"Now I'm beginning to see why they sunk this place beneath the river."
Amelia grunted as she attempted to focus. "First...let us gather it here." She reached out with her magic and muttered, "Come to me," pulling the infected to this place.
"Okay, eerie glow, here we come," Jessica mutters to herself as she steps toward the sickly light down the hall.
As Jessica approaches the eerie glow, she can see in the nurses' blank expression that their eyes are following something in the depths of the well. They start to sway back and forth, closer and further from the well, and...bits start to drop off them that everyone can see.
Amelia's personal connection to the infection boosted her ability to communicate with them. Slowly, shambling steps, and the doorways of filled with the ill that are left. The air becomes thick with lumps and blobs.
Jessica hears an argument behind her. In the limited light that the stairs to the surface gives, she sees a few silhouettes. Some seem to be trying to restrain or carry off the others. Closest to Jessica at the bottom of the stairs is the young woman from earlier, her frail size and familiar ragged cough muffled in her sleeve giving her away.
She stands teetering, her arms digging into the rock walls as she struggles - whether she's trying to go forward or holding the others back is unclear.
"Draw the poison forth," Amelia muttered as she pulled the people and things to her. "Then to draw it out. Heat. Sweat the infection out. And a poultice to pull. Push and pull." She could feel the thing within her, but she was using it as much as it infected her now, attuning the magic. Drawing her chalk she scribbled in fevered motions on the floor and the wall, sigils of purification and water to push the infection from within, runes of salt and air to pull it.
"I'm trying to help! Head back that way!" she shouts to the young woman while pointing her flaming sword at the nurses.
Amelia's magic began its work, but in her fever-addled brain, something went a bit wrong. The ill people - including Amelia - started to tremble, nausea as it felt their insides were being pulled and pushed around.
Jessica sees the young woman grab at her stomach and mouth, falling against the wall.
Amelia grunted in pain as the somewhat familiar and exceptionally unpleasant feeling of the consequences of poor cooked meat and left over stew hit her. Was it the disease trying to leave? Or was this something else?
"Let's get you someplace else," Jessica says as she grabs the young woman by the wrist and tries to pull her back the way she came.
Jerry puts a hand on Amelia's back and one on her shoulder as if to steady her.
"I'm not goodd at this magic stuff, but I've seen it done a few times. Is there some way you can use my "energy" or whatever to help?"
Amelia was aware that there were pros and cons to vomiting. It might remove all or at least some of it from her, but then not doing so meant she had greater control and less likely to lose what parts she had. In her nauseous haze, Amelia could see that the other ill near her also looked nauseous and that Jerry was offering his aide. How to use such aide was the question.
The young woman did not react well to having her wrist grabbed, weakly struggling against as she staggered and started to dry heave.
The ground starts to shake around the hunters and the nurses start to ooze liquid from their mouths. It drips onto the ground by the well. The sickly light grows, mostly from the well, but also from the floating bits in the area and the splatter that is coming from the nurses and some of the ill.
For now Amelia chose to hold onto the contents of her stomach. It was not a pleasant feeling, but the connection was more important to rid the whole group of the infection. It was not easy but she managed to quiet her rebellious stomach enough to keep it under control for the moment.
As the disease was being drawn to this place - willingly or not - Amelia began the next part of the plan. The poultice. She needed something to draw this vileness out. Heat and dryness.
She focused on the rocks, drawing the minerals from the rock. Salt. She needed salt. Mix it with air, and heat. Add the dried herb she had found. If it remained stable she could transfer the disease in her, to it, and draw all the poison forth. But first, it needed to be stable...
Jessica pauses and makes a face when the young woman starts dry heaving. "Gross. Do you need me to, like, hold your hair?"
Salt and air. Heat and betony. The walls started to drip with water and red puss, the herbal smell not perfectly covering the underlying sick smell.
The young woman Jessica spoke to started to shake her head before she drooped down. Her eyes drifted shut as her body racked in a hoarse cough.
