Castle Vikuur: Castle Outbreak

"Hey, wait, you just completely ignored me!" She says to the woman, and tries to shake her, but not too harshly, as then she might go into a frenzy and beat her senseless.

"C'mon, I need something here! Don't drift off on me now!" Airgetlam sighs. She puts her palm to her face and drags it down. She gets up and begins walking toward the odd set of contraptions and equipment.

She stares at Mai.

"Welp, I don't know about you but she's really addled. I'm just going to wait this out... As well... you would happen to know why she called you doctor? Maybe she was hallucinating?"

She starts to peruse the various sets of gadgetry laid out.

Maigoyume shrugs helplessly at the pointed question. He has no idea as of yet, and his memory of the time before the imprisonment is relatively foggy. Deciding to move past the topic as it doesn't seem to be going anywhere, he checks out the next door, before motioning towards it pointedly.

"Continue? Or investigate? Should have a plan of attack."

He shifts somewhat impatiently, eager for a taste of freedom and the outdoors where there are many more options to take, avenues of escape and opportunities to find, not all limited and closed in by hallways and other obstructions. Sitting still does not sit well with him and it begins to grate on his nerves.

Airgetlam looks about the room once more.

"Well she isn't going to be of much use anyway. I guess we can continue on." She walks over to him and hefts her crossbow.

"Just promise you won't bust the door? I don't want to deal with more people knocked out cold."

She reloads her crossbow with a sleep bolt, but still has the explosive and the incendiary.

"Alright, let's go." She nods at Mai.

Maigoyume nods emphatically and listens carefully for movement beyond the door, but notices none still. Putting a finger to his lips, he opens it a crack and checks for any presence before opening fully, and silently stepping through. Motioning Airgetlam through as well, he finds himself in a short hallway leading to a second set of stairs and advances to the stairs as well. Oddly enough, there hasn't been any patrols encountered as of yet, which puts him on guard for surprises.

Seeing Airgetlam ready her crossbow with a separate bolt, he nods to himself, satisfied that she is prepared, and prepares to see what lies beyond the stairwell. Moving forwards, he notices that this area seems more brightly lit and open. Perhaps some clues may be found there?

Airgetlam follows Mai through the doorway and makes her way through the more decently-lit corridor, stepping up into the stairwell. She aims the crossbow upwards, but sees and hears nothing. It is strange, she would think perhaps as they make there way into different parts of the castle that weren't the dungeon or barracks that there would be some kind of garrison. She guesses not and continues up.

She finds herself outside on a wall overlooking what appears to be a small, misty courtyard. She's not about to try and jump down, there seems to be no way up. She sees to her right a room with a window, and a small piece of parchment. It's probably a note saying the window is broken or something. Still, her curiosity takes her, and she cloaks herself again. She motions for Mai to stay put for now. Running over, she flattens herself against the wall. She slowly moves closer to the window and quickly snatches the note. She unfolds it and reads the contents:

Air, I've left this unlocked. If the woman from town is here, don't hurt her, don't tell Jian about her. knock her out if need be. -Sharpe.


Woman from town? The one who was trying to capture Jian? Why would she be here? She cycles her bolts to the sleep bolt and leans around the corner. She spies Doc talking to the woman on the bed, who seems to have been tied up, and is now a bit more free. Doc's charm is on her head and a quill is writing onto a piece of paper, albeit a little messily. As well, another man in a tunic and pants is there. She has no idea who he is or who he could be. Maybe he's part of the castle staff? Either way, it looks like she's not going to be going through there, too much risk and she'd rather find Sharpe first. Still, nice enough of him to leave the note for her.

She runs back down to the stairwell and beckons Mai to follow her. She runs the opposite direction into a tower and leaves the door open for Mai. She keeps an eye on the windowed room, making sure they're not going to be spotted. She de-cloaks once inside.

Maigoyume rushes to catch up with the lady before checking for any would be watchers and crossing over to the tower. Glancing around once again, he sees Airgetlam beckon to him before disappearing once more. Moving forward, he watches the way back as he follows Airgetlam's soft footsteps and stops beside where he judges her to be. As she reappears, he notices her keeping an eye on the windowed room nearby, so he decides to keep watch on their entrance.

