The picture is a mystery, and with little left to go one, the group decides to return back to the basement. Stepping over the disolving corpse of... whatever it was... Jarrith forces open the semi-stuck door to a large hallway.
The low ceiling of this long hall sags under heavy stone beams. A fog clings to the floor in thick patches, obscuring everything less than 3 feet above the floor. Several worn doors dot the wall opposite as well as a wide stair, with a larger double pair to the west. A figure, initially unaware of you, stands in the eastern end of the hall before a set of wrought iron bars, mumbling and giggling to himself.
As Avron sneezes from the dusty haze, the man quickly turns. What hair remains on his head is in disarray, his clothes a bedraggled mess of something perhaps once fine. Sunken eyes look at you with a look familiar to those who have spent time with the archivist... the look of the mad.
The man scrunches his face a moment as you enter, then declares with an accent somewhere between the thickness of Barovia and the hard vowels of Karnnath. You there! Yes, you. Why aren't you in your room in the South Tower? Master said that's where you were staying. You'd best retire there, or Cyrus will surely take blame! Back up, now, back! Turn around and up those four floors. Go!
OOC: You are the grey circle on the map.
__________________ stonegod -- LEB judge and spawn of Khyber since 2005 (Blog)
"We were simply looking for Master -- have you seen him lately? Please tell me, for I need to beg for his forgiveness."
Cyrus squints his eyes a moment, stepping away from the metal bars. The Master? Not in days. Minutes? One of those. He is obviously confused. Could be anywhere.
__________________ stonegod -- LEB judge and spawn of Khyber since 2005 (Blog)
Avron shuffles closer to the man, hunched slightly, staring heavily. "Do you know where the master is?"
Cyrus shrugs and looks at his dirty fingernails. "Somewhere. Doing what Master does. Does not share with Cyrus. Cyrus cooks and cleans and..." He snaps his fingers as if recollecting something. "Something on the pot! Something on the pot!" and then races into the middle door in the north wall.
OOC: Assuming no one stops him, that is.
__________________ stonegod -- LEB judge and spawn of Khyber since 2005 (Blog)
Jarrith watches the strange little man run through the door, and then reaches behind him to pull free a piton and hammer. "Shall I lock the door behind him so he doesn't hurt himself? Because I think it's fair to say we're moving forward with or without his approval."
Unless someone stops him, the Stalker will go to the door that Cyrus went through, close it, then bang a piton through it so it can't open again.
"What if there is some clue in the room that this Cyrus just ran into?"
With a quick "BAMF", Marot disappears from his spot near Jarrith, and appears through the door that Cyrus just ran.
Marot will continue to follow Cyrus from a short distance for a little while -- he is curious as to where the crazed lunatic has gone, but will not venture too far from the main group -- mainly a room or two in distance.
Ashlyn is a little startled at Marot's sudden disappearance, presumeably following the madman that they had just made the acquaintance of.
Regardless she nods to Jarrith to proceed with spiking shut the door, "That would probably be wise!"
Having said that, she then walks up to the door alongside Jarrith and stares at it intently as if she were looking through it. Having done that she then turns around slowly to ensure there are no undead nearby in any other direction either.
[Detect undead to sense any undead within the room (standard action gives full information due to lightbringer detect undead ability)]
Marot vanishes, appearing behind the madman, who hardly notices. The steaming kitchen he appears in is ripe with a horrible odor of decay. A huge pot bubbles in the center of the room over blazing fire, its green, muddy contents rolling over and over. Beside it, a desiccated zombie repeatedly plunges its hands in over and over.
Cyrus, pulling out a large spoon, moves over the pot, hitting the zombie several times with the spoon before stiring. I'm not the cook I used to be, he yells to Marot over the boiling, and cackles.
Marot quickly sees that there are two doors two the kitchen, both on the wall behind him.
Outside, Jarot quickly manages to block the door [Disable Device] while Ashlyn moves aside. Her gaze is assaulted by the overall taint of this place, but she quickly senses the presence of two undead somewhere in the room.
The hallway is bare itself, but the iron gate to the east may hold something of note.
__________________ stonegod -- LEB judge and spawn of Khyber since 2005 (Blog)
As Jarrith spikes the door closed, Ashlyn states "Two undead inside there ... Hope that Marot can handle himself."
"If the undead can be contained within, then we can handle them later."
Ashlyn then moves over towards the east wall with the iron bars that the madman was looking through earlier and repeats her staring act.
Marot studies the macabre situation in the kitchen, expecting to see body parts spilling over the large pot at any moment.
Doing his best to act like free-roaming zombies don't bother him, ("DogsZombies can sense fear, Marot!) Marot starts questioning Cyrus once again.
"What did you forget in the pot? Master really has no patience for a recipe gone wrong."
"Surely Master will come 'round and view your masterpiece soon."
As he talks to Cyrus, Marot is a thought away from BAMF'ing back outside, but he walks over to the other door and peeks through it, hoping to see the rest of the group outside.
Cyrus continues to stir. "Hmm? Just must keep it boiling, boiling. Don't want to overburn!" He says nothing about the Master.
Marot eases his way to the other side, opening the door just enough to see the others in the hall. The zombie splashing in the pot moans at the warlock as he edges close.
The group sees one of the other doors open just a bit; Marot is framed in it, peering out. As for the iron bars, it appears to be a wine cellar next to a servant stair. Casks older than time line the walls save for the back one across from the bars. That is taken up by a large stained glass mosaic, lit from within. At first glance, it appears to be an image of banquet in honor of some sort of triumph, but a trick of the light makes it seem to flicker between scenes of debauchery and depravity as you watch.
__________________ stonegod -- LEB judge and spawn of Khyber since 2005 (Blog)
Marot gives the room a once over for any magical auras, then quietly leaves the kitchen through the unblocked door.
Once outside,"One zombie in there with Cyrus, hunched over a large boiling pot of something."
"I also saw a few magical auras in there -- possibly items in the cupboards that might be of interest. Cyrus also has a large cleaver in there that is of magical nature.
Marot gives the room a quick glance, noticing that one of the cleavers on the cluttered counter glows magically and there appears to be some faint glows inside the cupboards.
__________________ stonegod -- LEB judge and spawn of Khyber since 2005 (Blog)
Aslyn turns back towards the others as Marot speaks, and a moment later she replies "One Zombie and Cyrus you say, ... yet I sensed two undead in there."
Ashlyn moves up to the door that Marot just exited and peers into the room, taking another look at Cyrus and then looking over the room, trying to determine the location of the other undead aura, if it is not Cyrus.
Last edited by Stormwind; 16th September 2009 at 10:11 PM..
Ashlyn moves up to the door that Marot just exited and peers into the room, taking another look at Cyrus and then looking over the room, trying to determine the location of the other undead aura, if it is not Cyrus.
As Ashlyn peers in, Cyrus waves cheerfully, taking the spoon out of the green goo. He blathers a bit while she concentrates.
"Lost, eh? Cyrus can take you where you go."
Ashlyn's other sight shows that the other undead, other than the zombie, must
be hidden or gone, for she no longer senses it.
__________________ stonegod -- LEB judge and spawn of Khyber since 2005 (Blog)
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