Other than some water swelling, the front double doors appear to be swollen with water and stuck. Other than that, the lock's on your side, and already disengaged to boot.
However, from this angle you can see that yes, indeed, another door on the side of consultation room exists, about 30 feet down the hall.
After rattling the front door, Helena turns back around, noticing the door previously unseen. "Actually, looks like a door right there," pointing at down the hall to her right, "for the same room."
Helena approaches the new door.
Narcisa follows after Helena, "I really don't like this place. Once we get out of here, and find out who or what caused us to be put here, I'm going to gut them like fish. A*%*!!%s."
"I don't think that we're going to be leaving through the front doors, everything considered." Smallest Sun observes. "It would be just too easy, seeing how insane everything here is."
This door opens, revealing a small 5 by 10 room. There is only rubble and destroyed buckets, mops and feather dusters. The western section of wall has fallen away, revealing the consultation room beyond.
A long desk, several chairs, a sideboard, and numerous once-stately landscape paintings barricade the door of this somber converence room. The toppled wall opposite the barrier undermines the room's defenses, a point driven home by the masked bodies littering the ground. Six bodies lie in this room, battered by a variety of blunt implements. Their faces have been wrapped in sheets, shirts, and grain bags cinched tightly around their necks. Three of the dead wear the clothing of orderlies or other facility staff, while the other three are patients.
Looking over the bodies, "This wasn't just some random beating. Hoods and blindfolds? This is malicious and deliberate."
"Indeed. It looks like the beatings were some kind of executions." Smallest Sun observes, crouching to check over one of the bodies. "Patients and staff alike. It seems that patients were targeted by those disciples too."
Narcisa takes a step back at seeing the brutality of the deaths, "..These disciples are.. awful. If this guy is responsible for causing this, I'm gonna have fun stabbing him... a lot..."
Helena grin at Narcisa, "You and me both."
Helena heads back out of the room, after showing the rest the few items she found, to look around the hall further right.
To the south is a pair of double doors. The end of the hallway appears to be full of much debris, but there might be a narrow passage on the northeast end of the hallway. To the northwest is another door.
Elren'dor followed closely behind, observing quietly and mostly watching the shadows for any other danger. The sound of rain was no comfort, hiding whatever wicked things moved throughout the darkness. When he entered into the room on the other side of the consultation scene, the gruesome scene brought a grimace to his face.
"I understand now Keymys, this is not a good place at all." The cat seems to meow in agreement, staying close to the wizard as he looks over the bodies that are scattered about. Staff and patients all seemed to meet their end here, beaten to death it appears. "Indeed, it seems a wickedness has possessed his mind. Perhaps we can find the reason that drove a quiet inmate to lead such a violent and terrible uprising and why it coincided with the arrival of these monsters."
Elren'dor will move with Helena towards the double doors, nodding towards the others. "Let's take this one room at a time, caution is the best move at the time and I rather leave as little unknown behind us..."
Narcisa will keep her hand on the handle of her rapier, following close to Helena as they explore.
As though it had been plucked from the halls of some warm, country estate, this room is filled with inviting furnishings, a hearth ready for a fire, artwork populated by picnicking families, and a mansion shaped cage with colorful taxidermic birds inside. Large windows might have once looked out over colorful flowerbeds, but now show only yellow mist. A battered corpse is impaled on the antlers of a stuffed elk head hung above the hearth and a body lies upon the floor, surprisingly the only changes to the room even despite the recent quake and subsequent uprising.
Looking out the window, you see that the mist is thin enough that you can see a garden path that leads out the only other door in this room to another section of the asylum, one that is cut off from the inside by debris.
In addition to the above results, you also hear the faintest of chirping sounds coming from the birdcage in the room, something that seems both strange and also impossible considering the birds in the cage are all stuffed. Maybe you're hearing things?
Smallest Sun will step into the room and peer at the body hanging over the hearth.
"That's... unusual. And hard to pull off." he comments. "Do you think he was thrown up there by something?"
"How gruesome..." Elren'dor will mutter, looking about the room carefully for a moment before looking towards Smallest Sun. "As strange as it is to say, I hope so. Otherwise, there is dreadfully powerful magic at play or the insanity these disciples are under is more perplexing than I can imagine..."
"Curious." Helena agrees with Smallest Sun, looking over the hanging body.
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Narcisa wrinkles her nose at the room, "Well this is weird. Why doesn't this place look wrecked like the rest of this place. And why the hell are there so many bludgeoned bodies all over the place?'
