Play@YSDC

OOC:   Continued from 'An Encounter on a Lonely Road''

Once the wood was an apple orchard, and many old and gnarled apple trees still dot your path. However years of neglect has allowed the woods to become overgrown, the once pleasant orchards becoming a tangled jungle of Elm and Ivy. You imagine that in daylight it would be a picturesque sight, but at night in this weather it is nothing short of a gothic nightmare. The force of the wind makes thin branches into lashing whips or scratching, grasping fingers bent on denying you progress. The rain, lessened by the trees, makes rivulets that swirl around your feet and hide all manner of pitfall and ankle traps amongst the clinging undergrowth. Several times you stumble and but for the others around you might have fallen into the cold, wet morass beneath your feet.

Slowly, yet steadily you make progress along what might be best described as little more than a game trail, before it suddenly without warning joins a wider track, which shows sign of care and use, This must be the road up to the cottage which Keelham had spoken of, wider and, largely, plant free, the going becomes easier.

OOC:   At this point would every character please make two D100 rolls, either Luck or Dex or combination. Also could you all make a Regular Spot Hidden with a disadvantage (Roll 1d100 x2 and take the highest roll – houserule)

Kieffer is becoming more and more miserable by the minute. At least on a ship you could duck into the wheelhouse when the seas got too rough. But this night seems like something from a nightmare. He would give anything to be back home with Florence.

He sighs with relief as the path becomes firmer.

Dice rolls,Luck 60: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/491902]Luck[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]59[/b] Spot Hidden 40: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/491916]Spot Hidden[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]94[/b] Probably won't get much higher than that!

Alister Sergeant

Alister tries to imagine what life could be like here in this cottage. He can imagine himself dwelling alone, in seclusion, but what about a young girl?

Luck and Dexterity are both 60%
[dice]0[/dice]

Spot Hidden 45%
[dice]1[/dice]; [dice]2[/dice]

Judith stays close to Emilia as she picks her way along the track.

Dorothy stays as close as she can to Kieffer as he has one of the flashlights.

Dorothy,[url=http://orokos.com/roll/492004]Dex roll 80%[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]85[/b] [url=http://orokos.com/roll/492006]Dex roll 80%[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]47[/b] [url=http://orokos.com/roll/492007]Spot Hidden 25%[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]16[/b] [url=http://orokos.com/roll/492008]Spot Hidden 25%[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]66[/b]

OOC:   Sorry, I got confused! Count the first one for the Luck roll, here comes the Dex:

Alister Sergeant

Dexterity 60%
[dice]0[/dice]

Sean cannot see anything in the darkness. While is footing is usually very sure, it is still tricky for him to move around.

OOC,DEX rolls (80% stat): [dice]0[/dice] [dice]1[/dice] Spot Hidden roll (65% skill), with disadvantage: [dice]2[/dice] [dice]3[/dice]

It had been a tricky journey so far, the path would have been bad enough in the dark but made ten times worse thanks to the effects of the storm.
Keiffer had slipped and fallen once. Branches tearing clothes and scratching exposed flesh. The second time he had slipped the flashlight had flickered as if about to fail, but then brightened again.
Dorothy too had slipped, possibly due to Keiffer’s fall, and her borrowed raincoat is now soaked and splattered with mud.
Alister had managed the trail so far without disaster, able to help others, such as Judith who had fallen twice the second time twisting her ankle painfully, to their feet.
Sean, with the other flashlight had slipped to his knees once and now sported a long wicked looking scratch across his cheek. Courtesy of a wind whipped branch.
Emilia had slipped several times each time being assisted by Mary, who seemed to be untroubled by the nature of the path. However each time that Emilia had slipped to the ground it had seemed that the waitress took longer and longer to help her regain her feet. As a result it has taken you at least fifteen minutes to get to this point.

Now, however, with a wider, well worn track ahead things look easier. The wind still howls through the trees that flank either side of the road; the rain still drives hard, sometimes on a particularly violent gust arriving almost horizontally, stinging against exposed flesh; thunder still rumbles around you and lightning still flickers and flashes amongst the tree tops, with the occasional fork making you jump.

Courtesy of the seemingly constant lightning, the darkness of night is often turned almost daylight bright, making the deep woods on either side look even more nightmarish. Shadows leap and contort with every flash, was that a figure over there? Is that some nightmare shape moving through those tree?
With eyes on stalks, you continue on the road up to Greenapple Acre Cottage. Although you see nothing apart from shadows each of you has a strong feeling that something out there, amongst those dripping trees is watching you. Something that sets your nerves tingling, something evil…

OOC:   Please do not forget that you can ‘Push’ a roll. For example if one of you wishes to pause and stare into the dark, that character may try again to make the roll if you are prepared to accept the consequences of another failure. Also do not forget you can ‘Spend’ Luck on a point for point basis to alter a failed roll to a success.

After what seems an age a shape looms in the distance…

Maynard's rolls

Dex 50%,[dice]0[/dice]

Spot Hidden 25%,[dice]1[/dice]
[dice]2[/dice]

Maynard stumbles free of the tangled trees looking as bloodied and bedraggled as the rest of you. At sight of the house looming from the shadows Emilia shakes free of Mary and starts at a run towards it. “Grandfather!!” she screams the full force of her cry whipped away in a gust of wind.

For a moment the speed of her sudden rush catches everyone by surprise. “Emilia, no…wait you don’t know what you’re rushing into”, shouts Mary ineffectually after the running figure.

An intense flash of lightning reveals two things, one a front door that swings wildly with each gust of wind; and two, something metallic that dully reflects the light on what would have been, prior to the storm, a front lawn….

Alister Sergeant

"Let's go, folks," Alister shouts to the others, and runs after Emilia. Hopefully, the terrain is more easily traversable then in the groves!

While moving, he tries to make out in the dark, what that metallic object might be.

Sean hurries forward, trying to catch up to Emilia before she runs headlong into danger.

Kieffer

“Wait Emilia!” shouts Kieffer. “Wait for us!” He too runs after her.

Limping on her sore ankle and unable to keep up with the others, Judith stands peering curiously down at the metallic thing on the lawn.

Pausing only slightly, Maynard chases after the others as they head towards the cottage. The object on the front lawn attracts his attention, but he only slows down a little as he looks at it, trying to make out any indication of what it is.

[Spoiler-Button]Spot hidden if it's needed
Spot Hidden 25%
[dice]0[/dice][/Spoiler-Button]

Dorothy begins to start after the running Emilia but halts to assist the limping Judith.

Sean and Keiffer are quick to chase the woman catching her before she can enter the cottage. A short flight of steps lead up to the open front door beyond which the cottage is a pool of darkness. No lights break the darkness to show occupation, no sound other than the thud of the wind swung door. In your flashlight beam you see a narrow hallway that turns to your left. Two doors lie ahead of you to the right, the first is partially open and swings a little with the wind, the other is firmly closed.

Emilia, stopped in her tracks, gestures towards the first door, “Grandfather needs help. Beware the light”. As she speaks the door opens slightly its hinges creaking loudly…

Alister halts his attention drawn to the metallic object on the lawn and moments later Maynard, Dorothy and Judith arrive. It is a long iron crowbar Lying abandoned near skid marks left in the mud of the lawn. It looks as if someone had slipped while running, probably dropping the crowbar in the moment. The trail appears to have been coming from the house and leads off into the woods.

While the attention of Maynard, Dorothy and Judith is held by the crowbar and the marks, Alister finds his eyes drawn to something else…

Alister,At the point where the trail of running footsteps enter the woods, you notice that one of the trees exhibits odd white scarring. Closer examination reveals that this scarring is ash, it seems that this single tree has been in contact with a heat source of unimaginable power. One hot enough to reduce living wood to carbon. There is no other sign of any other damage to any neighboring trees. Of course it could be damage from a lighning strike, but it would be a very focussed strike indeed.

"I'll try to help him." says Sean."Stay behind us, Miss Webb." He ventures inside the cottage, shining his flashlight in front of him as he cautiously approaches the first door.

Kieffer follows behind Sean, making sure that Emilia is behind him.

"We better get inside," Dorothy says to Judith. "Stick close to me, and watch your step."

Judith follows the reporter but her gaze is drawn back to the abandoned crowbar in puzzlement. "Iron," she murmurs thoughtfully. "That could be a lightning rod in this weather."

Alister Sergeant

Alister takes note of the peculiar tree, but doesn't point it out to the others just yet. He follows them into the house.

Sean carefully steps inside along the dark hall to the first of the doors. It is open and being swung gently back and forth by the wind from outside, each tiny swing accompanied by the whine of unoiled hinges. No light shines from within, the room is as dark as the hallway. Gripping the flashlight tightly in readiness for any sudden attack, he slowly, nervously, pushes the door open. Behind him he hears a sharp intake of breath from Keiffer, showing that he is not alone.

With a longer, protracted, creak of hinges the paneled door opens…

Outside, still assaulted by the storm, the others move toward the cottage, aware that Sean and Keiffer have already entered. Emilia, once more in the company of Mary Laker, waits nervously on the porch.
No noise apart from the sound of protesting hinges issues from the dark, cold building. As you reach her Emilia’s eyes send a plea, no doubt for concern of her grandfather, but Mary slowly shakes her head, as if recommending caution. Again there is something at odds in her manner, something that just doesn’t ring true.

The light from the flashlights that Sean and Keiffer carry seem to converge as they shine them into the room whose door Sean has pushed open…

OOC:   At this stage Sean and Keiffer should roll Sanity (1/1d4 loss)

Kieffer’s nerves are keyed up as he follows Sean down the hall. Of course, it was too much to expect a normal welcome here too, wasn’t it? But Sean is a brave man, and Kieffer doesn’t want to abandon him. He steels himself as the door is pushed open…

Sanity,SAN 40: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/492695]SAN[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]34[/b]

Maynard heads on towards the house after deciding that the metal object is just an agricultural implement.

"You fellas find anything?" Dorothy says softly. The hair is starting to rise on the back of her neck.

Sean is taken aback with sheer horror.

OOC,Sanity roll (current level 50) looking through the door: [dice]0[/dice] Sanity loss: [dice]1[/dice]

The room, obviously a living room of some sort, is in darkness, and the contents are thrown into sharp relief by the harsh yellow light of the flashlights. Before you a long ‘L’ shaped room is a scene of death. The first thing you see are the two bodies, one a thin faced man of advancing years is slumped hands on knees one arm entwined around an antique chair, head thrown back and mouth wide in a silent scream. In the light you can easily see that his right shoulder is a mess of blood and bone. The second body, or part body, is of a younger man who from the position of his limbs, those that remain, died in extreme agony. Joints look as if they had been dislocated by struggle and his face holds an expression of pure fear, although his eyes seem to be nothing more than two bloody pools. As you look lower you see that his lower extremities have been reduced to ash as if he had been subjected to an enormous heat from the ground upward. The exposed flesh of his face and arms look as if every vein and blood vessel in his body had exploded, leaving his features crisscrossed by long black lines.

OOC:   Keiffer loses 1 san point for a success. Feel the bile rise in your throat. Sean loses 4 san points. The room spins, vision darkens momentarily, but that quickly passes.

Swallowing dryly you move the light around taking in the rest of the room. Lying on the floor between the bodies is a sawn off shotgun; an open and empty metal box, from which a small trail of white powdery substance leads to a larger pile; and, next to the partially burned young man, a sacking hood.



From behind them in the front doorway comes Dorothy’s whispered query….

Fighting not to throw up, Kieffer chokes back the bile in his throat. He witnessed the results of a boiler explosion in his navy days, and the burns that boiling steam can cause, but the sheer brutality of these injuries shocks him. What the hell could have happened here?

“Stay there!” he barks, hearing the voice of Dorothy behind the door. “No-one comes in!”

“What caused those burns”? he thinks. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

He notices that Sean seems about ready to black out.

“Hey you!” he says sternly. “I don’t know your name! What’s your name?” He wants the taxi driver to think about something else apart from the bodies on the floor. As he says this, he steps around the corpse of the burned man and picks up the shotgun, breaking open the breech to see if it is loaded.

Alister Sergeant

"Burns?" asks Alister, resisting the urge to take a look at the sight that almost sent two grown men into shock. "I saw traces of high-temperature burning on one of the trees outside. Where the trail of running footsteps enter the woods."

"Is Emilia's grandfather here?" Judith asks uncertainly. "Shouldn't we, er, fetch the emergency services if there's been an accident?"

OOC:   So, we have Sean and Kieffer in the living room, with the others outside the room in the hallway. I am going to presume that Maynard is the last into the cottage. You can see two doorways ahead of you on the right-hand wall, the open one that Sean and Keiffer are in and another closed door just beyond it. There will of course be others, but for the moment those two doors are all you can see. Oh, and its dark too. The only light you have are the two flashlights of Sean and Keiffer and these are currently in the living room

As everyone presses into the hallway drawn by whatever the open living room door has revealed and Keiffer’s warning shout, Emilia waits patiently for news of her grandfather, though a glance at her pale face shows that she expects the worst. It is at this point that the last members of the group to enter the cottage, notice that Mary Laker seems to have disappeared. She could not have gone back outside for that would have meant passing Maynard, and she did not…

"Sean..." mutters Sean. "Sean O'Reilly." He turns away from the gruesome scene and returns to the hallway, shining his light around. "That waitress is gone. She's up to something, I know it! We've got to find her. I'm sorry, but even if emergency services could get out here in this weather, it's too late."

Kieffer

"We should find her Sean" calls Kieffer. "But first we need to try and get the power back on. And there's something else which needs to be done".

He stays in the room, looking around for any photos which might show Emilia or the older victim on the floor. He wants to see if it's her grandfather, without her having to witness the carnage in the living room. He sweeps the flashlight around at likely places to find photographs.

