Gressel left the hut of elders and immediately went among his hunters that were at a tavern made from twigs and grass. He then found the five that were the greatest hunters among the clan; they were easy to find as they were covered head to toe in bug armor. This was due to the traditions of the clan, as it was the hunters duty to hunt any insect that was a threat to special grass grown by the farmers or to their fellow grass pixies.
On the occasion they had to hunt a particular vicious specimen of insect that was vicious for its kind or an insect that had become magical, they would take the kill and turn it into a piece of armor. Which meant if you were looking at a hunter of the clan with layers of armor, you were looking at one of the most dangerous warriors the clan had.
So he of course went to Grokal, the clan's greatest hunter, who was covered in mismatched armor from different trophies due to the fact his armor had gotten damaged by different greater insects he had hunted over the years, causing him to have to replace parts of his armor. Though ironically enough, Grokal had a habit of replacing the damaged bits of his armor with whatever viscous insect had done said damage, causing his armor to be constantly improved bit by bit.
Gressel sat down across from Grokal, who was having a drink. "Grokal, I'm in need of your services and that of four of your compatriots." Gressel stated simply getting to the heart of the matter rather quickly. Grokal drank the rest of his drink and waved for Gressel to get on with whatever he wanted him to do, not insulted by Gressel's rudeness in the least.
"As you have no doubt noticed, we have new neighbors to the north." Gressel stated, to which Grokal nodded, and seeing his confirmation, Gressel continued. "Well, I and the other elders have discussed the new neighbor and decided the best way forward is for the great hunters to scout out the neighbors and report back. So will you do it?" Gressel asked and went unsaid was the potential life-ending danger such a task held.
" Yes." Grokal stated simply before getting up from the table and walking out from the tavern before Gressel could try and set up some matter of payment for the task. Gressel tried to chase after him, but once he was outside the tavern, he found that Grokal was long gone.
"I suppose I will have to figure out a reward for when he comes back." Gressel said to himself left unsaid was if Grokal and whoever he brought with him didn't come back. Gressel went on back to the elders hut to inform the sending off of Grokal to investigate the dark presence to the north of their clan's home.
Grokal, meanwhile, set about gathering four of his hunting buddies for the scouting ahead. He first gathered the shorter twins Thrass and Blass, then the giant of pixies Thruxss, and finally the elder hunter Grast. It took awhile to get together the four as the twins were hiding from the retalion for a prank. The big man was lazing around someplace, and finally Grast was telling some poor bastard the same story for a fifth time.
But Grokal found them all and managed to get them back to the tavern to discuss what he had agreed to do and that he was bringing them along for his scouting mission. None of them disagreed long, having learned to not disagree with the greatest hunter among their clan and that he would lead them through safe and sound like he always had.
So with no real information but a location to go off on, the small scouting party under Grokal got out of the tavern and made their way north. They made decent time only to have to stop a few times to kill a few insects that would turn into problems later if left alone. So eventually, on the morning of the next day, they reached the wall of black smog that made up their new northern neighbor's border.
Grokal and fellow hunters stopped and stared for a long moment at the constant shifting dark cloud mass. "This isn't right; we should head back." Thruxss the giant of grass pixies said, clearly disturbed by the necrotic magic on clear display. Grokal put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. Thruxss focused on that a moment before visibly calming down. "No, I'm good. I can do this." Thruxss stated simply having regained his calm, causing Grokal to take his arm off his shoulder and silence to decline once more.
The silence was eventually broken by Grokal as he tried to analyze the dark smog wall with his years of hunting experience. "We need to see if this wall circles whatever is going on inside entirely." Grokal stated simply before walking to the right, the other falling in behind him. It took them a good fifteen minutes before they got back to where they started confirming the black smog wall does cover up whatever is inside entirely.
"Well, it seems the only way to know the truth of what's in there is through, so prepare to breach." Grokal said to which everyone got in formation with Thruxss at the center with the twins to his left and right with both Grokal and Grast behind Thruxss. Once everyone was ready and set to go, Grokal gave the word. " Charge!" Grokal shouted out, causing the arrow formation to move into the black smog wall, bursting out onto the other side in short order as it turned out the wall wasn't that thick.
The five experienced hunters looked around at the new world they found themselves in. They stared in horror at what they could see as the pixies of the grass who lived in tune with the grass meadows of the forest. To them, the simple plant called grass was a major pillar in all their lives, so to see it twisted in such a manor was shocking to say the least.
