"You say that now, but there's limited supplies here, we'll have to find something at some point."
"That's true, but we'll cross that bridge if we ever come to it.
"It looks like there's nothing else to see in this room, perhaps we should check one of the other rooms off the main room?"
First, can anyone look at our loot. We are light on gear.
What a place.
Let's just keep moving, shall we. I've no wish to be a static target in this place of madness.
Ramul looks over each of the magical items they recovered to try to determine what they are.
All right let's move. Campus grunts brusquely.
Norther Eastern Campus agrees with Ramul's gesture.
After attempting to go east, you find a narrow hallway blocked by an impassable wall of rubble at one termination, and other such wall blocking the way to a door directly to the east. Neither way seems to be a viable alternative.
The last door in the northeast actually heads to the west. It opens freely, and out into the open dark night and thick, yellow mist. It seems as if a wide area - a courtyard maybe - yawns beyond the open door, though visibility in the mist is limited to about twenty feet.
"Well, I think it's safe to say that's a dead end, for now. Perhaps we should try a different direction."
Ramul is growing increasingly frustrated with this place. Dead ends at every turn and no answers to speak of. Whatever had happened at this place... whatever is happening at this place, they had to find out.
Giving up now wouldn't help solve the mysteries of the place. So, with a sigh, Ramul turns to look for another path to follow.
[i[ I must leave this place![/i] Campus pauses with the realization
I've half a mind to run through that mist.
At the sign of a dead end, Ulfric sighs.
This damnable place will be the end of us...
Varinder does his checks on the pair of decorative doors to the north, and he nods his head to show the safety of the route. A quick divination shows no dwelling auras - magical nor evil.
The room beyond is, or was quite obviously a library. Sagging shelves, held together by dust and an extensive system of rolling ladders, ring this library of husky, dull-looking tomes. At the room's center broods a heavily worn table surrounded by what look to be uncomfortable chairs. A chandelier of iron vines dangles above. The scents of leather and old paper pervde the high-ceilinged space, but so does a distinct bestial musk.
The ceiling herein is easily twice as high as Ulfric is tall, though the ladders only reach a few feet over his head.
"Something may have been in here recently. Several of the lower shelves have had their contents scattered across the floor. Be on your guard," Ramul says as he looks around in the now defunct library.
Campus casts detect magic, hoping to get a trace of what perturbed Ramul.
I wonder what was sought in those shelves?
Varinder drifts cautiously towards the disturbed bookshelves.
Campus finds no magical aura about the discarded books or the shelves themselves.
Ramul and Varinder look a bit more closely. Upon closer examination, you can see that the books and backs of the nearby shelves have been gnawed through. Looking into the low, darkened shelves reveals narrow tunnels bored through the wood and stone beneath.
Ramul points out that one of these tunnels is particularly well used and breaks through the north wall to another area. The passage could be squeezed through by a smaller person.
Rats?
"Perhaps."
Ramul looks over at Evander and says, "Do you think... do you think you might be able to squeeze in there a bit and see where the passage leads?"
I'm not sure the key to.our escape will be found down a rat hole Campus looks pessimistic.
I'm unconvinced that anything but danger of the rattish variety lies that way. Bookish rats, perhaps, but rats all the same. Well-read rodents or no, a prudent Gnome does not poke his head into tight places such as those.
The man's bare feet land at dangerous angles on the uneven cobblestones, each step a gamble. Will he stumble again? His right knee aches painfully, a reminder of his previous fall but a moment ago, when he had hesitated rounding a corner, convinced he'd find himself in a familiar street. But there had only been more nameless alleys, more shuttered windows and darkened lampposts.
And the others--terrified faces mirroring his own; nameless shadows flitting through the darkness like shooting stars that fall helpless in the blackness of space. Only to perish alone on an alien shore.
Make a wish.
The thought, meaningless and absurd, explodes in his head, catching him off guard. He stumbles over a protruding stone and goes flailing, landing hard on his elbows.
"S@*%!" he gasps in pain before hauling himself upright. Behind him, the steps grow louder, colder, hungrier. "Dun' stop!" he screams at himself. His voice rings strangely in his own ears. He was not expecting the thought to find life. Or had it? He couldn't tell what was in his head anymore.
He hobbles forward, clutching his arm, before breaking away and scrambling down the left alley.
Varinder seems to relent slightly.
I will only dare this if we have exhausted every other path of exploration. And even then I might still demur. Let us see first if we can find another way.
