Play@YSDC

Darren takes Ian's hand and goes to flow the voices and torch lights. "C'mon, best not get separated from the rest. This olace guves me the creeps."

Harry lights the stove. "I'm sure we'll be fine until morning if we can't find it," Harry whispers back. "The only thing here to worry about is Roger. But we'll keep an eye out for the key."

Kyle blow the candle and leave it (since he cannot use it) and join the others.

While Harry fiddles with the stove, Shirley starts looking through the cabinets and draws as well as any other stops where one might hide a key. It was probably not here, but she will at least be able to eliminate the possibility.

"Have you guys ever heard of anyone living here?" she asks the boys just to fill in the silence.

"Supposedly nobody has lived here in twenty years," says Harry. "We know now that's not true. The Briggs family was the last known to live here, and I heard they left after their daughter disappeared. Nobody wanted to live here after that. My mom says they should just tear this place down."

"Dont listen to them Ian
" Darren whispers to Ian trying to reassure him., " there just spooky Halloween stories." He walks towards Shirley "Maybe incan use my crowbar to open the door. I know we are only here for a couple more hours, but I'd rather get outta here sooner. I wanna get my brother home, he's too young for all this bull
rap!"

"If we leave now, Roger will pound us all," says Harry, "unless we play by his rules and find the key. Ian's not much younger than I am, anyway."

"Yeah," Shirley agrees with the thought that whoever was living here was currently gone. "I only want to find the key so we have a backup if Roger gets any stupid ideas to keep us longer. We have an agreement and I intend to keep it, I'm quite tired of dealing with his moods at school."

"I could just break the lock so its open in case we need a quick exit."Darren offers.

“I’m hoping we can turn it on Roger, somehow show him up as the jerk he truly is.” Says Louis as he rattles through a drawer of old utensils.
“But there’s something about this place; why don’t the adults knock it down and build a new place?

Luck 65 roll:40

"A lot of them want that," says Harry. "Beats me why they don't just do it."

Turning to Harry "Listen Spengler he may not be that much younger than you, but hes not supposed to be here and my mom and dad will kill me if anything happens to him. I'll take the pounding from that dweeb because he's my lil bro. AND jes going home!" Darren walks to the back door to try and pry it open.

Harry starts striking the matches with quite a lot of difficulty. Several break and bend as he tries to run them down the lighting strip. A couple flare up before dropping onto the stove top but the burners don't seem to light.

Roll Play with Matches

Shirley pulls on one of the drawers, it's quite tight and requires a real tug to open, springing out...

Roll Luck

Finding nothing of use in the first drawer, Louis opens another one. It's mostly empty apart from some suspicious droppings, a wooden spatula, and a tin opener.

There's an old sash window above the porcelain sink. The external shutters seem to have been nailed closed and there's only about half of the glass panes still in place. Ragged and yellowed curtains are pulled across the window but between the holes in the cloth and gaps in the shutters a few glimpses of the yard can be seen. The sights and sounds of heavy rain are clear, that storm's picking up. There's little light from the moon or stars with the rain clouds outside but...wait, was that something moving across the window? Casting a shadow?

-----

Darren and Ian walk back out into the darkness of the hallway, the back door is barely lit by the flickering candles Roger left by the front door. Darren takes his crowbar and tries to insert it between the door and the frame. It's going to be tricky with all the wood nailed across the doorframe.

Roll a hard STR (so targeting half your STR characteristic)

Another heavy gust of wind hits the house and whistles through the holes in the windows and shutters, the candles flicker even more than usual, and somewhere upstairs a door or window slams. In the hallway, from behind Darren and Ian, something chimes loudly, like a clock. Bong. Bong. Bong.

Str: 55
1d100

Leaning heavily on the crowbar, Darren puts all his strength into trying to leverage open the door. He feels it resisting, it's solidly fastened, and then there's a creak, followed by a crack, and a big chunk of the wooden doorframe flies off over Ian's head.


'Hey, Darren, you nearly hit me. You don't want to have to tell Mom you killed me!'

Darren tries the door and it remains firmly sealed. Then from behind him he hears Bong. Bong. Bong.

Shaking slightly Darren apologises to Ian before looking up as the clock strikes. "Didnt Roger kick the crap outta that clock?" He yells to the others in the kitchen.