Denizen's Curse

(Maybe in the future I could color code enemies if there's this many of them. Like Red shirt zombie, blue zombie, periwinkle zombie, etc. That'd prolly make things easier on both of us.)

Delvet's blade cleaves the zombie's head in half vertically ending it's unlife.

"If I'm remembering correctly it's the brain that needs to be cut off from the body." Amrille answered. Then she turned to the recently risen zombie and fired another bolt. Her first shot misses but the zombie is slow enough that she can get another one in. This one hits and the zombie falls back down motionless.

The zombie that's pinned against the wall snarls viciously before Delvet's blade pierces through it's eye. The zombie goes limp.

Lyrn snorts at Delvet's joke. With all the zombies down now Lyrn goes over to one of the bodies. A sad look comes over his face. "I knew this guy."

"Yeah, These are all townspeople. At least the one's who's faces I can still recognize." Amrille sighed sadly. "We should cut off all the heads before they get back up though."

Lyrn nods solemnly before raising his sword and cutting off the head of the zombie at his feet. "We need to evacuate any survivors if t- agh." As his adrenaline wears off a sharp pain shoot's through lyrns arm. "Fuck that burns."

"We should get you to a healer first. You can't save anyone with a wound like that." Amrille says.

"You're wounded too." Lyrn counters.

Amrille looks at her own wound. "Yeah, all the more reason for us to find a healer."

"Touche. Right, Adara knows some medicine. We could go find her." He says, still holding his wound.

"Of course she'd be the one you'd think of."

"Huh?"

"Never mind." She shakes her head.

"Damn it. If the Sherrif was here he'd know what to do. Where the hel is he?" Lyrn asks.

"Yeah, it's odd that he isn't here to give orders. Maybe he went to find his sister?"

"Then you think he's at the market?"

"I think he probably went there. I'm not sure he'd still be there."

"What should we do then?"

"We've got three options. One, we go resque any civilians still alive. Two, we go find Adara and get her to look at our wounds. Three, we go find the Sheriff."

"If we split up we could do more than one of those."

"Not sure that'd be smart." Amrille frowns.


All zombies are down.
Two still have their heads.

Delvet CS

(might b a good idea, at least when fighting uniform enemies. two questions: how fresh are the zombies corpse wise? And what would delvet already know about zombies do u think, based on his time working at the library/any other relevant experience?)

"First thing, let's make sure all the zombies nearby loss their heads before they get back up and come for ours." Delvet suggested, though his tone was more urgent then that. "I'm sorry for my lack of tact but, were these villagers dead before today that you knew of?" After he asked he continued to quietly listen to the two 'squabble' when a familiar name popped up. Adara.. Isn't that the Innkeeper? Well if she knows medicine that's an asset we can definitely use.


"Well rescuing civilians en masse is a no go right now, we can't protect a group as injured as you two are and tired as I am, we'd just be gathering an awfully morbid buffet." He paused, deliberating between the remaining two options before he settled on a conclusion. "I think we should get medical attention, together. It'll keep us running longer through the night and hopefully mean we can save that many more people." 

Now is a good time to award you with another EXP. You can choose to put it in Spirit for the courageous action of taking on a horde of zombies to save the guards. Or in Red ki since you used it a lot this fight. Which also means Yellow ki is an option. Of course if you can justify it you can put it in something else as well.


This is your second EXP so that means you get a level up. So you get three extra points to put in whatever stat.


Congrats, Delvet has reached level 16

(I'll answer your second question first because the answer leads into the first one.

Basic zombie info is pretty common knowledge in Val. Because of the undead invasion from 25 years ago is still pretty fresh in the minds of many. While Delvet would have been too young to remember much himself, there would be a great deal of books about it. But because these books were written by and for the Order of light they have a huge bias. Most of the authors put the blame squarely on the Blackshroud empire's shoulders. The mildest of these would claim the Empire was indirectly responsible because they supposedly recruited Necromancers in the war. The harshest say the empire planned to make an army of undead but it went horribly wrong.

I'll leave it up to you how much of this Order of light propaganda Delvet still believes. From these books he would have learned that zombies infect others through their blood entering wounds or orifices and that the ones that don't eat rot much faster. While some of these corpses look pretty fresh, the others don't. Which could suggest some of these are older but it could also mean they just haven't eaten enough. Either way, none of them look super old.

They don't smell fresh at all though.)

"Right." Lurn nodded and walked to the zombie on the wall. He swung is blade but only got halfway through the neck. So he swung again, this time the body flopped to the floor while the head stayed pinned to the wall. Rancid blood spewed out of the neck stump.

