1.2 - In Search of Sanity - The Dead Don't Dream

Razhel helps Iosef move the rubble away from the body and when he is finished searching it over, she points toward the open door. "Let's check the door across the hall next." She moves back into the hallway and attempts to open the door directly across from the one she's just exited.

The placard outside this door reads "Dr. Arosh Chawaar". Razhel opens the door to reveal the room beyond. This would look like a typical physician's office if it weren't for the preponderance of grotesque anatomical sketches, most depicting traumas and deformities of the head and brain. A sturdy display case stands open and completely empty.

Razhel circuits the room and finds a pool of preservative fluids pooling at the base of the empty cabinet. The slime trails from the hall appear to have all either been to, or come from, this location.

The desk drawer opens easily enough - nothing stands out of interest within the desk except a leather-bound notebook, bound together with quite a few loose-leaf notes. The doctor's initials are on the cover of the notebook: "A.C."

Looking closer at the documents, you find a succinct and rather meticulous study of new treatments for conditions like hydrocephalus. Many of the notes bear marginalia from the doctor's sister, Doctor Anya Chawaar of Katheer. It appears the two had been leading research into this field of study, corresponding remotely towards a shared goal.

Iosef follows Razhel over to the next room. As the contents of the drawer are pulled out, he takes a turn looking over the notebook with a studied interest. "This is pioneering work," Iosef says distantly, lost in thought over the implications of some of the writing. "These doctors were drawing conclusions between physical stresses of the body, particularly the brain, and diagnosed psychiatric disorders. The results and findings, if true, would be incredibly valuable to the right people." He glances up now, looking at the others. "We should see that this gets to the right people - perhaps the Doctor's sister even. It appears she works out of a city called Katheer."

"Good idea." Razhel agrees with Iosef and tucks the journal into her pack. She points to the slimy trail. "Any guesses what made those?"

"We'd better live to get these findings out," Axon said as he looked into the room and its grisly diagrams. "It seems that breakthroughs and perversity are inextricably linked. Let's try to keep our names out of any medical texts."

His eyes followed the trails back out the door and in the direction they were headed. Axon went to the next unexplored room, prepared to call down cosmic cold if needed, and looked within.

Grim readies his crossbow and covers Axon at the next door.

Axon opens the door and steps inside. This room's sagging ceiling rests largely upon a pair of sturdy bookshelves. A desk and set of chairs skirt the edge of a sizable fissure in the floor.

Standing opposite the fissure, as Axon opens the door, a tiny, bipedal, ratlike creature turns and squeals loudly, pointing its finger in your direction. A dire rat, much like you earlier saw in the boiler room, stands a bit closer. It turns its vicious gaze upon Axon at the squealing commands of the rat-thing in back.

Initiative:
->Axon (19)
Elias (19)
Grim (17)
Razhel (14)
Dire Rat (10)
Ratling (9)
Iosef (9)

At the sight of the enemy, Elias moves forward to attack the Dire rat.

Grim holds his position just outside the door and fires his crossbow at the little rat dude.

Hearing the sounds down the hall, Razhel hefts her crossbow and proceeds south to the other side of the open doorway opposite Grim. She swings around, peeking into the room, and takes a shot at the squeaking rat-thing issuing orders to the dire rat.

"Stupid, stupid rat creatures," Axon growled as he moved into the room and outstretched his hands toward the mutant vermin.

የሚቃጠሉ እጆች

The words and the gestures came to him easily, and the power flowed from his fingertips into the wave of fire which washed over the rat-things!

Both Grim and Razhel fire crossbow bolts into the room, but they fly off into the dark corner. Elias shoulders his way into the room and engages the dire rat, but his blade strikes only the floor as the rat moves out of the way at the last moment.

Axon sends out a scorching blast of fire from his outspread hands. The oversized rat roasts almost instantaneously, screeing in terror as the flames engulf it and it dies. The more nimble creature in the back ducks under the blast, suffering only somewhat better than its companion.

The rat-like creature in the back throws up his hand. It speaks in an unknown language, words echoing forth as a series of short, menacing screeches, as a globule of greenish energy forms in its hand, then spews forth toward Axon. The blast hits the outer edges of the sorceror's robes, causing only minimal harm to him.Initiative:
->Axon (19) -2hp
Elias (19)
Grim (17)
Razhel (14)
Dire Rat (10) DEAD
Ratling (9) 38/41 HP, AC 19
Iosef (9)

"Don't want to burn? Freeze!"

ጥቁር ሜትሮይትስ

Razhel holds her position, swinging out to study her target and reload. She tries a second time to hit the ratman.

Grim carefully times his next shot and fires upon the ratling.

Iosef maneuvers closer to everyone then chants a blessing upon the group. "I hope this helps," he says as a gentle light bathes all of you momentarily.