After John listens at the door and hears nothing, and Xander examines it and finds no traps, John quietly cracks the door open and peers inside. He sees nothing but rubble at first, so the group proceeds into the antechamber.
Sturdy racks and toppled tables suggest this space once served as a sizable laundry. Much of the northern end of the room is filled with rubble. To the south is another door.
A wall of pipe-like crossbeams fills the western alcove of this room. Three figures are manacled to the rack here, from south to north: a human wearing stained yellow sheets as robes and bearing a flame-shaped chalk mark upon his forehead, the corpse of a partially eaten patient, and what appears to be a a person in the process of becoming some kind of undead creature. The prisoners cannot move from the four westernmost spaces of the alcove, but they can slide north and south.
The man chewing on the arm of the corpse appears to be in the advanced stages of ghoul fever, and in fact for all intents and purposes can be considered an undead ghoul at this point, with all undead traits.
Ghouls are undead that haunt graveyards and eat corpses. Legends hold that the first ghouls were either cannibalistic humans whose unnatural hunger dragged them back from death or humans who in life fed on the rotting remains of their kin and died (and were reborn) from the foul disease—the true source of these undead scavengers is unclear.
In addition to spreading ghoul fever, which drains a person's CON and DEX until they become a ghoul, ghouls can paralyze those they hit with their bite and claw attacks. Elves are immune to this effect.
Ghouls lurk on the edges of civilization (in or near cemeteries or in city sewers) where they can find ample supplies of their favorite food. Though they prefer rotting bodies and often bury their victims for a while to improve their taste, they eat fresh kills if they are hungry enough.
Ghouls are resistant to channel energy.
Though most surface ghouls live primitively, rumors speak of ghoul cities deep underground led by priests who worship ancient cruel gods or strange demon lords of hunger. These “civilized” ghouls are no less horrific in their eating habits, and in fact the concept of a well-laid ghoul banquet table is perhaps even more horrifying than the concept of taking a meal fresh from the coffin.
The corpse dangling here looks like another asylum patient. This unfortunate seems to have fallen victim to the hungers of her undead fellow prisoner. Her left arm has been completely stripped of flesh.
As you enter the area, the yellow robed man cries out as he sees you, "Zandalus sees!" and stares at you excitedly but says nothing more for now. The man on the other end appears to be afflicted by some kind of fever and shows signs of changing into something horrible, and he has a terrible look of fear in his eyes as he quietly gnaws at the arm of the dead prisoner chains beside him.
+ =24
Hoping not to draw the attention of the "changing man," Pouch whispers to the others, "A ghoul. Beware. Their teeth and claws can paralyze, AND turn you into a ghoul." He points to the other fellow. "We need to speak to Zandalus though."
"I'll deal with the filth."
John levels his sword at the restrained ghoul in a two-hand grip, steps forward, and runs it through.
(power attack, 2h)
Mashiki let her mind wander as she often did when confronted with something she didn't know. Often she would find the answer in the mind of some unknowable alien intellect, but here in this place all she encountered were violent, horrible thoughts that made her recoil whenever she tried to browse through them.
Fortunately, it seemed that Xander knew what it was, but by the time she was able to focus back on the immediate issue Cage had already moved forward with his sword just before she asked "Should We just shoot it from over here so we don't get too close and risk getting bit?"
Harrow looks at the sight in the room and nervously chuckles. "We can come back another time, dearies."
He steps back towards the back of the group, sheathing his kukri and drawing the sickle.
Seeing the corpses, strange and gruesome knowledge comes flooding back to Miniel. He's turning into a ghoul...good thing he was restrained. Cage seems to take care of him, so Miniel turns to the alive man and asks him in a terse voice: "You! Do you know who did this? Why are there ghouls here?"
Rope stares at the prisoners, her brow furrowed. She looks around carefully to make sure there aren't any other threats hiding in the room.
John rushes forward and drives the point of his blade into the creature's chest, but it takes more time and effort than expected.
The ghoul is able to claw and bite at his attacker, and though John avoids the brunt of the assault, the undead man does manage to slash the ranger across the face with one sharp claw.
As Miniel attempts to address the yellow-robed man, he turns to her and responds only by repeating a single phrase, over and over, "Words fail. Words fail, words fail! Words fail? Words fail."
Surprise Round John (moved forward)
Round One Ghoul (full attacked John), John (hit ghoul), Alico (up), Xander (up) Miniel (up), Laura (up), Mashiki (up),
Rope blinks stupidly as the ghoul attacks Cage, and then she growls as she moves forward to swing her axe at it.
Laura rushes forward and decapitates the ghoul, sending its head flying to the floor.
The man in the yellow robes looks around the room at each of the adventurers, and this time repeats another word over and over, "Praise, praise, praise, praise. Praise! Praise!"