Amrille shook her head. "No, I saw some of these people on my rounds this morning. They were very much alive."

Lyrn walked over to the last zombie and this time severed his head in one swing. He shook his head sadly.

"Good point. Let's go find Adara then." Amrille nodded and loaded her crossbow, just in case.

"She should still be at her Inn. I hope she's okay." Lyrn sheathed his sword.

The three of them started walking towards the inn. On the way the two guards introduced themselves. Lyrn seemed quite young for a guard. His blonde hair was somewhat long, yet he seemed to take good care of it, despite the circumstances. "My name is Lyrn, I'm a rookie guard. Only been on duty for a few months."

Amrille was a bit older than her partner. She seemed closer to Delvet's age. She was a brunette with mid long hair and piercing blue eyes. "I'm Amrille, I'm supposed to be training the rookie. I've got some experience guarding the town.. but this.. This shit's worse than anything I've seen so far."

Soon they came near the Inn. Everything seemed quiet here. With the moon behind the clouds however it was very dark and hard to see anything.

Delvet CS

(take that point of spirit, and then put the three extra points into red ki for that even 20)

Delvet nodded solemnly at Amrille's answer. "...I see.." He had thought, or more likely hoped that these were reanimated dead, not turned villagers. Now he was even more worried for the injuries the guards had sustained earlier.


The swordsman kept an eye out while they were walking, trying to make sure nothing could get a jump on the group. His focus had him quiet as they traveled, but he was sure  to respond when the guards introduced themselves. "I'll continue the pleasantries. Delvet, though I believe I may have already introduced myself earlier today. This is a hell I wasn't prepared for either, friend." He had been tempted to suggest hopefully this be the worst they'll ever see if anything was a bad omen it was sentences such as that.


As they came across the Inn, the area quiet and dark. Delvet slowly approached the door. "Shall we knock?"

After a very good but dangerous work out Delvet's muscles ache with growth pains. Red ki flows through them with greater intensity. He's now a very stronk boi.

Gameplay wise this boost in red ki means that not only his red ki based rolls are higher but also his two red ki skills that do damage are now a bit more powerful. The first one goes from a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls to +2. While the second one was 2d4 damage but now is the same but always gets +1. So even the lowest roll does at least 3 damage now, while the highest it can do is now 9. (Not counting crits)

"It's an Inn you don't have to knock." Amrille answers.

Before Delvet could respond he heard a sound from above. Followed by a familiar feminine voice. "Hey, it's you three!" As Delvet looked straight up he saw Adara leaning out of the window on the first floor. "I'm gonna jump, one of you catch me."

"What.. Wait!" Lyrn tried to protest.

Adara did not wait and before any of you knew it she gracefully leapt out of the window.

Adara fell perfectly into Delvet's arms. "Thanks dear." She quickly patted his shoulder and gets back on her feet.

Lyrn walked up to her. "Adara you can't just jump out-" He was silenced by Adara putting a single finger to his lips. "No time for that. We need to run."

Amrille raised her eyebrows. "Uh, what's going on Adara?"

"Zombie dog." Adara answered without hesitation.

"Zombie dog?!" Both guards responded with confusion.

Then a loud crashing noise came from upstairs. Followed by a dark brown blur leaping out of the window.

A crack could be heard as it landed.

Just like Adara said there was now a Zombie dog snarling at the group of four. It seemed to once have been a german shepard like dog. Now it was missing an eye, had a hole in it's ribcage and was bleeding rancid blood all over.

The crack was it's leg being broken in the fall. It looked nasty and hung limp, despite this it did not seem to bother the creature. It was out for blood, or meat. Probably both.

"Ah shit." Adara said.

Both guards readied their weapon and stayed behind Delvet. Adara in turn stayed behind the guards.

"Yeah, just the one. It damn near gave me a heart attack." Adara answered. "Thought the door I barricaded would hold it long enough for us to escape. No such luck I guess."

The zombie dog growled and leapt forward.

It was intercepted by one of Amrille's bolts and hit the ground. It got back up quickly.

This undead canine was far faster than it's human counterparts.

It leaps towards Delvet, it's sharp teeth coming straight for his face.

Delvet CS

The dogs teeth crack when they hit the red dragon's scale. It bounces back to the ground, it's attack completely failed.

Then shwoosh, another bolt from Amrille hits the canine in the side. The dog falls on it's side.

It's not enough to stop it however and it starts to get back on it's feet. "Even the dogs won't stay down. This is ridiculous." She complains.

Lyrn and Adara stay back. Lyrn struggles to keep his sword up when his wound starts burning up again. While Adara has no weapons on her.

