(Archive) - Madmen

September 3, 2000

Logfile from Elendor

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Weather: Sunny

Time: Early Morning

Season: Spring

Date: Highday - March 22, 3021

Real Time: Sun Sep 03 06:35:20 2000

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

*Note - logged by Kadareth*

Secured Room

A smaller room than the general healing halls, this room is kept for those who have been taken prisoner by Gondor yet still need the attention of the healers. A few small beds line the walls near tables which hold nothing but deep, wide-mouthed bowls and towels. A small window in the far wall provides some light and fresh air, but the main source of illumination comes from the tall candle-ridden braziers in the corners. Two guards sit either side of the entrance, lounging on their stools and speaking quietly, yet always watching those within.

Contents:

Kadareth

Galdorim

Tamran

Obvious exits:

Out

The secured room of the Houses of Healing is peaceful this morning. The sun shines through the main window in the far wall of the room, and the birds, perched on branches in the trees outside, chirp away their merry melodies. The consummed candles of the braziers in the corners let out slender whisps of smoke that quickly dissolve in the fresh morning air. The two guards posted at the door lean idly against the wall and yawn.

Strapped to a bed in the corner is a tall, oafish man. He lies peacefully staring at the white ceiling, sadness and grief miring his deep blue eyes. He is Private Kadareth, the soldier of Minas Tirith who went berserk naught but a few days ago.

[Galdorim(#22020)] The guards outside the secured room snap a salute as Commander Galdorim approaches. He returns the salute back as he looks ot the door. His deep voice echoes out. \"Let me in. I wish to talk to Kadareth..\" HIs voice sounds very authoritive as he waits for the guards to unlock the door. A clinking of heavy key can be heard as Galdorim waits.

Kadareth\'s eyes stir as the man enters the room.

\"Who are you?\" he speaks feebly, frowning as he tries to focus the approaching man\'s features in his blurry vision.

[Galdorim(#22020)] The door swings open as Galdorim is let in. THe door closes behind him and locked. Galdorim walks over to the bound private and shakes his head. He pulls a chair next to the insane guardsman as he looks you over. His deep voice calls out with concern. \"It is Commander Galdorim, How are you feeling Kadareth?\"

To the Commander of the Sun Gate, Kadareth chuckles mirthlessly and says, \"I am feeling better, Commander, sir.\" He lets out his words lethargically, and frowns again. \"It\'s the herbs they give me that I can\'t stand.\"

Galdorim chuckles deeply and pats your shoulder reassuredly. \"There are not that many healing herbs that do taste good. You are in good hands, Private. Kerowyn will help you with your madness.\"

\"It did not feel like madness, sir,\" Kadareth mutters in a preoccupied tone. \"Have you ever felt it?\" He heaves a sigh. \"When night falls . . . like . . .\" He shakes his head slowly from side to side.

Galdorim nods his head slowly. \"When ever I am closer to the East. I get a chill down my back...\" He sighs deeply as he looks to the private. \"But not here, in Minas Tirith. THis is where I feel safe for no enemy has petrated theses walls.\"

\"Not a chill, sir,\" Kadareth shuts his eyes. \"Not just a chill. It feels like hands with claws clutching at your soul.\"

Kadareth tries to rise, but the straps prevent him from leaving the bed.

Meanwhile, a voice sounds behind Commander Galdorim: another patient, no doubt as mad as Kadareth, stirs from his sleep. He mumbles incomprehensibly for a few seconds, then falls silent.

Galdorim shakes his head grimly. \"That I have not felt.\" He looks sympathetically at Kadareth for he has been clubbed over the head by a toll\'s hammer. \"Kerowyn can help you, Kadareth. She is a great healer...\"

\"I do not doubt so, Commander.\" Kadareth then turns his face away to the wall and adds to himself, \"My life is ruined.\"

Meanwhile, the man lying in a cot by the opposite end of the room starts in a grievous wail. \"GO AWAY! GO AWAY!\" The straps that restrained his movements are suddenly broken by a force that should not exist in the man\'s wiry frame, and he leaps from the bed. Looking wildly about him, he clutches desperately at himself, drawing blood and small strips of flesh from his arms and face.

[Tamran(#30063)]

The two guards stand up from the stools, as the door of the secure room opens. Steping through the doorway is a young man, clad in black with the symbol of the silver tree upon his breast. Hanging from his belt is a longsowrd and upon his collar two silver bars. Recognizing Tamran, the two guards quickly salute before taking their seats once more.

