Filbert is nervous about the sudden transition into diplomacy from spells and swords; so remains quiet while the others discuss history with the Ratling.
However he is unable to read anything to the ratling's speech or mannerisms.
"Well that certainly seems weird. The name doesn't ring a bell with me though."
Luxina says as she lowers her crossbow now things have turned diplomatically.
"How do we defeat said 'Tatterman'? Can we hold him out of our dreams?"
Ratch frowns at Heinrich, angered and frightened by his tone. Luxina's simple question got an immediate response, "You wish to defeat a being from the dreamlands who exists to strip his victims’ living facades, revealing their inner beast? Ambitious. You will not achieve that in the land of dreams, there you are a fish out of water and it's in it's natural element..."
You said you knew many secrets...yet you've revealed very little. We know that this creature is called Tatterman, and we know what Master he serves. Agrippa glances at Lizzie with a frown Even though we will not name it, for names have power.
Agrippa turns back to the Ratling What do you know of the Fog? And the shapechangers that have taken control of this place?
Agrippa finishes the last question by sheathing his rapier.
As Lizzie and Agrippa discuss things with the ratling, Filbert continues to watch it minions still on the upper shelves.
Visibly nervous Ratch screeches, "Many secrets, yes yes. The ritual yes, it was from The Chain Of Nights. A terrible thing, an ancient thing, older even than the Tatterman. It was through this he became more than a passing dream, a living nightmare which disturbed even the Bhole from it's aeons long slumber."
Bhole? Chain of Nights? Elaborate. Agrippa says
"Rituals, Chain of Nights, older than the Tatterman, living nightmare, I have almost no idea what this little fellow is talking about, oh yeah what is a Bhole? Probably nothing good if it has been sleeping for Aeons."
Filbert is extremely confused right now...and quite a bit overwhelmed with everything
Lizzie just listens to what Ratch has to say.
This sounds so bizarre, but given what we've seen, there might be hint of truth to what he claims.
"The Bhole lives below, far far below. When it stirs the very earth shakes! The other is a book. Now then I have told you many things no?" squeaked the ratling.
This claim about a Bhole strikes you as particularly fanciful. Why has nobody ever heard of such a thing before?
Most of what was being said went completely over Momijii's head, she really didn't grasp this kind of thing and she was quickly becoming bored. Yet again she let the more intellectual of their group handle the discussion. Not trusting the twisted denizens of this place to leave them be while they had this discussion Momijii went over near the door to keep watch for trouble.
Crystal had been quietly listening until now, but something about the ratling's answers starts to click in her head.
"...sir, do you actually know anything about the fog? Or the doppelgangers? Or even what's outside the library?"
Somewhat lamely he replies, "Erm. Doppelgangers yes, very nasty... Shapeshifters, hunting and eating other humanoids, sometimes replacing them. They could be anyone!"
Crystal gives the ratling a deadpan look. "Of course they could be."
She looks over at Heinrich. "Think we're done here?"
"Ratch, where do those doors lead?" Filbert ask, indicating the door to the left, leading out of the room. Looking for a question that didn't involve crazy answers.
Ratch. You and your minions will confine yourselves to this library. If you are found outside this Library while the yellow fog remains... Agrippa lets the threat remain unspoken.
Bhole, Chain of Nights. Things to remember, most definately important. Agrippa says
The investigator motions to the doors and opens them if possible
Ratch replies to Filbert, "Ihe central hallway, at the north end is the administrators office." He simply stares at Henrich, probably hoping he'll go away.
The doors to the north are unlocked, Agrippa opens them to reveal an L-shaped hall which runs from a collapsed space in the west to a small waiting area outside the asylum administrator’s office. The door at the north end of the hall has an engraved brass nameplate reading "Administrator Eliege Losandro". The door next to it on the left is labelled "Waiting Room".
Looking at the collapsed hallway to the left, Filbert wanders aloud..
"The main office would be where we are heading? Or are the files we're after in the separate filing room? This seems like a fairly sizable location." Eyeing the other doors
Agrippa holds his hand up
See, the trail of slime there. Something has passed this way.
