Cyndance pulled herself out of her pit of despair and looked to Mau. "I... it's difficult to talk about..."she muttered before realizing she was holding three items.
" There's a holy symbol here... some red boots and..." she stared at the mirror and looked at the now-dead doppelganger.
"I wonder..." she looked to the others, "think this might be handy... so I'm going to keep it." she showed them the mirror.
The corpse continues to flail and gnash its teeth at Nik as he slowly backs away. The arms seem to grasp around randomly, including ahead and behind, twisting around at unnatural angles. Nik also notices that something appears to be writhing inside of the corpse's stomach, as the flesh pulsates in and out and moves from side to side.
Nik calls over his shoulder as he continues to back up. "Hey, uh, Firehands? There's a wacky waving incomprehensible dead woman over here who could use some crisping!"
Tarn turns to the fighter. "Did...did that corpse just move?" he shouts. "I agree, fire will take care of that."
A stream of fire shoots at the flailing corpse.
Tarn's blast of fire is off target, the jet hitting the rubble causing pebbles and dirt to spray into the corpse. A small trickle of dark blood drips from a nick in the corpse's shoulder and the writhing thing inside of it goes still.
All is silent for a few seconds, when suddenly the corpse's entrails burst out of its stomach flailing around madly. The force of the entrails' emergence rips the body apart, it's arms and head severing from the corpse completely.
The head, no longer attached to body, floats over to Tarn, dripping a trail of dark blood behind it. It's graying teeth chatter slightly as it bobs over and when close enough it attempts to bite down on Tarn, managing to get only a mouthful of leather.
Both arms use their hands to pull themselves along the ground over to Nik where they swipe at his legs. The first manages only to scratch at his pants. The second, however, takes advantages of the first distracting Nik to push hard off the ground, leaping up and slashing him across his belly. While it does so, it grabs at Nik, but doesn't manage to gain purchase, falling back down to the floor below.
The entrails continue to writhe and twist as if trying to pull itself free from the remains of the corpse and rubble.
Talennia rushes over but stops short, "Oh yes just what I always wanted more creepy undead!"
She loads and fires her light crossbow at the head hoping it controlled the thing.
Tarn absorbs fire energy as he readies a blast of fire at the head, his motions more confined than usual, before fire bridges the gap between his hand and the head.
"S+~*!"
Starting to panic and losing quite a bit of blood, Nik swings wildly at the disembodied arms and they dodge with ease.
Taking into account what spells she had available and where she was, Cyndance decided to move closer to Tarn, shivering at the sight of floating head and limbs.
Mau cursed and tried to move closer, calling on her earlier ability. "No bleeding out okay! We need you to keep the red stuff in your body for a little bit longer!"
So she may be panicking just a touch...
Talennia's shot flies true, entering directly into the floating head's mouth. The bolt pierced through the back of the thing's throat and slammed into the wall and embedding itself there. Tarn manages to conjure his flames while still keeping his arms out of reach of the biting disembodied head, but unfortunately the reserved movements cause his blast to miss. The floating head rushes toward Tarn, attempt to slam into his head in a strange disembodied headbutt, but Tarn was quick to duck under it.
Meanwhile, Nik's wild hammer swing slams down in between the two arms, causing some of the rubble to spray out. The force of the blow is enough to sever the hands from their respective arms, but they continue on, using their fingers to run across the floor and leap onto Nik's legs. The first manages to only slash at his protective clothing while the second again makes contact, breaking the skin of Nik's leg. It is once again unable to grab onto Nik, however, as he easily shakes the hand off of him.
Telennia moved in an attempt to flank the head before reloading and firing another bolt.
Tarn sees the head fall to the ground, and turns his attention to the hands attacking Nik. Fire briefly swirls around him before he shoots fire at the apparently more deadly hand.
"Stupid. Little. Buggers!"
Nik takes a breath and tries to aim more carefully at the remaining hand.
Talennia's bolt flies true and strikes the floating head on the cheek, piercing it and bringing it down. It falls to the floor, hitting hard and leaving smear of blood as it rolls to a stop. Meanwhile, Tarn picks off on of the hands with a particularly well-aimed blast of fire. The hands burns to a crips, falling off of Nik and smoldering on the ground before him. With only one hand remaining, Nik is able to focus a little better. His larger hammer comes crashing down on top of the hand. When he lifts it, all that remains in a disfigured lump of shattered bone and pulped flesh.
The corpse's entrails continue to writhe and flail about, as if trying to break free from the rubble. Occasionally it darts forward toward the group, but is unable to pull itself free. The pearl necklace that was once worn around the corpse's neck now lies on the pile of rubble next to the entrails.
