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Morning comes and the old cock sounds his morning cockerel. You wash your face in the plain wooden basin and put on your clothes. You take the dagger that marks you as a grown man and put it on your waist, feeling its weight in your hand. The day may come soon when you will use it… You cast a glance to the gun leaning on the wall near your bed and you let out a deep sigh.
Your mother has already woken hours before you and prepared a travelling bag for you. Bread, dried meats and a waterskin are just a few of the things packed there. Countless other knick-knacks and utilities are packed in the way only a mother can pack, overprepared some would even say. She kisses you on your forehead and utters a small prayer, before you sling the pack over your shoulder and balance the gun on the other.
Dušan and Mirko wait for you in front of your house. Dušan smokes a long pipe, great white clouds billowing from under his great white moustache. A mighty sabre hangs from his pipe, while some flintlock pistols are tucked in a special made pouch on his belly. Mirko carries a great shepherd’s axe over his shoulders, like one would carry a water pail. They greet you, banter about your impressive dance about Milica and then you start your journey, to the town of Uzgor.
Soon, Dušan acquaints you with the problem you were summoned to deal with:
>A graveyard has become a place of greater fear than usual. A hideous, gangly creature stalks the tombstones, releasing an unholy scream, freezing goodfolk in their place. The beast has been rummaging through the graves and disrupting the dead, but a gravedigger has been recently attacked and ripped into. Something must be done before the ghoul causes any further damage. [The Drekavac]
>A vile creature has been slaughtering many of the poultry and stock of the nearby houses. What was first attributed to a wily wolf, soon became the deed of a vile dog-headed creature with one baleful eye. The stock was bad enough, but the beast has broken into some houses and rummaged through jewellery and gold, even slaughtering a merchant to rob him of his wealth. [The Psoglav]
>A hag-like creatures, akin to some goblin, has been jumping on the backs of unsuspecting travellers, in the outskirts of the city. While such beasts often prove more annoying than serious, this one has become vicious and enlarged, ripping out the throat of a young lady and supping on her life blood. It could grow into something fearsome should it be left to grow. [The Karakondžula]
