The party collects the scrolls and wands, unable to determine their use. The guards and acolytes allow the party to move through the room to the left of the barricade leading back to the hall.
Doc and Rook head to the closest room on the right and examine it. Neither see any form of traps and sees that the door is unlocked and easy to open. Doc opens the door.
This door opens to the outdoors. Trampled flowerbeds lie smeared and squashed across this muddy courtyard. On all sides, stark gray walls climb toward a narrow gap of sunless sky. Around the edges of the roof you see whisp of the yellow fog starting to close off the sky. An odd sight to see as it is blocking out almost silent thunder and lightning that rips across the sky.
Just to the left (north) in this courtyard you can see a door that is closed. You also see that the courtyard continues around the wall that this door is on, but you (your characters) cannot see beyond it.
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Vex looks through the door, and takes a few steps in. Her lips press into a thin line when she sees the yellow wisping fog rising. She points up at it, wordlessly, then finishes positioning her newly acquired shield.
"Oy-- someone give me a hand with the last buckles on this scale mail."
As soon as that's accomplished, she takes it on herself to take a lead position, being the most well-armored of the group, now. "Right. Let's clear trouble and find supplies."
She starts towards the closed door, shield in play and longsword drawn. Call it the roiling yellow fog overhead, but she's paranoid.
Chatty skulks off into the shadows of the courtyard walls and looks around. Perhaps the earthquake damaged the walls here and I can find a few cracks to use as handholds. He searches the nearby walls for cracks that might make climbing the wall easier. If he finds any, he'll attempt to climb up to the roof ledge around the courtyard.
Slip wants to help Vex with her armor--she's been kind to him--but he can't reach that last buckle without jumping. He let's someone else do it instead of embarrassing himself.
He feels a little silly in his armor. It's snug in uncomfortable places, probably built more for a human child learning to squire. But it could have been made for a halfling. It was hard to say. And the crossbow feels fine: it's easy enough to use and doesn't require the strength of the other weapons available. At least now Slip wouldn't feel so helpless if they ran into another one of those doppelgangers.
They they open the door and go outside. Outside! But no exit--just a courtyard. Slip breathes in the air, expecting freshness. And, well, the earthiness of the mud is there. But there's some kind of unpleasant tang there, too, and the halfling wrinkles his nose, not letting the breath complete. And then he looks up.
Yellow fog. He shakes his head and takes a few steps back, his breath becoming rapid and shallow. Am I still asleep? Slip tries to surreptitiously scratch himself with a nail: not enough to draw blood, but to test whether he was asleep. Yes--it hurts. So probably not asleep.
The halfling follows Vex, hoping to get back inside sooner rather than later. He makes a gesture with his hand his eyes go black as he detects for any strange magical presences nearby. Before Vex opens the door, he reaches up and taps her sword arm, giving her a bit of Guidance .
Bolkvar helped Vex with the armor. It was with skilled hands that he helped her finish putting the armor on, though he felt disgusted doing so. He was glad that she was the one who had taken on such a burden. When finished he gave her a slap on the shoulder and then moved on. His feeling of unease only increased with the yellow fog. The dwarf gripped his home-made flail tightly as he watched Chatty scout ahead. He silently saluted the man's bravery.
Rook makes it a point to remain outwardly stoic as his heart begins to race at the sight of the yellow fog.
could it be that the dream I awoke from was not truly a dream but the last lingering bit of a memory... I fell asleep once we were relatively safe, maybe I didn't really wake from that and this is another dream... maybe none of this is real and I'm completely mad... I suppose there will be plenty of time to question reality later, for now its probably best to do what I can to keep us alive...
As their exploration slows, the unkempt Ulfen sets up casting minor blessings on as many of his companions as he can.
As the group passes through the acceptance gates, Chatty mentions about going through the files to one of the acolytes that had helped with the cleaning process; “Files? In the chaplain’s study?” She thinks to herself and looks confused; “No one is supposed to be in there, but what are you looking for in there?” She adds; “I don’t know if many would want to riffle through the chaplain’s files but I can see what I can do.”
It might come to your mind, but with the thunder and lightning ripping across the sky it feels odd that there is no rain. You feel like these things go hand in hand with one another, but you are unsure.
Vex, and Slip move towards the door that is just inside the courtyard. Using his senses available to him, Slip does not detect anything magical about this door and it does not appear to be locked.
