In a moment of foolish courage, Rufus releases the rope , falling fifteen feet but effortlessly landing on his feet. He steps forward, drawing his sword as he goes, and adopts a defensive stance.
"I could use a hand down here!"
shield (5min)
false life (5hr)
deathwatch (45min)
Dura tries to ask Why is everything infested with undead around here?!, but all that comes out are her animalistic growls. Daniel understands perfectly and looks at her questioningly.
She casts a quick spell of blessing for her and her allies. For the moment, she steps to the side and orders Daniel to guard her casting.
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You'll probably find a hand down there without us, Rufus.
Zazaria curses their luck, but inwardly is thankful that they are here, and not some children who decided to play in the foul ruins. Hearing that Rufus needs help, she moves down the rope, carefully finding her foot and handholds. When she reaches the bottom, she looks around and suddenly second guesses her actions when she sees what they're facing. She positions herself well behind Rufus.
The ghasts move in and attack! One moves forward at Leeoli, and ends its run with a lurching bite. Leeoli easily bats away the darting jaws.
A second rushes in to do the same to Rufus, while a third comes around to the other side of the water barrel to do the same. Neither can find a chink in Rufus's expert defense.
And the last moves forward and attempts to leap atop the water barrel to swing at its foes. It does so, and stands atop its perch, ready to pounce on one of the living.
Rufus
Dura and Daniel
Leeoli
Ghasts
Gur
Leeoli steps back to the corner trying to get in position to flank. As he does, he turns his head and lets off a wad of sticky gum at the ghoul standing aside Zazaria.
Rufus takes advantage of the ghoul's reduced defense, turning and slamming his blade down into its neck.
Dura slides down the rope as quick as she can.
She barks an order at Daniel to remain up-top unless she calls for him. He growls and whines, but sits by the edge of the hole.
Gur holds the line, so to speak, and keeps the rope stable as the sounds of battle assail him from below.
Zazaria takes a slight step back from the battle and calls upon her goddess to take these creatures back to be judged before her gates.
Each of the creatures takes a small amount of damage from the divine power, but they stand their ground. The waves of stench from them roll over the group of the living, making their stomachs roil.
Rufus chops down expertly, smashing the head of a ghoul like some overripe fruit, but one which has unfortunately decayed inside. The smell and sight of the damage is nearly too much to behold, but Rufus steps and turns onto another foe.
Dura shimmies down the road, somewhat clumsily, but she manages to get to the bottom.
Leeoli spits out the strange adhesive, and the ghoul tries to skip aside it. It fails, and snarls in rage as it is stuck to the floor.
The ghoul pinned to the floor slashes away at the goo with its claws, attempting to free itself. It slashes through, but only manages to cut halfway through the strands.
The other two ghouls unleash their full attacks on Rufus. Due to Rufus's expert defense, only a single claw gets through his stalwart defense.
Rufus
Dura and Daniel
Leeoli
Ghasts
Gur
Where the ghast's claw rakes over Rufus's face, it digs an ugly red trench. The wound closes immediately, leaving only a trail of blood down his face. He swings, attempting to decapitate the next ghast.
Immediately Leeoli feels his stomach turn sour and he attempts to retch. Nevertheless, Leeoli skewers the ghast that moved swiftly to rend his bowels of their discomfort.
Somehow Dura manages to keep her lunch down, though the reek is quite foul. She's glad Daniel is not down here to get the full whiff. With a guttural growl, shining claws spring from her hands as she tears into the creature in front of her.
Zazaria once again lets loose with a wave of divine energies.
As Gur continues to hold the line, Zazaria lets loose with more energy, further weakening the ghasts in the basement. Immediately after, Rufus moves forward and sweeps his greatsword across. The blade takes one of the creatures and it seems to collapse inward under the power of the swing. It is swept to the side like harvested wheat, and collapses onto the floor.
Dura slips in with more deft strikes than Rufus's sweeping blow, but is equally effective. Her claws slice through the creature's spoiled flesh. Disgusting black blood flows out as the creature falls to the floor.
As if to offer final punctuation on a poetic verse, Leeoli lunges in, plunging his blade into, and through the last undead. It falls immediately, returned to whatever peace it may have in death.
In the aftermath of the battle, you look around the cellar and see several piles of debris seemingly collected by the ghasts.
"Everyone okay?" Dura asks, breathing heavily. "Did they touch either of you?"
Rufus takes a moment to calm himself. "Why, yes," he confesses, wiping the blood from his cheek. "But I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. I feel normal."
Rufus takes in the strange space. "A laboratory?" He begins to poke around.
Rufus begins to make his way about the cellar, kicking about debris. While he doesn't find any clues to what happened here, he does find some useful items. All in all, you locate 12 silver crossbow bolts in a quiver, a slightly melted gold belt buckle, and an iron bracelet with silver filigree work depicting a moon eating an owl.
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Leeoli kicks around trying to find a hand for Rufus.
Leeoli finds a perhaps macabre interest in the heads that adorn the candelabrum, examining them more closely. He finds that several of them clearly display physical deformities, but one does not. Remembering what this place was, one can infer that the deformed heads were those patients with deformities, but the other...well he was someone else.
