Torvent leans through the bars as far as he can, instinctively reaching for the Doctor but unsurprisingly falling well-short. From his hand though, comes a fast-moving surge of water, streaking towards the impeded Doctor.
Ulfric manages to grab and hold fast the sadistic doctor. As she is being held fast Nezzarim easily relieves her of her keys. At the same time she is struck by Torvent's water blast and screams in pain and surprise. She tries to break free but fails.
You are all up again.
"Nezz, get this door open"
Ulfric will progress the grapple to a pin if possible
Nezzarim starts inserting the keys into the locks to open the cell. "Hold her damn it!"
Torvent's fear, having been briefly overcome at with pity for the 'patient', comes rushing back, even as he watches the half-orc begin to dominate the struggle with the doctor.
Where IS this?
Wanting to help, he does the only thing that's felt even remotely familiar or comforting since he's been awake, and he reaches out to blast the doctor again, following instinct, or muscle memory, or something, to bring the water into being.
Nezzarim manages to get the cell door open. Ulfric holds her but doesn't manage to improve his hold. Torvent's second blast misses its target. Grymm and Quinlan can only watch for now.
The doctor snarls and her face turns into a mask of wrath, but she is unable to escape Ulfric's iron grip.
You are up again.
Nezz looks around for any weapons that he is proficient with. If there are none, he runs to the nearest cell to open that door.
Watching from his cell, Torvent waves his flailing arms towards Nezz.
"Here! Let me out!"
Almost as an afterthought, he sends another blast of water towards their captor. Feeling the drops and spray on his arms and face, he relaxes the smallest amount.
We're escaping!
Ulfric continues trying to pin the cutter, happy Nezzarim could get out and be more effective.
Nezz, open that cell then toss the keys to the last one. I can't hold on forever
There are just the sharp implements on the table which can be used as improvised weapons, but nothing that Nezz is proficient with so he unlocks the door to Quinlan and Grymm. Torvent seems to be doing well as it is, hitting the doctor with another blast of water. Ulfric still can't pin her down though.
Quinlan and Grymm, do you want to take any action now that you are free?
"let us all out, yes! ah, thank you! Come on, lady, let's get out of here." he adds to Grymm. Quin then steps out of the cell and starts setting the captive on the table free as his first action.
Quinlan and Grymm pick up some shards from the table and start cutting the tortured man loose. He's in bad shape but manages to sit up.
The maddened doctor's shape now twists and reforms before your eyes. Her hands grow long claws as she is desperately trying to scratch at the indomitable Ulfric. She draws blood and does 5 points of damage, but he maintains his hold.
You are up again.
Quin once the fellow is free, looks around for something to bind the doctor with... straps, ropes, manacles, anything like that.
"Stop struggling!" he says to the doctor...
"Yah. Good idea. Let me help... uhh.... if i can..." she had no idea what to do. Her mind felt a bit foggy. Like everything qas still hazy
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Nezz moves on to let Torrent out, as he cannot take on that creature without his rapier. "Someone help Ulfric out, he is bleeding!"
Grunting in pain Ulfric clings to the cutter, trying his best to incapacitate her.
"Grab something and stab her already. This shape shifting monster needs to be stopped"
Finally Ulfric manages to pin the doctor, so if you want to either hurt her or tie her up, now's your chance.
Torvent seizes the opportunity to aim a yet another blast at the subdued Doctor.
If there's any rope or manacles about, Quinlan will proceed to bind the doctor with them.
Ulfric is grunting with effort and pain, with blood dripping from him from the cutters claws. He does however try to keep his hold.
"Tie her up with whatever you have if you don't want to arm her. Use you clothes or take mine if you need to" Ulfric grunts out at the others.
There's plenty of rope so you have no trouble tying up the fiendish doctor. End of combat. 160 xp each to you.
Quinlan frees the other captive - the one on the table, then starts searching for more things, perhaps even his own missing gear... "So who ARE you all and why are you here? Why are WE here?"
Ulfric moves off to the side a bit, trying to stretch and shake his limbs after the exertion. His brow furrows whenever he looks at the woman, disgust plain on his face.
What happened to the poor woman for her to end up this way
Ulfric moves over to the tied up woman and asks,
"What is it you want from us?"
As the adrenaline starts to wear off, Torvent feels more afraid, and more aware of all the uncertainties. He shakes the door, gestures toward the lock, and timidly asks,
"Please, let me out?"
I already let you out (see above).
