After a quick test Zhao leans into the iron bars with all of her strength but the bars and the lock resist her efforts. While she struggles against the cell, a sense of dread washes over Zhao. She cannot quite explain it yet, but she knows that the woman is evil.
Much to everyone’s surprise the dwarf’s strange arm launches itself through the bars. The fingers grasp for the keys at the doctor’s waist but come up too short. In response, the doctor wheels on Rogar and screams.
“I SAID QUIET!”
The man on the table seizes his opportunity and slips one leg free. In desperation, he kicks the woman in the small of her back, throwing her up against the cell that houses Rogar and Merius.
In the commotion, Maria ducks down lower crouching at the very edge of the cell. She is watching closely for anything that she might be able to use to pick the lock on the cell door.
If anything falls within her reach as the other people in the room scuffle she is going to try and snag it.
Merius knows that a snatch is not his strong suite, but he grasps for the keys anyways hoping the distraction lets him act quickly enough.
Rogar reaches through the bars with his fleshy yet functioning arm, grabbing at the creepy woman herself.
Merius is able to snag the set of keys from the doctor with little issue.
Rogar reaches from the inside of the cell to grab the woman but she easily slips through his grasp, gifting Rogar with a seductive smile.
"You will definitely have your turn soon."
She turns back to the man on the table.
"Patient is showing signs of..." she paused as if to consider the multitude of wounds on the man, "..infection. Course of action: euthanasia."
She slams the point of her makeshift dagger into the man's chest. He screams out. Blood pours from the wound then pulls back in.
"Oh no!" she shouts. "A sucking wound! If we don't hurry the patient will drown in his own blood!"
She can barely contain her maniacal laughter as she brings the blade down again and again. With each schlunk of the blade the woman's features melt away leaving a figure that looks more or less humanoid, but slender and frail, with gangly limbs and half-formed facial features. Its flesh is pale and hairless, and its eyes are vacant and white.
"Nooooo!"
Zhao screams as she witnesses the murder and quickly maneuvers herself to be sat in front of the door, so she can kick it as hard as she can.
Merius is careful to avoid jingling the keys he managed to so deftly pocket. Once the woman seems certainly distracted, something the Tien woman is inadvertently helping with, he'll try to carefully unlock the door and motion to Rogar. Meanwhile Merius will start making his way towards the Tien woman and goblin's cell.
Maria whispers frantically at Zhao "Shhhhh! Shhhhhhhhh! Stop kicking! You are going to make that horrible woman come over here."
As Zhao continue kicking at the door, Maria backs up, putting as much space as possible between she and her suddenly shockingly aggressive cell mate. Maria hunkers down in a corner, doing her best to hide behind a cot or whatever cover is available.
The thing - which is decidedly NOT a woman - continues driving the broken shear into the man's body. Its strikes slip into a rhythm opposite Zhao's kicks.
schlunk
BANG
schlunk
BANG
schlunk
BANG
The laughter grows louder and louder, only matched in volume by the sound of the Tien woman's booted foot against the iron lock.
She does not even seem to have noticed one of her prisoners slip from his cell.
Rogar struggles with his hand for a moment before figuring out how to align and reattach it. The hardest part is shoving it back into its socket against the force of what feels like a very powerful spring.
By the time it's back in place, his cellmate has the door open and is slinking out into the "operating room".
"I'll give ya a distraction." Rogar whispers, then charges the mad "doctor". "YAAA! GET OFF HIM YA FREAK!"
With the... creature, so engrossed in her saidstic musings, Merius makes his to the opposite door quietly and tries to unlock it with the key.
Caught off guard, the thing spins and screeches at Rogar.
”No! It’s not your turn!
It catches sight of Merius and clutches at the side of its head.
”No! No! NO!”
It looks around the room as if trying to decide what to do.
As the Samsaran from her dream approaches the locked door, Zhao stops kicking and stands up, the better to launch herself out.
The anxious tension that had filled her since she watched helplessly as a murder took place is coiled within her, and the instant the door is unlocked she bolts out toward the thing that until recently looked like a woman.
She tries to grab it, trying to use its own weight against it as she was taught, aiming to wrench its arms behind it and pin it if she can. She's not really thinking, she just knows that she can't let it kill anything else.
Maria looks incredulously at the Tian woman as she bolts straight at the horrible thing with the broken knife. Didnt she see that creature just butcher the man on the table?
