You have no clue what they symbol means.
The scene before you is a horrific one. The three before you appear to have been manacled here and left for dead. The one in the middle was eaten alive. You all are frozen for what seems like hours, but is only seconds.
Chatty somehow pulls enough courage together to fling a dagger at the creature currently eating the other. Striking true, it's attention is draw to the group and is fighting against its shackles. With a few blinks Angry rushes in with his chain flail. Just as the creature lurches our with its bloodied flesh filled maw towards Angry, it is met with a mouth full of chain. You hear an audible snap, and a spray of blood, as the creature's head slumps lifelessly.
The body in the middle continues to empty its blood on the floor from where its flesh had been ripped from its body.
The only alive man is smiling in ecstasy at the group. "Praise!!! Praise!!!" hauntingly not cognizant of what is happening a few feet from him. "Praise!!! Praise!!! then his eyes fall upon Slip and his smile fades ever so slightly; "Zandalus sees!" And his gaze does not leave Slip as he falls silent.
Chatty retrieves his dagger with a wet splurt. He puts his face within inches of the shouting man and sizes him up, looking up and down.
"The symbol on his forehead is not of any god I recognize. Who do you suppose this Zandalus is? This man clearly appears to be insane. It might be dangerous to release him. He could very well be another doppelganger, but I have a gut feeling that he's not."
He moves away from the man and looks to the party to see their opinions.
Wulfric sees the dwarf charge ahead and hears the snap the accompanies the rattle of his chain. Wanting to make sure none of his allies are in need of healing, he rushes in too. He stops short, however, when he sees what lies inside.
Words fail him and he stands motionless as things play out.
The dwarf, for his part, was not in the right mind to stop. What was before him was horror, pure and simple. Caught up in a rage, he ran to the madman and leapt upon him, trying to get his hands around the human's throat. The room was horrifying, and it made him want to either run or to fight. He had chosen to fight, and it was not that easy to just stop. His eyes wide, the dwarf growled "They ate him alive! The fookers ate him alive!"
Asrat leaps out from between the dwarf and the chained man as the dwarf charges forward, surprised by his sudden ferocity. He sizes up the dwarf's muscular girth and decides he isn't going to have much luck grappling him on his own, but he grabs onto one thick arm and pulls with all his might to delay Angry from killing the prisoner.
"Easy big fella! This man didn't do it. The cannibal is dead. Take your aggression out on the corpse if you wish. It was probably just Desna's whim that this man was shackled on the left rather than the middle and the victims could have easily been reversed."
Shaking, Bolkvar glared at the madman, and then at Chatty. Grinding his teeth, he let out a grunt and shoved the madman to the ground. Standing up he bunched his fists, wanting nothing more than to beat the madman into a bloody pulp. But he couldn't do so if the man didn't deserve it. "And how do ye know he isn't a doppleganger? How do ye know that he wasn't waiting his turn for a snack? They. Ate. Him. Alive!" He yelled, pointing at the mangled corpse. Being angry felt far better than being scared.
"I don't know he isn't a doppelganger. But he can't hurt us right now. We can address the situation once we all clear our heads. Let's get some fresh air. If you still want to kill him then, I won't stop you."
You realize that the creature on the end that was eating the middle one is not a human cannibal. It is an undead Ghoul!
As Angry rushes to grapple the glaring madman, his gaze breaks from Slip and falls on Angry. He begins to tear up; "Praise... praise... praise... praise..." and his voice trails off into a soft cry.
The dwarf balled his fists in impotent rage. With no outlet the anger slowly faded, leaving him feeling tired. Fatigued. Spent. With a final sigh he nodded and turned his back, leaving Chatty and the others to talk to the madman.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Chatty silently looks at Angry; then back at the madman; then back at Angry; then back at the madman once more. His face pales.
"Wait! Don't leave me with the madman!" The rogue perks up and hastily follows the dwarf out of the room.
Bolkvar stopped and turned around, bloody flail resting on his shoulder. With a resigned sigh he motioned with his free hand for Chatty to talk to the madman. "Aye, aye. I'll stand here and watch. Ye talk to him then."
