Play@YSDC

After a quick stop at the hotel, you head outside Savannah towards the Henslowe mansion. It's around 4 P.M. and the sky is getting dark with clouds and promises of rain. A strong wind has started blowing while you were inside the Sanatorium, and suddenly you feel its bite on the skin, every bit as uncomfortable as the permeating humidity you experienced before. You drive following the road for about fifteen minutes before getting to an intersection. The pavement continues south, but you press on to the east, where the road turns to packed clay. At the fork, beneath a rusted street sign, a brown dog with mange lies sprawled on the ground, watching you move without showing any reaction. The red dirt road goes on for another kilometer or so, then you stop in front of the rusted iron gate leading to the grounds of the Henslowe mansion.

Ian,You're watching the scenery as the car speeds out of Savannah, thinking back on what you've heard at the sanatorium. Then you hear a voice. Your voice. Wheezing out words in a language you can't understand. But it's not coming from your own mouth. Your shirt shifts at your belly, as if being pushed from within. It dampens, more and more. Trembling, you tear your shirt away to discover a wide mouth, tongue probing, cut across your stomach like a gash, oozing pus and blood. It yells out alien words in your voice, and when you try to call for help you find your own mouth shrinking away to nothing, closing around your tongue, swallowing your teeth with flesh. You cannot exhale, you cannot breathe. And as you suffocate... you awaken. The car is just pulling out in front of the gate to the mansion.

Standing proud amidst the greenery and mud, the Henslowe mansion is a classic plantation house with tall windows and towering columns ringing porches and balconies. From the distance, the house looked shining white, but up close you notice streaks of mud and moss stains, giving it a greenish tint. A tall wall encloses the grounds on three sides; on the fourth, the terrain slowly gives way to a swamp. The song of bugs carries out from there, and you can see alligators floating in the water. A pillar emerges from the surface, suggesting that this area is slowly sinking in. Halfway in between the mansion and the swamp, you see a small cemetery, consisting of perhaps twenty tombstones. Some are modest old things, some are tall crosses, one is a weeping angel. A few abandoned sheds stand rotting in the muck. These were used for storage, but now they hold forgotten garden tools and huge garden spiders.

You can see no one from your position, but the front door of the mansion itself is open.

"The open door probably means someone's home," says Holly, "but we still need to be invited before we can go in. Let's go up to the front porch and call out to see if anyone answers." She takes out Henslowe's letter of introduction to have it ready at hand.

OOC,A weeping angel? Don't blink! ;) That's a wink. Winking is okay.

Christopher Fontana

"Indeed, we can't just barge in." Christopher steps forward onto the wooden porch, which creeks ominously under his feet as he marches up to the partly open door. Rapping smartly on the door frame he knocks and calls out "Hello... hello... is anyone at home?" he calls out in a loud voice.

Holly approaches alongside Christopher, letter in hand.

Ian wakes up terrified, out of breath, a drop of sweat running down his forehead. He reaches for his mouth and belly. It's all OK. He looks at his companions, but nobody seems to have noticed he was scared, which is a good thing. He doesn't want to look like he was too impressed by Edgar Job. In a way, he feels like a fish out of water in this. Dr. Chastain, Fontana and Fr. Flanagan are people used to deal with crazy fellas, but not him.

He looks outside and the car has stopped in front of a tall, white house. He tries to recompose himself taking a deep breath and get out of the car.

Clarence switches of the engine and stands by the car. A lit cigarette in hand. He looks to Ian who seems slightly shaken. "Are you all right?", Clarence asks Ian.

"Yeah, sure." He says, a little too quickly. He too lights a cigarette and asks Clarence: "So, should we all go inside?"

OOC:   How do we proceed? Everyone inside, like Job's Interview? I think it worked OK.

An old man emerges from the door to the mansion. He looks to be in his seventies, but still strong and solid. His gray hair is a mess and his long beard is only slightly more presentable. In his right hand there's a shotgun and, while he's not pointing it at you, it still looks threatening, especially considering that the man doesn't look particularly friendly. "Who are you folks? What do you want?" He speaks with an heavy southern accent.

