As we arrived at the corner of Elm Street and Belmont Avenue from the Creeds' house at Poe Cove, a nasty surprise awaited me and Priscilla. It was over twice as tall as us, with blue flesh covered in seaweed and barnacles, as if it had just risen out of the darkest abyss of the ocean. The monster stood on legs as thick as tree trunks, and had two sets of muscular arms, one pair much beefier than the other, with rippling muscles that ended in giant crustacean claws that could've easily snapped us in two.
The other pair of arms was normal, save for the blue skin, although the left arm ended in a bloody stump. To add icing to the nightmarish cake, the monster had a skull-like head with an octopus-like thing sitting on it, and I could see a tentacle squirming out of the skull's eye socket. Before I could come up with something witty to say, the monster roared as it charged our position. Priscilla and I immediately split up, and as the monster swiped at Priscilla with one of its claws, I conjured up the biggest fireball I could.
Priscilla darted forward, avoiding the monster's beefy arms as she went, with a well-placed reinforced kick, she broke the bones in its knee, forcing it lower. I seized the opportunity to hurl the fireball directly at its face as it got up onto its good leg, and it screamed as its face was set on fire. Priscilla narrowly avoided being thrashed around by the monster as it writhed in pain, and she took the chance to blast it in the face with her shotgun.
The monster proved to be as tough as it looked as it survived Priscilla's headshot, but at least it was now blinded. Out of desperation, it began to swing its beefy arms around in hopes of turning at least one of us to paste, but Priscilla managed to get out of range. As she chambered a new shell into her shotgun, I pelted the monster with more blue fireballs, and it screamed in my direction before grabbing the closest thing it could find: an abandoned station wagon.
I hit the ground just in time to avoid being flattened by the car, and its hood and bumper crumpled as it struck the street behind me. Somehow, I didn't think the owner's car insurance policy covered monster attacks.
My knees were shaking at the thought of narrowly avoiding death by flying car as I stood up from the pavement, but try as I might, my trembling fingers were unable to produce another spark. Hesitantly drawing my Five-seveN, I gripped it tightly as I aimed down its sights at the monster. It was a sickening sight, with most of its face burnt off by my own magic, and now Priscilla had broken the other knee, crippling the monster. With one final blast of her shotgun, the monster was dead, and I ran over to where Priscilla stood, and together, we looked down upon the fallen monster. "Just what the hell is this thing?"
Priscilla was breathing just as hard as I was, and she shrugged her shoulders as she pumped the slide on her shotgun. "I dunno, but let's send a few photos of it to Sonnac and let the people at Temple Hall figure it out."
It appears we are dealing with bigger problems here than just the reanimated dead. The name "draug" is ringing a lot of bells around here, and I'm told we have plenty of information on these marine creatures on record. On ancient record.
We could still use more information, however, particularly about the larger varieties with the lobster claws, and their general ecology.
On that note - they do have some excellent shellfish in that region, worth looking into if you work up an appetite.
R. Sonnac
"I can wrap my head around the walking dead, but these 'draug' things? Not so much…" I remarked as I observed the monsters taking a stroll on the beach through a pair of binoculars Priscilla had brought. We were hiding behind an abandoned car on Belmont Avenue, scouting the path to the Lady Margaret. Standing guard near the three brood pods stationed on shoreline of Fletcher Bay were two different kinds of draug: some had spikes for arms, while others had clubs for arms instead, but what really caught our attention was out in the water.
In the waters of Fletcher Bay stood female-looking draug with tentacles growing out of their backs, awaiting the zombies that would shuffle into the water to meet them. The draug would then insert their tentacles into places I didn't really want to think about too hard, and the zombies would bloat to the point where they looked pregnant. Like, third trimester pregnant. Ugh… I did not need that mental image. Could someone get me some brain bleach?
Anyway, the pregnant zombies (ugh, I think I just threw up a little in my mouth) would then shuffle back onto the sand and collapse onto the beach, which couldn't have been too good for whatever fetus they were carrying, and we watched carefully as they began transforming into pods pulsing with life, like something out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. After a while, the pods would then open up to reveal a newborn draug, tall and pale, and as slimy as a maggot.
"So what have we learned, Chase?" Priscilla asked as we both put down our binoculars at the same time, amber eyes meeting gray.
"The zombified locals get drawn out to sea, drown, rise, get knocked up by tentacle rape, and then plant themselves as pods on the shore to give birth to more draug." I answered as I pulled the slide back on my Five-seveN partway to check if the chamber was loaded - which was kind of pointless, since my pistol had an indicator to tell me that. "Very romantic."
