11/26/39 LC - Duskwood Patrol - Morgan Mawi

Author: PFC Morgan Gromley

Date: 11/26/39 LC

Title: Duskwood Fungal Horrors

Attendance:

Lt Reynard

PFC Richaun Brooks

Banner Corporal Grillem Silverlight

Sergeant Potter

Private Lloria

Sergeant Gromley

Corporal Cooper

Master Sergeant Witherseed

Private Nelki Rustdrop

Recruit Krueger

Recruit Towers

Sergeant Antoein

Corporal Greycliff

We began from the Garrison, where I had handed off a tip-off to Lieutenant Reynard about a letter I had received regarding an anonymous individual begging for help for their son, who was sick, and believed Sir Reynard's experience with dealing with the holy might help him.

We marched through Westfall, which proved uneventful. The highlight of the march through Westfall was a rogue tumbleweed that valiantly crossed the road.

As we marched into Duskwood, we came across a fallen horse and a wagon. There was no rider, and the horse appeared to be extremely desiccated. The cargo of the wagon seemed to be crates of rotten and mealy apples. A grey residue covered all of the fallen equine and the wood of the wagon. As the Lieutenant deliberated on what action to pursue, Sergeant Antoein touched the tip of his silver sword to the horse. Remarkably, the horse's corpse appeared to dehydrate and become the same grey powder when touched.

The Lieutenant instructed us to march on, and to cover our faces with our tabards and masks, that we might not breathe in the strange substance. We carried on until we came to a campsite that appeared to have been hastily abandoned. The tables and chairs were overturned. Another crate of apples lay at the campsite, and there seemed to be a blood trail that carried out into the woods - it stopped short in the underbrush and lead to nowhere.

As we carried on marching, having found nothing further, we heard a strange cry for 'Help!' from a neighboring cow pasture. The cows looked incredibly sick, were frothing with a green mucus from their nostrils and eyes, and I was horrified to find them covered in pustules and what seemed to be a heat rash, at first glance. The Regiment split up, and I believe Antoein discovered another crate of apples in an abandoned shack by the pasture. Private Lloria decided to shoot the cow and missed, as to put it out of its misery. Corporal Greycliff and Sergeant Antoein, upon finding her having only shot it in the shoulder and not finished it off, quickly dispatched the creature with silver bullets. It let out a pathetic low - Sergeant Antoien touched it with his misericorde and evaporated into the same grey powder as the horse before had.

We marched on to the Rotting Orchard. We heard more plainitive cries of, "Help, help!' We came across an abandoned farmstead. There was not a soul in sight. The Regiment broke apart into two groups. They investigated the barn and farmhouse. In the barn, we found a man half-live, barely on the cusp of live, covered in boils and rashes. He was wheezing, said something about an, "Agatha, her apples." He was named Henry Morris, seemed to be a poacher. He soon died, and Lieut. Reynard attempted to give the man some form of grace with holy power - he exploded into grey spores and balefire.

In the house, there was a family of three - the skeletal remains of a farmer, his wife, half-alive, and their dying daughter, both in a coma state. They were covered in fever boils and pustules. When Henry Morris died, they, too, perished - it seemed. They clicked and twitched, despite no breathing.

The Regiment formed a knot formation. Nelki Rustdrop was out of formation, standing at the front of the knot fiercely. A child, in the center of the Orchard - Adam Goodman - was eating one of the apples and had mushrooms growing through his legs. The ground around the great, gnarled tree was covered in the same purple and blue mushrooms. When interrogated, he just laughed, and said that he wasn't calling for help for himself - he was calling for help for us, the Regiment.

He put to death swiftly, and exploded into the same grey mist.

We were then trapped from all sides by hoards of fungal abominations and zombies. Some appeared to be sentient, and begged for help or mercy. They emitted shrieks and clicks between eachother, and seemed to communicate. A massive farmer-abomination assaulted us from the North - he tried to grab for Nelki, and was summarily executed, as was the rest of the hoards.

When the dead fell, strange, pulsating mushrooms grew and bloomed on their bodies.

We prepared to set charges to blow up the farmstead. Recruit Towers, unaware the air was filled with the apparently VERY flammable spores - lit a torch, and the whole Orchard lit up. A crater formed beneaht the houses after we left, or so I spied from my spyglass.

We hurried home and cleaned ourselves well. I pray, for our sakes, there are no spores left.

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