With a quick shake of her head, Maria rapidly sneaks out the door in the opposite direction getting into a corner as far from the woman... the thing as she possibly can.
She looks around the small room, desperately hoping she can find something that she can use to defend herself... a knife, a club, fire, anything!
"No! It’s not your turn!"
"I'm cutting in line!" Rogar shouts, then takes a swing at the thing with his metal arm.
The Tien woman explodes from her cell nearly toppling the person that had just freed her! Iron crashes against iron as the door slams into the bars of the cell. She rushes the not-doctor and pulls one of the things arms behind its back.
Unfortunately, the dwarf is unable to capitalize on the thing's condition and it manages to avoid his strike.
Meanwhile, the goblin spies several nasty looking operating tools on the small table. A gardening trowel, forks, several long pieces of broken glass and metal, and the other blade of the tormentor’s shears.
Maria runs forward and snatches several of the sharp looking operating tools off of the table. As she moves closer she gets a better look at the mutilated body on the table in front of her and begins to retch trying not to throw up.
"Oh god, she killed him. There is so much blood, Why is there so much blood!"
as Maria backs her way back into the corner she calls out in a near panic
"We have to get out of here! I dont want her to cut me up!
Merius recognizes that he's quite weak. He feels a growing frustration knowing he's not terribly helpful with striking foes. He knows he has a connection to Erastil, but also has neither prepared spells, nor has a holy symbol. Seeing his new allies at stake and the very dead man on the table, Merius runs to the grappled foe and adds his weight to the grapple.
Zhao tries to centre herself by closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, assuming the creature has been subdued.
She dropped her guard too quickly and it wriggles free.
"Why did you do that? What have you done to me? Why can't I remember?"
she watches its face carefully for any sign of confusion or madness.
She is distracted by the tools on the table though and doesn't get a good look. They might serve as a defence if this thing attacks
Wait, answers! This thing might know something.
Rogar switches tactics to subduing the creature, rather than killing it.
Even with the aid of the samsaran the creature slips free of Zhao's grasp.
"I've done nothing to you...yet!"
It dodges Rogar's mechanic arm. She takes a wild swing at Rogar with the makeshift knife then ducks away from the two.
The sight of the dwarf's blood bolsters the thing and it thing chances a look over its shoulder.
A smile spreads across the blank face and it begins to walk in the direction of the goblin.
Seeing the thing break free, Maria instinctively throws the long scalpel in her hand.
Zhao grabs a fork from the table and moves to this odd creature, flashbacks of the dream in her mind.
"Stay away from her!"
"GAH!" Rogar staggers back from the pain of the jagged cut, before rallying and giving chase. "Get back here! He goes in for a flying tackle!
And he still seems to be off balance. Perhaps he's not used to the weight of his arm?
Much to her horror, Maria watches the shears she threw with all her might have no discernible impact on the creature as it approaches her. Feeling powerless to stop the creature, she drops the rest of her weapons and backs into the corner doing her best to stay away from the monster and it's bloody knife.
She whimpers pitifully as she dodges around her bigger foe.
Merius, uncertain of what else to do looks around. He sees the lantern burning above the dead man.
The not-doctor growls through gritted teeth as the dwarf attempts to stop hold it still. It glares at the group and is clearly beginning to panic.
"NO! You stay away!"
The thing slashes wildly at Zhao.
Then attempts to move away from the group.
Merius will try to grab up and remove the lantern, hoping it will make a better weapon than some of these poor implements.
The shears pierce Zhao's side deeply and she begins bleeding, but it doesn't hurt as much as she expected. I must stop this enemy, but I cannot do that if it kills me. I need my sword.
From somewhere else she feels a sense of purpose and resolve.
She then looks around for where her sword might have been stored, moving toward the other end of the room to get a better look. As she does so she holds her free hand to the wound to staunch the blood flow.
Rogar attempts to grab the creature as it tries to flee.
"I didn't say you could leave!"
The tien woman makes a poorly aimed thrust at the thing with one of the rusty forks before retreating from the brawl, blood dripping from her side. But the dwarf manages to keep the thing from fleeing to the door.
Shadows shrink and stretch as the samsaran tugs at the lantern hanging above the operating table. He wrenches the lantern free of its hook and is now standing above the melee, oil lantern in hand. He turns to see the one of his allies wrestling with the creature.
