The woman is far gone - whatever faculties she had have left her. She goes with Campus only because she ambles blindly and Campus points her in a direction.
After escorting the woman to a very suspicious looking Winter, the group reconvenes in the hallway with the door at the end of it. Ulfric leads the way and tries the door to find that it is locked. A quick check with the keys from Professor Losandro's office comes up empty - none of the keys fit.
Ramul walks over to the door and listens for any indication of what might lie beyond. What lies within the door catches the kineticist's attention instead.
"There's blood between some of the door's boards. Someone or something may have died here, or perhaps on the other side. We should proceed cautiously... as always."
Ramul unlocks the door without issue
I'll stay behind you all this time.
With the door unlocked Ulfric will open it and step through.
Cerio hangs back, as usual, waiting to see what fresh hell this door leads to.
Klassalka will move through to Ulfric's side, ready to spread out into the room.
Ulfric opens the door, and those gathered within the corridor are afforded a quick look at the room beyond. Immediately a coppery smell assails your nostrils as you look directly into a wall of shimmering red fluid....blood. The wall issues forth towards you in a potent blast of force and liquid. The wall of water slams into the group and hurls everyone back into the corridor. It quickly begins to fill up the corridor and will soon be filled all the way to the top. Oddly, the water doesn't seem to be flowing into any of the other open doors.
Cerio gasps as the wave of hot, red blood picks him up off of his feet. This is unfortunate, for the thick, metallic-tasting stuff gets into his mouth and nostrils, causing him to gag and choke. The thought of being submerged terrifies him, causing him to kick desperately and clutch the walls as he is lifted up toward the ceiling.
Somehow, he keeps his head above it, and frantically tries the nearest door handle.
Damn. Campus curses, then considers. Seems like a room custom built for you, Klassalka
Hah, yes! I'm from a River tribe, this is no problem! she says to reassure Cerio. Hold your breath if the door doesn't work, I'll make sure we all get out fine!
Swimming forward, she sticks her head in the room the flow comes from.
Remaining on his feet, but not quite as in his element as Klassalka, Ulfric calls out "Get more doors open!"
Not underwater yet, Ulfric drops his shield and surges forward through the door he just opened looking for the source of the flood and hoping he can help Klassalka stop it.
Ramul takes the full impact of the blood water, slamming into a wall from the force. He doesn't have time to think about the insanity of what is happening. He has to get to safety.
Slogging through the blood as quickly as he can, Ramul makes for the first door they passed through to get into the hallway.
As he does, he shouts to his companions, "We must get to safety! We can consider how to proceed after that!"
Was this room the cage in which they kept Klassalka?
Campus casts detect magic.
The blood flow buffets you and sends some reeling into walls, but Ceerio catches on first, and tries a door. It opens freely, and Ceerio tumbles into the now open room from which they'd come previously - the one with the frightened...perhaps crazed woman.
Ramul falls and goes flying, painfully bouncing off of one wall and careening into another. He finds the open doorway opposite the one through which Ceerio had just fallen and tumbles in to Professor Losandro's office.
Campus is slammed into a door frame, splitting off the casing and taking part of it with her as she's hurled backwards. She's able to get off a split second spell to view the room beyond, but finds no auras within the radius of her spell - into the room from which the blood flows.
Ramul and Klassalka take deep breaths after the initial assault and begin to attempt to move forward with powerful strokes.
Anyone in the blood holding his or her breath must make a DC12 fort save of contract filth fever each round
Campus dives after Ceerio.
Ramul can't believe what he's seeing. Even after all the strange phenomenona he's experienced so far, a fountain of blood that defied the natural order of things is something seemingly even more unbelievable. Perhaps he's truly mad and the asylum is just the personal manifestation of his worst nightmares.
A river of blood isn't crazy enough, apparently. It had to go and defy the laws of nature as well, he thinks to himself.
For a moment, Ramul begins to despair, then he remembers his companions. They seem real enough. If so, he has to try saving them.
He looks into the river of blood, searching for them, and shouts, "It's safe over here! Swim this way! The blood doesn't flow into here!"
Though the blood is cloudy, Ramul can see forms across the hall in another room, and they appear to be standing vertically - only two of them though...the others can't be seen from his vantage point.
"Well. Shit." Cerio laments as Cerio comes tumbling into the room with him. Both slick with blood, they stare at the lake of blood before them, Cerio not sure what to say about it. "Like somethin' from a nightmare..." is all he manages.
He waves his arms and yells into it. "Hey! This way! Swim out!" His eyes light up as he reaches for his longspear, poking the shaft end of it into the blood and trying to reach for someone who's trapped inside. "Grab on!"
Not a bad idea Campus does the same with her longspear.
The merfolk takes quick haste, moving quickly to the source of the blood to see if she can do something about it.
Ramul is relieved to see that at least two of his companions are okay. But where are the other two? With no skill in swimming to speak of, Ramul feels helpless to be able to look for them.
Not knowing what else to do, he shouts as loud as he can towards the two he can see through the blood, "What can we do? Do you see the others?"
Ceerio and Campus can just barely here Ramul's shout through the blood
Struggling against the blood flow, Ulfric continues to move after Klassalka.
Standing as close to the river of blood as he could without actually entering it, Ramul waits. He's hopeful someone will come out of the torrent or get close enough to the edge for him to pull them out. For now, he watches.
Cerio keeps fishing with the blunt end of his spear, hoping anyone in the blood can latch on. He can hear Ramul, and figures he's made it out. But is anyone else still caught inside?
