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.

Three men and two women run through the fog, in a desperate race away from something unknown. All are young adults, the sort who should be working on a farm, in a shop, or enjoying life somewhere. But they are here. The first one to the intersection pauses. He does not know what is going on, why he is here, or even who he is other than the name “Leif”. He is a short man, maybe 5’2, lithe and limber, but human. The next man might not be. He is tall, but slender. His dark haired head has short horns, and a tail twitches behind him. His dark eyes flash as he tosses grease towards the sound of their pursuer and flees left. He is remembering …someone… teaching him to read that spell. Nikolai, try those words again slower is the patient voice but then the memory is gone.

The third man is a huge, towering figure, nearly naked, with a large sword on his back. Scars cover his body in strange places. He knows his is Kindred, a name and a function somehow. He stops at the intersection and faces the danger.

”Go! Run! I will hold things here. It is my duty to protect you”

The two women come up. One is a tall half-orc, with unusual red hair cascading down her shoulders. She already has out a weapon and pushes up to Kindred and stands with him, jostling really, to be in front. ”Zarith does not back down from a fight!” She then thinks That must be my name. Good to know my name before I die!

The final member of the group is a Varisian woman with blue eyes like the stars of heaven. She is Versa, and to her, all of this feels like a deal gone wrong. She charges up and follows Kindred’s direction. This causes Leif to follow, and the party is split between Nikolai, Leif, and Versa in one side, and Zarith and Kindred on the other.

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. Nikolai tries a detect magic but the world is out of focus and wrong. It is then the thing emerges from the mists.

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.

”The Tatterman!” Nikolai shouts as a memory overtakes him. It is his brother, teasing him, telling him he had better behave or the Witch of Brierstone would send her Tatterman to get him. A woman was then there. “Hush Stefan, do not say such things to him.”

”Mama” whispers Nikolai. The memory is gone as fast as it comes, but Nikolai is buoyed ”We have to help them”

The Tatterman slides through the grease and attacks Kindred. His claws tear the man asunder. Blood sprays everywhere. As do cogs, and gears, with electrical sparks. As Kindred dies he looks a amazed as anyone as what his insides look like. As he dies, a thin voice comes from his mouth and the dripping blood on the wall mirrors the word spoken:

ME

Versa has the flash of a memory. Bandits attacking the caravan. Her father in danger. Colors lashing from her fingers. Without thinking she runs up and color spray flashes forth.

At this moment, Zartih only remembers the feel of a weapon in her hand, and fighting against anyone, anything, that gets in her way. She tries to hit the Tatterman but misses, feeling like the blow is swinging through water. Unfortunately, as she steps to regain her balance, she is caught by the color ray. The world swirls and she collapses asleep.

The Tatterman is unaffected by the magic but he backs up into the mists. Nikolai and Versa try to help Kindred, but it is clear he is quite dead. Leif grabs the greatsword as he had no other weapon.

The Tatterman emerges from the fog on their otherside and almost kills Versa. Nikolai tries his dagger, and hits, but the evil creature seems hardly hurt. It moves to kill Nikolai, but Versa slides under him and plunges a silver dagger into him. The creature actually emits a sound of pain and focuses back on Versa.

Leif is not used to this sword and valiantly attacks but cannot connect. He is ignored for the moment. Versa, on the other hand, is ripped open. Blood sprays, and again the same voice comes through her mouth:

UP

Nikolai is desperate. He tries his magic missile which hits, but results in his immediate decapitation. This time, only Leif hears the word:

HELP

The Tatterman smiles and kills the slumbering Zarith without even looking at her:

WAKE

Leif looks at the words on the wall:

WAKE UP! HELP ME!

Leif runs into the mists and tries to wake up.

They awake in cells. Kindred is alone, with Zarith and Nikolai in another, and Versa and Leif in the cell across from Kindred. There is a man strapped to a table shouting // “Wake up, damn it!” Help me! “//

There is a deranged woman with what are clearly broken pruning shears, wearing a blood smeared coat. She picks up tools and acts as if she is dictating information to someone. She does not seem aware any of the group are awake yet. As she walks around, she close to the cell with Nikolai and Zarith. Without moving his arms, Nikolai’s tail flashes through the bars and he lifts the key chain from her belt. Just as he gets it under his body, Zarith lunges for the bars in an attempt to grab this women. She fails and the “doctor” shouts,

”Subjects will wait their turn!”. Zarith notices her face melt somewhat under pressure.

