Why do I seem to know about stuff like this? The surgeries, the cutting. Am I a doctor?
"It is true that I'm not a professor of doors," she says with a smirk. "But I'm not sure I'm a doctor either."
Goggles moves closer and studies the leg. The absence of blood around the wound suggests two possibilities to her. "I would say either the victim was exsanguinated prior to the leg being broken, that is, their blood was drained - and sadly they were probably alive when done. Or the victim was simply dead before the leg was broken and their heart was no longer pumping blood through the body. It should be easy enough to determine which is the case if you care to know. Should I take the time to look closer? I guess it could tell us why they were killed although I don't know why one would mutilate them in such a way after death."
tag?
Heavy felt a bit queasy watching Goggles examine the dead. Nonetheless, she was mightily impressed by her knowledge of the body. "I think you must have been a doctor," she said, unable or unwilling to think of another profession that could have use of Goggles's skill set. "A prof and a doc. We're lucky to have such smart crazies with us."
Giggling at her own joke, she slipped on some blood and landed heavily against the wall. "Oof, hey, ouch, what's this?" Something was poking into her side. She reached around the side of the smelly hide armour she was wearing, and found a pocket.
"A pocket? Does armour usually have pockets?" Inside was a folded leather kit, wrapped with twine. Curiously, she unwound it and opened the leather up. Inside she found a comb, a small mirror, a razor, and two sets of scissors. Delighted, she held them up to show the others. "Guys! Guys! Look! I'm a barber!"
tag?
Inside was a folded leather kit, wrapped with twine. Curiously, she unwound it and opened the leather up. Inside she found a comb, a small mirror, a razor, and two sets of scissors. Delighted, she held them up to show the others. "Guys! Guys! Look! I'm a barber!"
Heavy was good at swinging a big-ass sword. but who would trust her with scissors or... with a razor?
Mustache smiled, "You a barber? Now that's funny. It takes skill, fine manipulation, and patience to be a barber. Why... a barber is part artist."
He cocked his head, "You a barber? Preposterous."
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"Careful." Tattoo mutters, as she instinctively extends an arm to try and catch the half-orc. However, she was not expecting what Heavy Hitter would say next. "You're...a...um...so you're a...a barber...that's...that's great...that you remembered...that..." Okay. I wasn't expecting that one. Suddenly she feels an anxious feeling spreading down her spine. Everyone is remembering things, except me. What if I never remember...or what if I don't like what I remember...
Knowing it makes perfect sense, Goggles turns to Moustache and says, "If you can be a professor then she can be a barber."
Turning to Heavy she says, "You can deal with my split ends anytime. If you're as good with those as you are with your sword then I have nothing to worry about."
tag ?
Heavy's face fell when she heard Professor Moustache's words. Even more when Tattoo mentioned remembering. "Well, I don't remember, not exactly. But they're in my armour, so they must be mine, right?" The tools were lovely, well-kept and shiny. Looking at her smelly armour, and her dinged and nicked sword, she realized they probably weren't hers. "Pretty posterous," she muttered sadly.
Then Goggles cheered her right up again. "Split ends, doc? I know what to do with those!" Hmm...maybe these are mine after all!
Cerio rubs the rough stubble that has gathered on his face. How long since he'd had a shave? And what about his hair? Had it been cut recently? Depending on how long they'd been in that cellar, Heavy might have been grooming them all for some time.
"Jus' be careful not t'nick an artery. Blood is hell to clean out'ta clothes."
As to this last point he was, somehow, quite certain.
Creepy moves through the rubble and disappears on the other side while Professor was tinkering with the door, looking for traps even if none where found.
Heavy stands by the wall examining her recently discovered tools and Reaper was standing in the middle of the room, concentrating in assisting Creepy on the other side. Meanwhile, Goggle examines the body under the gaze of Tattoo.
Goggle starts to examine the old nurse's corpse and after a couple seconds she reaches a startling conclusion... the woman is alive! Just when she was about to share her knowledge with the others, she looks once more at the old woman's face, that is now grinning with a maniac smile, her eyes turned completely white as she starts to change, her skin acquiring a sinister pale color marred with blue veins!
With a crack, the broken leg mends with the former woman's body as the doppelganger rises in front of Goggle, ready to strike her, a manic grim in his face, still changing from that of the old grandmotherly nurse.
Doppelganger
Alenka - up
Mira - up
Round 1
Jenni - up
Cerio - up
Edrick - up
Doppelganger
Lucius
Alenka
Mira
Get back in here, we's in trouble!
