In Search of Sanity [IC, Group #2]

[meemaas]

After a second, Haru will light himself up to serve as a light source alongside the other.

Spoiler

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Haru will activate Glow on himself. As time goes on, he will reactivate it at any time it wears off, except in combat, of course.

[pfm1995]

His skygazing interrupted by the glowing man, '601' pulls his head out of the clouds and re-joins the group. "Without stars, I have no idea where we are or what patterns we walk under. W-" He clears his throat. "Why are you lit from within?"

[lostsole31]

Broken lanterns and several battered doors line this cold, rubble-strewn hall. To the south, a pair of swinging doors lies shattered upon a 4-foot-high heap of wrecked furniture clogging a broad door frame. To the north, the dark hallway continues past your light.

[stack]

Eric points to the piled debris and detritus. "Big doors seem likely to point to an exit, or at least a main room that would have access to an exit. Should we clear them and try that way?"

[lostsole31]

Okay, so ... who are our two strapping fellows who will be carrying the unconscious man around? Flair is mucking with a light source. Jacqui is more focused on keeping control of Bishop. Haru and Zarinda aren't very strong (neither is Flair, anyway). Since she doesn't carry any weapons and is a brute, I recommend Knuckles take one side. Will 601 take the other?

[pfm1995]

The ashen-faced man moves to help shift the furniture but, when he first touches an upturned chair, stands bolt upright and turns around. When he speaks, it's a lecture academic. "I'd not be so quick, furniture doesn't often stack itself. It looks to me like those doors were shut in haste and panic - whether by those bodies or whomever dumped them I'm not sure. Regardless, I don't know that we want to rush to see what they were running from." In his head, a mighty STOP! still echoes.

The bird never came near the pile.

Seeing the scarred-knuckle woman struggling under the weight of the tortured man, the 601st Patient drops his professorial air and moves to help.

[MikelaC1]

Those people who were running away were also the ones who imprisoned us. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Zarinda moves to help unpile the furniture.

[stack]

Those people who were running away were also the ones who imprisoned us. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Zarinda moves to help unpile the furniture.

"Or at least my enemy's enemy. Its not definite, but its worth looking at. Besides, our captor did not seem particularly concerned with escaping, so the threat is presumably not pressing. Anything that dangerous could have broken through in whatever time has passed since this happened I would guess. Leaving a hasty barricade like this is sloppy, but our captor did not seem...stable." Eric helps unmake the barricade.

[pfm1995]

"Or at least my enemy's enemy. Its not definite, but its worth looking at. Besides, our captor did not seem particularly concerned with escaping, so the threat is presumably not pressing. Anything that dangerous could have broken through in whatever time has passed since this happened I would guess. Leaving a hasty barricade like this is sloppy, but our captor did not seem...stable." Eric helps unmake the barricade.

"There is another option. We could have been the ones who built this barricade - undoing our own work would be truly poetic irony."

[lostsole31]

As you are having your committee, you happen to notice movement in the dim light by the 3-foot-high barricade of junk to the south (what you intended to dismantle). You hear a man shout, "Whoa, there! We got more here!"

There in the shadowy light provided by the heroes, you notice three men with crossbows training their weapons on you.

[MikelaC1]

Zarinda drops whatever piece of furniture is currently in hand and draws her bow instead. I would advise forgetting that you saw us, unless you feel like becoming a pincushion

[digiman619]

"Whoa, whoa whoa!", Flair says, his free hand held up palm toward them. "Calm down with the crossbows! What's going on?"

[lostsole31]

The three men train their crossbows on Zarinda (which actually might have been her plan), but don't respond to Flair, seemingly waiting for something.

Do you allow a round or two of tension, or does someone try to force a response?

[pfm1995]

Looking up and seeing the sudden raise in tension, the ashen-faced man shifts his weight slightly, then stays very still. His mind, though, slowly morphs and settles around a weighty set. His scimitar grows heavy by his side.

Spoiler: OOC

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Settling into Aura of Misfortune and casting Lead Blades on myself. As I'm a psychic caster, there are no verbal or somatic components.

[MikelaC1]

I wont repeat myself a third time, I would advise you forgot that you saw us.

[lostsole31]

These guys are in padded armor and have truncheons at their side. Another guy, broader than the others, comes up to them from their back ranks (your torch doesn't show from where). This guy is in leather armor and likewise has a loaded light crossbow in hand. Seeing that (only one) of this group of people has a weapon out and pointed towards his men, he returns in kind - and he, too, is now aiming at Zarinda. "We'll have no bloody Grays seeking sanctuary in the chapel with us, only to carve us when we sleep. Go back to your own kind, or you'll be seeing the Lady of the Graves in the Boneyard soon enough."

