Expedition Graveyard

You recognize this place. It's one of the few recorded areas of this dimension. Someday, an Explorer stumbled upon a massive gravesite, with over a hundred bodies, all bearing the gear of the I.D.E.A. despite none of them being registered agents. The Explorer took the time to give them a proper burial, digging all the tombs by himself before returning. The headquarters decided to send a team to recover the bodies and study them, but they never managed to find the place again. Since then, only Explorers with no means to transport that many corpses came upon the graves, and this time is your turn.

So you thought, but as you approach the neatly arranged graveyard, you can't shake a feeling of uneasiness. The first grave stops you dead in your tracks. It is completely open, the earth dug out in a perfect rectangle. No remains are in sight, the only trace of a body ever being in the hole is a set of clawing marks in the side of the grave, five-fingered marks left by someone, or something, desperate to get out of the pit.

There is no dirt, no tool around, only the makeshift tombstone with hastily carved names, and footprints that can't possibly be yours. This grave is just one among many, all emptied in the same way. You look feverishly around you, but the misty woods are silent. On the other side of the provisional cemetery, you finally hear something. Footsteps. A low growl. Figures shifting at the edge of the fog, wandering aimlessly only a dozen meters away. You don't count them. You don't have to. You know what they are, who they are. You have questions, but don't wish for them to be answered.