... and so the nightmare begins...
.
..
dotting in
You're being hunted. You don't know where you are or even who you are, but you are running down an alley in a vaguely familiar city. With you are four others that you don't recognize but that you know yourself to be somehow connected to. And you're all being hunted.
All around is a wall of sickly yellow fog, tumbling through the alley’s canyon of crumbling, gray brick walls like some jaundiced flash flood. Ahead, the unfamiliar alley splits, curving to the left and right. Behind, from the silent swell of mist, emanates the sound of footsteps — slow, but somehow keeping pace with the careening, hungry wave.
What do you do?
I must get away, I must get away,I must get away. I must get these people away too
"Come we should stick together!" Ulfric yells at the others while running forward to the intersection.
Nezzarim curses his short legs, as he tries to outrun the mist. It seems the rest of these strangers don't need to run faster than the mist, solely faster than me! Think, damn it, think!
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My holy symbol, where is my token of faith!
Nezzarim has his rapier and the caltrops, so he reacts per his action posted above.
You run as fast as you can but the man with the dripping hair who is with you stumbles and lags behind. In the corner of your eye you see how your pursuer catches up to him and slashes him with a pair of vicious claws. Blood splatters in all directions as the creature rips his throat out.
You don't look back more than for a minute, but your assailant looks like some kind of humanoid wrapped in rags.
What's next?
Run. Yes. Run. She knew she had to. With these people. No idea why. Where. Or even how to get away. All she knew was to run. Answers and questions can come later. Main thing now? Get. Away. Quickly!
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Quinlan runs with the rest, continually looking back over his shoulder from time to time to see if he can catch a glimpse of his pursuer.
(items in possession are marked with * on his profile)
When he sees the demise of one of his fellow runners and the resultant blood spray pattern, he redoubles his efforts at flight and catches up to the others quickly.
"Run... run for your lives... this thing has no mercy in it's black heart."
The dwarf looks like he is trying to slow it down. I can move faster I should do it
"Dwarf give me those while you run"
If Nezzarim gives me the caltrops I will spread them over entrance to the right branch after everyone runs through then follow them
If he won't give me the caltrops I will continue running down the right fork.
Nezzarim looks at the half-orc and decides to trust him, so he passes him the caltrops, as he rounds the right intersection, running as fast as he can.
As Ulfric stays to spread the caltrops your enemy, who is wearing a rag covering its eyes and whose toothy, inhuman maw gapes open, catches up to him and slashes him viciously for 10 points of damage.
Your turn.
"Just run. Dont give that thing time to catch up!" she warns. This was going no where fast. She didnt know how long they would be able to keep running at this rate
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Nezzarim looks around to see if there is any place that he can hide with cover, while the creature is in combat with the half-orc. If so, he hides:
If there is none, he continues to run.
Nezzarim finds a pile of rubble to hide behind, when he hears a terrible scream from Quinlan's direction as she is being disemboweled by the tattered man-thing appearing out of thin air before him.
On the wall beside his corpse the blood spatter seems to form a pattern.
Your turn again.
Reeling from the strike, Ulfric begins to panic.
How did it get through the caltrops!! There goes another of us!! I can't help, I can't help, I can't help...
As his mind goes to a dark place his body takes over, running off instinct, falling back on his training.
Ulfric makes a sign at the creature, marking it for his wrath and then swings his blade at it two handed.
After swinging his blade Ulfric Runs
EDIT
Nezzarim in his nervousness fails to recognize the pattern and stays hidden.
The ragged creature easily dodges Ulfric's blow and adds insult to injury by running past him and cutting down Grymm with a single flick of his war razor. Blood spurts from the open wound, again forming a word on the wall.
Your turn again, those that are left.
'up' and 'save'... nope I have no idea. Looks like it wants to save me for last as well. I will try to lead it from the dwarf before it takes me
"Come foul beast, try to take me if you can!" Ulfric screams at the creature. Ulfric then sprints down the alley way as fast as he can.
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Nezz looks around from his hiding spot...anywhere he can climb up to to avoid this creature, since maybe it is only ground-based.
Ulfric gets his wish and the ragged monstrosity descends on his from above, its flight dashing Nezzarim's hope that it is confined to the ground as he scrambles up a collapsed wall.
An inhuman voice sounds from Ulfric's corpse, emitting the syllable: "Wake". Nezzarim can make a Will 20 save.
Nezzarim's feels a heavy sense of pressure and then a sudden splitting headache. His nose starts to bleed and the word "Wake" forms before him. Suddenly it dawns upon him that none of this is real and that he needs to wake up. With a mighty effort he manages to open his eyes...
You awake in a grimy cell in an unfamiliar dungeon, fully healed (except for Nezzarim's bloody nose) but still with no recollection of who you are. You remember everything from your dream all too clearly though, but apart from the dream you don't recognize each other. Nezzarim and Ulfric are in one cell, Grymm and Quinlan in another opposite, while Torvent has an entire cell to himself. You have none of your possessions however, not even those that you had in your dream.
As you groggily awake you hear a man screaming: "Wake up, damn it!", his panic cutting through the claustrophobic near dark. Bars separate you from the stranger, a struggling human with split lips and skin covered in a mapwork of fresh red lines. Heavy ropes lash the man to a splintery worktable.
