Denizen's Curse

(Well that could be in my defense or it could mean I didn't describe the room clearly enough lol. Which is a weakness in my writing I am aware of. )

Amrille nodded at Delvet after the signs. She readied her crossbow. She waited a short moment before following Delvet quietly through the door. Staying back a bit and aiming at the zombie.

Delvet reached the zombie without it noticing. Delvet's slash was a clean hit. The Zombie's arm was cut off and there was now a large gash in it's side. It stumbled back, slowly turning towards Delvet with a groan.

Then a bolt from Amrille hit it in the shoulder. It staggered back even more not getting a chance to strike back.

Another sound came from behind one of the bookcases. This time it sounded like slow footsteps.

Delvet CS

(knowing is half the battle)

Delvet heard the footsteps that came from behind one of the bookshelves but did not allow it to distract it from the task at hand. He brought his blade down on to the zombie with an overhand swung, hoping to cut its head. Only once he could guarantee it was finished off would the swordsman divert his attention to the new potential threat.

Delvet's blade sliced through the zombie's throat. Vile blood squirted out, Delvet managed to avoid it splashing on him. The cut hadn't gone all the way through and the head still hung on.

A bolt from Amrille's bow whooshed by Delvet and landed in the Zombie's eye socket. The impact was hard enough to rend the zombie's remaining rotten neck flesh. It's head fell to the floor with a squishy thud. It's body soon followed.

Amrille then spun towards the bookcase and trained her crossbow on whatever was behind it.

It wasn't long before the second zombie came into view. It groaned and shuffled towards Delvet. As it got closer it's glasses fell from it's face. The Zombie didn't notice and the glasses were crushed under it's next footstep.



Delvet CS

As Delvet waits for the Zombie to make a move Amrille shoots two bolts at it in quick succession. One hits it in the shoulder, the other lands in it's chest.

The zombie stumbles back from this. Delvet sees this as the opening he's waiting for. He strikes with his blade. Leaving a large gash in it's stomache and cutting off one of it's arms. This does not stop the zombie however and suddenly it's teeth sink into Delvet's shoulder.

Delvet manages to push the zombie off himself. Then the pain hits. To Delvet's horror it's a burning pain. He stumbles back into a bookcase, books fall to the floor around him. He suddenly feels very weak.

"Delvet!" Amrille shouts and shoots another bolt into the zombie. It falls to it's knees before landing face first down on the ground. It stops moving.

She runs over to Delvet to check on him.

Delvet can feel that one more hit will be too much for him to take. Luckily the room is now quiet. Aside from the pounding of his heart.


Delvet CS

Delvet saw that the zombie was no longer moving and it's rancid blood was spreading in a pool around it. However it's head was still attached.

"There better be one. We managed to get this far if we die here.." She shakes her head. "Sorry, I shouldn't think like that. Let's get you back to Adara, she can at least stitch up that wound."

She grabs Delvet by his good shoulder and starts to help him walk back to the main hall. That's when something catches her eye. "Hold on." She says as she bends down to pick up a piece of paper. "It's a map, we can use this. Let's see.." She scans over the map.



"Hmm, no apothecary. But this is just the first floor. Should we focus on the second floor then? Or do you think we can find something in the kitchen?" Amrille asks as she shows the map to Delvet.

Delvet CS

Delvet swiftly severed the zombie's head. It wouldn't be getting back up ever.

Amrille nodded. "First floor it is then."

She pushed open the door and helped Delvet get into the main hall. Adara immediately runs over to the two of them. "What the fuck happened?! You were gone for maybe five minutes and you come back like this?"

"Zombies in the library, they're dealt with now." Amrille answers.

Adara shakes her head and sighs. "You really need to be more careful." She paused. Then pointed at the fountain. "Set him down there, I'll use the water to clean his wound."

Amrille nodded and brought delvet over to the fountain, setting him down on the edge.

Adara sat next to him and soaked a cloth in the water. "Any burning this time?" She asked frowning.

--

After a few minutes Adara finished closing up the wound. Thanks to her Delvet's pain subsided. He was far from safe however.

(Regained 3 hp)


Delvet CS

(Question: is Delvet lying about it not burning or is that just a mistake? Or does he mean that it is burning but only a little?)

Adara rubbed har brow. "If this wasn't an emergency I would tell you you had to stay in bed. Things being as they are.. just try to avoid any direct confrontation. Your body can't handle much more." She paused and looked at Amrille. "Watch over him, will you?"

Amrille nodded.

Adara then slapped Delvet on the back before he stood up. "Up you go then."

Amrille took her position next to the kitchen door. She nodded at Delvet signaling she was ready.

--

When Delvet pushed open the door (carefully I'm assuming) he could see that the kitchen was a mess. Pots and pans were scattered across the floor, along with knives and spoons. At least here there was a window where a sliver of light could come through. So it wasn't as dark as the library had been.

In the middle stood a counter with an empty basket on top. Probably had been filled with food before.




Delvet CS

(I would say he's trying to down play it, but still admitting to lingering pain and leaving Adara to figure out what that means w/ her own expertise. Like it's lie of degrees more than an outright lie it's just him trying to keep attention off of himself by downplaying it.)
"I will throw my sword next time," The swordsman said jokingly. "But you should see the other guy."