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They could see a skull leaking more of the foul, dark smog in twin rivers from its empty eye sockets. They could see the black smog as it tainted the land, twisting it to the skull's dark design. They could feel the power of death in the air as it tried to choke out the life in their lungs.
To make matters even worse, it had created elements, a rare and sacred thing in the fairy woods, but had created a twisted version of them. The dark skull probably had created the first grass elementals in history, but in doing so, it had perverted the part of nature the pixies were in charge of, and so the very existence of such creatures insulted the very being of any grass pixies who saw them.
Though from the way the creatures charged Grokal's scouting party, the feeling was mutual. The group, seeing the strange centiped-like creature with thousands of grass spears covering their tops heading towards them, knew they had to move. So they headed towards the first place that would boost their odds of survival a section of grass that had survived in this dark land but had become painted black in doing so.
The group charged, running as fast as they could towards the black grass, only able to stay ahead of the three creatures chasing them because of the dead grass covering the land, which still let them use their ability. That ability being GRASSWALK, which boosts their speed on grassy terrain, they made it to the safety of the black grass with the strange centiped-like creatures not following instead they began circling.
The five men gathered in a circle in the center of the patch of black grass to figure out what to do next. "I think we forgot that we are scouts, not hunters, young ones." Grast stated simply, causing the twins and Thrusxx to just stare at him, wondering what he was on about while Grokal got it.
"We forgot our mission and let our habits rule us." Grokal stated, causing the twins to and Thrusxx to turn to him now, while grast just nodded. The other three now realized there was something they weren't getting. So Grokal decided to explain it to them. "We are scouts, not hunters, on this mission. The moment we saw the skull fortress and the other horrors, we should have gone back out the wall of black smog, but our habits as hunters to never turn out back to a predator, which was what those centipedes were when they were chasing us, were. So instead of escaping, we were deeper into enemy territory." Grokal stated simply.
Now that the other three were brought up to speed on the group's blunder, they weren't sure what to do about it. Though luckily for them, experience had their answer. "Don't worry, youngsters, I can get something out of this dark grass that should give us a head start against those nasty outside." Grast stated with enthusiasm before he immediately began to use GRASS SHAPE, an ability that allows the grass pixies to reshape grass to their will on the black grass, slowly building some contraption.
"While he is doing that, the rest of us will watch the besties that are circling us." Grokal said to the other three; each of them then took a different direction and took a look position to watch the undead grass elements that circled their position. For a while nothing happened, just the constant circling of the beast, causing the hunters to wonder what exactly they were waiting for, as it would be hard for then to get to them; it wouldn't be impossible.
That's when Thrusxx noticed the skull leaking constant dark smog was starting to direct some of that smog their way. "Guys, we got creepy dark smog heading out way, and I don't think we'll get any better here when it gets here." Thruxss said to others, bringing attention to the dark flood of smog heading straight for them.
Luckily Grast was ready with his little creation, which was an amazing show of skill as the black grass resisted the pixies GRASS SHAPE as it was filled with necrotic power. So the fact he created anything so quickly showed his experience and skill at the art of GRASS SHAPING. As it would turn out, Grast creation out of the dark leaves would be a spring catapult.
"We will use this to launch us to get a head start on those horrible beasts and then have our GRASSWALK carry us the rest of the way across the wall of smog." Grast said with a happy smile, rather proud of the fact he had created a spring-loaded catapult with such stubborn material.
The others might have objected to the idea of being thrown by catapult, but the dark wave of smog heading their way quickly shut down any such objections. Soon they were all launching themselves one by one through the air and rolling as they hit the ground to minimize the damage as they made a break for the skull kingdom's little border.
By some miracle of the fairy gods and the nature spirits, they were able to get safely through the smog barrier. Though this was probably due to the undead elementals not expecting them to suddenly start flying through the sky. Once they were clear of the smog border, they all took a moment to catch their breath.
Once everyone got their breath back, Grokal got up and spoke. "Time to get moving men." He stated it simply to the others disbelief who wanted more time to rest. "Our clan needs to know what's going on, and they need to know sooner rather than later." Grokal stated to the others who couldn't disagree so got up as well and so began the journey back to tell the elders of the horrors they had seen.