OOC:   Is the shotgun loaded, Priest?

Keiffer recovering from the horror before him quickly, steps forward and picks up the shotgun, at the same time shouting a warning to Dorothy not to enter the room. The memory of the man killed by the boiler explosion floods your mind, that was bad, but what this young man had suffered looks a thousand times worse, and different.

Sean shakes his head as he says his name, realizing what Keiffer is trying to do. He, his eyes kept deliberately away from the horror, retreats to the hall, pushing aside Dorothy who stands just outside the door. Something is wrong, then he remembers…The waitress, Mary Laker, isn’t here.

Meanwhile, preferring to focus on the shotgun and not the mutilated remains before him, Keiffer breaks the shotgun. Both barrels are loaded but one has been fired, and fairly recently too by the strong smell of burnt powder. Keeping his eyes clear of the horror on the floor, he looks around the room, on the mantelpiece above the fire a silver framed photograph shows a middle aged man with his arm around a young girl. Although fairly old, you can see that the young woman is Emilia some years ago, while the smiling man bears a distinct likeness to the elderly man slumped by the armchair.

As you panned the flashlight around the room you notice that the brass light switch near the door is flicked to the on position…

Dorothy realizes that things are much worse than she thought. Too late for an ambulance, if there was even a chance of contacting one or one making its way here. Two grown men, sickened and terrified by what they've seen. And a woman just disappearing into thin air. It all sounds like a real mystery, one that could make a reporter's career. For a moment she shudders at her own coldblooded thoughts and feels guilty about it.

"We've got to keep this poor woman out of that room," she whispers to the British lady. "Something very bad happened to her grandfather, I think."

It occurs to her that the waitress was with the woman the last time she saw her. "Do you know what happened to the woman from the cafe?" Dorothy hopes she can ease her away from the terrible scene of carnage that she can only imagine from the shocked reactions of the men.

Maynard steps into the house out of the wind and rain and straight away notices the commotion outside the door and hears someone exclaim that no-one should enter, so of course he is drawn towards that room by human nature.

Kieffer

“Sean!” he calls out. “Try to find the fuse box.”

He surveys the room again. The Doctor, as that’s who it must be, must have been killed with the shotgun, perhaps by the dead young man. But what killed him? And in such a fashion?

Gradually overcoming his nausea, but still trying not to look too closely at the young man, he kneels down to look at the box, and the powder which is in it.

He has no idea what it could be. Perhaps one of the others could identify it.

Chemistry,Chemistry 01: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/493872]Chemistry[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]33[/b] I thought I'd try.

"I'm on it," says Sean, already thinking along those lines. "Miss Webb, do you know where the fuse box is in this cottage?"

Dorothy fighting her reporter’s instincts to follow the story shows genuine concern for Emilia’s plight. But realizes that she may be the only one who witnessed the disappearance of Mary Laker. At her question she notices that Emilia is exhibiting the same form of confusion as she had when they had first encountered her. For a moment she looks towards you, then with a wide eyed stare she attempts to push past you into the living room, “Grandfather…Where?…Light!!!” she wails in a voice that rises in pitch and volume with every word.

However the sudden rush from the room of a distraught looking Sean, stops her from making further progress and within seconds the doorway is blocked by Maynard.

From within the room comes Keiffer’s shouted query about fuse boxes. A fraction of a moment later Sean directs the question to the pale faced Emilia, “Cellar” she replies in an uncaring voice, it is obvious that she has her mind focused on the living room. Neither Sean or Dorothy is sure whose question she was answering.

OOC:   Maynard should now make a Sanity Roll for viewing the room (1/1d4)

Keiffer,the box is lying on its side, its lid open as if dropped. It is empty although a small residue of the white powder remains showing where the main amount had come from. A close look at the powder reveals it to be nothing more than ash. It would seem that the box contained ashes of some description. But why would anyone keep a box of ashes in their living room? And although the box looked as if it might be valuable, Keiffer recognizes an antique when he sees one and this is no antique. It looks as if the box had been sealed by wax of some sort… [img]http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp292/priest_019/RPG%20Stuff/Dead%20Light/e1774a_zpsnwzxz3bk.jpg[/img]

Kieffer doesn’t touch the ash. “Is it connected to what burned the young man?” he thinks. He begins to have a very bad feeling about the whole situation.

He steps past Maynard, who has entered the room. In the hall he sees Emilia. “Emilia, I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but your grandfather is dead. I think he was killed by another man, a younger man. He’s dead too.”

He glances at Dorothy. “But I don’t think your grandfather killed him.”

He raises his voice so that everyone can hear. “We should all leave here now. Go back to the diner. This is a matter for the police.”

Judith blanches, fervently wishing she had never caught this ride. "But what if whoever did this is still out there in the woods? Some crazed inbred hillbilly? And we need to find that waitress, she's disappeared somewhere inside." She grips Emilia's arm to steady her (and herself).

Kieffer gives Judith a level gaze. “You’re right, we may not be completely safe in the woods. But I’m willing to take the chance. Let’s call for the waitress, and if she chooses not to come, then we’ll have to leave without her. Why did she disappear anyway?”

He places the shotgun on the floor. He doesn’t want to be walking around with a murder weapon.

"Sean! Forget the fuses. Let's get out of here".

OOC:   I'm not sure if Sean is still there or not, so the strength of his voice will reflect whatever the distance is.

At Keiffer’s words, Emilia’s eyes widen with shock, “Grandfather, NO!!” she screams in a highpitched wail. With a burst of strength she attempts to push past Dorothy and Keiffer into the living room, but is not able to get past Maynard. Ineffectually pushing at the larger man blocking the doorway she sobs, “They killed him”…

Maynard turns and grips Emilia by the shoulders and tries to turn her away from the room with that awful sight that he just witnessed.

San 60,[dice]0[/dice]

Shaken he wonders what could have happened in there as his retional mind searches to assert itself and find some sort of rationale behind these events.

"Miss Emilia, I don't think it would help at all if you were to go in there, despite your wanting to. Best to leave it to the professionals my dear." He looks around for someone to take the obviously distraught girl away, growing eager to get inside the room and see if he can try and work out a chain of events.

"Who did it, Emilia? Who did this horrible thing?" Dorothy has mixed feelings about questioning the distraught woman, but maybe she knows something. A real life mystery, and somehow it isn't as much fun as it is in the movies.

"That waitress is involved in this up to her eyeballs," says Sean. "All this time she's been up to something. She was trying to meet someone at the diner's back door or slip away or something, she tried to keep us from coming here, and now she's run off on her own. Maybe she didn't kill anyone personally, but I think she must be involved in the murders somehow. We have to find her, and for that we'll need light. I say we find the fuse box in the cellar and try to get the power back on."

Kieffer

“It’s not the waitress I’m worried about, it’s whatever killed that other man”. He hesitates. “I think we’re in a very serious situation here. We need to find out what’s going on. Okay, let’s get the lights back on. I’ll come too.”

He picks up the shotgun again.

Alister Sergeant

Alister doesn't really know how to speak to traumatized young girls, so he joins the "expedition" to the cellar.

Judith draws Emilia gently back into the entrance hallway, making soothing noises. "I'll wait here with her," she says to the men, casting a nervous glance outside.

With Emilia safely in the care of Judith, Maynard turns back to the living room. Steeling himself against the horrific sight.

Maynard,I have already described the contents of the room, and Keiffer has already picked up the shotgun. However if you wish to search further please carry on, who knows what you might find.

At Dorothy’s question she turns her pale face towards her, a sudden light of awareness filling her, until now, sad eyes. “The two masked men. They burst in catching us by suprise. One was armed with a shotgun the other with an iron bar. Grandfather tried to grab the gun while I threw a poker at the iron bar armed thug. The last thing I remember is hearing the bang of the gun and then something hit me hard. I saw lights and then blackness. When I came round Grandfather lay bleeding near the hearth and one of the men, the one with the gun I think, was dead. Burned and horribly mutilated”. She pauses as if remembering something she did not wish to remember, “I heard the front door open and a scream of terror, I saw from the window the other man running and sliding towards the trees. He seemed to be followed by something I have never seen before…A light that flowed like water yet sparked and flickered like lightning…It was, I think, chasing him and for a brief moment I felt a feeling of intense hunger”

Together Sean and the re-armed Keiffer, accompanied by a worried looking Alister, move towards the second door in search of a cellar. For the moment ignoring the other doors off the hallway to their left. The door opens into the kitchen where another door to their right swings freely in the wind. A lack of rain water inside the door reveals it to have been opened recently. The room is furnished with a long table with four matching chairs, the usual sink and draininer in front of a window that provides a view of the back porch and the rear garden as it enters the woods, a simple stove and an ornate cupboard filled with crockery and foodstuffs. A sudden movement in the darkness of the garden catches your attention, a figure in a pale coloured raincoat and hood is running towards the woods. For a moment you hesitate, then think, wasn’t that waitress dressed like that?

Astonished by Emilia's story, and a little more excited than she should be, Dorothy tries to puzzle out this mystery. Obviously a robbery gone badly wrong, but who killed the gunman and scared off the other crook? Somebody with a bright lantern of some kind. Maybe a self-appointed vigilante. That religious woman's avenging angel? Doesn't seem like the kind of thing a woman could do on her own, but that waitress knows a lot more than she's saying.

"Keep an eye on her," she says to Judith. "I'm going to try to rustle up some grub. She looks like she could use a decent meal."

She heads to the kitchen area, now that the men have located it and not found anything else distressing, judging by their reactions.

Odd that Emilia should have mentioned being hungry when she saw the light from that lantern or whatever it was. She must really be starving, poor dear.

Bowing his head and taking a deep breath to calm himself and steel his nerves Maynard slowly enters the room.

First he approached the older man who he guesses is Emilia's grandsire and walks round the corpse before checking for a pulse he knows he'll not find.

"Hmm the shock of the gunshot would probably have seen off the old timer," he says to himself.

Next he moves over to the disjointed and half burned young man.

"What the ..." he starts to say. "I've heard of spontaneous combustion before but this is just too weird. His legs look as though they have been burned to a cinder and his blood boiled. That must have been some heat to cause that damage. Now that spontaneous combustion in ... San Fransisco was it was sitting in a chair that was not burned. Maybe there was more to that than I thought."

Sean hurries outside after Mary. "Miss Laker, come back!" he calls. "It's not safe out there!"

Maynard,As you thought the old man is dead, if not from the loss of blood and tissue damage resulting from being hit by a 20 gauge shell at close range, then from the shock caused. The damage is mostly contained to his shoulder, the range so close that the shotgun balls had little time to spread. Even his watch continues to tick on steadily. A watch that is worn on a chain across his waistcoat, a double chain that also contains a round disc pendent about which something nags at your mind. On the other chain’s end you find an ornate looking key, The kind that might fit a drawer perhaps or a bureau… Swallowing hard against the stomach churning corpse of the young man, you note that it seems as if the majority of burn damage has occurred in the leg region. Although the remaining tissue shows extensive damage, pressure damage you think, it reminds you of photographs you had seen in text books during your physics course of men who had surfaced too fast from diving work. The ‘Bends’ it is called in the trade. As you stand in thought of the state of the body, a bulge in the jacket makes you wonder if a wallet is present. The corpse is undisturbed so unlikely to have been searched. A wallet containing a single dollar bill also contains the name, Clemuel Miller as well as a small photograph of a young smiling female who bears an uncanny likeness to the waitress. On the reverse someone has written in a very petite handwriting,[i] “To Clem all my love, Mary”[/i]…

In the kitchen Dorothy enters just in time to see Sean rush through the back door onto the rear porch and hear him shout…

"Looks like the chicken flew the coop," Dorothy says as she tries to fix something for Emilia to eat. "I don't trust that dame. You guys gonna take after her too?"

Judith, waiting in the hallway with Emilia, is aghast at the young woman's tale. "But why would anyone wish to ... to attack you or your grandfather, the doctor?"

Alister Sergeant

"The waitress again? Mr. O'Reilly, I think it's no use... She clearly has her own agenda."

Alister turns to Keiffer: "Let's keep searching for the fuse box."

He tries to find his way around the house and continues towards the cellar.

Kieffer

“Yes, leave her Sean!” Kieffer calls out. “It’s not worth it. Come back to the house with us”.

Outside on the rain slicked rear porch,

Sean,has to shout loud to make himself heard above the loud rumbles of thunder. Whether she heard or chose to ignore the shout,the waitress, Mary, runs on without acknowledging Sean’s call. For a fleeting moment Sean sees her pale raincoat fade amongst the darkness of the trees. Behind him, from the kitchen, he hears [b]Keiffer’s[/b] call, followed moments later by a long scream of terror and pain from the trees where Mary Laker had moments before almost disappeared. His strained eyes reveal nothing, yet surely the girl could not have gotten far into those dense trees in this weather. He sees nothing, yet has the distinct feeling that something is watching him from within those trees something that seems to exude a feeling of intense hunger…

Inside the kitchen Dorothy casts around for some foodstuffs, finding a few tins of preserves, mostly fruit. She watches as Sean halts and stares towards the treeline, then continues her chore.

Having called out to Sean, Kieffer follows Alister out into the hall in search of a fuse box…

Alister and Kieffer,the door to your right as you exit the kitchen opens into a study of sorts, there is a large bookcase crammed with books, pamphlets and medical journals. Several glass frames filled with pinned butterflies reveal a passion for Lepidoptera. Against the almost southern wall is a large ornate roll top bureau, several photographs show several different people, though from the similarity of looks you guess they are related. Either side of the fireplace windows look out onto the fringe of trees. There is another closed door in the northern wall…

OOC:   I lost track of who had flashlights, so for simplicity sake we will say that Maynard found a candle in the living room and Dorothy, during her food rummaging, has unearthed a storm lantern with a little oil in. Judith with Emilia is currently standing in the hallway outside the living room, it is dimly lit by the candle in that room and the lantern in the kitchen. Keiffer has a flashlight so Alister can see okay. Sean has another flashlight but he is currently outside so will not benefit any of the rest.

