A former orderly is wearing a suit of padded armor and has a death grip on a sap. The sparkle turns out to be a gold ring. None of the corpses move or show any sign of being anything other than dead.
Saiya blinks at the condition of the bodies. "Um. That doesn't look like the doing of a ghoul. Or a doppelganger. They were...strangled to death? By whom? Why?"
Jassminder gives Saiya a look: "This place is an asylum. Asking why they do things is irrational. But you are right: it seems that not all of the inhabitants have been turned into ghouls or doppelgangers."
She can't understand why her companions wouldn't necessarily see this as good news.
"Most of the residents we've met so far have been rational, or as rational as they can be under the circumstances. But fair enough." Saiya pockets the ring. Worthless right now, but eventually they'll get back to civilization. "It might have been the work of the Apostles; from what Winter was saying they haven't been turned into anything, and we know they can be violent."
She sighs. She hates speculating without evidence. "Looks like the broken-down wall leads right to the visitor's room. Shall we poke our heads in and see what we can find?"
As usual, she checks the door for traps before trying it. Paranoia, likely, given they haven't seen any so far. But she just knows that the one door she doesn't check will be the one to kill her horribly.
As though it had been plucked from the halls of some warm, country estate, this room is filled with inviting furnishings, a hearth ready for a fire, artwork populated by picnicking families, and a mansion-shaped cage with colorful taxidermic birds inside. Large windows might have once looked out over colorful flowerbeds, but now show only yellow mist. A battered corpse is impaled on the antlers of a stuffed elk head hung above the hearth. While another lays on the ground a pool of drying blood spreading beneath it. Both corpses wear stained yellow robes and tatter yellow veils. Saiya for a moment swears she hears faint cheerful chirping coming from the bird cage. Saiya also notices a flagstone path that leads to another part of the asylum in an area where the ever present pus colored fog thins.
Saiya looks up at the corpse on the antlers. "Looks like we've found our first Apostles." She pauses, remembering the one chained next to the ghoul. "Second, I suppose." Her eyes narrow as she studies the bird cage. Those things aren't alive. Are they?
Maybe she's just hearing things. It wouldn't surprise her.
"Let's see if there's anything useful here." Saiya steps into the room and begins searching.
As Saiya searches the room the chirping becomes louder and louder until a few seconds later it becomes a shrill mechanical-sounding klaxon.
Siaya feels a moment of disorientation as she realizes her feet are lifting off the ground and she's levitated up to the ceiling of the warm inviting room.
"How - and - why?!"
Vix leaps up to grab Saiya as if she's about to float up, up and away like a lost balloon.
"Don't do that," she says knowing full well Saiya isn't floating on purpose. So she adds a "please?"
If she can grab onto something (with her other hand or even by hooking her heel in a foothold), she does so.
The Vermilion Vixen manages to grab on to Saiya but it does little bring the Kayal back down to earth, perhaps an inch maybe a little less.
Saiya panics as she’s lifted into the air. ”What the...help!” She grabs for the Vixen’s hands, even though it doesn’t seem like the downward pull is actually helping. ”Kill those damn birds!”
Jassminder looks around, warily at first and then with something approaching frustration on her face as it becomes clear there's no readily apparent way to stop whatever is happening to Saiya. "There's nothing obvious to kill! The birds are already dead."
Nonetheless, she fires an arrow at the cage. This is totally in rational response to Saiya's instructions, and totally not in any way about venting unexpressed feelings.
Miyuki casts acid splash!
Erisa smash!
Jassminder's arrow pins one of the taxidermy birds to a nearby wall while Miyuki melts another one. For good measure Erisa swings her mace into the cage knocking it to the floor and leaving a sizable dent.
With the birds destroyed Saiya and V.V. tumble to the ground in a heap.
With the danger gone Saiya is able to finish her search of the room. On the two bodies of the apostles you find a pair of well made silver daggers and four small vials containing a red liquid. The cherry flavored drink most of the party recognizes as cure light wounds potions.
