Goggles rolls her eyes at the Professor. "Why do you assume I know what I know because I kill and torture? Someone who heals would know just as much about what goes wrong with the body, wouldn't they? You have to know what's wrong so that you can fix it. When they're dead, there's nothing to fix. Besides, you conveniently forget that one of my memories of being taught what I know involved you."
What Goggles didn't voice was that she really had no idea of why she knew what she knew. It almost seemed like instinct in how she knew the vulnerable points of someone's anatomy. It's not like she enjoyed death per se but she did enjoy learning about how things worked. If you knew vulnerabilities and advantages then you could exploit weaknesses and copy strengths for your own benefit. It seemed perfectly logical to her.
Laughing a little Tattoo replies to Goggles, "It might have been the whole 'You're doing it wrong' thing back in the cells that put it in everyone's head, sweetheart." However, trying to diffuse the situation, she turns to the professor and remarks, "But she's right...she doesn't have to be a torturer to know these things. She could be a doctor or a coroner or a homicide detective...or just a person with a bizarrely specific hobby. But hey, its useful information, so I'm not going to complain about it."
Looking over the gold ring once more, she shrugs. "You could be right." Tattoo taps her forehead. "Memory issues and all...but who knows what a little charm could do to the price..."
Giving the professor sideways grin, she backs away and heads over to the half-orc. "How's it going Heavy Hitter. Find anything?"
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Eek!" Reaper jumps when Goggles reaches out an pinches him. "Why'd y'go and do that fer? I's only foolin'!" He grumbles as he rubs his arm. "Can it, Creepy! Ain't nothin' funny... Careful or I'll put ya back out into th'fog." He glares at the ghost as it grins mirthfully.
::I think she likes us.::
The one with flesh and bones, y'mean?
::For now...::
"Although," he whispers to Goggles, ignoring Creepy's dire prophecy, "Can't complain 'bout bein' pinched by a purdy gal."
"Although," he whispers to Goggles, ignoring Creepy's dire prophecy, "Can't complain 'bout bein' pinched by a purdy gal."
Genuine surprise colors Goggles' face. "You think I'm pretty?" Then her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Or do you say that to all the girls?"
Sagging shelves, held together by dust and an extensive system of rolling ladders, ring this library of husky, dull-looking tomes. At the room's center broods a heavily worn table surrounded by uncomfortable chairs. A chandelier of iron vines dangles above. The scents of leather and old paper pervade the high-ceilinged space, but so does a distinct bestial musk.
Beyond the extensive collection of tomes, four rolling ladders span the 8-foot-tall bookshelves here, one for each of the four contiguous set of shelves. The ladders are attached to the shelf frames, but it is impossible to know if it will roll easily or not if you do not try it. The ceiling is 14 feet high.
Lucius cocked his head, listening.
"There. And there. Inside the shelves. They are moving up the shelves."
He shuddered, "Ratlings! A tiny creature, resembling a rat but with an unsettling human face and small hands in its forepaws..."
He added, "Do you not see hear them? Careful, because they can use scrolls."
"Or do you say that to all the girls?"
Cerio tries to think of other girls he might have known, but draws a blank. "Only to the purdy ones," he lies.
---------
"Woah..." Cerio whispers at the sight of the impressive library. Truly it was just a relief to escape into a larger, open space. The tightness of the hallways was beginning to wear on him. "Reminds me 'o sumpin...but what?"
Then the memory begins to take form...
He sat on a comfortable armchair and looked around the room... a small but well-supplied library. Looking outside, he noticed a well-kept garden and even a fountain with gargoyles and flowers. The room was decorated and had plenty of small pieces of art... valuable art that could easily be smuggled out of the property.
Even so, he kept his hands to himself, terrified about even the notion of stealing them. From behind him came a familiar voice, "Don't even think about it... this stuff might have no meaning or value for Her, but She will make us pay tenfold..."