Delvet opened the door, as carefully as he could and looked about the room. It was a mess, fitting for the zombies that presumably now roamed the mansion. He carefully looked for movement in the room, he didn't want to be surprised by any more moving corpses.

(Ah, makes sense.)

Adara realizes what he means and makes him drink from a flask before she lets him go. It numbs the burning.

Adara shakes her head with a smile. "Not what I meant. These things are dumb and slow, Shouldn't be hard to outsmart them."

(Unfortunately Delvet only has a 6 in Mind. :p)

--

There didn't seem to be any movement in the room. Amrille nodded and went in, slowly making her way around the room.

She stopped when she got behind the counter. She frowned and gestured for Delvet to come over.

Lying behind the counter was a corpse. There were large claw marks across it's chest. Black blood oozed from the wounds. The corpse was otherwise intact.


Delvet CS

Amrille paused to think for a moment. "I don't know. We should probably not take any risks and deal with now. Just in case." She frowned as she looked over the corpse. "Those claw marks weren't made by a normal zombie."

She then turned to Delvet. "I'll let you do the honors, you're the one with the sword."


--

Amrille looked around the messed up kitchen. "Should we search around here for a bit or move on to the next room?"

Delvet CS

"That's possible. If it is then we'll need to be careful." Amrille frowned worried about the possibility.

Delvet cleanly beheads the potential zombie.

Amrille nods and begins to carefully look around the kitchen. Delvet does the same.

After a short bit both of them put their finds on the counter. Amrille wasn't very lucky. All she found was a loaf of bread and some spices. "At least we'll have some rations for today." She says.

Delvet had a bot more luck and found a large kitchen knife in good shape.

"That could come in handy if we need to defend ourselves in a pinch." Amrille comments. "Do you want to take the knife or should I?" She asks.

He also found a block of cheese.

"With this we won't have to eat just dry bread. A good find."

--

With the kitchen cleared out it's time to move on. Amrille gets in position next to the washroom door. She nods and Delvet pushes it open. It makes a creaking sound.

The washroom isn't very large. More importantly it's even more of a mess than the kitchen was. The ground is covered in what seems like a mixture of water, soap and blood. Torn clothes are strewn all over the room.

Then there's the huge claw marks across the walls.

"I don't think a dog did that.."

Fortunately there doesn't seem to be a zombie in here.


Delvet CS

Amrille nodded and took the knife.
--

Stepping into the washing room each step made a soft splash. The mix of liquids was all over the floor. It wasn't a large room. There were a couple of barrels filled with water. One of them had been destroyed.

The only other thing in the room was a cabinet. Amrille looked through it for anything you could use. After a bit of digging through it she shook her head disappointed. "Just a bunch of soaps and pieces of cloth."

She grabbed the map and took a look. "Just the statue room and those two hallways left. Then there's whatever there's upstairs. Would be nice if we had a map of that as well." She paused then looked up at Delvet. "Time for the next room then?"



Delvet CS

Amrille nods. They then move on to the next room. When they open the door some of the mixed liquids spills out of the washroom into the hallway. The light coming in through the windows is enough to light up the hallway. Luckily it's empty.

A blood trail runs all across the hallway. It almost looks like something was being dragged along while it was bleeding. Again large claw marks can be seen on the walls and floor.

"I don't like this at all." Amrille comments while keeping her crossbow ready. The two of them carefully proceed to the statue room.

She slowly pushes open the door. Torches lit this room up slightly. The blood trail continues right up to the outer wall.

Three statues stand in the room. One of them is a headless soldier holding a sword and a reflective shield, on the map he is marked as P.
The other is also a soldier in a pose that makes him look terrified of something, one of his hands is slightly open. He is marked as B.
The last one is a naked woman with snakes for hair, both her hands are slightly open. She's marked as M.

Amrille follows the bloodtrail. "I think it leads beyond this wall. I bet this is the secret tunnel." She knocks on the wall to check. "Hmm, I don't think we can force our way through. If this is the tunnel we'll need to find another way to open it."




Delvet CS

(Yeah, it sort of looks like the blood trail keeps going underneath the wall.)

Amrille went to inspect the statues as well. She took a closer look at the sword and shield. "This shield is too thin to be anything more than a decoration." She looked at her own reflection in the shield. "I look like shit, I'm gonna need a shower if we get out of here."

She then grabbed the shield and removed it from the statues hand. "Hmm, yeah, much too light unfortunately. Could have been useful." She sighed.

"The sword probably isn't any better." She put the shield back in it's place. Then she took a step back and looked around.

"I have no clue how to solve this puzzle. The sword and shield are probably important but I can't tell where they would have to go. Maybe we need more clues."

She turned to Delvet. "What do you want to do?"



Delvet CS

Nothing in the room stood out. The walls were perfectly even and the floor was also solid stone.

Amrille also looked around for any other clues. After a short while neither of you have found anything new. "If there's any other clues I don't think we'll find them in this room." She shook her head, disappointed.


"The hallway from here to the library is the only part of this floor we haven't explored. Should we check that out or do you want to go straight to the second floor?" She asked. "We might have more luck up there."



Delvet CS