"That... hm." Alvar sighs. "Well, at least you got rid of it before it became a threat." They approach the creature, examining it more closely, then shake their head. "No, I'm not sure what this is..." There's something nigglingly familiar about it, but they can't quite put their finger on what that is. "But I don't think it's a doppelgänger, unfortunately."
They turn their gaze to the remaining man. Zandalus? Taking a few steps forwards, they don a wide, zealous smile. "Yes, brother, Zandalus sees, indeed! We were searching for you in his name. How did you get into this mess?" They gesture subtly with one hand to the others, hoping that their companions will allow them the chance to get what information they can from the prisoner.
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Ethyl takes her samples from the man, who tries to slide along the piping to get away at first, but the doctor wouldn't be denied. As she pokes and draws from him, Ethyl becomes confident that this man is not a doppelganger. His body and blood do not react the same way the shapeshifters do to wounds or pieces removed from them.
Nyarai has no difficulty climbing the network of copper poles and pipes, and as she peers out of the dirty windows she sees at first a blank yellow mist just outside. Then a shadow moves through the mist, towering with too many legs moving silently not even thirty feet away. Its lumbering skitter is visible for a few seconds before it either vanishes into thin air or the fog thickens to obscure it from view.
Should Iosif or Enoch investigate the beheaded corpse with Alvar, they all quickly notice that the monstrous cannibal was not a doppelganger, let alone their required third one. The head has long ears, covered in gore, that poke out from the chest cavity of the first corpse. Doppelgangers in their natural form no not have features like noses, ears, etc.
"Praise, words fail. Zandalus sees." The remaining living prisoner continues to babble, those words and phrases all he seems capable of uttering. He perks up at Alvar's attempts to speak to him rather than stick needles in him, but his vocabulary and irregular speech pattern make him a difficult conversationalist.
Ethyl turns to the rest of the party and shares her conclusions, "I have good news and bad news. I can say with confidence that this man is not a doppelganger however that leaves us with the troublesome issue of sourcing a third. Perhaps behind that door there." She searches the man while he is bound and the two corpses for anything useful.
She takes the manacles off the dead as they no longer need to be restrained, "Shall we release him? He seems harmless." Her thoughts drift back to the ‘helpless’ elderly woman in the other room.
That is when Ethyl notices the witch looking at something, a window. She regards the yellow mist and the strange creature beyond. She can’t help but try to understand what she sees.
Looking into the yellow fog through the window, the sylph's eyes go wide and her face goes pale. She jumps off the pipes onto the floor, and shudders. The first thing she remembers was yellow fog and what followed. "Not a dream? A premonition? Gods..." she mutters to nobody in particular, but points at the windows and the yellow hues.
Enoch's blue eyes narrow at the further investigation into the newly redead corpse eater.
I know that this creature creates a strong distaste, no, an anger at its mere existence. My mind wants me to know, to remember, but only this revulsion is certain.
The Pharasman then begins to release the babbling prisoner after Ethyl is satisfied with her findings.
Perhaps we locate a comfortable place for you to collect your thoughts as we continue to explore, exterminate and exercise this madhouse.
Enoch attempts to find such a spot for the interim....
"Of course they do." Alvar sighs, but keeps their smile on their face. "Quite so, quite so. Where do you return, when Zandalus calls?" Their eyes fall half shut as they feign something of a trance. "For I see that he needs you, brother, even as we do."
They pay half a mind to the others' discussion, but gesture slightly to stop them from freeing him for the moment, not quite trusting the man to remain cooperative. I need to prepare a message spell tomorrow. It would've proved useful here.
Once they have gained whatever insight they can from the man, however minimal that is, they turn to the others. "I don't think we should free him - at least not yet. Bringing another person in will only increase the guards suspicions of us, even with the doppelgänger corpses... and I'm not certain he's cogent enough of the circumstances to either aid us in slaying such a beast... or remaining safe from the guards'... anxious crossbows."
Ethyl says, "It doesn't harm us to keep him locked up for now."
Satisfied that the matter is settled she moves to the southern door opened it.
"We're not sure about that." the sylph responds. "What if we come back and looks like that." she points to the creature that was ears deep into someone else's chest cavity a few minutes ago. "With the head still attached."
Having already loosened one manacled hand, the Tortured Crusader stops when further discussions are presented....
