Play@YSDC

Linda leads the way back to her home throws open the door and steps inside... but she stays there near the door, hands clenched close to her heart as she looks on with concern and worry for her dear brother.

There, near the fireplace, Martin sits before you fighting for breath. His face is blue and is contorted in an agonised expression.

Paul run up to Martin prepared to help him breath easier. As he enters the rom his military background make him glance around the room looking for any treat to himself or the asphyxiating man.

First Aid 30% (1d100=39)
Spot Hidden 35% (1d100=16)

Samantha stands back, leaving the more experienced Paul to administer medical aid. She takes the chance to look around the room though, trying to take in the situation around her.

Rolling Spot Hidden (stat 40%) in Martin's dying scene (1d100=18)

"Oh, my god.." Pet whispers, when she sees the dying man. "Uh.....I'll stay outside, make sure the ambulance finds us..."

OOC,I think you mean [b]Linda[/b], not Donna.

"Martin!" cries Laurence, hurrying to his friend's side and doing his best to assist Paul in keeping him alive. "I knew you were unwell, but I had no idea it was this bad. Hang in there, the doctor's on his way."

Linda calls to Paul and Lawrence "Can you help him? Please?"

Those who take the time to look around carefully do not detect anything out of the ordinary in the room.

"Please listen… not much… time. The G-G-Gate is ajar… must close… close the…" He grabs his Lawrence's arm tightly, "aaarrrgghhh… Gate! Cast the spell… spe… spell to close… Must not let… danger… do not let… through. Per-perform the ritual tonight. Tonight after… after dusk. Paper..." he pointed at his desk.

Paul picks up the paper that Martin was pointing at and shows the others... hand written instructions on how to perform a ritual.

Despite several attempts to calm Martin, and requests for him to save his strength, he continues to struggle to get out what he needs to tell the others.

"The ritual… tonight... Do it here… in… in my house. Y-yyou… aarrgghh… you can use the… use the dining ttable…"

Martin falls to his knees; his hand clutches the left side of chest in a futile gesture. His face contorts in terror. He holds up his left hand as if to shield himself from some unseen horror.

"Nnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooo… It… it can't…can't be. Pleeeease, I… I… I'm not ready. Y-you can't n-nnot yet… Take…"

He falls back... silent.

First Aid,First Aid checks were futile in attempt to help him, but they succeed in informing you that Martin's pulse has stopped and he breathes no more.

Sanity checks required,Lose 1d3 if it fail / 0 if it succeeds.

I do not have the strength to perform the ritual so I write it down for you my friends.

Five must gather when sunlight is no longer seen directly gather together in a place guaranteeing privacy and away from interference of ignorant fools.

The Five must sit around a table such that they may join hands. The leader draws fivepointed star such that each point points to one of the Five. Put a lit candle at each point of the star and one in the middle.

The Five must picture within their mind's eyes the closing of a rift in space. They must chant the se words in unison, such that the Universe can hear their plea.

When the Five feel Power coursing through them the ritual is working and they must continue until they are no longer able. Then and only then is the rift healed.

M

Laurence breaks down upon seeing his friend die and being unable to save him, but only momentarily. When he realizes that there's nothing more he can do for him, he looks at the paper. "That's in Latin," he says, nodding. "Yes, I know what most of these words mean. Let's see, Omnis-et-Unus means 'all and one.' Portam, that must be the Gate to which Martin referred. I believe claude means close and claudus means closed. Nosterum imploratum means 'we implore,' and tempum et spatum means 'time and space.' Portae is the plural of Portam, so Gates. Custos means guard. Not sure what Sototte means..."

Rolling Sanity check (stat 55%) after Martin dies (1d100=91)
Fail, so Sanity loss after failing Sanity roll after Martin dies. (1d3=3)

Samantha reaches towards her husband for support. "I'm so sorry for your loss, Laurence." she says. "But rituals and spells, that sounds worrying, and maybe something we shouldn't be tampering with."

After a little thought in the matter, Lawrence translates the ritual as:

The All-and-One close the Gate
The Gate will be closed
The All-and-One hear our call
Time and space be healed

Hear us the All-and-One
Close the Gate lest creation be destroyed
Sottott the Keeper of the Gate
The Gate will be closed

"Thank you," says Laurence, wiping up his tears with a handkerchief. "I understand your concern, and I am cautious, but this was his dying request. And if he was right, then it may be more dangerous not to perform the ritual. Why did he not tell any of us this sooner?" He turns to Linda. "Did your brother ever talk to you about this before?"

