Renlo; you are Spooked (-2 to Perception but +1 to Initiative; you are distracted but extra twitchy). If you were already Spooked, you are instead Shaken (as per the normal condition).
Devram pales at the sight of the stacked bodies.He turns away, trying to simply believe that Joan couldn't be in there. "Yes, gods, lets get out of here!"
Devram, you are unnerved but not mechanically effected by the sight.
The elf bowed to Renlo, offering the door to him. "I didn't hear anything, go for it."
Seeing more corpses was unsettling, but it only served to remind Dustfingers of how hungry he was. He tried not to let the others see this by deliberately avoiding looking at the pile of meat.
You are not bothered by the bodies, Dustfingers...at least not in the way the rest of the party might be.
Fifteen walks through the door after the rest and casts an indifferent eye across the bodies, although a slight shiver runs through her frame - a perfectly physical reaction.
Aurela winced at the sight -- and smell -- of the bodies, but maintained her composure. "The stairs, yes. Please." She said, and started heading that way.
You detect nothing, Aurela. You continue up the stairs until you come to a door.
Luccia will enter after taking a minute to calm the hell down, since she was NOT interested in going into a room with bodies piled high.
Aurela pressed her ear to the door and listened for a moment.
Seeing nothing else to do Fifteen follows the other woman up the stairs, apparently lost in a reverie of her own.
Renlo goes up the stairs with Aurela, eager to get out of the basement.
He will also listen at the door, and once it is open, he will cautiously peek his head out.
Devram follows Renolo up the stairs. When the others indicate it's safe, he'll open the door.
Renlo, you detect nothing at the door. Opening it reveals a simple, small room. It appears to be empty save for the stairwell that you are on and a door to the south.
Nothing seems to be amiss with the southern door. Do you open it?
"Wait, honey." Luccia says, hopping up the stairs with grace. "Let me go first, I get the feeling that I know how to handle these things."
Dustfingers lingers at the foot of the stairs, waiting for anything else to happen and for the stairwell to clear up. He crosses his arms, looking up and licking his lips nervously.
Renlo shrugs and backs up, allowing Luccia to take the lead. Shrugging makes him aware of the fact that he is wearing armor, and he's surprised that he'd forgotten that fact. How comfortable was he in armor, that he should forget he was wearing it? Whatever had happened, he clearly needed to find out as soon as they could.
Aurela half smiled at the catfolk. "Be my guest," she said. "I have a feeling I'm not so good at handling these things."
After Luccia checks the door, if she says it's free of traps, Devram will open it. He shoulders the large hammer with practiced ease, though it seems to startle him when he realizes it's so close to his face.
Behind the rest Fifteen is now flicking through the small book she (re?)claimed from the pile downstairs and muttering to herself, eyes flicking easily across the pages despite the almost indecipherable scribbling that cover much of it. She only looks up when the breeze from the open door hits her.
Luccia finds no traps and the door opens easily.
You step down, not onto the tile of the previous room, but onto grass. You look about; you seem to be in a garden of some type. The garden continues south but eventually ends in the wall. The same is true of the eastern direction, though it does look like it continues north from that direction. To the west is another door.
Looking up, it's difficult to see the stars, as a yellow mist seems to be roiling through the sky...
What do you do?
Renlo stared at the yellow mist, uncomfortably reminded of the yellow fog from their shared dream. He said, "We should get under cover - now. Let's go through that door." Renlo points at the door to the west as he moves towards it, planning on opening it regardless of whether or not the cat lady checked it first.
Fifteen looks up from her notebook and stares into the cloud, seemingly fascinated. "Amazing, a true convergence of ritual magic and a dimensional breech. How could it have been caused. Haaston would know." She seems oblivious to the possibility of danger and continues to stare upwards.
Devram stares in wonder at the grass as they enter the room. "Where..." He stops as he sees the yellow mist and nods at Renlo's suggestion.
He follows the to the door. "Open it, open it!"
Renlo, you open the door. You find a well lit hallway that extends north and south and has several doors dotting the walls. To the south twenty feet away, a large amount of shattered furniture and doors comprise a makeshift barricade perhaps three feet in height.
Immediately beyond the barricade, two human men train light crossbows on you as you step into the hallway.
"Halt! Stop and identify yourself!"
What do you do?
Renlo stops and puts his hands up. "Woah, woah, hey! No need for that! My name's Renlo Tacksa. Could you tell me where I am? We just woke up in cells down in the basement and have no clue where we are or what's going on. Fill us in a bit?"
Renlo doesn't know what's going on, but he knows he doesn't want to get shot by crossbows - which is how normal people think.
"Some of us aren't even sure who we are! Can you tell us where we are? What happened to us?" Devram yells at the crossbowmen, putting down his weapon and holding his hands up like Renlo.
Fifteen continues to be oblivious, staring up into the strange yellow sky.
Hearing voices, Dustfingers maneuvers through anyone still on the stairwell and into the fog garden. He keeps himself low to the ground, crouching so as to say away from the nightmarish mist.
Seeing the stiff woman staring upwards and not moving, he thought she might have ... no, her smell was not one of decay. Curious, Dustfingers poked her shoulder blade with a gaunt finger, hoping for a reaction.
"Hey, we should keep moving."
"Oh?" Fifteen jerks slightly and then turns to face Dustfingers, a wide, subtly false smile all over her face. "Of course. Where should be go?"
Devram, you come around the corner and speak. The men are still clearly agitated, but one of them mutters "Go and get the Captain."