As soon as she and Saiya can sort out whose limbs need to slip out from under whose what, Vix rises ungracefully, rubbing her own butt and dusting off her clothes. Not wanting to speak of what just happened, she comments on the flavor of healing potion. “I don’t remember the taste o’ cherries, but I’ll bet they ain’t so mediciney.
“Speaking of, should we heal up a li’l before we get attacked by more weird critters?”
The Vixen asks, but does nothing with the potions other than distribute them so that everyone has one.
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Saiya groans as she picks herself up off the floor. "I am really getting sick of being attacked by things that aren't technically alive."
Admittedly, this is the first time she's been attacked by something not alive. But it's enough for her to already be sick of it.
She dusts herself off and checks around the room. Her mood improves dramatically at what she finds. "Oooh, these are nice." She experimentally twirls a silver dagger around in her hands before sliding it into her belt. "Vix has the heels, Jass has the bow...so the other one should probably go to Erisa. Or Miyuki, maybe, but I like making sure the healer can protect herself." She pointedly doesn't offer the dagger she's already claimed.
“Speaking of, should we heal up a li’l before we get attacked by more weird critters?”
"Probably. Let's use our spells though, save the potions for a rainy day." She looks outside. "Rainier, anyway."
She quickly heals both herself and the Vixen.
"Shall we dare the garden path, or go check out some more doors? I vote for the doors myself." Saiya gives the fog outside another considering glance. "I don't know what's out there, and frankly I'm not eager to learn."
Saiya considers the southernmost door from the lobby but remembers that a great deal of rubble has fallen in the area blocking that door.
Vix is relieved to see those rat scratches disappear from her limbs. She caresses a cheek, confirming her face is now clawmark-free as well.
She thanks Saiya for the healing and is fine with the path Saiya chooses.
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"Obviously I don't mean the doors we'd have to spend forever just trying to get to. There's a door that leads somewhere near the library, we could check that one out."
"Obviously not. Yep."
The Vixen isn't sure whether Saiya changed her mind, or is it Vix who misunderstood which door Saiya was referring to? Either way, Vix is now forced to choose: B.S. a reason to change her 'vote' or just admit she doesn't know what the hell she's doing.
Well, Vix won't B.S. her new friends, so…
"I'm gonna level with ye, Saiya. I'm all for kicking every door and ass necessary to get us out o' this nuthouse with our lungs intact and functional. So whatever door ye choose, I'll go there without question. The only time ye can expect me to be picky about which way to go is if there's innocent life at stake.
"Right now the only innocents we know of're Winter's people. So like ye say, the path that don't take forever's best.
"And that's THIS—"
"...inconspicuously sturdy f&%~ing door.
"Godsdammit. Were all me memories o' being impressive wishful thinking? Focus, Vix. Be the door… n'nuh-n'nuh-n'nuh-n'nuh—"
Realizing she mumbled aloud, Vix tries to pass her focus technique as the set up for a word-play. "Like I'd wanna be that door now!"
The Vixen snort-laughs at her own joke, which is the least cool and least funny delivery conceivable.
Maybe I'm called 'Vermilion Vixen' 'cause me flush cheeks match me fiery locks.
The door eventually yields to V.V.'s persuasive heel. High asylum walls hedge in this spacious courtyard garden. Only thin breaths of sickly fog seep in from overheard, though beyond it’s just as thick as ever. Misty wisps slip between leafless trees and simple benches, giving the impression of silent beasts prowling through the garden. Unimpeded by the door tendrils of the citrine miasma waft into the lobby.
Everyone but V.V. hear the flapping of wings, low, growls, and rustling steps. Erisa is relieved to realize that the sounds are far off, drifting in from some distant source
"Honestly one door is as good as another right now. It's not like we know where any of them lead. I'd just rather avoid going outside-"
Saiya is cut off by the Vixen's second kick smashing the door only to reveal more of the ever-present fog. Did we get turned around? She glances back along the hallway. No, the asylum clearly continues in that direction...this must just be a courtyard or something.
