Kyffin was going to help out around the 'base', but now I figure he's on guard duty. But yeah, he'll take advantage of the other room if Albert agrees.
"I outta royally accuse you.." Albert starts working up his old man chastising for Winter, but the half orc cuts him off.
"Oh, I understand your concerns, I just don't agree with the stance. By your own argument, we should never have been let through. So clearly exceptions are made. But I'm not here to overrule you. This is your show. We'll be out here."
With nothing else to be said, Al nods in agreement and goes back to tending the woman. As the door falls from the hinges with a mighty kick, it becomes apparent that the room of Zandulus Saves would be a better location for their patient and she is transferred to there.
Winter nods at the nervous man's suggestion. "We certainly have a spear you can use; I'm afraid we need all the crossbows we have, however. I'm sorry."
Winter shrugs at Confusius' question.
"I'm not sure. I don't think I ever ran into one before I came to this made place," she says.
Winter nods at the nervous man's suggestion. "We certainly have a spear you can use; I'm afraid we need all the crossbows we have, however. I'm sorry."
Winter shrugs at Confusius' question.
"I'm not sure. I don't think I ever ran into one before I came to this made place," she says.
Heinrich will head to the chapel, staying close to the gnome.
Tristain takes the offered longspear (though he was really wishing for a crossbow) like a man who has never held one before: because he hasn't. The man from the the cell with the starting corner
"Thanks, I guess," Tristain comments, trying to avoid poking himself in the foot with the unfamiliar weapon. He turns to leave and follow Kyffin and the pointy point narrowly avoids Albert's head.
"I guess I can fight now too," Chalker mentions, adjusting the longspear in his grip, and nearly poking Albert in the 'down there'. Chalker will be in the hallway keeping watch on the not-there eye door and practicing with his new toy spear while not sleeping in the chapel.
"Fer the love of the gods, boy, have you ever handled one of them?" Albert fixes a critical eye on the man from the starting corner. "Look here, you grip the thing like this and when you plant it for a beast charging you down you brace it like this." The old man continues to offer advice, even unsolicited, as he is sure the young whipersnapper needs some guidance.
"What? Yeah, I guess," Chalker tries to hold the spear in the matter showed to him, trying to learn, but his wrists are pretty limp and his muscle tone is positively lacking.
"Like this, you mean?" Chalker tries a thing that nearly jabs the back-end of the spear up Kyffin's backside while weakly striking off in the direction he had intended.
"Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it."
Kyffin dodges out of the way of a few thrusts. "Watch it there corner-man. Hold the point high, so you don't hurt anyone. It's got more length than you know."
He too will help - or at least stand well out of the way and watch with a wary eye.
You retreat to the area north of the palisade, where you work on helping Chalker learn to use the spear, though the gnome girl and Confusius remain in the chapel, helping out as best they can before finally resting.
You have a disquieting dream, most of which you can't remember, though one part remains fixed in your memory:
The dream begins in a deserted alley, where you're wandering an endless, alien city pursued by mists. Soon, a wall collapses, revealing a disproportionately small room. Inside, an ancient Keleshite woman sits on a stool at a simple table. She looks up at you and says in a surprisingly strong voice, “Beware the yellow walkers.”
As you did the previous night, you dream, finding yourself in a gray, stone hallway, with almost every surface -- walls, ceiling, floors -- covered with eyes. Some look human, but plenty of other types are there too: elf eyes, gnome eyes, and stranger ones -- reptilian eyes with slit pupils and even a couple with fanged mouths dripping some sort of liquid. Most odd, though, they seem to add trying to look at you, or each other, or anything. No matter how far you walk down the hall -- and it feels like you're walking forever -- the eyes stretch. At the far end, just seemingly out of reach, you see a mirror, with your reflection constantly walking toward you.
You don't notice the eyes on the hall reflected in the mirror.
You dream of two small girls playing in the woods with a teddy bear. Through the trees, on the horizon, the girls see an imposing gray building on a forbidding island in a river. They watch as the sky fades from blue to grey and a yellow fog pours out of the building's chimney. The building -- no, the entire island -- seems to shudder and the fog rolls rapidly towards the two girls. They run away, dropping the stuffed animal in their haste.
