Briarstone Asylum was built around the foundations of an abandoned fort, as evidenced by its thick stone walls. I could almost feel them embrace me as I entered the building, as if to welcome me home. In a way, Briarstone knew more about my mind than I did.
Those words echo in your ears, all of your ears as you stand up in what appears to be an alleyway. Each of you is dressed in an odd white suit, the padding thick with odd straps hang down from the sides of it as if your hands and arms should fit into the straps as second sleeves. The suit has many buckles which could be used to tie a person up quite tightly.
None of you can remember, well... anything really. Certainly your own names you remember but your past is a haze. You are all strangers yet you all feel a sense of camaraderie as if you belong together.
From behind you observe a wall of sickly yellow fog, as thick as the haze that clouds your memories. The fog tumbles through the alley's canyon, gray brick walls like some jaundiced flash flood. Ahead, the unfamiliar alley splits, curving to the left and right. Behind, from the silent swell of mist, emanates the sound of footsteps—slow, but somehow keeping pace with the careening, hungry wave.
Grendel tries to peer into the fog and simultaneously retreats from ithe and the foreboding footsteps. When it's clear the fog is impenetrable, he continues to back away while examining the strange trappings he finds himself wearing. Unfastening buckles and straps as he walks, he tries to shed the garment completely, letting it drop to the street beneath his feet.
"who are you?. Im.. um.." he looks down on himself with a scowl. " no matter, I'm ...me."
The Kobold will thrash wildly trying to breakout of his bindings.
huffing and puffing, the kobold stops and simply gives in to his surroundings.
"Master Master, where you be, why leave me alone?"
Kaloora wakes up and immediately rushes to a corner. The goblin looks around and has absolutely no clue of what's going on.
Eh? Eh? - he lets out, while shaking and trying to get a grip of the situation. He feels jumpy and absolutely paranoid.
Who are you? Where am I? - he finally says, almost immediately completing - Are you... Are we locked here, together? Where do I know you from?
The dwarf gets up from the alley floor, along three other creatures. Gathering his wits and looking around his surrounding, Belrim marvels at the ominous yellow fog behind him, and the sound of steps coming closer.
Speaking in a Common tongue, the dwarf tries to communicate with the other beings that seem to share his predictament.
"Do any of you understand me? We have to get away from the fog!"
"Yeah, it looks sick... "
The dwarf points at the frogfolk.
"You. Grab the green one. I'll get the scaled one."
Belrim walks over to the kobold and attempts to lift the kobold off the ground and carry him.
Grendl walks over to the goblin, tries to rouse him to action before trying to lift him... "Come on, let's get out of here together... come with me."
If Kaloora refuses to rise and come along, Grendl will try to lift the fellow and carry him...
... but Kaloora is too big and heavy for poor Grendl to get a handle on.
He turns to the dwarf and says, "He's a bit large for little me to carry, you know."
Thrall will brace himself against the padded wall, walking towards the Frogfolk and the Dwarf. Observing the sickly yellow fog.
As Thral approached, you'd notice a large portion of his face is taken up by a foul looking brand, as if it was burned into his flesh magically and perhaps also with the help of a knife.
Thral musters all of his ability to escape the confines of the jacket.
Kaloora shakes a little bit when the grippli comes closer but, somehow, he feels comradery towards him and the others - so the Goblin just goes with him, giving him the shaky hand. He looks around and hisses, paranoid, as if fearing for being ambushed somehow from someone he isn't seeing. He shows his teeth towards the fog, as if angry with it.
Bad fog? Bad fog?
Thral shrugs out of the jacket leaving him only in pants as Belrim huffs while lifting him off of the ground while Grendl pulls Kaloora off of the ground.
The dwarf veers to the left alley as the others follow. Moving slowly but quickly enough to begin to leave the fog behind.
The alley walls sag, battered brick slumping over the path, nearly blotting out the bruised twilight sky. Again the grimy cobblestone path splits. This time one route curves uphill, while the other recklessly descends. Behind, the yellow fog and the relentless sound of pursuit grow closer...
