In Search of Sanity [IC, Group #2]

[pfm1995]

While the man marked '601' staggers into the room as if in a daze, reaches down, and pulls the pin out of the bird's shackle. Hopping over to the pile of bodies, it tears off a morsel before flapping up and onto 601's shoulder and swallowing it hungrily.

[digiman619]

Flair takes one step into the room before the scent hits him and he takes a step back, as though the scent physically pushed him backwards. After taking a breath outside the room, he ventures back into it, visibly shaken by the scent and horror. Still, he tries to keep himself steady and remarks "The fung shui is horrible. Does anyone have any pine scent?"

[Genth]

Seeing no threat in the next room, only horror, Knuckles pulls back to move to one side and start to get changed, pulling on the functional clothing, and slipping the gold into an interior pocket. When she steps out again, she seems.. a little more confident. She moves into the next room, looking down at the bodies with a twisted, uncomfortable expression. "Is now really an appropriate time to joke?" she asks Flair, raising an eyebrow pointedly. She doesn't wait much for a response before glancing towards '601' and blinking, curiously at the Raven. "A friend of yours then?" she asks, head tilted to the side.

[lostsole31]

Knuckles does not have interior pockets. She has this nifty, beat-up sack, and the gold sloshes around at the bottom.

Jacqui looks at the star-buckled bag that Knuckles overlooked, and says, "Looks like a rifle that's been disassembled. But an old-timey rifle that's in really good shape, eh?"

She goes to the first sack and opens it. "Dog food ... what? There's dog food, treats, a couple balls, and what looks like a worn dolly. Oh, a leash ... a dog collar with a small brass plate saying 'Bishop' on it with the symbol on the bag. Yup, that's a bag for a dog. I guess 'Bishop' is its name."

She finally opens the other bag - the final, unopened one - which, like the dog's sack has "R.C.M.P." on it in stencil. Though, this is also the curious one with the tree-face motif. "Nothing in here but what looks like a children's book."

There is a long pause. She pulls out a book - a children's book, no doubt by its style, but full in size nonetheless. It seems very, very old.

Spoiler: Jacqui's lone possession ... outside of the sack and institutional clothing

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She has tears in her eyes. "I know this book. I love this book. I don't know why I remember that, but I do."

She looks up. "Both of these two sacks have 'R.C.M.P.' on them. I think Bishop is my dog. Of course, both sacks combined are probably less value than these weapons and gold and other things that everyone else has been finding."

She quickly heads out to the cellar, ignoring the pile of dead bodies, and the dog seems to get really excited when she comes out.

"Bishop?" she asks tenuously, and the dog barks and wags its tail and while it seems a little bedraggled, there is something about this pooch that is lovable as all-get-out. She goes up to the hound and frees it from its collar and Bishop jumps up and goes into hyper-lick mode while she is excited to see an animal that she doesn't really remember, and yet feels a connection to.

Haru thinks he noticed some type of brand or marking or tattoo on the dog's chest when it jumped up. It seems to be a crude symbol of a jug with grapes.

[digiman619]

"You know what? You're right. I should just scream in horror about the ******* pile of bodies. That's the appropriate thing to do right now! God forbid I use humor to steady my nerves! What kind of ***hole am I?!?! I don't know, because while I know how many bones there are in a human foot, or the the difference between a pixie and a will o 'the wisp, I can't remember who the **** I am! I-" Flair cuts himself off and takes a few steps back, trying to balance himself. He then reenters the room, saying "Listen, this isn't a place anyone of us wants to be. Let's go up those stairs, find the ******* exit and get the **** out of here, OK?" He then starts up the stairs.

[stack]

Eric had already turned away from the bodies and ascended the stair, waiting for the others to finish in the macabre room before pressing on. He obviously had no desire to stay, his fatigue and borderline nausea obvious to all.

[meemaas]

Haru, of course, was the first one up the stairs (Sorry Eric, but he was in the room first) and was only waiting for others to follow before he actually moved to the room up the stairs.