Reaper reacts to the rising monster, telepathically calling out to his ghost and bidding it return.
Creepy flies out from behind the wall, floating swiftly through the air and coming to rest just behind the disgusting woman .
Reaper jumps back into the corner, hoping the monster doesn't notice him. He shuts his eyes tight, willing his ghost back into the physical world.
"Hurry'n kill it! There's somebody trapped in the rubble behind that there door!" He points to the door the professor has been inspecting.
When the doppleganger springs to life, something in the back of Tattoo's brain must have been expecting it because she almost immediately leaps into action. As she stares down the creature, her eyes appear almost fire like, burning frustration at her current situation. Her grip tightens on the spear and she lunges it through the creature's chest with impressive force and accuracy.
Looking stunned by her own performance, she finds herself having to consider an unwanted possibility. Ok...I might have some combat training...
Heavy sees locks of dark and long hair in front of her while her hands comb them, using also a special perfumed oil. She gathered all of the hair and moved it over the right shoulder, revealing a small earring made of silver and drop of sapphire.
Heavy started to braid the woman's hair, long root braids, and a feeling that she should not been doing this. In front of the woman she notices a hand mirror that reveals only the woman... no, a girl. Beautiful, with a pale skin, a broad smile, thin and delicate nose, and incredible eyes, one of each color... blue and green.
Once she is finished, she put her hands on the girls shoulder before speaking, "Here you go, Lady Wickmere... now let me undo it before the Lord discovers about this." The girl chuckled before answering, "I've already asked you to call me Milla... and I think my father will like it!" She turned her hand mirror, making the sunray to reflect over Heavy's eyes, temporarily blinding her...
The sound of screams brought Heavy Hitter back to her senses. Seeing the others engaged in combat, she dropped the barber's kit and snatched her sword up from where she'd leaned it on the wall beside her. As she was about to attack, Tattoo felled the creature with her spear.
Feeling embarrassed to have been caught so unaware, she swung anyway, nearly severing the head of the dead/dying creature. Panting, she looked up at the others and said, "What? It moved."
Tattoo thrusts her spear perfectly and trespasses the doppelganger in front of her who fights to get some air in his ruined lung. Soon after Creepy moves through it and even if the creature tried to attack the ghost, its claws hit nothing but air... it turned its head towards the greenish ghost as his substance was once more acquires a more physical consistency.
From behind, Heavy moves with her sword in hands and when the doppelganger starts to turn his head back to her she swings, cutting its neck and twisting its head, splattering a bluish-red blood into the walls and over Creepy. The doppelganger falls to the ground, this time actually dead.
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Goggles manages to finally get her breath after the close call. "Ok, new plan. All supposed dead bodies get a cleaver chop when we come across them. Tricksy buggers."
"Thanks everyone for saving my skin."
Goggles manages to finally get her breath after the close call. "Ok, new plan. All supposed dead bodies get a cleaver chop when we come across them. Tricksy buggers."
"Thanks everyone for saving my skin."
Too slow to react, Mustache only caught Goggles talking.
He looked at her to figure out whether she was kidding or not.
A second later, he shivered at the thought. The girl was not kidding.
Reaper spits, immediately prodding and searching the dead body of the shifter with the handle of his scythe. "Tricksy Buggers, fer sure..."
"Now let's hurry. Creepy dun said they's someone trapped under some rubble past that there door. Maybe it's a shifter, so maybe Goggles can give it the once over if anything's awry."
While Moustache finishes with the door, Goggles follows through with her plan and makes sure there aren't any other living dopplegangers in the pile of bodies.
"Thanks to Creepy, we'll be prepared for whoever it is once Moustache gets the door open."
"Hey. Don't mention it." Tattoo replies to Goggles gratitude, leaning up against the wall casually as if it was no big deal. However, her mind is racing and she finds herself grateful that the professor seemed to preoccupied to hit her with any follow up questions about her skill with a spear. However, Reaper's sense of urgency snaps her out of her own head. Pushing away from the wall, she grips her longspear once more and tries to prepare for anything that might be on the other door.
"Need t'be careful. Sounds like the pile o' rubble behind that door's unstable. Like it could collapse right on us."
Most of the area beyond the door has collapsed into a heap of dense gray rubble. The occasional clattering pebble makes it sound as though the mound is not entirely settled, and more rubble could collapse at any moment. Surviving doors lead off the hall to the west in addition to the one to the east which you have come from.
The passage to the north is completely blocked by rubble, probably requiring more than a couple hours and arduous work to get cleared. Trapped beneath the rubble in the north lies the body of an orderly, half buried from waist down.
