1.1 - In Search of Sanity - Prison of the Mind

"We won't ransack anything but we must use every resource at hand to survive. Those people out there, the ones still normal or not, need our help," he said. "We only have each other now."

If Tolman handed it over, he'd open the door.

"Let's see what we can find," he said, "together."

Tolman looks at Axon for several long moments then slowly nods his head. "Yes, I suppose you're right." He puts a hand in one of his pockets and draws forth a small silver key. "Just, please keep the shrine itself intact. Be respectful. If there's anything that can aid you, take it - the Gods know we are in dire need of all the help we can get right now."

Taking the key, Axon is able to fit it into the lock and open the small iron-barred door. As was previously visible, on the other side of the bars is the small shrine itself and several cabinets. One cabinet holds three deep purple cleric's vestments, a clean leather lash, and a box.
Inside the box you find: three scrolls and a wand.

Otherwise, you also find hundreds of files documenting past patients and a subset of Briarstone's current population.

If someone seeks to detect magic upon the found items, each of the four items in the box emanate auras. "Once the items are brought forth, Iosef squints at them through his spectacles, studying them closely. "May I see the wand?" he asks. He turns it over. "Hmm..." he says, then hands it back to Axon. "No idea - what do you make of it?"

"As for this haunt, let's see what we can learn of it. As I mentioned, it is a supernatural disturbance of sorts. I could try to speak with it." As you get closer, the sounds of faint sobbing become louder.

"H-hello there, why are you crying?" The sobbing continues without any indication of stopping. The half-elf looks back at the others, "Any ideas?"

He looked over the wand, handled it carefully, and focused on the magic within.

"Its purpose eludes me for now. Most likely a wand of healing if it's with these other curatives."

While others fawn over the items found in the cabinets of the shrine, Razhel spends her time searching through the patient files, focusing on the one that have been segregated as current.

Razhel rifles through the files for current patients. She finds some files marked clearly with the names of some survivors your group have met in the chapel, but there seem to be nothing in this collection of papers regarding mysterious patients with amnesia, or of anyone matching your descriptions. She does note that the most recent patients on record in these papers were checked into the sanitarium about 3 weeks ago.

[quote="C1NDER"]

Razhel flips back through the pages, now looking for any mention of the name Zandalus, which you've heard more than once now (several times from the raving, yellow-robed prisoner of the doppelganger, and from Winter, mentioned in passing).

The records themselves tell some little bit about him. It mentions that he was checked into Briarstone Asylum in 4687 AR (at this point decades ago). He had been a promising protégé of a doctor from a place called the Sincomakti School of Sciences out of Rozenport. After returning from a venture with that doctor, Ulver Zandalus began suffering terrifying nightmares and lost many facets of his mental functions, including his ability to speak. He was checked into Briarstone and has been under the direct care of one of the asylum's head doctors, Eliege Losandro (of note, the same Losandro that was most recently the head administrator for this institution).

It notes that Losandro had some success in implementing art threapy to Zandalus's schedule to help calm and distract him during the day, the man remains skittish in the evenings, and fearful of sleep, often waking in the middle of the night screaming unintelligibly.

There is a vague description of the man as well - medium height, thin build, long white hair, steel-grey eyes.

Since he wasn't getting anywhere with the wand today, he decided to help Glasses with the eye. The irony was not lost on him.

He looked at the eye and said, "Zandalus."

"That would be too easy," he said then looked around for an unattended piece of cloth or paper.

ማጅ እጅ

He pointed his finger at the detritus, commanded it to rise and go to the eye. He swung his finger side to side and wiped the tears away.

"I'm sorry. It'll be alright. How can we help you?"

He felt ridiculous but he'd try approaching the eye as a person for now despite it being a haunted manifestation.

Razhel backs away from the strangeness. If it wasn't bad enough before, now its dripping tears that smell like cat piss.

"Who were you before?" he asked. "Why were you changed?"

The sobbing continues as the teeth retract and disappear upon the reflective surface of the giant eyeball. It says no more words in response to Axon's questions.