Vix says, “Jass, I’m telling ye that Tatterman didn’t kill me. Maybe ye saw me die, but I woke up after tossing the girl I was carrying toward Saiya. Me intent was to turn and face the enemy, but I don’t recall seeing him.
“That prisoner yelled ‘wake up,’ and maybe he saved us.” Looking at the dead man, Vix adds, “I tried to do the same for him.”
Vix is relieved to see Lahrehn walking and talking. “No worries—ye are who ye are. If ye lose yer powers o’ speech again, just keep close to us.”
Vix doesn’t know how to respond to Ci-Ci. “I think ye’re right that Tatterman did that poor girl in. Don’t know if we’ll eventually need to face him, but I’ll gladly stick to recurring dreams o’ butterflies for now.”
She then turns to Jassminder.
While it's a good question... I did wake up as a shapechanger. But if my file is anything correct, maybe that's what I always was.
Jassminder shakes her head dismissively. "You can barely hold one shape. These things can look like anybody, without any way of telling that they're something else. Whatever you are, you aren't one of them."
Miz shivers a bit as Lahrehn morphs and congeals into some strange form and she looks back and forth between the others with wide eyes wondering why no one else is freaked out by this. Though with everything else they have seen since she 'woke up' and if they had been awake longer maybe they've just become desensitized. She has to keep reminding herself in her head You supposedly know this person, worked with them before, you must have known about this, it must be ok...
After a moment she collects herself and then adds "Uh... yeah I mean I don't think your a threat, so uh... just keep doing what you're doing and we'll find a way out of this..." Her words seem to be intended to console her as much as Lahrehn. When the others are ready she will lead the way down the hall toward the scratching noise, to see what that is all about and get them closer to the strange blue light and other doors.
Two hallways meet here beneath a lofty ceiling. High windows, alive with the nauseating fog beyond, give the space an airy feel. A portion of the western hallway has collapsed. Tons of rubble have been cleared here offering a view of the misty courtyard. The rubble has a plethora of claw marks, the only clue as to who cleared the rubble.
"Why did we wake up as us? Why didn't we wake up as ghouls or shapechangers, like this one did? Like everyone else has? That would have been more rational."
Saiya shrugs. "This has been going on for a while according to Winter; I very much doubt that was this fellow's first time sleeping." She studies the dead ghoul for another minute, then turns away and starts walking towards the next door. "Maybe the time it takes depends on the willpower of the people involved, or the effort put in by the Tatterman, (assuming that's the one who's doing this), or maybe it's completely random. I'd rather not sleep outside and test it."
As they start to pass the hallway where they'd heard the scratching noises, Saiya slows down and examines the marks. "Another ghoul? Why were they trying to scratch through the rubble instead of going around?"
The party hears a loud roll of thunder and a series of moist plunk as some thick gooey white substance falls from the sky. The air begins to be filled with the scent of something sickening and sweet. Saiya finds no other clues.
"It could be a person," Ci Ci says. "What if someone is trapped under the rubble and it making the scratching noise in hopes someone digs them out?"
She pauses for a moment, then adds, "Of course, in a place like this, it could just as likely be another ghoul."
“I know a way to find out,” the Vixen says.
She is about to demonstrate, but she decides it might be better to communicate her ideas instead of just jumping in with both boots.
“Ask,” she says sheepishly. “No kicking the door or anything crazy. Just keep the door intact and shut and just… ask.”
Lahrehn pulls a piece of clothing and covers her nose. Apparently it wasn't the best moment to be able to scent things.
Who is there? - she finally announces to check if it's someone trapped, somewhat happy she was able to speak again.
Lahrehn smells sweet batter on the air undercut with faint rotting flesh, and something completely alien. Something she's never smelled stalks the courtyard but she smells no living person in the rubble that has been moved to both sides of the collapsed hallway.
When it becomes clear that there is nothing here Miz leads the group forward toward the blue light, her weapon in hand ready for some other strange thing to attack them or try to do them harm.
