"I sense... divination magic? We may be being spied on-" before Elyssa has time to finish her sentence the rat-like zoogs are already upon them and attacking. Insinct takes over and Elyssa's mind grabs the first ldle brick she spies on the ground and throws it at the zoog that has just stuck Ethyl.
The bit of debris strikes the zoog, eliciting a yelpish squeak from the creature. The [blue] rat takes a 5ft step at bites at Ethyl. Ethyl, however, kicks away the vermin's jaws.
From a distance, Iosif can practically hear the words in his head. He's too close, and it's causing him anxiety. But, it would be stupid to back up into a corner where reloading would give the creatures an extra chance to snip at him, so he stays where he is, the unholy symbol bouncing up and down as he fires at the rat that targeted Ethyl.
He then hastily shoves an alchemical cartridge down the muzzle, since in the heat of combat, regardless of how unreliable these things can be ... you can never afford to be slow.
Ethyl jumps backwards as the rats and rat-like zoog appear from under the boiler. ”Aaaah!”, she screams uncharacteristically frightened by their sudden appearance. She regards the bite on her ankle, ”Siphonaptera. I’m sure I saw one jump to me.” Without thinking she lashed out with the garden trowel.
”We have to leave.” Ethyl exclaimed panic rising in her voice.
The roar of the musket in the boiler is deafening, rattling the copper and the drums of everyone's ears. The bullet strikes the rat, but it remains standing. The [red] rat scurries under the boilers to move up to Alvar, biting at him.
The zoog 5ft steps and bites at Ethyl once more, missing as Nyarai's hex warps the attack.
Iosif's musings, prayers, whatever they may be, are interrupted by a loud, Taldane swear at the top of his lungs. He did not account for the reverberations within the boiler and his ears are practically bleeding at this point.
Ethyl's sensitive ears now only pick up loud ringing. As her pleading likely fell on deaf ears.
Despite the heat of battle, Elyssa ears (or perhaps it would be better to say her strange mind) picks up Iosif's oddly familiar words. "Those languages... you're speaking-" the psychic is stopped short by the terror in Ethyl's scream as the creatures once more try to bite her.
"Go away! Flee! If you do not then you risk your own destruction."
As if to literally hammer in that point, Elyssa's mind lifts another piece of heavy debris and hurls it again at the zoog closest to Ethyl.
The sylph watches the scuffle ahead, attempting to focus. But that concentration is suddenly broken by the loud reverberation inside the boiler. She crouches into a kneel and puts her hands on her ears to protect herself from whatever just happened. Her face turns to one of thorough discomfort and confusion. She opens her mouth as if screaming. It takes her a hot second to gather her thoughts, and she looks at Ethyl surrounded by some overgrown rats as her eyes blink purple.
And then she turns to the man with the firearm, staring daggers at the thing.
The BOOM of the firearm rings in Alvar's ears, and they stagger, trying to shake off the sudden tinnitus that it's left them with. This distracts them more than enough for the rat to take a bite out of them.
They manage to pull themselves together enough to notice that Ethyl seems distressed, and they try to speak. "Steady!" There's a thickness to their voice as they pull back, trying to decide what to do next. I can't hear myself think! How can I cast a spell like this? Still, they must do what they can. They pull out a piece of cured leather, gesturing and chanting as best they're able. To their relief, they feel the spell function, and the armor of force they conjured surrounds them.
The rats are startled by the sudden noise, but they are relentless in their assault. The (blue) rat 5fts into the boiler, taking a bite at Iosif but missing, tripping over the boiler's threshold.
Perhaps its the infernal speech being bandied about but Ethyl's mind orders itself. She mutters to herself trying to be reassuring, "Just need to find some oleander, maybe in the courtyard." She continues to lose blood growing more faint by the second.
She backsteps towards the rat threatening the rest of the party, draws one of her daggers and tries to eviscerate it.
Iosif steps out of the boiler, quickly learning from his mistake as his ears practically bleed with tinnitus, and then... CLICK, followed by more incessant swearing in Taldane.
he says, followed by a string of yet more expletives as he hastily clears the misfire, sweat beading down his brow as he works as fast as possible.