"Yes, let's all go in. I hope the doorman is accommodating now we have a letter of introduction.", replied Clarence to Ian.

"Good afternoon," says Holly with a smile, holding out the letter. "I'm Dr. Holly Chastain, and my associates and I would like to visit Mrs. Henslowe. We've just spoken with her son earlier today, and he wrote this letter for me to give to the groundskeeper."

Christopher Fontana

Christpher can't help but take a step back as the armed man suddenly appears. Dr Chastain makes her introduction, "Yes, hello, Fontana... Professor Fontana, from Boston..." He says somewhat taken aback.

While talking to Clarence, Ian sees the old man with the shotgun coming out of the house and can't help choking with the cigarette smoke. He then sees Holly showing the man a letter, standing still, with a smile in her face, while Fontana takes a step back. He momentarily disconnects himself from from the scene, thinking about Fr. Flanagan not feeling so well at the Joy Grove and his own nightmare just a minute ago, in the car. He suddenly realizes how calm Holly is, dealing with all this crazy fellas talking about cults and demons, and even facing a shotgun. He's pretty sure he never met a woman like her before.

The man takes the note and reads it, then hands it back to Holly. "Well, way I figure it, if Mr. Henslowe says you're all right, then you're all right. Come in." He gestures towards the inside. "I'm Currothers, by the way", he adds before going back in. He briefly shows you around the ground floor. Inside, the building is not quite as big as it seemed from outside. There's a parlor, a main hall with a stairwell, a kitchen, a dining hall, a servant's stairwell and a small room filled with animal heads hung on the wall, layered with dust. The kitchen smells of garbage, bread lies molding on the counter. "Upstairs there's Mr. Henslowe's study and a couple of bedrooms. Mother Henslowe is in her room there, but try not to disturb her. If you need me, you'll find me in my cottage." He walks a couple of steps away, then stops as if remembering something. "Beware the alligators after dark. They get aggressive."

"Thank you," says Holly, entering the house after wiping her shoes on the doormat. Though she appears fearless outwardly, she isn't immune to fear. The sudden attack at Joy Grove had frightened her. The man with the shotgun not so much, as he had been sane and reasonable, and she had been confident that the letter would satisfy him. However, the mention of aggressive alligators is more than a little scary. The sedative won't work on them, as she'd never be able to inject them, though Carruthers and his shotgun might be effective. Still, she doesn't show her fear. She controls her emotions; they don't control her. "Do you know where we can find Frank Hickering? Mr. Henslowe said he could help us find his journal."

"It's only me and Mother Henslowe here", Currothers says. He scratches his head."You sure you got the name right? I don't remember any Franck Hickering living here in the last... well... 50 years. And I don't think I know anyone with that name."

Christopher Fontana

"Perhaps if we shouldn't disturb Ms. Henslowe we could start by checking Douglas'.. Mr Hennslowe's study, a logical place to find a journal.... hmm? Fontana asks.

"You can ask, but she'll tell you the same thing I've told you. No Franck Hickering around here", Currothers says in a stubborn tone of voice. "Don't tire her out, she's very old".

"That's the name Mr. Henslowe gave me," says Holly to Carrothers, scratching her head. "Maybe he was talking about someone who doesn't live here." She nods to Christopher. "My thoughts exactly. We should look in the study first."

OOC,I'd like to use Assess Honesty on [b]Carrothers[/b].

Christopher Fontana

"Please be assured that we have no intention of disturbing Ms. Henslowe; we will look in the study..." Christopher says while wondering why Currothers would leave the group, five strangers alone .. alone with a frail old woman. He has no plans to raise his concerns whilst within earshot of Currothers though. "It's this way you say...?" he adds pointing up the stairs.

Christopher and Holly climb the stairs to the upper floor and quickly finds Henslowe's study. It's not a big room, or perhaps it seems smaller because it's cluttered with objects out of place. On a desk, near the door, there's a camera, a flashlight, a ball of twine, a jar of blue ink and a brush stained with blue ink. A shovel rests leaning on a wall. Both the shovel and the flashlight are caked with dried mud. There's a map on the floor, near an armchair in the corner of the room. A large library covers one of the walls, but there are also many books on the floor, some piled together, some alone, some even open.


