Book II - Chapter IX: The Haunting of Trollskull Manor

[Ancelas]

Cerys slammed her massive bulk into the door, and after a brief moment of being stuck in place, it yielded, swinging open with a bang and a clatter as the direwolf plunged inside.

The room was cold - as cold as the manor had been the last time the Lucky Hand had been there, quite different from rest of the manor now. There was a rush of air, almost like a hiss, and an unlit lantern from beside the bed was suddenly flung through the air to strike her between the eyes, as trying to ward her away.

((22 to hit, 8 bludgeoning))

[uberwulfx]

Ugh-- Raziel, why aren't one of my new abilities to be as fast a a wolf, or just see invisible ghosts? I should at least get ghost-seeing eyes for the whole 'bleeding tears' thing!

Her sentient sword would know that Crystal was just frustrated at getting passed by everyone else, only to enter a room apparently void of enemies, as she was just as ready to sling some magic at a creepy Manor specter. When she rounded the corner, Vincent's ability burned away the darkness and she was sure to note it, as she didn't want Raziel giving her guff about standing too close to the men and their holy abilities.

Her focus was entirely on that which she couldn't see, however. Cerys was already bounding away, and Crystal could only sprint forward to make sure she was there to help save or slay.

((Action: Dash))

[Ancelas]

<You must earn my powers, child,> Raziel whispered in the back of Crystal's mind. <The stronger you grow, the more I will share...>


Raziel's presence lingered as Crystal examined the area. Whatever Cerys had attacked was gone, and the room was empty, but the strange changes to the walls remained. Vincent's light seemed to burn the edges of those changes, his holy power creating an area of the manor as it was, rather than as it seemed to be changing into.

<The presence here feels... different...>

And then a crash came from the room Cerys had barged into.

[Kyt]

Rey's eyes narrowed, sweeping the area as she inched forward. If she could spot any presence, she'd shoot at it, otherwise she'd announce the area clear.

((Bonus Action: 24 perception (Nat 20) to spot a hidden creature))

[Ancelas]

Rey moved forward into the common area, searching for signs of the entity that Cerys had cornered - but there was none in sight. Vincent's light drove the shadows back, and the faint odor of something foul being cooked wafted across her nostrils, but there were no further signs of-

And then a crash from the room Cerys had barged into.

[Kyt]

"Think it moved! Keep going!" Rey snarled at the group as she continued to follow after where Cerys had went, crossbow ready.

((Held action to shoot any enemy that appears))

[opius]

Jinn... wasn't the brightest, but he knew Cerys could track and hunt and find whatever needed finding. So when Rey posted herself up like a sharpshooter, he ducked down and made sure to not linger in the door frame. "What is it girl? Is it in here?" Were he not amped up, he might have felt a pang of embarrassment for, again, forgetting that Cerys was in fact not a dog but a person under all of that fur and ferocity. A person much older than he was, in fact.

he swept his eyes across the room, noting only the lantern on the ground- and the chill in the air. "...The hell, it's freezin' in here..." His brows furrowed, Jinn listened to the room, felt the cold, and leaned into his gut for signs of... something.
(Jinn's taking an action to pop a use of Divine Sense. Tryna sense the spook.)

[Ancelas]

Jinn stepped into the bedroom and reached out to the strange power within that had guided him through trouble thus far. His brown eyes seemed to grow brighter, almost greener, as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, a different sense of the Manor overlaying itself upon his physical senses.

The first thing he felt was how wrong the Manor felt, but... it evoked a different sense of wrongness depending on where he looked. Out in the common room, he could feel anger, hatred, and a perverse kind of delight that hurt to stare at. Inside the room was... sadness. Despair. Desperation.

Fear.

He and Cerys weren't alone in the room. There was one... no, two presences. One was large and dispersed, between Jinn and the bed. It was the familiar cold presence that had made itself known since the first day they had arrived in the Manor. It's power seemed to be fading from around a lamp lying on the floor beside Cerys.

The other was behind it... under the bed? A small knot of terror, somehow more solid than the entity before the bed, yet tiny in comparison.

[opius]

(Free? Action?)
Jinn went still, looking to the bed, then Cerys. His brows furrowed as he held a hand out disarmingly, "Cherry- Cherry hold up. I don't think this one's evil grandma. Somethin's here- somethin scared."

[CautionCat]

Vincent moved to the door, raising his mace like a torch. Hearing Jinn, he glanced around the room, not seeing anything, but if Jinn sensed something...

"Whoever is in here, we are not a threat. We just want to protect the kids that went in here, and get them out."

(Persuasion: Nat 20)

[redcoat]

Cerys tilted her head to the side to Jinn as he spoke, but listened to his words. Calming, she'd sit obediently behind Vincent and Jinn- doing her best to look non-threatening.

[uberwulfx]

Crystal rolled her eyes at the thought of having to earn powers. Who had the time for that nonsense?

Still, Raziel knew that such thinking was the only sort of levity Crystal was allowing herself in this situation. When she caught up to others, she looked around quickly at them in the midst of their waiting. Her readiness to put anger to blade turned to confusion. "Of course it's scared, it knows we can get rid of it. Between you and Vincent, and me able to stab it with a spell, and then the ladies able to stab it with tooth and claw, it's probably trying to trick us into letting our guard down so it can try to boil us again."

She heeded the others' words, but unlike Jinn and Cerys, didn't stow her weapon. She did, however, keep looking around to make sure a box didn't materialize out of thin air to slam into the back of her head.

((Dodge action))

[Ancelas]

There was a moment of silence as Vincent spoke, followed by a rattling of dusty picture frames on the wall, and a heavy, unlit candelabra on the fireplace at Crystal's observations. The air grew colder, the Lucky Hand's breath misting in the air, but nothing flew toward them - yet.

Under the bed, a pair of pale white eyes peaked out of the darkness at them. The faint sounds of sobbing could just be heard, though it seemed sourceless.

[Kyt]

Rey creeped forward, crossbow held steady. "Yo, what's going on in there?" She didn't want to crowd them, or leave their flank unprotected, so she just stayed outside the room, curiously peeking in.

(Ready attack action to shoot any aggressive creature))

[opius]

Pale... eyes. That wasn't normal. The sobbing, though, were it not coming from everywhere and nowhere at once it might have come off as very human. Jinn furrowed his brows and glanced to Cerys. Then back to the lamp.

Looking to Cerys, he gave her a look as though to say 'trust me,' and did his best to unfurrow the knot that was his brow line. He placed a hand on Cerys shoulder where she sat and got down low- first onto one knee, then the other. He addressed the bed.

"Hey. Look, see? She's a good dog. A guard dog. Real brave, real good at helping- especially kids. Scary, yeah, but sometimes you need somethin' scary to keep the real monsters away. Nothin' as scary as a mama-wolf protectin' her cubs." He pursed his lips and tried to soften his voice further.
"...We ain't here to drag you out from hidin'. If you don't wanna show yourself, you think it's safer down there, that's ok. But we're tryna help a couple other kids who got lost in here. They're real scared, like you. Their hiding spot might not be as safe as yours though. We need to find em an' we need to find that granny- stop her from hurtin' anyone else. You see any clues from that hidin' place of yours?"