May 1, 2025 3:42 pm
Lillian re-enters the reception area looking even more flustered than when she went in. A few minutes later, Drs Keaton and Walker return.
"If everyone is signed in, and any weapons have been deposited with Nurse Hampton, shall we begin the tour?" Dr Keaton says.
Dr Keaton unlocks one of the doors leading off of the reception area, and takes you into a fairly wide corridor, locking the door behind him. It's a little darker here, the electric lighting caged and yellow, looking like accusing jaundiced eyes; doors off of the corridor are sturdy. Dr Keaton takes you along the first floor, pointing out offices, a locker room, cafeteria, common rooms, a drug dispensary, a games room, exam rooms and interview rooms. He leads you into one of the exam rooms, pointing out the soft padded walls that have been newly fitted. It seems the first floor is mostly administrative and common areas. The walls have peeling paint, suggesting that money is tight for repairs other than the new exam rooms, though the locked and barred gates between sections of the hospital seem well-kept and maintained.
When you enter the common rooms, which have a few patients in them, mostly slack-jawed and staring, or sitting nodding to themselves, rocking back and forth and muttering in their seats, you see the outside windows - thick bars and ivy half cover them, leaving the room somewhat in shadow too. There are a few plants here and there in various stages of either starvation or over-watering, and again peeling paint on the walls. A few pieces of artwork - nothing special, mostly amateur work, pastoral scenes and the like - dot the walls. There are a couple of sky lights - this room has no other floors above it - but they are grimy, unwashed for possibly years. A few people play cards, though you aren't sure if they're following any particular game rules with the battered cards, and a couple even sit reading books - or at least stare blankly at the books in front of them. There are a couple of bookshelves here too, filled with tattered and spine-broken paperbacks, mostly cheap genre fiction from 20 or more years ago.
"You'll notice the original Victorian porticos and other features," Dr Keaton points out, "and here of course is a painting of our esteemed founder, Dr Lawrence Teake, who was here when it was first opened as a hospital in 1897! A painting shows a stern, bearded man. "We do what we can, despite our limited resources, of course."
As you walk past the dispensary - with several patients shuffling slowly to the counter, several staring at the group, one waggling his fingers at you as you pass, and another softly tapping his own head and muttering something. Dr Keaton leads you upstairs. Here the walls are partially tiled with some water stains, and the doors are sturdier and with small grilles in them. As you pass them - revealing the inside to be cramped, off-white, with little decor or furniture other than beds - a few faces stare out at you. As Samuel takes in the sight of one poor unfortunate hanging out at his door, the man smiles, leering, and draws a finger across his own throat in the unmistakable common gesture suggesting Samuel's imminent demise.
At one point, Dr Keaton pauses to ask an orderly to have Douglas Henslowe brought to one of the interview rooms on the ground floor. As he does so, you spot another orderly bringing a large man out of his room a little further down the corridor. Suddenly, the man breaks free of the orderly - it's so quick, you have little time to realise what's occurred before the orderly is down on the floor, blood pouring from his nose, and the man is charging towards the three of you.Impending Doom Points: 4-1=3
Dr Keaton
OOC:
I'm assuming you're all complying with this - if you wish not to, please let me know in your next post.Dr Keaton unlocks one of the doors leading off of the reception area, and takes you into a fairly wide corridor, locking the door behind him. It's a little darker here, the electric lighting caged and yellow, looking like accusing jaundiced eyes; doors off of the corridor are sturdy. Dr Keaton takes you along the first floor, pointing out offices, a locker room, cafeteria, common rooms, a drug dispensary, a games room, exam rooms and interview rooms. He leads you into one of the exam rooms, pointing out the soft padded walls that have been newly fitted. It seems the first floor is mostly administrative and common areas. The walls have peeling paint, suggesting that money is tight for repairs other than the new exam rooms, though the locked and barred gates between sections of the hospital seem well-kept and maintained.
When you enter the common rooms, which have a few patients in them, mostly slack-jawed and staring, or sitting nodding to themselves, rocking back and forth and muttering in their seats, you see the outside windows - thick bars and ivy half cover them, leaving the room somewhat in shadow too. There are a few plants here and there in various stages of either starvation or over-watering, and again peeling paint on the walls. A few pieces of artwork - nothing special, mostly amateur work, pastoral scenes and the like - dot the walls. There are a couple of sky lights - this room has no other floors above it - but they are grimy, unwashed for possibly years. A few people play cards, though you aren't sure if they're following any particular game rules with the battered cards, and a couple even sit reading books - or at least stare blankly at the books in front of them. There are a couple of bookshelves here too, filled with tattered and spine-broken paperbacks, mostly cheap genre fiction from 20 or more years ago.
Dr Keaton
OOC:
Dr Walker, you can make a Civil Engineering roll (Choosing Dr Walker because he has the highest score).As you walk past the dispensary - with several patients shuffling slowly to the counter, several staring at the group, one waggling his fingers at you as you pass, and another softly tapping his own head and muttering something. Dr Keaton leads you upstairs. Here the walls are partially tiled with some water stains, and the doors are sturdier and with small grilles in them. As you pass them - revealing the inside to be cramped, off-white, with little decor or furniture other than beds - a few faces stare out at you. As Samuel takes in the sight of one poor unfortunate hanging out at his door, the man smiles, leering, and draws a finger across his own throat in the unmistakable common gesture suggesting Samuel's imminent demise.
At one point, Dr Keaton pauses to ask an orderly to have Douglas Henslowe brought to one of the interview rooms on the ground floor. As he does so, you spot another orderly bringing a large man out of his room a little further down the corridor. Suddenly, the man breaks free of the orderly - it's so quick, you have little time to realise what's occurred before the orderly is down on the floor, blood pouring from his nose, and the man is charging towards the three of you.
OOC:
Here's your first chance at combat! Whoever decides to take on the psychotic patient (only one of you will be attacked first, then the others can join in if they choose to), will need to make a Block and Parry roll, and then if they wish to either fight back or try to grapple the patient, make a Brute Strength roll (in either case, the roll will be the same, but let me know if you're intending to do harm or restrain). If you don;t roll any successes on the Block and Parry roll, also make an Endurance roll. In addition, Lillian and Dr Walker will have to make Mental Resolve tests because of the sudden eruption of violence - Samuel doesn't need to because of his inurement to violence.
