Slip sees the reactions in the others' faces.
Did I miss?
He peeks his head back up and sees a hole in the curtain exactly where he was aiming. He looks confused for a moment before reloading the crossbow.
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"Don't like this a damn bit," Vex mutters. She takes a step forward.... then hesitates.
The yellow fog... her determination to stand her ground there, to face whatever unknown it was... in the dream, her reward had been to die. Nothing more. Courage had meant nothing to that-- force, that thing. Those who had fled had lived longer.
Vex stands there a moment, breathing shallow, then forces herself to take another step closer. It's who I am. Even if it's stupid.
Is that true, she wonders? Is it 'who she is'? Does it even matter if so?
She steps until she can use the tip of her sword to flick the curtain to one side. And does so.
Chatty's feet remain planted to the ground near Slip. Beads of sweet drip down his face and he grips his rapier so tight that the blood drains from his knuckle. He tensely divides his attention between the curtain and the barrel, expecting something to jump out from either at any moment.
As Slip reloads the crossbow, the silence of the group is emphasized by the wild pounding coming from the large tanks and the click of Slips bolt being set.
Vex steps forward and flicks the curtain. Behind the curtain reveals what looks like an orderly going about her work. Moving between two tables that are not there. What she is working on is unknown. Turning towards Vex, the orderly walks towards and through Vex disappearing as she does so.
Slip gasps when the woman walks through Vex and disappears, blinking several times in disbelief. A ghost? An illusion? An enchantment? What was this?
The halfling takes one hand off his crossbow and begins detecting once again for magic, focusing first on the curtain where he had thought someone was standing, and then shifting towards where the others keep looking .
Chatty mutters a prayer to Desna. "I'm going to pray that was an illusion and not a ghost but I don't know if that's actually better."
He turns to face back towards the entrance and scans for hidden assassins. "If it was an illusion, the caster may be trying to draw us into that corner to stab us in the back. That's what I would do. Maybe because of our strength in numbers, the trap setter is choosing to remain hidden. Don't let your guard down."
"There was sound coming from one of these wash bins too and it sounded like trouble."
Chatty finds something to stand on (a chair, or box) and pushes it over to the noisy bin. He climbs up and looks inside, trying to keep out of arms reach if possible in case something pops out.
Slip watches Chatty's remarks carefully while keeping his pitch-black eyes focused on the washbasin. Some sort of sound?
"Be careful," he whispers, his breath shallow.
The dwarf stood frozen, clutching his flail like a shield. Was it a ghost? How could he fight a ghost?! The day was just getting worse and worse
Chatty sees that there is a ladder standing besides the washbasin that would give him a view inside. As he climbs, he notices the tray rocking on the top. Thankfully Chatty can climb up it without knocking it off. Though he might not be so thankful when he realizes that on the tray has freshly cut chunks of flesh and meat. There is even a severed hand on the tray.
Looking quickly into the washbasin, Chatty sees a creature like the one that was chained up outside that was eating the man.
You realize that the creature on the end that was eating the middle one is not a human cannibal. It is an undead Ghoul!
You see that the creature is now frantic as it sees you. You see gnawed on bones and blood smeared on the walls within this basin. Then you realize that it is hungry and is wanting its “dinner” on the tray. The last thing you notice is that this creature is wearing the vestments that have the symbol of the spiraling comet on it.
Chatty startles are the ferocity of the creature and nearly falls backwards off the ladder. He hastily knocks the tray and its contents into the washbasin and hops back down to the ground.
"There's another one of those creatures in there. Like the one chained next to our friend in yellow. The shock awoke a bit of knowledge I couldn't recall at the sight of the first one, but these are ghouls. Definitely undead. And someone's been feeding it."
"Also, this one is wearing the vestments of Pharasma. I'm sure Winter would like to hear about it."
The unkempt Ulfen remains in the doorway, quietly watching the scene unfold. There's a glimmer of recognition somewhere in the back of his mind at the mention of ghouls, but everything still feels disconnected to him, as if he were watching a scene far away through a spyglass and aware that he was missing key details playing out beyond its narrow circle of vision.
"Ghouls, yes," he mutters, barely aware that the words are coming from his own mouth, "and ghosts... positive energy, the healing light, it hurts them both, and sometimes cleanses haunted places..."
Slip watches as Chatty nearly falls over. He feels an initial pull to rush to help him, but realizes that, with his size, he would more likely be squashed than be able to support the man.
"Ghoul?" he repeats, feeling unfamiliar with the word. But undead--that was more familiar. He still didn't know much about Pharasma, but had gotten to associate the symbol of the spiral with the goddess.
The rest of the knowledge that Chatty reveals is unnerving. The creature wasn't a threat at the moment, perhaps, but for how long?