One of the crossbowmen leaves, going south and then east down the hall and disappearing from your view, though the other keeps his weapon trained on you. After a minute, the crossbowman comes back, a man in half-plate with a sheathed longsword accompanying them. The man appears to be a Human, and looks as though he is quite weary. His age is difficult to guess, but you wouldn't put him past his mid-thirties. He eyes you with suspicion.
"You...you say you woke up in the cells in the basement? Speak. Tell me what happened and how you freed yourselves."
"Well, there was this strange dream involving a city and a yellow fog. We woke up from the dream, and then found ourselves in a basement, locked in cells. There was a man tied to a table who looked like he'd been cut upon, although he was alive and begging us to help him. Then, this woman who was dressed like a nurse came in and began using various sharp pieces of metal to cut him. We shouted to distract her, and then the man got his leg free and kicked her into a cell. He kicked her again, and I guess the keyring she had on her belt flew free and into another cell. The prisoner there unlocked his cell and began unlocking the rest of them as the lady dressed as a nurse repeatedly stabbed the man on the table. With us free, she went to run, but we were able to chase her down and kill her. Then, we took the mask off, and I realized she was not a nurse, but a vicious creature called a doppleganger. We found this equipment, which seemed like it was ours although none of us can remember it, and then some stairs up. Once we exited the stairs and saw the yellow sky, I decided we should get clear and went through this door, at which point these two guards started pointing crossbows at us. Can I put my hands down? I swear we don't mean any trouble, and we really have no idea where we are or what's happening."
"Perhaps forward? I've come to find that moving forward can present solutions to current predicaments." Dustfingers held his hand towards the next door before proceeding in that direction. Hearing the conversation between Renlo and the guards, the elf stood at the doorway and asked: "What's going on? Are we good?"
Fifteen comes forward and steps past Dustfingers and Renlo with her wide smile, holding out one hand. "Hello, it's lovely to meet you. I'm..." Her smooth patter jerks to a halt when she comes to her own name and her expression twists into confusion briefly, before smoothing back out into her pleasant smile. "It's lovely to meet you!"
Devram looks at Renlo and then back to the armored man. "We're sorry we killed her! I didn't mean to hit her so hard! But she was hurting that man, and we didn't know what was going on!"
Renlo, at your diatribe, the man speaking to you blinks, running his hand through his hair and frowning, looking for all the world like someone overwhelmed with the work ahead of him.
"We've....had problems with the doppelgangers. I let some people in here, apparent refugees like yourselves, and then they started killing. I'm sorry, but as it is, I just can't trust that you are who you say you are. I'm going to need some proof.
There are more doppelgangers out there, I'm sure. Bring me the corpses of three of the bastards and I'll know you lot are on the level. Then you can come to our camp, rest, and maybe you and Winter can figure out some type of plan. That's as fair a deal as I can offer."
Well, at least they aren't shooting us - although trying to kill doppelgangers could go the exact same way.
Out loud, he says, "That seems a fair deal. We'll hopefully be back once we've got three doppelganger corpses."
Turning away from the guards and the captain, looking at the rest of his fellow amnesiacs. "Well, we need three doppelganger corpses. We could go back and get the body of the one we killed in the basement, then we would only need to find two more. Or, we could just see if there are three doppelgangers up here. What do you think?"
"I think I'd prefer our chances being at their best. Let's collect the one we already killed and try and find two more. I don't recall there being more to explore downstairs, so let's do a variant of your plan and see what else is up here?"
Dustfingers had started licking his lips nervously at the mention of more corpses. He had an idea of why he was like this, and he feared the connotations he'd have to face if that were true. This fear influenced his desire to not return underground, the temptation of his "true self" - the one he could not remember - could prove too great.
"I'm okay with that. We go collect the one from downstairs and then find a couple more up here. Sounds good."
"We...we have to fight more of them?" Devram goes a bit pale. He looks down at the long hammer in his hands. Something about that still didn't feel right, but also felt that this weapon...his weapon wasn't a stranger to violence.
He sighs. "I'm going to need a drink after this."
"We probably all are, but I don't think we want to sleep out here where one of them could wander across us and kill us. That guard post speaks to a safe place, where maybe we can find some answers to what's going on and what happened to us. If it means we have to kill more of those things, so be it."
You are easily able to collect the corpse of the doppleganger in the basement, and leave it in front of the barricade as proof of your actions.
Turning north, there are two doors along the wall to the left, and three on the right. It seems as though the hallway to the north ends as some of the walls have apparently collapsed. Shortly before the collapse, there are doors on the left and right, and there is an opening in the hall on the right as well; it looks as though the room opens up that way.
Where do you go?
Fifteen trails along behind the rest of the group, not offering any opinions and simply nodding every time someone suggests something. When confronted by the doors she looks very confused before cautiously pointing to the nearest door on the left-hand side.
"We could go that way?"
"I agree." Dustfingers nods to Fifteen and tries the door knob. Looking over his shoulder at the others before giving it a turn.
”That works for me.” Renlo takes a cautious stance, just in case something pops out.
Devram follows the others, readying his lucerne hammer if anything dangerous is on the other side. "I guess so. We need to get out of here and they did look much safer."
You open the door to the left. Mighty iron boilers crowd here, their pipes piercing the walls and ceiling. Shadows and rust fill the narrow gaps between the cold tanks.
"Hello, what's this?" Dusty walks into the boiler room, headed towards the boilers while bending his knees to peer underneath.
Renlo moves into the room after the elf. "Perhaps something related to the function of the boilers?" Renlo doesn't know much about how boilers worked - at least, he doesn't think he does. Unless he just forgot he did. This whole amnesia thing was really inconvenient.