Rook seems entirely unaware of the conversation around him as he tries to process what he's just seen.
Chatty's face contorts in a mixture of confusion and shock. "What? No! I wanted to leave with you. Not convince you to stay."
Slip stands there shaking, almost unable to process the scene while watching Chatty and the dwarf spring into action.
"Zandalus sees?" he repeats, though it's merely mouthing the words as his voice does not emerge.
And then the hungry one is dead and the two are grappling over the one who keeps repeating the same words again and again.
he screams. The screams are eruptive and shrill, the loudest he can muster. Once he gets above a comfortable volume, he has no ability to modulate his volume.
Slip can't tell whether he was the one to make the stop or whether they decided to do it on their own, but they release the man and go away. The halfling's voice is now half-caught in his throat, partially from screaming raw and partially from the tears now dripping down the back. He breathes heavily and balls his little fists up. He would want to talk to the two of them later...probably. But for now, the room seemed calmer.
Slip approaches the manacled man with the limited vocabulary and wipes some tears from his face, subtly giving himself a bit of guidance to help him calm down and guide his words. "Are you okay?" he asks, his voice shaky. "That must have been frightening."
He also looks around for some kind of key to unlock the manacles...
...but ultimately tries to keep his eyes focused on the man for when he responds.
"Can someone look for a key?" he says, turning away for only a brief moment before once again returning his gaze to the man.
As the group is either in shock or unsure of what they are to really do, Slip moves up to communicate with the shackled man.
“Praise! Praise?” he says as Slip asked Are you okay? but shakes his head and drops his head. “words… fail…”
With a cursory glace, Slip does not see a set of keys to the manacles that chain the four bodies where they are. But, Slip does see that the bard they are attached to would allow the three prisoners to slide along the bar. And, that it was only a matter of time before the cannibal could have eaten his way to the single living prisoner.
With a quick surface level look, this room seems to have been stripped of anything useful. You do see that there is a closed door to the south.
Feeling not only tired, but nauseated, Bolkvar quietly went about looking for a key. Not under a minute ago he had been raging with anger, and now he just felt empty and embarrassed. As he looked for the key he wondered why it was so hard to control his emotions. He glanced at Slip, who had managed to keep a more-or-less cool head, and wondered if the halfling looked down at him.
"I could try to pick the manacles, but I don't know if I should. We don't know who he is or if he is a threat yet. Was he shackled here because he was dangerous or because he was a victim? He could be any manner of things. He could be a doppelganger trying to trick us. Or he could be afflicted with a disease causing undeath that hasn't kicked in yet. Or he could simply be insane and could snap into a murderous rage at any time. On the other hand, he could simply be a helpless human, but is it worth the risk?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Slip looks sadly at the restrained man. Facing away, he doesn't hear Chatty's rant (for better or worse), but he guesses that there may be some conversation behind him. He stays with the man, though.
"Words fail," he repeats. "Can you understand me? Hmm. Your words are failing, right? But maybe you still understand. Hmm..."
He turns around again. "I'm going to try something." He studies the man, thinking hard. "Okay. Let's play a game. I'm going to ask you some questions. If the answer is 'yes', say 'praise'. If the answer is 'no', say 'words fail'. So...does one plus one equal two?"
Slip tries a few other questions, mixing in different simple yes-no questions as he tries to figure out whether the man understands or is just guessing. It takes a few minutes ar least.
Rook continues to stand motionless and silent, staring at the grizzly scene of the half-eaten corpse and jagged-toothed man. He seems oblivious to the conversations, and shouting, going on around him.
While Slip attempts communicating, Chatty notices the cleric staring at the scene white as a ghost and realizes how horrified some of his allies still are. He attempts to pick the locks on the manacles holding up the undead on the right and then the corpse in the middle. If he is unable to unlock the corpse's manacles, he pulls out his knife and saws off the hand at the wrist to release the body that way. Once the bodies drop to the ground, he drags them across the hall and unceremoniously dumps them in a pile where the party recently fought the doppelganger surgeon so that they are no longer in anyone's sight.
He returns to the room with his allies and pats Rook on the shoulder. "Are you okay, my friend?"
