A set of characters who do not know each other and in fact do not even know their own names or background are standing in a small room. They escaped from some cells, killed a doppelganger and climbed a chute out of the depths.
The group of characters are as follows:
Blondie - Half-Elf
The group looked around as Blondie opened the only door, it was pouring rain as she stuck her head out. A strong wind started blowing straight down upon her as she took a step out into a courtyard. Trampled flowerbeds lay smeared and squashed across the mud. On all sides, stark gray walls rose toward a narrow gap of sunless key filled with dark clouds and a sickly yellow fog. To the southeast lay a shedlike structure largely collapsed and immediately to west was a door.
Blondie moved to the western door as Bowman stepped out into the rain. The door opened inward and Blondie peered into a dark hallway. Broken lanterns and a couple of battered doors lined the cold rubble strew hall. To the south a low light shown back-lighting a pair of swinging doors laying shattered upon a 4 foot high heap of wrecked furniture clogging a door frame. To the north the hall descended into darkness. Newt moved out into the hallway and with her darkvision could make out more hallway to the north but that was all. Laughing Man also joined in the hall while Wanda moved into the courtyard and looked northward where she saw fallen walls obstructing any further movement to the north. The second story of this building seemed to almost have fallen in on itself, ragged stone protruding from above and large piles of stone and rock laying on the ground. As Wanda checked for magic, the wind picked up and blew even harder from the north.
In the hallway suddenly a voice cried "Whoa there! We got more here!" The group inside heard the notching of several crossbows. "Stay back where you are, don't move any closer!"
Laughing man started to move toward the barricade and crossbow bolts came flying out, two finding his soft flesh. "We said stay there and we mean it. We can take all of you on!"
A new voice is heard from beyond the pile of rubble, "Draw no closer and leave. We don't want your kind here. How many of you are there?"
Blondie responded "We are six, were just looking for a way out. Do you know how to get out of this place?"
"Where are the others? Bring them all in here."
Orator responded, "I thought you wanted us to leave, how do we get out?"
"As if you didn't know!" was the only reply.
Eventually Wanda joined the rest of the group who were all confused, "I just want to leave, I don't even know any of these people."
From the barricade the voice replied "Just what I would expect from your type, don't know each other, you probably don't even know who you are."
"Correct", said Laughing Man as he nursed his wounds.
"How do we know your not one of them -- Shapeshifters? They can look exactly like your group."
"We saw one of them downstairs," answered Bowman. "But we are not shapeshifters, we hust want out."
"Bring back a few dead doppelgangers, then maybe we'll rethink whose side you're on."
"Where would we find them?" inquired Wanda.
"As if you didn't know. And don't bring back any with crossbow bolts in them or wounds. I know we've hit a few of you. We don't want to see any we already killed."
At this point the characters were acting individually although Laughing man and Blondie asked for some healing if possible. Newt gave out some healing but indicated she didn't have a tremendous amount.
The two closest doors to the west were both battered as if something had been trying to break into them. Laughing man and Newt moved to the north where two other doors stood on the east. The southern door led into a storage room of some sort. The room was heaped with fallen shelves and broken containers and reeked of chlorine. The northern door also led into a storage room with the same heap of fallen shelves and chlorine smell. Laughing man entered and found a set of manacles, 10 feet of chain, two blankets and a tarnished old silver necklace. As he was pocketing the necklace two Giant Centipedes emerged and attacked.
Laughing man fled the room as quick as possible while the centipedes moved to attack the Bowman and Blondie, who made her way back at the sound of trouble. The Centipedes were little trouble for the group and no one found that they were poisoned.
Further north the hall ended in large pile of fallen stones and rubble. To the east the walls had largely collapsed, exposing debris-cluttered desks, toppled lockers and in the north several bodies that almost look human.
Studying the room the characters found paper and basic writing implements on the desks, none indicating what this building was. Laughing man found a small steel mirror and a pair of gaudy red leather boots with cat skin lining. He discarded a wooden holy symbol of Pharasma. Orator picked up the holy symbol while Blondie, Newt and Bowman headed north to the pile of bodies.
There were human bodies in the pile, some with white "lab coats" others with blue smocks. There were also three doppelganger bodies riddled with crossbow bolts. Strips of flesh had been filleted from the bodies and hung on a nearby wall. Laying on top of the pile was a grandmotherly woman in a white smock, with a gruesomely broken leg. As the characters approached she moaned and murmured "Help me."
Newt used Rebuke Death to help her recover. The party questioned her about where they were, how to get out, how did she get here?
The old nurse indicated that she was a nurse here at the Briarstone Asylum and had been dragged here by a pale humanoid with long skinny arms and legs and a blank face. She didn't know what had happened, maybe an earthquake? When queried again about the way out she said the entrance was to the south. Wanda surmised that the crossbow wielding men were possibly the inmates. Orator went to find some wood and cloth to make a splint for her leg.
Meanwhile Blondie was opening the only door in this room, it led into a ruined hallway, a door on the opposite wall was closed and to the north the entire hallway had collapsed into a heap of dense gray rubble. There was a occasional clattering of pebbles making it sound as though the mound had not entirely settled, and more rubble could collapse at any moment. A body lay half buried from the waist down in the rubble.
Wanda moved up to the body to see if she could find a magic and as she looked down at the corpse two disembodied hands moved to attack, one hit a grappled her, holding on to her leg. As others of the party moved into the cramped space a head flew out to attack Laughing man. Wanda beat on the hand and Newt moved up to help and he noticed the body start to writhe as if something wanted to break out from inside. The corpse's animated innards ripped the flesh apart. The disgusting entrails attempted to wrap around Newt's legs but failed. Blondie also move up to help attack the hands.
