IC: The Penhew Foundation - Andrei, Caroline & Timour

[SuAside]

"Fine, Caroline, although I think Andrei needs help. I'm afraid we've stumbled on something beyond our comprehension." Timour shouts back, as he does a double take on what just happened a few moments ago.

Largely ignoring artwork, he scans the room for books or notes to take with them.

[coffee demon]

Andrei continues to stare wide-eyed at Timour. He's dripping in sweat. He slowly looks up at the grate where the Chimera left. Then he lowers himself carefully to the ground and sits there with his arms hanging over his knees. He stares blankly at a spot two feet in front of him and six inches from the ground.

OC,I don't actually think the symbols were an insanity - I don't think Andrei has a permanent insanity yet. The symbols were just something I started to play out.

[Decrepit]

Torn between helping or at least comforting Helen and seeing what Timour meant by Andrei needing her, Caroline says to Helen, "Dear, I know this has been horrible, and we'll sort it out as best we can in just a moment. Right now, I need to see what's gone on downstairs." She takes her bag and heads in that direction.

[coffee demon]

Andrei gives Caroline a dead, glum look, then looks back down at the ground.

[Raiko]

Tmour spots the same things as Andrei did when he first entered the cellar, although the things on the desk have been disturbed during the struggle - the ornate chest was knocked off onto the floor, together with a couple of what appear to be passports.

Repost of the room description,[quote="Raiko"][color=#0000FF][b][u]Under the Storeroom[/u][/b][/color] Meanwhile [b]Andrei [/b]descends the steep staircase, his torch lighting the way. At the bottom he finds the bricked off cellar area. Across the room from him is a cosy seating area, with six leather chairs arranged around a table; various items are piled on the table including an automatic handgun and an ornate looking chest. A glass-fronted bookcase stands nearby, stuffed with tomes and scrolls. At least a dozen crates are piled against the wall to [b]Andrei's [/b]right (the one with the brick up windows), several of which have been opened, and all the walls are decorated with ancient mosaics, bas-reliefs and statues stolen from digs around the world, and all depicting dreadful monsters and demons. An unlit electrical light hangs from the ceiling, and [b]Andrei [/b]can hear the faint sound of an electric fan providing ventilation to the hidden room. The shadows cast by the crates in the torchlight, combined with the monstrous things depicted in the artwork gives the room an eerie atmosphere.[/quote]

There are lots of books and scrolls in the glass fronted shelves, they look like lots of occult textbooks & grimoires, some of them look very old like the books from the Black Library that Timour visited under the British Museum.

[SuAside]

Timour inches closer to examine the fallen chest & it's contents, and picks up the passports & pockets them on the way.

[Raiko]

After pocketing the passports, Timour pick up the chest from the floor. It is constructed from red sandalwood and ornately engraved with the shapes of creatures of nightmare, hulking creatures with the gait an insects, but the build of apes, their powerful arms end in vicious talons, while their faces are dominated by toothy maws.

The chest is not locked and contains two daggers, with wavy blades like those of a kris, and hilts carved from ivory. Between the two daggers is a tightly rolled scroll, tied with red ribbon.

Caroline finds that Andrei is almost catatonic, he continues to stare at his feet.

[Raiko]

Timour checks the desk (OOC - via PM) while Caroline is examining Andrei.

[coffee demon]

[OC: Kinda waiting for Decrepit to post...]

[SuAside]

Timour puts the small-ish chest under his arm and quickly walks towards the lounge chair. He dumps the ledger or diary that is next to it into the chest, together with the scrapped paper and the stack of unused writing paper. He leaves the pistol where it is.

"Grab whatever looks important or useful, we don't have the time to go through this here." Timour says as he takes a swift step towards his friends and stuffs whatever old & work looking books are in reach into the chest without weighing it down too much "Andrei, get up, we have to get out of here."

[Raiko]

OOC,[quote="coffee demon"][i][OC: Kinda waiting for Decrepit to post...][/i][/quote] Sorry this is totally my fault. Decrepit is putting the finishing touches on a thesis (he's been busy with it the entire time since the restart), so I shouldn't have left things so long without posting for him.

Frustrated and scared, Caroline's medical knowledge fails her, she slaps Andrei hard on the cheek, "Come on Andrei! Timour is right we have to move! Now!"

OOC,Oops botched the roll badly! Sorry Decrepit!

[coffee demon]

Andrei jerks upright for a moment. He touches his stinging cheek and stares up at Caroline, stunned. His eyes start to water and a tear drips down the side of his face. He looks back down at the ground, completely dejected, and shakes his head. His lips are moving slightly, like he's trying to say something.