The (red) rat scurries inside the boiler and attempts to nibble Elyssa's heels. However, despite having taken no damage this rat is unsteady in its attacks.
The zoog steps up at bites at Iosif, as if smelling his frustration. Its fangs pierce the threadbare leggings of his hospital pyjamas and draw significant blood.
The sylphs keeps holding her palms to her ringing ears as the rats encroach into the boiler. She manages to slowly stand up, and this timer her eyes flash towards the human woman before she sprints out of the metal-plated deathtrap.
"Aaaahhh!" Let out a less than ladylike scream as the rat creature tries to attack her. Unfortunately, it misses her feet and Elyssa is able to take advantage of its misstep by trying to smack it telekinetically with another loose brick.
Alvar steps back once more, chanting a cantrip and hurling an orb of acid at Elyssa's foe.
The (red) rat squeals in pain as the lob of acid strikes it, eating into its fur and flesh, mixing with the sulfuric smell of Iosif's gunpowder. The (blue) rat turns and claws its way up Campre, biting into an artery and knocking him back into the far wall of the boiler.
Iosif quickly reloads his fire arm, gritting his teeth as he mutters some indiscernable words under his breath to stave off any pain that the zoog might inflict while he rapidly shoves a cartridge down the muzzle. He then fires at the creature, Iosif's back pressed against the wall as he fires.
Another thunderous roar rattles the boiler as Iosif fires off his musket, the zoog is splattered from the bullet across the boiler room floor.
Ethyl attempts to stab the rat that's after Elyssa and continues to bleed...
Elyssa attempts to block out the noise of the thundering musket with her hands to no avail.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ethyl's dagger strikes true, slaying the rat.
Alvar glances at the fallen human, grimacing. Should've been more careful with him. I thought my magic might help, but... They dismiss the thought. Now is more important than ever to deal with this last remaining rat.
They sidestep, flanking the rat with Sara, and attempt to chant and gesture without allowing the rat a chance to strike back at them. Unfortunately, the difficulty of doing the latter - even without being deafened - causes them to lose focus, and the spell fizzles. They hiss a curse in their inborn tongue.
At least the ringing in their ears has mostly subsided. "Fire, but carefully!" Alvar says swiftly to Iosif, hoping that the human's able to hear them. "The deafness is temporary, but this thing could kill one of us!"
Even though the rats are being culled, the sylph seems uneasy looking at the last remaining rodent slicing into Campre.
She stutters while she is mumbling something quietly. Not like she can hear her own voice anyway. "Pu-puh-please, k- k- ki- kill it..."
She preemptively covers her ears before another shot is fired.
With only one of the rats remaining, and desiring an end to the fight as quickly as possible so she can rush to Campre's side, Elyssa concentrates her psychic might into a dazing spell that will hopefully stun the creature long enough to be slain once and for all.
The (blue) rat, frantic from the musket's thunder and smell, attempts to tear into Campre. However, Elyssa's spell dazes the rodent, and it sits on Campre's chest motionless. Campre struggles to stay conscious, trying to shake the dire rat off him.
Iosif reloads then fires at the remaining rat, hoping to end this as quickly as possible.
Ethyl greedily imbibes the cure light wounds potion she took earlier, healing some of her wounds and stopping the bleeding.
She stalks over to Campre and looks him over.
And confidentially exclaims, "You'll live." There is a hint of anger in her voice. She thinks, If infection doesn't set in.
She continues, "Since you seem incapable of picking up a weapon, perhaps it would be best if you waited here while the rest of us find a path to safety."
She thought, I could gut him and then he won't drain our resources. Ethyl glances at the rest of the group and a more rational part overides the impulse, Some of the others would choose him over you and what would the rest of the asylum staff think if you were discovered.
The last rat's squeal is eclipsed by the gunshot, and it takes almost a full minute before everyone can here again. Campre groans as Ethyl administers to him, trying to summon a snarky remark but hissing in pain instead as he tries to stand and fails.
"That ... is fair. I'll keep watch here till you find somewhere else to rest."
The door to this room isn't open, with the faintest of light seen underneath the door by those with low-light and darkvision.
"There were not any weapons to pick up, but he seems currently too injured to pick up a weapon regardless," Iosif says, taking the time to load a proper, non-alchemical bullet and gunpowder into his firearm just in case something shows up...
