Subbasement 4A

[_monsters_]

Ready or not, there's work to be done, and whatever state subbasement 4A is in, Liz Sherman, Abe Sapien, Henry Sherman-Townshend, and St. John Allerdyce are the lucky souls charged with restoring it to semi-working order. Liz, less than thrilled, leads the way, trying out a number of codes harvested from scraps of paper scattered around the

Comments

[unbroken]

Despite how nervous he'd been about doing all this today, Henry stifles a yawn. He rights one of the filing cabinets, then coughs as he inhales some dust. "How long has all this been sitting here, anyway?" he asks no one in particular.

[domina_igne]

"Since right after World War II," Liz says over her shoulder, scanning the file cabinets with her flashlight, "when they had a lot of German ex-pats working here...which explains the words I can't pronounce. Medical...something."

[_monsters_]

The cabinet is righted with metallic clangs of protest from jostled drawers. One is balancing precariously in its position once the cabinet is upright, and before long, slides right out of the framework and hits the floor, spilling more than just papers. A rat skitters out, and one that isn't doing so hot. In the low red light, you can see its skin distended at its neck and spine, where the flesh bulges with some kind of wart or internal growth. The rat makes a beeline for the far wall... and passes right through it, just a foot from the still-locked door.

[thefireofasaint]

John turned his flashlight from the wobbly cabinet just as Henry righted it, checking out another part of the room until the sound of the drawer hitting the floor startles him. He makes an abortive twitch towards the zippo, but the lumpy-rat is already gone. Staring at the wall, he moves over and kicks the spot where the rat ran through.

"Medical something, you were saying?"

[_monsters_]

The wall doesn't yield or seem unusual in any way. But not far from John's foot, there is something else. A faint yellowy light filters out from beneath the door, a narrow beam of it captured by the floating dust in the air kicked up by John's passing. It grows a bit brighter, accompanied by a soft shuffling sound, and then dims again.

[dreams_of_fish]

Abe observes the light very calmly, as if he's seen the same thing for over a dozen times before. Come to think of it, he probably did. It's not like there was ever a military base with german personnel that conducted normal research.

"Great... Zombie rats. German scientists seem to be fans of trying everything at least once." He speaks in a calm, unbothered voice, before switching his attention to the drawer that was once the rat's residence. The papers that spilled on the floor are the primary target of his flashlight.

[_monsters_]

Most of the papers are more personnel files, listing cities of residence, known kin, educational background, blah blah blah blah. But there are a couple sheets, gouged by tiny claws and stained by rat urine, that are handwritten on lined notebook paper. Most of it is too fragmented to read, but parts are preserved.

"GOLD Enlightenment, perfection. God. Heaven. Everything. (Ref. 75, 1376) Ultimate goal, syncretic or pure? Both likely.
SILVER Moon. Dreams. Mind. SUBCONSCIOUS. Impure Gold say some (Ref. 19, 1450). Component say some (Ref. 46a, 1413)."

A symbol drawn on a similar piece of paper, an unfilled circle with a dot in the very center, is completely unmarked and unstained. The edges of this piece of paper are ragged in a rather noticeable pattern: tiny teethmarks. Apparently, chewed out of wherever it was positioned, transported, and preserved by the disappeared rodent.

[dreams_of_fish]

These sheets of paper are the ones that immediately catch Abe's attention. He crouches in front of the broken drawer and picks them up from the floor, blowing on the paper in order to get rid of dust and make it more readable. He scans the writing carefully, trying to figure out the meaning behind the words and symbol - and finally, his mind makes a simple connection between the gold, enlightment and a circular symbol.

"Liz? I found something." Abe speaks as he slowly rises from the floor and turns toward his friend, still holding the paper sheets. "I believe that whatever happened here, alchemy was involved. The text, symbols... Everything fits."

[domina_igne]

Liz startles from where she's been staring worriedly at the light under the door and looks over at him. "Good to know. All the same, I really hope it's just a fun fact to know and share, rather than anything we need to say...fight other things that can walk through walls."

She sighs and shoves her hair behind her ears. "I somehow doubt this will be the case."

The second door is, crazily enough, really bothering her, seeing as how it's supposed to have been abandoned for 50some years and now they have Light and Shuffling. She fumbles around with the slips of paper, eventually discovering that 100284527, the third set of coordinates for those keeping score at home, unseals the door.

"Everyone stand back a little, please," she says unnecessarily.

