Amalthia considers the question... then shakes her head. "I don't think so?"
"I can use a short sword but I'm very willing to let somebody else use it if they prefer"
"I can but my scimitar will do me for now if you want to wield something more potent."
Mal offers the Red Destiny, hilt first, to Shirrin.
"Thank you all. If anybody changes their mind and wants it, please let me know"
There's nothing else of interest inside the room
Amalthia heads back out into the hall and waits beside the next closed door for someone much braver than herself to open it.
'Ragnar' will move to the door and nods to Amalthia before opening it.
"Wait--" Toad whispers, tapping Ragnar on the shoulder before the door is opened.
"Please, please, let this be the way out of here. I want to get OUT of here"
Gm Roll
Ragnar throws the door open, ready for trouble, only to reveal rubble. The ceiling of the room has collapsed, creating an impenetrable barrier. Even a brief glance is enough to gather that whatever this room used to be, nothing of use can be found here anymore.
This leaves one door left in the hallway, at the east end.
Toad
As you get closer to the door, you notice beads of what looks like blood seeping through the tiny cracks in the boards, and the whole door seems to be bulging slightly outwards on its hinges.
"Is that... is that blood? Don't open that door!"
"We have little else left to explore. Perhaps one person could open it while the others hold back in case of something dangerous?"
Amalthia lets out a squeak and waits waaaaay back.
"Okay... I'm ready."
"Looks like whatever's behind it's gonna burst out into the hall." Maulgar steps back, securing Toothy in a pocket. "Sit tight, little guy."
He nods his head toward Ragnar. "Okay, ready," he lies.
"Alright lets see what is on the other side." Ragnar braces himself before opening the door.
"This is going to be bad. Really, really bad."
Shirrin says as he braces himself
Ragnar tries to open the door, only to find it locked. He rattling the door, testing the lock, which is all it takes for the door to shatter and release the flood. A massive wall of blood and gore that had pooled just behind the door floods into the narrow hallway. A wave of filth crashes into everyone in the hallway, washing over each person and pushing them backwards with unnatural force. Ragnar and Shirrin manage to keep their footing, being pushed back some 10 feet with the force of the impact. Poor Amalthia and Toad, however, are not so lucky. They are both swept off their feet, tumbling head over heels along the hard floor, submerged in the putrid fluid before crashing together against the back wall of the hallway.
Eventually the flood recedes enough for another room to be seen past the destroyed door. Large, bay windows lay directly ahead of the door, giving a clear view of the rancid yellow fog rolling just outside in the rain. What can only be described as a river of blood was flowing directly into the newly opened hallway from a chair across the room, with some figure barely visible sitting hunched over on it. The blood is flowing unnaturally straight, meaning if someone could get into the room they could get out of the flow. Even as the level of the blood lowered, the flow began to pick up again. It may not be long before another push is made by the blood.
"EEEEEEEEEEEK!!!" Amalthia manages to scream before being submerged in an unnatural river of blood. She breaks the surface, gasping for air with a look of pure panic on her face before she crashes into the wall and falls unconscious in the river of blood.
Victor Ragnar moves to Amalthia trying to help her as best he can.
Amalthia jolts and flails back to consciousness, only to find herself still in a river of blood. "Eeeek!" she looks around frantically for a place free of the morbid river.
Toad crawls to his feet, clutching his head where it banged against the wall. "Disgusti--Ow!"
"We can't let that happen again. We need to figure out what's causing that. Let's hurry before we drown!"
Toad moves forward, this time bracing himself against the wall in case the blood flows again.
Shirrin will grab Amalthia and make sure that her head is above the disgusting river of blood
"We have to close this door. NOW!!!"
With that, Shirrin attempts to shut the door
The blood river appears to be flowing from the chair at the end of the room behind the newly opened door. A constant current pushes the party back towards the end of the halls, making progress difficult . As Shirrin bashes his shoulder against the door, another push from the current forces him back, almost as if flow had a mind of its own. Almost as if to confirm this theory, the current suddenly reverses, as blood is pulled back and begins to pool at the base of the chair. It is soon apparent another wave is coming.
"Lets do our best to stay out of the way of this thing."
Amalthia shrieks and tries to hang onto something, hoping she doesn't get knocked around this time.
"Help me close this door, darnit. We can't just run, we have to STOP it"
"Fine!" Toad kicks the door shut. "But I think the chair si the root of it! We need to reach the chair!" Then he runs back to the end of the hall and into the adjacent room from which they'd came, bracing himself against the doorframe in case there's another wave of blood.
Amalthia looks up, realizing that the surge of blood hasn't come yet. She screws up her courage... and makes a dash through the river of blood, up the hall, into the room, and behind the guy in the chair that the blood is pouring from.
"Cut it out!"
Ragnar moves up into the room trying to stay out of the river of blood as best he can.
Toad kicks the door shut and runs back, only to the next wave of blood bash it open again. It surges past the braced party, disgusting but doing little to them physically. Amalthia and Ragnar run forward as the surge dies down, entering the large room where the chair is. The day room is large, with a hall wall leading to the south with visible doors along the east side leading to a single door at the end of the hall , and a pair of double doors to the north.
From where they are, Amalthia and Ragnar can see on the chair is the corpse of an old woman. Her head is thrown back and her face is fixed with an expression of terror. The blood is coming from a gaping wound in her chest where her heart should be. The blood is pumping out in rhythm to a long dead heart beat.
Amalthia shrieks at the sight of the old woman. Heart racing, she raises a shaking hand to her lips. "I... How...? Oh, my..." She looks away from the corpse. "Killing her to stop it won't work this time. What do we do?"
Malugar turns to Shirrin, the man who seems to know more than any of them most of the time. "Gods! This--Gah! What should we do?" He hefts his ax. "I could take off her head!"
Shirrin heads in and examines the corpse
I have no clue what to roll to see if I have any clue what to do :-)
"Get over to where we are, it hasn't turned so far. We don't want to injure it further, what if every wound gushes like that?"
Amalthis looks for something -- a cloth, rag, perhaps a beating heart? -- and tries to stick it into the empty hole in the corpse!
"UGH!" she gags. She turns away, not able to look as she tries to plug up the flow of blood.
Malugar runs into the room. "A wound? A--" he gasps at the sight of the corpse.
"Should we try healing it, then?"
"I have no such abilities left but I believe positive energy can temporarily dismiss some ghosts... is this a ghost?"
"Eeeek! It's EVERYWHERE!" Amalthia wails as she tries to plug up the hole.
From what Amalthia can gather, the blood doesn't appear to be a magical spell effect. The closest Shirrin can determine is that it's some sort of supernatural effect.
Another wave of blood comes rushing out of the open wound, exploding into poor Amalthia's face and knocking her over. Amalthia, and the old woman's patient smock, are completely drenched in blood.
"Does anybody have ANY idea what to do? I certainly don't"
Malugar roars. His face displays his revulsion as he touches the body, delivering a pulse of positive energy.
"And if this doesn't work, I'm taking her head!"
Ragnar stands behind the chair. "If we stay out of the arc of fire it might be safe?"
Amy lets out a gurgling shriek. She resurfaces completely drenched. "UHHH! It's warm!"
"Oh! Let's push the chair outside! There was a door we could stick her out of. Then the blood can drain out there instead of in here."
