The rooftops beneath their feet groaned with every stride, ancient tiles crackling under the hurried weight of Ludwig's party as they dashed across the uneven slates. From their elevated vantage point, the city of Tulmud lay sprawled in chaos a festering wound split open. Cries pierced the air like arrows loosed in panic, and thick, acrid smoke coiled upward from alleys and burning roofs, forming a choking veil that blurred the lower city into smudges of flame and shadow.
The smog was dense at first, muffling what was truly taking place in the streets below. But as the wind shifted and a sudden draft swept upward from the lower quarter, the nightmare revealed itself in full. Hordes of people surged through the avenues like water spilling from a broken dam, a tide of bodies in every direction, some fleeing, some fighting, but most, killing. Slashing, biting, rending with hands and teeth like beasts turned loose. It was a bloodbath. A madness. And it moved like a plague.
