Hi everyone and welcome back to another part of the Dracula macrocosm story!

If you want to check out the story from the beginning, I’d recommend [Most Adventures Start With An Inn].

As per usual, here’s some faces, so you know who’s who:

The light outside had already dimmed considerably when we all woke up in the partly ruined house where we barricaded ourselves. The room was freezing cold, but none of us were really paying attention to that fact as we all found ourselves covered, tip to toe in spiderwebs.

Circe was the first to yell out, “WHAT THE FUCK?!” As she practically jumped to her feet and shook off the cloak I’d given her for warmth during the previous session.

Mech and Colleen also got to their feet, frantically trying to get all the webbing off of them.

As for me, I have a low-key phobia of spiders, but being covered in spider webs is a bridge too far. I got up, bumped my waist into the table, and practically tore off all my clothes despite the freezing cold. I threw them on the floor in a pile and stepped back as I did my best to get the webbing off my face while ranting, “getitoffmegetitoffmegetitoffme!”

Niky and her crew were a bit calmer. Andrei was unphazed as he watched me dance around the room with a smile on his face, then he frowned a bit, “ech, is cold,” as he got out his flask of never-ending vodka and took a big swig from it. As he swallowed, he made a face, because as we all know by now, the vodka from that bottle tastes amazing to everyone but him. “Maybe we should get the flame thrower eh?” He jokingly said to Niky, who was watching me as well.

Niky rolled her eyes as she kept picking bits of webbing out of her hair.

Andrei sighed and walked up to me and squarely slapped me in the face. “Hey, Fairy, there’s no spiders alright? It’s safe. It’s just webbing. Focus!”

I looked at him with shock still in my eyes, then nodded a few times. “Sorry, I have a phobia of bugs crawling over me. “

“But there were no bugs, no spiders, just webs da?”

I looked around the room at everyone, feeling stupid. “I guess… our bodies stay here, but are apparently impervious to harm?”

Kay looked at Niky, “Can you do detect magic? I want to make sure this is not some kind of magic thing or something.”

“Sure,” Niky said as she started to prepare herself for it.

“Time to get a fire going, this place is freezing,” Circe said as she opened the hatch to the rusty old stove and shoved it full of the rest of the debris that were left over.

“Bloody feckin spoiders, I hate havin’ ta clean webbin off my clothes!” Collen exclaimed as she was still getting them off herself.

“This was rather surprising,” Mech said as he too was picking off bits wherever he could see them.

As Niky cast her spell, again the world gained a supernatural sharpness and focus. But the only thing she could see that was magical were our items as per usual.

She turned towards Kay, “I’m only seeing our stuff, nothing else.”

“Fair enough, better safe than sorry in this place.”

“We should move,” Mech said as he finished preparing his backpack.

“Sensible idea”, Andrei said as he started packing his as well.

Circe, now having slipped back into her regular clothes (after checking them for spiders), plopped herself down on the chair by the fire, “nuh uh, I wanna get a nice and toasty first.”

“We could indeed eat breakfast before we leave,” Andrei said.

I sighed, “yeah, the medieval rations that are mostly tasteless.”

“They get tasty when you soak the thing in vodka.”

I chuckled, “alright, anyone’s got a plate or something? I’d not put anything directly on that stovetop.”

Andrei pulled out a rustic-looking metal tray, “our rations came with these trays, we used them when we were eating on the road, remember?”

I nodded, and then I got an idea, “actually, anyone wants to go with me and see if we can find any kind of bowls or drinkware from any of the nearby houses?”

Circe, wrapping herself in my cloak, moved closer to the fire,” you all go play search party, I’m staying here by the nice, warm fire.”

Mech got back up, “I can accompany you.”

Andrei turned to Sasha, “don’t you want to go with them while we cook?”

He shrugged, “I could go, yeah. Maybe hunt something.”

Sasha turned to Kay, “can I borrow your crossbow like last time?”

“K, sure, here you go,” she said as she handed it to him with a small quiver of bolts.

As we went house by house, we found some that were still intact and could be entered, but a lot of them were just piles of rubble and half-rotten wooden logs. In one of the houses under what looked like it had been a bed once, we found a leather-bound journal with a locked clasp on it. In another house, we found a set of wooden bowls that seemed surprisingly untouched and moreover dry. There was also something we initially thought were silver goblets, but then later after some rough cleanup turned out to be made out of pewter instead. We ended up with five goblets and three bowls.

(meanwhile, back in the temporary base camp, Andrei was “cooking” by putting the things over the fire and making sure the hardtack got fully soaked in vodka.)