(failed sanity at 78, sanity loss 1 )

Petronella moves curiously into the room again, and gasps seeing Martin die in such terror. Filled with fright of what he saw in his dying moments, especially after just having seen a ghost, she darts back out again, and stands against the wall outside, pressing her hand to her mouth.

Nicholas holds onto Samantha, smoothing her hair trying his best to comfort her. "A gate ritual. As crazy as it sounds I'm in. If he believed so strongly in this that he was frantic about it to his dying breath... Least we can do is honor it. I'd love to get shots of that." Nicholas was happy with himself, resisting the urge to photograph a man dying. He wondered what type of awards or settlements he could have gotten out of that. He also wondered if the camera would have captured whatever it was Martin was yelling at in the end.

Samantha looks towards her husband for support. "I'm still concerned, but if if was his wish, as you both say, then we should honour that."

'This is madness... but ... Martin seemed convinced and to be honest i dont dare opposing his will' 'this is something we have to do' 'theres been going on to many strange things' Paul dries a tear from his cheek 'I wonder what part of this those fairies plays' 'and the carriage' 'and the tavern ghost' might they all be slipping into this reality from this breach we must close?' Paul starts searching the room for candles and something to write on the table with.

"Yes, I was wondering the same thing myself," says Laurence. "We've run into an excessive number of unusual phenomena today, which suggests that this rift may be widening."

Linda was overtaken with grief when her brother died. She ran to him and knelt beside him, sobbing on his arm. When Lawrence asked her "Did your brother ever talk to you about this before?" she looked up - eyes filled with tears. "He had such strange hobbies, I never really involved myself in them. Perhaps I should have... <sob>"

It wasn't long before the doctor showed up. He made his way through the opened door and over to Martin. He stopped briefly, looking at the look of sheer terror on the dead man's face, then put his stethoscope in his ears and listened at the heart. The doctor shook his head, "It appears as if is heart gave out. The constables would probably like an autopsy to verify the cause of death." He looked to Linda and asked, "Would that be ok, my dear?"

She had her face buried in Martin's arm sleeve and simply nodded, waving the doctor away.

"I'm sorry, Linda," says Laurence. "If there's anything you need, I'm here for you."

Nicholas put his arms around his wife, looking at the scene he didn't know what to say really. Obviously his heart gave out, if it wasn't beating that would be a logical conclusion. He wondered if the doctor would have said the same thing if the man had had his throat cut. 'Blood stopped pumping, died because his heart gave out.' Nicholas sighed, sometimes he hated being so analytical. He just gave Samantha a light squeeze, it must have been the scent of her hair because his thoughts suddenly turned to sex.

He coughed and said, "I need to get some air." He then abruptly walked outside and began fishing for his cigarettes.

Pet stands outside leaning against the wall. She looks to Nicholas as he emerges looking for his cigarettes, and asks:"Got one for me?"

Samantha watches her husband go outside. She stays inside, and takes a seat in the room, still shocked.

An ambulance was soon to arrive to carry the body away. Meanwhile, Linda continued her mourning - which seemed to amplify by a factor of two when the cute ambulance men came in. She clung to them looking to be consoled - and the cuter he was, the better. They ended up driving away with Linda in the vehicle as a someone in a state of shock.

In a short while, the party was left there in (or just outside) the house alone.

Paul has been searching around the house for candles and any clue of what Martin was up to.

GM,Invisible Castle is down atm Please roll if applicable to the scenario: Spot Hidden 35% Library Use 25% Computer Use 21%

Nicholas seemed a bit surprised by Pet's request but held one out for her. "I thought I was the only smoker here. Just don't tell my wife, I was supposed to quit six months ago."

Laurence also looks for candles and matches. Since Martin had been planning this ritual, he had hopefully gathered the necessary components.

Pet shakes her head. "I won't. And I don't, actually, I just need one right now, though. Haven't smoked since I was a student...It's just...all these things happening. And not just to me, you people see it to!" She takes the cigarette and waits for him to light it.

Nicholas puts flame to Pet's cigarette and then lights his. He takes in a drag, holds it and then lets it out. "I find it all very fascinating but at the same time it freaks me out to some degree. That guy dying in there the way he did freaked me out. Before he drew his last, he saw something, begged it not to take him. That was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed and I did a photo shoot during a war once!"

Still uncomfortable about the idea of taking part in a ritual, but resigned to the need to honour the dead man's wishes, Samantha looks for a suitable place to hold the ritual in the house, for example a dining table or similar, which could be used.

Samantha finds and clears off the dining room table as Paul and Lawrence look about for the necessary items for the ritual. There is no problem finding candles, and the fireplace holds a bit of charred wood that could be used... or you could use the black Sharpie marker that Martin had in his desk.

