Dawn came over lauderdale, illuminating its many ruins on its northern and eastern halves. The night’s radiant fog twisted and turned as the heat began to break it apart. In the ancient town’s south-western parts, less than 40 of the buildings remained. Made from stone from long-dead dwarven stonemasons, it was the last known legacies of the Eastern Star Order’s humble beginnings. A legacy that would soon to be, hopefully, recorded down in the Xandalyn Kingdom’s chronicles.

Jasmine, a historian of the Royal College of Xandalyn, was here to do such. More so, it was the young woman’s first expedition, and should it all go as expected, it’d earn her to move up to field researcher.

Taking in the morning’s chilled air, Jasmin sat at the forefront of a long wagon train heading out of the town that once was a major metropolitan area. A small wind licked at her pale face, causing her to hide her radiant sky grey eyes and light blonde hair that spoke of her being from the western regions of the kingdom. She was considered average in the Capital, where beauty was easily modeled by magical surgery and the forefront of alchemy.

But out here, she was considered the most beautiful woman in the entire region. It was not hard to beat, seeing as most of the women they’d all come across were laborers and warriors. It was not that they chose to do so, but it was that lift on the eastern frontier had been a slow and unending march of hardship. And Jasmin, being a woman raised by a very noble father and a very caring mother, shared what she could in beauty and health with all who asked her. It had even made her somewhat of a celebrity with each village and town they’d stopped in.

“Are you sure you got all you’ll need?” A voice perked up from behind Jasmine, who’d been staring eagerly to the rising mountains in the far east. “Lauderdale is the last settlement out here, and it’s supposed to be nearly 200 miles to Ghost Flower Valley. We can stop and let you run back to get something.”

Jasmine turned and faced her mentor, and family friend, Yulsvi Ollen. He was an elderly and sunkissed oldman who was completely bald. Jasmine replied. “No, I already picked up everything I need. And what do you mean that Lauderdale was the last one? I’m sure there are some hamlets here and there beyond.”

“No,” Yulsvi shook his head. “Lauderdale is the last settlement. Since the massacre of Ghost Flower Valley that ended with the Eastern Star Order’s complete destruction, the Kingdom has been losing land piece by piece to the demons. The promising frontier this region had once been is now just another piece of lost land, and Lauderdale is the last bastion remaining between that and the rest of the villages we passed.”

“Wait, how?” Jasmine asked. From what she saw, the town didn’t have much in the way of fighting power. Most of the town had fallen to constant demon attacks, which despite being a town that had to fight on its own for the last thousand years, still remained. That had led her to believe that there was a much more powerful settlement further in.

The one who answered that question was one of the soldiers on their protection detail. “I hear it’s because the ole’ Duke the kingdom killed left some sort of secret weapon with them. That’s why they never bother movin’ in more than they have.”

“No, I hear that everyone in Lauder are monsters, te’lot of them.” Another one at the back of the wagon said. Didn’t ya see their eyes when they looked at us? Like we were trespassin’ in their homes or somethin’.”

“I did notice that too,” Jasmine confirmed, only, she’d quickly won over one of the elders of the town and during their three day rest in Lauderdale; had been treated quite kindly. Even more so when she mentioned she was a chronicler, and offered to write a few pages of their history in her report. She quickly spent most of the three days visiting the few matriarchs in town. Which was odd until someone mentioned that all men would fight against the town.

Another point she’d found fascinating was how, despite the women having clear gender roles - such as the women were homemakers and the main caretakers, they were also the main merchants as well. It was a culture shock to Jasmine considering that the capital’s culture had evolved to include gender equality, where men and women both worked in the factories and shops. Though, women of nobility were still barred from holding offices and dabbling in politics.

But back to the point - which was that the men trained all day in Lauderdale. Very few of them had arithmetic skills aside from basic add and subtracting. Then on the martial side, they excelled to the point they even made their head of protection, Sir Herald Jenkins, respect them.

The wagon train soon became embroiled in the topic of how Lauderdale had become the bastion against the demons. Despite it having less than a thousand residents. Though, that information could be false as any settlement over a thousand would require a lord to control it per the kingdom’s law. If it were a thousand, they’d only have to pay a set amount of taxes every few years. And from what she’d heard during their journey, none of the tax collectors ever came to lauderdale.

