Vincent tears some rags into strips and bandages Fluffy up to staunch the bleeding. Fluffy is still unconscious, so he puts the cat in his backpack.
Campre is shaking badly after the fight and stumbles unsteadily on following the party’s lead.
Seamus opens the door, and sends dancing lights into the hallway. Broken lanterns and several battered doors line this cold, rubble strewn hall. To the south, a pair of swinging doors lie shattered upon a 3-foot high heap of wrecked furniture clogging a broad doorframe. Lanterns flicker upon the walls, casting shadows upon several closed doors beyond the ramshackle barricade.
What is more alarming is the fact that four humans have their crossbows leveled at Seamus's head as he peeks out, ”Whoa, there! We got more here! Stay where you are or we’ll shoot!” They yell at the party.
There is some hesitation in their eyes and they call out, "We'll call the Captain."
There is a sound of a door opening and a man in a more elaborate guard uniform steps out into view. "I am Captain Vaustin." He looks at the party, weighing his options. "You can leave Campre in the hallway, in our sights. He should be safe enough."
"But YOU on the other hand, how do we know you're not one of THEM?" He asks Seamus. He thinks for a moment then says,"Bring back a few dead doppelgangers, then we'll rethink whose side you're on. 3 will suffice.
Captain Vasutin throws over a light crossbow and 20 bolts after considering Seamus's words carefully. "We don't have much to spare here, and we're running out of supplies. If you could bring back any supplies you can salvage out there, it would help. Also, one of ours, Baisily Harbour has gone missing. She is Varisian, 25 years old, has long brown hair and was last wearing a white shirt and brown breaches. If you find her, please bring her back to us."
"We will do what we can. That doppelganger was a monster." Dakash says, frowning.
Vincent peeks his head out, looking in the other direction and seeing what may be doors. "We can go that way, maybe. What's down that way?" he yells the last at the men behind the barricade.
Before he follows, Dakash retrieves one of the vials marked cure light wounds and drinks it.
I hope we are equipped to deal with whatever is happening here.
"To the west is what's left of the laundry. " One of the guards says.
"To the east are the storage rooms and what's left of the staff offices."The second guard adds in.
"The hallway has mostly collapsed in the north. We shot at a couple of doppelgangers and they stopped pursuing us. Don't know if we managed to get any..."The third guard pipes up.
"Then we erected this barricade to better protect the rest of us.Good thing too, since some crazed people in yellow robes started attacking us but we managed to repel them off."
There is a shocked gasp from the guards and Captain Vasutin as Campre with his orderly uniform stained with his blood, and multiple knife wounds on stumbles into view.
”Denman..it’s me, Campre. They’re-”Campre utters, then his legs refuse to support him after the twin strain of climbing up the vent and the earlier fight, and he collapses from exhaustion.
"We've got a man down! Get Winter!" Captain Vaustin orders, and one of the guards goes behind the doors and then a woman dressed in a black uniform, with one green eye and one amber eye, with a dagger on her belt hurriedly steps out of it. "Where's the casualty?"" The woman asks Captain Vaustin, then spots Campre lying on the ground. She pulls out a spiral on her belt and begins to chant.
Howard recognizes the spell she is casting as stabilize.
Vincent recognizes the spiral on her belt as a holy symbol of Pharasma.
Vincent recognizes her leather uniform as one of those of royal investigators.
Then the woman addresses the party, "I am Winter Klaczka, leader of the survivors. Captain Vaustin may seem harsh - but he is just trying to protect the rest of us from whatever that lies beyond in the hallway. If you will aid us, I can help you and offer you sanctuary, but I need to conserve some strength in case the barricade comes under attack again."
Vincent puts Fluffy's body with Campre. "Take care of this cat, no use lugging it around with us to fight doppelgangers..."
He nods his head for the others to follow and moves towards the rubble and the doors, keeping a watch for anything unusual and trying not to make a lot of noise.
