Cassandra goes to investigate the approaching creatures, Margaret and Silvia investigate the village together

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[After a long hiatus I finally got the inspiration to write this chapter. Yay?]

“I think it will be best if I go and check out the creatures that are approaching. In the mean time you two should search the village. But make sure to stick together - splitting up is just asking for trouble.” Cassandra suggested.

“Sounds like a good plan.” Margaret agreed with her sister. Silvia just nodded her head in agreement.

“Alright, I'll be going, then. Good luck with your search, you two.”

“Good luck and be careful, sis. There's no telling what awaits you.”

“I know, I'll be careful.” Without further delay Cassandra left the two older women to search the empty village and headed west, towards the unknown creatures approaching.

Once she was out of the village Cassandra decided to leave the road. The dirt path was mostly even and easy to walk on, but it was also open, offering no cover. It would leave her exposed and easy to spot.

On both sides of the road the forest seemed the same, so Cassandra chose at random and moved to the right. On the outskirts of the forest the trees were not too dense and so passing through was relatively easy, despite some roots, fallen branches, and the occasional bush getting in the way. At the same time there was plenty of cover for her... and for any potential enemies, causing her to constantly look around.

At first Cassandra walked slowly, getting used to her surroundings - a walk through a forest was not the same as a walk through the city streets, after all - but after a few minutes she got used to it and sped up a bit. Not too much, though – she still had to avoid any branches and bushes that were big enough to damage her dress. She walked at the new pace for several minutes, the whole time keeping the road on her left and within her sight. Just as she started getting tired, and began wondering if perhaps the Stamina drink would have been the better choice, Cassandra finally managed to get her first good look at the creatures moving towards the village. Undead, mostly skeletons and zombies, but also some ghosts- wait, something's not right here! The young woman took cover behind a large tree, crouched down, and peeked from behind her cover. She started examining the undead, trying to figure out what was bothering her.

Numerous skeletons, most of them unarmored and holding just a sword, a spear, or an axe. But some seem to have armor and a few have a shield in addition to their weapon. There are also a few armed with bows, but thankfully all of them are in the back. The zombies aren't any better – most seem to be just dead villagers, likely farmers and woodcutter, judging by the pitchforks and axes. But a few seem to have been soldiers before their ****, judging by their armor and relatively better weapons. There are also some ghosts, and there's quite a bit of variety among them. A ghostly woman looking in her direction caused Cassandra to pull back and hide behind the large tree. After a minute of waiting she became certain that she had not been spotted by the ghost and resumed her spying on the undead ****.

Let's see... one...two... three... five... ten... twenty... gee, there sure are a lot of undead! I hope we won't have to fight them all at the same time! Thankfully, they are slow- The thought caused Cassandra to freeze in place as she finally realized what had been bothering her ever since she had first seen the undead. Two more ghosts happened to look in her direction just then, but, luckily for her, they too did not notice her. Considering how far they seemed earlier, and considering how slow they are moving, they should be much further away from the village, and it should have taken me at least twice as long to reach them! So how... a spell? Maybe the same spell that made it impossible to tell what they are from a distance also obscures the real distance to them, making them seem further away? Is that possible? Wish I knew more about magic...

While Cassandra was lost in thought her luck finally ran out. Another ghost looked in her direction – and by a stroke of luck noticed her. The ghost's high-pitched shriek interrupted the young woman's thoughts. She looked towards the source right on time to see the ghost point at the tree she was hiding behind, and several skeletons changed direction, heading towards her. “Dammit!” She cursed as she got up and fled, heading back towards the village as fast as she could afford. A quick look over her shoulder showed her that the undead were chasing her. The skeletons were slow and were falling behind, in part thanks to the trees and bushes slowing them down even further. The ghosts, on the other hand, were much faster and could simply pass through any obstacles, thus they were not only keeping up, but gradually gaining ground on her. Cassandra's reaction was to switch from a fast walk to a run, not caring if her dress got caught on anything and damaged.

After a minute of running Cassandra took another look over her shoulder – and was dismayed to see that not only were the ghosts keeping up with her, but apparently some of the skeletons were not so slow, because at least three of them were keeping up with the ghosts and running after the lone living woman. Crap! I need to figure out some way to lose them! Unfortunately, she had no idea how. Just then, with her peripheral vision she noticed movement somewhere to her left, deeper into the forest. A second later a leaf was shot from somewhere between the trees.

-1 HP

“Ouch!” Cassandra yelped as something cut her left shoulder, despite the leaf completely missing her. “What the hell was that?” An angry shriek from behind caused her to look over her shoulder again.

