Blondie moved to the final door leading from the administrators office and listened, hearing nothing she opened the door. A east-west hall way presented itself. There were several smashed lanterns lying on the floor. No creatures moved around and there were five other doors apparent, two each on the north and south walls and one at the end of the hall going east.
Blondie stepped into the hallway and made her way to the first door opening north. She perceived some shuffling noises from inside and then turned to listen at the southern door opposite. Hearing nothing at this door she waited for Bowman, Orator and Laughing Man to make their way into the hall.
Blondie opened the door into the sight of dozens of drawer handles frowning on the faces of numerous matching cabinets. Many of the drawers were open and their contents -- volumes' worth of stray parchment -- blanketed the floor. A man, in a yellow stained sheet holding a crowbar, was rooting through papers, pulling them from a cabinet, scanning them quickly and discarding them onto the floor.
Blondie mouthed that there was a threat and waited for Laughing Man to move past her in the hall. She then charged into the room and attacked. As her greatsword hit the Apostle, the man screamed that they were under attack. The crowbar missed Blondie wildly as the Apostle attacked.
Bowman readied his bow, Wanda moved to the hall between the doors and fired a ray at the Apostle. The north door beyond Laughing Man opened and another Apostle moved into the hall and swung her crowbar also missing wildly. Then the door north of Wanda opened and a third Apostle again missed wildly with his crowbar. Orator began an oration and Newt moved through her party to the room taking damage from the Apostle beside Wanda.
"Damn," Newt opined, "they miss everybody but me. I was sure I could make it past this time."
Laughing Man turned and studied the woman Apostle next to him and then struck critically with his dagger. Blondie managed to finish the Apostle in the paper room before another enemy entered beyond Laughing Man and flung his crowbar into the melee, again wildly.
Wanda moved away from her enemy and fired a ray at it. Bowman fired through the crowd missing the Apostles at the end of the hall. Orator used Unwitting Ally to causing the far Apostle to give flanking to Laughing Man. Newt cast healing on herself as there was no enemy.
The Apostles attacked again missing wildly as Blondie yelled at Wanda to move out of the way. Laughing Man used the flanking to his advantage and finished the Apostle harassing him. Wanda shot a ray at the Apostle and shifted aside as Blondie, raging, moved up and finished the third Apostle.
Bowman was still firing away ineffectively as Laughing man took bruising from the last Apostles sap. Finally the group finished off the last Apostle and collected the crowbars, saps and padded armor from the bodies.
The northern room from which three Apostles had charged, was filled with dusty racks cluttered with boxes and a sprawling collection of haphazard junk. Many boxes were spilled onto the floor recently and in one area a mismatched collection of dolls were set in rows on the floor. Newt detected three magic items in the area and she collected one, a vial filled with a shimmering paste. Wanda found another vial of the same description. Orator collected the third item, a vial of oil.
Orator and Wand began looking at the boxes which held clothes and personal effects. Some boxes were labeled with names and dates, some new, some very old.
Bored with the mundane Laughing Man and Blondie moved into the paper strewn room. Picking up random papers from the floor they saw that these were personal histories and treatment records of Briarstone's patients. The ransacking had destroyed much of the order, although some papers were still in the cabinets, sorted by date. Dates went all the way back to the founding of Briarstone in 4585. After spending a half-hour rooting through the records, Laughing Man came upon a file recording six amnesiacs. These people were brought to the Asylum by Count Lowls IV, they had apparently worked for him prior to being institutionalized. In the files were descriptions of each of the patients.
Ursina Laeca -- Thin pale, dark haired Changling Female.
Paullus Octavianus -- Blonde, Green Eyed Human Male
Gavril Yonescu - Redheaded, Green Eyed Human Male
Erevel - Blonde Half Elven Female
Ciprian Otvos -- Sallow complected, Brown haired, Brown Eyed Human Male
Armania Badescof -- Blonde, Blue Eyed Human Female
As each character heard the description and their actual name, a dream like stupor came over them, eyes glassed over, but they snapped out of it in a few seconds. Each now had a name, Laughing Man was Gavril, Newt was Ursina and Blondie was Erevel. Orator was Ciprian, Bowman was Paullus and Wanda was Armania. Each recalled a strange vision but they didn't speak of them other than Gavril who refused who said "I just want to be alone!" Ciprian pulled out a map collected from the Library and studied for a few minutes.
