Yes, sorry for smashing you. Luckily it was just the hilt of my sword!
The men seem to be bewildered by the sudden turn of events, but their frame of mind is such that they can't compose an arguement...that is, until you try to get them to leave the room. One suddenly shakes his head as if to clear it. No way! You're not taking me out there with that thing! You just want to feed me to it!
Ramul replies calmly to the man, "If by 'that thing' you refer to the creature in the darkness, the creature has been slain and the darkness is no more. We can lead you to a safe place. You don't need to stay here alone."
"We got a nice camp set up! Got beds 'n even food."
The men look out towards the room beyond, indeed indicating that they meant the small creature. The more lucid one speaks again. We can't leave our post, he'll kill us!
Maybe worse Another man chimes in as he watches the slice in his skin knit back together.
The men look at Cerio, but don't seem to put much faith in his claim.
"Who will kill you for leaving your post?" Ulfric says in a compassionate voice. "We can protect you and take you to a safer camp, where there are no threats of death from the leaders."
Taking orders from someone else? So, is there another group of survivor's in the asylum? One who would kill their people for not following orders? That doesn't sound like Winter. Cerio decides to play along and ask questions later.
"Yea! They's more'n one horse 'n this here rodeo, if ya get m' meanin'."
Would you rather stay in here? If so, we will leave you to it. Campus murmurs mostly to herself.
"It sounds like whoever you answer to is unstable. If you want to get somewhere safe, your best chance is to come with us now. If you change your mind later, we may not be around to provide protection."
The most verbose man looks to Ulfric, and a moment of clarity passes over his face. He heaves a great sigh. Ulver Zandalas. The man's mad...more mad even than when he was a patient here. He's made everyone join his cult...Apostles in Orpiment he calls it - no idea what it means. Now, we either work for his goons, or scrape for a meal in the norther halls.
He looks around to the others, who seemed to barely hold onto their senses. We'll go...don't think we could be in a worse way than we were up there...or in here. The others don't seem to argue, or notice.
"You made the right decision. I don't know who this Zandalas is, but we'll investigate further once we've gotten you to safety."
We will escort you.
"Lets get you to safety then." Ulfric says. "Where exactly does Zandalus' cult call home?"
Ulfric will lead the way to Winter's group.
As you lead the man, he meekly stands in the middle of the group as if more afraid of the environment than the bristling weapons around him. His shamble along, almost lifelessly, perhaps coming down from whatever drugs they had found in the nurse's station.
Zandalus and his crew are in the northern halls, which used to hold the kitchens and community gathering areas. Directly to the north through there... He points at the doors leading north out of the room that had been previously shrouded in darkness. ...is a large hall, where many of the survivors scrape for food even as they try to stay out of Zandalus's way. Zandalus himself is upstairs, but we rarely ever see him, unless it's to grab another victim for whatever he does up there.
A few dozen of us he calls his Acolytes in Orpiment...we're basically just the few that can still walk around and try to perform whatever task he gives us. We were sent out, and thought that we could find some good...err... He glances at his companions before continuing. ...um, medicine - in the pharmacy. We got stuck there though when that creature manifested in the dark room.
You arrive at the encampment, and immediately have to talk the guards out of simply killing the trio upon sight. Within a few moments, Captain York comes forth and after some deliberation, decides to take the three into custody, provided they are separated from the others.
Ulfric, do you detect any evil in them? They should be kept in isolation for a while until we are sure. I recommend the jail cells we were once housed. Once we are sure about you, you will be quite welcome.
Ulfric nods after giving the men a hard stare for a few seconds. After that acknowledgement, Captain York nods to Campus and begins to take action, only to be stopped a moment later by Winter.
Winter comes forward to look at the men, and her typical firm but caring nature doesn't show at all. Instead, anger and perhaps disgust show in her eyes. It's not safe to have these three so far from our main encampment. They'll stay with us, under constant guard.
York changes gears immediately, obviously well used to following Winter's orders. As the men are ushered away, Winter turns to you.
It's going to take two men to watch them. The attacks here have slowed due to your explorations...for that I thank you. But, I fear we don't have much longer. The patients are beginning to lose what piece of mind they had left...and some were fairly far gone before this madness.
Have you made any progress into finding a way out?
"A way out... I don't think we can say for sure. But we have learned the location of Zandalus, and can go investigate there next." Ulfric says to Winter. "If his cultist are like those three, then we will hopefully be able to talk them down. If they're more aggressive then we may have a fight on our hands. Either way, we will either learn something or get more supplies out of dealing with the 'cultists'. Sad as their state may be."
