Twenty Sided Dice

There is no official name for the north side of Waterdeep, but it is mostly referred to as "the savage territory". Here is a vast grassland, only a few hills are scattered in the grassland, and most of them are flat. It is surrounded by the sea to the east, rolling hills and large forests to the south, and high mountains and mountains of the Walled Mountains to the west and north, so the unobstructed terrain in the middle causes the weather to change drastically and the environment is difficult. In addition, nomadic tribes cannot cover the entire grassland, and there is too much room for wildlife activities. In spring, the mountains and plains are full of colorful flowers. Predators who wake up from hibernation trample on these flowers and wander around to hunt; in summer, the grass here can be waist-high, but the mosquitoes are infested and the rain pits are dense; When the wolves run in packs, hunting the fat and strong cattle and sheep to eat; and in winter, the wind blows all day long, and ice and snow bring grim death.

Not to mention the tornadoes and torrential rains that can come suddenly here at any time.

The nomadic people living on the grasslands unite and fight against the sky, the earth, and the people, hoping to occupy the rich water and grass and live a prosperous and leisurely life. They do not establish a country, nor do they have lords, but only tribes one by one, led by their parents, and constantly migrating on the grasslands. They do not believe in God, but only in three spirits—the spirit of nature, the spirit of ancestors, and the spirit of war. These spirits teach them the ability to survive and reproduce and help them survive in this cruel place.

Waterdeep once wanted to expand into the land, build towns or build castles. They did make some achievements in the early days, and many pioneers began to move north with a lot of incentives. But in the years that followed, these places gradually fell into disrepair—either as changes in soil and water left towns unfounded, or raids by orc robbers destroyed settlements. In short, Waterdeep later discovered that it was a better choice to let these nomadic savages live in the north and give them the grassland to block the vanguard of the orcs.

So the immigrants withdrew again, and only those abandoned towns remained on the vast grassland, telling the history of the past. Many ruins can barely keep out the wind and rain. Some businessmen will use these ruins as a reference for traveling, so that they can determine their position in the vast grassland. Herding nomads also visit here from time to time to prevent robbers from taking it as a camp. So you can often see campfires here and meet fellow travelers.

Siegel, Janet, and Yarel are taking shelter in such a ruin. They were attacked by seven wolves before. "Kitten"'s horse was bitten in the leg. Fortunately, no bones were injured, but only one time. Walking slowly with a limp. It happened that the three of them saw the ruins here, so they decided to stop and treat.

The elf master taught Siegel a lot of things, including simple dressing and rescue. And some of the botanical knowledge he has mastered from the Association of Mages is not enough for him to prepare medicines, but it can help him find some medicinal materials that are effective for wound healing.

Janet helped him to bandage the horse's wound together, and was also very annoyed. She had just learned equestrianism, and when she encountered the wolves, she could not control the emotions of the horses, which caused the horses to be frightened and run around, only to be surrounded by the wolves. Fortunately, the other two rescued in time, so as not to lose important travel tools.

"It doesn't matter, take a night's rest, and you can continue on the road tomorrow. Although you can't run, this horse can still carry you forward." Siegel comforted her: "It's not a big deal."

"Although it's not far from the Jackdaw Tribe, it's better to be careful." The troubadour had a straight face, his mood was always low. He thinks he's doing extra work: In addition to teaching Siegel the Jackdaw tribe's language—which has taken up a lot of his rest time—the number of travelers is one more person than Siegel. What annoyed him the most was that he had not succeeded in raising the commission! Whenever he thinks of this matter, he finds it strange, how he was persuaded by that little woman, why is he not impressed? The guarantor has been found for this mission, and it is actually the owner of the Foam Barrel Tavern, that stubborn but powerful dwarf, and Yarel did not dare to offend him. So along the way, he didn't mention commissions anymore, he always kept a straight face and never sang.

"The horse can't run when threatened, and his wounds will attract predatory creatures." The bard said: "The wolves are actually pretty good, the big deal is losing the horses to save lives. But there are some horrible and evil ones. Creatures will smell the **** smell of wounds from a distance, and they will endlessly track you, hunt you, and eat your flesh and blood. Which is what you need to worry about."

"Are you referring to the flock of birds that flew over?" Janet pointed to the northern sky.

"What!" Yarel hurriedly looked in which direction, and found that there was nothing but clouds in the sky. Janet's laughter also made him realize that he was being tricked. He hid the laughter in his heart, thinking about how he could get his revenge back.

Maybe the spirits in this land heard their conversation, and it came true after a while. A group of small black dots flew from the sky, gathered like dark clouds, and were particularly eye-catching in the blue sky. It advanced against the wind and quickly caught the attention of several people. Siegel set up a pergola in his hand, squinted his eyes and tried to look, but he could only vaguely distinguish that it was a flock of birds. Janet's eyes seemed to be much better. She looked at it for a while and said, "That's a group of crows."