In the last house we searched, we also found a fireplace with a rusted grill that we pulled away and three bats flew out. While one of them made it out the door immediately, a second crashed straight into the half-broken shutters of a window and then managed to get out as well.

Sasha managed to nail the third through its wing, pinning it to the wall. As it squirmed, he gave us all a ravenous look and said, “sorry, I need a snack real bad,” as he tore it off the wall and sank his teeth into it, draining it in mere seconds. As he tossed the small body on the ground, he felt a wave of nausea wash over him.

Mech, studying his face, moved closer, “Are you OK Sasha?”

Sasha nodded as he fought to keep it down, “yes, I think hunting bats was probably not a good idea here, should have gone with rats,” and here he smiled a pale smile.

Mech nodded, “Your hunger seems… ferocious. Moreso than before.”

Sasha took a deep, shivering breath. “I’m… I’ll be fine. I hope.”

“We can certainly arrange something if the hunger gets too pronounced, let us know how you feel.”

Meanwhile, I was turning the book over in my hands, examining it closely, “I’m very interested in this book, but we should get these simple bowls and goblets back to the others first.” Suddenly I felt a very deep urge to keep it for myself, but as soon as I recognized it, the urge faded away.

I immediately put it down on the floor and looked at everyone, “ooookey, does anyone have a piece of cloth? This thing just tried to whammy me with something.”

Sasha shrugged, ” eh, just grab it. What’s the worst that can happen?”

I rubbed my hands together, expecting them to somehow feel oily, “I don’t like the feeling of that book,” as I tried wiping them off on my pants. After a few moments, my hands were still as dry as before.

“Then maybe we should get it to Andrei for burning. He’s been into that lately.”

I shook my head, “no, I want to read this. Or see if there’s anything useful inside.”

Sasha reached down and grabbed the book, and as he touched it, he had the same feeling as me, but with it came some unbidden rapid-fire thoughts: “this is fine, it would be a shame to leave it, of course, it would make sense to keep it for myself, after all, such a nice-looking book,” he grunted as he looked down at it and fought down the urge. “Let’s just go, letting it sit here collecting dust and cobwebs isn’t the best idea.”

As we hit the street, I turned around with my arms full of stuff, “we should go down to the docks and use some water to clean these out.”

Sasha nodded, “I’ll get the book to the others. Andrei needs to see this.”

Mech, moved over towards me, “Indeed, be careful.”

And with that, we split up, me and Mech heading down to the cursed docks and Sasha heading up towards the house. When we reached the docks, I clambered down the rocks as before while Mech kept an eye out, ready to bolt and get the party if anything should happen. But as I cleaned out the items, everything, including the water remained unnaturally still to the point that it was more unnerving than if anything had in fact happened. When I was done and had everything secured, Mech scrambled down the rocks as well to the waterline and stopped for a moment to take in the surroundings.

He leaned down, cupped his hand, tasting the water, nodding, “as I theorized, this water appears potable, and it has no direct smell to it either.”

I looked at it skeptically, “well, with some boiling, it could be a source of water then. Better to get as much as we can carry now before we enter the castle proper. I wouldn’t trust anything inside there unless we have to.”

Meanwhile, having reached the house, Sasha looked down at the book and then tucked it in under his jacket before going inside. He handed Kay back her crossbow and quiver, “thanks for letting me borrow this, it was very useful.”

Colleen nodded, “so where are the others then?”

Sasha shrugged, “they went down to the lake to clean off the stuff they found.”

“So, why didn’t you go with them?” Andrei said with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“I… had a feeling it’d be best to come straight back here.”

Then as Sasha’s gaze flickered around the room, Andrei noticed that he was avoiding looking at him. Straightening up, he smiled fiendishly, “Sasha… I know you better than anyone… and you’re … hiding something aren’t you?”

“Hiding something?” Sasha said, stiffening up a bit.

Colleen, now having picked up on the tension rising in the room, gave Circe a glance as she got up, “wot’s this about?”

“I… uh… we may have found a book… it’s nothing really. Just… look,” and here he took the book out from underneath his jacket.

Andrei nodded toward the table, “place it on the table. Don’t make me insist.”

During this tense moment, the door opened as me and Mech were back as well. I put down the cleaned things on the table, “Dinnerware for everyone! Pewter cups and old wooden bowls, cleaned in the freshest of lake water!”

It took me a moment to realize something was going on in the room by how still everybody was. I turned around to them and saw Sasha, looking like a deer in headlights, still holding onto the book.

