Tristain researches, looking for things of interest. As he reads, curled up against the wall with books and scrolls about him, the bonking of his head against the wall still happens, but is less fervent, and less fulled with angst.
He seems contented.
Know (Local)
Tenebrynn wanders aimlessly about as the group abandons the search for the young boy and resumes the search for names and answers. Her attention wanders from paper to paper barely within the span of a paragraph, and she entertains herself in between readings with little zephyrs or shooting small rocks into a nearby wall.
When she next speaks, she's splayed out upon the ground on her back, with her arms and feet fanned out. "How long have we been in here? This room. Now, specifically? Feels like months!" She sighs, and a trio of small stones next to her, spinning slowly in tiny little funnels of wind, suddenly clack to the floor as the currents dissipate.
Kyffin/Walter does what he can to help, but it isn't much.
vs DC 10 to aid Tristain.
He keeps pushing texts that Tristain has already seen, sorting piles the wrong way, and generally getting in the way until he gives up and joins Tenebrynn, trying to stay out of the way.
"So how do you do all that with wind. That's pretty cool, control over the air like that. Very powerful it seems to me."
"How? I.... don't know. Not really. It just... happens, I guess. Like breathing. Maybe I used to know how?" She shrugs, still lying upon her back. "I thought everyone could do it. But Heinrich's fire isn't fire, and Tristain can't jump like me. So, I don't know. Is it the same with you and your magic or different? You know the how and the why?"
Spending the rest of the day among the notes, you finish reading them, learning that a half-orc named Kyffin Rhees was brought to the asylum along with Tenebrynn, Heinrich, Tristain and Belzoni; like them, he was diagnosed as an amnesiac suffering from a manner of fugue state.
"Kyffin? What kind of orc name is that?" Tristain asks himself, confused. "Maybe they misspelt 'Killing' or 'Muffin' or something." Tristain hands over the parchment to Walter to read.
"I think that's you, dude." Tristain says with a smile, having done something he was good at. Then he yawns.
"Maybe we should get back to the Chapel, to rest. To relax. Been a long day."
Albert puts down the parchment he was squinting at and yawns. "Rest sounds good, I ain't as spry and full of energy as I used to be."
He listens well to Tenebrynn and wonders if he has powers yet untapped. "Maybe I'll learn how to do that some day." he chuckles.
Later, after the studying, "Kyffin huh? I guess that's me. Fudge state. Hrumph. I don't even like chocolate. Makes my teeth feel weird." As he walks he repeats the name to himself, trying to make it his. It takes some work...
"I agree, let's see to our prisoner, and get some sleep. Come at this thing fresh tomorrow."
He makes some accommodation for the prisoner to eat and stretch out. He wonders what they're going to do. He struggles to see some future out of all this.
Given his druthers, Tristain will sleep in the Chapel. He'd be bonking his head against the statue of Iomedae (if there is one, can't remember) until he falls asleep.
Sorry, Kyffin spends the night with their prisoner again, ostensibly keeping watch over him when he's not sleeping. Hopefully someone joins him so he's not sleeping alone with the prisoner.
Heinrich will sleep in the same room as Kyffin, hoping to gleam more information from his dreams.
The night passes uneventfully for Tristain and Tenebrynn in the chapel, but Al, Heinrich and Kyffin find themselves again suffering dreams.
You find yourself wandering in an endless cloud of yellow vapor. Other shapes form and vanish in the mist, fleeting, unsettling things that refuse to be focused upon. After what seems like a lifetime, an exhausted-looking man with a ponytail of straight, white hair stumbles through the fog. He’s insane with desperation. He tries to pass you by, but as you reach out to stop him, he turns to you and shouts, “We’re
all lost here! We’ll never escape!” before rushing away.
You find yourself back in the same endless, alien city as you've seen before. All seems quiet, just the clammy yellow fog swirling around you. You start walking, looking fora way out, but there doesn't seem to be, every turn seemingly taking you back to where you started ... you think. Then the mists pull back to reveal the familiar gaunt monster from the first dream you recall. It seems surprised to see you. It cocks its head and floats forward. Just as it reaches out to caress your face, you awake!
You find yourself in the same endless, alien city as in the first nightmare you remember, with your new friends at your side. Again, the horrific monster seems to stalk you, your friend fleeing into the mist no matter how much you call for them. You're all alone, except -- you know -- for the hunter, out there somewhere in the yellow. The mist swirls, and suddenly the monster is right there, in your face. You see him pull back his arm for a killing strike and the claws coming right at you ... and you suddenly AWAKE, gasping for breath, your brow covered with sweat.