At the ground floor, Currothers is nervously shifting from one foot to the other. "Don't cause trouble with the old lady, all right? Mr. Henslowe wanted you to look around, and I respect that, but don't cause trouble." He nods to himself, as if satisfied with what he just said. "I'll be in my cottage if you need me", he adds, then heads outside.

Clarence starts looking through the books and map on the floor, hoping to find something of note.

"Carrothers seems genuine to me," says Holly. "He really doesn't recognize the name Frank Hickering." She looks at the map first, picking it up off of the floor. "This might lead us to where Henslowe hid the journal. Judging from the muddy shovel and flashlight, he may have buried it, probably inside a container to protect it. We'd better bring them with us if we have to go outside."

While Holly and Christopher are searching the study, Father Flanagan begins looking around the ground floor, starting in the parlor. I may as well try to make myself useful, he thinks. If nothing else, perhaps I'll find out Henslowe's preferred cigar brand or something, and someone with more experience can turn that into something useful.

Holly picks up the map from the floor and discovers that it's not a map of the estate grounds, not even a local map. It's a map of the world, with some signs and notes in red. The city of Los Angeles is circled, with a note written nearby: "Where did it go?". A little to the south, Mexico is also circled. Then Ethiopia is circled as well, with a short note: "A.?".

Clarence picks up the books, reading each title patiently, searching for something that might ring a bell. After a couple of minutes, his efforts are rewarded: the next book he picks up is titled Communion Rites of Victorian Death Cults, but it's the author that is most interesting - Francis J. Hickering.

Father Flanagan walks through the ground floor, looking around. The house was clearly beautiful once, but now it's in full decadence. Paint is peeling, rugs are worn flat, the rooms smell of damp plaster and stale flowers, plus the smell coming in from the swamp. One thing catches his eyes as he looks around: in the parlor, inside an open barrel-top desk, there's a ledger, full with numbers and notes. Father Flanagan can't make much of it, but perhaps the other can.

Christopher examines the items on the desk. The camera is in good working order, but needs film. The jar of ink is empty, and the brush is dried to the point of uselessness. The ball of twine is particularly interesting. It is marked throughout its length with blue ink marks in little clusters a foot or more apart, with each cluster separated by several feet of clean twine. Each stretch of clean twine is marked by a bit of tightly knotted twine well past the halfway point between ink stains. This divides the twine either into five clusters of ink marks or into four lengths of clean twine, with each length marked by a knot.

Holly shows the map to Christopher. "It looks like it's pointing to things further afield," she says. "Right now it gives us more questions than answers." She looks at the book he has found. "Ah, I see you've found Frank Hickering. The location of the journal must be in that book - if the book is not the journal in disguise. Let's take a look inside."

Christopher Fontana

Christopher looks at the map, "Los Angeles makes sense, after what we've already discovered but Africa... this is getting more and more perplexing." he says. "Victorian Death Cults... could be some tie-in with whatever this Echavarria was up to and .. as I said earlier I am confident that human sacrifices were used in rites used to worship Gol-Goroth that book could be useful for reference the map too."

Christopher turns his attention back to the room and the contents of the desk; Henslowe's diary ought to be here or clues to it's whereabouts. "This twine has been deliberately marked with this ink and I think it's safe to assume that it was Henslowe that did it... so it's not too hard to imagine that Henslowe in his deteriorating state decides that he has to hide his diary... and it's probably one of the last things he does before returning to the Sanatorium. So the twine, that mud covered spade and flash-light must be important.. they haven't been cleaned or disposed of.." Christoper picks up the twine, trying to work things out."

"Are there any photographs? he asks.

There is, in fact, a photo. It's inside the book that Clarence has found, and it falls to the floor as soon as you open it. When you pick it up, you can see that it's a photo of the mansion itself. On the back, there are a few handwritten lines.

Clarence sees something fall to the floor from the book. He picks it, " I think I may have found something of significance here. Its a photo of the mansion and a written note on the back."

Clarence looks at the items perplexed, and trying to make connections between the items.

