The oracle's readied action proceeds as the immediate threat dissipates and the rogue climbs down from the door. The spell is, as usual, completely quiet.
As the others climb into the room, he purses his lips and looks up at them hopefully. He repeats what his rogueish friend whispered with a simple "Watch your step."
Doc draws her deadly garden trowel as she clambers out of the furnace. She say dryly, "Why of course there's a horrible abomination underneath me, why wouldn't there be a horrible abomination underneath me. And someone armed taking pot shots down a hall? Why this is turning out to be just one lovely surprise after another!"
Not sure where exactly she should be pointing her shiv she asks, "So who wants to go first?"
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'Vex' was the last to emerge, grunting with the effort of the bundle of items, which had gotten briefly caught on something in the chute. But she put it down on gaining the chamber with the others.
"Carvings in there, and holly, and stuff," she said in a low voice. Her eyes fix on the hall.
"Someone armed means... weapon for us," she murmurs. "I've got the most armor. And I'm unhurt, unlike Mr. Dwarf here. I go first."
And she did-- but tried to be quiet about it. She hugged the wall, dagger in one hand, new buckler strapped to the other arm, moving towards the source of the voice.
As the skittish man mentions an abomination underneath the broiler, those who are next to the broiler hear skittering and scratching from below. If you were to look in that direction you would see light flashing underneath.
The halfling moves up and heals the skittish man as he climbs down from the door.
Vex makes her way to the door and looks into the hallway. Broken lanterns and several battered doors line this cold, rubble-strewn hall. Looking to the north, you cannot much beyond the rubble. To the south you see a 3-foot-high barricade of broken furniture and fallen masonry that fills a wide empty doorframe.
Vex moves in the direction that the bolt came from, but does not get far. “Woah! We got a big one.” “Wait, this one looks lively. Don’t move another inch if you don’t want to be filled with bolts. Name and business!” The second of the two voices calls out as Vex starts to move in the hallway.
"--wait, what's under there?"
"Well...it's another rat. But it has torches for eyes and tentacles for whiskers."
"So long as it doesn't carry any species of siphonaptera and stays put, I think we can come to terms."
Doc reasons, everyone tolerates halflings, perhaps....
She faces him so that he's sure to understand her, "Do you think you can talk the people in the hall out of shooting us? If not, they likely aren't good enough shots to do you any lasting harm."
"I'm dressed in normal clothes..." Rook reasons quietly, "if they're here hunting the rats maybe I can come get them to shoot this one?" Hoping for the best, he steps out into the hallway with his empty hands raised up above his shoulders.
"Please," he says loudly enough for the crossbowmen to hear, "we've cornered some kind of especially awful rat under an old boiler... can you please come and kill it?"
While the cleric attempts to diplomatize, the rogue leans against the wall near the door casually as if the monster-rat isn't even there and chats, "So, while we were risking our necks up here, what did we miss down below? Find anything else useful? I see some of you scavenged some extra clothes. You didn't happen to bring an outfit up for me did you? Normally, I'd have no problem negotiating with guards, or whoever they are, but I fear that in my current state..." He motions with both hands down his body, "They'd mistake me for another large rat."
"And here I thought it was just because of yer personality." Bolkvar said, a wry smile on his face.
As Vex is in the hallway frozen the men still stand behind the barricade with their crossbows aimed firmly on her. When Vex talks to those in the room and Rook responds the “guards” speak up. “That’s enough then, come on out and show yourselves. We ain’t commin out there until we see who’s all with ya.” “Do as we say, and we might let you live. Who are you, and what were you… before all of this?” The second one quickly chimes in.
From their stance, and how reinforced the wall is, Vex does not get the idea that they will be coming out from behind the wall.
Blue cut short a chuckle at the dwarf’s comment and quickly tried to cover it by clearing his throat. “Yes, well, as I was saying, they already know that we’re in here so we may as well-” he stopped to look at the skittish man, “ I’m sorry, did you say ‘torches for eyes and tentacles for whiskers’?”