As you all move into the room, nothing happens. Does anyone inspect the body on the floor, or the one somehow hung up on the taxidermy?
"It is strange..." Elren'dor says, looking along the room. With a quick word, he casts a spell and begins to move along the outskirts of the room avoiding the bodies. He'll let the more physically capable deal with those and inspect them after they're sure that there aren't more dopplegangers waiting with a knife.
"We should probably get him down from there. Although, I am not sure which is more curious, how he got up there, or the otherwise pristine condition of this room.
Helena moves to shoulder the guy off the antlers.
Smallest Sun goes to assist Helena in getting the body down.
As you two move to remove the body from the antlers, Helena's boot thumps the hearth's grating, an action seemingly without consequence or notice until suddenly birdsong fills the air. The stuffed birds in the birdcage begin tweeting and moving about as if they were actually alive, including opening their wings and fluffing their feathers as they hop from perch to perch. Looking back at the birdcage, in your peripheral vision you notice that the door to the room is now closed.
Helena feels her stomach flop, as if she had just started falling, but instead of going down somehow, she floats straight up! Helena is now bobbing 10 feet in the air near the ceiling. The chirping of birds starts to increase in pitch and volume, sounding more and more like an alarm than simple songbirds.
"So I think we figured out how he got up here."
Helena will try to move, either "swim" towards something solid, or push off ceiling to try to avoid floating mid-air. Ultimately trying to get to brace against the wall if possible.
"Are the birds causing this?"
Elren'dor scans the room slowly at the moment, eyes looking out into the yellow mist just beyond the illusion of safety that was the glass window.
When the birds began to come to life, the elf's eyes would begin to widen. The door has closed and a sinking feeling begins to stir inside of his stomach. Helena's ascension makes the elf not freeze in terror but instead, focus on what may be going on.
"A..a haunt! It is a haunt!" Elren'dor exclaims, looking towards Smallest Sun. "Your power may weaken or disrupt it, hurry!"
At Helena's suggestion, Elren'dor nods. There is a momentary whisper of Draconic and the clasp and door would glow blue before popping open.
"Keymys!" The white cat, her hackles raised, turns her ears towards her master. "Destroy them!" With a fierce growl, Keymys charges forward and leaps in the cage to do battle with the stuffed birds.
= 1 damage
Elrendor's familiar manages to catch and shred one of the four birds in the cage, silencing the thing permanently, but three more birds still flitter around, trying to avoid the cat all the while they're screeching an alarm that almost hurts the ears to hear.
Helena couldn't seem to move anywhere while being picked up into the air, but that concern quickly ends when the force holding her up instead propels her down violently.
Smallest Sun starts to step over to help her, when the tips of his clothes and armor start to float up, seeing it, Smallest Sun grits his teeth and shouts "في اسمها أرفض لك!" The force pulls at him, but his faith and willpower are too great for him to be affected this time.
Narcisa tries to open the door and finds it stuck. She slams her shoulder into it, trying to jar it open.
To her surprise, the door is knocked open a scant inch, before some unseen force crashes it closed again, sending Narcisa skidding back a few feet from the force. "Son of a f~&#ing whore!"
Keymys continues his assault, biting and tearing at the animated birds. Claws and fangs rage against the cage and the creatures, while Elrendor looks around.
"Quickly! Try to hold onto something heavy, something to give you an added protection!"
Damage = 1
Damage = 1
Damage = 1
Helena will try holding onto the largest furniture she can find, she'll remain laying on the ground and hold onto the legs.
She will check to see if there are any new sights from this nicely prone angle, underneath furniture and such.
Other than a lint ball of unusual size, Helena doesnt see anything new.
Everyone grabs onto furniture to try to keep from flying up.
Elren'dor feels a force pulling at him but manages to keep firmly attached to his chair.
Narcisa has no other object to hold onto than the very table the birdcage is screwed down onto.
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Elren'dor feels that force pull along him, his robes lifting as his eyes widen. His fingers grab onto the chair, feeling the wood scrape along the ground before it finally let go of him.
"Keymys...anytime now!" Elren'dor yells, an annoyed hiss coming in response. Keymys zeroes in on the stuffed birds, they got away once...not this time.
Elren'dor quickly follows Helena's approach, hiding underneath the chair he as grabbing on to. "If we're able to, we should try catching those who get pulled up with these chairs."
"Sounds good, we'll wait this out to see what happens once the birds are gone. Then form new plan if needed."
She lifts her head up to check on Keymys' progress. "Go kitty go!"
