Play@YSDC

Paul Mandrin meets the investigators as scheduled. He's nervous. He continually advises them to make little noise and move quick, while drops of cold sweat slowly fall down his pale face. The whole asylum appears to have drifted into a lethargic sleep, occasionally broken by isolated moans of dream-haunted patients. He leads the group down the corridors of the cellars. The walls and floor are of rough and dark unpainted concrete. A single swinging light bulb dimly illuminates hallway that never seems to end. At one point, a large iron door with a glass window to peek inside interrupts the walking. A new hallway continues by turning right. Mandrin turns to the investigators.

"This is ward 7"

He pauses and swallows the saliva.
"I'll stay here on the doorstep, bul the door will stay open. I do not think they are aggressive. They have never been, at least with me."

After taking a final look at the corridor, he quickly opens the door, enough to let the group step inside. Beyond the door opens a large room, cold and damp. A light bulb emitting soft yellow light dangles from the low ceiling.
It seems to be the worst circle of the hellish asylum. An unbearable stench reigns in the room, a mixture of urine and sweat. There are seven occupants. They are as dirty as tramps, dressed in once-white pajamas that have long since taken on shades of gray. They have the air of being patients of whom few, if any, know of their existence. They aren't patients but inmates, faces wiped clean by the medications, barely human at all. The room walls are sheets of smooth stone, with no contact with the outher world. Beds are mattresses on the cold floor with a single blanket for warmth. At the back of the room is a large rusty metal wardrobe, with the doors now falling down. A closed door leading to another room is located beside the wardrobe. At the right corner is a small room. It is the bathroom. The door is open so a washbasin and a toilet are on sight.

A young girl is sitting on the mattress, immobile and catatonic. Her limbs are as stiff as a mannequin's. She probably could not refuse those poisons that made her mind slow to the point of stopping at cease every emotion. An unidentifiable trembling human shape is curled up and wrapped in blankets in a corner of the room. A man is lying on the mattress, seemingly sunk in a dreamless sleep. A young man of indefinable age is whispering random phrases while talking to himself, completely indifferent to what is happening around him. He has thick straps over his arms and legs. He seems dimly aware of his body being rigid and straight. Only three people, two men and one woman, pay attention to the new entrants. They stand in the center of the room staring at them, with scrutinizing and inquisitive eyes. One of those three looks to be the one more in good shape. He has long grey hair and sunken eyes, filled with a mixture of curiosity and distrust.

Gazing around him at the human detritus, cast aside by their fellow man, Andrew is filled with anger. 'What are these people doing down here, these French are simply barbarians!'

"Bonsoir," says Felicity, her heart going out to these poor people. "We're here to help you. Do any of you speak English?"

Clarence moves to the side and, hiding his immense distaste crouches down on an empty mattress in the hope it will make him seem less formidable and put the patients at ease.

Archie shook his head and swallowed hard. He's seen a lot of hard cases during his years at a physician, but this completely broke his heart to see all of these patients looking so haggard and pathetic. He walked slowly from patient to patient, and stopped by the catatonic girl.

[In French]"As my friend say, we are here to help."

Is there anyone whose condition that I immediately recognize that I can actually treat with what I have at hand?"

Two of the trio in the center of the room back away, as if the words of a stranger in this room were a threat in themselves. The silver-haired man remains in his position and stares at Felicity, motionless as a statue, then speaks in a loud and thundering voice, with a solemn and imposing tone, gesturing with his arm, like a prophet.

"Help? What you mean help? Are you people of consciousness? What are people of cousciousness doing here underground? Help yourself with your own ignorance while you still can. This is not place for people of counsciousness. This is the place of those who sank into the true reality of their own misery. It was from feeling ourselves that we had reached the last barrier. That it was horrible, but that it could not be otherwise. That there was no escape for us. That we never could become different persons. That even if time and faith were still left us to change into something different, we would most likely not wish to change; or if we did wish to, even then we would do nothing. Because perhaps in reality there was nothing for us to change into."