No one was willing to risk their lives to collect a bag of silver on the fringes of the frontier. If they had that kind of heart, they would be sellswords, or soldiers.

The answer to all their questions came in the form of an elderly lady flanked by two of the meanest looking men she’d ever seen. If the train hadn’t meant with the lady before, they would have mistaken them for an odd trio of bandits staging an ambush in the middle of the ruins.

“Elder Lily?” Jasmine called out as they approached the group blocking their path.

“Oh, goodie, I’m glad you came soon Jasmine,” The woman greeted them like a kind grandmother. A closer inspection of the woman’s hunched appearance as she leaned on a walking stick said she had once been quite the warrior herself, with all the scars across her exposed flabby arms. “I brought two of our hunters to guide you through the ruins.”

“That is very kind of you,” Jasmine said with a smile.

That was when Sir Jenkins appeared.

“That would not be needed, Elder,” Sir Jenkins, of the ripe age of 35, was just as large of the bandit-looking hunters behind the old lady. “As you can see the path ahead straight out of town.”

“Oh, it does.” The woman smiled. “It can also lead to the Hearth Mother’s embrace.”

Jasmine’s eyes widened slightly. The Hearth Mother was known as an obscure religion, once prevalent during the Age of Beginnings when all races of light were born. Through the times, it became less popular as it was recorded that the Hearth Mother was not a benevolent god. Not that most gods were, but the commoners and serfs often only prayed to those benevolent gods and gave a wide berth to any that would not hand out blessings daily.

And the Heart Mother was not one to hand out blessings often, nor was the goddess even kind. Or so was the story. Jasmine was not much of a religious person, and often viewed the major sects as leeches. So, she could actually be considered very anti-religious in the passive sense.

“By embrace… You mean it in the …” Sir Jenkins paused. “Bad way.. Or.. Good way?”

The elder’s smile grew. “In the bad way.”

“And would that be a threat from you and the people of lauderdale?” Sir Jenkins asked.

“No, by no means would we harm you just because you do not respect or follow our goddess,” Elder Lily said. “But just know that those who give a show of respect at the shrine may get the Creator’s protection in one form or another, and we will guide you through the traps we’ve set against the demons.”

“Let me get this straight,” The knight cleared his throat. “If we pray--”

Elder Lily interrupted him. “Pray or give tribute.”

“Tribute?” he asked.

“Give an item of value, to your heart, not your purses. Unless that is what your heart is attached to.” Elder Lily said. “We do not judge others in that regard. Each person has their own wants, and the Goddess cares for all and wishes to share your passion.”

“I thought the Hearth Mother did not care for the people of the mortal realm?” Jasmine interjected, a little too harshly than she’d liked. Religion was just a sore spot for her.

The elderly woman just responded in her calm demeanor as she had been before. “People say she is uncaring and unjust. A calloused god. However, because we live on the fringes of society, no false priest would risk their lives to come to us. In this manner, it means we are free from the whispers of snakes and the webs of spiders. A bit of advice for you, young lady, one should always remember to never demand of a deity - only ask.”

Jasmine did not speak again. She liked Lily, and didn’t want to get into a religious debate and just kept quiet.

Sir Jenkins stepped back in once Jasmine showed she was done. “And you will show us the way to avoid your traps? If we don’t, you’d let us walk right into them?”

“No, no.” Elder Lily shook her head. “We’d just let you know that every straight road leading into the beyond is trapped. We would direct you to circle the edges of the city along the marked paths. But you’re free to take either.”

“And praying to your deity will earn your people’s guidance?” Sir Jenkins asked.

“Pray is a strong word.” Lily said. “We do not ask you to pray to the Heart Mother. Only her followers must, but as outsiders - in her sanctum - must at least say hello. Give a piece of jerky, or a coin, or maybe a drawing. We would prefer you give tribute to her, as it's more respectful, but we’re not here to rob you and neither is the goddess.”

Sir Jenkins nodded. “It seems reasonable.”

“It is.” The elder agreed. “Like saying hello to a village edelman, or saying hello to a neighbor you see on the street. So, which path would you like to take?”

