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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wicht" data-source="post: 267252" data-attributes="member: 221">Chapter 3 – Hooberan’s    Tilliana woke with a start.  Her dreams had been bad and her head throbbed.  Around her, the other three were all waking up as well.  Heidon groaned and turned over, burying his face in his bedroll.  Alairic slowly sat up.  Around them, the air was foggy, dawn was just beginning to break and it smelled like rain.    “Who was on watch?” asked Niccolo groggily.    Slowly it struck them that no one had kept watch, all had been asleep.  Then they realized that Tolo, the little wood-gnome, was gone.  Heidon spotted a note near the camp fire under a rock.  It readSorry to run on you guys, but I have other places to be.  I took my inheritance from my cousin and I will maybe see you someday. –Tolo     “What does he mean, his inheritance?” asked Tilliana, “I thought he was scared to go in the village.”    They swiftly realized that one of the bags containing coins was gone.  The gnome had taken all the gold coins they had found in the village and had left them with the heavy sack of silver coins.  There had been close to 300 gold pieces in the sack.    “Was it magic?” asked Alairic, referring to the fact they had all been asleep.    “He cooked our food last night,” said Tilliana, settling herself down to prepare her spells for the day.    “He spiked our food!  If I get my hands on him, that gnome is toast!” growled Niccolo.     “The gnome is the least of our worries,” said Alairic, “we are no closer to finding Giovan.  We have to search the rest of the village today.”    Grudgingly, Niccolo agreed.  As Alairic began picking up the camp, Tilliana healed Heidon and Niccolo, both still badly hurt from their fight with the zombies the day before.  That done, they picked up their belongings and headed for the village.  As Heidon unlocked the gate for them once more it began to rain.  The day promised to be cold and dreary.      The first thing they noticed was that the carrion eagles were gone.  The cows seemed pretty much picked clean and all that was left were skeletons, laying grotesquely in the corrals.    They began by searching through the houses again.  Inside the first they found a mother, clinging to her baby.  Both were dead.  Rats were chewing on them.  That set the tone for the next few houses.  House after house filled with the dead and with rats.      “This could be depressing,” muttered Alairic as he went to the door to the next house.  They had not even had the heart to search the houses for more coins.  Heidon had found 14 gold coins in the last house, but that was because they had been out in plain sight.  Alairic opened the door.  Inside, just past the door was a corpse.  Four gigantic rats, each almost three feet long, were chewing on the body.  They hissed.  The other three tensed for battle.  Alairic shut the door.    “That was real brave!” said Niccolo.  But no one else opened the door again to kill the giant rats.  Instead they decided to leave the last four small houses and go look at the chicken coops.  These two buildings were built against the southern wall of the stockade and were fenced in by wire mesh.Inside the coops, chickens and turkeys alike were dead.  No rats seemed to be bothering the corpses and the stench was pretty bad.  They decided not to bother searching through the dead barnyard fowls.  They trudged through the rain to the large rectangular building near the coops instead.  The door closest to them was chained and padlocked.  There was a door on the other side however and it was open.  Something had busted it open.  There were three large berry presses on the outside of the building.  They were stained within but the red stains were that of berry juice, not of blood.Looking in the building they saw a large room, a third the size of the full building.  Many clay casks were stacked within, each sealed with pitch.  They entered in.  There was a door on the far side of the room.  It was partially open.  “I wonder what is in these,” said Niccolo as he pried open the lid on one of the clay containers.  Inside was juice.  “Don’t drink it,” cautioned Alairic, “It could be poison.”Tilliana smiled at the paladin, “I’ll drink some.”  She lifted the open cask and drank.“Redberry Juice,” she announced.  “Hope its not poisoned,” muttered Alairic.  “Dumb Paladin,” chimed in Niccolo.  The room beyond the first was the same size, but this one was filled with oak barrels, on their sides, stacked from the floor halfway up to the ceiling.  Each of the barrels had a spicket.“They are making wine,” stated Niccolo.Alairic turned a spicket and, cupping his hand, caught some of the liquid.  