Christopher Fontana

Christopher reads the words on the back of the photograph "A riddle? As if things needed to be more complicated... I suppose these numbers and name combinations point or lead to locations. 'Back to one' but there is no start, a circular route? Hmm, perhaps the caretaker knows who or what the names refer to?"

"Remember that graveyard we passed on the way in?" says Holly, a thought occurring to her as she examines the photo. "I bet these are names on the tombstones!"

While the others enter the house, followed by Currothers, Ian decides to finish his cigarette. His heart is slowly coming back to the normal pace, and he's enjoying the view, looking at nothing in particular.

After some minutes, he goes into the house, finding Fr. Flanagan in the parlor, with a book in his hands. "Have you found anything, Father?"

OOC,[ooc]Numbers and notes? I have Accounting 1. Does it help?[/ooc]

Father Flanagan shows Ian the ledger. "Can't make heads or tails of it, myself. Maybe you'll have better luck.' Father Flanagan hands Ian the ledger. "Do you have a head for numbers?"

Ian takes the ledger and examines it for a few moments. "Well, I'm no accountant but..." He stops and take a look around before continue. "Apparently, the Henslowe's finances are really bad. Their fortune has been badly hit in recent years, and no effort whatsoever has been done to reconstruct the investments and recover the losses. By the look of it, I would say that... In about 5 years the Henslowe will run out of money."

Clarence looked at the photo, as he listened to the others mentioning the graveyard and the tombstones. "I dare say this photo was taken from the graveyard, and if we go to the graveyard I can pinpoint exactly where his photo was taken from. Maybe then the notes on the back will make sense."

"Yes, that makes sense," says Holly. "The position from which the picture was taken must be point number 1. Then I think we need to imagine lines drawn from 1, to 2, to 3, to 4, then back to 1. They should produce a shape. I'm guessing we'll find the journal buried at the exact center of that shape. We should bring the shovel and flashlight with us."

While Ian studies the ledger found by Father Flanagan in the parlor; Clarence, Christopher and Holly head outside the mansion. While they were inside, it has started raining. Not strongly, at least not yet, but looking at the sky, the impression is that it can only get worse. Under the rain, you walk towards the cemetery. Once you reach the tombstones, Clarence move around a little, looking alternatively at the house and the photo. Then he stops near David Henslowe's tomb, a tall stone cross rising from the muddy ground - that's the spot the photo was taken from.

Holly locates the other three grave markers that correspond to the names on the back of the photo and walks from each one to the next in order, counting the paces and returning to the starting point. "It's almost a square," she says. "If my hunch is right, we need to dig here." She measures the distance to the center of the shape and indicates the spot in open ground between two tombstones.

OOC,The tombstones 6, 8, 15, and 13 correspond to the corners of the square. The center is between 7 and 14.

Christopher Fontana

"That's great work, nicely figured out Dr Chastain and Mr Lanalor" he looks up as the brooding clouds .. "I suppose we should be digging before we get too wet!" he offers the spade he carried from the study... "Normally I'd oblige.. but this damn bite might open up again..." he says apologetically, indicating his bitten shoulder.

Ian quickly re-read the last entries of the ledger to see if his not making any mistakes then closes it. "Father, it looks like it's starting to rain, and the others just went outside. Should we go after them and see what they have found?" He says, dropping the ledger on the table.

"Well, I thought of it," says Holly. "I suppose I should do the honors." She takes the shovel and begins to dig in the spot she indicated. While she might ordinarily allow Clarance to do the digging instead, she is young and strong enough to do the work herself, and she is excited to unearth what might be buried here.

Ian goes outside the house, looking for his companions, finding them in the manor cemetery, with Holy digging. "Gravedigging... *sigh*... Yeah, why not?" And joins his partners at the graveyard.

You start digging in the spot identified by Holly, taking turns while Christopher holds the flashlight. The rain gets heavier, and heavier again, so that after a little while you're digging under a downpour. The task is not easy, but after about half an hour of hard work, you have managed to dig about fifty centiemeters deep - but still haven't found anything of interest.