The door opened and a beautiful woman stepped inside. She was dressed in a yellow robe that danced as she moved, mimicking the movement of a mist... if a mist could actually be yellow. She had auburn hair and pale face. Her dress was quite revealing and her corset suggested luscious shapes, but he couldn't turn his eyes away from hers... almost as if they were locked... a mixture of desire and fear crossed mind, but after a couple seconds only fear remained as she smiled to him...
He's just about to mention to Goggles that he remembers another pretty girl, one whose beauty was somehow twisted and wrong, but the Professor's warning interrupts his line of thought.
"Rats usin' scrolls? That don't sound right! But then, we've seen enough crazy horse s*%% in this place to know that there ain't nothin' right t'be found."
Reaper brandishes his scythe as Creepy solidifies into his solid, ectoplasmic form. "Be ready now. Rats got teeth."
Heavy tightened her grip on her sword and looked around. "Where are they? Are they running away? Maybe they're afraid of us." She began to move cautiously towards the next set of doors. As she passed one of the rolling ladders she gave it an experimental push, wondering if it still rolled.
Upon entering the library, Tattoo appears to stare off into space and zone out for several moment. Her eyes seem to be flickering as if trying to process some strange and confusing memory.
"Huh, afraid of what?" she asks as Heavy Hitter's voice snaps her back to reality. Looking up she sees the ratlike creatures. "Hmm maybe...but I wouldn't count on it." Moving into the room she looks around for anything that might look like filing cabinets or asylum records.
Goggles steps into the library and her eyes light up at all the books. Most may think them boring but to her it represented unknown things to learn and freedom. But her joy was marred as a memory came floating to the surface of her mind.
----
You are sitting on the floor, slowly moving page after page of a book with a lot of words you do not completely understand yet... some words are too long and complicated, but the book has many illustrations, like graphics, tables, diagrams, and even dead people cut into pieces. You find these most informative.
It is a bit dark and difficult to see and even if there was a window nearby that could possibly help you, you don't move... you keep your back against the hard surface of a desk, a desk between you and the door.
You hear steps and soon after the door opens and two sets of steps come toward you, one softer than the other. They stand in front of you... one is a small girl with her arms crossed and an unpleasant expression on her face, but from your point of view she appears to be taller than you... the other is an older man with an unshaved face, small googles, and thinning hair starting to turn white.
The small girl turns to the older man, "I told you, daddy, that she was messing with your books again! She is a bad girl, daddy..."
----
Goggles feels an instant dislike for the girl but also feels guilty because she feels like she's family. She reflexively reaches up and touches the goggles on her head and smiles. The same dislike is not there for the older man...her father? Maybe whatever I do is part of a family business. Her guilt coupled with the recent words of some of the others causes her to doubt herself. Maybe I’m not a good person. Obviously my sister didn’t think so and it seems like some of the others share her opinion. Maybe I’m the one who’s wrong about myself.
Just before Goggles descends further into unwanted self-reflection, the Professor warns them about rats. ”Are you sure you’re not just imagining things again?” But Goggles readies her cleaver knowing that anything seemed to be possible here, no matter how bizarre.
Heavy pushes the ladder and it moves swiftly for 15 feet before stopping. She then moves north towards the other double doors. However, before she reaches it, three creatures appear atop the shelves, armed with heavy tomes... they appear large rats, but has human hands in place of its front paws, and an unnerving human face with a toothy mouth.
Soon enough they throw the heavy tomes in your direction... two of them land harmlessly away from you, but one of them hits Lucius on his nose, causing a small gush of blood to leave his left nostril.
Ratlings
Alenka - up
Jenni - up
Cerio - up
Edrick - up
Lucius - up
Mira - up
Lucius grabbed his nose, "Ouch!"
Feeling blood drip from nose and seeing his hand come back red did nothing to lighten his mood, "Get those rats, Heavy!"
The professor then whipped out his rapier and tried striking at the ratling on top of the shelf.
