After being hit so viciously, and seeing the other pulling ahead, Morrick runs after them.
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As you continue your flight, Morrick tries to break away from the creature, but it follows close behind. Driving a clawed hand into his back, the Asmodean falls. Blood spatters across a nearby wall, looking remarkably like the word "you."
Marconias, Navin, and HP may do something. The creature is still close behind you. You did see that Faust was able to find a door and pass through it, though it closed behind him.
The music lilting into the kitchen changes. It's hard to identify what instruments play the song, but it's unmistakably a lullaby. The one song that could get your son to sleep in those first few months.
Just as you begin to repeat the words in your head, the music stops, and you hear a voice. There is a clattering of metal and stone, followed by a metallic shriek. Everything around you changes.
You are on your side, lying on a cheap cot. A cell door separates you from a gruesome scene. A man is bound to a table in the middle of the room. Fresh cuts, most superficial, crisscross his body in jagged patterns. He has broken one leg free of its restraint.
The man you met as Damien in the mist-shrouded alley stands over him, holding a ring of keys. A smaller table is toppled to the ground. Kitchen utensils, gardening implements, and construction tools are scattered across the floor.
Problematically, the man you met as Damien also seems to be sprawled on the ground. He holds half a pair of gardening shears in one hand.
Your cell seems to contain one of the other people from the alley. The door to the cell opposite yours is open, with only one person inside. Another cell holds the other two. One convulses on his cot, blood pouring from his nose.
As you act, individuals in both locked cells stir. One, who seemed to be murmuring about Asmodeus earlier, begins to convulse, blood pouring from his nose. He seems to be awakening.
The other, also seems to be waking, without the dramatic transition.
What would you like to do?
You run, but don't make it far before claws dig into your back, and you feel blood gushing out of you. You wrack and twist with pain, but you faintly hear a word, spoken by an oddly familiar voice:
You awaken in a grimy cell, next to the Dhampir from the alley. Blood pours from your nose. You are on your side, lying on a cheap cot. A cell door separates you from a gruesome scene. A man is bound to a table in the middle of the room. Fresh cuts, most superficial, crisscross his body in jagged patterns. He has broken one leg free of its restraint.
The man you met as Damien in the mist-shrouded alley stands over him, holding a ring of keys. A smaller table is toppled to the ground. Kitchen utensils, gardening implements, and construction tools are scattered across the floor.
Problematically, the man you met as Damien also seems to be sprawled on the ground. He holds half a pair of gardening shears in one hand.
The cell diagonally opposite seems to contain two of the others. One is stirring. You can see an open cell door to your left, though not its contents.
Your empathic link with your familiar reestablishes itself.
Damien tosses the keys using mage hand to the empty space south of professor Faust."Faust - Use these keys to get that guy muttering about Asmodeus out of here. Or that crazy guy with garden shears is going to kill us all!"He yells.
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One of the Damiens tosses the keys using mage hand to the empty space south of professor Faust. "Faust - Use these keys to get that guy muttering about Asmodeus out of here. Or that crazy guy with garden shears is going to kill us all!" He yells.
The other Damien,
Morrick and Vaughn may act A standard action can unlock and open the door.
Morrick scrambles to the keys, and unlocks the door.
What-- What is going on here?!
He notices that his loaded crossbow is on the floor next to him, and he grabs it and aims it at the Damiens.
Who are you two? And what's going on here?! Tell me now, or I'll bring the might of Asmodeus himself down on you!
Navin is beginning to feel a creeping sense of inevitable doom as he watches another of the runners fall to the creature. He runs along the wall, watching for any other doors to escape through.
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Professor Faust listens to the lullaby playing, and his thoughts move quickly to his son.
He could still be alive! I must get out of here!
But just as abruptly, the vision changes, and he sees a gruesome scene instead of the hearing sweet music. He sits up from the cot, his adrenaline pumping but feeling like some of his reagents hadn't worked right. It takes him a moment to get his bearings.
Confused, he sees two versions of Damien. "Damien...you were the other professor, right?"