You sleep peacefully; if you have any dreams, you don't recall them when you awake.
Weapon Equipped = None
Silver Blanch, Cold Iron Bolts = 6/10
Conditions = None
Melee: Attack: BAB +1, Str +3 Damage: Str +3
Ranged: Attack: BAB +1, Dex +1 Damage: +0 (Str +3 thrown)
Blessings (4/4) (DC 13) (Holy Strike or Powerful Healer)
Fervor (3/3) (1d6)
Spells (Caster Level 2, Concentration +4)
Once Per Day (12): Prestidigitation
Zero (12): Create Water, Detect Magic, Light, Stabilize
First (13): Divine Favor, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith
Kyffin/Walter wonders at his dreams, Were they always this lucid - or is it just this place?
He stretches and tries to get the kinks out of his joints before kneeling down and given thanks to Sarenrae that he lives to see another day. At least he thinks it's day...
He checks his gear, wishing he had access to more crossbow bolts. I'll need to save those.
He checks their prisoner and tries to get some fluids in her at least.
Turning to the group, he suggests, "Let us check those documents she was searching. Perhaps we'll learn something of who she is. Maybe we can help her if we show her reason." Even as he says it he doubts it. Not in this place. It tugs at sanity, shredding it like a hard cheese.
"I can cure her, but would rather wait a little longer. Until we know... something."
Perception
The man from the cell with the starting corner has some weird dreams, and not happy weird dreams, but unhappy bad dreams and he wishes he had his longspear with him.
When he finally wakes up for breakfast, he spends quite a bit of time looking into people's eyes for no good reason at all and that's that.
"Hopefully, we find that boy today. Where do you want to start? And do you mind if I come along?" Chalker asks Kyffin.
Albert welcomes the morning with the repeated passing of gas, loudly, frequently, and shamelessly. "Aaww, I haven't had that much exercise in a decade, makes an old man feel young. You, boy, hold that spear proper", he barks at the man from the starting corner, "the half orc has a good plan, let take a gander at them documents, maybe we learn something that can help us." Without a thought towards social failures, he finds the dour man and gnome girl and wakes them rudely from their slumber. "Git a move on, morning ain't waiting." With the party in tow, Albert leads them back to the records hall while continuing to teach the man from the starting corner the techniques of the spear. "No, no, no, use the pointy end, you don't slash with it, boy, what's wrong with you?"
Heinrich awakes from a deep and happy slumber. Looking for the others, he nods at the document scanning plan. "Yes. Let us hope they shed light on our missing memories."
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As you plan to head back toward the documents, you come face to face with a large staring eye again in the hallway where the door previously stood.
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Tristain loses his s*%&, banging his head against the wall, his longspear clambering to the floor.
"NO! NO NO!!"
*bonk* *bonk* *bonk*
*bonk* *bonk* *bonk*
*bonk* *bonk* *bonk*
"WHY? WHY IS IT BACK!?"
*bonk* *bonk* *bonk*
*bonk* *bonk* *bonk*
*bonk* *bonk* *bonk*
Kyffin looks at the eye and suggests, "Well if we had a door, perhaps we could open it and move the eye out of the way."
He thinks a moment, "So how do we get past it? Last time, we hurt it, then healed it, and the healing seemed to do the trick. Still, I'm loathe to sacrifice all our healing just to get up in the morning." he scowls at the placid eye.
Weapon Equipped = None
Silver Blanch, Cold Iron Bolts = 6/10
Conditions = None
Melee: Attack: BAB +1, Str +3 Damage: Str +3
Ranged: Attack: BAB +1, Dex +1 Damage: +0 (Str +3 thrown)
Blessings (3/4) (DC 13) (Holy Strike or Powerful Healer)
Fervor (3/3) (1d6)
Spells (Caster Level 2, Concentration +4)
Once Per Day (12): Prestidigitation
Zero (12): Create Water, Detect Magic, Light, Stabilize
First (13): Divine Favor, Divine Favor,
Kyffin stares at the eye for a long time, trying to figure it out. Not a big thinker, he's stumped and wonders what an eye might want.
