Saiya shakes her head and backs out of the closet. "I've never been so tense because of not being attacked before. At least not that I can remember." She turns the vials over in her hands. "Alchemist's fire. Should be useful." She hands them over so everyone has one, keeping the extra stored in her bag. (She does, quickly, first use prestidigitation to clean off the blood stains.)
"I...guess that's that then." She gives the closet one last suspicious glance. "On to the next room?"
Jassminder nods in agreement, at once both understanding and misunderstanding Saiya's comments. "Agreed. Keeping my bow ready but not fired is making my shoulders ache."
She gestures to the fetchling for them to keep moving.
Not wanting to be left out of the apparent commiseration, but with no actual relevant gripe of her own, Vix chimes in, “These heels were probably once uncomfortable, like a drawn bow. That’s the beauty o’ forgetting things though, ain’t it. I don’t remember me heels killing me.
“Just other people.” She smiles warmly at Jass, though she expects her morbid punchline will not elicit a reaction from the paladin.
Oh. And yeah, she keeps moving.
Two desks are crammed into this crowded office. More space has been dedicated to filing cabinets, bookshelves, and stacks of loose research than room for occupants. Two young humans in doctors uniforms sit slumped over the desks. Jassminder notes on closer inspection that the doctors were slain by blows to the back of the head. Saiya happens to look under one of the desks and sees a thick yew wand etched with the symbol of Sarenrae. A piece of twine is wrapped around it attaching a note that says, "Mr. Lantz, this is a place of science, not faith. Please keep your religion at home."
“What a dick-turd!” the Vixen says of whoever wrote the note. “Bet ye that Man o’ Science’s last words were a prayer.”
It is a wand of bless with 18 charges.
Saiya examines the wand. "That's a handy spell. Not one I can normally cast, but I think I could figure it out if I needed to. Unless someone else can use it?"
"I don't think I'm a religious person myself, but given what happened to this place, they probably could have used a few more prayers and a little less science." She shakes her head as she examines the corpses. "Not that either seems to have done them any good. Blows to the back of the head; how did they both get snuck up on at the same time? Multiple assailants? Doesn't look like they had a chance to fight back, whatever it was."
Strangled, shredded, smashed...too many people dead in this part of the asylum with no real explanation for what killed them. Doppelgangers and ghouls Saiya can handle. Not knowing is far worse.
"Let's just keep going. We're finding useful stuff in these rooms at least, so it's not been a waste to check them all out."
Jassminder cautiously examines the bodies. "Caught by surprise - whatever they did or didn't believe in, it didn't help them much." These two probably would have reacted to a ghoul walking in, so her supposition is that the attacker was a doppelganger posing as a friend.
She lifts their heads off the desk, carefully examining their faces, before letting them drop once more. "Ok. If we see anyone walking around with those faces, we know they're a shapechanger."
Miyuki shakes her head in denial. "I can´t, but it is indeed a useful spell!"
Miyuki shakes her head in denial. "I can´t, but it is indeed a useful spell!"
Vix turns and smiles at the youngest of the bunch. “Yer own magic’s plenty useful. I’m curious to find out what other tricks ye got.”
Saiya opens the next door: This room’s sagging ceiling rests largely upon a pair of sturdy bookshelves. A desk and set of chairs skirt the edge of a sizable fissure in the floor. There are cracks in the floor large enough to fit your head in but not your shoulders. Droppings and various unsavory smears stain this room.
Ratch and Gendy eye the party from some of the cracks.
“Er… us again. Ha? Ye guys happen to keep a map o’ this place?”
Ratch slowly shakes his head while looking up at Vixen, "We've only been in here and the library. We have some trouble reaching the handles on your doors."
“Oh. I never thought o’ that. Well, ye’ll be happy to learn I’ve broken a lot o’ doors. Getting around won’t be hard, once we’re done getting our people out.”
Saiya's eyebrows raise when she sees Ratch, then she mentally maps out the place. Oh. We're right behind the library.
She's still irritated at Gendy for insisting on attacking despite her best efforts at diplomacy, but Ratch had seemed reasonable enough. They're...sort of allies? Which means sharing information would be proper.
"Vix certainly has been breaking a lot of doors. So if you see one that's barricaded, it's for a good reason." She fixes her strange yellow eyes on Ratch. "Don't go outside. There's a nightgaunt out there." She pauses. "Uh, that's a flying creature that likes to carry off its victims and leave them for other monsters to eat. And there might be an ooze of some kind running around as well. Possibly using tunnels of its own. Be careful."