"Although it looks like this door leads outside too." She starts to look distinctly put out. "They really need a directory in this place. Or better signage. A map. Anything. That yellow fog makes me nervous. I don't like having to wonder if it's lurking just beyond every door we find."
And speaking of nervous...
Upon hearing the flapping of wings, Saiya instinctively drops her voice to barely above a whisper. "Sounds like those creatures Winter was talking about might be in the courtyard." She looks at the shattered remains of what had been an exceptionally sturdy door and has to resist the urge to start cursing herself. If there's anything out there, now it can easily get in here. Ugh, why didn't I suggest those doors in the library instead?
Well, done was done. If there was anything out there, they needed to know what it was before it bit them in the back. Saiya fiddles with some copper wire in her pocket before pointing at Jassminder and, after a second of blinking in confusion, the Vixen. "Message again. I'll sneak into the courtyard, see if there's anything there or if it's some kind of trick. If I make it across safely without seeing anything, I'll let you know you can follow me. If I do see something, I'll come right back and we can go a different route."
Taking a deep breath, she slips into the fog, using the bushes for cover whenever possible.
Vix whispers back (via magical message),
"If ye need me to rush straight to ye, just say 'holy s~~%.' That's the code-word for 'it would appear urgency is afoot; thus, I am submitting a request for assistance ay-sap.'"
The Vixen keeps a watchful eye...
...but she can't see anything beyond the obvious. She might even be oblivious to bits of what others would deem obvious. Fortunately her obliviousness is obvious to her, hence the sharing of the 'code-word' (which is obviously a phrase, but Vix hates the term 'code-phrase' almost as much as she hates people saying 'ASAP').
Saiya creeps into the courtyard silently flitting from bush to tree trying to hide from the unseen horrors she can hear in the distance. As Saiya disappears into the mist the rest of the can see that it clings and swirls around her in unusual ways. As Saiya crosses about half way the distant flapping becomes closer and closer, this is when she realizes that it's not distant just extraordinarily quiet. Fearing a confrontation Saiya flees back to the relative safety of the lobby just as a lanky thing with ebony, smooth, and oily skin swoops down on bat wings. It's barbed tail lashes about needlessly and disquietingly. But the detail that sticks with the party the most is the face devoid of any features as it takes flight again.
Saiya rushes back inside to rejoin the party, face pale. "Okay, apparently some of the monsters can fly. Good to know. Knowledge is good. Any chance we can re-barricade this door? And, uh, never step foot outside again?"
What the hell was that?!
She keeps a wary eye on the courtyard while she speaks. Just in case the...thing...decides to try and come inside.
"Library. There were doors in the library. That hopefully don't lead outside. Let's go there. Or anywhere, really, so long as it's away from whatever the hell that was."
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Jassminder is either completely oblivious to or deeply unconcerned by Saiya's evident discomfort. "If it flies, I can shoot it. Perhaps if you were to act as bait, drawing it out, I could get a clear shot at it."
"Right. So before we go anywhere..."
Vix props the door up so it looks closed.
"...how about I go get some heavy s**&?"
Considering Jass' words: "Or... I can be the bait, if that's the plan."
"I certainly won't be the bait. Scouting is one thing, none of you are stealthy in the slightest so I don't mind checking ahead, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to wave my arms and scream 'eat me' at the heavens."
Saiya crosses her arms. "Besides. Let's say you shoot it. Maybe it dies. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe it and all its friends rip us all into tiny pieces. Is it logical to get into a fight we could simply avoid? No one's asked us to kill that thing. No one's paying us to do it. It's not blocking our only possible route; we still have at least one path to try. Why should we fight it at all?"
After calming down a bit and reflecting on the creature she’s able to put a name to it. It’s a nightgaunt, a creature that haunts the deepest darkest chasms of dreams, lurking in the shadow of sane slumber. Saiya somehow remembers tales of dreamers who are carried away by these creatures only to be deposited in remote areas to be hunted by other monsters. They feed on emotion and especially delight in terrified laughter, fiendishly tickling with their tail those they carry.