As Angry begins to look around the room, sifting through the surface rubble. There is no sight of a key or anything else that could be of use or value.
Slip begins working with the bound prisoner. Trying to figure out a way of communication. Using the words he has spoken to line up with a yes or a no. Slip ask the man does one plus one equal two “Praise!! Praise!!” From His gaze at you, you are not sure if he truly understands you.
As Slip is working with the bound prisoner, Chatty is able to unlock the manacles on the cannibal. Quickly, Chatty is able to jump out of the way as the body falls to the ground with a sickly thunk as its head hits the ground. Moving to the body that was being eaten is a little more difficult, and Chatty is unable to cut the hand off of the dead body and the body falls to the ground. As it does, you see something fall from its pocket and rolls across the floor. It looks to be a coin sized marble.
You reach down to pick up the marble, but quickly realize that it is not a marble. It is a glass eye. As you pick it up you realize that the eye has an X-shaped pupil, but even beyond that the eye moves to lock eyes with whoever picked it up.
"Okay. Am I taller than you?" Slip asks, continuing to ask questions while Chatty works to release the man. He keeps his gaze intact, willing to try a few more rounds of this before deciding whether or not some manner of communication has been reached.
|
Vex... throws up. The sight of the glistening raw meat of the corpse being chewed on gets past her clench-jawed facade and she turns, stumbling off to a corner, and loses the nothing that is in her gut, while others actually deal with putting down the monster responsible. One hand braced on the wall, breathing hard after retching a bit of bile up.
She stares unseeing at the floor a moment, then wipes the back of her mouth with a shaking hand.
When she turns from the loss of dignity, it's to wheel on the babbling prisoner with a sort of wild hate in her eyes.
"For the sake of all the gods!" she spits at poor, kind-hearted Slip. "The fool's head is cracked like a sodding mirror. The only mercy for him is to end this."
She strides towards both halfling and the chained man, gripping her sword.
Slip's eyes widen as Vex draws her blade and threatens violence. He shakes his head and turns towards her.
"Wait, no! I'm still trying! Maybe the nurses know how to help him!"
Slip put himself between Vex and the babbling man, arms outstretched in a protective motion. His face darkens and his breath quickens, frightened.
|
|
Vex looks down at the halfling with her lips pressed into a thin line. "The people who've left there are going to have enough trouble just surviving! This man's doing nothing but gibbering, there's no help for him. Anyone who sees what he saw and starts screamin' about praise..."
She shakes her head, exhaling forcefully.
"Keep talking at him, then. Waste your time. But we've got many to try and help, aye? Those back there don't get food, and heat, many die. Each minute you spend on this one is a minute lost to all of them. D'you get that?"
As Slip continues with his communication efforts Vex steps up to end it. As Vex says praise the man smiles again and nods; “Praise!! Praise!! Zandalus sees!”
"Alright, we tried. That was an excellent effort, Slip, but from what I see, I'm inclined to side with Vex that he's too far gone. If you're feeling generous, we could leave him alive. Maybe someone else will come along and take responsibility."
Chatty spots the bauble on the ground. No one else seems to have noticed so he bends down to pick it up for himself. He looks at it to appraise it and when it looks back, he screams in terror and drops the marble as if it were on fire. He scurries to the corner of the room and points with his finger where the eye fell, unable to keep his hand from shaking.
"For fook's sake!" The dwarf snapped. "Can we go a second without someone...argh!" He finished in annoyance, as he stomped away, desperately wanting some fresh air.
Slip continues huffing, though his shoulders sag slightly at the admonitions levied at him. He doesn't hear the word-limited man echo "praise", but gets the increasing feeling that communication may indeed be impossible for now. He still looks up at Vex, his gaze furiously defiant despite some of the wind being loosed from his sails.
"You say it's a waste, but maybe he can help us. We, or the people back there, can show him how to do something. He doesn't need words for that."
Slip turns back around and looks up at the manacled man. "We just don't understand him. Do we have to hurt everyone we don't understand?"
