Rotten flesh and magic tricks (P)

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    Right here we go, I guess I'll just get started. We'll just say that your character is on a routine dungeon clearance when she comes across an unusual enemy.


    The young man's eyes shot open, the black orbs slowly rolling backwards and forwards as they tried to find the perfect balance that would eventually settle his vision. Finally they snapped in the correct place, and he sat up slowly, his body strangely numb all over. "Where am I?" his voice rang out eerily, and he frowned before putting a hand to his throat. He didn't remember much as to how he got here, but he was certain that he wasn't supposed to feel like this.


    Finally he stood up, taking in the dimly lit cavern around him and completely oblivious to the chunk of flesh missing from his side, the scorch marks from what appeared to be fire magic having left his undershirt blackened and crumbling. "Is there even a way out of here?" he asked himself, gazing left and right as he tried to gain his bearings in the unfamiliar place.

    The caverns echoed with the sound of shrieking and the clanging of armor. Tamsin, along with a knight, and a rogue had been contracted to clear the place so that a group of dwarves could start a mining operation there. "..I think that's the last one," Tamsin said as she looked around at the goblin bodies littering the floor. Their own goblin rogue, Bread, seemed just a little bit uncomfortable. She brushed it off, Seymour would try, and likely fail, at comforting him when they got back to the warm, dry guild hall. "Let's just get to the end and see what kind of loot has been left behind." She said, as she put her pointy hat back on, her long red hair was a mess from the fighting. 'I'll have to braid it again when we're finished here'
    The small party pressed on, not encountering anyone on the way there.
    Til they reached the end of the cavern, "Look alive!" Tamsin exclaimed, readying her quarterstaff and alerting her party. "Who's there?" She called into the darkness

    "Who's there?" A voice cried out behind him, and he spun around to face whoever had shouted in his general direction, "Me!" he called back, staggering towards the ramshackle group of adventurers. Why was his walking so messed up? This is when he finally saw the hole in his body that exposed his ribs on his side, and if he could've felt his blood go cold, he would've, "I need help! I'm hurt!" he cried out, staggering towards them faster.


    He was a sight to behold coming towards the group, the young man stood at roughly 5'9, was covered in mud and dried blood all over his front, and the hole in his side revealed ribs and charred flesh. He was, in everyone's eyes, a monster plain and simple. His once blue eyes now black to match the colour of his hair, and his pale skin clearly stated that he was lacking blood in his veins.


    (Forgive the ragged look, he'll heal in time 😂)

    "Stay back!" Aldwin, the knight, shouted at him, stepping in front of Tamsin with his shield raised. "Stay behind me, that thing... That thing isn't natural."
    "Well no shit!" Tamsin gasped. As she looked out from behind the shield. "...I don't think this is one of your standard, garden variety, zombies though. This one talks." She pushed her way from behind the shield and carefully approaching the stranger. She kept a spell ready, and her quarterstaff raised. She was afraid, yes. But not so afraid she couldn't function. She stopped a few feet away from him and cast a spell that created an orb of light that hovered several feet off the ground, shedding dim light on them.
    Now she could see that the zombie was at least five inches taller than she was, and despite the solid black of his eyes there seemed to still be some sort of life in there. "...Who are you? How did you get here."

    The post was edited 1 time, last by Cole. ().

    The zombie squinted as an orb of light suddenly appeared above the both of them, the light blinding to him compared to the darkness of the caves that his eyes had adjusted to. Raising an arm to provide a shadow from the sphere. "I'd like to know that as well" he replied. He just couldn't do it, remember the past that was. It was there, but it was just too damn hazy to recall anything... Suddenly his eyes widened as a name came to him, and he grinned as he was finally able to respond to one of her questions, "It's Damari... I think" he exclaimed, taking a step towards her before realising where her staff was pointed. He didn't know why but having the object pointed towards him set off a bad feeling in his stomach.


    "Is there any way you guys can help with this?" Damari asked, his voice suggestion that he was currently unaware of what he had become. Healing magic wasn't going to be an option sadly, as it had the opposite on the undead. His eyes shot up to the rest of the party that had become illuminated, observing the fact that everyone's weapons were turned towards him. He took another step back warily, suddenly unsure about his situation as a frown appeared on his face.

    Tamsin lowered her quarterstaff a bit, motioning to Aldwin and Bread to do the same. “We May not be able to. But if you aren’t violent our guild might.... I’m not entirely sure how one would cure the undead though.” She was frowning and looking him up and down.

