Oscar staggers back from the hit, snapping out of his stupor.
"Im sorry! I panicked." he replied, rubbing his face.
He pulls out the wand and makes 2 uses of it, one for each.
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Julius stands to the side of the door, and nods to Dervak. "It's all yours, big guy. Oscar, you more or less pulling yourself together? Get ready-I'd rather have us scare the crap out of a person than let a shifter get the jump on us. Mala, maybe you can go on the other side of the door?"
"Last warning! On the ground against the wall! If you are up we will think you a monster!"
He waits a second then attempts to force the door.
Presuming that has no effect, he tries again.
Mara was falling. She became aware of a cold, rubbery arm around her neck, and something else holding her feet. She struggled to free herself, but the thing was too strong. Detestable paws kneaded her flesh, tickling her mercilessly Whenever she moved. She twisted around to try to see her assailant. Silhouetted against the stars, she saw something thin and horned, with bat wings. But that was not the worst part of it; for the thing that angled it's head as if to look at her did not speak or make any sound, for it had no face, or mouth with which to make an utterance, just a disturbing blankness where a face ought to be. The stars were blotted out as the thing dived down into some hole in the earth, down into an abyss of immeasurable depth.
Mara stirred slightly, and then settled back into a deep slumber. She was the midst of a thick, yellow fog. She was running; something was chasing her. Looking back, she saw something shaped like a man, but with a face made of worms, with tattered bits of cloth, seemingly forming out of the fog, wrapped around it. The thing howled in horrifying laughter.
Mara awoke with a start, the unholy laughter fading. It was still dark. Where was she? She reached for a comforting presence, then panicking, cried, "Mommy, Daddy, where are you?" After a moment, she tried to think. Was she a captive of the horned things, or the worm-faced man, or was that a dream? Strangely, she wasn't afraid of these horrors; instead she felt an outrage growing in her, at those unnatural creatures that had taken her. She heard a voice say "Quiet, they'll hear you!", in a urgent whisper; it sounded like a young girl.
A minute passed, then there was a banging on the door. "No, go away, there are monsters out there!", the girl said in reply. Then there were shouts and screams from beyond the door. The monsters are coming! There was a knock at the door. The girl said something in reply. An angry voice shouted from beyond the door, then something heavy slammed against it, trying to force it's way in. They're here!
"Stay behind me!", Mara hissed at the girl. She got to her feet, steadying herself to face the things from her nightmares.
The girl yelps when Dervak smacks the door the first time, although it doesn't open. She then reaches out into the dark, grabbing a hold of Mara's linen pants, presumably to drag her to the back wall. She gasps when Mara speaks, and then is glad to obey. She scurried behind Mara and tries to hide her legs. The second thud budges the shelf jamming the door out a ways, letting in a crack of light and a gap of space.
Dervak will keep at it no matter what the RNG says...
"Down on the ground!"
"May the Dawnflower protect us, even in this dark place," Mara muttered in a low voice. She backed away from the door, slowly so as not to lose her footing in the blackness.
That shove is more than enough to push the door open wide enough for a person to get through. The girl behind Mara begins crying loudly, whimpering out a pathetic "Please..don't..hurt..me!" between sobs.
Julius peeks his head around the door frame, his eyes widening with surprise. "Uhh...guys? There's another guy in here...um. I don't suppose you guys would tell us if you're shapeshifters, right?"
Mala places a hand on Dervak's shoulder, nodding to the half-orc and stepping into the doorway. "Well, we did say to be on the ground..." Mala say's as he enters the room frowning with his sword cane drawn. his eye's pass over the little girl. "But I don't think myself as having the heart to slay one with the look of a child." Just then seeming to notice Mara. "Or capable of slaying two of them... Quite a conundrum... Please, if you really aren't one of them, just sit. Otherwise attack me now, end us quickly if you will." Mala takes his hat off, holding it to his chest. "I'd really like to escape with at least my dignity intact."
Mara blinked in the sudden light, trying to make out what was there, and what it's intentions were.
"You have a face," Mara said, eyeing the figure in front of her. "Where are the worms, or can you hide your true form?" She tried to hide her fear, and present a resolute facade.
Julius enters the room behind Mala, keeping his rapier lowered, but still ready to go if need be. "No worms here, and as far as I know, these are all of our true forms. I'm guessing you've run into the shapeshifters too? That's impressive if you have, they're tough even for the four of us."
