The Place of Skin

"Where are we?" Paullus asked in a hushed tone.

"What do you mean?" responded Ciprian

"Last I recall we were on the Sellen Starling getting ready to dock in Cassomir!"

"We are in Cassomir.  Don't you recall the ambush at the docks?" Gavril interjected.

"No.  And what are these ribbons doing in my beard?" Paullus continued confusedly.

"You bought them along with some new armor" Erevel added.

"But, I don't recall any of this.  How long have we been here?" Paullus continued.

"We have been here several days, eight or so.  We received a reward from Senator Daladmane and we have tracked down Miacknian Mun to this old Infirmary." Ciprian tried to explain.

"Eight days!  How could I lose eight days?"

"Do you know someone named Agna?" Armania asked. "You have wanted us to call you that name for a few days."

"Agna, what is an Agna?"

At this point the party spent some time explaining what had happened since they arrived in Cassomir.  Paullus was still confused but accepted the discrepancies.  Ciprian wondered if he could get his memories back by going to the Dreamlands, but that only worked with the Mad Poet and no one was sure they could or wanted to see him again.

Finally the group ascended the stairs to the gruesome laboratory and Gavril clambered up the invisible ladder to check for traps on the door in the ceiling.  Finding none and no latch either, he pushed the door up a few inches.  He couldn't see anything as it was dark in the room above, as it had been in all the rooms.

Erevel took the next turn.  She could see something like curtains blocking the view to the north and at various distances to the east.  To the south she saw two feet and legs and heard sobbing.  The smell of chemicals and flesh burrowed into her nose.  Given no response to her movement of the trap door, Erevel pushed it open and moved on up into the chamber away from the ladder.  Gavril followed her up the ladder with a light rock attached to his lapel.

What first appeared to be curtains hanging throughout the room turned out to be scores of skins, taken in unimaginable agony judging by the looks on the faces that wafted eerily in an unseen breeze. The ceiling of the room is 10 feet high, and a ladder next to the trap door rose to another trap door above.
A figure sat sobbing on this stair, it looked very much like the Hollow Ones the party had seen below.
Sagging ropes tied through rings in the walls of the room formed a lattice, from which hang dozens of
sickeningly whole humanoid skins, each taken in mostly one piece. They hung like sinewy curtains across the room blocking much of the view.

At this point as Erevel moved further north into the chamber a mechanical being was revealed. The workings of this humanoid figure were incredibly complex, but the gore-spattered scalpels it had on one hand and the glistening syringes inside its cage-like chest make clear it was not friendly. 

Gavril moved around to flank with Erevel but his attacks sort of clanked off the creature. Then the monster attacked and grabbed Erevel.  Armania levitated up into the chamber followed by the rest of the party.  Ursina cast Bless on moving while Ciprian cast Vanish on himself. Erevel attacked in her grabbed mode but the creature seemed to shrug off some of the damage.

Gavril continued his attacks, which were limited by the metal of the monster.  The mechanical being continued with its grab of Erevel and drew a syringe from its chest and injected her.  Erevel fought off the effects of the liquid. 

Then a short pale blue humanoid with bulging white eyes, wild hair, four-fingered hands on three arms stepped from behind a curtain of skin.  It moved up to Ursina and as it did another figure with the same skin, eyes, hair but only two arms and hands appeared behind Ursina. The creature attacked with flanking and administered tremendous damage along with bleed damage to Ursina.  At that point the flanker disappeared.  But a creature looking quite like the flanker stepped from behind another skin and looked as though many of him were arranged around, the classic Mirror Images.  He then cast a spell at Gavril, which Gavril also shook off.  

Ursina, bleeding profusely, attacked the short three armed humanoid but found she could only do little damage and she took more damage from the thorns all over the body of the monster.  Armania lined up the two new blue skinned enemies for a lightning bolt. while Paullus moved to attack the creature also.  Erevel kept on fighting the monster grabbing her and Ciprian identified the new creatures as Derro and stared his Bardic Performance against them and then moved away from the action next to the figure on the stair which he confirmed was a Hollow One.

Gavril continued to attack the mechanical monster, which continued its hold on Erevel.  Some of the wounds on the three armed Derro were seen to heal up as it attacked Paullus and Ursina with weapons in two of its hands.  The two armed Derro stared at Armania and then cast a spell directly at her.  A visible line of swirling air left Armania's mouth and entered the Derro's mouth.  Armania felt the air leave her lungs as she no longer could speak.  The attack also did damage enhanced by the Derro stare.  Ursina moved away from the battle and cast Inflict Critical wounds on the Derro while Armania retreated to the corner and landed on the floor.  At that point she again could breath and speak.  Erevel attacked the creature and it stopped moving.  Ciprian cast haste on the party.

Gavril moved to attack the Derro but without flanking his attacks did little damage.  Again the Derro attacked Gavril and Paullus with it two weapons, followed by the other Derro transferring his stare to Paullus and then moving to attack.  Ursina took his turn to apply healing to stop the bleed damage as Armania lined up another lightning bolt for the two Derro.  Erevel, removing the metal arms from her body moved up to the Derro and full attacked with major damage as the creature now seemed to be taking full damage but still regenerating on his turn.  Ciprian moved to Gavril and applied healing as Gavril was close to falling.

DM's Notes: The party earned 1600 XP for the evening.  The battler in the Place of Skin will continue next week.