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When asked if the guards have seen the Tatterman one of them stammers clearly shaken, ”No, never seen anything like that.” Another adds, ”Leave the ones we killed. No need to move em.”
The third yells back behind the barricade, ”Hey York! Winter can make that magic water right?” From around a corner a man answers, ”Yeah.” The guard says, ”Still not convinced you’re not one of those shifters, but I don’t see the harm in it.” The guard tosses a full waterskin to Miyuki.
Back in the boiler room, Saiya raises an appreciative eyebrow as she overhears the barricade people talking. "Huh, did not expect them to actually give us anything. Water isn't a healing potion, but it's better than nothing."
She rolls her shoulders and sighs. "I'll take first watch if no one minds. Still a bit keyed up from almost dying back there. Then I should be able to get Vix back up in the morning."
Plus I'm still worried about our 'dream'. Best to let the others sleep first and see what happens.
Jassminder nods, supremely unconcerned about the day's events: yes they were odd, and her missing memory is annoying, but she is still alive. Her eyes briefly flick to Saiya, before swiftly looking away again. "Suits me. Wake me when it's my turn."
Finding a corner where she can see the door (and the other occupants of the room), she leans back in a sitting position, her bow cradled in her arms, and falls with practiced ease into a watchful sleep.
The party rests, the shrieks of some distant monstrosity and the sound of strong winds buffeting the western wall do little to comfort you. Some of you manage to dream:
The Vermilion Vixen is awoken with a start as a thunderclap crashes overhead past the cracked plaster of the boiler room’s ceiling. Instead of the sky growling like expected it screams her name.
Jassminder is awoken with a start as a thunderclap crashes overhead past the cracked plaster of the boiler room’s ceiling. Instead of the sky growling like expected it screams her name.
Saiya is awoken with a start as a thunderclap crashes overhead past the cracked plaster of the boiler room’s ceiling. Instead of the sky growling like expected it screams her name.
Miyuki is awoken with a start as a thunderclap crashes overhead past the cracked plaster of the boiler room’s ceiling. Instead of the sky growling like expected it screams her name.
The Vixen wakes up.
She groans to the sky, "Wha-a-a-at?" Her movement is as sluggish as her speech. She endures the pain as she sits up, disoriented as if she awoke from a two-month coma.
Her breathing suddenly becomes short. Nervous. Looking at the women slumped around her, she whispers, "I f+*%ed up—please tell me all o' ye're alive."
Saiya also jolts awake with a start. She hadn't noticed any of the others acting weird in their sleep, but something was definitely going on. These dreams...
'You can't run forever.'
Saiya bares her teeth in a grimace. Watch me.
Hearing stirring beside her, she glances over to see Vix has woken up. Still looks pretty bad though. "All alive last I checked. You were the worst injured, and neither Erisa nor I could heal you, so we decided to take a breather in the boiler room." She sighs. Hate using my spells this early, but she's our strongest fighter by far and Erisa's still asleep. "Here, this should help you feel a bit better." She reaches out and pokes Vix in the shoulder.
"Stupid spell not working the way it should." She glares at her finger as if it's personally injured her.
Her second try actually manages to close the worst of the wounds. "And that's me already tapped out again. Hopefully Erisa wakes up soon."
The Vixen sees her abs heal up through the claw marks in her shredded dress. "I don't feel half dead anymore. Half alive, maybe." She grabs her studded leather vest. "Kidding aside, thanks."
She contemplates the room where she fell. There was a door to the left.
"Best we get tactical if we're to face two o' those monsters at once. I'm open to alternatives, but what I've in mind's we draw 'em out by shooting 'em. Jass has her bow, and I can help with that too. It's why I use boots as me weapon—me hands're free to throw shit... like a doorknob. That'd f@~!in' hurt."
Despite her words, the Vixen searches the boiler room for an improvised throwing weapon other than a doorknob.
Waiking up from the horrible nightmare with a scream, Miyuki looks around to see that she wook from a nightmare into a nightmare.
She then follows the others and as the Vixen is about to open the door she steps a bit back, just a bit, so that she is no immidiate target but able to cast as soon as an enemy presents itself.
