8. Road to Theogonia

The Guardians of the Deep were still distraught, the burden of their choices and what they had seen, weighing hard on them. They considered among themselves whether or not to contact Reeman and how to proceed, but exhaustion got to them.
After a night’s rest they discussed how they might honor their fallen comrade, engraving his name into the statuette he had carved. They also noticed, worriedly, that the dark ring in the sky, that followed the suns, had grown larger.
Despite Nero almost persuading Isabelle to reach out to Reeman, asking for help and how to fix this, admitting their wrongdoing, she hesitated and seemingly hid the ring as she went inside the barracks. This moment of silence was cut short by screams outside.
A burly Half-Orc named Thor Broad Arm came running at the burned remains of Fromel Post. The Guardians were on edge, but as Thor identified himself as a fellow Guardian, a worker at this very post, they calmed down and explained to him what happened with a few changes in the narrative: The dark creature that first escaped the dungeon got no mention, and instead a secondary attack by the barbaric raiders took its place.
While the Guardians of the Deep talked ever more about their proceedings, what might happen to them, what is happening to the world, what this mysterious growing dark ring in the sky is; Thor paid respect to his former allies and friends that fell in Fromel post and started repairing the outer walls. This, however, did more damage than good.
The party agreed on one thing, nothing should ever enter or exit the dungeon below, so Strider and Nero hid the staircase going down, as Isabelle talked to Thor about their plans, distracting him. The Guardians of the Deep decided to leave this post behind, as it might still be dangerous to stay due to both Morgus approaching and the dungeon.
They decided to head to Theogonia, a city known for its wealth of knowledge, to try and find answers to whatever is afflicting the world and them. Thor, knowing he couldn’t properly defend the entire post by himself, joined the group, travelling with them.
On the road they had one day of peace and quiet, encountering no one, not even traders. The next day went smoothly until sunset, as they found the sight of multiple carts dragged off the road. Realizing that this would require creatures of immense strength, they decided not to stick around to find out what caused this.
However, not much further up ahead the party found an even more worrying display. Multiple horse corpses laid torn asunder, blocking the road. Framing this barricade were 4 tree trunks, stuck into the earth, all adorned with a corpse’s upper body. The remains were hung up by one nail each, driven through both hands above their head, the ears mysteriously missing once more. Most disturbing however, was the message carved into the torsos, tying this to the darkness as well, promising our gods to be dead and darkness to rise.