Maynard,here is a picture of the watch chain, on the left hand side is the watch; on the right the key; in the center is the strange symbol engraved pendant that is tugging at your memory. [img]http://i421.photobucket.com/albums/pp292/priest_019/RPG%20Stuff/Dead%20Light/268feae0-9749-4634-954b-a4c5a0b9c7d7_zpss1atwyjb.jpg[/img]

"Hurry, something happened to her!" shouts Sean as he rushes towards where he had last seen Mary, his flashlight lighting the way.

"Slim pickings," Dorothy mutters to herself. She's more interested in what's going on outside, but she did promise herself to get Emilia something to eat. Pickled vegetables, preserves; it's not much, but it's something. Locating the storm lantern is a bit of luck. Now if she can find some matches. If not, she'll have to make use of that candle in the other room. Now if she can just find a can opener, fork and spoon, and a plate.

Sean,Flashlight jerking back and forth with your effort to find out what has happened, you quickly close the gap between the house and the woods. Even with the weather it is a simple task to spot the place where she had entered the trees, the rain soaked ground shows the marks of her shoes remarkably well. All seems quiet, apart from the noises made by the storm. As you shine your light into the trees a feeling of dread seems to engulf you. The noise of the storm seems to dim as if suddenly all your senses are bent on listening for an odd sound perhaps? Is that a shoe, some yards away caught in a bush? Near that pile of ashes, ashes that seem remarkably untouched by the rain that still falls with unrepentant ferocity. And there, hanging from that wind swaying branch, is that a rain hood similar to that worn by the waitress? Surely not… [ooc]At this point[b] Sean[/b] makes a[b] Regular Spot Hidden[/b] and a [b]Luck rol[/b]l please[/ooc]

Attracted by Sean’s desperate cry, Dorothy stops in mid rummage, torn between her need to feed Emilia and her reporters instinct. What was it that her editor said? Oh yeah, “Follow the story, always follow the story” She suddenly realizes that her fingers are tracing the outline of a large box of matches…

Dorothy,[ooc]If [b]Dorothy[/b] chooses to move towards the door in answer to [b]Sean's[/b] words, please roll a[b] Regular Spot Hidden[/b] at a disadvantage (roll twice take the worst - house rule)[/ooc]

Sean can't see much in the darkness, but luck seems to be with him.

OOC,Spot Hidden roll (65% skill): [dice]0[/dice] Luck roll (40% stat): [dice]1[/dice]

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it keeps reporters alive. Dorothy peeks outside to see what the taxi driver is upset about, but it's too dark to make out anything. She shrugs and lights the lantern. Maybe she'll go outside after she makes sure Emilia is safe and well fed. It's still rotten weather outside, but that's why they call it a storm lantern.

Kieffer walks to the door on the northern wall and opens it.

Kieffer

“Oh, damn it!” thinks Kieffer, as he sees the torchlight. “That must be Sean. Why won’t he leave it be?”

He hesitates, then decides to persist with the door.

Dismissing the light outside, Keiffer pushes open the second door and shines his flashlight around. It’s a bedroom, a man’s bedroom so probably the doc’s. Sparsely furnished it reeks of neatness, from the well made bed, to the slick dustless shine of the few items of furniture. A bedside table on the bed’s right side sports a small bedside lamp with a patterned shade and, carefuly placed next to the lamp, a small leather bound book; a three drawer chest-of-drawers rests against the western wall atop which sits several photo-frames containing smiling faces that mirror those found in the study. Against the room’s southern wall, between the two doors, a large ornate wardrobe houses a full length mirror, slightly tarnished with age.

OOC:   All compass directions are approximate.

Kieffer sits down heavily on the bed, suddenly fatigued. He longs to be at home, away from all of this. Idly, he picks up the leather-bound book and opens it, squinting in the light of his torch.

Having examined the two bodies as best I can in the candle-light my mind keeps returning to the medallion.

Occult 65%
[dice]0[/dice]

"Now where have I seen that symbol before?" I muse to myself. Giving my head a quick shake to clear it before I turn my attention to the box and white powder.

Physics 71%
[dice]1[/dice]

I guess the key would open the box, but I can check that in a moment.

I think to myself. "Now what is this powder I wonder?" Looking quickly around I try to see if there is something I can take a sample with,

Priest wrote:Alister hovers at the study door. To his back is another door. In an intense flash of lightning night is briefly turned to day and in its light he can see alongside the door at his back are two more doors the first of which would seem to have no access to the outside, for no light can be seen coming from beneath. He also notes two more doors, one to his left at the end of the hall, and the other, also to his immediate left. (see map of cottage)

Alister Sergeant

Alister opens the door which seems to have no access to the outside.

Sean heads back for the cottage. "She's been turned to ash!" he calls.

11;30 pm:

In the bedroom Keiffer takes a moment,

Kieffer,The bed feels comfortable and for a brief moment drowsiness almost overcomes you, along with a feeling of despair which may or may not be caused by your situation. For an instant the flashlight flickers ominously and you recall the warning of the gas station manager, A quick shake of the flashlight soon remedies that and you pick up the small leather bound book. The faded gold cross marking on the cover tells you what it is… A bible, pocket sized obviously for travelling, the wear on the cover and the faded quality of the cross adornment speaks of its age. Nonchantly you open the book noting that the cover inside bears a small, handwritten inscription written in a faded blue ink. It reads,[i] “May God have mercy upon the physician”[/i] nothing more marks it from any other bible…

Back in the living room Maynard, with the aid of a small flickering candle continues his search.

Maynard,The symbol he has found on the old man’s watch chain makes him think of that worn on a chain around Emilia’s throat. As to what it is he has no idea, something, he imagines, pertinent to the family. He takes a quick look at the key, then the discarded box, there is no keyhole in the box so whatever this key unlocks it is not the box. Clearing his mind he turns to the white powder, a residue of which remains within the overturned box while the majority lies in a small heap a few feet from the box. Studying it he concludes that the powder had been inside the box and tipped out when the box was opened. Obviously the box had then been discarded when the opener had failed to find any contents worth having. The powder he decides is simple ash, nothing more, obviously the box had contained ash rather than any hoped for valuables. But what can be the connection, if any, to the strange fate of the assailant?

Alister,opens a door, and before him sees a flight of steps leading down into darkness. He has probably found the cellar but without a light he concludes it would be suicidal to attempt those stairs.

Having barely entered the tree edge Sean;

Sean,Luckilly for Sean there is no real evidence that the pile of ashes are the remnants of the waitress, though the idea that they might briefly sets his mind spinning as an image of a half burned body lying twisted and violated springs unbidden in his mind. It is but a brief moment, nothing more. He turns away back towards the cottage where a light betrays the presence of the others in the kitchen. As he does so he has the vague impression of movement to his right. His head snaps round, but there is nothing visible, Instantly a feeling of intense fear and panic seems to flood his body, it tells him that he is in mortal danger, to stay where he is means death. Something is there, something cold and alien, something that exudes a hunger… [color=#FF0040]At this point please make a Con Roll[/color]

Tossing the book aside, Kieffer rises wearily to his feet. He leaves the room and decides to look for Sean. He seems to be a decent man and Kieffer doesn’t want him to get hurt running around outside.

HoneyDog wrote:Tossing the book aside, Kieffer rises wearily to his feet. He leaves the room and decides to look for Sean. He seems to be a decent man and Kieffer doesn’t want him to get hurt running around outside.

OOC:   The first thing he will see as he leaves the room is Alister standing before a doorway.

Alister Sergeant

"I've found the cellar..." reports Alister to the person who enters the room - it's Kieffer.

"Where is everybody?" he asks. It took just a few seconds for the group to scatter all around the place. He goes to look for Sean with Kieffer.

"Ash?" Dorothy reacts to Sean's shout. "She must have been hit by lightning! If the storm's that bad we've got to stay inside!"

Sean runs back to the cottage for all he's worth, moving with incredible stamina.

OOC,CON roll (60% stat) in the woods: [dice]0[/dice]

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)

[/color]

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.

"That sounds like ball lightning," says Sean. "I've heard of it before, but I've never seen it. That would actually make sense."

Maynard looks thoughtfully at everyone before adding.

"Ball lightning has had many examples over the centuries, but serious scientist would scoff at the very idea. And anyway, the incidents are all singular events as opposed to several like we have seen here. In the mid 1890's, there was an unsubstantiated report of an unusually prolonged instance of natural ball lightning occurred somewhere in Colorado, which suggests it could be artificially induced from the atmosphere."

What a story Dorothy muses. A double murder mystery and a victim of ball lightning~! Then she realizes there are more important things than a scoop to worry about. "How's Emilia?" she asks Judith. "And what's all that racket going on upstairs?"

"Maybe we should carry her into the bedroom and let the poor thing sleep it off," Judith replies to Dorothy.

Kieffer arrives, curious as to the latest goings on.

"Is everything okay everyone? We found the power, obviously. I saw your flashlight outside Sean. Did you have any trouble?"

OOC,I'm assuming that Kieffer's been unable to hear what everyone's been talking about.

"You might say that," says Sean, calmer now. "I think the waitress was killed; all I could find of her was her coat and a pile of fresh ash. I nearly ended up the same way, but I ran back here fast enough. I didn't see what it was, but this young lady got a look at it. From her description, it sounds like ball lightning."

"Good idea," Dorothy replies to Judith's suggestion. "The poor thing has been through an awful lot."

Kieffer’s face goes white with shock. “Ash?　Like the man in the living room. Lightning doesn’t strike indoors!　There’s some other reason, and we’d better figure it out.”

His face is grim. "It’s about time we got some answers as to what the hell is going on here. Where is that girl, Emilia?”

In the cellar Keiffer throws the switch. Nothing happens obviously the power lines are down. Moments later Alister switches the power to the generator realizing that they need to start the generator itself. This takes a while so it is at the end of the conversation they arrive in the kitchen just in time to hear something about ball lightning…

So at this point we have everyone gathered in the kitchen. The lights have come on, courtesy of Alister and Keiffer, and it is quickly established that Emilia has fainted, no doubt from a mixture of shock and exhaustion. Looking outside no one sees any sign of the light that had upset Judith, excited Dorothy’s journalist tendencies, piqued Maynard's interest or scared the bejabers out of Sean. It was last seen, according to Judith, moving towards the south-eastern corner of the cottage. Which would put it outside the southern wall of the kitchen were you all stand, or perhaps outside the southern wall of the living room, where the dead bodies of the Doctor and his assailant lie...

"Ball lightning isn't like regular lightning," says Sean. "It could just fly in and out the windows - which means it could get in again!"

"Oh, great," Dorothy says. "No protection inside, then. As soon as we get Emilia settled in I'm going to take a look around where it came from."

Kieffer

Strain and fatigue are beginning to fray Kieffer's nerves.

"For God's sake!" he shouts. "We have three dead bodies, one shot to death and the others burned to ash. Let's not forget that weird event with the truck driver. Something very strange is going on here, so stop talking about bloody ball lightning!"

He calms down a bit. "If you see that body in the living room, you'd know. Emilia must be able to tell us something."

The intensity of passion in Keiffer’s voice reveals the depth of the strain he is feeling. For a brief moment the room is plunged into silence, a silence broken only by the noise of the storm outside and an odd crackling noise. A noise almost lost within the violence of the tempest that still rages outside and with each gust of wind sets the windows and doors rattling. However the noise is there and seems to be coming from the direction of the living room…

Kieffer

The noise raises goosebumps on Kieffer’s arms. “Oh God, what now?”

But he heads to the living room door. He still has the shotgun in his hand. With the other, he turns the knob and opens the door.

"Careful!" hisses Sean. "It could be in there!"

Alister instinctively takes a step backward...

Dorothy stands protectively over Emilia. She's worried about her own skin, too.

Maynard takes a step towards the door.

"I'll use my jacket as insulation, just in case."

After removing his jacket and placing it against the door he then puts his ear against the door to see if he can hear anything through the door and jacket.

Keiffer, ignoring the ice that seems to be flowing through his veins, snaps the shotgun closed and takes a determined stance at the living room door, closed although none can remember closing it.
From behind him Sean’s voice hisses in his ear, yet as if in oblivion to the possible danger, Keiffer snatches at the door knob and pushes it open…

Keiffer,As the door flies open, the first thing that you notice is a smell of burning, something is on fire. The drapes that hang from the window near the remains of the assailant are charred, slowly burning, a mere moment away from bursting into flame. It is this slow burn that is producing the crackling noise that had been heard in the kitchen…

Alister, showing less backbone, takes a tentative step to his rear. The open door of the doc’s study/bedroom seeming to provide a suitable place of refuge in the event that Keiffer’s actions unleash some new horror upon them…

In the kitchen both Dorothy and Judith seem frozen to the spot above the still unconscious Emilia. Maynard with a nod to the ladies, steps through the kitchen doorway in pursuit of Sean and Keiffer.

Maynard,Even with the jacket muffling any sounds from within the room, you can still make out the crackling sound. However your chances of hearing much more is quickly dashed when the shotgun armed[b] Keiffer[/b] pushes the door wide. Instantly your nostrils are assailed by the acrid smell of smoke...

“Christ!” shouts Kieffer. “The place is going to go up!”

He quickly looks around for something – a rug maybe – to beat the drapes with.

