To say Brendale and Hillsdale were different would be a dramatic understatement. No vibrant red paint here; no wall at all, in fact, they seemed to have gone for a canal/moat, effectively turning the whole town into an island, with a clearly manmade waterway splitting off from the river it was built up against. The buildings didn''t follow any uniform theme either. simple rock structures, thatch huts, wooden buildings; to Praxius, it was an offense to the senses. Chaotic. Abysmal.


    As the party approached the town, Natalia and Kel; ''Kelson Bren Junior''; leapt from the cart, sprinting forward, shouting... and the guard standing at the bridge over the canal seemed outright shocked... and just watched them run by him, heading for the center of town. Praxius shook his head, and glanced back at the other rescuee, Serra, before resuming his steady march... and coming to a halt at the gate. The guard; wearing a simple chainmail suit that seemed popular in this region; nodded at the group.


    "If''n you''re just here for the reward, you can wait, and Mayor Kelson will be out shortly. He might throw in a few extra for Natalia..." He glanced back at the town behind him, then to the group. "I always thought he fancied her. "If not, you can head on into town."


    Praxius sighed. "Collecting the reward and moving on, yes." We collected a listing of bounties in Hillsdale. Have one that''s a bit odd for the next town down the road, ''Rockdale'', but there were two for this area; a farmer had a bipedal monster, maybe a goblin, steal a sheep, and thought he saw more, and something about a cave eating people."


    "Ahhh, yeah. Ohgram''s had six more sheep vanish this past month. Haven''t seen a goblin in these parts in a long, long time, but there always seems to be something out there, and who knows... the cave might be related. After Johnny vanished going in there, nothing''s come out; including a dog who was tracking him, and a few birds. We''ve left it alone ever since. The board''s at the town hall; thats where the mayor will be, so might as well head on in and collect before you go hunting."


    Praxius looked down the town''s streets to the tall wooden structure, covered in faded grey paint, that likely served as the town hall. He grimaced. Hopefully he could get them to just move on, hunt whatever these creatures were, rather than another full day hanging out in a village.


    ***


    Fortunately, it wasn''t drawn-out, or complicated. There were hugs; laughter. Enthusiastic greetings, from father to son; a paying out of a reward for the boy''s safe return; and an offer of a steep discount; less than the reward, even; for a plot of land inside the moat, as well as a free stay at the only tavern in town. Praxius seriously considered the offer for a few; technically, if he owned the land, he could claim it as a domain of hell, and summon other devils there freely. But... the mayor likely didn''t actually have the sort of authority to grant true ownership that way by their laws. Inside most of the Kingdom, the local Baron technically owned the land; fortunately not all of it was like that, or his daughter would have had some issues. But then... ''Mayor'' was an elected position, and they didn''t do much of that here.


    He''d postponed the offer; he could review exactly where the mayor''s authority started and ended and come back later; and the group had set out once more, on a hopefully much shorter journey; to a nearby forest supposedly infested with some sort of small, goblin-like, humanoids, and a man/dog/bird-eating cave. He was walking beside the cart, close enough to speak with the youngsters... and Parkins... as he went through the possibilities.


    "So. We''re most likely looking at one of three situations. The first... the farmer was mistaken, and the locals are just paranoid. We''ll end up killing some demon-cursed wolves or some other beastie and be done with it. After we reach the cave, if we find bits of dead sheep and some of them... the whole thing is done."


    He glanced at the forest; and at the wide open, cleared-out patch that made up the farm. No farm worth anything was run by just one man; either it''d be a large family, or multiple smaller ones together; and they could check things out after they hit the cave up.


    "The second is that the ''cave'' is actually the entrance to a warren of some nasty little humanoid critter. Goblins, kobolds, there''s a dozen sorts, and not a one has been seen around here for a long time. If we''re lucky, its a small one like the last one, and we can clear it the same way."


    He sighed. "And the third... is that the two are unrelated. We''ve got bandits or something else stealing sheep, and a monster in a cave, or even just a cave filled with some toxic gas. We''ll have to go back to the farm and track whatever took the sheep. Hopefully its the second; clearing out a few dozen more goblins would help make up for lost time."


    The bounty paper for the cave had a rough map; using the farm as a guideline, he figured roughly where the cave was... and of course, they ended up leaving the cart behind a quarter mile away, with Parkins settled back; the old man had a crossbow, just in case, but was likely doomed in the event of a serious attack; one of the various reasons Praxius had disliked the idea of taking the cart, or him, along.


    ***


    Kylie glanced up at the man as Derek and Terra stretched their legs, getting themselves ready, and let out a sigh. "Well, sir. I''m sorry for dragging you out in the middle of nowhere for this nonsense. You be fine without us for a few?"


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    He gave a low chuckle. "The fresh air does me some good. I certainly prefer this over the old Eastwatch house, and, well. Its not like I have anything to do til the new one is built. It''s a nice vacation. I''ll wait til I see you on the way back before I start cooking, but I''ll go ahead and make a fire."


    A brief nod. Kylie looked at the others, and when the devil started marching off towards the probably cave site, she practically skipped to catch up. She''d... well. She''d enjoyed crushing those goblins. She''d been warned before about fear, panic, all the responses a fight would bring... but it was exhilarating. She wanted more.