“We will pay our respects,” Sir Jenkins said after a few moments of calculating the timeframes and risk. “But we ask that those who do not wish to respect this custom stay in their wagons and we will make sure they at least do not speak ill words of the Heart Mother.”

“Certainly, follow the boys. I will ride with you.” The woman said.

With all that said, the two men led the train down a winding and somewhat inconvenient path that looked empty and desolate. Yet, as they rolled through, following the two’s paths through, they saw hidden traps laid out. Each had the potential to kill even a large demon if it was caught unaware. Then even had to disarm a few wire traps for them to pass. All of which seemed to follow a serpentine pattern around the road they had originally been on.

When asked why they couldn’t go down the straight road, they were told that the main road wasn’t repaired enough to use for wagons. It was instead repurposed to funnel down the hordes of monsters. And when asked why they hadn’t tried to repair the ruined buildings, they were told that there was no point. The south-western portion was the safest, as the strongest monster that had attacked made it no more than two blocks from the edge of their homes. Since none of the villagers were elves, that meant they had very little information about the lands beyond the surrounding forests. Most of it was simply tales told to them as children. Aside from a common point being that the valley that the ‘fallen star’ had landed in was somewhere north-east of them, more east than north.

A little more than forty minutes later, they veered of the main path and down another path that quickly revealed a pristine park-like field. And by park, it was more suitable to call it a small pasture than a park. No other plants aside from some ankle high grass grew. A low pony wall separated it from the ruins surrounding it. Infact, from what Jasmine could see from where she was, the pasture-park was surrounded by ruins. There was no other entrance from where they parked their train in front of it.

And in the middle of this 100 by 100 yard area held one notable feature - aside from the grass - and that was a very weathered statue. It depicted a very young woman, beautiful and feminine in the way all men dreamed their ideal woman in their dreams. The woman was sculpted as nude with her legs dangling off a large 10 foot by 10 foot pedestal.They were crossed with buttom length hair cascading down her front to cover her breasts. To finish, there were two large angelica wings that sprouted from her back.

They were large, and must have had some sort of internal bars to support it or something because it was impressive as it was unsupported to her eyes.

It was the only thing inside this large field, and that was when Elder Lily had all who’d pay respects disembark and enter through a path down the center. It led straight to the foot of the statue. Jasmine also noted that there appeared to be stones in the grass. They were symmetrically 1 by 1 foot stone blocks that appeared to be etched with words.

“Elder Lily,” Jasmine spoke up. “What are those stones for?”

“They’re headstones, my dear.” Elder Lily said. “Those who’ve done great service to the Goddess will have their name’s immortalized in the grass. Those who are faithful but could not earn merit will have their names carved and added to the wall by their loved ones.”

“What happens if they have no loved ones?” Jasmine asked.

Elder Lily did not answer. Jasmine suspected that it meant that they would not get a stone, which she thought was sad. It was probably a great honor, and those who’d die without loved ones to mourn them would die knowing they would never get honored with one.

As Jasmine stepped through the cemetery’s threshold, she felt a slow tide of peace come over her. It was as if she’d stepped into her parent’s home, one of the few places she felt safe. Felt at peace, and welcomed. And she noticed she wasn’t the only one who felt this. She observed many of the people around her loosen up, as if the nearly-month long journey here had just been a distant memory. It wasn’t until people reached the statue did they notice the change, and the source of it. The statue. It was hard to ignore the change to the mana in the air.

Mana was natural in this world, like air. It existed since the dawn of time and would most likely exist long after they had all perished. It was common among humans that they could barely wield mana, and those people were considered commoners. People who’d live and die by the sword or the plow. And the uncommon people who could wield mana, depending on their capacities, either became adventurers for the low end or mages for those who could wield considerable amounts of mana.

And bloodlines played a very real role in this. Its function in how one could wield mana was not understood at all, at the least, its information had not been distributed to the people at large or even among the nobility. Yet, if one wanted to keep their family in power, they’d arrange marriages with other powerful spell casters. The likelihood of their offspring being able to use magic was significantly higher than if they bred with a non-magic user.