"Fire!" Dorothy shouts. "We've got to get Emilia out of here! Help me drag her outside," she says to Judith.

When Dorothy shouts, Sean rushes back into the kitchen to help carry Emilia outside.

Alister Sergeant

Weirdly, Alister is relieved that there is "just" some fire raging in the other room, and not a sentient ball lightning. This is something he can probably deal with. He looks into the room to see what exactly is burning. If it's only the drapes and they aren't burning heavily, he runs in, tears them down, throws them on the floor, and starts stomping them.

Despite Dorothy's warning shout Judith freezes, caught between escaping the fire and encountering the deadly light she saw outside...

The cottage interior erupts into noise and action as Keiffer and Alister rush into the living room and attempt to stop the fire from taking hold and spreading around the room. Luckily the drapes are a few seconds from open flame and it is a relatively easy task to rip them from the window and quickly stomp the embers. As he helps pull the smoking material from its pole, Alister notices something on the window frame itself, it looks like recently scorched paint as something incredibly hot had been close to the frame. Hotter than the burning drapes it is localized to a couple of feet near the bottom left of the window frame. Oblivious to this Keiffer continues his wild stomping making sure that no ember remains to spring to life.

At Dorothy’s shout Sean spins on his heels and rushes back to the kitchen to aid her in dragging the still unconscious Emilia towards the backdoor. As he does so he notes that both Dorothy and Judith look panicked. With Judith almost frozen in place as she looks pale faced, eyes filled with terror at the back door…

OOC:   At this point Maynard and Keiffer may attempt Regular Spot Hidden’s and Judith may attempt a Regular Listen with advantage (Roll twice use best. Your recent experience has heightened your senses slightly)

Kieffer beats and stomps the drapes until he is sure that the fire is out. He shudders with relief. Taking out his handkerchief, he wipes the sweat from his eyes.

Spot Hidden,Spot Hidden 40: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/498780]Spot Hidden[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]97[/b]

Priest wrote: Alister notices something on the window frame itself, it looks like recently scorched paint as something incredibly hot had been close to the frame. Hotter than the burning drapes it is localized to a couple of feet near the bottom left of the window frame.

Alister Sergeant points out this detail to Keiffer: "Look, it's all scorched!"

Alister checks the condition of the window glass.

“So it is” says Kieffer, peering at the spot indicated by Alister. “How could this have happened?”

He grabs Alister by the arm. “We need to start figuring out what’s going on here. Why are those people dead? What’s doing this? We need to talk to the girl, Emilia. She might know something. Are you with me?”

In the kitchen Judith turns toward Dorothy and Sean in alarm. "Listen! Did you hear that?"

HoneyDog wrote:“So it is” says Kieffer, peering at the spot indicated by Alister. “How could this have happened?”

He grabs Alister by the arm. “We need to start figuring out what’s going on here. Why are those people dead? What’s doing this? We need to talk to the girl, Emilia. She might know something. Are you with me?”

"Yes!" Alister nods.

He heads back to the previous room.

"Hear what?" Dorothy is confused by Judith's words. "Come on, lady, snap out of it! This place could burn to the ground!"

OOC:   The following occurs in the moments before Alister and Keiffer return to the kitchen.

Sean and Dorothy pause in mid step at Judith’s words. Dorothy stares momentarily at the Englishwoman, a mixture of feelings flashing through her being, surely this was no time to stand around.
Judith listens intently to a small scratching sound that seems to emanate from the stove, a sound not unlike the furtive movements of some small animal, or the slithering of a snake perhaps…

"There's something moving inside the stove," Judith whispers.

Now you can all hear it…Something is moving, crawling, sliding down the flu to the stove. The sound makes your skin crawl in anticipation, goose bumps rise all over your arms and cold shivers run down your spines…

Maynard's Spot Hidden,Spot Hidden base 25%

[dice]0[/dice]

Dorothy can feel the hairs on the back of her neck rise. "I don't care what kind of critter is stuck in the stove, I've just got the feeling it's not friendly. Let's get out of here."

Kieffer returns to the others.

"There was a fire starting in the living room" he tells them, "but we took care of it. God knows how it..."

He trails off when he sees their frightened faces. "What is it?" he asks.

Then he too hears the noise...

Sean quickly looks to see if there's any way he can jam the stove door shut, perhaps by sticking an object through the handle.

Sean quickly finds something to push into the handle of the stove and prevent it from opening. As he does so he can feel a tremendous heat radiating from the flu pipe It seems to be moving down towards the stove itself at speed, As it moves Sean can feel the heat rising fast, the black heat resistant coating of the flu is bubbling as it liquefies…

Dorothy takes a step towards the back door, her intended target, Ice cold fear making her legs seem ready to betray her at any moment. With Sean having released Emilia, Dorothy feels the full dead weight of the woman…

Keiffer, having rushed in from the living room, goes pale faced as he hears the noise from the flu. He halts as Sean thrusts a ladle through the door handle of the kitchen stove, even from here he can trace the movement of something incredibly hot within the flu…

White faced Judith looks on, her face awash with indecision, does she run or stay? While from the hallway outside the kitchen fast footsteps would seem to announce the imminent arrival of Alister and Maynard…

At this precise moment Emilia's eyes flutter open, first filled with confusion, they widen as realisation begins to hit home, "What? Who?...Where's Grandfather? The box...The Light"

OOC:   You have but moments of response time

At the mention of ‘the box’, Kieffer runs back to the living room and picks up the mysterious box from the floor. Did the thing in the flue come from the box? Perhaps it can be trapped inside. He dashes back to the kitchen.

Dorothy does her best to pull Emilia outside. "Run!" she shouts. "That thing's gonna blow up!"

Forcing her legs to move, Judith runs for outside after Dorothy and Emilia.

Sean picks up Emilia again and helps Dorothy carry her outside as quickly as he can.

Between them Dorothy, Judith and Sean half carry, half drag, the unprotesting Emilia out the back door finding themselves instantly subjected to the violence of the storm. Right behind them almost treading on their heels in their flight, comes Alister and Maynard.

As the half glazed door slams closed behind them, they see Keiffer, cradling a silver coloured box in one arm and a sawn off shotgun in the other rush into the now empty kitchen, a look of surprise and horror on his face…

Keiffer,As you rush back into the kitchen, the back door is slammed shut by a strong gust of wind. Your attention is quickly drawn to the door, outside you can see your companions in mid flight. Then you see it as it squeezes around the oven door. Something bright like the sun, something that pulses with energy yet exudes an intense feeling of hunger, desire and something else… [color=#FF4000]At this point I need two seperate rolls, one for [b] Pow[/b] and one for [b]Sanity (1/1D4)[/b][/color]

OOC:   Maynard and Alister: I have taken the liberty of acting for you in an effort to keep the moment alive. As you were both in the kitchen, I imagined you following the others outside in the moment available. If however either of you strongly choose to remain in the kitchen, please roll two seperate rolls, one for Pow and one for Sanity (1/1D4)

Kieffer can feel an enormous wave of energy which threatens to engulf him. It is like having his soul stripped from his body and held before him. He is transfixed.

Power,Power 40:[url=http://orokos.com/roll/499375]Power[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]32[/b]

Sanity,Sanity 39, [url=http://orokos.com/roll/499379]SAN[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]31[/b]

But somehow he manages to hold on.

Keiffer,As you look at the light you feel lightheaded, for a moment things swim as if you had been drinking heavily. Your mind seems to teeter on the edge of oblivion, but it is only momentarily, with a whoosh that almost sends you spinning to the floor, your faculties return. And the feelings of despair and uncaring acceptance of fate that had seemed ready to engulf you are banished allowing you to take whatever action you choose. In that brief moment, which seems like an age, you have the feeling that you are being studied like some sort of science project. Then the light seems to retract and grow long whiplike tendrils that pulse and flash towards you… [color=#FF4000][b]Keiffer[/b] has lost 1 Sanity Point. Which added to the one lost previously reduces his Sanity to 38.[/color]

To those outside on the porch the interior of the Kitchen seems engulfed by a strange pulsating light. You see Keiffer pause and hesitate as lightning seems to flash towards him…

OOC:   At this moment all actions are simultaneous its and yours.

Dorothy has a strange hunch, one that doesn't make any sense; but what does now?

"Whoever or whatever you are," she shouts to the thing inside the house, "we are not here to hurt Emila." She holds the woman close to her. "See? We are here to help her!"

"Yes, we're her friends!" adds Sean, trusting in Dorothy's intuition. "We're trying to help her!"

Kieffer is too stunned to really be able to think properly at first. It feels like his brain stopped for a moment. He should run, but would it do any good?

As the tendrils creep towards him, he holds out the open box to them. “I brought you your box back” he tells them.

Judith clings to Emilia in terror.

Dorothy and Sean’s words seem to elicit no response from the light, to the observers the pulsing light keeps flowing forwards, its tendrils of light suddenly striking at Keiffer. If it does have any intelligence, it does not seem to respond to speech…

Frozen in horror Judith feels panic rising in her breast. Beside her Emilia’s eyes widen in fear, “No!!” she screams, in a wail whose volume seems above that of the rumbling thunder, “Get away from it”. She spins on her heels, brushing aside Judith, and starts to run towards the shadow of the Barn (garage), “Quick Grandfather’s journal. In the garage…QUICKLY!!”…

OOC:   Outside Alister and Maynard have yet to react, any such reaction is simultaneous to the others.

Kieffer,Like the shout from outside the back door, your words seem to have no effect, neither does the waving of the box. With a motion like the creep of ice, yet in reality the speed of a striking snake, the two pulsing, rope like tendrils of light, flicker and flash towards you. For an instant they pause, rising high as if observing you, making you think of a creature looking for a weak spot to strike. Then with a blur of motion they strike… It attacks, it has two attacks but you only need to make a single dodge roll to escape, you may attempt to counter in some form it is an opposed roll so you need to roll Low. [b]A Hard Success beats a Regular, an Extreme beats both [/b]– a Failure is a failure. You may not[b] Push[/b] the roll, but you may elect to[b] spend Luck[/b] on a point for point basis.[i](Eg: You roll 30 but need 5 so you elect to spend 25 Luck Points. Your Luck is now reduced by 25 points for the game.)[/i] [url=http://orokos.com/roll/499530]the light attacks: tendril 70%[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]11[/b] Hard Succcess. [url=http://orokos.com/roll/499531]the light attacks: tendril 70%[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]68[/b] Regular Success. So you need an [b]Extreme Success Dodge[/b] to avoid the tendrils.

Realising his predicament, Kieffer tries to get away from the tendrils but they are too fast. He cries out in terror.

Dodge,Dodge 25: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/499532]Dodge[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]62[/b]

Spurred on by Emilia's shout, Judith runs after her in a panic.

Dorothy dashes after Emilia. Anything to get away from the thing in the house!

Maynard stands transfixed by the light that pulses from within the house. "What the .." he says nearly speechless. He hears a woman ... Emilia? ... calling out something about the garage. He heads in that direction - looking to find some reasoning in all this madness

Sean doesn't hesitate. He too runs for the garage.

Kieffer,[color=#FF4000]At the moment your dodge has failed. However you may spend Luck Points to gain the number needed. Your dodge roll was 62 and you needed 13to turn your failure into a Hard Success, allowing you to dodge the tendrils, so you would need to spend 49 Luck Points to successfully dodge, which would reduce your Luck score to 11. Expensive, but then you might still be alive, you decide. “Do ya feel lucky?”[/color]

Outside in the storm a mad scramble begins across the rain soaked grass towards the dark shadow of the garage. Emilia, showing a surprise turn of speed for someone recently returned to consciousness. Leads the way. The wind howls and sends sheets of stinging rain into unprotected faces, thunder rumbles and growls all around, and lightning forks, less numerous than earlier, flash groundward as the woman skids to a halt and begins clawing at the large doors of the garage, “Help me. The journal will tell us what to do. Grandfather told me if the light were ever to escape, the answer would be found within”.

In a moment of quiet between thunder rolls, a single high pitched scream of agony seems to come from the cottage…

Sean lends his strength to the task of opening the doors, fear spurring him onward.

Turning his head, only for a second, Maynard glances towards the cottage before aiding Sean with opening the garage doors. Knots of terror lace hiss stomach while someone pours icewater down his spine.

Between them Sean and Maynard quickly open the double doors of the garage, aided by a huge blast of wind that almost threatens to tear the doors free of their grasp.

Within stands an old but well cared for Ford. The smell of gasoline and oil dominates the building, wooden stairs at the rear leading up to a hayloft shows the original purpose for the garage. With the light from the flashlight a quick check reveals no unpleasant surprises waiting inside. Emilia stands in the doorway a nonplussed expression on her face, “Now where is the journal…Oh yes the safe” She glances back to the cottage, “The key…we need the damned key”…

"Where's the key, Emilia?" Dorothy says. "Where is it?" She doesn't really want to go back inside, but she may be the most agile person here.

"Yes, tell us where it is," says Sean. "We'll just have to go get it."

Keiffer,Thinking fast and acting even faster, you leap back, turning and ducking as you go. In an almost balletic display you avoid the striking tendrils. For a brief instant you feel waves of cold hatred buffeting you as if the light was expressing annoyance at having missed its target. However, in doing so you have placed yourself outside the kitchen in the hall, further from the back door. The light now begins a flowing, liquid like movement towards you, it seems all that stands between it and you is the kitchen door… [color=#FF4000]Having successfully dodged you take no damage. Because it was attempting a Maneuver, rather than a simple lash, matching his Hard Success with a Hard Dodge was enough to avoid all contact. Your Luck is now 11. [/color]

Maynard,[ooc]You have a key, the one that is attached to the doctor's key chain.[/ooc]

OOC:   Sorry, guys, I had a hectic weekend!

