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Andrzej rolls his eyes at the noises, hoping no one can see the rouge blush on his austere cheeks.
Eliva sighs and shrugs. "I guess we'll just hope there's enough of us to handle what comes," she murmurs and keeps her eyes peeled for evidence of the clawed creature as they moved forward.
The party's progress down the dusty corridor is noisy and obtrusive. Your collective tracking efforts easily make out a trail of footprints on the dusty floor as well as scratches along the molding. Again they suggest the claws of a rodent but are too large. The disturbance on the dusty floor indicates someone or something was dragged.
The hall is quiet but for the noises you make. Eliva spots a rat scurrying along past a doorway in search of its next meal.
Then, a low sound rises slowly from the silence, at first barely audible, then growing. It is the sound of a female voice humming in the distance. Her slow, sad tune echoes faintly in the marble corridor. The source of the sound is a room some distance up the hallway.
Meanwhile, the tracks lead onward.
"Listen! Could that be the good Sister?" Leandro directs the lights to the hallway in the approximate area of the humming and follows them quickly, hoping to find the kidnapped woman.
Angalia looks questioningly at the more spiritually inclined of her friends.
"Alive or not?"
Eliva looks back at Angalia. "I don't think we should wait in finding out, one way or the other," she said, and nocked an arrow as she moved forward.
The soft song goes on, emanating from a room to the right. In mirror image to the inhabited wings of the hospital, these rooms are small cells, probably once the housing for patients. The door to this room is slightly ajar, leaving only a crack through which you can see in.
The tracks on the floor continue past this room.
"Whatever is in here, we do not want to leave it behind us! If it is the good Sister, we must return her. If it is evil, we shall destroy it."
Leandro strides to the door and pushes it fully open with his glaive.
"I will keep watch near the door to make sure what went down the hall, does not return", whispers Res. "Call if you need me." Res positions himself to the side of the door leading further down the hall, and grips his greatsword tighter ready for what may come.
Eliva will stand behind Leandro, ready to draw and shoot if she sees danger.
Andrzej tries to work out what spirit or haunt makes such ululation. He shrugs in the end and lifts the scimitar with its warm glow.
As the stranger he lets the team perform as a unit, then moves into the room behind Leandro but giving Angalia and Eliva room to act too.
None of you recognize the tune, although it is very simple. It is like a lullaby or child's song, but not one you are familiar with.
Leandro pushes the door open into a dilapidated cell. The window has been boarded, but one of the planks has fallen away, allowing a streak of hazy light to bisect the room. A rotting mattress falls askew from a narrow bed. The only other furnishing is a small table, bare but for a small, rusted razor and some ominous stains.
The singing continues, but no source for the vocalizations is at hand. Instead, it seems to come from all around you, as if the room itself is singing.
Leandro enters, unafraid.
Tif lets out a slow sigh before girding herself to face whatever new evil lies in wait in the bowels of this place of healing. With a slight shrug of her shoulders the young woman follows on Leo's heels.
"Wait a mom ..."
Angalia's voice trails off as she listens to the song.
The song is soothing. So soothing, in fact, that it is hard to put out of your head. Angalia and Eliva are particularly enchanted, and cannot bear the thought of being separated from it.
As you puzzle over the haunting song, you begin to see writing appear on the walls. It is as if an unseen hand is creating the crooked scrawl, written in ominous red liquid.
"Beware this seductive song," Leandro growls, "What does this writing say?" He tries to read the writing.
Res turns toward the door of the room. "Is everything ok in there?" he asks.
Res, you see the writing forming on the wall and hear the song, but do not feel the effects from outside the door. You can see that your companions are reacting strangely, however.
The bloody scrawl continues...
All day, all night, the doctor works
To chase our thoughts astray
With vile draughts and metal hooks
Upon our skin to flay
Cut
Cut
Cut
Cut
You never get away
You notice that these disturbing words could be sung to the tune you are hearing.
When the words finish forming themselves upon the wall, they burst outward, spraying vile, corrosive liquid upon everyone in the room.
The song continues, and you see the bloody writing begin again on the wall.
"Gah! This place is cursed. We must leave here." He heads out the door but pauses when he sees Angalia and Eliva standing unmoving. "Lovely ladies, we must leave here or cleanse this place. But for now, our quest lies elsewhere!"
Res shouts, "Get out of there now! Before the song finishes again. Knock Angalia and Eliva out if you have to, they seem to be enthralled in some way!
Freed from the strange pull of the music, Eliva tries to drag Angalia back with her as she retreats.
"Please Lady Angalia, Sir Plamen, let us leave before we are further injured. Lady Angalia, go with Lady Eliva. I would not lay violent hands on a woman, but you must not remain here to be harmed. I will help Lady Eliva if I must. Please..." Leandro tries to persuade Angalia to leave but will assist Eliva with removing her bodily if necessary.
Angalia is suitably disturbed by the bloody writing, and keeps her wits about her sufficiently to avoid the caustic spray, but she remains enchanted by the music and cannot bring herself to get away.
Andrzej has full control over his faculties, but feels the full brunt of the spray.
The bloody rhyme continues to scrawl across the wall.
Andrzej frees himself from the song, jolted by the acid burning into his jacket and neck. He whips out a thick lump of cheese and squashes pieces into his ears handing some to Tiff, he does the same to the dumb Angalia.
"Cover the ears now!"
Gritting her teeth against the painful burns Tiff grabs Angalia by the woman's shoulders and shoves her forcibly towards the door. "Move damn you!!
Eliva's first priority is to move Angalia outside the door. She attempts to grapple the woman and move her outside the room.
You act quickly to get everyone out of the haunted chamber. When you depart and look back, the writing has disappeared, but the wistful singing continues.
Leandro hustles out with the others, looking back warily. "Perhaps this room can be cleansed later, once we have the Sister returned to safety. Clearly, great evil has been done in this place."
Andrzej leaves last. Then clears his ears and purses his lips at the strange haunted room. He washes the last of the acid from his jacket.
"No Sister here. Just the wrongness."
"The song speaks of a doctor cutting at the inmates."
You leave the chamber and turn your attention back to the corridor. Near the end of the hallway, Res observes what at first looks like another rat, but it is not. The tiny rodent has a human head with a bearded face. Its front paws are tiny hands.
The creature turns back and regards you all with a twisted smile before vanishing from sight.
"By the gods, what was that?" exclaims Res. "I thought I saw a rat with a human head. What foul experiments were being conducted in this place? I say we proceed quickly to find the kidnapped sister before something vile happens to her. We can take care of this strange occurrence later."
"That's... that's hideous! Which way did it go... in the direction the Sister was taken? Ladies Angalia or Eliva, can you tell?"
Leandro takes his place in the vanguard with Andrzej and proceeds down the corridor, sending the dancing lights ahead about thirty feet.
"I don't like this place, and would like to remove these foul influences, but getting to the sister should be our first goal," Eliva said. "I can only hope these tracks and scrapes lead us in the direction she went."
Tif stares in wonderment at the spot where the strange creature sat mere moments ago. "It reminds me of a boy I knew once," she says with a nervous laugh, "He was... unlikable."
The tracks lead to where the rat creature had been standing. Beside that spot is a narrow door, slightly ajar.
Andrzej opens the door with the end of his scimitar and waves everyone to one side or the other.
Beyond the door, a narrow stair leads downward into darkness.