Adonai's knock echo's through the garden, disturbing a few pigeons into flight. A minute passes, and Wits tries again, banging on the door. The sounds of waves crashing at the bottom of the cliff emphasise the gloom of the garden.
A few moments later, a peep hole in the door opens, and a voice speaks out.
"Quit your banging!" a man shouts angrily, "You will disturb the patients. What do you want?
Wits peers at the man, clearly taken aback by his forthright style. "We understand you are holding a madman that is witness to a triple murder? We must see him. He may be of use in solving the murders. And if you're so interested in not disturbing the patients, why are you shouting?"
Diplomacy:
"Hmm, well then, if you're not going to be reasonable about it. Adonai, kill him."
"Now, need need to kill anybody here. Sir, we have been sent by The Constable to have a talk with a man named Grayst Sevilla. He was brought in here a short time ago. Under the influence of a chemical substance I've been told. Any chance we could see the man? He may be a material witness to a spree of murders that might only just be starting. It may actually get worse, and the ones that have occurred are nasty enough as is."
"What's the sense of having armed men around you if you can't direct them to kill the odd fool now and again?" Wits grumbles at a barely audible growl.
"You say the Constable eh? Do you have proof? You certainly seem to know a lot about the situation."
Reynard stifles a laugh at the exchange between Adonai and Wits.
With a disgruntled sigh, the man slams the view port shut. Slowly the large door opens, and shows a tiny view of a dark interior. "Get in then, and tell me what exactly you want. Quietly."
Wits echoes the man's sigh and steps inside. "We need to question the man regarding the nature of his attacker. Reynard here thinks he knows who it is, but we need confirmation before we go on our usual murderous way." Wits smiles at this, as if there's some sort of private joke that no one else gets.
Adonai leans in closer to the man and quietly says "Don't mind him. He was in the glassworks when it exploded. I think it rattled his brain. But my little friend is right, if in his own burlesque manner. We have a lead to the murderer, but need to collect more evidence before pursuing this line of investigation. We appreciate your time and shan't be long."
Diplomacy:
"Indeed. Confirmation of guilt, et cetera. Now can we see the mad person?"
The man looks odly at Wits, but eventually gives a resigned sigh.
"I do indeed hold the man they say is Grayst. Mad man is putting it a bit short though, I will warn you. He is wildly delirious, he hasn't spoken a word of sense in the days since they brought him here. I am doing my best with the chloroform to keep him sleeping most of the time, and he is restrained for his own safety." As he speaks he leads you up through the sanatorium. The building is dark and sparsely furnished. Most of the windows are blacked out, or have curtains drawn. Various side cabinets have odd items, in some case a pair of restraints left lying around, in other cases surgical instruments (most blunt ones). The whole place has an air of disorganised oppression.
Outside a door, one the highest level, you can hear a man muttering about "too many teeth" and "the Skinsaw man" coming. As the man opens the door an ushers you in, the sight before you is dreadful. Grayst is bound in what appears more like something that would be used in a Chelaxian Bordello than something in use in a medical facility. The bindings do their job though. He crouches on the floor in the corner of the room, by a short bed, sobbing and mutting.
As Jerjia enters the room though, his demeanour changes, his eyes buldge, and he stands, shakily.
"He said. He said you would visit me. His Lordship. The one that unmade me said so. He has a place for you. A precious place. I’m so jealous. He has a message for you. He made me remember it. I hope I haven’t forgotten. The master wouldn’t approve if I forgot. Let me see... let... me... see...He said that if you came to his Misgivings, that if you joined his pack, he would end his harvest in your honor."
With that, he falls sideways onto the bed, apparently sleep.
At the sound, the man, who is stilll stood outside the door moves, "What was that? What have you done to him?!"
Knowledge Local
Heal
"Get back from him! He'll get worse once he dies!"
Alchemy:
"Oh my. Reynard is quite correct; this man is being changed into one of the undead. Observe the bulging eyes, the pallid skin. Let's see how he adapts, I'm sure this will be educational. Adonai, poke him a bit, see if he's dead."
Init:
Jerjia looks intrigued by the man's ramblings. "How do these people know me when I don't know them, Sparky?" she mutters to her lizard.