The man speaks correct English although with a strong French accent. He certainly did some academic studies.

Approaching the patients Archie and Clarence notice that their shabby and decadent appearance reflects their mental state and the effect of the medications. Nobody looks sick or undernourished.

While taking care of them, Archie and Clarence can pay more attention to the young man with stiff limbs, speaking to himself, in French.
"Down.. from the depths ... it returns ... consciousness deludes itself to banish it ... but it returns ... returns ... returns from Pnath .... the real.. the self... it does comes back from the underwold."

"You must be Jacque," says Felicity to the silver-haired man. "My name is Felicity. What do you know about the man below?"

Archie is mesmerized by the powerful man's voice. Although mental health is not his specialty, he is starting to see why this man is being held here. He frowned at the word 'Pnarth,' not sure if he's actually understanding what was said.

He piggy backed his question onto Felicity's: "And where is this...what did you call it...Pnarth?"

While the others question the patients, Andrew takes the opportunity to look around their meagre accommodation. He strolls over to the metal
wardrobe to take a look inside and then tries the door to the adjoining room.

Andrew scans the room discreetly. The wardrobe is almost empty. There are some clothes and old sheets. The room is a dusty closet, filled with shelves, piled up mattresses and pillows scattered on the floor. The shelves contain folded pajamas, wooden board games (checkers and chess), notebooks with yellowed pages, pencils, and books, mostly novels.

The man does not respond to Archie. Now his words became meaningless syllables, as if it were a radio receiving disturbed signals.

One of the men who was in the center of the room, with a darkly depressed face, approaches Archie and shakes his head disconsolately.
"He won't answer you. He won't answer us either. He feels thinks and just tells us what he wants to tell us. The man below said Pnarth is a place far away. Far from this Earth. He said he has friends there... and "

Jacque turns to the patient talking to Archie and yells at him.
"Shut up! Don´t say a word more!"
The man falls silent, with a mortified face.

Then Jacque turns to Felicity. His face lights up with hostility and reproach.
"I knew you have come for him. I knew that sooner or later they would come back to search for him. People of cousciousness like you once tried to imprison him. Others tried to kill him. But things went wrong for them."

He then he makes a few steps towards Felicity, staring at her with a piercing gaze.
"You'll never catch him. You understand?"
He then bursts into a big laugh.

"I suppose I don't understand," says Felicity. "You're much wiser than I. Why can't we ever catch him?"

Using Flattery.

It is al Archie can do to maintain his British stiff upper lip when the patient starts the terrifying laughter. He forces himself to breathe, and then looks around at the spokesperson.

"If we can't catch him...can you? Can you help us?"

Clarence stands up and tries a different tack.
“Is it possible to learn from the Man Below? - Or from you? He must have a certain power.”

Andrew flicks through the crumbling notebooks and novels, looking for any writing or notes recorded in them.

Jacque replies to Felicity in a shrill voice.

"The underground man is elusive. You see him and you don't see him. He watches you and you don't know. When you think you have him, he vanishes in a mist."

Suddenly, as he sees that Andrew has entered the other room, Jacque goes there. He stops on the threshold and yells at the investigator.
As Andrew is leafing through the books in the small room, he suddenly hears a voice berating him.

"Hey you! Duke of Buckingham! What are you doing? We are the wrecks and scraps of society, but we retain a modicum of dignity. Do you think you can walk in here and rummage through our things as if you were at your home? Get out of there right away. You hear me?"

One of the other men that was standing next to Jacque, a young man, approaches Clarence and Archie and answers them. The other depressed man stay silent. The young man is about twenty, thin and pale, with a feverish face. He introduces himself as Etienne. He speaks in a low voice.

"We ... we don't really learn from the man below. We helped him and he will help us. So he promised us ... so Jacque believes ..."