Erevel listened at the only door in the records room, hearing nothing she opened the door into a smaller chamber, walls covered by filing cabinets, except for one space on the east where a battered old painting of a sombre, towering structure hung. Peering intently at the picture to see if it was familiar, Ursina noted that it did not sit flat on the wall. She pulled the picture away and found a small brass latch set in a panel. Calling for Gavril to open it she moved away and looked for magic.
Gavril entered and found no traps or locks on the latch, opened it revealing a hollow withing the wall. Gavril pocketed the tiny lockbox found therein. He also saw a short sword in a scabbard, the pommel sculpted in the shape of a cardinal. An etched gold band bore the name 'Red Destiny'. Strapping that on he moved away saying "Nothing of interest here."
Ciprian and Ursina move up to the hollow and found a extensive file on Ulver Zandalus:
"Seems like we should investigate those standing stones when we get out of this place," remarked Gavril.
There were two doors left in the hallway so Erevel moved to the first and hearing nothing tried to open it. The door barely moved and even applying her strength she could only squeeze through. The room had completely fallen in. Whatever was in here before was buried or destroyed by the tremors. So Erevel moved to the last door at the east end of the hallway and inspected it. She heard no noise from beyond and getting approval tried to open it. It wouldn't move appearing to be locked.
Gavril moved up and inspected the door finding beads of blood seeping between the boards of the door from top to bottom. Ciprian tried the keys from Losandro's office but didn't find one that would unlock the door..
Gavril pulled out his tools and attempted to pick the lock. As he looked back proudly after hearing the familiar click, the door suddenly burst and a torrent of blood flooded into the hall, knocking the characters down and pushing them back. Paullus hit the wall at the far end of the hall as all were covered in blood as they gasped for breath. The blood seemed to fill the entire hall from floor to ceiling as Armania crawled to the open door into Losandro's office. Once inside she noted the doorway was filled with blood but none was entering the office. Each character held their breath and made for an open doorway. Paullus and Ciprian crawled to the office, while the other three made it into the Storage room.
Now what, the group was separated and could not hear each other, the hall, but not the rooms, was filled with blood. Armania and Ciprian tried attacking the blood with their staves to no avail. Ursina mused that this might be some kind of Haunt, but how to attack it, could it even be physically harmed? Ciprian decided to push through the gore into the Storage room. Paullus and Armania waited behind, ready to bring Winter here if need be.
Ciprian and Gavril, determined to move beyond the wall of blood, hopefully, moved out into the hall and toward the east. Gavril found a door to the north which opened easily. He entered inhaling deeply the smell of cleaning supplies and saw stained laundry that filled the close space with a unique, acrid reek. Sitting in a corner was the body of a woman in blue. The body bore numerous stab wounds and she was clearly dead. Ciprian entered the room behind Gavril and while holding his nose looked for magic. There were three magic auras, a cloak around the body, and two potions. Ciprian put the cloak on and said "By the way that sword you found is magical, not sure what it is but it's nice."
Finding no exit from this room, Gavril stated "I guess I'll have to move further into the blood. I hope it ends at some point. Out into the hall again, Gavril pushed his way east for ten feet and then he broke out of the gore into a large unlit space. All he could make out was a trail of blood from the east on the floor tile below him, before a wave of gore rose from the blood flow and pushed him back into the wall of blood, past the door where Ciprian stood and onto the floor.
Gavril crawled into the Storage room, where Ciprian soon followed. "Well that didn't work!" cried Gavril as he tried to clean the blood off his face.
DM's Notes: The group earned 667 XP for the night and need 1537 more to reach third level.
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