But the thing was too high and Lucius almost fell over some dropped books.
---------
Snarling at the hideous little creatures, Heavy looked for a nearby ladder but didn't see one. Instead she opted to use the shelves themselves as a ladder.
Knocking books aside with her booted feet, greatsword clutched in one fist, she half-climbed, half-pulled herself up onto the centre shelf. She then took a swing at her diminutive foe.
Unfortunately, the combination of the sudden climb, the slightly wobbly shelf, and the height conspired against Heavy. Her foot slipped in the thick dust and she fell heavily on her side, narrowly missing slicing her foot open with her sword.
Reaper grunts at the rats, giving them a rude gesture before nodding to Creepy. The ghost floats toward Mustache, arms raised to claw at the creature above him.
Meanwhile, Reaper turns his attention to the ratling to the northwest, locking onto its eyes as his own begin to roll back into his head.
"That's no way to treat books." Grabbing the nearest ladder, Goggles climbs it and moves towards the disgusting looking ratling while brandishing her cleaver.
Tattoo turns to stare down the ratling on western bookcase. She begins murmuring hypnotic words and moving her arm rhythmically such that some of her tattoos almost seem to be spinning.
Goggles is able to climb up the ladder and comes close to the ratling, while Heavy jumps and climbs through the shelf. Unfortunately for her, in her attempt to quickly draw her weapon while climbing, the cuts her right wrist in her own blade, causing a pretty hideous bleeding... she can still fight, but the loss of blood might endanger her eventually.
While Creepy moves to one ratling, Reaper focuses his will on the westernmost and suddenly the creature starts to drool, as if his mind wasn't responding to his will. Creepy slams the shelf instead of the tiny creature.
Lucius also moves to stab with his rapier, but much like Creepy, isn't able to hit the enemy, piercing a crocodile-leather book instead. Meanwhile, as Tattoos moves her arms, she creates an hypnotic pattern that soon overcomes the mind of the already dazed ratling, who drools even more, now completely fascinated by the patterns on her skin.
The two remaining ratlings, facing big enemies close to them, manage to flee from your grasp. One of them, the one facing Goggles, moves around the shelf, starting to climb it down, but disappearing in the process, much like if it was entering a hidden door in the air itself! The other ratling also disappears, but this time it simply disappears, as if turning invisible.
Ratlings
Alenka - up
Jenni - up
Cerio - up
Edrick - up
Lucius - up
Mira - up
Reaper smirks as Tattoos magic seems to overtake his own. "So I see y'got some surprises up your, erm, tattoos." His admiration is interrupted by the ratlings disappearing into thin air.
"G%*$+*nit! Shifty, wiley sons 'o b%+*#es. Creepy, all ya'll, careful now'n watch yer back. They might come outta nowheres!"
Reaper hefts himself up onto the large table using his scythe as a climbing aid. He keeps his eyes peeled, his gaze darting in every direction, waiting for the toothy little monsters to appear again.
Continuing to stare down the fascinated creature. Tattoo puts her arms out and gestures to the remaining creature, trying get it to come down from the shelves and towards her.
Looking over at Reaper, she opens her mouth as if about to respond, then closes it as she realizes she doesn't entirely know what she doing or if speaking will disrupt it. Instead she just kind of shrugs at him as she continues trying to lure the ratling down.
"OW!" Heavy cursed her own stupidity as she bled on the bookshelf. The ratling took advantage of her self-injury to vanish, much as the 'ganger had done before. Listening carefully for any sounds, Heavy lashed out with the sword in the area she thought the creature most likely to be.
Goggles hunts around the area where the ratling disappeared and tries to determine where it went.
With rapier firmly held 'en guard', Lucius looked about trying to hear the ratlings but wasted little time in disposing of the fascinated ratling.
He moved to the bookshelf and lunged at it.