Etienne briefly points to the other catatonic patient who keeps talking to himself.
"He felt the presence of the man below. His mind communicates with him somehow."
"We helped the man below to free himself. He told us he would take us away to the world of dreams. We want to be free, but we cannot be free in this world. This world is not made for us. The man below told us he will take us away to another world. But first, he has to do something here in this city. That is why he has disappeared for a few days. He has gone away to the depths of the earth, where his friends live, those who live underground. They help him too. He manages to get everyone to help him. But I think he has abandoned us. But... why do you want to catch him? Who are you? "

"What does he have to do here in this city?" asks Felicity, hearing Etienne's response.

"Well, we don't so much want to catch him as to ask him questions," Archie explained to Etienne en Francais.

"I'm Archie. We are on an errand for a friend who asked us to do something for him, and the search for information has led us here."

“We thought the underground man might be able to help us too. Tell me, Etiene, does the underground man wear old fashioned clothing? Such as an actor might wear perhaps.” Clarence asks.

Raising his hands and backing out of the cupboard, Andrew flushes a deep red, 'Je suis vraiment désolé' he stumbles.

Etienne answer to Felicity and Clarence
"When Albert brings his thoughts back to us ... the underground man looks for his skin ... so Albert sometimes says."
Albert is the patient who rambles on to himself.

"No, he has normal clothes. But clothes that cover him well. He has a scarf and a hat. He doesn't want to show his face to anyone .... nobody can see his face ... nobody .. . "
As he talks in detail about the mysterious man, a tone of enigma and fear takes over Etienne's face.

At this point Jacque runs towards Archie, with eyes full of anger. His nose gets a few inches from the investigator´s face. He yells at him in French.
"What do you want to ask him questions about? What kind of questions? What do you want from him? You want to kill him too, want you? You need to tell everything to us if you want to meet him. And don´t you dare to lie to us."

Meanwhile, Andrew, just before leaving the small room, he notices that a large pickaxe lies on the floor, hidden under a pile of clothes.

"We're looking for the pieces of a statue," says Felicity, who also knows French, in the same language. "We aren't planning to kill anyone."

One of my Languages will be French.

Andrew notes the location of the pickaxe and carefully closes the door. Perhaps 'the man below' escaped in a rather more mundane manner than he had been speculating. 'And how exactly did you help this gentleman below leave the hospital?' he asks, innocently.

Archie held up his hands showing they were empty and shaking his head. The man's outburst causes him to lose his focus momentarily, and he struggles to find his French again. He takes a deep breath and continues, haltingly in French. "Please...my friend is correct. We are not going to hurt anyone. Not you, and not him."

"We just want the statue pieces. That's all. I swear it on my mother's grave..."

Clarence flashes Archie a look at his choice of words and hopes they are not prophetic. But he nods in agreement.

Jaque immediately changes his tone and bursts into laughter ... of fun.
"Pieces of a statue? You came all the way here to look for the underground man, just to find a statue? You are not people of conscience. You are more insane than we are."

He turns to Andrew.
"You really wanna know how we helped him? He has long been buried under the floor of that room you´ve just come out. His mind was alive and talking to Albert. Albert talked to nurse Guimart.... Guimart got the means we needed to get him out. We broke the floor and rescued him."

Jacque pauses, and his voice lowers down.

"He has not left the hospital, at least not the way you think. He still lives underground. Nobody can see his face. He is not a person like us, he cannot live among ordinary people of conscience. He lives in the underworld."

At this point Etienne intervenes. He begins to whimper. He gestures for the investigators to follow him.

Etienne takes them to the back room where Andrews was searching. By moving a slab of marble that covers the space between two shelves, a mound opens up. The hole was dug after breaking the floor with a pickaxe, until a niche was uncovered, about two meters deep, more or less the size of a burial pit. At the bottom of the pit, in the center is an opening that goes down further into the bowels of the earth, into the unknown darkness."

Etienne runs away from the hole. All the patiens are quite and scared. Jacque exclaims amused.
"So, people of conscience, do you still want to talk to the underground man? Down there is where he stands."

"We didn't come all this way to turn back now," says Felicity. "We're going to need some light."