Campus chuckles, but agrees with Varinder.
If it is a rat's den, then it will be a den of crazed rats.
Approaching the gnawed shelving, Campus reaches back, and violently shoves her cold-iron long spear into the darkness of the opening.
Campus's spear finds nothing but open air. A moment or so passes, then a small squeak sounds from above one of the bookshelves. Campus turns to find a book flying through the air at her.
Spying the ratlings, Ramul says to the others, "Watch out! There are beasts in the shelves!"
With none of the creatures in range, Ramul takes a defensive stance, trying to brace himself for the hurling of books.
Upon hearing Ramul's warning, Campus looks up from the hole she had thrust her spear, to find rat-like forms emerging from the shelving.
Crazed Rats, I knew i--.
Campus's face turns to green as the rat's human-like visage becomes apparent..
'Crazed rats'--Clearly I underestimated the horrors this asylum can produce.
So much area to look through...
Ulfric has been pondering things whilst following the others, and is a bit absent minded when they fall under attack.
Varinder, busily imagining squirming into the rat-hole, is caught up in a fancy wherein he is belaboured over the head with a Kuthite scripture by an angry rat...Ramul's voice breaks in to his reverie like a sword slicing an overripe peach.
Huh?
The man sees the alley before him branch up the hill. Up, he thinks, but his stomach rises to his throat as his foot slides out from under him yet again and he falls once more onto the rough, unforgiving cobblestones.
He's so surprised that he momentarily forgets his fear, crawling on all fours and then breaking free to run downhill.
Downhill? Yes, in his hysteria he has forgotten his earlier choice, and now finds himself descending into the lower alleys.
Ahead, the man swears he catches sight of another in the mist. "Hey! I--" He starts to call out, but barely gets a word before the fog begins to churn and an unusual movement in his periphery catches his eye. Confused and scared, he whips around to find the source.
Curiosity is a terrible thing.
"It's...What'va...Dun'...!" he stammers, unable to wrap his mind around the thing he sees. His eyes show him one thing, but his brain balks. It is an impossibility, a contradiction, a horror too great to really, truly exist. Yet the thing before him is more terrible than anything his own feeble imagination might have conceived.
He turns and flees, the sound of his scream flying out before him.
You cry out in pain and horror as your blood splashes onto the cobblestones under you, unbelievably spelling out a statement. "Wake up, help me!"
You open your eyes....and this time, you're convinced that your eyes are actually open. You blink rapidly, eyes adjusting to the faint light. You back away from where you last saw the horrid creature, only to find....nothing. No one attacks you...there's no mist, no city, no blood. A dream then, you think, and your eyes adjust enough to see your surroundings.
You're in some sort of an office. Two desks are crammed within, but more space has been dedicated to filing cabinets, bookshelves, and stacks of loose research than room for occupants. You see two people slumped over those desks...asleep perhaps? A lantern is the source of the faint flickering light - it glows dimly from a hook on the wall. There is only one door to or from this room, and it is closed - to your south.
(Would've put this before, but Paizo decided to go to sleep)
Klassalka knocks an arrow and fires it into one of the ratlings
"Throw books at us will you! I'm told those are worth money!"
The man jerks awake, banging his head on the lip of the desk under which he is curled. ”S#$*!” he rubs his head. ”’s’gonna leave a mark, fer sure,” he whispers to himself.
A dream, then. Stupid bog-brain, pissin’ yersef over’nt.
He crawls slowly to his feet, the blood flowing back into his appendages with a painful prickling sensation. His joints and muscles are stiff, and he leans on the desk as a cramp claims his back. Only then does it strike him he’s no idea where he is. He glances around, confused, noting the others, the furniture and clutter, the door, and the lamp.
He calls out in a low hiss to the slumped figures in the pallid lamplight.
”Psst! Hey, fellers! Hey! Wake up!” He reaches for a pile of papers from the desk, wadding up several pieces of parchment and throwing them as hard as he can at the others. He shuffles slowly toward the door. ”Where’n hells are we??”
Klassalka's arrow strikes a telling hit, piercing through the tiny shoulder of one of the little creatures. It squeals out its pain, and its eyes light in anger as it responds with a hurled tome.
Two more tomes fly through the air - one at Campus and another at Ramul.
Ramul is frustrated by the fact that, despite his defensive stance, one of the rat things still managed to strike him. He would have to deal with them now.
He approaches the closest one, summons his blade, and swings at it.