Arrival

[royya]

A clue of what might happened?
Jean says as he show the wasted paper to the other two

[aine]

"Doesn't make much sense to me but we should take it in case it does later. Maybe we'll find some weird mushrooms in the basement." Herman shrugs non committedly and walks out of the room to where the stairs are. On the way, he glances at the clock to see what time it is.

[Mr. Handy]

"All I know about it is that we'd better not pass up a chance to wash our hands," says Erich, following Herman back to the stairs.

[Laraqua]

The ticking clock seems to have lost both of its hands, leaving its second hand to aimlessly spin. It seems a strange thing to do to a clock. Someone must have opened it and cut the hands off.

(OOC: It doesn't look like a clock puzzle where you insert hands into a gap. It looks like the hands were snipped off)

[aine]

"Weird. You'da thought they'd have enough to deal with without defacing a clock." Herman points to the snipped off hands to the others.

[Laraqua]

(Psychology roll)

[Mr. Handy]

Erich considers the mental state of whoever ruined the clock. "I think the man who did this must be the same one who killed himself. It's as though he wished he could stop time. Perhaps he knew what was going on here, when things were supposed to happen, and what went wrong, and he preferred to die than to live with the consequences."

[aine]

"Wow!" Says Herman, although it is unclear whether he is more impressed with the man's desperateness or Erich's astute fathoming of the dead man's mind. "Well, let's just hope that whatever it was is all over and we're just here to mop up." He looks down at the dried blood on his hands. "You don't think this blood will be a problem do you? I mean with the fungus thingy?" He sniffs his fingers gingerly.

[Mr. Handy]

"Well, I'm not sure where he's been," says Erich, "but I'd wash it off at the first opportunity. I hope all we have to do is mop up, as I excel at that. I'll just have to find a mop here, as I couldn't fit one in my toolbox," he quips. "I wouldn't bet on it, though. And the 'support' that's on its way may mop us up if we don't keep moving. Let's get the stairway open."

[royya]

Just keep your hands to yourself.
Jean says with a grin

[aine]

"You bet!" Herman leads the way to see how to open the staircase.

[Laraqua]

The stairs leading down to the first floor seems to have been barred from the other side. There are a series of weights upon the other side (Combined Strength versus 40 to budge it) that could well be furniture or even wooden boards nailed from the other side. The corridor continues on around in a square shape, or something similar to it, judging by what they have seen thus far.

[Mr. Handy]

With the help of the others, Erich is almost, but not quite, able to budge the barricade.

[aine]

"Oof! Well that's not going to work." Says Herman rubbing his shoulder after trying to break down the barricade. "Guess we'll have to look for an easier way first. Let's see if this corridor leads anywhere."

[royya]

What about the air vents ?
The man on the phone told you that they will come, the question is from where ?
Jean says

[Mr. Handy]

"We'd better avoid the vents," says Erich. "We know that the people here have been attacked through the vents. Let's keep exploring this floor and see if we can find another way down. Maybe a dumbwaiter. And there ought to be a fire escape somewhere."

[royya]

Oh... I remember that all of the fire escapes were removed from the building several months ago during the initial renovations.
Jean says as he recalls what he heard.

[Mr. Handy]

"That sounds like an extxremely dangerous thing for them to have done," says Erich, "especially under the current circumstances! What were people supposed to do in the event of a fire? Burn to death, I suppose."

[royya]

Now that I think about it ... maybe closing all the escape routes out of the building, trapping then inside like they knew something is going to happen inside.
Jean says

[aine]

"That's a real scary thought." Herman digs in his pocket and finds a rather battered roll-up which he proceeds to light as he wanders down the corridor.