All around is a wall of sickly yellow fog, tumbling through the alley’s canyon of crumbling, gray brick walls like some jaundiced flash flood. Ahead, the unfamiliar alley splits, curving to the left and right. Behind, from the silent swell of mist, emanates the sound of footsteps—slow, but somehow keeping pace with the careening, hungry wave.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Roll for Inititiative

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A mismatched group stumbles forward in the mist.  Their eyes are glazed, and the dwarf has a bit of drool hanging from his lips.  However, even in this state, something about the location, or perhaps the footsteps, drives them onward.  The sour fog causes the tallest one to cough, but the others don't seem to notice.  As they approach the split in the cramped alley, most veer right without seeming to evaluate their options.  The dwarf however, follows the left.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Order:
  Tyksis, Seeker, Glenn, Celtis

10:47, Today: Seeker rolled 12 using 1d20+3.  Initiative.

10:47, Today: Glenn Xiloscient rolled 12 using 1d20+3.  Initiative.

10:46, Today: Celtis rolled 5 using 1d20+2.  Initiative.

10:46, Today: Tyksis Olante rolled 12 using 1d20+4.  Initiative.

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While the trio of strangers follows the path to the right, the dwarf veers off on his own, and soon finds himself alone, surrounded on all sides by the sickly amber mists.

The trio suddenly finds the deafening silence of the alien city shattered by a scream, the word "ME!" echoing through the alley in the common tongue. The alley walls sag, battered brick slumping over the path, nearly blotting out the bruised twilight sky. Again the grimy cobblestone path splits. This time one route curves uphill, while the other recklessly descends. Behind, the yellow fog and the relentless sound of pursuit grow closer.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Glenn, Seeker, and Tyksis are up.  Celtis is out of action until further notice.

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The group continue onward, hardly seeming to notice the absence of a member.  Inertia and gravity combine to form a path of lesser resitance, dragging two of the three remaining downward on the path.  The black-haired man, however, turns to look back at the rolling bank of soiled mist, and on turning back, finds himself traveling up the hill, separated from his companions.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Tyksis went upwards, the others down.

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Tyksis is separated from the others, the hill growing steeper and steeper before terminating in a wall.  The sound of footsteps is blessedly absent, until stale breath brushes the back of his neck.

The remaining pair meanwhile found their hill terminating in a wide square, a clearing in a forest of buildings.  A scream again breaks the eerie silence, the word "UP!" echoing along the walls.

The mist parts, now mere steps behind. A mask of gray rags emerges, strips of something fleshier than fabric worming and constricting across a body that’s almost humanlike—but too lean, and far too flexible. Gauzy gray ribbons reach out like tendrils, each grasping for less doubtful flesh to claim.  It presents its gifts, the heads of the separated strangers tossed onto the cobbles.  Blood pools in the shape of letters, ME and UP now scrawled on the ground in gore.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Glenn and Seeker have turns.

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Glenn stumbles back, his breath coming in short, stalled hitches.  He turns to flee, heedless of what would happen to Seeker.

Seeker's response is somewhat different, though equally primal.  Whatever part of his mind calculates risk isn't present at this moment, and he lashes out, attempting to strike the unnatural entity.  Any combat discipline he has seems to have fled as well, as he strikes out with energy-consuming haymakers.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Glenn uses withdraw action to flee as far as possible.
Seeker attacks the creature: 8 to hit, 6 damage.  Not proficient in unarmed strikes so he'll suffer an AoO.

15:51, Today: Seeker rolled 6 using 1d3+3.  Unarmed Damage.

15:51, Today: Seeker rolled 8 using 1d20+3.  Unarmed Damage.

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Seekers strikes are clumsy and slow, and his punch is dodged while the fiend rakes at him with wicked claws, laying open flesh.  The blood splashes on the cobbles, pooling into the word SAVE, before the creature lashes out with both claws, missing the deft half-elf, before fog swallowed them both up.

"WAKE!" this wasn't so much a scream, but a demand.  The unfamiliar landscape shifted and buckled around Glenn, something clearly wasn't right with all of this.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
21:15, Today: The Knowingly Eli rolled 23 using 1d20+3.  AoO.

21:16, Today: The Knowingly Eli rolled 8 using 1d20+3.  Crit Confirm.

21:21, Today: The Knowingly Eli rolled 5 using 1d8+1.  Damage.

21:24, Today: The Knowingly Eli rolled 8,7 using 1d20+3,1d20+3.  2 Claws.

Could I get a will save from Glenn?

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Glenn continues to shrink back from the rolling bank of mist, his terror such that he pounds on walls.  He strikes glass windows, disregarding his physical safety to follow his imperative to escape, to hide, to get away from all this.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Will save 14, or 15 if this is an extraordinary, spell-like, or supernatural ability of an aberration.
22:05, Today: Glenn Xiloscient rolled 14 using 1d20+5.  Will Save.

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The glass refuses to shatter beneath Glenn's fists, hollow *pungs* echoing in time to the damnable footsteps.  A familiar visage appears behind him in the reflection of the glass, the ragged creature's claws slipping around the bald man's neck, sinking into flesh.

The four of you startle awake as one.

“Wake up, damn it!” the man on the table screams, his panic cutting through the claustrophobic near dark.

Both humans share a 10 by 15 cell, and in a similar cell across the 15-foot room sits half elf-elf the dwarf, a strand of drool drying in his beard.  In the middle of the space between your cells is a dreadful sight, a stranger, bound to a table and bleeding from numerous wounds is attended by an unsettlingly thin figure in a bloody doctor's coat, twirling the blade from a broken pair of pruning shears in the light of the overhead lamp before dragging it across the bound man's thigh, dragging out a wail of pain.  The other half of the tormentor's shears sit on a nearby table with a gardening trowel, forks, and assorted bits of broken metal and glass.

