Julius nods to the guards in thanks. "Well, I suppose we could help clear out the hall-we found a few other survivors out there, by the way. A woman named Mara and a little girl named Sara. Mind checking around in there to see if anyone knows the girl?"
The stout guard nods, and sends one of the guards running back towards the light coming from the survival area. It would take some time for him to return with an answer; do you wait?
Dervak will wait with the stout guard.
"What happened here? How long ago? I can't remember how I got here."
The guards shift from foot to foot, seeming unreluctant to talk much, but the stout guard does talk some. "We don't really know much. We arrived with the clerics shortly before it all went to hell. Winter probably knows more, but she's a busy woman. I'm sure she'll want to talk to you when you finish up here though."
After about 20 minutes, the guard who acted as messenger comes jogging back to the barricade. He whispers to the stout guard before resuming your post. The guard turns back to Dervak and Julius: "Did you say Sara? Apparently some of the survivors know that name. That other name though, no one recognized it. But... I mean that doesn't mean a whole lot. Most of the survivors are patients, and you know, they aren't exactly the most reliable folk. We did end up with two nurses and a doctor but they don't know everyone in the whole building."
"Alright, thanks for the help. We'll be back after we clean out the other parts of the hallway. One of us three will say "swordfish"-that's how you'll know we're not shapeshifters."
Julius turns to the Dervak and Mala and speaks softly to them. "So we've got the go-ahead, that's good at least. I'm assuming it extends to Oscar too, but what about the others? It took so long for them to trust us, and if we unwittingly bring a shapeshifter into the midst of all those survivors...it could end up going poorly for all of us. But Mara seems earnest enough, and I don't think any of us can in good conscience leave a child out here all alone. Should we leave the girl here and then go out to clear the hall?"
"Let's try to rattle Mara and Sara telling them we just killed Zandalous. See how they react. If the name rings a bell.
Then we can bring Sara to the guards here and go with Mara to clear out the hallway."
Julius considers this a moment before grinning. "Good plan. Alright, make yourself look flustered and winded, really sell it to 'em."
As they walk the few remaining feet to the closet, Julius shifts and dishevels himself to mame it appear like he was in a scuffle, hoping Dervak follws suit. Then he bursts into the closet, and rambles in an animated rush."You guys! We got jumped at the barricade by some monsters, and one if them was shouting 'protect Zandalous!' But we got 'em anyway. I think we just killed Zandalous!"
Seeing how bad Julius's 'scuffle' disguise is, Dervak attempts to cover.
"You're fast, Julius. Good with that little sword. Not a scratch on you. But, yeah, he killed Zandalous. Zandalous tried to promise us all kinds of stuff but we didn't believe him."
Then he watches closely for Mara and Sara's reactions.
Sara is surprised at the sudden burst of activity, but her face pales when she hears the name Zandalous. "Zan...zandalous.. The guys wearing yellow like to do bad stuff, saying that name. I think..." She scrunches her face up, clearly trying to remember. "I think he was another man here, a sick guy like me. I think sometimes the nice people liked to put his drawings up on the walls." She frowns a little and hides behind Mara's legs. "They scared me though."
Oscar pops to his feet, his meditation completed. "You should have called for help if you were in a fight!" he cries, worried. He will draw the healing wand and gesture to them. "Well which one of you is more injured?"
"What kind of monsters? What did they look like?", Mara asked. "Do you need healing?"
"Wait a minute — I think they're trying to play a joke on us!" Mara said, her tone changing from concern to annoyance. "What are you two playing at?", she demanded of Julius and Dervak.
"Thought you might have been replaced by shapechangers. One spoke of Zandalous and his promises. The other spoke of being promised things, not sure by whom. Thought saying we killed him would make them angry."
Dervak shrugs.
"Unless you have better way to tell who is who. Julius says we can use a password."
Looking around, he whispers "Swordfish."
"We all ready to go? The guards want us to clear out this hallway."
"Would someone mind filling me in on what is going on?", Mara asked in exasperation. "All I know is that I've woken up in place where people are running around talking about shapechangers, and cutting off heads! Has everyone gone crazy?"
Mala shrugs at Mara. "Probably, You know about as much as we do now."
"Do you have no memories before meeting me?", Mara asked Mala.
"i remember disliking stinky cheese as a child." Oscar offers. "Nothing recent, however."
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Sara, can you tell me what this place is?," Mara asked the little girl, crouching sown to her level. "I don't know where I am. The last thing I remember, before waking up here, was leaving a country called Qadira, and travelling north. I was going to a land called Numeria. Do you know what country we're in?"
"The four of us woke up in cells around the same room. There was a fifth man but maybe he was a ghost. There was also a man on a table. A thing that looked like a doctor was torturing him.
I woke up from a nightmare. The thing killed the man on the table, we got out of our cells and fought it. It changed its face to look like me at one point.
We killed it and found our stuff nearby.
We climbed through a vent to get up here. The ghost-man disappeared.
Another thing that looked like a doctor convinced me to open this door to help you. But it was also a monster. We killed it too. It was another shapechanger.
There are other people trying to survive. They are starting to trust us because we have fought the monsters."
"None of us really remember much of our past." Oscar adds. "Though we seem to remember how to do whatever it is we do."
To emphasize that, he points to a piece of junk in the room and it floats up into the air and towards him without him saying anything or making hand gestures.
