Another Invented Disease

You are with Mo and Frances, rowing across Venice Lagoon and avoiding patrol boats. Frances suspects they're only worried about people leaving, because no-one would be crazy enough to try to break into a plague city. After months of searching, they finally have a lead on Runner Five's location, and you, Quinzi, are an excellent local guide. The zombie situation in Venice is meant to be under control, but this plague is unknown and fatal. You bring the boat to dock, and head towards the Giardini Reali.

The map you supplied is proving essential in the maze of streets. Frances wonders if you can trust "Raven", the person you are supposed to meet. No one knows who they are. The city feels wrong – it seems like it is a place that died and has been decaying ever since. There are two factions keeping an uneasy peace here, and you have been advised to make your move during the time that power changes hand. Get running!

You have got turned around and you're facing the Rialto – a bridge housing shops. The city has changed hands many times since the apocalypse. The two groups sharing control are the gondoliers during the day, and the Mala del Brenta at night. You see a gondola selling goods while one of the occupants severs the hands of the dead that reach out from the water. No wonder you couldn't risk rowing into the city itself! But you must hurry before the Mala take over.

Mo and Frances have visited many people in their search for Five, but Venice may be the most dangerous. Even Amelia was worried! You pass a pile of corpses, recently deceased and covered in buboes, though more yellow than bubonic plague, with a strange purple mark in the centre of them. You hear a moan, and one of the arms in the pile begins to twitch. Get moving!

You spot a cart full of decapitated heads, but they're still moving. Frances thinks they might be V-types, but there shouldn't be any V-types outside the UK. Frances blames herself for Five being missing. She wanted to be useful, but jinxed the mission. Mo comforts her, then points out figures wearing feathered masks on a balcony, watching you. The Mala.

You're chased by strange howls. It might be the Mala, but may be another type of undead. Frances asks why Mo didn't just go back to his wife. Mo says he promised Amelia he would see her people safe, and his word is his bond. You spot someone wearing the bird-like mask of a plague doctor, and they point towards a narrow hidden alley. It may be a trap, but you have no other choice!

The Raven is waiting on the other side of a drawbridge. You cross, draw the bridge up, and the Mala leave. The Raven has an understanding with them. They remove their mask... it's Maxine! She has a lot to tell you.