Dervak looks at the Harrow deck.
Does it seem familiar to him?
Two tails shy's away from N'Dateh with a peep. "Didn't know so didn't answer! Scabeye tells us we leave, we d-die!" She shivers and stutters out an answer to Mara's question. "F-found it on top of the s-shelves! Don't know what it do!"
"Is anyone good at determining the properties of magic items?", Mara asked. "I don't know how to do that."
"I can do it." Oscar says, holding out his hand. He will use Detect Magic and analyze the deck to see if there's any magical properties.
"I know these. From a friend I think."
The monstrous half-orc reaches gently for the deck, then sees Oscar deep in concentration and stops.
"I think I should draw a card."
When Oscar is done, Dervak will concentrate on that vague memory of a hatter and draw a card.
N'Dateh watches with great curiosity as Dervak picks up a card, wondering if it will do anything, while she says to the ratman: "Who's Scabeye?"
I have never--actually--heard of a scabeye before; most fascinating! Hello, good chap. How about my deck? Nothing fancy 'bout it, you see. Just plain 'ol sentimentality.
Standing across from Dervak is a gentleman with his hand held out.
Though the man appears to have appeared out of thin air, you all remember him being with you through the entire ordeal. You feel very uneasy, but you also feel as if you can trust him.
As Sexual looks at the card he drew from the deck he see's that its a picture of the man. Though without knowledge of harrow cards it's impossible to tell what card he represents.
Two tails screeches as the tall hatted man appears and rushes behind a bookshelf. Neglecting to answer N'Datehvd question. Though one of the ratings only had one eye, so that was probably diabetes.
Gratefully accepting his deck from the 1/2 orc, the top-hatted gentleman smiles warmly at the astonished-faced group (ending with a wink at Dervak).
Well, well, since we seem to be a bit flummoxed, may I suggest we take a moment to reaquaint ourselves, yes?
Bowing and tipping his hat, the human gentleman smiles.
Theophilus Carter. Hat maker extraordinaire.
"Man with the hat! You were here with Dervak and a demon and a tough little badger and a pale man and a shining man.
Then you weren't here but there was another man with a hat, and also a ghost-man and a skinny man with a sword.
Then the ghost-man went away and we found the other half-breed, then the old woman, and the skinny man went away. The other man with the hat is around somewhere. Also his eye comes out."
Dervak is happy to see Theophilus. He continues telling the story in his fashion, blurring things that everyone else remembers with things that might be his dreams.
Then he says something rather strange. So wrapped up is he in his exuberance to see Theophilus that he drops his guard on one topic.
"And I didn't listen to the Dark Whisper. Except that one time it made sense about the thing under the morgue. But I never let it take over."
Oscar will stare at the newcomer, and decide while he's doing that he'll give the guy a read and see what he's really made of. He should know this man, but this place has been so strange his old suspicions have been getting the best of him.
Oscar, his eyebrows furrowed in the way someone trying to figure something out would be, starts unwittingly raising a knocked arrow in his shortbow at the man in the hat.
The half-orc stands between Oscar and Theophilus. Somehow, Dervak is now convinced that Theophilus has been with the party the whole time.
"Oscar, this is Theophilus. He woke up with us. And he also helped me kill that nurse double-banger the first time before I met all of you, but now I think maybe that was a dream."
"What are you doing, Oscar?", Mara hissed. "We're friends here!" Mara felt confused; somehow she felt that there had been a disturbance in the flow of time. Logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead. She didn't know why that particular phrase had popped into her head, but it seemed oddly fitting.
The man with the hat had been with them to whole time, but for some reason she felt like she should introduce herself. "I'm Mara," she said, extending her hand.
I don't recall those people Dervak mentions. I guess I was out? 'The old woman...' Is he talking about me? muses N'Dateh as she keeps her sight on the newcomer, until Mara eases things.
"N'Dateh. A pleasure I'm sure..." she says after Mara, though her thoughts have now wandered elsewhere.
"Where did Two Tails go? Two Tails, come back here! We're all friends!"
Oscar glares at Mara, his goggles flashing in the strange lighting of this place. "He's a Cartomancer... some form of Witch." he grumbles. "I don't remember us having a witch for a friend... did we?" He obviously looks conflicted as he speaks. "Unpredictable? He is- I don't... How did you kill someone with your hat?"
A strange thought occurred to Mara. "Maybe something about this place is confusing our minds," she said. "Everything seems so uncertain here. Maybe the asylum makes its patients worse!"
"I would believe it, Mara. If it is the giant thing under the morgue making us go mad, we have to flee. If it is the rag-man, maybe we can find him and fight him. Maybe he is very tough in our dreams but not so tough in the real world.
Are we ready to go through the door to the north? Or do we want to try to crawl through rat-holes?"
"Door. Door." Oscar says.
Theo's blue eyes stare at the goggled man. A genuine smile lights up his face.
My apologies, my good man. But each of us has his--or her--own gifts to assist our lost and wayward group in this endeavor. I suggest that we continue to work togetger with the common cause of the truth as our purpose!
The gentleman then bows to each of the ladies, expertly tipping his hat.
Nice to see you two again...still...yes.
Kill? With a hat? My what a fantastical notion!
He then nods at the door.
Perhaps, some answers to our riddle lies through there?
"OK, let's see what's out here," Mara said. She moved through the door and examined the liquid trails in the hallway.
