Amelia screamed in shock and horror as the person turned to corpse dust, and Amelia flung it into the air. Unfortunately, this seemed to mean most of it went directly into her face and Amelia began to cough brutally, a vicious, hacking thing.
Red bumps appeared on Amelia's arms where she had been holding the person and some on her face as well where some of that one person was now scattered. A heavy feeling of lethargy and a desire to lie down seeped in Amelia's bones.
Though the smirking nurse had managed to move out of the way of Jessica's swift attack, the blazing sword did manage to rip a hole down one of the other nurses that had been standing in the doorway. No blood, just an oozing dark pus leaked out. That nurse teeters, worse for wear, though Jessica now finds that a pair of the ill people are grabbing onto her legs, scratching at her. Two would be easy to deal with, but some of the others are beginning to move as well.
Stowing his nightstick in its loop on his belt, Jerry rearms himself with his shotgun, and tries to finish off the same nurse that Jessica struck.
You completely hold the advantage. All hunters involved in the fight get +1 forward.
"Things just became a lot more straightforward," he mumbles as he ejects his shotgun's spent shells and slides new ones in.
Coughing still, Amelia flicked her sword and shield out in agreement.
But the hacking cough stopped her from moving.
The shotgun left the damaged nurse a pile of pus against a wall.
One of the ill groaned sharply before turning to dust. The air grew cold and sharp. Movement could be seen flickering past the door.
Amelia raised her sword...
...and moved to attack one of the three remaining nurses.
Jessica feints to get one of the nurses to step right into Amelia's swing.
Amelia struggled to swing her sword, but manages to catch one in the shoulder just thanks to Jessica's help.
The chill in the room begins to bite, and several of the ill begin to groan. An icy tightness comes around everyone's necks and starts to press in. The previously smirking nurse is starting to look a bit impatient.
Shivering from the bite of the cold, Amelia attempted to attack impatient looking nurse.
Amazingly, despite the adversity, Amelia slashes out with her sword.
Jessica fights off the chill and steps toward the next nurse. She jabs with her flaming sword.
Jerry calmly holds his breath while he waits for the icy tightness to pass. Not wanting any friendly fire, he drops his shotgun and moves in with his nightstick.
The triple combo against the smug nurse turns her into another pile of pus and goo.
The other nurse in the room makes no advance, though does seem to be watching Amelia. The chill continues, as does the moans of the ill.
The group hears croaky humming somewhere nearby.
Amelia glared back at the nurse, although she suspected she knew what the look meant. But she said, "I am not -HACK- one to attack -wheeeZEEEee- to attack those not attacking -splutter- me. Shall we follow the -sniff- humming?"
Jerry turns to face the final nurse. He pauses when the final nurse makes no aggressive moves, but when he takes in the moaning and a new humming sound, he grumbles, "Well, it isn't surrendering," before he advances.
Jessica looks at Amelia with concern and nods her head. She's not going to become like those other infected, is she?
"Okay. Let's go."
Jerry picks up his shotgun and keeps it aimed at the ghost-nurse until the party can move on.
Amelia starts to feel a weird inner pull to lie down on one of the bed mats. Just for a bit. Just til the coughing stops. After everything, it would be so nice to lay down...
The nurse stares at Amelia and is standing in her way, but doesn't appear to making any real effort to stop anyone moving past at this time.
Amelia staggered for a moment, drawn towards the sleeping mat before she was able to right herself once more. "I wished to lie down. It was so tempting..." She stared at the mat in dread. "Perhaps it would be better if you were to not touch me. I fear I am infected."
Amelia's experience with weird helped her push through. The pull remained there at the back of her mind, a soft constant lullaby pulling at every ache.
The humming started to slow and there is a flicker of movement beyond the door that is hard to make out in the barely lit area. The nurse is still watching Amelia without moving.
Jerry moves between Amelia and the nurse and points his shotgun inches away from her nose.
"Move on, or you'll go with your associates."
"Leave her," Amelia said as she moved towards the door with another cough and a croak to her voice. "If she wishes to stay in this hell it saves us moving her to another."
"She's persistently staring at you while you're condition is getting worse. There could be a connection. She could be causing this."
"More likely she is simply waiting for me to be more...edible."
Jerry pulls the trigger.
Jerry punches a massive hole through the nurse, pus dripped down. Wide eyed, she seems stuck in place as Amelia made her way to the door.
