The creature darts forward, pinned into the body of the stag but seeming to snake outwards and grow, an insubstantial mass of jaws, sound and angles.
.
As the living distortion passes over you images and sounds fill your mind, a confusion of voices, laughter and old memories. They belong to each of you, a jumble of moments from your own past that jostle for space - a frenzy of memory so loud and vivid that it hurts.
... and the frenzied workers are 80feet away, and closing...
As the other-worldly monstrosity lurches about it's former prison of flesh, the ear-piercing symphony of discordance wrecks havoc upon the poor Professor's hearing.
Covering his ears with his hands, the Professor stumbles back five feet or so and runs towards the open door of the office.
Silas, almost finished with his moat, pauses as the song passes over him. Most are confusing, but in some... in some she is there, before he came Home. He aches. Pain rushes over him - and the memories fade.
The ache remains, and looking down Silas sees the remaining vials he was cradling against his chest have shattered. Hundreds of tiny oil-covered shards embedded in his chest and arms.
Surprising. That many glass shards in the chest cavity... I would expect a lot more blood. The patient must be in shock. Need to get those sealed quickly before it wears off. Any moment now he'll - I'll...
The front of Silas's shirt is suddenly a mass of blood, and he flops onto the ground as if his strings were cut.
Moffrey shouts wordlessly, tipping another cabinet over to block the remaining window on the east side of the office.
.
Seeing the man with the oil drop to the floor Harbek stops his dash for the door, "Damn " he says sheathing his swords and moving to the man.
Noticing that Silas has not moved, The Professor will divert his path towards his slumped body and attempt to drag him swiftly inside.
Quickly! Someone help me! Silas is not moving!!!
Sliding to a halt just inside the threshhold betwwen the porch and the now thoroughly vandalized office, Caveth turns back when the professor calls out. Silas' crumpled form fills him with dread. He drops Kay's flail to the floor with a clatter and fumbles for the pendant on the leather thong about his neck.
"This is very bad," he frets quietly, fingering the small wooden rose.
A wave of mellow light, like that from a low burning candle, seems to flow forth from the half elf. It is barely visible, it can be felt more than seen, filling everyone it washes over with a sense of warmth, comfort and reassurance.
Barely daring to open her eyes, Kay explores the possibility that she might be alive.
This isn't my afterlife; where are my ancestors?!
She rises to her feet and looks about the office.
"What's going on?"
Joseph screams as the ear-piercing noise reaches him. He stumbles some, but continues running, clutching at his ears.
"It's hard to explain," Caveth replies to Kay, pleased that she is up on her feet but able to see that she's still gravely injured, "There are more creatures out there. And the first still lives. The stag was not it's true form. It is...something...else. Shape and noise as Atterleigh said."
Didn't realise you were waiting for me.
Silas, blood still pouring down his chest but now concious - if debilitated - emerges once again into conciousness.
His bleary eyes open to find himself lying in a puddle of oil and broken shards. Some thing is approaching, and from all around wild, insane, crazy workers approach.
In an episode that Silas cannot later explain, he finds that he is moving - somehow - into the porch, a slimy trail of blood and oil wiping off as he crawls across the muddy, wet ground.
Seeing rescuers come towards him he holds up his hand for help and screams "Light it up! Light it up!"
The oil shimmers on the ground behind him, ready to become a wall of fire.
The unstable creature extricates itself carefully from the corpse of the stag, and howls before crawling slowly away from the office and back towards the forest - it seems likely from the faltering movements of the thing that damaging its 'host' has dealt serious damage to it in turn.
The workers sprint past it towards you, ignorant of its plight - this close you can see the cracked and peeling skin around their faces and throats, and a terrible soulless frenzy in their eyes.
I'll run through the door and ready an action to slam it shut once the dwarf is over the threshold.[/ooc]
.
Kay has certainly seen better days, and hasn't felt this poorly for a long time, perhaps even never before.
She climbs up on to a chair then onto the table, where she retrieves her other javelin and looks to the door waiting for a target.
.
Harbek grabs Silas by the arm and hauls him to his feet. " Come on let's get inside. Maybe we can throw a lamp out to light the oil! " he says as he half drags half carries the man through the door.
Moffrey, hearing Harbek's shout, grabs a burning piece of firewood from the hearth. Although too far aqay to make it to the front of the office he is ready to throw it in the direction of anybody that needs it.
When the dwarf hauls Silas into the office and the Professor is about to slam the door, Caveth surveys the room and the people in it. Most all of his new companions are injured, some more grievously than others. Everyone looks dishevelled and desperate. The office itself is a mess with broken bits of glass and furniture spread around, papers all over the place and makeshift barriers shoved in front of the windows as well as blocking the stairs. It is mostly secure, aside from the window he smashed out a moment ago.