Cleaning the water from his eyes and starting feeling disappointed and tired, Ian says to the others: "I don't know... this is not taking us anywhere. What about this twine you found? It looks like it's a measure of some kind, doesn't it? It has five ink dots, and we have five reference points in the photo, making the square. If we stretch the twine along this square, would the distance between each ink dot match with the distance between each tomb? Because if it does, this knots could mark the place we have to dig. What do you think?"

Christopher Fontana

"That's good thinking, I'll go get the string." Christopher heads back to the dilapidated mansion, glad of some small respite from the rain. Returning a few minutes later he starts to unravel the string... "So the first name was, Grant.. Henslowe"he stands by the tombstone "So if you take this and make your way over there..." he offers the ball of string to Ian indicating the monument carved with the names 'John and Mary Cockeridge'. "I'll hold this end."

"Yes, great idea!" says Holly. "We should also set up a tarp or something over the spot where we'll dig when we find it."

Christopher and Ian move around with the twine, circling it around the tombs. There are four knots on the twine, at the distance of several feets from one another. There are also five areas marked with blue ink. Probably, the twine should be placed in a specific way - the question is, how?

"Actually, if the list behind the photo starts at 2, I would say the first spot must be David Henslowe's tomb, as Lanalor has established it as the place where the photo was taken from." Ian says to Fontana. "Maybe the tomb has any kind of mark or peculiarity, like something to tie the twine."

He then turns to Holly. "If we're going to dig any further, that's probably a good idea."

Clarence wades in the hole, and rests on the spade. He rests to catch his breath. The water has risen past his shoes. "The tarp is a fine idea, but we'd better hurry."

"I'll go look in the sheds for a tarp and some poles to hold it up," says Holly. She heads off.

"I'll see what I can do to help Dr. Chastain," Father Flanagan says as he follows Holly. "I'd rather not actively participate in the desecration of a gravesite if I can help it. He gives the group an apologetic smile as he leaves.

Holly and Father Flanagan explores a couple of sheds abandoned in the mansion grounds. There's not much useful inside, mostly ruined tools and a persistent smell of mold. You manage to find an old tarp, though, worn out and perforated - but better than nothing at all. You take it and head back to the graveyard.

Back at the graveyard, the three men take a closer look at the tombstones. You discover that the ones noted in the back of the photo - plus the one where the photo was taken from - present traces of blue ink.

Holly looks around alertly as they return, already all too aware of the possible presence of alligators.

OOC,Sense Trouble roll (no points spent; [b]Father Flanagan[/b] has far more than I do, so I'll hold onto my points in case I'm not around him at some later point): [dice]0[/dice]

Christopher Fontana

Christopher takes the end of the twine and compares the blue marks to the faint ones on the tombstone. "So the twine and tombstones have these ink marks, I think Henslowe wrapped the twine around the tombstones marked them with the ink ... kind of like reference points." He then proceeds to see if the markings at the start of the twine match the marks on Henslowe's grave marker. "Does anyone else think it's 'creepy' to have your own grave monument ready... while you are still alive?" he asks as he starts to see if his hypothesis is correct.

Father Flanagan, still on edge since the asylum, looks around warily as he helps Holly move their gains back to the cemetery.

(OOC),Roll (no spend) = 6 http://orokos.com/roll/393456

At the graveyard, you discover that the distance between the marked parts of the twine matches the distance between the tombstones. You move from one tomb to the next, putting the marked parts of the twine on the marked areas of the tombstones, closing the square.




While Holly and Father Flanagan head back to the cemetery with the tarp, they look towards the swamp. The alligators are moving closer to the bank, a couple are already moving lazily on the solid ground.


The weather is getting even worse now. Lightning flashes over the sky, followed by the roaring of thunder. You are already soaking wet, and the rain keeps falling relentlessly. You can't see the sun anymore, and with all the clouds and the rain, it almost looks like night has fallen.

"That's pretty creepy if you ask me..." Ian agrees with Fontana. He looks up at the flashing sky, then at the square made with the stretched twine, taking the wet hair out of his eyes. "We better hurry with this. So, we have four knots, one in each face of the square. I would say, either the journal is scattered between these points and we have to dig under the four knots, or we should connect the knots, drawing an imaginary cross, and dig this one point. I would go with the second option. What do you think?"

