Sturdy racks and toppled tables suggest this space once served as a sizable laundry. Much of the northern end of the room is filled with rubble.
A wall of pipelike crossbeams fills the western alcove of this room. Three figures are manacled to the rack here, from south to north: a human wearing stained yellow sheets as robes and bearing a flame-shaped chalk mark upon his forehead, the corpse of a partially eaten patient, with her left arm being stripped of flesh and a humanoid creature with long, sharp teeth and pallid skin.
The human in yellow robes stares blankly at the party's direction and proclaims loudly, "Praise!"
Vincent recognizes the humanoid creature with pallid skin as a ghoul. Its bite and claws can cause paralysis and its bite spreads disease.
None of the items detect as magic.
The woman doesn't answer Seamus, since up close, Seamus sees that there is a large bite hole in her skull and most of her brains have been eaten up.
The man in yellow rags gives Seamus a vacant stare and utters,"Words Fail!".
The ghoul on the other hand looks at Seamus hungrily. "Fresh meat...",then makes an attempt to break free.
As if sensing something in the mist, the man suddenly changes direction, runs right into you, ramming your shoulder sending a burst of agony up it, causing you to black out. You wake up lying on the asylum rubble, your shoulder and hip bone stick hurting, with Vincent tending to your wounds with the cure light wound wand.
The man in yellow rags raises his restraints in Seamus direction, exclaiming, "Praise!"
What a strange sensation
Dakash shakes his head to clear it as he stands, then retrieves and drinks a potion.
Dakash's lips curl in disgust as Vincent explains the creature's nature. "Destroy it, Vincent."
He nods grimly and steps close enough to stab the creature with the end of his spear. "Be ready in case it breaks free."
Seamus fires two arrows at the ghoul before Vincent steps in.
The ghoul dodges the first arrow, but the second hits it squarely in the chest.
Then Vincent stabs it through its head, splattering Vincent with brains. When that happens, the man in yellow rags exclaims loudly, "Zandalus sees!"
Vincent sees something dangling from the pocket of the half-eaten woman. He also finds Seamus's missing arrow, as well as a 6 winter blankets, a 10 ft length of chain, two 10-ft long poles, a ladder, 1 hammer, 4 pitons, a metal spike, a drill, and a crowbar.
Howard realizes that this guy isn't in his right mind and it could possibly because of brain damage. Sensing Howard eyeing him, he turns to Howard with empty eyes, raises his manacled hands in his direction, uttering a single word, "Praise!"
As the party abandons the man, leaving him shackled, he exclaims, "Words Fail!"
Vincent determines the door is not trapped and opens it.
Several wide tables and gigantic washbasins fill a laundry equipped to service hundreds. The place looks as though it were repurposed as a failed surgery, though, with at least one table heaped with remains while corpses lie discarded in corners. A stained sheet hangs between two of the basins, dividing the room roughly in half. A lantern shines on the far side.
The party sees a doppeganger with its claw upraised standing over the battered body of a woman with curly black hair on the surgical table.
Vincent uses the spear to tear open any pockets or garment pieces on the corpse holding valuables, gathering them up and placing them in a pouch (something was in the pocket?). He also helps gather the tools they found but leaves the blankets for now.
Seeing the doppelganger he shouts for Seamus to let loose arrows at it, moving to stab it as he did the previous one.
Seamus sees one arrow thunk into the doppelgangers back, while the other falls short. Vincent on the other hand, sees the doppelganger fade away as he stabs it with his longspear and realizes there is no doppelganger!
"Ware, it's an illusion!" he says, looking about for the source or the real doppelganger.
Dakash nods and readies for another fight.
We will go back and free that man.
"Oh you saw through it. That's so sad."The woman on the surgical table chuckles as the doppelganger dissappears, and her features melt away to form a grey, sinister noseless face.
Then she stands up from the table and draws a wicked looking dagger from somewhere hidden in her clothing. She stares at Vincent and he feels his mind getting muddled.
The man left shackled screams, "Words Fail!" at the sound of the doppelgangers voice in a panic as he tries to break free.
He manages to pull free of the restraints and makes a mad dash for the hallway.
Seamus digs into the pockets, finding a a disembodied, coin-sized eye with an X-shaped pupil that slowly rolls in a random direction. A membrane within the eye blinks every few moments and the pupil moves to make eye contact with Seamus.
Howard taps Seamus on his shoulder, sharing those voices in his head.
The eye smells like a morning breeze to Seamus's magical senses.
The first arrow arcs too high up and the creature sidesteps the second arrow.
Dakash moves into the room, cautiously approaching the creature.
What kind of cheap manacles do they use here?
Vincent holds out his hand, "Give it here."
Vincent snarls, figuring it'd be the woman. Another parlor trick... He steps 5ft Southwest and stabs at the creature as he moves closer to a flank.