With the rest of the groups eyes on him, Chatty begins to climb up the wall. To his surprise, he is able to get a little bit off the ground using the fractures in the stone due to the earthquake. From the effort he has put into climbing this wall he might feel as if he is almost to the top. Looking down, he finds that he is only 5 feet off the ground. This is going to be a challenge to climb to the top.
I would keep in mind with your characters of what they experienced the last time they encountered the yellow fog.
The rogue looks up from his perch and the wall seemingly extends infinitely above him. His head spins with vertigo and he drops back down to the ground. His skin pale and clammy, he returns to the group.
"It's no good. We can't go up." He points towards the sky. "No rain. This is no storm. This whole Asylum is cursed! Cursed by the gods themselves! Only death awaits us out there! Only death awaits us in here!"
With the next sound of thunder, Chatty subconsciously jumps and shifts behind Rook in a crouch before gathering himself and straightening back up.
"I need something to stab to keep my mind off of our impending doom."
"I'm not crazy. I've seen what waits within the yellow fog. Doc's seen it too. She can vouch for me."
Doc's spine stiffens as they enter the courtyard, "The less time we spend outside the better. There are things that move in the fog, things we best left alone, at least in these uncontrolled environs. We must divide the larger task into smaller more manageable and achievable goals. As we conquer each in turn we will inexorably make progress. Right now that small task is the next door." Doc looks over as Vex attempts to open the door.
if the yellow mist surrounds us... well... since the yellow mist surrounds this whole building, its only a matter of time before we have to either resign ourselves to living out the remainder of our lives inside it, or confront the figure dwelling in it... I'm not sure pretending otherwise does us any good... although, perhaps maybe we might possibly find something inside that will enable us to defeat it... maybe...
Rook continues quietly passing out blessings as others deal with the door.
Your mind and actions go between casting guidance on those who are doing things and the mist above. You do a quick survey of the roof and turn your attention back to the party. But just as you turn something catches your eye. Was that something on the roof?
You don’t see it now, but it looked as if something was skittering across the peak of the roof across the courtyard from you. (East/Right Side).
Vex shifts her equipment and moves to open the door.
Updated Map
You open this door and it reveals a 10-ft x 20-ft long room. Against the opposite wall there is a table with supplies on it. And as excited as you might be to get to that equipment, you notice something on the floor from the door. A hole in the floor. You can’t exactly see what is around the opening, but something surrounds the floor.
When the lightning flashes, those without darkvision, can see that around the opening is liquid. With a second flash you realize that it is blood. You also see that there is matted hair and flesh caught in the opening…
If you move closer to examine the opening, you see that it goes to a chute that goes down.
If you examine the table, open the next tab.
3x Backpacks, 2x Bedrolls, Light Crossbow w/20 Bolts.
One Backpack is filled with a mess kit, waterskin (half full), flint & steel, string (200 ft), and Thieves’ tools.
Second Backpack is filled and overflowing with 10x torches that don’t fully fit in the bag.
Third Backpack is filled with rope (50-ft) and two belt pouches. Each belt pouch is filled with what looks like to be miscellaneous spell components. For some reason Doc and Blue seem to know what to do with the items within those pouches.
Slip's meager breakfast threatens to lurch out of his mouth as Vex opens the door. But he points ahead and manages to maintain his composure. When the lightning flashes and everyone can see what lies there, he shudders again.
What kind of depravity had been happening here?
No toys, per se, but certainly useful supplies! Slip gathers the bolts and the extra crossbow. He looks at the others. "Would anyone else want to have one of these crossbows? We could share bolts and restock as we find more." Otherwise, Slip would be happy to take more bolts and return the spare crossbow to their benefactors.
He also takes one of the backpacks (to hold the extra bolts) and at least one of the bundles of string. He could come up with some creative uses for string, given enough time...
The hole makes Slip nervous, though, not least because of the grim and grisly sight around the opening. His breath shallow and a cloth held over his nose, Slip looks around for something with which to clean away the gore while he looks down within the passage. Were they going to ask him to crawl into the chute again? Or was this...
Wait, was this the chute from before? Or a different one?
Slip looks at the rope. If we was going down, he wanted to have an easier way back up than climbing through the furnace again.
Chatty steps into the room and gags at the smell. Pinching his nose, he brushes off the nauseating effect and advances closer to the chute. Except for the smell, the blood doesn't particularly bother him.
