Play@YSDC

At the chime of the clock Judith shakes herself and tries to focus on practical matters. "Well, we can't stand here all night," she says to Emilia. "I shouldn't like to go back outside but I shouldn't like to stay here, either. Are there any other places nearby?"

“Wait a moment” says Kieffer to Alister. “If you’ve found the cellar, we should get the power back on. Let’s go and get it done and then help the others. And let’s see if we can find a telephone. I want to get out of this place as soon as possible.”

Alister Sergeant

Kieffer has a flashlight, so Alister is ready to go down to the cellar.

"Let's go," he says and goes forward. "Lift up the flashlight over your head so we can both see the stairs," he says to Kieffer.

Wruter wrote:

At the chime of the clock Judith shakes herself and tries to focus on practical matters. "Well, we can't stand here all night," she says to Emilia. "I shouldn't like to go back outside but I shouldn't like to stay here, either. Are there any other places nearby?"

"I don't blame you, lady. Gives me the creeps, too. But I guess we better hang around until the guys have checked out the whole place. Might be something we need to tell the cops."

And it might be a great story, too.

Dorothy offers Emilia some of the food she's managed to find. "Eat something, honey. You need to keep up your strength."

Current situation at Greenapple Acre Cottage, 11:30pm:

Judith with Emilia in tow has made her way to the kitchen where Dorothy has succeeded in finding something for Emilia to eat. Keiffer, having left the bedroom and study largely unexplored, has found Alister standing at the top of a flight of stairs which can only lead to the cellar where they hope to find a fuse box and restore the lighting. Maynard having finished his deliberations in the living room, slowly makes his way back into the hall one hand holding the guttering candle, the other shielding its flickering flame from the draught the finds its way around the front door. Sean is still outside…

Emilia stares at the journalist as if Dorothy had lost her mind, “Why would you imagine I would want food at a time like this?” As she speaks she turns at Maynard’s approach. For a moment the candle light reflects from the necklace about her throat.

Slowly, careful to keep the flashlight’s beam where both men can see their way to a brick lined cellar, Alister and Keiffer descend the stairs. The cellar is largely unused, apart from a pile of old file boxes; several large packing cases, and an old generator. It seems that power failures are fairly common out here and the Doc has had the foresight to have a backup generator installed. Though old, and in places, rusted the machine looks serviceable…

Sean runs, his legs driven by the cold sweat that has broken out down his spine. Something is there, not far behind him. Something that he knows he must flee from, but the desire to look is almost unbearable.

Head down legs and arms pumping, ignoring the slipperiness of the ground, Sean races for the safety of the kitchen, yelling as he runs…

Sean if you look at what pursues you, you need a successful Pow Roll.
Or if you choose to run;
For the condition of the ground make a successful Regular Dex Roll if you fail you can try a Hard Dodge (Don’t forget you can spend Luck Points).

In the kitchen both Judith and Dorothy hear Sean’s yelling from outside and can tell from the erratic movements of the flashlight that he is running their way…

OOC:   At this point only Judith and Dorothy can react to Sean’s situation, the others are out of sight and due to the storm out of hearing.

Alister Sergeant

The sight of the back-up generator improves Alister's mood significantly, but he starts looking for the fuse box first. He checks everywhere Kieffer directs the light.

Before she can react to Emilia's refusal (understandable, under the circumstances), Dorothy is shcoked to hear Sean shouts as he rushes into the kitchen. She quickly steps out of his way. "What's wrong?"

Hearing the taxi driver's yells, Judith turns and peers out into the storm-wracked night...

Sean knows better than to look back; it would only slow him down. Running at high speed, he barrels into the kitchen and slams the door shut, gasping for breath.

OOC,DEX roll (80% stat) running back to the cottage: [dice]0[/dice]

Sean runs as if the Devil was at his heels, and indeed from the fear fueled adrenalin now pumping through his veins, he very well might be. Without a glance behind, and ignoring the elements that crash and roar above him, he slips and slides his way across the rear porch and into the kitchen where, but for his mad yelling, he would have startled its occupants by the suddenness and the manner of his arrival.