I raised an eyebrow, “Sasha, I already told you, you should avoid touching that, it’s probably cursed. It made me feel… like I really wanted it.”

Groaning, Sasha moved forward, “alright, alright, no need to get all serious about it,” as he dropped the book on the table as instructed. But when he took a step back, he had to fight back the urge to pick it up again. He slowly looked at his hand and slowly closed it as his face grew stern.

I shrugged, “well, it’s not like Gollum levels of compulsion here, but there is something about the book that makes you kind of want it.”

At this point, I realized that during our return to the house, I’d almost exclusively talked to Mech about the book and discussed what it might also contain.

I nodded, moving away from it, “maybe it’s a bit more than that when I think about it.”

“Soo… ye found a journal of some koind?” Colleen said as she got closer to it.

I gave her a warning look, “don’t touch it, it does something to you when you do. Both me and Sasha can attest to that.”

Picking up one of the cups, I turned it around in my hand as I said, “well, at least we got these things which is a plus also. Should make dinnertime a bit less of a drab affair.”

Andrei scoffed, “you keep your fancy tableware, we’ll eat from the tray like real men… and women, I guess.”

Kay smirked, “I thought you’d say ‘like Russians’ there for a second, Andriosha.” Then she turned to all of us, “but he’s right, we’ll keep it simple.”

I looked at her in surprise, “so he speaks for all of you with this? It’s good stuff you know?”

And as everyone nodded in agreement, I shrugged and started distributing the bowls and cups to the others instead.

Sasha, looking thoughtful, said, “didn’t we find any silverware?”

“I mean, it looked like silverware, but this is clearly pewter,” I said as I held up a cup.

Sasha shook his head, “no no, I mean, forks and spoons, that sort of things. A fork could really come in handy.”

“nope, most of it has probably been looted, this small town has been abandoned for a long time.”

Andrei, held up a metal fork, “the trays do come with a … simple fork. but there’s only two,” he said, and then added, “oh, and a spoon as well.”

I walked over to my backpack and pulled out some of our own utensils, “same with us, but our MRE’s, or whatever you call them here, now comes with some flimsy wooden cutlery instead.” I shrugged, “I guess the original had the plastic MRE sporks,” then I paused and sighed, “but as we never kept those around, this is all we’ve got.”

And here we all took a break to eat some of our rations. While it wasn’t as good as it had been back in the cart, after a while, we were all in pretty good spirits. (Especially as Andrei’s flask had made the rounds twice)

Closing my backpack, I turned to Sasha, “so care to take a stab at opening that lock on the book? And do be careful opening it if you do.”

Circe chuckled, “I’m not going to be looking at the book when you do, just in case there’s some kind of spell. I know how this shit goes.”

Colleen chided her, “oh come on lass, where’s yer sense of adventure?” But she too knew better than to look at it as Sasha walked over to the table.

He glanced at the book, “sure, why not?” As he got out his special set of lockpicks on the table. He smiled as he weighed them in his hands because they had been gifted to him by perhaps the best taffer thief there had ever been.

But as he got to work on the lock, he quickly scoffed to himself since the lock was the kind that you could have simply defeated with a slightly angled paperclip. In no time at all, he had the clasp open and was ready to open the book, but then he looked at all of us, “maybe Circe is onto something here, you all should probably look away when I open this.”

As most of us averted our eyes, Andrei stepped forward. “WAIT, Kay, may I have one of your crossbow bolts please?”

Kay nodded as she handed him the bolt. Moving closer, he carefully lifted the cover and flipped it open with a creaking sound from the leather. As he did, a small bug quickly scrambled out of it and into the shadows. As he flipped past the first blank page, he came to a second one that simply read “my journal” in handwritten script.

Colleen, having moved closer and leaning over it exclaimed, “so it woz a journal!”

Circe, still covering her eyes said, “so, have you all gone crazy yet? Can I look now?”

Andrei, smirking at her, started rambling for a bit like a madman.

Meanwhile, Colleen, picking up on the joke started dreamily saying “oh yes Circe it’s so fun .. you should look at the pretty, pretty book… the sex book.. it’s got sexeh men.. and cocks.. and arses.. lots of…,” and here she shouldn’t contain herself as she started giggling.

Here, Kay slapped Andrei, quieting him, “quit it.”

Andrei laughed, “hey! It was a fun joke!”

With all of us opening our eyes, I moved closer to the book, “you know, this is how teen horror movies start.”

Andrei, still using the bolt, started turning the page as something heavy outside slammed into the wall of the house, making it tremble.

