The City of Kyndale.

Halthas spoke. "The paladin will stay his hammer. These are not his lands."
Doren, the paladin, grunted, sitting back down with an infuriated sneer.

Kyrian grunted. "We have heard rumors of the dead yeah. But do you actually have any leads?"
The rest of the troupe spaced out around the table, in their respective pairs, save for Vanessë and Kyrian.

Halthas looked at Kyrian. "Doren's partner, another warrior of the Faendarian church, set out here during the summer months in search of this evil. He has not been seen since. The report that has been given attributes to a necromancer, though I have to be truthful, we aren't entirely sure. It could just be a ghost chase. But paladins are well trained beings, some of the mightiest in the kingdoms. And it was warm, during the summer months. If he fell, it had to have been something great and evil."

Kyrian grunted. "Anyone can fall. Doesn't matter what your title is or anything. Just depends on your luck and the statistics of the fight...anyway. We all have our weapon skills. We'll help....we suppose."
There was random scoffing and grunting throughout the troupe.

Halthas nodded. "I understand that. Regardless, such a capable paladin falling in the Northlands, with rumors of the dead walking and confirmed reports of exhumed graves...that points solidly at the...undead."
"They will pay for Nicholas's death. You can guarantee that." Doren kept his eyes, which were as light a blue as the skies on a cloudless day, fixed on the Forest Elf.

Vanessë huffed "Would you take your eyes off of me? I dislike being stared at."
Kyrian looked over, then back to Halthas "Are you people even ready to travel in the winter? We have our supplies. We travel a lot. We can't afford to share."

"We are men of Northwatch. We are well prepared." Halthas looked at the other men, who nodded. Doren nodded as well.

Kyrian nodded. "When are you planning to leave? We are done with our acts here, so we can leave whenever."

Halthas looked around at the men again. "These men rarely rest. They have been out beyond the edges of our world far too often, and have seen what the eyes of the innocents cannot. The greatest evils still follow us into our dreams. We do not sleep, especially on such dark nights."

Kyrian raised an eyebrow "Rarely rest? Then you should. Poorly rested men is the thing that is going to kill all of us..well. Really just you people. Meh. Whatever. We can leave whenever you are ready."

One of the men spoke. "We were not well-rested when we slew Vancator. It is we who walk in the night while others sleep warmly in their beds." He was clearly older, having had solid black, short hair and a bearded face. His eyes were a deep brown, as if an ocean of mud. A long and jagged scar ran down from below his left eye across his cheek, smaller little identical marks running off from the side, as if he were hit by the imprint of a spine.

Vanessë spoke softly again, "Do not base your actions on the past. That will lead to your deaths. Every battle is different."

The man nods. "Indeed. I go on every quest here expecting to die, and I know that my fate will be a violent one. We are prepared for this end."

Kyrian huffed, "See, I would rather keep my family and myself alive. So...we're gonna be a bit more careful."

Halthas nodded. "We can guarantee nothing, but we will do our best to end this threat and come home alive. You must be prepared, however, if you are venturing forth into the darkness. We cannot guarantee your survival, as with anything. I will not lie to you."
The paladin, Doren, looked to the group. "Only the Gods will decide if you last another day above the underworld."
One of the men interjected. "No, Doren, their wit and skill shall determine that. What have the gods done?"

Kyrian scowled, "See, none of us here believe in Gods. We believe in luck, skill, and statistics. Any of us could die everyday. We have all accepted it."
The troupe nodded.

The paladin, Doren, rose in a fury. "How dare you reject the Gods, you heathens? Infidels!"
Halthas glared up at Doren. "Sit down, paladin, or by the Gods, King Edvar will see you and yours removed from Northwatch forever. Perhaps we prefer the elves and dwarves to your overzealous, ranting, celibate priests, hmm?" The men other men laughed.
The paladin scowled, slowly sinking back down into his chair. His armor ringed out with a series of metallic clanks whenever he did so much as move a finger.

The troupe seemed to be trying to hold back snickers. Kyrian silenced them with a glare, clearly laughing on the inside himself.
"Are we gonna sit here all day talking about random things or are we gonna move?"

Halthas nodded. He stood, dressed in dark leather armor with a black cloak, a sword at his side that was covered in a scabbard of an old leather, an appearance nearly identical to that of the other men with him, all save Doren. He turned towards the door. "Come on, let's go." The others followed him out of the inn, and through the darkened streets of Kyndale, up until the city gates.

The troupe, followed. They stopped however to gather up the rest of their things and dress in their armor. All of them were in shades of dark blue, to black or gray. Most of them had daggers, but Emerith carried a bow made out of dark wood with leaf and vine engravings on it.

The group stood directly at the exit of the city, looking out over a cleared white plane that led out for several leagues until a treeline. Protruding up from behind the dense evergreen forests, a mountain chain ran on in both directions for as far as the eye could see, the great geological features rising in elevation as they layered further behind the front ones. Covered in few trees, these mountains were of a gray white, splattered upon by snow and, further up the way, ice.
"Three moons out tonight," said one of the men in his northern accent.
The first moon in the sky was a nearly blinding white, sitting the largest. Shadowed behind it was a celestial body of a slightly darker hue, a massive crater easily visible covering half of its revealed surface. The third sat out away on its own, naked as though a scantily dressed goddess, its surface an eerie blue. In the sky also sat a massive planet shining many light years away, glowing a deep and cosmic purple, two rings running in opposite diagonals that criss-crossed near the top and bottom of the planetary body.
The heavens, nay obscured this far north of most civilization, brilliantly gleamed in their fullest glory. Billions of stars, some distant and others near, brought their light down upon the world, reflecting faintly upon the snow. Other bodies, milky spirals of galactic energy, gazed down upon this single world, and perhaps a trillion others like it. It was the deepest, the fullest window into something infinitely greater than an individual. All things seemed to sit above beneath the night sky.

"Two Gods, one Goddess. Luna must be feeling a whore tonight." The men laughed, while the paladin clenched his fist in a silent rage.

Vanessë quietly murmured, "The skies are beautiful tonight."
"Aye," agreed Arden.
"Perhaps they will show us the way," Sky said quietly.

Another one spoke. "Or perhaps she's lonely. Maybe she's saddened by the rest of this world."

"The taint of undeath is within that forest. I can tell." The paladin spoke. Easily enough, the entire area around was a forest.
"Astute observation." One of the men began to march forward towards the treeline. Halthas and the rest of the group followed.