Mala seems to loosen a bit at not being immediately jumped, putting his hat back on he speaks again. "You're looking at it Mam! No other forms to speak of, less my nogin is more messed with than I'd first though." Mala kneels down to the little girls level, smiling as warm a smile as an albino with a fashion complex can. "May I ask whom this little lady is, not really a place for kids all things considered." He sheathes his sword cane as he kneels.
The little girl tries to stifle her crying as the men enter, managing to calm down enough to sniffle. She comes out from behind Mara's legs and sits on the floor, as requested. She begins to speak, pausing to sniffle frequently:
"I don't know any worms.. But I was running from the grey men.. I saw this lady, she was just lookin' around, walking around like she didn't know anything or anything, and I felt bad so I pulled her with me, and we hid, then there was a shake and a crash and then she started screaming and I was so scared!"
"What?", Mara replied, filled with confusion. "Shapeshifters? I don't know, I just woke up." She paused for a slight second, before adding, "I think."
She listened to the man with the fancy hat. "I...I don't know — I haven't had a chance to ask." She bent down and extended her hand. "I'm Mara; what's your name?"
She wipes her eyes and scoots backwards a little from Mala, but she does answer. "I'm Sara. I'm here cause Daddy said I was sick and needed to rest. Have you seen Daddy? I miss him..." She gets a sad, faraway look on her face and doesn't seem interested in talking more at the moment. She raises a small, familiar looking doll, in Qadiran clothing, to her face and nuzzles it softly,finding comfort in the gesture.
"I don't think any of the others had the presence of mind to tell us their names...I think they might be legit..." Julius whispers to Mala. He nods politely to Mara. "I'm Julius, and this is Mala. Not to be confused with your name, I guess. The big guy there is Dervak, and Oscar's in the hall." He looks down at Sara. "Uhh...I don't think we've seen your dad, at least I really hope not, seeing as lately there's been basically a 50/50 shot that whoever we see is a monster. When's the last time you saw him, kid?"
"Mommy!", Mara cried as she saw the doll in Sara's arms. She made a motion as if she were about to reach for it, then stopped herself. "That doll serves as my connection to the spirit of my late mother," she said, trying to gather her composure. "It means a lot to me." A careful observer might have noticed a representation of tusks on the brown-skinned doll's mouth.
She looks up at Julius and just shrugs in response to his question. Her eyes followed to the people he introduced but she only looks at them and then back at Julius. Her eyes widen in surprise when Mara exclaims, and she frowns with watery eyes at thought of surrendering the doll. "Oh..." she says, "I... Found it. I've never had a doll." A tear falls from her eye as she hands it up to Mara. "You should have your mommy."
" You've never had a doll?", Mara replied."That's no good! Sara, I promise you, I'll get you a doll for your very own." She considered Sara's words and said, "Did you happen to see another one — like this one, but of a man? That one is of my Daddy, and I can't find it."
She smiles at the thought of her own doll, and then shakes her head no when asked about the matching doll.
"Little one, I promise you that when we get out of here I'll buy you twenty dolls. I swear it, in the meantime." Mala pulls his handkerchief from his pocket and turns around. Plucking Spie out, he wraps the handkerchief around the floating eye, tying the hanging cloth together with a few strands of hair. "Now, I happen to have a special talent, I can make things come to life! It's not as nice as the doll you gave up, but for now he'll watch over you and be your friend, just until we get you those twenty I mentioned." Mala turns back to the girl with Spie resting in his hand, looking like a little sprite wrapped up in the pure white cloth.
Flicking Spie into the air He flies to circle the girl. "His name is Spie." Clasping his hands together, Mala looks around at all of the adults. "Now what should our next move be?"
Probably not monsters or they would have attacked the two in the room by now. Unless they have a tricky plan, but Julius seems smart.
Dervak watches the eyeball trick.
"Mala, you are a strange man. Good at killing monsters, but very strange."
He thinks for a moment.
"Didn't we find another doll under the boiler?"
He remains standing in the hall, keeping a lookout. The noise of the battle and opening the door might have drawn attention.
"Do either of you know what this place is? Why we are here?
The child scrunches her face up at first when Mala's eye detatches, however she giggles at the sight of the floating eye dressed in a white hankie, and seems happy enough to play with it as a distraction.
The hallway seems quiet for the moment, but the darkness towards the end of the hall could hold anything.
This closet that you are in is well stocked with junk, scattered around the room as if the room itself was shaken. There is a moveable shelf that the Sara must have had a surge of adrenaline to shove in front of the door, and another leaning precariously up against the back wall.
Mara was taken aback when the man in fancy clothes plucked his eyeball out. "Are you sure you're not a monster?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously. She didn't sense any deceit in his manner, however, and she was usually a pretty good judge of people.