Perhaps we might wait and see what comes though here.
Agrippa mixes and tincture and swallows it, the warmth of healing spreads through his body.
Agrippa motions to Lizzie and Momiji and has them take positions near the doors
Agrippa opens the southern door to the Lounge ever so carefully, taking a peek inside to see if anything might be seen.
Lizzie holds her shield and mace up, in case something wants to jump out.
"Do you see anything, Heinrich?"
Momijii was somewhat glad that they were moving on, the only downside to that meant the opening of more doors in the near future. At least they were away from the strange rat man. As they approached the doorway where the administrator's office was Momijii noticed the slime trail right away but was too terrified by what it might mean to say anything at first. Despite her fears Momijii nodded in understanding of Heinrich's gesture and took position by the door, ready if something came out of it.
Filbert watching the others set themselves up moves to the corner where he can see all 3 doors
Luxina moves over towards Heinrich and whispers.
"Anything to see? Anything out of the ordinary?"
The first thing Heinrich notices is a stench. Momijii sensed it from down the hall. Gingerly Heinrich opens the door, expecting to find the southern entrance to the lounge. Instead he finds a tiny crowded office with two cramped desks. More of the space has been dedicated to filing cabinets, bookshelves, and stacks of loose research than room for occupants. Apparently this office belonged to the two dead and decomposing junior doctors slumped over the desks.
As nothing other than the stench assaults Heinrich, Filbert ert moves closer to inspect.
"Hmmm, these slightly beyond their prime Dr's are Emerson and Jenkins, it appears they were worked to death. Filbert says indicating the room surrounding them. Getting closer though <retch> "Both received a strong blow to the back of the head , enough so to shatter the bone. " Pointing weakly at the grey matter show in through.
Agrippa nods at Filbert and moves around the hallway to the next doorway. and he opens the door as quietly as he can.
"Quite powerful blows it seems. It exposes the brain tissue. Might be a very strong and large creature who did this."
Agrippa opens the lounge door to find the ceiling collapsed, crushing a table and well-worn couch. You surmise this lounge once served as a private place for Briarstone’s doctors to step away from their research and relax for a bit. Again, as is becoming depressingly common, there is a reek of decomposition in the room.
You open the badly damaged door across the hall, on the floor you notice a brass name plate engraved with the name "Doctor Chawaar". The room would look like a typical physician’s office if it weren’t for the preponderance of grotesque anatomical sketches, most depicting traumas and deformities of the head and brain. A sturdy display case stands open and completely empty. There is an almost overpowering chemical odor in the room.
Agrippa notes the corpse, but has no interest in spending time or energy digging it up.
Formaldehyde. A common enough substance in a medical professional's office. The smell is quite recognizible.
Agrippa peruses the available information, and deems it unworthy of futher study. He motions to the Head Doctor's door. This would be where the most interesting files lay
"*Sniff..*
"THat's a foul smell...ugh, something is rotten in here."
You try the door to find it locked and of sturdy construction.
Lizzie finds it not willing to budge.
Luxina notices Heinrich's attempt to open the door and sees it won't budge.
"Allow me. That thing will be open quickly."
Luxina spends a few moments raking the lock, it proves easy enough for her deft fingers to spring it open with a satisfying click. The door opens with a slight squeak and the bizarre sight immediately sends a chill down your spine, for yellow fog soundlessly roils against the cathedral-like windows of this opulent, two-story office. The ground floor features overstuffed furnishings, elegant side tables, and an altarlike desk of dark marble. A delicate spiral staircase and balcony of dark iron rises to a lofty library overhead. Both floors’ fixtures frame the lake of blood spread across the room’s center. At the center of which Eliege Losandro kneels, her back straight, her mouth gaping at the ceiling. From her soundlessly screaming mouth an unsteady torrent of colored mist spurts like a fountain of gritty sludge!
You find the images oddly familiar, reminiscent of the city from your shared nightmare...
