RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Online roleplaying at the Café
User avatar
ewancummins
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 28523
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:35 pm

RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by ewancummins »

SEPT.

24TH

MORNING


RAEN
Bad dreams.

He recalls little beyond a beast with blazing eyes, some kind of canine monster that chased him through the woods at night.
Still, he has had enough sleep to refresh himself for his morning studies.



Retrieving his grimoire and opening a window for light, the wizard sits down and sets to reading…
Later, after gobbling breakfast, Raen sets the pyramidal coin on the table of his front room.
This time of morning, the light here is the best in the house, more than adequate for a close examination of the strange inscriptions that cover the antique pyramidal coin of electrum.
He traces a runic circle on the tabletop using soot, and then casts a pinch of salt over the design, reciting an incantation.
Franz’s bulldog barks from the Falkovnian’s chamber.
The design on the table shifts to form a jumbled array of familiar letters, arranged in no intelligible pattern.
Turning his attention to the gleaming miniature pyramid, Raen looks again at the script that baffled his previous attempts at translation.
The writing appears unchanged, and it remains incomprehensible.


Only later, as he walks down an ash-strewn, deserted lane through what is usually a busy commercial district, on his way to meet the others, does he notice anything odd.

A large-type placard announcing a nightfall curfew, fixed to a public signpost, appears perfectly normal until he passes by the printed sign. Then the letters crawl and twist. When he looks straight on at the sign, he finds it looks normal again. Legible, no alteration.
But when he turns away, he sees the change with his peripheral vision. It’s like that pyramid coin…
Checking other signs, broadsheets nailed to doors, anything written or printed—Raen finds that all writing appears to him in this fashion—normal when looked at straight-on, alien yet teasingly familiar out of the corner of his eye.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
User avatar
ewancummins
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 28523
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:35 pm

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by ewancummins »

DORGIO


Since his wife and little son gone off on their river-journey to Mordentshire and his grandmother headed to the same destination by gypsy caravan, Dorgio has had the little house in the Gundarakite Quarter all to himself.
That is, all to himself apart from frequent unannounced visits by his countrymen, each visitor trying to sound out his opinion of to sway him on the big question facing the people:
Stay as a community, evacuate, or every man as he pleases?

But when petitioners let him be, he's quite alone.


Lorna even took the crayfish.
" I'm surprised he's lived so long and grown so big, stuck in a slimy old pot. There's a great big glass jug on the Briar-Rose, and the boatcaptain has set it aside for my use. I think it'll be just perfect for Szoritas. And I know you may be too busy to see he's fed and his water's changed every day-- on the boat I can use clean water right from the river."

The bachelor mode, then. Stacks of books and papers, stale sandwich crusts wrapped in cheesecloth, unwashed dishes.

Without a woman's housekeeping, ash has begun creeping through the shutters and under the door sills.
Last edited by ewancummins on Fri Sep 08, 2017 9:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
User avatar
ewancummins
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 28523
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:35 pm

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by ewancummins »

TOM

Bastion reports to Tom in the morning, at breakfast.

"Master, my men were conducting surveillance as ordered, when they spotted a stranger approaching the subject's domicile. This stranger lifted the back garden gate latch and went to the back door, trying the handle after peaking through a window. This was in the early morning, after sunup but before the neighborhood became very active. Seems he was locked out. He did not knock or call out to anyone in the house. Instead, he walked out of the garden and round to the front. Same pattern. When some gendarmes passed by, he seemed to grow nervous and hid his face. Our watcher did not get a close look at him--too far away and some of that damned ash was blowing-- but he says the stranger was a young man, lightly built, with red hair and a green cloak. The stranger hurried away in the direction of the river after failing to gain entrance to the subject's home. Later, our watcher saw the subject's foreigner friend come out the front door and dump some filth into a gutter. That man must have been in when the stranger was poking about, but there was no indication he knew."

Bastion coughs.
" There's something else, unusual but perhaps not important. I'd show it to you, but I don't want to spoil your appetite."
The swordsman's lips curl in disgust.
" One of our watchers found an enormous insect crawling up his leg as he squirted in the derelict house, watching the subject's home. It's just like a roach but bigger than a man's foot. He stabbed it dead. I have had the remains dropped in a bottle of spirits, in case you wish to examine it."