Holly returns in time to catch the tail end of the discussion. "That sounds good to me too," she says when she sees what they have done "The point where the two lines intersect must be where to dig. We'd better hurry. The weather is terrible, and the gators are getting restless." She quickly works to set the tarp up over the spot.

Christopher Fontana

"Yes, I agree.... after all 'x' marks the spot." He looks back through the gloom towards the encroaching swamp. "Are the Alligators likely to pose a threat? I mean the fence ought to deter them?"

"It's settled then." Ian looks at the knots positions, calculating by eye where the imaginary 'X' would be. "I think the intersection is around here." He points at somewhere near one of the illegible tombs. He then grabs the shovel and start digging, nervously looking at where the alligators are supposed to be coming from.

OOC,The spot is somewhere in front, and a little left of tomb number 7.

Clarence looked at the approaching 'gators', with ever increasing concern. "I'm going to borrow that shotgun from the manservant...just in case.", he said. He goes to find the manservant, his shoes slipping in the mud with every step.

You start digging again, a couple of meters to the left of your first attempt. You place the tarp as best as you can, and while some rain still manages to slip past it, it clearly makes things easier and your work proceeds faster than expected. Clarence heads to the groundskeeper's shed and returns with a shotgun, then starts circling around the group, keeping watch on any approaching alligator. Christopher moves the fliashlight nervously around, then back to the hole, then again towards the tombstones and the swamp past them. Every few seconds a strange sound makes you jump, fearing it might be an approaching beast, but no - it's just the rain, or the wind, or God knows what. Ian and Holly takes turns digging, while Father Flanagan tries to fight a certain embarrassment, perhaps silently praying for their souls as they dig into holy ground.
It takes 10 minutes or hard work, but you're finally rewarded when Holly hears the sound of metal hitting metal - there's something buried here! You remove the last layer of soil and bring to light a small metal box, closed by three tight metal latches, barely rusting. While you assemble around the hole, looking intently at the newfound treasure, Clarence and Christopher, still keeping watch for the alligators, see some of the animals moving closer to the graveyard.

Despite himself, Father Flanagan leans over the metal box, his eyes alight with curiosity. "Funny, I would have expected a lock on it after someone went to all this trouble to hide it."

"Well done!" says Holly. "Let's get the box inside before those gators get here. Besides, the rain would ruin the contents if we opened it outside. A lock probably wouldn't have stopped anyone who did manage to find the box, I suppose. We put locks on things to keep honest people out. The puzzle we had to figure out was the lock, in a sense."

Christopher Fontana

"Quite right, we should open the box in the dry." Christopher agrees, feeling quite bedraggled. "First, let's fill in the holes we've made, it's not fair to leave this mess for the caretaker to deal with." he adds, realising how uncomfortable all this must be for Fr. Flanagan.

Holly nods and helps to fill the holes back in, keeping a watchful eye on the alligators.

Clarence sighs with relief, "At last! I was worried all this digging was going to be for nothing.". He too helps to fill in the holes, and stays close to the gun, just in case the alligators come too close.

Christopher Fontana

Christopher nods in satisfaction as the holes are filled in. "That's much better, we may have to come back here, in the course of our investigation. At least now we won't be in Currother's 'bad book's' and we won't have abused anyone's hospitality." he smiles, "Now let's get out of this foul weather and see what we have unearthed."

After filling the two holes you head towards the opening in the fence that's the only way in or out of the graveyard. The rain is still falling as violently as before, and there's no trace of sunlight in the sky anymore. The light of the flashlight barely allows you to see a few meters ahead. As you reach the fence, you discover that the exit is blocked by a couple of alligators... that seems to have noticed you as well, and are definitely not happy of seeing you. They rush towards you, mouths open and ready to bite.

Clarence sees the gators approach. He shoots with the shotgun, but in the heat of the moment , with the slippery ground he slips and misses.

One of the alligators charges Holly but she quickly jumps back, out of reach and out of danger. The other one attacks Ian, who is not as quick to fall back: the alligator's jaws close around his calf, cutting and lacerating.

Terrified, Holly flees from the alligator's snapping jaws. She knows she can't wrestle an alligator, but she's grateful that she can at least move quickly. If she can do so without further risk, she'll run towards the house.