Once her back is turned, Nikolai moves. Silently, the young mage unlocks the door to the cell. Zarith sneaks out of the cell and around the corner just before the doctor turns back as she goes around the table. Nikolai’s eyes hold a fire of disdain for the half orc as she leaves the cell. He has a sudden memory of his brother Stefan and his impetuousness. And his bullying. While he has the sense of belonging with these other four people for some reason, the feeling with the half-orc is different.

Shaking off the memory, he then uses mage hand to waft it next door where Leif grabs them to unlock that cell. An adroit toss by Leif gets the keys to Kindred. Both men want to get to the table with the tools to use as makeshift weapons, but the woman is facing them.

”We will now see how the subject does without his left eye!” says the “doctor”. Nikolia screams in terror. The woman looks over to see Zarith gone. Nikolia whimpers as would a frightened child. Despite his trouble dealing with people, he puts on a great show.

”She turned into a monster and got out!”

”A ghoul?” asks the “doctor” totally believing Nikolai who nods mutely. It is at that point Kindred charges out and grabs a large hoe. Before the woman can react, he has embedded it in her back.

That should have killed her. It didn’t.

The others grab various tools and begin to fight with the woman. Zarith sees some large bags, one of which has some items she finds familiar. There is armor but no weapons. She throws a large rock at the woman, but it misses striking the wall next to Nikolai’s head, causing his ray of frost to miss.

Leif moves around and manages to stab her in the kidney as she focuses on stabbing Kindred. She absorbing blows that should have killed a human by now.

”SUBJECTS HAVE ESCAPED! DOCTOR LONGARM COME AT ONCE!” she cries out. Kindred has had enough.

”Subjects are getting a second opinion” as he tears into her again with the hoe.

”Subjects will return to their cells!” she shouts but the blows keep coming. As do icy missiles from Nikolai. She lands a glancing blow on the mage, but that was an attack that did not hit Kindred. Zarith shouts ”MOVE!” and tries to charge her but ends up against the cell itself.

Finally, Zarith grabs a fallen trowel and stabs her to death. The women falls to the floor, her features becoming blank.

”Doppleganger” Nikolai and Zarith say almost at the same time, each wondering just how he or she remembered that. Versa races to the man to help him.

Zarith says, ”I think our stuff is over here.” and moves towards is. Versa refuses to leave the man’s side. ”Figure out what is mine and bring it here,” as she works to stabilize the man on the table so he does not die. He manages to pass out but is out of danger.

As they gather their belongings, the group introduce themselves to each other. Well, as best they can, they each know their name, at least part of it. Each has some sense of themselves. And they fast discover they all woke up from the same dream.

As she comforts the man, Versa talks,

”I follow the heavens. I can remember my magic erupting against bandits. Color spray like in the dream. So maybe on a caravan? I know how to negotiate well. My father said I am the best.” a pause. That bit just came out. ”I don’t know any magic to fix whatever is wrong in our heads.”

The large man with them rumbled. ”I am Kindred. It is who and what I am. I know that I serve Pharasma. I am sworn to her service, though I do not remember when, or why, or how. I will protect you all, as I sense I have done before.”. The man has very few possessions in the pile, and looks to be of simple means.

The half-orc speaks as she straps into her armor ”I am Zarith and I don’t remember much. I remember having to fight for what is mine. I am quite good at it. It helps when I have good weapons. We will have to make do with these for now I guess.”

Leif goes next, ”Well, I am Leif, and I am good at obtaining things from others who might not want to part with them. I tend to get overlooked in a fight, but I can hold my own. I don’t remember much about why we are here, but I am sure we can work together to get out.”

Nikolia is digging through his belongings as he listens. He comes across a small hat, like would fit on a doll. A great loss rips through his body and he clutches it to him.

”He doesn’t have his hat.” it is just above a whisper, ”A gentleman should always have his hat, or his hood.”

Versa says to him, ”Are you all right?”

”No. I have forgotten someone important.”

Maybe it’s a familiar,” the half-orc says, ”You obviously a wizard, so…” she ends with a shrug. Nikolia carefully gathers the small items, which include a full set of clothes and a tiny pack. He is lost in thought and that is all they get from him for a few minutes until he speaks suddenly, interrupting their conversation.