Alister Sergeant

Shocked by the unnatural turn of events, Alister just runs with the others. He regains his composure at least a bit in the barn.

"That is no ball lightning..." he mumbles to himself.

"And where is the safe, which room?" he asks Emilia.

Kieffer

Fear seems to lend Kieffer superhuman reflexes. He manages to duck away, and before the light can reach him again, he dashes out of the kitchen and slams the door.

His heart pounds in his chest as he desperately runs for the front door – there’s no facing that thing. He doesn't look back.

Priest,Freshly edited post!

In the Garage:
With just the light of the flashlight the garage is an eerie place. Originally a barn it still has many of the implements you would expect to find in a barn, hay forks, leather straps, and in one corner even an old saddle. The wind howls around the exterior and noisily manages to find even the tiniest crack. Rainwater drips in several places leaving small pools of water that shiver and swell with each drop. A window with an inadequate sack covering provides a limited view of the outside which is occasionally lit by a lightning flash. Occasionally intense but for the main part unspectacular each flash makes you jump and shiver at the thought of what may be waiting in the cottage, and the fate of your companion…

Emelia gazes around in thought, “If I recall, grandfather kept the key on his watch chain. As for where the safe is? I have no idea, simply that he said it was in the garage”.

As she speaks you hear the sound of a door slamming outside…

As reluctant as she is to go back inside the house, Dorothy knows they need to get that key. The prospect of facing a dead body disturbs her also, but somebody's got to do it.

"Try to find that safe," she says to Judith. "I'm going to go get that key." With a deep breath she heads back for the house, making sure to avoid the kitchen.

Maynard suddenly remembers that he has the key taken from the old man's body.

"Hang on a moment Judith. Is this the key Emilia? Here take it, where is the safe?"

"Whew," Dorothy sighs. "That saves me a scary trip. Now let's all look for that safe."

At this moment Kieffer appears, eyes wild with his clothing askew. “I saw it” he gasps、as he collapses to the ground.

“The light. So cold”. He gasps for breath.

“We must stop it! We won’t survive this night unless we stop it!”

He sees Emilia and gets shakily to his feet. “It’s time you started telling us what’s going on here”.

"Easy there," says Sean, trying to help Kieffer. "She may not know much more than we do, and she's been through hell, just like you have. The information we need is in her grandfather's journal, which is in a safe hidden somewhere in the garage. We've already got the key, so now we just need to find the safe. Let's start looking for it. I'll check the hayloft." He climbs up the stairs to start his search up there.

Kieffer straightens his clothes and joins in the search. Maybe there is still hope...

The search for the safe begins as the weather continues to assault the garage. Every gust of wind makes the doors creak and shift as if they might fly open at any moment. The constant sound of rain, flung at the garage walls by each gust, rises and falls in volume depending on the strength of the wind. Meanwhile lightning continues to turn the darkness into brief moments of daylight as it vies with the rumbling thunder for dominance of the skies.

Each of you searches with haste modified by care, knowing that your lives may depend upon the finding of the doctor’s safe. Emilia proves of little help, she says that all she knows is that her grandfather had spoken of a journal kept within a safe somewhere in this garage. But where?

Aside from the Ford the garage is fairly bare. There are a few farm implements and accoutrements that speak of a bygone age; several old packing cases stacked in one corner; a empty hayloft containing nothing more than a few wisps of ancient hay and an old, battered but still serviceable storm lantern, its reservoir long dry. The walls are for the most part timber with a four foot high stone supporting wall. The floor is of hard packed earth, a discoloured area evidence of oil spillage. High above the roof is a typical New-England beamed structure again evidencing its earlier life as a barn

OOC:   Search where you will. Please make Hard Spot Hidden Rolls or Hard Luck Rolls (whichever is better). Best result wins.

As you search, Emilia suddenly points out through the sack covered window and gives a small scream. Coming across the yard in a strange motion that seems almost a liquidescent flow marred by flickering electrical erratic motion is a strange ball like light. Sometimes as it moves it looks round and solid, other times non-shaped and gaseous. But it is moving as if driven by some alien intelligence towards the garage. Suddenly a large fork of lightning explodes near the edge of the trees, its violence makes you wince, its brightness hurting your eyes. But the Light’s reaction nonpluses you for a moment, you could swear that at the moment of the lightning strike the entity swerved away as if in fear of the storm’s discharge.

The moment soon passes and you watch with ever increasing horror as the Light moves forward and upward…the roof, its heading for the roof…

Kieffer searches frantically for the safe, fully conscious of what’s at stake. “Where the hell is it?”

Suddenly he spots something…

Spot Hidden,Spot Hidden 40/20/8: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/499996]Spot Hidden[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]18[/b]

But at that moment he is distracted by Emilia’s scream, and to his horror sees the light moving towards them. But he also sees it shy away from the lightning strike. “Could electricity hurt it?” he wonders.

Maynard searches, increasingly frantically for the safe.

Maynard's roll,Spot Hidden 25% [dice]0[/dice]

Cearlan wrote:Maynard searches, increasingly frantically for the safe.

Maynard's roll,Spot Hidden 25% [dice]192057:0[/dice]

Sadly cant understand the dice roll score.

Dorothy looks through the crates, finding nothing but old junk. She is stunned by the sudden appearance of the ball of light, and the way it reacts to the lightning. Maybe she's read too many pulp magazines, but this is starting to sound like something out of that big, gaudy scientifiction magazine, what's-it's-name, Astonishing or something.

"Show it the lantern," she shouts, knowing she sounds like a loon. "If we can't communicate with it, maybe we can scare it away."

Judith searches without success. As the unearthly light appears to head for the roof she peers up at the high beams in nervous apprehension, looking for a point of entry.

Alister Sergeant

Alister joins the search for the hidden safe, relying rather on blind chance then methodical search:

Hard Luck 30%
[dice]0[/dice]

When Sean sees that there's nothing of interest up in the loft besides the lantern, he brings it back down. "I've worked with electricity before," he says. "Mostly with cars, but it's the same principle."

OOC,Spot Hidden roll (65 / 2 = 32% skill) searching the barn: [dice]0[/dice]

Don't know what happened with that last roll - I'll try again if that's alright?

Maynard's roll, 25%

[dice]0[/dice]

While the attention of most is still focused on the search for the safe Judith continues to search the roof for somewhere that might enable the ‘Light’ to enter the building. She sees nothing but a series of odd noises from above send shivers racing down her spine. Then Sean reappears from the hayloft holding an old storm lantern, so it may have been him that she had heard. Dorothy, the tension and ludicrous nature of the situation beginning to show, makes some strange comment about signaling to the ‘Light’. While Alister poking around in the opposite corner to Dorothy uncovers an old but well maintained motorcycle. Then all attention is focused on Keiffer who is digging at the floor behind the wooden stairs to the hayloft…

Within moments he has uncovered a small steel door set into a concrete surround that has been cunningly disguised to appear as nothing more than part of the floor. It seems he has found the safe. With the key it is but a momentary job to open the strongbox, the stiffness of the hinges and their screeching protest, would appear to show it has been several years since it was last opened. Inside carefully tied together by red string are several sheets of neatly handwritten medical notes, all showing signs of having been removed from their files and stored within the safe. The notes are dated showing that they cover several decades, the latest seems to date from 1923 and deal with a family called Whately.

Underneath these pages rests a leather bound journal. Other than a coating of dust the journal’s cover is blank showing nothing of interest. Opening it reveals it to be a rather uninspiring notebook of a type easily found in any stationary’s, the majority of which is still blank. However a swathe of pages have been carefully written on in the same neat handwriting as some of the older medical notes and a quick skim of the contents show that it deals with something often referred to as the ‘Devourer of Sins’. It seems that both doctors, Webb and his predecessor Martins, knew of this creature, though not its origin or true nature. There is no mention of where it had come from, or when it had first appeared, simply that it had been used to provide a simple solution to a problem that seemed to affect a number of influential families throughout the state.

It seems that amongst these ‘families’ there had been the occasional birth of ‘malformed’ or ‘unnatural’ offspring, unsuitable to carry the families name “unto the next generation”. And this ‘Devourer of Sins’ provided a simple, but effective, solution. A solution for which these families were willing to pay.

The journal goes on to provide details of just how such services were provided, but to read the whole thing is going to take several hours. Suffice to say that certain symbols were inscribed on the victim, and necessary, if archaic, rituals were enacted before the entity was encouraged from its box to devour the poor patient until “nothing but ashes remained”. Once this had been achieved the entity was enticed to return to its box, again by the use of these strange rituals the words of which are detailed phonetically within the text, carrying with it the ashes of its victim. Task completed the box was resealed, with ritually prepared wax, leaving none the wiser.

There is little discussion of the nature of the entity, or how to deal with an ‘escape’. For the most part the journal reads like some kind of bizarre recipe for a madman’s use. Were it not for the evidence of your own eyes it would be dismissed as the ramblings of some insane writer of fiction.

On the final written page of the journal, someone has written in tiny letters as a footnote;

“I have noticed that the entity shows some aversion to electricity. Maybe this can be used as means of control, I shall have to give this some thought”. There is nothing more to say whether the doctor had continued his researches.

Also within the safe are the following;
Around $600 in small bills; an account book for the Arkham First National Bank showing a balance of $19,000; and a small pot of some strange, funny smelling, black wax.

OOC:   I shall be away until Wednesday next, so there will be no updates before then

Kieffer

“We need to perform this ritual and get that thing back in its box” he tells whoever is listening. “The wax must be used to seal the box once it’s inside. But this is going to take time – we need to distract the creature somehow. Does anyone know anything about electricity?”

"So it's not just me," Dorothy says. "You think this thing -- this ball of light -- is some kind of living being, right? Maybe from Mars or something, who knows. If we can't communicate with it, maybe we can at least make ourselves a little safer.

"Here's what I figure. This thing punishes people who do bad things. 'Devourer of Sins,' right? That's what I think happened to the man who -- sorry, Emilia; the man who killed your grandfather. Probably a robbery attempt, then the thing came along to punish him. So first of all, nobody touch that money! And try to avoid anything that might even seem evil. Maybe this thing's got mind reading powers or something."

She hopes they don't think she's off her trolley.

Kieffer looks hard at Dorothy.

“Yes, this thing is alive, in some fashion anyway. When it came at me, I could feel the hate in it. I don’t think it targets evil, I hadn’t done anything to it, I was just there. It wants to kill and we’re all at risk unless we find a way to keep it from devouring us.”

Judith thinks Dorothy is off her trolley -- but she isn't so certain about her own sanity anymore, either. "Well there's plenty of electricity outside at the moment. When I saw that ... thing earlier I noticed that it dodged around between the lightning bolts."

Kieffer

"Me too. It proves we can use electricity against it. And it doesn't matter if the thing is a living creature or not. We need to stop it before it kills us."

"I know about electricity," says Sean. "Maybe we can use it to herd and trap the light. I don't know, maybe it does go after sinners. I mean, everybody has sinned at some point or another. And that old lady at the diner might have been on to something when she saw it as an angel. Angels don't bear swords for nothing."

Kieffer

“You might be right about that Sean. But it means the creature won’t be discriminating!”

He talks more urgently. “Sean, there’s a generator in the cellar. Do you think we could use that to protect us against the light? We also need to get the box the light was contained in. I left it in the kitchen, so I’ll be the one who gets it back.”

Alister Sergeant

Alister finally regains his composure. He is shocked by the turn of events, but after seeing "empirical evidence" of the Light, he is more or less ready to accept it as a paranormal phenomenon... Which doesn't make the situation less scary.

"The generator must be very heavy, but I think two people can carry it..." he wonder, trying to remember the size of the portable generator. He gulps. "I am ready to be one of those people, because I've been down the cellar already."

"I'm fairly strong," says Sean. "I can come too to help carry stuff. It sounds like it'll take two of us to lug the generator and a third to carry the box."

Maynard steps forward. "I can carry the box or the generator, whichever is best."

Kieffer

“The box only needs one person to carry it. And maybe instead of taking the generator away, we just use it where it is?”

He addresses Maynard.

“Sir, maybe you could take the box. You’ve seen it I believe. I will distract the creature to give the rest of you a chance to get to the kitchen and the cellar.”

Maynard nods in acquiescence.
"Of course I'll get the box now then if we are all ready to go before something else bad happens."

"Electricity, huh?" Dorothy scruffs her feet on the floor. "It may not help much, but I can build up some static and zap that thing if it gets too close!"

"I doubt static will be enough," says Sean. "I wouldn't take a chance on it unless there was no other choice, anyway. We need that generator to provide enough juice to be sure of affecting it."

Within the shadowed interior of the garage the conversation continues, spurred by the discoveries noted within the journal. While outside the storm, though diminishing slightly, continues to batter the area. The wind continues to howl through every little crack between the garage’s plank walls making the entire structure seem to shiver with each blast. Outside the flicker of lightning continues to turn night occasionally to day, and from high above you comes the long slow rumble of thunder.

OOC:   At this point a Hard Luck Roll may see or hear something amiss (Best Roll wins)

Judith turns to Emilia. "Do you feel able to go back to the cottage? If not, I'll stay with you while the others go..."

Kieffer

Luck,Luck 11: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/502974]Luck[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]24[/b]

"I'll lead the light away from the house. You all be ready to go when it starts to follow me. Good luck."

He stands at the entrance, hoping to catch a glimpse of the light.

Dorothy feels particularly confused and helpless at this point.

Maynards hard luck roll

Luck=5,[dice]0[/dice]

Sean notices nothing more as he gets ready to head back to the cottage.