-Posted with Wayfinder
"I wonder if any of the other survivors can give us more information," Mara replied to Dervak. After listening to Oscar, she said, "I'm pretty sure I can heal people; are any of you injured?"
Sara shakes her head when asked direct questions.
Julius grins at Dervak's explanation and claps him on the shoulder. "Couldn't have summed it up better myself. I think, from what Sara here has managed to tell us, and from what little we've learned, we seem to be in some sort of hospice. Sara here seems hale enough, so I'm guessing this place isn't housing the physically ill." He grimaces at that. "I do not relish the thought of being in a sanitorium, but at least I don't remember the experience."
"That's OK, Sara," Mara said to her. "Do you know anyone in this place, other than us? Is there someone that you would trust?"
"There are nice people here. And some children, like me," she says. Her lip begins to tremble a little. "What if the bad things hurt them?"
"I'm going to do my best to stop the bad things from hurting them," Mara declared. "I think that's what Dervak, Julius, Mala and Oscar are trying to do as well."
She turned to the others and said, "I don't think any of you are shapechangers. If you all were shapechangers, you would have killed me by now. If one of you was a shapechanger, he would have turned on the others during one of your battles. I know Sara's OK, because I was out of it — defenseless — and I'm still alive.
"So, what should we do next?"
"We should finish looking down this hallway for any more threats." Oscar says, not aware they had been invited in.
Mala Looks at his hand as Mara speaks of remembrance, seeming to just now notice that he cant stop the idle movement of his hand."Huh." He stares for a bit at the indipendint limb. "Yeah." Mala says to Oscar, heading down the hallway, still looking at his hand.
"Let us go, then."
Dervak looks at the little girl.
In the Realm of the Mammoth Lords children like this hunt small game and carry extra javelins for the warriors in battles. They see blood and death. But I think maybe the 'soft people', as the Kellids would say, try to protect the little ones from seeing such things.
"Let's leave the child with the guards."
"We're going to find a place where you'll be safe," Mara said to Sara. Turning to the others she told them, "I want to at least meet whoever is going to look after her. I need to know, as best I can, that shes's in the care of a reputable person, and someone she's comfortable with."
Dervak snarls a bit.
"You think you can tell who is 'reputable' by talking to them for a minute or two? Fine, go talk to them. You can also talk to any 'doctors' we find, if you're so good at that.
Nobody really knows anybody else. That's true in the world outside and it's even more true in here. You can't trust people, just have to give them enough reason not to betray you."
Mara was about to say something in reply to Dervak's retort, but decided against it. No, you can't always tell, but I've got to at least try. While they were both half-orcs, she suspected that his life experience was very different from hers. Although he spoke of their present situation, she guessed that he was really talking about things that happened many years ago.
Mala snaps out of his transfiction on his hand as Dervak goes off on Mara. Twirling around Mala glares at Dervak in a way he's only done at enemies up until now. "Dervak! The lady's just trying to do all she can to keep the child safe, how the hell can you fault her for that?"
Dervak stands his ground.
"What's she gonna do if she thinks the guards are not 'reputable'? Are we gonna fight them too? And how could she tell that in just a few minutes? It makes no sense to me. Naive.
But like I said, she can go ahead and talk to them. And then if she's so good at reading people then she can figure out who the shapeshifters are.
Let me know when you want to clear out the rest of the hall."
Julius interrupts: "My friends! We should not be arguing about this right now. Here are the facts as we know them: this hallway is dangerous, but there seems to be some kind of protection behind that barricade. Making sure that the girl is safe is important, but so is making sure the survivors behind that barricade don't have anything to fear from this area. I think, since those guys back there haven't stuck us full of crossbow bolts, that they can be trusted. But if you aren't comfortable with that Mara, maybe you can protect the girl as we seek out the last few shapeshifters in this area, and we can bring her with us. Not my favorite idea, but I can live with it. None of us want to see her harmed." At that he flashes the girl his winningest grin, and Sara giggles from behind Mara's legs.
Dervak sits down in the room and waits for the rest of the party to decide what to do with the girl. He's ready to go when everyone else is.
"Lets go to this barricade you speak of," Mara replied to Julius.
Mala sigh's at the situation, Looking for a respite he looks at Sara and asks her a question. "What do you want to do Sara? Both have potential dangers and you should have a say in the risks you take."
Sara shrugs. "Is it.. Is it safe there? I just want the bad things to not hurt me."
Mala shrugs back at Sara. "Maybe, sticking with us you'll at the very least SEE some monsters. We'll be there to protect you though, the same cannot be said for the barricade."
"Don't worry Sara, I won't leave you anywhere that's not safe," Mara replied.
"Passing the child over to the rest of the survivors is the best idea." he offers.
"Though i recommend caution either way. I feel safety in numbers favors her."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Towards the end of the conversation, Julius furrows his brows and glares at the door. He interrupts Oscar to say in a hused voice, "Hey.. I think I hear a couple of somethings moving out there. Does anyone else hear that?"
"Something's out there," Mara whispered. "It could be survivors, or something else. Be prepared for either! She stood next to the door frame, and listened to see if she could hear any conversation from outside the door.
Mala stands behind Mara, drawing his sword cane, he seems ready to rush through the door should anything happen.
Dervak stands and draws his falchion.
Oscar focuses and draws his bow.
"I'll take your word for it." he mutters. readying for trouble.