------------
Neither of you hear any clue about the whereabouts of the ratlings or what they might be doing... even so, Heavy unleashes her fury on the shelve in front of her despite continuing to bleed. After Reaper and Creepy move into position, Tattoo manages to convince the ratling in the shelf to move towards her...
When the ratling comes within range, Lucius moves swiftly behind it and pierces the creature with his rapier, which breaks the Tattoo's enchantment. Afraid, the ratling closes its eyes, as if focusing in something... but nothing happens. Surprised and a bit panicked, the ratling bolts to the shelf, this time aiming for the lower ones.
While running, Creepy and Lucius are able to take advantage of the creature's poor defenses and hit him, almost bringing him down... unfortunately the creature, limping, is able to enter the shelf, which Tattoo missing her opportunity to finish it by piercing a tome instead!
There is no signs of the other ratlings, though...
Ratlings
Alenka - up
Jenni - up
Cerio - up
Edrick - up
Mira - up
Lucius - up
Lucius cleans his rapier of ratling blood and shakes his head, "Sorry, I'm a bit rusty but I seem to remember that I have used a rapier before."
He thought for a moment, "I was probably quite good at it. Perhaps captain of the fencing team in the university."
He shrugs, "I'm at a loss of waht to do here. Watch my back and I'll see if any of these books have anything interesting that may aid us in getting out."
-----------
"Yes! Good shot Creepy!" Reaper pumps his fist in excitement when the ghost slams into the ratling.
"Careful teach, I doubt these suckers's done with us yet..." Reaper continues to clutch his scythe as he perches upon the table, ready for any enemies to emerge.
Goggles makes her way down from atop the bookcase. "Clearing the shelves of the books may be the best way to find these annoyances. If we take away their hiding places they'll be more visible."
The alchemist moves towards the shelf where she last saw the ratling and starts removing the books and piling them on the table.
Heavy sat on the edge of the bookshelf, and then jumped down, landing with a thump. Trailing blood behind her, she held up her wrist and said, "Anybody have a bandage?"
tag
Seeing Goggles clearing books, Heavy looked around at the room and said, "That'll take a long time."
Tattoo opens her mouth to try an protest when the professor attack the hypnotized ratling. "Wait..". However, realizing its too late she just sighs. "Oh well...I don't even know if we could have talked to it anyway." Starting to help Goggles with the books, she continues thinking. "However, this makes me think it might not be a bad idea to try capture one of the more intelligent freaks...I am starting to think I might have...er...some persuasive abilities...and I think we could all use some answers."
Taking a glance over at the half-orc, she notices her wounds for the first time. She puts a stack of books on the table and walks over to her. Her tone slightly softer that usual, she ask, "You alright there Heavy Hitter?"
Goggles pauses long enough to pull one of her concoctions out of her bag. Putting it on the table she says, "Heavy, take that. It'll stop your bleeding. If you still need a bandage afterwards, I'll patch you up."
"As for the books, I don't have a better idea and this is where those critters are hiding. If we take away their hiding place, we'll be able to see them."
Heavy shook her head a bit - she was starting to feel a bit woozy. Her wrist really was bleeding quite a lot. "I think I'm okay, Tattoo. Cut myself getting up there. Wooo." She wobbled a bit, then leaned heavily against the table.
Taking the strange potion from Goggles, she drank it, then made a face. "Why does it taste like garlic?" But the bleeding did stop, and she felt better. "Thanks, I'm okay now."
Looking at the sheer number of books, Heavy shook her head yet again. "There's too many. By the time we clear the shelves, there will be stacks of books for them to hide behind. It would be easier to burn it."
A couple seconds after you gather once more around the table and Heavy drinks Goggles' potion, Goggles removes a book and, to her surprise, a rat jumps on her face... soon after there is another one, and then another... soon hundreds of rats leave both the shelves, forming too dirty masses of rodents, biting everything in their wake. There is no sign of the ratlings, though.
The uncountable rats tear your flesh, potentially infecting you with some unknown disease... there are so many rats that Creepy, Goggles and Reaper are nauseated.