"This is a suitable place to make a last stand," he tells himself, hoping it doesn't come down to that.
Closing his eyes, Caveth harkens back to the many dank and lightless days he wiled away in that dungeon cell an ocean away. He remembers how he was able to continue on even when it seemed there could be no hope of doing so; that same soft, reassuring light flows forth from him during this reverie. The halo brightens the room briefly and invigorates everyone it engulfs.
"Ah good. Great. Another survivor." Taking in the scene she is genuinely glad to see another living person.
"Mr Dwarf, how do you do? And thanking for hauling Mr Bishop in. Had you been but a few seconds earlier it would have been me you carried in."
Hoping for a few seconds before the crazed workers arrive, Kay takes a moment to retrieve her pack, and shoves two flasks into her pockets . She resumes her position on the table with her javelin ready, unless there is a better place to defend from, or more work to be done.
Harbek looks at the halfling in slightly taken a back by her calm manner. " How do you think I do? Weird things bursting out of half rotten stags... " he grabs the brand from Moffrey's hands and moves to the broken window hurling it towards the oil slick.
" Names Harbek, " he says looking out to see if the oil lights. " Came out here to do some maintenance on the saws, place was abandoned though. I was feeling a little out of sorts so I decided to have a little rest. Next thing I know there's a dog in my face and a racket outside... "
"Thank you Mr Harbek - your awakening was well timed. Now; to barricade ourselves in!"
The moat of oil catches light instantly, a sudden wall of flickering heat in the intensifying rain. Now with the east windows covered and the front of the house blocked by a barrier of fire, only the western windows on the wall of the office covered with desks and maps are not blocked.
Joseph grumbles under his breath, and waits for the inevitable.
.
Shocked to discover that his chest is somehow intact Silas decides to push himself, grabs the nearest assistant and starts trying to move heavy furniture over the west windows.
The Professor bolts the door and wedges a chair beneath the handle. He then will assist everyone in barricading the remaining windows.
Professor, a quick check of the barricade shows that it seems to have been constructed to stop something from getting up to the second floor, rather than getting down. It looks untouched, though.
"Good thought Miraculous - but will someone please assist me!"
Joseph goes over to help Silas move stuff.
.
" Kay, help me clear these stairs, we can use the stuff to block the windows and if they break through we'll have some where to retreat to and can fight them one at a time on the stairs. "
Kay and Harbek set about clearing the stairs and blocking the windows. If there's enough time Harbek will run up the stairs to see what's up there.
Harbek, the stairs are well blocked. You manage to tear free a table and a few planks of wood, but it would take some considerable time to clear a path through using only your hands. You do, however, manage to pass enough material to Silas and Joseph to block one window, leaving only one free on the western side, nearest the back of the office.
And then the workers reach you.
Glass breaks on the eastern side of the office, but Moffrey's cabinets hold firm. The head of an axe splinters through the front porch door, but you doubt it will break so easily. You hear shouting from outside over the sound of the rain, and the pounding of makeshift weapons on the front wall.
But you have more immediate concerns - two figures hurl themselves against the front windows either side of the porch. The iron bars on the left hand window hold against the initial assault, but the right-hand window next to the curious funneled machine gives way, a flaming figure crashing into the room, screaming.
Joseph heads to the flaming figure, and slices into him.
Trusting to his companions to stop this new threat Silas concentrates on blocking the remaining window on the west wall before more enemies can enter.
Caveth moves and swipes with his mace at the man who plunged through the window nearby.
.
Kay launches her Javelin at the flaming man
Harbek draws his swords again and moves in.
Move: 20ft hopefully enough to get me to the guy.
, you move toward the flaming man but he is firmly removed from this mortal coil before you have taken more than a few steps, Joseph's sword and Caveth's mace between them making short work of him before he can even rise.
The pounding on the front door increases, and you are starting to feel the warmth of the flames at the front of the office, though you seem to be safe enough from the fire spreading for the moment, due to the wet mud between the oil moat and the office walls.
, you are making progress with the window when you hear growls and barking from outside - a glance reveals that the injured wolfhound you so recently had in the sights of your crossbow has downed one of the workers as he came running around to your side of the office and is now running full pelt towards the half-covered window with two other workers in pursuit. The hound will likely die if you leave it out there, but letting it reach the window and leap through has a chance of disturbing your half-finished protection, and would allow the two workers in pursuit to follow through easily if they managed to burst the rusted iron bars.
"That damn dog is trying to get in! They're chasing it!" growls Silas, preparing to reinforce the window.
Caveth steps past the corpse and sticks his head out the unobstructed window. Putting his fingers in his mouth, he whistles sharply and yells, "Over here, pooch!" Then he moves back and prepares to whack with his mace if a humanoid comes through rather than the wolfhound.