"I can't believe that we were infiltrated by a doppelganger." Winter puts her head in her hands. "And Pharasma knows how many more she would have killed had she not been exposed."
"You have my thanks for saving us all." She hands Vincent a package containing two scrolls of cure light wounds and one scroll of sanctuary, as well as a wand of lesser restoration (7 charges)."I know nearly died at the hands of the monster, but could you help us find out what happened to the real Basily Harbour?"
Vincent groans, "Well, I am indeed tired but this is getting very old." he says as he regains consciousness.
He nods to Winter, making a note of his appearance the doppelganger used prior to attacking.
"Very well. I would like to sleep for once without being clubbed, stabbed, drugged or otherwise incapacitated by a third party, first. Perhaps more guards could stay alert while we do so in case this becomes a common occurrence."
Dakash shakes his head, "What are these creatures doing in this place?"
The party turns in for the night, with guards posted in the chapel to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity.
Under the statue of Desna, their night is undisturbed except for a pleasant dream. The party dreams that they are all lying beside each other on a grassy field dotted with blue flowers under the clear night sky speckled with bright twinkling stars. As they lie on the soft grass and smell the scent of lavender, they see a brilliantly colored moth with a long tail resembling peacock feathers trails behind the creature fly over them. Howard, Vincent and Dakash recognize it as a star monarch.
The following morning, the party checks the first eastern door, stepping into the yellow fog, and fighting strong winds and finds another door to the north, which they open to take shelter in. In the door they find the body of a Varisian female, roughly aged 25, with long brown hair, her neck askew at a strange angle, broken, and her body stiff in death. They also find a chute leading to the level below, where they see the familiar pile of bodies at the bottom of the chute.
You have a brief vision of the Varisian female stumbling into the room, sleepwalking, then the doppelganger sneaking from behind her and snapping her neck. When the doppelanger lets go, her body falls to the floor and the doppelganger gives a diabolical grin.
The party brings Basily's body back to the barricade, where a distraught Winter cries out, "We hoped that you might be able to save her...but I suppose if a doppelganger took her place....there would be no use in hoping for any other outcome..." She then give a resigned sigh. "Thank you for bringing back her body - at least this way there's closure," She then hands the party 2 vials of holy water.
Vincent checks all of the doors .
Vincent hears no sound from the door, and finds the door closed, but neither locked nor trapped.
He opens the door to find that a portion of the tiled ceiling has given way, allowing heavy bricks to fall across the bed and floor. Fortunately, no one seemed to be in the room when the collapse occurred.
Vincent hears no sound from the door, and finds the door closed, but neither locked nor trapped.
He opens the door to find three figures lie dead in this room, Two wearing yellow robes lie slumped on the floor, having suffered repeated vicious blows to the face.A third - an old man easily in his eighties and wearing a light cloth dressing gown - has fallen across the bed. He is dead, but has a satisfied smirk on his face and still grips a sturdy leather boot with blood on its heel. The boot's partner lies on the floor nearby.
Vincent realizes that the boots are well worn, but come from Angier's - a famed shop that holds the royal warrant for leatherworking. If the boots are cleaned up - they could fetch 200 gp from a buyer.
Vincent hears no sound from the door, and finds the door closed, but neither locked nor trapped.
He opens the door to find a shapeless mess of sheets and pillows pile atop two plain beds. Bold wooden chalk letters hang high on the opposite wall proclaim it to be "Brenton and Debis's Room". Vincent, Dakash and Howard spot a pair of carved wooden knights in a tangle of sheets at the foot of the southern bed.
Vincent hears no sound from the door, and finds the door closed, but neither locked nor trapped.
He opens the door to find human-shaped carnage covering the bed, remains of a patient trapped here and set upon by some creature with claws and teeth. The window of the room is broken, with glass shard strewn about the floor, a testament on how the creature got in. He spots a gold signet ring with the holly-and-hawk emblem which he identifies belongs to the Millair family of Redleaf Lake.
Vincent, Howard and Dakash also hear the sound of something clawing through rubble in the corridor.
