The Bodies of the Red Fields

In the red fields of Eskana there stands a lonely house. In the red fields of Eskana there starts a bright blue flame. In the red fields of Eskana a man walks towards his prey…

There has always been a suspicion about what happens in the winter-scape of Eskana but after people started disappearing from the more remote parts of the nation tensions flared. When Eskana was still independent and ruled by the Royal Family there were a number of missing people cases. Before being exposed to the ‘purer’ form of magic that is classified by Typhon Council there was an older more powerful archaic form of magic, the kind that turns a man into a beast.
The Eskanan winters are the harshest winters one could face, during these many become desperate and give in to their primal desires. One such case is that of the ‘Bodies of the Red Fields’. Three members Eskanan Guard were called to a remote manor house where one of the sons had just returned, after trading in Obrar. After inspecting the grounds and finding sign of struggles and scratched furniture they chose to search the surrounding area for any clues as to if it was broken into or not. They eventually stumbled across a cave mouth, a testimonial from one of the officers follows:

Summary

From the outside it looked fine. But as we got closer I remember the stench catching in my throat. I wanted to gag and I was still about twenty-feet away. It reeked of piss and feces, as if there were three-million rotting rats around you. The three of us began vomiting uncontrollably. Eventually we found some herbs to stuff under our scarves and we could bear to go inside. It was disgusting. I almost vomited again if I had not imagined how bad the stench inside would have been. Blood and feces were smeared across the walls in some kind of attempt to call upon magical forces. As we ventured further in there seemed to be a make-shift bed with some red candles nearby. We eventually found the source of the smell. At the very back of the cave there was a pile of gore. Surrounding it were more red candles. After the Corvus Brigade took the bodies away we had a larger force to inspect the cave. We found a journal that seemed to be written in blood and in a language that we could not decipher. After the Corvus Brigade told us the pile of gore had roughly thirty bodies that seemed to be half eaten or at least cut up, they gave us statistics for the bodies and had the son check to see if he could identify the bodies, he told us that they were all from that manor.

Historical Basis

The only officially released facts were that of the officer's statment and the offical autopsies of all the people in the manor. The owner of the manor was a wealthy noble who had made many enemies over the years was a cousin to the at the time heir to the throne of Kavhore. Markus Koski along with the rest of his family was in fact found in the cave near the manor house and the work of fiction stays true to these details.

Variations & Mutation

The most popular belief of who or what was behind these killings is that a lycanthrope often depicted as a blood-red-haired werewolf was behind these savage killings known as the Beast of the Red Fields. Another is that it was a man driven insane by having to shelter for so long in the cave from the harsh winter. Perhaps the strangest is that his family was in fact a suicide cult that used that site for an ancient ritual to form a pact with some being, although this explanation is not very widely believed.
The only person ever taken into official police custody was the son of the family, he was questioned, they found nothing in his blood to prove he was a lycanthrope or had killed his family and was let go without being charged.

Cultural Reception

The most interesting thing about this case however, is not the bodies but the red candles. Another police report by the Eskanan Guard detail them investigating a home in Iskivo, where they found a ‘ritual site’ with a body in with it’s pores filled with strange chrysalis of moths surrounded by a hundred-one red candles. This has caused many to believe that red candles invoke terrible things and to light one is to let evil flow through you.
This story lead to many old Eskanans to fear lycanthropes and more moved closer to the shores as a superstition was that a lycanthrope could not swim.

In Literature

Both of these cases have been turned into works of literature, one named ‘A Hundred And One Candles’ and ‘The Beast of the Red Fields’ both of these add an ending to the story. This has led to the Author of both becoming very popular and asking The Eskanan Guard to release more strange and disturbing cases although he is yet to have clearance from The High Judges.
Both books were written by Eilr Haavisto, who rose to fame after writing addaptaions of the story. She chose for 'The Beast Of The Red Fields' to end with Captain Aho of the Eskanan Constabulary discovering a real lycanthrope and hunting it down. Captain Aho returned in 'A Hundred And One Candles' the ending of this story relates to the first one, with Aho discovering a cult of Haemomancers, using blood magic to create abominations.

In Art

This story has become ingrained in the folk lore of Eskana. Parents tell their children to not venture into the forest lest the werewolves who live in there eat them. A tapestry of 'The Beast' hangs in the High Judge's chambers.

So if you are ever in the Red Fields of Eskana and hear heavy footsteps behind you, hope to any god that you don’t then see a flash of blood-red fur.