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I don't recognize this street. The sky's wrong, like an unholy storm is about to break. Vitriolic yellow fog is bellowing this direction. A child runs by and I realize I'm not alone. I find myself running too, though when he ducks left I go right, we end up at the same dead end. Two others must have been behind me, their faces unfamiliar. I notice the child is no child but one of the little-folk; there is a tall slender man, elf perhaps; and another in armor I feel is familiar, though I can't place why, the otherworldly pressure of this place is constricting my thoughts.
We all turn to face the advancing fog as it parts and some tall leathery creature glides forth, it's evil intent deafening in its silent approach. The man in armor charges the wraith and though his sword lands solidly, the creature is unfazed. It raises an oversized straight razor and deftly guides it through the man’s neck, his disembodied head rolls back as the miasma engulfs the creature and his slumping corpse. The head seems to look at me and I swear I hear it sound out “me” in a hoarse dead hiss. The little one darts forth, I can only guess he was trying to get by the creature unnoticed; however, a splattering of blood came forth from the fog verifying his demise. I must be mad, for in the pattern of the bloody spray I read the word “up”. Imagining this as some warning I looked up to see nothing but thick clouds move in unnatural, unseen currents. They appeared to writhe as though a nest of snakes was waking from their slumber, they mocked me in their rolling forms, undulating together and apart in a mesmerizing fashion. Feeling sick I pulled my gaze back to the terror before me just in time to see the elf step forward into the fog. Flame shot forth from his hands lighting the scene in a hot red light. It lasted just long enough for me to see the faceless creature work the razor across the elf. Another headless shape sagged beneath its unsupported weight. From the fog the elf’s head rolled to my feet, it too whispered a word “Save”. I could no longer bare it, the miasma closed in and just as I felt hot steel on my throat the word “wake” shot into my mind and the world went dark.
I lurched up and filled my lungs instinctively with acrid air. It was dark save for a small flickering light coming from the other side of some bars. I heard the breath of something nearby. Reaching out I found it to be another person. I softly asked if they were awake and I got an annoyed hiss to stay silent. I stood, trembling, and went to the bars, holding them firmly as I could muster for fear of crumpling back down. The scene before me was horrid, though not as vile as what I had just awoken from… or so I thought.
In the center of the tight stone room there was a thick slab with a man tied to it. Around him prowled a figure in some sort of apron, perhaps a hospital garb, though not of a style I recognized. She cooed and purred with delight as it gently ran half of a shearing scissor down the thigh of her prey. On a small table held a candle and every type of improvised scalpel you could imagine. Shards of glass and stone and flint, lengths of rusted steel with edges most likely ground on the very stone slab her prey was ensnared on. Across from this were two other cells and from one peered the face of a man I desperately wish I didn’t recognize; it was the face of the armored man from my nightmare.
His bravery did not die with my sleep, for as I spotted him he called out to the woman, challenging her to leave the man alone. She snapped at him to be silent, hissing that he too would get his turn. Emboldened by this show of foolish bravado, I too spoke up saying that I was impatient and would rather go now. The man spoke in a parallel manner at nearly the exact instant I did. This visibly perturbed the woman, she snapped at him to shut up, then turned to me. I hardly heard what she said, as she turned to face me I watched in horror as her face morphed into… was that MY face...what do I look like? It felt familiar and distant all at once but before I had time to contemplate the queries suddenly surging into my mind, her form was thrust towards my cell and her body slammed against the bars. Instinctively I lashed out, attempting to hold her against the bars. She pulled away before I could get a grip on her, but she once again was slammed against the bars as the man on the slab had gotten a foot free and was kicking at her with all the vigor he could conjure. In a flurry of anger she bolted up and appeared at her prey’s side, slamming down the half scissor with all her might; puncturing his chest repeatedly with such force that I swore I could hear the cracking of his ribs beneath the savage blows. It was at this moment I saw a child bolt from across the room to my cell, but it was no child, it was the little-folk from my hellish vision. He had somehow gotten the keys and unlocked my cell, then darted towards the other man’s cell. I did not have time to ponder how, or why. I needed to act, and act with as much speed and violence as I could muster if I wanted to live.
I stepped up to the table with all her cutting tools and grabbed one, throwing it at her as best as I could manage in my current state. It was as though my vision was stunted to that of a pinhole, I watched the shard burry itself deep into her flesh and she spun around to glower at me. Hot steel opened my chest in a deep gash spilling my life’s blood down the front of my person. She obviously delighted in the splattering that flashed across her face from the blow. She was about to finish the job when she realized she was quickly becoming outnumbered, and she fled out of the room slamming a door behind her.
