Albie finished kissing the vomit crusted lips of a dead stone mason. Liquid unlife squirmed around his lips. The pail mage spit what was left of the viscous fluid onto the floor of the masons' guild. The slug twisted and squirmed for a moment before becoming inert. Albie used his magic to cleans his body of disease.
The dead stone mason stirred on his cot. Half rotten flesh soaked in feces and vomit. The dead man looked at the mage. Clouded eyes looked at him.
Albie had installed no blood stone. The corpse had no mind he could influence. It only new the unlivings hunger.
Albie ran out of the guild. The diseased corpse hissed and chased at a jog. Albie ran down the dark streets. Slowing just enough for the dead mason to keep up. It didn't take long for him to find the cleaner streets. He passed a chard pile of bodies.
It looked like they were trying to counter his creation of flesh mounds. The piles were crispy but didn't look unusable. The ragged footsteps of the mason were gaining. Albie ran down the street to see a freshly constructed barricade was in the street. A group of orange coats manning the wall of scrap wood. The barricade was at least two blocks away from the bank. The wall was lit by torches. The men on the wall looked attentive but had not seen him in the darkness.
Albie snuck to the doorway of a nearby building. He drew his flintlock and waited to hear the shuffling. Albie opened the door to the house. He had one foot in the doorway and one foot in the street. The sound of shuffling feet approached. Albie pointed his pistol into the street and fired a shot.
The sentries watching the street shouted. They strained their eyes against the torch light to see a figure jogging at the barricade. The men fired their muskets at the figure. The corpse took the shots in the chest. It staggered the mindless body. The hungry corpse charged the wall.
Albie entered the fly infested house. The bodies of a bayoneted mother and child covered in maggots occupied the building.
Albie devoured the hundreds of wiggling lives as he passed to escape out the back window. Whistles were being blown by the orange coats. The street was barricaded, and men were running to reinforce against the attacker. Albie turned and ran from the walls and men hoping that the putrid corpse and the sicknesses it carried would be the beginning of the end for the orange coats in the bank. Judging by the barricades the men had expanded to spread out and avoid overcrowding.
Well he could hope he got a few. Albie walked the dark streets of Yourz. Catching a glimpse of the lurker. Its long fingers wrapped around the neck of an orange coat. The dead man didn't have any rank on his shoulder. The lurker stood on a building dangling the motionless body off the side. The solders neck blackened and shriveled like his own victims. The pail lurker seemingly proud of its kill looked to display the body on a nearby building. Close enough to be seen tomorrow morning. Not close enough to be found before then.
Albie looked at the mans darkened neck and remembered in his book how the lurker fed the same way head did. If a little less efficiently. It was a useful feature. Terrifying to see and it kept the lurker fed without him having to use his own energies. He would need to explore the concept. It would be a good experiment after the spiders.
The young mage decided that he had done enough for tonight and it would be best to resume his experiments on the spiders. The young mage hurried home eager to begin his next round of experimints.