On the other end, it was possible for two non-magic users to produce a magic user. In tradition with the last rule, it meant that it was a very small chance. But it did happen, and it was rare. Though, some speculated that it may only be rare because many serfs and commoners had almost no chances to test if they had magic. So, the chances that magic use was more proliferate than at it was believed was entirely possible.

So, with that known, for these soldiers, who come from the common class, to notice the ambient change in mana was an entirely unexpected situation.

“Jasmine,” Yulsvi whispered in her ear as they stopped around what appeared to be a firepit that held three iron rods. They were mostly blackened around their top in what Jasmine surmised was that it was where a fire would be hung - judging by how the goddess was referenced as ‘hearth mother’. “This aura is the same aura I feel in temples. Not the temples in the Capital, corrupted by sin and twisted priests. I’m talking about the real temples. This is sacred ground, and one false move could spell the death of us…”

Jasmine peaked at the old man and saw that he was nervous. He watched Elder lily like a hawk, making sure to stay behind her and not near the grass. Even the soldiers avoided stepping on the grass, but that may have something to do with it being shunned upon in society at large. And not with the ‘A real goddess may smite you from the heavens for disrespecting the dead’.

Either way, the column of outsiders were on their best behavior. Even more better than when they’d had to stop by several regional lords on their way here.

The elder eventually came to the foot of a low table that could’ve been mistaken for a bench, if not for the obvious ceremonial wood bowl where a golden flame burned. It was suspended an inch over the wooden bowl, and as far as wooden ceremonial bowls went, this was the most… Normal looking bowl ever. Discounting the fact it was a very symmetrical bowl that’d turn an experienced butler’s head to ask for its crafter, the only thing that gave away that it was a ceremonial bowl aside from the supernatural flame was that there were clear offerings here.

There were several bundled flowers, a poorly chiseled statue of a dog, an old and weathered teddy bear, and a well made ring. All of which rested before the bowl, on the table, at the foot of the statue’s feet. Now that she was closer, she could tell that the statue’s head was angled down slightly as it looked like someone had told it a slightly amusing joke. A smirk… Yeah… It kinda looked like it was smirking.

“To clarify, for those giving tributes,” Elder Lily spoke up. “Sincerity is the key here. We do not ask you to give your trash or unwanted items, no matter if it is platinum coins or gems. It must be something you like. The more dear it is to you, the more better it is. Even if you tell a fond memory to the flame, it is still a tribute.”

“I can see that by the assortment of offerings.” Yulsvi said as he stepped up to go first. “Are these offerings from people who’d pass through within the last day or so?”

Elder Lily chuckled. “No. These are tributes that our Goddess has felt were the most sincere.” The woman paused for a moment and her body stiffened as the golden flame licked at the air towards her. She then looked somewhere off behind Yuslvi before she turned back to him. “If you’re curious enough, a story for a story?”

“Hoo~” Yulsvi rubbed his hands, the curious historian in him bubbling up to him. “What kind of story would you like to hear?”

“The story is not for me,” She gestured to the flame. “You will speak to the flame. Speak it out loud, whisper to it, or say it in your mind. Speak to it like you’d speak to a dear friend, or beloved family member.”

And so, Yulsvi sat beside the low table awkwardly. He looked a little unsure, glancing back at the group. We all gave him nods of encouragement, though very few of our group were devout and knew the strangeness of talking to their deity, but what the hell. When in the Capital…

Yulsvi then gave a short condensed version of how he’d met his belated wife during his travels as a field archaeologist. It included a few tidbits of danger, excitement and death as they’d been just budding adults during the six year blight of the Arch-Necromancer of the Southern Isles, while in said isles. And how the story quickly evolved over to their children and then her passing to unknown health conditions that healers did not understand.

The whole story took less than 10 minutes as it’d been a nearly 40 year journey condensed into a summary. But it still held the emotions of that journey, however faint.

After the tale was said, the flame flickered momentarily before it grew to the size of a fist. The sweet life filled smell of spring came on a gentle breeze from the forest, startling even Jasmine. Then within a minute, a somber expression came over Yulsvi before he got up and stepped away from the table. He then nodded to Elder Lily, who just gave a knowing smile. He stopped beside Jasmine for a moment to whisper “Be very, very respectful…” Then moved on back to the carts.

