Adventure of Zentno 1

The mercenaries remain spread along the riverbank, scanning reeds, bridge stones, and the dark water. Captain Veyra steps beneath the empty gallows.

The condemned prisoner's satchel hangs from the frame's support. Veyra cuts it free, opens the flap, and finds a blood-marked company seal beside an unfamiliar letter.

She turns the seal in her gloved fingers, then studies the letter without breaking its fold. A gust stirs the parchment and carries river mist beneath the gallows.

Near the stacked bridge stones, mud bears a fresh interruption beside the earlier fallen stone. Veyra notices it, and her gaze settles on the broken shadows.

Zentno watches Captain Veyra’s gloved hand tighten around the sealed letter. Her eyes keep returning to the broken shadows, but the seal has unsettled her more than the noise.

Beneath the gallows, Zentno gathers the cold current of death through the mud and timber. The empty space below the frame darkens as his spell takes hold.

The condemned prisoner rises with a sudden, unnatural jerk. The rope falls slack, and the corpse turns toward the nearest mercenary, driven by Zentno’s command.

The resurrected prisoner lunges into the mercenary line, forcing two soldiers apart and sending their spears clattering into the mud. Panic ripples across the riverbank.

Zentno slips from the bridge stones as the mercenaries recoil. He crosses the churned mud in a blur, reaching for the sealed letter in Veyra’s tightening hand.

His fingers catch the parchment, but Veyra twists away. The seal holds fast, and the letter tears at its edge before she jerks it back against her chest.

The resurrected prisoner crashes through the mercenary line. In the spreading panic, several people fall beneath its grasp, and those victims soon rise again as shambling dead.

The crowd breaks in every direction, abandoning the bridge approach. Mercenaries form a tightening ring around Veyra, while newly risen corpses clog the only clear route toward the reeds.

Zentno has no letter, and the torn edge remains in Veyra’s grasp. The riverbank is now divided by fleeing civilians, armed soldiers, and a growing undead knot.

Zentno vanishes into the fleeing crowd, using bodies and cloaks as cover. His hand closes around Veyra’s wrist, and the sealed letter tears free into his grasp.

Veyra stumbles against her guards as Zentno slips between them. The crowd surges toward the reeds, carrying him away from the gallows and the tightening mercenary ring.

The resurrected prisoner obeys Zentno’s silent command. It turns on the nearest living figures, and the riverbank erupts into screams, scattered footsteps, and collapsing bodies.

The dead rise among the fleeing crowd, their movements clumsy but immediate. Panic breaks the mercenary formation, leaving Veyra shouting orders no one can safely follow.

Zentno reaches the reeds with the sealed letter hidden beneath his coat. Behind him, the undead knot spreads through the riverbank while the wind swallows his passage.

In the shelter of the reeds, Zentno breaks the blood-marked seal. The parchment unfolds, its ink blurred in places by river mist and hurried handling.

The letter names Captain Veyra’s company as the architect of the theft, declaring the condemned prisoner an unwilling courier. It orders the seal delivered to a hidden claimant beneath the eastern bridge.

Zentno turns from the letter toward the bank and sends his will through the dead. The risen figures halt, then pivot together toward Captain Veyra.

The zombies surge through the broken mercenary line, driving soldiers aside and forcing Veyra back beneath the gallows. Her guards close around her, but the formation buckles.