"I think Sara was warning me that this bloody door is not a good omen from Gorum. But since it is in our way, I am still willing to open it, unless you think we should go through these papers for now."
[dice=knowledge history on information]1d20+8
Theo recalls a Tian Xia legend which says that the gods tie red thread or cord to individuals destined to marry.
"Huh...if Gorum's saying it might not be a great idea, and he's the god of war...I dunno, guys. It never seems like a good sign when the god of war says to not go through a spooky door into what is surely another battle on the other side of the door."
"I think what Sara meant is that Gorum is not saying anything one way or the other. I said it was maybe a sign from Gorum and the next thing Sara said, through her dolls, was that the gods can't reach us here.
But if it is surely another battle, that I know how to deal with."
Dervak readies to smash the door down as soon as there is another voice in favor of this action.
Theophilus taps Dervak.
Ready! Set! Go!
"Okay! Stand back."
Dervak slams his shoulder into the door.
If that doesn't do it, he tries a couple of more times.
Dervak after a couple of attempts gets a good solid kick breaking the door. As soon as he does a torrent of blood and gore shatters the remaining bits of the door back onto the party.
Everyone but Julius manages to avoid the worst of the wooden shrapnel and is pushed back.
Julius not only is hit by door shards but is also slammed hard into the wall.
Worn old chairs and small tables set with the scattered pieces of simple games lay scattered throughout this room. A serving hatch in the north wall opens into a darkened space beyond. Vast glass windows dominate the eastern walls, beyond which a jaundiced kaleidoscope swirls hypnotically. A coppery smell permeates the room. Sitting in a wheelchair sits a rotund old woman in a faded housecoat facing the eastern windows, a gaping wound covers her chest, gore streaming away from her heading to the western wall pooling there in defiance of gravity's pull. The pool of blood quickly drains into the hallway creating a horizontal well of blood. Any open doors in the hallway slam shut and you are unable to move or otherwise affect them as they are covered in the viscera.
Julius lets out a hiss of pain as he's slammed into the wall. He pulls out an extract and downs it, sighing in relief as a few of his wounds close.
The gentleman begins picking out shards of door off his coat.
I am beginning to think that this place has something wrong with it! Rudeness!
Glancing up as Dervak expresses his concerns, the gentleman nods. He waves a handkerchief hand in the air.
"Uh, that woman looks like she should be dead. But she is still bleeding. And the blood is flowing through the air. What should we do?"
Dervak looks at the woman. Is she dead? Undead?
Rowan also searches his memory for a potential clue about the woman.
The flow of blood not only makes traversing the hallway slick but it also actively pushes back, you are able to fight through it and escape into the dayroom ahead.
Theo an aura around the blood and the body in the wheelchair, but is unable to determine what kind of magic it is.
Examining the corpse further it looks like something exploded out from where her heart used to be.
Mara fought her way forward, and moved up beside the body. She tried to figure out if this was some sort of spiritual phenomenon.
"Let's see if some healing will make any difference!", she said, and applied some positive energy to the corpse.
The healing hex seems to have no effect on the body.
Mara examined the body, trying to figure out how to stop the blood flow.
Does anyone have any idea how to turn this fountain off?!", she cried.
Dervak steps out of the insane river of flying blood and brushes himself off.
Somewhat disturbed, but increasingly familiar with the best way to act in all this madness, he begins poking around the dayroom for clues as to who this woman is and what happened to her.
Theophilus looks stumped!
Nervous and figidty, the gentleman wonders over to look into the darkened service hatch.
The Witch casts Dancing Lights to scout ahead.
Dervak notices a patient name tag Genevieve Freeling.
Mara thinks that staunching the flow of blood might be possible with enough bandages, essentially stuffing her chest full of cloth.
Theo sees a low desk that sits behind a window that passes into a room beyond. Behind it an empty doorframe opens into a ransacked storage room, its floor covered in broken glass and opalescent stains. Four Apostles in Orpiment sporting the typical jaundiced cloth lie in various positions of repose. "Herbert, I think I heard something. Real this time," one says. The other responds, "Y-y-you're h-h-hal," but stops when she sees the ghostly light cast by Theo's spell.