At the mention of another doll, Mara's eyes brightened. "Do you have it with you?" she asked.
"Where is 'here?'", she said, replying to the the other half-orc's question with one of her own. "Are we in Numeria?"
I'm assuming the occultist would be the one collecting strange items.
"Haha! Some of us are monsters, that is true. Maybe that is why we were brought here. But we aren't looking to hurt innocent people. We're not like those monsters. Do you think I'd look like this if I could change my face?
Oscar, do you have the doll?
I was in Ustalav last I knew. So you also don't remember?
You! Child!"
He softens his tone.
"You. Child. Do you know what place this is? Or are you also forgetting things?"
Mara paused, struggling to remember. "I recall leaving Qadira and heading north," she said slowly. "I was going to Numeria to find the place from my dreams... I had good dreams then," she added sadly.
"Gods, Numeria sounds great right about now...I'd much rather face giant metal men than be stuck here." Julius mutters to himself. "Okay, so you just woke up, then? Weird, the rest of this area seems to be more or less deserted."
Oscar approaches the door, his face pale. He looks inside, once, his pale eye catching the light weird. He pulls his goggles onto his neck.
"Doll? Yeah, I had found it." he admits, producing the male counterpart. "Here."
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Mara's face lit up when she saw the doll. "Thank you!", she said, holding up the small figure. "Daddy, give us light!", she exlaimed, and her hand began to glow brightly. "Daddy brings light to dark places!"
The girl jumps when Dervak barks at her, and she runs to hide behind Mara's legs. Spie glares at Dervak then floats over to hover around Sara. After Dervak moderates his tone a little, she comes back out and thinks for a moment. "This is a place for sick people, at least that's what the doctors all say. People here act funny most times." She isn't particularly eloquent, and doesn't seem likely to provide much more detail.
Mara looked around the room and, seeing a mixture of equipment and worthless junk strewn about, picked out the useful items and stowed them in a backpack that was lying on the floor. She looked out into the corridor; when she saw a body lying there, she moved over for a closer look.
"What happened here?", she asked, examining the corpse. "I heard shouting, but I couldn't tell what was going on."
Mala follows Mara back out into the hallway, grinning proudly when she mentions the body. "I just so happen to have downed this one!" Mala says, bashing the thing in the head with his cane. "With, uh... With some help of course." Mala coughs into his hand before straightening up once more. "Ah, but we still have some grizzly business with the corpse. Mam, if you would shield the child's eyes." He says to Mara as he points at the body, drawing his thumb across his neck.
Dervak looks at Mara and her dolls.
A human father and an orc mother? She must be mad. Poor creature.
"This is a place to cure sick people? The last person I remember before here promised to cure me but it was a lie. Anyway, the doctors here are all gone mad. Or replaced by shapechangers.
Let's go give this one's head to the men with the crossbows. But we should test those men too. Somehow."
"I need to meditate for a while, if I am to cast my spells today,", Mara said. "Otherwise, I can only perform minor tricks like the light I just made."
Mara went back into the room and sat down. Holding her dolls, she began to meditate.
Oscar will sit down in the room and lean against the wall, collecting himself.
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"Mala, Julius, wanna take this head to the archers with me? We can see if two heads is enough proof for them that we are not the enemy."
Most of the hour goes by uneventfully. Sara spends the next hour playing peekaboo with Spie, or exploring the rubbish in this room with Spie on her shoulder.
About 45 minutes into the hour, those with keen enough senses (dc 20 perception) can hear some struggling and shifting of what might be large rocks or debris towards the unexplored end of the hallway. Faint echoes of cursing and murmuring, too soft and too far away from this closet to make out clearly, drift down from that direction.
Julius nods and gingerly takes the head. Obviously grossed out, he holds the head out in front of him as he makes his way back to the guards. "Here's head number two. This enough to prove that we're not the bad guys?"
Dervak accompanies Julius (and possibly Mala) but lets the human(s) do the talking.
(Despite his positive Wis and Cha modifiers, he has a negative Sense Motive and Diplomacy due to a racial penalty.)
"You two go along, I'll keep an EYE on things back here." Mala laughs at his own joke for an embarrassingly long time.
The guards snap to attention when Julius and Dervak become visible in the darkness, training crossbows on them and hailing them to stop. They relax only a little when they see who they are talking with, and when Julius throws the head at their feet, they laugh. The stocky guard says, "You know, I'm sorry I ever doubted you guys. Look, you can come through now if you like, but maybe you can clear put the rest of this hallway for us? Make it safe for the survivors to start using again...
Did you find any? Survivors I mean."