"We don't ask Two Tails first? I mean, he was about to answer when- What's your name again? barged in with his high hat..." replies Cahal, still sour from Dervak's comment about an old woman.
"Two Tails, I know you can hear me. You don't have to come out. Just answer me this. What's on the other side of that door?"
Dervak is ready to go through the door first, but waits to see if Two Tails has anything to say.
Two-tails doesn't seem keen on revealing herself with the most recent addition to the party present. Instead she squeals "DON'T KNOW! DON'T KNOW NOTHIN! TOLD YOU EVERYTHING!"
Meanwhile Mara is unable to discern what the smears on the floor are, though she does note that they are mucus like in consistency and have a faint antiseptic odor. She also notes that the trail originates from the left and moves down the hall.
"Something slimy has been moving down the hall," Mara reported. "Shall we try the first door on the right? I don't think the slimy thing went that way."
Bending down at the floor, the hatter looks curiously at the slime. He waggles a few fingers, whispering a word of Guidance.
Mara moved to the first door on the right and listened for activity inside.
Mara hears a faint grumbling and skittering, it sounds a little distant and even more muffled than just the door would normally cause.
"I can hear faint sounds within," Mara said in a low voice. "I can't make out what it is, but best be ready for trouble!" She cast a spell to bolster Dervak, and opened the door for him when everyone was ready.
Oscar draws his bow and is ready to shoot. At least this time, no one will yell at him if he actually pegs someone.
Looking up from the floor, the hatter rubs his hands togethers and laughs quietly.
And. Here. We. Go!
Dervak opens the door, falchion at the ready.
N'Dateh sticks to Dervak, almost hidden by his massive shadow.
Standing beside the door, Mara looked into the room, scanning for what might have made the sounds she heard a moment earlier. She gripped her spear, hoping that she wouldn't need to use it.
The room is empty, save for an empty bookshelf and a study deck in the corner. A large crevis in the floor turns into a horizontal tumble about ten feet down, there are clear handholds along the pit and it seems that the tunnel could reasonably acomidate a person at a time.
While the sounds are still present, they grow noticeably fainter and you find yourself unable to pinpoint their origin.
"I wonder if whoever, or whatever, was making the sounds, went down the hole," Mara thought aloud. She moved over and looked at the desk, searching any drawers.
"Could be... Let's leave it for later, yes?"
N'Dateh shudders at the thought of going down that hole. Instead, she focuses on helping Mara go through the drawers.
"We're already leaving a lot for later. I am willing to go down there if we can figure out what it was that went down. Tracks?"
Dervak looks around.
Theo walks over to the crevis. The hatter smiles. Pointing at the hole, murmurring an arcane phrase, the gentleman sends four dancing lights down into the darkness.
Source PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 263 (Amazon)
School evocation [light]; Level arcanist 0, bard 0, magus 0, medium 0, mesmerist 0, occultist 0, psychic 0, shaman 0, skald 0, sorcerer/wizard 0, witch 0
Casting
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Effect
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Effect up to four lights, all within a 10-ft.-radius area
Duration 1 minute (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
Description
Depending on the version selected, you create up to four lights that resemble lanterns or torches (and cast that amount of light), or up to four glowing spheres of light (which look like will-o'-wisps), or one faintly glowing, vaguely humanoid shape. The dancing lights must stay within a 10-foot-radius area in relation to each other but otherwise move as you desire (no concentration required): forward or back, up or down, straight or turning corners, or the like. The lights can move up to 100 feet per round. A light winks out if the distance between you and it exceeds the spell's range.
You can only have one dancing lights spell active at any one time. If you cast this spell while another casting is still in effect, the previous casting is dispelled. If you make this spell permanent, it does not count against this limit.
Dancing lights can be made permanent with a permanency spell.
As soon as one of the lights makes it to the bottom of the crag and reaches the mouth of the tunnel, a rat nearly the size of a great dane charges out and bites at the floating light. Another can be seen directly behind the first.
Rats!
The hatter whistles as he reaches for a tiny fire cracker, lights it and drops it in the hole.
Source Ultimate Equipment pg. 107 (Amazon), Adventurer's Armory pg. 19 (Amazon)
Price 1 gp; Weight —
Category Alchemical Weapons
Description
This finger-sized explosive detonates noisily 1 round after lighting. Anyone in the same square as a paper candle when it explodes must make a DC 15 Fortitude save or be dazzled for 1d4 rounds. Crafting this item is a DC 20 Craft (alchemy) check.
Construction
Craft (Alchemy) DC 20
Mmmm... ratmeat...
Dervak draws and hurls a javelin down at the giant rat.
Oscar moves in (if space allows) and peers down the crack.
With a wince, N'Dateh hides in the shadows near Dervak.
The front most rat is instantly skewered by a Javalin and arrow pairing. Sticking the creature in the eye and back, instantly rendering it dead. The second rat clambers up the side of the pit and attempts to bring its teeth down on Dervak.
The rat however fails too reach the man as he clings to the side of the crevices.
Then, out of nowhere a ray of acid fires off at Dervak from the wall above the pit. At the same moment another, older looking Ratling flickers into existence
"What the...?" Mara looked up from the desk to see a massive rat climb up and lunge at Dervak. When she saw the Ratling appear, she drew her dagger and tried to stab it.