"Eep."
It would be undignified for an officer of the Crown to go eep in front of an enemy, which is why William is currently glad to have been discharged.
Fear notwithstanding, since larger creatures have their weight increase cubically and their leg section only quadratically, he goes for what he assumes to be the creature's weak spot, the hamstring tendon.
"Gah! F!$#! This place is so violent!" Digger runs to cover.
Big as he is, Fang is used to fighting bigger men. He's even fought a polar bear once.
This thing before him is neither man nor bear, however, although this fact does not deter him from moving to meet a threat.
Hopping up on the table, Fang walks down it to attack the now giant man.
As is becoming somewhat typical, Naajy and William pepper their opponents with attacks only to have the large Chinese finish the fight. Fang leaps from the table, his foot driving into the twisted man's sternum. There is a loud crack and the creature sags toward the ground, shrinking like an inner tube with a puncture. Black fluid bubbles from his mouth.
A strange silence settles over the rooms.
"Is everything in this hellish place going to grow ten sizes at the drop of a hat?"
William cleans his sword and prods the corpse, just to make sure it's not going to rise again.
"You know, if we could take that trick home, it could be VERY useful for the military. I wonder if they also have a way of shrinking? Sneak up to the other sides trench and then jump in. If nothing else, it would scare the darned hun"
"Perhaps he was actually always this size, and the small size was only some sort of trick?"
The kitchen houses a variety of salted, pickled, and fermented foodstuffs as well as dried grain that look similar to wheat and barley. There is a barrel of vile smelling dark black eggs the size of duck eggs, and several jugs of liquor. The are also knives, cleavers, hammers, picks, and other cooking tools.
Moving on, William finds what might be quarters or guest chambers. Area 10 is a richly appointed bedroom, containing a bed, desk, and storage locker. A five-foot-tall mirror hangs on the wall opposite the
room’s only door.
Beyond this doorway, the hall curves back toward the room where you appeared. There is another door.
Naajy takes a small swig of the liquor
"This is pretty bad, but I needed a hit on it. Anybody else want a taste?"
"I do not poison my body."
"I ...I could use something."
"Maybe later, master Naajy!" answers William from the other room. He takes out his utility knife, not the best tool for the job but one that's serviceable enough, and sets to work on the locker .
Despite using the wrong tools for the job, Dr. Johnson jimmies the lock of the locker. The box pops open, revealing a wealth of items within. On top, there is a flamboyant outfit of yellow leggings and red and green shirt. Below that, there is a heavy white fur coat. Under that, there is a fine hardwood box that contains 4 metal vials with crystal stoppers. There is also a fine silver necklace with a massive fire opal pendant that would be worth a fortune back home.
William looks at the contents, appraising the pendant and the fur coat with a slightly wistful eye. Of course, he wouldn't be caught dead in the gaudy colours of the outfit, but... "Master Brautigan! I found something a New Yorker might find fashionable!"
"Looks more like one of your Shakespeare plays to me."
"Finally, somebody with a good fashion sense. Quite frankly, you Brits dress very, very drably"
"Just take it and we'll keep going." says Fendir as he does just that.
"You're welcome to wear it, Master Singh, I'll just stick to something more somber."
William throws the coat over his shoulders and passes the vials to Naajy.
Naajy happily puts on the flamboyant clothes (assuming that they fit).
Naajy moves to the door to the right, Haamid following dutifully. He pushes the door inward to find a bed chamber similar to the other one.
The scent of perfume fills the air of this small bedroom where several dresses styled for a woman of fashion back on Earth lie neatly arranged on the bed. A mirrored vanity and chair sit by the door next to a wooden chest, and a larger mirror hangs on the wall between two windows.
Naajy is surprised to see a woman who appears to be the same woman who he just rescued on the other side of the portal, back at the lodge, the woman who was locked in the secret basement. What is happening here...
"What the f...?"
