exsiliumlogs | [PLOT] That's no ordinary rabbit

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[PLOT] That's no ordinary rabbit

Date & Time: All day Friday, December 14th and onward.
Location: Initiate Hold
Characters: All
Summary: The plague has taken hold and there are rampant, angry undead critters running around! Better get rid of them quick, before you attract the Scourge Horde.
Warnings: Undead attacks, localized around cute woodland critters.

[The death tolls of all the woodland animals had come around the same time. Some lasted longer than others, but for the most part, it appeared that most of the sickly animals had passed sometime in the middle of the night. The next morning, transports would awaken to find their furry friends looking...well, less than furry. Their eyes glow a sickly yellow, patches of fur fall off their body, and they continuously cry for help.

Help from whom? You?

Or the group of rampaging ghouls charging toward you?]

[ooc: Original plot post is here!. If you would like me to NPC ghoul attacks in your thread, please mark your subject line with three asterisks. (***) Otherwise, feel free to do it amongst yourselves! Please note that I won't be able to NPC threads until tomorrow afternoon.]

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She followed him, turning once he went to one knee and drew one of her blades, ready to protect him if they had visitors. Elissa snorted beneath her breath. "I say that to myself every time I find one that's easy to break into."

A glance was sent over her shoulder and she nodded, at last moving so she could partially face the door in front of him. "Go ahead. I'm right behind you."

"I wonder if they teach classes on electronic lock picking," he said, being only half facetious. "Could come in useful on our missions, too." That would be how he justified it were he ever to propose such.

He nodded and carefully pushed open the door, keeping his hand on the knob in case it squeaked so that he could control it. The hinges were silent, the office almost pitch black. That was good. It meant it didn't have a window to the outside.

He crept in on a knee and immediately shifted to the side against the wall, giving Elissa room to follow. The doorway was a kill zone, always, never a place to linger. He needed time for his eyes to adjust before he would think of attempting to move further. The office was perfectly quiet. He chose to take that as a good sign, finally sliding forward with one hand out.

A few paces away he felt the smooth side of a desk. He felt up it to the surface, objects just a few inches from the edge. "Careful with this," he whispered. "Don't want to knock anything off." He continued to follow the contour around until he reached a chair. From that he stretched out a leg. "Cabinet or wall not far from behind here," he added.

"Search to your right. See if the wall is solid or if there's another door. I'm going to your left."

It would probably be something to look into. But that wasn't a thought that lingered too long at the forefront of her mind. She could return to it later.

Even in the dark and with the threat of the undead weighing heavily upon them, Elissa had the capacity to at least appreciate Duncan's skill and his slow and subtle movements. While she couldn't directly follow in his footsteps and mostly wasn't meant to, she still mimicked the motions. One hand was out to guide her, sliding along the surfaces he pointed out under his breath. She didn't respond, silent as the grave until he instructed her otherwise.

Carefully, her hand went out. Fingers brushed along the smooth contours of wood. She thought it was simply a wall. But then she felt the catch of a handle and settled her hand there. "A door," she whispered. It was unlocked, more than likely a closet. She brought her blade down only so she had the room to move to one side of the handle. With care, she opened it, looking inward for signs of movement and bracing for an inevitable strike. None came, the closet practically empty save for a few boxes of papers.

He slid to his right until he contacted the wall. Aside from storage and something he couldn't begin to identify in the darkness, he felt no doors there. He waited and listened for anything further from her. "Does it open outward or inward?" he asked after a reasonable amount of time.

He started moving toward the back wall to check it thoroughly. If there were no other ways in or out, it would make it a decent place to hide if they weren't seen retreating to it, not so great if they were seen. He didn't trust there to be anything in the ceiling strong enough to bear their weight and didn't want to spend time crashing through it to test that theory.

"Outward." She stuck a hand inside to see how far back it went, not surprised to find it a shallow closet. It had its uses, obviously, but not enough for a second hiding place for two if their enemies broke in the door.

She closed the door and moved along the wall, nearly colliding with a long table with more on top of it. Her hand brushed something plastic and dark, her eyes registering it as a machine once they became a little more used to the dark. She'd seen it used before. It was harmless and too heavy to be used as a weapon. A pity, that.

That was no good. They would have no way of holding a door that opened outward. He wasn't able to see that the depth of the closet would have made it a bad choice anyway. He didn't find any more doors.

He didn't speak to her again until he could move in close, his whisper so soft that it was a wonder it carried even to her. "This room is a possible retreat for when we have no witnessing pursuit. We should try to find another with more exits we could use either as a trap or a diversion."

Elissa gave him a silent nod, turning in his direction. It could only be used for hiding so long as they had a solid way of keeping their pursuers out. Otherwise, they could easily be overrun. "Agreed. Come on." They would need to make sure they knew exactly where this room was, though, and which one it would be. In the heat of battle, thinking clearly sometimes came second.