[MikelaC1]

Your words mean nothing to me, we are only seeking to leave this place. Through this door if necessary.

[lostsole31]

"The door right by us is ours, but the one just behind where you came in ... any place beyond ... that's for you and your Gray friends to fight over with the Tribals, though that's just the furnace room. You try to force your way to the good people in my care and we will end you."

Spoiler

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Remember I said there were two doors on the opposite side of the hall (which is 10' wide) from where you came in. The door he refers to is the one closer to them, and in fact is really only about 5' from the barricade (10' from the men). The other door is 15' north of that door (5' north of the point where you came in). Of course, the hallway continues north into the darkness beyond that.

Spoiler: Flair

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These guys are scared, terrified ... but they are more cornered-animal scared, not run-away scared. This means that out of fear it won't take much for them to start shooting. And a glowing man in your party probably only heightens that fear.

[digiman619]

"Very well, we'll take the other door.", Flair says diplomatically. He then whispers in Zarinda's ear "Let's see if we can go around before we smash our way through, eh?" He then heads away from them to the other door.

[pfm1995]

Picking up the tortured man under one arm, the unnamed patient follows the others - his eyes scanning the darkness with strange accuracy.

[MikelaC1]

Zarinda does not lower her bow, but follows the rest of the group, keeping an eye on the opposition if they start something

[Genth]

Knuckles moves to help the unnamed patient, taking the unconscious man's legs, her eyes flicking from point to point across the men with Crossbows. After a moment, she looks away and over at Zarinda, frowning a little, but otherwise silent.

[lostsole31]

"No," said Jacqui, "this isn't right. We have wounded. Are we going to cart him everywhere? He already mentioned 'the good people in my care' ... does that sound like some type of warlord?"

[digiman619]

"No, they're too scared to risk it." Flair said. "Whatever that thing pretending to be a doctor down there was, it clearly can change form. They're terrified that we are one of them and are going to kill them in their sleep. There's no way that they'd help this guy, they're too panicked to take that chance."

[stack]

"Whatever, we can go the other way. Nothing here makes any sense anyway, may as well follow the path that doesn't get us shot."

[meemaas]

His skygazing interrupted by the glowing man, '601' pulls his head out of the clouds and re-joins the group. "Without stars, I have no idea where we are or what patterns we walk under. W-" He clears his throat. "Why are you lit from within?"

In response to this question, Haru addresses the man with no name. "I'm unsure of what it is, but it is a power I am able to bestow upon myself. I first used it back in the cells, following a memory from a dream."

Before the group leaves, Haru says his piece to the men on the far side of the barricade. "You're welcome to not trust us, but if you truly wished to be safe, you'd do well to improve this barricade. Whatever these 'Grays' are, they seem to be weirder than we are, and I walked right out of a prison cell. This would probably be child's play." With that said, he moves after the rest of the group, allowing the strangers to mull over his words.

Spoiler

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Remember, for better or worse, Haru is the humanoid giving off light like a torch, for what it says to the scared folks.

[pfm1995]

Backing away, the man with no name moves with Flair to the next door - then promptly waits for someone else to open it, as his hands are a bit occupied.

[lostsole31]

Twenty-five feet down the hallway from the furnace room door is another door, but on the side of the hall where you came in from the courtyard ... and another door on the same side 10' down the hall from that. There's a lot of rubble in the hall up this way.

Jacqui, as long as people clear a way for her to jump back, will open the door and pop back. This appears to be a store room. The room reeks of chlorine and is heaped with fallen shelves and broken containers. The room is 10' x 10', and with everything in it in shambles only about two characters can go in here at once. What do you do?

Spoiler: Flair, Knuckles

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Everyone will hear the odd noise down the hall from where the men are standing guard for their own tiny fiefdom. But the two of you notice unmistakable sound ... the wet, crunching sound of someone eating an apple down that way. This is followed by the faint sloshing of water in a waterskin. Both of you notice Bishop fixated with a stare that way, and the pant that a dog makes when food is present.

You might have been fine if you hadn't heard these noises, but by recognizing them you both are realizing that you are hungry and thirsty.

[stack]

"Not much here. Guess we can look around, not like we have options." Eric shrugs as he steps into the room and starts rummaging.

Spoiler

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take 20 perception to find anything useful

[MikelaC1]

Since there isnt enough room for her in there anyway, Zarinda continues to watch the crossbowmen, not lowering her own bow