Ch3: The Madness

[Priest]

Baxter, now fully awake if not fully alert, helps subdue the woman for the doctor to administer his fix. As she quietens he looks around, "Did anyone make sense of what she was saying?" Sensing rather than hearing any negatives he continues, "Someone fetch the boy Scar, maybe he will be able to make some sense of her words. Although from the way she was eyeing up Carstairs, and the saliva marks on his somewhat embarassed looking face, I doubt she has anything to say worth listening too"
He finishes his words with a dirty laugh and a wink at the younger man.

[Tabs]

"Good idea about Scar," said Burton. "Doctor, do you think she is on some kinda amphetamine?" He looks around for Sergeant LaForge: "Tout va bien, sergent?" ("All okay, sergeant?")

[Mr. Handy]

"I'll go find him," volunteers Percy, seizing at another excuse to leave the scene.

[Supercape]

Scar was trembling, eyes fixed and distant, a cold sweat on his ebony skin. His eyes looked so white, in the moonlight.

"Its....its them...." he said, in Bantu, over and over again.

"Please, Mr. Carstairs, Sir...please....we should not be here....they are mad....possessed....I remember...." he gurgled.

[Mr. Handy]

"Too right they're mad, Scar," says Percy, rubbing his injured throat. "The woman we captured is quite, quite mad. I don't want to be around her any more than you do, believe me. But we have to find out what she knows if we're to stand a chance of defeating the Toad People. She's an invaluable source of information. Yes, whatever she says is bound to be twisted by her insanity, but we can still find some diamonds in the rough. Though this be madness, yet there is method to it. I'm sure what you know will be of great help as well. Tell me, what do you remember of them?"

[Tabs]

Burton listened in to Carstairs, and awaited the doctor's opinion on the madwoman.

[Priest]

Baxter, eyes squinting no doubt from the effect of the alcohol, looks around the campsite, "Any sign of the scouts, you know Shatter-what's-it and Poke-in-the-eye?"
Slowly he makes his way back to his tent in search of his pistol, studying the ominous jungle as he goes.

[Supercape]

Spoiler:

Could I have a psychoanalysis roll from Carstairs (admittedly only 1%) to fully get Scar back to the world of the sane. If not, you can try an APPx5% roll to at least get him to try and help, even if he is dazed. Failing both means he is going to just gibber.

Baxter can throw me a spot hidden roll if he is looking at the jungle...

[Mr. Handy]

Percy manages to get Scar to come back with him.

OOC,Nobody has the Psychoanalysis skill at higher than 1% because the skill does not exist yet at this point in time. Psychoanalysis roll (1% base skill) to get through to Scar: [dice]0[/dice] APP x 5 roll (50% stat) to get Scar to come with me: [dice]1[/dice]

[Priest]

Baxter halts staring into the darkness of the deep jungle, was that movement he had seen from the corner of his eye?

Spot Hidden,[url=http://orokos.com/roll/343214]Spot Hidden: 56%[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]28[/b] Posted on the discussion thread, copied here in case it was missed.

[Tabs]

"What do y'see, old boy?" said Burton.

[Supercape]

As Scar, in a daze, like a sleepwarker in a cold sweat, stumbled almost blindly towards the mad-woman, Baxter catches a glimpse into the forest.

Movement, slow and dark. A glint of an eye. Two eyes.

Not animal, he judged, but human. Wide, blood shot eyes on a bald dark head, on a wiry emaciated frame...another of the Toad people. His eyes were vacant and faraway, fixed on the expedition from the undergrowth as if in some catatonic fugue state...

[Priest]

"Over there, on the edge of the forest... See him? We have another unexpected guest and this time not some sex crazed harridan...I hope" Quickening his pace Baxter rushes towards the spy.

[Tabs]

"How shall we capture this one?" said Burton quickly to those round him, "The blighter will escape into the jungle if we simply chase after him." He paused, thinking. "Can we outflank him--where's our guides?"

[Supercape]

The two glinting eyes continued to stare at nothing or everything. open and unblinking. The body shuffled slowly, oh so slowly, backwards. The face was mottled and drawn, almost skeletal...

OOC:   Make an knowledge roll if you look at the eyes... Spoiler: It looks like Shatterspear, one of the croc people guides, if he had lost all his hair and half his body weight...

[Mr. Handy]

Percy looks at the eyes, but they don't look the slightest bit familiar.

OOC,Know roll (70% stat) looking at the eyes: [dice]0[/dice]

[Tabs]

Burton could not fathom anything from the spy's eyes. He follows Baxter.

[Supercape]

Fortunately, the shaking Scar did not peer into the darkness of the jungle. The eyes, unblinking, on a skeletal thin skull, kept open. It was entirely possible that what was gazing out of the jungle was a dead body, for the eyelids did not move one bit. Just a pair of motionless whites, staring, on top of a motionless head, on a motionless, mottled, and thin body.

Scar started conversing with the madwoman in some obscure and corrupted form of Nilo-Saharan. The conversation did not appear to go well, for Scar grew paler and feverish with sweat, and the woman seemed to grow more mad with insane laughter.

"Sir, Sir..." whispered a hoarse Scar, pulling on Carstairs linen shirt. "She...is ill...in head...I cannot understand...she speaking of toad-king about to die and be born again...the toad people celebrate with big group...singing...dancing...drugs...and..." he gulped, going red as well as pale, and indicated with his hands a variety of carnal acts. "She say we joining in, or be eaten, or be made zombie..."

[Mr. Handy]

"I say, none of those options appeal to me," says Percy, suppressing a shudder. "We'll just have to stop them first. Finding out where exactly they are would be a good start. Can you find out where they live? Where this 'toad-king' of theirs is? You might have to pretend you're interested in...joining in."

[Priest]

Baxter continues his headlong rush towards the observer, any attempt at subtelty dismissed. He has but one aim, to get close enough to launch himself upon his target..,

OOC,What happens,what do I need to roll?