3rd adventure: Rebirth

Saemon is bemused when Mihai mentions Amelia, and even more so when Konrad calls him "chief". However, he decides to keep quiet and just follow the party. Fedler is hesitant about it, and she voices her concern when Saemon notices the burned corpse at the end of the hallway. "Should we really bring him with us?" she asks. "We don't know what we'll find in the west wing..."

The shackled man's eyes widen as he begins to understand how bad the situation was, and how horrible these remains look.

Mihai looks back at Saemon - "We're not sure what we'll find in there, but i'll probably be nasty. You just woke up; maybe you should stay back for now."

Saemon waits for Mihai to keep talking, expecting him to keep talking as he seems to believe he has no say in the matter.

Mihai notices the miscommunication - "It's what i think is best. I'm not forcing you."

Saemon can only stare at Mihai before he starts looking back and forth between him and the other party members.

Steve clears his throat. "An aside, Mihai?" He indicates further down the hall and leads him around the corner to boot. When Mihai joins him he'll say in a whisper, "He's our prisoner right now, not our friend. And he's in no shape to make decisions anyway. Until Breeze clears him we need to keep this professional and that means not letting the prisoner make decisions about where he goes from here. Let me take him down to Sarah and the others. With their help I can keep an eye on him while we wait for Breeze to rest and that way you guys don't have to look over your shoulder while you secure the rest of the building."

Mihai looks at him for a moment - "Just avoid the corpses."

"I'll certainly do my best." He activates his communicator and lets Rondel and the others know what's happening before he leads Saemon away. Before he goes, Steve says, "Stay frosty. Later guys."

The west wing

The security post

You need to go through a set of two doors to enter the west wing. At the security checkpoint, a security guard would usually look from behind the glass at who is coming in, but there's nobody there at the moment.

Break room

There are lockers around the room, two tables around which you can sit, and a magical refrigerator where you can keep your lunch box; a few of them are still full.

Bathroom

There is only one toilet, a sink, and a small closet where paper rolls and cleaning supplies are kept in.

Medical supplies room

It is similar to the previous room of this type you've explored before.

Supplies room

This is where straitjackets and woven shackles are kept. There is also clothing for the patients, intravenous injection components, various tools, and other equipment necessary to the maintenance of this floor.

Research area

There are two bodies laying on the ground; both of them are wearing some kind of uniform that you haven't seen before, but which must be worn by most scientists of the Archipelago. They both have been stabbed with something. Judging by the gurney standing in the middle of the room, and the straps attached to hit, this is where the most dangerous patients of the Bright Falls asylum were examined. By reading a few notes, you discover that they've been trying to find some kind of chemicals that might slow down the degenerative process by which Madness manifests itself, and maybe even cure it. However, the success of each experiment was only temporary.

Furthermore, by reading these notes, it seems that every previous attempts to use magic to improve the condition of the patients have been met with failure. That is, until the case of patient 179. The orb in his head seems to have completely halted the degeneration of his mind, and in a matter of a few months, reverted it back to the state of a normal human being. In one of her reports to her superiors, the researcher emphasizes the urgent need to locate and secure the source of that magical orb.

Examination room

The room is divided by a wall of glass on which Mihai and Konrad can perceive magical runes of protection. On the east side of the room lie two corpses; a security guard, and a doctor. They have been beaten to death.

There is a pair of broken shackles on the floor. They're the kind used to bind mages.

Monitoring room

Judging by the numerous consoles and gauges, this appears to be the room where everything in the asylum is controlled from. There are two bodies in here; one of them is a researcher who is holding a bloodied butter knife, and the other is the director himself, who's dragged himself towards one of the consoles so he could lean his upper body against it. His death must have happened recently, judging by how warm his body still is.

After examining the scene, it seems that the researcher and the director fought and killed each other. The director was stabbed in the gut with the knife, while the scientist was stabbed in the neck with a pencil. Mihai and Konrad notice two blinking lights on one of the consoles. Above the first light is written "Activate purge", and there is blood on the button below it. Above the second light is written "Initiate lockdown". There is a third light bulb, this one turned off, above which is written "Lift lockdown", and a small button beside it.

You also notice another wall of glass that gives you a view of the holding area.

Holding area

There are eleven cells, ten of which are on rails and operated from the monitoring room. Their walls are also transparent. There is some sort of yellow gas in nine of them, and six of them contain the body of a patient; they all wear a straitjacket. The tenth cell, in which there is no gas, is the one Snicker used to escape this area.

One of the patients, this one outside her cell, is still alive; the sleeves of her straitjacket have been partially ripped off, and she is holding herself in a fetal position, using her hands to hide her face. You cannot hear her from this room, but she appears to be crying.

Map:

Mihai looks at the scene in the monitoring room, and grimaces.

He checks the director's body for anything useful. Then activates the Comm, and asks for one of the nurses - "Are the patients in the 3rd floor west wing in any state that can communicate? Got a survivor in the hallway, but can't reach her yet."