Priscilla snorted with laughter, and we both gazed at the Lady Margaret awaiting us in the bay, with only the draug in our way. I then spoke up. "So what's the plan, Priscilla?"
"Alright, we're going to sabotage the draug by taking out the ones guarding the beach at a distance before closing in on the pods. You ready?"
I nodded as I gripped my pistol, and together, we began taking potshots at the draug. As the first few guards fell, the other sea monsters realized where Priscilla and I were hiding, and the bulkier ones led the charge towards our position. Snapping my fingers to create a fireball, I then hurled over the hood of the car, and was soon rewarded by the sounds of my magic grenade exploding and the draug in pain. Glancing out from behind the car's bumpers, Priscilla and I then took out the flaming draug still standing with our guns. "Come on, now's our chance!"
I followed Priscilla as we ran out from behind our cover, and as we charged onto the beach, I conjured up another fireball to blast the first brood pod into smithereens. Nearby, Priscilla kicked one of the pregnant incubator zombies in its bloated stomach before using the butt of her shotgun to deliver a fatal blow to the back of its head. "Chase, focus on taking out the pods - I'll cover you!"
"Got it!" Snapping the fingers on both my hands, I now had two fireballs burning above my palms. I then pitched them towards the remaining two brood pods, and the fiery grenades exploded as they came into contact with their targets. As we fought, the stench of blood and burning flesh crept into my nostrils, and I fought off the oncoming nausea as I helped Priscilla to finish off the rest of the draug.
I heard Priscilla cry out as one of the tentacled draug managed to grab hold of her, but luckily, I managed to land a headshot that incapacitated the monster before it could turn the battle into a hentai scene. Priscilla responded to her attackers with a vengeance, and soon, the other draug were lying dead in the water, the waves lapping up their blood.
"Think we've got all of 'em?" I asked as Priscilla and I stood up to our ankles in water, and my question was answered by a loud growl coming from deeper within the water. "…Of course I had to jinx myself. Of course…"
The water of Fletcher Bay began to bubble as another sea monster emerged from its depths, and in a great pillar of white froth, it revealed itself to us. It was a weird-looking thing, with a gray octopus for a head mounted atop a trunk with four large tentacles for limbs, its flesh covered with barnacles and other sea life. Flaps on the sides of its head covered something giving off an orange glow from inside the monster's head, and its eyes glowed the same shade of murderous orange.
Priscilla and I then brought our guns up to fire, but the barnacles on the new draug's body seemed to act as some sort of natural armor as it charged us with all the ferocity of a three-legged corgi. Seriously - it could barely waddle towards us with its tentacle legs. It was kinda cute, actually, though the anger in its eyes kinda dampened the aww factor.
Snapping my fingers for a fireball, I then hurled it at the draug, hitting right between the eyes. It squawked in pain as it stumbled slightly in its rush, but it quickly recovered as it swiped at me with the tentacles on its face. I felt like I had been punched in the gut as the tentacles struck home, and as I fell backwards, winded, Priscilla grabbed the monster's attention by blasting it with her shotgun.
My clothes were drenched with seawater as I quickly scrambled to my feet, and I was just glad that I had managed to keep my Five-seveN out of the water. Priscilla had managed to clamber onto the draug's side, and it was now trying desperately to buck her off, to no avail. Priscilla brought her gloved fist back to try and punch through the draug's barnacle armor, and pieces of shell shattered and broke off as she punched the living daylights out of the draug.
"Priscilla!" I cried out as another fireball burst into life, and with a final kick, Priscilla launched herself off the monster so I could exploit the weak point she had created. The draug cried out as the fireball struck home and exploded, and as it stumbled, Priscilla brought her shotgun up to blow its brains out. With a final cry, the draug joined its fallen brethren in the water, bullet holes riddling the burnt flesh exposed by its barnacle armor.
Amber eyes met gray as we stood over the draug's fallen corpse, and I then chose to say what was on my mind as the smell of burnt cephalopod monster wafted into my nostrils. "I dunno about you, Priscilla, but now I'm in the mood for calamari."
I just received word from R&D that the data you two have obtained is giving us fresh insight into draug behavior. They appear to have a more complex ecology than we first thought.
You've given our research teams a lot to think about - hopefully, in time, it will give us an edge over these creatures. Alas, not in time to save Kingsmouth, but you cannot win every skirmish. This is, after all, going to be a very long war.
R. Sonnac