Mama Nina's Diary - Borderline Dead (Complete)

11th March (continued The house)

Broderick yells from the room to the north. We all stop our search and rush there. The room has more of these crazy taxidermy critters. Broderick is cowering at the south side of the room, staring with terror at a stuffed guinea fowl on top of the piano. It has bulging eyes and cocks its head to one side so far that its neck looks broken.

Aria is dealing with another one to the south next to Broderick and I charge in and sink my wolf's fangs into the guinea fowl. I ripped off one of its wings and tasted the black blood, like tar in my mouth and spit the foul fowl out. It hops about and one of its eyeballs pops out, dangling from muscles and nerves. These things are the stuff of nightmares.

White Raven, Broderick and Aria are all battling monsters. In my peripheral vision, I see a taxidermy squirrel explode into a pile of fur, claws, and gore. Another critter, a stag, pierces my wolf hide with a sharp horn and I decide I cannot let these things hit me again. After ripping the remains of the guinea fowl to shreds, I call on the power of my Ki and slam my body into the remaining stag, bashing my head into his chest again and again. I feel its rib cage buckle under my assault and, with a last extra effort, I slam its lifeless body into the wall.

My time as a Dire wolf is almost done. I'm panting and blood drips from the stab wound in my chest. I felt twinges as the poison of the creatures attacked my system, but Silvanas has kept me safe. I focus on my human body. Closing my sharp wolf's eyes, I count my heartbeats and slow them.

1..2..3..4....5.....6.......7.........8..........9.................10

My body has returned to normal, the wound on my chest gone, and the teeth, claws, smells and sharp eyesight have all faded. Humans have such a dull sense of the world as compared to most beasts. We rule with our intellect alone. I sigh with relief from the pain and sag a little as the adrenaline rush has left my system.

I look around, getting accustomed to seeing this house with human eyes and my gaze falls onto a body. Not a critter, a human. Troy. His face was ashen, eyes bulging with terror. He has been eviscerated.

I go closer to see if there is anything I can do, but it is too late. He is gone. Aria is at my side, checking him over. She leaves the room. I look at the wounds and realise he has signs of poisoning and the wounds match those that the taxidermy critters inflict. Four against one... he didn't have a chance.

Broderick and White Raven are arguing again. Broderick wants to take the items that Troy had on his person, as he doesn't need them. It offends White Raven that he shows such a lack of reverence for the dead. I don't get involved with the discussion as I feel weary and sad that our companion has fallen. Aria returned with a blanket just as I was on the verge of snapping at them to both shut up and focus.

This calms the argument and Aria carefully closes Troy's eyes, after supervising Broderick taking important items and valuables from Troy's lifeless corpse, we cover him and leave the room. Evil has stolen our friend, and who knows if we will survive this night ourselves?

Aria mentions a chest and Broderick rushes off to examine it for valuables. He has a bit of a one-track mind, but maybe it is something to distract from what we've just witnessed.

Aria and Broderick are working at getting the chest open and they seem to have decided that brawn is the answer for this one as Aria is smashing the box with her mace. I guess we are past subtlety at this point. The lock breaks off the box as Aria smashes down and reveals an item wrapped in deerskins. Aria, wise to the repercussions of touching demonic or cursed items, uses a cloth to unwrap... a book. 

And what a gruesome sight! 

The book has a cover made from human skin, specifically a face, with the eyes, nose and mouth sewn closed. I can sense a strange energy coming off it, and without touching it I call on my arcane senses and probe the book. A focus! An evil magic focus.

It is an important tool for a spellcaster, but not so much that it would render them incapacitated without it. I have a strong sense that this thing must be destroyed and it must be destroyed now. Aria and Broderick listen to my explanation and we go out and set fire to it immediately. I cast Bonfire and Aria Sacred Flame. Between the mundane and the spiritual this book will be irrecoverably destroyed.

Broderick comments that maybe we should have read it to glean more information from it, but both Aria and I feel that would have been too much of a risk. We feel an eerie breeze blow through the camp fluttering the tent flaps but it is just the wind, nothing sinister.

I ask Aria what other items she noticed and besides the books there are also grey robes. Hmmm, maybe wearing the garb of the cultists may slow down us getting killed on sight?

Worth a shot, I guess. I explain my idea to White Raven who has discovered the door to the cellar in the middle room of the house. He agrees and goes to fetch a pile of robes. He returns with ten robes which we go through and don. Throwing them over armour and our usual clothes. We may look a bit bulky but any advantage we might gain would be worth it.

We have been making so much noise up here it is surprising that the whole hoard of monsters, cultists and the entire entourage of this cult haven't fallen on us already. But we try to open the doors to the cellar quietly...Creeeeeeeeeeek, BANG!

They fall open with the sound of a thunderclap, I guess there goes the element of surprise if we ever had that in the first place.