He walks to a window and stares out a moment, then draws the blind and returns to the table.
"The subject does not seem to have discovered his house is being surveilled. At least, not yet. He went about his errands as normal, yesterday. Bought some gloves. Our tailman thinks he was spotted. He cannot be sure."
Last edited by ewancummins on Sat Sep 09, 2017 6:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
User avatar
ewancummins
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 28523
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:35 pm

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by ewancummins »

ALAIN


Alain closes the sewer grate behind him, checks the alley, and then removes a wooden panel of nailed-together planks from a side window-shutter.
Inside the dim storage room, he dusts paint chips off his hands.


The inner door opens, admitting indirect daylight from the hall. Wat appears in the open frame.

''You didn't go out or in the back gate, did you?''

...

LATER,
EATING BRUNCH IN THE KITCHEN



''-Could have been one of the men watching the house, yes.'' Wat slurps down some coffee and grimaces at the bitter taste.
''Never get used to drinking mud.''
He chuckles.
''They must have seen me around if they have been watching for a couple of days or more--seems risky to come into the garden. I do not think they have seen what you did with that window on the dead-end alley side, or looked at the drains. But I can't be sure, Alain."
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
User avatar
ewancummins
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 28523
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:35 pm

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by ewancummins »

BENN'S OFFICE

"The Master says the Lamordian's got spies hanging about."


"What spies, coz? I don't see no'n but us."

"Gilles, please don't...Spies are sneaky. That is what they get paid to do--sneak about and spy on people. Like you get paid to shut up and do what I tell you."

Piers took a look at the office from his hiding spot in the alley with Gilles.
His cousin was right about one thing--nobody here but them, at least no one he could see on the streets in the orange haze of a smoggy dawn.

"Grab your broom. Time to sweep."

Gilles grabbed a broom propped against the alley wall.
"We have to wear these ugly smocks? What if my girl sees me? She lives near here. I look like a clown."

"No. You look like a street cleaner of the guild. Just remember that if gendarmes happen by. We are making our rounds. Dusting doorsteps is a courtesy. But let me answer any other questions, alright?"

Seeing his cousin Gilles give that stupid grin and nod, Piers turned and grabbed his longhandled broom.
He peeked under his smock, checked the straps holding his dagger and the tools for burglary.
Everything right.

Time to sweep.




LATER


Gilles pulled up short of the open sewer drain, wobbling at the edge before he caught his balance again.
He knelt down and panted.
"Piers...coz..."
He ripped the bloody smock off and tossed it down the sump pit.
Something stirred down there. Something with bright, inquisitive eyes.
It squeaked.

Screaming, Gilles reared up, wheeled away from the drain.
He tore off down a side alley that connected to a wider street, ran right through a startled group of pedestrians and across the path of an oncoming team hauling a wagon...
Last edited by ewancummins on Sat Sep 09, 2017 10:19 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
User avatar
ewancummins
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 28523
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:35 pm

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by ewancummins »

BENN's
HOME


BENN hears the rattling sound while he's cleaning and putting away his dishes from breakfast.

It sounds like the wind shaking the window shutters again.
Only he can see the back garden from the kitchen window, and he notices the tree's branches and leaves remain still.
Could be the angle of the wind, a wall in the way.

That noise again.
No.
Not quite the same. This sound was more of a creak than a rattle.
Coming from somewhere behind him, deeper in the house.

He's home alone.
Or at least, he has not let anyone in this morning.
With his family gone and Hornsby dead, the house has been very, very quiet.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
User avatar
ewancummins
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 28523
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:35 pm

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by ewancummins »

KAT

After eating a cold breakfast in her home, KAT steps out to begin the day's investigation.

She's got an appointment with Flammarion. The alchemist's apprentice had left her a note, sometime last evening after she left the shop but before she came home.

The streets are quiet this morning, at least in her neighborhood.
She notices some boards nailed across the doors and windows of a couple of houses she's certain were inhabited as of yesterday.

Getting closer to the alchemist's shop, she passes a signpost with a broadside fixed to it by a ten penny nail.
Curfew at sunset.
No reason given except " public safety."

The Black Cloud still lowers in the west.
The eastern skies aren't clear, but the smog there only colors the morning light, rather than choking it.

She's nearly to the shop when she spots the man walking a bit too closely behind her-- more noticeable for the thin traffic of pedestrians today.
Middle-aged, a bit fat, and red in the face. His clothes look drab and ill-fitting .
When he sees her looking, the man averts his gaze and hustles toward an alley mouth.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
User avatar
ewancummins
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 28523
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:35 pm

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by ewancummins »

SARA CROFT

MORNING

SEPT 24th

Sara awakens from a long night's sleep.
Her scratches and burns from the fight with the monster in the burning house only itch now-- no real pain.
And the sore throat she started to develop after helping fight the fire at the boarding house has diminished to only a slight tickle at the back of her throat, the sort of thing a glass of mulled wine or tea with honey would likely get rid of.

