Norbury At Night

[yockenthwaite]

Florence shudders instinctively as she hears the scream, but is not otherwise affected by it. Like Irene she moves forward to the crack and looks through it as best she can, using her torch to help.

[jimacol]

The shriek jolts Rupert, but he finds solace as he clutches his Crucifix and utters a short prayer under his breath. He steels himself and also approaches the crack with his companions, unsure whether a human or some distressed animal uttered such a sound.

[royya]

SAN roll (1d100, 1d3=[72], [3])

Doug panics as he begin to think that there is something else down here with them. imagination plays wild in his mind now ... these are not gang members. tying people at their feet, killing and burying them in shallow mounds and that shriek ... it was unhuman.
God, what is this ? there is something down here with us and it doesn't sounds like a gang member.
It is something his drunken dead father tend to tell him to fright him - monsters tales. He squeeze his knife tightly in his palm, leaving marks in the flesh. He looks back and forth down the tunnel, trying to penetrate the darkness to see what lurks in there. He prefers not to see what lies in the crack in the wall and leave it to the others.

[Mr. Handy]

"Good heavens," says Irene, suprressing a shudder. She marks the wall again and focuses her torch once again on the tunnel ahead. "I don't think anyone alive went through that crack, and it looks too dangerous with all those pits. Shall we continue down the tunnel?"

[yockenthwaite]

"I think we should investigate that room first," says Florence, peering through the crack. "At least have a look in it first before carrying on down the tunnel. Although I appreciate what you are saying about the pits."

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, I suppose you're right," says Irene. "Someone else might have fallen in the pits and could need our help. Any volunteers to go inside and look?"

[dormire]

"I would brave the pits but," William gestures helplessly at his prosthetic, "I may end up creating more trouble than I can prevent by staying out of the way and keeping watch."

[Laraqua]

"I'll do it," says Hewitt, double checking that his gun was loaded. Complete with the accent and the nice suit, he almost looked like an American gangster stepped free from the silver screen. Not quite as handsome but still attractive enough. "You lot wait out here." He steps forward into the gap in the wall that is almost three feet deep. "There's some kind of office in here."

[jimacol]

"Now Mr Hewitt, I can't possibly allow you to go in alone" says Rupert as he steps forward. "I'll come with you. If someone is in trouble through there perhaps I can help, I was a Chaplain in the Great War so I've seen many horrors. And if we find these kidnappers, I would like to hope we can reason with them before you resort to using that firearm". Clutching his crucifix, Rupert follows Hewitt through the crack.

[aine]

John shivers at the unearthly howls but is not too alarmed. He blocks the images that begin to rise in his mind and concentrates instead on the job in hand. He watches the men climb through the gap, "Careful there, those holes may have made the floor weak and unstable. Reverend, maybe you should let the American test the loading first."

[Laraqua]

"The floor's not broken, it's opened," said Hewitt, crouching down to peer into the darkness. "Man, I need a light." He returns to the crack, stepping past the Reverend. "Can one of you give me a light? All I've got is a lighter."

The Reverend can see that the room is about 20 feet by 20 feet with a high plastered ceiling and a set of stairs in the far corner that leads up to the smooth ceiling. Looks like someone covered up this cellar. There's a gap between the stairs and the wall. Perhaps a poorly place stairwell leading down? The long bones are huge. Perhaps a dinosaur's leg bones or something similar? They're about as wide as the room and are braced between the two walls, meaning he'll need to step high over one and duck down under the other simultaneously.

[Mr. Handy]

Irene steps forward and offers Hewitt her torch. "Be careful," she says.

[Laraqua]

Hewitt takes the flashlight with a wink and a flourish. "No promises." He turns the flashlight around the room, focusing it briefly on the bones as he comes in closer. "Think they're real? Looks sticky." He pulls a handkerchief out of his pocket and presses it against it but when he tries to pull it free it remains stuck. "It is sticky." To those who get close to it, the bone is obviously made from thousands of gossamer threads that glisten slightly like mica in granite when the flashlight is pressed up close to it. To those outside in the crack, it just looks like bone.

[Mr. Handy]

Irene peers through the crack. "If they're not bones, what could they be?" she wonders aloud.

[aine]

"Maybe they were bones once, like those dinosaur bones that become rock. Is it spiders' web, the sticky stuff?" John is at the back of the group peering through the crack so he can't see much.

[yockenthwaite]

"Possibly," says Florence in response to John, "though I've never seen bones change form so dramatically like that. I imagine it might take a very long time to happen, or for them to be exposed to a toxic chemical. Intriguing." Calling through the gap she shouts "Are there any other clues in there? Are there any signs that people went that way?"

[Laraqua]

"There's a set of stairs that go down behind this stairwell into some sort of store room below and then it appears there's some sort of tunnel," said Hallik, shining his torch through the gaps in the floor. "Then a number of tunnel, older, and with something carved on its mouth."

[Mr. Handy]

"Any indication anyone's been there recently?" asks Irene. "If the people we're looking for went that way, we need to go after them. I had no idea all that was down there. I wonder what it was in aid of?"

[Laraqua]

"There's some interesting dents in the brickwork like a mountain climber has gone down the walls through the gaps on occasion," said Hewitt. "I wouldn't want to follow them that way, though. It's about a dozen foot drop. The stairs would do us better. As for a guarantee if someone's come down here, well, I don't know. It seems likely though. Its too strange to merely be a coincidence."

[Mr. Handy]

"All right, let's come join you and take the stairs," says Irene. She steps through the crack and marks the wall on the other side to point at it. "I can take the torch back if you want your hand free."