The nurses spasmed where they stood while the other ill grew drowsy, leaning against the wall and each other even as several were similarly wracked with coughing. Amelia could feel that her magic was stabilizing but as she used the connection, she started to feel that connection was being used both ways...
The ground continued to tremble around the hunters. The red particles in the air clumped together with the puss that running down the wall. They stretched - then sharpened. Darts of dark red fired, first at Amelia, and then at Jessica and Jerry. More of the red gunk was rising out of the well and the nurses...
Amelia continued to remain focused. It wasn't even clear if the woman noticed the horrifying scene around her as she continued to focus on the spell, ripping the vile crunk from everything into one point.
"Aaagh! What is going on?!?" Jessica shouts as she recoils from red darts shooting at her. Her wings appear instinctively and begin flapping uncontrollably in the enclosed space.
"Oh, s*@*!" Jerry ignobly drops to the damp ground, the red darts just barely passing overhead.
Jessica's wing flapping stirs up old dust and even more red gunk from the walls, sending it hurtling around the space at great speed. This creates a lot of coughing and shaking among the sleepy ill. With no real control, several of the red bits sting Jessica's skin.
Jerry manages at the last moment to avoid the gunk, the whizzing over his head too close for comfort. He can see that the chunks that go near Amelia end up in one gross lump in front of her. A strong wing and hurtling dust fills the corridor and a large red pulsing mass is rising quickly out of the well. One of the nurses falls over, her skin gone grey and is starting to crumble away, sharply rising up towards the rising mass.
Jessica reels under the assault as she tries to gain control of herself. She wills away the wings, having a strange thought that getting the red gunk in them would be really hard to clean. She tries covering her face with one arm and holding up her sword with the other and turning her armor towards the worst of the stinging bits.
If he can get a clear shot, Jerry rolls over from his position on the ground and fires a blast into the lump in front of Amelia.
Amelia continued to collect the vial ooze into one place. And compact it. She was screaming. How long had that been happening? It didn't matter, really. She could feel her throat was already raw from the disease. She wouldn't allow it to win - not within her body, not within her soul and not within these halls.
Jessica blocked some from her face, but the intense stinging remained in many places -- though whether it was intense than the pain from Amelia screaming the hall down is unclear.
Jerry's blast goes wide and in the dusty atmosphere, it unclear to him where the bullet went other than not in the squishy mast.
Amelia managed to get much of the mass together, and as she squeezed the solid, liquid ooze poured out, hitting the wall behind. The ill on the floor winced, though whether from the Amelia's action or her screams that filled the hall.
The screaming echoing down the hall catches her attention. That sounds like Amelia. "Okay, I'll be back," she says to the sick people. Then she moves...
"Don't shoot me!!" Jessica shouts as she appears next to her summoner.
"All the sick people are back there coughing up gunk and... gross!" she reacts when she sees the solid ooze.
Her sword blazes with fire and she jabs it.
Amelia continued to focus. "I shall draw it all forth to be purged. All of it!" It was entirely unclear as to whether she was explaining what was happening to Jennifer or simply ranting deliriously.
Jerry scrambles to his feet and reloads before approaching the oozing mass, trying to get closer for a better shot.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Jerry's pierced a large part of the mass, though he was caught up in the burning backlash on his skin and damaging his clothes.
The flames of Jessica's sword seared through, the charred portions crumbling away. The nurses too, silently, their feet began to crumble and they fell like smashed statues. The ooze that leaked out of them moved to join the mass as the Plague Master struggled to heal.
More gunk and gross came from every direction as Amelia's magic grew stronger and the Plague Master grew weaker from the Jerry and Jessica's strikes. The heat in the air grew heavy as the plague master started to twist and burn under the force. More dark brown flaked away. Amelia could feel it trying to pull away from her.
Jerry and Jessica notice that the sickly yellow light is dimming and flickering and all the rooms off their corridor have gone dark. The stairwell to the surface looks to have soft moonlight shining down.