Shifting slightly, he flips back to the ceiling and moves to a corner to observe the surroundings while hidden. Hearing footsteps approaching in the far off distance, he hisses to Airgetlam. "Contact approaching. Unknown." Moving out of site of the entrance, he watches for a decision from Airgetlam and hisses to himself impatiently. The sooner they can get out of this droll place, the better. At this rate, he'd rather just kill all enemies they came across and find this girl the woman is looking for than all of this subterfuge. Growling, he feels his rage surface once more before crushing it down and focusing on the situation at hand.

Airgetlam and Maigoyume enter the tower. This part of it seems like a small private library. Its round walls are lined with books and several tables with no noteworthy decore are scattered around the roomm, aswell as notes and scriptures and different books. Airgetlam catches on to the footsteps and readies herself, as an seemingly old man makes his way down one of the corridors connecting the three towers together. He mutters to himself; "Now where has she gone off to again..."

Airgetlam turns her cloak on again and presses up against a nearby wall, as to not take up space. Indeed a rather older looking fellow. Probably in his 50s or early 60s enters the room. He's hunched over slightly but if it werent for his face and hair you would never be able to tell his age. His body is rather heavy and tough looking, but shows obvious signs of age. Someone who used to be strong. He has very dark skin, a bit darker than tan, and white hair and a lot of unfine wrinkles and such. He wears an alchemists robe, with fancy designs and on it. His robe gives of a faint glow of warm light and drapes all the way down to the floor, though it is rather loose and easy to move with. He walks into the room, scratching his head. The movement of which making the belt slung around his shoulder and waist move, causing several bottles of varying sizes and designs to jingle against each other. He stops and turns to a table, giving a curious sound as he reaches for something. As he does, a rather pale and disinterested looking servant walks past him, holding a lantern in one hand. The servant stands close to airgetlam and faces inward, making sure the light illuminates most of the room well. Meanwhile another servant enters and continues up ahead, walking down towards that hobbyist laboratory. The man soon loses interest in whatever he was looking at and turns, to follow the other servant, the first looking in the general direction of airgetlam and and curiously pondering, as it cocks its head. Its expression turns from bored and expressionless to aggrivated and grim as it opens its mouth, a snarl beginning to form as its eyes dart around the corner nervously. It then suddenly stops as a rat scurries across the room. Its expression turning passive again as the servant moves down the other hall, following the alchemist and his other servant.

A droplet of sweat falls from her brow. She's relieved that she wasn't found out. The servants and man seem to be heading to that small lab they passed, which is good since they're heading the opposite direction. She motions to Mai above her to follow her, and she edges her way past the bookcases. She turns the knob of the northern door and walks outside, towards the next tower.

"Watch your step, if you fall there's no telling what'll happen to you" she whispers back to him.

Relaxing from his ready position once more, he follows Airgetlam. Approaching the door, he
follows her through it and closes it once through.

As she warns him on falling, he snorts quietly and huffs. Him, worry about falling? Hah, that would be an interesting day for that to happen...

He continues and notices an odd mist outside, seeming very foreboding to him. Small eddies and whorls among the mist make it appear as if there are things moving through it and the mist becomes oddly hypnotic to his eyes. In fact, he can't seem to tear his gaze away, and relaxes, watching placidly before shaking his head violently and hurrying after Air. This is becoming rather alarming and he doesn't want to remain there for too long.

The two make their way across an mostly enclosed walkway with several small staircases leading further up. The next tower isn't very far but the height of the wall coupled with the mists below and outside make for a dizzying experiance. Below the towers, there are several walk ways that seem to connect to the guest corridors. A strange design but nothing questionable. From this side through the openings in the walkway there are some towers to be seen directly on the other side. Two towers only, whereas there are clearly three on this side of the castle. Though the keep has multiple floors and a rather fancy looking porch at the very top of the main building. This run down castle was once a wonderful place to live in, but has since been shrouded by overgrowth, mist, and the smell of danger. On that note, there was indeed a smell wasn't there? Airgetlam and Maigoyume begin noticing a rather sweet smell with a tangy, smelly scent underlying. Plesant at first, but then stinging to the nose. As they approach the other tower the smell becomes more vibrant. Air gets to the door and makes sure she is well hidden and listens for noise. Some bubbling and fizzing but no footsteps are to be heard. She tests the door - it is unlocked - and slowly opens it a notch inward to peer inside. It looks like nobody is inside. She opens the door slowly and confirms that there is indeed no one in this tower. The insides look similar to the last, a lot of books and shelves but this tower had a couple of intricate constructions for brewing and mixing. It looks like an alchemic lab and the sweet but pungent smell is easily made out. There is some sort of alchemy station with some open books and papers, and next to it a glass container with a bubbling mixture. Bit by bit drops of some other orange mixture are fed from a tube hanging above, that seems to mix different liquids fed to it by a machine. The machine in turn is connected to a box mounted in the wall. A rather large box with a closed shutter and a console infront of it. There is another door across the wide round tower leading further up to the next, and an open trap door leading down to a lower part of the tower.