"Are ghouls aware?" Slip asks, concerned. The first one had been killed so quickly that there hadn't been time to even try to ask questions. "Maybe we can try to speak with them."
Slip climbs the ladder and looks down. Steeling himself against whatever he sees (probably a disgusting feast going on), he calls out. "Hello?" he starts. "Can you understand me?"
Ghouls have an infectious bite attack. One that passes along Ghoul Fever. Not only does this bite drain your fortitude, but your quickness is also drained. But that is not the worse part of it. Those who are slain while infected, raise back the next night as a Ghoul itself.
”So…what do we do? Kill it? Walk away and salvage somewhere else?” The dwarf asked, looking to the others die guidance.
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"You want to talk to a GHOUL?" Vex exclaims, looking at Slip with bemusement. "It's some sorta f@*~in' monster according to Chatty! It's undead! It'd eat you soon as look at you, mate!
"The only thing we ought to be doing with it is kill it, aye," she says both to Bolkvar's question, and in general. "Unless you want to take the chance whatever's feeding it lets it OUT sometime, and it comes gnawing for us in the night. I don't."
"You want to talk to a GHOUL?"
"Slip has such an innocent soul, doesn't he?"
"Under different circumstances, I'd say this ghoul in a barrel could be a useful tool for extracting information from our enemies. But since we are moving on, I say kill it. Vex is right, we don't want it literally getting out and biting us in the butts. Actually, be careful about its bite; they carry disease that will sicken you and eventually raise you as a ghoul yourself. Speaking of which, I better go back and behead that corpse the first ghoul was gnawing on, just in case it was whole enough to rise into a ghoul too."
While the others are dealing with the wash basin ghoul, Chatty takes a quick minute to go back to the room where he left the other corpse, behead it, and then return to the party in the washing room.
The unkempt Ulfen stares off at nothing while the others talk. When the weaselly man leaves to behead the savaged corpse he mutters to those still in the room, "you shouldn't risk getting bit... kill it from a distance, or find some way to burn it up."
Slip furrows his brow at the castigation and looks sheepish as he gets partway up the ladder.
Well I don't know what a ghoul is...
He looks at the others uncertainly before climbing back down. "I just meant," he starts, balling his fists up. Don't cry.
"I'm not good at fighting. I'm good at talking. And maybe there's something we can learn before we...kill it."
He pauses before "kill", and recognizes his own deliberation in "before", not "if". It almost felt like a foregone conclusion. There were already so many bodies that they had come across. Shouldn't they be in the business of trying to stop more from being added to the growing pile? Sure, there would probably need to be more. There was something malevolent about this place and what it was doing to people, but...
But what?
Slip kicks at a loose piece of stone on the ground. They must think I'm so naive...
Slip withdraws to the sides of the room and begins slinking around to look for anything else of interest.
Chatty finds Slip in the corner and pats him on the back. "Why'd you give up so easily, friend? Undead are not friends, but that doesn't mean we can't get information from them. We should kill it, but maybe it'll tell us it's name. That'd make our job easier if we decide to tell Winter about it."
The dwarf glanced at the balled up fists and the look on the halfling's face and misconstrued it as a sign that the halfling was ready to throw hands. He nodded approvingly at the reaction. Even if the boyo wanted to talk before fighting, at least that was proof that he was ready to fight things out, which was only right and proper.
Slip looks up at Chatty after the latter tracks him down and nods, biting his lip. "I can try again. I was just feeling foolish. You all know more than I do about these kinds of things. I just want to help."
Chatty was right. It would be good to put the person...creature out of its misery. This was no life, stuck in a hole and eating...scraps.
As Chatty goes into the previous room, he sees Doc examining the two bodies of the fallen on the ground. She is paying no mind to the man who is still chained up. As Chatty goes to remove the head of the man who was eaten on, Doc raises an eyebrow as he uses the only cutting tool he has. A silver dagger. The act is rather gruesome and brutal, as a dagger was not meant to be used for this purpose.
While this is going on, Slip takes a look around the room and finds a few interesting things. You find a well-kept set of surgeon’s tool with a leather case, and a duffel bag that seems to hold more than it should be able to.
You find a 6 foot tall standing mirror, 3 platinum pieces, a small pearl, and a leather cord that has a small box attached to it.
Slip is halfway through pulling a mirror almost twice as tall as him from a bag, muttering something about "It's bigger on the inside," when he motions the others to come see what he has found.
Money and baubles weren't quite what they were looking for. There had still been little clear sign of food or useful supplies. But this! This could hold supplies that they found much more easily! Clearly it had to be magical.
Slip draws a symbol in the air near his temple--magical manifestations rather than manual signs--and his eyes once again go dark.
