Changeling: the Lost
Venice: Broken Masks, Shattered Dreams
Episode 3 - Skulls - parts 4
The gondola made its way across the clear still waters of the River of Fate. The shade guided the craft, laden with its passengers, to the jetty on the other side of the river. The concrete towers reached up to the roof of the great cavern, and the place echoed with the screams and wails of the patients within the Hospital.
Coming up from the riverside, the motley found an open courtyard, with doors leading off into the maze like complex. From here they could see the groping arms of the patients, reaching through the bars of the windows. They observed the sweeping light from the central tower, silencing the ill and mad as it illuminated their chambers.
In the courtyard was a man at a desk with a number of filing cabinets behind him. He scribbled away and stamped sheets. He looked up, looking over his face mask, and beckoned the motley over. He looked them up and down and determined that Stitches was in need of treatment. He explained that patients could only leave the domain once they have been cured for their ailments, and that those who were healthy were allowed to observe but not interfere. A number of nurses approached and motioned for Stitches to sit. He refused and struggled as the nurses forced him down into the chair. This stopped as he watched in horror as a monstrous being approached. It scuttled down the sides of the walls, it’s chitinous legs stabbing into the concrete. It was almost 7 foot tall, and the upper part of the body made up of a barely concealed, muscular man, with fingers tipped with needles. It’s face was just a mask of white bone, with no eyes, mouth or ears. However, it spoke, with a booming voice, suggesting that they follow the rules of its domain.
As Stitches was wheeled away into the depths of the complex, the others followed. However, Sonata sneaked off alone. He went looking for where they may keep the drugs and medication, as well as looking for some clue of the missing woman and the man that had taken her. They had asked the man at the front desk about this matter but he seemed to be of the opinion that no one would be able to enter or leave without him knowing.
Having gone down a number of dark and damp corridors, through plastic sheeting drapes, and past wards filled with the screams of the ill and mad, they arrived at a room where Stitches would be assessed. There was a cold and stained metal table, and the nurses moved him from the wheel chair to the table, and strapped him down. They lowered a contraption from the ceiling. The dangling legs of it clamped around Stitches head, and some were positioned to force his eyes open. The attending doctor then entered. He was covered in medical garbed, and he wore a reflector upon his forehead. He pulled down the face mask and revealed that he had no lower jaw and a thin moustache. He walked to the table behind where Stitches was strapped down and uncovered a capacitor. He flicked a switched and it hummed to life. He went to position the electrodes at Stitches’ temples. There was a whine and Stitches teeth clamped together. The shock was over and then the capacitor began to charge again. Stitches wailed in pain.
It was now that Freki, Clio and Else acted. They fought with the nurses and the doctor. The capacitor was still charging and Else tried to reach the wires of the machine to use her Contracts of Artifice to destroy the electroshock machine. Finally she got a hold of it and the capacitor stopped functioning, but only just after another surge of power had run through Stitches. The nurses and doctor fled, with Freki slashing in all directions with her claws. They unstrapped Stitches and helped him up and fled into the complex.
Meanwhile, Sonata was in a store room and he was rummaging through a drugs cabinet. He had already found the morphine when there was a sound at the door. Sonata hid in the corner and found that his command of the shadows came easily. He watched a man, fitting the description given to him by Stitches. The man grabbed a number of different bottles and packages and then left. Sonata followed, and they headed into the depths of the hospital, closer to the centre where the lighthouse stood.
As the rest of the motley fled the surgery room the sirens began to howl. They picked up some hospital coats and went to look for the man and the missing woman, and also Sonata. Freki, picked up on the man’s scent she had detected back in Venice, and led the others after him.
Sonata had made his way following the man, and now there were no windows looking out of the hospital. There was just corridor after corridor of dirty lino floors. The man had gone into one of the padded rooms, and Sonata looked in to find that the padded walls had been torn open and that a tunnel had been cut downwards. Around the entrance to the tunnel were numerous body parts. Soon enough Sonata was joined by the rest of the motley and they head down the tunnel.
The tunnel opened out onto another corridor some floors below. The doors at either end of the corridor were locked, but ahead of them were the double doors leading to a dark hospital ward. From within they could hear the crying of a woman. The motley planned how they would go in, and as they crept into the forboding chamber they could hear the man talking to another unseen figure. The voice of the other person was deep and rasping. There was an argument about the man wanting his reward finally, and rasping voiced replied that he still need one more test subject. The man turned to leave the room, and passed by the motley who were hidden in the dark. Freki leaped out and so did Stitches, both hoping to pin down the man. Sonata kept to the shadows and sought to help release the woman. It was then that they saw the shade that the man had spoken to. He floated, attired in a ragged medical coat. His neck was thin and stretched out and his tongue hung loosely from his mouth. The fight was a series of slashes of knives, claws and nails, with Clio distracting them with her enchanting voice. Sonata lunged out and rammed a syringe filled with morphine. With the man dead and the shade dealt with the motley released the woman and led her out of the ward and up the tunnel.
Sonata led the motley with the aid of the ring that they had been given by the Sin-Eater. It led them through the hospital. The sirens were still wailing and they could now hear the stomping of the Kerberoi that they had met when they had first entered the Domain. They found that the ring had led them to a morgue. They were seemingly trapped. But the ring pointed to a locker. Opening it they found that there was a long tunnel within. They let the woman in first and then the motley followed.
They exited from the cramped undulating tunnel through another locker in another morgue. Fearful they looked to the door of the morgue and looked out. They saw that the hospital here was not as dark or as cold. It was only when they heard a mobile phone receive a text message that realised that they were once more in the real world.
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