In addition, the prisoner seemed to suffer similar dreams, and at some point he somehow suffered some actual harm, four long streaks of crimson staining the yellow robes above his chest.
Kyffin rises quickly at first, covered in sweat and startled. From a half raised position he climbs eventually to his feet and looks around. He sees the injury on their prisoner and realizes it could have been much, much worse.
"I do not like these dreams, not at all." he mutters, splashing some water on his face and neck - conjured from thin air.
Tristain wakes from his sleep with his arms curled around the statues feet, his head pillowed on her toes. He rises and stretches, remembering the one thing he was supposed to do this morning: identify the unidentified.
Spellcraft (scalpel)
Spellcraft (wand)
Spellcraft (pearl)
Spellcraft (incense)
Spellcraft (talisman-winged)
Spellcraft (talisman-speared)
He goes to search for breakfast, happy to explain what he has learned about the stuff.
Kyffin watches Tristain and tries to fill any gaps he left behind. He looks over the gear the party has found so far, and tries to identify things. What he cannot, he passes around to any others to check as well. He knows his skills are weak.
DC 26 (candle), DC 24 (incense), DC 22 (amulet), & DC 16 (amulet)
Albert awakens disturbed and groggy. "The dreams are awful in this place, almost enough to drive a man back into that burning rain. Speaking of which, I know of a door on the far area of the garden path that would lead eventually to the area cut off by the blood wall."
Tenebrynn looks up at Albert with wide, curious eyes. "Bad dreams? Again? I slept well. No bad dreams. No crazy man running in the fog like the first night. Just... normal. At least I think it's normal."
As he explains the path through the garden will bring them past the veil of blood, she shrugs. "Hopefully leeches are gone this time."
You make your way back to the garden path, emerging carefully as you discover it's not raining, though the yellow fog seems even closer than before. As you move toward the far end, Tenebrynn suddenly trips and falls to the ground, though she doesn't see anything that she might have tripped over -- it's almost as if the fog itself tripped her.
The door on the far side is locked, though you're able to open it with one of the keys Tristain found on Administrator Losandro's body. As he's doing that, Heinrich feels something tug at his ankle, though he's able to keep his feet. Again, nothing seems to be there except for the swirling fog.
Entering through the door, you enter the area where Al says nurses once took the histories of new patients and gave them preliminary examinations.
Pale paint peels like scabs from the walls of this spacious chamber. A bent desk guards a broad hall stretching away to the north, while curtained frames shroud the room’s eastern quarter. On the other side of the curtains, a steady light glows.
The place smells intensely of rubbing alcohol.
You can hear some sort of scratching -- like fingernails on rock -- coming from a ways down the hallway leading north .
"Sneaky fog!" Tenebrynn shoots a blast of wind at it as she and the others slip into the preliminary exam room. As she pulls a jagged triangle of peeling paint up and away from the wall, the gnome stops suddenly and asks, "Anyone hear that? Sounds like scratching." She looks left, then right, then points toward the northern hall. "Sounds like it's coming from that direction. Could be missing boy. Could be more yellowrobes. Or rats. Or anything." She says this last with a bit of a sigh, discouraged at how there's no way to anticipate what the source of the sound might be.
Tristain hands out the magic items he identified, but keeps the wand of Bless for himself. He seems quite well rested and excited to go out again, noted by the waving longspear that accidentally whirls near people's faces and over their heads.
"Dreams? What dreams?" Tristain pushes others to explain their dreams. "I think the dreams are the mental farts of the mind that is manifesting this temporary reality. Like farts, they escape when we sleep...and are evinced by your dreams. We should examine them more and more for indications of what the plane creator is thinking, doing, wants...because we have no idea yet."
Tristain looks to see if BK Supreme or Kyffin have had any dreams.
* * *
Perception
Tristain lifts his hand to his ear as to hear better, nearly poking BK Supreme in the back of the head has he does with his longspear.
"Do you guys hear that? Tenebrynn is right, that's scratching! That way," Tristain points with his longspear, doing a very nice thrust with his longspear...nicer and with better form than anything he's done so far. "Let's be careful."
"Good point Tristain, we should share our dreams." he shudders with the memory of it, but does his best to describe what he saw....
You find yourself in the same endless, alien city as in the first nightmare you remember, with your new friends at your side. Again, the horrific monster seems to stalk you, your friend fleeing into the mist no matter how much you call for them. You're all alone, except -- you know -- for the hunter, out there somewhere in the yellow. The mist swirls, and suddenly the monster is right there, in your face. You see him pull back his arm for a killing strike and the claws coming right at you...
"... and suddenly I was wide awake and covered in sweat. Not pleasant at all."
- - -
He follows the others, and when folks hear stuff, he draws his scimitar and readies for anything. He walks the direction Trstain points, careful to avoid that point as he goes.