[lostsole31]

Despite their unsteady appearance, the stair are sturdy enough to climb. Unfortunately, when Karate Kid, Handsome Dan and Mr. Wizard get to the landing, they can clearly see the heaps of rubble choking the passage above.

Jacqui leads Bishop into the cells, but not befor he has to be pulled away from growling at Haru. Once he gets into the cell room she puts color and leash on him while the pooch - who is size Small - starts munching on food she sets out from the bag. The hound, which Haru recognizes as a breed called an "otterhound," he also recognizes is not yet full size. Bishop is incredibly friendly - except if Zarinda (or Haru) tries to pet him. Then he bares his teeth and growls and Jacqui has to get him to stand down, but it obviously won't be something she can control if those two try to force their affections on him. Something about those two PCs just seems to rub this pooch the wrong way. Maybe in time.

As Flair and Eric realize and discuss options - which seems to be that chute - in the room Bishop then is drawn to the man on the slab. He sniffs around and licks the man's wounds and gives like a low a-woowawoowawoow while patting the man (Jacqui ends up lifting him onto the slab with the man out of curiosity). Well, a little bit of this, and a marking on the dog's chest glows ever so very faintly, and the man .... receives 10 healing!

The puppy bounds off the man and back out to the cellar and barks at Flair and Eric and Haru (and possibly 601 he is still out there), turning away and back a few times, and then running into the room with the cells again.

[Genth]

Knuckles simply raises an eyebrow at Flair's outburst, and turns away as he climbs the stairs, although she keeps listening to hear where he goes. She grasps her nose between her fingers, and taking a deep breath, walks closer to the corpse-pile, trying to get a glimpse down the chute. If the chute is too high to see without actually climbing atop the corpses, she will look around for a stone or piece of rubble to experimentally chuck down the chute.

[lostsole31]

Spoiler: Genth

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I think the fact is down under with New Zealand has somehow confused what is "up" or "down" with you.

It would take climbing corpses to get to a higher elevation (as in "up" or in the "upwards" direction) to be able to get to that chute which likewise continues at an upwards angle.

[pfm1995]

The food-that-still-moves-and-barks, "it seems to want something." With the raven content on his shoulder, the ashen-faced man moves to see what the dog wants.

[lostsole31]

Assuming man-and-bird follow, the hound leads you in to the revived man on the table. Still terribly, desperately wounded, but awake.

The man wanly looks over at the corpse, and then looks up again (a neutral position with little strain since he's on his back). "The dybbuk is dead," he weakly says before drifting into unconsciousness.

[pfm1995]

Bird-on-shoulder blinks, as if seeing the tortured man for the first time. He waits, a few steps away, while the bird hops off his shoulder and onto the table. It pokes the tortured man a few times before turning away disinterestedly, and at this the man finally advances to the side of the table. He undoes the bindings, and talks to the unconscious man. "Alive, then? To leave you here would leave us in dire straights indeed, a poor omen to begin this journey. I apologize for putting the weight of such a symbol on you, but you complete this band and so mercy is your lot."

Finished, he tries to pick the man up with a grunt while the raven tries to snag what looks like the man's pack. Or maybe it was just distracted by the shiny star, it was hard to tell.

[lostsole31]

Knuckles, you happen to know a dybbuk is some type of evil spirit or demon, but you don't know why you would know that.

601, a dybbuk is a type of occultist monster right up your alley of knowledge ...

Spoiler: 601 (only)

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Read away ...

The man is 6'4", and if you carry/ wear your gear/armor, there is no way you are even hoisting this man off the ground. Without your gear or wearing your armor, you would still be at a heavy, heavy load indeed.

[lostsole31]

Yeah ... again, I really doubt once 601 tried to heave him that was going to happen enough for him to go strolling out in the cellar for Flair to see him.

[pfm1995]

After discovering, empirically, that the man was too heavy to lift, the Man With No Name stuck his head through the door and calmly asked "The tortured man is alive, unconscious, and too large for me to move on my own. Help?"