Another door opened, this one right next to her, and Momijii wasn't pleased. She was getting so sick of jumping every time one of these things was open, still, she couldn't seem to help herself. This one let a foul smell out, one that made her glad she wasn't planning to enter that room. She let the others examine it while she maintained watch in the hallway.
When they'd finished in that room they went to the door across from her and found it locked. She watched as Luxina deftly jimmied it and got the door opened, again she felt the thrill of fear when the door swung open and this time felt far more justified as she saw the yellow fog inside. The monk looked inside carefully, her fear even greater when she saw a woman on her knees, her back straight, and yellow smoke blasting forth from mouth.
Momijii's face crinkled up at the sight of the lavish office, it seemed that the administrator was one who liked her creature comforts. The furnishings, though different, seemed to tweak at a memory deep in Momijii's mind, a well furnished room with rice paper walls, she saw flashes of...giants? around her. She couldn't make out faces but she wasn't scared either. A series of mats on the floor with these "giants' sitting on them, and a kind of throne like chair with another one sitting upon it. She rushed up to the throne and a pair of hands came down to lift her up. She was set on the lap and nearly saw the man's face when the vision ended and she realized who she had almost remembered. There was a single tear tracking a trail of moisture along her cheek as she found her hand on the door from and said, "Otōsan?"
Dear gods! What is this! Agrippa shrieks, his hand grasping for his rapier
Lizzie's eyes were wide open, at the astonishment of the eerie scene.
"This..is utterly weird. This isn't right on more than one level.."
She hurried after Momiji, with this yellow fog not being a good thing, she couldn't let a friend be alone in there, now could she.
"Momiji..", she carefully lays a hand on her arm.
"You know this person?"
Momijii shook her head and said, "No, but the room, the opulence of it, brought back a memory, part of one anyway. I think I almost remembered my Otōsan...my father's, face."
Flibert studies the room as a whole, Dr Losandro? Whomever had very expensive taste, this one would have been on my master's private list. Ermm where did that thought come from?? As the broad details center themselves and become more focused on the scene before him a sliver of ice crawls down his back, those painting were scenes he'd seen before but only as fragments of his nightmares. once more Zandalus is a part of this.....
is the Dr even alive? And what is happening to them. Haven't a clue
"Good Sivanah. We're thrown from one mystery to another in here. Why the heck is there fog coming from her mouth?"
Luxina looks back at the rolling fog against the windows.
"It might be that she has been in contact either with the mist or with a being similar to it."
When looking closer to the images she stands aghast with bewilderment.
"Has she also visited this city? Does that mean that we might also fall victim to it like her?"
Agrippa, seeing what is occurring, uses the Leipstadt theorem of problem solving and analysis. He actually doesn't know how he knows the theorem, but the premise is elementary. The simplest solution is most often the best.
The university trained investigator strides forward and draws his rapier...
He stabs the poor Losandro in the heart.
<--- FAIL
Heinrich steps towards Losandro with the intention to release her from torment, however as soon as the rainbow miasma touches him, he suddenly falls to the floor like a puppet with it's strings cut!
Suddenly awakened to your presence, Dr Losandro screams a huge cloud of vapor and shambles towards you!
Initiative rolls:
Combat order:
Filbert Springbit
Lizzie “Beads” Tamar
Momijii
Luxina Tenebris
Crystal Delphi
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa: Unconscious
Dr Eliege Losandro
Everyone except Heinrich is up.
Luxina grabs her crossbow and fires a bolt at Losandro.
Then she reloads her crossbow again.
If possible, Lizzie would use her detect evil when Heinrich falls KO.
If not, she'll do it when the doctor rises.
"Let's have some space. Could someone slap Heinrich awake?
He won't mind a rosey cheek or two." :3
Lizzie readies her mace.
Despite her comment, Lizzie narrows her eyes somewhat, blinking a few times in quick succession.
"Ouch....the vibe from that fog, it's causing a throbbing in my head. Whatever is in the doctor's lungues, it's very evil."