Jessica keeps her sword stabbed in the heart of the disease as she wills it to blaze brighter and hotter. "The unrighteous shall burn!!" she shouts (was that in Latin? I don't know Latin.)
The crumbling mass is momentarily pinned by the flaming sword, but begins to drip downward towards the well.
The well is in a wall niche roughly in the middle of the long hallway, with a bench that has boxes under it in a niche opposite the well and a few now crumbling nurses between them. There are multiple doorways to now dark rooms along this hall, each with several slumped over ill people. At one end of the hallway is a rough staircase going up that also has several slumped over not-as-ill people including the young woman from before who is about a meter away from them. At the other end is the curve that leads back down to the underground river. The whole hallway had a sickly glow that was emanating from the area around the well, which Jerry and Jessica - due to not rambling in magic focus - have noticed is dimming and flickering, making the moonlight in the stairwell that goes to the surface more obvious. The well or one of the rooms may have water to submerge the mass. To the hunters' knowledge, all those affected by the plague master are present, though are all unconscious other than Amelia.
"This goo is headed toward that well," Jessica observes. "Any ideas on how to plug it up?"
Amelia glared at the attemt to escape. "You shall not leave. I do not allow it." She raised her hand and close it into a fist as she thing attempted to ooze it way out, a force appearing in the middle and attempt to draw the crunk back to one place. "Salt it, burn it, leave nothing to continue its works." As she said she gestured to the well, trying to use yet more magic to block it.
Jerry rushes forward to the well. Flipping on his head-mounted flashlight, he peers down to see what there is to see.
Jerry could see that the well is a bit over a meter wide and gets wider and rougher as it goes down. His light hits several broken off metal bits embedded in the sides and there are portions lower down where the well walls have pitting and holes. He sees from some of the broken off metal, white crystalline structures were quickly forming a shaky seal across the well about an arm's length down.
Amelia and Jessica could see that a white crust was forming around the remaining mass, at least where orange flames weren't still burning and crumbling bits away. The force held it together for a few more moments before it fired out hot, salty parts of itself at the hunters and attempt to slink what little remained below...
Jessica grits her teeth against being pelted by the salty crust. "Why won't this stuff just die??"
Glancing over at the disease mass, Jerry notices it's crust is the same color as the seal trying to form across the well. Thinking there's a connection, Jerry draws his nightstick and jabs it into the well, trying to see if these white crystals can be broken off. If so, he tries to prevent this seal from forming.
Once again resisting the creatures attacks, Amelia grits her teeth with a noise that would make a dentist wince, and began to infuse the thing with salt. As in she forced the salt from the rock into the things very existence. She was not familiar with the concept of 'cells' but that would be what she intended to enfuse with salt.
Jessica is slowed down by the pain, but Amelia pushed through with grit and a bit of luck.
Amelia's magic congealed around the mass, some of the 'cells' burst as they filled with salt.
Jerry managed to break a hole in the salty seal, what little of the mass was free seemed to be heading towards it, spraying some of the hot salt towards Jerry.
Hissing in pain, Jerry grips his shotgun again and tries to blast the smaller mass so that he has more time to figure out this well.
Frowning as her seal was broken and unsure why Jerry had done so, Amelia struggled to focus and looked for another solution to keep the thing from escaping. The box within the room contained some useful things, like rune sticks. Amelia groaned as she moved to them, taking the sticks and ramming them into the thing to hold it.
Staggering back, she rasped, "Burn what remains."
"That's something I can do," Jessica says as she puts her flaming sword to use once again.
Jerry's shot splattered the smaller mass.
Amelia stabbed the larger crusty mass into the wall. A small target in the dim corridor was easy to miss when Jessica attempted, but after a few moments, the runes started to drip...something. Warm herbal scents filled the air and the crusty mass got smaller and smaller until the sticks clattered onto the well-wall.
It was hard to tell if all of the Plague Master had been cleansed, but at least for now, the sickly feel of this place was starting to lift.
