Casa de la Muerte
The oldest building in the settlement of Cayota, the Casa de la Muerte is a decaying pre-fall Spanish Colonial structure that still stands architecturally distinctive among the surrounding adobe buildings. A perimeter wall encloses a courtyard with a dry fountain where shambling dead stand day and night, as motionless as the architecture they seem to appreciate.
Muzquiz, an intelligent undead who retained consciousness through a bizarre strain of the infection, moves freely among the zombies, having one-sided conversations with the shamblers as if they were responding. He can hear their pleading and hunger in his mind and calls them friends. A small township exists around the estates under an agreement: leave his undead companions unmolested, and the living will be left alone. The arrangement has held, but the number of undead residents Muzquiz keeps is growing steadily, reaching sizes that most townspeople find increasingly uncomfortable. The courtyard fountain is dry, but the courtyard is never empty.
Muzquiz, an intelligent undead who retained consciousness through a bizarre strain of the infection, moves freely among the zombies, having one-sided conversations with the shamblers as if they were responding. He can hear their pleading and hunger in his mind and calls them friends. A small township exists around the estates under an agreement: leave his undead companions unmolested, and the living will be left alone. The arrangement has held, but the number of undead residents Muzquiz keeps is growing steadily, reaching sizes that most townspeople find increasingly uncomfortable. The courtyard fountain is dry, but the courtyard is never empty.
Hazards & Traps
Shambling dead inhabit the building and courtyard at all times, and their numbers are growing. Muzquiz forbids anyone from harming his undead companions, and violating this agreement would end the truce protecting the surrounding township. The growing zombie population is straining the coexistence arrangement to its limits. Approaching the Casa without understanding the terms of Muzquiz's pact risks triggering a response from both the intelligent undead lord and the horde under his influence.
