”Oh, my goodness! You truly have no idea?” Latchke eyes the dwarf as if looking for some sign that he might be joking. When she finds none, the nurse frowns.
”There was a terrible earthquake and then we were attacked. By what, I don’t know. Just...things. Once they got inside they started killing anyone and everyone. Staff, patients, visitors, adults, children, it didn’t matter. Just that they killed!” Latchke’s voice grows more agitated and louder as she speaks. The events having clearly taken a toll on the elderly woman. ”I...I watched as one of those things sliced into a woman, and pulled her entrails out with its hand. It stitched the woman’s wound shut and made her crawl around while it held her intestines like a leash.”
Latchke pauses again to take a breath and looks to the Ironhand, ”Survivors of that.”
Lathcke waves a hand to the southern door, "That's the laundry-" She cuts her self short as Junior opens the door.
Latchke is clearly unwell. And her agitation seems to be hiding something else. Is that, glee?
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 revealing the silhouette of a doppleganger’s true form against the sheet.
Preacher puts his hand on the paladin, leaning in to whisper in her ear. "She seems almost giddy as she's talking. I don't like her."
Junior waves his hand downwards frantically. And then make over exaggerated pointing at the door.
Quiet, there's something here.
The doll-like girl looks at Latchke with increased suspicion. "I am not usually prone to bursts of emotion, but I do not think that these types of events should cause someone to express pleasure or happiness." She backs up a little further from the strange woman. "I do not think that I wish to call this one a friend. She is most unusual."
For the first time Nodachi starts to get the sense that something is not right with this "nurse".
Junior has seen something though, so she extractes herself from the creepy woman and draws her naginita again.
She walks to the door, nodding to the others and waiting until they're ready before entering.
When everyone is ready she will step in attempt to cut down the curtain and reveal the silhouetted form.
The half-ork follows Nodachi with his scimitar and shield at the ready.
"Aw, the poor woman is just shook up, Doll, don't worry about it." Ironhand reassures the halfling.
---
The dwarf takes position next to Nodachi, dropping into a boxer's stance. He nods, signaling that he's ready.
Though the doppleganger does not appear to move or notice the group the sound of nails dragging across metal starts to come from behind the hanging sheet. Not wanting to lose track of the shapeshifter, Nodachi slices through the souled sheet to reveal...another table with a corpse and a lantern sitting on the floor against the wall.
The scratching pauses then continues, it becoming clear that it is coming from inside the southernmost washbasin.
"Where is it? Did it turn invisible or something?" the dwarf turns about, trying to spy some evidence of the missing doppelganger.
The half-ork looks around him and tries to think of a magical effect that could cause this situation.
Heart racing, and not wanting to lose whatever is making the noise, Nodachi bounds over to the washbasin to have a look.
The petite halfling follows after Nodachi, glad to be putting some distance between herself and the old crone, but after hearing the sounds from the south, she decides to find some cover behind one of the tables. Peering out from underneath, she tries to get a look at whatever might be going on.
Preacher grips his bow closely, looking around the room.
Nodachi climbs up a short folding ladder and peers inside the washbasin. Inside, a crippled ghoul lays on its side listlessly scraping a clawed hand along the inside of the basin. Its eyes flick up as the Paladin leans over and though a deep hunger flashes in the ghoul's eyes, it makes no effort to reach her.
As the group looks around the room, it becomes clear that of the seven bodies scattered on the tables or in corners, five are human and two belong to deceased doppelgangers.
A wrinkled arm slips out from under a sheet on the southernmost most table. Zylah noticing the languid movement followed by jerking of the fingers almost beckoning her closer.
Curious, the halfling girl slowly moves her way towards the table, but stops short by the presence riding within her shadow.
Dangerous, comes the whispering voice. Stay back.
As Colenso finishes speaking, it manifests into a semi-solid state, stepping in front of Zylah and lifts the sheet to reveal whatever, or whoever, is underneath.
Nodachi is almost overcome by pity for whomever this ghoul used to be. Tears well in her eyes as she puts it out of her misery.
With that done, and still holding herself together, she turns to take in the room.
"What happened here? Do you think we are being punished? I just want to go home"
The half-ork jumps back as halfling-like doll's shadow unnaturally jumps in front of her and in three dimensions. He asks Ironhand in an aside, "Uhhh.. is that normal? I mean normal's relative but you know."
"Huh," he huffs, staring at the solid shadow. "I don't even know anymore. Maybe I never did."
Nodachi will investigate each body in turn to ensure that they haven't returned as undead, and say a prayer for them for peaceful rest.
"The guards asked to see Doppleganger corpses. We have two here, but [i]finding[i] rather than making the corpses doesn't seem like it would convince them of our earnestness. Perhaps we should move on"
She'll look around to see if there are any more clues here as to what happened but failing that will try to continue exploring.
The half-ork asks "So what's a dopple-whats-it anyway?"
While investigating the bodies, Nodachi eventually comes to the body under the sheet. Just as she lifts the sheet, the hand grabs the Paladin's wrist and a woman that looks exactly like Latchke groans stirs with a groan.
"Please...please help me."
Nurse Latchke speaks up from the back of the he room, "Oh? Did we find some unfortunate soul?"
Nodachi does a double-take at Nurse Latchke then back at the injured woman.
She begins taking out her potion of cure light wounds to feed to the poor woman. If she has figured out what's going on, she will also shout a warning to her allies about Nurse Latchke, but I'm not sure how much she understands about dopplegangers.
"Oh, Nurse Latchke, you didn't say you had a twin"
She proceeds to try to help her without alarm