Chapter 386 385. The town of death in the filthy swamp
This was the first time that Hogg and his barbarians boldly approached the swamp town in front of them, but they didn't just discover it.
In fact, two days after Murphy asked Hogg to send scouts into the swamp, Chief Bloodclaw had already received an information report about this town.
It is located in the Filthy Swamp near a quagmire in Transia, right on the road to the Dark Barony. To the east of it is the only mountain pass leading to the feared "forbidden land" deep in the Filthy Swamp. This terrain
Perfectly captures the path from Transia through the swamps to the Dark Mountains.
This is enough to make people wonder if these gnoll warlocks had planned all this.
Moreover, this "Plague Town" is not a small stronghold. Just from the appearance, this gloomy place is one-fifth the size of Cadman City.
Most of the buildings in the entire town are tents made of wood and built on stone ruins, making the place look like a cluster of stilted buildings or bamboo houses, as well as low trees in the swamp that have been twisted with spiritual energy.
The outcropping vines serve as bridges between the buildings, connecting them like a poorly designed three-dimensional swamp maze.
In addition, the Plague Warlocks have cast some curse spells formed by foul spiritual energy here, causing gray-black smoke to surround the town and the sky, forming a layer of "fog of war" that prevents snooping and detection.
The shadows make the town look like a tangled mess of weird and sick things from a distance.
If there is a little player here, I think he will definitely shout "Holy crap," isn't this a dark swamp version of "Booty Bay"?
It’s really hard to imagine how much manpower and material resources the gnolls and poison warlocks spent to build such a building that cannot be easily understood in this ghost place, but considering the confession of the corpse witch Bella, he three years ago
This swamp town already existed when it was awakened.
This means that the gnoll warlocks of the Dark Mountains have been staying in the Foul Swamp for much longer than it seems.
They have been searching for the secret treasure of the King of Bones for many years without making any progress, and they are even desperate enough to venture into the lair of the most dangerous legendary creature in the foul swamp.
From this point of view, these gnoll warlocks are actually hard-working workers who have been given an impossible task by their shameless superiors.
What's worse is that if you don't do your job well in another world, your salary will be deducted, but you can't find the lost treasure here. Even if these jackal warlocks can escape back to the Dark Mountains, they will use the overly "wild" cultural style of the jackals.
Generally speaking, their fate will definitely not be good.
For these reasons, when Hogg approached Plague Town with a few of his trusted barbarians, what he saw was a large number of skeletons and zombies strengthened by evil voodoo guarding the town.
The defense was so tight that Hogg was discovered by a corpse witch before he even got close to the first sentry post.
In the shock of cold psychic energy, hundreds of skeletons rushed out from the hiding place hidden in the dark barrier, and almost instantly surrounded Hogg and his guards.
Facing the cold bone spears and knives all around, as well as the corrosive rays and gleaming bone arrows in the hands of the Corpse Witch in front, the flexible chief did not intend to show off his bravery.
It almost immediately raised its paws and shouted "surrender" in the jackal dialect with the accent of the Dark Mountains. Nash beside him also yelled in the same way.
This guy also kicked the jackal barbarians who were holding weapons and preparing to defend themselves, so that these arrogant guys could understand and quickly drop their weapons to avoid angering these overly powerful and arrogant compatriots in front of them.
As a result, Hogg's "simple" response made the corpse witch on the opposite side unable to deal with it.
He has seen jackals who can surrender.
But this is indeed the first time he has seen such a cowardly guy surrendering. Look at the embarrassing look with his hands raised in the air and his evil eyes.
Hey, are you really a gnoll and not a kobold?
"I surrender! We have no ill intentions! We are loyal subordinates of King Kenbot, and we have brought first-hand battle reports from Transia to the local Plague Warlocks!
you!
Let us pass quickly."
Hogg shouted, his ugly face full of fear and anxiety, vividly portraying the image of a loser who was in trouble and in urgent need of help.
But the corpse witch does not have such rich emotional fluctuations.
It just looked at the jackal in front of it indifferently, and did not let the vicious skeletons surrounding them retreat.
However, the blue spirit fire dancing under its hood means that it is relaying what happened here to the gnoll warlocks in the town.
Seeing that the other party did not attack immediately made Hogg feel relieved, but this also confirmed one of his guesses, that is, the jackals here must be related to Ken Porter.
At least they know each other.
Just calling out Ken Porter's name was equivalent to saying a "safe word" that would prevent him from being attacked.
The Corpse Witch made no move, and the surrounded Hogg did not dare to move to avoid some bad consequences. However, it still looked around and looked around with its eyes, trying to use this method to better understand the defenses of this plague town.
In order to prevent their "identity" from being exposed, Hogg and his lieutenant Nash hid the calculation orb before coming here.