They go down the corridor to find two hallways meeting here beneath a lofty celling. High windows, alive with the nauseating fog beyond, give the space an airy feel. A portion of the western hallway has collapsed, blocking it with tons of rubble. The party spots a ghoul trying to dig its way through the rubble.
Dakash casts touch of fatigue and moves forward to deliver it.
The ghoul is not affected by Dakash's touch.
Seamus manages to send an arrow sticking out of its arm and it glares at Seamus.
Vincent reaches for a throwing spear and changes his mind when Dakash moves forward. He moves to skewer it with his long spear.
The ghoul is nearly dead after Vincent skewers it. It tries to push itself along to get Vincent, and Dakash clobbers it to the ground.
Searching the ghoul and area yields no loot.
The party hears a frightened scream from the north east, ”No, not again!”, followed by ”Keep away!”
Vincent checks the door, to find that it is closed, but not locked nor trapped.
Seamus opens the door to see chipped white paint peeling from the battered frames of a row of identical beds. Dingy white curtains separate each bed, but offer only the illusion of privacy.
All of the beds have padded manacles and leather restraints affixed to them. One person is chained to the bed, in throes of a terrible nightmare. He screams, ” I don’t want anything from you”, followed by ”Get away from me, b@stard!” Then he shrieks one final time and ceases thrashing. Vincent notices a wisp of yellow vapour escape along with his final breath, and the party realizes he is dead.
The party searches the room to find a straitjacket and a hoodwink cowl.
Just then, the party notices a movement from the bed, as the corpse convulses suddenly. The skin thickens into leathery hide and the nails extend into claws, its eyes snap open,now yellow and feral, ”Ohhh…I’m so hunggrrry…feeed me!” It moans.
Vincent realizes, to his horror that the man they saw earlier chained to the bed has been transformed into a ghoul.
”I was surrounded by sickly yellow fog, tumbling through the alley canyon of crumbling, gray brick walls like some jaundiced flash flood. From the mist I heard the sound of footsteps, slow, but somehow keeping pace with the careening, hungry wave. I ran away…and found myself in a place where the alley walls sagged, battered bricks slumped over the path, nearly blotting out the bruised twilight sky. The cobblestone path split, with one heading upwards, one recklessly descends. I heard from behind in the yellow fog the relentless sound of pursuit growing closer. I ran downwards, only to run into a wall. Then the mist parted and a mask of gray rags emerged, strips of something fleshier than fabric worming and constricting a body that was too lean or and too flexible to be human. I had always been able to evade him many times before…but this time was different. The b@stard finally got me. I fought him to the end, defiantly telling him he would never know my deepest, darkest secrets.” The ghoul answers sadly.
”I’d really prefer meat.” The ghoul replies to Seamus’s offer on cornbread. ”Wait a minute..I, Jeprin Mears, am a vegetarian. Why am I asking for meat?”
Then more urgently, as if struck by a realization, the ghoul asks Seamus,”Can you tell me what has happened to me? I feel different now. I can feel the hunger, but my head has been clearer then it has been for days.”
|
Howard sighs, and pinches the bridge of his nose.
"There is no easy way to put this, I am afraid; it would appear that when you were 'caught', you died... and then came back as a ghoul. That would explain your sudden craving for meat... what can you tell us about what else has been going on around here?"
”I died? But if I died how am I talking to you now? And what’s a ghoul?” The ghoul asks Howard. ”I think there was some commotion, there was some woman yelling for the patients to get out of here while she held the cultists back. I was admitted here for narcolepsy. Wasn’t too sure if I was asleep or awake most of the time. I know Mrs Freeling over there, “ He points in the direction where the party caught a glimpse of the rotound old woman with a gaping hole in her chest, ”Was wondering where was her medication, and was muttering to herself that if she didn’t receive it, her heart would explode. ”
”And I heard a little boy scream from the north, Nooo, please don’t eat me! Then the screams stopped, and I heard the sounds of something being torn apart.”
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Howard sighs, not unkindly.