Airgetlam looks up and down the walls, noticing more things se pretty much knows nothing about. She sees the assorted alchemical equipment and wonders how much they'd sell for if pawned off. However, she decides against it, as the equipment might be missed. She looks about some more and takes not of a particular book, and finds it is a recipe book, with numerous lists of ingredients and processes. She looks through it and finds a recipe on invisibility potions and potions f healing as well. She takes out another scrap of paper from a blank book in her bag that she has been using and writes the two recipes down. They'll sure come in handy later. She doesn't take the already-brewing potions; who knows what those could do. She looks Aruba and opens some doors, and finds one leading back to the building, going north and turning right into what could be bedrooms or a store room, or a potential armory even.

Maigoyume follows along, looking inquisitively as Airgetlam examines the assorted pieces of equipment. He passes the beakers and pokes at one of them, startling as said beaker gives a bubbling hiss. Hissing back, he continues closely behind his charge and considers scouting ahead to alleviate some of his nervous tension. He hears activity slowly pick up through the surrounding area, almost as if they were reaching more populated zones.

Airgetlam backs against the space beside the northern doorframe of the tower and motions for Mai to keep the already-defined setup of her moving and him following. She brings her crossbow to aim and checks her corners. She keeps walking and finds a door, that looks locked, but it's dusty and looks like it hasn't been used, as well as not really cared about anyway. She picks the lock with easy and proceeds inside, finding herself in what appears to be an attic, the attic described by Ayame.

The two of them enter the rather cluttered attic. It's dark and no lights are on, the only light coming from a couple of holes in the roof. It's strange to Air, some of the places look like people live and work their every day lives, yet a few meters past it looks like the area hasn't been maintained for years. She draws the conclusion that they only maintain what is immediately useful to them, and with that proceeds further inside.

She can make out a bunch of boxes and chests, all dusty and many of them comprised of rotting wood. All in all it seems like a surprisingly normal attic, if a but more cluttered than usual. There are a few pieces of furniture stacked in a corner with sheets draped over them, as well as a couple of cupboards with books that look like they would fall apart if moved. Most curiously though is a metal closet, with several heavy chains surrounding it, standing next to a couple of well dressed but dusty mannequins. A faint yellow glow emits from the closet.

Maigoyume moves through silently and observes the state of the area. It seems oddly disparate in its relative condition, what with the areas well kept, and other area run down, but overall doesn't seem to be anything noteworthy. The roof, however, seems to be worn down enough to attempt an escape through it at the cost of collapsing the rest and alerting everyone during the escape. Such actions should be warranted only during the most dire emergency.

Out of the entire attic, however, the locked metal closet is the most interesting, beyond all the covered furniture, the cupboards, and the worn books, filled with mysteries on could only imagine. The closet itself is devoid of smell. Everything in the room has a certain scent associated with it, whether it be from people who came in contact with it or just the materials involved in the creation, but the closet lacks any iota of scent. Oddly enough, it seemed to carry a sort of weight with it. Almost as if it draws in your attention eventually. Such a thing certainly warrants an investigation, though the chains and surrounding it along with the faint glow certainly seems ominous.

Maigoyume cautiously approaches the closet and swiping a slightly less worn out book, cautiously pokes at the closet and watches carefully for any reaction.

Airgetlam proceeds cautiously into the attic. Just because it looks to have fallen into disuse does not excuse the chance that there could be danger. She pushes the mannequins away from the metal closet, and makes sure the mannequins stay away. She's heard of the inanimate spontaneously animating and she doesn't want to take that chance.