That thing is a psychic item, and it probably won't be able to fool the keen senses of a gnoll warlock.
And if Hogg learned any lesson from the defeat of Kenport, it must be that he must be cautious and cautious in matters involving life.
In the words of Mr. Murphy, this is not cowardice!
This is just a responsibility for one's only one life. Only a fool would choose to gamble on life-critical issues.
During the unbearable wait, Hogg reluctantly memorized the routes of several patrolling skeleton armies in front of the town. Their unique structure allowed them to walk on the ground in the swamp, and each patrol team had as many as fifty people.
Make them strong enough to face any kind of surprise attack.
There were quite a lot of corpse witches in charge, and Hogg also found that the skeleton troops were led by some tall Hades knights wearing black heavy armor and riding skeleton horses.
Just from these parts that are visible to the naked eye, you can see how strong the defense of this swamp town is, and Hogg is sure that the gnoll warlocks must have some tricks that he can't see.
These guys have almost established a "hidden kingdom" in the swamp. They can control corpses, and they are stationed in the filthy swamp that has experienced countless hard battles in history. This means that they have almost endless and perfect manpower that they will not complain about.
use.
"It's not easy to fight."
Hogg was secretly frightened in his heart.
Even though there is no doubt about the warlikeness and bravery of Lord Murphy's warriors, the things in front of them seem to be a bit too difficult even for the immortal warriors.
If you were to direct this surprise attack, what would you do?
Chief Bloodclaw thought about this problem rapidly in his mind, thinking it was a brainstorming session while he was bored and waiting.
Professor Malcolm, who taught it history, said that the brain must be used frequently, and the more it is used, the better it becomes, otherwise even the best initial wisdom will quickly deteriorate due to fatigue.
Hogg is very calm.
But the few barbarian guards beside it were a little impatient.
Especially after the waiting time stretched to twenty minutes, several grumpy guys started whispering and staring at the wooden corpse witch in front of them with unkind eyes, seeming to be considering where to strike.
How can I let this disgusting guy die in pain?
No, that's not right.
Corpse witches cannot die again once they are dead. Even if they are really killed, it is just a boring pastime for them.
While Hogg was wandering around, his adjutant Nash was also observing his surroundings.
However, unlike Hogg, who was thinking arrogantly about how to lead his people to capture this town, Nash was thinking about very realistic issues.
If their true identity is discovered by the gnoll warlocks, which route should they take to escape the fastest? And if that happens, can they really escape?
Although Nash knows that his chief must have some secret relationship with the newly promoted King of Transia, after all, it does not have an intuitive understanding of the combat effectiveness of the players. It does not feel that the vampires of Transia are in this fortress-like swamp in front of them.
What advantage does the town have before it?
"Chief, someone is coming from ahead!"
After waiting for a few more minutes, Nash carefully pushed Hogg to wake him up from his thoughts.
The chief looked up and saw a gnoll guard riding a warg galloping out of the town.
It wears a full set of chain armor that is very luxurious by the standards of a jackal. It also wears a battle helmet on its head to protect its eyes, and carries a majestic beheading sword on its back. It looks like an elite at first glance.
Hogg keenly noticed that the patterns of bones and leather armor decorated on this guy's warg were exactly the same as those on Kenport's warg. He then realized that this guy was also a pioneer from the Bonegnawing Clan. When the guy got close,
Hogg rolled his eyes and decided to take a gamble.
It jumped forward with a roar, startling the mount of the jackal opposite, and the latter subconsciously grabbed the flail in the mount's pocket.
As a result, it then saw the skinny jackal in front of it throwing himself to the ground and screaming at the top of his voice:
"My lord! King Kenbot died miserably. His head is still hanging on the gate tower of Scarlet Castle. Those savage vampires regard it as a majestic trophy.
You must avenge the wise and mighty King Kenbot!"
"You get up first! You shameless guy."
How has the gnoll vanguard captain riding a warg ever seen such a formation? This is not what they do in the Dark Mountains, but such a shameful posture shows that they are Transian cowards!
Sure enough, the rumors in the clan are true!
The great Bone-Gnasher King brought the bloodline of gnolls to all parts of the continent. However, because other gnolls were far away from the Holy Land, they were far from being able to compete with the orthodox gnolls in the Dark Mountains, both physically and mentally.
Look at this shameful gesture!
Look at this weak wail!
Bah, I am simply ashamed to be associated with such guys. Their existence has simply tarnished the name Jackal, which should be full of power.
But, this guy is not without his merits.
The Bone-Gnawing Pioneer Captain stared at Hogg condescendingly, and it thought in its mind:
"He dared to risk being torn apart by the Skeleton Army and came to report the news and ask for help. It seems that this weak guy still has loyalty. That arrogant fool Ken Porter did a good job in Transia, although he was defeated because he underestimated the enemy and was careless.