"Think this is the other end of the chute the doppleganger was trying to climb up? But if that were the case, shouldn't there also be a collapsed staircase nearby and I don't see that?"
He lights one of the torches found and holds it over the pit to see if he can see how deep the chute goes.
"A good find." The dwarf said, ignoring the crossbow, regarding the horrid sight instead. "Those who can't see, grab torches. We've three backpacks now, so for those who need torches, ye can keep them there. And chatty, ye seem like the type of person who knows how to use this." He said, pointing at the thieves tools. "Think ye can use this to unlock any locked doors we come across?"
"And chatty, ye seem like the type of person who knows how to use this." He said, pointing at the thieves tools. "Think ye can use this to unlock any locked doors we come across?"
"I most certainly can unlock doors. But I'm already a step ahead of you there for we found a set of tools earlier and in fact I used them to unlock the door to the patient files. Perhaps Doc wants this set. From what I've seen, she is nearly as talented at such things as I."
”Given how slow I walk, being a step ahead of me isn’t that hard.” He replied, trying to lighten the oppressive mood set upon them by their surroundings.
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Vex grimaces briefly at the sight of the hair and blood but isn't overly affected. Not that much different than dressing a deer, is it?
She frowns, pausing. Do I know about that, dressing deer? I must...
The half-elf shakes the thought away in favor of grunting in approval at the discovery of the supplies. Vex stuffs three torches into one of the packs, and a bedroll. "Not food, but good start. Watch your footing, all."
She watches as Chatty tosses a torch down into... wherever... the drain goes, crouching by it to watch its fall with Chatty.
The room turns Doc’s stomach upside down and she simply says, ”Nope”. She returns to the hallway, away from where her now extra sensitive nose has betrayed her. Later when the group rejoined her she claimed a backpack and bedroll for herself, which she squirreled away the extra thieves tools, the mess kit, a flint and steel, and the bits and bobs used to make a healing tincture.
Rook freezes in his tracks and stares at the roofline while the others check the room.
was that real or a trick of the imagination... should I say something... I really didn't get a decent look at it at all... if it was just a trick of the light and I say something I may lose some credibility...
His thoughts are interrupted when Doc suddenly steps past him and vomits on the ground. He turns to see where she was coming from and then feels his own stomach twist at the sight of the pool of blood.
He's able to keep his reaction under control and as the others begin inventorying supplies he warns, "I can't be certain but there may have been something on the roof of the courtyard. We should keep one eye behind us as we explore, in case there's something stalking us."
"Maybe they have more than one room like what we woke up in," Slip says to Chatty, his voice twinged with dark disappointment. The lack of a staircase did make the supposition harder to bare out. He still wasn't keen on being the canary in coal mine, going down to look into the chute, so he watches with Chatty while the torch disappears into the chute.
After the torch is gone , Slip taps Chatty on the shoulder.
"So, um, torches might be valuable. Instead of throwing them away like that, we can find a rock and I can light it up." Slip hopes that the message comes across as him trying to help instead of being demeaning or patronizing. "I'll go check on Doc," he says as she returns to grab one of the backpacks.
Slip watches as the half-elf appraises the supplies. She looks stern and severe, so he's a little worried to approach her. But after a moment, he steps up. "Are you okay?" he asks.
Doc waves at Slip dismissively, "A common side effect of some drugs, especially when imbibed without food. That compounded with my currently enhanced olfactory bulb, has led to my quite embarrassing predicament. I will have to reformulate to suppress this particular reflex slightly."
"I can't be certain but there may have been something on the roof of the courtyard. We should keep one eye behind us as we explore, in case there's something stalking us."
"So you saw it too then? There are things in the fog. It is quite the dilemma: the need to escape and the need to avoid whatever monsters are keeping us in."
"So, um, torches might be valuable. Instead of throwing them away like that, we can find a rock and I can light it up."
Chatty replies, "I would argue that if we can cast light on a rock, it makes torches less valuable. Nevertheless, I will ask before discarding another one." He speaks in a friendly tone, rather than argumentatively.
With Chatty, Slip cocks his head to the side, thinking. "Well, I mean valuable for the people in the chapel. Or for us. Not for light, but for heat."
