Ven sees no key, but they are generic manacles. Aenian could probably pick them given time.
"Zandalus sees," Juglan replies to Ven's question.
"Don't break them, might hurt something. I can trick the lock, if you guys want to release this dude and you're sure he's not a doppelganger."
Vaustin shrugs, but eyes the man suspiciously. "I don't know. Why's he dressed like that?"
"I don't know and he's saying weird things, but I don't feel comfortable leaving him to get eaten by that guy, either."
Aenian works the manacles for a few seconds, then they release with a click. Juglan walks free, rubbing his wrists and nodding thankfully. "Words fail," he smiles.
Ven eyes Juglan suspiciously. "Words fail, indeed. Who exactly is Zandalus?"
He then turns to the others. "We can't leave this undead abomination. Let's finish him off."
Ven moves in and pokes ineffectively at the ghoul with his quarterstaff.
"Gods, Ven. Hang on. He is articulate at least, let's find out why and who strapped them to this pipe!"
Aenian intervenes, but doesn't get within reach of the ghoul.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Juglan returns the serious gaze, looking Ven straight in the eyes. "Zandalus sees."
Ven pauses, "Well beast, what do you have to say for yourself? Who created you? Who chained you here and why?"
The ghoul looks up from its grisly meal. "My name's... Argade," he explains, hesitantly. "I was a patient here, like them. I woke up a few days ago, when all the tremors and uprising was going on. I got cut off in here when the ceiling fell in. Dr. Oathsday grabbed me and chained me up with these two. Since then, I've had this awful hunger... I can't stop. I don't know why." As if to accentuate the point, his eyes are drawn to the corpse, he leans in to bite off another chunk of dead flesh.
Vaustin gags.
Also, at the mention of Doctor Oathsday, Argade glances towards the southern door. His eyes flash momentary fear, but it is quickly overtaken by his hunger.
Ven sighs, "Argade, I hate to have to tell you this, but you have become undead. Perhaps this Dr. Oathsday was the cause of your demise and transformation - who's to say? We've certainly had some unpleasant encounters with the medical staff that would give credence to such depravity. Regardless, I'm afraid we must put you out of your misery. Do you have any final words?"
If Aenian has no further questions, Ven will nod to Vaustin. "Sir, would you do us the service of destroying poor Argade?"
"Oathsday. He comes through that door there? What does he do with you all? Does he feed this other guy? What were you a patient for, you seem sane other than the ravenous hunger for dead human flesh."
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Oathsday's a she... well, maybe. Damn dopplegangers -- who can really tell," Argade curses between bites. "She... he, it... just put us up here. Didn't talk to us, but she looks out and checks every once in a while."
At the mention of his destruction, Argade grows feral, gnashing at you, and then his bonds, in a writhing frenzy.
Vaustin holds his mace ready, looking for a signal to close in for the deed.
Ven nods at Vaustin and then watches with grim fascination as the ghoul is slain.
Once the deed is done, Ven takes Juglan by the arm. "Let's escort him back to the camp where he'll be safe."
Unable to move far, Argade thrashes but cannot avoid his fate. Vaustin grimly attacks the ghoul, putting him down with a few strong hits.
"Praise," Juglan says after it is done.
With the ghoul is dead, you guide Juglan down the hallway and hand him over to the guards at the barricade. The man continues to mutter his three phrases without apparent context. Once he is secure, you return to the end of the corridor.
Ven will escort Juglan back to the camp area. "You will be safe here."
He tells the guards of Juglan's apparent mental issues.
He then returns to the room and opens the south door.
... and before he does that, Aenian will listen at the door!
Aeninan hears nothing through the door before Ven pulls it open.
Several wide tables and gigantic washbasins fill a laundry equipped to service hundreds. The place looks as though it was re-purposed as a failed surgery, though, with at least one table heaped with remains while corpses lie discarded in corners. A lantern shines from the southern table.
You hear groans and the sounds of nails on metal coming the southernmost basin. Standing on a folding ladder, carefully dropping chunks of flesh to whatever is within, is a doppelganger dressed in a doctor's dress. She looks up as you enter, long tongue lashing the air. She draws her dagger, grinning sadistically. "More specimens, excellent."
Oathsday jumps down from the ladder. She concentrates for a moment, her eyes swirling, and then she disappears from sight.
Ven steps into the room with his loaded crossbow ready. "Dr. Oathsday, we'd like to have a word with you. Would you please come out and talk? Perhaps this can be resolved without violence."
Aenian grumbles as his finger twitches on his crossbow trigger, but stays quiet, readying an attack for appearance, unless the "Doctor" answers peacefully.
Vaustin moves into the room into a guard position adjacent to Ven.
"The only thing you have that I need is your flesh," Oathsday's husky voice responds to Ven's plea. You hear rapidly approaching footsteps, brace for an attack. She appears beside Vaustin, gleaming dagger poised...
Aenian lets fly, his bolt striking her in the shoulder, just as Vaustin slams the doppelganger in the side. She stabs the man, giggling as the blade cuts deep. Vaustin groans in pain, blood dripping on the tiles.
;
;
*
<<<
Upon seeing Oathsday slash Vaustin, Ven suddenly takes on a dark, brooding visage. "Now what was that spell that I used before?"