Even after all that, she begins to wander around where the doctor worked. Looking for books. Notes. Any knowldge items she could see. Absent-minded.
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Torvent shuffles out of the cell, and gravitates toward the center of the room, where the now-freed 'patient' sits.
As he reaches the table, he holds out his hand, cupped and palm up, where a bit of water has pooled and begun swirling around. Gesturing towards the man, he says,
"Are you OK? I can help you, I think, if you need it."
He glances over at Ulfric and adds, "You too, friend."
”Do I look OK? the man snarls. “That monster nearly turned me into a human jigsaw. I’ve got cuts and bruises everywhere. After some healing (presumably) he calms down a bit and looks at you in a pensive manner.
“You don’t know who you are, do you? I’m afraid that neither do I. The name is Campre, my name, that is. Campre Linweigh. I haven’t seen you before they brought you here. That was just before pandemonium broke loose. I hope that wasn’t your doing.” He looks at your consternation and then laughs, a joyless, cackling laugh. “You wouldn’t know anyway, would you? Anyway, you are in Briarstone Asylum. It’s been a refuge for those who suffer from mental illness for more than a century. A good place it used to be. Brought relief to some and I think even cured some. And for those beyond a cure, it was a safe haven. Inmates were treated well. I know, I worked here for years as an orderly. But then trouble happened.”
“It started with the nightmares. People around here started to have strange dreams, nightmares mostly. Some people that you had known for years turned into something monstrous, like the good doctor over there.” – he indicates the prone and thrashing form of the doctor – “She’s no doctor. In fact she used to be an inmate here who broke free. We did what any sane person would do in these circumstances – we panicked.”
”But we couldn’t flee. You see, the asylum is on an island and when we got out we found that the island was surrounded by some sort of unnatural yellow mist and we could see – at least some people said so – shapes moving around in it, shapes not like anything you’d seen, beyond monstrous. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, there was a riot. Don’t know where it started by patients started arming themselves, calling themselves the Apostles of something or other and attacked us. And in the middle of all that there was an earthquake that turned part of the building into rubble. We didn’t stand a chance. I and a lot of others were captured by the monsters, and then they butchered us, one by one. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d be dead meat right now. So I guess I owe you some thanks.” This seems to be an unfamiliar concept to him, and he falls silent.
Meanwhile, you find you most valuable (and portable) possessions in the sacks by the door, like flasks of acid, Grymm’s ring and so on. No armor and weapons though. But on the other hand you haven't explored the room fully yet. There are two exits, around the corner to the left of the map and the door to the right.
The doctor is not amenable to Diplomacy, so you’ll have to use Intimidate if you want information from her.
Getting no response from the woman, Ulfric gets in her face a little more, "I asked you a question, what. do. you. want. with. us?"
Having said that Ulfric stands up and backs a way from her a little, and turns to Torvent, "Ya i think I could use some patching up. Thanks"
Nezz grabs one of the sharp tools and approaches the doctor, "If you don't start giving some answers, I'm going to start carving you up! Now where are we?!"
Quinlan watches the intimidation process, standing with arms crossed, a stern expression on his face,
The woman gives you an unpleasant smile. "From you? Oh, your blood of course. Your soft bodies are so inferior but they make for such interesting experiments. It is a pity you interrupted me. I can feel that I was on the verge of a breakthrough with that one. He bleeds so beautifully."
Oblivious to what was going on around her, Grymm looks at a book. In a sack. Yes. This book seems familiar "Book of Grymm"
"Grymm? Hmmm. That might be my name..." rufflung through some more she comes across a very plain old ring. As she touches it. A wave of arcane energy seems to flood her mind
"Oh! OH! This is mine too! Hey. Everyone, look what I... oh... youre busy... cary on" she looks a bit surprised at what they were doing. She shruggs and begin to look around some more
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Quin becomes distracted from the intimidation process by Grymm's discoveries. He smiles.. "Grim, eh? that's an unusual name... Glad you found your things..." he goes back to searching for his own, and when he finds things that seem familiar, he unfortunately has nothing that has a name on it... Even the journal with somehow known writing in it has no name on it that he can find. He takes the items that resonate to him, and seems to take no notice nor feel the absence of weapons and armor. He does take something sharp from the doctor's tools so he has a weapon of sorts.
After helping the cut-up man from the table, and hearing his tale, Torvent gives repeats the process on Ulfric, running a small stream of the conjured water over his wounds.
Ever disturbed by the doctor, and interested in seeing which, if any, of the possessions being to him, Torvent begins sifting through the possessions for anything that runs a bell.