Which, he just fired a firearm multiple times. Pretty much everyone and everything in this asylum knows he's here. He needs to be prepared, both to answer questions and to fight. "And yes, those languages were Infernal and Abyssal -- though admittedly they bleed together for me," he says as he turns to Elyssa.
Alvar manages to fight off the ringing in their ears from the explosive firearm this time, and takes a quiet breath. Their magical ward fades gradually, leaving their nearby allies less protected than before.
After a moment, they walk over to the zoog's corpse, kneeling down beside it. "It didn't answer my question." They observe, annoyed. "Though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. They enjoy the flesh of thinking mortals such as ourselves." They pause, wondering how they know that, while remaining certain that it is completely true. I am clearly some sort of scholar. Or I was, before I forgot… everything.
But they haven’t forgotten everything, they realize - as this very encounter demonstrates. So I suppose it stands to reason that the memories are not gone forever.
Coming back to the moment, they begin to explain. "This is, as I said, a zoog. Their glowing eyes cause magical auras to display themselves in the visible spectrum..." I wonder whether that could be somehow used for my studies. Shaking their head, they set the thought aside for now.
"Furthermore, they are able to touch ghosts and other such creatures, and can communicate with animals. Fascinating creatures, all told.” They purse their lips, fingers flexing on their staff. "It's just... exceedingly strange. There shouldn't be any reason for a zoog to be here. They're natives to the Dimension of Dreams..."
"Unless," they raise their voice inquisitively as they look at the injured nurse, ”there's a powerful spellcaster here, whose familiar it was." Though not phrased as a question, the implication of one is clear.
"Aren't familiars... basically useless in combat?" Iosif asks. He's certainly not versed in anything arcane, and he's barely versed in the divine, so he has no clue if what he's saying holds any weight.
Ethyl relents despite having instructed them to take the torture implements earlier, "I shall aspire to be more eleemosynary."
She methodically searches under the boiler and spoke in the harsh and orderly language of devils,
Once Alvar finished their lecture Ethyl made some notes, "It's blood and eyes surely has unique properties." Ethyl took a sample of both methodically adding them to her collection.
The sylph keeps holding her palms on her ears and forces her mouth open many times before the ringing subsides. She clutches her scarf and finally exhales in relief when it does. Moving into a corner as far away from Iosif and the accursed firearm as possible, she leans her back against the wall and observes the people in the room. Her frustration seems to compound with every sentence they speak, realising that their minds have access to seemingly entire libraries of information while she can't even remember her own name.
"Damn this." she grunts under her breath before addressing the group "How do you know all this? We don't even know who we are. What we are."
”Generally, you are correct, Iosif.” Alvar agrees. ”It would, as I say, have to be an exceptionally potent spellcaster to be able to make a zoog a familiar… so I rather doubt that it is the case that Brimstone has - or had - such a patient... or doctor, for that matter..” They pause. Although it would explain, perhaps, why we were imprisoned…
”No,” they continue, setting the thought aside for now, ”I suspect that this zoog wasn’t here as a familiar. But that makes it considerably strange… something is more amiss here than a simple doppelgänger masquerading as a patient.”
Of course, we already knew that, didn’t we? Alvar sighs. ”We need more information. That means scouting further, but I imagine that your firearm has alerted everyone within a considerable distance.” Their tone isn’t disapproving, merely factual. ”So subtlety will be more difficult. Nevertheless, I suggest we attempt to proceed… quietly.”
To emphasize their words, they take an experimental quiet step, wincing at the sudden jolt of pain in their ankle. Alvar takes the moment to look down at the injury that the rat had managed to inflict upon them. That… looks pretty bad, actually. They exhale sharply. ”As best as we’re able.” They say to themself.
Ethyl’s movement catches their attention. ”Ah, I was about to ask you to do that. I would appreciate the chance to study the zoog’s organs and nature alongside you, when we have the chance.”
The commentary in Infernal makes them smile faintly, though there’s a faintly malicious twist to the expression.
They add, sounding oddly amused.
They switch back to Taldane. ”… it doesn’t feel as comfortable to speak that.” Still, a shared language uncommon to this plane could be useful.