* * *
Slip steps back from Doc, nodding. Reading her lips, he didn't recognize all of the words, but he got the sense that didn't need--or want--anyone showing any concern. "Okay. I'm sure you'll figure it out."
A platitude. She probably wouldn't like that. Slip turns away and goes back to the hole. He would have to figure out what Doc needed or wanted, to stay on her good side.
Slip looks into the chute and sees that the blood continues on into the chute and is smeared down the sides and bottom from what he can see. When Chatty brings up the idea that this could be the chute that the doppelganger was trying to climb up, it brings back the graphic memory of the mound of bodies that were “stacked like logs” as someone mentioned previously.
Lighting the torch and dropping it down you can hear it raddle around and as the light disappears you no longer hear it. Not because it is out of earshot, but more because it has left the chute.
From your “mental map,” you believe that this is the chute that leads down to the bodies. And that the destroyed wall in the courtyard is where the stairs are that Chatty brought up.
As Slip approaches the chute again and looks back in, you’d imagine that it is slippery within due to the blood.
Slip thinks, sticking his head briefly back into the courtyard and trying to consult his recollection of the previous day in the chute. A turn here, a dip there, and...
"Oh! he says at last. He waves around, trying to get the others' attention. "This is the same chute from before. The wall in the courtyard is where the stairs would have come up. So we probably can't get back down except..."
He nods his head to the gore-encrusted chute.
"That's probably all we can find here. Back inside, maybe?" Slip looks at Vex in particular as the person most likely to lead the way. But given Rook's warning, Slip makes sure that his crossbow is loaded with a bolt.
"Well we were talking about getting that boiler working and we're here now. That should earn us some brownie points with those Pharasmins. And if we go this way, we won't have to crawl up through the furnace while it's on, which is...preferable."
If the party wants to go down the chute, he'll find something to tie our rope around and drop one end down the chute. If there is nothing in this room to tie it to, he'll go out into the courtyard and tie the other end to a tree trunk.
Chatty looks around the room and it is rather bare. The only fixture is the table that the gear was found on, but it would not offer the support needed. Looking in the courtyard you find that the tree closest is sturdy enough to tie a rope off to.
"Do we need to go back down there?" Slip asks. They didn't need to bring up more bodies to earn their way into refuge, and surely they didn't leave any additional supplies below. Beyond that, Slip doesn't want to volunteer himself for the job. It was bad enough knowing what was waiting below.
But if anyone could, it was probably him. Between himself and his gear, even this noisy, bulky set of armor, he was probably less than 50 pounds soaking wet. Easy enough to hold onto without needing to anchor him in place to that tree outside.
Chatty looks aghast. "I'm surprised, Slip. I thought you wanted to help these people. But I suppose we don't all need to go back down. As far as I can remember, which is to say, I don't remember at all, I've never turned on a boiler before, but surely it doesn't require seven people to do so. I will humbly volunteer myself for this task."
At least down there, there are no nightmare beasts lurking on the rooftops. He thinks to himself.
"Well, color me surprised. That's downright decent of ye." The dwarf said. "Made of stern stuff, aye?" He slapped Chatty on the shoulder, a look of respect in his eyes.
Doc, finally starting to recover from her nausea, asks Chatty while knowing the answer, ”And what precisely are you going to use as fuel? Surely not the bodies, due to the high water content of flesh it requires a much higher igniting temperature than wood or coal. And I doubt there’s enough wood nearby to keep them going for very long. One wonders how they managed to keep it going in the first place. Now if you were to somehow render the fat from the bodies, but that seems like it may take more effort than it's worth.”
"I'm sure I can figure something out. I'll spend all day at it if that's what it takes. We weren't looking to turn it on the last time we were down there. Perhaps we missed something because we weren't looking for it."
"Oh? Oh..."
Slip considers Chatty's reaction and tries to work out how things should work. "I guess you have to get the furnace going to make the boiler work? I hadn't thought about that."
He frowns, feeling both foolish and a little guilty. He misses what Doc gets on about while wallowing in guilt, and then posits a suggestion.
"I'm light. If we need to get down there, someone can lower me. But... what do we burn?"
The halfling looks disgusted at the bloody chute, wishing there was a way to clean it. Before getting harnessed into the rope, he offers one more thought.
"Maybe we should tell the others about this. They might have supplies for the furnace."
Maybe they could make a makeshift elevator to make this operation more sustainable.