Circe, scrambling to readiness, yelled, “shit shit shit SHIT! I knew that fucking thing was haunted!!!”

As everybody else got out their weapons and got ready for combat, Andrei quietly moved towards the shutters and carefully peeked out between them.

“I can’t see anything outside, it was probably–” he said as he was interrupted by another loud slam against the door.

Whatever it was out there was definitely powerful as we could all hear the wood creak a bit and we all saw dust coming off the frame.

“I’ll kick away the barricading bits, then we all rush out and get the fucker,” I said as I looked around at everyone.

“No, let ME, I’ve been ITCHING for a fucking fight!” And with that, Circe deftly removed the debris holding the door shut and then kicked it open and rushed outside with a war cry. Looking up and down the street, she could see nothing, looking up towards the roof, there was nothing there either.

As the rest of us slowly filtered out into the street, none of us saw anything.

“Come out you motherfucker! I’ve got my sharpened nails with your name on it!” Circe yelled ineffectually.

“Be ready for anything, whatever slammed into all of this sounded like it had strength behind it,” I said as I looked around the area.

“Da, that is why you want to be INSIDE with the door as a chokepoint,” Andrei quipped sarcastically.

“There’s no room to manouv–” I started saying as I suddenly was hit with a powerful slam in my gut that made all the air in my lungs get pushed out. I sank to the ground, coughing as I gestured feebly, “invisible asshole, fuck…”

Niky, having prepared herself now, cast detect magic. And as before, her vision sharpened as she started seeing the book on the table, glowing an ominous red. But she quickly turned her gaze to the big skeletal being with tattered bone wings that was leaning over me, its body language suggesting that it was curiously studying me writhing in pain. A black, inky smokey aura surrounded the being as well.

Wasting no time, Niky charged the creature and let out a plume from her flame thrower that fully engulfed it. When the flames immolated its body, the rest of us suddenly saw it for what it was. As I saw the creature so close to me and on fire, I yelped and crawled away from it as fast as I could.

The creature, looking back at Niky, shrieked in anger, and with that, she felt its scream piercing through her head, disorienting her completely as she dropped her weapon and sank to her knees.

Circe, seeing the creature too now, didn’t hesitate as she swung with her nails at the creature who deftly avoided them. Screaming into her face, the effects of the skeletal being’s voice were that much more powerful, and Circe crumbled into a heap on the ground, well on her way to passing out.

Andrei dashed at it and slashed at it with his swords, the first hit made it wince and shriek in pain as it hit its exposed ribcage. But the second cut effectively silenced its shriek as its skull got separated from the body, tumbling down the road.

Niky, having recovered a bit, looked up at it just in time to see its body turn to dust and the flames vanishing into nothing.

The silence was deafening as we all got back up, me still coughing, Circe and Niky being unsteady on their feet. (The former being held up by Niky as she was very dazed)

“Is it dead?” Circe said, looking around with a confused gaze.

Coughing a bit more, I replied, “I fucking hope so.”

Andrei, going over to help steady Niky, looked her over. “It should be, Niky, can you see anything?”

Looking around, all she could see were the remnants of black dust blowing around a bit and a strange mist rolling in. She looked back to the book and then to Andrei, “I’m only seeing this strange mist… and… the book, it’s glowing red.”

“Da, da, we know, it’s magic,” he replied as he kept poking and prodding her to make sure she was alright.

“No, you don’t get it, magic items tend to be blue. Magic is blue Andrei, but this book is RED, do you understand me? It’s not supposed to be red.”

I turned to Colleen, “you had some kind of identify capability, didn’t you?”

She shrugged, “well, outside of this world… I kinda do kno a bit about it. But… I can give it a try, I guess?

And as we all went inside the house again, Colleen briefly touched the covers of the book and then looked back at the rest of us, “so, I’ll have to grasp it, if I say anythin’ weird, ya clock me OK?”

Mech, nodding at her, “I will.”

Grabbing onto the book with both hands, there was a moment where she seemed to struggle with something, then she let go of it and went over to her backpack to get out some rags which she wiped her hands with thoroughly, all the while having a disgusted look on her face.

I looked at her, “are you OK?”

She shook her head, “that’s bloody human skin that has fer a cover! An.. it loikes blood.”

I took a step back from the book, “it’s alive?”

Colleen rolled her eyes and tossed the rag into the still-open stove where it slowly started burning, “no ya doofus, it’s got a blood curse on it.”

Sasha tilted his head, “makes sense it liked me. I probably had some traces of blood on my hands from breakfast.”

I turned to Collen and sighed, “OK, explain it to me like I’m an idiot.”