"Get your hands off of me!" the creature shrieks and slips free when the dwarf attempts to pin the creature to the floor.
The not-doctor screeches and slashes at the goblin. It appears desperate to cut into the goblin.
But misses as the goblin dodges the blade easily.
Meanwhile, Zhao searches the far end of the room. As she nears the end of the wall a jade-green hare hops around the corner to disappear into the darkness.
Maria screams as the creature attacks her with the bloody knife. She continues to scream as she frantically dodges, repeating herself until the words largely just compress into a continual unending screech.
"Go Away! GOAWAYGOAWAYGOAWAYGOAWAY
Zhao tilts her head at the appearance of the animal, feeling a sense of familiarity. She barely breaks her stride and follows it round the corner, hoping that it might be leading her to something and not another sign of her sanity slipping away.
a heap of gory clothes and other dubiously flammable trash. Jutting out from the garbage is both a nodachi and a naginata. A cursory glance tells you that there must be equipment belonging to at least four individuals piled here among the garbage.
"Xiètiānxièdì!"
Momentarily forgetting that she's been speaking a different language Zhao runs up to the nodachi and grabs it with both hands by the handle, pulling it so swiftly that it is drawn from the scabbard in a smooth silent motion.
With a slight mental effort she calls out in the unfamiliar tongue.
"My things are here! There is more stuff!"
Rogar points at the goblin. “Will somebody shut that thing up? I can’t even hear myself think!”
He circles his foe to put himself between it and the door, then attempts to grab it again.
Merius takes the lantern and was going to offer it to Rogar, but the creature finally seemed pinned down. Instead, Merius goes over to sure up Rogar's grip.
The creature barely slips through Rogar's hands again even with the aid of the Samsaran. Panicked, the things flails its blade wildly at the dwarf.
Followed by one of its claws at Merius.
Both attacks miss and the thing once again shrieks, "NO! You can't do this to me!"
Merius offers Rogar the lantern, hoping it will be more effective to beat the changeling with. He then tries to continue distracting the creature.
Zhao moves back toward the creature, but conscious of her own wounds, she does so cautiously, the nodachi held in both hands pointed down and to the side.
Seeing the creatures attention turn to another, Maria falls silent and, continuing to watch closely and dodge any possible threat, she moves around the slightly scary dwarf and as far away from the horrible not-a-doctor creature as she can get.
Rogar waves away the proffered lantern. "I think I'm getting the hang of this!" he says, taking another swing at the monster.
The creature takes a swipe at Maria as the goblin moves out of the corner but the goblin easily ducks underneath the bloody shear blade. In its haste to slice the goblin the thing leaves itself open to attack, one that the dwarf happily takes. The not-doctor narrows its eyes at the dwarf, looks over his shoulder, and attempts to withdraw down the halfway.
I can't let that thing get out to continue its evil, or to alert it's conspirators in what was done to us.
Almost mounrfully, Zhao charges. She strikes once aiming to put an end to it before it can hurt anyone else.
Maria lets out a small squeal as the... things, claws swipe through the air at her. As the weird dwarf with the metal arm hits the creature and distracts it, Maria sees an opening to get away from the violence and she darts to the far end of the room and around the corner.
Heading the Tien woman's call, Maria hustles to the darkened area of the room.
A cold, iron furnace hunkers in the corner of the basement,its four-foot-square door gaping half open. Nearby sprawls a heap of gory clothes and other dubiously flammable trash. Jutting out from the garbage is both the shaft of a foreign weapon, an empty sword scabbard, and the scratched stock of a firearm. A cursory glance tells you that there must be equipment belonging to at least four individuals piled here among the garbage.
Seeing familiar looking equipment in the pile, Maria scurries over to the refuse and begins to dig through looking for other things of use.
With the Tien woman so exposed, Merius reaches into his knowledge of his abilities. Though he has not prepared any spells as far as he knows, he hopes he can help her. He tries to call on his raw magic and shape it.
Rogar grabs at the thing as it slips around him, but can't get a hold on it. As his companions chase it down the hallway, he aims his metal hand at the fleeing creature. Let's see if I can do this on command. Just reach out and grab...
His hand flies down the hallway, hitting the creature square in the back! It fails to catch on to anything, however, and falls to the floor with a clank.