The little one ran to the door in a surprising pursuit, but was at a stalemate trying to get the door open with the creature holding it shut. The other human (the one who had been armored in my dream) rushed to the door to assist the halfling. He stopped near the door as something caught his eye, I followed his hand as he reached down into a bag that had toppled over and retrieve a pendent that he stared at familiarly. I saw somethings in the bag that caught my eye so I went to investigate. There were vials and tonics that had an air of intimacy to me. I began to pick them up as the elf took the candle and went to the far side of the room leaving three of us in total darkness. Annoyed I carefully started identifying the contents of the vials by scent and positioning them on my person. By the time I was done the elf had returned with the candle and I was able to move forward to help the human with the door as the halfling had moved back.
The two of us were able to overpower the creature and force the door open. Obviously cornered the creature dropped its improvised weapon as its claws elongated into ferocious points. Instinctively reaching for a couple vials I mixed the contents and quickly corked the solution. I could feel it getting very hot as I lobbed the flask over the heads of my ally and the creature. The vial burst just past the creature dowsing it in a flaming volatile liquid. It lashed out feverously at my companions slashing the human across the arm and chest hard enough to knock him down. I threw another explosive mixture at the creature once more covering it in fire, but it still stood. It glared at me with piercing eyes and I felt the cold hand of death reaching for me. Just as it entered into the hallway to finish me off its eyes went wide in surprise and it fell. Behind it the halfling had buried a knife into the creatures back killing it, however the action apparently took all the little guy had left for he too slumped into unconsciousness.
Rushing forward I started to look over my fallen allies, their wounds could have easily been lethal however they hadn’t succumbed yet. I pulled them away from the creature and started working on the wounds. The elf brought over some equipment he found on the other side of the room and there was a familiar healer’s kit in the lot. I was overjoyed to see just the tools I needed to stitch these two back up and clean the wounds properly… not to mention my own savage wound. While I was working on the wounded the elf and I began talking. Looks like he had the same dream I did, and when I mentioned the words I saw it clicked. “Me” “Up” “Save” “Wake” These words were penetrating the dream from the man on the table manifesting themselves as visual and auditory forms, he was screaming “Wake up”, “Save me!” With this dark realization, and with my patients stabilized I went to inspect what it was that put us in this predicament.
After looking at its corpse for a few minutes I remembered what it was, though I’m not sure why I would’ve known in the first place, but it was a doppelganger. A horrible creature able to shift its form to infiltrate groups or tribes with the sole purpose of expanding its own wealth. I told the elf of my realization and the others when they eventually woke; however, the elf and I had quite a bit of time to talk before that happened. We spoke of our current quandy and what we could remember. Neither of us could remember when our last memory was, or very simple things, like our names or where we were.
Once my companions woke we decided it would be best to leave this place as quickly as possible. It was discovered that there was no good way out. We would either have to scale a smoke chimney through a furnace or up an old coal chute that has recently been used as a corpse delivery system. We decided to climb up the chute and the halfling volunteered to go first. He easily shimmied up the chute followed by the elf. The man, now in his full armor, was having more trouble getting his footing, he was still weak from his wounds and lack of peaceful sleep. I gave him some calming words and helped him find his footing, then followed him up.
At the top of the chute was a small room, beyond the single door we could hear a thunderstorm under way. Opening the door and entering the courtyard was an odd experience, there was an oppressive heat and the rain was scalding hot. I quickly burst through the closest door and found myself in a long hallway as the others come in behind me. To my left there was a barricade made of chairs, tables and anything else with enough substance to cause impedance. Using the barricade as a rest, two crossbow men in matching uniform hollered at us to halt. I immediately raised my hands explaining that we were of no threat to them. Three more uniformed men joined their brethren at the barricade, two more crossbow men and a superior officer who engaged us. He demanded we tell him who we were and explain our presence. We unfortunately had no answers for him, only questions. He informed us that doppelgangers were a serious issue and these soldiers had held this hall for a while, we also learned that we were in a place called Briarstone Asylum. He refused to let us on the other side of the barricade, he simply didn’t trust us; said the only way he would let us past is if we brought him three doppelganger heads.
Disheartened we realized we were stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. We had no choice but to continue on into the depths of this asylum. The elf and I went down the chute to collect the first head and return it to the soldiers. We then collected our wits and pressed on down the looming hallway. The first room we came to was appeared to be a boiler room, and after we had entered a number of creatures burst out from beneath a couple of tanks. There were two large rats, and one odd creature I recognized as a Zoog, a small magical creature that resembles a mole mixed with a rat. They have minor magical abilities like the ability to speak with animals and detect magical objects with a light that shines from their eyes. We were able to dispatch these creatures without too much issue and made a quick search of the room, finding a couple of hidden sun-rods. The next room we encountered was a small laundry closed, although it held a nasty surprise of a couple large centipedes that attacked the halfling quite fervently, opening his wounds and knocking him out. I pulled him from the room as the elf drenched the room in fire flowing forth from his outstretched hands.
Though we’ve only been going for a couple hours my companions and I are too beat up and depleted to be useful in a fight, so we decided to rest up again while I attend to the wounds of my companions.