Passing several doors, you creep toward the sound, where two hallways meet beneath a lofty ceiling. High windows, alive with the nauseating fog beyond, give the space an airy feel. The hall continues northward, but a portion of the western hallway has collapsed, blocking it with tons of rubble.
You discover the source of the noise there: a gaunt humanoid creature with pallid flesh struggling to claw through the rubble, ignoring the dead flesh torn from its hands with every scrabble and scrape.
"You say you were stalked by a monster, huh? That's weird," Tristain scratches his head, realizing he has no training as a dream analyst. "Maybe it's the repressed feelings about his or her mother coming to the surface."
* * *
Tristain examines the creature while deciding what to do.
Know (Religion)
"Yep, right awful dreams, in mine I was wandering in an endless cloud of yellow vapor... Other shapes form and vanish in the mist, fleeting, unsettling things that refuse to be focused upon. After what seems like a lifetime, an exhausted-looking man with a ponytail of straight, white hair stumbles through the fog. He’s insane with desperation. He tries to pass you by, but as you reach out to stop him, he turns to you and shouts, “We’re all lost here! We’ll never escape!” before rushing away..."And then just like that I woke up. It ain't right, ain't right at all."
"I think the dreams are the mental farts of the mind that is manifesting this temporary reality. Like farts, they escape when we sleep...and are evinced by your dreams. We should examine them more and more for indications of what the plane creator is thinking, doing, wants...because we have no idea yet."
"Boy, you go around smelling farts on your own time, we have a child to find and people to save."
Albert readies his bardiche to attack the undead thing clawing at the rubble, but he waits for the group to act.
As Albert describes his experience, Tenebrynn remarks offhandedly, "That's the same dream I had the first night. No bad dreams since though. Wonder what the cause is. What's different?"
---
As the others watch the undead thing scrabble at the stone, Tenebrynn shouts, "Hey! Are you a crazy person like the yellowrobes or a not-crazy person?" She shoots Tristain and his erratic longspear a sideways glance then adds, "Deal with enough crazy people already; little patience left!" As she speaks, small zephyrs of wind begin to gather and swirl about her feet and ankles.
HP: 21/21
Nonlethal:
AC: 15 (13 T / 12 FF)
Fort: +6 // Ref: +6 // Will: +1 (+2 vs illusion)
Burn Accrued: 0/6
SLAs: dancing lights [ ], ghost sound [ ], prestidigitation [ ], speak with animals [ ]
Ongoing Effects:
Warden of Nature: +1 to hit/+2 dodge bonus vs aberrations, oozes, vermin
Foe of the Strange: +1 to saves vs aberrations, -10 to confusion results
Point Blank Shot: +1/+1
Kyffin, scimitar out and ready, waits to see what Tenebrynn's words bring before he wades into combat.
The ghoul spins at Tenebrynn's words. It eyes the group of you, realizing it's well outnumbered, and pauses.
"We're all crazy here," it says, "but I'm just trying to get out."
It gestures to the rubble, which it has already gotten a good start on clearing...
"We'll help set you free," Tristain replies aloud, but then says "Kill it! It's a ghoul!" under his breath as he sets his longspear to attack if it charges.
He looks at Tenebrynn to lead the assault.
"Inside is better than outside. Really bad things are in the fog. You don't want to go there, trust me." She glances to the others, at Tristain for the longest stretch, then shrugs before asking another question. "Were you here before the fog came?"
Kyffin draws his blade and prepares to advance when Tenebrynn speaks with it.
Impatiently, he stays his hand, and waits to hear what this ghoul has to say.
"No, the fog has always been here," the creature responds, watching you warily as Tristain mutters under his breath and Kyffin pulls his sword.
"Oh." Tenebrynn's tone suggests she's disappointed by the answer, but whether that's because the response is boring or something else remains unclear.
She shrugs. "We know that isn't true. And I think we're going to fight now." Her voice still carries hints of disinterest, but she drops into a lower stance, ready to send a blast of debris and stones into the lying ghoul.
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Round 1, Init 11
"You shoulda listened to me," Tristain says moving next to Tenebrynn and setting his longspear should the ghoul charge. "I'm getting gooder about figuring this place out. After all, I discovered the starting corner. I know things."
Tristain readies his spear.
to hit;
damage.
to hit;
damage.
Tenebrynn shrugs at Tristain's rebuke, "You wanted to burn down the door and you think people aren't real! Why would anyone listen to you?" She spins, ending with a kick that sends a spiraling cluster of debris and stones toward the ghoul.