Message delivered, she shrugs. "Guess we'll move on then. Good luck, I'm sure we'll run into you again sooner or later." With that, she backs out of the room and heads to the next door.
All around is a wall of sickly yellow fog, tumbling through the alley’s canyon of crumbling, gray brick walls like some jaundiced flash flood. Ahead, the unfamiliar alley splits, curving to the left and right. Behind, from the silent swell of mist, emanates the sound of footsteps—slow, but somehow keeping pace with the careening, hungry wave. As you pick your direction to flee the alley walls sag, battered brick slumping over the path, nearly blotting out the bruised twilight sky. Again the grimy cobblestone path splits. This time one route curves uphill, while the other recklessly descends. Behind, the yellow fog and the relentless sound of pursuit grows closer.
The mist parts, now mere steps behind. A mask of gray rags emerges, strips of something fleshier than fabric worming and constricting across a body that’s almost humanlike—but too lean, and far too flexible. Gauzy gray ribbons reach out like tendrils, each grasping for less doubtful flesh to claim. The nightmare is upon you in an instant twisting a rusted razor in your gut. You grow woozy from the loss of vital fluid and…
Saiya opens the door revealing a room where the ceiling has collapsed crushing a table and well-worn couch. Jassminder sees a pale hand extend from the rubble.
Vix looks up at the ceiling.
Then down at the mess.
“Well that sucks.”
Pain, she feels, as her concentration seems diminished. Her body hardly keeps any consistence, but slowly she starts to understand herself with some sort of form. If in a moment there's no mouth, on the next there are no hands; but they eventually form. She doesn't truly stand-up; instead, her shape grows vertically and finally takes a vaguely humanoid form with boar-looking features.
Some seconds later, she's somewhat more recognizable. If some fingers are still tied to each other, at least she feels something like eyes on her face, vocal cords to speak, legs to move. When she's finally composed and ready, she moves towards the door from where she heard the familiar voice - the first steps being just sliding, then finally actual moves of the legs and feet.
Vixen looks up and sees that there is or was an upper floor to this building, there are bits of collapsed wall and ceiling but through these all she sees is the strange yellow mist that is ever present outside.
** spoiler omitted **
Pain, she feels, as her concentration seems diminished. Her body hardly keeps any consistence, but slowly she starts to understand herself with some sort of form. If in a moment there's no mouth, on the next there are no hands; but they eventually form. She doesn't truly stand-up; instead, her shape grows vertically and finally takes a vaguely humanoid form with boar-looking features.
Some seconds later, she's somewhat more recognizable. If some fingers are still tied to each other, at least she feels something like eyes on her face, vocal cords to speak, legs to move. When she's finally composed and ready, she moves towards the door from where she heard the familiar voice - the first steps being just sliding, then finally actual moves of the legs and feet.
From behind where Saiya, Jassminder, and V.V. stand in the hallway a door opens revealing Lahrehn. You all recognize each other vaguely like some long lost friend from childhood that you can't place the name to.
Jassminder spots the hand sticking out of the rubble and is about to approach it when the door opens behind her and she whirls round, bowstring pulled back and arrow pointed ready to fire in one smooth movement. Just as smoothly, she releases the tension in the string as she recognises - somehow - the newcomer.
"You should be more careful wandering around like that. If I'd shot you, that would be one less arrow for everything else in this place."
Mizuko shots up to sitting as she holds onto her gut where she had been stabbed in her nightmare. She pulls her hands away and sees there is, in fact, no blood. She quickly pats down the rest of her body to make sure nothing else is amiss before jumping to her feet and looking around. First she spots the apparently dead woman in a pool of blood with mist coming out of her mouth and then she sees the other woman, still alive. She pauses for a moment and considers her options.
Instinctively reaching for her blade, she finds it is missing. She shakes her head trying to remember how she got here and what is going on, but nothing comes. She hears voices coming from outside the doors and backs away to the nearest wall. No idea what is going on or where she is tears of frustration start to well in her eyes. She stops, bracing against the wall. Closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths, trying to focus her thoughts on the here and now. Ok Miz... get it together... don't worry about what you don't know, worry about what you do...
She opens her eyes and looks over to the other, still living woman, "Hi, uh... sorry but do you have any idea where we are or what is going on?"
