While in the Chapel for a rest interval the group took time to identify some of the items they had acquired over the last day or two. Gavril's short sword was found to be a +2 item. The Amulets of Gavril and Armania were of Natural Armor +1 and Ciprian had a Cloak of Resistance +1 and a Brooch of Shielding. The candle from Losandro's office was a Candle of Spirit Protection. Ciprian thought that it might be used against a haunt as the group still hadn't found a way to disrupt the blood flow and wall. Gavril thought otherwise and wanted to save it for a higher level use. The tin of Incense was still unidentified.
Erevel was in need of restoration and Winter was able to provide help for that. In the morning Gavril was feeling ill, with a fever and weakness, Winter again provided restoration to at least help for the day. The group then set out for the dark room with the lantern from Brenton in hand. Maybe the thing was Debis and they could get past it with the lantern.
As Ciprian took off across the Garden Path, he suddenly felt something trip him and he fell to the ground. It was raining outside as usual but he saw nothing else that would have caused him to trip. Armania was following behind and also tripped and fell.
Ciprian stood up and grabbed Armania's arm to drag her to the open door to the Admission Office just as two swarms of hideous writhing many winged worms fly into the air from the ground making a constant, droning snorting. The worms had no heads other than pairs of large nostrils. Ursina took her turn to try and cross the path to the Office but she also fell halfway across. No one saw anything tripping their fellow adventurers but they sure looked awkward.
Paullus took his turn and by whatever luck made it all the way to the Admitting Office, letting out a puff of air as he felt lucky. Erevel took off at a run and just as she passed Ursina she also fell to the ground. In disbelief the group then saw Gavril run out directly up to the first swarm and attack, failing away with his sword, "Take me you bastard! I dare you come and get me!", he yelled as he flailed without effect.
Armania, not availed of any area of effect spells, threw her Alchemist's Fire at the swarm near Gavril. It broke on contact with the creatures and seemed to start them aflame. Unfortunately, Gavril and Ursina took splash damage also. Seeing this Ciprian took aim at the other swarm with his flask and also succeeded in damaging it and Erevel. One swarm attacked Gavril, while he still raved at them but soon was losing his breakfast. The other took aim at Erevel but she resisted losing her meal. Paullus threw his flask into the fray as Ursina stood and fled into the Office, swatting out cinders that covered her cloak. Erevel hurried over to Gavril trying to pull him toward the doorway.
Secondary fire effects took down the first swarm and Ursina's flask finished the second swarm. The nauseated Gavril did not put up much resistance to Erevel's efforts, but he was still raving wildly at the swarms.
After catching their breath, the group moved quickly up to the Day room where the old woman bled onto the floor. Erevel wanted to just finish off the woman in the wheeled chair but Ciprian put her off for the moment saying "Let me try this "Soothing Syrup" first. As he touched the woman's face to open her mouth he stood still with a blank look on his face.
He was wandering in an endless cloud of yellow vapor. Other shapes form and vanish in the mist, fleeting, unsettling things that refuse to be focused upon. After what seems like a lifetime, an exhausted-looking man with a ponytail of straight, white hair stumbled through the fog. He’s insane with desperation. He stopped gasping and shouted, “We’re all lost here! We’ll never escape!” before rushing away, ranting, “What have I done? What have I done?”
Ciprian then poured the flack of liquid down the woman's throat. No effect was visible as the blood and gore still dibbled from her wound onto the floor and back to the wall of blood. Gavril roused from a fog said "Did you just see Zandalus in a dream or vision?" All of the group responded in the positive.
" Have you had other visions or dreams?" asked Gavril, "I recall a couple of interesting interactions from before."
"Yes I have had a couple," replied Paullus as others nodded in agreement. "Maybe we should compare them sometime."
"Wasn't there medicine of some kind in that pharmacy," posited Gavril as he crawled through the service window. Armania followed and as they searched through Tinctures of various sorts, Gavril came upon a bottle that was labelled "For Heart Palpitations". Grabbing it he moved back to the woman and poured the liquid down her throat.
As he did so the gaping wound on her chest closed up, the gore and blood flow stopped and the wall of blood in the western hallway drained away. The woman now looked at peace, though still dead.