Doc places her garden trowel in one of her coat pockets and joins Wulfric while raising her hands, ”There’s seven of us. None of us remember our names or anything since we woke up in an apparent crematory not even an hour ago. Our first sight upon waking was someone being brutally carved up by a doppelganger, which we managed to kill. You’re welcome by the way. I don’t suppose you could fill us in on some details of our situation, we seem to be lacking a few?”
The halfling looks at the doctor with her garden trowel as she addresses him. He nods, "I'll try."
Maybe she's not so bad after all?
After making a brief gesture to give himself guidance, he joins Doc Rook in the hallway and follows suit with hands raised. He strains his eyes to read the lips from far away, but his vision is sufficiently acute that he can follow along reasonably well. If anything, he has slightly more difficulty following Rook and Doc's side of the conversation, as they are facing towards and addressing the crossbowmen atop the makeshift barricade. There's very little trust going on.
After Doc lays out the situation plainly, the halfling tries to bring the pathos.
"Hello," he begins, to bring attention to himself. His voice rings out loudly, especially for his small frame, a he takes deep breaths to ensure that he projects enough. "As she said, we do not remember much. But some of us were injured facing the...doppelganger, was it? We have some healing ability among us, and we could offer it if you also have injured."
Having a crossbow trained at him doesn't feel great. The halfling gulps and looks at the tall ones beside him. "What can we do to help you trust us?"
Without seeing the creature it is hard for you to really pull together what it is that the skittish man could be talking about, but then something starts speaking to the back of your mind. A familiar voice a memory. You have heard of a creature like this… but then the memory is gone in the cloud of fog.
As more of you begin to pour out of the door way one of the men speaks up with an audible quiver in his voice; “s-stop! No more, do not move!” The one next to him speaks up “So, you know of the doppelgangers… then you can see the situation we are in.”
As Vex moves and goes back into the room they came from, the first man shouts; “STOP!” and a bolt flies from his crossbow. The arrow hits and sinks deep into Vex’s torso.
An older man steps up to the barricade. “When my men say stop you stop. Take another step closer and by the gods I will not hesitate sending you to them.”
As the halfling tries to reason with him, the man’s eyes narrow on him; “That is twice you mentioned doppelgangers. Which means you have seen their powers. You want to find safety with us, prove it. Bring me back a few doppelganger bodies and only then will I believe you are not those evil creatures.” Looking over those who are still in the hall; “Until then, you are the same as them, dead to us. Don’t come any closer.” he says with a spit.
The halfling flinches as the crossbow bolt looses, but stands his ground. This was a death sentence.
"One of them nearly killed us with nothing more than its claws! We barely have any weapons or armor!"
He senses that the guards will not care about their plight, especially if they are willing to shoot someone for disobeying. Did they even want to rely on or ally with such brutes?
"Will you let us go, or shoot us when our backs are turned?"
”Careful, lad. Twitchy bunch. They seem willing to shoot right away if it be convenient.” Bolkvar whispered. ”Should be ready to run for cover.”
“I have the strangest feeling,” Blue said with a grunt as he got down on his hands and knees to catch a glimpse of the strange creature, “that I know this creature. And if I could just see it, I’d know what it was.” He was like this when the shouting began out in the hall accompanied by a click and thwang of something down in the hall.
“Now what?” Blue craned his neck and spied the bolt in Vex. “Ebon wings! What’s going on out there?!”
Asrat overhears the conversation and comments to those still in the room, "Well we have one doppelganger body. Someone will just need to climb back down and get it. But they do have a point. How do I know none of you are doppelgangers? Actually, all of you could be doppelgangers. What are the chances that none of us have any memories? It seems very suspicious. But I doubt I can kill another doppelganger on my own, so I guess I'll stick with you for now and hope no one is an imposter."
He bends down and scoops the dead rat into his backpack. "No reason to let this go to waste. It's clear we won't be getting help from that group for awhile."