    The forest started to grow oddly quiet as they approached the cave mouth; the trees still looked perfectly fine, but the ever-present noise of insects and birds chirping was only made obvious by its absence as they peered into the darkness... and stopped around an entrance.


    It didn''t look like a goblin warren; too big, a bear could fit through this thing... and was a more likely case than a goblin. Could she... fight a bear? Would she win? She... honestly wanted to try, even if it sounded like a terrible idea.


    The smell by the entrance was terrible. A mass of rot and decay, something worse than anything she''d ever dealt with; even with excitement pumping through her veins this was... awful. She hesitated, and glanced at the devil.


    He shook his head, slowly. "Wonderful. More than just a sheep and a solo farmer had died here. And they weren''t eaten, either; this isn''t what I expected. Between the smell and the filth I''m hesitant to go in there; we should see if we can draw whatever it is out. Priestess, if you can try some light; and if that doesn''t work, the boy can go with a summoned beastie."


    Terra frowned. "You don''t want me to smoke the place out?"


    "That spell takes quite a bit out of you; and you don''t seem able to do much else while its on. You might be wanting to apply some fire instead; we should see, we don''t know what''s in there."


    Kylie looked around on the ground for a few moments before picking up a fist-sized rock. She focused on it. "Lady goddess, please shine your light to reveal the truth of this world." She focused on the stone... and closed her eyes as it became vibrantly, vividly bright... and hurled it into the cave. Beforehand, only the devil could see clearly. But now...


    There were piles of rotting, decaying flesh, masses of mushrooms; a humanoid figure, probably the farmer. Sheep, in various states of decay. A few wolves, a dog, birds, snakes... it was as if something was killing things and dumping them into the cave, then just leaving them to rot.


    There was no response to the light; Kylie frowned. The cave was deep, hundreds of feet, at least. She sincerely hoped they didn''t have to go stomping through that mess into the smell... but the devil would likely make them do just that if the creature that did this didn''t come to them.


    The devil called out. "No response to the light. Derek, you''re up. Whatever it is, it drags the things here, so it wants them for something; summon something that can drag the bodies out."


    A nod. The boy studied the cave for a moment, and then started casting his spell; he placed one hand on his head as he chanted, focusing on a spot on the ground; and then an audible pop. A creature appeared that looked like a giant, man-sized crab; only with a blue shell, crackling with electricity. He pointed at the cave. "Start with the human, grab corpses, drag them out into the daylight."


    The crab gave a subtle bob of its carapace before tromping into the gave; grabbing a human corpse with both claws; and starting to drag it out. By the time the body reached the cave entrance, they could hear a faint groaning coming from inside the cave.


    Kylie saw the devil nod again. "That seems to have done it. We''ve got its attention. Everyone prepare something to hit it with; your best shot, whatever it might be. No idea what exactly we''ve got coming out here."


    The crab deposited the corpse in the daylight, and turned, starting back towards the corpse pile... when something emerged into the light shone by Kylie''s rock... some sort of blob-like creature?


    No... it was a giant fungal mass; rotting flesh and bones bound together by some sort of grey-green fungus. The thing was a horror that was difficult to describe, and the smell was just awful as it slowly crawled forward; limbs whose bones had likely belonged to deer, bears, and a variety of other forest creatures, now held together by fungal strands as it moved for the entrance.


    She lifted her flail, ready to move forward. Praxius glanced at her, and held up an arm to block her path.


    "No. This thing is too slow to catch a human, or a sheep. Either it has something to use at a distance, or there''s other, smaller, faster ones. Boy, have the crab go first. Lets see what it does. Then I''ll try to chain it down so you can all blast it."


    Kylie turned to the creature; and when the crab charged forward, its claws sparking, arcs of lighting running from its flesh into the monster as it chopped at the numerous rotting limbs... it managed to sever four or five of the limbs... and then the monster grabbed hold of it, pulling the summoned beast into its mass even as it kept tearing at and shocking the thing. It let out a shriek... and the corpses started to rise.


    Kylie backed away a step in fear as she saw... wolves with fungal blooms growing from skulls. Tiny monstrosities made of a bird and a squirrel whose bodies were joined in decay. And worse... the smaller ones were faster; while most of them stayed in the cave, just gathering, watching for now, seemingly letting the invaders flee if they chose to, a few would fly out, trying to snatch She flicked out; the flail crushing one not much bigger than her head, sending bits of matter splattering across the rocks. "..Do we... do we back off?"


    Derek stepped up to her side, hands raised. "It looks scary. But its only level five, or six at the most, and none of the small ones are a real threat unless we let them swarm us. The devil could handle it himself. If we work together, maybe we won''t need him." Kylie saw him glancing at Terra, and the two shared a glance.


    The devil studied the trio. "If you want to try it without my help, I''ll let you; you don''t just need the power you''ll get from wiping these things out, but some real combat experience. But this thing is dangerous. I''ll have my chains out and ready to grab at a moment''s notice."


    Kylie nodded, and braced herself. "I''m in. You two?"


    Terra smiled at her. "We planned this out. The stupid thing''s even giving us time to get ready. Hells yes."


    Kylie caught a grin on Derek''s face; and he''d already begun a new spell; likely summoning a replacement for the crab that had just vanished after being crushed. Time to see what this horrific monster was made of. Aside from, well. Everything.