"We coulde leave ite, but I woulde like note have zis sing on ourr back." He says as he moves around to retrieve his javelins.
"Yeah, might as well finish so we're sure there's no future problems."
Arberie reloads and shoots again.
"I agree, better to just finish it off." she says as she still focuses on her time manipulation.
After a few more rounds of attacks, the last ooze explodes in a shower of gore.
As the last "disease ooze" dies, Mya lets go and relaxes her mind, rubbing her temples for a few seconds, the strange ringing of clockwork slowly disappearing from her mind.
She ignores the door outside and looks to a corridor with many doors to their left. She looks back to her companions and await for them to get ready before opening the first door.
Arberie hands the crossbow back to Tassa and collects her kunai as she goes to have a look at the new, probably crappy, vista they've conquered. With a shrug and a sigh, she suggests "take them in order closest to farthest?"
Tassa shrugs, "Workssss for me."
The four doors lead into four bedrooms. Each holds a bed and a low table, but the accommodations hardly look comfortable.
A portion of the tiled ceiling has given way, allowing heavy bricks to fall across the bed and floor. Fortunately, no one seemed to be in the room when the collapse occurred.
Three figures lie dead in this room. Two wearing yellow robes lie slumped on the floor, having suffered repeated vicious blows to the face. The third - an old man wearing a light cloth dressing gown - has fallen back across the bed. He wears a satisfied smirk on his face and still grips a sturdy leather boot with blood on its heel. The boot's partner lies on the floor nearby.
A shapeless mass of sheets and pillows piles atop two plain beds. Bold chalk letters on the opposite wall proclaim this to be "Brenton and Debis's Room."
Human-shaped carnage covers the bed. The window is broken.
Potential Loot
Carved Wooden Knight x2
Gold Signet Ring
High-Quality Boots
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two hallways meet here beneath a lofty ceiling. High windows, alive with the nauseating fog beyond, give the space an airy feel. A portion of the western hallway has collapsed, blocking it with tons of rubble. A ghoul is busily attempting to clear the rubble. Judging by the amount of damage to its hands, it's been at this task for hours. It appears to be completely focused at this work and doesn't seem to have noticed your presence.
Mya takes a mental note of Brenton and Debis's name. It was written in chalk, maybe after whatever happened to this place? An urge to write it down in paper takes her mind and she tries to remember to write her findings later when back in the safety of Winter's group.
Chalk... also was what was used to draw the symbol of "Words fail" man's forehead. He was also using yellow clothes, if Mya remembered correctly. She wasn't particularly keen on trusting her memory, so maybe that was the reason for the urge to write.
She approached the bodies with yellow robes and tried to discern if they seem equal or at least similar to "Words fail", like some sort of uniform, religious apparel, etc. And if they had the same symbol on them.
Finally, she grabs whatever she sees as valuable. When they approach the distracted ghoul, she just looks and tries to communicate with facial expressions, something she found much more difficult if not impossible since she woke up in this place, that she prefered if they killed this creature. If it infected the other survivors, it would be a disaster.
Upon spotting the ghoul, Arberie takes a careful look down the hallway on the other side of the alcove where it's digging. She then hand signals to the others that she will cross to the other side and wait and if one or more of them would be kind enough to draw its attention, she will jump it from behind.
Then, she slips across and presses herself against the wall to wait.
Baldrek let the others inspect the rooms while he cleans off his javelins and prepare them with their amentum.
As they see the ghoul, he grabs two javelins, one in each hand. As Arberie sneaks around, he frowns, puzzled. Did that ghoul did something specially nasty to her that she wants to end with dirty and close? Why not just do it from afar like they did with the oozes?
I'm not sure that my web will be as effective against a ghoul as it was with those jelly-things, but it can't hurt to try...
Tassa walks forward as quietly as she's able and then vomits another web at their latest foe.
Mya accelerates Baldrek only for the surprise attack.
Arberie sneaks down the hallway as Tassa webs up the ghoul.
With a surprised hiss, it attempts to tear free of the web.
Mya keeps concentrating on the Haste on Baldrek, takes a step back and accelerates Arberie as well, hopefully to end the creature before it frees itselft.
Arberie slides around the corner and makes two quick strikes at the ghoul.
Arberie stabs the ghoul once, but it manages to dodge the second strike.
Tassas hustles up to her tangled prey and her tentacles last out, little mouths with sharp teeth biting in and attempting to constrict it.
Tassa dispatches the ghoul. Now that the sounds of debris-clearing and combat have ceased, you can hear screams coming from one of the rooms farther down the hallway.
The javelins are stashed and his trident drawn as the ghoul falls. He nods towards the direction of the screams and slowly walks forward.
Mya follows Baldrek, ready for action.
The screams get louder as you open the door. Chipped white paint peels from the battered frames of a long row of identical beds. Dingy white curtains separate each bed, but offer only the illusion of privacy. Tied to the northernmost bed is a man. He thrashes about frantically against his many restraints while screaming, "No! I don't want anything from you! Not again!" Despite his panicked screams, the man appears to be asleep.