OOC,It's generally a good idea to spend as many points as it takes to guarantee a hit if you have them. A 1 can come up all too easily.

Christopher Fontana

Reacting as quickly as possible, Christopher back-peddles and puts grave marker between him and the aggressive pair of alligator's "Try and draw them deeper into the graveyard, use the tombs as shields ... " he says desperately, hoping that that the 'gators can be outmanoeuvred between the tombstones.[/color]

OOC:   Is the fence low enough to jump/clamber over quickly? Does it look in good enough repair to hold the 'gators off for a short while se we could dash to the house/cars?

"AARRGHHH!" Ian screams as the alligator gets his leg, its teeth cutting deep in the flesh. Out of reflex, he tries to hit the beast with the shovel.

OOC,[ooc]Hit with the shovel = 3 (I don't have any pool points in Weapons, so no spend.) [url]http://orokos.com/roll/395967[/url] If I understood correctly, I manage to hit it. If this is the case, I got a 5 for damage. [url]http://orokos.com/roll/395969[/url][/ooc]

The group scatters around under the assault of the two animals. Holly, Christopher and Father Flanagan retreat towards the fence, climbing on the other side with some difficulty. Christopher taunts the two alligators with some thrown rocks, trying to distract them - and he manages to attract one of the two towards the fence, where it growls and bites the iron bars.
The other alligator, though, has tasted blood. And it has been hurt, badly, by Ian's desperate strike. The beast attacks again, even more ferociously, and chumps off some more flesh. The pain is terrible, possibly the worst Ian has felt in his entire life. The blood mixes with the mud on the ground.

Ian gets away from the alligator, using the shovel as a crutch, dragging his hurting leg. In great pain, breathing through his gritted teeth and saliva dropping from his mouth, he move as fast as he can towards the fence. "Bloody creature... Jesus..."

OOC,[ooc]I'll make the 4 spend to jump the fence. Time to stop playing Crocodile Dundee.[/ooc]

Christopher Fontana

Christopher rushes over and helps Ian over the fence "Dammit man, what were you thinking.." he says, before helping the wounded reporter towards the house. "Is your bag of 'tricks' handy Dr Chastain" he asks.

"Always," says Holly, whose medical bag is slung over her shoulder. She helps bring the injured Ian inside the house so she can work on his wounds.

"I don't know! Probably nothing...How can anyone live together with these beasts?!?!"Ian says, in what looked more like a contained scream. Leaning on Fontana and Dr. Chastain he walks towards the house, struggling with the almost unbearable pain at each step, the embarrassment for being so clumsy quickly becoming fear, as he sees the trail of bloody footprints he is letting behind.

Learning from his previous mistake, Clarence finds a more secure foothold, and fires the shotgun again.

Christopher Fontana

The loud report of the shotgun being fired again makes Christopher jump. He half turns to see that Clarence is still 'making a stand' against the dangerous reptile. "Dammit... Clarence didn't even try to go over the fence.." he stops walking "Will you be all-right getting onto the veranda by yourselves?" he asks hurriedly "I had better go back and help.. " he barely waits for a response before heading back toward the cemetery.

OOC:   Christopher will head back and try to keep the Alligator by the fence occupied, trusting Clarence to deal with the one he's been shooting at - encouraging him to get clear at the earliest opportunity. Shotgun... pump action or 2-barelled? Ohh... who has the box?

While Ian limps towards the fence, leaving behind a trail of blood, Clarence gets a better foothold and aims towards the alligator. As the beast moves, trying to chase Ian, the detective shoots again and this time his aim is flawless. The shotgun shell explodes in a cloud of tiny pellets and, from such a close distance, the effect is devastating. The left side of the alligator is practically destroyed, one leg almost neatly cut off. The animal collapses and stops moving almost immediately. While Ian gets over the fence and is helped towards the house by Holly, Clarence can get a better look at the area. There is one more alligator in the graveyard, but it's being distracted by Christopher and doesn't look like it's going to pose a threat in the next few seconds. There are no more alligators in sight. The road out of the graveyard and towards the house, or the cars, seems clear.