As Professor sends his flying lights a bit ahead, you can clearly see that the body is still moving, but in some unnatural way and you can clearly see a broken spine protruding from the body... there is no way for it to be moving or struggling at all...
Goggles comes closer and even from some distance recognize the body is not alive, quite the opposite... this is some undead creature but is still trapped, desperately trying to free itself. As soon as it notices your presence, it tris to attack, trying to claw and bite you even if you are clearly out of reach.
"Woah! What's, uh...how's a feller, ah, move like that with his backbone stickin' out in such a ways?"
Reaper stands far away from the creature. "It ain't like th'other shifters, is it? Don't look blue..."
Go check it out?
::Sure, leave'n all th'dirty work fer me.::
Creepy's ectoplasm once again melts away, revealing its incorporeal skin. It hovers forward to get a better look at the creature.
Reaper scratches his head. "Sure could use a whiskey right now."
Tattoo tilts her head as she watches the creature struggle. "Huh...well that's...unpleasant..." she comments nonchalantly as the ghost is sent forth to examine.
At Reaper's comment, she moves her spear to her left hand and rummages through her bag. Pulling out a flask, she offers it to him. "Found this near the burner. I think its applejack, not whiskey...and I don't know if drinking anything found here is a great idea...but the flask felt familiar, so I think it was mine at some point. Your call if you want to risk a swig..."
"Ah! Gross! He doesn't look friendly!" Heavy carefully picked her way forward and asked "Can I stab him? Please?"
Taking care to keep away from the grasping arms, the half-orc took the greatsword and stabbed it down through the creature's head.
Reaper accepts the flask with a nod. He sniffs the contents, grimaces, then takes a swig. ”Touch o’ formaldehyde, maybe. I had worse. I think...”
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Tattoo looks at the flask curiously as Reaper hands is back. "Formaldawhat now?" Taking a swig herself, she shrugs. "Tastes fine to me...just like apples and booze." I guess if this is mine, it would make sense that I like it. So...I guess I like Applejack. Well done brain. Glad we figured that one out. We are really making leaps and bounds on this whole remembering who I am thing.... she thinks sarcastically towards herself.
Goggles was just about to put her cleaver through the undead's head when Heavy finished him off. "So now there's undead as well as dopplegangers? What is going on here?"
tag ?
At the mention of formaldehyde Goggles adds, "Formaldehyde preserves tissue so it doesn't spoil. Kind of puts the tissue in stasis and stops it from degrading." A frown crosses her face. "Considering it acts like a poison for the living, I would hope you wouldn't know what it tastes like."
tag ?
For the numerous time since waking Goggles had to wonder, How is it that I know this obscure stuff but can't remember my name?
Goggles was just about to put her cleaver through the undead's head when Heavy finished him off. "So now there's undead as well as dopplegangers? What is going on here?"
"Undead?" Heavy asked, shaking blood and goo from her sword. "Well, this one is extra dead." Shuddering, she turned her back on the creature. Not letting go of her sword this time, she picked up the fallen scissors and replaced them in their leather case. Jamming it back in her secret pocket, she said, "Can we go now? This place gets worse and worse." She moved towards the next door.
Not needing any more encouragement, Mustache sheathed his rapier and followed Heavy.
He started to remove the grease and dust from his hair with the use of minor magic. He wanted to avoid having to refuse should Heavy offer to fix up his hair. The way she handled the greatsword, Mustache did not want her near his head with scissors.
He joked with her, "So, is the greatsword for big people's hair?"
Frowning down at her weapon, Heavy said, "I don't think it's sharp enough. It would pull the hair more than cut it. Maybe if I had a whetstone and a lot of time..." she trailed off, contemplating. After a moment, she said, "No, I think scissors is better, even for big big people's hair."
Grabbing the doorknob, she opened it and began to step through.
Heavy grabs her sword and on a single swing, she destroys the undead's head, along with its shoulder, spine and entrails, sending them flying towards the west wall... its viscera somewhat exploding with some unknown strange energy. Something was going on inside the undead but what exactly is unknown now.
Almost reaching for the door, Heavy feels some pain on her right arm as if someone was burying his fingertips on her flesh... when she looks at her arm, she notices the undead's hand, still moving and attacking her!
"AAAAAHHHHH! Get it off! Get it off get it off getitoff!" Heavy flailed at the undead hand that was clawing at her, trying to use her greatsword to scrape it off. She was in serious danger of beheading one of her friends....