But then one of the Damiens tosses him some keys and asks him to open the door.
"Okay! Whatever you say!" he calls back. He takes the keys and tries them until he opens the cell. When Morrick begins pointing the loaded crossbow, Professor Faust says "It's okay. You're in charge. I think we can get all this sorted out, can't we?"
The efforts cause the man, already ashen in complexion, to cough convulsively. He looks to his hand and sees blood.
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You have significantly outpaced the creature. It has been entirely lost in the mist. Navin breaks from you and darts through an open door, which slams behind him.
As the slam echoes down the alley, the creature suddenly manifests right next to the two of you. It drives its blade into Marconias' neck. Who gurgles as he falls. Blood spatters form the word must on the sand.
You dive through an ajar door. Much like with Faust, the door slams shut behind you.
You find yourself in a small, irregularly shaped library. Men and women, some dressed in black and white robes, others armored, frantically move furniture to barricade the doors. Others pull books from shelves, throwing them across the room.
The door you passed through seems to have disappeared.
You awake, convulsing on a cot, the word must echoing in your ears. Your nose begins to bleed. You are in a cell, though Faust has just swung the door open.
Damien lies prone near the doorway, but Damien also stands over a bleeding man, bound to the table.
Faust swings his cell door open. The prone Damien stands
He jabs half a pair of gardening shears at his counterpart. As he does so, his face contorts. An extremely narrow jaw expands to a broad, disk-shaped head. He then falls back slightly, standing in the door to Faust's cell.
Marconias convulses and awakens, nose bleeding.
Daimen attempts to kick his evil twin while he's still down. He grunts in pain when his evil twin stabs him with those shears. Dizzy from the blood loss, he heals himself before stepping south. He draws his cold iron dagger and passes it to Faust through the bars knowing not everyone has honed their bodies into lethal weapons.
"I don't know. If we don't stop it, it's going to kill us all!" Damien yells.
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Realising that he is now alone, in a hostile environment, with a creature that seems to be able to Teleport about at will, Howard does the best he can, frantically trying to find a door, any door, that he can open, reasoning that if he can find others inside, the creature's wrath may be temporarily diverted.
He fears the answer is whatever was just chasing him.
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Professor Faust, seeing one of the Damiens does not look quite right, trembles at the thought of what it could be.
Still, it seems to be the one trying to kill people. He tries to punch it as it stands, not knowing what else to do.
Faust picks up the dagger in a trembling hand and tries to stab the creature.
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As you scramble for a door, you find yourself alone with the creature. It quickly catches up to you, and you feel the cold, stinging sensation of a blade stabbing into your back. The creature pulls the blade out and stabs again, and again. As you feel the life draining from you, you hear a word, softly whispered down the now still alley...
The men and women don't seem to respond to you. While some continue frantically barricading the door, others bow their heads and begin chanting in prayer, though you recognize neither the faith nor the language.
A tremendous hits the barricade, sending pieces tumbling to the ground. A second shatters boards and furniture, sending a cascade of splinters across the room. The panicked worshippers begin to scream. A third scatters most of the makeshift fortification, leaving a major breach. Before you can get a glimpse of whatever destroyed the defenses, your vision begins to swim, and you find yourself somewhere else...
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All
HP convulses and awakens, while Navin begins to stir.
As they open their eyes, they see the four others from the yellow-shrouded alley, as well as another version of Damien, twisted and malformed. HP finds himself alone in a cell, the door open, while Navin is still locked in his cell, along with Morrick.
You recognize this as a doppelganger, without the unique abilities of the attacker in the alley. They have some ability to read minds, and are adept at disguising themselves, though this one seems to have let it's disguise as Damien slip.
A man not present in the alley is tied to a table, bleeding from dozens of small wounds. An odd assortment of construction tools, gardening supplies, and kitchen utensils, many bloody, lie scattered across the floor.
Marconias lunges at the creature with a dagger through an open cell door, but misses.
The anti-Damien rushes for the room's door, and swings it open.