His lips tremble as he turns back around to face Vex and the others. He slowly lowers his arms, his hands curling into fists as despair curdles into anger. "What about me? I'm @$%&ing deaf, right? What if I couldn't read your lips? What if I couldn't speak your stupid @$%&ing language? Would you kill me?"
As he says it, he isn't sure he really wants to know the answer, as outnumbered and small as he is.
"Zandalus sees!" He screams. "The eye! Don't look at the eye! You'll be cursed! Cursed! If it sees you, you're already dead!"
He runs out into the hallway while thinking to himself. That was a witch's eye! What was it doing in that man's pocket? Is that Zandalus? It tried to curse me, I'm sure of it. Too bad for it, I have the superior willpower.
He finds Angry also in the hallway and approaches him. He puts a finger to his lips and whispers quietly, "Shhhhhh! I'm okay. But don't let the eye know." He shifts his glance left and right.
Then without re-entering the room he cautiously calls back to those inside. "If you're not dead yet from looking at the eye, you should know that I would never kill you. You are my friend. And that is why we need to be careful of newcomers, especially seemingly insane newcomers. We need to keep ourselves safe."
The dwarf stared at Chatty. He raised a finger and opened his mouth, as if to talk. Then stopped, put his finger to his lips, looked down in deep thought, looked back up again, and finally came to the (unconscious) conclusion that only dumbfounded silence was appropriate for what was going on.
|
|
"We just don't understand him. Do we have to hurt everyone we don't understand?"
His lips tremble as he turns back around to face Vex and the others. He slowly lowers his arms, his hands curling into fists as despair curdles into anger. "What about me? I'm @$%&ing deaf, right? What if I couldn't read your lips? What if I couldn't speak your stupid @$%&ing language? Would you kill me?"
Vex scowls. "Get a hold of yourself," she says with a grunt. "Not understanding is one gods-damned thing. This sorry bastard? Is grinning like a banshee in the midst of all this. He shows no sense. He can't help anyone. I'll give people who aren't outright trying to kill me a fair chance-- and you've done that with him. But he's-- he's bloody creepy, Slip!"
Vex looks at the bound man and shudders, then tears her gaze away. "We leave him bound. I do not trust him and all his creepy f&$~in' praise-this, praise-that. I still think it'd be kindness to end whatever hell his brain has found, but I won't kill him if it's going to be that much of a bloody issue with you. We can talk to the others, the people, see if they know who he is, or who this Zantalus is, and if you want to convince them to take on another mouth to feed, one who does nothing but scream mad words, that's on you. But I'll not unchain him and have us be forced to mind him, damn it.
"We need to keep moving and this nutter would slow us down, at best."
Slip stares up at Vex and slowly nods. "That seems like a fine compromise for now."
He turns to look at the chained man, oblivious to Chatty's screaming outside the room, much less the marble. "I'm sorry. Stay here for now, and I'll come back for you."
Stay here. As if he had a choice...
Slip tears himself away and looks around. There was still another door to open in this room. Somehow in all of the commotion, he has lost track of Doc and Blue--where had they gone? And Rook looks...catatonic. Oh gods, of course. Of everyone, Slip had probably interacted with the shaggy-looking man the least. He walks up to him and tries to take his hand.
"Let's get out of here," he says. "This is no place to be."
Chatty returns to the room in a huff. "You are all very casual about a potentially deadly object in your midst. I warn you of the danger and you decide to have a philosophical debate. Maybe next time, I'll just keep to myself and let fate decide."
He stomps over to the marble and scoops it up and puts it in his pocket. "Zandalus and I are going to check the next door."
"You won't curse me, eye! You're mine now." he mentally projects.
"And watch out for traps. Or don't." He shrugs.
Chatty checks the door to the south of the room we are in.
Chatty moves and picks up the eye then examine the door. You do not find any traps and it appears that the door is unlocked.
Updated Overview Map
Opening the door reveals several wide tables and gigantic washbasins fill a laundry equipped to service hundreds. You hear thumping coming from what you might assume is the southern washbasin. And you see a ladder standing beside it with a tray sitting at the top.
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 blood-stained sheet hangs between two of the basins, dividing the room roughly in half. A light shines on the far side of this curtain and you see humanoid shadows on the sheet.
