"Mind yourself, 'fuzzy'", Belrim threatens, stroking his beard, "I still haven't made my mind about you!"
Granite strokes his clean shaven chin. "That's one explanation. But I suspect something else took my beard..." As the others got dressed, he continued to stare thoughtfully at the journal entry. So Kolaiah used to be an aasimar. Interesting. And the wolf-man must have been tube 2. But why try to combine a half-elf and an elf? They're similar enough that I wouldn't have thought it worthwhile. But if they didn't know the other experiments would be a success, perhaps it was a baseline? To see if they needed to be more alike in order to work?
Absently, he asks his two newest companions a question. "Hey, by any chance did you two see a lizard person back where you came from?" It's at that point that he realizes he's the only one still naked and quickly begins scavenging items from various boxes. The clothes all feel weird, and there's a sense of disconnect as everything he tries on looks like it should be far too big or long for him, but then ends up fitting fairly well. It's...disconcerting. As is the oddly blank buckler he finds to strap to his wrist. Not sure why, he takes a piece of charcoal he finds and begins sketching an eagle on it. It makes him feel a little better.
Once everybody's ready, Granite starts to move towards the less-used door their new companions came from. "If there is a lizard person back there, it might be unfriendly like that wolf man. We should be prepared to defend ourselves if so."
”There were a bunch of somethings, but I wouldn’t call any of them a “person” of any sort.”
All I know is that this is a very bad place. A very bad place indeed. Lothalian says as he readies himself to meet the next inhabitants.
As the group checks through the equipment and boxes, finding items and weapons familiar or useful, both Lothalian and Kolaiah find themselves assailed by scenes of a past they can't remember. Just frames, without reference no proper memories, just snapshots...and both suddenly feel...as if something else was struggling for control over their body.
Kolaiahs hand starts to shake violently, then suddenly smacks himself into the face - hard. The feeling passes, and luckily, the nose is not broken, but the experience was hardly a pleasant one.
Lothalian drops the bow and rushes at Belrim, trying to jab at him - the Dwarf reacted fast, though, and gets ready to defend himself when the feeling passes as fast as it came, and Lothalian quickly raises his hands to indicate he does not wish for the situation to escalate.
Both of them take some time to calm down. Moving out equipped and suspicious, Granite insists on taking another look at the room their 2 new companions emerged from. The creepy small creatures seem to be gone, but a relatively fresh trail of slime leading to a hole to small to crawl into serve as proof they really exist. A more detailed scanning of the room reveals another dead doctor(cause of death: blunt trauma to head), still grasping his notes.
Eventually, you return to the corridor, and find that all the rooms in the area had been visited before...except for the door to the north, towards where the wolf-man had fled, earlier.
Checking your equipment once more, you prepare to follow there, and approach the door cautiously.
Hahaha!
Kolaiah looks about as he regains control of himself. He starts running his fingers through the long hair on his jowls, as he sheepishly asks, ”why did I do that? Am I sane?”
Granite gives the newcomers a weird look. Ok, apparently they're not to be trusted. Good to know. He draws his sword to make sure he would be more prepared for any surprises in the future. When the tube-room appears to be empty, he's not sure if he's relieved or disappointed. Nonetheless, he flips through the doctor's notes to see if there's any useful information contained within.
That done and the rest of the area resulting in only one door to check, Granite dutiful listens at it. Given the wolf-man's panicked state, it seemed unlikely that he would be waiting just on the other side. But for all he knew, there could have been something else that ate the wolf-man on the other side.
Hearing nothing, he looks around at his companions, making sure they're all ready before pushing the door open.
Lothalian holds his hands up. I am so sorry I do not know what came over me. This place...this place messes with one's mind.
When they find the note, Lothalian reads it over. This is medical research. It could be worth something to the right...and good...people. He continues to read. This is truly groundbreaking. It might be worth at least 500gp or more! There is another doctor mentioned. It sounds like he would really pay to get these notes back. Unless he is a good soul, he should not have them! Does anyone mind me keeping them?
The dwarf shakes his head 'no'.
"Why do we not just burn them? Or keep them for ourselves? Are we the good guys, or the bad guys?"
There might be some goodly clerics that could learn from this research because they would never dream of doing what this so-called doctor did!