“Bad fekkin’ mage enchants book cover, makes it so that it loikes blood, book wants blood, if it gets blood, it gets stronger.”

“How can a book become stronger?”

Andrei smiled, “And what happens if we do feed it more blood?”

“Ach!” she sighed too, “yer all bloody newbies. Look, someone REALLY wanted this book ta stay whole yeah? So, they put a blood curse on it that makes it drink blood ta replenish itself. I mean, if ye had a lot of blood, sure, ya could keep yer library intact by just splashin’ blood on it.”

I looked down at the book with disappointment in my eyes, “oh, so… that feels silly though.”

Andrei gazed at it in an almost tender way, “can we adopt it? I’ll feed it a bit. Just a few drops, will do… something da?”

I pointed to the faded lettering on the first page, “turn the page first.”

Circe, having now lost her interest in the book, looked outside, “while you boys do that, I’ll keep an eye on the outside.” and then she moved over to the doorway.

Andrei turned the page and also arranged it so he “accidentally” cut himself. He looked up at Colleen and smiled a faked sheepish smile, “oops.”

Colleen yanked his hand away from the book and stared at him, “yer bein’ a very silly man. If yer gonna do it, do it roight!” She forced his hand over the page and squeezed the wound so that a string of droplets hit the page.

“Yeooow!” Andrei screamed as he pulled his hand away from her.

In the background, Kay was chuckling as we all looked down at the book where the droplets were absorbed almost immediately as if they’d hit a liquid surface.

Colleen nodded, keeping her eyes transfixed on the book, while mumbling almost to herself, “that should be enough…”

Sasha, now distracted by the blood, stared at Andrei’s bleeding paper cut, “Andrei… can I… have a little? I won’t bite I promise, just let me lick.”

Circe, turned around towards us, “gross,” before she resumed looking around the street.

“Animal blood works, but there’s nothing like humanoid blood,” at this point Sasha’s tone of voice had taken on a pleading tone.

Andrei sighed theatrically, “sure, my boy,” as he offered his hand. And as Sasha started licking, he warned him, “no biting.”

Circe shuddered, “it’s still nasty to suck on a finger like that.”

“Stop kink-shaming my boy, eh?”

But, after a moment, Sasha hissed and spat out the little blood he had in his mouth, “right, I forgot, we’re not humans here.”

“So?” Andrei said with surprise in his voice.

“Only humans taste good, your blood is bitter, maybe that’s why draining that bat earlier made me nauseous for a bit,” Sasha said with disappointment in his voice.

Meanwhile, the visible pages were slowly restoring the faded lettering, making it legible again. But as I read the first sentence, I realized that was written in a language I couldn’t understand. I stepped away a bit and grunted in dissatisfaction, “can someone else look at this? I can’t fucking read this. It’s… wrong somehow.”

Colleen leaned down and looked closely at it for a while, before she turned to the rest of us, “there’s.., somethin’ preventing us from readin’ this. Whomever wrote this, wanted ta keep their notes fer themselves,” then she turned the page to show a big pentagram-like sketch one page, the other page had drawings of herbs and notations.

She raised her shoulders in a shrug, “maybe some sort of ritual? I cannae make it out.”

Niky shook her head as she looked at the drawings of the herbs, “I should know what these are, but I could swear I’ve never seen anything like these plants before.”

When looking at the humanoid figure depicted next to the leaves, it suddenly came to me, “damn, I think those might be dryad leaves, but… luck getting those.”

“Why?” Niky said as she briefly touched the page and immediately withdrew her finger.

“The only way you could get leaves like that would be to kill a dryad as those are basically like our skin is to us,” I said, feeling even more uneasy about it.

“Soo, not a ritual we should be doin’ then rite?” Colleen said.

Andrei shrugged, “well at the very least we’d need a dryad to do it, so…”

“As if we could, an’ I think that’s fer the best,” Colleen said.

“So… we wrap up the book and move on then?” I said, feeling uneasy at the sight of the thickening mist outside the house.

“We could just burn it in the stove before we leave,” Sasha said.

“I say wrap it. The thing was left here for a reason. Clearly, someone spent a lot of effort on it.”

“All the more reason to burn it.”, Sasha reiterated.

I closed it and ran my finger along the spine and I found myself absentmindedly saying, “I think it’d be nice to… keep around…”

Grunting as I withdrew my hand, I shook my head to clear it, “this book is really freaky… I KNOW this is a bad idea, but when I touch it, it feels absolutely sensible to safely take it with us.”