Well Ceerio, we either go back through, or stay here in this closet of a room
With that she plunges back in and heads towards Klassalka.
"Wait, come back!" Cerio wails and paces like an abandoned puppy when Campus jumps back into the blood. In a flash of revelation, he points a finger at her dark form.
:Ya let me know if ya find a ways outta thar. Elsewise, I'm stayin' here!::
Just as Campus dives back into the blood and begins to swim, Ulfric and Klassalka swim past the doorway into the next room.
You follow the flow to its source, and see, of all things, is the slumped body of an old woman sitting in a wheelchair. The flow of blood comes forth from under the wheels of her chair and rises at a steep slope until it forms a full vertical column that travels down the corridor from which you came. You follow it up and realize that it starts as a steady trickle, coming from a gaping wound in her chest.
The woman's face isn't visible, but her robes seem to indicate that she was a patient, and her fine silver hair shows her age. Directly behind the woman is a large bay window, though its exterior surface show only the sickly, greasy yellow mists.
Looking about the room, you see worn old chair and small tables set with the scattered pieces of simple games strewn about. A serving hatch in the north wall opens into a darkened space beyond. Vast glass windows dominate the eastern walls, beyond which the jaundiced kaleidoscope swirls hypnotically. A coppery smell permeates the room. There are multiple doors to the north and a long hallway to the south.
Ulfric will detect both magic and evil as he approaches the woman, stopping about 10 feet from her.
"I have the ability to stop the bleeding if she is alive in some fashion." Ulfric says to Klassalka.
Ulfric does, indeed, detect an evil aura. He concentrates a bit further as he walks, and finds that the aura is not about the woman herself, but comes from her chair
I have the ability to chop her in half. Might stop the flow.
You make it almost to the door, and see shadowy shapes ahead
Ceerio and Ramul see Campus disappear into the blood, her strong arms beginning to pull her forward towards the door.
Nasty
"I feel like making more holes will not help our cause" Ulfric will say, nodding to the stream of blood. "Also, the chair is some font of evil. I say we remove the body and see what happens."
Ulfric steps forward and pulls the body form the chair, laying gently to the ground.
Just as you set the woman down, you see a quite confused Campus tumble out of the blood flow and into the room.
You follow the flow to its source, and see, of all things, is the slumped body of an old woman sitting in a wheelchair. The flow of blood comes forth from under the wheels of her chair and rises at a steep slope until it forms a full vertical column that travels down the corridor from which you came. You follow it up and realize that it starts as a steady trickle, coming from a gaping wound in her chest.
The woman's face isn't visible, but her robes seem to indicate that she was a patient, and her fine silver hair shows her age. Directly behind the woman is a large bay window, though its exterior surface show only the sickly, greasy yellow mists.
Looking about the room, you see worn old chair and small tables set with the scattered pieces of simple games strewn about. A serving hatch in the north wall opens into a darkened space beyond. Vast glass windows dominate the eastern walls, beyond which the jaundiced kaleidoscope swirls hypnotically. A coppery smell permeates the room. There are multiple doors to the north and a long hallway to the south.
Klassalka and Ulfric are huddled about the old woman and, as you watch, Ulfric pulls the woman from the chair and lays her on the ground, though that makes no discernible change to the blood flow.
Campus feels the bloods saltiness sting her eyes as she emerges from the river of blood. It felt like she had performed some occult ritual, and all she wanted now was a bit of beer. Have you tried healing her?
"Not yet, I was hoping taking her from the evil chair would stop it." Ulfric says. He will then place his hand over her wound and use lay on hands.
Klassalka will try and smash the chair with her sword, just in case that helps.
Klassalka also ingests some of the blood and feels a bit queasy, but no other effects take hold...only time will tell what it has done to her body.
Klassalka tears into the chair, beginning to dismantle it and seeming to get out some of her frustrations. It seems to have no visible effect, save to damage the chair.
Cerio, pacing and whining like a lost pup, finally, finally takes a deep breath and tries to swim through the hot blood.
As he struggles on he remembers the dark outline of Ramul in an adjacent room. He points his finger and sends the same kind of magical message, telling him to try and swim through to the end of the hall as well.
Campus let's out a rope into the blood river to help Cerio make it through.
With some slight difficulty, Ceerio pulls on the rope as Campus begins to haul him along. As he moves, Ceerio has some of the blood flow into his nose, and he begins to feel a bit ill.
After the teamwork, Campus finally pulls Ceerio out of the blood flow and into the room.
You follow the flow to its source, and see, of all things, a wheelchair, which is currently being torn apart by Klassalka. The flow of blood comes forth from under the wheels of the chair and rises at a steep slope until it forms a full vertical column that travels down the corridor from which you came.
Directly behind the chair is a large bay window, though its exterior surface show only the sickly, greasy yellow mists. Ulfric knees beside the chair, his hands on the crumpled form of an old woman.
Looking about the room, you see worn old chair and small tables set with the scattered pieces of simple games strewn about. A serving hatch in the north wall opens into a darkened space beyond. Vast glass windows dominate the eastern walls, beyond which the jaundiced kaleidoscope swirls hypnotically. A coppery smell permeates the room. There are multiple doors to the north and a long hallway to the south.
Ramul waits by the river of blood, but decides against going in. If nothing changes, someone will need to inform Winter and he suspects he's an even worse swimmer than Cerio.