    “My name is Tamsin Hasting, a mage from the guild of the white dragon.” She said, extending a slender hand towards him a bit hesitantly. “And these are my friends, The goblin is Bread, and the knight is Aldwin.” She said, the goblin peered out from behind Aldwin’s legs. He did not seem terribly fond of Damari. And Aldwin didn’t seem too excited either, but it wasn’t incredibly clear if that was just his face or what.

    “Come with us, we’ll do what we can for you back at the guild hall”

    Damari's facial expression dropped as his mind clicked as she called him an undead. That explained a lot, it would be the reason why he was able to function with such a serious wound in his side. He let out a huge sigh as he realised this, and he leaned forwards as he took the fact that he was already dead in. But how had he died? As he saw the staff lower he gazed into Tamsin's eyes, then checked out her hand before standing straight once more. "Good to meet you" he spoke, but he could still sense just how suspicious the others were, "nice to meet you guys too" he called over, trying to catch Bread's eyes seeing as he couldn't actually see the knights.

    When Damari looked at Bread he made a frightened sound and darted back behind Aldwin, who was removing his helmet. The knight had short brown hair and a scar over his left eye. "Let's not wait around then, Tamsin." Aldwin said, it was clear that he didn't approve of Tamsin offering to bring Damari back to the guild. But he couldn't say no, Tamsin was right. He was different from any other undead they fought.
    "Yes! let's go, please!" Bread said, putting away his dagger and scampering off ahead of the group. Only stopping to be sure they were following. The little goblin was eager to get away from the cave. Though he had spent most of his life in caves just like this he found the warmth and safety of the guild hall much more pleasant.
    "We've got a cart outside, home isn't too far from here. At most it will take a few hours. I'm sure Icarus will want to have a look at you when we get there. And we can get you situated." Tamsin said as she turned on her heel to follow Aldwin and Bread out of the cave. She wasn't worried about Damari hurting them, she'd been bitten by zombies and vampires multiple times and had managed to resist the effects. And he likely wouldn't try anything with three skilled mercenaries around.

    As the group moved off, Damari took a glance behind him, peering into the darkness he had come from. Undoubtedly, he had either died there or close to it. But why? And how? The fading footsteps reminded him that the group were leaving, and he quickly ran after them, his ragged way of moving slowing his pace slightly. He hoped there was a way for him to recover, after all, this was pretty inconvenient.


    As they were on the way out a sweet scent suddenly reached Damari's nose, and he turned towards it in interest. It smelt like it would be good to eat, whatever it was, and he didn't know if he was imagining it or not when his stomach began to grumble. Finally his eyes settled on the source of the smell, before his hand reached up and slapped over his nose and mouth. It was a corpse, a goblin one at that, and he felt sick to the core of himself, turning from it and hoping nobody else had seen him take interest in it. Was he truly a monster now? "Who's this Icarus" he finally asked, aiming the question towards Tamsin and Aldwin. He didn't think he coukd speak to Bread yet after the little incident a few seconds before.

    "Icarus is my half brother, and a wizard. He studies monsters and things like that, He's not what I'd call a genius, but he's what we've got. I'm sure he knows some way to help you." She said, Tamsin looked over her shoulder to be sure he was keeping up. The climb back to the entrance was not too difficult. A bit steep here and there, but otherwise the terrain was easy to manage.
    Once they had gotten out and had all found their way into the cart Tamsin turned her full attention to Damari. "I suppose I should give you a bit of background on our guild." She said, giving him a smile as she took off her hat and set it aside. "The guild of the white dragon was founded several years ago by three adventurers. Perenti, The Arbiter, and Aldwin, Three of our five current guildmasters. They founded the guild to give other people chances to take on adventures, and to give misfits a second chance. Now we take on contracts from all over the place. any questions?"

    Damari nodded slowly as he took in the information, one hand reaching up and scratching his dirty hair, dust falling out of it as he did this. After hearing the brief intro he looked towards Aldwin, and dipped his head. "So... Your one of the founders?" he asked carefully, fully aware that the man didn't trust him. Then again, he could hardly blame him.


    (Sorry for the rushed reply!)

    (It's fine! I've been at work all day so sorry for not replying quickly)


    Aldwin glanced back, "Yes, I manage the guilds armory nowadays. I'm also Tamsin's guardian." He said, giving Damari a look that was just daring him to try and hurt her. The man was in his mid forties, and stood at 6'2", he was quite imposing which made him a good protector. It was easy to tell why Theodesius had chosen him to watch over her.
    He didn't say much else, he obviously wasn't very interested in talking to the zombie. Though occasionally he would glance back and make sure he was far enough from his ward.

    "Aah, I see..." Damari said carefully, his eyes averting to avoid the fearsome man's gaze, he wasn't going to be looking for trouble there. "Where are we then?" he asked, shooting a glance towards Tamsin before looking back out the window once more.