All of the ghosts that had been chasing her had changed direction and were now heading deeper into the woods, as were the few skeletons she could still see. Did they too get hurt by something? Whatever the case, I'm not complaining. Cassandra resumed running, trying to get back to the abandoned village and report what she had discovered. On the way back she got attacked twice more, and though both times the leaves missed her something still cut her left hand. Fortunately the cuts were no more than scratches.

-2 HP

Finally, after what felt like forever, Cassandra made it back. “Sis! Where are you?” She called loudly as she stood there, her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath, feeling rather exhausted.

“We're here!” Came Margaret's response and moments later Margaret and Silvia appeared from behind a house. While they were making their way to her Cassandra examined her dress. As expected, her only piece of clothing had taken some damage. A large part of her skirt had been ripped off after it got caught on something, likely a bush, and now her left leg was exposed. There were several more holes in the dress' skirt, but none were very large. I wonder what will happen if my dress gets destroyed by the illusions here? I think I'd rather not find out...

“Back already? I thought it would take you longer to check out the enemies.” Margaret's voice brought Cassandra back tot he issue at hand.

“Yeah, about that... they are not as far away as they seem...”

Several minutes and a few dozen questions later Cassandra had given a detailed report about her findings.

“So, the obscuring spell not only hides what they are, but also how far they are... A clever trick by whoever is in charge of the undead. In hindsight, we really should have considered the possibility.” Margaret noted. Whatever else she wanted to say was interrupted by Silvia's curse.

“Dammit! I knew there was a catch!” Noticing the questioning looks the sisters were giving her she explained. “The undead horde Cassandra saw is most likely an endless stream of weak undead. It's a trick the teachers use sometimes, in order to teach us that it is impossible to win every time, no matter how powerful a mage might be, and that we should pick our battles. If we try fighting the undead we will get overwhelmed for sure.”

“So what do you suggest, then? Go around them?” Margaret asked the obvious question.

“Usually when the teachers use this trick they also provide some way to bypass the endless stream of enemies. We just need to find it.”

“Are you even sure we're dealing with an endless amount of enemies?” Cassandra interrupted.

“90% sure. It's not very likely, but I could be wrong, in which case we'll just waste a little bit of time searching for something that is not there.”

“While I am not as certain as Silvia, I too think we might be dealing with an endless stream of enemies. And even if there is a finite number of enemies we are still talking about dozens, if not hundreds, of undead. Some will get crushed fighting whatever is in the forest. But even so plenty more will be left for us. Why fight them if we can avoid them?” Margaret added.

“Okay... so, any idea what we're looking for?” Cassandra moved on to the next question.

“Hard to say, sis. It could be something easy to spot, like a monument, or something difficult to notice, like a rune on the ground among the trees.”

“I don't suppose you found any such thing while searching the village? Speaking of, what did you find?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Looks like the villagers left nothing of value behind when they left.” Margaret answered, frowning.

“Or the students in charge of creating this part of the illusion were too lazy to add anything of interest for us to find. One or the other. Probably the latter.” Added Silvia.

“Yes, that is also a very likely possibility. Anyway, going west along the road means fighting the undead head-on. Seems rather suicidal. The same goes for going north-west, as that will likely put us in the middle of the battle between the undead and the forest dwellers. Speaking of, as dangerous as they might be, it wasn't the leaves that cut you, sis.”

“Oh? Then what was it?”

“It's a nice little trick some forest creatures use – the razor-sharp leaves are mostly a distraction. The real danger are the invisible wind blades that accompany them. That's most likely what cut you.” Margaret explained. “Anyway, we can go south-west, south, south-east, east, north-east, or north. If we go north we are likely to encounter more of whatever is in the forest. Going south-west, on the other hand, makes it likely to encounter more undead. And even if there are no undead searching the area south of the road to go north, towards the tower. If the undead really are endless, then crossing the road is going to be... difficult. That leaves us with the other four directions. Any suggestions?”

“I'll go with whatever you two decide.” Silvia declared, leaving the decision in the hands of the sisters.

“Well, since you were the one who chose the portal leading to this village, I think we should leave the decision to you, Cass.” And just like that Cassandra found herself the center of attention, as the other two women looked at her expectantly.

“Sounds like just a cheap excuse to leave the decision to me.” Cassandra noted, before sighing. “Okay, I'll choose. But no complaining if you don't like the result!”

Vote: Which direction should Cassandra, Margaret and Silvia go?
A. South
B. South-east
C. East
D. North-east
E. Another direction (specify which one)

X. Minor Action

[For some reason I'm not really happy with the descriptions in this chapter, but they the point across, so I'll leave things as they are.]

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