If Jassminder's dream has unsettled her, she doesn't show it; she spends some moments after waking in brushing her long dark hair until it is straight and untangled. She flicks a glance at Miyuki as the latter screams, but since she is not clearly injured Jassminder is unsure what to do.
She instead settles for checking the tension on her longbow, making sure that the string has not slackened. A quick drink of water and she is ready to go.
V.V. finds a few valve wheels and loose piping that would be suitable for tossing at unprotected heads. Ready for anything the party opens the only door that remains:
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. A wall of pipelike crossbeams fills the western alcove of the room. Three figures are manacled to the rack there, 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 human, and a humanoid creature with long, sharp teeth, and pallid flesh stretched tightly over a starved frame. On the far south wall is a single door.
Saiya knows that the creature manacled on the north end is a ghoul, an intelligent undead creature that craves dead flesh. They paralyze with a touch. Undead traits
Erisa wakes up with a start at the thundercrash. She looks monetarily confused as if she heard it scream her name. She shakes her head thinking it was merely the remnant of some bad dream.
She sees that Vixen is conscious, "Excellent! I'm glad to see you back among the living. And still injured it seems. Let's see what we can do about that."
"Oh, I feel good as new! Thanks, Erisa."
Noting the ghoul, she says to the others (any of whom is likely more knowledgeable than herself regarding undead), "Is that thing still among the living? Or unliv—I mean... do we need to worry about it busting free?"
She asks the not-partially-eaten person directly, "Hey, you guy. Still alive?"
Jassminder pulls an arrow back on the string and aims it at the ghoul. The fact that it's restrained and unable to fight back doesn't seem to bother her. As far as she's concerned, it makes things easier.
Saiya takes in the scene. "Well, someone has a macabre sense of humor. Chaining a ghoul next to two humans...hope the guy in the middle was already dead." She makes no attempt to stop Jassminder from shooting, focusing instead on the still-living human.
"Hey there. Got some questions for you before we let you go. Who are you, who chained you up, why did they chain you up, etc. Oh, and are you actually a shapeshifter in disguise. That's probably the most important question." She tries to observe him as he responds, but the ghoul is rather distracting.
The Vixen watches with anticipation, also wondering if the human is alive... and whether he's a gray monster.
Erisa comments, "Kill the undead, I've lived too long in Ravengro to have any sympathy for them."
She asks the not-partially-eaten person directly, "Hey, you guy. Still alive?"
The man responds enthusiastically, ”Praise!”
"Who are you?"
”Zandalus sees!”
"Who chained you up?"
”Words fail.”
”Why did they chain you up?"
”Words fail.”
”Oh, and are you actually a shapeshifter in disguise? That's probably the most important question."
”Zandalus sees!”
Any further questions the man responds variously with, ”Praise, Zandalus sees, and words fail.”
Jassminder puts an arrow into the ghoul and it looks to her with questioning pained eyes and says, ”Meep?” She puts a second arrow into the ghoul and it slumps over.
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Words fail. Buildings tumble... pull yer head out o' yer ass, Vix.
The Vixen shakes off distracting thoughts, and asks the man a question that clearly ends in the word Zandalus.
She's pretty sure the god, if Zandalus is a god, is not an Eastern one. But she figures it can't hurt to try:
She wonders if it's a linguistic issue, or if the man is just an idiot. She asks in the common tongue, if the man has not yet responded, "Can ye tell me who Zandalus is?" She watches his reaction to see if his reaction is different when she or Saiya (or anyone else) swaps languages.
"Okay..." Saiya says slowly. "Pretty sure you're not a shapeshifter. Not sure what you are, other than supremely unhelpful, but I guess that's no reason to leave you here like this." Leaving a man manacled and helpless next to a corpse, (well, two corpses), when there's monsters around looking for fresh meat...she's not that cruel.
"Going to try to unlock the manacles." She moves up next to him, pulling her picks out of her belt pouch. "By the way, if you end up attacking me as soon as you're loose, I will be exceptionally annoyed."
As she works she adds her own languages to the Vixen's attempts, asking who Zandulus is in Aklo, Draconic, and Shadowtongue.
Erisa looks puzzled, "Meep? What sort of ravenous undead goes 'meep'? And the look in its eyes was not the look of a ghoul. They don't look at anyone with pained, soulful eyes for any reason."