OOC,Hard Luck roll (40 / 2 = 20% stat) in the garage: [dice]0[/dice]

It seems that the group’s attention is focused on their next move. All except Alister who hearing a strange noise, raises his eyes towards the roof.

OOC:   Hard Luck Roll for Alister Sergeant; Hard Luck Roll 30%: 1d100 14 (made in an effort to move the game along)

Alister,You look up just in time to see something long and thin shaped emerge from a small gap between shingles near the apex of the garage’s roof. For a moment you stare in wonder trying to identify something you have never seen before. Then like a bubble bursting, but without the plop sound, it changes shape into a round ball like shape that flickers with a white flame as it begins to slowly descend towards you…

Allister gives a sharp cry, points towards the roof and makes a dash for the doors, “Keep it away. Do something!!”…

OOC:   Posted to keep the game flowing.

"Let's get out of here!" Dorothy makes tracks back to the cottage.

Judith grabs Emilia's arm and starts running after Dorothy.

Kieffer stands by the door, looking inside for the light he knows is coming.

"Everyone get to the cottage! I'll try to lead it to the woods!"

Sean heads outside with the others and races for the cottage.

At Alister’s warning cry a mad dash begins for the doors. It seems everyone is focused on the exit, yet it’s immediately apparent that Emilia alone stands statue like, frozen horror and staring upwards to where Alister had had pointed…

OOC:   At this point I need everyone to make two (2) Dexterity Rolls. In the circumstances these are important rolls, so spending Luck may be advisable. Of course any of you may choose to aid Amelia, but in doing so the first of the Dexterity Rolls becomes Hard.

Judith desperately tries to pull Emilia along but the clearly terrified woman doesn't budge.

Kieffer sees Amelia’s predicament, and rushes towards her, trying to help Judith pull her away.

DEX,Hard Dex 25: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/504157]dex[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]43[/b] Dex 50: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/504158]dex[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]70[/b]

Maynard struggles to help pull Amelia, Judith and Kieffer away

Hard Dex,[dice]0[/dice]

Dex,[dice]1[/dice]

OOC:   Oh dear - sorry chaps!

Maynard's feet get tangled up and he goes sprawling.

Dorothy figures that Emilia is the key to this whole mess. She tries to pull her away.
She manages to free the young woman from her seeming trance and get her moving.

Seeing that Dorothy has Emilia well in hand, Sean sprints at top speed.

OOC,DEX rolls (80% stat) running for the cottage: [dice]0[/dice] [dice]1[/dice] I think I'd better spend 14 Luck to make that first roll a success. That 83 of yours would become a success with only 3 Luck.

Mr. Handy wrote:[img]

OOC,DEX rolls (80% stat) running for the cottage: [dice]192510:0[/dice] [dice]192510:1[/dice] I think I'd better spend 14 Luck to make that first roll a success. That 83 of yours would become a success with only 3 Luck.

OOC:   Allister Sergeant Dexterity Rolls (rolled in his absence) 1.Dexterity Roll 60%: 1d100 60 2.Dexterity Roll 60%: 1d100 15

Inside the garage mayhem ensues as people rush this way and that in an attempt to pull Emilia from the building. Amongst the failures only Dorothy seems to have the speed and reflexes necessary as she grasps the woman’s hand and pulls her towards the doors which Alister has thrown wide as he makes his dash for the cottage, closely followed by Sean. Outside the ground is a slippery combination of rain slicked grass and soggy earth, a combination that does little to provide steady footing. Both men slip and slide several times, but safely traverse the ground to the back porch of the cottage.

As they run, behind them several other fleeing figures burst from the garage, amongst them still pulled by the young reporter, Emelia showing no resistance, merely moving as if some kind of automaton. However it seems that two of your companions are missing, the architect, Keiffer, and the spook guy, Maynard…

OOC:   Given the time of events, only Maynard and Keiffer may react to what is happening inside the garage, to retrace your steps to the garage may not mean arriving at a beneficial time.

Maynard,As you attempted to rescue Emelia you had slipped badly, falling to the garage floor. As you do so you hear a cracking sound from your right ankle and white hot pain flares around the area. Tentatively you flex the joint, almost as a reaction, it doesn’t feel broken just sprained. However something moving into your vision causes you most concern, something that has a constantly changing shape, in one instant round and opaque, in another a random series of translucent light spots. Yet no matter the form the whole thing seems to flow with some ever changing liquidescent fire that drips and churns without leaving the object. It hovers mere feet above you… To your left about ten feet from you is the bulk of the old Ford saloon. Behind you, the wooden stairs that lead up to the hayloft. To your right an old scarred workbench its surface covered in a collection of tools. In front of you the doors, open to the elements through which the others have departed at a run. All except the figure of the architect [b]Keiffer[/b], who pauses momentarily and glances backward. For an instant you can almost see pity in his eyes as above you the shape begins to slowly descend, tentacles of raw fire starting to form, giving it the appearance of some burning octopus. Although nothing mars it fiery surface, you can almost feel something probing, questioningly at your mind…

Kieffer,With a curse you slip, momentarily losing your balance. However you manage to recover before disaster can strike, some sixth sense warns you that this might not be a good time to fall to the floor. As a result you are moments behind the others as you rush for the garage doors that have been flung open. Ahead you can see them as they slip and slide their way towards the cottage from which you had earlier fled. As the chaos of the storm seems to welcome you, something, a noise perhaps, makes you glance back. In that moment you see[b] Maynard[/b] slip to the floor, above him a familiar shape flashes and sparks as it flows through the air towards his unprotected form… To his left is the car. To his right an old work-bench. Behind him the stairs, and above him the Light…

Kieffer's eyes are wide with horror as he sees the light moving towards the stricken Maynard. It is too late to try and drag him clear.

“Roll!” he screams as loudly as he can. “Under the car! To your left! Roll under the car!”

Dorothy tries to keep Emilia from seeing what's going on in the garage. She's had too many shocks already.

Sean holds open the kitchen door when he arrives back at the cottage and helps the others inside.

Panting, Judith sees the box Mr. Kieffer had said he'd left in the kitchen and snatches it up.

OOC:   Maynard’s Power Roll (made in order to keep the action flowing) Power Roll 60%: 1d100 44

Through a rising fog of fascination, as if slowly being mesmerized by the Light’s ever shifting shape, Maynard is dimly aware of a shout from the doorway. Instantly his mind refocuses and without thought begins a roll to his left towards the old Ford.

From his position in the open doorway Keiffer watches in horror as the prone Maynard begins to roll towards the cover of the car. As if in slow motion both man and entity move, Maynard rolling, despite his ankle, and the Light’s fiery tentacles reaching down probing towards the slowly moving figure. Too late! Too late!! Screams the architects mind as it seems Maynard has little chance against the creature, he will be engulfed by the myriad of flaming appendages long before he reaches the cover of the car.

Yet at that moment something strange happens. The tentacles halt in their movement,inches from their targets body, quiver for a moment as if awaiting some command, then retract towards the now ball shaped Light as if no longer interested in the still rolling figure. Keiffer has but a brief moment to consider this odd turn of events before the Light begins to move once more, flowing like a river of luminosity towards a new target – him…

At this point Keiffer can try a Dexterity Roll if he chooses to make a dash for the cottage. Or you can try a Dodge Roll to try and distance yourself from the oncoming Light. Oh, and whichever you choose can you also make a Power Roll (a failure makes ether of the rolls you choose Hard)

Elsewhere; Sean shoves the back door open to allow Alister and Judith to enter the cottage. While behind him the sound of Dorothy and Emilia’s progress across the short distance from garage to house is evident. Alister pushes past Sean, a hint of panic in his tight lipped expression, to the closed kitchen/hall door he runs without pausing. To find it shut fast…

Judith, a mere footstep behind the two men, rushes over to a discarded metal box a few feet from the door to which Alister has moved…

OOC:   Remember the events occuring in the garage happen at the same time as those within the kitchen. So other than Keiffer no one is aware of developments between Maynard and the entity. In an effort to maintain some sort of pace I have acted on behalf of Maynard and Alister, however they may take control of their characters again at any time.

"Who's got the wax?" asks Sean. "We'll need that to seal the thing in the box."

To his astonishment, Kieffer sees the light flowing towards him.

“Fair enough” he thinks. “This is what I planned anyway”.

He turns and runs to the trees, hoping to draw the light away from the house and the others.

OOC,Dex 50:[url=http://orokos.com/roll/505549]dex[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]55[/b] Power 40: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/505550]Power[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]36[/b]

Keiffer runs full speed for the trees, miraculously managing to keep his footing on the slippery ground. Within moments he has entered the fringe of wind swept greenery, all around him there is noise, from the crack and creak of the wind tossed branches, the snap and pop of the undergrowth, to the slap and shriek of the tempest driven rain and a deep overhead rumble of thunder.

Lightning flares, throwing shadows that seem to move like clawing fingers towards him. Luckily he still holds the flashlight he had picked up in the gas station, so is quickly able to pick a path between the thick growth of woods.

He chances a look behind him and is gratified to see that the Light appears to have followed him outside the garage, without halting to acquire his trail, it seems to flow in his direction at a fast speed.
With a wry grin of success the architect enters the trees, ducking the attention of one wind whipped branch. Then, oh horror, the flashlight flickers ominously and the beam of light fails…

At this point Kieffer can try a luck roll with advantage (Roll twice and pick the highest), due to his having been warned about its unreliability, to shake it back to life.

Back in the garage, Maynard, almost ready to give up, watches in disbelief as the Light leaves him and flows towards Kieffer who ducks and runs outside. The Light, as if hunting, follows, and Maynard is alone…

Maynard stares in disbelief at his good fortune. Sweat covers his entire body and his hair stands on end which indicates just how close he was to getting incinerated by the ball lightening. He starts to shake and stands shivering for a moment or two before his rational mind starts to take hold once more.

"What the ... How did that happen," he ponders? "After a few moments deliberation he concludes that the ball of electricity, is more than simple ball-lightening as it has just exhibited some kind of rational, pre-determined behaviour. "I should have would up like the other poor unfortunates yet at the last moment it ... it "decided" that maybe Kieffer was a better proposition. Keiffer I have to help him!"

Alone in the dark garage, Maynard, tentatively rises to his feet White hot pain flares from his right ankle as he puts weight on it, but he grits his teeth and casts his eyes around for some sort of walking stick. He knows that if he is to aid Keiffer he will need to find some sort of support. In that instant the lightning flares outside once more and the interior of the garage is momentarily lit up like some kind of crazy neon sign, and in its light he notices some kind of walking stick half pushed beneath the work bech as if unwanted and forgotten. Closer examination reveals it to be a simple, stout hickory walking stick of indeterminable age. The smoothness of the curved handle shows much use, though not for a long time.

The stick proves serviceable despite its age, and with its aid Maynard steps carefully towards the wind rattled doors in search of the architect and his apparent nemesis…

Maynard, courtesy of the badly strained ankle, will have his mobility affected. From this point all Dexterity based rolls will be at a Disadvantage (roll twice choose the lowest).

Elsewhere, Sean holds the back door of the cottage against the wind, as the others enter the cottage their expressions showing the horror of the moment. As Dorothy and her charge, Emilia, push into the sanctuary, the sudden appearance of a flashlight’s beam from the garage draws his attention. Keiffer, the architect, the thought flashes through his mind, only he had another flashlight.
In a moment, the flashlight armed figure had sped treeward, away from the house and garage the light vanishing amongst the storm tossed woods. No more than a couple of seconds behind him a familiar shape emerges into view and unhesitatingly flows into the night in pursuit…

In the kitchen of the cottage, Allister, already at the closed door to the hall, grabs the handle and tries to push it open. Despite his intentions the paneled door refuses to budge. With mounting horror visible on his face and the wildness of fear easily apparent in his eyes, he realizes that the door opens towards him. He stops pushing and pulls it open revealing the hallway dimly lit by a solitary light bulb…

Kieffer

Luck,Luck 11: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/505883]Luck[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]95[/b] One more time: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/505884]Luck[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]70[/b]

His heart sinks as the light from his torch fades. He slaps it against his leg as he stumbles through the undergrowth, but it refuses to come back on.

He knows he can't outrun the light forever, put he presses on, knowing now that it is just a matter of minutes. He doesn't look back.

"We know it's repelled by electricity," says Sean. "There has to be something we can do using the generator to protect ourselves and help us trap it. It entered through the stove before, which is made of metal. If we bring the generator up here, we could hook up wires to the stove in case it tries again, with a switch so we can turn it on or off at will. Then the next time it gets in that way, we could just flip the switch and zap it!"

Priest wrote:In the kitchen of the cottage, Allister, already at the closed door to the hall, grabs the handle and tries to push it open. Despite his intentions the paneled door refuses to budge. With mounting horror visible on his face and the wildness of fear easily apparent in his eyes, he realizes that the door opens towards him. He stops pushing and pulls it open revealing the hallway dimly lit by a solitary light bulb…

Alister Sergeant

Feeling lost, Alister glances backwards, in search of his companions.

"Quick, come this way!" he shouts, and steps into the hallways, holding the door open.

Sean heads into the hall.

Still clutching the box, Judith follows the two men from the kitchen; she supposes the cellar must be as safe as anywhere in this waking nightmare.

Leaning heavily on the stick, Maynard hobbles outside peering into the darkness, wincing every time I puts my weight on his injured ankle. By the time I s manages to stagger outside, I am drenched in a cold sweat and my breath comes in ragged pants.

"Keiffer ... gotta help the poor guy. Even if he was twenty feet away from me, it'd take me an age to reach him - but I gotta try!"

"Keiffer, Keiffer, Where are you buddy?" I call out more in hope than expectation of an answer.

