Darb Village

I arrived in Darb Village just as night set. The rains were still pouring, though not as heavy as it had been on the way here. There was no one about in the streets but I could see lights at the inn and in some nearby houses. I made my way towards the inn, more than ready for a night in a comfortable bed instead of lying out on the cold ground as I have been for the last several weeks.

I stopped in front of the tavern’s door and took a deep, calming breath. I saw things going down in two ways: either the people here accept a giant lizard amongst them and let me stay, or I kill everyone in the village. I was getting kind of sick of the whole “hominids only” treatment; it reminded me far too much of the living world. One way or another, I intended to sleep in a bed tonight.

I pulled open the door and stepped inside just as lightning struck outside. I’m guessing that caused my entrance to be framed more dramatically than I intended since every eye in the place went to me. There was a gasp of surprise from some of the women in there, but other than that, nobody moved.

I stood where I was, surveying the scene. The interior of the tavern was cozy, with a large fireplace and several tables full of humans who looked like they were enjoying some drinks. Near the entrance was a set of stairs which I guess lead up to the rooms, and next to that was the bar where the barkeep had stopped polishing glasses in order to gawk at me.

I made my way over to him.

“One room for the night, dinner and a bath,” I told him.

“S-s-sorry?” He stuttered.

I sighed, then repeated myself. “One room. Dinner. Bath.”

The innkeeper gulped, then nodded. “That’ll be twenty-five coppers?” He posed the statement as a question. Good God.

I dug in my pack for a gold coin, then plopped it onto the bar for him. “Keep the change,” I said.

The shine of the gold seemed to have brought him back to his senses, as he suddenly perked up. “R-right, sir! Alrighty. You can choose one of the rooms upstairs. We’ll have dinner and your bath delivered to you in a jiffy!”

I nodded, then headed up the stairs to find myself a room. Once I was out of sight, the people downstairs start talking again. I looked into the first door to the left and saw a nice, clean room with plenty of space for someone of my size. I entered closing the door with my tail. I removed my wet hat and carefully peeled off the drenched coat. I tossed the sodden articles in the corner by the door, then placed my pack by the bed. Ah, a bed! I carefully sat on the mattress, afraid I might break it. Thankfully, the entire bed stayed steady despite my weight and I was able to lay upon it with gusto.

It felt so damn good.

The bed was a bit small and my feet and tail were hanging off the edge, but I didn’t care. It was soft (well, softer than the ground at least) and clean. Two things that were hard-fought to find during my journey.

There was a sudden knock on the door.

I sat up in bed and placed a hand on my pistol. “Enter.”

A portly woman in an apron entered, carrying a tray of heavenly-smelling food. “Good evening, sir,” she said. “I hope everything is up to your standards. Here is your dinner, some lamb stew with bread and a bottle of wine.” She lay the food on the desk next to bed. “I’ll be up later with your bath.” She performed a quick curtsey, then shuffled out of the room.

Well, she certainly was in a hurry. Looks like the people are still scared of me. That’s fine, I’ll take fear over contempt any day of the week.

I rose from the bed and went to sit on the chair next to the desk, the scent of the food already causing my mouth to water. I was faced with some difficulty sitting on the chair as my tail kept getting in the way. Eventually, I just sat in it backward, with my chest pressed up against the backrest while my tail hung upfront.

I began eating the lamb stew and found it to taste as good as it smelled. This was my first cooked meal in a long time, so I absolutely cherished it. Thankfully, it was more lamb than stew so it went down my lizard gullet easily. The wine was watered down, but not terrible. I left the bread alone.

A short time later, the portly woman returned, this time dragging a metal tub with her into the room. She began to fill the tub with hot water from pails she was bringing up from the kitchen. Once the tub was filled, she curtsied and left.

I eagerly pulled off my clothing and all but dove into the bathtub. The hot water felt marvelous on my scaled flesh. Once again, the tub was too small for me, but I somehow made it work. I washed and scrubbed the filth from my scales and luxuriated in the heat. By the time I was done, the bathwater was cold and more than a little brown in color.