He mumbles, "What would an eye want? Why is it here? If it's the boy trapped in the walls, why do we only see an eye. Why not the whole boy?"
"What's an eye do? It has a mouth too. Maybe it's hungry."
He looks up to the party, "OK, let's say it's the boy. What would the boy want to see. Mom maybe? Has mom been seen by the eye? I don't think we should tell her the eye is her son or anything, 'cause that's just guessing. But maybe if the eye sees her, it'll be satisfied."
He shakes his head, "Naw, never mind. That's a stupid idea. She'll likely just freak out and the eye will try to bite her or something. And who cares if it's satisfied, we want to get rid of it! Damn."
- - -
If no one has any ideas, he'll first try Create Water, letting the water splash over the eye - keeping well away from the bite attack. Maybe it's just dry...
When that doesn't work, he goes ahead and tries healing it again, using a blessing, just to get by it and move on.
Tristain stops bumping his head against the wall because his head hurts for some reason. He rubs his head where it feels like it has been repeatedly bashed.
He takes a moment to look at the returning eye, hoping for new insight.
Know (Religion)
"Healing the thing seems downright strange to me. We done that and it still came back, so it can't be the answer. We also cut it good and them wounds just healed, so that ain't it either. We keep hearing that 'Zandulus Sees', but what does he see, or what does he want to see, and is the eye Zandulus?"
*bonk* *bonk* *bonk*
*bonk* *bonk* *bonk*
*bonk* *bonk* *bonk*
Tristain goes back to bonking, which feels better than staring at the eye. He has some bad ideas, but no reasonable way to deal with the thing.
His longspear is still at his feet.
Albert pesters Winter to prepare holy water at her earliest opportunity knowing it will be a full day before she can do so.
Walter's water seems to have no effect, but his attempt to heal it certainly does. The eye cries out as before, "What have I become?" even as it sprouts fangs and snaps at the half-orc, scratching him . Again the smell of ammonia fills the area as a tear leaks down the yellow wall.
It continues to stand, though you think you can see through parts of it, clearly weakened by the magic, as before.
Chalker picks up his longspear and moves to the side and begins to jab at the stupid eye, trying to get some practice with the reach weapon.
to hit;
damage.
"He's a stick in your eye! You dirty eyeball!"
Chalker hits the wall -- unfortunately, not the yellow one, but the stone wall next to it, chipping the white paint.
Heinrich sighs. "You have become Zandalus."
The eye/wall doesn't react to Confusius' words.
"Or perhaps you have not." Heinrich mixes up a curing infusion and pours it on the eye.
The eye cries out once more, snapping ineffectually at the mustachioed man, and looking yet a little more worn. You suspect one more spell might be enough to do away with it again.
Heinrich sighs and prepares another curing infusion.
The wall snaps at him once again before fading away, its final wail echoing in the hallway, "I can't see, what have I become?"
Tenebrynn shakes her head as the group passes the withering eye once more. "Eye asks question repeatedly: 'what have I become'. No ears to hear, so telling it didn't work. Tried drawing it and showing, also didn't work. Need something better. Eye wants something, give it what it wants and maybe it will leave."
"Yeah, but if the eye can't see or hear, how do we tell it anything?!" Kyffin asks frustrated and a little snippy. He apologizes soon after, "Sorry, that eye is getting under my skin." he rubs the small bite mark left on him from his contact with the eye.
"Let's check out those records, maybe we can help the woman before we wake her up - and help ourselves if there are documents there that speak to us."
Albert agrees with the suggestion of checking the records and follows the half orc back to the room. "It's an eye that can't see, it talks but can't hear, it ain't got a nose, its tear drops smell like chemicals, and healing sends it away, how are we suppose to communicate with the darn thing?" Al grumbles.
Chalker tries again with his longspear, even after nearly jabbing Heinrich in the back of the leg last time.
"I'll get you yet!" he pokes again with his noodly arms.
to hit;
damage.
Tristain's blow comes as the wall fades away, but he's pretty sure it would have gone right through the thing's eye if it had still been there.