The bag itself radiates as moderate conjuration.
The standing mirror is not magical.
The 3 platinum pieces are not magical.
The pearl radiates as strong transmutation
The leather cord with the small box attached radiates as faint divination.
Vex climbs the ladder and looks down upon the ghoul wearing the vestments of Pharasma and sees that the creature is in bad health and can end its miserable “life.”
”Bigger on the inside?” Rook questions, showing his first real sign of interest in anything since being so rattled by the macabre scene in the other room. “How big? Maybe we could use it to transport wood, if we find the storage room… or if we started smashing every table and chair we come across?”
Thankfully, Slip doesn't have to hear as Vex takes care of the ghoul, even though he knows it's happening. As he looks over the items, he identifies the bag, the pearl, and the leather cord with the box as magical: conjuration, transmutation, and divination respectively, in case people with more knowledge and training might have an easier time identifying them.
To Rook's question, Slip shrugs, but then brightens. "Big. We could test the limits, but that's a great idea! Do--do you want to carry it?"
Chatty shrugs as Vex kills the ghoul. Well Slip had his chance.
Not that interested in the magic bag, he mills about the room. He starts casually wandering around poking the bodies throughout the room with his rapier, checking to make sure they are dead and giving a cursory look for bite marks incase he needs to behead anyone else.
"Oh..." Rook replies with some surprise, "I could, I guess... unless the dwarf of someone wants to carry it?"
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Vex takes no joy in the brutal job she does with her longsword, but she does it all the same. It's like putting down a sick animal, she thinks to herself, and doesn't look closely at the ghoul's hungry eyes.
When she steps down off the ladder, she moves to Slip, waiting til he has eyes on her face before speaking.
"I'm no expert on ghouls myself... but Chatty sounded like he knew what he was talking about, and the thing was being fed human flesh. It didn't answer your calls. Look it's... it's not bad to... want to be kind..."
Talking wasn't her strong point. Vex ran a frustrated hand through her dark hair.
"I spoke up for what we thought was that old woman, didn't I?" she says with some exasperation, or defensiveness, or both. "And see how that turned out, eh? Things here got to be seen as threats til we know otherwise. I don't trust much here. Trust you all cuz at least you're in the same spot as me."
She shook her head, and wiped her blade. Before leaving the room she climbed into the washbasin briefly-- to see if the now-dead ghoul had anything else on his? her? its? person other than the spiral-comet robes.
Slip nods at Vex's explanation, feeling a little guilty over his own outburst. "It's good to be careful," he agrees. He looks at the others. Trust is tricky, but you do sometimes have to work with the people you're with. This is about survival. "We can be wary, but let's try giving people a chance."
Chatty makes his way through the room, double checking on the dead. He sees that none have been bitten, just horribly mutilated through experiments. Everyone appears to be dead, or still dead.
As Vex lowers herself into the washbasin she sees how slippery it is. But she can brace her footing enough to not slip into the bloody mess below. Its pockets are empty, but it has a silver necklace around its neck, pulling it out she reveals the spiraling comet of Pharasma, a holy symbol.
It seems like every of use has been picked clean.
Doc walks into the door way; “If we are done here, what are we going to do about this one?” as she points to the man still chained up.
Slip looks up at Doc, then over at Vex to confirm. "We'll leave him for now. But I'd like to let Winter or Captain York about him soon. We may disagree about letting him free, but I don't want to leave him stranded either."
Slip wouldn't mind going back on his own, and then catching up, but waits to see if someone else has an idea.
"Aye, sounds fair enough. They run this place, aye? So this here lad is their problem."
"I'd prefer to carry on our exploration. This man isn't going anywhere. We could just report about him when we return at the end of the day. But if others insist on going back now, I'll acquiesce."
Wulfric, still mostly lost in thought (or shock), stands passively by, waiting for the others to decide where they'll head next.
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Vex grimaces as she hauls herself out. "Found this," she says, dangling the symbol. "Would have preferred somethin' a bit more useable. But it is what it is."
She throws a look at the chained man, shakes her head again. "Aye, we'll tell the people here, they can make that call. Don't imagine it'll do him any trouble to stay leashed a bit longer. There's plenty more of this place to see, and we've not found supplies worth speaking of."
"I'm gonna peek my head around thatt interesction of hallway there," Vex grunts. "Make sure nothing's visible either way that's likely to eat us. If not, let's try those double doors?[/ooc]
She stuffs the locket into her pocket, and gets her shield up, starting to move north-- though she pauses a moment to look at 'Rook.'
[b]"You with us, man? Keep it together, aye? Stand stock still like that and something'll be chewing your guts soon enough."