The room previously smelled terrible, the odor of a half-dozen unwashed bodies mixing with the smell of blood, both fresh and stale. The even fouler scent of death and decay is now added to the mix, and a pile of dozens of bodies, mostly human, can be seen on the other side.
As that happens, a small serpent scurries between the creature's legs, making a beeline for Morrick's cell.
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Professor Faust's hands tremble violently as the anti-Damien heads for the door. He seemingly has no desire to stop it, but to get away from it.
"What is...happening here?" he cries, his voice cracking with emotion. "We just need to get out of here. I...have a sick son. I need to find my chemicals and reagents, too. I have some...medication I need to take."
Morrick calls out.
Se'Liss! I can feel you! Where are you, you insufferable bastard?!
He fires his crossbow at the fleeing Doppleganger, the shot looking like it's going wide.
I demand to know what's going on here! Where am I? Why am I in a cell?! SOMEONE ANSWER ME!!
Despite his voice raising, he still looks about nervously, especially since he fired his only bolt.
"Calm down, everyone." Damien holds out a placating hand. "Faust, you still have the keys I threw in your cell?" He asks Faust."Ok. Take it easy, unlock that guy" He points at Morrick,yelling in the cell, "over there. Then unlock everyone else locked up here."
Meanwhile, he tries to get the restraints off the prisoner.
"I don't know where we are, or how we got here, but I know one thing for certain. We're all going to get out of here and get back to our friends and family, together."
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The doppel-Damien snarls as he's sent sprawling across the floor. Picking itself up, it makes its way through the slippery area, beginning to scamper up the corpse pile.
The real Damien manages to free the bound man's legs, which he begins to gently stretch. He cranes his head towards Faust. Though wincing with pain, he speaks with a surprisingly calm tone, unlike his earlier frantic screams,
"Don't worry. Help me get upstairs, and we'll find a nurse to take care of your medication."
The snake rolls its eyes at the chaotic scene. "Finally. Naptime's over? I was getting worried you ditched me in a pile of dead bodies. The Boss wouldn't like that."
"I'm perfectly fine. I don't need medication. Well, maybe some antiseptic for the cut that loon," Damien gestures at his fleeing evil twin, "gave me. Knowing my luck, I bet those shears were rusty." Then he digs his ears, flabbergasted. "Wait a minute. Was that a that a talking snake that I heard?" He gawks at the viper.
Morrick glares at the serpent, and snaps back.
As much as I would like to abandon you in a pile of rotting carcasses, you overgrown tapeworm, you're right. The Boss wouldn't like that at all, and angering a god isn't on my to-do list.
Even though his words are harsh, the man picks up the serpent, checking it for damage, and then places it on his shoulder so it can loop around his neck, the head coming out over the man's right shoulder, like some kind of reptilian pirate's parrot. It's clear that even though they appear to hate one another, there is some kind of affection there, even if neither one of them will admit it.
I'm glad to see you're unharmed. Now, where in the nine hells are we? And why can't I remember anything?
The snake ignores Morrick for a second, and responds to Damien.
What, you've never seen a hell-sent guardian before? It's my job to make sure this moron, the viper jerks its horned head toward Morrick, succeeds in his mission for Asmodeus. And to help. Ocassionaly.
The viper looks back to Morrick, and answers his questions.
"I thought snakes couldn't talk? Wasn't it something about the shape of your tongue?" He replies to the snake. "Ahhh, hell sent guardian. So you're an imp in disguise? I see." He nods understandingly, "Now I don't really care overly much for inhabitants of the lower planes, but I don't see you doing any harm yet, so we'll leave it, for now."
He looks at Morrick. "Now, we could have philosophical discussions about religion, but that can be saved till we're out of here."
Morrick nods.
Yeah. Let's get the hell out of here.
Damien continues to free the man on the table."Sorry, just bear with this a bit more, and we'll be out of here."He apologizes as he tries to undo/cut the remaining bindings.
Navin comes to in the unfamiliar cell, feeling ill and exhausted. There is a man in his cell who looks vaguely familiar from the (nightmare?) he just awoke from. Navin rubs his eyeballs with the palms of his hands, trying to collect himself.