When everyone is ready, Ulfric will lead the way back to the room they found the found the three men.
Ramul shakes his head at Winter's question. "I don't think we've actually gotten closer to finding a way out. That said, we have eliminated a number of possibilities, so we're at least narrowing down the options. If this Zandalus is behind any of the happenings in the asylum, perhaps he'll have some answers for us."
The kineticist follows Ulfric back once everyone is ready.
Winter nods, her fiercely distrusting eyes still focused on the cultists. Please, be as careful as you can in this place. I know there's nothing resembling safety here in this place, but I'll do my best to keep this people unharmed physically and mentally as long as I can.
With that, she and Captain York lead the prisoners away.
You head back the way you came, and enter into the once-darkened room, dreading the worst. However, it now appears just as it must have during normal operation of the asylum, though perhaps a bit worse for the wear. Racks of blunt weapons, padded restraints, and glass lamps lay shattered to pieces and scattered to the corners. The walls are bare, safe for the door to the nurse's station to your right, and a set of double security doors to the north. These are thick and the frame itself seems to be held in place with a masonry compound of some sort.
"I say we go that way for now." Ulfric motions to the single door to the nurses station.
Ulfric leads them back into the nurse's station. Seeing this room devoid of the cultists and their tensely odd conversation, you can now see the entire room.
As he searches the room, Ramul makes a few discoveries. He says, "There's enough stray gear here to fashion a healer's kit. Winter could find that useful. I also recognize a couple of these intact potions as potions of cure light wounds. We should probably hold onto those ourselves."
"Those will indeed be useful." Ulfric says. "I guess the only place left to go is through those double doors..."
Ulfric leaves his comment hanging, not wanting to rush people into moving on.
Perhaps we should prepare for the worst.
Campus approaches the double doors. Bending s.ightly she places her hands on the glazed wood, and concentrates. A vision appears in her mind of the room beyond.
Cerio snaps his fingers. An oily black sphere materializes around him, its translucent surface swirling with indescribable shapes. Just as quickly, it pops out of existence.
Campus focuses for more than a minute, and her eyes glaze slightly as she stares at the face of the door. It would look comical, if her companions weren't aware of how useful the skill was.
Beyond the door, Campus can see a gigantic space that may have once been a cafeteria or assembly hall. Now, it looks like the village of savage tribe. Wildly burning braziers stand amid yellow tents and scrap structures. Portions of the western and northern walls have collapsed, but ramshackle barricades have risen to surround them. To the east, two sets of wide stairs climb to the floor above. Around the stairs nearly a dozen bodies hang crucified upon the walls, dried crimson streaks below them, sacks cinched around their heads. Tendrils of yellow mist creep throughout the entire space, wisps endlessly lapping and fondling the bizarre encampment.
Dozens of men and women move about the large space, performing what seem to be rather mundane functions of a cobbled-together encampment. Oddly, they all seem to wear some sort of yellow clothing or accessory.
Campus relates to her companions the grisly scene, the tendrils of the yellow gas, and the yellow clothing.
Do you recall whether the men we came across wore yellow clothing? I wonder whether it protects them from the gas...
Ramul shakes his head. "I don't know, but I doubt it protects them. If anything, it might make them more susceptible to it. Most of those people have to be half-mad if they're actually living in the shadow of those bodies. Still... if we're going to get in there and figure out what's going on, we'll probably all need to find some yellow garments, otherwise we'll likely join the crucified."
Cerio dusts some debris from his shoulder. At he does, a cascade of yellow washes over him, tinting his clothes a shade of drab mustard. For a moment, even his eyes seem to absorb the color.
He grins, teeth to match. "No problem. Who else?"
"Color me as well, Cerio." Ulfric says "It may be best if only a couple of us go in to ask questions, the rest remain here to cover our escape if needed. I doubt they have sent to many groups of people as large as ours out." Thinking for a moment Ulfric continues, "We could also tell them we met the other three, who convinced us to join them and gave us these colors."
Ramul frowns at the idea of separating. "If you feel it's the only way, UIfric. But if something happens while you're away, there will be little chance of us arriving in time to aid you, if we even realize anything is amiss in the first place."
Or we can go in and bust some heads open. Those in there, they are doing great evil.
Cerio points at Ulfric with his index finger, prestidigitating some of his clothes the same yellow color.