"Elren'dor!" Smallest Sun calls from the other side of the room. "I hope your cat knows what she's doing!"
Keymys does in fact know what she's doing, and manages to tear apart two of the remaining birds in rapid succession, however, as she's occupied with those, the last one continues its shrill assault on your ears and your bodies.
Narcisa lets out a yelp as her grip on the table slips, propelling her up into the air over it. Keymys looks up and sees the flailing rogue above the cage and her survival instinct kicks in. She leaps out of the cage just as Narcisa goes crashing down into the table and cage in what could only be described as the haunt's pyrrhic victory.
She crashes down onto the table, partially crushing the bird cage and successfully squashing the remaining bird before rolling off it to the floor. The table wobbles a bit, but doesn't fall apart or tip over.
There's a ringing in your ears that slowly fades into silence, but it appears that the birds were the source of the unnatural attacks on your persons. The door creaks open halfway, though no one waits on the other side.
"I would hope so!" Elren'dor shout back over the raucous of hisses, yowls, and snarling meows. "I think I created her!"
"Well, we have another outside door here, and unless any of you really want to explore outside in that strange fog right now, I'd say it's better to probably check everything inside before we worry about out there."
Helena steps back out into the hallway, but close enough to speak back into the room, "Too much rubble to get to this door on the right, but looks like another hallway up ahead if we can find passage around this rubble."
While everyone is pondering either to stay inside or go outside, Helena will see if she can get around the rubble to look down the hallway north. If everyone wants to check outside she'll come back after checking to see what doorways, etc are up there.
There's a door to the north on this side of the consultation room, as well as one that Helena noted is too crammed with debris. There's a narrow passage that appears to lead around, but it's easy to see it is also blocked by debris.
"Perhaps now we check the double doors to the north?" Smallest Sun asks. "I do not relish trying to travel through the fog."
He wipes his bald head of sweat. "This place is getting on my nerves. But I feel a little bit better, being here with you. I get the impression we've done things like this before."
Elren'dor slips out from underneath the chair as the last bird goes silent, the crash of the cage making him crawl out even quicker.
"Keymys! Keymys! Are you-" The white, furry feline walks over with an arrogant step in her step. She does lick first at the fallen human before her, nudging her with a purr before trekking over to the wizard. "Good girl, very good girl..." Elren'dor whispers with a smile upon his face, his hand playing through the long fur before he steps over and offers a hand to Narcisa.
Before they leave the room, he investigates the amulets and potions that the cultists had upon their person. With faintly glowing blue eyes, he examines each one.
"These amulets provide another layer of protection, like a thicker skin upon your own skin. It is unnoticeable though, we should use what we can."
Opening one of the potions and taking a quick sniff, Elren'dor takes a small drop of it upon his finger and tastes it. Keymys quickly hops upon the wizard's lap, looking curiously at him. "Do...you want to help?" He asks his familiar, the cat bumping into his hand and licking whatever was left there.
"Well...it has...a sweet taste. Yet burnt, like ash. I think...cinnamon?" Keymys meows excitedly, bumping into the wizard with another purr before he looks to the others. "I believe these to be potions of healing. Not particularly powerful but they should do for us."
Gathering their things, he steps alongside with Smallest Sun and gives a nod towards the man. "I agree. It is like a hazy memory but this...this feels familiar. We feel familiar. I don't think this is our first time working together at all."
"I concur, let us move to the double doors now and continue our exploration. My magic will protect me for quite some time but it will run out and...I worry what else may be lurking for us here."
Helena will head back to the main entry hall and up to the double doors next to the consultation room.
Before attempting to open them she will pause to listen if anything sounds from the other side, and to allow her companions to move up also.
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 do does a distinct bestial musk.
Elren'dor eyes will widen as the doors open up, revealing the library full of old tomes and printed wisdom. The smell elicits a sense of safeness, like when walks through the door and you know that you are home. Yet there is something wrong in the air too, something that didn't quite belong.
"That doesn't smell like a book..." Elren'dor will murmur to himself, looking in carefully. He doesn't enter in first but will after someone else takes the risk. Cautiously, he looks for any dangers or threats that are waiting behind the bookshelves and down the aisles.
"Something smells off..."
Smallest Sun will enter the room cautiously, his shield raised and sword in hand.
"There's something odd in here." he observes. "But... I don't know what it is."
Elren'dor will follow in behind Smallest Sun carefully, eager to find out what can be of use here but wary of that lingering stench that offends his nostrils.