She made her way back to the door and opened it cautiously so she could look back out into the hallway. A few moments of listening told her it was clear for the moment and she emerged, slipping back to one side of the door so she could keep an eye out while Duncan followed.

Duncan followed her lead, as quiet coming out into the hallway as he had been going in. He frowned thoughtfully and eyed the door. "If we don't secure this in some way, we won't know that it stayed cleared. If we lock it again, that defeats the point."

He dug in a side pouch and came out with a small strap of extra leather, the sort of thing he used to repair small damage to his armor. "I can shove this partly under the door. They're not intelligent enough in their actions to think to pull it out, but it won't keep out any sentient people who may need a quick retreat, including us." He bent to do that, testing to be sure it would hold.

"Further down the hall?" He didn't see that they had much choice.

She watched him as he pulled together the rig to keep the undead out, examining the method he used to keep it secure. It was fairly ingenious and she wished, yet again, that they weren't in such dire circumstances; she wanted to ask where he'd learned it, if he could show her again so she could remember it. Leave it to Duncan to show another trade secret when she couldn't find a feasible way to learn it.

"It's too quiet," she murmured. "I'm really starting to wonder if we're the only ones alive in here." It couldn't really be possible. The Hold was too large of a building and there were plenty of people in the city who were stronger and more durable than the two of them. They couldn't be the only ones. But the hallways seemed so much more eerie when there were no sounds to accompany them.

With a single nod, Elissa moved down the hall, looking for another door that would be accessible, one without an electronic lock. They didn't need to stray too far to find another, this one unlocked. She gripped her blade tightly and gave a look back at Duncan.

"I wouldn't count on it. More likely that survivors are pinned down or being quiet like we are." That was what he hoped. Until he saw signs pointing otherwise he intended to hang onto that. "All the more incentive to keep moving. We may find them."

He waited for her to move ahead before following. Keeping some distance between the two of them made sense. It would allow the other reaction time should one of them be jumped unexpectedly. He drew close enough to back her should the room be overrun. Unsheathing and gripping one of his daggers, he nodded. He was ready.

"So long as we find them intact." She could only imagine the disaster of having one injured individual in a closed off room with other survivors. She had hope the circumstances were not so dire. Some would be found, certainly.

She pushed the door open carefully and looked inside, pushing it open only when she was under no impression that there were enemies just inside. The room was larger and seemed empty for the most part. The grip on her sword relaxed as she stepped inside and a flurry of movement to her right had her turning. Something small and furry smacked itself into her chest, small claws scrabbling at her breastplate. She grabbed whatever it was and turned, tossing it into the hallway. It was a cat, fur standing on end, eyes staring vacantly with that same dead look in them as the squirrel had. It hissed at them both.

"Yes, it's not as though either of us is carrying spare bandages or field dressing." He never did unless he was expecting trouble. Such things were too bulky and took up too much space when the things he found more useful better served.

He was just coming in behind her when she tossed it past him. He hissed through his teeth in surprise and whirled to face it. His expression was grim, his curse little more than a murmur under his breath. "Damn it. Of course it would be a cat."

For being dead, it hadn't lost much dexterity. "Did it get you?" he asked without looking her way, carefully reaching toward the inner lining of his belt for one of his throwing blades. The last thing he wanted was to spook it and provoke a quick attack.

"I usually have something but...no, not today." It didn't help that she'd been in Exsilium long enough to know her supplies were dwindling. Finding replacements took a lot of time and care, and she would often have to adapt whatever she found for her own use.

She glowered at the animal and shook her head. "No, I'm not cut." Nothing she could feel. Elissa ran her fingers quickly around her neck and found nothing smarting. "It just smacked into my armor." And none too gently; she was surprised the cat wasn't hurt by the collision.

The animal did something of a sideways scuttle, eyes now focused on Duncan. The hackles on its back were raised threateningly. "Nasty thing," she muttered.

He was relieved to hear it, grunting soft acknowledgement of what she said without taking his eyes off the beast. He worried if he was speaking and it attacked, he'd make more noise than he intended. He had never had too much use for cats. Undead ones just upped that ante to an alarming degree.

He eased his hand from his belt, the blade concealed against his palm. He didn't know if a glint would draw it's attention and didn't want to find out. He flicked his wrist suddenly. The blade embedded with a sick chukking sound. The animal went into violent contortions, and he closed on it quickly for a stomp to finish it off.

He made a disgusted sound as he bent to retrieve his weapon. "Let's hope there aren't more where that came from."

Elissa didn't have the stomach for it, wincing when he brought his boot down on the animal. "Don't mention any of this to Anders," she muttered. It was bad enough he'd gotten her to have a soft spot for more than just dogs. He'd be absolutely crushed if he heard what'd been done to a cat like Pounce.

She turned back to the room and gave it a much more thorough look around before stepping inside, pleased to see no more movement. This one was larger, with a long table pressed in the center, chairs stashed around it. It was more difficult to maneuver around to check the entire room, but it was one of the few essential pieces there. She made her way to the back wall to look for signs of a second exit first.

