Denizen's Curse

Lyrn nodded. "Good idea." He then quickly stepped forward to strike the brown shirt zombie. Only to slip on a puddle of blood, fall on his ass and drop his sword.

Delvet is momentarily distracted by his ally falling to the ground that he notices too late that the brown shirt zombie is lunging at him. His instincts however don't fail him and he cuts down the zombie with a single strike. It falls backward, motionless for now.

Only then does Delvet notice he's bleeding. The zombie had managed to scratch it's nails across his chest. It hurts and looks pretty bad. There is no burning feeling though.

Down on the ground the blue shirt zombie grabs Lyrn's legs. The guard scrambles for his sword but it's out of his reach. "Agh, Damn it!"

The white shirt zombie approaches.

Delvet CS

Delvet's blade started glowing red and it slashed the blue zombie's skull in half. It collapsed on top of Lyrn who kicked the corpse off of himself. He then got back on his feet and picked up his sword again. "Thanks! That was a close one." He said as he got back into a combat stance.

Delvet's blade went straight through the brownshirt zombies skull. That one wouldn't ever be getting back up either.

The white shirt zombie tries to grab on to Delvet but he sees it coming and has plenty of time to react.

Delvet CS

Delvet swiftly parries the zombie's attack. Leaving it open for an attack from Lyrn who goes for the legs. He doesn't make a clean cut but it's enough for the zombie to fall on it's face. Leaving it vulnerable.

It tries to get back up but it's leg gives out and it falls again. Lyrn stabs his sword through it's skull.

"I think we're getting better at this." He says as he pulls out the sword, panting.

Then the door at the end of the hallway opens and Adara walks through, two knives ready in her hands.

Lyrn looks at her with surprise. "How did you get-"

"Window." She doesn't let him finish his sentence. She lowers her knives and starts walking towards the two men. "I was going to help you by attacking them from behind. Seems like you didn't need my help though."

"Where's-" Lyrn tries to ask another question.

"The girl is already downstairs with Amrille. Getting her to safety was the first thing we did." She puts her knives away. She frowns when she notices Delvet's wound. "Maybe you did need my help after all." She puts her hand on Delvet's chest. "Does it burn?"

It hurts when she touches it but still no burn.

"Either way, we need to get downstairs before we decide what to do." She slips through between Delvet and Lyrn and headed downstairs.

Lyrn sighs and follows her.

--

Downstairs Morivella is kneeling next to her bloodied father. Tears are streaming down her face. The old man appears to still be breathing but it's not a steady breath. Amrille stands over them with a sad look in her eyes.

Adara approaches them. "I don't have enough salve left. Just enough for one wound. I can fix the one on his neck but there's no guarantee he'll survive the one on his arm. Not to mention he won't be able to move by himself for a while if he does survive."

Lyrn speaks up. "We'll carry him then."

Amrille looks down at Onyll. "We'd be an easy target for those things."

Adara nods at Amrille and then looks back at Delvet. "Delvet's also wounded. The smart thing would be using the salve on him. He's our strongest fighter right now. We're gonna need him at full strength."

Morivella looks up at everyone. "Please don't let my dad die. Please. I.. I can't let him die." She continues to sob, her hands covered in her fathers blood.


Delvet CS

(First off, have an EXP. Either yellow ki because you've been using ki a lot. Or Red ki for the same reason. OR Heart for choosing to try saving Onyll. Or green ki because you've taken some damage.)

Amrille looks down at Morivella and shakes her head. "I'm sorry. I was being a jerk. We should try to save your father if we can. I was just scared that we wouldn't make it out of here alive."

Morivella doesn't respond. She clings on to her father silently.

Adara nods and kneels down next to Onyll. "We're all in agreement then. Alright, Morrivella please lift his head for me so I can reach that wound."

Morivella does as she's told and Adara starts applying the salve to Onyll's neck. Once she's done with that she pulls out a needle and thread and begins stitching up the wound on his arm after disinfecting it, also smearing the last bits of salve still on her hand on it.

