Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

The scenery of the dense forest of Laba was not that different from the vegetation that could be found in the rest Dschungelland, it was but an even more outrageous version, the grass and bushes that covered the ground were so packed together that they could not even grace the soil of the touch of their soles.

As such, their footing was rather unstable, and any area that was not filled in completely was a tripping hazard, or an acidic hazard actually, some of those hollow space were not due to the fickleness of nature, but due to its ferocity, predatory plants filled with potent acid were hidden inside of there, unmoving killers whose entire existence revolved around standing still and waiting for preys to do all the heavy lifting.

As such, they were very good at what they did, having already lessened many explorers and daring adventurers of some of their limbs, most commonly a foot, but falling forward into one of those was not that difficult here, the digestive fluids potent enough to dig into a competent adventurer's skull in an instant.
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Rummy had everyone covered however, whether it was an effect of her glasses, odd eyes or both combined, Loimos could not tell, but she was able to discern where the treacherous plants hid in advance, by making sure that everyone closely followed after her, none could fall victim.

Loimos did discreetly toss a small piece of himself in there, decaying some of that acid was worthwhile, he just disguised whatever odd thing he did as mere interest in the local flora.

Everyone simply assumed that the blonde vampire hunter was leading them in a specific direction, weaving in between the trees with twisted and crooked barks, roots growing in every direction, even out of the ground at times.

Avoiding the hanging variation of the acidic plants, that were a bit more proactive, coming down from their cover in the leaves of trees, trying to wrap around whatever it was that they sensed moving below, as well as staying away from the enormous flowers surrounded by swarms of flies.

The plant life was already rather unwelcoming, with those three types being at the forefront, many others were also threats to the group, but in much less volume as the aforementioned trio, approaching the veritable storm of flies was certain to be unpleasant, for the cadaver-smelling flower the size of the a grown man enslaved them to its will, making them relentlessly attacks anyone or anything that made the mistake of approaching it.

Thriving thanks to decomposing corpses, it only required a small amount of festering flesh to keep on existing and spread its seed, but the bloom was greedy, and would seek to always get more and more, refusing to just keel over and leave room for the next generation.

Fewer past explorers got into problems with it, its putrid smell and unfriendly disposition was enough of a precursory sign for even the densest of people, but one was not always in the position to make a choice about it, because of course, the gathering of nutrients by this flower was not done by attracting others into a trap.

Instead of relying on the more mobile denizens of Laba to aid in its endeavour, waves of gliding creatures the size of one's thumb tried on multiple occasions to swoop at the group, desperately trying to tear off any sort of flesh as they flew by.

The vampire hunters were endless bags of tricks however, magical items and contraptions were their forte, the two that accompanied Rummy would simply whip out some sort of small cannon with a big bag of air attached to it, blowing the little critters all over the place.

After a few hours of walking and fending for themselves, the group stopped as they arrived at a small hill, a cave naturally carved inside of it, inhabited by a bear-bodied creature with a thin beak, the resident was kindly escorted to the gates of the afterlife, its property seized.

"Alright then, let's rest and get started for real" Rummy rubbed her hands, she signed for everyone to sit down, the surface of the rock was rather cool and comfortable.

She got something from inside of a small satchel that had been hidden underneath her mantle, wrapped in a pretty, white napkin, a vial containing dark blood, which appeared a bit to have too much consistence to be healthy, having a faint brown tint to it, lining the edges of the vial.

'She managed to get blood from a vampire of Vespertillo' the undead was quick to assess things before she even opened the container, urging the canine beastfolks to come closer.

"Take a whiff of this, and try to find anything similar around, alright?" she told them, the three of them visibly disgusted as they got their superior sense of smell close to the blood, one even gagging.

Clearly, they were wholly unaware that this blood could make them into much greater beings, as beastfolks, this blood would have ease turning them into scions of Vespertillo, although not the same as receiving blood from the lord himself, becoming a vampire was still attractive, abandoning life should be natural but they were repelled by the blood, seeing as nothing more than filth.

"As for you guys, I'll point you to safe trees, climb them, don't expose yourself more than necessary" she made sure to tell them to be careful "Try to see if anything is flying at night, alright?"

All five of the locals had already gone to Laba in the past, some rather recently, others hadn't even thought of this place in years, but they still remembered clearly that even the smallest lack of attention could prove costly.

They did not understand what Rummy was looking for, not even the slightest clue, and Loimos pretended to be in the same boat as them, putting all that he had learned and observed from the living to convey that idea without actually saying it aloud or asking questions.

But of course, the skeleton could tell that she was actually here for the very same reason as him, or at least, that she was after Ahool, but considering what she had said, and who she had brought with her, it seemed obvious that she was looking for none other than Vespertillo, The Night Flier.

But to what end? Loimos did not know just how much the death hunters knew about those they hunted, about the gravelords, about the old empire of death and the ancient war, they had an understanding that vampires had a progenitor at the very top of it all, but it did not seem like they had an idea of the strength a gravelord held.

They called the vampires of Nosferatu's blood by the name of the gravelord, but did not give the impression that they knew for certain that Nosferatu was the name of the progenitor, like the gravelord and his kind had melded together over time in the perspective of the hunters.

Perhaps, Loimos should just ask.