I was finally clean. This was the first time since coming to Hell that I wasn’t covered in grime. After toweling myself off, I noticed that my dark greenish scales had a luster to them now that they were free of grit. They seemed to gleam in the candlelight, like precious stones in a crown of ember.

Once dry, I slipped under the covers of the bed. I was warm, well-fed, and comfortable. For the first time in a long time, I actually felt human.

I woke up just as the sun was rising. I stretched out my limbs and rose out of bed, feeling mighty refreshed.

I got dressed, putting on my leather tunic and brown breeches. I then spent the better part of an hour cleaning my gun. I used the leftover bath water from last night and scrubbed off the fouling that had collected onto the barrel. After everything was clean and nicely dried, I reloaded the gun once more. I checked my stores and noted that I needed to mix up some more gunpowder.

It was around mid-morning when I packed up. I checked my coat and hat and found that although they were still somewhat damp, they were dry enough to wear. So I shuffled into the garments, then picked up my pack. I was ready to head on out. I would just need to buy some rations, and then I could hit the road.

I came downstairs into the tavern area of the inn and found it empty except for the barkeep from last night. He was behind the bar again, scrubbing glasses.

“Ah! Good morning to you, sir!” He said with a smile. “I hope your accommodations last night were to your liking.”

Well, he’s mighty talkative this morning.

“Yes, it was adequate,” I told him. No point letting him get a big head.

The barkeep laughed nervously. “Very good to hear, sir. Also, I would like to apologize for all our behavior last night. It’s just that you’re the first traveler of your… distinction to visit our little village.”

“It’s alright,” I said. They treated me far better than those clowns in Garret, anyway.

“Was there anything else we could get you?”

“Rations. For the road.”

The barkeep nodded. “We have dried meats in stock. Would that suffice?”

I told him yes and I bought a bag full. I paid with another gold coin.

The barkeep looked embarrassed. “Sorry, sir. But might you have coins in denominations of silver or copper? I don’t have enough to give you change, I’m afraid.”

“Really?” I looked down at the large bag of rations I bought. “Now much would one gold usuarry buy me?”

The barkeep chuckled. “You’d probably own our entire stock, sir.”

I sighed. “It’s alright. Keep the shange.”

The man’s eyes lit up. “Oh, why thank you, sir! Very generous of you.”

Yeah, no shit. I really needed to get somewhere to exchange this gold into lesser units. I didn’t want to be known as a good tipper.

I packed up the meat, then headed for the front door.

“Good luck on the road, sir!” said the barkeep. “And please visit our humble village again!”

I waved farewell, then pulled open the door.

Only to be met by a walking corpse right outside.

“The fuck?” I asked just as the thing opened its rotted maw and leaped at me.

The barkeep screamed as I fell to the floor, struggling with the corrupt monstrosity. The thing used to be human, though it hadn’t been one for quite some time. It looked, and smelled, like it had been in the ground for months, yet here it was now, walking amongst the living.

Thankfully, it wasn’t very strong and I was able to keep its mouth from tearing into my flesh. I stood up, lifting the snarling, gasping corpse by its throat with one hand. With the other, I pulled the pistol from my belt and jammed it against its head. There was an explosion of dirt and scum as I pulled the trigger, causing me to gag on its rancid stench. The corpse stopped moving and I dropped it onto the floor of the tavern.

“What in the gods’ name was that thing?!” the barkeep asked.

“Don’t know,” I muttered. “Maybe one of Hell’s creatures risen from the ground.”

“Do you think so?” the barkeep looked pale.

There was a sudden scream from inside the kitchen.

The barkeep grew paler. “Oh no! That’s my wife!”

We both rushed into the kitchen to see the portly woman I had met last night doing battle with another of these… unliving creatures. She had a meat cleaver in one hand and was hacking away at the rotten monster. It didn’t seem to do much good as the corpse just kept coming despite all the wounds she had given it.

