Kawrock follows the group up and examines the creepy skins. After someone points out the bite mark on the shoulder, Kawrock tries to compare it to the bite of a caiman.
"Definitely a lot of skins here," Eldon concludes, "and all just as creepy as the one we found in the swamp."
Iozif examines each of the skins in turn, thinking aloud to whoever wants to listen:
"This is awful, but I think it might be what we need. See this man? I recognise his face. He's on the missing persons board outside the courthouse. One of several posted there that accuse the beast of kidnap, murder, you name it. I think I've seen this one before as well and...
Iozif gasps, taking a step back and almost falling over backwards.
"Katarina? B..but I only saw her the other day. I meant to ask her about her research..."
Iozif turns to the unconscious prisoner, his fists clenched.
"I'll see you hang for this you, you..."
Iozif just stands there glowering, his fists clenched so hard his knuckles turn white. His lips keep moving but he's not saying anything, just overcome with rage at the man.
Arval stays out of the room with the skins, just at the door.
"I.. Eh... Will inspect the hallway."
Once Iozif gets really angry he takes a peek inside the room and immediately starts gagging again. He remains quiet and moves a little away from the room.
Eldon carefully moves up to Iozif and puts a hand on Iozif's arm. He'd put it on Iozif's shoulder, but he can't reach there. "I don't know if this is Vorkstag or Grime, but the other's probably still out there. We should go find him, for justice."
The group make their way into the vat area. With the mongrels no longer working the acrid clouds of bleach and acid reacting have settled down. However, the east door is locked fast.
"Locked, eh? Someone ain't happy we be lookin' about, I be thinkin'. Ye lads go' a key? Or shall we be usin' mine?"
"I don't have one, and it's not likely that there isn't anyone left that is unaware of our presence." Kawrock says with a nod.
Eldon motions for the door. "Go ahead, friend Whiskeyjack."
Whiskeyjack went to work on the door with his hammer, focusing on the area around the lock. "Need t' ge' me...adamantite...fer this kinda work!"
Arval silently follows everyone outside and looks a bit guiltily at Iozif, unsure what to do or say to him. He waits for the door to be opened, holding his sword and shield ready in case something is behind the door.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG
The door finally flies open, revealing an underground storage room. It contains several dozen crates, a few coffins, lots of straw, and several huge bell jars. A door leads southwards.
Arval immediately peeks past Whiskey but sees nothing interesting.
"Next one?"
He says as he grabs for the next door handle.
Kawrock also pokes around. If he finds nothing interesting he will nod in agreement to Arval's suggestion to move on.
The group begins to feel tired as the night draws on.
Kawrock opens a few crates and finds a wealth of alchemical supplies.
- 5 pots of bladeguard
- 10 doses bloodblock
- 5 silver weapon blanch
- 5 cold iron weapon blanch
- 1 adamantine weapon blanch
Furthermore as he looks through the room, he finds a secret door to the east with some wear and tear in the floor showing that is regularly used.
Opening the door reveals a grisly distribution room. This room contains things in jars, two complete skeletons of monstrous creatures, a coffin, and a handcart.
The jars contain preserved specimens, parts of humanoids and similar creatures. The head of a drow, tentacles, enormous eyes that must be from a giant, and what looks like a half-changed head of a wererat.
A narrow corridor leads eastwards and ends at a grate. It seems to continue on into the sewer system.
Kawrock ruffles his feathers, "Do we have enough evidence, or shall we go lurking through the sewers?"
"I be thinkin' tha' we go' enough t' be convincin' people tha' Brodur ain't th' beast tha' be attackin' Morvast. Bu', i' seems like mebbe th' others'd take more evidence. This thing 'ere though, 'e migh' be sharin' some good information. Mebbe after we beat on 'im a bi'" He hooked his thumb over to the creature they had captured.
Whiskeyjack continues to search in the distribution room area, sure that there is something there that could incriminate the creature more.
"Mayhaps we should wake 'im up and question 'im now?"
Iozif follows the others through the rest of building in silence. Lost in thought and memory, finally breaking out of it when Whiskey speaks up.
"We do have rather a lot to go on here, certainly enough to cast doubt on Brodur's involvement. This hidden sewer entrance is intriguing however. If we don't explore it ourselves I suggest we at least report its existence to the constabulary. On that note, maybe we should get that lawyer chap along for any interrogation of... that.
Iozif spits at the ground as he mentions their prisoner.
Arval swings open the south door, which opens to show stairs descending southwards before it ends at a sturdy iron door. The air is noticeably damper here.
Kawrock looks down the stairs at the sturdy iron door. "Whiskey, I think we may need your key again." The tengu says as he heads down stairs and tries the door.
The door is thankfully unlocked. It opens into a huge pool full of bodies. The floor of this large chamber is hidden beneath the murky water filling the room to just below the bottom of the door. Dozens of pale cadavers silently float in the ice-cold waters, bumping into each other or against the damp walls. The air is still and quiet, broken only by the sound of water lapping against stone walls.
The water does not look particularly deep. A 10-foot-long gaffe hangs on the wall beside the door, which looks like it's used to hook and drag the bodies.
Kawrock clicks his tongue twice in disapproval. "Perhaps there are many of the missing people in here. The tengu moves closer to see if there are any corpses that meet the descriptions of the missing persons.
Eldon also moves closer and takes a look at the bodies he can see.
He feels a shiver run down his spine as he's looking at the dead people. "Disgusting... Horrible..."
As the group look over the dead people it becomes apparent that none of them are rotting. In fact, they all seem to be in perfect condition. As Eldon and Kawrock move closer to peer in, to their horror they notice that three of the bodies appear to be animate! However, they have not moved in any significant way and appear to be pretending to be corpses.