Delvet CS

The dog sensed Delvet's strike coming and leapt to the side avoiding it completely.

When Delvet went for his second strike, the dog decided to strike back. Chomping Delvet's leg just before the blade cut cleanly through it's own leg. The zombie dog released it's grip on Delvet's leg and collapsed on the ground.

Rancid blood leaked out of it's leg stump. It was no longer moving.

"We should cut off it's head. If it's anything like the other's it won't stay down long." Amrille said as she kept her crossbow aimed at the creature.

Suddenly Lyrn fell to his knees and suppressed a scream of agony. He dropped his sword and held onto his arm.

Adara walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "You're hurt. Damn it Lyrn."

"Yeah, we were hoping you could do something about it." Lyrn said through gritted teeth as the pain shot through his arm.

"You've come to the right place then." She sighed and looked around for a second. "Hey, you, my most luxurious customer, when you're done with the dog come help me carry this fool inside. I'll treat your wound as well." She said to Delvet.

Delvet CS

Delvet cut cleanly through the dog's neck, like a knife through butter. Rotten butter.

Adara put Lyrns arm around her shoulders. "No refunds." She said, a barely noticeable smirk was visible on her lips. "At this rate I might have to change your title to my last customer. Zombies aren't the best clientele for an Inn."

Delvet and Adara carried Lyrn inside and set him down on a chair. Amrille made sure there were no more surprises waiting for them and started to quickly scout the area. Adara walked to the kitchen and quickly came back with some bandages and other stuff.

She kneeled down next to Lyrn. "Zombie bite right? Does it burn?"

Lyrn nodded twice.

"How far does the burn go?"

Lyrn points to just below his shoulder. His wound being quite a bit lower.

"So bad news, you're infected." She frowned.

"What!- agh" Lyrn's eyes opened with shock.

"Shh stay still. Good news is that as long as you don't die you won't turn into one of those things." She said while she cleaned out the wound. "More bad news, you're gonna feel very sick for a few days. It takes a while for the zombie blood to get purged from your body."

"It won't kill me?" Lyrn asked, still terrified.

"As long as you don't get bitten again. Adult humans can survive a few zombie bites most of the time. Kids and the elderly are less lucky."

Suddenly Lyrn cried out in pain.

"Shhh, quiet." Adara started rubbing a salve of some kind over the wound. Then she shoved some kind of drink into his other hand. "Drink. It'll numb the burning." While Lyrn took a swig she bandaged up the wound and finished up.

Then she got up and looked toward Delvet. "Your turn. Any burning feeling?"

While Delvet was in pain there wasn't any burning.

At the same time Amrille came back into the Inn. "The area seems clear for now."

Delvet CS

"Yeah, there's one there in the corner." Adara points to a sign that says complaint box, underneath it stands a trashcan.

--

Adara walked over to Delvet. "Alright, roll up your pants." She bent down and started disinfecting the wound.

Amrille looked at her arm. "Painful but I'll manage."

Adara quickly looked up and raised an eyebrow. "You got hurt as well? You're supposed to be the careful one Amrille. Sheesh."

"Yeah, we got surrounded by a whole bunch of those things. I'm pretty sure we would have been dead if Delvet there hadn't come along to lend a hand."

Adara looks up to Delvet while putting salve on his wound. "Now you're going for the most heroic customer title as well? Don't you have enough titles as it is?" She smirked. "Stay right there Amrille, I'll get a look at your wound once I'm done here."

She finished up by bandaging Delvet's wound, the pain slowly started fading. She got back up and went over to do the same to Amrille's arm. "Any burning sensation?"

Amrille shook her head.

Lyrn had been quiet for a bit. But he seemed to be already feeling a bit better and broke his silence. "We're going to need a plan."

Amrille nodded. "The sheriff probably already has a plan. If we can find him we can work together."

"Do you know where he might be?" Adara asked.

Lyrn answered. "No, he probably went to the market. But I don't think he'd still be there."

Adara frowned. "Yeah, I'm not liking that idea. He could be anywhere by now. If he's even still alive."

Amrille shook her head. "He's not dead. If anyone can survive this it's him."

"Stop moving so much." Adara said as she put bandages around her arm. "I guess you're right though. That man has the strength of an ox. Still don't like the idea of searching the entire town for just one guy."

Lyrn stood up, a bit wobbly, either from his wound or from the medication he had just gulped down. "He has the key to the gates though. Without those we can't evacuate the survivors."

Adara just finished up on Amrille's wound. Amrille nodded at her. "Thanks Adara." She paused for a moment. "There might be another way out."

Both Adara and Lyrn looked over at her with surprise written all over their faces. "There is?" Lyrn asked.