"Sir..." Rook says tentatively, "I'm at a loss as to how to proceed... you say not to come any closer, but you shot that woman for moving farther away... are we to just stand here forever?"
"We did kill one of those creatures but it was down in the basement and in order to get its body as proof someone would have to climb back down through the vent again, and we'd need rope to drag it up with."
You don't get a clear sense if you can or cannot trust this man. You do know that they haven't fired on you and the shaky guard had been moved to the back.
The man looks over the group and settles his eyes on Rook “My guards are on strict orders from me to kill anything that does not follow orders. Did he not tell you all to stop and not move? She moved, and earned what she received.” He nods his head to the side with a shrug; “That was then, this is now. As the Captain, my orders have more gravity to them. You have my word that you can leave from here without being hurt.”
Nodding at hearing the group of you have slayed a doppelgänger already, the man speaks up; “Impressive. If you feel like you can crawl back where you came from and drag it here, that is your call.” pointing down the hall behind you; “That way lies more doppelgangers to be hunted. Bring me a few bodies and you may join us. I do warn you, but there are lunatics from Briarstone running the halls, and many things that I cannot explain. That is why we have this barricade.”
“And as I said, you have my word that you will not be harmed. Just don’t come any closer.”
Doc looks to the crossbowmen, to her companions, and then down to the hallway. "Well then. I suppose we're on the hunt then. Shall we drag the corpse we already have first or see what we can see? I wonder where the corpse chute comes up."
"My friends. It might not sound so appetizing but some of us aren't in the best of shape to be hunting another doppelganger just quite yet. Might I suggest we return to the cells for a rest and let some of our wounds heal before heading back into danger."
The guards and the middle-aged man still stand guard behind the barricade. You get the clear picture that you should take what they say seriously, since Vex almost earned herself a bolt for moving when told not to.
The man in your group brings up a valid point, you are all hurt and have some safety in the room with the cells. You do still have the key and could explore the other passage. Or, this current hallway you are in is lined with doors. You get the sense that if you don’t move towards the guards you should be safe. At the opposite end of the hall from the barricade you see rubble that moves to an opening.
With the guards no longer shooting at anything that moves, Blue heads back into the room to investigate the strange creature that was seen under the boilers. Getting on his hands and knees, Blue begins to look under the broilers and he finds a mess. Twine, fabric, twigs, some kind of small rod, and even… a stringed instrument? There is a pack rats next under the boilers, but seeing the dead dire rat, and word that one got away, it is no wonder that there is such a big nest.
Suddenly from the far back corner two lights begin to pierce the darkness coming from a tiny rat like creature. The skittish amalgam of beast parts has luminous eyes, a rat’s tail, simian appendages, and tendrils extending from a mole-like nose. The creature hisses and snaps at Blue from its hiding spot in the back corner.
”We need to find the body then.” Bolkvar said. ”Damn it, why can’t something be easy? So let’s all move together. This place is full of horrors.” He finished, eyeing the rat-creature warily.
Asrat calmly reclines against the wall, picking at the dirt under his fingernail with his shiv. "It's only a matter of time before that thing bites someone, but by all means, keep poking at it."
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'Vex' shakes off a weird sensation of getting shot in the arm with a shake of her head. This place is clearly getting to her, she thinks. Her lips thin at the idea that they'll willingly negotiate with the people down the hall, but the others seem to accept the idea, so she holds her tongue other than to say: "Dragging up that body's going to be a hell of a hassle."
She looks narrowly at the 'rat.'
"Ugly thing. Don't like it. Don't care to get bit by it either."
She draws her dagger and adjusts the buckler onto her arm, though she has to admit she's never used a buckler to defend against the attacks of a mutant rat before. Maybe if she crouches really low....?
"I don't want it crawling on us later. I'm putting it down."
"I'm ... Vex, by the way. Not really. But 's what Blue there called me, and I've got nothing better," she growls, swinging at the rat-thing.