The man seems to be suffering from some sort of aphasia. Aphasia is an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write. Aphasia is always due to injury to the brain-most commonly from a stroke, particularly in older individuals.
”A little help please?” Cage asks the healers in the party.
John feels his muscles tense up after the ghoul scratches him, but he is tough enough to shrug off the paralysis.
Pouch isn't sure what's wrong with the old man, beyond possibly just being a crazy old coot. But he CAN help Cage. He casts a quick spell of healing for the man.
"Words fail indeed, Zandulus."
Rope turns with a flash of concern in her eyes, and she looks Cage over to see if he is infected. With water from her canteen, she does her best to clean the filth from his wounds.
She stares at the yellow-robed man, puzzled by his behavior.
Harrow narrows his eyes at the yellow-robed lunatic, placing a hand on Rope's shoulder. "I wouldn't waste my time with that one." Turning to Pouch he points with his sickle at the crazy man as female voice speaks up. "I doubt this is Zandalus. His brain's broken and he smells of a damp alley. This poor unfortunate soul has probably suffered a stroke and can't speak clearly anymore."
At Xander's mention of Zandalus, the man begins repeating, "Zandalus sees, Zandalus sees, Zandalus sees," over and over again, and begins struggling against the manacles.
"Thanks Pouch!"
While the others try to talk to the crazy man, Cage searches the room.
John finds nothing of note while looking around the room. The three sets of manacles could be of use, and no one has searched any of the people, living or dead, who are still manacled. There is a door to the south that is closed.
Pouch will set about searching the bodies. If possible, he'll also free Zandulus. "No reason to leave the guy chained up like that."
He'll grab the manacles as well if it's possible. Never know when something like that will come in handy.
Xander is able to collect the three sets of manacles, and frees who he thinks to be Zandalus. Additionally, when he searches the half-eaten body, he finds a strange treasure in a dirty handkerchief inside one of its pockets.
The item appears to be nothing more than a disembodied, coin-sized eye with an X-shaped pupil. If left on a fat surface, it slowly rolls in a random direction. A membrane within the eye blinks every few moments and the pupil moves to make eye contact with whoever’s holding it. The eye has no apparent function, but a buyer of curiosities might pay up to 250 gp for it.
Once freed, the man in the yellow robes simply sits in the corner, and whimpers to himself, "Praise, praise, praise, praise, praise..."
Miniel is visibly frustrated, but she recognizes the yellow-robed man's condition, so she knows there's not much else they'll be able to get out of him. Instead, she continues her ritual for the dead, then stands up and addresses her companions. "Unfortunately, that man", nodding her head towards him, "probably has a brain injury, so he won't be of much help. Though, I do wonder what the chalk mark is. Perhaps Winter would know more - something about Zandalus and his cult, perhaps."
Seeing the eyeball that pouch found, Cage says "Why does it have to be eye's everywhere watching us? Cover that thing up so that it can't spy on us."
Then he turns to the door to the south.
"I think this is the last door in this wing. Let's finish this."
He looks it over for danger.
If it seems safe, he will open the door.
Laura stares at the babbling man, then looks at the others as if she is experiencing a new feeling. Sympathy? Disgust? Yes, it looks more like disgust. She winces slightly and places her hand on her belly to steady herself. "I am ready," she mutters to Cage, close by.
Broom looks at the man and out of curiosity asks in Aklo
She grins at Cage "We know! There are lots of strange things that seem to have a lot of eyes. There are some things that seem to be made up of nothing but eyes! We thought it was a little funny how many things are just eyes when We were trying to find memories of the big eye on the wall. Is the eye magic, or is it alive? May We see it?"
Knowing that the group would like to move on and heeding (at least to some extent) Cage's concern about being spied upon, Broom examines the eye turning it over to try and look at its back before getting a little annoyed that no matter which way she turned it, it was always looking at her. She peers directly into the eye with a mixture of unease and curiosity before handing it back.
She then goes back to stand beside Pouch, ready for the next room.
Broom gets no response from the yellow-robed man, other than a look of confusion when she speaks Aklo.
John opens the door.
Several wide tables and gigantic washbasins fill a laundry equipped to service hundreds. The place looks as though it were re-purposed as a failed surgery, though, with at least one table heaped with remains while corpses lie discarded in the corners near the door. A stained sheet hangs between two of the basins, dividing the room roughly in half. A lantern shines on the far side, and you can see the silhouette of a figure on the other side of the curtain, working over a table.
The basins appear to be 6-foot-tall, 10-foot-diameter washtubs, and stand in alcoves along the west walls, two short folding ladders leaning near each. The table you can see here has been cleared of its mundane work and used as a surface for operating and dissection. The remains of several humans and doppelgangers lie spread across these tables, butchered beyond simple scientific inquiry.