"Fog creeps on the ground..I think. We should go for high ground", huffs the dwarf, waiting for the others to catch up.
"I think this fog is following us and will do so low OR high... but high ground is fine with me."
"Yes yes, we go higher." the scrappy kobold exclaimed, unsure what to think of the whole situation.
Still carrying the kobold, Belrim runs uphill.
Kaloora follows along with you all as you race through the alleyway the pace of the sickly fog increasing and therefore increasing the urgency you all feel. Despite your speed through the alleys which narrow before you the fog still nips at you heels.
Finally, the mist parts, now mere steps behind. A mask of gray rags emerges, strips of something fleshier than fabric worming and constricting across a body that’s almost humanlike—but too lean, and far too flexible. Gauzy gray ribbons reach out like tendrils, each grasping for less doubtful flesh to claim.
Kaloora
Thral
Belrim
Foe
Grendle "eeps!" and takes a leap away from the gauzy ribbons reaching for him and runs faster, dragging Kaloora along by the hand with him...
The creatures tethers unravel and held within it, somehow, is a wicked looking razor. It slashes at Thral who is still slung over the back of Belrim.
The blade punctures through the little Kobold so hard that the dwarf feels it nearly pierce his own skin! The Kobold wails in agony and vanishes...? Belrim you feel his weight lifted off of your back.
Blood from the Kobold stains the walls and the back of the dwarf.
The dwarf winces as his companion, the scaled creature, is killed while carried by him and is no more.
As the dwarf looks to find something he can use as a weapon, he sees the strange writing on the wall.
Who are you, what are you?
Grendl mentally fills in the missing or illegible words... I guess his time really was up... he's truly effed." Yet the mental process doesn't slow him down at all and he keeps running, dragging kaloora behind/beside him... "Hurry... us small green folk need to stick together."
As Belrim looks about for a weapon suddenly a pick appears in his hand!
As you glance back you see the grippli continuing to flee in terror away from the tattered horror that has appeared from the mist he attempts to pull the goblin along with him...
As you step to the cell door the scene crystalizes for you. A struggling
human with split lips and skin covered in a mapwork of fresh red lines is lashed to a splintery worktable with heavy ropes
Another figure, unsettlingly thin and wearing a blood-smeared doctor’s coat, circles the table casually—stopping every so often to scrutinize one of the man’s wounds or select a different object from a sideboard of
shiny blades. Currently, she spins one blade of a broken pair of pruning shears, which glints in the dull light of the lamp suspended overhead. With careless cruelty, the doctor draws the blade across the bound man’s bare thigh, releasing another tortured wail.
As your voice is so hoarse, she seemed not to hear your initial call...
Although initially surprised by the appearance of a pick in his hand, this feeling quickly turned to elation: Belrim could fight back!!
Kaloora pauses for a moment to consider whether he should aid the dwarf but as Grendl is pulling him away he allows himself to be led in that direction.
Grendl continues to run as fast as he can, pulling Kaloora along with him... "FLight is our only chance against whatever that is... keep running."
The creatures continues its assault, this time directed at the brave Belrim.
Warrazor - Damage .
The razor bites deeply into Belrim's flesh cutting his arm to the bone!
The dwarf yells in pain and anger as the raggedy man bites into his flesh.
This may not work, but it may buy the others some time.
Belrim attempts to use his heavy pick to trip the raggedy man, in hopes of knocking him prone.
Kaloora doesn't have the faintest idea of what's happening, and only sees the kobold dying in a single move from the creature. The goblin screeches in fear and his paranoia kicks even stronger.
Kaloora turns and tries to shoot a ray of electricity against the creature.
But the goblin is so scared that he misses horribly!
Belrim is once again unable to strike the creature it is as if he is not solid whenever the dwarf tries to strike him.