HP: 21/21
Nonlethal:
AC: 15 (13 T / 12 FF)
Fort: +6 // Ref: +6 // Will: +1 (+2 vs illusion)
Burn Accrued: 0/6
SLAs: dancing lights [ ], ghost sound [ ], prestidigitation [ ], speak with animals [ ]
Ongoing Effects:
Warden of Nature: +1 to hit/+2 dodge bonus vs aberrations, oozes, vermin
Foe of the Strange: +1 to saves vs aberrations, -10 to confusion results
Point Blank Shot: +1/+1
"Burning down the door was a good idea. Probably would have stopped the Eye if we had...also, you can't prove that you're real. I can't either...just need to accept the possibility that maybe you don't exist except in someone's mind. If you don't open your thinking, then...then...then maybe we'll never figure out why we're here and why so many things don't make sense," Tristain rebuts, trying to save the argumentative gnome's life with his mighty spearwork.
Heinrich sighs as the gnome and bonking man spar verbally. "We WILL figure this out. WE MUST. I cannot abide a world that does not make sense in such a way. And first, let us deal with this ghoul." Heinrich mixes a bomb and throws it! for damage and 4 splash, lest you make a DC 13 reflex save for half! ?
for an additional damage
Heinrich's bomb catches the ghoul by surprise, as he reaches out to catch it only for it to explode in his face. He reels back, causing Tenebrynn's blast to miss him, but when he rushes forward award, he impales himself on Tristain's spear. He twitches a few times, but then collapses to the ground, pulling the weapon out of the Chalker's hands.
Tristain tries to gently pull out his spear from the ghoul, and nearly pokes Tenebrynn in the eye with the handle as he struggles to free it from the body.
"See? Them ghouls aren't to be trusted," Tristain explains. "Now, which way to go next?"
Tristain thinks they should go to the wall of blood, probably.
"Maybe we can find a table to put in the doorway and we can crawl under that to avoid the blood? There are plenty of offices nearby, aren't there? Or maybe some solid wood? That might work too...create a ramp to divert the flow?"
"We should check out them rooms we just passed. If the boy is still alive he must have holed up somewhere safe, and him getting past that ghoul ain't likely." Albert takes a wary step back expecting Chalker's spear to swing errantly in his direction.
He didn't even have time to raise his scimitar and the ghoul was cut down. He nods in agreement with the act, and with Al's suggestion. "I agree. Let's check out this section before we move off to that wall of blood."
Moving back, you begin checking the doors you passed, which all appear to be patient rooms: A bed and a low table are perhaps all that are required for a patient to quietly convalesce here, but the accommodations hardly look comfortable.
In the first, a portion of the tiled ceiling has given way, allowing heavy bricks to fall across the bed and floor. Fortunately, no one seemed to be in the room when the collapse occurred.
In the second, three figures lie dead. Two wearing yellow robes lie slumped on the floor, having suffered repeated vicious blows to the face. A third -- an old man easily in his 80s and wearing a light cloth dressing gown -- has fallen back across the bed. He is dead, but has a satisfied smirk on his face and still grips a sturdy leather boot with blood on its heel. The boot’s partner lies on the floor nearby.
The boots are well worn, but come from Angier’s -- a famed shop that holds the royal warrant for leatherworking. If cleaned, these boots could fetch up to 200 gp from a buyer.
In the third room, a shapeless mess of sheets and pillows piles atop two plain beds. Bold chalk letters high on the opposite wall proclaim this to be “Brenton and Debis’s Room.” Debis isn't in the room, however, as far as you can tell.
You don't find the boy, but you do find a pair of carved wooden knights in the tangle of sheets at the foot of the southern bed.
In the fourth, human-shaped carnage covers the bed. The window is broken.
You finds a gold signet ring with a holly-and-hawk emblem.
The symbol is that of the Millair family of Redleaf Lake.
Tenebrynn nods to the chalk and chides Tristain, "Their handwriting is better."
She bends down then, vanishing under the spartan bed as she explores. A moment later, she pops up from beneath a pile of linens. "Look! Found some toys. Still no Debis, though."
----
Tenebrynn turns her nose at the carnage staining the bed, shaking her head at the gruesome sight. As she does though, her gaze seizes on one corner of the room and she slips over and kneels down. "Hey. I found a ring! Ooooh. There's markings!"
Heinrich spots the ring and the toys as well, but has no insight to add.
Kyffin stays near the front as they search the rooms. He focuses more on threats than searching and is, or tries to be, ever watchful of the unknown.
He will peer out the window briefly before returning to the matter at hand.
"No boy." he says glumly as the party continues the search.
"Where to now? Are we out of options but for the blood wall?" he shudders slightly trying not to think about the oozing of blood that is sure to cover him.