Having seen the Maiden shoot Talfryn, and the rushing footsteps of the physician, Garvid bursts out of the flaps with a thunderous roar. "You want to shoot someone, shoot me!", he roars at the maiden. His boots thud heavily on the ground, rushing past the running physician as he leaps at the already shaken maiden. As he closes, he leaps on the chair, pushing himself even further up. The halberd's hilt lunges forwards from his momentum, landing squarely into the forehead of the red-plumed helmet as the guardsman's weight is added behing the thrust.
Wood crashes on metal, the metal giving way. The bone follows, as the sound of a caved-in helmet crunches into the Gray Maiden's skull, crimson-and-gray spray leaving the helmet's bent eye sockets. The maiden's body flies backwards and crashes into the wall, leaving a gruesome splash on the wooden wall, before it tumbles on the ground with a clang.
"F!~$!", Garvid's furious voice leaves his mouth as he raises his halberd towards the physician. His eyes glance over the room, and the sick people rounded on the beds, his knuckles gripping the halberd's hilt even tighter. Pointing an armoured finger at the physician, he lets out a roar. "You sit the hell down, and I'll deal with you later.", he spits out, his eyes glaring at the two Maidens on top of the walk. "Come down! I'm sure you've been waiting for someone who can fight back."
Both Grey Maidens high up on the catwalk begin making retching noises inside their helmets. Liquid begins spilling out from between the seams of their headgear as they avert their eyes from the Shoanti shaman's stomach-churning magic.
The Grey Maiden's skull shatters under Krein's massive halberd blow; she's dead before her body hits the ground.
The Physician at the back of the room, the only one who is not currently blind, vomiting, unconscious, or dead, heads for a door to the north in a great hurry. He opens it and begins to make a quick exit.
The two blinded Physicians nearest Lord Blackoak move away from the wizard, bumping into the cots of the diseased as they attempt to escape.
High up on the catwalk, the two nauseated Maidens hold on to the railings and slowly make their way east.
The leather curtains part from the direction of the entrance, and a woman with a scarf wrapped around her mouth appears. "What the Seven Hells?" she mutters as she surveys the chaos around her. She then sees Yaziyah's magical curtain and begins to vomit uncontrollably.
Judging by the sounds beyond the leather curtain, her magic had succeeded in at least temporarily incapacitating their foes. Retreating further into the storage room, Yaziyah addresses Li over her shoulder.
"Don't go that way. It's nasty."
She wills the shimmering curtain to remain in place as she takes out one of the healing sticks and applies it to her cuts and bruises, cursing softly.
She moves to the other leather flap, twitching it aside with one hand and peering in the room beyond. "So many sick people... I'll have my hands full."
The scene is becoming quite distasteful; compound the ejecting of effluvium and general nausea with the moans and groans of the multitude of the ill, and Talfryn is beginning to feel a little queasy himself.
Still, purposeful movement catches his eye, and he turns to see the last unaffected physician tear open the door.
"Oh no you don't," he murmurs, before pointing a finger and unleashing another spell.
She wills the shimmering curtain to remain in place as she takes out one of the healing sticks and applies it to her cuts and bruises, cursing softly.
[dice=Using wand of CLW]1d8 + 1
The fleeing Queen's Physician grasps the eye holes of his plague doctor mask as Lord Blackoak's spell temporarily robs him of his sight.
Li nods her thanks at Yazi and moves through the other curtain. Her fast fingers are already loading another bolt into her crossbow as she moves. She takes no chances with the Grey Maidens even though they currently look incapacitated. She quickly aims at the Maiden closest to her and lets the bolt fly.
Li catches one of the Grey Maidens in the leg with a crossbow bolt, causing her to scream out in pain and begin cursing.
Garvid jogs over to the fleeing, blinded Physician. Already stunned and blinded, he can offer little resistance, and crumples beneath the butt of Garvid's halberd.
High on the catwalk, one of the Gray Maidens seems to have recovered from the ordeal of Yaziyah's spell. Seeing everyone dying, fleeing, or otherwise incapacitated around her, she targets the nearest aggressor with her longbow: Lord Blackoak. Luckily for the wizard, she mistakes one of his mirror images for him.