"Perhaps you should belay releasing the crazy person for a second until we examine the ghoul's body more thoroughly." thinking for a second more, "And anyway, how is acting like a maniac somehow proof that he isn't a shapeshifter."
Frustrated at her lack of knowledge in this area, she'll ask, "Can any of you examine the undead and verify it wasn't something else put here to fool us?"
The Vixen asks, "Does undead flesh react to being pierced by silver? Me Silver Age Combat Stilettos ain't called that for noth—"
Wait. These things ain't labeled. How the hell do I know o' such a long-winded name?
After a brief pause, she goes on, "I don't know why me boots're called that exact name, 'xcept the heels're made o' silver. Want me to kick it?" Would its flesh sizzle? Or am I thinking o' holy water? Or boiling water?
The man only cocks his head slightly when spoken to in different languages and says much the same as before. V.V. gets the sense that he doesn't understand.
Saiya tries to pick the lock on the manacles but it's too hard for such a casual attempt. The chained man does not hinder her attempt at all and in fact seems to be holding still so she's better able to pick the lock.
Erisa observes the fallen undead for clues but nothing jumps out at her. It has pallid flesh, sharp teeth, and skin that is tight around it's bones. Something was eating the body from it's side of the rack. It wears a plain white uniform that buttons in the front. She detects a lingering aura of necromancy and transmutation.
Saiya shrugs but stops fiddling with the manacle. ”Proof? No, it’s not proof, but I feel like someone looking to trick us would be more...helpful. Promising us stuff if we’d only release them, begging us for help, that sort of thing. Plus I can’t imagine what the point would be of a shapeshifter chaining themselves to a wall in the hopes of tricking us into releasing them.” She pauses, clearly thinking hard. ”It is still possible of course that there was some sort of conflict between multiple shapeshifters, or some other type of monster we haven’t met yet, and someone else chained him to the wall. But then why not shapeshift into something small enough to sleep out of the manacles? Unless that’s beyond their capabilities for some reason...”
Frustrated, she pinches the bridge of her nose. ”You have a point about the ghoul. Wasn’t really looking at him, but I’ll take your word for it. There’s just too many variables here I don’t understand, and I really wish someone would actually explain what’s going on.” For the moment she steps away from the chained man. ”Sorry buddy, but my new friend here has a point about not releasing you just yet. I’ll get back to you later.” She joins Erisa in checking out the ghoul’s body, the half-eaten body, and generally looking around for clues.
The Vixen suggest, Let's kill the two remaining shape-shifters, then free the man. His unpredictable actions might get him killed, either by the greys or the crossbow dicks."
"V.V" actually doesn't hate the people behind the barricade, and her fall in battle helped her appreciate their level of caution. But it takes more than a single waterskin to earn a better nickname.
"Perhaps you're right and I'm being paranoid. This place and us being here is unnerving." Erisa shakes her head.
The Vixen is ready to move. With a valve wheel in her right hand (and a broken pipe supporting two more valve wheels in her left), she says to the others, "Let me know when ye're ready to move."
When someone is about to open the door, the Vixen will mentally prepare herself to hurl those wheels!
Saiya isn't exactly happy about being in the front, but it makes sense for her to open the door. Jassminder has arrows, Erisa and Miyuki have spells, and even Vix has picked up some sort of ranged weapon. All she has is her rapier. (Well, and a dagger, but that doesn't have the best range.)
She moves up to the door and studies it for a few seconds, trying to make sure it isn't trapped. "Alright everyone, get ready."
Once satisfied there's no traps, she carefully, (and as quietly as possible), opens the door. It probably won't make a difference, but any chance of catching a potential enemy off guard is worth taking. Unfortunately the hinges apparently haven't been oiled anytime recently.
The Vixen whispers a seggestion to Saiya: "Feel free to spring back once ye open the door. I only grabbed throwing weapons so we can soften 'em up before inevitable melee ensues."
If Saiya insists on charging with her rapier, the Vixen will rush the enemy alongside her.