Slip looks confused when Chatty returns. "A deadly object? Zandalus?"
When Chatty picks up the marble, Slip is no less confused, but grateful (for what it's worth) that the Garundi man is at least vigilant. He persists with Rook for a few moments, encouraging him along. "Are you okay to come with us?"
Realization hits the rogue. "My mistake, Slip. I was so caught up in the sudden surprise that your lack of hearing slipped my mind. I will need a better way to communicate danger when you are not looking at me."
Since the door is unlocked, Chatty pushes it open gently just enough to peek inside. When he sees the shadow, he closes the door and talks to his allies.
"Someone is in there. It looks like another 'surgeon'. It's a bloody mess with more corpses on tables. It reminds me of our last two encounters with doppelgangers. What the heck are they doing?"
Rook jerks back to the present at Slip's touch and looks around as if he'd just been woken from a very deep sleep. He seems utterly confused by the squirrely man's shouted warning, but when the small deaf man asks if he's ready to move on he nods and follows him out into the hallway.
He seems to understand the report on the inhabitant of the next chamber, and he responds by quietly placing his small blessing on Vex and the dwarf.
Slip nods. "I don't mind taps on the shoulder or arm. Flashing lights work, too, if you can manage that."
Slip follows Chatty forward and holds his hands over his mouth in shock. He watches as Rook quietly provides some guidance to the others. Slip follows suit, offering similar guidance to Chatty and then to himself. He lifts his crossbow and aims it forward. He's ready to contribute this time.
He catches Vex's gaze, balls his unoccupied left fist up in front of his chest, and moves the crossbow in front of his fist once.
Threat.
He wouldn't be the first to attack, but he was ready to do so when the others signaled it was time to go.
"It's behind a curtain and possibly not looking this way. Let's try to get as close as possible before getting it's attention."
He quietly pushes open the door and crawls on the ground behind the closest table.
Slip follows behind, likewise getting into a good shooting position behind cover.
I'm going to need to teach them some signs so we can do this without talking.
As the group heads towards the door and tried to begin moving silently into the next room the man that is chained begins to get excited. He tries jumping as he begins to speak; “Praise!! Praise!!”
At this, Doc speaks up; “Shout if you need anything in that next room. I am going to stay with him to keep him silent.” Blue also speaks up; “I am going to watch the door to the hallway. We are close to a whole new section and we don’t need anything sneaking up on us.”
The rest of the party moves forward.
You still see the person behind the curtain moving around working on something, and the audible thumping coming from the furthest washtub is still sounding. As you round the 10-foot tables you see the remains of several humans and doppelgangers lie spread across them, most of them butchered beyond simple scientific inquiry.
You see 5 human bodies and 2 doppelgangers sprawled around this room. The two doppelgangers are riddled with crossbow bolts.
You make your way to the first table… to the second table without whatever is behind the curtain noticing you.
From where you are, you notice something odd. The only sound you hear in this room is coming from the creature within the washtub.
Slip stays behind the first table. He doesn't want to get any closer than that--nor does he need to with the range of the weapon. From behind cover, he watches the figure closely. His eyes dart nervously to the butchered bodies. Anyone calmly working in such an environment had to be no good. He resolves to fire once the others are in position and ready to go.
Chatty whispers, "Do you notice, no sound? Could it be magic?"
He crouches down next to Slip, "Try taking your shot. Best to test this mystery at range. I don't want to walk into a trap."
Slip panics for the briefest moment, and then pulls the trigger, aiming at the figure behind the curtain. He drops down after he shoots, not worrying about waiting to see whether he hit.
The dwarf just stood there, next to chatty, gripping his flail. Of course something bad was going to happen, but what? The anticipation was killing him.
Pulling the trigger of his crossbow, the group of you sees the bolt fly through the curtain. You all also see a transparent, almost ghost like, form moving around behind the curtain. From Slip’s shot, any humanoid behind the curtain would have been hit. This figure is not reacting.
At the sound of the bolt hitting the wall, whatever is making the sound within the washtub, begins to react. The sound of thumping and clawing, growing more frantic.