Kaloora moves 5' toward Grendl's position but stops short and turns back to the sight of the dwarf battling the horrid tattered creature. The Goblin raises his hand, closes his eyes, and from it issues a streak of electricity. He stares at his own hand in amazement.
Belrim is shocked at the bolt of lightning that passes over his head but unfortunately over the head of the foe as well.
Grendl, losing his grip on Kaloora, turns back to look, shocked at the sight of the lightning bolt from Kaloora's fingers... He backpedals away from the creature further. "What... what IS that thing? What does it want?"
If the creatures hears Grendl it does not respond and swings its wicked looking razor at Belrim yet again.
Kaloora and Grendl see the blade slice Belrim across the throat, his blood once more covers the wall... as his body falls back though it smashes into the ground and dissipates into mist, there is no body to be seen!
The Dwarven blood splattering seems to form yet another word on the wall! "____ up! me!"
Clutching his neck, which still has the shadow of the pain where it was sliced, Belrim rises from his sleep, taking in his surroundings.
Seeing the other two he saw in his now-apparent dream, the dwarf calls to the scaled one.
"Hey you! Help me wake these two up!"
With that, Belrim walks over to the goblin and begins to shake and slap them, rousing therm from the nightmare.
Grendl continues to flee from the creature that keeps slaying folks. "Come ON, goblin... RUN!... or you'll end up dead too."
Kaloora looks confused at everything. He has no idea what the blood on the wall means, and as a goblin he particularly hates written words. Yet, he feels the grippli has a point. They probably can't fight that thing, whatever it is. He also doesn't have a clue as to why he trusts more the grippli than that thing - why is he assuming his allies are who they are? Yet, he feels a sense of loyalty to them.
He scratches his head, once again, but them finally flees. He flees as fast as he can, running with the grippli. Live to fight another day?, he thinks, Pointless to fight now!
Thral will turn around to the yelling dwarf with a look of abject horror, putting his finger to his mouth signaling to be quiet shaking the whole time.
walking over to the dwarf whispering,"I can't remember who you are, or who I am, but we needs to be quiet. There is a woman, I thinks, torturing a man. We don't want to gets her ire. If you wake, put hand on their mouth, we're next to go."
Searching around room for any tools, weapons or means of escape.
Seeing the other two he saw in his now-apparent dream, the dwarf calls to the scaled one.
"Hey you! Help me wake these two up!"
With that, Belrim walks over to the goblin and begins to shake and slap them, rousing therm from the nightmare.
Kaloora and Grendl run. This time though the speed of the eerie mist is too quick for them to escape from the edges of the Mist. A hand with tattered wrappings emerges once more this time to slice at Kaloora
who receives a cut on his back!
---
To no avail can the dwarf rouse the two terrified dreamers...
Ouch ouch ouch! - yells the Goblin - Ouch!
Very hurt - over half of his health gone - Kaloora shakes to his core, cowering, and runs in a different direction than Grendl. He stops running, after 30 feet, and focus on defending himself.
Kaloora looks for a different direction to run in but the two hunted humanoids have run into what appears to be one long winding alleyway.
As the Goblin stops, shimmering armor appears around Kaloora's body just by what appears to be force of will! The Goblin has cast yet another spell the question of course is will it save him...
Grendl continues to run, afraid for his life... I wish I was back in my nice safe swamp where there were only mosquitos and swamp monsters to worry about, not this weird mist monster.
The kobold will whisper with a raspy voice, still hoarse from when he awoke."Our captor has a key ring on her waist."
The kobold will gulp,"We need to get her attention"
With that, the dwarf grabs his hands around the bars of the cell and shakes them vigoriously and yells,
The kobold will nod and quickly find a place to hide, ready to grab keys as the being enters the cell.
Kaloora looked at himself, surrounded by that weird armor, and wondered how in the green skies was he able to do it. Nevertheless, he had no idea if this would be enough to save him - so he kept booking with his small legs, trying to flee the weird mist monster and the even weirder evil words on the wall.
You can see the tell-take signs of madness in her gaze...