Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Loimos splattered to the ground like a wet towel, having softened his fall with mound of gooey and bouncy rot, quickly hiding everything as he paid attention to the descent of the living, the initial ballon Rummy had pulled out was only good had breaking their fall it seemed, as she had switched to some sort of wide piece of cloth, the undead not knowing what this sort of equipment was called, or if it was even named.

The undead inspected the surroundings at once, and over a wide area, drowned in utter darkness, his senses were at their best in this environment, everything was within grasp at once, the texture, material and position of every corner, rooms and objects, nothing was a secret to him here.

He had known that the space below his feet was empty thanks to darkness awareness in the first place, the only question left was if the living had understood his actions as a simple warning, or as an attempt to kill them all using gravity.

"Are you doing alright up there?" he asked them before they could even land.

This underground area was clearly marked by death, dark, bluish stone formed the underground structure they found themselves in, scarred by countless clawings directly on the surface of the stone, some of those remnants of beastly wrath and terror were especially deep.

Although, none had managed to pierce through the stone, no matter how powerfully they had tried to escape, no matter how many claws they had broken and ripped off their paws, staining the walls and ground with their blood, this had happened many times, the floor was bumpy and irregular, cracking with every step.

The blood of the trapped creatures had covered the stone, now however, the ancient hall was riddled with pieces of debris, vegetation that had come from above, broken trees covered the chasm, parts of them hanging down.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

The ceiling had been much thinner than the walls, but also much higher than expected, many protrusions came from the walls the more elevated one was, the more of them there was, like perches for a winged creature to settle upon, and considering the extent at which each of those were stained dark red, it had been another ground for slaughter.

The hidden ruin was a veritable slaughterhouse, and this was but a single room, it expanded much further, all of it was suffused with death force, life had been chased out of here, in fact, Loimos could tell that this underground was even denser with death that Dracula's domain or Nosferatu's sunken monument, someone, or something, was actively dragging living here and carefully eradicated all life within them, converting a single life into the maximum amount of death force as was possible.

The work of an expert.

Such fine craft, that the living were left all pale and with wobbly knees as they finally touched ground, the beastfolks had trouble breathing properly, one was led to believe that the supposedly horrendous smell of the vampiric blood was significantly stronger here, overbearing, ever present, all encompassing.

For those that could not distinguish the particular scent, it was simply the death hanging in the air that sapped the colours of their faces, Rummy approached the beast people while the other vampire hunters had their veins bulging and eyes bloodshot, as if they knew from the depth of their being that they were close to something they sought after.

"Sorry, but could you describe what you smell? Is it stronger in a certain direction?" the young huntress gently tapped the back of the wolf-headed beastman, whose sense of smell was obviously the strongest of the trio.

Coughing strings of saliva and feeling the back of his throat burning, the beastman needed a few minutes before he could manage to say anything, no one paid much attention to Loimos in that time, he was still standing in the darkness after all, even as the death hunters brought out luminous objects, the undead stood beyond the rings of light.

"I- I smell a lot of things…" the man first said, one hand up against his chest, in an attempt to calm his wildly beating heart, the animal instinct residing within the beastfolks was alerting them of an apex predator, neither close, neither far, simply there, they knew that they were within its reach, no matter where they went.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to get you all out of here in a moment, just tell me what you smell first!" Rummy encouraged the man, and it worked.

"There are countless, iron-like scents, those of many different creatures, and people that have bled here, there is a subtle smell of rot too, but not very pronounced… What is really sickening however, it's something other than the smell of that blood you had us smell before, it is present here, very much so, it's like I am being blasted by pheromones at all times, it is dreadful, but not what is the strangest…" his words got the attention of the hunters, not sure what he meant.

"It's… It's like- It reminds me of when I visit my alchemist friend, a chemical smell mixed with that of blood, the most awful scent I have ever encountered… That's not normal, and both that and the smell from before are stronger in the same direction, right over there!" he pointed without hesitation.

It was a good thing that Loimos had remained hidden in the dark, because he was pointing right at him, well, behind him, Loimos could not possibly exude such smell, he had already managed to fool the nose of the beastfolks despite being packed with rot after all.

'Two smells' he thought, rising one foot up.

And stepped into the light, with a most friendly posture, as friendly as a tall knight dressed in a dark mantle could appear at least.

"Will they be alright on their own? Laba is still dangerous after all, even if they do not move around" he shared his false, but logical worries, they had not even been scratched, but that was only thanks to the death hunters, without Rummy to guide them, they would have to move much more carefully, much slower, exposing themselves to more attacks from the predators.

"Don't worry Golpilz, I thought about it already, I'm not an idiot" she quickly looked away, searching frantically in her pockets before heaving a sigh of relief.

"What did I say! Beast repellent, I still- I had taken some preemptively" she nodded to herself, handing it to the locals, who were not feeling very good, not meant to be in such an environment, the death hunters could manage, the locals would die eventually if they remained.

"We should be able of climbing back on our own" one of the demons spoke up, eyeing the various perches and gaps in the walls, it was like this was meant to be scaled. Discover hidden tales at empire

As for the beastfolks, Rummy revealed some sort of grappling hook that came from beneath her right sleeve, shooting out straight up, stabbing into one of the tilted trees, now slumped over the chasm.

"One at a time folks" she extended her other hand, the other two beastfolks pushing the wolf-headed one to go first, since he was the one struggling the most down there.