"Looks like some of them may be undead. Be wary and ready to fight." Kawrock pokes one with the tip of his sword.
The hand suddenly lashes out and three figures rise up from the water which looks to be only four feet deep. The creature that rise up move like zombies, but at first glance are obviously not. They are pale but whole, without the rotting flesh typical to their kind. More alarmingly, they appear unbelievably muscular, and their veins protrude, showing a bright green colour.
One spits out water and turns to Kawrock. "You should not be here!"
They attack!
Rising up, the zombie near Kawrock bizarrely falls into what looks like a martial arts stance before firing off a flurry of blows! Kwarock manages to defend himself.
"MASTER VORKSTAG! MASTER GRINE! WE HAVE INTRUDERS!" roars one as they move in on the party.
One more moves in to attack Kawrock, missing badly with a roundhouse kick.
Arval turns around and starts gagging again upon the sight of the bodies. He tries to put up with the horrid stench and sight and makes a move to hit the enemy in front of him.
Eldon takes his crossbow as he starts an inspirational tale about the time his granny found a live rat in the laundry.
"We all thought it was dead when she pointed it out, but then it jumped up! Can you believe it? Well my granny didn't like vermin, so I lent her my rapier. Now the old lady wasn't very fast anymore, causing her to miss the vermin repeatedly as she stabbed at it..."
"If this be Master Vorkstaag, I ain't thinkin' 'e's in no fit way t' be helpin' you. If' this ain't 'im, mebbe ye can be directin' us t' him so's we ken be kickin' 'is posterior up t' 'is cranium?"
Whiskeyjack moved to the fore and held his shield up while pointing to the prisoner.
HP 33/33. Current AC: 21/10/21
Active conditions:
Active spell effects:
Fervors remaining: 5/5
Blessings remaining: 3/6
Spells remaining: 1st 4/4, 2nd 1/2
Arval slashes out brutally at one of the zombies. However, as Whiskeyjack gestures to the unconscious body of the rag man the zombies all stop.
"Wait! WAIT! Master GRine... you've... is he dead? Did you kill him and Vorkstag too?"
Eldon lowers his crossbow. "We haven't found Vorkstag yet, but we'll be glad to take him out if you could direct us to him. Are you their captives? We can release you from their command."
"No need to ruffle your feathers yet Vladena. Remember that was the attitude of the villagers toward Brodur. They seem very intelligent for undead, let us see what they have to say."
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The zombie-like creature ignores the vicious slash from Arval in his arm. It coughs up a bit more water before speaking in a perfectly normal voice, despite the pallid, bloated appearance.
"We are here you know. Master Grine refers to us as the Chymickal Ones... we are dead, but we are not undead. He keeps us in this... state through injections. We will leave you in peace if we can take the chemicals we need to survive, we have no desire to harm anyone. Grine understandably kept us his servants through the injections."
Iozif is halfway through casting his own disrupt undead spell when Whiskey speaks up, so he stops and listens to the conversation.
"He's got a point Lena. I would like to rid the world of these abominations as much as you, but these ones appear to mean no harm. It seems that master Grine is the real abomination here, these poor creatures are more victims than threat."
He addresses the creatures directly:
"I would suggest however, that if you leave here you should also leave Lepidstadt. The people here may not be as forgiving to you as we are."
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would you like to explain that point of view to the local towns people. Or the church of pharasma. But if they claim to not be undead, I have a way of proving it. lena raises a hand covered in a white glow.
undead are empowered by negative energy. This is positive energy. A undead disruption spell. If they aren't harmed by it, they aren't undead.
The creatures hold up their hands.
"Look... your magic will hurt us, but we have no desire to harm you or anyone. If we do not get the injections we will lose our minds and become like mindless zombies. We will leave Lepidstadt. You've taken care of our captors and we will spend our time in seclusion."
Eldon nods at the creatures. "I say we let them go, but only after we make sure they've got what they need to keep their minds working and we've captured Vorkstag."
"What about it?" he asks the pseudo-zombies.
Arval is just in time to stop his sword from slicing the guy to pieces, he redirect the sword last minute an slams it into the ground.
"Phew... Close one..."
He says as he sheathes his sword. He leaves the talking to the others with these creatures, not really sure of his stomach.
"Do you have a means of creating this chemical on your own? Surely you'll run out unless you have a means of creating more." Kawrock says as he looks back and forth nervously between Vladlena and the strange alchemical undead.
"I share your concerns Lena. I've spent nearly 30 years trying to understand these creatures in order to be better prepared to stop them. But one thing I've found in that time is it's not as simple as living is good, dead is bad. It's the people creating the undead that are the real evil."
Iozif turns to the conversation between Kawrock and the creatures.
"And what is this chemical made of? Does it require any special ingredients? Anything people might have a problem with you taking?"
The chymickal ones look at each other.
"We don't know. But he has books, notes, and we know Vorkstag keeps the syringes in his room somewhere. Enough for a long time We can learn. Without it our minds will go, and we will do what we can to learn."
Eldon pulls out the ominous syringes the party found earlier and hands them over. "It's this stuff you'll need? You can have it, here you go."
"Let us escort you to where we found the syringes, and help you gather what you need for your research. But before we do that, we need to find Vorkstag. Neither of us wants him to run off, do we? He has to be brought to justice, like his colleague."
The chymickal ones leave the water, gently caressing the syringes.
"This is enough for a long time... thank you strangers. And if it is night, Vorkstag is out every night gathering and hunting."
The group heads up to the bedroom and the chymickal ones quickly start scouring through books until they find what they believe is the information they need, as well as gathering up the parts for a small alchemy lab. Taking the books, they look to the group.
"We will keep our end of the bargain and leave the city. These books will give us the tools to make the syringes. Thank you strangers. We will answer any further questions you have, although we are not privy to too much from the masters."