They glance at the sylph, sighing. ”… to be honest, I don’t know how I know this. I just… do. It’s there when I look for it.” The wizard sounds sincerely sympathetic. "But even still, not knowing who or where we are, or why we're here... that's no reason to give up hope. Never stop moving forwards."
Finally, they frown, spying something beneath the boilers out of the corner of their eyes. ”Hm. Sunrods, it looks like. Not useful to me, but it could be useful to us all.”
Alvar identifies the sunrods and the sylph immediately points at them, then the items with her eyes wide as barn gates and an expression that can be only interpreted as "They friggin' did it again!"
She grunts in anger and throws her hands in the air, holding back a scream.
Ethyl takes the sunrods and hands one each to of the full humans in the party, "Niter and brimstone or charcoal and some sort of binder. Relatively simple creations, not too dissimilar to black powder." She eyes the dangerous musket.
She nods to Alvar, calming herself, "I suspect that we have collaborated in the past on projects."
Ethyl moved to the door and listened through it before opening it and peaking out.
"I am unsure of your names, but it seems our amnesia is... limited in some capacity. We seem to retain knowledge of the world around us, and our skills such as our languages... but little in the way of our past experiences." Iosif posits.
He decides to stick to Taldane. "Which is good, otherwise none of us would be able to use weapons effectively, nor remember how to cast magic. And... we should probably stick to this language to keep everyone involved. I can reason out why I know Infernal and Abyssal, but I cannot remember actually learning them," he says as he turns to Nyarai and Alvar.
Iosif then peeks through the same door as Ethyl. Not even attempting to remain stealthy, since he kind of already blew that chance.
The back and forth between the others and the conversation on what they knew and did not know left Elyssa noticeably uneasy. "Infernal and Abyssal... such unholy languages. The fact that we know them yet are ignorant of so much else about ourselves is... disconcerting to say the least."
Wishing not to dwell on all the implications of that and wanting not to be near the corpse of the zoogs, Elyssa joins Ethyl and Iosif at the door to try and spy what was on the other side.
Alvar nods slowly at Ethyl's words. "You know, I believe you are right."
They glance at the witch, feeling a brief sense of sympathy. "I am Alvar. I believe he is Iosif," they indicate the human, "she is Ethyl," the half-elf doctor, "she is... something with an E? Apologies, I don't recall." They say, shaking their head. "And you, I think... hm." They consider. "Something beginning with an N?"
They shrug at Iosif. "I believe Infernal is intrinsic to my being, but the rest? I think I was probably a scholar."
With that, they take a few steps towards the door, carefully avoiding any particularly loud surfaces and trusting their heritage and intuitive sense of stealth to help them with other potential difficulties. The wizard also takes their time to examine the boiler room more broadly, relying on their eyes' ability to penetrate the darkness to do so.
I guess none of them are familiar with the lesser powers of the planes, Iosif thinks to himself; it's probably for the best. He can't remember them much either besides Cixyron.
"Yes, I am Iosif. Though given the surname I remember... that could very well be an alias. I believe you're right about working together, if we have some clue who we all are. Can't imagine on what though, doubt I'd be doing anything with the arcane. "
Iosif also keeps his eyes peeled for everything as he approaches the door quietly. He doesn't try to keep too stealthy, as once again he figures the gunshots would have given away his position readily.
The party hears nothing outside of the door, and as they open it they see the source of light is to the south, a torch or two. The door opens in, allowing them to look at first to the north, seeing little besides blood stains and some debris littering the hall. Should they look out further they see a rough barricade made from a broken door and table and some odd pieces of furniture, behind which the torches are hung up and back a bit further.
There is no movement to be seen in either direction, and other than some heavy breathing in the boiler room and the random muffled creak of the asylum there is no noise.
Iosif goes to investigate the barricade, a little confused as to why one would even be constructed. He pokes and prods at it with his ramrod, hoping to get some answers. "barricade?"
As soon as Iosif steps out into the hall, however, a crossbow bolt hisses past his head. Four heads pop out just over the barricade, at least two armed with crossbows.
"No closer! Don't you freaks come any closer!" A tired, scared male voice cried out.
"We're wise to you shape changers! Piss off!" Another barked, a gruff female.