Finding your way to the cellar is a matter of a few minutes. The generator, banging away quite happily if noisily, is old but well maintained. A quick glance tells Sean that it is anything but portable, it must have taken a major effort to situate it down here, given the rickety nature of the stairs. So any chance of manhandling the machine to the kitchen is a non-starter.

However, a quick search of the cellar reveals amounts of materials that might be used to aid you, such as copper wire etc.

For Maynard hobbling outside reveals nothing, there is no sign of either architect or visitor, yet footprints reveal the direction of flight by the others, most seem to be heading back to the cottage but one pair seem to be heading towards the treeline. Maynard calls out, then listens in hope of a reply but the weather makes hearing anything above a nearby shout almost impossible. He does hear what could be someone or something moving amongst the trees, but can’t be sure.

Despite furious shaking the flashlight refuses to turn on, and the woods, bad enough with the flashlight, become a nightmare to Keiffer. Branches driven by the wind, snatch at his clothing and face, ripping and tearing as if consciously trying to halt his progress. A progress made more fraught by an almost complete loss of direction. The occasional flicker and flash of the lightning amongst the trees, deepens the shadows and effectively destroys his chances at gaining any night vision. Even the old trick of closing one eye at each burst of light, to maintain night vision proves to be little more than an old wives tale bringing no benefits at all. As he ducks and sways to avoid the swinging branches, while all the time paying careful attention to his footing, he continues to move in what he hopes is a direction away from the cottage in an effort to draw the entity away from the others and give them time to create a trap for it. The trouble is he knows that at any moment he might turn a corner and find the thing waiting for him. Fear drives him on and his thoughts turn to his wife awaiting him at their home, God if only I hadn’t gone to that convention.

A sound. Or was it…

Keiffer may attempt a Hard listen roll and a Regular Luck Roll, if the Luck Roll is failed make a Dexterity Roll.

"We'll never be able to move the generator," says Sean, picking up the copper wiring, "but I should be able to run this wire up the stairs and electrify the stove." He begins hooking up the wiring to do just that.

Kieffer

Rolls,Listen 20: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/506758]Listen[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]5[/b] Luck 11: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/506759]Luck[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]66[/b] DEX 50: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/506760]dex[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]96[/b]

Dorothy keeps an eye on Emilia, trying to make sure she doesn't start acting goofy again.

Maynard keeps calling for the Architect in the hope he can locate him and render some assistance.

Priest,can Maynard make any connection to the position of the light as a possible direction to pursue Kieffer?

The wind driven rain lashes and stings Maynard’s exposed face as with his free hand shielding his eyes he searches the darkness for a light that might mark Keiffer’s position. Yet other than the flicker of lightning he can see no other light outside of those shining from the windows of the cottage. Likewise no sound above that of the storm discloses the architect’s progress. There is something ominous about the lack of human sound that sets the investigator’s nerves tingling. Suddenly he has a feeling that he is not safe here, halfway between garage and cottage. Somewhere out here in this chaos of elements, something unnatural, something that should not be moves undetected. A cold shiver, that has nothing to do with the weather conditions, runs quickly down his spine…

Inside the cottage Sean and Alister make haste to attach the copper wire to the stove, all the time aware that at any moment the thing that stalks them might appear. In the corner of the kitchen Dorothy can be heard soothing the pale faced Emilia. Of Judith there is no sign…

Keiffer,From somewhere, possibly to your right, comes a cry, someone is calling your name although a blast of wind deadens the final syllable. Your senses are immediately drawn in that direction, but are snapped back as a glowing form appears scant inches before your face. Ice cold beads of sweat burst onto your forehead as you watch with a strange fascination as long coil like tendrils sweep forward to engulf you. [url=http://orokos.com/roll/507974]Attack Roll 70%[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]26[/b] [url=http://orokos.com/roll/507975]Tendril Lash Damage 1d6+2[/url]: [u]1d6+2[/u] [b]4[/b] [url=http://orokos.com/roll/507976]Consume Damage 1d10+5 Con Damage[/url]: [u]1d10+5[/u] [b]8[/b] Red hot pain lances through your being as the tendrils begin to burrow their way into your flesh. Then horror and madness claw at your mind as a strange sucking sensation permeates your being – the Light is feeding. [color=#FF4000]Please roll a Sanity Roll (5/1d20) You may attempt a Hard Strength Roll to attempt to break free of it grasp.[/color]

Heading back up from the cellar after Sean, Judith had a thought of searching the cottage's other rooms for anything which might help protect them against this unearthly light. She moves down the hallway past the living room to explore.

Sean is relieved when Judith reappears. "We need to secure all the other entrances," he says, "so that the only way the light can get in is through the stove. It would also help if we all had rubber-soled shoes or boots. That way we'll be grounded and protected somewhat from the electricity."

Kieffer

Rolls,SAN 38: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/508289]SAN[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]29[/b] Strength 60/30: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/508291]Strength[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]94[/b]

Kieffer cries out in pain has the tendril bites into his flesh. He struggles vainly, but is unable to break free. Trying to fight his panic, he thinks about the face of his wife. His vision begins to grow dim.

"Are there any rubber-soled boots or shoes around here somewhere?" Dorothy asks Emilia. "Sean's got an idea."

Keiffer,The intensity of white hot pain and the obscene sucking that seems to infuse your core worsens. The fading image of your sweet wife suddenly seems to provide the strength for one more effort, and with the last reserves of your diminishing strength you snap your mind away from the comforting cloud of blackness that thickens with each fluttering breath... [color=#FF4000]You may attempt to break free for a final time, however it gets harder each time. Please roll an Extreme Strength Roll (12).[/color]

Despite the noise of the storm and the waves of fear that seem to continually buffet him, Maynard stands perfectly still – listening. Was that a human scream of terror he had just heard or was it nothing more than the wind in its relentless assault on the woods. His attention is drawn to the trees to his left…

At this point Maynard may either try a Spot Hidden with Advantage (Roll twice, pick highest) or Luck with Advantage (Roll twice, pick highest). Your choice.

Inside the kitchen Sean and Alister have succeeded in connecting the stove to the generator, all that is needed now is to flick the switch. Emilia stares at Dorothy as if the young reporter had lost her mind, then that stare is softened as realization dawns, “Yes. There are two pairs of rubber boots outside the back door on the porch”. She thinks for a moment, “And there are several old pairs in the garage. Grandfather was loathe to throw anything away he always said you never knew when it might come in handy” She moves back to the outside door her hand reaching for the handle…

As Judith passes each door she glances inside. It seems there are two bedrooms each with a joining study. One of the bedroom/studies shows signs of search and on the bed she sees a discarded book, open as if read before dismissal. Otherwise the rooms look as if they contain nothing of use.

Approaching the front door she realizes that it is open slightly, enough to give her a limited view of the front garden. As a flicker of lightning brightens the rain swept darkness, something metallic seems to briefly reflect the light…

OOC:   lucks out due to a bad roll so I'll go with Spot Hidden please at 25%

rolls,spot hidden 25% [dice]0[/dice] - [dice]1[/dice]

Maynard looks closely and manages to see something right at the periphery of his vision. Turning his head in that direction he sees ...

Remembering the crowbar she had seen lying on the lawn earlier, Judith wonders if the iron could be used as some kind of electrical conductor or even lightning rod against the light - anything seems worth a try at this point. She pushes the door open and steps quickly outside.

Kieffer

Extreme Strength,Extreme Strength 12: [url=http://orokos.com/roll/508615]Strength[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]36[/b] Poor Kieffer!

Kieffer's struggles grow weaker as he is unable to break free of the light's grasp. The pain is intense now, and he is grateful for the darkness.

Dorothy sticks close to Emilia to make sure she doesn't run off somewhere. "I'll help you carry the boots."

"Your grandfather was a wise man," Sean says to Emilia. "I'll stay here with the switch. The light could try to come in at any time. We'll keep the switch in the off position for now, but as soon as it makes its descent, I'll flick it on while it's already in there."

Maynard thinks he sees something and he heads off in that direction, hoping he's not too late for the little fella.

"Kieffer, Where are you buddy?"

Outside the rain lashed darkness looks uninviting, made even more so by the fact that it might conceal the horror that is stalking the area. But taking a firm grip on her resolve, and showing that ‘Britishness’ that many around the world envy, Judith quickly steps outside to that iron bar that lies abandoned on the grass. With little hesitation and ignoring the possible danger from a lightning strike, Judith prises the heavy bar from where it lies…

At this point please make a Luck Roll

At almost the same moment Dorothy and Emilia pull open the back door. There they see two pairs of rubber boots, one pair larger than the other…

At this point please make a Luck Roll, a Hard Listen Roll (25%) and an Extreme Spot Hidden (05%)

Meanwhile Sean and Alister make the final adjustments to the trap…

Slowly, ignoring the sting of the wind driven rain, Maynard makes his way towards what appears to be an expanding patch of light just inside the edge of the treeline. At first he is confused for it doesn’t make him think of the flaslight’s beam, but curiosity aroused he continues to move towards it. As he stoops beneath the first of the lashed branches he is confronted by a vision from nightmare. Before him stands the architect Kieffer, at least he thinks it is, although it is almost impossible to be certain. The figure, human at least, stands, or rather floats a few inches above the ground, its arms extended, cross like, the head, or what might have been a head, drawn back as if straining against some invisible tether. From around the figure long tentacles or tendrils lead away and upward to a floating disc of energy that seems to pulse as if a heartbeat. Yet it is not this that causes his mind to flip but that from the location of hands and head fire spurts and glows as if the figure was on fire and slowly being consumed…

At this point please make a Sanity Roll (2/1d10)

Even with all this madness going on, Dorothy has a feeling that things might work out just a little bit better. She sure hopes so!
She can barely see what's going on, it's so darn dark. However, despite the raging storm outside, she hears something that makes her pause for a moment before she grabs the boots.

Sean stands ready with the switch.

Judith steadies her grip on the crowbar and turns to head back to the kitchen and the others.

Maynard SAN roll 60%

[dice]0[/dice]

San now down to 58%

Knowing that to interfere with what he is seeing ... it cannot be real - can it? ... would incinerate him in an instant, yet he cannot stand idly by. Stepping back so that he can get a good run up he takes a deep breath and prays that this will not be his last.

Yelling at the top of his voice he charges at full speed at the elevated form of the Architect, launches himself into space in an attempt to shoulder-charge Kieffer out of the grip of ... of whatever it is.

With a grunt of effort mixed with pain from his ankle, Maynard thrusts forward in an attempt to wrestle the burning remains of the architect from the creature. As he meets a momentary resistance from the partially floating body he seems to feel a sense of shock, hatred and fear flowing from the entity. Without a sound it seems to recoil from Maynard, release the body, which falls to the ground with a soft thump and continues to burn, and move away to the west at speed. Within moments it is lost amongst the trees, leaving Maynard unharmed but with an overwhelming sense of relief…

Outside the back door, once again, Dorothy takes a brief moment to gather her thoughts. To her right are two pairs of the ubiquitous rubber boots, one pair larger than the other As she reaches down for them a flash of lightning close by makes her jump, it seems that the events of this night are beginning to fray her nerves. Beside her Emilia also jumps in response to the lightning.
Despite the flood of fear, or is it the thrill of excitement, that courses through her being, her senses are drawn to a almost human sounding scream of fear that seems to come from the woods just beyond the garage, The very place that Keiffer the architect had proposed drawing the Light in order to allow the others time to prepare a trap. She shudders at the pure terror in that scream. Then, as swiftly as it came it is gone, leaving only the screeching wind that whines and whistles through the trees. Is that a light she sees there obscured by the dark trees?

Inside the kitchen Alister turns to Sean and in a slightly nervous voice whispers, “Should one of us return to the cellar and be ready by the generator? Then if that thing tries to get in through the stove the other can shout and the switch can be flicked” He is scared, very scared the sweat that freely runs down his forehead attests to that, but he knows they really only have one chance to incinerate the thing if it comes calling.

OOC:   Again my apologies, I completely missed Dorothy's earlie post with the dice rolls

Judith arrives back in the kitchen carrying the crowbar to find only Sean and Alister conferring. "Where have Dorothy and Emilia gone?"

Lying on the ground Maynard is winded by the collision but the smell of burning flesh brings him back to the present with a jolt.

"Kieffer buddy ... C'mon ... Shit, why does it always happen to me?" Maynard curses his luck under his breath. "Help!!!! HHHHEEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPP!!!!!!!" he calls out.

Priest,If I read your post aright then Kieffer is still alight - if this is the case then I will roll him in an attempt to extinguish the flames. If not then I will attempt to lift him and stagger towards where I believe the cottage to be with his unconscious form in my arms. (Im too shaken to have thought to have checked for signs of life)

"I think they went to look for the boots," says Sean. "I'll man the switch."

OOC,I'd thought we set up a switch upstairs in the kitchen, but if it's down with the generator, I'll head back there.

Alister Sergeant

The trembling, sweating Alister stays at his place in the kitchen, ready to give the sign to Sean.

"I don't like the sound of that," Dorothy says. "Come on. Let's get these boots back to the house. They may come in handy with all this messing around with electrical stuff." She grabs the bigger pair, trusting Emilia to take the other.