Ci Ci begins to visibly shiver as she stares at the macabre fountain. She snaps to awareness at the sound of another woman's voice, looking around frantically until her eyes latch onto the room's other still-living occupant.
"I...I..." she glances about, trying to spy anything even remotely familiar. "I was in an alley, something was chasing me. It was lean, covered in...b..bandages...moved like a contortionist..."
She trails off for a moment, taking several breaths, clearly attempting to calm herself down.
"Did it get you, too?" she finally manages to say.
Mizuko scrunches her brow as the woman describes the same nightmare she just awoke from and then nods "Yes... I uh... don't know what is going on. I think that was a nightmare?" She half states and half asks.
Taking another deep breath she rubs her hand on her brow as she continues "I seem to have forgotten almost everything... I know who I am but only have slivers of memories and I definitely have no idea what I am doing here or what is going on..." The panic evident in her voice she slides down the wall to a seated position.
After a few moments lost in her own thoughts she looks back over to the other woman and forces a smile "I'm Mizuko, you can call me Miz." She scootches over toward the other woman and extends her hand "Whatever this is, it seems we are in it together..."
I... I...
Lahrehn looks at the three women - two human and a fetching - with obvious curiosity. She is very confused right now, rambling between the nightmare and her memories. Are these people from her past? They’re tall, strong, and they have weapons. But they’re somehow recognizable, she just can’t place from exactly where and when.
Where... Are we? What is this place? Who are you? - she finally says, stoic voice, still struggling to keep a consistent shape.
"Ci ci. I'm Ci Ci," Ci Ci replies tentatively taking the other woman's hand, as if it were a snake that might bite her.
She gives a short, nervous giggle. "I guess if you wanted to kill me, you'd've done it by now....heh...yeah...so let's try to figure out where in the Nine Hells we are, and get out of here alive."
After a moment, her eyes shift to the western door, and her expression changes from general anxiety to very specific concern.
Am I hearing things...or..are there voices on the other side of that door?"
The masked redhead sees the stranger, and says of Jass’ one-less-arrow, “Oh, don’t mind her. Jass is just… being Jass, but we love her anyway. This is Saiya, and I’m o’ course the Vermilion Vixen. Vix for short.
“I’ve a feeling we met before. Don’t be offended that I forgot yer name. I don’t even remember me own family name.” Realization dawns. “Or me family.”
Not sure how to answer the other question, Vix says, “We’re still figuring out where we are. Only certainty, this place is full o’ gray shape-shifting a*@+!$&s. Stick with us, ye’ll be safe.”
Miz smiles and squeezes her hand for a moment to confirm they are in this together. When Ci ci mentions the voices she nods "Oh... you hear that too? I wasn't sure..." she trails off and then slowly stands. She tries to find something to defend herself with, a coat rack, a large tray, anything she could hit something with if it came to it.
Once she finds something, she moves toward the door and looks back at Ci ci "Stay behind me, let's see what is out there." She will then proceed to the door and listens more closely to see if she can make anything out.
As she places her ear to the door to listen she catches a glimpse of the eerie dead woman and it completely distracts her from what she is doing.
Saiya whirls as the doors opens behind them, half-expecting...she's not sure what. The strangler? A doppelganger? An ooze?
Staring at the...woman?, she thinks that last might have been accurate.
She looks familiar. But I think I'd remember that face, so I must know her from before whatever stole our memories. Maybe? She frowns, biting her lip. Running into someone we know here seems like too much of a coincidence. But none of the other doppelgangers have tried to look like one of us. Maybe she's on the up and up.
Regardless the woman doesn't seem to be armed, or hostile, and if she ends up being either Saiya's quite confident Jass and Vix can handle it.
"Um, hi." Saiya awkwardly waves. "Saiya here. We're in Briarstone Asylum apparently. Possibly in Ustalav, possibly in the Dreamlands, maybe both at once. Not really sure ourselves. I don't suppose you remember anything?"
Where... Are we? What is this place? Who are you? - she finally says, stoic voice, still struggling to keep a consistent shape.
Jassminder gives a small, approving nod. "Those are rational questions to ask. We are in an asylum somewhere in Ustalav. There has been a disaster of some sort, and the place is now an inescapable building filled with Evil creatures that have to be killed before they overwhelm the few survivors."
Jassminder utterly fails to deliver this like it's bad news. As far as she's concerned, this is her Yule and birthday presents all at once. Her only real worry (apart from the whole memory-loss thing, of course) is whether she has enough arrows for them all. But even that isn't a real problem since she has her sword as well.