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing, however, is the ring of keys evident to all of you on the thin torturer's waist.

Glenn mutters a low oath at the sight of the man seemingly being tortured.  He notes the keys, but lacking any means of reaching them, instead states, "I may be able to help you.  Try to open your mind."  He closes his eyes, apparently focusing.  Next to him, Tyksis stands, and walks to the bars, not touching them, but eyeing them carefully and obviously.

On the other side of the room, Celtis continues to stare blankly ahead, but Seeker's eyes sharpen.  His hands instinctively go to his ribs where the dream-creature had raked him.  He grits his teeth and quietly sidles towards the bars of the holding cell.  He reaches for the keys, but they are well beyond him.  He focuses, and is unsure whether he distorts reality, or himself.  But the keys seem to be attainable.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Glenn: Inviting the man to his collective.
Tyksis: Evaluating where a Small character could fit between the bars.  If so, he'll manifest Metamorphosis to make himself Small.  If that wouldn't work, but a Large character could reach between the bars, he'll use Metamorphosis to increase his size/reach.

21:01, Yesterday: Seeker rolled 25 using 1d20+7.  Stealth.
Seeker: Stealthing up (Result 25) to the edge of the bars, and using his daily ability Pugnacious to extend his reach by 5 feet.  If the doctor is in the center of the 15 foot space, that should be within Seeker's reach.  He will attempt to snag the keys.
  TECHNICALLY the writing of the ability applies to reach of melee attacks, but I imagine this would be equivalent to a melee touch attack.
Celtis: Full-round action: Drool

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This message was last edited by the player at 15:44, Sat 01 Oct 2022.

"Pipe down," the woman barks without sparing the bald vitalist a glance.  "You'll have your turn soon enough."  For his part, the victimized man takes Glenn at his word and opens himself to whatever help he could offer.

Tyksis discovers he could possibly squeeze through the bars if he were small enough. With an Escape Artist Check vs DC 15

Seeker reaches for the keys, seemingly fruitlessly at first, but somehow he finds them within his reach. A Combat Maneuver vs CMD 20 or a Dex/Sleight of Hand check vs DC 12

Celtis bides his time, whether brilliantly or madly only he could say.

At the woman's voice, Celtis shudders, seeming to come to a semblance of awareness.  He doesn't move yet, but his eyes begin tracking the scene in front of him.  Across the hall, Tyksis grimaces, his frustration at Glenn drawing the doctor's attention evident.  He stays where he is, biding his time and ready to shift when the doctor becomes distracted again.

Tyksis' withering glace doesn't register with Glenn, who is still establishing the link.  Once it sets in place, he immediately sends a mental command for the man's body to begin repairing itself.  Part of him is aware this could be risky, as healing the man will likely be evident to his tormentor.  The thought is rendered moot a moment later as the sound of a heartbeat fills the room, accompanied by a slight red tinge filtering over everything in the room.  Again, he curses softly.

Taking advantage of Glenn's ongoing (if unwitting) distraction of the torturer, Seeker snags the keys deftly from her belt, and quietly begins unlocking his cell, keeping the heavy keys separated from one another to prevent noise.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Tyksis: No action; waiting.
Glenn: Natural Healing (Heals the man on the slab for 3 HP), failed to prevent display.
Celtis: No action.
Seeker: Successful Dex check (16) to retrieve the keys, Stealth check 26 to begin quietly unlocking his cell.

22:03, Today: Seeker rolled 16 using 1d20+3.  Dex Check.
22:27, Today: Seeker rolled 26 using 1d20+7.  Stealth (using keys).
22:24, Today: Glenn Xiloscient rolled 11 using 1d20+5.  Concentration to prevent display.

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This message was last edited by the player at 03:31, Sun 02 Oct 2022.

The torturer wheels on Glenn, her face melting and shifting into something else, until he's staring at himself in a blood-soaked apron.  "QUIET!" his own voice screams at him, panting  until the torturer regains composure and her own face.

The keys are firmly in Seeker's hands, and he is able to silently free both himself and his cellmate, Celtis as the woman turns back to the man on the table, her face screwing up in puzzlement at the disappearing act that her victim's wounds had performed while she was otherwise engaged.

Glenn's mind reels, and his connection to the man on the table wavers as he nearly retreats to that same state he had been in before.  His eyes glaze over momentarily before he grips himself and pushes through.  Meanwhile, Seeker debates his options, and decides that avoiding notice long enough to rescue the others is unlikely.  Instead, he tosses the keys to Tyksis, aware of the sound of them jangling in the air, and steps up next to the table.

During this time, Celtis was furiously trying to capture the inner calm that would allow him to fight more effectively, but his stressed, tired mind is unable to do so, and his battle focus eludes him.  Tyksis watches this all impassively, waiting for the right moment.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Seeker: Standard: Throw the keys to Tyksis: 8, and 5 foot step up to table.
Celtis: Full round action: attempt psionic focus and fail.
Tyksis: Will attempt to catch keys if possible.
Glenn: Panic.

I figure now's about time to roll initiative.
Tyksis: 19
Celtis: 18
Seeker: 14
Glenn: 5

20:06, Today: Celtis rolled 18 using 1d20+2.  Initiative.
20:06, Today: Glenn Xiloscient rolled 5 using 1d20+3.  Initiative.
20:05, Today: Tyksis Olante rolled 19 using 1d20+4.  Initiative.
20:05, Today: Seeker rolled 14 using 1d20+3.  Initiative.
20:04, Today: Seeker rolled 8 using 1d20+3.  Tossing keys to Tyksis.
19:58, Today: Celtis rolled 13 using 1d20+7.  Psionic Focus.

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