” Briarstone”

”What?” asks Leif.

Zaheri speaks, his voice now strong. ”The Thrushmoor Vanishing. Almost 700 years ago, all the residents of Thrushmoor, a village on the coast of Avalon Bay, disappeared. Every living thing in town vanished. No one knows why, Eventually people resettled. In the stories told an evil haunts Thrushmoor: The Briarstone Witch and her servant the Tatterman.”

”Briarstone Isle houses the Briarstone Asylum, and has done so for over a century. I am sure that is where we are.”

”Well, then we need to look around, don’t we” say Zarith. I am going to start with this shut down furnace.

That search takes some time. Clearly, this was used to dispose of things, and bodies. There is a vent leading up, most likely to the outside, but none of them can fit through it. The strangest thing is Nikolia finds a masterwork viol. There is no bow for it, but this would fetch a good price. He notices a piece of parchment inside. A quick use of Mage hand and it is out. It has a single word written on it:

Auseil

Leif notices he is suddenly thirsty. And hungry.

”We need to get something to eat and drink” Everyone suddenly agrees. Versa offers to refill everyone’s water skins after they drink with create water.

With the man on the table still sleeping, they arm themselves with makeshift weapons and enter into the next room. This is a celler. A chute extends down and it clearly is used from above to get things down here. In this case, a dozen or more mutilated humanoid bodies. Nearby are fallen steps, the nearest spot 10 feet up. The bodies all seem to be wearing plain white uniforms of some sort.

But noticing that is for the future. A huge sword, like Kindred’s in the dream, is stuck into the wall. Dangling from it on chains is a solid box that keeps moving and a cage with a tail-less monkey in it.

”PIP!” shouts Nikolai in memory, and headless of searching the room he races to the cage hastily opening it. The monkey leaps into his arms and Nikolai cradles him in his arms.

Versa feels pulled towards the other box. Kindred pulls his sword free, but the box floats of its own accord. Versa grabs the box and feels a strong sense of déjà vu. As she opens the box she has a memory.

It was a wooden box. She opened it and saw Tiny articulated limbs unfold from the void between the stones, slender as pins but shaped with exquisite care. A central frame took form around the brightest crystal, silver-gray and smooth, like polished steel or moonlit bone. The smaller stones settled into their places as if they had always belonged there … one above, two flanking, one turning slowly at the heart.

Versa’s breath caught in her throat.

The thing rose from the box complete. It hovered above her hands, no larger than both palms together: a delicate construct of crystal, metal, and orbiting light. Its form suggested a creature more than a machine. Not a bird. Not an insect. Something with its own private logic of grace. The central stone turned toward her. If it had eyes, they were made only of light, and yet she felt unmistakably seen.

This time, the glowing crystal leapt from the box into the air, immediately flicking in light at recognition of Versa.

”Aster,” she whispered as the Ioun Wyrd started to circle her head. It made no sound but yet to everyone it seemed to be laughing in delight. Versa joined in.

Everone’s weapons are in this room, and they feel much better about the future. Clearly, they were all well equipped in whatever lives they used to lead.

They can hear things walking past the chute.

It takes two hours to for the staff to wake up. Versa is there, here eyes bright, her tone gentle and soft. Nikolai is there too, but out of direct sight and his hood is up. This is a handmade academic hood of dark charcoal wool, brushed smooth but still visibly cut from older cloth, with a deep faded-blue lining that shows when the cowl falls open. Cream linen trim runs along the outer edge in imitation of finer ceremonial hoods, neat in its stitching though slightly uneven in its spacing. Inside the neck is a nearly hidden line of tiny red thread, visible only when the hood is turned just so. The piece is humble rather than grand, patched from modest materials, but the workmanship is careful, intimate, and strangely dignified.

”I am Campre Linwigh. I am an orderly.” The man tells them what happened:

”A fog rolled in. Sick and yellow at the same time there was an earthquake. Then, patients, and some staff, they…they.. turned into monsters. They attacked us. Slaughtered us..”

The group decides to leave him in the furnace with some food and water and make their way out the best they can. Despite the sounds from above, it looks like the earthquake has left the chute as the only way up. They cautiously climb.

Emerging into a shed, the group cautiously looks around. Kindred peeks through he door. It is a courtyard. Trampled flowerbeds lie smeared and squashed across this muddy courtyard. On all sides, stark gray walls climb toward a narrow gap of sunless sky. It is overcast with some drizzle.