"How did this place get so messed up?" Cage asks as he sets his longsword in a two hand grip.
"We can only hope we hit rock bottom soon." Harrow grumbles, folding his arms underneath his poncho and kicking a piece of refuse. "That way the only way left to go is up."
"Be ready, there's something behind that curtain and if it did all this", gesturing to the bloody corpses, "I doubt it is friendly." Cage tells the others.
As you enter the room and softly speak to one another, you see the silhouetted figure slowly turn as if to face you, though still through the curtain. When it faces you, the shadow seems to hold a large scalpel in one hand, or perhaps just a dagger, blade pointed towards the sky as it tilts its head to regard you. It seems to pay you little mind, however, and returns to its work on the operating table.
"Hey there, whatcha' doin'?" Cage asks the figure behind the sheet.
The figure makes no response to your inquiries, but seems to continue its work.
Cage takes one hand off his sword and gestures left and right to his companions, trying to convey that they should spread out to either side.
Xander moves forward as quietly as he can manage. He isn't sure if it will help, but best not to draw too much attention to one's self.
Rope obeys, moving to the right side of Cage to offset Pouch on the left. She holds her axe loosely, calmly. Her expression is one of wary menace-- she seems not to trust the figure on the other side of the curtain.
Broom stays near Pouch and tries to emulate his sneaking.
When they get near the laundry basin she has a peek inside.
Miniel has a bad feeling about the figure. It seems to be not all there mentally, the way it kept at whatever it was doing even when they'd all entered. Fearing the worst, she readies an arrow in case it becomes hostile, though she hopes she won't have to use it.
The figure makes no movement as several of the party try to sneak closer.
Mashiki, upon inspecting the wash basin, finds it to be 6-foot-tall and 10-foot in diameter, and she would have to climb one of the nearby stepladders to get a good look inside. She tries to stand on her tip-toes but just can't quite see down into it, though the lip of the basin is dry.
Seeing his companions taking up positions, Cage will step forward and try to either cut or pull down the curtain with his extended longsword.
Broom looked about at her companions. It was taking achingly long for anything to happen. She fidgeted as time seemed to slow down and stretch out in anticipation of the possibility of upcoming violence.
Harrow begins breathing heavily, his frustration and hate welling up inside to the point of boiling over.
Rope will match Cage's action, swiftly helping to pull down the curtain from the other corner so they can see what sort of creature they are facing.
As the curtain is pulled down by Cage and Laura, they reveal the other side of the room. Lantern light fills the room, but there is no one standing on the other side of the room. However, as you look down at the stained sheet, you can see the silhouette still moving about on the crumbled fabric.
This is clearly an illusion, probably of the silent image variety.
The remains of several humans and doppelgangers lie spread across the tables on this side of the room as well, butchered beyond simple scientific inquiry.
You can hear a faint scraping noise coming from the far wash basin.
There is a middle-aged woman lying on the middle table that appears to be alive, though unconscious.
Something seems off about the woman strapped to the table. She may not be human...
"What......"
"What manner of butchery is this? Who or what is responsible?" Cage says, trying to sound authoritative.
Laura stares at the curtain, her eyes and mouth open in silent surprise.
She has no insights into their circumstances.
Mashiki gasps in surprise as the sheet falls "Its living inside the curtain!" she exclaims excitedly before looking up at what lay beyond
She fought down a wave of nausea at the carnage that was revealed. "What happened here?" she asked quietly "Did the curtain shadow do all this?"
"Why is everyone trying to pull everyone else apart?" she pondered.
Her attention is drawn to the sound "Someone is trapped in the tub"
"Well, that's...odd. Haunted sheet?" Miniel tears her eyes away from the figure still moving on the sheet to examine what's behind it. She spots the woman, and points her still-drawn bow towards it. "There, that one, looks like she's still alive. Though, I'm not sure if she's a human. Maybe a doppelganger? Doesn't seem like whoever did this was too friendly to those, either."
Xander is too weirded out by the sheet shadow to notice much about the woman.
"A haunted sheet? What kind of silly cliche is that?" Nervously, he watches as some of the others go to examine the basin.
And then he hears the elf point out the woman. "If she's alive and she isn't human, kill it. Fool me once, shame on me. I've learned my lesson."
The injured person groans.
"Please," she says in a labored voice, "Help me before she comes back."
It sounds like this woman is faking her injured sounding voice. You don't trust her.
Miniel keeps her bow drawn and pointed at the woman. She doesn't quite share Xander's mistrust, but for the time being, it's better to be safe than sorry. She questions, in a strong voice, "Who is 'she'? Who did this? What's going on here?"