Having dealt with this haunting apparition, Ciprian moved to the double doors to the north and lit the lantern. Erevel stood beside him as they opened the door and revealed the unnatural blackness inside. Ciprian strode into the room and heard again the sobs of the many children's voices but soon the sobs turned more relieved as the darkness slowly lightened. A disembodied, luminous hand moved toward Ciprian, touched the lantern and vanished.
The room appeared as if an explosion had torn it apart. Furniture, racks of blunt weapons, padded restraints and glass lamps lay shattered in pieces and scattered to the corners of the room. The walls were bare and the room's center lay open but for the remains of the creature.
Ciprian pulled on the yellow stained sheet he had appropriated from a Apostle and indicated he would move into the room trying to act "normally" and he opened the door and stepped out.
He entered a gigantic space that might have once been a cafeteria or assembly hall. Now, it’s was the village of a savage tribe. Wildly burning braziers stood amid yellow tents and scrap structures. Portions of the western and northern walls had collapsed, but ramshackle barricades were risen to surround them. To the east, a set of wide stairs climbed upward. Around the stairs nearly a dozen bodies hung crucified upon the walls, dried crimson streaks below them, sacks cinched around their heads. Tendrils of yellow mist crept throughout the entire space, wisps endlessly lapping and fondling the bizarre encampment. There were several Apostles spread around the areas of the barricades, the rest of the people looked like ordinary patients or staff.
"Hello, Yellow, How are you?" Ciprian spoke entering the space. He attracted a small crowd, who brandished mismatched and improvised weapons.
"Where did you come from? Is there a way out? Can we leave now?" were some of the many questions coming from the people.
Ciprian moved further into the room "Blue, No way out," he continued mouthing nonsense. A man in the coat of a Briarstone doctor emerged and says "Move back, do not harm him. I will see to this." He approached Ciprian and loudly declared "Good! Another come to gaze beyond, to serve the Orpiment! Welcome friend!" He approached with open arms and empty hands. As soon as he was closed he desperately whispers "Nod and follow me if you want to live."
Ciprian ignored the man and continued his nonsense blather as he moved into the room. The white coated man noting the open door moved into the former dark room and seeing the rest of the group again declared "More come to gaze beyond, to serve the Orpiment! Welcome friends!" Then again in a whisper he said "Follow me if you want to live."
He moved back into the large room past ramshackle slums that filled the most of the large room. Mostly constructed of broken furniture, scavenged sheets, and torn mattresses, numerous tiny hovels provide shelter to small, wary gangs of Apostles.
"Zandalus sees! Praise" Words fail!" declaimed Gavril as he strode across the room.
Armania noted that all the strangers wore a bit of yellow, but they don't all look like battle-hardened brutes or glassy-eyed cultists.
Onward the man led toward a large tented area in the northeast corner of the room. Inside was a "hospital" where several beds stood empty. A partially collapsed stairway led to the east but was impassable. After Ciprian joined them and the door was closed the man introduced himself.
"I am Doctor Wren Elbourne. I arrived here about a week ago to work. Then I became trapped when Ulver Zandalus provoked a riot and tremors caused portions of the asylum to collapse soon after. I secured Zandalus's tolerance -- if not his trust -- by treating the wounded in this hospital. I have been working for days making the wounded comfortable."
"Where is Zandalus?" queried Gavril.
“He and his closest followers keep to what remains of the halls upstairs. No one is allowed up there, though. Zandalus’s thugs stand guard, but worse, that weird mist collects up there like a snake in a hole. Who knows what they do in that fog? But we all hear the chanting and screaming…even though we try not to.” replied Wren.
"What is the deal with the bagged heads?" asked Paullus.
“Victims of Aggra Loomis. She’s one of the asylum’s only truly dangerous patients. She killed nine men in Rozenport over forty years ago. They called them the Bag Lady murders, since she always wrapped up her victim’s faces. Apparently she passed between prisons and hospitals, but finally ended up here. She’s got to be nearly 70 now, but she’s still strong as a devil!” Wren answered.
"How many Apostles are there here?" asked Ciprian.