Checking her door and stoop, she finds no notes, no packages.

The street outside appears empty, with a gray smear of ashes over the pavement.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
User avatar
alhoon
Invisible Menace
Invisible Menace
Posts: 8804
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2003 6:46 pm
Location: Chania or Athens // Greece

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by alhoon »

Raen, streets.
Raen frowned at the sign. First the coins and the pyramid refused to relay their secrets to his scrutiny. And now this. He took a good look at the first sign, thinking it was something with that one. He took a good look at the second one too. By the third one, he was used to this. With a frown, he picked around to make sure the gendarmes were not around and ripped one of the signs off. It's time to go to the other scholar. He set his way towards Benn's office.
"You truly see what a person is made of, when you begin to slice into them" - Semirhage
"I am not mad, no matter what you're implying." - Litalia
My DMGuild work!
User avatar
Adam
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 3742
Joined: Sat Sep 02, 2006 8:24 pm
Location: Omaha, NE

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by Adam »

ewancummins wrote:BENN's
HOME


BENN hears the rattling sound while he's cleaning and putting away his dishes from breakfast.

It sounds like the wind shaking the window shutters again.
Only he can see the back garden from the kitchen window, and he notices the tree's branches and leaves remain still.
Could be the angle of the wind, a wall in the way.

That noise again.
No.
Not quite the same. This sound was more of a creak than a rattle.
Coming from somewhere behind him, deeper in the house.

He's home alone.
Or at least, he has not let anyone in this morning.
With his family gone and Hornsby dead, the house has been very, very quiet.
Not in the mood for any nonsense, Bennedict fetches his walking stick, muttering the words to his Shillelagh chant and feeling the wood strengthen in his hands.

"Whoever you are, I'm armed," he says, "Come out and state your business."
"Of course," Benn mutters, "It would be a damned shame if we ever knew what the hell was actually going on."
User avatar
ewancummins
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 28523
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:35 pm

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by ewancummins »

Adam wrote:
ewancummins wrote:BENN's
HOME


BENN hears the rattling sound while he's cleaning and putting away his dishes from breakfast.

It sounds like the wind shaking the window shutters again.
Only he can see the back garden from the kitchen window, and he notices the tree's branches and leaves remain still.
Could be the angle of the wind, a wall in the way.

That noise again.
No.
Not quite the same. This sound was more of a creak than a rattle.
Coming from somewhere behind him, deeper in the house.

He's home alone.
Or at least, he has not let anyone in this morning.
With his family gone and Hornsby dead, the house has been very, very quiet.
Not in the mood for any nonsense, Bennedict fetches his walking stick, muttering the words to his Shillelagh chant and feeling the wood strengthen in his hands.

"Whoever you are, I'm armed," he says, "Come out and state your business."
BENN


Benn hears rapid footfalls, then a crash.

Following the sound he comes to his study.

No burglar in sight.

But the window's been broken outward, with strips of broken curtain flapping from what remains of the pane and shutters.


Benn looks about, outside and inside, but the intruder seems to have escaped.

His search reveals:

a broken lock pick stuck in Benn's locked desk drawer
VIEW CONTENT:
After that night of blood and horror at the Sancerre House, eight years ago, Benn's team found a lock pick broken off in the keyhole of one of the outer doors of the house. But this tiny detail wasn't found until far too late. Evangeline Sancerre murdered. Jonathon Matyr, his bloody hunting knife in hand, changing into a beast, attacking Benn, escaping...
books and papers in disarray on the desktop and a shelf

a few drops of blood on broken glass in the window and the street outside

a small pyramidal piece of pale yellow metal, lying in the muck of ash and dust of the street (he might easily have missed it). It's got tiny squiggly inscriptions suggestive of writing in some foreign script
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
User avatar
ewancummins
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 28523
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:35 pm

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by ewancummins »

RAEN, LATER THAT MORNING, AT BENN'S OFFICE


Raen knocks. No answer. Trying the door, he finds it unlocked.

Something brushes the back of his thighs. He turns, looking down at the ugliest stray d--
VIEW CONTENT:
BIG RAT!

It thrusts its head at his crotch, squealing with its teeth bared.