Paul takes the opportunity to peruse Martin's collection of books and finds quite a few interesting tomes, but unless he intended on spending hours searching through them, it was unlikely he'd find anything useful. He did, however, find a framed photograph of Martin (in much better health and looking much younger) standing in front of the Vatican - it was dated only 5 years ago, but Martin looked decades younger in the photograph.

'Look Laurence a picture of Martin he looks all healthy there in front of the Vatican dont he' Paul smiles and tucks the picture into his pocket.

ooc - I'll assume Paul took it out of the frame then.

"Yes, I wonder what happened to him since then that aged him so - and seems to have caused his demise," says Laurence. "Well, we have everything we need. The Sharpie will draw the pentagram adequately, and we have six candles and the means to light them. There are five of us here, counting the others outside. We just need to find a place where we can guarantee that we will have privacy and that nobody will disturb us. Martin's instructions seem to imply he was concerned that someone might get the wrong idea about what he had planned and try to stop him. Is there a room in this house that we can secure properly?"

Samantha goes to find Laurence and Paul. "I've cleared the dining table, so we can use that. Do you want me to call the others in?"

"Yes, I think that would be best," says Laurence. "I'm not sure if we should do this in the dining room, though. We need a room that we can secure, where we can be sure of being undisturbed, according to Martin's notes. He might have been concerned that someone - or something - would try to interfere with the ritual."

"Ok, well you see if you can find somewhere more suitable, and meanwhile I'll nip out and call the others in." says Samantha. She heads out of the house, looking for Nicholas and Pet, to tell them the ritual is probably going to start shortly.

Pet nods to Nicholas, and takes a drag of the cigarette, coughing a little. She flicks the ash off, and glances towards the door. "Yeah...That was....disturbing."

Seeing his wife step out, Nicholas quickly flips out the cigarette and exhales. "Hey babe! How're things? Your mother isn't coming around is she?" Nicholas cringed at that last statement, it was a fall back question that just didn't work here. Old habits died hard... like cigarettes.

Samantha laughs, taking her husband's arm. "No, hardly. We're going to start the ritual soon. You both need to come back inside."

Nicholas smiled, "Alright." was all he said as he let his wife escort him inside.

Pet crushes out her cig and follows inside.

The house doors all have locks, as do the windows... only the bathroom door inside has a separate lock. However, if a more secure setting is desired, a bed can be moved out of one of the bedrooms, and the dining room table moved into there, then the door can be blocked by an extra chair.

"Let's move the table to a bedroom," suggests Laurence. "We need to perform the ritual in as secure a location as possible."

Paul helps Laurence with the furniture

With everyone working together, they manage to get Martin's bed out of his room, and the table moved in - the pentagram drawn in place... and all the candles placed accordingly. The front and back doors to the house are locked, the bedroom door is shut, and an extra chair wedged up underneath the door knob to secure it better. Shades are drawn to offer as much privacy as possible.

Everything is ready for the ritual.

OOC: If there are no objections voiced by tomorrow, I will assume you all proceed with the ritual according to plan.

yockenthwaite,That's fine. I recognized that a long time ago and have no problems preferring a peaceful coexistence in a game to inter-party squabble. It wasn't I who gave everyone their personalities originally, but the author of the module. I saw them as suggestions. But soon it will be very important that you observe your characters religious upbringing. I hope you're up for that.

The sun is setting by the time you have everything in place. The house is secured, and Martin's sister is still at the hospital - no doubt soaking it up for all its worth in effort to get closer to the handsome doctors.

The ritual begins. Everyone places their hands on the table on either side of the candles in front of them, touching their neighbor's hands. Lawrence says the passage first, all the way through...
The temperature seems to have dropped considerably in the room. All outside light sources seem somewhat dimmer. Looking around, nothing else seems to happen, so Lawrence urges the others to say the passage as well.
The table lifts an inch off the ground suddenly, then drops just as suddenly. Flames on the candles jump up in unison as if fed by propane. Lawrence keeps his cool and urges the others to finish the passage over the sounds of rattling and moans all about the room.
The candles all go out, plunging the room into darkness.

... Some time later, everyone begins to regain consciousness finding themselves laying on the hard, wooden floor. The room is still dark, too dark to see.

Important OOC Note - read me before continuing,Everyone will be getting a private message from me very shortly. Please check for it and read it before responding. Make sure to let everyone know what they see about you when the lights come on and be very careful about what name you use.

The story continues in Aftermath - please read your PM's first before continuing.