"And stay down!", Garvid roars at the physician, before turning around to stare at the two maidens with the longbows. He leaps over the battered corpse of the first Gray Maiden with ease. His feet run across the ground with surprising speed. The guardsman leaps onto the table, then lunges forwards towards the catwalk, his magical boots almost stepping on the air as he lands right in front of the second Gray Maiden. "And where the hell do you think you're going?", he roars, his massive fist striking into the Gray Maiden's already emptied guts, prompting a choking cry of pain. "Brunhilda! Get your ass in here!", he roars out a mocking shout.
Li moves a little further into the room and out from behind Lord Talfryn. Emboldened by her disguise, she has little concern for keeping things non-lethal. She may not plan on hurting any of the physicians but the Grey Maidens were definitely a threat. Therefore, she loaded another bolt and shot again at the Maiden she had already hit.
Knowing that the shifting curtain will remain in place for a little while longer even if she doesn't make an effort to maintain it, Yaziyah turns her attention to her wounds, using the healing stick on herself, then striding into the next room to get a better grasp of the situation. Garvid seems to have eaten fire, the way he goes for those Grey Maidens, Li is peppering them with bolts and Talfryn... Talfryn looks like he could use some back-up.
As Garvid leaps into the air, the halberd's blade swings into the wooden catwalk, sending the entire construction shivering. He lands on the ground, raising his halberd in the air, eager to leap up at the sturdy wooden construction once more
Garvid's halberd rips into the bottom of the wooden catwalk, making it vibrate and sway. He rips a large hole in the walkway, but is unable to cause enough damage to weaken is solid build.
Li fires off another crossbow bolt, hitting the Grey Maiden nearest her in the leg.
Yaziyah takes a moment to care for her wounds.
"Drop your weapons and get on your knees!" bellows Lord Blackoak, his voice filled with all the righteous command of a noble born and bred. "You are soundly defeated. We've no wish to make this engagement lethal. Drop!"
The Physicians, in an appreciably worse state than the Gray Maidens, flee from the hospice. The Gray Maidens are made of sterner stuff, however, and seem unwilling to set down their weapons. They thunder down the catwalk in their metal armor, heading for the stairs down to the main floor of the hospice.
They had a bit of time to catch their breath, so Yaziyah puts some defensive measures in place. A shimmering globe of force surrounds her, offering some protection should the Grey Maidens attack her.
Talfryn scowls. "So be it," he mutters, and casts one of his more potent spells, the very syllables of which seem to sear the air.
Turning around in a fury, Garvid makes his way towards the door. His halberd clacks in his hand with each pat. "Drop the weapons there, and follow the con artists out.", he says in a low, menacing growl, as he grabs the weapon in a readied stance. "Or else.", he spits out, nodding at the body they're standing in front of. "Who's in charge here?"
While Yaziyah casts her spell, Lord Blackoak tries to inhibit the movement of the Gray Maiden's up on the catwalk. As his transmutation takes effect, their movements become slow and sluggish, as if they are moving underwater.
Up on the scaffold, the Gray Maidens drop their weapons, putting up their hands.
"Weeeee suuuurrrreeeenddddeeer," one of the Maidens calls out from the scaffolding with almost comical slowness.
Once the two Physicians nearest Li recover the use of their muscles, they follow the Maiden's lead, and throw down their clubs as well.
"I don't like the idea of the others getting away." mutters Yaziyah as she glares after the fleeing woman and physicians. She briefly wonders if any of the physicians were women as well, rather difficult to tell with those masks and those robes. "They will probably bring more Gray Maidens as reinforcements. We should go after them." She turns her head to survey the rows and rows of beds and their occupants. The impulse was very strong to just stay here and tend to them, but there were also the remaining Maidens and physicians to secure, and the rest of the building to check... argh.
The least she can do is assess which patients need immediate attention, she would take care of those first, then tend to the business of securing this location. Herself and her companions could flee, should the woman return with back-up, but they could not take the sick people with them, and Yaziyah would not leave them here at the mercy of these strange Queen's Physicians who called them "subjects".
Lord Talfryn leaves the sickly to those with the knowledge to help them. Instead, he begins to search for other doorways, chambers, rooms, or trapdoors. Anything that might lead to areas where more nefarious deeds were taking place.
