The whole family was out and about doing other work in the farm, nobody expected that something like this would happen when it was just a simple job of closing down a dried up well.
But most importantly this information significantly reduced the possibility of it being done by another member of the family. With many witnesses seeing the pair go down and into the well willingly.
It seems that the problem occurred after they went into the well, which only reinforced the fact that they have to go in to have a look and investigate.
There was a make-shift ladder made up of rope that was used by the pair to go down into the well. From up here the inside of the well just looked like a regular cave.
But it was too dark to tell even in daytime visibility was clear only directly under the opening of the well.
"Alright you guys can go back into the house, we're going to take care of things here." Sam ordered the rest of the family to go back.
Aldrich nodded to himself, these people were civilians their safety must be absolutely not threatened under their watch.
"Okay, first of all does anybody want to use the bathroom?" Sam asked with a smile.
Everyone shook their heads, Sam and Liam both shared a laugh apparently at an inside joke.
"No really, if anyone wants to go then go the house and tell someone I'm sure they will accommodate us." Sam continued.
"Check up on your equipment, make sure that everything is in the right place. Fasten your lanterns properly, we will go in a circular formation wherein everyone will watch out for everyone's back."
Liam instructed and everyone did as he said. After that Sam gathered the group and announced, "listen up, this is the most important matter when going on a quest."
The newbies all payed attention at these words.
"Remember to follow orders at any cost. The leader's words in an adventuring party are absolute. During the quest hold in any questions that you might have and obey orders."
Aldrich and the rest nodded in understanding. This was not the first time that Aldrich heard that, it was among the many things he learned about adventurers in the last month.
Only the scout of the party could counter the leader, which in this case was Liam. In that case it would come to a vote. Obviously this could only happen outside of battle.
"I'll go in first and Liam will be last, as soon as you get down get in the formation we agreed upon just now."
Unexpectedly Sam volunteered to go down first which came as a slight surprise for Aldrich. Nonetheless he followed along with the others, he was third in line.
The ladder was sturdy and tough, while the air got damp and moist as he went down step by step. His feet touched the ground at last and he followed the others into the formation.
The ground was completely dry, the ceiling of the inner cave was much higher than he was first lead to believe when looking in from above.
After Liam joined the rest of the group they started advancing deeper and quicker than one would expect the light of the sun that seeped from the opening no longer provided enough light.
The moss lanterns lit up on of their own accord, five lanterns provided decent lighting and Liam crouched down and started examining the ground looking for any tracks and soon he found some.
Aldrich noticed them too, although they were almost entirely gone some traces looked like human boots. But it was a wild guess at this point since three weeks had passed.
"This confirms the pair must have headed deeper in the well," Liam said.
The group looked at where the footsteps were headed and felt dumbfounded that the well was bigger than they initially thought. It extended further in.
The party maintained the formation and Liam continued to stop to search every now and then, finally they were struck by a terrible smell. It reminded Aldrich of the smell of rotten fish.
They looked on and followed the smell, a few minutes later they came upon the source.
"Holy Altunan!" Kate exclaimed.
Even Aldrich frowned, it was the sight of a half-rotten human corpse, the body looked blue and was bloated, dark disgusting liquid leaked out of the wounds all over the body.
The wounds were everywhere and festered with some kind of fungus, the face was missing an eye, the tongue looked like it was pulled out forcefully and it dangled lifelessly.
It was a horrific sight, the members of the group were definitely appalled but to their credit they remained mostly composed. Sam gestured for everyone to remain silent.
Liam examined the corpse and nodded, "I don't know which one of them this was but at least we found one."
Aldrich sighed, unfortunately no miracles saved the day. But at least they got what they were here for so he remind everyone not to dwell on their feelings here.
"Come on lets get out of here."
Sam gave him a sharp look, "where are you going? Did I say that we were retreating?"
"Eh? No, but we did what we came here to do so I thought—"
"That's right you thought. I give the shots here, kid."
"But yesterday you said—" before Aldrich could say anything he was cut off. Again.
"That was yesterday. The situation has clearly changed. We still need to find one more body to be able to consider the quest a success."
Aldrich narrowed his eyes but otherwise remained silent. The rest of the group looked at Sam in surprise at his outburst.
Sam coughed, "I didn't mean to snap at you like that, it's just that you guys need to follow orders don't do ANYTHING without my say so.
Yesterday I said we the situation is different for every quest and in this quest we need to find the other body or we need to find out whatever caused this to happen."
"But, what if that thing finds us first?" Kip asked .
Sam nodded, "that could happen and in that case we need to eliminate it."
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