Something about the attic rubs her the wrong way, and she looks behind her multiple times to make sure nothing's there. She's always had that kind of sixth sense, and thus far, it has kept her safe. But still yet, she can't shake the feeling that something is watching her and Mai. She puts her crossbow down for a moment, letting it gently rest on a piece of furniture.

Airgetlam pulls at the closet, which doesn't open at first, but seems to give a little with the tug. She pulls some more, and after a few tries gets it open. She peers inside and her face shifts into a puzzlement, her eyes beading on a curiosity, the source of the yellow glow.

Airgetlam opens the closet with ease. The chains around it simply falling, previously cut or not properly fastened. And as she does the yellow glow begins to illuminate the room, casting it in a gloomy yellow. There is a book and a golden piece of jewelry fitted with two yellow stones, one being a crystal that emanates vibrantly with colour as the magic inside the crystal swirls about freely.

As she goes to investigate the little book, flipping through the pages fast she notices its a worn diary. Very old and written in a language foreign to her, but dates kept, dating as far back as several hundred years when the castle was first erected and some as new as a couple of years ago. She goes to reach for the jewel as she is interrupted by a growl and creaking of sorts.

Maigoyume looks around and notices several of the castle's servants standing around the dark attic dressed in neat suits and maid garbes, mixed in with some of the mannequins standing around.

Within moments one of the male servants rushes Airgetlam with a kitchen clever.

Maigoyume pulls Airgetlam out of the way and bellows at the enemy before launching himself forward at the target. As his perception slows, he notices that the cleaver seems rather well worn and that the servant's expression seems rather odd for someone that is about to kill. Regardless, the man has dared to attack. They are all already dead, and they just need to be notified of the fact.

Maigoyume deflects the cleaver downward with his left hand mid strike, forcing the cleaver into the servant's own leg and strikes hard with the other. He plunges his right hand under the rib cage and brings the assailant close before sinking his teeth into the man's right shoulder, rendering the striking arm inoperable. Wrenching his head to the side, he tears out the muscle lifting the man's shoulder and swallows before tearing out the man's lower left ribs and throwing him against a wall.

Through the corner of his eye, he notices the second male begin charging in, holding what appears to be an axe, while a woman holds a container of some sort poised for throwing. Simultaneously, he hears another woman shift position and the last charge in. Doubtless, one is poised to throw, and the last, holding a melee weapon of some sort. Mai leaps at the man, faster than the man can react and knees the man in the chest before he can complete the swing. Ribs pulverized and lungs hemorrhaging under the impact, the enemy's eyes widen but before he can crumple, Maigoyume seizes him by the neck and throws. The soon-to-be corpse slams into the woman holding the container and breaks her neck before the throw can be completed, and the container shatters under the weight of the two bodies. As smoke begins rising from the surrounding floor and the two bodies, the woman screams long and loud before expiring from the liquid within the container.

Maigoyume turns and shouts "The woman throwing!", before charging at the woman holding the knife, unable to deal with all the opponents quickly enough. Moving swiftly, he kicks the woman back to create distance between the two but finds upon separation a small scratch along his leg from the knife.

'Hm. Seems they aren't all clumsy, then.'

As he warily circles around with his assailant, he glances back to Airgetlam to ascertain her status, but is immediately beset by the knife wielding woman before he can register anything. Interestingly, this woman seems much faster than the human norm. Dodging the skilled knife strokes, attempts to slap her arm to the side hard enough to spin her around, exposing her back, but she immediately counters with a spinning heel kick. However, she underestimates Mai's speed and reaction time as he leaps inside the range of the kick and knees her dead center in the back, breaking it. She lands on the floor some distance away and Mai follows, landing on her back with his knee once more. As blood pounds in his ears and his skin prickles with rage, he bellows once more, not noticing as he is stabbed in the thigh one last time by this woman in a final attack before she expires.

Finally noticing the knife sticking out of his leg, he snarls and tears the knife out, letting his healing from the snack of he took of his first attacker take care of the wound. Getting up from the corpse, Maigoyume moves over to the last target, intent on taking his full revenge on their transgression.