Barely waiting for an answer, she moves forward, edging to peek, both left and right.
Rook turns slowly to look at the raven-haired woman. Its difficult to tell if he's really processing what she's saying, but when she finishes he nods and lifts his mace up to a ready position from where it was hanging limply in his hand.
Slip accepts that returning without much of the way in supplies, just to inform them of another survivor, might come across as odd. But he wants to make it a priority to return for the poor man as soon as they have enough worth carrying. With this special bag, that might be even easier.
The halfling retrieves his bolt, appreciating that it did not completely crumble against the wall upon passing harmlessly through the visual echo, and he makes sure that his crossbow is loaded and locked. He then takes up a position near the back. "Wave for me if you want me to come forward," he says. "You know the signs if you need them."
He feels concerned about the tall blonde man, but stays close to him to make sure that he's doing okay. He does look particularly dazed after all this. Who wouldn't be?
Bolkvar stomped over towards the double doors. He didn't mean to stomp, it was just how he walked. He gripped his flail tightly as he prepared to open them and see what horrors lay beyond.
The group leaves this section of Asylum. Moving north along the hallway the group finds the double doors to the east. Listening to the wall, you hear nothing on the other side.
Overview Map
Several workbenches lie crushed beneath the rubble of this room’s collapsed ceiling.
Looking about the room you see that one workbench is dedicated to work therapy. A place where a patient can work on small crafts and perform minor woodworking repairs.
Bolkvar walked in and headed straight for the bench. He ran a finger along the wood, feeling an odd sense of kinship with it. It was familiar. Not in the sense of "this is me!" but in a "I've done this before" type of way.
"It's too bad that this isn't in operation anymore." He said as he looked around.
Slip barely sees Bolkvar speaking as he moves into the room, but notices the affinity he seems to have for the workspace. It gives Slip a moment of hope, feeling like maybe there are memories still buried within. They might not be attached to personal histories anymore, but they clearly still knew how to do things. All hope wasn't lost for recovery.
Slip stands at the door for the moment, fiddling nervously with his crossbow and looking around for anything interesting.
Did I ever do any kind of craft work? Could I?
Asrat glances nervously into the room from the doorway. After seeing no threats and no other pathways into the room, he relaxes slightly and steps inside. "There doesn't look like there is much left intact in here, but there might be a few tools worth salvaging."
Asrat searches the room.
Chatty and Slip enter in the room and begin looking around. Suddenly, Chatty hears something from the north wall, some one or something is behind it. Quick to act, he is able to dodge out of the way of most of the falling rubble, most… he is hit with some of the stone that makes up the wall.
Slip doesn’t see it happen but he feels the rumble of the of the room shaking as the wall collapsed. Once the dust clears, everyone sees that beyond this wall appears three creatures that look familiar. These are Ghouls. Hunger is in their eyes as they lick their toothy maws. Seeing this, the image of the chopped up body parts being fed enter your minds. This might cause some to stumble, or bolster your courage.
Initiative: Round 1
Slip
Chatty
Doc
Vex
Blue
Ghouls
Angry
Rook
Initiative
Slip gasps as he sees the incursion. He knows that he was just advocating for talk, but that was when there was no active threat. These ghouls were actively attacking. His breath quickens and he instinctively draws a symbol in the air. A nearly invisible pulse widens out from his position, and all of his allies feel emboldened.
He then withdraws closer to the dwarf, not wanting to be all alone on the other side of the room.
"F*$#!" Chatty shouts angrily as the wall comes down.
Then the dust clears and he finds himself staring at three hungry ghouls. His eyes widen and all the blood drains from his face. The creatures are much more intimidating when not chained to a wall. He backpedals out of the room as quickly as possible on the uneven flooring.
"No!!! I don't want to become a ghoul! Stay away!" He screams.
Once out of the room, he readies an attack if any of the undead get too close.
Slip sees the three ghouls appear and cast Bless, praying that the divine helps the group. Chatty screams of ghouls causing Blue to draw his sword as he moves in. Seeing Slip still within danger, Blue cast a spell. A ward settles upon him as he stands at the ready for what could come.
Protection from Evil
Doc seeing everything start to go down, draws a mutagen and drinks it.
Initiative: Round 1
Slip
Chatty
Doc
Vex
Blue
Ghouls
Angry
Rook
Seeing their opportunity to strike, the three Ghouls climb forward over the rubble, each of them mouth agate ready for the taste of live flesh. As the first one move forward to bite at Vex, it is quickly met with the taste of steel instead. Slashing with the longsword, Vex removes the head of the ghoul from its body and it falls dead.
Blue is not so fortunate. Both move forward and bite out at Blue and rip flesh free from his body. The magics he casted was not enough.