As the defenders realise their guns aren’t working, several of them shout “code black”. Jade charges forward, and Juan follows, opening fire. Jesus hides, and Natasha follows Jade and Juan. Someone inside is pushing the door closed. Jade reckons it looks heavy, so rushes ahead to get through the gap and carves up the two defenders behind it.

At the strongpoint about half-way down the corridor, there’s some furious discussion about “what do we do” and “wait for the projects”. It doesn’t last long.

The deinonychus appears at the end of the corridor, and locks on to Jade. It bites and claws at her, but she manages to evade and slash its neck, then bites its guts out. That did give enough time to get the steel door at the end of the corridor closed.

Natasha gets her magic detection up, just in time to feel a massive pulse of magic ahead and below, centred roughly on the coffin…

(7 April 2021)

The door’s handwheel is firmly in place, probably not just an improvised blockage. While Jesus gets up close to take a look at it and rig up some thermite, he hears faint screaming on the other side; Juan hears it too, multiple voices, and it sounds like pain and injury rather than anger.

The thermite goes off, and the door falls off its hinges and crashes to the floor. A couple of yards into the corridor is a ring of putty – both Juan and Jade can smell C4 – with a taser (activated) stuck into it. Natasha transforms it to plasticene.

There are several bodies on the floor, with knives rather than guns, and looking worryingly pale. Juan takes a close look and finds blood pooling in the parts closer to the floor, though they haven’t been dead for long. There’s some sign of injury as though blood had been forcing its way out.

Detecting unread reveals just one creature, very large.

There’s some squawking down the corridor. Three velociraptors are squabbling over more dead bodies; they don’t pay much attention to the non-threatening passers-by.

The group moves up to the hub, where the three entrance passages meet; barracks and low-security labs open off here, and a security door briefly bars the way down to the higher-security area. There are more drained bodies about the place.

The lower floor is awash in blood – washing back and forth in a thin layer; Juan waves his hand over it, and it throws up a tendril to try to grab him. The ceiling is clear, but not conveniently provided with grips. They go back upstairs to get an instrument trolley; that doesn’t seem to attract the tendrils, though as Natasha tries to move the thing around with a pole several of the team can see trails of blood infiltrating themselves up the side.

She tries to clot the blood; it solidifies in the immediate area, but retreats if it’s further away, perhaps towards the coffin. The team advances.

The coffin lab has been recently redecorated in a “bones and guts” motif. The coffin itself is empty with the lid off. The blood in here is humping itself up into a more compact form, two thick pillars; Natasha steps forward and uses her anti-undead charm. They both shake and spatter, still holding their shape but looking a lot less solid, and no longer gaining mass. (Natasha’s detection says that there are two undead nearby.)

Jesus moves in with more thermite for the coffin as Jade and Juan hold off the creatures. Jade swipes, and feels little resistance. Juan hits his with the taser, which doesn’t seem to do much. Jesus gives up on subtlety and sets up a blob of thermite in the middle of the coffin. Natasha throws a third charm, and both columns collapse.

The blood becomes inert. Natasha can still detect some undead, briefly, right out at the edge of her range. Jesus finishes his work on the coffin and reduces it to slag; there’s some very odd-smelling smoke. As the thermite burns out, there seems to be a rumbling sensation coming through the floor; as they get back to the entrance, the place seems to be sinking into the swam, and water is beginning to pour in. The airboat is still there, but there’s a sound of rotors in the distance; they get away, and under cover as soon as possible. The Osprey returns, hunts around for ten minutes or so, then leaves. Jade, somewhat regretfully, hunts down the velociraptors, which turn out to have been augmented in the same way as the deinonychus.