Miriette stood back up, carrying the halberd in her off hand as she walked up towards one of the remaining skeletons. These things seemed to turn active in batches, which was fine, but she still didn't want to just leave them around in case they suddenly decided to operate under different rules. "Oy! Any objections to me smashing this thing? It's not like it's helping us any."
"If you could give us time to recover, arm, and armor ourselves I would appreciate it." Catherine called back, "we should all be ready for the next wave when you antagonize them."
(quoting for a quick refresher on what's been established of the maps. )
It takes only a brief study of the main lab map to conclude that it's probably effectively useless. A lot of the things it lists were likely destroyed in the fighting between their captors, and moreover the main lab is also, well, where the terrifying giants are. There appears to be no direct links between the Armory itself and any other section of the overall under city complex, requiring one to route either through the lab or the surface to get to the Maelstrom Wing, or the Crawling Tunnels.
The lab map also marks itself as linked to a Halls of the Custodians and a Deep Catacombs, the former... in the direction the giants came from, if Sam is reading it right, and the latter in the dead center of the lab chamber.
Inspecting the maps further suggests the Crawling Tunnels could be accessed from some half dozen separate points in the largely uninhabited forests that dominate the east side of the island Seafang sits upon. The Maelstrom Wing has significant access to the docks, and seems to itself have a couple of underground docks, which sounds remarkably likely to be unusable given that the signs point to them also being below the waterline... but then, perhaps an undead crew could allow the Necromancer to make use of them anyways.
The Armory itself provides discrete access to... well, most of the city. The western third or so of the city, containing the docks, seems to be accessed from the Maelstrom Wing instead, but everyone who did not live in that section of the city could probably find themselves within a few blocks of their house by following the relevant paths. Comparing the map to the micro city that constitutes the Armory itself is... less than helpful, in some ways.
While the layout of the streets is clear enough, and there are various spires extending to the ceiling that eyeballing suggests are the secret tunnels marked on the map, the buildings are marked out otherwise in a color coding with no color key on the map itself, and each building also marked with numbers and letters with no description. The building that the zombies poured out of is marked on the map in red, and as 'E-622'.
Roughly 90% of the buildings are marked in a roughly even distribution of red, blue, green, and purple, but there is a handful of buildings shown on the map in black, teal, grey, or yellow.
Some of the maps of Seafang itself appear to be attempts to map out Hunter patrol schedules. They are marked with a great many frustrated notes about constant schedule changes.
And some of the maps ominously mark certain business establishments as 'dealers'. No further clarification is forthcoming from the maps as to what they deal in.
Opening her eyes and lurching to her feet, giving her hand a few experimental clenches to see how usable the break had made it with a somber smile, Catherine re-examined the map.
Dealers... purveyors of ritual items for Necromancy? Arms like the undead carried? Possibly both....
"Do we have even an inkling of how long we've been down here? Even aside from my wife freaking out, if I've missed multiple days at the office, half the docks are probably in an uproar.
Catherine froze somewhat at the question, swallowing hard as a lump formed in her throat.
"N-no.... no I'm afraid I can't be certain how long its been since I was taken, and I doubt we were here for equal time."
'It would be better to never show yourself in front of your wife. You shouldn't concern yourself with your job.'
The thoughts pressed against her but she refused to voice them. He... was probably still in denial. She couldn't blame him.
So instead she just tried to smile.
"... wait a minute... Apparently I was staying in a dealer's den." He frowned. Could he have been specifically targeted? It seemed unlikely, he didn't think he'd done anything noteworthy enough in the city to attract that sort of attention, but still...
She blinked in surprise at that.
"Then... are these 'dealers' helping the monster...
take people? Not just selling them tools and weapons?"
This... was unacceptable. She had to take these maps to the Church and-
No. She couldn't. Well, she could, but it would probably kill her. Which would be a good thing, but the thought set her stomach dropping in fear.
...If these establishments were helping one Vampire, would they help others?
"We should work out what everything on this map means." he said to the others. "If this is an armory, surely that means there are weapons and tools stored here, and if we can get them without having to fight hordes of zombies and empowered skeletons, we'll be better off. Then we can start trying to figure out what's in the Crawling Tunnels and the Maelstrom Wing."
"Aye, this is an Armory," Catherine agrees, her smile twisting, "look, a Necromancer's 'weapons'."
She gestured towards the Skeleton guards Miriette was still glaring down.
"I'm sure there will be more conventional weapons, but if my guess is right, most of these buildings will hold more Undead."
Stepping away from the table, she went and claimed the second halberd from where it had been left abandoned, then began picking usable bits of armor from the remains of the Zombies. Needs must, and something was better than nothing.
Once she had finished that, she moved to the open door the horde had come from, and glanced inside the building Miriette had opened earlier.