"Yeah, so f%+$ that." Pointing in the general direction of the nearest heavy objects, she again offers, "Barricade?"
If her friends are up for it, Vix lugs a bunch of heavy objects and hopes that the pervy flying tickle-monster will assume that barricades lead to a dozen archers, low ceilings, and other disincentives to fiddle with a stubborn door.
V.V. can find plenty of barricade material in the other nearby room she busted into.
As Saiya's explaining why she really, really doesn't want to fight the strange creature, she suddenly pauses, her eyes going briefly out of focus. Wait, that face, or not-face...I've seen that somewhere before. Where?
She can't remember where, but the what eventually comes to her. "Oh, it's a nightgaunt! Creepy creatures, they like to carry away their victims, feeding on their emotions until they eventually drop them off somewhere other monsters can eat them. No wonder I didn't recognize it immediately, nightgaunts normally hunt in the Dimension of...Dreams..." She trails off.
Dreams. A dream was what started this whole disaster. It's where we first saw the yellow fog...and the Tatterman.
"Wait, is that where we are?" Saiya is actually somewhat relieved. Not because the Dimension of Dreams is any safer than the Material Plane, (it most definitely isn't), but because now she at least has some idea of what's going on. "I mean, Winter said this place was in Ustalav, and it sort of feels like the Material Plane, but nightgaunts are definitely part of the Dimension of Dreams. Maybe this place is a bridge between them somehow?"
She grins. Planar travel is something she's fairly sure she's done before. Kayal usually live in the Plane of Shadow after all, and she must have gotten to Ustalav somehow. (Very briefly, an image of a portal flashes through her mind.) "If that's the case, we just need to find our way back to the Material Plane and we're set!"
She still has no idea how an entire place could become a portal, (assuming that's actually what is happening here), but for the first time since Winter shattered her hopes of simply walking out of here, she feels like she has some idea of how to escape.
"Yeah, so f+!* that." Pointing in the general direction of the nearest heavy objects, she again offers, "Barricade?"
"Definitely barricade. A nightgaunt is not something we're equipped to fight right now. Especially not with only one real ranged fighter." She glances at Jass. "You're good, but I don't think you alone could drop it before it got away with whomever it decided to carry off. Best not to risk it unless we have to."
Jassminder nods in agreement at the suggestion to barricade the door. "Of course, it is also possible that the Dimension of Dreams has somehow broken into the Material Plane. I would prefer that option to having to find our way back into the Material Plane: your use of the word "just" suggests you have more confidence than I do."
With that, she helps VV jam things against the door. "Let us hope that we do not need to use this as an exit any time soon."
"To-may-to, to-mah-to." Saiya remains in good spirits. "Which plane spilled into which doesn't really matter. Either way we just need to get out of the in-between place we're stuck in. I'm sure it won't be easy, but at least there might be somewhere to go that's not..." She waves her hands around vaguely. "...This. It's the first real hope of escape I've had since Winter's depressing monologue; I'm going to enjoy it as long as I can."
She tries to help barricade the door, although that mostly consists of finding heavy objects and having someone else do the actual lifting. Manual labor isn't something she's good at. "If we're fleeing in a hurry, we'd probably want to head back to the chapel anyway. Hopefully those library doors actually lead somewhere that's not outside."
Aaaaand Vix agrees, but only kicks the door if requested to.
This L-shaped hall runs from a collapsed space in the west to a small waiting area with a nameplate that reads, "Administrator Losandro." The the other nameplates are destroyed and completely unreadable except for one on a door to the east which is snapped in half, the readable portion says, "...waar." Jassminder and Erisa notice several drying mucuslike smears on the tile floor. The hallway has a heavy antiseptic smell.
Jassminder is as oblivious to Saiya's good spirits as she was to the fetchling's earlier panic. She hefts the furniture to form a barricade, although not without a slightly regretful look outside. It's not that she enjoys killing, as such: it's more the feeling of satisfaction she gets when eye and brain and hand work in coordination to put the arrow exactly where she wants it to go.