Jasmine remained off to the side and watched as the rest of their group left coins, playing cards, and even a feather with the words. “Tis’ a pretty feather… Umm.. I liked it when I saw it on the road yesterday… And.. Well… I figured you’d like it too.” In the person’s defense, he was a slow person mentally. Wasn’t all there and the feather was pretty. It was a very nice shade of light brown that made Jasmine wonder if it was as soft as it was pretty.

Then she wondered if she was the mentally slow person in the group for thinking that. Then she wondered if it was just a lack of impulse control for this man that made them all think he was stupid. He did pick up a pretty feather. Feathers were pretty, but a reasonable person should not pick up every pretty thing on the road. And Jasmine was not about to admit she’d picked up her fair share of pretty rocks.

Her thoughts snapped back into place when it was her turn. It was no one but her now by the statute as the others were returning to the cart. Elder Lily put the feather next to the teddy bear while quietly whispering to herself “Sometimes… I question why you pick things… Yes.. I do understand the intent is the point…”

She felt she wasn’t meant to hear that, so she pretended not to as she approached the table just as she finished moving a few more things. Jasmine noticed that she could tell which offering came from which person. It wasn’t hard to find out who was a sleazy person and who was a more upstanding person after a month long journey in the same train. And she was surprised she could accurately point one which thing came from who.

More so that it dawned on her just how little luxury items they’d all brought. Most of the items left on moved had come from the less desirable part of their train. There was wolf’s fang, a dagger and several coins - one of them being a Gold Sparrow - the highest denomination outside the platinum coin used between large businesses and nations.

The items moved were less of less value, but held more of a… Heartfelt value. One was a heartbroken letter one of the scholars had written in hopes of sending to his ex lover in hopes of winning her back, but was talked down by Yulsvi a few days ago. He’d poured his heart into it and there it was, next to the teddy bear. Another was a crudely carved stake that one of the soldiers had been quite fond of.

It was stained with the juices of the cooked game as the man had even used it as utensil on several occasions. She’d known this because it was Sir Jenkins squire. Jasmine had asked why he kept that stake. He’d told her he didn’t know why. It’d just been something he’d cut while he waited during the load-up, and just kept for no discernible reason. It apparently held some significance to the boy. Jasmine chalked it up to it being a young boy thing.

Similar to how they liked to throw rocks off high places. That was a thing all the men in the train had done, even Yulsvi.

Back at the shrine at hand, Jasmine stood at the foot of the table. She stared down at the straight flame. She then began to wonder why no of them had reacted to such a flame. It was gold, and it existed over a wooden bowl without burning it. It was certainly unusual… That was when she remembered she was supposed to live a sincere tribute. So, she followed Yulsvi’s example.

“My mother is a mage at the Royal College,” Jasmine began to tell the story of how she had taken after her mother. A woman of intelligence and extreme curiosity, as opposed to her father who was a dashing journeyman weaponsmith. She had taken after her mother nearly beat for beat. Magic. Curious and adventurous mind. Could not be tied down to a location, unless it was for something they both considered important.

And that something important had, for both mother and daughter, and been their father who’d become a master weaponsmith. It had become something of a sore spot for both the adventurous girls who loved uncovering the lost history of their plane. The sight of lands new to them and the excitement of the unknown. Her mother had given it up to stay with her father. It was why Jasmine hadn’t left the Capital on an expedition sooner, despite her mother leaving on her first when she was nearly fifteen.

Jasmine was approaching twenty and left on this expedition the moment it came up. Without being on one, she couldn’t move up the college’s hierarchy where she’d be given access to more wonderful information that could help shape her views. Knowledge was a passion that seemed to flow through her blood. Her mother was no longer of the age to travel into danger or cross large swaths of land without becoming exhausted.

Youth had escaped her, and somehow, silently, passed the torch to her daughter Jasmine. It also somehow felt it was to be fate that she’d come across a shrine. A shrine that allowed stories to be given as tribute as well. And that, as she spoke this story, she became slightly emotional as if a weight was slowly being lifted off her shoulders as she mentioned her worries about the expectation of being a mage, and grappling that with her intense desire to just be a historian.