Pale paint peels like scabs from the walls of this spacious chamber. A bent desk guards a broad hall stretching away to the north, while curtained frames shroud the room’s eastern quarter. The place smells intensely of rubbing alcohol. Curtain frames that stand 7 feet tall and 5 feet wide divide a portion of the room. These adjustable, utilitarian walls are made of nearly transparent fabric that can be opened with little effort. Behind the curtains on a stool burns a lit hooded lantern. Inside is a flame that appears to be cold and weirdly parayzed, not flickering as it should, and it casts a pale blue light.
The one door leads into Admitting is choked with rubble on the other side holding the door fast. The other that leads to the garden path is locked, but can easily be unlocked from this side.
Miz looks at the somewhat frozen flame and then back to the others "Uh... anyone have any ideas on this new oddity?"
Ci Ci approaches the lantern and calls upon her power to see any magical auras that might surround it. "I'll take a look," Ci Ci replies, "but I can't promise I'll know any more afterwards."
Ci Ci finds an aura of faint evocation, similar to a light spell.
"It doesn't appear dangerous. It's just a lamp lit by magic, as far as I can tell." She shrugs, and looks away from it, clearly not particularly interested.
Lahrehn scratches her head with one of the appendages, then quickly pulls it back and scratches with her "normal" clawed hand.
Very well, then. - she says - Should we go for the door taking to the garden? It's locked, but I'm sure it won't keep us out for long.
Jassminder picks up the lantern. "A flame that doesn't go out could be useful to have."
Vix shrugs. “I guess… but it’s weird, not dancing like normal fire. Does it still burn stuff?
“And I guess being the only one who don’t need her hands to fight, I gotta carry the weird flame.”
She says that, but doesn’t touch the candle or anything else.
“I trust we’re gonna make sure their ain’t traps, search that bent desk, maybe open some curtains… and I’ll just keep me eyes peeled for anything hostile.”
When Ci Ci explains Miz moves closer, looking around cautiously for any threats before retrieving the light and handing it off to Vix if she wants it.
Assuming nothing happens, she'll suggest "Let's check these doors here first if that one leads outside." She will move to the nearest door and wait for Saiya to give the all clear before opening it.
When the lantern is disturbed whatever tenuous magic that was holding the flame frozen is destroyed and it gutters out.
1st room: A portion of the tiled ceiling has given way, allowing heavy bricks to fall across the bed and floor. Fortunately, no one seemed to be in the room at the time.
2nd: Three figures lie dead in this room. Two wearing yellow robes lie slumped on the floor, having suffered repeated vicious blows to the face. The third, an old man in his eighties and wearing a light cloth dressing gown, has fallen back across the bed. He is dead but has a satisfied smirk on his face and still grips a sturdy leather boot with blood on its heel. The boot’s partner lies on the floor nearby
Saiya notes that the boots are well worn but come from Angier’s, a famed shop that holds a royal warrant for leatherworking. If they are cleaned up they could be sold for up to 200 gold to the right buyer. The old man still wears a signet ring, which Saiya identifies as the holly and hawk emblem of the Millair family of Redleaf Lake.
3rd: Human shaped carnage covers the bed. Claw and bite marks where someone has been ripped apart by something.
4th: A shapeless mess of sheets and pillows piles atop two plain beds. Bold chalk letters high on the opposite wall proclaim this to be “Brenton and Debis’s Room.” A pair of carved wooden knights are tangled in the sheets at the foot of the southern bed.
Vix kneels before the smirking corpse and says a prayer to Milani in Tien.
“Yer a kindred spirit, old man. I’d swear to Milani I’d avenge yer death, but looks like ye handled that yerself. Rest peacefully, then.”
She takes a blanket from one of the beds and drapes it over the elder’s body. On her way out, she steps over the yellow-robed corpses without even bothering to say ‘eff you’ to them.
Ci Ci examines each of the rooms and items for any magical auras.
No magic
Miz gives Vix a curious look as she covers the old man "Did you know him or something?"
Once they've checked all the rooms, Miz sighs in frustration, still not finding any means of escaping this place then turns to look back the way they came. "Ok, so there were still a few doors back that way. I guess let's check those out next..."
