Having reached the camp, the group take stock, noting the arrangement of the buildings as provided by an inadequate map, hastily drawn on an iPad not using decent software nor an Apple Pencil
The nearest, and smallest building was investigated, surrounded by heavily armed people as Farshad was pushed forward, the stench, reminiscent of a tanner’s yard, soon revealed why, as it was a latrine over a pit. A handy stick, with shreds of sponge on it, let Farshad investigate it to some degree. The pit was deep, and Farshad declined to go down too close, possibly the thing that saved him for some noxious worm creature dropping on him.
The next group of buildings were quarters, in various states of disrepair, seemingly intended for groups of four, though one stood out because of the lush greenery growing on the wood, and inside where some kind of partitioning had taken place. Doors proved to be one of the mightiest enemy that the group had faced to date, bouncing Farshad back and betraying Jalabu.
The mounds of earth, looking like graves, however were bare of growth, with just earth mounds, no markers, but no grass or other plants on them.
The last thing looked at was a larger building, armed with a discarded wooden shovel, Jushuur probed a shutter open and a door to this building, showing a seeming office and a living space, presumably the foreman’s office, the clay tablets seemed to confirm this. A quick shovel around produced a hand, with a ring on it. Jushuur retrieved the ring, seemingly a luck piece, and it was recognised as similar to that seen on the hand of the woman who assaulted Jalabu and Utana the day before.
At this time, the group decided to head across the stream and make camp, setting a watch. As Farshad’s watch gave way to Jushuur’s, noises were heard from across the river, clumsy, loud, stumbling noises
Waking the others, they got close and saw glimpses of rotting corpses walking about. Firing at one across the river, it was destroyed. Utana and Jalabu went across the river to see it more closely, Farshad went across the dam at the mill, being attacked as he did so. He ran to join the others who found themselves beset by more of the corpses.
Though they had faced walking dead folk before, these are different in some way, though they have not had a chance to examine it closely. The fight was hard pressed, the corpses attacked with claws that had erupted from the fingers, the teeth were lengthened. They may have stumped around clumsily, but in fighting they seemed fast, striking first.
Across the river, José was unable to exert his usual leadership, so Jushuur rallied the group as best he could, and the fight seemed to hard press the group, Jushuur was grievously wounded in his left arm, but Utana’s armour proved useful, though the light armour of the others was sorely tested.
Jushuur, angered, almost cut one undead down by himself, sorely injured as he was, finished off by José and Jalabu, they crossed the river and assisted in the destruction of the rest, though there is a worry about infected wounds from these filthy creatures.
After cutting the heads off the creatures, the group retreated for the rest of the night to their camp. There is much still to investigate, none of the buildings have been thoroughly explored, not all the buildings have had even a cursory look yet, the creatures that attacked your whose trinkets you took, hoping to get word back to the families, not much is known of them.
And so to next week. I’ll work out some stuff with Norman on medical issues off line, and there is the matter of owed XP from me not noticing the “double on success rule”, it won’t be double, but it will mean some additional XP.
On a note. DQ isn’t, mostly, that complex. The rules are not that well organised, which causes issues, but it is not possessed of a rule for everything, instead having a great GM tool to cover most situations, the Difficulty roll, but that still requires GM busking it.