As he searches, he looks over his shoulder at Garvid. "May I most politely suggest you ask our captives what they were truly doing here?"
"I ain't gonna be helpful with tha sick. I c'n go after 'em an' make sure I be doin' it quiet-like so we be knowin' where they be goin'."
Nodding at Lord Talfryn's well-worded request, Garvid takes a deep breath, then heads towards the two Gray Maidens. He cracks his knuckles, the sound muffled by the gauntlets, before grabbing one by the neckguard and pushing her towards a wall. "Alright! That thing over there.", he points towards the battered corpse of their former comrade, "was an accident. Accidents happen, right?", he stares at the plumed helmet of the Maiden. "So, I want you, in particular, to tell me what I want to know. Who runs this place? Why are you rounding up Varisians and Shoanti, and where the f~%# is Rolth's involvement in this entire f&~#ing operation. You tell me that, and we all walk out of here." His halberd points to the other Gray Maiden, the words "Or else." remaining unsaid on his lips. Still a shame this one bit it. And I'm in a world of pain, if the Queen catches wind of this... He exhales loudly. Damn all of them to hell. Shoving the Maiden once more, he grunts. "Don't have all day, sunshine."
They Gray Maidens and Queen's Physicians move against the wall as commanded once they have been disarmed. Their emotions are hard to read behind their masks, but from their body language you can tell that they still have some fight in them, even though they are clearly currently outclassed.
When confronted by Garvid, one of the Gray Maidens speaks up, her voice muffled by the helmet.
"We are following the orders of the second-in-command, Kordaitra Destaid, who gets her orders from Commander Sebrina Merrin, who receives them directly from the Queen herself. Breaking into the Hospice was a high crime and will be punished by death once our reinforcements arrive, accident or not. We work for the Queen, as do the Physicians, although they report to Dr. Davaulus."
"We do not "round up" Varisians, as you call it. Dr. Davaulus has discovered that some Varisians seem to be immune to the disease, and he is attempting to find out why that is, so that he can perhaps create a cure! I don't know whose orders you are following, or if you are simple thieves, but you'll all hang in the end whatever you story is."
While Garvid is speaking with the Gray Maiden, Talfryn and Li check the other rooms in the Hospice. The small room to the northeast contains only the staircase that leads up to the catwalk above. The room next to it looks like a small workroom complete with several cubbies and wooden lockers lining the walls. Four water-damaged chairs surround a wooden table in the center of the room, while its northwest corner contains a cargo lift that can rise up through the ceiling.
Still working on the patients, Yazi interjects. "Now that you mention it... there are no Varisians among these sick people." She pauses and turns to Garvid and the Gray Maiden. "Are there any Varisian patients here? Are they held somewhere else?" To Garvid, she adds. "Once Li is back we should check the rest of the building."
Talfyrn frowns at the water damaged chairs. How odd. He examines the table to determine if it is similarly damaged, and the floor beneath the chairs to check for overflow. That done, he then examines the cargo lift to see if he can operate it.
Li scans the room for any possible exits. Seeing nothing obvious, she starts looking for hidden ones. She starts with the lockers and then moves to the floor.
There don't seem to be any leaks or even an obvious water source anywhere in this room, or the other room, for that matter. It is quite likely this furniture was water damaged somewhere else and brought here.
There is something strange about the cargo lift. Specifically, there seems to be a place for an extra lever or crank that is currently detached. It could most-likely be jury rigged by someone with the prerequisite skills .
Still working on the patients, Yazi interjects. "Now that you mention it... there are no Varisians among these sick people." She pauses and turns to Garvid and the Gray Maiden. "Are there any Varisian patients here? Are they held somewhere else?" To Garvid, she adds. "Once Li is back we should check the rest of the building."
The Gray Maiden who has been doing the talking scoffs under her full helmet. "You'll never find the Varisians. Doctor Davaulus has hidden them well."
