The first thing Goggles notices when she returns to normal is the awful taste in her mouth. She feels the need to sterilize her mouth as well as finding something to burn the foulness away. Turning to Reaper she asks, "You had alcohol in your flask, right? Can I have a drink?"
Now that Goggles' hands are back to normal, she can grasp a scalpel once more. She digs out her dissection kit and retrieves the sharp blade. She moves towards the hand. "I need the Professor's ring." She carefully cuts one of the fingers of the hand and waits to see if any blood can be extracted.
Tattoo moves next to Goggles and holds her spear steady, ready to strike at the first sign of hostility.
Heavy watched in fascination as Goggles changed back to her old self. "Is that what it looks like when it happens to me?" she mused. She then kept an eye on the hall, so they wouldn't be caught unaware by any other unknown danger.
As Goggles does her experiment, no blood comes out from the corpse, long coagulated. There is also no reaction from it. Touching the hand, she notices it is cold, suggesting the body died probably before you awoke on your cells. It is not smelling, perhaps due to the rocks covering it.
Tattoo frowns, "Well, I guess there's no saving them...but at least it doesn't seem to be one of those creatures..." Scanning the rubble, she asks the others, "Think there's anything worth uncovering under there or should we move on?"
"She had the flask, I only borrowed it," Reaper responds to Goggles by poking his thumb at Tattoo.
"Let's dig the feller out. Might be carryin' something useful." Man and ghost get to work moving rubble.
Tattoo begins lifting up large pieces of rubble and putting them aside. When Reaper gestures towards her, she looks confused for a second, "Huh? What?" However, after a few moments she remembers. "Oh, yeah. The flask. Applejack, I think..."
Reaching through her bag, she find the small flask. She takes a moment to make sure that the lid is on tight, before tossing it towards Goggles.
Heavy got to work with the others, moving heavy debris aside to uncover the body.
Goggles takes the flask with gratitude. "Thanks. I need to get the taste of rat and pickled fetus out of my mouth and water won't cut it." She takes a small sip, swishes it around her mouth, and spits it on the floor. She then takes a longer pull from the flask and swallows with a small hiss. She hands it back to Tattoo and then does what she can to help uncover the body.
Lucius lets the others do the heavy lifting, literally while he kept his eyes open for any danger.
He joked, "C'mon Heavy. Put that back to work."
-----------
As you clear stone after stone, you slowly start to smell the perfume of decay. After about ten minutes of hard word, you finish to release the body from beneath the crumbled ceiling and wall. The only thing you are sure is that it was once a male doctor... beyond that, it is hard to tell, since his head is crushed beyond recognition, and his corpse is in no better state, looking much more akin to a ragdoll than to a human man.
In one of his pockets you find a strange capped syringe, miraculously intact.
"Say Goggles, what's that?" Reaper asks, pointing to the syringe. Then he peers toward the northern door. Creepy resumes his incorporeal translucence. "Ready?"
Tattoo takes back the flask back with a nod. "Don't mention it..."
Continuing to lift rubble, she watches the professor "supervise" from the corner of her eye. Picking up a particularly awkward piece, she walks over to Lucius and shoves it into his arms. Giving him the sweetest smile she can conjure, she points to the corner. "That can go over there..."
---
Picking up the syringe, she holds it up towards Googles. "You're good with that alchemy stuff, right? Do you think you could analyze this back at camp?"
She gives Reaper a nod when he asks if they are ready.
Goggles takes the syringe and almost immediately recognizes what it is. "I guess I am good at the alchemy 'stuff' because I don't need to analyze it back at camp. It's a healing infusion. The only catch is that it needs to be injected to be effective which is unlike the ones I make that you can drink. I'll hold on to it because it will take some skill to inject it properly. Otherwise it could be quite painful. Deadly even if you accidentally inject an air bubble."
Heavy stood with her hands on her hips and stretched out her back. It ached with the hard work, but it was a good ache - a working ache. Raising her arms, she twisted and stretched, her back cracking audibly.
"Thanks for the advice, Professor Lucy. I feel better now."