The obstacle again gone, you make your way back to the room, which appears mostly unchanged since you were last in it, other than the small blood stain on the floor from your captive having dried.
The other door in the room is locked, and papers are scattered over the floor.
Kyffin looks through a few documents and shrugs, "This is all over my head. I can help someone organize if you like, but I won't be much good. I don't think I spent much time in a library."
He'll stand guard on the researchers, and aid if called upon.
vs DC 10 (untrained)
or
Heinrich sighs deeply when the crazy man stabs empty air, then follows the others into the records room to search through the knowledge there.
Chalker enters the library and smiles. Just a little smile as he walks around running his hands on the books. He feels much more at ease and less like bonking his head against anything.
"When did you find this place? This...this place is a good place. It is the Library above the Cell with the Starting Corner! This is a good place, I bet," Chalker reads a couple of spines of books, wondering what types of books might be here.
"If we have time, lots of time, I bet I could do some research in here, and probably learn a lot," Chalker leans his longspear against the wall, nearly spearing Tenebrynn's foot to the floor and begins to stack some books.
"Is there anything we need to know? Like how this demiplane was created? Or who created it? Or what the nature of reality is?"
If given time and a good topic to research, Tristain will rock some research.
Know (local);
Al shuffles through the scattered papers, the old man's hands surprising deft with the documents, though he squints at everything.
Chalker seems quite at home among the mess of papers, with surprising help from Walter, though the rest of you have trouble making heads or tails of the tossed room.
Though there's nothing about a demiplane -- these appear to be records of an asylum in Ustalav -- the young man's excitement continues to grow, at one point causing him to leap up and, overbalanced, fall right back down *bonking* his butt on the floor.
"Tristain!" he shouts. "That's my name!"
The record he's looking at describes a human that matches his description, with the name Tristain in stark letters at the top. It notes he was brought to Briarstone by Count Haselton Lowls, whom he worked for in some capacity (the paperwork doesn't indicate how). The records diagnose him as an amnesiac suffering from a manner of fugue state.
He further finds notes identifying Heinrich and Tenebrynn, as well as someone named Belzoni -- who matches the description of the slain man who was in the cell with the starting corner with him. All of them were also brought by Lowls, former employees with the same diagnosis.
Unfortunately, Walter's true identity must remain in the paperwork he wasn't able to get to in the last eight hours.
"Tristain? My name is Tristain?! That's disappointing," Chalker says as he reads and re-reads the papers again. "What kind of name is that?"
"I used to work for Lowls, huh? Did I? Huh...I don't remember, but that's amnesia for you, I guess."
Chalker smiles, having learnt something important today.
"And you're Heinrich and you're Tenebrynn. Good names. Nice to meet you," Chalker continues. "And now we finally have some evidence that this might not be a demi-plane after all, but might be in the 'real world'," he makes air quotes around the words 'real world'.
Chalker sombers up for a moment.
"And the Giant from the Cell with the Starting Corner was named Belzoni. Humph. We should add that to his gravestone when we make it."
Chalker is content to research more or search more, but knows that he may spend more time back in here at a later time.
"Tristain is a good name."
Walter is sullen, though he tries not to show it, when at the end of the day much is learned, but nothing about him. "So I'm not mentioned huh? Maybe I came here by a different path." he shrugs, smiling weakly.
"It's getting late, we've been here a long time. Let's spend the evening looking for the boy in this section before we return to the others."
He straightens his back and stretches a little before taking his scimitar back out and making ready to move on.
Tenebrynn looks up from her spot in the corner at the commotion, turning away from a small, chaotic tower fashioned from bent and folded pieces of paper stacked in a careful jumble. "Tenebrynn is me?" She pauses for a moment before nodding in acceptance. "Ok." Walking up to Kyffin, she offers him one of his own scarfs as she pats his arm encouragingly. "Maybe you are just in other papers. There are very many, after all."
"Well, I think I'm mostly searched and read out for the day," Chalker picks up his longspear, flinging the pointy end dangerously near Kyffin while the butt nearly kneecaps Albert.
"Where did we want to go next? I'm ready to stab things like I stabbed that eye."
Chalker is happy to follow someone to a new area now that he has his trusty longspear.