"If I have to guess, I would say we have someone else being huntede by zat" gaunt f*%@lerr in tatterrs. Baldrek says as he approaches the man, even if looking around. Once by his bed, he shakes the man, trying to awake him.
As Baldrek approaches, the man shrieks, "Keep away! Get away from me, bastard!" As soon as Baldrek shakes the man, he lets out a final scream and ceases thrashing.
You notice a wisp of yellow vapor escape from the man's mouth as he falls still.
Mya, not realizing all the details of what happened, moves closer to the body, trying to search for any signs or wounds or whatever could have hurt this man, if he even is dead.
"I think so, too, Baldrek. But why did he die? Would we have died if we had died in the dream?"
While Mya and Baldrek examine the man, Tassa searches the rest of the room.
As Tassa searches the room, the corpse begins to convulse. After a few seconds, his eyes reopen, but the spark of life behind them is gone. Instead of a man, there is now a ghoul.
Mya sighs "Another ghoul. We better get rid of this one as well."
She readies herself to explore the rooms further along the corridor after the creature is killed.
With the ghoul tied up, Baldrek quickly stabs it with his trident.
Baldrek has no difficulty ending the ghoul's unlife.
Potential Loot
Straightjacket
Hoodwink Cowl
Mya removes the cowl and brings it along with her. You never know.
She leaves the room and heads north, facing more doors. She moves close to the northern double door and waits for the group to catch up. She also puts her ear to the doors, trying to hear anything from the other side.
Worn old chairs and small tables set with the scattered pieces of simple games lay scattered throughout this room. A serving hatch in the north wall opens into a darkened space beyond. Vast glass windows dominate the eastern walls, beyond which a jaundiced kaleidoscope swirls hypnotically. A coppery smell permeates the room.
and to the west stands a wall of red.
A wheelchair sits near the east bay windows. A rotund woman in a faded housecoat sits there, clearly deceased. A river of blood pours from a gaping hole in her chest in an unending stream. By the time the blood has reached the western hall, it's turned into a vertical pool that stretches up to the ceiling.
Ceaseless whispering and faint sobs can be heard from the other side of this door. Peering under the crack where the door meets the floor, you notice that the room beyond appears to be completely devoid of light.
Mya turns to the group and puts a finger on her mouth, to indicate they should be silent as she heard something on the other side of the double door. She looks around, finally devoting her attention to the wheelchair, the corpse and the games spread around. Maybe this was not a hospital, but a retirement home?
Mya points to the apparently infinite blood stream, making sure she stays away from it, probably a similar phenomenon as the birds that tried to take Arberie.
Baldrek sighs and follows as silently as he can. Again and again everything here just wanted to kill them.
Opening the door, you find the room to be completely dark - even darkvision is unable to penetrate the gloom.
Baldrek closes the door again, shaking his head to signal a clear "no".
You peer through the window to see the room on the other side: an office containing a couch and small desks covered in paint flakes and thick dust.
"I'm with you there, Baldrek," Tassa hisses, as the warrior closes the door to the unnaturally dark room.
Seeing a door right past the one Baldrek opened, Tassas listens at it, and if she doesn't hear anything–or see movement from further into the room–she gets ready to open it.
Mya silently agrees with the group's decision to ignore the darkened room and joins them in the office, awaiting for Tassa to listen to the other side, preparing herself for another fight.
Using the butt of his trident, Baldrek smashes the window so he can squeeze through.
A low desk sits behind a window that passes into a room beyond. Behind it an empty doorframe opens into a ransacked storage room, its floor covered in broken glass and opalescent stains. Three yellow-robed men are searching through the debris for anything of value. Clearly on edge, they move to attack as soon as they hear you enter.
The men grab lengths of broken pipe or hefty pieces of wood and assume readied stances, clearly waiting for you to make the first move.
Mya quickly chants the words for Haste and focuses on Baldrek, as a precaution in case things go south, but decides to speak up to the three men.
"We do not need to do this. We have already found and spared one of you, so why don't you drop your weapons and tell us what it is you are doing here and what is happening in this place?"
The men respond with a stream of manic ramblings that make little sense, but the words "Ulzer Zandalus" and "Apostles in Orpiment" seem to be meaningful to them. There's also something about "trapped by whispers and blood."
So that was good to know, whatever that meant, but the impasse remained. "So will you drrobe your weabons?"
"Stayawaystayawaystayaway!"
Baldrek steps away, keeping an eye on them, and checks the by his side. "Fine, bute you also stay bute."
Behind the door is what appears to be another staff office with a few desks. There's a door in the western wall that appears to lead to the supernaturally-dark room.
"So they both lead to the same dark room. We can go back to..." she points towards the direction she means but stops as she realizes where it is "...where the blood trail came from. Or go back near the beginning, I think we left some rooms there."