When the half-orc starts shouting with fear, Tattoo's attention is immediately broken from her conversation with Reaper and Goggles, as her whole body tenses, she pushes off the wall and grips her spear tightly, ready to leap into action. However, she quickly realizes that the situation is not all so dire. Letting out a sigh of annoyance, her body relaxes and she takes another deep swig of Applejack before stowing the flask away.
Walking towards Heavy Hitter with seemingly no sense of urgency, she mutters, "Hold on...just stay still and I'll..." Seeing a flailing greatsword fly dangerously close to her, Tattoo lets a curse slip out and quickly jumps backwards to avoid losing her head. "F~!~ing hell...Oh, for goodness sake..." she mutters, and without thinking she reaches for something at her waist. Her hand tightens around a handle and a whip comes flying through the air towards Heavy Hitter.
The whip wraps around Heavy Hitter's wrist and pulls it sideways abruptly, hurtling her greatsword towards the ground with a loud clang. Stepping forward, Tattoo quickly yanks the zombified arm and flings it back towards the rubble, clearly not wanting to touch it any longer than necessary.
"There. All better." she says drily, as she stows the whip back at her waist and wipes off her hand on her pants. "Shall we proceed?"
”I think that there hand’s still…” Reaper doesn’t finish his thought before the rogue appendage is out the gate, racing toward Heavy’s throat. He hefts his scythe to slash it away, then realizes that’s probably not a good idea. Then, Mira is there with her whip, deftly disarming and dis-handing Heavy.
”Mighty sharp with that whip,” he observes. ”Reckon you ever herd animals?”
The door to the west was a bit stuck but after some effort Heavy is able to open it. Sturdy racks and toppled tables suggest this space once served as a sizable laundry. Much of the northern end of the room is filled with rubble.
A wall of pipelike crossbeams fills the western alcove of this room. Three figures are manacled to the rack here, from south to north: a human wearing stained yellow sheets as robes and bearing a flame-shaped chalk mark upon his forehead, the corpse of a partially eaten patient, and an humanoid creature with long, sharp teeth, and pallid flesh stretched tightly over its starved frame. The prisoners can't move away from the western alcove but might slide north and south.
The human prisoner appears to be wearing clothes of a patient and once he notices you, he tries to speak, "Praise!... Words fail... Zandalus sees!" He desperately seeks to be freed, gesturing to the creature to the north and to his own manacles.
The corpse dangling in the middle was apparently once another asylum patient. Her left arm has been completely stripped of flesh.
The final prisoner also wears patient clothes but those are much more dirty and ragged, and he is slowly devouring the patient in the middle.
There is also a closed door to the south.
Rubbing her wrist, Heavy looked at Tattoo with nothing short of awe. "Th-thanks," she said. Seeing the hand still wriggling, she lost no time in retrieving her sword and pushing through the door.
In her haste to get away from the living hand, she was partway into the next room before she actually noticed the grisly scene in front of her. Shrieking again in surprise, she stumbled over some rubble and ended up in the middle of the room. "Ugh! Don't eat people! Guys! I think we need to help this guy!" Despite her words, she made no move towards the living prisoner.
Mustache learns to respect the girl who says that you hold the spear with the pointy away from you.
He casually comments, "So I'm guessing snatching away a weapon from a panicked person is also naturally easy to do. Uh huh."
He nods, "I'm just glad we're on the same side but I'm sure you've had plenty of training."
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Mustache almost retches in front of the prisoners. He turns to Heavy, "Stay calm."
Stay calm. You are witnessing cannibalism first hand and you say 'stay clam'.
He calls over the weapon expert. "Go to it, Tattoo. You could skewer that thing without being exposed with your spear, right? Or will you just rip its head off with your whip?"
Goggles gagged. "That is something I'll never be able to unsee. What kind of creature eats the decaying flesh of people?"
But she had to disagree with Moustache. "I think this situation would justify everyone not staying calm."
"S$+&! We got t'get the hell out this place."
Reaper jumps back against the east wall, creeping toward the south exit and trying to maintain his distance and avoid eye contact with the fanged creature.
"Jus' seems....unnatural t'want t'eat a dead body. Say, friend, you in th' yellow. What's goin' on here?"
Tattoo shrugs off the half-orc's gratitude, "Don't mention it...just next time, do me a favor and watch where you are swinging that thing."
Reaper's question gives her pause to think. Do I herd animals? No...I don't think so...It felt more practiced...like a trick...like the illusory sounds and the marked cards...Am I some kind of trickster or con artist...ugh...probably not something I should admit to. Shrugging once more she replies, "Who knows. Maybe..." though she looks entirely unconvinced.