Holly helps a limping Ian reach the porch in front of the mansion, then opens the door. The two get inside, then Ian crashes to the ground, sweating and pale-faced. For now, they look safe.

OOC:   The box is in Holly's possession at the moment.

Holly sets the box down, kneels beside Ian, and opens up her medical bag. She begins to work quickly but skillfully to stop the bleeding and sew up the wounds.

OOC,Spending First Aid to treat [b]Ian[/b]. I believe he has taken a total of 10 damage, so I'll need to spend 5 First Aid to heal him. Are you tracking spends and damage? Our character sheets don't seem to have been updated.

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."

You look outside the house, trying to spot any alligator. The path seems clear for now, and you think you can safely reach the cars. Clarence still holds the shotgun, and he should probably return it to Currothers. Holly is still holding the small metal box with the notebook, the letter, the little metal key and the strange stone.

Clarence will return the shotgun to Currothers.

After a quick stop to the upper floor to take the book and the map, you make a run for the cars, stopping only to leave the shotgun to Currothers.Then it's a quick ride towards the city and the hotel. After a shower and a change of clothes, you find a small italian restaurant, still open despite the late hour. You order your dinner and relax after the tiring day, trying to make sense of all the informations you gathered, and plan your next moves.

The delicious fettucine alfredo fills Holly's stomach and warms her. "I think we've accomplished everything we can in Savannah," she says. "We may want to head back to Boston before proceeding to Los Angeles, which is the obvious next step. We'll be able to report what we've learned, and we can also look into finding someone to try to break that code on those letters. Douglas Henslowe didn't create it, so it must have been Walter Winston who wrote it. Since we can't ask him, that makes it difficult to discover what it means."

Ian asks for a capelletti in brodo and garlic bread to soothe his body and mind. "About the code... It strikes me as odd that Henslowe claims to know nothing about any code in his letters. Assuming he's telling the truth, and I believe he is, then what? Was Winston leaving a message for his daughter, or anyone thinking about following his steps? Was it just paranoia?"

He takes a couple of comforting spoonfuls of his soup and continues "Anyway, do you think we need to get back to Boston? We have much more questions then answers right now. Maybe Father Flanagan can update Janet by telephone."

Christopher Fontana

Glad of a change of clothes and the chance to dry off Christopher happily tucks into his dinner; reflecting on the days events with the others.

"I didn't pack for an extended trip, heading back home would be good as far as I am concerned." He says, mindful that he has one set of clothes wringing wet, as the others do, plus a blood-stained shirt. "Getting back, to re-supply and to undertake some research would seem to be in order."

...

"And you're right, the 'code' on the letters... most puzzling indeed; Boston would be a likely place to find an expert in codes and ciphers." he says to Ian in reply to his musings.

Clarence is thoughtful between the mouthfuls of pizza, but struggles to come up with anything helpful.

Father Flanagan is quietly eating a serving of fettine alla pizzaiola, cutting one little piece at a time before carrying it slowly to his mouth. He wipes his mouth with a napkin before saying: "I surely can telephone to Janet, if we wish to directly go to Los Angeles. But I think it could be better to head back and prepare better before heading east. It's only a few hours flight back to Boston, anyway".

"I agree, we should go back to Boston first," says Holly. "You're right, we need to prepare before we go to Los Angeles. The mystery we're investigating has waited thirteen years, it can wait a little longer."

Christopher Fontana

"We have a responsibility to update Mrs. Winston-Rogers on our progress..." he pauses "It's possible that she might not want us to investigate any further, we should consider that possibility."

OOC:   Christopher will get a message to Frank Kearns that they would be returning to Boston the next morning (assuming that's where we'll be heading for). Christopher will take the opportunity to study the 'Death Cults' book, unless anyone objects.

Continues here: viewtopic.php?f=352&t=5721

Christopher,[ooc]You are familiar at least by name with the Death Cults book. It exists in two editions: the 1909, grotesque and blasphemous, and the watered down version of 1912. The book you're reading appears to be the latter. The book talks about ritual sacrifices and rituals to communicate with powerful spirits (and other not well specified entities).[/ooc]