He tasted it.  As Niccolo had surmised, it was juice in the process of becoming wine.  They entered the third and final room of the building.  This one was filled with shelf after shelf of wine bottles.  In the middle of the room, some of the bottles had been smashed on the floor.  Otherwise the room was empty.“Think we should stay in here?” asked Alairic.  The others just grimaced and pushed him back towards the entrance.  “Lets check out the wagons,” said Niccolo as they left the winery.  It was still raining.  He indicated the three wagons a little north of them.  The two wagons on either side looked normal enough but the one in the middle looked different.  It looked suspiciously like a giant barrel on wheels.  “We still haven’t found Giovan,” said Tilliana.“There’s those two big houses over there,” said Alairic, indicating the two houses on the west side of the village.  “I say we check out the wagons first and then look in the barns over there,” suggested Tilliana, “Though we could check the big houses for money, I doubt we find any people.”“I don’t think Giovan is here personally,” said Niccolo, “Its obvious that everyone is dead.  All we have found are rats and undead.”“Do you think the rats brought the plague?”No one had an answer as to what had caused the plague but they decided to check out the wagons next.  The two normal looking wagons were exactly what they appeared to be, wagons used for carrying various things.  The other wagon was a bit of a puzzle though.  It was indeed a giant barrel, on its side and wheeled.  There was a seat on the front of it and a tongue to which horses could be hitched.  A sturdy set of steps was built onto the left side, suitable for one man to climb up to the top.  Atop the wagon there looked to be a small hatchway.  The hatchway was currently closed.  Tilliana noticed that the back of the wagon could also be opened.  It was hinged at the top and latched at the bottom.  The latch could easily be lifted and the whole back of the wagon would open up.  “Let’s open it,” said Niccolo.  They could tell he thought something might be hiding or hidden in the barrel of the wagon.“Let me look in the top first,” said Alairic, climbing up the steps on the side of the contraption.  He reached the top and opened the hatchway.  The smell of manure and human waste hit him and he slammed the lid back down.“ooo,” he said climbing down the wet steps.  “We still have to open it and I guess I’ll be the one to do it,” said Niccolo, “Everyone get your weapons ready.”They drew their weapons as the half-elf instructed and moved around him.  Alairic was the closest.  Niccolo lifted the latch.  They tensed.  The back swung up and open.Niccolo, more by luck then skill managed to leap back just in time.  Heidon and Tilliana were not as close and stepped out of the way easily.  Alairic was not so lucky however and the putrid and foul contents of the sewer wagon washed over his legs, soaking him from the knees down.  They all stared at Alairic and then started to snicker.  Though the smell from the manure and offal was strong, the look on Alairic’s face was too much.   “There is a well over in the center of the village,” said Tilliana helpfully and then all three of Alairic’s companions were laughing.  “It’s not funny,” said Alairic, stamping out of the middle of the sludge.They howled louder.When they were done laughing they decided to examine the barns in the corner of the stockade next.  They opened the door of the first structure and looked in.  Within was row after row of preserved redberries.  Some were hanging, drying in clusters.  Some were stored whole and uncrushed in barrels.Niccolo and Alairic noticed it first.  Some of the berries had a yellow growth on them.  “Watch out,” cautioned Alairic, “It could be yellow mold.”But the fungus growing on the berries did not seem particularly threatening.  As they looked closer they saw that every single berry was infected with the yellow fungus.  “We should take a sample of this,’ said Niccolo, “We need a jar.”“A bottle would work,” said Alairic.“There are the wine bottles,” said Heidon.  They ended up trudging back out into the rain and over to the winery where they grabbed a bottle of wine, opened it, and poured out the contents.  Then going back to the berry barn, they stuffed it with some of the berries with the mold on it.They looked in the second barn and it was the same way.  The next building was not a barn but was instead a giant shed.  It contained half-finished barrels and crates as well as the wood to make more barrels and crates.  There was a stack of iron barrel hoops and 10 large barrels holding oil by which the new barrels could be sealed.  