Cracking her knuckles one last time, she moved to the final door, wanting to open and clear it, then go back to camp to eat and rest.
Goggles takes the syringe and almost immediately recognizes what it is. "I guess I am good at the alchemy 'stuff' because I don't need to analyze it back at camp. It's a healing infusion. The only catch is that it needs to be injected to be effective which is unlike the ones I make that you can drink. I'll hold on to it because it will take some skill to inject it properly. Otherwise it could be quite painful. Deadly even if you accidentally inject an air bubble."
Lucius put the stone that Tattoo gave him but much closer than where she wanted it placed. I'm too smart for heavy labor. Everyone has their place in the world...
He then raised his hands, "I don't need that. Thank you. Who knows what else has been injected by that needle. No, thank you. I'll stick to my cooing and singing."
---------
Silently, Creepy disappears through the double doors to the north. Close to the door, you once more notice the bronze nameplate who reads "Administrator Eliege Losandro".
"Woah..." Reaper mumbles as he mentally draws Creepy back to his side.
"Y'all'll never believe this..."
And what room! This opulent two-story office with cathedral-like windows is outstanding. The ground floor features overstuffed furnishings, elegant side tables, and an altarlike desk of dark marble. To his left, in the middle of the south wall, there is a fireplace with two comfortable armchairs in front of it. At the northeast corner, Creepy notices a delicate spiral staircase and balcony of dark iron rising to a lofty library overhead.
"I dunno 'about that," he whispers, trying to keep his voice as low as possible. "I mean, I want outta here as bad as ya'll but, but what the heck is that?"
Lucius asked, "Is she dead?"
He nodded, "I think we need to get in there and find out."
He looked at Heavy, "Are you up for this? How are you feeling?"
He raised his rapier, "I'm right behind you."
Heavy was already backing up and shaking her head. "Yellow fog? I don't like that yellow fog. I don't think we should go in there. Anyway, I have to pee. And I'm hungry. I think we should go back. Right?" She looks around to the others for support.
Tattoo looks towards the door uncertainly. Another library? It could be the records we are looking for. Also this could tell us something about the source of the fog. We need to investigate that room. However, she looks to the half-orc and her wounds. But are we in any shape to deal with this right now...I don't know.
Looking to the other she says, "Perhaps we should return to camp and regroup? Maybe they can tell us more about Administrator Eliege Losandro..." Sighing she adds, "But if we think we need to deal with this now, I suppose I can go in first, since Heavy Hitter here is still recovering."
Goggles looks doubtful. "What Reaper described seems out of our league at the moment. Half of us are hurt and I'm running low on supplies. I won't be much help if it turns into a fight. Do we really think that situation will change much overnight? I mean, she must have been that way for a few days, right?"
Reaper nods. "Yep, I figure we report back to camp like Tattoos says, maybe they'll have an idea what we outta do with... With that mess in there. Besides, I'm hungrier'n an otyugh."
Reaper looks longingly down the hallway back to camp as his stomach growls.
At least, he hopes that's his stomach...
Tattoo nods, "Alright. Let's head back then."
Deciding to leave the Administrator's office for another time, you head back towards the safety of the chapel. You find York and another guard with a barricade where that strange eye creature-wall was. Always vigilant, York makes you a couple random questions, trying to make sure you are indeed you, and not a doppelganger.
You pass them and reach the chapel, where you can smell something burning... luckily, or not, you notice it is only the food. Exasperated, Winter comes to you, shaking her head at another poor dinner. "So... have you found another exit? Or perhaps something that could help us, like more supplies, or information?" You can see there is hope on her eyes, even if not that much. Winter is, however, a pretty strong woman... or at least she needs to be.
"Sister, we found a whole lotta weird!" Reaper exclaims in frustration, releasing one hand from his scythe and throwing it up into the air dramatically. His scarred leather armor is now covered in formaldehyde, rat blood, and who knows what else, silently reiterating the point and alluding to the ordeals they had faced since leaving the encampment. "Rats, rats, and more rats, though we could at least have ourselves a proper stew." He proudly lifts his collected rat carcasses by the tails.
