas of the cathedral. How did an undead get so deep within the cathedrals? Wouldn’t the holiest of men, purest of monks, and the most fanatical of paladins be inside the forbidden areas?

Rumors had spread amongst the followers of the Path that a Lord in the Heaven and his angels descended upon Aon and blessed the holy rivers. Could this ‘Lord in the Heaven’ actually be an undead? Impossible. I refused to believe.

I decided to circumvent around the forbidden areas and continue from the point that the essence of death spread outwards from the cathedral. While I was about to exit, I was curious about the Garden of Life. There were reports that the largest plant went on a brief rampage, attacking a large group of pilgrims.

Pilgrims holding large orbs.

Unfortunately, my curiosity had led me to be attacked by the large plant. The Aonian paladins chased after me, trying to apprehend me. It was hard trying to evade all of the Aonian guards while still trying to follow the tracks of the undead essence.

It must had been the coin. This confirmed that the coin indeed once belonged to an undead. With high hopes, Azkator would bring me more answers, not questions.