"Those entrails are going to be a problem, aren't they?" Tarn mutters, aiming a fire blast at them. "Let's see how well they handle fire, shall we?"
Nik kicks a piece of rubble at the smoldering remains of the corpse, then shuffles back to Mau. "Good riddance to that! Hey, Mau? You got any of that healing power left? Poltergeist Sally seriously needed a manicure." He rubs at the stinging cuts on his arms and legs.
Mau smiled wryly and nodded. "That I do! Now lets see..."
She gave a firm nod as some his cuts and bruises started to fade. "How do you feel?" She noticed something shiny among the remains and Neko would trot over to pick up the neck with her teeth, bringing it to Cyndance. They little black cat meowed at her.
It takes a little bit of cleaning, but the pearl necklace turns out to be rather beautiful .
Talennia moves to open the next door, inspecting it carefully at first and finding the door unlocked and without traps. As soon as the door is open, the group hears the clanging of metal against metal as well as snarling and grunting coming from inside. It is far too dark for Talennia, Mau, and Tzarnik, but Cyndance and Tarn both can see what lies within.
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 this room. Three figures are manacled to the rack here, 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 female patient, and a humanoid creature with long, sharp teeth and pallid flesh stretched tightly over its starved frame.
The human appears to be attempting to stay as far from the strange creature as he can, his manacles repeatedly slamming into the pipes. The creature is ignoring him at the moment, instead focusing all of his attention on the corpse dangling by his side. The corpse's left arm has been stripped free of flesh and, having lost so much of its mass, is no longer held by the manacles. The creature has moved on to the corpse's other arm, struggling a bit due to his own manacles. It is clear that if the second arm is stripped free of flesh like the first, the corpse will no longer be an obstacle for the creature to reach the still alive human.
"There's a person chained up ahead, along with...something...with sharp teeth -- it appears be eating a corpse," Tarn whispered after taking in the scene ahead. "It's distracted for now, but I'm not sure how long that'll stay true.
Does anyone know what a flame-shaped mark might mean?"
Cyndance shrugged at Tarn, moving over to him. She looked at the corpse and the creature eating the corpse.
"No idea... anyone wanna take the first swing at this thing? I don't think it can fight back..."
Talennia pulled her rapiar out and slowly made her way in the dark
She neared the thing eating the corpse and stuck
Nik moved toward the creatures cry of pain, Knack wavering in his grip. He tried to will his eyes to adjust, but he was unable to tell which shadow was friend and which was a horrible flesh eating creature of nightmares.
"Uh, Firehands? Can I get a light?"
"How about pixie light instead?"Mau asked, casting dancing lights. An lantern like bit of light appear near Nick, bobbling encouraging in the air for him to take it. Nyan mewed cheerily at the bit of light.
With the light from the spell providing some illumination, the rest of the party can finally see the terrible sight before them. The man strapped to the pipes, noticing the group now that the light is there, looks up and cries out, "Zand... Zanda. Zandalus. Zandalus. Zandalus sees! Praise. Praise. Praise..." He trails off whispers "praise" over and over as he continues his escape attempt.
The creature doesn't seem to notice the light, or perhaps it has and just doesn't care.
"I think the elf has the right of it," Tarn said, drawing upon fire energy before releasing it at the corpse-gobbler.
Talennia sneaks up upon the preoccupied creature () and stabs it in the throat. The creature howls in pain and starts thrashing, fright appearing in his eyes. Mau's lights appears and Tarn continues the onslaught, unleashing searing heat at the creature. It only takes a few more seconds before the party is able to dispatch of it. It now lies still, held up only by the manacles chaining it to the pipe.
The other prisoner continues to mutter to himself, but you do think you see some relief flicker across his maddened eyes. "Zandalus... Words fail... Praise..."
Tarn slowly approaches the prisoner. "Zandalus? Who...or what...is Zandalus?" he asked the man.
Talennia points her rapier at the prisoner, "I don't know but he gives me the creeps. Are you a patient?"
This place is making me paranoid. She gets close to the prisoner but still keeping him a rapier point.
Cyndance listens closely as the others question the man, looking around the room idly.
The man, looking relieved that the creature has been killed, seems to relax a bit. He gives a few more half-hearted pulls on the pipes to no avail and continues to mutter to himself. He doesn't respond directly to any of your questions, but he does look up when Tarn mentions "Zandalus."
While her eyes wander around the room, Cyndance spots a small bulge in the pocket of the half-eaten corpse. A dirty handkerchief is just barely visible, possibly wrapped around some object in this pocket.
Cyndance moved over to the half-eaten corpse and grabbed the handkerchief.