    There were quite a few things in Damari's mind, the most intriguing one was how he actually died. He couldn't feel anything right now, but his side was charred badly. Had he been killed in a fire? No, the rest of his body was fine. Then... Had he been murdered? The thought was a troubling one, as he didn't like the idea of already having enemies.

    "Faringway. Or just outside of it, anyway. It's a fairly large city, the guild hall sits just outside of it." Tamsin said, she had picked up her spellbook and was flipping through the dusty pages, she had nothing about how to reverse what had been done to him. Or if there was even a way to reverse it, often times necrosis couldn't be reversed. "...So you don't remember anything at all, Damari?" Patricia asks the man sitting across from her, "Anything could help us. Even if it's unclear." Patricia didn't seem too terribly worried about the situation, there was *always* an answer to every problem in her experience. Sure it might not always be the best answer, but an answers an answer.

    Not a thing. Like I can tell I've had a life before, but mostly what I can see is just a blur... I can remember a massive building which most of my memories take place in, though" Damari answered, his shoulders raising slightly in what was meant to be a shrug, "but that's literally all I've got. It's actually tiring to try remember more" he added, which was strange, as undead didn't really seem to tire normally. His eyes lingered on the book that Tamsin had conjured from somewhere, and wondered if they always carried books of the such around with them.

    "Don't worry about it, then." Tamsin shrugged. "We'll find a way. The guild always finds a way to help those in need." Then she went back to reading, the pages flipped without her needing to even touch them. She'd worked hard on the spellbook, building it up over time and enchanting it so that it wouldn't be such a burden to carry. She was proud of it, and it was one of her most prized possessions, as well as her arcane focus. Her quarterstaff also occasionally served as her focus on occasion.
    It didn't take long for them to reach the guild hall, a long, wooden house with several smaller buildings built up around it. Including a mage tower. At the door to the hall a large mastiff was lying in the sun. He barked at the approaching party, and as the wagon pulled up and Tamsin climbed over the side he spoke. "Finally, We thought we'd lost you all to a bunch of goblins." The dog sniffed Tamsin's boots, and when he saw Damari he snarled.
    "Calm down Redbone, he's a friend. So far."

    Damari's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the dog talking, and he gazed over towards Tamsin as he pointed towards Redbone, "Hey, hey. The dog just now spoke" he stated quickly, glancing back and forth between the mastiff and the group before realising that none of them were fazed I'm the slightest. This was probably normal to them.


    The undead glanced around, taking interest in his surroundings, notably the mage tower. For some reason he felt a tug towards that place, there was something in the air over there that seemed to be beckoning him over, but he shrugged the feeling off uneasily, he needed to focus on finding out if there was a way to recover his memories first, and healing his body.

    “Come on, let’s go inside then.” Tamsin takes Damari’s hand to help him down from the cart “Perinti will want to see you, he’s in charge of anyone who comes into the guild hall. He’ll be able to get you settled, and Ash probably has some clothes you couldn’t wear, he’s our tailor,” She said as she lead him inside. The guild hall was huge, in the main room there wasn’t one long table and a fireplace at the end of the room, it was inviting and quiet. Tamsin turned to face Damari “Oh- and a word of warning about the Crowes, there are four of them, and they are identical. They wear the same outfit and have all the same scars and there is not a doubt in my mind that they will try to fuck with you. Ash is one of the brothers, Cypress, Willow, and Inkwood are the other three.” She felt it was only fair to give him some Sort of warning, the guild had some interesting characters characters for sure, and normal all them meant well.

    Tamsin lead Damari up a flight of stairs and through a short hallway to an intricately carved wooden door. “Wait here just a moment.”

    Damari looked baffled as all the names were thrown over his head, his brows burrowing as he limped after the witch. He was starting to control his walk properly now, getting used to walking along with his injuries. The remains of his shirt resembled that a young knight may wear underneath his chainmail, but only a keen eye would be able to pick that out.


    Finally he got told to wait here, and he nodded to Tamsin as she disappeared through the doorway. He let out a sigh, raising a hand to his tired head. "I guess she's... Kinda nice" he murmured to himself, his black orbs staring at his bare, blackened feet.

    Tamsin wasn’t in the office very long, “Go ahead, Perinti will see you now.” She said, holding the door open for Damari. She didn’t stick around when he went inside, she was a busy woman, and she had things to do and people to see.

    Sitting behind the desk was Perenti, a fairly un-intimidating man. “...So you’re Damari then? Come, sit, would you like some tea?... can you drink tea? I’m sorry perhaps I should have asked that first...”


    (Sorry for the short post ^^’)