It's like target shooting; if the target were moving and actively trying to kill you.
Once back indoors, she refocuses her attention and points out the smears on the floor. "It looks like something oozy came through here."
Saiya doesn't notice the smears until Jassminder points them out. "Oozy?" She looks harder at the floor. "...Oh. That's new. One more thing we need to look out for, I guess." She crouches down and studies the smears, trying to see if she can figure out which way the ooze might have gone.
She stands up and shrugs. "It's all smears to me. Hopefully whatever went through here is long gone. If not maybe you'll get to shoot something after all."
"Lots of doors to choose from." Her eyes briefly close as she mentally recreates their route. "I think that door to the far left will lead just behind where we encountered our first, sorry second, doppelganger. The one that was pretending to be a hurt old lady. I'd say go left to right, checking out the administrator's office last. That seems the most likely to have something useful, but I'd prefer to clean the rooms out as we go rather than rush ahead."
The Vixen certainly has not forgotten the fake old lady. But she doesn't dwell on that now…
"Yeah, I'd also rather clear the area before rushing forward."
A once-handsome wood conference table now sits marred by the partially toppled southwest walls. Between heaps of collapsed stone, a closet door still stands. The slime trail covers the floor mixed loose debris and traces of blood and gore.
Jassminder does her best to keep a wary eye out, her bow at the ready with an arrow in place on the string; but it's hard to look in every direction at once.
Saiya eyes the slime trail with trepidation. "Looks like our ooze made it in here." She pauses, a thought occurring to her. "Can oozes even open doors? Or close them? It's not like they have hands."
Maybe someone else had been here after the ooze? Searching rooms that had previously been open and closing the doors behind them?
Saiya remembers the strangled bodies they'd found and gulps. Someone with hands had definitely been in the area recently. She resolves to stick even closer to the others, which somewhat hampers her ability to actually search the room.
"Uh, sorry Vix. Didn't mean to step on your toes there."
No one hears anything except for the building shifting unsteadily overhead. Saiya finds no traps on the door forward and there are no creatures about in this room.
"Oh, no biggie, Saiya," Vix says in a mock-offended tone. "Me boots only cost me... uhh..." As important as the boots are to the Vermilion Vixen, their origin is a big question mark hovering overhead far out of reach. "...I don't remember where I got 'em. Or paying for 'em. Victimless crime, then." She brushes off the boot.
Jassminder shakes her head. "I don't know. Maybe they can squeeze under the door. Let's find out."
She carefully opens the door (nobody else was volunteering to) and looks inside, without entering the room.
The Vixen is ready to charge in. Or maybe just step in. No sense getting carried away.
And with that thought, the Vixen makes sure to include "up" in her search.
...such as it is.
With a loud crash glass shatters across the floor nearly missing Jassminder's head. It's contents, preserving fluid and a horn-like tumor, spill across the floor adding to the already questionable mix on the floor. The now broken mason jar appears to have been a specimen jar. Other jars litter this closet, containing floating aberrant brains, spinal columns, and dissections. On the floor of the closet are bones, rended flesh, and a shredded doctor's outfit. On closer inspection the remains appear to form a sort of nest for some creature not currently present. Hidden in the nest are 6 blood coated flasks.
Saiya eyes the 'nest' with trepidation. "Trap wasn't sprung, and that's not the sort of thing you could set up from outside the room. But there's nothing in there. Which means either there's a monster we just can't see, or there's some other way into this closet." Neither of which are possibilities she's thrilled with.
Those flasks are too tempting to leave behind though. More potions would be extremely useful. So Saiya slowly walks forward, shoulders tense, and picks them up.
Vix also finds the bombardment eerily similar to ratlings whipping books.
Vix says, "I realize unseen people're usually just-plain-not-home, but if there's fey, me Sylvan'll do. Yer Ratanian helped with the last li'l people who turn invisible."
Saiya pulls the flasks out of the grisly nest and discovers they contain alchemist's fire. She suffers no retribution, the closet apparently empty. The specimen jars are the only witness to the trespass.