Ratlings
Rat Swarms
Alenka - up
Jenni - up
Cerio - up
Edrick - up
Mira - up
Lucius - up
"See? Should have burned it!" Heavy stomped a few rats underfoot, but there were so many that it made no difference. Grabbing Lucius, who was closest, she half-boosted, half-tossed him up onto the central bookshelf behind her, hoping the swarm couldn't easily climb it. "If you got any fire magic, Prof, now's the time!"
The rat that launched itself at Goggles' face sunk its teeth into her nose. She quickly pulled her goggles down over her eyes to protect them from scratching and biting. She grabbed the tails of the rats that she could to pull them off of her. A few she swung in a circle by their tail to disorient them before flinging them to the floor. But there were too many and she could feel them crawling up her leg and biting whatever soft flesh they could find. She began to feel sick to her stomach and her sole focus became keeping the contents of her stomach where they belonged.
"Rats?? Why'd it have t'be rats!"
Without understanding why, the crawling, squirming mess of furry bodies and wiggling tails causes both Reaper and Creepy to be overcome by nausea. Reaper keels over, losing his "breakfast" onto the library floor. Creepy does the same, projectile vomiting a shower of ectoplasm across the room.
Oh...this is not not good. What to do...what to do... Tattoo thinks nervously, before an idea comes to her...or a memory. It was so hard to tell which was which of late.
Acting calm, like this happens to her on a daily basis, she sighs dramatically and takes a step backwards. Holding up her hands, she creates a triangles shape and stares through it as if she were trying to frame a portrait. "Hey prof? I don't suppose you could take a few feet back or walk up maybe 10 feet or so? " Leaning forward, she raises her voice slightly to be heard over the mayhem of squeaking and vomiting. "...and Reaper you you be a dear and puke a few feet back?"
Lucius tries to squirm away from Heavy, "Put me down. And no, no fire. Fire will kill us all."
He then looked at Tattoo, "What do you have in mind? Not fire, is it?"
A tinge of fear could be heard on Lucius' voice.
------------
"Yea...Sure thi...Just Lemme..." Reaper nods vigorously, keeping one hand tight over his mouth as he spins around to continue retching in the other direction.
Goggles and Reaper move away from the swarm, throwing rats around as they move. Heavy manages to grab Lucius by his shoulders and throws him up towards the north shelf, causing him to land on his butt, almost losing the grip of his rapier.
After Tattoo casts her spell, both rat masses stop moving around, there eyes open wide and completely white, stunned in place thanks to the shower of bright light.
With the rat swarms taken care of, at least momentarily, the two missing ratlings appear once more, where one of them giggles malignantly atop the north shelf and the other drops a heavy tome atop Goggles' head.
Ratlings
Rat Swarms
Alenka - up
Jenni - up
Cerio - up
Edrick - up
Mira - up
Lucius - up
Lucius slowly gets up from the floor and his face changes.
His mind is invaded by images of humans in poverty, living in shacks and slums, with rats moving everywhere, eating the food from a children's plate, resting atop an old woman's shoulder, feasting upon a dead dog...
Many of them are visibly sick... feverish and ridden with red and yellowish pustules... In the dark, he can see the tiny red eyes of countless rats.
He shoves Heavy aside and flees the scene but only makes it to the double doors.
Tattoo looks from her hands to the stunned rats. "Well that went well." she says with a nonchalant tone, but the smile creeping at the corner of her mouth revealing she is more pleased with herself than she is letting on. Looking at the disoriented professor, she thinks, Hmm...I wasn't trying to get Heavy Hitter to body check the professor...buuuut it was pretty funny. Turning to the half-orc she gives her a smile and a thumbs up.