[_monsters_]

Now, this looks a little more unusual. The room is in a state of disrepair similar to the office, but exactly what it is that's in disrepair, no one present is really qualified to say. This is definitely the province of scientists, a room the size of a small gymnasium and lined with God only knows what kinds of contraptions. Well, that thingamajog over there, looks like a giant can opener, maybe? And that one, shouldn't James Bond be strapped down to that thing?

Everything is dusted and rusted right over, and documentation has once again suffered the ravages of time, dust, standing water, and whoever ransacked the place to begin with. A quick glance at what's visible of the papers scattered here and there on the floor shows that these are predominately in German.

[unbroken]

Henry is not anywhere near yawning now. Whatever's going on, there shouldn't have been anything moving behind that door. He frowns as he looks around the room. This little excursion isn't doing much to make him think this place any more favorable than the rooms he'd gotten used to in Fairfield

[domina_igne]

Liz shudders. "That fits creepily well with this one," she frowns, indicating one of the German-covered fragments.

Her lips move silently as she translates. The page is as destroyed as the others have been, so all that's left are sentence fragments.

"....will need to adhere to a convenience sample on this one....
....am not happy about it either, but the risk of interference is too high. I think....
....relatively easy access to feeble-minded population. We must ensure....
....absolutely must avoid raising alarm. I am attaching a list.......
....St. Theresa's Sanitarium in Denver, Highland Sanitarium in Denver, Greater....
....of the Holy Cross Drug Treatment Facility in Boulder, and there is a shelter for transients and bums in Longfield. We could probably......
....sufficient harvest of subjects. Can we meet on Wednesday to review...."

"That's all I can read," she finishes, narrowing her eyes. "Good, I'm glad this was such a happy place."

[thefireofasaint]

All the weird shapes are giving John a correspondingly weird feeling, so he's glad to focus on Henry however briefly. Out of curiousity he reads the paper when the opportunity arises, but by 'null hypothesis' he's bored, and passes it on.

Coming to the wall without finding anything else of interest, he slips his hand into his pocket before hesitating, then leaving the lighter undisturbed. His flashlight, as he turns, finds Henry's feet. "So they needed crazy people for test subjects?"

As John speaks, silvery hands emerge from the wall behind him. The spectral transparency of these limbs remains constant as a face and then a body join the previous parts: a woman, wrists chained as she struggles free of the wall, partially hidden by John himself.

"For alchemy testing? Does that --" He frowns, trying to think of the word. The ghost, rearing up behind him with hair disheveled and mouth fixed in a snarl, removes the problem of figuring it out by looping her all too tangible chain around his neck and pulling.

[dreams_of_fish]

Abe ends up being the last one who enters the new room, slowly moving behind the group. Unlike the other three members of the group, he doesn't start exploring just yet. Instead, he moves slowly, paying attention to his surroundings and the rest of the group, and trying to seek out the smallest signs of danger. After all, as far as he knows, he's the most combat-capable member of the group.

Which is why, when a ghost dives out of the wall and traps John, Abe reacts instinctively. He immediately sets off running, diving over whatever objects are in his way and trying to get to the problem as fast as possible.

It's just the ghost's horrible luck that John frees himself from the chain and moves to the side right in time for the merman to collide with it. Abe doesn't waste any time - he grabs the ghost's chain with one hand and tugs at it with his full force. Either he'll break the chain, or throw the ghost away - both ways work for now.

[_monsters_]

The ghost looks... hopeful?... for a moment, but the chain does not break. She's thrown aside, but quickly whirls around, fists clenching and face contorting into a snarl. Her face turns towards the far end of the room for a moment. Though given that her eyes are blackened and dripping, it's hard to say exactly where she's looking, a slightly ajar wooden door would be a good guess. Her expression hardens further and her mouth opens on what ought to be an incoherent scream, but no sound emerges, as she takes a swing at her new opponent.

[dreams_of_fish]

With the ghost taking time on observing the door, Abe has more than enough time to prepare for the next attack. The ghost's hopeful expression doesn't escape him, neither does it's focus on the door in the end of the room. He figures that either breaking the chain would get rid of it, or exploring whatever there is behind the door.

Except that Abe is too busy fighting the ghost to choose the second. When the ghost resumes it's attack, he quickly dives to the side and quickly reaches out for the gun in his jacket at the same time. The dive turns into a roll, letting him quickly shift into a sitting position, take aim and shoot at the chain.

He only hopes that if this doesn't work, the rest of the group saw enough of the commotion to try exploring the door in the back of the room.