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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4431837" data-attributes="member: 3285">A Walk in the Park: Part 3b – Exploring Quelch’s HouseVlad couldn’t move.  Paralyzed from head to toe, he could only watch with wide, staring eyes as the ghouls dragged him from their tunnel to…Someplace familiar.  It was the Well-Dressed Man’s drug den! The place still stank of snakeweed and abyss dust, but those odors competed with a more powerful smell: human sweat and filth.  About a dozen ghouls were sprawled about the room in various stages of drug-induced stupor or drug-deprived delirium tremens. The cushions, curtains, and just about everything else that wasn’t nailed into place had been uprooted and ruined.  Several slogans, written in a substance he’d rather not identify, covered the walls. Ghouls gathered around him, their red eyes burrowing into his soul.  Gleaming wet maws moved closer…There was a shout.  One of the ghouls looked over its shoulder and then, like a rabid dog, barked and ran.  The others scattered like roaches.Dril popped into view.  “You okay?”Vlad struggled to respond.  “Look at those scratches.”  Beldin’s bushy beard became visible.  “He’s infected.”The bite and scratch marks from the ghouls had turned a purplish black.“Infected?” managed Vlad. He propped himself up on his elbows. “Infected with what?”“How long do you think it will take?” asked Dril.“Don’t know,” said Beldin.“Well, we can’t just leave him here,” said Dril.“What do you mean by infected?” asked Vlad, his voice rising.“There’s got to be some means of stopping it,” said Dril.  “Well, we can’t do it here,” Beldin replied. “If he turns—““WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?!” shouted Vlad.“We’d better get you to Peg-Leg,” said Beldin.  “If those really are ghouls, you’re going to turn into one of them soon. I’ve seen a pack of ghouls burrow their way into a dwarf colony.  One week later the place was lousy with them.  We had to burn the whole colony out.  Nasty stuff.”Vlad swallowed hard.  He looked sick. “Now I really don’t feel so good. What about Kham? Those ghouls treated him like a brother or something.  It was weird.”Beldin peered past the wall, looking out through boarded up windows into the den of scum and villainy that was Scurvytown.  “What are ghouls doing in a drug den?”“The more important question is, why does a drug den have ghouls in it?”  Dril kicked at a pile of empty vials; they were everywhere. “Ghoul juice,” said Vlad. “If the ghoul juice makes ghouls, and ghouls make other ghouls…” Beldin was cut off by something howling in the distance. It wasn’t a dog.  But it wasn’t quite human either.Dril frowned.  “Look.” He nodded towards one wall.On the wall was the usual infantile graffiti, which included “Orcs go home!”  But there was one message written in blood that was separate from all the others.  It read: Beware His Return.</blockquote>

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