Archie listened intently and nodded without hesitating.

"Yes, we are going to meet him. If you think he can help us, then by all means, we still want to talk to him."

Then to Felicity, "I have some matches. We could make a makeshift torch."

Any patients from ward 7 who weren't already out leave the room, leaving the investigators alone and free to descend. A humid and cold air rises from the hole. Climbing down the hole, the investigators hit hard ground with their toes. They are in an underground passage, high and wide enough to walk upright. The environment is cold and humid and a smell of something animlisticand wild penetrates the nostrils. The passage forms a sharp corner exactly at the pint where the investigators descended from the ceiling. There are therefore two directions thet can take. After illuminating the tunnel that runs on their right the light poits out a couple of yellowish objects a few yards away on the floor. They are human bones. The upper part of a skull and a hand with all the phalanges. They are very old and completely devoid of flesh. The other direction on their right is not appealing either. The animal stench comes from there.

OOC:   The makeshift torch works bu won´t last long. One among you can roll Preparedness to see if the group has a flashlight

Felicity reaches into her handbag and pulls out an electric torch, which she lights. "This should help," she says. "Let's check out the bones first. At least we know they're dead."

Preparedness roll (3 points spent) to have a flashlight:
1d6+3

Clarence takes the torch and holds it up to illuminate the other direction where the awful stench comes from.
“You go ahead, I think I’ll stay here and keep an eye out as rear guard.” He mutters, peering into the gloom beyond the torch light.”

Andrew grabs the pickaxe and carries it down into the hole with him. He wrinkles his nose at the stench. Every instinct tells him that this is a bad idea. Trapped underground with God knows what. He crouches down and looks over the yellowed bones. 'There's something down here that i don't think we want to meet.' He draws his Webley. 'So which way do we go? I can't decide.'

As the horrible smell intensifies, Archie pulls his handkerchief from his pocket and holds it over his nose while he pulls his pistol and has it ready for use, if needed.

"I thought working the morgue as a medical student was bad..." he said, shaking his hands as they pass the bones.

"Can you tell where the smell's coming from," Archie asked Andrew. "Maybe we should go in that direction..."

Andrew points to the right, 'I think it's that way to the source of this delightful odour.'

"You're quite right," says Felicity. "That's why I wanted to go the other way first."

As they move closer to the bones, the investigators end up in a small, square room. The room has another exit to a new passageway straight ahead. When the light beam from the flashlight illuminates the details of the place, the hand begins to shake. The vision is horrifying. One of the corners of the room is occupied by a pile of human remains, in various states of decomposition. The mass of human material has about ten bodies. They are almost all dismembered, partially or entirely. Some remains are reduced to skeletons with shreds of clothes that are reminiscent of those of the patients in the asylum. However, the remains that still have flesh belong to young female bodies. What remains of their clothes suggests they may have been prostitutes. Their limbs are still bloody and have visible bite marks of a sort of animal. In some points, it seems that the meat has been barbarously nibbled and stripped to the bone.

Two bodies appears to have died very recently. It is that of a young man, with a wound in his neck that has almost taken his head off. He has something terribly familiar. His mouth and eyes are open in a grimace of pure terror. He is Maxim, the clerk of the library who helped the group in the search for Sedefkar Simulacrum.

OOC:   If you don´t remember about Maxim, see the thread "January 06 - Bibliotheque Nationale", first message

The other dead who looks to have died recently has bite marks on his chest, some of his blood is still liquid. He´s a man with dark complexion, thick mustache and facial features that suggest Turkish origins.

While observing the bodies, the investigators hear noises, coming from the other direction the group has not chosen. They are steps, accompanied by the sound of an animal panting, a heavy breathing, resambling a muffled roar.

"Hide," whispers Felicity, flattening herself against the wall beside the entrance to the room they had just used.