Cyndance pulls out the dirty handkerchief from the corpse's pocket and unwraps it, revealing a coin-sized eyeball with an X-shaped pupil. As she holds it in her hand, the eye slowly rolls itself around until it is looking directly at her. It maintains this orientation, even rotating to continue looking toward Cyndance's eyes as she moves her hand around. Every once in a while a membrane within the eye blinks.
Mau watched Cyndance curiously before moving closer. "What is it?"She asked softly, her familiar hopping on her shoulder to sniff at the object before making the stink face and hopping back down. "I think I agree with Nyan." She shivered."That's just plain odd. But then again... This whole place is odd, huh?"
Tarn eyes the prisoner. "Does anyone have some rope? I don't want to leave this crazy guy behind, but nor do I trust him."
Tarn turns and sees Cyndance holding a...is that an eye? he thought. Yes, that's certainly an eye...and it...blinked?
"That's creepy. Maybe it'll be useful?" Tarn says doubtfully.
Talennia kept her rapier in her hand, "He is already chained up, just need to undo the chain on the spool" She goes over to the device and begins working
Cyndance looks at Mau and Nyan before looking back at the eye. While all logic dictated that she should be creeped out by it as well, she instead found it a bit cute. I must be losing my mind.
She moved her hand around, watching it stare back at her despite whatever angle she brought it to. She felt a burst of anger in her chest as she spoke to Jefir again. "Jefir... does this look familiar or useful to you?"
Jefir, with none of his usual snideness, responds plainly, "I have never seen anything like this before. I suppose you may be able to pawn it off to a collector of oddities for a pretty copper."
Talennia is able to manipulate the chain without any issues.
Nik stretches, his joints popping. "Feels like that fight took months." Walking over to the undead creature, he can't resist giving it a nudge with Knack. "First insane shapeshifters, then reanimated limbs and now a ghoul? Abadar's ears, what is this place?"
He cuts his eyes at the incoherent prisoner as Talennia works on his chains. "We're bringing the madness with us now, are we?"
Talennia released the chain at the spool trying to keep the prisoner still in his shackles.
Talennia releases the chain from the pipe, leaving the man's arms shackled. Unfortunately, the chain slips from her hand and the man quickly takes off, bolting for the door leading back out to the hallway. He is out the door before anyone else has a chance to react. You hear him yelling "Zandalus sees!" as he exits the room.
Before anyone can react, the man disappears through the door they all entered and runs back out to the hall. Following quickly, the group hears shouting from guards at the other end of the corridor, yelling for the man to halt. As the group turns the corner, they hear the crazy man shout "ZANDALUS SEES!" and then a TWANG! as a volley of crossbow bolts is loosed directly at him. The man falls over dead about halfway down the corridor, and the guards relax, visibly shaken by the ordeal.
With nothing more they can do here, the crew returns the linen room and opens the door to the south.
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, though, 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.
Two 6-foot tall, 10-foot diameter washtubs stand in alcoves along the west walls, two short folding ladders leaning near each. The table here appears to have been cleared of laundry and in its place are sliced up remains, butchered beyond simple scientific inquiry. In the northeast corner of the room lie a pile of corpses. At a quick glance it looks as if there are five human bodies and two doppelgangers that have reverted to their natural forms.
The lantern shining on the opposite side of the curtain reveals the silhouette of a tall sinuous doppelganger wielding a long knife.
Nik immediately halts upon spying the lithe shadow, and for once in his life, shuts his damn mouth.
Unshouldering Knack from its harness, he slowly advances through the hellish terrain, quashing his natural oafishness as best he can.
Cyndance, who isn't too far behind Nik, also spies the shadow and halts.
She tries her best to be quiet as she follows Nik, though tries not to be too close to him, in case the crackling of her hair might be too loud.
Tarn nearly trips over Cyndance as she suddenly halts. He follows her gaze to the silhouette splayed on the curtain and tries his best to advance silently.
The silhouette doesn't react to the party as they creep steadily forward.
Not really getting a reply back from the other woman she shrugged lightly and quietly followed on the heels of the others. When they stopped suddenly she stopped as well, glancing around. On spotting the silhouette she frowned, settling her staff across her back carefully and drawing her cross bow. She'd carefully take aim.
As she fired Nyan settled by her feet, waiting for her command.
Why couldn't there be snacks behind the curtain for once? Nick groused to himself as he brought Knack in a sweeping arc above his head.
As he smashed the oversized hammer through the curtain, he couldn't help imagining his foe as a nice piece of steak that needed just a little tenderizing...
Tarn stepped to the side, taking note of where his companions were. As he did so, he gathered energy to himself, which he unleashed in a fiery orb at the silhouette.
Cyndance took a few steps up so she was beside Tazrnik. Making sure no one else would get hit by the spell she was about to use, she cast Burning hands through the curtains.