"Why not?" His brows dip downward. Not that he had planned to speak of this to anyone, but if there was a specific reason, he wanted to hear it.

He cleaned the blade against one of the few relatively clean spots left on his skirting and sheathed it again. He pulled the door mostly shut behind him and hugged the wall closest to the entrance to explore to his right while she worked her way back.

He was careful with each step forward, a slight kicking out just in case there was furniture against the wall. He didn't want to stumble against something and make a loud noise.

"Cats," she said gently. "He's...very fond of them. He'll either fly into a rage that some were infected or be entirely crushed that we had to put one down. Just...don't mention it to him. It's not worth him getting upset over." And it wasn't going to be worth the run around that would be explaining Anders and cats to Duncan. Not at that moment. Later, perhaps, and only over several drinks.

In the dark, Elissa could spot one of the holographic machines on the table. If they could turn it on, it might be possible to use it as a minor distraction if they needed it.

At last, She found the door in the corner opposite their entrance, testing the handle. It was locked, of course, and she bent down to start picking it with the tools she had. It wasn't so difficult, though it was a slow process. The moment it was unlocked, she had to set aside her tools and grab her blade again as she opened the door just enough to look outside. It led to another hallway, empty. She closed the door. "Duncan," she called softly.

"Ah," he said. "You don't have to worry. I don't plan on discussing this in any detail with anyone." Not even Fiona if she returned as he hoped she would.

He found nothing of interest on his trip to the wall to the right of the door. He could hear her working in the darkness, the unmistakable stealthy scrape of lock picks. He was already slowly on his way down toward her when she called his name.

He hastened the rest of the way. "What did you find?"

It was probably for the best. She didn't think many people would want to discuss seeing the living dead any more than the two of them might and if anyone didn't experience it, then there was no point in terrorizing them.

Elissa nodded as he knelt down, looking up at him. "It leads to another hallway. I didn't want to keep going without someone at my back." She didn't stand but opened the door once more, just enough so the hallway could be seen. Empty for now, quiet enough that it didn't seem like there was trouble, but she didn't know which one it was. For all she knew, it would lead right to the back of the building.

"Give me a moment. I didn't lock the door behind us," he said. He felt a little foolish for not having done so. It was the little slip ups that could lead to big problems. Fortunately, nothing happened on his way to the door or back again. The hallway they had come from was quiet.

He drew his blade again and kept it in close, nodding to her. "Ready. I'm behind you. Watch for animals, too."

She nodded, grabbing the handle and bracing the door for his return. Her eyes were still on the outside, through that small sliver she allowed so she could keep watch. There didn't seem to be any movement, though she thought she heard scraping from time to time, an eerie noise in the quiet of the hallway. It left her unsettled to say the least.

Elissa turned back to him with a small nod when he came to her side and she opened the door the rest of the way, still kneeling. She took to her feet and stepped into the hallway, erring on the side of caution. The left side of the hall was hers to explore, head tipped so she could look into the next hallway and discern where they were. It was a side hall, she finally recognized, one that would eventually lead to the greeting hall.

As before, he didn't stay too close. It was a narrow hallway. Encroaching would leave neither of them room to fight. He took the opposite side of the hallway. It didn't afford him the view she had. He trusted her to be the eyes for both of them around the bend.

When he drew near, he crouched lower so that both lines of attack would be covered if something jumped them. He shot a questioning glance at her without speaking aloud. Was there anything in the hall with them that she could see? She wasn't alone in finding the occasional sounds disconcerting.

There was nothing beyond the hallway and that, perhaps, was the unnerving thing. It was far too quiet; their foes couldn't all be gathered in one place, could they? It didn't make sense. The sound, too, hadn't gone away. As Elissa shook her head to indicate they were alone, she stepped out into the adjoining hallway for another look.

The sound was louder now and she finally discovered where it was coming from. She turned to Duncan and nodded her head to one of the air vents in the walls.

He cautiously rose from his crouch and joined her, frowning at the direction of her nod. Did this place have no end of nasty surprises? What he wouldn't give for something straightforward at the moment, deep stalkers pretending to be stalagmites. Anything but this oddly sterile and yet somehow deeply unnerving hunt through the Hold.

Holding up a finger, he hugged the wall and turned his blade with the flat against it. He slid it down between the drywall and the vent cover to pry softly. It stayed firmly in place. "I have half a mind to say we should leave it," he whispered, "except it could find some other way out and catch us unaware. You want to do this?"

She didn't want to deal with it either. Anything they found in there was certain to be trouble. They shouldn't waste their time chasing it. But Duncan was absolutely right; it would come back to bite them if they didn't handle it while they had the chance. She sighed shortly and nodded. "I wish we could leave it. If we can't reach it, we can move on. But if we have the chance, we should take care of it now."

Elissa sheathed her sword and pulled out one of her daggers, moving to the other side of the vent to help him pry it open.

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[PLOT] That's no ordinary rabbit

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