Onyll wakes up with a gasp. "Where.. wha-" He's cut off by Morivella wrapping her arms around him. Still crying too much to say anything.

While Father and Daughter are having a touching moment Adara stands up and walks towards delvet. "Your turn. I can't heal your wound but we should at least disinfect it and patch it up. Just because you're not infected with the zombie blood doesn't mean the wound can't still get infected in the normal way."

Before Delvet can respond she's already lifted his shirt and disinfecting the wound with a cloth drenched in alcohol. It stings. She then moves on to stitching it up and putting some bandages on it. "Now normally I'd tell you to not to move around to much. Unfortunately we're in a situation where you won't have that option. So just tell me when it opens up and I'll close it up again." She nods at him and starts walking towards the door.

Amrille was looking out the window for any possible enemies. When she is satisfied there aren't any she turns back to the group. "So we have two options. We can take the main road to the mansion. Which will leave us open and fully visible. Or we take the backstreets. Where we can sneak around better but could easily be cornered."

Adara shakes her head. "I don't like either of those options. It's the only ones we've got though."

Lyrn scratches his head. "So which will it be then?"

Everyone turns to look towards Delvet for some reason.


Delvet CS

(let's take some heart, for the character development)

A sigh of relief came out of Delvet as he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He was glad there was no further arguments on the topic of Onyll, they were already surrounded by death it felt far better to keep someone else alive. He taking sometime, catching his breath and collecting himself so he was surprised when Adara came to him. "Oh uh.. Certainly, that's much appreciated."


As the group turned to Delvet, awaiting his input? His decision? He wasn't sure. He pulled out his map of the city as he still wasn't fully familiar with the layout. "Sorry.." He trailed off looking closely at the map. The group had gotten bigger, and lost maneuverability, with that in mind getting lucky in the backstreets was the only option that they could work with. "I'd say, unless we can trick the zombies into thinking we're undead too the backstreets are out best bet at getting to the mansion."

Adara nodded. "Good point."

Lyrn went over and helped Morivella get her father on his feet. "I'll carry him." Lyrn says as he puts Onyll's arm over his shoulders. Onyll didn't respond much to this. He was still weak and disoriented.

Amrille opened the door and went first.

Adara waited at the door for everyone to pass through. "I'll guard the rear."

The group went out and entered the backstreets. As the streets went on they became more and more narrow. Amrille did her best to find the fastest way to the mansion.
--

After a few minutes of walking they came across a zombie. Luckily it hadn't noticed them so they managed to sneak past it.
--

The next few minutes were uneventful. Until they turned a corner and saw a group of four zombies standing in their way. Amrille signaled quietly for everyone to turn around.

Then came the sound of a growl.

"Shit." Adara whispered.

As they turned around a single zombie dog stood where they came from. It was preparing to attack. It's growling caught the attention of the four zombies and they turned around to see the group. Immediately they started shambling towards their new prey and snarled. The group was now cornered with no way to escape a fight.

Lyrn moved Onyll behind the others and unsheathed his sword, Morivella followed.

Amrille took aim at the zombies. Adara readied her knives to throw at the zombie dog.

One zombie had on a red shirt.
The second had yellow pants.
The third had on a white dress.
The fourth was naked for some reason.

Delvet CS

Adara makes the first move and throws a knife straight into the dog's eye. Rancid blood squirts out. It however does not stop the dog.

Instead the rotten doggo leaps towards Delvet as he swings his blade and bites his arm. It doesn't let go and Delvet has to struggle to throw the dog off of himself.

When the dog finally lets go it leaves a nasty bite wound. Delvet is now dangerously wounded and covered in blood.

Despite that he still manages to swing his blade and cut the heck pupper's side. The beast collapses and blood pours out from it's body. It stays motionless.