I drew my sword then rushed forwards, impaling the devil through the heart. That didn’t seem to do anything to it at all, though, as it kept trying to reach for us. I quickly kicked at the monster, dislodging it from my sword and causing it to tumble to the floor. There I began to hack at it, over and over and over, until it stopped moving.

I looked back and saw the barkeep and his wife holding each other, trembling in abject fear.

“Thanksh for the nelp,” I told them sarcastically. Just then we heard more screaming from outside. “God damn it.”

I rushed through the back exit in the kitchen and found myself outside of the inn. The scenery that met me there was horrific. It looked as if the entire village had been overrun by those walking corpses. They were everywhere. One was pounding against a door of a nearby house and two others had just broken the windows and were attempting to crawl in. Another had just attacked a man and bit into the side of his neck. There were numerous dead villagers sprawled on the ground, recent victims of the unliving monsters.

Two of the things caught sight of me and began to slowly move towards me. I took up my powder horn and began the arduous task of reloading my pistol. They were twenty feet away as I poured powder down the muzzle. They were ten feet away as I pulled out a cloth wad and a lead ball. They were five feet away when I used the ramming rod to jam the wad and ball down into muzzle.

The two growled and opened their stiff jaws just as I aimed the loaded flintlock at the nearest one’s head and fired. When the smoke cleared, one of the monsters was on the ground with a hole in its head; as for the other, I cut its head clean off with my sword.

There were more screams echoing from around the village, but I ignored them as I reloaded my gun. This place was finished. I needed to get the hell out of here before I wind up as corpse chow.

With my gun now loaded, I started off towards the road and away from the village. I didn’t get more than ten steps before I heard a voice call out to me.

“Mr. Lizardman! Sir!” shouted the barkeep. He and his wife rushed up to me, looking much the worse for wear. It seems as if they had been fighting off monsters, too, as their clothing was stained with stinking, rancid blood. “By the gods, this is awful! The village is being overrun by those things!”

“I noticed.” I looked back at Darb and saw that several houses had been set on fire. I could see a few villagers fighting back with farming implements and taking down a few of the beasts, but they were outnumbered and had no real weapons. The village would be lost.

“I’m going,” I told the two as I began to walk in the direction of the road. “It’s besht if you two do the shame.”

“Wait, you’re leaving?” the barkeep asked. “What about the rest of the villagers?”

“They’re ash good as dead,” I said without looking back. “Which ish what you’ll be if you don’t eshcape.”

“Those people back there are our friends! We can’t just leave them.”

“Your choice.”

“Please!” the barkeep begged. “We need you!”

“I don’t care.” I continued on walking, ignoring the barkeep’s pleas.

“Coward!” the wife shouted some moments later. I ignored that, too.

I killed two more of those ghouls as I escaped town. There didn’t seem to be as much of them at the village’s edge; my guess is that they were concentrating on attacking the center of town, where the most people were. Whatever unholy machinations were at work here, I had no interest in getting caught up with it.

I was about to cross the town’s border when my snout bumped into something. Not seeing anything in front of me, I tried to move forward again but was stopped. There was something invisible in front of me, and feeling around it, I realized it was a wall. An invisible wall. Just great.

I tried pounding on the barrier, but it would not budge. I hit it with my sword a few times, but the blade would just bounce away. I wasn’t stupid enough to try shooting it with my gun.

Suddenly, a blue message box popped up in front of me.

Error : 00516233482116bvd

Major Event in progress. Player movement limited.

Please remain in the area of event until the event ends.

Thank you.

What the hell was that supposed to mean? I was supposed to stay in this hellhole until this “event” was over with? What the hell would be the point of that?

Unless…

Was this God testing me? Did he want me to help those people back at the village? Could this be my ticket out of Hell, to get into the Creator’s good graces so that I could be accepted into Heaven?

Fine then, so be it. If saving a bunch of helpless villagers was what it would take to get back into Heaven, then by golly, I would save those villagers.

I guess it’s time to live up to my name, then.

I drew my gun and my sword, then rushed towards the center of Darb Village.