The tall gentleman looks surprised.
Excuse moi, but I was looking for some towels? Lots of towels!
Theophilus calls upon his fey heritage.
He cast Web at them (Ref DC 16).
Dervak's surprise round action is to move up behind Theophilus, longspear ready.
When Mara heard Theophilus speaking to someone (presumably a stranger), she drew out the Sarenrite wand.
Rowan’s surprise round action would to be to get as close he can to the cultists, and attack with flurry, of possible.
"Oh well if that's all... agh!"
Julius moves up next to the door, besides Theo. He draws his rapier as he does so. He nods to Theo in appreciation. "Nice web, looks like you got at least a few of them. Splitting them up, good idea."
Nodding in appreciation, the Witch hexes one of them that is caught.
Theophilus then starts Cackling.
Now, my good Dervak, if you could incapacitate those two still free?
Theophilus asks, as he steps aside.
The two captured by the web struggle against it. While their compatriots struggle to get closer to the party. The first one begins to pick her way through the web but starts to violently jerk from side to side yelling, "Get away from me!" All she manages to do is wrap herself tighter. She continues to struggle against the web.
And tears herself free panting.
The second manages to pick their way through, attacking the dapper hatter.
The improvised weapon goes wide and was closer to hitting Julius than Theo.
The third and fourth breaks free of their initial capture and easily moves around the Theo's sticky strands.
Sara sticks close to Mara looking unsure.
Mara saw an opportunity as the cultists bunched up near the other side of the window. "Stand back for a moment!", she urged her allies. She moved up and concentrated, dropping the wand and pulling out a pinch of colored sand; her eyes turned pitch black and the color drained from her and her surroundings. A split second later, a spray of clashing colors shot from her outstretched hand and washed over the enemy.
Afterwards, the drained colors slowly returned.
Theophilus looks aghast at the cultist.
I believe that improperly used disciplinary exercises are prohibited by law.
The gentleman smiles at Mara.
Well done, Mara. I had only one Web available unfortunately, but I think that a good combo!
Julius blinks in surprise as Mara almost single-handedly takes out the entire room. "So uhhh...do we mop them up now?" He hefts his rapier. "Guess we can just kind of stab them at our leisure, right?"
"Maybe; one left."
Dervak is fine with killing them, or pummeling them with enough non-lethal damage that they stay out after the spell ends. He doesn't really care either way.
Mara declared, "We should capture and question them! I want to know what they're doing here and who they're working for." She was also hoping that it wouldn't be necessary to kill them. Perhaps some of them didn't like who they were working for?
Rowan is both surprised and impressed. He takes a quick swig from his wine skin.
”I’m fine taking them out, but should we keep one alive to question?”
"I hate dealing with prisoners. They can be your responsibility."
Dervak drops the longspear, moves to the window drawing the falchion, and smacks the first one he sees on the ground through the window.
Julius picks his way through the room and levels his rapier at the remaining guy. "See these guys? You're next. Drop your weapon."
Unfortunately, his voice cracks as he tries to sound tough.
On the other side of the Hemorrhagic River two figures dressed as doctors or nurses creep out of the hallway. They both have long sharp teeth and pallid flesh and say, "Where did you morsels come from?"
The Apostle's fear drains from her face seeing Julius. "Those guys can't hold their mud anyway."
She carefully picks her way through the webbing moving next to Julius attempting to slam him with a torn off cabinet door.
Mara saw the pale looking medical staff arrive. Hoping to avoid unnecessary conflict, she moved back to the body and hailed them, "Hello there! My name is Mara. I'm sorry that I can't greet you properly, but we've got a problem here with this body gushing blood. Do you know what's causing it to do this?" The fact that they had referred to her as a 'morsel' was not encouraging, but she felt she had to try.
At the sound of Mara's greeting, Theophilus turns around to notice the why what long teeth you have grandma(s) nursing staff.
Not certain they are here to assist, my dear!
He taps Dervak's shoulder.
Seems we have a staff problem!
"What are they, Theophilus? They look kind of dead!"
Dervak moves to cover Mara, threatening with the longspear. He readies to attack any that come within range, and may also get an AOO.
Rowan is going to use his sling to fling a stone at the closest one.