Another figure, unsettlingly thin and wearing a blood-smeared doctor’s coat, circles the table casually — stopping every so often to scrutinize one of the man’s wounds or select a different object from a sideboard of shiny blades. Currently, she spins one blade of a broken pair of pruning shears, which glints in the dull light of the lamp suspended overhead. With careless cruelty, the doctor draws the blade across the bound man’s bare thigh, releasing a tortured wail.
Quinlan wakes with a start as the yelling gets through to his sleep-grogged brain... "Wha? Where am I...?" He gets up slowly and stumbles to the... "bars? what the hell?" he tests the strength of the bars . "You there! Let me out of here!... " he calls out to the doctorish one. Me? me?... who the hell is 'me'... "I don't belong here." Do I?
That's when he realizes he's not alone in the cell and looks over at Grymm. "Who are you? For that matter, do you know who I am? Quick, what's my name?"
Nezzarim wakes up in pain, reaching for his nose to stop the blood flow. He looks at Ulfric..."You? I saw you in my dream...you died, I think. That thing that was chasing us...Where are we? I can't remember a thing." The frustrated dwarf looks at the lock on his cell, his rogue instincts kicking in.
The doctor seems surprised and spins around on Quinlan. "Pipe down. You'll have your turn soon enough." she snorts before she turns back to her grisly occupation.
The locks are sturdy and need a Disable Device 25 to pick, and you don't have the tools for it. Looking round the room you notice that the smaller table next to the one upon which the man is bound displays an array of sharp instruments, none designed for use on living flesh: a gardening trowel, forks, several long pieces of broken glass or metal, and the other blade of the tormentor’s shears. Additionally, heavily loaded sacks lie near the door.
She blinks. Vision slowly returning.
"How the heck should I know... never met you before..." she gets a wry smile on her face.
"But I did see you in my dreams... funny... yes... that should be funny..." still a bit too groggy to fully realise her current situation
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"That is odd.. you were in MY dream... but I don't think I know you either," Quinlan says with an odd catch in his throat. "Perhaps it's destiny. why are we in a cell together, eh? Answer me that riddle!"
Standing Ulfric replies to the dwarf,
"Well dwarf, I am glad that was your dream I was in. Heaven forbid such nightmares spring from my own mind"
Eyeing the scene, Ulfric is uneasy of all their positions.
How can I help the poor fool on the table...
Walking over to the bars Ulfric sets his hands and arms so they can easily reach through them.
Ulfric then bellows at the "doctor", "What are you trying to do here exactly you no talent cutter? Get us to talk or just watch us writhe in pain? A fool such as you will never make it any where, scum"
Ulfric will continue his berating of the 'doctor' regardless of attempts to quiet him or threats against him.
Should the 'doctor come within arms reach of Ulfric, Ulfric will do his best to punch him in the face.
She slowly began to realise where she was. Her eyes going a bit larger
"I dont know. I dont know!" as her mind tries to wrap itself around the situation
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The doctor wheels around and screams "Quiet!" at Ulfric. At the same time her face undergoes an uncanny transformation into a replica of his own. His own face stares back at him for a moment before the doctor turns back to her nefarious doings.
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Torvent frantically sits up, coughing up a large amount of water in the process and reacting to the surroundings in much the same way.
As he listens to them talk, it sounds familiar enough to be real, he supposes...
'Dreams? Running? I remember running, and not being fast enough. There were others there...these ones maybe?'
*******************
He coughs a few more times, as the Doctor, if he can be called that, interacts with his patient, and the others.
Looking the man up and down as he provokes one of the other captives, he notices a set of keys bouncing slightly on their captors hip.
Torvent's fear is briefly overtaken by empathy for the man on the table, as switches his focus.
'I can help that man. We need to help him...'
Upon seeing his own face appear on the cutter, Ulfric goes silent.
My own face, that is unsettling... This creature must be dealt with
Shaking his head to help keep it clear, Ulfric calls across the room,
"You there, mister alone in his cell. You seem to have it together a bit, any way to get us out of here? Me and the dwarf are stumped it seems"
Realizing its some what impolite to keep calling him 'the dwarf', Ulfric turns to the dwarf and asks, "So what's your name anyway, cell mate?"
The dwarf whispers to the human, "Just call me Nezz, it's what I remember everyone calling me. The mad doc's got keys on her belt. If you can get her to come close within grasp, maybe I can pilfer them from her."
"Hey, you! In the doctor's get up! yes, you!... what is this place.. and how do we get out of here..." He hears the others whispering and quiets down, trying to hear them.. Just catches that at least one of them recalls his name... that was something... maybe his own will come to him in time...
Infuriated at the constant interruptions the doctor (who is female, incidentally) turns on Ulfric, brandishing her shears in a menacing way. But before she can say anything the man on the table, who is struggling violently in his bonds, manages to get a leg free and gives her a swift kick into the small of the back, sending her crashing into the bars of Ulfric's and Nezzarim's cell.
Ulfric can make a grapple check if he likes and Nezzarim has a chance to pilfer her keys (with a Sleight of Hand or Dexterity check). The rest of you can't reach her directly but you can take an action regardless.
Quin just watches for now... "Get her, mister... hold her tight!" Quin, rather helpless in his cell, encourages the half-orc to grapple the doctor.
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As the cutter comes into reach, Ulfric tries his best to get his arms around her and hold her against the bars.