Garvid pushes the Maiden back into the wall. "Right. So, it's obvious you aren't trained for combat, but I'd have thought you'd have learned how to hold your information.", he says in a low, guttural tone, shoving the Maiden once more. I'd much rather knock them out and be done with it..., thoughts pass through his head. "You just told me that you know where they are, didn't you." Grabbing the maiden's helmet by the plume, he yanks it off the woman's head and giving her a slap. "Now, you know that, but I'm not so sure your comrade here does.", he points a finger towards the other woman. "And since you said we're hanging anyway, I don't see a reason to let someone who has seen us and has nothing I want live, do I?" He lets the question hang for a moment, before lifting his halberd on his shoulder, raising it towards the other maiden, before his eyebrows raise. "But then again, you've probably sworn to secrecy. But him, over there.", he points to the plague doctor slumped into the corner. "You're also sworn to protect them, aren't you? And it won't look good on you if they find you alive and well, in a room surrounded by the corpses of your friends and charges, would it? What do you think Merrin would do then? Give you a kiss and send you out? Or hang you for cowardice? Would she believe you that you hadn't told us what we wanted to know?"I don't have to kill them. All I have to do is convince them that I would.
He hurls the helmet on the ground, then pats his halberd, before swinging it at the other, silent maiden. The hilt lands squarely into the maiden's helmet with a resounding *clang*, as the woman slumps into unconsciousness. He leans towards the maiden, speaking in a low whisper. "So, Maiden. I'll cut you a deal. You tell me what I want to know, and I knock you out and put you in the corner with the rest of them. Nobody else needs to know. Or I tie you in a room, kill all of you incompetent louts, and let your own friends string you up themselves. How's that?" He leans back, cracking his neck. Come on, you overdressed handmaid, bite!
As Garvid attempts to pull the helmet off the Gray Maiden's head, he realizes too late that it is attached to her head via a chin strap. His strength is great enough that he breaks through the leather cord, but the force of the rupture drags the side of the helmet along her cheek, causing a small gash. The wound bleeds profusely and you realize that this is not her first injury. Her face is criss-crossed by old scars, and nearly a third of her lower lip is missing. The woman looks to be in her mid- to late-twenties, but judging from her stony expression, has obviously seen her share of mistreatment and misery.
"What can you do that has not already been done to me, Krein?" she mutters, spitting a glob of phlegm and blood on the floor of the hospice. Garvid does not recognize her, but she looks like any number of the young women from the rougher parts of Korvosa, those who grow up working in the fish factories, or else selling themselves over on Endrin Isle.
"As you say, they didn't teach us much about fighting. The Doctor is here, in the secret chambers below the hospice, but I'm sure you'll figure that out yourselves soon enough. But I warn you: all you'll find below is death and misery. Now do with me as you wish, you've already shown your superiority."
------------------------
Taking a quick peek out the open front door of the Hospice, Li can see two of the Physicians ducking down neighboring alleys and out of line of sight of her crossbow. It would be possible to catch up to one of them, but not both, as they have scattered in different directions.
With no sign of Bhunrilda and knowing she couldn't get both of the physicians, Li decides to keep following Lord Talfryn to find out what they could before reinforcements returned.
Seeing a place for a lever that seemed to be missing, Li finds a suitable replacement among the items in the room. She watches to see if her temporary fix makes the cargo lift work.
With the additional jury-rigged attachment, Li pushes the lever and the lift suddenly begins lurching downward! Pulling the handle back, the lift stops its descent.
Frustrated by the slow progress and the sheer number of patients, and very much aware of the time pressure upon them, Yaziyah rises from where she was kneeling beside a cot.
"This won't do. I cannot help them all before more Gray Maidens arrive, and besides we need to hear from the doctor. What is it that he is doing here? For what purpose?" She sweeps her gaze across the room and the dozens of suffering people, patting the hand of the one she has just helped. "We need clerics here, priests. Send word to the temple of Abadar, the cathedral of Pharasma, to the other shamans of my people - there are Shoanti here, after all. Call on Doctor Pietro and any of his brethren that aren't afraid to help."
She strides over to where Li is tinkering with the lift mechanism. "We need some urchins to take messages to all these people. Do you know of any in the area?"
"Hmm, come to think of it, I may know one or two." She removes Slinky from her cloak pocket, instructing him to seek out a particular place and lead back the small people he finds there. She ties two of her ribbons around his neck, for recognition. No point in scribing a message, those kids can't read.