She heads to the set of double doors and let's Saiya do her thing before leading the way inside.
Ci Ci giggles with a slight maniacal tinge. "He..heheh..beat them to death with a boot...hehehe...a boot to the head..heheheh.."
Lahrehn checks the room with the others, trying to see if they're missing any details.
At the last one, however, she gets particularly interested at the carved wooden knights. If possible, she will try to pick them up and inspect, then put them in her backpack - and then follow Mizuko.
At first, Vix simply answers Miz, “I respected his weapon o’ choice.”
But after Ci-Ci reacts as she does, Vix says, “Y’know… high-heeled boots really are an underrated weapon for a reason, including that they ain’t typically worn my men, or owned by men who ain’t the type to wear ’em. Ain’t judging.
“But the old guy had one boot, and he wielded it.”
She’s stating the obvious, she realizes. Getting to the point…
“Maybe I did know him,” she says with a grin. “Maybe I told him stories about dispensing justice and/or vengeance with me fashionable but deadly silver-age stilettos, and… I…” She starts to feel a little sentimental. “…inspired him!”
She kinda walks ahead of the group to wherever the hell they’re going now. Maybe the mask soaked up any tear that might’ve escaped her moistening eyes. Maybe nobody noticed.
She heads to the set of double doors and let's Saiya do her thing before leading the way inside.
Miz opens the door to an inky void. No light penetrates this room.
Ci Ci reaches into her pouch and retrieves her ioun torch. She whispers to the crystal, then tosses it into the air. It blazes to light, then hovers in the air just above her head.
She moves towards the door, trying to see if the light from the stone penetrates the darkness.
"What's in here?" she asks, looking through the doorway, but not crossing the threshold.
If Ci-Ci’s head-orbiting glowy Rick won’t light the inky blackness, she tries bringing the non-flickering candle into that room.
As Ci Ci thrusts the torch into the room it slowly but surely burns the darkness away. Furniture, racks of blunt weapons, padded restraints, and glass lumps lay shattered to pieces and scattered to the corners as if an explosion tore this room apart. The walls are bare and the room's center lies perfectly open. Ci Ci the torch has only temporarily restored normal light in the room, once her torch is removed the darkness will return. Another set of doors stands on the far side and one door to the east.
When Ci Ci explains Miz moves closer, looking around cautiously for any threats before retrieving the light and handing it off to Vix if she wants it.
Vix suspects the candle should remain in this room, and will leave it. “…I mean, unless anyone thinks I best hang onto it.”
Miz leads the way into the room, she motions for the others "See if there is anything useful in all this stuff. Will check this other door real quick."
She moves toward the single door first not wanting to leave anything behind them, knowing the room it probably linked back toward where they had previously explored. She let's Saiya check them before opening the doors to make sure there isn't any threat or, better yet, means of escape.
Ci Ci enters the room, keeping her ioun torch lit and in orbit around her.
She looks around for anything of interest, useful, or a clue as to how they got here.
A couch and small desks covered in paint flakes and thick dust fill this communal office. Ci Ci opens a drawer and finds a book wrapped in butcher’s paper that bears the handwritten word “confiscated.” Inside is a Taldan quarto titled Her Majesty’s Honorable Nightcap by Charent. Its contents are licentious.
Seeing no threats, nor a means of escape, Miz turns back to the previous room and moves toward the next set of double doors as she comments to the others "This place is huge, but there's got to be a way out of here somewhere." She hesitates as she adds "I'm sure we will find it..." Her last words don't sound overly confident and are likely meant for herself as much, if not more, than for anyone else.
Saiya quickly searches the rooms, pausing briefly at 'Brenton and Debis’s Room'. Brenton. Wasn't that the kid who commented on my eyes, yesterday morning? After a brief second to think about it she quickly swipes the wooden knights. He's a kid. Kids should have toys. She doesn't think she's ever had much to do with children, but still...it only seems right.
And if he doesn't want them, maybe there will be some random spirit who does. It's impossible to tell, in this place.