Amrille shoots the naked zombie in the crotch. It didn't stop the zombie but it's a funny sight. Also slightly disturbing.

Adara turned to Delvet. "Holy shit, that looks bad. We need to run. Don't want you dying on us."

Amrille shouted in response: "If we run that dog's gonna get up again and come after us. It's too fast, we can't outrun it!"

"Then cut off it's head and go!" Adara retorted.

Lyrn stepped up. "That'll take too long. You guys go, I'll deal with the dog and hold off those other four."

"The fuck Lyrn, we're not leaving you!" Amrille shouted while reloading her crossbow.

While everyone argued the zombies moved ever closer.



Delvet CS

(You'll be exhausted. Which translates in the game as you having disadvantage on all your rolls until you rest. Probably the mildest of all the running out of energy penalties. For example Mana users can get emotional disorders if they run out of mana. Not sure if it's bad enough for you to reconsider your actions. So I'll just go ahead and see how it works out. I'll edit it if you decide to change.)

Delvet's slashed the dogs head clean off thanks to the red ki.

Lyrn and Amrille hesitated. But Adara nodded and started running as soon as Delvet told them to. Seeing Adara run everyone else followed.

The zombie in the white dress grabbed on to Delvet suddenly. Despite the exhaustion and pain he managed to push the zombie off of himself.

A bolt whizzed past Delvet. Amrille's bolt hit the zombie in the dress causing it to fall backwards. The other three zombies closed in on Delvet, hungry for his flesh.

"Delvet! Come on, Run!" Amrille shouted back at him.

(Yeah, a fair trade off my previous actions will remain)


"Thanks for the save." Delvet said weakly, perhaps too weak to be heard. He struggle but moved as quick as he could towards the group and away from the zombie. He wished a stray garbage can might've been near so he could throw down we delay the zombies. But just moving would have to do.

Despite the pain and fatigue Delvet managed to burst into a sprint. The zombies are too slow to stop him. He quickly joined the others and they kept running.

A zombie popped up from a side alley but Adara's knife ended up in it's forehead before it could pose a threat.

It seemed like they were running for an eternity. In truth it didn't take very long before they reached the mansion. Once everyone was inside the two guards closed the heavy front doors behind them.

Morivella set her father down next to a pillar. He was still breathing.

Adara took a quick look around before approaching Delvet. "Here, let me take a look at that wound. I still can't heal you up but we still need to stop the bleeding, again."

--

While she treated his wound she looked up at his face. "Still no burning?"

Luckily Delvet, despite his repeated injuries, still felt no burning.

As the adrenaline died down Delvet could take a good look around the mansion. They were in the entry hall. It was a really large room. A bunch of chandeliers hung from the ceiling, the magic crystals on them lit up the whole room. Aside from the heavy front door there were four doors, two on either side. Across from the front door there was a large stairway leading up to the second floor. There were more doors up there. Finding the secret exit might take a while.

Adara put a flask in his hand. "Drink, it'll numb the pain."

Meanwhile the two guards were dragging stuff around in an attempt to block the front door.

Adara's gaze turned towards Onyll for a moment. She then whispered to Delvet: "If we don't get him some medicine he won't make it through the night."


(Now's a good time as any to give you another EXP and level you up. You can get an exp in Green Ki because you took some serious damage, Yellow ki because you spent all your ki or Spirit because you took harm in order for the others to escape.


And you also get 3 points to put in any stats.



Note that if for example you put a point in green ki you would also gain 1 hp, it's not just your maximum that goes up. Which would be the case in some games.)


Delvet CS

(let's take green ki from the exp then for the level up 1 in blue ki, one in skill and one in yellow ki.)

Delvet chuckled though the action was a little pained, as Adara once again treated him. "I feel like a child being scolded by his school teacher. Must I write 'I will not get injured again' one hundred times on the blackboard?"   


He joked, but Delvet was unsettled. It took all he had to get to this point and we has worried about how quickly he'd gone from an asset to a liability to the group. "No burning." He answered, and hoped the negligible relief that brought meant anything. 