"Chaplain Sektrakian, the priest of Desna, has also gone missing in the patient uprising - we managed to escape - to fortify ourselves here, but I don't know what happened to him." Winter informs the party, with a worried expression on her face. "Thin middle aged Ustalavian man, dressed in chaplains robes of a starry night sky. Has a scar on his left arm."
The party hears the sound of something thumping against another, followed by a faint, muffled shriek in the direction of the storage rooms. The storage room doors are closed, but do not appear to be trapped.
The party also hears someone cry out something from the direction of the laundry, but cannot make out the words.
Vincent, Howard and Dakash also hear the sound of faint moaning from the staff offices.
Once the party is a relatively safe distance away, Captain Vasutin and another guard climb over the barricade and use a make shift stretcher to carry Campre and Fluffy back to the barricade, under the watchful eyes of the other two guards. Then Winter directs them to another door and they dissappear out of sight.
Vincent points towards the cry (mainly for Seamus benefit) and stalks towards the door. If open he peeks in subtly. If closed he listens at it and tries to find any traps. If no traps he tests the handle to see if it is locked and motions for the others to get ready to handle whatever is inside.
Dakash holds his staff defensively, and follows slowly behind Vincent.
As Vincent heads towards the door, to the right the party see the walls between the hall and this office have largely collapsed, exposing debris-cluttered desks, toppled lockers, and several bodies. Vincent, Howard and Dakash notice that 3 of the bodies are doppelgangers, riddled with crossbow bolts while the rest garbed like Campre and that both doppelganger bodies and human bodies have lengths of flesh stripped away from them.
A battered elderly woman looks to be pinned underneath some debris with her leg twisted at an unnatural angle. "Please, you have to help me! She feebly pleads with the party.
Dakash thinks there's something not quite right about the situation but can't really pinpoint it.
Dakash approaches slowly, using his staff to pick over the rubble, "Can you walk?"
Odd that the guards didn't mention stragglers. Was she left for dead?
"I can't walk!" She moans in pain. "I think my leg's broken!"
Everyone thinks that the elderly woman is genuine!
Vincent eyes the woman suspiciously. He looks about the room and the woman, studying it for anything out of the ordinary or useful.
"What are you doing here?"
"I was trying to follow the rest to escape the mob of yellow robed cultists but some debris fell on me and now I can't move!" The elderly woman gasps. "Please, save me!"
Vincent notices that the debris on her look to be "new additions" and seem to be loosely packed , as opposed to the other debris that appear to have collapsed a while back.
Everyone thinks the elderly woman is telling the truth!
Vincent nods, "Ok. Hold on."
He ushers everyone, quickly and forcibly if necessary, out of the room and then whispers, "That scene is staged. The collapse happened well before she got there. She's either a mental patient or a doppelganger. Or the debris picked itself up and landed on her a second time. No, Seamus, it didn't."
As Vincent ushers the party put of the room, the elderly woman gives a plaintive cry, "You're not going to leave me here alone to die in the dark, are you?!"
Howard, Vincent and Dakash realize her cries are fake and she's lying through her teeth!
"You're freaking poking me with an arrow to prove that I'm human?"The elderly woman stares at Seamus, aghast, her jaw dropping open.
"You're off your rocker!" She retorts then with surprising strength, she throws off the debris on her and leaps to her feet, her leg reforming to a functional limb before the party's very eyes and her unkempt nails extending into claws.
The first arrow hits her shoulder, but surprisingly little blood comes out of the arrow wound.
The second bounces off her forearm, proving that she has really tough skin.
Vincent's mouth hangs agape at Seamus' decision to poke it. He steps up and stabs at the creature with his spear.
Vincent manages stab his longspear into its abdomen, inflicting a rather deep stab.
Dakash moves to stand next to Seamus, ready to attack if the creature approaches.
"Stay back, creature."
The creature snarls in frustration as Dakash stands in front of Vincent. She then steps up, ducking under Dakash's swing and tries to claw Seamus up.