Vex lays down on the ground to be able to fully reach under the boiler to attack the creature in the corner. Swinging with her dagger, she is able to land the blow in the awkward position with the rats nest in the way. As she hits the creature it lets out a shrill screech before it bites out at Vex. Missing, the creature skitters through a slight crack between the wall and is gone.
"Nice work...Vex. No worries about it running off either. If it comes back, at least we'll see it coming. Unless it's smart enough to sneak up on us with it's eyes closed that is."
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"Maybe it'll bleed out," Vex says with a shrug and frown, getting back to her feet. "Ugly little thing. Rats aren't supposed to look like that." A small pause. "Are they?"
But she's not much of one for reflection. She dismisses the question with a shake of her head, and looks over the others, taking them all in properly now.
"We look like a sorry, banged-up lot. You especially," she says with a nod at the human male who she has mentally dubbed as very talkative. "And chatty, aren't you."
The halfling and the dwarf get longer looks as well. "You're an angry sort," she grunts at the dwarf. "Y'fought hard. But wild.
"You..." her grey eyes settle on the halfling. "You can't hear, huh? That's a b!!$$. And you're just a slip of a thing."
Blunt and tactless assessment given, she eyes the long hallway, then points at the people she's given nicknames to. "That's Doc. Rook. Blue, like I said. You all can be Chatty, Angry, and Slip. You don't like 'em, come up with better for yourselves."
With that, she starts down the hall. "Let's go find some of these damned shifting buggers, so our friends there don't shoot us."
Seeing Vex exit from under the boiler empty-handed he disgruntledly crawls under the boiler himself and fetches out the rat's 'hoard'. "If you're going to go through the trouble of stabbing something, you should at least take it's stuff afterwards."
Dusting himself off, "Chatty, my good lady? I suppose so. Not all of us fight with a blade." His eyes dart to the shiv in his hand and he comically tucks it into the back of his waistband. "Ehem." He clears his throat. "Especially, one of such impeccable upbringing as myself." He not-so-subtly scratches his chin with his ringed hand.
"And you need not worry about me shooting you. I don't even have a bow."
As Chatty grabs at the rat's nest like a starving orphan grabs at trash thrown out of a restaurant Doc thinks to share what they found earlier. She shows him a set of tools, only slightly covered in various bodily fluids leaked from a number of dead people. "You seem like the sort that would appreciate well crafted tools."
As the group walks down the hall Doc takes a look at the door to their right, "Perhaps our elusive and dangerous prey is hiding behind this door? And if not " She takes a listen opens it.
Lunatics. Briarstone. Was this some sort of asylum? Am I mad? The halfling shakes his head, almost imperceptibly, and backs slowly away with the others.
Vex takes care of the rat, for which the halfling is grateful. And then she offers him a name, recognizing his deafness (without him having so specify it): Slip. Why not?
Slip nods, looking carefully at Vex's mouth as she introduces the others. He starts repeating their names in his head, looking around as he misses bit and pieces of the conversation. As Doc prepares to open the door, he tries to get someone's attention.
"Well, um, they said that this is Briarstone. Does anyone know what...or where...this is?"
Slip is doubtful, but maybe someone has a fragment of a memory stored somewhere.
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Chatty moves to look under the boiler and starts to dig out the rats nest. Besides shredded cloth, Chatty finds a few items of use. A sling, sap, weapon cord, 50-feet of twine, gnawed on trail ration, and a belt pouch. He also pulls out a 1-foot-long, gold-tipped, iron rod. As you are looking at it you have the gut feeling that if you were to strike it, that it would provide light. This is a sunrod! you think to yourself. The last thing you pull out, oddly enough, is a nice looking viol, a fretted stringed instrument. There is no bow or case.
Listening to the door, Doc hears nothing within. Opening the door is a slight struggle as there is resistance and an overwhelming aroma of chlorine. Looking within, you see fallen shelves, broken containers, other rubble from chunks of the walls and ceiling caving in.