As Vincent nears the bathtubs, he also sees a badly injured and emaciated ghoul in tatters of robes that once depicted a starry night sky in the bathtub.
Vincent manages to stab her in he torso. She gives Vincent a chilling smile, then closes on him with the nasty knife of hers and opens a bloody line on his chest. "I'll cut you into little bits." She pauses awhile to admire the cut made by the dagger. "Then we'll see if the ghoul prefers half-elf flesh to doppelganger flesh."
"That's for ruining my experiment." She looks in the direction of the f!eeing man.
The man continues to leg it into the hallway, yelling, "Praise!"
Vincent drops the spear and his rapier suddenly appears in his hands, aiming for the creatures heart.
He then steps 5ft south avoiding the bath to allow Dakash to flank it.
The creature parries Vincent's attempt to stab it with its rapier.
Howard continues to guide Seamus with his voices.
The doppelganger contemptuously steps sideways, and watches the arrows fly wide.
Vincent sees that the ghoul is too badly injured to get out of the bathtub.
"Forget the ghoul, kill this thing!"
Dakash moves in to flank the doppelganger.
Distracted by Dakash's approach, the doppelganger fails to see Vincent stab her with his rapier. Blood pours out from her chest and she looks injured now.
She sidesteps Dakash's quarterstaff blow then goes after Vincent with her wicked knife. Vincent feels a sharp pain in his gut, then sees the doppelganger’s knife sticking out of it. Then he feels a terrifying weakness as his legs buckle underneath him and he slides down the wall, unconscious. She pulls the knife out, sending Vincent’s blood spurting all over the place. Then she grins nastily at Dakash. ”And that’s how you perform a perforation of the intestines.”
The man in yellow rags continues running down the hall way screaming, ”Praise! Zandalus s-!”
Then his scream is cut off by the alarmed cries of one of the guards, ”It’s one those yellow robes!“
”Fire!” Captain Vaust’s voice rings out and the party hears the whistle of crossbow bolts and a grunt of pain,followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor.
You find yourself staring at a book with pages in Dethan’s handwriting.
Mina’s gone…my better half. She always told me I should leave this business and retire, but I didn’t listen, and now she’s dead – victim of a rival guild. It must have been a professional assassin – since her heart was removed and her remains defiled with poison. The priest of Abadar said it was beyond power. No, I will not give up. I will find a way. I have already lost Vincent to the occult. I will not lose Mina as well….
The scene fades and then you find yourself with an entirely different perspective. You find yourself looking at a black leather boot, and you crane your neck up to find you’re looking at Winter, except that she looks a LOT bigger. Or maybe you’ve gotten a lot smaller.You look yourself over and find that instead of two feet, you have 4 paws. And a tail. And you’re a cat.
Vincent seems to be bleeding less profusely.
Seeing his companion fall, Dakash summons his arcane might. He concentrates on his spell, swipes with his staff, then reaches out to touch the creature.
The doppelganger is fatigued by Dakash's touch and he clobbers her on her skull, denting it badly. She staggers unsteadily on her feet and looks around for a way to escape.
Seamus is trying not to hit Dakash with his arrows and the shots goes wide.
Howard continues to guide Seamus with his maddening voices.
The doppelganger pulls away from Dakash, heading towards the door.
The party hears the sound of more crossbow bolts.
"Come back here!" Dakash moves after the creature.
And Dakash crushes her over dented skull and blood starts pouring from her ears, as she falls over, dead and reverting to her doppelganger form in death.
Searching her body, the party finds a vial of red liquid, a dagger and 48 gold pieces. Dakash grabs Vincent's longspear and finishes off the ghoul in the bathtub.
The ghoul does not make any attempt to escape the longspear, and as it dies, it utters one last phase, "Thank you."Dakash notices that the ghoul has a scar on its left arm.
Searching the room, the party finds reasonably well-kept surgeon’s tools, a 12-inch bar lined with small plates and spikes, a brown haversack containing a pouch with 3 pp, a large white pearl and a phylactery and 6 ten foot poles. A 6-foot-tall standing mirror also leans against the wall.
Seamus extends his magical senses and finds the white pearl, the haversack, the pearl, the vial of red liquid, the 12 inch bar and the phylactery magical.
The phylactery smells like a morning breeze, the handy haversack and vial of red liquid smell like wet earth, the pearl and the 12inch bar smells like cinnamon to his magical senses. The 12 inch bar smells much more strongly of cinnamon then the pearl.
Then the party hears an exclamation from the guards, "Baisily! Where have you been? We've been all worried sick! Don't do that again, OK?" and hear a muffled reply, but cannot make out the words.
Then the connection fades and you find yourself drifting back into darkness...then you feel healing warmth drive away the darkness and you awaken propped up against the wall of the makeshift surgery, your chest still hurting, but your gut wound a half-healed scar, with Seamus handing you the wand telling you the wand doesn't like him.