"There might be a secret passage in the old noble's mansion. They say it leads past the gates. Apparently used in case of emergencies."

Adara scratched her head for a second. "Well I'd say this situation counts as an emergency." She started packing up her materials. "Anyone have any other wounds I need to look at? I don't have much of this salve left though."

Delvet remembers the scratch on his arm. Which also doesn't burn. But it's still there.

Delvet CS

Lyrn shook his head. "The longer we wait the more people die."

Amrille gave him a sad look. "Lyrn, I get where you're coming from. But if we lead survivors to the mansion and there ends up not being an exit.. we're all dead."

Adara meanwhile went behind her counter and started digging around back there.

Lyrn frowned. "The mansion is probably the safest place in town. It's isolated, there's doors to lock. Maybe the zombies haven't even reached the place yet. Even if there isn't an exit we could fortify the place and keep everyone safe."

"And what, let everyone starve inside instead?" Amrille countered.

"I.. we have to do something though." Lyrn sighed and pressed his forehead into his palms.

Then Adara popped up from behind the counter. In her hands she had a small sack. "How about this. We head to the mansion and if we happen to find any survivors we ask them to tag along." She stepped from behind the counter. She reached into the sack and pulled out a small knife. She started balancing it between her fingers. "Lyrn is right that the mansion is probably the safest place right now. If we're lucky the sheriff was thinking the same thing and he'll be there too. Along with the keys."

Amrille nodded. "Either way the mansion seems to be where we have to go."

Lyrn also nodded. "Seems that way. Fine."

Adara grabbed the bottom of her dress, used the knife to cut the side open. Exposing her leg. She then put the knife back in the sack and tied it around her leg within arms reach. "Let's go then. Unless anyone has any objections?"

Delvet CS

Amrille nodded. "The Sheriff has saved this town many times. If anyone knows how to deal with this situation it's him."

Adara shook her head. "I don't think even he can deal with this shit. Once the zombies get past the walls it's over. Was that way for every other town. Bassarisk is done for this time."

The mood suddenly turned extremely pessimistic. A silence hung over the four of them as they walked in the direction of the mansion. A silence that was broken by the sound of high pitched scream.

Everyone stopped in their tracks. Amrille scanned the area with her eyes. "What was.."

Before she could finish her sentence Lyrn unsheathed his sword and sprinted in the direction of the scream.

Amrille held out her hand. "Lyrn wait!" But he was already barreling full speed towards the danger.

Adara sighed. "That idiot is gonna get himself killed."

Amrille nodded and started running after him.

Adara grabbed a knife and looked at Delvet. "Guess that leaves us with no choice." She said before running after the two guards.
--

As they got closer Delvet realized the scream had come from Onyll's bar. He saw Lyrn kick down the door and run inside. Followed closely by the two women.

When Delvet entered the bar he could immediately see the whole place was trashed. Tables had been turned over, chairs were strewn all over. Broken glass covered the floor. And worst of all sitting with his back against the counter was Onyll. His head and arm were covered in blood and he looked as pale as a ghost.

Amrille ran over to him and knelt down. "Onyll, what happened here?"

Onyll gasped for air. He struggled to talk. "Mo..Morivella.. those..those things, she.. my daughter she ran... up the stairs.. to her.. her room.. they .. they went after her. Please, don't let.. don't let them hurt her." He coughed violently and blood droplet sprayed out of his mouth.

Amrille put a hand on his shoulder. "Hold on, it'll be okay."

Lyrn immediately stormed up the stairs, sword in hand.

Adara took a deep breath. "Okay, I've got a plan. One of you go make sure that idiot doesn't die. The other one needs to follow me."

Amrille looked up towards Delvet. Waiting to see what he'd do.

Delvet CS

Delvet quickly reached the top of the stairs. In front of him was a narrow hallway. Lyrn stood there, sword in hand.

On the other end of the hallway were three zombies banging on a door trying to get inside. One of them was wearing a blue shirt, the second one a white shirt and the one behind them had on a brown shirt. The door creaked and bent. It wouldn't hold much longer. The zombies snarled and growled loudly.

Lyrn nodded at Delvet and approached the zombies, his weapon ready to strike.

Delvet CS

Delvet slashes off the brown-shirt zombie's arm and slices open it's back. Rancid blood and organs fall out. The zombie stumbles but doesn't fall.

Lyrn strikes immediately after at the blue-shirt zombie's leg. He severs it and the zombie falls face first against the wall. It now has to crawl.

The three zombies start to turn towards their attackers. They groan and snarl.

"We should move back and lure them away from the door." Lyrn says, blood dripping from his sword.

Delvet CS