"OK!" the voice squeaks back in response, the relief evident.
Albert relaxes his grip on the bardiche and nods a 'well done' affirmation to his companions. "You there, rat fellow, we'll show you mercy and put aside our differences if you help us. A young lad is missing, a wee boy, tell us truthfully, have you any idea of his whereabouts, or do you know any creatures that may?"
Things seem to be going well, until he adds, "That is, if you stinking vermin can be trusted despite your filthy, horrid nature."
Tristain, nervous about the newcomer Al's tone, steps between the man and the rat.
"Wait. Wait no...not yet. We're talking," Tristain says, unsure what to make of the Ratling who lives above the cell with the starting corner.
He turns to the rat.
"What did you want to tell us? Why did you attack us?"
"Tell you? Not to kill me! We attacked because you came into our room! I haven't seen any boys! They didn't come into our room!"
"Why didn't you talk to us then? We could have traded or something," Tristain replies, not having any of the ratlip's sass.
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As the conversation deepens, a little, Kyffin relaxes further, and puts away his crossbow, loosening the quarrel easily. Gonna need more bolts if I keep using this thing.
He walks over to the ratling and the corner-man, but keeps his distance lest he scare the rat... well either one really.
"You might have been facechangers, who tried to kill us!" the voice replies. "How do I know you're not facechangers?"
"If we were facechangers... we'd have killed you." Kyffin mutters obviously.
"But we didn't, did we? Ergo, we are not facechangers."
"Now, tell us, what do you know of this area of the complex?"
He Creates a little Water and washes his hands, shaking off the worst of the water and letting them dry naturally.
Heinrich nods along as the rat creature speaks. "It would seem that we all are suffering from paranoia. How long have your people lived here, rat-creature?"
"It would seem that we all are suffering from paranoia. How long have your people lived here, rat-creature?"
"Yeah, can you confirm that this place exists? I'm not sure that there is anything much beyond the cell with the starting corner."
Tenebrynn adds, likely not at all helpfully, with a jerk of her thumb over her shoulder, "Ah, well, we would have killed all of them if we were the not-doctor doctors. Did repeat myself multiple times though: 'Stop throwing books.' Didn't listen. Regrettable."
They did kill Jomas and Gobert. So they must be facechangers, then? she thinks to herself, though none of you can know that.
Aloud, she answers (invisibly nodding at the gnome girl, perhaps the only one to make any sense): "We live in warrens deep in the rocks below Briarstone Isle, but those tunnels are far too small for you big folk to fit. The shakes collapsed many of the tunnels anyway, so we're -- now just me, I guess -- are stuck here, away from our den. This place has good books, so we decided it could be our home."
Tristain listens to the rat's tail tale with interest.
"You say you're stuck here as well? Well, there are humanoidy things, like us up and stuck here too. And if you attack us or them again, they are going to come back and finish the job. I can't stop them...they don't listen to me or to reason..." Tristain's eyes flicker at the dangerous door that still hangs open. "So, you have to promise to leave us alone."
Albert distrusts the little vermin, but spares his new companions from his suspicions. At the mention of the warrens, an idea slowly kindles in Al's thoughts. "Say there, little rat fellow, is there a way through the underground for us to get away from this building?"
Heinrich nods. "Yes, is there a way for us to escape this place?
Tenebrynn shakes her head before the ratling has a chance to reply, "If there is, way out is lost to them too. Tunnels collapsed; already explained this. Should explore more, look for boy. Look for who we are; records."
The ratling -- though you're unaware of it but pauses and invisibly looks you all up and down -- before she replies. Before she gets the chance, though, Tenebrynn speaks up and takes the words out of her mouth.
At Tenebrynn's words, Al realizes he knows where records are likely to be kept -- the records room, on the far side of Administrator Losandro's office, which is through the library.
Tristain looks around, wondering if the ratling is going to reply to him.
Nothing here is what it seems. Kyffin thinks to himself. He wonders further if the ratling is truly friendly, or just bargaining for its life.
He hopes a bargain can be struck, no need for further killing if it can be avoided.