Slowly the young Sergeant walks between the beds on either side of the room, his gaze falling over the few patients occuping some of the cots. As he passes in front of the one such bed, the man upon it starts to scream and suddenly his straps brake loose. Without wasting time, Tamran is upon the wild man with a few quick steps, trying to hold him upon his bed. \"Guards!\" the Sergeant shouts, as he is having trouble holding the patient down.

[Galdorim(#22020)] With agility that would surprise someone seeing his build, Galdorim leaps up and rushes to aid the Sergeant in restaining this truely mad person. \"Guards! Get some more restaining devices!\"

Kadareth turns his head to the madman. Although his eyes are glazed over with torpor and the herbs he\'s been ministred, he doesn\'t seem surprised.

One of the guards posted at the door rushes in and helps Tamran with the patient, forcing him to lay back on the cot and holding his arms tightly. The madman however seems to possess a strength of unnatural proportions and, with a sudden move, breaks free from the soldiers\' grasp and punches Sergeant Tamran in the jaw.

Kadareth turns in unrest in his own cot, the straps preventing him from helping the fellow guardsmen.

[Tamran(#30063)]

Blood and saliva flies out of Tamran\'s mouth, as the mad man\'s fist impacts upon his jaw, knocking the sergeant a small step back. A surprised look crosses Tamran\'s face for a moment, but he quickly step forth upon the man, once more trying to restrain him. The second guard runs towards them, holding some straps in his hands.

Blood spatters the otherwise clean sheets of the madman\'s cot as he struggles in the grasp of the four guardsmen. \"THEY\'RE INSIDE ME! INSIDE ME!\" he wails. \"TAKE THEM AWAY!\"

Then, the booming voice of Kadareth sounds among the din. \"Sir Kelebhen,\" he utters slowly and with difficulty. \"These men will help you. They\'ll take the bugs from your body if you calm yourself down.\"

The man appears slightly more relaxed, put still puts up a fight as the guards reattach the straps around him.

[Tamran(#30063)]

As the last strap is attached, there is no twice the number of starps then before, a young healess comes in with with a steaming bowl in her hand. Tamran takes a few steps back, wiping the blood from his mouth with a clean piece of cloth. Turning to the Commander, Tamran slaps on a salute, \"Is it always this eventfull in the House of Healing?\" he says with a smile.

The healess is now near the mad man, trying to give him some of the potion to drink, the two guardsman standing nearby the young woman.

Galdorim grips the lunicatic\'s arms with his brutal strenth. his voice bellows out. \"get a healer as well!\"

Kadareth sluggishly raises his head as much as he\'s able and squints at the other guard.

\"Who is this, Commander?\" he asks suspiciously. \"It sounds like Sergeant Tamran.\"

[Tamran(#30063)]

It is me, Kadareth...\"Tamran says as he turns around and takes a few steps closer the Man-At-Arms, \"How do you fare today?\"

\"Drugged, as always,\" he draws a despondent smile. \"But better than sir Kelebhen there.\" He nudges his head towards the madman quietly sipping potion from the healer\'s bowl.

Tamran says, \"Do not worry Kadareth, you are a strong soldier and you will fight this. You are in the greatest of of the Houses of Healings and lady Kerowyn is one of great Healers. In good hands you are.\"

Kadareth nods grimly. \"I worries me still, sir,\" again, he motions his head towards the sorry lunatic in the cot opposite the room. \"You do recall him, don\'t you sir? The bard who used to perform at the White Tree?\"

\"Well sir, he was a respectable man,\" Kadareth speaks lethargically, his deep blue eyes miry and unfocused. \"I may be mad, but I can see there is evil afoot in this city.\"

[Tamran(#30063)]

\"It is possible, Kadareth. But only a hand full have gone mad...and some of them already have some history with problems...\" Tamran says softly, \"Do not worry, I am sure it is nothing of sorcery but just an after effect of your injury...You will get better!\"

Kadareth lets out a bitter chuckle and grown unrestful in his bed. \"What of Master Gondohtar, the smith?\" he points to a cot on the left. \"Is he mad too? Or Sir Ormus?\"

He tries to get up, but the straps fastened around him prevent him from doing so. \"I tell you, Sergeant,\" he speaks, almost bellowing. \"This is not natural!\"

[Tamran(#30063)]

\"The guards are on alert. I pray that you are wrong...\", Tamran says as he glances back at the mad man. \"Rest know, I will come back in a later time.\"