The room across the way is the room Amelia was in earlier, there is no sign of anything being different. There are two doors further down the hall before an odd large nook at the end with a well and bench. The hall seems to continue further past. The echoes of the croaky humming from before have started to fade...
Jessica stays ready to finish off the nurse that Jerry shot in case she retaliates. If she stays put, she'll move into the hallway with her sword up and ready.
Amelia didn't like that Jerry had attacked someone they weren't sure was a danger, but was too tired to put up any protest. Besides, the thing was quite clearly a monster. Jerry might well be right.
Still, the noise was the more important and hopefully helpful, information.
The echoing noises led down the hall. On approach to the nook just beyond the second pair of doors which are very similar to the first pair at first glance, it's noticeable in the cluster of lit candles in a wall niche that there are a few crates under the bench and ashy smudge marks on the along the floor and walls.
As they head down the hallway, Amelia and Jessica hear one final shotgun blast from the room they just left. A moment later, Jerry catches up, grim-faced.
As he notices why they stopped at the second nook, he asks, "What, like a hidden door or something?"
Spending the hold for "What is being concealed here?"
Jerry can find no sign of a hidden door, the smudges seem to go between the rooms. In Jerry's experience, it looks like some trail of something that moves by both foot and in the air. It has a sickly look to it.
The crates appear to have been purposefully stashed away. They held old books and some jars of odd plant bits and a thick layer of dust.
Amelia moved over to the items and tried to work out what they were, with her knowledge of older, herbal remedies. Maybe it would offer an insight into what the hell was going on.
The first jar that came to Amelia's hand had very little remaining at the bottom. The faded label done by a fine hand showed a small drawing of a smudged tall plant with the word Betony. Amelia was familiar that, in Europe, this was once seen as a valuable and virtuous plant, used to keep away nightmares, ghosts, and monsters of the night as well as a cure-all for a wide range of ailments including its use in a salve with several other plants for bewitched ailments and injuries. It is not a plant that would have grown locally here without conscious effort. There are eight more jars, nine twigs, folded ribbons of cloth, and a few old books and papers.
A sliding sound echoed through the hall, but there is no sign of the source other than some of the smudges move slightly to the side.
Betony, huh? Amelia took another moment to check the papers and books, but expected them to begin to dissolve into mush or dust.
Flakey around the edges and loose from the bindings, Amelia finds a mix of diary pages, observation notes, drawings of plants, animals, and people, and a smattering of what looks like poetry, but it isn't in modern or even Amelia's variant of English.
Amelia took the notes - they might help if she could translate them - and continued trying to search down the source of the humming. Maybe there was a ceiling hatch...?
There was no sign of a ceiling hatch, but in looking, it did seem that the down the hall, the path curved at an odd angle...
When Amelia seems done searching the crates, Jerry takes the lead down the hall, shotgun at the ready.
Wondering what the hell was going on with the angles of the corridor Amelia began to try and work out if it was just the disease, or something else.
Jessica grows increasingly nervous while Amelia inspects the strange apothecary. She keeps shifting her grip on her sword, causing the flames to dance up and down the blade.
"Can I help with something?" she asks.
While it was difficult to see at the other end of the hall, Amelia can see that the turn seems just as real to Jerry as it does to her - it seems to be a later addition compared to the bare rooms - newer materials, neater feel. There is a stairwell - going up, going down.
"Someone is watching us," Amelia said as she staggered towards the stairs, "They are everywhere." The woman tried to discern if the humming was above or below.
"Try and keep it together," Jerry says to Amelia. "But if you feel like you can't go on, let us know."
As they reach the stairs, Jerry turns to Jessica and Amelia.
"In my experience, when you're ground level or below, you go further down to find what needs to be taken care of."
Amelia nodded - whether at the instructions or the suggestion was unclear - and lurched down the stairs.
Heading down the stairs, the wide staircase turned, spiraling down, soon becoming a damp sloped rocky path with narrowing walls slick with lichen and odd sickly looking growth that made the ground difficult to tread safely. There were occasional thin cracked paths coming off the staircase, blocked by the growths and an odd dusty material.
At the bottom is a wide outcrop back onto the underground river. Towering rocks blocked much of the view. Where the group had been before appeared to be farther up the river on the other side, but what probably caught attention more was the odd hunched over creature that seemed to be dropping things into the water. Softly, for a few moments at a time, the creature would croakily vibrate.
"Great. This place again," Jessica groans when they find themselves back at the underground river. "What's that?" she whispers when she sees the hunched figure.