"Well, there are four outside here trying to keep the ghouls at bay, there are more in the kitchen and several upstairs with Zandalus." replied Wren.
"Have you seen any Doppelgangers?" asked Gavril.
"No can't say that I have but there are weird things in the fog, like from nightmares. Most stay in the fog but I've seen strange forms slip into the asylum - figures I can't rightly describe." Wren answered.
"Nightmares? Are people having nightmares?" Ursina piped up.
“If all that’s happened here wasn’t reason enough? I can’t be sure, but everyone’s suffering from the same bad dreams, me included: mostly visions of bleak skies and empty cities. Some say they’re the dreams Zandalus used to have, that now that they’re free of his head they’re infecting everyone else. Some say the Tatterman brought them, and he’s haunting all of our nightmares. Others think they’re visions of what’s beyond the fog. But who can truly say?” Wren answered.
"Who is the Tatterman?" Armania added.
“A lot of people are having the same dream of a gaunt thing in yellow rags hunting
them. They say if he kills you in your dreams, he reveals what you really are. Sometimes that’s a corpse, sometimes it’s something worse. Regardless, everyone is terrified of sleeping, fearing the nightmares. Worse, they say that the Tatterman works for Zandalus. It’s all the more reason not to defy him, lest he send his dream assassin after you.” Wren stated looking around warily.
Gavril asked if Doctor Elbourne could leave for the moment, the group wanted to discuss some items privately. He readily agreed and left the room.
The group was not sure whether to trust the Good Doctor. He seemed partially trustworthy but Armania was not sure he was always telling the truth. "His claim of being a Doctor didn't ring true," she stated defiantly. "Let's call him back and quiz him some more."
After Wren Elbourne reentered the room the group asked where he came from. His answer was Hyannis, north of Rozenport.
"What were you treating when you came here?" asked Armania.
"I study and treat diseases of the mind. As I said, I only started working at Briarstone a week ago, and was excited for the job... that's hard to believe now." sighed Wren.
Neither of these answers rang true and Gavril started eyeing Erevel to move into a flanking position.
"Do you know Administrator Freeling?" asked Armania.
"You must be mistaken, the Administrator is Doctor Losandro. I met with her once before the disaster befell us." Wren corrected Armania.
Wren, possibly sensing something turning said, "You seem like you might be strong enough to take out some of Zandalus’s guards, but there’s an army of them. Even if you beat them all, Zandalus himself is still locked away in that maze of fog upstairs. So, it seems to me, the only way to get out of here is to get rid of that mist—and I have a hint of how. “Zandalus calls his most devoted acolytes his oneirogens. Most stay locked away with him upstairs, but at least one watches over the northwestern tower. I don’t know what he does up there, but I think he’s alone. If you got to him, you could probably wring some of Zandalus’s secrets out of him, maybe even learn how to get rid of this awful mist. Once it’s gone, what you do about Zandalus is up to you.”
"How do we get to the northwest tower?" asked Ciprian.
"You have to go west through the kitchens. There is a courtyard to the west of this building filled with ghouls who attack us sometimes. I haven't been to the tower since the tremors as most of the way is blocked with rubble. I'm sure you can find a way through though." Wren answered.
After more discussion the group decided to try and find a way to the tower. They crossed to the kitchen doors, where Gavril and Ciprian entered into a room with a row of fireplaces standing among heaps of barrel-sized pots and cooking implements in this ruin of a kitchen. Numerous doors lead to the south, east, and west, while multiple corners of the L-shaped room have collapsed. A line of large rocks appears to cordon off the westernmost door. Wren indicated that the other doors led to where the Apostles cooked the meals.
As the group entered the room, all but Ciprian heard a cauldron lid rattling in the kitchen's cold western most fireplace. There was no fire but there certainly was noise coming from the area. To get to the western door they would have to cross into the area in front of the fireplace.
Erevel struck out past the line of large rocks. As she came astride the cauldron, it overturned and a vaporous, spectral image of a lean man's sobbing face poured forth, filling the area in front of the fireplace and then dissolving. Erevel kept moving on to the door.
DM's Notes: The group earned 667 XP for the night and now are at 3rd level with 5397 XP.
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