Maynard entangled with the charred remains of Keiffer hits the rain softened ground. That the architect is dead is obvious, no one could have taken that damage and survived. Where there was once a head there is only the scorched remains of a neck, likewise his raincoat sleeves now end in blackened and burned tatters. As Maynard picks himself free from the corpse, his rational mind compares the similarity to the remains of the man in the living room, luckily the darkness hides the full extent of Keiffer’s injuries.
Aware of the predicament of his situation, alone in the woods with some kind of alien fire, heat vampire loose nearby, he tries to call for help, but his voice is drowned out in the cacophony of the storm. From where he lies he can see the lights of the cottage to his left, as he watches a shadow moves across the inside of what can only be the Kitchen window…

Several hundred yards from the scene of death and horror, Dorothy having paused in her search for rubber boots at what may have been a scream of pain and terror, thinks she may have noticed a light over in the trees, but if she had it is suddenly gone. She shudders and picks up the boots, Emilia quickly grabbing the other pair, before turning and pushing back into the kitchen…

With Sean’s departure for the cellar and the generator, Judith, recently arrived crowbar in hand, watches nervously as the outside door flies open and Dorothy accompanied by Emilia rush in slamming the door closed behind them as if all the devil’s in hell were on their tails…

Alister jumps and grins sheepishly at the sudden entrance but keeps his eyes firmly fixed on the stove waiting for a sign that something is coming…

Sean remains by the switch, listening for a shout and hoping someone will bring him a pair of boots before he has to turn on the generator.

Dorothy rushes in with the boots. "I hope one of these will fit you. We better stand back before you flip the switch. C'mon, Emilia."

Judith sets the box down near the stove where anyone can grab it if needed then, still holding onto the crowbar for reassurance, moves to the kitchen window and peers grimly out into the night...

"Thank you," says Sean, taking the larger pair of boots and putitng them on quickly. While he isn't a very tall man, he's bigger than everyone else here.

Maynard hangs his head and openly weeps, not just for the dead architect, but also that he proved so ineffectual in saving him. He stands painfully and heads towards the lights of the cottage, limping heavily on his injured leg.

Maynard. Your eyes sting from the tears that well up and the sense of failure fills your being sadness as you begin the slow, painful, journey back to the cottage and its welcoming lights…

In the kitchen Judith takes a moment to peer out of the window towards the deeper shadows of the woods. At this moment she sees something moving to the west, a light perhaps, but the moment is gone so fast…

Behind her the others begin to further equip themselves in anticipation of the entities return.

Judith continues her vigil at the window, staring anxiously out into the storm-wracked darkness, wondering what became of the two men who were caught at the barn.

As Judith continues her vigil a flash of nearby lightning reveals a limping figure moving towards the cottage from the trees. In the flickering light she recognises the investigator chap, Maynard she thinks he is called. But why is he limping and why is he alone? The last she had seen of him he was in the garage with the architect, Kieffer.

Concentrating on the limping figure she thinks she may have heard a noise somwhere inside the cottage...

Please roll Listen 50%.

"I can see that Maynard fellow coming back," Judith calls to the others a moment before pausing to listen.

Maynard continues to limp painfully towards the cottage. He needs to tell the others about Kieffer and to warn them about the nature of exactly what they are facing. He think he can see the pretty young lady with glasses through the window but the rain and tears in his eyes makes it hard to be sure

“Where?” asks Dorothy as she steps towards the window. Flaring lightning easily reveals the limping Maynard heading towards the cottage. Something about the dejected slump of his shoulders tells them that he bears news, and not good news.

As Dorothy speaks, Judith raises her hand, “Shhhsh, did you hear that?” Alister turns white at Judith’s exclamation, his hand shakes with nerves,

Alister thinking:   Geez will this nightmare never end?

"I think a door or window just opened," Judith whispers, glancing frantically around.

When Maynard reaches the cottage he enters and see Judith and Dorothy looking worriedly at him, yet distractedly so, as though they were listening out for something.

"Kieff ..." the words stick in his throat and he looks down to the ground and clears his throat "... Kieffer is ... he didn't make it I'm afraid."

Sobs wrack his frame.

"I could have done something ... should have done something sooner then maybe he's still be alive."

"Is something wrong up there?" Sean calls upstairs.

The door opens and Maynard enters the kitchen, the howl of the wind and the boom of distant thunder a seemingly suitable accompaniment for his mood. It is obvious that his arrival has coincided with something else, something, which from the expressions of the kitchens occupants, is as unwelcome as it is unexpected. He enters just in time to hear the end of Judith’s warning.

Dorothy, her attention divided between the arrival of the downcast Maynard and Judith’s announcement swivels her eyes towards the open door to the hall. The noise must have come from somewhere out there for the window in the kitchen is firmly closed. Senses on full alert she tries to focus on the noise Judith had heard, though the pounding of blood in her ears does not help.

Listen w adv,[url=http://orokos.com/roll/516929]Listen 50%[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]23[/b] [url=http://orokos.com/roll/516930]Listen 50%[/url]: [u]1d100[/u] [b]57[/b] Lowest Roll: 23% She is sure she can hear something moving towards the far end of the cottage, The doctor’s bedroom perhaps.

“The – the- doc’s room maybe”

Alister, already white faced and trembling, takes a step away from the open hall doorway and screams a stuttering warning to Sean below, “Itssss coming – it’s in the bedroom above you!!!!”

"How'd it get inside?!" asks Sean. "All the doors and windows should have been sealed! Now what are supposed to do?"

"Get that generator going!" Dorothy shouts. "It's our only hope now."

Sean flicks the switch, turning on the generator.

The generator starts to run, the noise of its engine almost deafening in the confined space of the cellar. Sean glances around him, suddenly aware of his only exit being up the stairs where at any moment the thing might appear. Nervously he notes the contents of the small room, mostly packing crates and empty barrels. The floor of the cellar is, due to the amount of rain that has fallen during the storm, about half an inch deep in water, it gurgles slightly in one corner hinting at a blocked soakaway. Close to it is an old wormy work bench an old vice bolted to its surface. A corkboard bearing holding clips for tools hangs at its back. Almost empty of tools a few files and hacksaw blades reveal the nature of work that had been carried out here. An old wooden crate, its stenciled words worn unreadable through age rests under the bench its top slightly open…

In the kitchen Dorothy’s cry quickly elicits a shower of orange sparks from the stove, it seems it is now live. Alister slowly backs towards the back door, mumbling all the while. It seems he is near breaking point. If not for Maynard’s blocking presence he might already have fled into the night…

"How are we going to get that awful thing into the stove?" Judith wonders aloud. She looks over at the two men hesitating in the doorway. "Well if you're not going to try to help Sean then I shall." Clutching the crowbar in her trembling hands she heads determinedly for the hallway.

Sean takes a look in the old crate, hoping something useful will be inside.

Maynard looks disconsolately at Alister and shakes his head sorrowfully, yet with a wild look in his eyes.

"Sorry buddy, but there has been too many deaths tonight, and if I let you go out there there will be another. At least here we ares safe. The danger is out there and it is hunting us one by one."

Sean begins to dig through the crate. Mostly it’s a collection of busted tools, a myriad of screws and nails, several lengths of copper pipe and a broken iron crowbar. As he searches he hears two distinct sounds, one, heavy footsteps seeming to be approaching from the kitchen, the other a subtle almost musical vibrating-whining sound that seems to be flowing down the stairs into the cellar. As Sean watches in horror the Light entity seems to drift slowly into view hovering a few feet above the staircase. Behind it, no through it as though it was insubstantial he notices a distinctly female pair of legs…

Judith, possibly showing more courage than sense, rushes from the kitchen throwing an admonishment at the cowering men as she moves. All she knows is that the driver Sean is in danger below and with a firm grip on her sole weapon, the crowbar seems determined to go to his aid. She gains the doorway to the cellar moments after the Light has begun it descent, and through the iridescent entity below her she can see the blurry outline of Sean half bending over a wooden crate…

With no better notion of what to do, Dorothy figures that there might be a little bit more safety in numbers than in staying apart.

"You stay here, Emilia. I going to see if I can distract the thing."

She rushes to join Sean and Judith. When she catches a glimpse of the light thing, her anger at the slaughter it's done overtakes her fear. "Why don't you go back to Mars where you belong and leave decent folks alone?"

"Stay back, I've got an idea!" calls Sean as he moves a bench over beside the generator and climbs on top of it. "Whatever you do, don't step in the water!" He takes some of the copper wire and affixes one end to the generator. He holds the other exposed end ready to drop into the water should the light come close.

Alister Sergeant

Alister, disoriented, follows Sean and stays clear of the water.

In the kitchen Maynard and Alister watch as Dorothy follows Judith into the hallway, within moments Sean's voice is heard shouting something about staying clear of the water. However as there is no water anywhere in the kitchen it seems he must be refering to somewhere else - the cellar perhaps.

Maynard heads towards the cellar to see what all the noise is about.

Alister Sergeant

Alister follows Maynard.

Sean watches in a mixture of horror and fascination as the rapidly transforming almost watery shape slowly begins to drift in a series of slow, almost hypnotic, jerking movements, that make him think of rainwater cascading from a broken gutter, down the wooden staircase towards him. About halfway down the stairs it seems to halt, as if suddenly aware of people behind it.

Sean, at this point please roll Sanity (0/1d4) and a Regular POW roll before acting failure of the POW roll will modify any subsequent action.

From her position in the doorway of the cellar, Judith, can see the shimmering thing from a nightmare suddenly come to a halt halfway down the stairs. For a moment it seems to stand still as if in two minds about its next move. Noises from alongside her tell her that the others are following her to the cellar.

Judith, at this point please roll Sanity (0/1d4) and a Regular POW roll before acting failure of the POW roll will modify any subsequent action.

OOC:   Everyone else may move but cannot access the cellar without pushing Judith aside.

Judith staggers in fright at the sight of the unearthly creature before steeling herself and, hearing the others coming up behind her and Dorothy's shout of defiance, she waves the crowbar in front of her and takes another step forward. "Leave us alone, you beastly thing!"

Dorothy cheers on Judith. "You tell 'em, lady!"

"The box," Judith adds from the corner of her mouth, never taking her eyes off the entity. "Did someone bring the box? I left it by the stove in the kitchen. What if we have to do that ritual to get rid of it?"

"I'll grab it!" Dorothy rushes back to fetch the box.

"Don't draw it after you!" calls Sean. "We want it to come down here!" He holds the exposed end of the wire above the water, so that all he has to do is release it once the light is close enough. It will also act as a deadman's switch in the event that something happens to him, though he hopes it doesn't come to that. He's pretty sure he can let go of the wire before the light reaches him.

OOC,Sanity roll (current level 50) for seeing the light: [dice]0[/dice] Sanity loss for seeing the light: [dice]2[/dice] POW roll (50% stat) for the light's presence: [dice]1[/dice]

"Here, give me the box Judith. Whatever it is seems to affect me less for some reason. What do I have to do with it, is it simply a case of enclosing it within the box I wonder?"

Sean, as you wait in anticipation of the entity’s next move, you get a feeling of uncertainty that seems to flow from the Light. It flickers and moves, uncertainly, as if searching for something, or someone. Then the moment is broken as Maynard, unceremoniously, forces his way past Judith and begins a descent of the stairs.

The Light, having seemingly reached a decision flashes its way down the stairs into the cellar, and towards a small air brick set close to the floor a few feet from where Sean waits. As it moves so it seems to adopt an elongated shape as if to better allow it access to the air brick. To access the brick the Light moves close to the wet floor…

When the light is close enough to the floor, Sean springs the trap and releases the wire, letting the exposed end land in the water. He'll be safe enough up on the bench, especially with his rubber-soled boots, and he has the switch with him so that he can shut off the generator later.

There is a flash of electrical sparks as the live wires make contact with the floor. The cellar is plunged into darkness as the main light explodes. Yet with the beam of the flashlight giving the room an almost surrealistic aspect, Sean sees the Light suddenly increase in brightness before vanishing with an audible ‘pop’. For a few moments silence descends upon the cellar…

Three steps down Maynard quickly halts as he sees Sean drop the wires. From behind him a female gasp, it must be Judith as Dorothy has run back to the kitchen in search of the box. As he stops he sees the flash of the electricity arcing through the inch deep water that coats the floor. Then nothing as all the cottages lights explode. Silence falls almost as if reality has held its breath in anticipation. Then a smell of ozone, strong enough to take his breath away…

"Don't panic," Dorothy says, trying to heard over the chaos. "We've got to get out of the house. Use flashlights if you've go 'em. Try to avoid electric stuff and standing pools of water inside the house." She tries to get Emilia and the box safely outside.

Alister Sergeant

"Is it... is it really gone?" whispers Alister, while slowly treading out of the house.

Judith drops the crowbar and hastens after Dorothy.

Sean flips off the switch and cuts the power to make sure it's safe. Once he's sure that the electricity isn't flowing, he steps onto the floor and heads upstairs, using the flashlight to guide himself. "I think I killed it," he says. "If it was even alive to begin with. Once I zapped it, it just disappeared with a pop."

With the power shut off the interior of the cottage seems quiet, just the noise of the storm disturbing the silence and this seems to be slowly diminishing. The lightning seems to have lost its intensity, rolling thunder seems further away, the wind has dropped and the rain seems to have stopped competely.

"Let's all go back to the diner," says Sean. "I could use a cup of coffee and a thick juicy steak right about now."

"Good idea," Dorothy says. "I'll stick with Emilia."

Later she asks the young woman "Is there anything else you can tell us about what happened tonight?" She wonders if she should try to reach a doctor, if there's anyplace with a working telephone.

The scenario is to all intents and purposes over. Sure there will be questions to answer and some to be answered. But this night is over, the entity, the Light or whatever it was is gone, maybe dead, but gone.

Alister silently walks away from the house. He simply cannot comprehend just what exactly happened, but he is happy that he lived to see the day...

OOC:   Thanks for the game, folks! Unfortunately, I've lost the thread somewhere mid-way, when there were lots of posts made in my absence, and couldn't quite catch up to be an active player! Sorry for that...

"This has certainly been a memorable trip," Judith says, looking forward to going home.

Dorothy asks if anybody knows where the nearest phone might be. She's got a heck of a story to write!