There were piles of straw. “Why straw?” asked Niccolo and then comprehension dawned and he answered his own question, “For packing in the crates obviously.”They poked apart the straw just to make sure nothing was hiding but it was just straw.  There were also many tables in the room, all of them stained with dark red stains.  Examination led to the conclusion it was berry stains.  They left and went back outside into the rain.  As the water ran down their faces from their wet hair they surveyed the rest of the town.  There were four small houses and two large houses left to examine.  They opted for the large houses first.  They went to the one closest to him.  It was, like all the other houses in the village, two stories tall.  Unlike the others though, this one had a porch.  There was a plaque above the door.  It read, “Deerl’s House.”  The door was ajar and they went in.  The front room was tastefully furnished and it seemed obvious that the owner of the house had had a little more to spend on furnishing then many of the other villagers.  A slight growl was all the warning they had.  Tilliana was standing next to one of the two doorways out of the room and was the one attacked.  A creature, similar in look to the two they had fought two days before in the cellar of the house by the front gate, charged through the doorway and crashed into Tilliana.  Flashes of her dream from the night before filled Tilliana’s head and she heard her father’s voice in her head explaining, “They are ghouls.  They are undead monstrosities and feed on flesh.”  And then the ghoul sank its claws into her shoulder.  The wound was slight but Tilliana’s muscles froze and she collapsed to the ground, paralyzed.  Things could have gone badly for Tilliana just then, for it looked like the ghoul planned on dragging her out of the room but her companions acted swifter then the ghoul.  Alairic charged forward, pushing it back through the doorway and hitting it with the blade of his greatsword.  Heidon could not get a proper swing at it for Alairic was in the way and he tried ineffectually to poke it with the tip of the great blade Tilliana had given him.  Niccolo moved to get to where he could stab it, but another stroke from Alairic’s sword and the ghoul fell dead.They waited for Tilliana to come back around.  Her first words were, “That was a ghoul.”“Ahh,” said Alairic, “Well we need to explore the rest of this house.”  The rest of the floor was empty except for some rotting food and moldy bread in the kitchen.  There were stairs to an upstairs as well as stairs down to a basement.“This time we are not splitting up,” said Niccolo.“No!  No more splitting up,” said Tilliana.“Yes that last time we split up was too close,” agreed Alairic.Heidon nodded his agreement, “Think there are any more in here?”“If they are they can smell me,” said the paladin wryly.  He led the way up the stairs to the second floor.  “I’ll go in front,” said Niccolo taking the lead.  Alairic followed behind with Tilliana third.“Wooh!” exclaimed Tilliana holding her nose as she smelled the paladin’s boots.  They all laughed but Alairic.    There were two more ghouls upstairs, feasting on the flesh of a dead woman.  Alairic saw them first and Pushing aside Niccolo charged forward down the narrow hall and into the room in which the ghouls were.  He swung and missed.  The ghoul he had swung at smiled evilly and latched a claw into Alairic’s side.  The paladin froze.  The other ghoul charged at Niccolo, who was just outside the room.  It missed and Niccolo managed to cleave into the ghoul while at the same time stepping into the room allowing Tilliana the room to move in and dispatch the undead monster.  Heidon had his bow out but could not get a clear shot through Tilliana at the other ghoul.  Enraged, the other ghoul leaped on Niccolo and bit down on the half-elf’s shoulder.  Niccolo answered by stabbing it in the belly with his longsword.  Tilliana swung and the ghoul fell dead.  As they waited for Alairic to come out of his paralyzed state they examined the room.  The most interesting thing seemed to be a mannequin holding a suit of fine looking studded leather armor.  There was also a composite bow of exceptional quality by it.  Next to the first was another mannequin, this one empty.  They noticed the armor and bow were a match for the armor and bow on the man they had found atop the watchtower by the gate to the village.  This armor though was quite obviously cut and fitted for a woman.  “Are you going to ever use that bow you took from the corpse on the watchtower?” asked Heidon to Tilliana.  “No,” said Tilliana.  It had not occurred to her that one of her companions might have wanted to use it, “Do you want it?” Niccolo ended up taking the bow from Tilliana for it was strung for a stronger wielder.  