"Well, the records room might hold some clues for you folks, suppose we should go over there and see if anything remains." Albert leads the way to the records room once the group is done with the ratling.
"OK, I promise," the voice replies to Chalker.
Heinrich nods along with Albert. "Let us find out who we are. Rat, we will tell the others of your existence and advise them to treat you with kindness and care. I apologize for throwing a book at you. I regret we slew your friends. If I may salve your wounds, I would offer."
Tenebrynn nods. "We could speak to Winter too. Perhaps you could stay with the others if both you and they are willing." She offers this with a shrug toward the voice and glances to the others then shrugs again.
"No, thank you," the ratling says, and then falls silent, not answering any more questions.
Albert leads you through the northern doors into an L-shaped hallway, where Walter and Chalker notice several mucuslike smears on the tile floor. Confusius, the gnome girl and Chalker realize that the antiseptic-smelling smears form a trail that runs between several doors that Albert says lead to the conference room, junior doctor's office and Dr. Chawaar's office.
Other doors from this hallway leads to a lounge, Dr. Andresavage's office, and Administrator Losandro’s office . Next to the door to that last area is a nameplate that reads “Administrator Eliege Losandro.”
"Okay then, now that that's handled, I'm going to go back and take care of that door. I'm not going to be of much use to you going on now," Tristain says, wishing the party well and meaning to get that door off it's hinges.
He goes back to get his hammer and then back to building a fire to burn down the door, which is a great idea.
Heinrich begins to move toward the Losandro office, clearly bent on the records room.
Tenebrynn watches Tristain leave and inwardly wonders how long it will take the man to realize she'd stuffed all the kindling and his tools in her bigger-on-the-inside bag. She shrugs, then turns back to the others in their quest for records, her eyes overly wide and innocent looking.
"Don't you want to know your name - who you are?" Kyffin/Walter questions the man in the corner. "Leave the damn door alone. We may need it to fall back and regroup if this section proves more difficult."
"It's already been tricky, and could get worse, and you want to remove our one defensive barrier. It's crazy."
"Leave it." he says sternly and follows Heinrich to the office.
He pauses, and returns, "Can you use a crossbow? Want to carry mine around a while? That'll be somewhat useful."
"No. I don't want to be stuck out here when it grows back. In there, I know I'm safe. Out here there are ratlings and other things I don't know about," Tristain answers Kyffin.
"If you want to try to get the door off its hinges, that'd probably be better than the fire I plan to burn it away, but if you won't help with that, then I'll have to do it my way," Tristain answers because he knows the eye will come back. He knows.
"Maybe he's a clever not-doctor doctor? Just trying to ensure the other not-doctor doctors can get into the refuge?"
Albert squints one eye and fixes the other, apparently his good eye, on the man from the starting corner. "Your friend died behind that door and other good folk shared his fate, I reckon we're safer out here until proven otherwise. Seems to me that evil eye was trying to keep folks in, instead of keeping anything out."
"Seems to me that evil eye was trying to keep folks in, instead of keeping anything out."
Tristain nods at Al, glad to have the man on his side.
"You're right, we should take the door down so that others can escape if they need to. They are already running short of food and to leave them stuck in there again is a risk we cannot take."
Tristain goes to build his fire if no one will help him take the door off the hinges.
"Man in the corner, I'm beginning to think you're a fool. You'll set a fire that could burn whole building down, and we've no where to run."
"Further, if that, that, thing in the door is an innocent, you could kill it. I mean, this place is strange. What if it's the boy we seek? What if he's trapped in the door? Destroy it, and you kill him. Leave it alone, and we may find a way to save him - maybe even here among all these books."
"Either help us search, or go back with the women and children. Let's not make things worse by destroying things we don't understand." he looks at the dead ratlings, "If we can help it." he sighs unhappily.
Whatever the man in the corner decides, Kyffin is ready to move on. His words only carry the weight of their reason, and he doesn't trust that right now - no authority. So if the man continues to burn down the door, all he can do is watch, and help to put out the fire as it spreads before it kills them all.
Tristain looks at Kyffin.