"Uh, hello? Greetings"
The woman rises from the chair and races toward you. "You speak English? Please, you don't look like the others who are here. Help me! I was on my way to New York when we were waylaid by robbers. And then I awoke in this strange place. Please, my family has money. If you help me I can reward you."
She looks from face to face to face, hoping for help, confused, possibly by the diversity of the racial mix of your group.
"We are from New York. Uh, do you happen to have a twin sister? A cousin? We have met somebody who looked exactly like you"
"No, but there was a creature. A sort of grey person. It grabbed me by the arms, and it looked into me with these strange black eyes, and it had a long tongue that...well, that touched me! And then...it...it...changed, and it looked like me. My hair grew from its head, and its face changed..."
As she talks, he voice becomes louder and more shrill as she begins to lose control.
"That sounds horrible! I've heard tales of demons able to take over anothers form, it sounds like it must have been one of them."
"Or perhaps SHE was the real person and it is YOU who are the demon?"
Naajy goes over and touches the chair that she was upon, hoping to see if his Psychometry skill can tell him anything about whoever touched it last
Changelings? The fey-snatched?
William steps in, gently taking the woman's face in his hands and looking her straight in the eyes. "Madam, you are safe. I'm a doctor, we can get you out of here. Please tell me your name."
Dr. Johnson is completely taken. The woman is clearly who she appears to be.
Naajy, on the other hand, sees something else. Images flash through his mind as his fingers brush the chair. A woman. Blond hair, fair skin, but all of that is laid over something else. Something primordial, ancient. Like a human but not as finished. Large black pupiless eyes. Lanky arms long like an ape. Grayish skin. And at the moment, those eyes are staring into those of the Dr.
Naajy drops back and tries to casually whisper to his allies
"I'm pretty sure that THIS is the monster. She is NOT human"
He motions to Haamid to defend him
Naajy detects another mind probing his own. The creature has unusual and perhaps unexpected mental strength, but Naajy has a disciplined mind. He carefully deflects the probe, revealing nothing.
Fang, never one to hold back against a threat, moves to neutralize it.
Unfortunately, the creature is much more able to read Fang's intent. As he moves toward it, it's skin seems to melt and grays to a sickening hue.
"Huh? Eh? The- WHAT?!"
William stumbles back from the monster, flabbergasted and unsure of what to do.
The girl's hands reach imploringly toward William. "Please, keep this man from harRRRMMMMINGGGMEEEE!!"
As you stare on, the delicate feminine hands elongate, clean, pink skin turning a sickening grey. Long claws extrude from the end of the fingertips and she slashes suddenly toward Naajy, a strange hollow laugh echoing out.
Digger takes a shot at the thing, but it's too close to his companion.
Seeing the strange monster, Haamid immediately starts to retreat. Its unnatural and he doesn't want ANYTHING to do with it.
"Its ok Haamid, it is just another animal. You can take it!!"
Haamid isn't having ANYTHING to do with this and retreats, growling all the way
Haamid shots his rifle at the monster
for
Fang shoulders William aside, getting tangled in a chair and overcorrecting. He swings wildly at the strange creature.
The alien creature's eyes bulge and darken, it's hair retreating and head growing into a bloated bulb. Seeing Fang off balance, it lashes out at him.
Fang, though, is a resolute opponent. He recovers himself and easily dodges the attacks.
A wordless snarl of rage erupts from William's lips as his revolver barks at the creature, hitting it square in the chest.
"Go DOWN you damned thing!!"
Naajy continues to try and shoot the thing
for
for
Away from the immediate reach of the creature, Naajy is able to line up a shot. He breathes out, entering himself as he squeezes the trigger. There is nothing but Naajy and the monster.
The bullet tears through it's chest. Were it human, it's heart would be shredded by the blow, but, regardless, something within the creature is torn. Grey-blue blood flows from the hole punched in the creature's torso. The monster looks into Naajy's eyes with it's hollow empty sockets as it sags to the cold stone floor.
"Excellent shot, Master Naajy."