"I don't think there's an 'only way'. I offered up two ideas." Ulfric says, slightly confused at Ramul's response. To Campus, "Going in and busting heads is a decent plan too. I suggest we all get colored yellow though to try and get as close as possible to them before the fight starts. I'd like to keep surprise on our side as much as possible." Closing with them is not going to be fun if we have to do it from the door way... With a bit of a sigh Ulfric also says, "We should probably also announce that people are to surrender immediately once we start the fight. I reckon some of them are innocent people just trying to stay alive and not fall prey to the cult."
Ulfric will go over to the door and cast Detect Evil in a cone through the door way, trying to determine if there's a strong evil presence in the room or not.
Before entering, Campus will pray to become a very large woman.
Ramul rubs his hand across his forehead. He's not entirely comfortable with going in and brute-forcing the situation, but he also much prefers this to having only two or three of them enter. Perhaps the situation will be resolved without violence when they ask the people to surrender. Or perhaps he's just being naive.
"You can make my clothes yellow as well, Cerio. If we're going to do this, we should fully commit to it."
Another wiggle of his finger, and Ramul's clothes turn yellow as well.
Ulfric does not detect any evil directly within the room, though the room is quite large, so an evil presence can't really be ruled out.
I'll try and keep my lower half out of sight and stay in the back. They won't suspect a thing!
Now a group of yellow clothed outsiders, you do your best to mimic any mannerisms of the yellow cloaked people you'd seen to date, and push through the pair of doors and into the large room.
The first thing you notice is that the floor and corners of the room have a light layer of the yellow mist that plagues the building's exterior. The faint smell of decay - like rotting vegetation mixes with the stench of dozens of unwashed bodies. It's fairly obvious that this was once a place for the majority of Briarstone's residents to gather for meals and large announcements. The fog is thicker to the north, so that you get the feeling you're not seeing the entire extent of the room.
You are surprisingly unmolested as you enter the room - apparently those gathered here are used to keeping their eyes down and their attention to themselves. You see that much of the room appears to be a ramshackle slums, made up of broken furniture, scavenged sheets and torn mattresses. Tiny hovels provide shelter to groups of the yellow-clothed folks.
At the western wall, there is a significant amount of rubble, as if the wall there caved in. A door can be seen to the north, but the size of the room into which it leads cannot be figured, given the cover of mists. Stairs lead up to the right, among the crucified bodies.
Ramul takes in the room now that he sees it with his own eyes. It almost seems as though these people are just trying to survive, just like those with Winter and Captain York.
To his companions, Ramul says, "Perhaps we should look for someone who appears to be mostly harmless? We can ask them about the situation before we decide if we should seek out this place's leader."
They said the leader is on the top floor. Let us try those stairs Campus suggests motioning to the right, past the crucified bodies.
Cerio casts message on Klassalka and Ulfric, their heaviest hitters, so that he can easily communicate with them from a distance. Just in case.
The yellow-garbed Cerio does his best to look crazy (not a far stretch), as he enters the room behind the others.
Zandalus sees. He recalls the phrase spoken by the other cultists they've already encountered. Would Zandalus see them coming?
As you move towards the stairs, a small crowd forms, brandishing mismatched and improvised weapons.
The group approaches, as if hesitantly, but on a very obvious trajectory to cut you off from the stairs. Before things can escalate, a man in the coat of a Briarstone doctor emerges and stands in between you and the small gang. He holds up a hand to the gathered crowd, then gives them a nervous smile and performs a calming motion with open hands.
The man turns to you, and loudly declares. Good! More come to gaze beyond, to serve the orpiment! Welcome, friends! He approaches with open arms and empty hands. As soon as he's close enough, he desperately whispers. Nod and follow me, if you want to live.
Ramul notes the nonthreatening nature of some of the crowd. He's fairly certain he couldn't stomach fighting many of these people. Some are probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
When the man approaches, Ramul finds himself nodding in agreement with him. The kineticist can't help but feel the group has gotten in over their heads. Ramul prefers to keep his.
Still, he glances over at his companions to see what they intend to do. He doesn't want to follow the man if he's alone. It would be more than a little awkward.
Campus's holy symbol burns on her forhead, which at the moment, is rather high off the ground, given her recent enlargement.
Ulfric will nod and follow the man.
No point in killing this crowd... Even if the mans an enemy, I'd rather face him alone on his terms where the innocent will remain unharmed.