Another feather of thought floated through his head; the raven had stopped playing with the star and was staring at him. Now why did you think you'd be able to lift him?

[digiman619]

Flair looks over at the man now on the table and chute that seemed to be the only way out of this room. He then gets down from the stairs and opens his pack. He looks through and finds the two things he's looking for: his bedroll and some rope. Leaving his pack near the stairs, he then heads over to the table. He sees that the man has passed out, but still seems to be relatively okay. He then motions to the bird guy and says "Help me get him in this thing"

Spoiler: OOC

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I think that the best way to get this guy up the chute is to wrap him up in a bedroll and tie a rope to him and drag that up the chute. I plan on putting him in it inside out.

[pfm1995]

Grasping the fancy man's plan, bird guy quickly helps shift the tortured man onto the bedroll. "Lash him tightly, and cushion his head. We should protect his face if we can."

[lostsole31]

"What's the plan?" asks Jacqui.

Spoiler

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I'm curious if Flair shares the plan no problem, or is annoyed that his orders weren't followed right away.

[stack]

Eric looks up the chute. "Uhm...anyone have a rope? I, well, during the fight I seem to have been pushing things around. From across the room. Maybe I could try to send a rope up there? Or something?"

[digiman619]

"Near as I can figure, the only way out of this charming little set-up is up that chute.", Flair said as he tied the man to the roll, "Now we can probably climb that, Hopefully. But this guy, not so much. So either we lot this poor guy rot down here, or someone climbs up the chute and pulls this guy up. Hopefully, he either wakes up soon, or we're near an exit, but I'm not going to leave him in this hellhole unless I have no other option."Flair said as he finished his task. "Now help me get him to the chute.".

Spoiler

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Why would I have a problem? The guy I asked for help gave it, and my orders can't be followed by people that don't know them.

[Genth]

Knuckles nods, walking back into the chamber and towards the table. "I.. I think I'm probably strong enough to help with that, if someone has a rope or something to strap him on?"

[MikelaC1]

Zarinda fishes around in her pack, and moments later, produces a rope. I seem to remember having done some climbing in the past, but Im probably out of practice. But here goes. Trailing the rope behind her, Zarinda attempts to climb up the chute.

Spoiler: Climb

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(1d20+5)[9]

[lostsole31]

Zarinda totally bypasses the babbling men and goes to the gritty work of climbing the bodies. As long as she isn't trying to be acrobatic, the climb is incredibly easy though a little physically taxing. (Hunger?) Once she reaches the chute, the rough walls make for an easy scale. There is a metal door at the top of the 15-foot-long chute that is closed. The door can push either way and looks like it would be easy.

What does everyone do? Take your belongings with you, no doubt.

[digiman619]

Flair turned his head to see that someone had already started their way up the chute, judging from the rope trailing upwards. "Do you have anywhere to tie down that rope?"

[pfm1995]

Finishing packing the unconscious man, the 601st Patient moved to inspect the chute. "What went down must go up, I suppose."

[MikelaC1]

Pushing open the door at the top, Zarinda scouts around quickly, she does have the grappling hook on her end, it shouldnt be too difficult to find an end to hook and tie it off to. Once she does so, she comes back to the hole, calling down for each person to start to climb up.

[digiman619]

Flair looked back at his compatriot. "You head up; I've got to get in my armor before I worry about pulling this guy up."

Spoiler: OOC

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I change out of my prisoner scrubs and into my other clothes and armor.

[lostsole31]

Spoiler: Zarinda

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Zarinda, the grappling hook can be set right here at the chute entrance. Looking out is a very dirty service room.

Its pitch black.

And you see just fine.

There is a door 10' to your left, and it seems to be the only way out of this 10' x 20' room.

Flair, it will take you a minute but your armor will be on just fine.

The unconscious man is ready for transport (you hope).

[stack]

Eric helps move the unconscious man to the pile of bodies and tries to assist in getting him up the chute before going up himself.