However, the professor's remark causes her eye to twitch with irritation. She is about ready to respond with snide remark, when she catches herself. Why does it bother me so much that he keeps implying I have weapon training? He's not trying to insult me...I think he might even be trying to pay me a compliment. Massaging her temple, she replies, "I don't know what to tell you. Let's just hope my luck doesn't run out..."
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Following after the half-orc, the twisted scene they walk into earns a grimace from the usually stoic tattooed woman. As Heavy Hitter moves closer to the prisoner, Tattoo catches her arm briefly. "Careful," she whispers, "He might not be eating people...but that doesn't mean he's not dangerous. Don't let your guard down when you approach him."
When the professor all but volunteers her to approach the creature, she feels her heart rate quicken, but his words are a strong reminder of what she knows deep in her heart she needs to do to survive. Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm. However, what really gives her the focus she needs is the way Goggles responds. Turning around, she chastises the woman with an almost stubbornly calm tone. "Staying calm and level headed will be to our advantage...regardless of the situation." Using this new found boldness, she readies her spear and slowly begins moving closer to the savage creature, staring it down with determined eyes. Watching it closely, she prepares to skewer it as soon as the creature exhibits any kind of hostile behavior.
Cautiously approaching the man asking for help, Heavy kept her sword between herself and the prisoner. Taking a look at the shackles, she judged it would be too risky to attempt to break them with her sword - she was more likely to take his hands off. Instead, she kept one eye on Tattoo's progress, and the other on the prisoner.
"Well, answer Reaper," she said. "What's going on here? Who are you?"
Tag prisoner.
Goggles keeps a tight grip on her weapon because there was no way of telling who were victims and who were monsters...other than the half-eaten corpse, of course. She waits to see how things play out.
"Words fail... words fail..." the man starts to cry, looking from you to the creature on the other side of the half-eaten corpse, "Praise! Praise!" the man in the yellow sheets struggles once more with his manacle, "Words fail... praise! PRAISE!"
The other creature continues to eat the corpse, snaring at Tattoo as she approaches, but making no mention of attacking.
As Tattoo approaches, she is thrown off her plan for a moment when the creature snarls at her. She stares deeply into it's eyes and sees nothing. No fear. No anger. No remorse...No soul. Just mindless survival, like the creature in the rubble. Shuddering, she lunges the spear through its chest, trying to end its miserable existence.
Tattoo thrusts with her spear, piercing the creature but not finishing it. It finally leaves the half-eaten corpse away and desperately tries to reach for Tattoo, but both the manacles and the spear protruding from its chest keeps it from doing any harm... it shrieks loudly, with droplets of saliva flying towards her.
She removes the spear from the creature and strikes once more, finishing it for good. The creature now lies limp against the wall, still held by the manacles. Seeing the creature's demise, the other prisoner exclaims much more relieved, "Praise! Praise! Zandalus sees..."
"Er...Friend? You okay?" Reaper looks to the others. "This feller's only got one oar in th' water, seems." Reaper takes a deep breath, then approaches the man in yellow. "Y'ant free o' them chains? Which. Way. Is. The. Exit?" He talks slow and clear, in case the man is hard of hearing.
::Chaaaiiins:: echoes the ghost.
Heavy breathed a sigh of relief when Tattoo finished off the cannibal, especially when no body parts attacked her. Stepping back in front of the living prisoner, she put him between her and the corpses, so she didn't have to see them. It also gave Reaper room to talk to him. She didn't put her sword down, however, or lower her guard.
"Any of you heard of Zandalus? Is he a good guy?"
tag any
"I'm not sure we should be freeing this guy. What if it's another doppleganger putting on a show? Or maybe he'll turn into whatever that thing was..."
Heavy's eyes narrowed - Goggles was right. He could be doubleganger. "I could cut him a little. Those ganger guys bleed blue, right?" She moved the sword closer to his arm, ready to scratch him.
"Wait, Heavy. No need to go cutting anyone just yet."
He lifted his belt and smoothed out his shirt, "Let me think. Do not rush me."
Mustache searched his brain for any way to identify a doppleganger. Apparently he had seen one before...
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Mustache smiles as he starts remembering, "I have dealt with dopplegangers before. Even studied them. I think..."
He looked at the crazy man and told the others, "The blood from a doppleganger will turn bluish when in contact with silver, like my ring here."
"Can you get me some blood so we can see if our crazy man is a shapeshifter?"
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