The one in the room was slightly weaker and better suited to the young thief.  “Do you want mine,” asked Heidon offering up his own longbow, one he had carved himself.“Bows are for pansies,” said Alairic, finally coming around.“I am not allowed to use a bow,” explained Tilliana, “Bravery is better demonstrated in melee.  If you wish to separate yourself from your enemy by the length of an arrows flight, that is your choice, but I have sworn to meet evil face to face.”As they further searched the room, they found 50 gold coins.  Niccolo also found some perfume which he sprayed on the paladin’s legs.  The end result was that Alairic smelled like an outhouse covered in perfume.  It was not an improvement.  Tilliana did not want the leather armor and none of the others were female so they left it behind.They went back downstairs and Tilliana hollered into the cellar, “Anyone down there?”  There was no answer.“There is no evil down there,” said Alairic with some certainty.  They left the house and walked over to the other large house.  The door to this house was closed, but the window next to the door had been smashed in.  They let Heidon pick the lock and went in the house that way.  The front room was sparsely but elegantly furnished and just to the right of the front door was another door.  It was made of solid wood and securely locked.  Heidon picked that lock too and they went through.  The room beyond was filled with books and dominated by a corpse.  The rotting corpse was sitting at a writing desk, its head slumped forward onto the desk.  They noticed that unlike every single other corpse in the village this one had not been eaten.  It clutched a quill in one hand and there was a paper under the other.  Niccolo wen tforward and grabbed the paper and started to read it.  Meanwhile the others looked over the books.  Heidon grabbed one and opened it,“How to grow Berries.”“Hah,” said Alairic and he opened up the book he had chosen to pull down.  Inside the hollow book were many gold coins.  His was the only book with money in it however, all the others were on various topics of agriculture.“Listen to this,” said Niccolo and he read aloud the paper he was holding, “Everyone in Hooberan’s is dying.  We burned down the house he was staying in but it was not enough.  The fire was very bright and he screamed.  The fever is taking us all.  I can barely see to write and it grows worse.  Was it the water?  The Festival?  Hooberan tricked the things and locked them in the shrine to the Farmer’s Wife.  It is now an evil place where are the dead.  My head burns and I cannot burn the town for I cannot leave my room here.  There are things I fear clawing at the door.  But they will not kill me.  The fire kills me and burns my hand to the touch.  The town must burn.  There is oil in the packing crates.  Stay away from Hooberan’s and don’t read this.  Burn the town.”“Don’t read this?” said Heidon.  Alairic grabbed the paper to read it himself.“He was obviously delusional,” said Niccolo.“It was the berries,” said Tilliana.“Yeah, sounds like they had just had a berry festival.”“Do you think we are contagious?”“Well you are the one who drank the berry juice.”“We need to burn down the town,” said Tilliana.  As they went through the rest of the house, they found one more ghoul, or rather it found them.   Charging from a downstairs bedroom it bore down on Alairic.  Niccolo managed to wound it and then Alairic, pushing it away, split it open with his great sword.“You guys get all the fun,” complained Heidon.They ended up searching the last few houses before actually torching the town, but then, satisfied there truly were no living souls in town other then them, they rolled the barrels of oil out of the packing shed and began dousing the front rooms of the houses with oil.  They considered putting it on the outside of the houses but decided against it as it was still raining.  One by one they lit each building in town.  Soon each house, barn and body was burning.  The winery in particular went up with a roar as soon as they fire reached the barrels and bottles of wine.  The four companions even burned down the watchtowers along the wall.  Nothing was spared.  As the town burned the rain stopped.They decided to camp one more time outside the village walls, just to make sure the fire did not spread past the stockade.  As they stood outside the stockade walls waiting and watching the village within burn, Tilliana said to Alairic, “We did not offer a sacrifice to Naemae from our battles.”“The village itself is a sacrifice,” said the paladin wisely.Tilliana nodded and led the group in a prayer of sacrifice as they watched Hooberan’s burn.</blockquote>

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