William reloads the revolver, the bullet count dangerously low, then takes out his rapier, trembling with rage, and starts hacking at the fallen monster, more than is necessary to confirm its demise, punctuating every word with a slash.
"How I HATE people who pretend to be something else!"
Once the creature's face is sufficiently minced, he wipes the blood off the sword and sheathes it, trying to calm his breathing.
"Sorry for the outburst."
"Jesus f%%~ing Christ! This place is nuts!"
"It surely is. And a grave danger to our world. We're here, we're the ones who have to do SOMETHING about this damned place"
He then heads out to try and calm down poor Haamid.
After tossing the strange mimic's room, you continue around the outside of the circular tower. You find another of the strange objects that brought you to this floor of the tower. Perhaps this one accesses another floor? This room is sumptuously outfitted, with a thick red carpet and two sculptures that depict beautiful naked women. The statues look like they are made of crystal, but further inspection reveals that they are ice sculptures, somehow prevented from melting.
Continuing on, you find another door in the outside circle, just like the other bedrooms. You open the door, prepared for another fight.
A bed, desk, dresser, wardrobe and storage chest furnish this small bedroom. A large mirror hangs on the wall opposite the room’s only door, and two windows look down on the tower’s courtyard.
In addition to being a bedroom, this room appears also to be a cell. There are two men in irons, shackled to the wall, both arms in chains.
Even through the door, the sound of birdsong, incongruous with the awful chill and the thick stone walls, can be heard. Upon opening the door, the source becomes obvious: a tall, blonde man with an unkempt beard, dressed in rags and shackled with his hands above his head. The whistling stops, and he speaks in a voice like crushed gravel, hoarse from years of rough treatment. While his fellow prisoner hears the rough sounds of Skald, sounding like the bastard child of German and Russian, the party can at least understand him, and hear the fake cheer he infuses in his voice to mask the real anger.
"Orlov! Did you bring friends?" He asks, before looking up. On sighting the party, his face loses the false, bitter smile it had, trading it for an expression of surprise. "You're not with Orlov," he says, switching to the softer sounds of Taldane just in case these newcomers don't speak the common tongue of the north. "And with how bruised you seem, you're not exactly free to roam as you wish... So, is this a jailbreak, then?"
The man in the other cell had once had dark hair which was now greying, but both beard and hair were well kept...once. Now the captivity had taken there toll, but this simply gave the figure an air of genteel dishevelment. Heavy muscles were pulled taut by the deliberate awkward positioning of the chains.
He glanced up at the sound of the other person talking he looked up in amusement. "What is all this, then. It was nearly my time to sing. This poor chap doesn't know a single song from Guilbert and Sullivan, did you know? I've been trying to educate him but he seems intent on singing that odd bird song. Strange chap. Maybe it's to with one of the odd Gods you lot have."
His eyes focusing more, he stares. "My, my. That is an awful lot of guns for this part of reality, wot? I thought I heard the snap of black powder but this place drives you a little doolally after a while. Possibly all the torture. Worse than my boarding school, wot! They don't even let you have a good cold shower." Twisting his head awkwardly, he added, "Don't suppose you fellows could spare a little time to undo these chains?"
William is a clean-shaven man in his forties, wearing a fur coat over a grey suit that has seen better days, a rifle on his back and a sword at his belt.
He blinks again, taken aback at hearing one of the prisoners speak in a British accent. Something in his brain clicks, and his tone shifts to a forced politeness. "Ah. Well, I'm dreadfully sorry for the inconvenience, good sir, but we will have to confirm that you two are not, in fact, faerie changelings taking the appearance and mannerisms of polite folks. I realize how this sounds, but we have to do what we have to do. Master Naajy, would you be so kind as to certify their identities?"
"That's a legitimate thing we've seen. Maybe that makes sense to one of you, maybe it sounds crazy. You, supposed limey! Insult me specifically to prove you're from da same earth."
"Gilbert and Sullivan? He MUST be an evil monster to inflict that on ANYBODY"
"I do apologize for this, but it IS necessary."
He reaches in and touches each mans clothing in turn