Lead by: Hoagie, Junior Dragoon
Attended by: Drake Reilly, Watchman
Though the paperwork is filled out in standard form, the word "Urgent" is scrawled across the header. The handwriting, usually refined, is messy in places, as though from an unsteady hand behind the quillIt was only a few minutes before midnight when I was returning from a patrol of the southern coastline. I was ready to turn in for the night when Junior Dragoon Hoagie called my attention and suggested a final sentry duty of the day. Between the undead assassin that disabled Nic and the unprovoked strike against the caravan by Yew and Britain forces, I thought that a sentry was certainly in order.
We were not expecting any major forces and so we were satisfied with a rudimentary blockade at the old-city gates. We were prepared for thieves sneaking out of Cove, and for subversives sneaking in, but what confronted us was nothing of the commonplace sort. As we were looking out into the darkness, we soon found the darkness facing us eye to eye. The shadows melted together to form the image of a twisted humanoid form. We suspected trickery, but could no longer deny it's existence when it began conversing with us.
The phantasm referred to itself as "Odenetheus", a name which I am unfamiliar with, but which Hoagie seemed to recognize at once. I was unsure of what the apparition was capable of, though it's very presence seemed to have an affect on Hoagie. In further conversation, the spectre revealed that it had once been the head of the Covian church. The assembling of shadows spoke with a hissing voice that implored rather than offered it's words, and often emitted wails that seemed to crack open from the air around it.
I apologize for what may seem like an abstract description of the ethereal presence, but even though it floated to within inches of my face, apparently analyzing me in some way, it was very difficult to make out any features in it's dark visage. And, while I further beg your patience for what may seem like an absurd tale, the creature actually demanded that a bushel of pumpkins be brought to it. Hoagie complied readily, sprinting to the Cove farmlands in order to gather the gourds. Though it sounds silly now, all that I could think to do was try and stall the apparition until Hoagie returned. Since it had revealed that it used to represent the Church, I asked if it was a friend of Cove. It seemed amused at this concept and answered mockingingly in the negative, all while drifting unsteadily in the air.
When Hoagie returned, the phantasm immediately
consumed absorbed the pumpkins in some way, causing them to turn into an incorporeal goo. This must have, in some way, satiated the creature. After feeding, the whirl of shadows congealed into a recognizable human form. In fact, it appeared that an actual person was standing in front of us. The man's clothing was oddly archaic, and the man himself was characterised by an unearthly eminence.
Despite shifting to a corporeal form, the being's voice had changed little, if at all. It still held the hissing, derisive speech of the phantasm. As it strayed from the light of our torches, lurking back into the darkness it had emerged from, it's voice carried a final message.
Drake Reilly, Guardsman Recruit
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