Leeoli also finds an unbroken vial that had rolled into a corner. It is clearly marked with the words "Vorkstag and Grine, Chymickal Bleach."
Gur shouts down.
"What we doing?"
"What have you there, Leeoli?"
"Investigating! Come down if you like!" Rufus cups his hands over his mouth and shouts back up.
It is bleach, at a strong concentration
Ah whose face is this?
The bleach seems to be a fairly mundane, if strong, cleaning agent.
"Hmm, perhaps we should have a look at this Vorkstag and Grine place. Perhaps they were up to something shady with this... whatever this is."
These fellows. Any chance that we can get the identities? Leeoli muses to himself.
"Let's go chat with the survivor. Maybe he can tell us a little more about what happened here. So far, I'm not seeing anything that would even remotely connect Charlie to this fire."
"Yes, and enlighten us as to the fruits of his labour..." Rufus murmurs, distracted, as he examines the poorly preserved heads.
Remembering the witness, you head to Karl's small cottage along the river that leads back to Lepidstadt. Surprisingly, the blind fellow is outside, chopping wood. He takes his time in finding the piece, making sure it's steady, and then keeping a hand on it nearly until the axe stroke comes down - no doubt to keep track of its position.
As you near, he "looks" up, though his gaze is distant. Hello there; can I help you? He sniffs the air noticeably, but the wind doesn't favor him, should he be trying to learn more about you.
"Hello, we want to know about the fire, and what dealings you had with Vorstag and Grine. In return, I could cut your fire wood so you do not have to risk your hands and have a stack at easy ready."
The man seems as if he had expected the question. He nods and sighs, then hands over the axe to Gur. You have my thanks, sir...not as easy as it used to be. He smiles, then nods to a small area he has built outside where he no doubt gets to sit and listen to the nature around him. The seats are little more than large stumps, but are comfortable enough. Taking a seat, he starts right into it.
I had figured that someone would be by, since I'm due into court tomorrow. You here to take me there? He waves a hand. Eh, guess not...or you wouldn't have asked about it.
So, the fire started up in the Doctor's offices. Not sure what started it, but the doctor worked some late evenings and I've had to come and blow out the lanterns after he'd fallen asleep at his desk. Doctor Brada only wanted to help people - to keep what happened to his uncle from happening to them. But, we weren't making enough progress...his testing wouldn't work. So, he was stressed out, and working later all the time.
That night though...I was down walking the halls when I smelled the smoke. I came running upstairs, and to the Doctor's office. I had to shoulder the door open and when I did, the air I let in brought the flames up into my face, taking my sight. That last few seconds, before the fire did its grim work, I saw it. A shambling beast was escaping out of the back doors to the Doctor's office. It was a hideous thing to see, this Beast. Did you see it yet?
He continues, leaving the question hanging. Anyway, I stumbled my way about blindly, and once I got into fresh air, I collapsed. Woke up later once the city sent out men to put out the fire. They told me they never found the Doctor's body. Nobody did much work on the place after the fire, as its rumored to be haunted. You know these superstitious lot...if I had my sight, I'd go look for the doctor myself.
He furrows his brow. But...you said Vorstag and Grine? What does the Chymic works have to do with this?
"Sir, can you tell us how large this beast was?"
Karl pauses, as if no one had ever asked him that question. He seems to be trying his best to remember back to that fateful day, then shakes his head. I wish I could tell you better, but all I remember is that he could fit fine through the back doors...so under I dunno...seven feet?
Dura smiles. "Thanks for that. I'm sure you're doing just fine."
Karl smiles and nods in, roughly, the right direction.
"Karl, if you were blinded by the smoke and stumbling about blindly, how was it you saw anything at all?"
Karl nods, then sighs. Trust me, been asked that by many...I'm not pretending to be the best witness you have, given the circumstances, but I'm the only one left. See, I had my eyes when I first walked into the room...had a split second of sight before the vacuum I created brought the fire up into my face. It was then that I saw the thing.
Gur continues to split cords of wood.
And what did the creature look like that you saw?
Big damned thing...at least a full head taller than me, though it was a bit hard to get perspective in how quick I lost my sight. Had to be the Beast though...what else could be hideous and big like that!
Was it green and slimy?
Karl seems a bit confused by the question, then shakes his head. Eh...I don't think I saw any...glistening...so maybe not? But, that's sure a hard thing to tell at a glance, you know.
Leeoli shrugs noncommittally. Would you show us the remains of the doctor's office?
He shakes his head. Sadly, no...from what I heard, there's nothing left after the fire - at least on the top floors. Some of the basement should still be intact, but I'd sure not want to go traipsing around there...the structure of the place has to be pretty shaky at this point.
He looks towards where Gur chops wood. Look, I appreciate the help an' all, but if you have nothing else, there are some things I have to tend to. Coming into the city for the case tomorrow isn't as easy as it used to be; thankfully, my sister will be coming along to help guide me. Will I see...err...will you be in the Court tomorrow?
"Yes." Rufus offers without explanation. Turning to the others, he begins rummaging through his reagents. "I propose we inspect the remains of the basement, at least."
"We're not sure if the Chymic Works had anything to do with this incident necessarily, but there were some vials of strong bleach in the basement. We simply wish to have all evidence accounted for. Any idea what it may have been used for?"