Airgetlam pockets the loot she found in one of her bags and gets up, grabbing her crossbow. She slots in a regular bolt, but stops seeing Mai unleash his adrenaline on the hapless figures attacking them. She looks down and finds the one who charged her with the meat cleaver dead and rapid-decayed. An intense feeling of revulsion and slight nausea grips her and she looks away for a moment, calming herself. She looks on at where Mai is now, he is charging the last assailant but with a leg wound. She sees a certain weapon that she can't make out, but certainly larger than the other weapons. She takes aim and fires a bolt into it's head, and it topples over backward, decaying before their very eyes. She averts her vision, and sees to Mai to make sure he didn't push himself too hard or sustained major wounds.

The corpses rott before them, giving way to a foul smell. After a quick check across the room Airgetlam notices a figure standing in the corner of the room. All she can see through the darkness is the smirk of a woman, given way only by a faint light coming from the ceiling. She hastily walks down some stairs leading to the lower part of the attic and disapears from sight. No one is left in the room.

Seeing Airgetlam dispatch the last enemy, Maigoyume shakes his head, trying to rid of the feeling of too much pressure in his head and the light-headed feeling that comes with the adrenaline rush. All of a sudden, he becomes aware of the foul stench emanating from the corpses and sneezes trying to rid himself of that stink. Edging away from the corpses, he checks himself and notices Airgetlam approach him. Finally noticing the blood that had poured down his leg before, he wipes off the worst of it, revealing that the wound has almost completed the process of healing. Taking shallow breaths, he edges slightly further away from the rotten stench. "We can move?" Glaring once more at the corpses, he kicks at it, annoyed that even in death, the assailants managed one last move in defiance the victory.

How impressive the wound coagulates by itself! Such a thing will come in handy as well. Perhaps Mai was always a fighter...

Airgetlam wanders over and yanks the bolt out of the head of the decayed corpse and puts it back in her ammo cache for future use. After cleaning that is. Further on, a strange woman heads down some stairs. She runs down after her, but when she finds the lower portion of the attic, nobody is there. It's extremely dull down there as well, and nothing is worth noting.

She sulks back up, disappointed by her lost target and of things of note and shakes her head. She looks at Mai and nods.

"Yes, we may go. I have already spent enough time away from my friends as it is." She says to him. It feels like she'll be coming home, in a way, for now it seems like it's been an eternity since she's seen them. She hopes nothing terrible has happened and that the plan is still in motion. With that, she walks down the second flight of stairs and into the guest wing with Maigoyume, still with her crossbow and on the prowl, just in case.

Maigoyume follows Airgetlam down to the lower portion of the attic, and watches her look around. Slightly puzzled, he shrugs and hums to himself softly as he waits patiently. The fight before took out a lot of the apprehension building up, and things felt more natural now. Moving through behind and to the right of Airgetlam, Maigoyume sticks to shadows once more and lets the woman take the lead.

A thought strikes him, however. She mentioned friends, but how would they react to a being like him? He doesn't look normal at all, and seeing him covered by gore following her closely might make them hostile as he probably looks horrifying. Perhaps he should wait for her to make contact before revealing himself.

"You should make contact first. I'll stay hidden until you warn them about my appearance." Maigoyume follows at a further distance away, secure in the fact that they are out of sight for now.

Airgetlam stops and looks back, seeing Mai sort of retreat and confess his decision. She smiles.

"Well I'm honestly tired, I need to find the servant we saw earlier and talk to her. You should probably come with me and sleep in the quarters we find. Then you'll stay there and I'll introduce you. For now I think they're all asleep or in other rooms."

Just as she says that, a loud ruckus comes from one of the rooms. It sounds like Jian, and a lone Sharpe is trying to sound calm. She doesn't know what happened, and she doesn't want to become involved. She turns a corner and knocks on the first room to her left. She whispers against the door.

"Ayame, it's me, Airgetlam. Can we talk? Me and a friend need a place to sleep tonight."

No response at first. After a short moment Airgetlam knocks again, a bit louder this time. Still no reply. After waiting for a short while the door opens and a rather tired looking Ayame stands before them in a nightgown. She rubs her eyes but then suddenly comes alert when she sees Air standing before her. She pokes her head out the door and looks down the hall towards the next room. Nothing. She then opens the door further and beckons her inside.