He falls through the doorway.
Up.

Run!

Down the hall.
No time for magic.

Just run.

Hall, shadows, doors...


....panting for breath, he staggers along in the dark.
Not calm, but rational control returns.
Feeling about the nearly pitch-black space that surrounds him, his fingers catch the edge of a metal grate of some kind. The grate swings, creaking, at his touch.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
User avatar
alhoon
Invisible Menace
Invisible Menace
Posts: 8804
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2003 6:46 pm
Location: Chania or Athens // Greece

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by alhoon »

Raen, Benn's office:

Raen tries to compose and calm himself. At the sound, he shies back at first, but then steadies himself and falls into spellcasting. Soon, a small ball of bluish light appears around his arm and Raen touches his dagger with the glowing hand, moving the light to the blade. He can sheath it to block the light or cover it with cloth to dampen it. At the time though, Raen checks to see if he still has the sign with him or he dropped it and raises the glowing knife to illuminate his surroundings and take a look at the metal grate.
"You truly see what a person is made of, when you begin to slice into them" - Semirhage
"I am not mad, no matter what you're implying." - Litalia
My DMGuild work!
User avatar
ewancummins
Evil Genius
Evil Genius
Posts: 28523
Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2005 1:35 pm

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by ewancummins »

alhoon wrote:Raen, Benn's office:

Raen tries to compose and calm himself. At the sound, he shies back at first, but then steadies himself and falls into spellcasting. Soon, a small ball of bluish light appears around his arm and Raen touches his dagger with the glowing hand, moving the light to the blade. He can sheath it to block the light or cover it with cloth to dampen it. At the time though, Raen checks to see if he still has the sign with him or he dropped it and raises the glowing knife to illuminate his surroundings and take a look at the metal grate.

He sees the sign on the floor near one of the two doors--both ajar-- of the small room.
The metal grate is the hinged cover for a pot-bellied iron stove.
A low, heavy, short bed of crude workmanship leans overturned against the wall opposite Raen, dusty bedclothes folded on the frame.
Boxes and crates take up more space in the cramped chamber.
Those are dusty too, as if this room had lain undisturbed for some time.

While Raen is looking about, he hears scurrying and squealing in the hall outside the door to his back.
He turns and sees an empty door in the blue light.
Now, the noise comes from the other doorway...

Rats as big as hounds creep into the room on either side. At least three pushing in each doorway, blocking escape.
Raen hears echoed squeals and chittering noises, as of many more rodents joining the six big brutes that have him surrounded.

Raen realizes he understands some of the rodent noises.

Another one.
Gnaw his fingers and gobble his tongue , then he can't do magic!
So hungry!


The monsters press in closer, with more horrors appearing in the halls and the room's dusty window as leaping, half-man and half-rat shadows.

In the vault of the Old Builders, he had been scared of what attacked in the darkness.
Now the same stink, the same sounds, magnified and the source visible in blue light...


No!
Not this one.
He is BENN'S friend.
He---

And then Raen can't understand the ratspeech anymore. It's just a horrible chorus of squeaking and chattering that mocks human language without being at all intelligible.

But the rats withdraw.

He's left all alone in the room.

Silence returns after the last scampering and slithering sounds fade away down the halls.
Last edited by ewancummins on Wed Sep 13, 2017 4:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
User avatar
alhoon
Invisible Menace
Invisible Menace
Posts: 8804
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2003 6:46 pm
Location: Chania or Athens // Greece

Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Nine

Post by alhoon »

Raen bolts for the nearest exit, be it door or window and keeps running ignoring people until he's in a well-lit, crowded place. He doesn't stop to pick up the sign.
Human-rat hybrids. Rats big as hounds. This place is crawling with wererats.
And Benn is mixed with them. Is Benn a wererat? How well did Raen know the Archivist? Nah, this is just paranoia. The creatures probably want something from Benn and it's good that his family is away. Why they trashed Benn's place if they don't mind him?
What would have happened if the Rats didn't know he was allied with Benn? Raen has the answer for that. Were the two that have attacked him the same as those that he have met all that time ago? And just how many wererats were there in Benn's office? He stopped counting as soon as it was clear it was not "just" 6 but it seemed like at least double those if the ones in the halls and out of his vision are included. So many...
Those things if they organize they could take over the city!
"You truly see what a person is made of, when you begin to slice into them" - Semirhage
"I am not mad, no matter what you're implying." - Litalia
My DMGuild work!
Post Reply