"It won't be an ordinary crow," Siegel said. "You see them hovering in the air, swooping down quickly, but then pulling up quickly and continuing to circle. The crows don't leave, they just repeat there. this state."

Several people watched for a long time, and then saw that the crows would completely fall to the ground. Everyone waited for a while, and did not see any birds flying again. Affected by the uneven terrain of the grassland, several people could not see where the crows landed, so they could only roughly estimate the distance.

"Let's go and have a look. I'm a little curious about what's there." Siegel sorted out his equipment, hung his shield and machete on his body, and took out the net and canvas from his backpack. Janet nodded and prepared silently. She whispered softly in her horse's ear, stroking its mane with her hand, soothing the wounded horse. The horse bowed its head and let her ride it obediently.

"Weird things represent danger, and don't take this risk." The troubadour folded his arms, and his tone was unpleasant: "We're going to the Jackdaw tribe, but don't take the initiative to cause trouble. This grassland is already dangerous enough. ."

"Go and see what's going on, or you're always going to be bothered by this," Siegel said. "Maybe it's just a deep valley, and the crows are flying off the bottom, so we can't see it. Maybe there's a dead bison on the ground, the crow. Just eating. Maybe not, who knows?"

Seeing that Siegel's attitude was firm, the troubadour had no choice but to get on his horse and go together. He stared at his employer's back, thinking about how he could corrupt some more money to make up for the risks he encountered.

A few people walked for a while, and as expected by Siegel, there was indeed a deep valley, about 10 meters wide. This deep cracked valley is hidden behind a large piece of thatch, and it cannot be seen from a little distance. Siegel estimated that it was caused by an earthquake, which, judging from the traces of rain erosion, was very old. The distance from the ground to the bottom of the valley is about 30 meters, and the entire rift is half a mile long. There is also a small stream at the bottom of the valley, and some shrubs grow around it. The **** is not too steep, the soil looks firm, and there are no signs of landslides.

They looked over the canyon and found a hidden body in the shadows. Observed from a distance, the corpse should belong to a human man, who was very strong during his lifetime, and occupies a large area after death. He died after a spear was inserted into his mouth and pierced through the back of his head, pinning him to the ground. Siegel wanted to leave, but found a crow walking out from behind the corpse's head, which happened to be supported by a spear, forming a hidden space. The bird looked at him with a pair of smart eyes, and then flew high, making a harsh, hoarse, angry whistle.

The troubadour waved his hands with a look of boredom, as if to dispel the odor of corpses that did not exist. He urged: "Let's go, it's just a corpse, it's probably caused by savages fighting each other. This kind of thing often happens in the grasslands. Happened, nothing to see."

Siegel hesitated for a while, but got off his horse and started walking down the rift. Janet followed him silently, a light crossbow in her hand. The poet kept muttering: "What a nasty young lady!" But he also drew out his rapier, about ten paces away from the two, and slowly followed down.

The bushes next to the rift valley are purple golden bulls, and now there are some clusters of small red fruits hanging there. Siegel didn't know if this thing was poisonous or not, so to be careful, he used a machete to poke through the bushes and slowly descended. Janet followed suit, but Yarel picked some red fruits in the back and chewed them in her mouth as snacks.

They soon came to the corpse, and only then did they discover the extraordinaryness of this corpse. Although the blood on the ground had long since dried up, and the body's water was about to run out, there was no odor around it, and no flies were bothering it. This strong man was killed by one blow, his mouth and throat were bloody, and there were no other scars on the front. He is shirtless and has a blue tattoo on his chest that looks like a bird's wings. There were no traces of fighting around the corpse, let alone footprints, just some broken soil that had been shaken away. So Siegel judged that the guy was killed and thrown down.

He turned the corpse over, wanting to see what the weapon that killed him looked like, but unexpectedly found that the corpse was very light, no more than fifty kilograms in weight. Siegel miscalculated the weight, which was equivalent to throwing the body out. A cloud of black smoke suddenly burst out from the nose and mouth of the corpse, blowing towards the face. Siegel inhaled some, but fortunately there was no strange feeling. The smoke then flew into the sky, forming a cloud that resembled a crow, and was finally blown away by the wind.

Looking down at the corpse, he found that there were three claw marks on its back, like a rift tearing apart the earth, tearing off a large piece of the man's flesh, and bones were visible. The claw marks seemed to have been burned with silver flames, and the flesh melted and rolled. Through the wound, no internal organs could be seen.

"This is so strange! Maybe it was caused by some spell?" Siegel thought for a while, and then denied his guess. The cause of this man's death was beyond his common sense.