Empires of Ashes

*He turns, drawing his sword, his guards moving to his side*

one of the guards is gone, the clattering being his weapon dropping to the floor

Yet’Ori Isatk: "Close formation! Watch your right man!." *the guards move in close, each one keeping an eye on the man to his right, and watching out wards*

*nothing happens*

Yet’Ori Isatk: "Teams of three, search the high camp, i want this killer found and thrown into the bonfire."

*whistling on the wind*

*bois be doin a sweep*

*one of the trios goes missing*

Yet’Ori Isatk: "For fucks sake, I want this thing found! Double up! patrols of six. And yell like your life depends on it if you see something."

before long two more teams have gone missing without a sound. these attacks leave no bodies, no blood, just the fallen weapons of the victims.

Yet'Ori Isatk: "FUCKING HELL. Find me that BASTARD!"

he starts to smell...something coming from his command tent
something nasty

*he gestures to a pair of his guards.* "With me." *he marches into the tent.*

they find the bodies of the missing men. piled up randomly. Disembowled, their innards strewn around the tent

Yet’Ori Isatk: "This... this isn't the immortals."
*at the mention, the guards make warding signs.*

*he feels like something is behind him*

*he turns*

what he sees sends shivers down his spine. A being of pure shadow, humanoid but clearly animalistic, with the legs and head of an angry goat, reptilian wings, and a long, serpentine tail, its eyes blazing like an all consuming fire, as it towers over the men infront of it

Yet’Ori Isatk: *he backpedals, coming up against the map table.* "A... FUCK!"

Yet'ri Isatk: "What? but... the infidel!"

"Leeeaaaave" in a gust of wind, the shadow blows away into nothing

"I... I... You all saw that too. Right?"

*the scattered guards mumble their confirmations.*

"pack the camp, we ride."

*A couple of days later, after the army has gone, several dracian scout auxilia return to Stracia, looking a tad confused*

*Ket is already speaking to a pair of immortals in their desert garb, armour plates swaddled in sandy cloth*

*before long word is filtering through the camp of the enemy's withdrawal*

*Ket goes to speak with trajan*

Trajan is, as expected, in his command room

"The enemy has withdrawn. Its... bizarre."

"So I have heard..."

"Do you have anything to do with this?"

"If I had, I would have bragged about it by now"

"Good point, well presented."

"So... either something drove them off, or something else is going on..."

"Your alliances paying off perhaps. The thengul, or cymerai pushing harder than we are."

"Perhaps, or perhaps Agrippa's men are putting too much pressure on them"

"Perhaps indeed."

"Well, in any case, this can only be good for us, no?"

"It certainly gives us more time. We should stay on alert however. It could be a trick."

"It could... in the meantime, Agrippa has summoned the two of us. He wants to meet with us to discuss our next move."

"My assistance has filtered down the chain has it?"

"Apparently so"

"I am somewhat looking forwards to seeing his attitude to me."

"Warning. He's a lot less.... charismatic than me."

"Oh wonderful. I'm sure we'll get on delightfully."

"Definitely"

"Or probably not, but i'll have to manage."

"If he treats you with suspicion, it's nothing personal. He's got a...history with kelthrovi slavers."

"..." *breathes in deeply* "I can't be bothered to explain it to him."

"Don't worry. He's not an idiot. If he was, he wouldn't want to even be in the same room as you."

"I'll send a letter ahead so i don't have to deal with him."