Ci Ci moves cautiously up towards the door, keeping behind Miz, as instructed. A surge of energy wells up from somewhere deep within her, and burning sensation tingles in the nerve-endings of her fingers and palms. She knows that something will burn if it attacks her, though the details of how this will occur are lost to her.
"Be careful, she whispers to Miz.
And I’m... Lahrehn. - she replies, taking a moment to be sure of her own name - I’m sorry, my memories aren’t the best right now.
Her body shakes for a moment, as if the shape itself would collide back into the ooze pudding, but manages to stay together.
Er... I’m a shapeshifter, as well. And it concerns me. I promise I have no ill intentions towards any of you. I... somehow recognize you. Your voices at least. I know it’s hard to ask it, but please trust I’m not a danger to you. I don’t think I am. In truth, I barely know what I am. I just know I might not exactly be what you’re seeing, but it’s so familiar to me that this shape felt natural.
She isn’t bluffing, and her voice denotes she does want to be trusted. However, it doesn’t transmit any kind of fear - as if she’s in such shock for what’s happening (or had happened) that she “forgot” what’s to be scared.
The Vixen walks closer to Lahrehn, weaponless fingers spread passively. She smiles sweetly. “Ye’re honesty’s refreshing. Not that ye can really hide yer gelatinous viscosity, but why should ye? It’s part o’ what makes ye you.
“Like I said, stick with us…” Vix offers her hand, allowing the feminine creature, whatever she is, to take it. “…Lahrehn.”
Jassminder nods in reply once more. "You seem familiar, which is why I didn't shoot. And something seems to have happened to all of our memories. But I remember my name, and how to use this." She indicates her bow with her free hand. "That seems enough, for now."
Mizuki has a number of choices for improvised weaponry, a wooden box sculpted to look like a brain, a pair of bookends depicting twin screaming and crying figures, and finally a brass sculpture of an Osirian pyramid. She is unable to discern any details of the conversations through the door.
"I...I can go first," Ci Ci offers. "I can burn'em if they attack us, just get ready to hit them with something if the get too close to me."
Miz shakes her head at Ci Ci's suggestion, "No, I just wanted to see if I could make out what or who was on the other side." With one of the creepy bookeneds in hand she pushes the door open, holding the book end out like a weapon, ready to attack if she sees a threat on the other side.
The door to the north opens each of the party members sees each other and is instantly disarmed by the same vague familiarity.
The Vixen is startled by the door opening… until she sees who steps through. They look trustworthy. But then, ain’t I a sucker for the pretty ones?
She says, “Come on in, ladies. Join the party.”
The Tien woman may or may not recognize the style of the redhead’s neck-to-ankle dress as a qipao. Or a cheap imitation of one. It is an odd combination with the studded leather jacket and thigh-high stilettos. The dress’ side-slits allow mobility for kicking, which must be how she fights. She has no weapons on her.
She explains her lack of apparent weapons to the Tien woman, eyeing the bookend admiringly.
Though she doesn’t appear Tien, the redhead speaks the language fluently. In fact, her Tien sounds better than her Talden, though her accent and odd mispronunciations are not at all influenced by the Tien language.
The redhead introduces herself. “The Vermilion Vixen’s me moniker. Or in the interest o’ brevity, just Vix or V.V.’ll do.”
The lithe, auburn-haired woman dressed like something akin to a Varisian Harrowdeck Reader, or perhaps a circus performer looks at the group with an expression of both recognition and consternation.
"Something tells me I know you all...or at least I should. For the life of me all I can remember is yellow mist, sheer terror, some twisted man-thing in bandages, and a few jumbled memories I assume are mine. She and I woke up in the other room there," she nods her head back through the door. "There's a dead girl in there who's been turned into some sort of fountain or censer of yellow mist, and there's blood everywhere."
She moves her hands about as she speaks, and shifts her weight back and forth from one leg to another.
Anyway, if any of you knows where in the Nine Hells we are, or better yet, how in the Nine Hells we get out, I'm all ears at this point."
After a moment, she realizes that she didn't identify herself. In a rather abrupt attempt to correct her misstep, she says, "I'm Ci Ci, by the way. Cerise Barchetta, proper, but Ci Ci's easier."
“Then ye best call me Vix for me short name. Having a Vi-Vi and a Ci-Ci’ll get confusing.”
