Heinrich, who is Confucius, climbs next. He takes 10. He is still not sure what he is supposed to be called.
Kyffin/Walter waits for the gnome, and boosts her up into the shaft. When everyone has gone, he takes a last look around, and climbs the rope.
When he reaches the other side, he takes out his scimitar again and looks around. He walks up to one of the boilers and touches it with his hand, "What are these for I wonder? Anyone see any doors?"
He looks for an exit, wondering if he'll ever see daylight. I wonder how long we've been down here. I wonder what my name is. I wonder so many things... he shrugs and pushes his melancholy thoughts aside and searches.
As they look around the room, Confucius, Walter and the gnome girl notice a faint glow emanating from beneath a boiler toward the rear of the room.
Tenebrynn points to the boiler at the far end of the room, "Light coming from over there. Maybe a way out. Or in. Possibly up or down. Hard to say without looking. Safer than the door or riskier?" She shrugs.
Heinrich stops and almost unconsciously begins mixing various chemicals in a small vial that begins to glow and smoke. "Any way out is my preference. Let's investigate the boiler." He creeps forward, holding the smoking vial.
Tristain takes another moment to sketch yet more of the known world. He is quite giddy with excitement because this is all new: none of this has been seen before nor explored before.
"Let's investigate the boiler."
Tristain looks at Heinrich, aka the confused man who was near the cell with the starting corner, and hope to find a better reference and data points for the man.
"Yes, that is a good idea," Tristain says, trying to investigate the light from under the boiler above the room with the cell with the starting corner.
Perception - is there a doorway?
As you look at the glow, you realize it's coming from the eyes of a creature that's a strange amalgam of beast parts: a rat's tail, simian appendages, and tendrils extending from a mole-like nose. As you duck down, it surges out, followed by two large rat-like creatures.
The strange creature is a zoog, a spiteful, nasty creature with a taste for the flesh of sentient beings.
The two rat-like creatures are in fact dire rats.
"ZOOG! Foul thing! You will not devour me!" Heinrich flings his activated bomb at the zoog! for fire damage and 4 splash
Tenebrynn starts as the creatures sudden scurry forth from behind the boiler. "Not a door, things that bite!" She springs backward, twisting gracefully through the air and lands lightly, sending another dancing orb of detritus and debris zipping into the so-called zoog.
HP: 12/12
Nonlethal:
AC: 15 (13 T / 12 FF)
Fort: +5 // Ref: +5 // 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
Round 1, Initiative: 10
Weapon Equipped = Scimitar
Silver Blanch, Cold Iron Bolts = 10/10
Conditions = None
Melee: Attack: BAB +0, Str +3 Damage: Str +3
Ranged: Attack: BAB +0, Dex +1 Damage: +0 (Str +3 thrown)
Blessings (3/3)
Spells (Caster Level 1, Concentration +3)
Once Per Day (12): Prestidigitation
Zero (12): Create Water, Detect Magic, Light
First (13): Cure Light Wounds, Divine Favor
He crosses over into the corner so as not to be in the way of Confucius’ bombs - the noise and heat of which throw him off more than he’d care to admit. Not knowing what he faces, he lunges at the larger central figure, hoping with god’s arm, and a little luck, to down the flat-footed beast before he does too much damage.
Round 1
Belzoni moves his large frame to protect the smaller members of the group and slashes with his blade at the monstrous creatures. "Arrg, Dire rats, I hate rats!" the big man exclaims, more confident in that fact than anything else about his past.
Round 1, Init 13
Tristain retreats from the strange monsters that dwell above the room with the cell with the starting corner. He seemed fine with the attack until he thought more upon the monsters...
Know (Arcana)
Know (Nature)
...and realizes he knows both by name and has an inclination about the first.
"A zoog? Dire rats? This is very odd," Tristain mutters as he moves away from the beasts.
He draws his dagger when he gets there...well, he thinks its his dagger. He draws the dagger that he got downstairs from the table outside the cell with the starting corner.
Tenebrynn: 19
Belzoni: 14
Heinrich: 13
Tristain: 13
Kyffin: 10
Antagonists: 8
The gnome girl's blasts slams the zoog back into the wall, causing it to let out a growl as Lucky slices the big rat, which squeaks in pain.
Confucius tosses his bomb but misjudges, and it explodes against the boiler, fatally splashing the zoog and burning the second rat, which is quickly put out of its misery by Walter.
The remaining rat nips at Lucky, but its injuries from his attack stymie it, and he's quickly able to dispose of it.
"Rats? Zoogs? Dopplegangers? Don't remember much, but this seems strange. Strange and wrong. No answers yet though. Ah well. More problems likely regardless of where we go. Dream inside a dream perhaps? No no, too linear here. Effects plainly follow causes. Not a dream. Still bad though." She shrugs, unsure of so much apart from the fact that more trouble was likely ahead of them.
Confucius begins to shake and shiver all over as he falls to his knees. He makes a gagging noise and then retches. "Killed it... I killed it." He keeps repeating, over and over again.