Before he has done so, the cell door is opened and the familiar man begins talking to a snake. Navin rolls back over towards the wall, his head pounding. This must be another nightmare.
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Howard clears his throat, then addresses the group.
"What in the Nine Hells just happened to us, and where are we!? I don't remember traveling to a stinking offal pit / torture chamber..."
He then takes a quick breath, settling his nerves somewhat, although the effect is somewhat ruined by the fact that he has developed a slight tic around his left eye.
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Marconius is thinking the same as Navin, as if he could hear his thoughts. Starting to calm down from the fear that had gripped him, he starts looking around in a more methodical way, observing everything he can.
If it is a dream, I should take notes. If it isn't, then there has to be a logical explanation for all of this... I can't guess it may be, but it must be.
"I don't know." Damien rubs his head, checking it for any lumps, and finds none, puzzling him even more. "My first thought when I woke up in this hellhole was that I was kidnapped. Blows to your head can cause memory loss." He states matter of factly. "Doesn't seem to be that case, anyway, speculating on how we got here isn't going to change things. We need to find a way out. Probably arm ourselves with whatever we can find in this room."
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Free from pursuit, the doppelganger continues to climb over the pile, reaching a chute coming out of the wall. It begins to scamper up.
Damien finishes cutting the man loose. He sits up slowly, wincing in pain. You're quickly able to free everyone from their cells, and begin examining the area.
An iron furnace, extinguished and cold to the touch, hunkers in the corner of the basement, its four-foot-square door gaping half open. Nearby sprawls a heap of gory clothes and other dubiously flammable trash. Searching around the junk, you'll recover all of your gear that you didn't already have on your person. While some of your equipment might be stained, scratched, or otherwise worse for wear, the damage is minor and does not impact functionality.
Examining the room the doppelganger escaped through, you see broad chute extends diagonally through one of this cellar’s half-crumbled stone walls. Beneath it lies heaped more than a dozen mutilated humanoid bodies. Nearby, a flight of rickety, wooden steps climbs toward the high ceiling—an escape none of the room’s current occupants seem capable of employing. Even were they alive, the stairway ends in a pile of rubble, with no obvious way past. The smell of rot and decay in the room is nearly overwhelming, and the buzz of flies hangs in the air. Another hallway also ends in collapse.
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Professor Faust unlocks any of the remaining cells and hands Damien the dagger.
"I'm glad someone is taking charge," he says to Morrick and Damien. "Maybe now we can get out of here," he says, again coughing uncontrollably.
Once the group finds the pile of gear, the alchemist looks excited and begins digging through the gear. "All is well!" he says as he finds his alchemist set. With trembling hands, he mixes a few of the reagents together and drinks it, then closes his eyes and leans against the wall, content.
Damien hangs his mace at his belt, and runs his fingers over his holy symbol lovingly.
At least now I can cast my spells. I'll have to meditate for a while, first.
The Asmodean walks over and begins looking through the bodies for anything else of note while the others put on thier gear.
Being too shaken from earlier events, however, he doesn't find anything.
Once everyone is finished, he addresses the group.
It appears that while we don't know each other, and we don't know anything about how we got here, or what happened to us, we have to work together if we're going to escape. Whatever differences we may have, be it race, religion, or beliefs, must be shelved.
The man looks almost pained when he mentions race, as if that will be a personal challenge for him.
He looks at everyone again, and speaks.
I am a cleric of Asmodeus, tasked with bringing people to his worship. I can employ some healing magic, but it is not my... forte, so to speak. What of you all? What are your skills? We must know what the other can do if we are to become a team.
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The sickly-looking man leaning against the wall with his eyes shut listens to Morrick and then opens his eyes.
Whatever he drank, he seems to be feeling better now, and his hands barely tremble anymore.
"I am Professor Leoric Faust. I teach alchemy at the university. I can make various extracts. I am not a big fan of the fancier explosions, so I haven't delved into bombs much, though it is not a matter of knowing how. Until recently, I would not be much help getting us out of here, but I have been experimenting with some extracts that greatly increase my strength. It will be a great help to my son if--when--we find him."