"It's time someone told them that fairies are the cure for madness caused by magic."

"No way." Konrad whistles as he stands over the dead bodies of the director and a researcher. "How strong do you have to be to work here? Wounds of that severity using those as weapons shouldn't be possible."

Konrad holds his baton ready. "We need to take her out and then find a way to vent the gas. She needs to go in one of the cells, and then we're finished here."

Steve heads for the waiting room where the party began their adventure in what feels like a lifetime ago. He'll situate Saemon in a chair, trying to make him as comfortable as possible. Once done, he'll contact Rodnel. "Stephen, you there?"

There's a pause, but Rodnel does answer. "Yeah. Alive and kickin'."

"Glad to hear it. I'm over in the waiting room with Saemon, patient 179. I could use a volunteer or two to help take care of him.  Could you ask the others for me?"

"Patient 179?" There's a longer pause. "I'm not sure anyone wants to be in the same room with him, or any other patient."

"I understand that but I can't do it alone and there's no way I'm coming to you. Will you at least ask? I have him shackled for now and I'm open to further suggestions."

"He's shackled? So he can't cast anything?"

"Correct."

"...Gimme a minute."

"You got it." While he waits, Steve looks over to Saemon to see what he is doing. For his part Saemon is looking at the ground, having lost interest in the room he's found himself in. He looks slightly nervous, and quite bored. It takes a little more than a minute before Stephen calls back Steve. "Hey kid."

"I'm here. What did they decide?"

"Leslek and Sarah are going to make their way to you. They'll be there anytime now."

"Thanks."

"Yeah, sure."

Leslek and Sarah arrive soon after, and the nurse quickly gets to work. She examines Saemon for injuries, and then suggests they get him some new clothes. After some water and a quick conference over what further precautions to take the three decide to give Saemon a mild sedative to keep him calm but awake. Sarah prepares the sedative, and administers it to Saemon, who's quite reluctant to be drugged, but doesn't make any move to resist.

Satisfied he's done everything he can, Steve sets to guarding the door while he waits for the others. He hopes they are safe.

Mihai finds on the director a level 5 keycard and a broken communicator. There's an indentation on the device.

Visibly tired by the previous fight, Fedler replies to Konrad, "She seems to be stuck in that area. It might be better to let someone else do it."

After briefing Mihai on the situation with Saemon, Rodnel then passes the communicator to Audrey. She listens to Mihai attentively and then urgently tells him, "Do not speak to her!" She tries to calm herself. "I'm sorry. But the patients in that wing are extremely dangerous. They're powerful mages and soldiers. Don't fight her, if you can avoid it."

Mihai pauses uncomfortably when he hears of Saemon being drugged, but decides not to pursue it for now - "...understood."

Then Mihai examines the communicator, and frowns as something occurs to him. He checks the wounds on the Director, to get an idea of how long it took him to bleed out. Then he asks Konrad to "Scan them."

After that, he'll take a better look at the wounds of the scientists in the research room, and ask Konrad to scan them as well.

"I don't know if it's important to scan them all." Konrad will first Scan the director.

Level 2 Scan

"Our director came here from the examination room three-and-a-half hours ago, then this guy," he says, pointing at the researcher, "ran in and attacked him with a...butter knife. What, did he keep it with him after lunch break? Anyway, director defended himself. His communicator was damaged in the struggle. Then he initiated the purge, and got the message out to initiate the lockdown and shut off the power, before the communicator stopped working. Half an hour ago, he lost too much blood."

"Strangest thing, really...he's got a love globule inside his head. And this whole time these people were trying to figure out how to cure madness, when the director had it right here." he points up at his own head.

Level 2 Scan
researcher with butter knife

Mihai grimaces as he looks at the researcher's corpse - "This was Snicker. Probably started by stabbing the two in the other room, then came here. This guy was ground zero."

Then he hears about the Orb, and stares at the director.

"He was with the Coins...?" - Mihai considers the implications

Fedler winces at the retelling of these events, and averts her gaze from the body, preferring to focus on the holding area. "I can't wait to get out of here."

She glances at her companions once they mention the orb.

Konrad only:

"The answer could be simple, but now i'm interested too." - Mihai looks at Fedler to make sure she's ok with it. If so, will proceed to the office.

Fedler doesn't immediately leave the room. Instead, she approaches the director's corpse and tentatively puts her hand on the left side of his head. After a few seconds, she manages to extract the globule, which she now holds to eye level. "...Just like Breeze said."

Mihai approaches, and looks at the Orb for a moment - "If only we had a way to read it. I'm positive the Coins do."

Fedler nods and puts the globule in her pocket before following her companions outside the room.

_______________

The three party members arrive at the director's office.

At first glance, there's nothing special about this room. There are a few filling cabinets that contain information about the patients of the Bright Falls asylum, supplies orders, accounting books, and other administrative matters. There's a shelf where the director kept some private reading material, a desk on which stands small figurines of cute fictional creatures, and drawers that contain various files and office supplies.