+1 vs traps
Several wide tables and gigantic washbasins fill a laundry equipped to service hundreds. The place looks as though it were repurposed as a failed surgery, with at least one table heaped with remains while corpses lie discarded in corners. A stained sheet hangs between two of the basins, dividing the room roughly in half. A lantern shines on the far side. Everyone but V.V. sees a gaunt silhouette of a woman cast on the sheet.
Weaving her hand in a quick motion, Miyuki checks for magical auras.
Miyuki sees the effulgent light of a magical aura in the room.
Saiya happily takes the Vixen's advice and jumps back as soon as the door is open. When no attack immediately comes, she tentatively pokes her head back around the doorway. Oh I do not like the look of this. She gives Miyuki an encouraging nod as she checks for magic. "Hold on Vix," she whispers. "Something's not right here."
Then again, nothing's been right since...since whatever happened that she couldn't remember. Shapeshifters, ghouls, whatever that creepy monster is from her (their) dream...
Don't think about it. Thinking too much gets you killed. Stay focused on the here and now.
Erisa looks puzzled, "Meep? What sort of ravenous undead goes 'meep'? And the look in its eyes was not the look of a ghoul. They don't look at anyone with pained, soulful eyes for any reason."
Jassminder shrugs at Erisa's puzzlement. "I've always found that people react to being shot in different ways. I guess that goes for undead too."
Nevertheless, she takes a look at the ghoul, without trying to get too close.
She approves of the group decision not to free the crazy man just yet. The last thing this place needs is another potential enemy wandering around.
When they enter the next room, she keeps to the back, covering the others with her longbow as they investigate the strange glow.
Miyuki sees three faint auras in the room the most obvious of which id the stained sheet halfway through the room. Two more radiate from the corpse on the table. From her vantage Miyuki can't see what exactly is radiating magic on the table and her lack of formal magical training prevents her from knowing what kind of magical auras they are.
The silhouette makes swiping motions with some sort of knife or dagger at what appears to be another table in the room. A blood spray splatters the other side of the sheet darkly.
Innocent blood on the sheet, like a matador's cape, fuels the Vermilion Vixen's murderous rage! She rushes the enemy, unseen through the curtain, she strikes!
She flings the curtain aside and taunts the enemy. "Make a move, I'll kick ye so hard, the only pants that'll fit ye'll be assless chaps!"
A look of surprise washes over the face of a pale gaunt woman in a doctor's outfit spattered with blood and bits of viscera. In her bone white hand she wields a long dagger. The unnatural doctor falls flat looking up at the Vermilion Vixen with pupil-less eyes. In stitched letters a name tag identifies the doppelganger as Dr. Oathsday.
Jassminder moves with a speed borne of practiced experience, hurrying into the room and putting one of the tables between her and the enemy. Her eyes narrow as she puts an arrow to her bow, and fires.
Miyuki warns the others quickly about the auras.
"Beware there is magic here."
As she is not sure what to do she will trigger herself to an enemy appearing to daze it.
Miyuki's spell has no apparent effect on the creature. Jassminder's arrow passes above the head of the doppelganger.
"It's a trick. An illusion." Jassminder's voice remains calm. "The real threat is hiding somewhere else. Nearby, I would guess."
She peers across the room, her arrow moving with her gaze.
Saiya heads into the room with the others. Miyuki is saying there's magic while Jassminder is calling that the apparent shapeshifter is an illusion. Illusions need someone to cast them. So where are they hiding? She draws her rapier and looks around the room.
Because she is now not focusing on the illusion Saiya notices that the corpse on the table is drawing breath.
Erisa wonders what is what and decides to determine what is happening, she casts a spell and starts to scan around the room.
The illusory doppelganger winks out of existence. The partially dissected corpse on the table snarls and her face warbles and drains of color revealing the truth. She jumps from the table lashing out at Saiya and cutting the kayal deeply. Erisa can see, thanks to her magic, that the wounds are a part of the doppelgangers shapechange ability as she is in perfect health.
The Vixen drops all of her valve wheels and shifts toward the enemy as they clatter to the floor. Pointing in an accusatory stance, she says, "Ye made me waste a perfectly good taunt on an illusion. Y’know what?"
Her leg whirls in a sweeping kick with a surprisingly long reach!
—then says to the gray featureless thing, "You're an assless chap!"