"And we found a few records, but nothin' that gives us a clue as t'who we is or why we's in here. Ask the brains, they'd know what t'make of it." He thumbs toward Mustache and Goggles.
"And, uh, we might have a clue where that fog's comin' from, but ya ain't gonna like tha sound of it..." He then describes what Creepy had seen in the northern library.
Lucius shuddered as he remembered what he had seen so far in this madhouse.
"Sorry, no exit yet but we did manage to explore quite a few rooms. We were too tired and spent to continue but will do so in the morning."
He then lowered his voice, "Those rats that Creepy gave you. You should really just discard them. Rats carry contagious diseases and you don't want an outbreak of the black plague in here. Do you?"
tag?
He then asked, "Anything worthy of note happened while we were gone?"
tag?
Tattoo nods as the others mention their explorations, "We're covering ground and clearing out the enemies and hazards we find. If there's an exit we'll find it. Perhaps we can even cut off the source of the yellow smoke..." She pauses for a moment, before continuing, "Speaking of which, is there anything you can tell us about Administrator Eliege Losandro. Does she sound like the person Reaper described?"
Heavy Hitter felt bad that she didn't have any helpful information for the pretty lady. As the others told her what they knew, Heavy wandered over to the statue of the butterfly that she'd been drawn to earlier. Just being in its presence made her feel better, more peaceful.
Winter isn't very good in hiding that she is a bit disappointed... not with you directly, of course, but with the whole situation and the hopelessness feeling creeping around. "I can't say I'm pleased but I guess knowing you are still alive and trying is already a pretty good news, considering everything... I had hopes that that double doors would lead us to an exit, though."
As Reaper offers the rats, Winter looks a bit uncertain about what to do. "Hum... thank you, I guess... as Lucius mentioned, I believe we should not eat them right now since we still have better food, but I'll keep them in mind..."
"About the director, I think it might indeed be her... the description are quite similar. To be honest, I've had little contact with the Administrator, since it was my superior who dealt with her when I arrived... the only thing I observed, is that she looked like a very determined woman. If this was a bad or a good thing, I believe you'll be the ones to tell me."
After this brief conversation, Winter gestures you to pick some food, even if the burnt smell isn't really pleasing. Looking around, you notice that Bates and Arwynn are recovering nicely, and Naysa is once more taking care of Loic. Three people, who you have not seen before, cross the room towards the food cauldron: a pretty handsome man of Garundi descent and a couple of children. The boy holds a shadow lantern in his hands as if his life depends on it.
Lucius nodded and was glad the rats were passed. "Good, very good. We don't need to add more disease and misery to what we already have."
He then ventured towards the food, made a face at the burnt smell, but started eating.
As the Garundi man and children neared the cauldron, Lucius smiled, "I haven't seen you before. Did you just reach this place? Do you know anything that might help us get out of here?"
Reaper shakes his head in disbelief when Winter doesn't show more enthusiasm for rat meat. "Heck, ain't no better food'n rat goulash. But figure you're right. Rat's best after it ripens a day or two. I'll just lay these over here..." He places the rats lovingly in a pile near the wall, arranging them head to tail to maximize airflow.
Reaper eyes Loic over the corner, tempted to go "play" with him again, but he remembers the reprimand he got last time, and instead summons Creepy back inside his head. The ghost groans as he evaporates into mist, roiling and wrapping around Reaper before flying up the man's nostrils. Reaper sniffs and rubs his nose. Satisfied now that no one will lose their marbles or feel estranged by him, he heads over to grab some grub.
The shadowy lantern held by the little boy is fascinating to him, though. His interest compels him to approach the boy, smiling a crooked smile and hoping he looks like someone a kid would want to speak to. "Say, sonny, whatcha got there?" He kneels and points to the lantern with his free hand, then remembers he's still grasping his scythe in the other. He stands abruptly, shifting the handle behind his back. The blade still hangs in the air beside his head. "Looks pretty swell."