“Are you out of your mind?” Clarence whispers fiercely. “Whatever it is is bound to find us here in its larder and I’m sure we are no match for it- look at the bite marks!” Clarence starts to back towards the new passage.
“Unless we are prepared to lie down and play dead- and suffer the consequences, I suggest we get out of here!”

Looking between Felicity and Clarence, Andrew is torn between chivalry and self-preservation, self-preservation wins out and he runs after Clarence, 'Lets get out of here.'

As the other men exit quietly, Archie hesitates for a moment and then looks urgently at Felicity. I hope I live to regret this..., he told himself silently as he pressed himself against the wall and extinguished his light as he waited to see what horror was approaching.

Having second thoughts, Felicity grabs Archie by the arm and follows after the others, ready to flick off her flashlight when needed. "I suppose I am quite mad," she whispers. "I must be, if I came down here."

The passage makes a sharp bend to the right. The tunnel is filled with humid air. Its ceiling is dripping at some points. Moss has grown on the floor, making it slippery. It is an ancient catacomb, lined with burial niches that have been emptyed of their bones. Pointing the flashlight ahead, the investigatos see the passege ending with a wall. A boulder is closing another opening in this wall, maybe a smaller tunnel. Another passage on the left wall. Its floor is muddy and has overlapping footprints that go in both directions. They are vaguely similar to human feet, elongated, deformed and clawed. The footsteps following the investigators approach, accompanied by a stench and by a snarling breath.

“I, I think that’s a dead end straight on.” Clarence whispers urgently, hearing the approaching snarling behind them.
“God let this be a way back to where we started!” He dives down the side passage away from the catacombs.

Felicity hurries after him, positioning her body to block the light from shining behind her.

Archie hurtles down the tunnel after the others, nearly losing his footing as his dress shoes slip on the muddy floor. "Damn, and double damn..." he uttered. "I knew I should have gone by Holts and picked up some boots before we left."

"I'll go shopping with you," whispers Felicity. "I'll need some new footwear myself if we get out of here. And a pistol." She has packed a shotgun in her luggage, but something smaller and more concealable would be good to have too.

The floor of the new passage is a mash of mud. The feet sink almost to the knee. There´s a dim light coming from there. The passage is short and ends in a cave filled by a pool, approximately nine yards in diameter. A new tunnel begins on the left wall of the cave. This is where the lights comes from.

The hoarse animal breathing approaches menacingly, along with the sound of soft footsteps. Whatever they are, the creatures go straight and head towards the end blocked by the stone. No longer having the flashlight on, the investigators barely see four humanoid shadows disappearing into the darkness after passing close. After their passage, a sound of something heavy being moved comes from the end of the tunnel, from where the creatures headed to. Then, strange whispers suggest that a conversation is taking place there.

Could those four have moved that stone? Andrew wonders, and he cautiously creeps back towards the catacombs to take a peek and perhaps catch a few of the words being exchanged.

Archie holds his breath, his heart pounding so loudly in his chest that he is certain that the creatures are going to hear it. He doesn't dare breathe until the sounds are long past and he hears the faint grating. By the time he opens his eyes, Andrew has already started down the hallway. Once he is sure that Felicity is okay, he follows as silently as possible in the deep muck.

What would the missus think now..." he thinks silently as the damp mud soaks through his clothing. He pauses a couple of times when he nearly loses a shoe, but continues.

Hearing rapid breathing behind him, Andrew spins and draws his pistol. For a split second he almost pulls the trigger until he recognises the form of Archie through the gloom. He puts his finger to his lips, Shh.

Felicity stays back, reasoning that the more people there are, the harder it is to sneak, and that Archie knows French and will understand what the creatures are saying if that's their language.

Clarence stands motionless in the almost darkness feeling the cold wet mud seep through his trousers. He shivers and reaches for Felicity’s hand, giving it a squeeze.
As his eyes adjust he starts looking forward towards the pool, trying to pick up details whilst he listens for trouble behind.