For those occupants of the kitchen, their reactions are similar as the kitchen door crashes open to admit a white faced and crazy eyed Sean. Dorothy quickly steps aside, a query of surprise on her lips. Judith, a little further away from the door, turns and looks out of the glazed panel in an effort to see what has scared Sean so. For a moment all she can see is darkness and the reflection of the storm lantern light upon the glass, Then an immense explosion of forked lightning, close to the house, turns night into day and she sees something odd moving fast, not as fast as Sean had been moving but fast anyway, angling towards the South-Eastern corner of the cottage…

Judith,you have little more than a vague impression of some kind of intense ball of light moving several feet above the ground. If not for its strange movement you might be forgiven for thinking it nothing more than some ball lightning phenomena. As it moves it seems to flow in a liquid manner, almost like a ripple on a pond. As the forks of lightning flash earthward, it seems to respond, almost as if shying away from the lightning in some sentient act of awareness. The sight is brief, within moments it is gone lost to sight, blocked by the cottages corner, but in those moments you feel, as if projected towards you, a mixture of emotions, those of hunger, hate and, above all, a sudden rush of fear… [color=#FF0040]Please make a Sanity Roll (1 point loss for failure)

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At the sudden entrance Emilia gives a shrill scream, before falling into a dead faint upon the kitchen floor, it would seem that this fright has tipped her over the edge…

Maynard, his attention torn from the locket around Emilia’s neck by Sean’s sudden, and noisy arrival, steps toward the distraught looking driver, noting as he does so that despite the elements and Sean’s obvious athletics his peaked cap, the seemingly universal headware for taxi drivers, still sits, undisturbed, atop his head…

Meanwhile, totally unaware of the commotion above, both Alister and Keiffer continue their search of the cellar. Within moments Alister spots the wall mounted cupboard that must contain the fuse board…

Judith gasps in confusion at the strange, unearthly light and the queer rush of emotions. In an attempt to cover her shock she kneels unsteadily to give first aid to the collapsed Emilia, though her own stomach churns with fear.

As soon as the door slams shut, Sean stands with his cap perched upon his head and his back against the door.

"What's happening there Sean? That was some entrance and there's no mistake."

Priest wrote:Meanwhile, totally unaware of the commotion above, both Alister and Keiffer continue their search of the cellar. Within moments Alister spots the wall mounted cupboard that must contain the fuse board…

Alister Sergeant

Alister opens the cupboard.

"Whatever got the waitress was after me," says Sean, still panting. "I didn't see it, but if felt...hungry."

In the cellar Alister opens the cupboard and reveals a well maintained fuse board. To his knowledge everything looks okay. The main switch is down, but none of the fuses look damaged, it looks as though the storm has merely tripped the switch.
As he and Keiffer study the fuse board they see that someone has added another switch marked ‘Generator On/Off’ it is switched off.

Above them they here a door bang followed by a sharp scream and the sound of raised voices…

Meanwhile in the Kitchen, time seems to slow down as the occupants react to Sean’s abrupt arrival and his words…

Kieffer quickly switches the main switch to on. "We need to get upstairs!" he says urgently.

OOC,I hope the lights come on!

Alister Sergeant

If the light doesn't come back, Alister flips the Generator On/Off switch as well... And then he goes running up the stairs!

Dorothy is starting to feel uneasy about all this. "What do you mean it? What happened to that waitress?"

"I'm not sure," says Sean, "but I thought it turned her to ash! I saw her coat, but she was nowhere to be seen, only a fresh pile of ash that hadn't been washed away by the rain. I could feel something hungry watching me, but I couldn't see it."

"I felt it, too," Judith puts in. "And I saw something odd outside. Like a ball of liquid light moving through the air." She pauses, realizing how far-fetched it sounds. "At least, that's what it looked like to me." She continues trying to revive Emilia.