However, hearing a book hit Goggles with a thud is a quick reminder that they are not out of the woods yet. With a sigh, she moves towards the lower bookcase and begins climbing. Once atop, she stands with her longspear threatening the the ratling and staring it down. Looking down at the others as she balances, she remarks, "Oh...and you might want to get a way from those things...not really sure how long they are going to be like that."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Goggles patience was wearing thin with the ratlings. Her stomach was just beginning to settle when she was assaulted from above with a book. Gritting her teeth, she says, "I told you, that's no way to treat books."
She backs away from the rat swarm and tries to keep her eyes on the ratlings since she can't reach either of them. Seeing Tattoo move on to the bookshelf, Goggles prepares to hem the ratling in if it manages to evade them again.
Get 'em.
Creepy launches himself toward the western bookshelf, climbing its shelves to reach the ratling above . Once up, he growls menacingly at the creature.
Reaper wipes his chin before spinning around and trying once again to entrance the ratling above him.
Heavy snorted a laugh as Tattoo gave her the thumbs-up. She's funny. However, this was not the time for laughing. The rats were in ratty-dreamland, but that might not last. Her instinct was the smash them all, but looking at the hoard around her feet, she realized that probably wasn't possible.
Stepping gingerly past the last rats, Heavy drew her sword as she stepped and decided to do something about the rat-wizard on the shelf. She knew she'd be hampered by the books he was hiding it, but her sword was pretty heavy. Like me!
Her sword swept through the books, scattering tombs in all directions. However, her opponent dodged books and her blade, making her curse.
Goggles moves away, getting ready to attack if a ratling comes in her way, while Heavy ruins a couple books with her clumsy attack, and Creepy climbs up the western shelf. The ratling in the north shelf suddenly starts to drool as Reaper's magic hampers it.
While Tattoo climbs the ladder to eventually skewer one enemy, Lucius gets down from the shelf and runs towards the double doors, his face clearly panicked.
Despite Goggles and Tattoo attempt to corner the ratling, the pest once more disappears. Meanwhile, the wounded one tries to flee from Heavy, but this time she hits it while it was moving from one shelf no another, literally splitting it in two.
Ratlings
Rat Swarms
Alenka - up
Jenni - up
Cerio - up
Edrick - up
Mira - up
Lucius - up
Still scared, the professor offered a bit of advice before leaving. "You all be careful. Rats carry infectious diseases. Don't get bitten."
He then added, "And don't eat their feces. That's very bad."
---------
Reaper keeps his eyes turned toward the drooling ratling, filling its mind with pretty pictures of the horrors he had seen since waking in this godsforsaken place.
He also shifts nervously, remembering Tattoo's warning that the rat swarm might wake at any moment.
::G+*@~$n pests! Little freaks!:: Creepy groans wearily, growing frustrated.
"Easy, friend," Reaper calls out unnecessarily. "You just be ready in case it come back now."
Tattoo frowns as the ratling near her disappears once more. Instead she turns her attention the other remaining rat that Reaper seems to be trying to hold in place. Moving forward slightly she turns her gaze on that creature.
"Hey Reaper?" Mira comments downwards. "I think we can work together to keep that thing in place while the others close in on him. As long as you focus at the one I'm staring at, I think he will be more susceptible to control."
"What? Ew! Who would eat rat's faces?" Heavy was horrified by the very thought of it, and disturbed that the professor thought it necessary to warn them against it.
The rats hadn't woken up yet, so Heavy stomped through them, squishing horrible little bodies under her boots. When she got to the base of the ladder, she saw that it still wasn't moving. Rather than risk climbing again, she reached up and swiped at it with her sword, hoping to kill it, or at least knock it off the shelf.
Goggles chuckles, "Rat faces are bad enough but the Professor actually told us not to eat their poop. He must not think much of our intellectual prowess. That or he was warning us against doing something that he already did. Maybe he mistook them for raisins when he was younger."
She had started to move towards the dazed ratling, considering the one she was watching disappeared. However, Heavy moves to the ladder and so Goggles decides to stay where she is. They probably wouldn't have to wait long for the other annoying bugger to appear again.