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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1759831" data-attributes="member: 1210">Loonies on the Loose!The loonies are shouting, shouting; everyone is Norman.  Jawbreaker grimaces.  He can hold the stairs for a while, but this is going nowhere.  Why is he trusting a kobold to figure this out anyway?  Irritation blossoms in his breast like a flower.  Ethel, the dog’s dog, wanders over and snuffles at him, then turns to watch the stairs beside him.“We need Timothy to see into those cells,” Martini says.  “C’mere, Tim.  I’ll let you stand on my shoulders.”Timothy looks frightened, like a rabbit in the midst of wolves.“Come on, don’t you want to help people?” Martini persists.“Okay,” Timothy answers after another agonizing moment, and climbs up the ranger.  “Is this a game?” the former inmate asks.“Yes, Timothy, it’s the looking for Norman game,” Martini says urgently.“Okay!”  With a faint smile, Timothy starts peering into the cells, but after the first few they stop for a moment to give Martini a moment.“Too slow,” Jawbreaker grunts.  Then footsteps clatter up the stairs from below.  He tenses, and a pair of orderlies ascends, with Dr. Zimmer between and just behind them.“Stop!” he cries.  “What are you doing?  You’re disturbing the patients!”  Jawbreaker feels something scratch at his brain.  He recoils in horror- this “doctor” is trying to rape his mind!  With a single savage blow he decapitates the orderly between him and Zimmer.  Then he hears Federico start singing a sarcastic song about doctors, and Martini fires an arrow into the other orderly- the group is taking his cue!  The ranger keeps firing, but an arrow hits Ethel even as the dog brings down the other orderly.Dr. Zimmer grimaces, and Jawbreaker feels a spike of psionic force whip across his ego.  He feels suddenly worth less- not quite worthless,, as if nobody listens to him, as if he has never had friends or influence, but rather nearly as if almost nobody listens to him, as if he has only had two friends ever and influence once.  He gnashes his teeth, more angry than disabled, and Zimmer starts to flee but Jawbreaker stops that with his axe.  He severs the doctor’s head in a single mighty blow.  The head drops down the stairs, bouncing no doubt to the asylum’s first floor.As Zimmer falls, his body undergoes a strange change.  His flesh flows and ripples, turning a weird grey color, and even his clothes seemed to be mostly part of the disguise.“He was a doppelganger,” Federico whines in amazement. “Too slow!” roars Jawbreaker.  “Find Norman, or leave!”“We can’t leave him here,” Federico protests.“Bah!”  Jawbreaker hoists a ring of keys from the body of the ersatz Dr. Zimmer and then stomps to the nearest door.  “What your name?” he shouts into it.“What...?” comes a feeble voice.  This one has not been claiming to be Norman.“What your name?”After a pause, “Who wants to know?”“You want out?” Jawbreaker demands.  “What your name?” “You’re out to get me!  What do you want?”Snorting disdainfully, Jawbreaker works his way through the keys until he finds one that opens the door.  He lets it swing wide and snaps, “Go.”A gown-clad form scutters past the party cautiously, obviously not trusting their intentions.  She hesitates at the top of the stairs.”Look,” says Martini, “there’s a lot of chaos right now.  It’s probably your best chance to escape if they mistreat you, but on the other hand the swamp is right there, and it’s not a really friendly environment.”Jawbreaker is letting another madman loose.  “What your name?” he calls at the next cell door.*  Apparently liking whatever the woman answers, he lets her go.  Mad folk are now milling the hall in confusion, as well as rushing downstairs.  There are shouts below. “Maybe,” Martini comments wryly, “the bodies down below have discouraged them.”“We killed their director,” Federico whimpers.  “They’re probably s-scared of us.”  His tail is tucked between his legs; it’s clear that the fear goes both ways.  Jawbreaker is letting out everyone, it seems.One human male inmate lingering in the corridor asks, “Why are you looking for Norman?”Federico turns to him.  “He’s a friend of ours, held unjustly against his will.  Well, I guess he’s really a friend of a friend- Sandy.”  A pair of inmates, clinging to each other, rush past.  Another skirts around the group.  A few more stare curiously.“Actually,” Martini says, “I believe he’s actually a friend of a friend of Sandy’s.”  He shakes his head.  “But Sandy’s one of us, he’s just down with the swamp fever- the buzzing bowels.”The man nods, seemingly having made up his mind.  “Well, I’m your man.  I’m Norman.”Timothy glances over.  “Oh, hi Norman.”**Our heroes glance at each other and sigh.  ”You find him?” Jawbreaker asks, approaching.  More loonies run past.“Yeah,” Federico replies.”Good.  Me let them all out.”  The barbarian shrugs.“Let’s go, you guys,” Timothy urges.”Wait a minute,” Martini says Martini.  “Didn’t you say Dr. Zimmer changed a while ago?”“Yeah, he used to be nice,” Timothy answers.“The doppelganger!” gasps Federico.  “He replaced the real Dr. Zimmer at that point!”  He frowns for a moment.  “There’s a fourth floor, but they said that nobody ever goes there- it’s storage and old paperwork and stuff.”“Nobody ever goes there,” snorts Martini.  “Did you ever know anyone who went up to the fourth level, Timothy?”“No,” the childlike halfling replies quietly.“Let’s check it out.”“Oh no!” moans Federico.  Jawbreaker grins, then laughs, then pulls out his axe.Next Time: The fourth floor!  The first floor!  And teaching Timothy to snack!*Wondering what the hell he’s doing?  He’s waiting to see if anyone will cop to being the mass murderer Manson, and he won’t let that one out. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />**Realize that Timothy’s Spot check is something like -4 at this point.  He doesn’t really notice anything.  He’s almost totally withdrawn and oblivious.</blockquote>

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