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Vex listens, and eyes Chatty with a certain grudging respect when he volunteers to go down.
"There's wood can be broken up, aye? This table, for one." She kicks the table in question with her foot, lightly. "And we certainly know where we can find a great big mass of papers. They won't burn long, but they'd be kindling in plenty.
"We can tell 'em we've found the furnace but that the others need to start breakin' up useless furniture and pile it ready for transport to use as fuel. No reason we ought to be doing grunt work like that."
"Those cowards are too afraid of their own shadow to venture out of their hole. If we didn't come along to feed them, they'd starve to death in their chapel before they chanced the darkness."
Busying himself in breaking a table, the dwarf piped in: ”And if ye had a bunch of crazed fools willing to risk their lives to feed ye, would ye honestly nay make use of them?”
”And if ye had a bunch of crazed fools willing to risk their lives to feed ye, would ye honestly nay make use of them?”
"Of course I would! But in this case, I most certainly am not risky my life for their sakes. I assure you my actions are purely self-serving; a means to an end of getting the hells out of here."
"You know what? I can tell your hearts aren't into this task right now. Let's move on. Keep your eyes up when we cross the courtyard and scream if anything tries to take your head."
Chatty packs up the rope and gets ready to follow whoever leads.
To his own surprise, Rook mutters, "Chatty's right, we should move on."
He looks around again as everyone falls back into their usual order and adds, "this chute wasn't made for... bodies... there should be a room nearby with the wood or coal that's supposed to be dropped down it. We'll find it while we're exploring and then we can figure out what to do about the boiler."
With Doc's nostrils and stomach saved from further torment she followed behind Vex and the Dwarf as the group headed to the north. She tried to assess the rubble in front of them, perhaps it could be cleared safely.
[ooc]Is the way north blocked?
Satisfied that she knew nothing about how buildings are constructed she took a moment to regard the nearby door with a wary eye.
Slip takes his position at the back, eyes downcast and feeling guilty. Why did he feel guilty, though? It's not like he knew how to heat a building...did he? Even if he did, he was probably only a worker, doing what he was told. He probably wasn't the kind of person to go about making decisions and leading people. No, not with the way he was acting.
The halfling absentmindedly kicks at some rocks in his path as the group retreats from the courtyard and back into the asylum proper, and halfheartedly tries to keep an eye out for something. Maybe he could still prove his usefulness to the group.
With any attempt at levity having fallen flat, Bolkvar was left with his thoughts. And that was not something he was happy with, for his thoughts were not pleasant ones. They were ones of anxiety and fear, which he tried his best to keep down. This had the effect of making him anything but perceptive.
Doc, Vex, and Angry look around the courtyard and quickly see that there are no other entry points from here. It is hard to tell, but Doc and Vex see the grass is battered down heading into the rubble as if there was an entry point if it wasn’t for the fact that the wall is collapsed.
The only way to go from here is north through the hallway.
As travel north past the two storage closets, and past the opening where you saw the doppelgänger experimenting on a human and doppelganger alike, you get to the first door on the west/east wall.
Beyond this door you see that there is a set of double doors and the hallway splits into a T
The door is not locked, and you do not see any traps.
Overview Map
Study 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. You hear ripping flesh and chewing.
Rounding the corner, you see three figures that are manacled to the rack here. The furthest south is a human wearing stained yellow sheets as robes and bears a flame-shaped chalk mark upon his forehead, the second is a partially eaten patient, and the third is a creature currently eating the middle person.
As soon as the human that is manacled to the rack sees you he exclaims “Praise! Praise!”
Doc opens the door revealing the grisly scene.
Slip sees what is going on, his mouth hanging agape. His lip quivers, and he tries to turn away, but is transfixed.
Why are these people restrained here, and why is one of them eating another?
Slip wants to help them, but he is frozen in fear.
"Praise?" he repeats, uncertainly. "Praise whom?"
Although shaken with fear from the gruesome scene, the rogue's mind is always quick to react. "Kill the fiend!" he shouts, pointing at the third patient. "Be careful. It may be chained, but we don't know it's reach."
He draws and throws his silver dagger between the undead's eyes.
The dwarf stared in horror, but was snapped out of it by the rogue's quick action in throwing a dagger. The dwarf went in at the ghoul whom had taken the dagger the dagger, fear replaced by anger as he swung his homemade flail.