The Night of the Second Gouling

The following excerpt comes from the now legendary author and poet Lucan of Fordstar. A documented historic fact, this first hand perspective on the Second Gouling comes during his youth when he served as part of the Outbreak Patrol Guard.

Cira HL 307.

"...back up boys, back up I say." the Sarge confirmed after his conversation with our Division Captain. At less than 3 leagues from the settlement of Dashel, we stood facing at distance a field of more than 500 tainted. Last night's brutal rain storm not only had them idling in the mud, but seemed to have dulled the hoard's sense for nearby kith blood, both ours or the town folk.

After hearing the Sarge's order, my mind wandered to thoughts of the Captain's reason for it. A dwarf of mountain kin decent, to say it was an oddity in the Borderlands that he held a top command in the Outbreak Patrol was a bit of an understatement. Since this brutal explosion of Taint from the haunted mystery that is the ruins of ancient Fel' Thutgar nearly three years ago, none of his troop would question his right to lead. We had quelled more of the outbreak and endured less casualties under Tuthgar Mullwine than any other patrol at the time.

This was finally the end of it, but it was a daunting task! Was the Captain waiting on the back up that would necessary to tackle this amount of the Tainted? Would we have to eventually preform some doomed charge if help did not arrive in time to prevent disaster at Dashel?

As the sun slowly started to set on that post storm evening, the Sarge's answer provided both relief and a new tinkle of fear at the same time. Serna the Tanner spotted it first. A small entourage of two large carts from the north escorted by four on houseback. As they crested the knoll near our position, the nature of Oxen pulling the two carts became apparent to all of us. More bones than skin at this stage, we all realized where these "reinforcements" came from. The dead of Xor' tothos, rightly feared by the living, will not suffer the growth of Taint anymore then we will.

As the the carts finished their approach, their contents where reveled as the lingering fog from the recent storm continued to dissipate (On a side note, I now had the eerie feeling that perhaps that storm was not natural, but a conjuring of one of the Old Tyrants), the contents of the two carts became clear. About a dozen corpses in total sat in the carts, but far from the shambling Zombies they say infest the land of the Lord of Death, these dead radiated a foul malice even from this distance.

The four on horse back where definitely alive. Likely Bonded ones of the Withered himself, the closer they approached the more restless the dead in the cart became and two of the riders in particular seemed to be uttering phrases or spells to keep these strange undead from rising form their benches and charging at us. As they finished their climb and now sat a mere stone throw from my troop, the four riders eyes, and by extension ours as well shifted to the Captain's tent, sitting about 40 meters from where we stood and a little further back.

The captain emerged from the tent, followed by a tall elvish woman with a mop of the most silver colored hair I have ever seen, even to this day. If the four guarding the carts could have been as non descript as any random kith, this woman's aura was too potent for all but the most dull witted to not feel some fear. Without question a favored bonded one of the darkest King, contempt of life would be bad enough. Even worse though was the utter indifference to our very existence that radiated from every fiber of her powerful being. Tools, like the strange dead in the carts. That is all we where, even the Captain.

She nodded once to the carts' escorts. They moved down hill about another 20 meters, then began onloading there shambling cargo. As they directed the strange zombies towards the hoard, their bumbling staggers quickly turned into jolting sprints. The Bonded ones held back now, as their now snarling minions continued to pick up speed while they ran straight for the Tainted hoard. Amazing enough, the hoard seemed to be completely oblivious!

"Vagabond's Luck!" exclaimed the Sarge, "It's going to be like the great Sea Outbreak of the 170's! They're finishing this one with another gouling!" Suddenly, several things became clear. As a member of the Outbreak Patrol Guard, the basics of The Sage's seminal studies on the nature of the tainted had been part of our training. Tainted creatures and Kith will eventually savage any living 'non tainted' thing, but they will remain completely docile in the face of taint itself. I myself had seen the strange site at distance of a tainted kith sitting quietly in a circle of tainted wolves as though they where pups they had raised. It is proven fact that absent anything alive and non tainted, tainted Kith and creatures will simply idle about until they sense something living or they starve to death.

Undeath apparently changes that absolute. Nearly impossible to Taint once Undead, If a tainted being is killed and then introduced to undeath, then the result is what we now call a "Ghoul". They poses the ravenous never ending desire to rend and consume like taint victims, but are not bound by the strange nature that prevents living taint victims from attacking each other. In short, they will savage any living thing in their path, untainted or tainted.

It was during The Great Sea Outbreak that Xor' Tothos first deployed Ghouls as strategy against a tainted hoard. Most historians agree that the outbreak was only finally ended when the Taskmaster physically engaged and struck down the six tainted Great serpents of the Deep, but also note that without the Gouling, Tus' Sagall would not have been able to bring such a definitive end to the outbreak.

"So, a second ghouling..." I whispered more to myself then anyone else. The first four Ghouls slammed into the tainted hoard even as I was finishing this thought. What followed in the next 5 hours was... well it is not just that I struggle to describe it. I wonder if any kith of decent heart would want to hear it.

I have had to personally dispatch more then two dozen tainted souls during the course of this outbreak. I was still saddened in the sense that I could tell there was once a kith like any of us trapped in the shell that now stood before me. The killing blows I struck where not done in satisfaction, but in both urgent need and the realization that I was preforming a mercy as well.

The pitiful grunts and almost sad and confused looks form the tainted below as the ghouls leisurely tore into them however... well, as mentioned I still struggle to this day to describe it, and if you have a good heart, please trust me when I say again you do not want to hear about it.

Five hours... I mentioned that is how long the Ghouls took. I know not what level of intelligence, if any ghouls poses as undead. But after their initial brutal entry into the tainted hoard, it was almost though they realized there would be no push back against their brutal slaughter. At this point it appeared as though they enjoyed "playing with their food". The end result is that after those 5 hours, the entire tainted hoard of over 500 kith and creatures laid shredded and torn on the fields outside of Dashel without one single Ghoul 'Casualty'.

As the evening turned to late night and it was confirmed that the hoard had been completely destroyed, the four riders moved in to reclaim control of the Ghouls. I don't know who gasped louder, me or Serna as two of the ghouls suddenly turned on their so called "masters" and tore one off his mount and ripped both his and the horse's throats out. Just when they where about to pounce on the rest, loud chanting from the other three seemed to calm the ravagers. With barley a glance at their fallen companion they loaded the ghouls back on the carts and pointed themselves north.

The beautiful and terrible Elvish woman nodded once at the Captain and then turned to follow her 'colleagues'. She paused once after about ten paces, looked down the hill towards the carnage and pointed a finger while chanting something truly foul. The corpse of the bonded one the ghouls killed suddenly staggered to its feet and slowly started to follow the carts back to the horror of existence that was Xor' Tothos.

Thus the 4th Great Outbreak of the Borderlands was officially ended by the 2nd Gouling. A victory they say. I am not so sure...