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Se'Liss adds, with a clearly irritated tone "I tried going up the same way as the slightly uglier version of that guy, flicking his tail towards Damien as he speaks, It leads outside, to a courtyard. There was a storm, but not like any I'd ever seen. All the rain and lightning you'd expect, but there was thick yellow fog covering the ground. I was only out there a couple minutes before some winged creature swooped down and tried to grab me, so I came back down here. Of course, that was two days ago, so what's up there now might be a surprise to both of us.
The man says, "All I know is I woke up in that pile, and then that...thing took me. They must not know we're trapped down here " As Faust starts drinking his concoctions, the wounded man grows worried. "I don't think you should be taking anything. I'm sure one of the doctors or nurses can help with your medication."
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Faust looks at the wounded man.
"I'm okay," he says with relief. "Don't forget, I am a professor and am quite adept with these chemicals. I don't require any medical supervision, though I would be interested in any treatments they have available."
Standing up from his seated position against the wall, he says "What was your name again?"
"Asmodeus...ruler of hell, god of contracts. You aren't going to be selling our souls to him, are you?" He looks at Morrick, concerned. "Oh yes, the no religious bias thing..." Damien rambles on.
"We'll get out of here, we'll find your son." Damien assures Faust.
"Professor Damien from Arts Faculty. History. Estoeric studies. Can't profess any special powers except for some chi techniques the warriors monks of Irori taught me. And I know kung-fu." He holds out his hand for everyone to shake.
Damien picks up his gear with some relief. "Ah..so that's where everything is. My sensei, Master Yu Lang, would be most displeased to find my training gear missing, the next time I showed up for practice. "
"My wife, Bella, is an alchemist. Drinking that kind of stuff is generally fine." He waves it off. "Though I hope you added lots of mint syrup to the whole thing, otherwise the taste is" Damien winces. "Really bad."
Damien raises a finger."Once, I went iceskating and landed up in a pool of icy water. She decided I needed a lesson for my recklessness and gave me the cold medicine in its base form. Without the flavorings."Damien makes a face."I thought my taste buds were going to die with disgust." Damien shudders. "I still have nightmares over it."
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"Well, at least we have some brains between us. I am a student of science, with an interest in claims of the supernatural. I also like to tinker with chemical compounds and mechanical devices. I am not trained in martial arts or weapons beyond a few basics," he says as he holds up a hand crossbow and a fancy cane.
Morrick tilts his head at Se'Liss's words, and then looks to the others in the room.
Thick yellow fog? Like the one in our collective nightmare...?
He ponders the meaning of that for a moment and then speaks again.
I can't help but reason that the two are related. We should see this for ourselves.
He rummages through his backpack, and produces rope, a grappling hook, and pitons.
Anyone able to climb?
He examines the rubble, trying to determine the cause of the collapse of the hallways, but can't figure it out.
He chants a mantra for healing the body, and the cut made by the shears heals.
"I could, but we need to get the hook up first." He ties his own rope to a grappling hook then knots it, and tries to catch on the celling with it.
He gets it on a lucky toss on the first try, then begins to climb up the rope carefully.
Navin listens to the others chatting and making plans. When they mention the gear, he finally sits up. "Does anyone know where we are?" He rises and collects his belongings.
"My name is Navin and I'm a professor of nothing. But I do have a little skill in combat...usually."
Hearing Marock's question, Navin asks, "Wait, you all had that same dream? What the-? How can that be?"
He hesitates, knowing the danger but ultimately removes his armor for long enough to climb up after Damien.
"Look. That dream was just a dream. Right?" Damien sounds uncertain for once.'To think of it as anything else would be madness'He thinks to himself. "No point dwelling on it, what matters is we're here now, and need to get out!"
He eyes Navin speculatively."If you've got some skill in combat," he makes a mocking bow, "Up first, if you please. " He gestures generously at the knotted rope. "I'm a full time History professor and a part-time martial art practitioner, if you get my drift..."