A most intriguing tale, the original paper was found in a very small, ancient encampment far to the south of Wehnimer's Landing. The encampment was in a very large state of decay. The battle is not noted in many history books, but it is is important to those who have faith in our Lord's power because of His visible presence. The tale in full is below.
I, Sage Trelius Y'rulli, have penned this paper, which gives a small account of what happened to a band of our men. A sad thing has happened...insanity befell one of our war parties. The only surviving member, Grilteg M'giir, has been charged with treason and murder. Several quotations are written down here from Grilteg, as I could not hope to interpret what he means, the battle seems to have had some horrible effects on his mind.
The party had been scouting the borders, when they ran across quite a many foes, they fought valiantly and bravely, and had felled them all, only losing three of their own men. As custom dictates, they staked each body to the ground with sharpened sticks of wood, and made camp there that night. Grilteg's quotes on that night:
"The...the night was going okay, we were all proud! Then we heard this awful sound! Like crickets at first, peaceful little crickets! Then it got louder! It was a hissing, and when we went outside our tent, we saw snakes, many snakes! Slithering over the corpses and we could hear them laughing! It was horrible! We killed every one of them...I remember my brother, Tirktik, slew the biggest one...it was huge and green! He...he cooked it, and...ate it, oh I wish he didn't..." Grilteg then started to sob and I could not get any more information out of him.
It would seem after the strange encounter with the serpents, that Grilteg's war party started the trek back home, I estimate it would've took nearly a week for them to return. Grilteg accounts is as follows.
"Yeah, we...we started to come home. We were all shook up...we, we never saw anything like that before! But Tirktik, he was acting so...so happy! He marched through the woods with a grin on his face, it...it was like he was a boy again. He got all our spirits up...we couldn't be sad or worried with him being so, so happy..." Another bout of sobbing after this, but I managed to coax more out of him, "That night...we heard sounds. I...I don't know how to describe them...they were horrible, some were moans...some, some were like...flesh teari..." He again broke down sobbing, and he was clearly not able to recount any further that day.
It seems as though the war party was being followed, to them, perhaps. This seems clearly a delusion of battle to me, as you will see, Grilteg's accounts become very far-fetched and he is clearly a madman. But for history's sake, I shall record what happened from his point of view.
"After the first night, we...we got up and started walking again. Tirktik was so happy...he didn't even seem unsettled by those horrible sounds last night! But then we could hear them again, so far off in the distance, but they were there...like a whisper in our ear. It was a slow walk that day, many men kept looking over their shoulders. Then night came...it was worse than the other night...I...I remember I was our tent, Tirktik's cot was next to mine...and I could feel something on my back, like...like a bony hand! I...I turned around and I saw the...the eyes. So...so piercing...so..." Another breakdown of sobbing, but he did indicate that the 'eyes' disappeared shortly afterwards.
The third night seems to be the most horrible night, and Grilteg's account is below.
"No...no one talked after the second night, we ran instead of walked. Tirktik was still so cheerful, he was laughing and running with the rest of us. We wanted to get back before the night fell again, we...we didn't want to hear the sounds again. We...we didn't make it that night, and we set up camp...oh no..." Grilteg seems to have been reliving the incident in his mind, he screamed and kicked and had to be taken to his cell again. I managed to get some more out of him that evening.
"They...they set up some guards outside the tent. I...I remember laying on my cot...I slept a little...but I woke up and I could hear someone laughing, Tirktik was gone...I could smell something...something so awful! Like the stench of a battlefield after years of rotting away! I...I got up and looked outside the tent flap...oh gods, the sight...no, I should have never seen! Tirktik...he was...tied to a slab. So many things around him! Horrible things, living corpses all circled around him! The mist...it rose...and...so huge! Serpent..green...it...it looked right at me! I could see it turn toward Tirktik...it, it spoke!" Grilteg seemed to get a glazed look in his eye, and said these words, I copy them exactly as they were said,
"Flesssh for flesssh, mortal...flesssh for flesssh!"
Grilteg seemed to recover from this seizure, he kept repeating those words over and over...he didn't seem to realize he had said it, and he continued with his account.
"It...it stared at him with those eyes! His...his skin...it...fell off, it melted! Blackened like it was burned! Rotted away at the gaze of the...of the serpent! He...got up from the altar...his cheeks...so hollow...no eyes! He pointed towards me...looked right at me with those...dead eyes!" Grilteg once again had one of his seizures, he flailed about and had to be restrained as he repeated the following words:
"The flesssh of mortalsss, my children! Feed, feed!"
Soon, he recovered. He seems to indicate that he ran, ran as fast as he could back to this village. He was covered in blood, and he was very frantic when he first arrived.
He is to be executed tomorrow, and I am glad that I have had the time to interview him. I find my stay here very inviting, though I really should be on my way, or request a new tent be set up for me...the crickets seem to be very loud as of late.