It takes Tristain more than a few attempts to put his dagger back in its sheath. He hopes that no one questions how he knows so much...he's not even sure himself. It would be worrying if this space was a limited dimension and plane and he knew everything within it, wouldn't it? Might lead to some questions that Tristain could not answer.
Best not to consider that and focus on what is known.
"Killed it."
Tristain tries to provide comfort to the man, but is terribly unsuited to the task.
"Yes, you did. You did it right. Nice job." Tristain pats the man on the back.
"Now, do we try the door? Even though we know that this place might not be safe? Surely those beasts might have attacked the doppleganger eventually. And how did the doppleganger get up and down, to and fro the room with the cell with the starting corner from which I began?"
Kyffin/Walter cleans his blade on the dead creature's fur. He's still excited from the fight, and jittery for a moment longer.
Well, I know how to fight - at least a little. he flexes his fingers, Must be a reason I don't have a full shield, maybe next fight I'll layer on a spell or, uh, that other thing.
He watches 'Confucius' wretch. "You OK mate?"
Once he's sure he's OK, Kyffin/Walter turns to the group as a whole, "OK then. That was unexpected. Good question though, I wonder if anyone is meant to come up that chute... ever. Might be another way out, deeper down." He catches his breath and, blade still out, moves to the door.
"Are we ready?" If he gets a few nods, he'll reach down with his left and open the door, quietly and slowly, scimitar raised in his right in a defensive posture.
Tenebrynn bends down a little to look the sobbing man in the eye, placing her lithe, long-fingered hand on one of his shoulders in a gesture of consolation. "It was going to kill us or we were going to kill it. No in between sometimes. No choice. Maybe..." she pauses briefly here, something that already seems notable given the torrent in which she normally speaks, "-think instead that you saved us."
Confucius nods, hearing but not hearing the words of comfort. Instead, he hugs himself, disturbed at the fact that he wasn't actually disturbed at all. Instead, all he felt was a sort of satisfaction.
Wiping his mouth with his arm, he stands. "Better, I'm much better now. let's carry on."
Belzoni nods at Kyffin and stands ready with him as he opens the door.
Walter opens the door to find a long hallway. To his left, it stretches more than 100 feet, with a couple doors on the far side, to an area where the walls appear to have crumbled.
To his right, past a couple other doors on both sides of the hall, a 3-foot-high barricade of broken furniture and fallen masonry fills a wide, empty doorframe, blocking off the northern portion of the broad hall. Lanterns flicker upon the walls, casting shadows upon several closed doors and beyond the ramshackle barricade.
As you look around, you hear a deep male voice yell out in Common, "“Whoa, there! We got more here!”
"More? More what? Are they talking about us or not-doctors or biters?"
Tristain reacts to the voice by putting his back against the wall, his mind already changing its reference points to include the idea that others might be around here and exist besides those that started in the room with starting corner.
"Who are you? And if you could frame your answer in reference to the starting corner, that would be appreciated!" Tristain chimes back.
"More? More what? Are they talking about us or not-doctors or biters?"
"That's a good question. Let's ask them." he suggests.
"Who are you? And if you could frame your answer in reference to the starting corner, that would be appreciated!" Tristain chimes back.
'should have asked who are we! he smiles at himself despite the desperate nature of their situation and waits for the response.
Confucius stares at the back and forth, still feeling a little off. Something inside him reveled in the violence that accompanied the death of the zoog, and now calls for the death of these voices...
Belzoni puts a hand to the whip at his waist, surprised at his own reaction, but comforted by the presence of the weapon. Must be something I know, like the other things, but from when and where? Holding the coil in hand, he awaits the response to the inquiry from the man who shared the starting corner.
Tenebrynn fidgets as the group looks toward the barricade, her long fingers in constant motion. She calls out to add to Pudge's question, "If more of us, does that mean more of us us? Another Pudge? Another Walter? Another me? Need more details. Very confusing." She then notes, no longer shouting now and seemingly to herself, "Barricade probably means there's lots of trouble though."
There's no response from the voice, which reveals itself to be three men, who peek over the barricade, crossbows trained at your door.
After a tense 10 seconds that seems infinitely longer, another man arrives and calls out: "Leave! If you come any closer, we will shoot you!"
"Why should you do that? We have done nothing to you, that we know of." Confucius say.
Tenebrynn looks around at the call for them to leave but sees no plain destination. She adds her higher pitched voice to Heinrich's, "Leave? To where? Are you all doppleganger not-doctors too? Oh! Or are you not not-doctors but you think we are?" She again shifts from shouting to a quieter tone of observation, "Ah, this is all very complicated. Shouldn't be. So much seems very wrong. Maybe still a dream after all." Shaking her head and shrugging, she calls back to the three men once again, "There are biters and not-doctors out here, do you know where we can leave to that doesn't have biters and not-doctors?"
"If you come any closer, we will shoot you!"
"Sure! Yes! We'll go! But can you tell us which way the exit is? Also, where are we? If you could frame your answers in reference to the starting corner, that would be nice. So...how do we get out?" Tristain asks while trying to keep out of sight of the crossbowers.
"Exit? There is no exit!" the man shouts back. "This whole place has been overrun with shapechangers and lunatics. And unless you can prove you're not one of those, you'd best stay away!"