Archie and Andrew hear the four figures uttering some words in French, in a hoarse, gouty voice. They are greeting a fifth person, a man who, apparently, did not walk with them there. He seems to have come from the other direction. The man has a different voice, more normal. He says he has brought something for them, then says he will have to be away for a few days. Then, again the sound of a large boulder being moved. The four walk back and get closer to the two investigators.

By examining the pool cave, Clearence and Felicity are able to better delineate its size and detail. No new elements stand out, however. The cave only communicates with one other tunnel, the one from which the dim light comes. No noise nor signs of any other activity come from there.

Felicity squeezes Clarence's hand back, examining the pool to see if anything is in it and how deep it gets.

Fascinating... Archie thought to himself as he listened carefully to the conversation. I wonder what he's talking about. Drugs? Weapons? Something worse?

Archie was so lost in thought that he almost didn't notice the four people coming back toward them. Panic seized chest as he tried to decide what to do next.'

OOC:   If it's dark enough that Archie believes he can melt into the shadows by hugging the wall, he is going to do that. Otherwise, I am headed back to the pool cave.

How can he move that rock so easily? wonders Andrew, before he's brought back to the present by the sound of the approaching figures. He jerks Archie's arm, and points back into the cave. As quickly as he can he rushes back to join the others and escape. He doesn't fancy facing these subterranean denizens in the dark but he holds his pistol ready in case they catch up.

‘What do you think’s causing that light?’ Clarence whispers to Felicity. ‘I’d go and peep but it means walking through that water.’ He looks at the inky water with distrust.

"I'm not sure," Felicity whispers back, "but it could have something to do with the man we're here to find."

The four dwellers of the catacombs go straight and move away. Silence returns and the tunnel becomes empty.
The inclination of the ground near the shore of the pool is not high. If it is kept that way going towards the center, the water level should not reach much beyond the knees, at the deepest point of the pool. The walls of the pool are smooth and have no grips. There is no way to walk around the perimeter. Unless the investigators find a raft or something to bridge the two ends, the only way to pass the pool is walking into it.

"I don't like the look of that water," whispers Felicity, "or what might be under it. What did those creatures say?"

'Those four muttered something in French, I didn't catch it,' says Andrew. 'But the fifth one, he came from somewhere else. He wasn't like the others, didn't have that odd hoarse voice. Well he said something about having brought something for them. Then he said he'd be away for a few days. Frankly I have no idea what they were discussing but it did sound like they managed to roll away that rock blocking the tunnel and that man went through it!'

"That must have been the man we're looking for," says Felicity. "And he must have been talking to his friends who live underground, to whom Etienne referred."

Archie's heart still pounding from the close call, he heads back to the pool cave. Once he's gathered his nerve, he says to Felictity. "One of the men, who seemed to come from the opposite direction, said that he had something for them and that he would be away a few days."

"I agree. This does sound like the man that we're seeking."

"Shall we see if we can follow him, then?" asks Felicity.

Returning to the main tunnel, it remains empty and silent. The investigators note there is blood on the floor. A trail of drops of blood that starts from the boulder that blocks the tunnel and goes towards the room of the corpses. The boulder blocking the exit is placed in such a way as to cover an opening in the wall. Here begins a minor tunnel. The boulder is heavy, but the combined force of three people can move it. The new tunnel, however, is quite narrow. The investigators would have to walk bent over, almost on all fours, one behind the other pass throught. Also, in case the tunnel is blocked again, the stone could not be moved from inside the narrow tunnel. There is no room for three people to apply force.

"Do we go down there?" asks Felicity. "We could easily be trapped. Although, clearly the man below knows a way out through this tunnel, or he wouldn't have left that way."

'Quite the conundrum. If that young Alfie had made it this would be right up his street. However, we are where we are. As
I see it we have two options, both hazardous in their own way. That is, if we want to find out who or what is behind that stone.' Andrew pauses for dramatic effect. 'Either we leave one or two people to guard the entrance, while the rest crawl through that tunnel, knowing that if those left behind are overpowered or chased off the others can be sealed inside. Or, we send only one person through the tunnel while the others guard it. None of these are attractive options.'

