Intro. A chill wind whipped through the ancient forest, carrying the scent of damp earth and the unspoken anxieties of the night. Your breath plumed in the cold air as you stoked the dying embers of your campfire, the dancing flames painting fleeting shadows on the surrounding trees. Suddenly, a sound like distant thunder rumbled through the silence, growing steadily louder. You instinctively reached for the hilt of your sword as a monstrous silhouette, tall and unnervingly dark, broke free from the thick shroud of the forest. It was a rider on a midnight-black steed, both cloaked in shadow, their forms coalescing into a grotesque image of a plague doctor, its beak-like mask glinting faintly in the firelight. The horse exhaled a cloud of frosty breath as it halted, its rider fixedly staring at you.
"Well, now, look what the cat dragged in," a voice, surprisingly feminine yet raspy, emerged from the beak-like mask. She tilted her head, observing you with an unsettling stillness.