The efforts of rebuilding and growth can be seen throughout the winter. Food is more plentiful, work is easy to come by, and people are beginning the spread and grow homesteads. Towns even begin to crop up from what were once refugee camps. With the poison driving the bugs mad neutralized, the availability of food and assistance from the sentient insectoids help get some of the worse off camps through the winter more easily as well as further clear fields to allow for the beginning of more farming communities to be built in preparation for the spring. By the time the insect allies return to their burrows for the winter, swaths of land in Dara’s Grace have been cleared out and the beginning developments of roads are being cultivated.
But as the darkness of winter creeps through the land, The Wretched Sleep on the tavern of Fairedale leaves many people without rest as the deep silence, shadows, and horror settle into the land and the nightmares begin to spread from that epicenter. Once more the nightmares begin in the children but quickly spread like a disease to the adults. These nightmares escalate so rapidly and become so tangible and realistic, people soon fall to paranoia from the inability to tell the waking world from the dream world. The closer to Fairedale, the deeper the paranoia and even hallucinations can be seen in the population.
As the paranoia of nightmares runs rampant so do fearful rumors, the whispers of different tales begin to spread. Some are silly stories from children: teddy bears coming to life to protect their dreams, purple elves, and even the idea of crystal plants. More dangerous and horrifying tales are spread by whispers through the adults though causing mothers to hold their children tighter and mobs to look for people to blame for the atrocities. With the refugee communities stirred up, the Order of the Gryphon steps in to calm the masses and leads an investigation into the rumors to assess the danger to the citizens. One of the tales is finally traced back to a carpenter in one of the farther reaching refugee camps named Jehfeld. He continues to relate the tale to anyone who will listen, warning everyone about the grave robbers and body snatchers now plaguing the land:
“I was on my way back from a hard day’s work and was close to the graves of my wife and child. It’s been a long while since I last visited their graves, so I went up the hill to where they were buried, and the ground was all ripped up and the bodies of my wife and child were there! There were about twenty or thirty graves up the hillside and every one of them was ripped up! Some monster dug up all the bodies and mutilated them! They were missing everything! All they were was a pile of skin with no bones, no guts, nothing.”
The story is confirmed by the Order of the Gryphon; however, the culprits are still unknown. There were shovels located at the graveyard covered in runes, but no further clues were found.
Further investigations are launched at the resurgence of necromantical-tainted plant creatures, the winter only bringing out the hardier flora than the small vine and floral creatures. The necromancy aspects, however, did not seem to be further expanding and there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to their appearance. Small scraps of paper with notes can still be found on some of the plants as they are felled but they are so worn from weather that they are completely illegible or salvageable. Worse yet, some citizens begin to complain of agonizing pain and within in a short time vines can be seen crawling and moving under their skin. Not many hours after that do these victims fall as the flora bursts from their skin turning them into the shambling creatures.
As spring comes, the plant creatures begin to grow again and become more of a threat to the newly formed towns and farms especially as the cause of the infection in the citizens continues to go unidentified at present. Despite all this, the cause and spread of the creatures remains unknown and information is limited about how they have been growing or even where they are coming from. The threats are quelled as best they can be with the soldiers focusing on protecting the populations of the new farms and towns.
Despite the strangeness that has been lingering in the land, normal life is proceeding is still moving forward and stability is returning to Icenia. Queen Sonia and the heads of Orders begin having open discussions about reforming trade routes with the new stability in the nation especially as the adventurers begin to return from their winter adventures.
But as the darkness of winter creeps through the land, The Wretched Sleep on the tavern of Fairedale leaves many people without rest as the deep silence, shadows, and horror settle into the land and the nightmares begin to spread from that epicenter. Once more the nightmares begin in the children but quickly spread like a disease to the adults. These nightmares escalate so rapidly and become so tangible and realistic, people soon fall to paranoia from the inability to tell the waking world from the dream world. The closer to Fairedale, the deeper the paranoia and even hallucinations can be seen in the population.
As the paranoia of nightmares runs rampant so do fearful rumors, the whispers of different tales begin to spread. Some are silly stories from children: teddy bears coming to life to protect their dreams, purple elves, and even the idea of crystal plants. More dangerous and horrifying tales are spread by whispers through the adults though causing mothers to hold their children tighter and mobs to look for people to blame for the atrocities. With the refugee communities stirred up, the Order of the Gryphon steps in to calm the masses and leads an investigation into the rumors to assess the danger to the citizens. One of the tales is finally traced back to a carpenter in one of the farther reaching refugee camps named Jehfeld. He continues to relate the tale to anyone who will listen, warning everyone about the grave robbers and body snatchers now plaguing the land:
“I was on my way back from a hard day’s work and was close to the graves of my wife and child. It’s been a long while since I last visited their graves, so I went up the hill to where they were buried, and the ground was all ripped up and the bodies of my wife and child were there! There were about twenty or thirty graves up the hillside and every one of them was ripped up! Some monster dug up all the bodies and mutilated them! They were missing everything! All they were was a pile of skin with no bones, no guts, nothing.”
The story is confirmed by the Order of the Gryphon; however, the culprits are still unknown. There were shovels located at the graveyard covered in runes, but no further clues were found.
Further investigations are launched at the resurgence of necromantical-tainted plant creatures, the winter only bringing out the hardier flora than the small vine and floral creatures. The necromancy aspects, however, did not seem to be further expanding and there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to their appearance. Small scraps of paper with notes can still be found on some of the plants as they are felled but they are so worn from weather that they are completely illegible or salvageable. Worse yet, some citizens begin to complain of agonizing pain and within in a short time vines can be seen crawling and moving under their skin. Not many hours after that do these victims fall as the flora bursts from their skin turning them into the shambling creatures.
As spring comes, the plant creatures begin to grow again and become more of a threat to the newly formed towns and farms especially as the cause of the infection in the citizens continues to go unidentified at present. Despite all this, the cause and spread of the creatures remains unknown and information is limited about how they have been growing or even where they are coming from. The threats are quelled as best they can be with the soldiers focusing on protecting the populations of the new farms and towns.
Despite the strangeness that has been lingering in the land, normal life is proceeding is still moving forward and stability is returning to Icenia. Queen Sonia and the heads of Orders begin having open discussions about reforming trade routes with the new stability in the nation especially as the adventurers begin to return from their winter adventures.