Fair point. Apologies buddy, but you could turn into whatever that creature was, so hang out for just a bit more.
Enoch leaves him as is and joins Ethyl at the presented door...
The yellow-robed babbler smiled as it seemed he'd be freed, but then he whimpers as you leave him there. "Words fail, words fail."
Several wide tables and gigantic washbasins fill a laundry equipped to service hundreds. 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 stained sheet hangs between two of the basins,
dividing the room roughly in half. A lantern shines on the far side, casting flickering the faintest of shapes on the sheet.
Three chains can be glimpsed on the far southern wall. The room smells like soap, blood, vinegar, and rotting meat.
"How many dead can you fit into one building? This feels like the third mountain of corpses we saw." the sylph comments, her demeanour cold.
Holding his battered longsword as if his blankie, the Blue eyes of Enoch skip from morose pile to morose pile with tears mercifully blurring the macabre sights seen.
Did they perform these experiments on the entire facility!? What were they after? To what purpose?
The Tortured Crusader warily enters the repurposed laundry room. He slowly steps about the immediate area, searching for unlikely survivors.
Or more of those other things more likely.
Leading with his longsword held before him as a desperate protector, the Wanderer begins silently prodding and poking piles....
Ethyl approaches the table peering at the corpses, hopeful that one of the bodies is a doppelganger corpse not killed by a crossbow bolt.
Alvar glances around the room, a frown on their face, then casts a spell, summoning the divinatory capabilities they have prepared. Scanning the room in more depth, they seek out any magical auras or other signs of strangeness.
They absently reply to Enoch. "It's unclear whether this was the doing of the original doctors or of the... strangeness that has happened. Our own 'experimenter' was a doppelgänger, and if my suspicions are correct, I don't think she always was a doppelgänger. Something's... very strange."
Noticing that the group might split up, they shift the subject. "Stay together, everyone." They say, raising their voice carefully. "I don't want anyone going missing and returning as a doppelgänger." The abjurer looks at the sylph, then the Wanderer. "The only ones they can't imitate to perfection are she, he, and I."
"Doppelgängers do not replace people by the origials being transmuted, I think? It's more likely they just kill and replace the originals in society."
As the group cautiously enters the laundry room, they seek out doppelganger corpses unstruck by crossbow bolts. There is a total of five humanoids and two doppelgangers amid the pile of body parts, all of which missing fingers, toes, and other extremities. They seem to have had pieces of them carved away, each no larger than a slice of deli meat.
Enoch's search reveals the two doppelganger corpses seemed to have reverted to their natural forms after being riddled with bolts . None of the bodies he tests react, already stiffening in death.
In the southern most basin a noise is heard by Alvar, a pained groan and the sound of a dry mouth. Iosif and Ethyl notice the lantern light flicker and a silhouette casts a shadow on the tarp. The figure wields a dagger and seems to be carving away at something on a table. A woman's voice whimpers in pain.
Meanwhile, the sylph in the room seems oblivious to the situation in the south as she is focused on finding something completely different. She makes probably the first happy noises you've heard her make tonight as she stands up straight after reaching for the bottom of a crate and wants to share her findings. "Hey, look! We found some clothes we could use. I don't know about you, but we're co- oh." her smiles fades, but she seems content with owning a fresh pair of wrist warmers.
Ethyl points at the silhouette cast on the sheet bisecting the room and whispers, "Quiet." She takes her dagger in hand and quaffs a vial. When the rest of the party was ready she pulled the sheet down and steeled herself for a fight.
The Wanderer's blue eyes turn at Ethyl, as she voices silence. Seeing the good doctor taking a swill of bourbon for nerves, the Tortured Crusader subconsciously licks his lips, as he steps quietly towards her position.
Alvar pauses, a frown on their face, and chant a quick spell, summoning a shield of force in front of them. They carefully advance to keep themselves within the requisite distance to allow their protective aura to encompass Ethyl and Enoch, then nod slightly at the half-elf. I am definitely preparing message tomorrow. Of course, that would require us to be subtle in any way, shape or form...
There is no change in the shadow's movements, still slicing away at a body on a table. The initial moans fade away at first, but then they double, in addition to the sound of movement coming from the southern most basin, each standing about five feet tall. A moment later and the moans seem to engage in a muffled contest of vying for the group's attention.