Meanwhile just after Bowman moved into the hall he heard a noise behind and saw the grandmotherly old lady standing with no problem on both legs as she moved forward and attacked with claws. Bowman backed away and fired his bow, leaving an arrow sticking out of the woman.
Chaos ensued as the characters were fighting at least four different enemies at once in a narrow crowded space. The Orator began his performance and tried to cast Grease but for some reason it failed. Newt smashed the entrails with her mace, one hand climbed up Wanda's body and grappled her around the throat leaving her unable to speak, the other hand attacked Blondie who hit the floor unconscious. Orator attacked the disembodied head with a mace, smashing it to smithereens. Meanwhile, Bowman and Laughing man were busy with the old lady, now thought to be a shapeshifter. Attacks were traded, and as the woman moved into the hall shed dropped Orator to the floor unconscious also.
Things were getting serious as Newt destroyed the entrails, Wand smashed one hand and Bowman kept firing away at the old lady. Newt moved to Blondie, dispatched the last hand and applied Rebuke Death to bring Blondie back to life. Bowman and Laughing man finally finished off the old lady who upon death turned into a doppelganger in a dirty lab coat.
In the aftermath Newt also applied Rebuke Death to the Orator brignin him back to the realm of the living. Newt applied limited healing to the injured. Talk began of getting some rest as the spell casters were low on spells, the party was injured and becoming tired. Newt added that she only had one further Rebuke Death. The Orator suggested returning to the store rooms. Laughing man wanted to return to the cells, as that seemed fairly secure and they could bring up the doppelganger body from that area.
Wand suggested that they should ignore everything the old lady said as they were probably lies, the entrance may or may not be south, the crossbowmen might not be crazy and where was the group exactly. She also would also like to rest and wanted to find a secure location.
Meanwhile Blondie had opened the last remaining door that was visible. This led into a mostly rubble filled chamber with a few toppled table and and open archway to the south. She stepped in to see what was beyond the opening. This area was filled with more toppled tables and empty shelves. A wall of pipelike crossbeams filled the western alcove. Three figures were manacled to the rack, in the south a human wearing stained yellow sheets as robes and bearing a flame-shaped mark upon his forehead. In the middle was a corpse her left arm completely stripped of flesh. Feeding on the corpse was a creature with long, sharp teeth and its pallid flesh stretched tightly over its starved frame.
The Orator entered and identified the creature as a ghoul, which used paralysis as part of its attack. The man was wild eyed looking at the party and his manacles. Newt entered and started to cast Disrupt Undead at the ghoul, over and over. Most of the attacks injured the creature and after a long wait Blondie rushed in and dispatched the foul creature.
The man in yellow spoke "praise, words fail, Zandalus sees." Looking wildly at his manacled hands and back to the group, he continued "praise." Laughing man move right up to his face and asked his name. The only response was "word fail, Zandalus sees!" Pleadingly his eyes indicated he wished to be freed.
The Orator searched the corpse and found a dirty handkerchief in a pocket. It was clear that there was something round and solid wrapped in it. The Orator opened the handkerchief and rolled a disembodied, coin sized eyeball out onto the floor. It rolled to the left as it was let out. The eyeball had an X-shaped pupil. It looked up at Newt and the eye blinked.
Seeing no response from Newt, Laughing man moved to the eyeball which moved to look at him and blinked. The eyeball then rolled away from Laughing man. Laughing man used the handkerchief to pick up the eyeball which blinked at him again. He rolled the eyeball up in the handkerchief and stuck it in his pocket.
There was a door to the south, which ignoring Wanda's pleas to leave it alone, Blondie opened. This room contained a wide table and two gigantic basins in alcoves. Ladders were propped up against the basins. The table was piled with remains of humans and doppelgangers, butchered beyond scientific inquiry and corpses lay discarded in the near corners. A stained sheet hung across the southern portion of the room. A lantern shone on the far side and the silhouette of a doppelganger moved around beyond the curtain. Laughing man demanded that they shut the door now, "We are not ready to fight another doppelganger at this point. Lets get some rest." At last the rest of the party agreed. As they shut the door and left the man in yellow once again exclaimed, "praise, words fail, Zandalus sees!"
The group dragged the body of the doppelganger down toward the barricade. As they approached a voice demanded, "Leave the body there, don't come any closer. We still need two more bodies. I still believe you could be shapeshifters."
The group decided to head to the cells to grab a rest. As Blondie headed out the door to the shed, she found the outside view to be the same. One difference though, the rain was hot, blistering in fact. She made a quick dash without taking any damage from the drops. Bowman and Newt followed but the rest of the party used the linens, and blankets to cover themselves as they fled into the room with the chute and descended to the cells.
Taking refuge in the cells the characters settled down for a rest. The characters slept fitfully and when they awoke, Laughing man, Wanda and Bowman awoke haggard and unrested. They did not feel any more healthy and Wanda could not prepare any spells. This was certainly disconcerting. The party dragged the doppelganger up the chute and into the hallway. The weather was still pouring rain, but it was not hot and there was no wind, it seems as if the outside conditions were ever changing but the rain and yellow fog.
They left the body in the hallway, the previous body had been removed and a voice from the barricade spoke, "Very good, only one more to go."
"What is behind the door right here?" queried the Orator indicating the second door on the west.
"As if you didn't know!" was the only reply.
DM's Note: The group earned 606 XP for the evening and now require need 861 to reach second level. Once again the party was sure that the DM was going to execute a TPK on night two.
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