Fantasy Cursed Island

[Deadwood Deer]

"Thank you," Jerry said, pulling out her cloak and weapons again, strapping up as the group kept moving through the ruins. Somewhere along the way, Jerry also ended up nudging the mimic off of her head.

Beri positioned himself between near Fia, Shuffle, and Emil. The leopard was large enough that if one of them chose, and could find something to hold onto, they would be able to ride on his back with little difficulty. He did have a collar of sorts around his neck, more like a ring with various attaching points for a harness or other rig, maybe they could hold onto that/

 

[Fangs9090]

Poli's "hood' absorbed into the rest of the outfit as Jerry removed it.

Unless Beri himself made an offer, none of the three of them really thought to ride on him. They seemed to see him as another person of the group more than a potential mount. Unfortunately.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

As the group continued down the hall, searching rooms as they went, they listened for the sound of danger whilst Jerry's ring kept her looking for things the others couldn't see. Eventually, they'd have to come across something.

 

[Fangs9090]

A set of stairs took them further down before a long hallway lead to the next room. In the hallway, against a wall, was the bones of another adventurer, still wearing their gear. Not an unusual sight at this point, but something about it seemed to catch Shuffle's attention. She hurried ahead of the group to check it out.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"What's gotten into her?", Adran asked as Shuffle took off.

"No idea, but last time..." Jerry trailed off before going after Shuffle to see what was up. "What's going on, Shuffle?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle was looking over the equipment, unsheathing one of the two daggers on the belt. “This is...familiar.” In addition to the daggers, which were sheathed behind them in a belt, the remains had a set of light armor, which was really only armored in the most vital spots. The rest was more like clothing. They also had a bow, though something about it was odd, and they didn’t have any arrows or even a quiver.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Guys, come here," Jerry called to the others as she and Shuffle looke at the corpse. "What do you guys make of it?"

"That's not a normal bow," Adran said almost immediately, plucking his own bow from Jerry's back to compare the two weapons. "See, this bow doesn't even have a string, and there's no arrows. This isn't a bow that's shot. She couldn't have died more than a few days ago, by this place's rotting speed." He pointed at the shape of the armor to confirm that this was in fact a woman's corpse. "We're looking at some magic, here."

Jerry looked at Adran, then at Shuffle. "She'd have to have had a pack somewhere," Jerry said, looking around the immediate area, "Somewhere she kept her supplies, maybe we can find out more like that."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle nodded and searched more around the remains. Tucked between the body and the wall, she found a satchel, possibly an attempt to keep it from being looted once she knew she was dying. Shuffle sat down as she pulled up the satchel, looking at a small symbol marked onto the front. She paused as she stared at it, narrowing her eyes before she let out a gasp. “I-It’s her! She’s the one whose memories I have!”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry squatted down next to Shuffle and looked over the bag in the critter's hand. "Open it, maybe she has some information for us." It was a pretty callous view, but under the circumstances, it was a practical one. Every time something died, the situation only worsened, and here they were fiddling with a corpse that had been here for who knows how long? It was only a matter of time before something happened. Joanne and Adran left to go make sure there wasn't anything huge coming at them, and Beri paced around the room.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle opened up the satchel and searched inside it. She found a few monster parts, claws, teeth, feathers, as well as a few vials of what looked like blood. There was also a couple of odd gems. Shuffle wasn’t familiar, but they were regular soul gems and empty ones at that.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry, however did recognize soul gems. She looked to get the warlock's opinion, but he was off with the paladin. "These are... Shuffle, this is a necromancer." Soul gems were for collecting and enslaving souls, sometimes to put them in new bodies or to force them to fuel enchantments. "Not a very good one, if she hasn't become a lich, but..."

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle looked over at Jerry. "A...necromancer?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry took a moment to think about how to explain it. Jerry actually didn't know much about necromancy, or magic in general, aside from how to avoid it. "You know those zombies?", she asked, "Those are made with necromantic influence. Once someone dies, they should go to the afterlife. A necromancer is someone that either prevents that, or manipulates the corpse."

 

[Fangs9090]

"Oh. Why would I have her memories then?" Shuffle looked at the remains again. "Did she make me?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"I don't know, I'm not sure how you... wait. That guy that made the flask said something about your maker having a project." Gears were turning. "She would have had notes, or plans if this is the same woman." Jerry checked the corpse again, looking inside the clothing and the immediate area for any such hint. Even tracks of something leaving the corpse would tell Jerry that someone else had rummaged and left, possibly taking something with them.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle checked the satchel again. Tucked inside the shirt of the outfit was what seemed to be a small journal. It had a latch on it to keep it closed, and the latch had a small magic rune marked into it.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry examined the journal, checking for any other hints of magic within. Jerry's experience with magic locks told her that if she tried to fiddle with it, she would probably electrocuted, set on fire, polymorphed into a toad, or any other weird consequence. One time all three happened at once. Jerry was lucky that a mid-tier priestess with the materials liked her at the time, or she'd be dead proper.

However, Jerry was also smart enough to know that every spell had loopholes to it, and such magical locks were rarely effective at doing any more than preventing it from being opened. Most people trying to get past such magical locks were trying to do so without getting caught, so usually they weren't secure beyond the lock itself. Jerry pulled out a letter opener-sized knife and examined the latch strap. There were two options if she really wanted to get into the journal without triggering the lock, and only one that was guaranteed. She could cut the strap, but the lock might be holding the covers together, not the lock shut. Or she could cut around the lock. Without the cover it was attached to, if it was holding the covers together it would be just as ineffective as an ordinary latch. Her intention was very clear as she tried to decide.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle tilted her head as she watched Jerry pull a knife on the journal. The solution seemed pretty clear to her, so she wasn't sure what she planned to do. "Why don't you just..." She reached over and undid the latch, which clicked open easily at her touch.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry looked dumbfounded as Shuffle just flipped the latch open without triggering the rune. A decoy? What? "That's... why would she have a rune lock and it not work?" It would seem this was very much not a good mage if that failed so easily. Still, Jerry did tie the strap in a knot so it couldn't accidentally shut itself and maybe lock properly, before flipping through the pages.

 

[Fangs9090]

The notes were a bit messy to anyone who hadn’t written it themselves. There was a lot of anatomical and magical sketches on the pages that weren’t filled with words. She seemed to have been comparing different types of body parts, as well as writing down measurements of blood. As Jerry read on, many of the sketches started to resemble the mismatched pieces of Shuffle. Near were the notes ended, it seemed the necromancer ran into the problem of a life source and sought to find a powerful soul to use for it.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

As Jerry flipped through the pages, she only looked more and more confused with every word. What was this woman doing? As the pages continued and the images resembled Shuffle, Jerry looked between Shuffle and the images. "Shuffle, take a look at this," Jerry said, showing her the last few pages containing a completed Shuffle and the note about needing a soul.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle took the journal in her hands and looked at it. “Is that...me?”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"It looks like it," Jerry reached for Shuffle's wrist. "She stitched the creature in the picture together before fusing, you'd have stitching scars where the pieces were attached," she explained as she made to unwrap the bandages.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle looked at her as she let her check. Sure enough, under her fur there’d be stitch marks, mostly down where her reptilian legs and tail met the rest of her body.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Jerry frowned on seeing the stitch marks. "If she went looking for a life source, and you're here..." Then how was Shuffle alive? Although Jerry didn't ask that question as she let Shuffle rewrap herself. "I don't understand." She looked at the skeleton again. "This doesn't make any sense."