Colleen chuckled, “yeh, that’s wot ya get with cursed books. I say we bern the fekk out of it.”

Circe nodded, “I’m with her, burn it.”

“I say we keep it. It could be a resource later on,” Mech added.

“Yeah, a curse that only helps to conserve it doesn’t seem too bad, considering things.” Andrei also said in agreement.

And about twenty minutes later, our intense discussion resulted in a vote that had a bare margin of having us keep it. Colleen got some worn cloth from her satchel, wrapped it thoroughly, and then stuffed it in her backpack.

“Why should you be the one to keep it?” Andrei said to her, suddenly feeling concerned.

“Because, now that we’re keepin’ it, I want it ta be with someone who knows cursed books, and most of ya fekkers don’t know yer arse from a basic enchantment,” Colleen said as she closed up her backpack.

Then she turned around to us, “now, if any of ya see me talkin’ about the book, or if I have it out, ya smack me as hard as ye can rite? THEN we fekkin’ bern it ta hell.”

Kay nodded in agreement, “yes, seems OK.”

“So, are we heading onward?” I said, suddenly aware of how much time we’d wasted arguing about a goddamn book.

Mech, still peering out through the shutters replied, “I am not sure that is such a wise idea. The mist has thickened considerably.”

Circe shrugged, peering out through the doorway, “no more skellies though… then again, maybe there’s a whole fucking army out there because we can’t really see them.”

I made a gesture to everyone, “I’m not going out first this time, getting the air punched out of me wasn’t exactly a nice experience.”

Circe rolled her eyes, “Fairy, stop being such a fucking baby already, ” as she resolutely stepped out into the street and looked around, “COME ON YOU SKELLY FUCKERS!”

When nothing else happened, we all piled into the street where the cold, damp mist felt like it was almost clinging to us.

I looked up the road which was only visible about 20 meters up, the great castle was only barely visible in the distance. “I should have brought a thicker coat.”

As we trekked up the road, it started getting better, and more defined. The dirt was replaced with a rough cobble that then became a properly cobbled road. (well as proper as one can be when it’s mostly overgrown) As we walked as quietly as possible, we couldn’t help feeling unnerved by the trees and bushes peeking out of the thickening mist. Soon enough we started seeing outlines of a big building in the distance and as we got closer, it resolved itself into a grey official-looking building with two tattered banners hanging from the front. Both of them had the same design, which had once been a crimson red, now faded to almost pinkish red. But the black skulls painted across the banners were still as prominent as ever.

When we properly had reached the building, we could also see that the windows were stained with grime and impossible to see through. Two big doors lead inside along with a smaller one on the side.

As we looked up at it, I said, “I think this is some kind of garrison picture or possibly some kind of stables.”

Andrei shook his head, “this doesn’t look like any kind of stables I’ve ever seen.”

I tried pulling on the big rings on the double doors, but they wouldn’t budge.

Niky stepped closer and raised her hand as she focused on sensing any magic from within. But there was nothing. She shivered in the sudden cold that seemed to have crept up from nowhere.

I sighed, “can someone with some actual muscles try this shit?”

Circe grinned, “sure!” as she walked up, grasped the ring, and pulled hard. We could all see her muscles bulging with the exertion as she yanked hard and got them up a bit. She looked back at all of us, “either these are locked or they’re really fucking heavy.”

Kay, getting herself ready, smiled at Circe, “let’s try together.”

For a moment, they both strained against their respective doors, nothing budging. But then with a big creaking sound, they suddenly burst open, throwing them both to the ground. As the doors swung open, a rotten stench wafted out towards us, and we could all see why they had been closed. A big piece of mostly rotten-through wood had been holding them shut, but due to the combined efforts of Circe and Kay, they managed to overpower the beam holding them closed.

Inside the building’s dim interior, we saw various forms of horse apparel: saddles, halters, blankets along simple farming equipment, but what caught everyone’s eyes was the big pile of rotting horse corpses that was in the middle of the big room.

Holding my hand in front of my face, I gagged a bit. “What the fuck?”

“What the hell?” Andrei said, taking a step back.

Circe quickly scrambled back, “that’s nasty as fuck.”

I shrugged my shoulders, “guess somebody doesn’t like horses.”

Kay, still remaining close, peered inside deeper, “maybe they drained them and then left the corpses there?”

“But why have a stable if you’re going to eat your horses?”

“Maybe there was no other source of ‘food’?” Kay offered.

Colleen sensing something said, “careful everyone.”