"You can poke him all you want once he's been put down Witz!" Reynard yells reaching for his crossbow.
"Oh a thorough dissection would undoubtedly yield informative results, I'm sure. However, while it still moves, I would prefer Adonai poke him; He's got those metal pants and all, seems only fair to let him use them once in a while."
Adonai calls. "Cover him, but don't shoot."
Adonai draws his sword and steps into the room. He then addresses the man. "By Aroden," he looks at Witz, "and my metal pants. We have done nothing to this man. Please stand back and observe. Assuming he rises as one of the undead, and I trust my esteemed if slightly deranged friend here that he will, no harm will come to you." With that, the paladin waits and watches. Curioius, I've never seen anyone turn before.
"If he rises and starts rambling about brains I'm shooting him in the face, end of story"
Knowledge local
"By all means, please do. I just would like this man here to see what Grayst becomes so he doesn't mistakenly believe we came here and killed a man. Besides, he's tied up. Shouldn't go far, right?" Adonai shrugs his shoulders.
He looks ill, but he still has a couple of hours still to live.
A few moments pass with the man unconscious on the bed, then suddenly, he jumps up, and literally rips out of his bonds, and punches Adonai in the face
"See, Adonai, if YOU'D poked him, HE wouldn't have to PUNCH you. You really ought to pay more attention to my advice."
"Hey!" the paladin shouts and tries to push the man back to the bed. "Don't!"
He looks to Witz. "Is he undead now, oh wise one?
Reynard releases a hurried shot, caught somewhat offguard by the ferocity of the man's movements.
"Hmmm. No way to tell without dissection. Can I dissect him now?"
Wits will back up until he's in the doorway of the room, and draw and load his crossbow while peering at the man.
"He said don't shoot," Jerjia says crossly, staying out of the way but interested to see what's going to happen to the man.
"Hmmm. No way to tell without dissection. Can I dissect him now?"
"Any chance we can wait for that? If he is not dead, I believe the procedure would,be called a vivisection; a distinctly evil act.". Adonai tries to appear stern.
"Humph. Of course I would sedate him first, I'm not a monster. Although perhaps it would be useful to measure the pain response in a pre-shift unliving creature. I wonder what you would use as a unit of measurement? Perhaps I will name it the Fizzlewick? Yes, I believe there are reputable peer-reviewed journals that would definitely be interested in this... Yes, Adonai, hit him with an approximate force of 10 lbs per inch. Let's begin the experimentation with a light dose of pain." Wits drops his crossbow and begins scribbling furiously, only pausing to direct Adonai's attacks.
Reynard's Shot puts a bolt through Grayst's shoulder, just as Adonai charges forward, throwing the sickened man to the bed, and pinning him there.
Grayst attempts to grab Adonai's sword, but cannot from under the armoured weight of the knight.
Reynard growls as he takes aim, and looses another shot.
"You had your chance."
"I say! Try not to damage the specimen too harshly! I need the internal organs intact for testing!"
"His head isn't an internal organ Wits!"
"Hey!" Adonai whacks his sword's flat edge at the man's noggin. Then he sees Reynard's bolt take him in the face. "Now you done it. Gone got shot in the face."
Reynard's shot pins the man to the bed through the side of the neck, apparently missing any major arteries. Adonai's sword hit then knocks the man unconscious. From outside, there is a thud, as the man who answered the door faints.
Adonai stares down at the man. "What's the verdict on his undeath status, Witz? And please don't cut him open."
"You realize you're impeding the advancement of science, Adonai? Oh, very well." Wits starts forward, pulling his crossbow bolt from his crossbow and pokes him with it, hard enough to hurt, but not hard enough to pierce the skin.
Alchemy:
Having examined the man, he puts his mouth close to the man's ear and seems to examine it carefully. Suddenly he shouts into the man's ear: "You! ARE YOU DEAD YET?!?"
"You know us paladins. Always putting faith before reason."
"Hmmmph. Well, he's not dead. And he's not likely to die shortly unless we stick more arrows into him. Seems to me this is a faith matter, Adonai. Perhaps a church could help him? Or you could always accept the inevitable and donate his body to me... I mean, science."