"Who said anything about a fire?" Tristain asks, wondering how the man read his mind. "You think and know there is danger out here, and I'm telling you the door thing will come back. And you want leave it up? Why aren't you thinking this through? Tell me why you won't help instead of blundering around looking for more fights and danger?"
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When Tristain asks of fire, Tenebrynn looks at him pointedly and states flatly, growing more suspicious of the man from the starting corner, "You did."
"If you want to try to get the door off its hinges, that'd probably be better than the fire I plan to burn it away, but if you won't help with that, then I'll have to do it my way,"
"You think and know there is danger out here, and I'm telling you the door thing will come back. And you want leave it up? Why aren't you thinking this through? Tell me why you won't help instead of blundering around looking for more fights and danger?"
"I do not blunder around looking for more fights. I, and the others, seek information... and a little boy - possibly lost out here somewhere. Is that not enough to keep searching, even beyond our comfort?"
"I agree, it is risky, and we are weakened, but the boy is out here somewhere - if he's not in that door - and I'll look a little further before I rest this day." He shrugs uncertainly, "But I agree, it is risky, and so perhaps only a little further."
When Tristain asks of fire, Tenebrynn looks at him pointedly and states flatly, growing more suspicious of the man from the starting corner, "You did."
Tristain looks confused.
"I did? Oh, maybe I did. I knew it was a good idea when I heard it. I'll watch you guys go into one more area...but if that's another fight or more danger, I'm going back to handle that door. I gotta do the right thing."
"Can't be any fairer than that. One more room and we'll call it a day and guard that door. See what happens in the morning."
Kyffin moves on to the records room. If the boy's not there, they can at least search for their own selves a little while they wait.
"Hold there, young ones, no need to keep tromping about unless we're ready for a scuffle. Let me see those wounds, don't be shy, we don't need any of you getting infected with that ratty filth."
Before you can get to the records room , you have to enter the administrator's office, marked by the brass nameplate reading “Administrator Eliege Losandro.”
Yellow fog soundlessly roils against the cathedral-like windows of the opulent, two-story office. The ground floor features overstuffed furnishings, elegant side tables, and an altarlike desk of dark marble. A delicate spiral staircase and balcony of dark iron rises to a lofty library overhead. Both floors’ fixtures frame the lake of blood spread across the room’s center.
At the room’s center, a woman kneels in the pool of blood, her back straight, her mouth gaping at the ceiling. From her soundlessly screaming mouth an unsteady torrent of colored mist spurts like a fountain of gritty sludge.
"Okay, what is that? You want to be locked outside with things like that out here? It ain't safe! I keep telling you that!" Tristain says because he has very few ways to defend himself.
Know (Arcana/Religion?) on the womanthing
Tristain moves back from the door 10'.
You think it's something called an oneirogen, once normal mortals who suffered a rare but terrible curse. Within them lies a sliver-sized tear between planes, a crack hardly larger than a pinprick that destroys everything they once were in an endless deluge of planar power. Created by magical mistakes and otherworldly conjunctions, oneirogens typically wander in a haze as living husks whose grip on any reality has been erased.
Heinrich swears loudly. "WHat fresh hell is this? Does she suffer? Can she be helped?"
Kyffin is struck dumb by the sight, never in his memory, such as it is, has he seen anything like this. It looks quite unpleasant, and he is at a loss as to what to do.
He looks to the others for help.
Tristain explains what he thinks it is from a distance.
"I wouldn't trust it. We should stay away."
"If we cannot help her, what are we to do? Is she suffering? I don't understand what is going on." Kyffin looks on helplessly, dimly aware of his lack of knowledge.
"It seems wrong to leave her here like this." he looks to the others, "We should return to the others and get council. Maybe bring someone back here to look at her and see if she can be helped."
Knowing no better course of action, he'll return to the 'base' to seek someone with more knowledge.
"Or we should kill it. We can't save it," Tristain remarks. "Whatever it was, it's not that anymore."
Albert focuses his attention on the horrid sight of the Oneirogen as he ponders the decision to judge the thing as evil.