Even though he died, he was able to train such a loyal servant
I used to underestimate that bastard."
"stand up!"
The vanguard captain scolded in the hoarse tone of a jackal:
"Come in with me. Lord Shredder wants to see you and ask you something. You must report truthfully. Lord Shredder is a close friend of Governor Kenbot. You must tell him all the details of Kenbot's death."
"Oh, okay! I'm ready to report all the stories of that night to Lord Flesh Tearer."
As soon as Hogg heard that he could enter the town, he felt happy.
It hurriedly stood up and followed behind the jackal vanguard captain. The other party allowed it to bring a servant, so the clever Nash was chosen to follow.
Hogg gestured with his eyes to watch and listen as much as possible. Nash nodded hurriedly and shrank his head.
They followed the vanguard captain into the town. After passing through the strange gray-black fog, the true face of Plague Town was completely exposed to Hogg. He was shocked to find that there were two "Mage Towers" hidden in the fog.
It was a very classic human building, as high as five stories, and the outer walls were covered with moss and ivy-like plants, giving the faded tower a sense of the passage of time.
But this kind of thing was definitely not built by gnoll warlocks. In other words, these two towers were originally here. The gnolls found them and built this town with the two abandoned wizard towers as the core.
Hogg looked around and soon discovered that in the tower on the left, the skeleton army was constantly sending corpses wrapped in mud into it, and "newly manufactured" movable skeletons were lining up to walk out of it, while a layer of faint green phosphorus fire
The shimmer of color enveloped the tower, filling it with a cold, weird and ominous power.
"That's the construction tower, a place where warlocks and priests specialize in creating skeleton armies and resurrecting the dead. It's also our military camp here."
The jackal pioneer leading the way noticed the curious eyes of Hogg and Nash. With a sense of joking and cruelty, it threatened the two "bumpkins":
"If you dare to steal anything or violate the rules in the town again, that will be your last destination."
"I don't dare, I don't dare, we Transian bastards don't have the guts."
Hogg replied with a smile, but the vanguard captain just snorted and did not respond. His arrogant attitude was exactly the same as that of Ken Porter.
Chief Bloodclaw felt that the guy in front of him had a way to kill him, but he did not act recklessly and chose to keep this hatred secretly. At the same time, he kept the location of the construction tower in mind and followed him into another place at the urging of the vanguard.
In a tower.
This should be where the gnoll warlocks live.
They decorated the place in a "clan style" and used magic weapons dotted with skulls to divide areas into areas for different gnoll warlocks to use.
This is also the first time Hogg has seen a true "Gnoll Warlock". Their dress is not much different from those of human cultists. They all use full-covering black hoods to cover their whole bodies, leaving only exposed
A gloomy face.
But even if Hogg is not proficient in spiritual energy, he can still feel very obvious spiritual energy fluctuations in these taciturn guys. The most important thing is that most of the spiritual energy used by jackals is classified into the field of "evil magic", resulting in
Long-term use of such wild spells will always leave these warlocks with injuries of one kind or another.
Hogg even saw a guy with only one-third of his face left, and the rest was all mummified.
The dog was still smiling at it, obviously trying to scare it on purpose.
Hogg was not frightened.
But Nash was so frightened that his tail straightened up and his mane exploded, which was quite funny.
There are quite a lot of warlocks here. Hogg climbed all the way to the top. On the way, he saw at least forty gnoll warlocks and twice their number of servant corpse witches. However, on the top floor of this wizard tower, this warlock clan
The area where the leader, Mr. Tear Pork, is located is very spacious.
It is the only one who lives on the huge top floor, and its laboratory, dissecting table, prayer room and monitoring orb are all placed here. Wait! Monitoring orb?
Hogg was shocked!
How do I know the monitoring sphere? I have never seen or even heard of such a thing! What is going on with my brain?
Could it be that I have awakened some extraordinary ability?
By the way, I did seem to be acting weird today. I hadn’t noticed it just now, but now that I recall, my thinking has been particularly active since I entered the swamp. It’s like I lost my old brain and grew a new one that is more useful.
Like a new brain?
"You didn't realize it until now? You are really a slow guy."
Murphy's voice sounded faintly in Hogg's mind in the next second, which almost made him jump up in shock, but he relied on his own mind, which had experienced strong winds and waves, to suppress his fear.
Then I heard Murphy say to it:
"Don't be afraid, this 'Eye of Detection' spell is maintained by Grand Duke Tris personally. As long as the jackal warlock in front of you is not a psychic master, you don't have to worry about being exposed.
Your eyes are my eyes, Hogg.
Now, continue to complete this investigation, my Lord ‘Eye of Insight’, I will reward you!”