From out of the pile of corpses, a white hand emerged, and another one joined it as they pushed the corpses aside. Slowly, a ghostly, pale entity started crawling out. Its skin, was a shiny latex-like sheen that almost shimmered in the dusk. A wet, squelching sound came from the creature’s mouth, and we all realized with disgust that it was chewing on something in the same manner that a cow would chew grass.

It laboriously swallowed and then straightened itself up, its mouth suddenly lolling out of its mouth as it studied us with its pitch-black eyes. Its face had a rudimentary nose, and it was completely hairless, giving it an oddly alien appearance.

Niky grinned as she pulled the trigger on her flamethrower, engulfing the creature in its flames. The effect was surprising, as it was like the creature and the pile of horses had been doused in something extremely flammable. As the corpses and the creature caught fire, the creature shrieked and ran towards us. Simultaneously, the corpses all opened their eyes, and they were solid whites as they all joined in the nightmarish shrieking.

As their corpses started exploding, disembodied spectral figures launched out towards us, but they quickly thinned out as they vanished into nothing.

The creature however, had its sights set on Niky as it rushed towards her and swung at her, she barely dodged in time as it fell down on the ground, still burning and trying to shriek, but as its vocal cords were no doubt burned, all that came out was a hoarse panting sound. It scrambled across the ground and grabbed her leg with surprising force as she fruitlessly tried to free herself. It shivered as it moved to bite her, but the next thing that connected with its skull-like head was Kay’s boot as she put everything into kicking it as hard as she could. However, it barely affected it as it was just momentarily stunned.

Next thing we knew, its head was rolling on the ground as Andrei had brought down his sword across its neck, severing it completely. Niky grunted as she kicked it aside and took a few steps back and doused it in an even bigger plume of fire than before.

As the corpse burnt fiercely, there was a moment where a sort of sigh escaped from it and we all took a step back in fear. The pile of horses had now become just a big charred, smoldering mess that stunk to high heaven.

I retched as I shook my head in disgust, “yeah… yeah…I think I’m done for the evening.”

Andrei gave me an incredulous look, “you intend to rest HERE?”

I smiled weakly at him, “I was kinda hyperboling. This place is nasty. Let’s just leave this stable portion and check out the other building. I don’t think there’s any risk of the fire spreading.” After a long pause, where nobody said anything. I added, “unless someone wants to go into that pile of left over horse carcasses and dig through them.”

“Nyet, thanks,” Andrei said as he studied the smoldering heap with equal disgust.

Startling me, Colleen grabbed onto my arm. “Fairy dear, would ye be kind and skewer its head please?”

I nodded as I impaled the head a few times with my sword before pulling it out. “Well, it looked pretty dead already.”

“Aye, but old tales of white ghosts say you should cut their heads off when you put them ta rest.” Then she added, “If we wanted ta be real safe, we could quarter it and bury each body part in one direction in a cross.”

I pointed at its grim visage, “it’s fucking dead.”

“Who has the bloody holy water by the way?” Colleen asked as she looked around the group.

Sasha stepped forward, “I have some, but we did divide the bottles between ourselves before we went across the lake. Well, some of us.” He then opened one of the bottles and poured it over the head and corpse, which sizzled, but apart from that, nothing spectacular happened.

I shrugged my shoulders, “see? It’s dead-dead.”

*Meanwhile Circe has gone over the the door*

Circe eyed the door, “so, we’re going into the other part of the building?”

Andrei grinned at her, “Yeah, I mean, unless you want to cozy up with the corpses…”

Circe looked back at Kay, “maybe we should close this up?”

She nodded in return as they both pushed the big doors closed as best they could.

Meanwhile, Sasha had already moved to the smaller door on the other part of the building, where he was trying to pick the lock. But as his tools seemed to get no purchase on the inner workings of the lock, he concluded that it was broken. He grunted as he slammed his fist against it and looked back at the rest of us, “it’s broken.”

Sighing, he cast blood bolt on it, but when the projectile struck the lock, it just splattered everywhere uselessly. “Great, shit doesn’t work on inanimate objects?”

I shrugged. “I don’t make the rules, macrocosm does. Guess that’s the way that works.”

“Maybe our brute can kick it open then?” Sasha said, eyeing Circe.

She grinned back. “One fucked door coming right up!” as she got the door open almost effortlessly with a few well-placed kicks, before bowing mockingly towards Sasha.

The interior (as depicted in MSpaint) was sort of like this:

Being the most perceptive, both Sasha and Andrei quietly crept Inside. The sight that met them were rows upon rows of tables, some in the back had equipment on them, others had leftover plates and bowls and goblets. There were also a few chairs, some broken, others still in pretty good shape. In the corner, they could see a small set of cupboards and a stove, giving them the impression that this was some sort of canteen which would be part of a barracks.