As you look around the corner, you find a cold, iron furnace that hunkers in the corner of the basement, its four-foot-square door gaping half open. Nearby sprawls a heap of gory clothes and other dubiously flammable trash. The rest of your equipment can be found here.
Quin collects the last of what he thinks might be his equipment and straps it on... nodding to himself as he does so. this feels right, this one doesn't though] he considers as he puts on one weapon, and then returns it to the pile of gear, takes something else and this time nods silently [i]Ah yes, now THIS is mine, I can feel it!
Fully equipped now, he ducks his head back in the other room and quietly lets the others know about the gear in the second room. "There's more stuff over in here, if you think you should have more than what you've found so far. Perhaps the doctor would feel more threatened if you folks had actual weapons in hand?"[
"Thank you for your aid. What may I call you?" Ulfric says to Torvent.
Hearing Quinlan call about belongings, Ulfric goes over and finds all of his and equips himself.
"Thanks to you sir for finding all these"He says to Quinlan. "What is your name anyway?"
"my name is... uh... that's odd... I don't remember... Do you know yours? This is so strange... I should know who I am, but I feel like somehow a piece of my mind is just... blank."
Nezz collects his gear as well. The thieves' tools feel right in his hand. "Who bloody cares about your names! Let's get the hell out of here, before the doctor's friends come to investigate." The dwarf doesn't appear to be the patient type.
Campre agrees with Nezzarim. We may have to climb out. I'm not sure that there is another way. Through that door is where they dumped the bodies.
Torvent shivered as he heard Campre discuss the bodies.
Not good, not good, not good... he thought.
The brief flashes of memories he got when finding his possessions brought a little comfort, but only for a few moments. Armored up and bearing his pack, he moves over towards Nezz, ready to move as well.
"Mmhhmm. If I never see this room again...too soon..." he trails off.
While the others mull about, he conjures enough water to re-wet his hair and pull it back behind his head, out of his eyes.
You'd better dispatch the doctor before you go. In case you haven't noticed, she's a monster. Literally. Campre shakes his head at you, his unlikely saviors.
Quinlan is no assassin, so seems reluctant to do the deed himself... but finally he picks up one of the awful tools the doctor was herself using and carefully cuts her throat in the most efficient way he can, making the smallest incision that will also cut the carotid, then he lays her down so the blood spurts on the floor not around the room. With a disgusted look on his face, he stands and drops the 'weapon'. "Not a souvenir I want to save."
He doesn't do as neat a job as he'd like, but he manages to cut the carotid at last... just messily.
He cleans up a bit, using the doctor's own clothes...
Ulfric hears Campre while he is partially through getting his armor on, and struggles with it trying to rush to completion. By the time he returns Quinlan has cut her throat.
Well, that is a regrettable course of action...
Upon seeing the scene, Ulfric sighs but otherwise makes not comment.
"Well, nothing left to do here then." Ulfric says to no one in particular and half under his breath.
Ulfric then moves over to the door and prepares to open it.
"Tell me when you've all gotten you gear ready. Nezz, come up front with me."
A horrible stench wafts toward you as a grisly scene meets your eyes on the other side of the door, but there doesn't seem to be any immediate threats.
A broad chute extends diagonally through one of this cellar’s half-crumbled stone walls. Beneath it lies heaped more than a dozen mutilated humanoid bodies. Nearby, a flight of rickety, wooden steps climbs toward the high ceiling—an escape none of the room’s current occupants seem capable of employing. The smell of rot and decay in the room is nearly overwhelming, and the buzz of flies hangs in the air.
Nezz moves to Ulfric's side. He turns his nose at the smell of decay, but the thief in him is curious to see if there any treasures discarded perhaps in the pile of bodies. Rapier in hand, he gives the bodies a look.
The bodies have been picked clean of valuables, but you can find the odd coin and piece of cheap jewelry (15 gp's worth in all). You note that many of them are wearing the same thing: a plain (once) white uniform that buttons in the front. "Yeah, that's an orderly's uniform" says Campre. Used to have one myself until that monster cut it off me.
The stairs look rickety but are safe to climb, but unfortunately when Nezz gets as far as the landing it becomes obvious that a fallen wall has blocked the way out, and the passage is completely choked with rubble. It looks as if the chute is the only visible exit.
"No time for honoring the dead," Torvent says, blasting a wave of water at the corpses as soon as Nezz withdraws, clearly working to clear a path to the chute.
"If we're not getting up the stairs, chute it is. Who's first?"