But as all blessings were, it had some shackles, so she’d settle to putting her historian aspirations to the side after a few years to become an official mage. It had nearly been twenty minutes of Jasmine talking to the flame out loud. She hadn’t noticed but Elder Lily seemed to have disappeared. In her place was a beautiful young woman, slightly younger than Jasmine.

She had brilliant purple and blue hair with deep liquid gold irises. Her supple fair skin looked fair like as she held up the feather their endearing slow soldier had left.

“You know, these feathers come from a rather large bipedal carnivore called a Rockraptor?” The girl asked before playing it back where it’d been before. “You have a lot of worries, but I think you should focus on your journey. The lands beyond where you are heading have been fraught with danger since the death of the unlikely hero, Sem. I mean, you managed to avoid being hit by a Rockraptor pack, so I think you’re already lucky.”

“Uh…” Jasmine stared at the strange woman, confused why she was commenting on her story. More so, how did this woman get here without alerting her? “Who are you?”

“A passing local,” The girl gave an oddly familiar smirk. “Anywho, take this. It will give you a free ‘get out of death’ card.” Without making sure that Jasmine would actually take whatever this was, the girl threw a slightly glowing orange rose that dissolved into dust around Jasmine’s outstretched hands. It had been on impulse to catch the flower as it flew towards hre, but it scared Jasmine when she felt the flower turn to dust and a short burst of strange mana injected itself into her.

She was about to ask what in the nine hells this girl had done, only she was gone when she looked back up. And Elderlily was already walking up to her by then.

“Where did that purple haired girl go?” Jasmine asked.

Elder lily just looked up to the statue then back to her before shrugging, as if some sort of joke flew over Jasmine’s head and she didn’t care enough to explain it enough for her to understand.

Eleven days later, the wagon train arrived on the outskirts of the valley. They had taken up a relatively well positioned ridge that overlooked the valley, but it’d been tedious to get there. Their large group, being that of a large group not meant for stealth, had been forced to be stealthy once Jasmine had mentioned Rockraptors. Sir Jenkins was… Acquainted… With the beasts.

They were an invasive monster that enjoyed the company of rocks and mountains over trees and other living things. Being as it may, finding a rockraptor feather in a forest was not a good sign. He had mentioned that it meant, either they were migrating, or they’d been forced out of the mountains by a bigger and badder monster. Or a group of monsters. Neither case was welcomed in any scenario considering that Sir Jenkins mentioned that rockraptors were notoriously territorial creatures.

Which meant that their train had to be weary on their journey beyond Lauderdale, more than they already had to be. As such, the train had to be switched around, all the scholars being shuttled into the middle two wagons with most of the soldiers dawning their full kits. The soldiers also created a half mile buffer around the train to act as scouts.

Within those eleven days, they had to skirt around many different monster territories that also served to elongate their trip. During which they almost became lost after taking a half day serpentine detour that edged three different monster zones in a small span.

There was no doubt that the soldiers knew that this journey was now ill-thought out. Jasmine heard Sir Jenkins cursing at their lack of numbers for such a journey. Apparently, it was explained to him and the army that this would be a low-danger mission, and the college had undersold it completely. Jasmine and Yulsvi were of the mind that the army should’ve already known the dangers in regards to the frontier - then again, they were also woefully under informed as well.

All of this could’ve - if it was just not in the hunt of a scapegoat - to the fact that the Xandalyn Kingdom had been in a state of constant war and strife for nearly a thousand years. Since the fall of Duke Sem, their neighbors had taken the opportunity to push into their borders with near-religious fever. The breadbasket of the kingdom, the Hachoi Plains, even came under constant threat as the borders had gotten pushed deep into their lands.

Even since then, the kingdom had neglected the rest of their north western lands. Most of the lands lost to the encroaching monsters were just lands Sem had taken. There hadn’t actually hadn’t been a lot of settled, useful, land lost in the kingdom’s eyes. It would have taken several years for hamlets to turn into productive farms and so on. So Xandalyn turned to protect their breadbasket versus the potential one.

The End result being no accurate information. At least, none they could access. Lauderdale had pretty much been abandoned by the kingdom after so long that it could function as its own mini-nation as it held back the monsters from pushing more in. Now it was clear that they had a very old deity as their patron, it made it very clear how such a small settlement could protect most of the region.