Delvet nodded at Adara's grim observation. "There could be some medicine in here? We can keep an eye out while we look for the passage?"

(Congratulations, Delvet is now lv 17. He's also no longer exhausted. Thanks to the 1 point in yellow ki. Not enough to use Ki skills but the penalty is gone for now. You'll need to rest to regain more ki.)

"If you can find a blackboard in this place feel free. Either way, just be careful." Adara replied as she finished bandaging up Delvet.

She nodded at Delvet when he mentioned keeping an eye out for medicine. "I'm not getting my hopes up but just in case we should check everywhere we can." She paused and frowned. "If we find a safe place to rest you should take a nap. You look dead tired. You're our best shot at getting out of here alive, if you can't fight we're fucked."

She got back up and looked around the room. "Time to start exploring? Normally I wouldn't want to split up but Onyll really shouldn't be walking around in that state." She then turned back to Delvet. "You should probably be the one to explore, it's your choice who to take with you though."

By this  point the guards had finished barricading the front door. Amrille was talking to Morivella. Lyrn sat on the ground while cleaning his sword. Onyll was doing his best to stay awake.

(Who will help Delvet explore the mansion?

• Adara, medic with knives, highest stat: Blue ki, healthy
  
• Amrille, experienced guard with a crossbow, highest stat: Skill, healthy
  
• Lyrn, newbie guard with a sword, highest stat: Spirit, infected but not wounded
  
• Morivella, girl without a weapon, highest stat: Mind, healthy
  
• Onyll, Old injured man without a weapon, Highest stat: Yellow ki, injured + infected
  

)

Taking another look around the mansion: Two doors on either side, stairs in the middle that go up to the second floor where there are more doors. The walls and floor seem to be made from marble. While the doors are made from wood. Chandeliers with glowing crystals are the only light source, luckily they are bright enough to light up the room properly. At the moment everything is quiet.


(Where will you explore first?)

Delvet CS

"Good. If you find either medicine or a resting place come back to let us know." Adara said.

She nodded back at Delvet and went over to check on Onyll.

As Delvet Approached both women stopped talking and turned towards him. Amrille started to salute Delvet before stopping halfway. "Why did I.. Sorry, force of habit." She paused.

Morivella giggled softly at this.

Amrille forced herself to regain her focus. "What's the plan?" She asked Delvet.


Delvet CS

Amrille nodded. "I'll keep my eyes peeled."

She turned to Morrivella. "You'll be alright?"

Morivella nodded slowly.

Amrille smiled at her. "Good." She then checked her crossbow quickly before turning back to Delvet. "I'm ready, lead the way."

Suddenly Onyll started coughing loudly. Morivella gasped and ran over to her father. Adara was already tending to him.

"Hey, is he alright?" Amrille asked.

"He'll be fine for now. Get going you two." Adara responded without even looking up.

Amrille frowned.



Delvet CS

(So a correction, turns out I forgot the details of the mansion. There's only two doors on the first floor. Not four. Woops. I also forgot to mention the fountain in the middle of the entrance hall. I should have checked my mansion notes earlier. Luckily neither of those mistakes are important.)

Amrille nodded at Delvet's mention of looking for medicine.

"Yeah, if we make sure it's safe first there should be no problems with splitting up." She agreed.

She took position next to the door. Delvet opened the door, the inside was dark. Unlike the entrance hall there was no lighting here. Delvet's eyes had to take a while to adjust to the darkness. When they did what he saw was rows and rows of bookcases. Filled with books, some of the books were scattered on the floor.

More importantly he saw a figure standing at the other end of the room, unmoving. Suddenly from the right corner of the room there was a thud of something falling. The figure reacted to this sound with a groan and turned towards the sound. As it turned Delvet saw clearly that the figure was a zombie. It hadn't noticed the door opening yet.


Delvet CS