"It would take three of us to move this stone away from this side," says Felicity. "Guarding this end with only one or two doesn't sound good to me either. Which leaves us with the option of sending one through, or putting off the decision and exploring this area first. But that means we might run into those...creatures."

Looking over his three companions, Andrew takes off his jacket and hands it to Felicity, rolling up his sleeves. He starts to look around the outside of the rock for handholds. 'Gentlemen, it seems we will have a little exertion.'

Archie looks at the muddy ruined mess that the caves have made of his pants and shoes, and shrugs, deciding to leave his jacket on. At least, he might be able to salvage the shirt.

"Very well, it looks like it will just be the two of us; here we go..." he said as he joined Andrew, and put a shoulder against the rock. "Whenever you're ready..." he said, tensing for the spring.

"Be careful," says Felicity. "Clarence and I will stand guard."

“I just hope those beasts don’t return this way.” Clarence mutters.
“I suppose you must have the electric torch, Andrew. Felicity and I will make do with the other one, somehow.”

The tunnel increases in size as Archie and Andrews continue, to the point where the two are able to walk on their feet. At the same time, the traces of blood decrease progressively until disappearing. The investigators are in another ancient catacomb, lined with burial niches that have been emptyed of their bones. The passageway continue for several hundeds of yards until ending in a wall, being an opening on the floor the only way to proceed. The underground tunnel is connected to a small cave, throught an opening on its floor. Out of the cave is the beach of gray sand and a lake.The beach ends are indeed close to a cavernous cavity that penetrates the rocky substance of a hill from where the investigators came from. Archie and Andriew ended up in a small lake island, washed by the lake small waves and dotted with fragments of lifeless branches.

It is a vaguely circular islet located at one corner of the lake. It is connected to the southeastern shore of the lake by a small rusted iron suspension bridge. The islet is deserted and devoid of buildings. The chaotic weed vegetation doesn´t appear to have met human hand recently, suggesting that the place is not frequented, neither during the day. The islet includes a lonely mound, covered by a small group of skeletal shrubs. It only takes a few minutes to fully inspect the place.

The lake is located in a park. Andrews feels something familiar about this environment. He has been to this park before. The stranger who spied on them outside the library! The man with the fedora hat, who kept his face covered by the raincoat and a scarf. Andrew had followed him right up to this park, when the strangers seemed to disappear into the fog. It is late at night, the whole park is deserted and silent. However, Archie and Andriew spot the shadows of two prostitutes strolling near the lake shore.

Felicity keeps watch by the light of the regular torch, hoping those creatures don't return.

Clarence whispers to Felicity,
“If we hear the beasts coming back what’s the plan? Try to double back to our pool or dash after the others?”

'I chased that man to this park, the one watching us in the library. You think it could be the same man we're following now?' asks Andrew

Spying the prostitutes he says, 'Say, perhaps these ladies saw something, how's your French. And I'd say we'd need a few francs as well.'

"I'm not sure," Felicity whispers back. "If we abandon this chamber for the pool, the creatures could seal the tunnel, and we wouldn't be able to move it without help. Although maybe we can convince someone in Ward 7 to come with and help us move it. They might be crazy enough to come down here. If we follow the others, we could all be sealed on the other side."

Archie looks around at the park. He shakes his head at Andrew. "I remember you mentioning it. This is so weird..." his voice trails off.

"My French is decent. I spent most of my francs on wine and food for Paul Mandrin, but I should have enough to reward them for some information."

“Okay, let’s just hope for the best.” Clarence strains his ears, ready to hear the slightest noise.”

Nodding, Andrew sets off through the mist to try and get the women's attention. 'Mesdemoiselles!'

Once Andrew has the ladies attention, Archie comes up behind him. He looks down at the muddy mess of his shoes and pants and blushes a bit with embarrassment.

Archie speaks in his English accented French. "Please, pardon the mess, but did either of you happen to see a man come running this way?"