Yet, after arriving, even the scholars and mages were excited. They had gotten a location that was easily defensible from even trolls. Rare as they may be, there were signs of trolls a few days back, but they were relatively reclusive and harmless. Unless provoked. Jasmine even knew of a troll in one kingdom that took tolls for a bridge. Last she heard, the troll even paid masons to fix the bridge a year back so it could continue to collect tolls.

Word through the vine was the troll saved these masons from bandits, so it was at cost for materials. Not much else heard, or if it were true. The bandit part that is. The troll was already confirmed by the Royal College, and that nation had given the troll citizenship.

But back to the valley.

The valley had been cleared from a distance by the scouting soldiers to be relatively safe. No obvious signs of monster activity. Though, it was claimed that it meant that something very big and bad lived there, none of the scholars acknowledged it. They were booksmart, not world smart. This also applied to Jasmine who was slinking into the valley with a small group of impatient scholars and soldiers. Beautiful forests and mountains awaited them.

They’d slipped away during unloading to get a first look at the valley. Folktales spoke of the valley as if it were its own city. Jasmine had the idea that there should have been plenty of ruins to pick through on the edge.

But that was not the case. They pushed in and looked for signs that some sort of civilization existed out here. After several hours, and nearly a half-mile in, they began to doubt that this was actually the right valley. This valley was snuggled in between large sloping mountains, of which their walls seem to somehow turn into steep drops that made up the valley walls. It reminded the soldiers of a plowed field row.

They found signs of civilization once they’d found a large weathered carved stone pillar. It was partly tilted to the north over the 30-odd feet wide river that rolled beside it. There they stopped to rest as a couple of the soldiers followed the river back out. When they came back, they confirmed there was indeed more, though most of them had already been consumed by the river. That explained how the scouts had originally missed them.

With this, they decided to just hug the river which then led them to a large lake that was towered over by a massive strange wall that rose slightly higher than the valley itself. It was not natural by any stretch.

The first sign that it wasn’t was the oddly symmetrical lines that run horizontally. Dips here and there where they’d continue for while were a dead give away. Even with the massive overgrowth that blanketed most of it, somehow, it made it look more like a temple to nature than even the temple of Diana, the goddess of Nature and hunting. This was far grander and more ancient than anything she’d seen.

All while overlooking a large and long lake that seemed to cut the forest short quite abruptly. The walls of the valley also looked like they had been cut into as well. No structures were visible from their position at the inlet. A closer inspection of the water revealed that it was actually quite clear. So far as that they could actually see nearly a hundred feet in until the glare made it impossible to see further. A quick taste of the water revealed that it was also quite clean.

It was so beautiful that even the soldiers were motivated to push further, and explore.

They ended up skirting the southern shores of the lake. It was found that the edges of the valley wall seems to be hiked up on large berms. Held together by old healthy oaks that leaned toward the lake to create shade. As they got near the suspected temple on the eastern part of the valley, they began to find old ruins. A lot of them were completely destroyed, though their building stones were still scattered. Jasmine surmised that it was by the vindictive order of the king at the time to raze the Star Order for dying its own ‘place’. Was amassing more status and wealth than your king really such a reason to massacre? Jasmine never liked the game of thrones the higher echelons of their kingdom played.

It wasn’t until after midday that the group found the entrance to the temple, confirming that it was a temple. A grand stone archway had been constructed, surrounded by many different wild flowers. A line of vines had grown over the entrance like a veil. Upon entering, they found themselves inside a sort of massive chamber. More plants had overgrown within but within the mess was a massive slightly uneven floor.

The lake appeared to drain through this chamber, taking the northern portion of the room where the stone floor dipped below the water line. Jasmine began to believe that the uneven floor was intentional to drain the water. It exited into a strange cave-like offshooting tunnel. It looked manmade. They all decided to explore through this tunnel.

A few concerns of monsters had slowed them slightly, however, like before, there was no sign of monsters that really prevented them from their adventure. This continued onward until they found themselves at the end of it where the water spilled over into another large cavern.

And there were Orcs…