Circe, keeping out of sight of the doorway whispered to them, “so what are you guys seeing in there? More nasty horse zombies?”

“Tables,” Andrei said as he sheathed his weapon.

“Tables?” Circe hissed back with growing annoyance.

“Doesn’t seem to be anything moving in here.”

Elbowing herself past them, she had her claws readied as she looked around the room, “tables. Fucking tables. Yeah. Guess that tracks.” Then she looked to her right and saw stairs leading to the second floor. Trying one step up, it creaked loudly under her foot but held firm. “Huh. Stairs too.”

“Da. very stairy. Much climb,” Andrei said, smirking at her.

“Looks rickety as fuck though,” Circe said as she made a snap decision, “fuck it, I’m calling shotgun on this,” as she started up the stairs carefully.

As Circe gingerly headed up the stairs, at one point, she put her foot down a bit too hard and the step cracked. Avoiding it, she still made it up to the second floor without much other incident.

Downstairs, everybody had quietly filtered into the room. Mech and Colleen kept a silent eye on the outside while Sasha and Niky rifled through the tables. Meanwhile, Andrei was leaning against the wall, clearly taking in the scene.

In the back, Niky and Sasha found some farmer’s equipment, pitchforks, some leather straps that seemed good, and a bunch of dinnerware. Also, hidden in a pile of hay, Niky fished out a beautifully crafted wine glass made out of roughly faceted crystals, giving it a very angular look. Niky immediately cast detect magic on it, but nothing really radiated off it in terms of magical energies. She spat on it and gave it a rub with her sleeve and the sparkle made her smile as she quickly wrapped it in some rags and stuffed it in her backpack. She also went through some of the utensils and the leather straps that still seemed sturdy enough. She also found a rusty butcher’s cleaver, that initially she wanted to discard, but after weighing it in her hand, she found it to be excellently balanced and put it into her backpack as well.

Meanwhile, on the second floor, this was the view that met Circe as she carefully surveyed the room from behind the pillars of the banister.

What she saw was a series of beds, some broken, others simply just having semi-rotten sheets, others were in pretty good condition. On the right side, wardrobes lined the wall. On the far wall, windows caked with decades worth of dust let some of the dim light still left of the day. She leaned down and shouted, “I found beds up here!” as she tested the floor to make sure it was sturdy enough to walk on.

Moving over to one of the better-looking beds, she pulled up a rough-looking blanket and felt it. “Not bad…” she muttered to herself, but she quickly let go of it when a big spider crawled out from underneath it.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Colleen had joined Niky in checking the kitchen portion of the back of the room. In one of the cupboards, she found a lot of neatly stacked firewood, in another she found some old preserves that looked like nasty science experiments. As Niky and the others headed upstairs, she kept inspecting things with a puzzled look on her face.

She looked back to Mech when everything quieted downstairs.

“Where’d everyone go?”

Mech, still keeping an eye on the door, looked back towards her, “They’re upstairs. Circe did yell something about beds.”

Colleen nodded as she pointed to a pipe that went from the stove and up through the ceiling into the room above, “see this pipin’? That’s probably supposed to heat the upstairs yea?”

Mech nodded, “we should leave this for a bit though, and join the others.”

After a few moments, we were all assembled in the upstairs room, and Circe was pointing towards one of the windows she’d cleaned up a bit. “Look, there’s stuff on the back of the building too!”

What we saw below was a small courtyard with some target dummies and other practice tools meant for soldiers. I nodded as I said, “yeah, this confirms it, this place is less of a stable and more of some kind of training ground or small garrison. But where are the troops?”

“We can figure out that later, we should get some sleep now,” Andrei said as he pulled together a few beds and started checking them to make sure they were somewhat in decent condition.

For the next few minutes, Colleen went downstairs and managed to get a fire lit in the oven where she stuffed with as many logs as she dared to. After monitoring it for a while, she returned upstairs to carefully feel the pipe running through the room, which was decidedly warm. Then she went outside to study the chimney which she found to be letting out smoke. Nodding to herself, she returned inside to report that it seemed to be working well enough.

Then we all moved downstairs, barricaded the remains of the door as best we could, and then returned upstairs and wedged as many beds as we could in front of the stairs. While they wouldn’t really stop an attacker, the noise of them trying to get through them would very likely wake us up. Or so at least was the reasoning among the group.

When we all fell asleep, it was to a very uneasy slumber.