But the rain is odd.

Warm.

Oily.

”Let’s get out of this,” Kindred rumbles.

They move to the door closest to the shed and a long hallway. Barricades are to the south, 4 feet high of debris. A crossbow bolt wizzes by. Two orderlies stand there.

//“Whoa, there! We got more here!” //

Versa voice is sweetness and calm. Kindred and Zarith try to intimidate them.

Nikolai feels irritation at the bullies he is stuck with.

But with the raised voices another man emerges.

Vaustin York is the closest thing they have as a leader.

”You need to stay right there!”

It is soon evident that these are survivors who cannot tell if the party are doppelgangers or not.

”If we bring back evidence we are killing them, will that help?” Versa asks sweetly.

York ponders. ”That might do. Plenty to stuff on your side of the barricade” he notes gesturing north back down the hallway.

The group heads up the hallway, investigating rooms. Searching for something to kill. They find bodies that look almost human. Staff who have been worked over. One body radiates evil.

It is some sort of undead and the head wrenchs and tear free of the body.

A Ray of Frost springs from Nikolai’s hands.

Leif stabs.

Kindred smashes.

Zarith slashes.

The head is dead again.

Another body.

This time hands.

Again they are stopped.

”Help me!” comes from another door.

Kindred investigates. It is a laundry room. Sturdy racks and toppled tables suggest this space once served as a sizable laundry. Much of the northern end of the room is filled with rubble.

There is a chained man on the wall with a ghoul. Kindred kills the ghoul.

Then charging in, another ghoul dressed as a nurse and a human who is a doctor. The nurse slashes the half orc in the party, paralyzing her. Versa immediately heals her.

Kindred cleaves the nurse in two and then kills the doctor. The doctor’s features melt away. A doppelganger.

Deeper into the laundry is worse. This is a chamber of horrors. A small surgery where a doppelganger is doing experiments on a ghoul who was once Chaplain Setrakian.

More death built by the part.

They finish their search. Nothing is left in this part of the former asylum still moving.

They bring their evidence and Leif asks, “Can we be friends now?”

They are taking to the chapel past sounds of crying behind a curtain. It is a chapel to Pharasma and thus holy. They feel a lessening of pressure on their minds.

Hallowed ground.

There are 22 survivors in the group. Supporting them is a cleric of Pharasma herself.

Winter Klaczka.

” I’m Winter Klaczka, a sister of Maiden’s Choir Cathedral in Caliphas. My associates and I were helping a Royal Accuser investigate strangeness in Thrushmoor.”

She confirms this is Briarstone Asylum. And she was here as part of her investigation when the revolt happened. She was helping the Royal Investigators. Nikolai knows these are secret agents of the Crown. She has an Imperial Warrant.

”You cannot sleep outside the Chapel. Then you get the nightmares that turn you..into what you say.”

The party sits in silence.

”We all dreamed of the Tatterman,” Versa says finally.

”And you have not turned? And you have no memories of who you are other than belonging together. Strange.”

Campri” Nikolia said. He was sleeping.

When they went back, he was already a ghoul.

//“We can’t leave. It’s as if the outside world has turned against us. I don’t know if it’s just Briarstone Isle, or if it’s the whole world, but the hospice is surrounded by some repulsive vapor. Worse, the weather beyond is like nothing I’ve ever seen—thunder like laughter, rain like blood. And that’s to say nothing of the shapes that scamper and flap within, vague forms that know when we sleep. Things are terrible here, but at least here we can see doom coming.”

”What is worse we are trapped her. That crying? It is a thing. Grown over the door. We’ve left it alone and it hasn’t bothered us. Don’t tell the others about it, though. I don’t what to upset the children or any of our more delicate souls. Things are bad enough without that.”

”Then we investigate.” Kindred decides.

Kindred pushed past the dingy curtain. The wall here suffers some sort of otherworldly parasitism. A mass of stringy, yellow fungus stretches across the stone blocks. At its heart bulges and blinks a watery eye the size of a wagon wheel.

As they approach it the walls wails in Aklo as it cries ammonia tears.

”WHAT HAVE I BECOME?”

Nikolai and Zarith understand it.

Neither know that he or she spoke Aklo.

They retreat and go to rest and recover in the Chapel. Their dreams are guarded here.

What does tomorrow bring?