Garvid's eyes flare with anger once more, before a feeling of sorrow washes over his face. Looking down, he drags the torn scarf down from his nose. His mouth curls in anger once more, as he slams his fist in the wall next to the maiden. "Look. I don't know you, but I know people like you.", he spits through his teeth. "And, yeah, life sure is s&!! on Endrin Isle. Believe me, I got the scars to prove it, too.", he spits on the ground. "You think I wanted to come here? You think I wanted to kill her?", he points to the shattered body of the maiden, blood pooling under her broken helmet. "But you don't fix whatever the hell happens on Endrin Isle, and in Old Korvosa, and in wherever else, by joining the Queen's f#!#ing cult and dragging people to be experimented on by the Queen's f+*%ing pet psychopath from Cheliax!", he roars in her face. "His friend went and murdered an entire family, and turned them into f&@~ing zombies. And she laughed all the way when we brought her in. You think those people will give you a better life?", he furiously shoves his finger in the maiden's chestplate. "Yeah, life's been s&+* for you, and I damn well realise it. It's why I've been busting my ass in Old Korvosa and the Isle for fifteen g~+%%*n years. But the moment you start making others' lives s*$@ because of it, you don't get the chance to play the victim card any more." He glares at the helmet on the ground, then grunts and stomps on it, the steel bending under his heavy boot. "Now get the f%~+ out of my sight. The rest of your little Hellknight-wannabes will be alright, even if I have to pry the patients away from them. And hope that if you see me again, you're not in the front ranks." He grabs the maiden and shoves her towards the exit.
Sighing deeply, he kicks the already bent helmet towards the wall. Slowly making his way towards the elevator, he throws a glance at the Shoanti woman bending over the sick, then exhales deeply. "So... Young lady. Reckon I did the right thing?", he asks, leaning over his halberd as Li's tinkering with the cargo lift.
Slinky scurries off out the front door of the Hospice, but even if the child he is searching for is nearby, it will still take some for him to get here; if the creature has to search for him, who knows how long it will be.
--------------------
The unmasked Gray Maiden Garvid has been talking to picks up her badly dented helmet and tucks it under her arm. On the way out the door, she shoots dangerous glares at her opponents and gathers her worse-off companions before stopping at the door.
"See you around" she tells Garvid, and strange, mixed emotions pass over her face before she heads out the door.
"Downwards," says Lord Talfryn, stroking his voluminous mustache and glancing sidelong at Li. "That seems suspicious, does it not? I warrant whatever dark secrets Doctor Davalus yearns to hide from us will be revealed below. Are we ready?"
So saying, he moves with his three remaining Mirror Images to stand on the platform, drawing himself up as he seeks to calm his rapidly thudding heart.
"When we are ready to descend, I shall cast a powerful incantation on our group. Wait for my signal, Li, if you would be so kind."
Li grins in satisfaction as the lift begins to move before stopping it to wait for the others. "Ready as c'n be. C'n ya be castin' yer magic on tha way down? This thing be movin' slowly. But tha sooner we be goin' tha better 'cause they be comin' back an' they be angry when they do."
"We cannot leave the sick here on their own! But, on the other hand, if we wait too long we might lose our only chance of finding answers. Oh, how I hate impossible choices!" Yaziyah stomps around all huffy, seeking something to write on. "Did these physicians not have any notes about their subjects? I would dearly love to get my hands on those. Perhaps we should not have let them go without getting their papers. But I understand your sentiment, old man, I might have done the same."
Yaziyah looks around and slowly realizes that there are no notes to be found anywhere, other than a ledger for the number of "subjects" admitted to the Hospice and the number who have died or gotten better. Judging from the tools and medicines spread around the room, it becomes obvious to her what the true purpose of this place was: to hasten the deaths of the diseased. Nothing points to any major efforts made to combat the Veil's progress or even simply to alleviate the suffering of the sick.
Gritting her teeth, the Shoanti woman takes the ledger and rejoins her companions. "Does this lift only goes down?"
Once the lift starts moving, she applies beneficial magics to herself and her friends, invoking the blessing and protection of the ancestor spirits. Afterwards, she shares her findings. "They were not healing anyone here. They were killing them. We should not have let them go. If we encounter more..." She clenches one fist and raises it in the air for the rest to see. "Such as them deserve no mercy. We have been too soft." She speaks in short, clipped sentences, her anger seeping through like molten rock through cracks in the earth.