"Hold up, hold up. What kind of research? Stop babbling and giving us half-pieces of information and actually tell us what's going on. How are we supposed to weigh on such a vague question without the full picture?"
"I am not sure that I could weigh judgement even with all of the information. In fact, I am near certain of it."
There is a lot of information here Lothalian nods in agreement. I think it would be best for other minds that as not as scrambled as ours to determine-and in a place not as chaotic as this. Rolling the notes and putting them in his somehow familiar backpack, Lothalian will stand by Granite as he opens the door.
Granite shrugs. "Fine, if you don't want to tell me, just say that." He then turns to open the last door that remains unopened.
"I am definitely fine with not knowing! Where to, stranger-friends?"
As the door opens, you find yourself in an opulent, two-storied office. An impenetrable yellow fog roils against the cathedral-like windows.
On the ground floor, there's elegant side tables made of rare woods, overstuffed furnishings, and an altarlike table made of marble that figuratively reeks of decadence.
A delicate spiral staircase and a dark-iron balcony lead to a sort of library overhead. Both floors fixtures frame the small lake of blood spread across the rooms center, an unnatural fog covering the center of the blood, in turn.
There is no trace of either the Wolf-Man, nor of the Lizard-Lady.
Granite pointed to the fog cloud above the blood. "Well, that doesn't look good." It was obvious. He said it anyway. "What do you think? Should we try tossing a rock in to see if it gets disintegrated? Or should we just do our best to give it a wide berth as we walk around?"
Belrim looks around the floor to find something hand-sized but heavy to throw. When the dwarf finds something that fit the bill, the fighter throws it into the yellow fog.
Lothalian prepares himself in case the fog attacks them, even though he is not sure what the best thing to do against fog is!
Belrim does find some large stones from a damaged wall nearby. Taking aim at the center of the unnatural fog, there is a thumping sound, indicating the stone hit...something, before falling to the floor next to whatever yielding substance stopped it's flight.
Both Belrim and Lothalian think they might be able to see the outline of a faintly humanoid being through the fog, albeit without legs.
On one of the tables, Belrim spots a set of images sketched with coal, on torn parchment. They depict eerie vistas of an endless, empty city under a sky of whirling mist. In the corner of each, there's a name marked: Ulver Z., and years, from between 4708 to 4715.
As Lothalian prepares to defend against the fog, or whatever is in there, he takes cover behind the marble table, and finds that one of the drawers is locked.
Kolaiah looks at the others, "ummm, do any of you know what year it is?"
Lothalian will hail the foggy figure.
You in there! Identify yourself!
Granite shrugs in response to the year question and then gives Lothalian an odd look. "Who are you talking to? You don't think the rock hit someone do you?" He switches, calling into the fog. "Sorry if that rock hit you. We just wanted to see what happened when that creepy fog you're in got disturbed. We've seen some odd things in here."
Lothalian points to where the shadow figure is. I see someone standing there. That is who I was asking the question to. Does anyone else see them or am I losing my mind?
None of you have a certain grasp on what year it is currently, but approximately 4716 'feels' right.
The figure in the mist does not react to your calls - as little as it reacted to the rock that supposedly hit it. While the figure is vaguely humanoid, you are not certain it is even alive. It's certainly not bulky enough to be the wolfman you encountered earlier, and unless your eyes betrayed you, the other experiment had no need for such mundane ways to hide.
If you take one more step, I'll fire! Lothalian calls out. He is not sure if the thing even has feet but does not want it to come closer!
Still not seeing whatever it is their new companions are talking to , Granite attempt to skirt around the blood pool to reach the other side and head up the staircase to check out the library area.
The figure remains still, as it did before, neither stepping closer nor in some other way responding to the threats or call-outs.
Granite can indeed make out the figure after it was pointed out to him, he simply failed to see it himself in the whirling mists, but something does seem to be in there, yes.
I don't know what it is or even if its alive, but do we want that behind us? Lothalian asks unsure what should be done.
”No, at least I don’t, shall we move closer and see?”
Lothalian nods,slings his bow, and pulls out his longsword and follows Kolaiah.
Granite keeps a wary eye on the figure but nonetheless decides to explore the upper area since the figure wasn't actually doing anything yet.
The dwarf, heavy pick in hand, stands in front of the group, ready to attack the mysterious humanoid(?) in the fog.