Ven points a trembling finger at the doctor and smiles darkly. "I'm afraid it will be us who will be dining on your flesh tonight, Doctor Oathsday."
; 1 point bleed damage
Oathsday is taken aback a moment by Ven's words, but the force missile returns her to the fight. Aenian's crossbow bolt flies over the melee, striking one of the basins with a loud clang. Vaustin shifts in front of Ven, swinging his mace and clobbering the doppelganger hard up side the head.
;
"No!" Oathsday hisses, tongue lashing. With wounds telling, she looks for escape. She steps past Vaustin, stabbing at Ven viciously. Even against a clumsy attack, Ven has no real armor for protection.
;
Aenian holds his ground in the doorway and fires again, "Heinous beast!"
Crying out from the attack, Ven will shift to total defense for the round. He smiles as he watches Dr. Oathsday bleed.
Ven backs to the wall defensively. Aenian reloads and fires again, still having trouble aiming into the melee. Vaustin swings his mace again, but slips in a puddle of blood, nearly losing his weapon while recovering his balance.
;
Oathsday steps towards the door, stabbing now at Aenian in an attempt to clear her escape route.
;
Aenian will also switch to total defense and let the hooch bleed.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Ven continues with total defense as Oathsday bleeds out. "Doctor, you're starting to look a little pale!"
Oathsday's wound continues to bleed, and she grows more desperate to escape. Vaustin shifts and attacks, but the doctor dodges clear.
;
The doppelganger stabs Aenian again. Aenian blacks out and falls to the ground, and Oathsday steps over his body.
;
Ven steps back and then hits her again with another magic missile. "Not so fast doctor. I've only just begun to torment you."
; +1 point bleed
Doctor Oathsday tries to make a break for it, but Ven's force missile slams her in the back. With a gurgle, the doppelganger stumbles and falls. Vaustin rushes over and finishes her with a coup de gras to the skull.
Ven reverts to his normal state and then notices that Aenian is down. "Vaustin, help me carry him back to the camp - quickly!"
Once back, he calls for Winter.
As Vaustin and Ven go to lift Aenian, Ven remembers the healing extract being prepared. After finding it in his pouch and applying it, the results are instantaneous. Aenian comes to with a groan.
You search the doppelganger, finding a pouch of gold pieces in addition to her fine dagger. Her medical outfit is stained with blood and gore, torn and frayed.
"I remember Doctor Oathsday," Vaustin sighs, nudging the body with his toe. "She was a nice person, always kind to the patients, even at their trying best. What the Hells happened?"
Hissing gasps and the sound of nails scratched against metal come from the southern vat where Oathsday was standing.
The table at the south wall holds a number of items, including a well-tooled backpack, a set of reasonably kept surgeon's tools. Nearby, a 6-foot-tall standing mirror leans against the wall. Several 10-foot-long wooden poles are arrayed beside the laundry vats.
Aenian pulls himself up, still in pain, wincing at the light, "What's in that vat? Seems to want out ..."
He'll cautiously move over that way, search the back pack and tools and see if he can grab a 10-foot pole.
Assuming he's not assaulted, he'll poke at the vat making noise.
Ven searches the room and then trains his crossbow on the vat as Aenian pokes it.
Using the ladder Oathsday was on, you carefully climb up and peer into the vat. A feral, ravenous ghoul is trapped inside the deep container. It scratches and scrambles at the metal walls, but cannot gain enough purchase to climb out.
Ven shrugs, "Its no threat to us now. We can kill it later. Let's press on with our exploration."
He walks back into the hall and begins climbing over the rubble.
Leading the trio out of the laundry, Ven turns to the north and into the collapsed portion of the hallway. The narrow gap in the rubble runs only about ten feet before ending in a total collapse. Trapped waist-down in the debris is the corpse of female orderly. As you near, the corpse animates, grasping its arms towards you.
Ven pulls away from the corpse and then nearly gags as he studies the undead. "Look, there's something writhing within its dead body. We'd best stay clear. This thing isn't going anywhere."
He studies the hall. "It's all dead ends over here. Let's take a second look at the courtyard."
He heads outside and then checks out the north portion of the western courtyard.
The weather out in the courtyard remains rainy, with the yellow-tinged fog so close overhead you feel you could reach out and touch it... or it could reach you. The dim, gray half-light makes it impossible to tell the time of day.
As before, the northern part of the courtyard is a wall of rubble, much of it the remnants of the lost second story. As if to remind you of the destruction's cause, a small tremor rumbles through the ground.
"No way out through there. We've checked some of these near parts, and I ain't climbing up into that damned fog," Vaustin adds, eyeing the yellow mist with wary eyes. "Looks like we've cleared what we can of this area, but for those undead left behind."
The backpack is of exceptional quality, and opening it you find the spaces inside are dimensionally larger -- a handy haversack. Inside you find a potion vial, a small pouch holding 3 platinum coins, a pearl, and a tiny box marked with the symbol of Pharasma in silver and a leather cord attached. The last item you find inside is a true oddity - a disembodied, coin-sized eyeball with an x-shaped iris. As you pick it up, it turns to make eye contact, blinking every few moments.