"Wait." Alvar's voice is harsh. "There's something back there. Some sort of magic..."
While Ethyl waits keeping a count of the seconds in her head she peers into the basin where the moaning is coming from.
Enoch approaches the illuminated sheet, watching the shadows playing out some unknown, but probably grisly but wretching operation being performed....
The Tortured Crusader seems likely to tear down said curtain in mere moments.....
Alvar's detect magic detects three auras, all faint, and determines the shadow on the curtain is an illusion. The groaning from behind the curtain turns into a barely audible whisper: "Help...me..."
"An illusion. Don't believe it." Alvar says softly, eyes narrowing. [smaller]"Stay on your guard. I'm almost positive that whatever is in there wants to do us harm."/smaller]
Not wasting any time Ethyl tears down the sheet and gets ready to fight whatever is on the other side.
Iosif raises his firearm and prepares as well.
As the curtain is torn down, all that is seen is a table on which a young woman wearing a tattered nurse outfit lies. She seems to be bleeding in several places, similarly cut up like the corpses in the room. She looks up and weeps as she sees the group.
"Oh, thank Pharasma!" She wails. "I didn't think anyone would come from the camp!"
Iosif, once again, winces. This time, however, it's not just some implacable hate for a god he can barely remember anything about.
"I do not trust you. Twice over. Prove to us you're not a doppelganger and my distrust gets cut in half." He has his musket ready to fire at the human-or-doppelganger.
Ethyl pulls out a set of manacles and approaches the woman, "My dear, you will consent to being bound while we investigate the veracity of your claims. Dear Iosif, please blow her head off if she so much as moves."
Slightly trembling hands hold tightly to his battered longsword. Blue red eyes wildly seek anything else from her that isn't complete compliance of Ethyl probably would initiative a sudden wavering of his current steadfastness....
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Meanwhile, the sylph is plundering the laundry basket for something she could use like a coat.
"Focus, please." Alvar hisses at his fellow planestouched. "Pick up items after the threat is dealt with." Is it that cold? Or hot? They know they're rather more resistant to such things than most other mortals, but surely it isn't that bad at the moment...
As Nyarai finds a extra large shawl/poncho with some simple embroidery in a corner, the "wounded" woman's face shimmers with a gray ripple as disgust twists her expression.
"Perfect, they're skeptics." She sighs, drawing a dagger and muttering an arcane word. "Not like I was going to survive in this Hell for much longer anyways."
Ethyl tries to engage with the doppelganger, while mumbling "Thought so." She's so smugly satisfied that she forgets how to use a dagger.
Ethyl takes a swipe at the doppelganger, but the creature parries with her own dagger before vanishing with a muttered word in a bored tone.
As the unearthly pale woman exposes herself Ethyl seizes the the opportunity to stab her in the throat.
Enoch snarls as the creature reveals it's true self. The Paladin immediately rounds the table to trap her in a Flank with Ethyl.
He then swings wildly at her!
I can smell your fear!
"It isn't JUST that you're a doppelganger; I don't exactly shoot most people I don't trust."
Now, after the shots are fired, the sylph looks up and sees... nothing? "What happened? Why the ruckuss"
Remaining spells:
Cantrips - Detect Magic, Stabilise, Touch of Fatigue / + Message at will from racial stuff
Level 1 - 1 x Cure Light Wounds, 1 x Shadow Trap, 1 x Unseen Servant
A doppelgänger! And a fatalistic one, at that. Fascinating. The wizard considers for a moment. Seems more coherent than the other two we've met, maybe we could keep it prisoner to ask it- The doppelgänger's disappearance stops that thought in its tracks. No. Too dangerous. Whatever it just cast, I don't recognize it.
"A doppelgänger!" They reply to the sylph. "Turned invisible. That means it has more talents than the others, beyond natural shapeshifting."
Ethyls waits for the doppelganger to show themselves.
Behind the middle tub the doppelganger reveals herself to stare at Ethyl, her grey eyes silvery as the half-elf takes the brunt of her hypnotic stare. She then stabs with her dagger and one claw swiping at Enoch.
However, considering the party's edge, the two aren't taken by surprise. The doppelganger makes a clicking down like a disappointed parent.
Iosif fires another shot at the doppelgänger, aiming for the unnerving mouth orifice. He then shoves an alchemical cartridge into the musket.