Confucius say "I don't believe I can change shape. I am definitely confined to this shape. As for being a lunatic, how would I prove I am not a lunatic to you through shouting in corridors? That strikes me as rather a lunatic way to communicate. Perhaps if you allowed us a little closer, we could discourse with you in a civil fashion and prove our intent?"
"No closer!" the man repeats, the other three hefting their crossbows again. "You want to prove you're not what you say you're not? Bring back a few dead doppelgangers, then maybe we’ll rethink whose side you’re on..."
"Define 'a few'. We have slain one, or rather, this young woman did. Also a flesh eating rat or three. Do you expect us to hunt people on the off-chance that they might be shapechangers? Can you not hear how insane that sounds?"
Tenebrynn looks at the others and shrugs, "If they want dead face-stealers, we can do that. Like this one says, we left the face-melted not-doctor back down by the cells. Maybe there's an easier way down and back up than the collapsed stairs with all the dead bodies?"
Kyffin shrugs at the exchange, and starts to climb back down the chute with the rope. "May I borrow your rope a moment?"
When he reaches the bottom, he drags the doppleganger body over to the chute, ties the rope around it, and climbs back up. Once at the top, he hoists up the body and unties it. Recoiling and returning the rope, he drags the body out to the hallway.
He props it up on his knee and, still breathing heavily from the exertion, he calls out, "Here's the one we killed! Now is there an office around here with records or anything? I know it's a strange request, but we're looking for some information." Like my name damnit! he adds to himself.
He waits for a response while catching his breath.
Tristain waits, considering whether or not to help Kyffin, but Kyffin is back by the time he makes up his mind. When Kyffin needs help getting the body up, Tristain adds his noodly arms to the draw.
"Nice work, half-orc with the symbol," who started in a cell near the cell with the starting corner. Tristain adds when the helpful half-orc returns.
He waits to see how the scared men behind the blockade above the room with the cell with the starting corner react.
"Ha! Like that would convince me? How do I know that one didn't die in some accident? Do I look like a fool to you? No, I'll need at least two more of them -- and to see all of you at the same time -- if you want to convince me!
"They're in the big washrooms that way" -- he says, pointing behind you -- "as if you didn't know!"
"Well, if we want answers those may be in the same direction as the faceless ones, but we'll have to capture them alive." The big man seems resigned to the task, or determined, but either way he is ready to head down the hall in the opposite direction as the crossbows.
Tristain nods at Belzoni, HeWhoStartedInTheCellWithTheStartingCornerToo, agreeing with the man.
"I thought you said there was no exit," Tristain carps at the man behind the barricade. "Yeah, we'll go see if the dopplegangers want to talk. We'll be back, I hope."
Tristain follows Belzoni down the hall, hoping to avoid conflict and killing.
Tenebrynn blinks a few times at the man behind the barricade, lingering for several moments after the others turn away. At last shrugging, she turns and hurries to catch up with the rest of the group who she now suddenly realizes have become her anchor. Striding quickly as she comes up beside them all, she shrugs again and observes, "Very few questions answered. Disappointed!" For some reason she can't recall, the way she shouts disappointed causes an image of a burly man with long hair and a garish goatee shouting instead to leap into her mind. She shakes her head and chuckles.
"You want us to kill for you, and you provide so little information!" he scowls, not liking this at all.
"Who's to say these shape shifters aren't the good guys and you are evil - huh? Can you prove your innocence?" he says angrily, not liking his options.
He turns to the group, and says more quietly, "It seems we could rush them, which could be deadly, or head down the other way. Perhaps talk to these dopplegangers and try and determine who are the real hostiles here. Certainly that last one we met was up to no good. But I'll not damn an entire group on the actions of one bad actor." he says firmly.
"For now, let's just talk and see what we can learn." If the group agrees, he trudges down the other way.
His head begins to ache at all the things he doesn't know.
"Yeah, I'm not sure I emerged from the starting corner as a killer. I'm not sure that this all is, but not sure that I like killing things just because..." ...right? Right.
Tristain follows Kyffin.
Confucius nods at The Man From the Corner. "I agree. These people must be inmates, for they display a level of bloodthirst I would not associate with guards."
Tenebrynn agrees, remarking as they make their way toward the wash rooms, "Or nobody's an inmate and this is still a dream. Unlikely, but possible. Everything feels jumbled and wrong."
As you head down the hall, a couple doors stand closed to your right.
Kyffin, at least, walks past the closed doors on his way down the hall - focused on his destination.
Unbidden, he remembers the story of a young man on a large river barge of some kind. He was searching for the kitchen and walked right by the door in his haste, missing the good stuff, and being late for supper. As a result, there was little left when he did finally find it. If only he'd checked the doors as he went, he'd have been fine!
Kyffin hesitates after passing the last door and looks back. Was that me? Is it even relevant here? I'm not hungry...
If no one hesitates with him, he presses on, shaking his head, We can peek in on our way back. he thinks firmly - arguing with himself.
Tristain follows Kyffin, pausing when he pauses, going when he goes.
He has his chalkboard in front of him defensively, as if it had the power to protect him.