Her eyebrows rise as she examines Her Majesty’s Honorable Nightcap. "Huh. Wonder if this was confiscated from a patient or from the staff? Staff seems more likely, but still. Interesting stuff." She pockets it for...later research.
"Shall we continue through door number two?" She gestures to the doors in front of them, as if there were any doubt regarding which doors she was referring to.
(Okay, maybe she's a little paranoid. She'd previously opened a door to a literal avalanche of blood!)
"Here goes nothing." She quickly looks over the doors, then opens them.
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This gigantic space might have once been a cafeteria or assembly hall. Now, it’s the village of a 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.
Upon seeing the party a small crowd forms, all brandishing mismatched and improvised weapons. While these strangers all wear bits of yellow, indicating they are members of Zandalus’ cult, they don’t all look like battle-hardened brutes or glassy-eyed cultists. Before things can escalate a woman in the coat of a Briarstone doctor emerges and loudly declares, ”Good! More come to gaze beyond, to serve the orpiment! Welcome, friends!” She approaches with open arms and empty hands.
Jassminder remains in her usual position at the back of the group. In moments like this, where you have a split-second to distinguish possible ally from likely foe, she has learned through bitter experience what to look for. She does her best to assess the woman's intentions.
The grisly, crucified remains hanging from the wall get a cursory glance in case they are undead, but once she is satisfied they aren't twitching or moving she refocuses her gaze on what's important.
“Hold on a bit there, Doc,” Vix says, holding her hands up, fingers spread to show she is unarmed, and therefore, the least threatening/dangerous woman in the room…
…though as her hands slowly lower to her notably muscular thighs, it seems she is positioning herself before the other women as a mother bear would for her cubs.
She steps toward Doc. “What’s this about serving orpiment? That some kind o’ gourmet? Ye think we’re cafeteria waitresses? What’re ye talking about?”
Ci Ci pretends to moving in twitchy, terrified gestures in the back of the group. In reality, she is whispering a spell and trying to hide the somatic component within her motions.
Miz stands there with her blade in her hand, but doesn't hold it up in a confrontational manner just yet. Seeing what Vix is trying to do see tries to help "We don't want a fight, but we will fight if you force us and that won't turn out well for anyone, especially you lot. Maybe you just tell us what is going on here and leave us be and we will do the same for you..."
To provide a verbal component, you must be able to speak in a strong voice.
As the party puts on their mean faces she pauses and it's clear that the gears are turning in her head. You don’t know if that’s a good thing because her words were the only thing keeping the mob that was forming from attacking. Before they can react the doctor closes the gap, she desperately whispers, ”Nod and follow me if you want to live.” Miz and Jass don't get the sense that this is a threat, but a statement of fact.
Unable to cast her protective spell amidst all the hub-bub, Ci Ci watches the crowd cautiously, ready to burn them if they attack.
Vix doesn’t know why, but she trusts the doctor is part of the apparent anti-crucifixion minority (which may have just increased from 1 to 7).
“Seems following doctor’s orders is good for me health,” Vix says with a nod and a smile.
Jassminder nods (to indicate to the others that this is the rational course of action) and follows the doctor.
Miz looks at the gathering crowd and takes a deep breath following behind the others without saying a word, holding her blade tight, but still keeping it lowered.
Lahrehn shakes her head and looks at the doctor without any sign of trust. Her nose moves nervously as if smelling the doctor and surroundings - she's not used to have scent at all; at least she doesn't think she is.
The hulky troll woman, however, notices like the others what the interloper speaks. She nods in agreement to Vix and follows closely to the frontline. One of her hands has six fingers instead of five - she lost focus for a moment and the shape got a little weird. Nothing easy to notice.
The strange woman leads you into a tent that has been backed up to the northern set of stairs. Several infirm people lay in beds, some suffer bite marks and are sweating from fever. No one appears conscious. She says while smiling weakly, "I'm Dr. Wren Elbourne. I'm doing my best trying to save lives here but all I'm able to do is delay the inevitable. You, however, seem like you might be strong enough to make real change."