Chatty holds up the loot with a wide grin on his face. "Desna smiles upon us tonight, my friends! Weapons! And food! It's not much but it's more than we had before."
Chatty pockets the twine but holds out the rest of the items for others to claim.
"Well, um, they said that this is Briarstone. Does anyone know what...or where...this is?"
"Nope. Not a clue. Should I? This is not a place I'd choose to visit willingly."
“Briarstone? No, I don’t think I have heard the name before. Or perhaps I have. Hard to say, really. But, given our attire, I think it’s safe to assume we were, or, rather, are all patients here.”
Blue pulled the cloak up over his face as the smell of chlorine hit him. “Might be a little potent, but it might do us good to scour every room for anything handy.”
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Covering his face, Blue takes a step in to begin looking through the rubble. The rubble is dense from the shelves, containers, and stone. After about five minutes or so of digging and moving, Blue any anyone else who lends a hand, find some useful items.
There are no other useful items within. From the looks of how buried these items were, it looks as if things had only been picked clean on the surface level.
”Perhaps we were being treated for our fugue state. I also might be hallucinating all of you and this entire place, but I have no way of confirming or denying such speculation.”
Doc helps Blue search the closet for anything useful, ”Dabril water, if it hasn’t all been spilled it could be used as a disinfectant. If it's concentrated it will be quite caustic.” Doc plucks a strand of hair off her head and frowns at the encroaching brown, ”As well as other uses.”
Doc snatches the book up and starts to read it before anyone has a chance to take it away. While the simple leather bound journal contains no clues as to their situation or identity, her eyes widen as she begins to comprehend the alchemical formulae, ”This will be quite useful. Given some time I will even be able to mend our wounds or enhance the senses with a simple tincture. Not that the divine intervention isn’t appreciated Rook.”
Asrat eyes the very nice backpack compared to his shabby regular one with a jealous glint.
"All of these items are useful to be shared as a group. Any of you are welcome to carry them. Or if you wish, I will humbly bear that burden."
"Even from the hallway, this room is giving me a headache. Let's try the next one."
Bolkvar shook his head at the names. He didn’t care for the antics, he was too tired. Walking over to the pile of loot he rummaged through it and found a hammer…
…Bolkvar smiled. The hammer felt right. It felt like creation, even though that didn’t make sense. He decided that he liked the hammer because it made him feel good. He decided to call it “mine.” As good a name as any!
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Moving to the next door, you find it just cracked open. No sounds coming from the inside. But from what you can see from the slight crack you can see this room is in just as much shambles as the previous room.
Opening this door, you see that this is also a storage room. The aroma of cleaning chemicals pours from the door as you open it. The fumes stinging your eyes, causing them to water up.
The shelves have been torn free from the walls and are laying about the floor along with the content that they were holding. Concrete, shelving, storage containers, and a strange liquid lay about the floor here. But just like the previous room, a closer examination might prove fruitful.
Is Chatty going to be doing the next door?
After checking the door and the room appearing to be empty, Asrat cautiously pulls the door open. When the air stings his eyes, he rolls to the side and leans against the wall covering his face with a strip of cloth. "Careful, my friends. There is something caustic inside. The fine doctor seems to know much about chemicals. Perhaps she can determine if it is safe to enter."
"Has this place, Briarstone, been hit by an earthquake? The structural damage we've seen goes beyond just disrepair. Just look at this room and the rest of the hallway. From the rooms we've seen so far, our cells seem to have weathered the best. Good to keep in mind in case another shock is brewing."
Rook backs away from the crossbowmen, carefully keeping an eye on them even while the rest of the group is searching the storage rooms. Once the group has moved sufficiently far away from the barricade and all are gathered in the hall he focuses on the medallion again and releases another wave of healing light.
Doc searches the destroyed storeroom while covering her nose and mouth with a cloth. "It will be fine, don't rub it in your eyes or drink it."