The ones by the stairwell began to stir first, the young woman quickly on her feet and helping the others. Some of the ill in the doorways began to move as well. Amelia feels the pain in her throat start to fade.
In the soft light, it's hard to see much beyond the sillouettes, but a few in the stairwell are staring up at something.
Rubbing her throat, Amelia winced as the aches and pains she had earned began to kick in now that the all-consuming infection was no longer devouring her mind along with. She glared at the final remains of the Plague Master. Mayhap it was dead, but she would return shortly with kerosine and matches to be additionally certain.
Moving to the stairwell, Amelia tried to see what everyone was starting at.
After a few ragged gasps, Jessica finally realizes that they've apparently won. She extinguishes her sword and sends it to that place where things she owns goes.
She sees the sickened people moving like they were feeling better. She wonders if she should slip away. She could go someplace else with virtually a thought, and not have to be viewed as something she wasn't. But they may need some help getting out, she thinks.
"I'll go up top. You pass them up to me," she tells Jerry, and then moves to the top of the stairwell.
Frowning as her seal was broken and unsure why Jerry had done so,
"I'll go up top. You pass them up to me," she tells Jerry, and then moves to the top of the stairwell.
Jerry nods and starts to help.
As Jerry and some of the young adult survivors start to help some of the doorway survivors rise and get to the stairwell and up to Jessica and Amelia, it becomes obvious not all of them are going to rise. With his headlamp, he can see silhouettes of bodies and piles that never left the bed mats, some that barely left, and some of the bodies in the door are looking very old and dessicated now that the Plague Master is gone.
With those able were helped up the stairwell and out of the rickety building, the clear sky is the only thing that is obviously different to the hunters. Not a cloud to be seen, the deep darkness dotted by stars outshined the large red moon. Some of the survivors seem more confused than others, some just look relieved, a couple seem angry. The young woman from before appears to be dealing with someone furiously waving their hands around while she's just shrugging.
Amelia looked at the red moon in...discomfort. That couldn't be a good thing. Surely she hadn't used so much magic that the moon itself was chastising her? Violating the laws of man and nature had consequences, but this seemed a bit much.
"What's up with that?" Jessica says when she looks up and sees the red moon.
Feeling very uneasy about the situation, and the number of survivors of the plague going topside, Jessica takes several steps away from everyone.
"I think I'll, um... Bye." She gives Jerry and Amelia each a nod, and then she moves.
She's at an old convenience store in Aboite, and across the street is the run-down motel where she saw Amelia staying at. She quickly ducks behind an large and smelly dumpster and changes outfits, stashing away her pieces of armor into that otherspace and calling forth her sweats and oversized T-shirt. She steps out into public again, still glancing upward at that unnatural moon, and crosses the street to the motel.
She best-guesses the room that Amelia was staying at and parks herself in front of the door. She guessed it'd be several hours before Jerry and Amelia would get those people to some kind of safety and finally return here for some sleep. Assuming that they didn't move on to some more important job or place they needed to be.
She squeezes her knees up to her chest and puts her head down, wishing that she could sleep.
"I think I'll, um... Bye." She gives Jerry and Amelia each a nod, and then she moves.
Jerry looks at Amelia in confusion. First Zeke, now Androleteira. After a moment, he shrugs. He's seen stranger than erratic behavior and even a giant red moon in his time. Before too long he turns his attention back to the people.
There's nothing left for them to do, he surmises. Sure, it would be nice to make sure everyone makes it back to the town safe and sound, but that's for police officers and upstanding citizens that are part of the normal world. Hunters aren't really part of that world, and trying to lead these people back risks drawing the Hunters out. Best to slip away now that the immediate threat is gone and people start asking questions.
"Jerry walks over to Amelia. Seems we're all leaving. These people don't need us to walk back to town. Let's deal with that," he points to the person furiously waving their hands, "and I can give you a lift out of town. We can pick up anything from your motel, first."