"I am afraid that you did die; you were in the grips of a terrible nightmare, you spasmed, and then yellow mist poured out of your mouth... also, take a look at yourself; you will notice that you have... changed. What you have become is a type of undead creature, that craves flesh, but can never be truly sated. That said, the fact that you have just changed means that you still remember what it was like to be alive, and your status as a vegetarian has probably helped as well, but ultimately, your craving may become overwhelming... We can leave you here, if you wish, but if you get free, it could become, shall we say, problematic."
He then looks thoughtful.
Unless, of course, we used him for body disposal...
"I've changed?" He peers at himself through his restraints and gasps in horror as he sees his extended claws. "So I'm now a ravenous flesh eating monster?!"
"Can I be changed back...to what I used to be?" He pleads with Howard.
Vincent holds up the straightjacket.
Winter seems to like helping the hopeless. We could always bring him back... he shakes the straightjacket enticingly.
"Really? I can be fixed?" The ghoul is delighted at the prospect. "But why don't I just walk to Winter myself , skipping the straitjacket bit - you can tell me where she is - as soon as you get me off these manacles."
"I could chew my way out of these leather restraints in fairly short order, if you're not willing to help." He offers.
Vincent moves forward with the straitjacket, inquiringly Yes? Need some help to avoid bites. You sir are going nowhere near the only safe place here in your condition unless you are bound. For your own safety and whatnot.
|
|
Howard chews his lip thoughtfully.
"It might be possible to change you back, but it would take the intervention of extremely powerful divine magic - at least a Resurrection spell - costing many thousands of gold pieces, and I do not believe that anyone we have encountered here has the ability to cast such a spell, let alone the requisite diamond dust, Moreover, the surviviors we have encountered are, shall we say, under a lot of stress at present; if you showed up by yourself, in your present state? You would be shot on sight. Heck, even if we brought you back, they are still likely to be sorely unimpressed with us, and you..."
Dakash remains silent, staff in hand.
He should be put out of his misery and sent to his next life
Vincent tries to mask his disappointment in possibly not getting to deliver a straitjacketed ghoul to Winter. Imagine the marvelous internal struggle of wanting to help a patient with no means to do so.
He shrugs, Well, if we don't restrain and deliver him to winter... he nods subtly towards his spear as the alternative.
"So it's not possible to be fixed?" He answers resigned as he listens Howard's explanation.
"I guess it's for the best."He looks at Seamus straight in the eye calmly as he fires an arrow straight at his heart. "At least I get to die while I'm still myself."
Then the arrow hits his heart and he twitches for a moment and lies still.
Worn old chairs and small table set with scattered pieces of simple games lay scattered throughout this room. A serving hatch in the north wall opens into a darkened space beyond. Vast glass windows dominate the eastern walls, beyond which a judiced kaleidoscope swirls hypnotically. A coppery smell permeates the room as the party sees sitting on a wheelchair before the bay windows to the east is a body of a rotund old woman with a gaping wound covering her chest, gore pooling and streaming away from her, causing the blood geyser.
Vincent carefully skirts by the couches and checks the serving hatch, as well as the double doors.
He determines the serving hatch is closed but not trapped and he hears a male voice, "Try some of this white stuff. It's really good."And the sound of sniffing.
He determines the double doors are closed but not trapped. He also hears faint child-like sobs beyond the door.
Seamus opens the door, only to see darkness before him, which rapidly floods the room. He hears a sobbing plea from a child’s voice, ”Brenton?! Wake up, Brenton! The lamp went out!”
The dancing lights are not visible in the darkness. Seamus feels something cold brush against him.
He feels something trying to take away his voice, but resists it. "Brenton, it’s cold and dark in here…I’m alone and I’m so scared…”
Seamus feels something about the room the door he just opened feels different.
"No! You don't know Brenton!You're lying. If you did he would have sent you with the shadow lantern. He knows I'm scared of the dark!" The child-like voice cries out.
Then Howard closes the door before Seamus can enter and search the room and light returns to the room.
Then Howard closes the door behind Seamus as he goes into the room to search for the child.