Play@YSDC

Clarence will reload the shotgun waiting his turn.

Under the rain, Clarence grins with determination and reloads the shorgun. The alligator is still busy biting the fence and trying to reach Christopher, so Clarence can probably get closer and shoot before the animal can react. Unless Christopher gains some distance, though, there's a risk of him being hit as well.

Christopher Fontana

Seeing Clarence reloading he decides to retreat, not wanting to be hit by any pellets, or even another stray shot. He quickly backs off, wondering why the other man hadn't simply taken the chance to leave the grave-yard, there was no need to linger.

"Just run... get out of the grave-yard." he yells as he backs off.

As Christopher backs away, Clarence keeps the shotgun trained on the gator. He then moves back to the house, all the while watching the gator.

You all manage to fall back inside the house, to safety. Ian is on the floor, still weak from the shock and the blood loss. Holly has done a wonderful job tending to his wounds, though, and he'll definitely be fine. Outside, the deluge is still going on violently.

"You're going to be all right, Mr. Morin," says Holly, putting her medical supplies away and closing up her doctor's bag. "You've lost a lot of blood, so you'll need to take it easy, but your body will make more in time. I don't think it's essential that you go to a hospital, but it wouldn't be a bad idea once this storm blows over. We should stay indoors until the weather eases up. I wouldn't want to drive in this mess. In the meantime, we can see what we've found here." She pats the lid of the box.

Looking at Ian's wounds, Clarence winces, then looks at the tin box and sighs, " I hope the contents are worth the trouble we went through!"

"Thank you, Dr. Chastain. I don't know what would have happened if it wasn't for you. I owe you my life. Or at least my leg, heh." Ian says, slowly starting to feel better.

As Clarence mentions the box, the curiosity comes back to him. "Come on, let's open this box. I hope it's not his baseball cards collection..."

Expectations are high as Holly opens the small metal box. Inside, there's a collection of items, some you had anticipated, some that comes as a surprise. The first thing you notice is a flat square stone, decorated with a raised but worn glyph that resembles a lidded eye stylized into a glyph. It looks rather like it's been removed from a temple wall or statue somewhere. Beneath that is a translucent envelope containing a note from Douglas Henslowe to Walter Winston. And finally, underneath the envelope, the thing you've been looking for: Douglas's Journal. It seems in decent conditions, and contains a series of handmade sketches and a series of... disturbing handmade notes. Some of the sketches are lovely portraits of Douglas's comrades from 1924. The rest is just about as disturbing as the notes, if not more, and features scenes of death and madness, with a returning imagery of a monstruous creatures full of tentacles and mouths. Tucked inside the notebook's cover there's a small metal key.

Outside, it's still pouring, but the tempest seems to be passing. It should probably leave in the next hour or so.

OOC:   The letter: - http://s32.postimg.org/lhgyetu6d/Douglas_letter.png Extracts from the notebook: - http://s32.postimg.org/8ydpmatqd/Henslo ... book_1.png - http://s32.postimg.org/owrh9ju9x/Henslo ... book_2.png - http://s32.postimg.org/vxzoqslc5/Henslo ... book_3.png - http://s32.postimg.org/6lza5gw05/Henslo ... book_4.png - http://s32.postimg.org/xeqv770n9/Henslo ... book_5.png Tell me if your investigator just skims though the notebook or take some time to read and study it in-depth (consider about an hour of time required to study it). This will be a standard choice for any tome/journal/repository of occult knowledge/etc. you meet during your future investigations I will not ask it anymore, just consider it implicit.

Holly smiles. "You're welcome, Mr. Morin," she says. "I'm just glad I was here to help. It has been quite an eventful day, but at last we've found what we seek." She carefully inspects the contents of the box. "This key must be to the safety deposit box in Long Beach mentioned in this letter. It doesn't say the number of the box, but it may be engraved on the key or listed in the journal." She begins to study it.

OOC,I'll be thoroughly studying the journal, reading it aloud so that everyone can know what's in it without having to wait for me to finish.

The journal reports more or less the same story Douglas told you at the sanatorium, but it's fragmented, hard to follow, half gibberish and half stream of consciousness. The events are not linked chronologically, and there are frequent jumps back and forth in time. If you hadn't already known Douglas's version of the story, you could make little sense of the notebook.

For Holly, though, the experience is quite different. The mad ramblings seem to make much more sense than they should. The words and the imagery join together to create a strong impression. You are drawn to each word, your mind stirring as strange images awaken long-forgotten parts of your subconoscious. At the end of the reading, you feel as exhausted as if you had run 10 miles.

Outside, the storm seems to have calmed down. The stars and the moon are out. It's probably around 8 pm.

As Holly reads the sinister notebook aloud, even if very fragmented, the scattered sentences seem to corroborate with what Henslowe and Job told them. Of all that has been written, two phrases catch Ian's attention:

Mouths in my head
Mouths on my body

It reminds him of the dream he had just before they arrive at Henslowe Mansion.

"Excuse me, Dr. Chastain. Can I have a look at these notes?"

OOC,[ooc]Looking at the notes, can I make any kind of connection between my dream and the sentences or the drawings? Maybe any of the drawings resembles what I saw in the dream? Also, how are my Health points after Holly patched me? Still at 0?[/ooc]

Ian reads the notebook with horrified fascination. How could he have had that dream before reading the notes? Perhaps there's more to the dream than he first thought. Still, it doesn't make sense, does it? The cause-effect relationship is all messed up here. For a journalist like Ian, that's perhaps the most frustrating part of this whole mess. His mind locks on the matter, circling around it with maddening insistence.

The notebook's notes seem to match Ian's dream. They are vague, and confusionary, so it's hard to get a definite answer, but they point to "mouths appearing on the body" in some passages.

"Of course," says Holly, handing over the notes to Ian. She stifles a yawn. "It has been a long day. I think we should head back to our lodgings while the weather cooperates. We can discuss what we've learned and our next steps there, and perhaps have a group therapy session. After what we've been through, I think we could use one. Then we can get some sleep and put this wretched day behind us."

Ian takes the notebook from Holly and start reading it, 2, 3 times each page. The more he reads, the more astonished he becomes. How could it be possible? Was it just a peculiar coincidence? Was it the influence of Henslowe and Job's accounts? He's been having nightmares in the last couple of years, but he never experienced anything like this before. In fact, usually he is not even able to remember them after he wakes up. Suddenly he feels very tired.

"Th-Thank you, Dr. Chastain. You should keep it." He says, handing the notebook to Holly. "I feel like I could sleep for a whole week. What time is it, anyway? We haven't had the opportunity to talk to Lady Henslowe yet."

"It's about eight," says Holly, accepting the journal. "You're welcome. I feel exhausted too. I think reading that journal took more out of me than subduing a madman and dodging alligators."

Christopher Fontana

"It is getting late and the caretaker was pretty insistent we shouldn't disturb Mrs Henslowe. I think we have enough to puzzle through without further intruding on any one. We can always come back tomorrow if needs be." he says, happy to leave this place and head back to their lodgings.

Clarence feels cold in his soaking clothes. "Yes, lets head back to the hotel. A hot bath and a change of dry clothes is in order."