Gateway

[aine]

Peregrine follows the other two towards the church. He rubs his bleary eyes as they sting from the smoke.

[Laraqua]

The church doors open to reveal a dusty, ashen and brooding interior that looks different to when it had been first entered. Now it appears to be a somewhat more recent church with less wood and more stone, including polished marble floors at odds with the rest of the ash and the dust. The depiction of the crucifixion seems to be unusually lifelike over the pulpit - as though the artist had taken great care to depict decay. It does look rather like a carving, however, and its more the paint job that makes it seem lifelike ... though it does buzz with flies rather disturbingly.

[Mr. Handy]

Clive looks around in wonder. "It's like nobody's been here in ages," he says. "Has everyone been evacuated?"

[royya]

I'm at dark as you Clive.
Mike replies
I have no idea how we got here and what is this place as we just been a moment ago in the orphanage basement.
This place church is not like the one I've been earlier, thought I can swear it was the same one. someone rang the bells, the question is who ?
Mike looks around and eyes the depiction of the crucifixion and goes to check it more closely.

[Laraqua]

Show,Spot Hidden check for any examining the crucified figure.

[Mr. Handy]

"Maybe there's a hunchback up there," says Clive as he peers at the figure too, but he can't see anything unusual about it. "I guess this church must be Catholic."

[aine]

Peregrine slumps down onto a pew, he's lost, worn out, and his blanket is black from smoke, "Is there anything to eat?" He asks dejectedly. This isn't at all what he was expecting, it may be warm but it is also frightening, the flames outside create weird shadows through the stain glass windows and Peregrine watches them fearfully. He looks around at the church in general. He cuddles the dirty blanket for comfort and kicks his heels against the pew: bang, bang, bang. The noise echoes eerily.

(Spot hidden = success, just, but this is for the church not the icon)

[Laraqua]

While there doesn't appear to be anything to eat there does appear to be a pair of doors leading further into the church that everybody sees. Peregrine, who is looking about the church, notices a leather bound book on a shelf inside the pulpit before he heads back over to the pews (presumably he'd have followed Mike to the cross at first as toddlers are wont to follow adults about when nervous). It's only when he's sat down that he remembers seeing it.

Show,grumble grumble forgot to post my post on the other computer grumble grumble.

[royya]

Spot Hidden (1d100=52) - Success.

Hey, what's that ?
Mike says as he comes closer to the crucified figure.
Clive, Peregrine. take a look.

[Laraqua]

OOC,You might want to rephrase that.

Mike looks more closely at the wooden sculpture and realises three things. One is that there seemed to be a glistening laquer, or something similar, that had run down the outside of the wood to give it that coloration. The second is that there is a rather god awful smell of rot and decay and death emanating from it. The third is that the statue's closed eyes look strange as though a mask were carved in place over ... no. No, it's not that at all. It is a wooden mask upon a human face and the closed eye lids bulge grotesquely before the edge of a maggot parts the lids with its twitching hindquarters. The crucified form is not man-sized though close to it so the only thing that could fit in there would be a child! The nailed seams that run along the edges at the sides of the form's body support that awful and horrifying fact. It's all Mike can do to pull himself together upon that realisation! 1/1d6 SAN loss for him (and anyone else who realises). If you go temporarily insane (lose 5 sanity points), roll Idea.

[royya]

San roll (1d100=43) - Pass. Lost 1 SAN point

LOOK AWAY, LOOK AWAY!!
Mike shouts to Clive that stands next to him. Since Peregrine is looking at something else around.
Oh gross ...
Mike jumps back from the figure and leads the two kids away to the doors they found in the church.
There ... there ... there were maggots and worms on the ... the ... wooden figure, they ate the wood. disgusting. come, let's see what's behind these doors.
Mike takes a glance back to the poor child over there without revealing the horror he just saw to the kids. He can't show them that he is scared like hell.

[aine]

Peregrine despondently pulls the old leather book towards him and places it on his lap. He lifts the cover and looks at the first page, wondering if there will be any pictures. He flicks through a few leaves before realising Mike is trying to pull him up. He grabs the book and his blanket and allows himself to be pulled towards one of the doors.

[Laraqua]

It looks like a book of fairy tales with elaborate woodcuts on the first page that show pointy-hatted figures surrounding a monster with goat legs and a pig-like snout. The pointy-hats all hold long sticks and seem to be poking the goatman.

[royya]

What's that?, where did you found it?
Mike asks

[aine]

"It's, It's just a book." Peregrine stammers, "It's got nice pictures in, Mike. Look." He holds the book tight and opens the first page to show the pointy-hat folk.

[royya]

We'll check it later.
Mike replies as he thinks it is very odd what's going over here, the book probably belonged to the poor child that hangs back there.
Be alert.
Mike says as he tries the new set of doors.

[Mr. Handy]

"Weird," says Clive when he sees the picture. "I wonder if those chaps with the pointy hats are wizards. Gandalf has a pointy hat."

[Laraqua]

The next door opens up into a hallway that seems somehow sized wrong, as though the whole thing were 20% narrowerer and shorter than it should be. There's a door on either side and one at the very end, each of them heavy iron-strapped ones.

[Mr. Handy]

"Whoever built this church made it odd," says Clive. "I wonder what's behind those doors? Which one should we open first?"

[royya]

let see if we can hear something or peek through the keyhole.
Mike says