The Vixen sighs at the news there were three women in that room. “Glad ye made it, but sorry to hear about the one who didn’t. Did ye… know her too? Or have that familiar feeling? Like the one I’m feeling meself, now that we’re talking. Yer voice rings a bell.”
"To be honest, I didn't look too close," Ci Ci replies. "She didn't look like she went peacefully, and my first thought was to get out. I think Miz felt the same way." She looks to the Tian woman for confirmation.
Lahrehn looks at the newcomers, for a moment stepping back, by reflex, to assess the situation. The oozemorph finally spoke.
I am Lahrehn. - she says, unemotional - And I’m happy to see that more people haven’t succumbed to whatever this place of nightmares is. My apologies if my memories are still fuzzy, but despite whatever you see in me, I mean you no harm.
She lifts her hand in a sign to show what she just said - but as much natural as she tried to appear, the hand she lifted was from a third arm that spawned off her shoulder while one of her normal two arms disappeared, withdrawing as a puddle under her chest.
The Tien woman with a lithe but athletic build stands in the doorway looking out at the other woman. She is wearing a styled white overcoat with golden trim and embroidery, with gold tinted leather gloves to match. She wears a bluish-green pair of trousers, and calf-high sturdy leather boots. While her clothing is reasonably fancy, it is still meant for function. She has a green choker with a locket attached to it around her neck and while most of her hair is shoulder length the slightly longer bit in the back she has up in a bun, tied with a ribbon to match her outfit.
When Vix talks to her in her native tongue there is something almost comforting to it. She slowler lowers her improvised weapon to her side and eases up a little. She shakes her head as she replies in her native tongue.
As everyone starts giving introductions and it is pretty clear there isn't going to be a fight Miz eventually chimes in "I am Mizuko Tagashi, but you can call me Miz for short. As CiCi noted, we didn't check the body, just wanting to get out of there and try to figure out what is going on."
When Lahrehn mentions her memory issues Miz looks to the other woman and asks "Are you all having the same memory issues as the rest of us?" Before waiting for a reply she continues "If so, we should probably stick together until we figure out more of what is going on"
The Vixen replies, “Yeah, our memories’re a mess. In me own case, the few retained bits o’ me past’re in shades o’ red—vermilion red, like me dress. And we all shared a dream, ’cept in Jass’ I died, whereas in mine, I remember the fight going in me favor.
“Oh! But after we awoke—following a daring escape, details later—I do recall me leather and Jass and Saiya’s weapons by a furnace.”
“Me point being, ye’ve belongings…”[/b]
Vix looks around for a place Mizuko’s katana might be.
“We’ll find ’em…”
"Saiya here." Saiya sighs as she resigns herself to explaining what they know. Or don't.
At least it's a relatively short explanation.
"We all woke up in the basement, locked up in cells with a doppelganger performing weird 'experiments.' Broke out, killed some doppelgangers, found a bunch of really paranoid survivors-" She pauses as a thought occurs to her. "Uh, Lahrehn? You might want to hang back a bit when we go back. Those people are kind of twitchy around shapeshifters."
"Anyway, when we finally got some answers we learned that we're apparently at the Briarstone Asylum in Ustalav. Things went to hell a couple weeks ago. Everyone started having the same weird dreams. A bunch of patients started an uprising, led by some guy named Zandalus. There was an earthquake, monsters started showing up everywhere, and no one can leave because there's this weird fog outside filled with even worse monsters. Including nightgaunts, which normally haunt the Dimension of Dreams, so my current theory is that there's a transplanar portal involved somewhere."
Saiya shrugs. "Winter, the leader of the survivors, thinks Zandalus might have some idea of what's going on. So we're trying to track him down, preferably without dying in the process. If you'd like to join us, I for one would be happy to increase our numbers. Or, if you're not the fighting type, we could take you back to the chapel. Fair warning though, they're running out of supplies so I can't guarantee they'd take you in. They only let us in after we'd 'proved ourselves' by killing a bunch of doppelgangers."
”So we’re looking for Zandalus, then. Where to next? You can look around the room we woke up in, but it’s horrible in there. Be prepared to retch and possibly vomit,” Ci Ci replies.
Ci Ci has barely finished speaking before Jassminder moves past her, eager to see what the sorceress is talking about.
Lahrehn consents with his head, and moves emotionless past the room, following Jass. The oozemorph had most of his natural weapons, gore and hooves, at show - including also a couple tentacles that looked to spawn from behind each of her shoulders, and would unnervingly stay moving in each side of her boar-looking head.