Vincent tries to stab at it as it passes but his strike does not have enough leverage to stab through her tough skin.
Her claw arches harmlessly over Seamus's head.
Seamus clonks the old woman over the head some, revealing grey flesh and she staggers, slightly dazed.
Dakash assumes a defensive stance and moves to flank the creature.
The creature attempts to rake Dakash with its wicked claws.
It rips into Dakash, opening a large gnash from shoulder to hip.
Howard continues patting Vincent on the shoulder, sharing with the man to hear the whispers that constantly besiege him...
Vincent tries to stab it again in the stomach.
Vincent manages to stab it in the stomach exposing more grey flesh and sending out a spurt of blood. It looks like it's on its last legs.
Seeing itself flanked, it tries to clear some of its attackers off, starting with the wounded Dakash, as it frantically tries to lash out with its claws.
Dakash, expecting the attack, manages to sidestep the first set of claws, but the second set of claws catches him on his throat and he goes down.
"Once I'm done with him," It looks meaningfully at Seamus, "It'll be your turn."It threatens Vincent.
You wander in an endless cloud of yellow vapor. Other shapes form and vanish in the mist, fleeting, unsettling things that refuse to be focused upon. After what seems like a lifetime, an exhausted-looking man with a ponytail of straight, white hair stumbles through, ranting, “What have I done?" He tries to move past you.
Vincent once again tries to stab the creature.
"Watch out Seamus."
Vincent, with those maddening voices pointing out an opening in his ear, manages to stab the creature in its heart and as it collapses, it reverts to its doppelganger form.
Vincent searches the place, finds strips of doppelganger and human flesh laid out neatly in one drawer, together with a masterwork silver dagger. Among the debris he finds also wooden holy symbol of Pharasma, a small steel mirror, and a pair of gaudy red leather boots with cat skin lining (worth 20 gp), 2 ink pens and 2 vials of ink, 5 sheets of paper which are still salvageble. He finds what is left of the patient records...
Vincent pulls out the wand while working on searching the room and touches Dakash with it.
He looks over his condition and repeats the spell.
Patient Record Baisily Harbour
Female Human age 23
Committed 7 Erastus 4717
Circumstances Transferred from Vieland
Attending Doctor Oathsday
Baisily is a mostly cheeful person who sleepwalks and seems to be more prone to such episodes of the late.
Treatment Therapy, observation
Patient Record Bates Yopchick
Male Human age 9
Committed 20 Abadius 4719
Attending Doctor Chawaar
Circumstances Transferred from Barstoi
Bates was admitted for regular seizures after a bout of fever and his condition declines if he is not on medication.
Treatment Anti seizure medication, Therapy, Observation
Patient Record Brenton Lieklan
Male Human age 7
Committed 13 Gozran 4720
Circumstances Transferred from Canterwall
Attending Doctor Latchke
His brother Debis was admitted together with him. Both siblings are traumatized after their parents were slain by orcs in front of them. Brenton appears to have settled down some and has taken to his books.
Treatment Therapy, Observation
Patient Record Debis Lieklan
Male human age 7
Committed 13 Gozran 4720
Circumstances Transferred from Canterwall
Attending Doctor Latchke
His brother Brenton was admitted together with him. Both siblings are traumatized after their parents were slain by orcs in front of them. Debis does not see to responding to treatment and has become more and more withdrawn and has nightmares. He often wakes up screaming and the only thing that can calm him down is the shadow lantern which was giving to the siblings by their parents.
Treatment Therapy, Observation
Most of this area has collapsed into a heap of dense gray rubble. The occasional clattering pebble makes it sound as though the mound is not entirely settled, and more rubble could collapse at any moment. The party sees the female body of someone dressed in the same uniform as Campre lying on the ground, buried in rubble.
The party moves to investigate the door to the left. As they approach they hear someone proclaim the word, "Praise!"