Then he lays himself down gently on the floor, covers his head with his arms, and curls his legs up tightly to his chest.

[Raiko]

"No! Please Andrei , I'm sorry, but you have to get up!" Caroline kneels down and tries to lift Andrei back to his feet, but he is much too big for her.

She shouts up the stairs, "Helen! Come down, we need help!"

"Timour what's happened to Andrei? He's in shock and I think I've made it worse! Between the three of us we must be able to get Andrei out and take some of these things. What have you found?"

[SuAside]

"Grab this chest and fill it with what seems relevant, but don't weigh yourself down too much, you have to be able to run if the beast returns or new zealots show up." Timour says as he hands over the chest "See with Helen if you can find her a coat to cover the blood. And ask her if the guard had a vehicle we could commandeer. Move quickly, improvise, I don't know how long we have left."

"I'll try to get Andrei on his feet." he says as he grabs Andrei's arm and attempts to pull him upright.

[coffee demon]

Andrei resists Timour initially by pushing his hands away, but his heart isn't really in it. Eventually he lets Timour pull him to his feet. He stands there limply for a minute, looking around sadly, then moves to lay down again.

When Timour moves to prod him forward again, [OC: I think I can safely assume Timour does this?] Andrei tries to push the other Russian away again. He quietly mouths in Russian, "Don't touch me," and glares at Timour with haunted eyes.

[SuAside]

"Come on, tovarich." Timour grunts as he drapes Andrei's arm over his own shoulder & drags him along, willingly or not, while carrying the BAR in his off-hand "No man left behind. Out together, home together."

[rbiddle]

Helen steps into the storage room seeing the sarcophagus moved and the hidden staircase. "Caroline; What's happening?" she asks, visibly shaken by the blood covering her.

Edging closer to the staircase, she resists going down it, uncertain of this secret passage in her employers building and the recent events. "I heard your two friends shouting, what's happening down there?"

OOC,The description made the stairway/hidden room sound pretty dark. I doubt I have a light with me and in after the guard being killed,the cleaning lady trying to killme, and [b]Timour[/b] shooting her right over to me, I'm a bit jittery and not too keen on mysterious, dark places at the moment.:

[Raiko]

OOC,It is indeed dark down the staircase. The lights in the storage room and the basement room have not been switched on, the only light in the basement at the moment is Timour's flashlight.

Under the Penhew Foundation
7:55pm - Thursday 29th January, 1925

Caroline shouts back up to Helen as she quickly tries to gather things into the box. "We're ok Helen! Something has happened to Andrei, but I think Timour can get him back up there! I'll be right up."

She sweeps most of the remaining items from the desk into the box. And then moves over to the bookcase. She doesn't have time to study everything in the torchlight, so she grabs the lighter looking items, including a few rolled up parchment scrolls and some bound handwritten notes. The notes are labelled: "A study of the Pnakotic Manuscripts, by Professor W.L. Fiennes "

For a moment she forgets Andrei's condition and shouts out, "Andrei! These are the notes that you were looking for! The missing notes, Gavigan must have got them!"

[Raiko]

@Coffee Demon,I'll allow you a fresh SAN check to "snap out of it." If you pass, then Caroline's discovery is enough to bring a fairly rational Andrei back. If you fail then please either remain catatonic for now, or react irrationally to the discovery of the notes.

[coffee demon]

Andrei perks up and looks over at Caroline and the documents. He thinks for a minute, then his face lowers into a mask of disgust and hatred. Caroline has never seen him look so angry. Timour's flashlight lights the huge Russian's face in a way that makes him look almost demonic.

His lip quivers and he tries to pull out of Timour's grasp.

"Caroline, you are a fool," he spits. "Have you not learned... can you not understand, all this is useless?" He gestures at the shelves of books. "All this is useless. Do you have a document that says 'I am Gavigan, I kill people?' No? Because all THESE books do is make him look like a collector! It's gibberish! The police won't understand! I have books like this too, so what does that make me?"

He struggles again with him arm, trying violently to pull himself away from Timour.

"We just shot people upstairs. The only difference between us and Gavigan is that we haven't raped them beforehand. But I don't doubt - if we keep doing this, following mysterious mystical notes and nonsense, that we will sink to depths, to depths that are just as low..."

He glowers at Caroline and Timour, like an enraged bull about to charge.

OC,Raiko, can you remind me of the significance of those notes? I remember the name "Fiennes", but it's been so long that I don't remember why..