RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

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

Post by ewancummins »

THE PARTY SPLITS...


SARA searches the pavement for even the vaguest of footprints in the black ash, for even the smallest specks of blood.
Satisfied that she's picked up what seems to be the killer's trail, she leads KAT and DORGIO, along with four of the gendarmes, off to the east.


The other two gendarmes fall in behind the hound-master and his boy assistant, joining DORGIO and RAEN on the search for Benn's missing children. Their trail leads them further south.

Within a minute of parting, no one in either group can look back and see the glare of torches carried by the other group, separated as they are by clouds of ash blown down the street.
Another minute and even the noise of the others has gone.
Only the night winds now, only the trail and the hunt.


...



HUNTING THE KILLER

SARA, KAT, DORGIO



SARA finds more blood drops.

It's spotty, with breaks of several yards.
If the blood spoor runs out...

But she can also look about the neighborhood by torchlight, and hazard a guess as to where in the black maze of alleys and tenements a fugitive murderer might run and hide.

The intermittent trails thins till Sara is really just guessing. But before it runs out, it turns in a circle, leading back west, toward the river.

The gendarmes thrust their torches ahead, peering into the gloom. Fog pools in a dip in the street, rolling toward the party and then receding , like waves lapping at a shore of stone.
''Looks like we're getting closer to the water'', one man says.

One of the gendarmes edges closer to Kat and Sara.
"Are you alright, mademoiselles? You're weeping!"
And so they are.

KAT feels
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deep sadness , like every old loss and pain she suffered as a servant girl, coming up to the surface again. Her cool self-possession, perhaps shaken by the nearness of the gendarmes--but this is more than that. It's hard to think, and these damned tears she keeps blinking away make it hard to focus her vision in the gloom.

SARA
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clamps her eyes shut to keep out the drifting black ash. Just a second, but then she's staring at a familiar face. Antony. The Darkonese ranger who rescued her, who taught her woodcraft. Who loved her and whom she loved. And who died...
When she opens her eyes at the sound of the gendarme's voice, the face has gone, and she realizes the man is right. She's actually crying.


DORGIO
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Feels something brush past him in the torchlight. But not past his body, more like past his mind or even his soul. Something in the darkness beyond the fog, or was it behind him? Whatever it was, the alien feeling fades in a flash, like a viper recoiling from a failed strike.








SEARCHING FOR THE MISSING LITTLE ONES

BENN AND RAEN



The dogs sniff at the pavement, stalking on slowly at first, then straining at the leash, then barking and pulling in different directions.

''Something's wrong." The hound-master calls his beasts to heel. He walks round and squats by them, whispering to them.
After a moment, he rises, and says,
"They've caught a new scent. I think it's not your killer. Something else. Animal, most likely. Lots of crisscross trails. I can try to get them back on the right trail if you'd be pleased to bring me those blankets and clothes, monsieur." He looks to Benn.
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)
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Re: RAVENLOFT: THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY, CHAPTER FIVE

Post by ewancummins »

ewancummins wrote:THOM'S MANSE

RocEter wrote:


Walking to the door, Thom stops before opening it and turns his to Bastian. "Come, we have guests to entertain and protect." He says.

Thom proceeds to rejoin his guests, hoping for quiet evening...
Thom is pressed to keep the women diverted, and to avoid giving answers--incomplete and worrisome as those would be if he doesn't lie-- to their pointed questions about where their husbands and the other guests have gone.
The night draws on, and the two women lose their cool.
Thom's smooth talk can now only calm or distract them for brief intervals, before they resume casting sidelong glances at one another and whispering about their husbands and the other missing guests.


While he's doing his best to play the thoughtful, interesting host (pretty nearly alone, with his chief helpers engaged in security or related tasks) Thom retains his sharp wits and keen perception.
Another man might have failed to notice the rapping noise coming from a nearby room.
pat
patter
pat

It sounds like something tapping glass.
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)
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

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Bennedict quickly offers the requested items, keeping a sharp out in case any of the "animals" are lurking nearby.
"Of course," Benn mutters, "It would be a damned shame if we ever knew what the hell was actually going on."
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

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BENN AND RAEN


SEARCHING FOR THE MISSING KIDS

Adam wrote:Bennedict quickly offers the requested items, keeping a sharp out in case any of the "animals" are lurking nearby.

After handing the items to the hound-master, Benn looks about the street.

Pretty quiet, apart from the noises of the dogs snuffling and whining.

It's dark, too, beyond the glare of the torches held by the two gendarmes--Benn has to strain his eyes to make out details of the buildings facades nearby and distinguish recessed and closed doorways from open corridors.

He catches sight of something small and dark, black against the black night, barely visible in the near distance ahead. Eyes flash back in the torchlight--small, close together, low.
Could be a cat.

Whatever it was is gone, chased off by the hounds' barking.

After calming his animals again, and giving them a fresh sniff at the clothing and bedding, the Hound-Master announces,

"Alright, I think they've got it again. Let's go."
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)
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

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Bennedict goes with the search team.
"Of course," Benn mutters, "It would be a damned shame if we ever knew what the hell was actually going on."
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

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BENN AND RAEN

Adam wrote:Bennedict goes with the search team.
Preoccupied with looking for his missing children, Benn overlooks a big pothole in the ash-strewn road, and steps right in.

He sinks knee deep in stinking filth.
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)
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

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He curses under his breath but hardly seems to notice the stained trousers, pulling his leg out of the hole and continuing with the hounds.
"Of course," Benn mutters, "It would be a damned shame if we ever knew what the hell was actually going on."
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

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Kat determinedly attempts to focus on the now, but the presence of the Gendarme is not helping. A gendarme, gripping her arm, thrusting her through a doorway, a dull clang behind her as it slams... She focusses again. "Yes, I'm fine... I think I got some of that ash in my eyes..."

She looks ahead at the river. The river again... she remembers the hag and the feel of its cold water, before again focussing on the now. She turns her gaze to Sara, angrily clearing her eyes as they fill.

"Do you have anything?"
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

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The gendarme's voice gets Sara back to reality. Too many memories though. She blinks twice trying to focus and remember where she is. Antony. Why she was thinking at Antony right now?

Without trying to hide her tears turns to Kat and notices that she was weeping too. Sara has never seen her friend in tears before.

"Something is definitely wrong here. Give me a second to get a better look."
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

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VAN wrote:The gendarme's voice gets Sara back to reality. Too many memories though. She blinks twice trying to focus and remember where she is. Antony. Why she was thinking at Antony right now?

Without trying to hide her tears turns to Kat and notices that she was weeping too. Sara has never seen her friend in tears before.

"Something is definitely wrong here. Give me a second to get a better look."

SARA sees something moving in the gloomy street ahead, half-hidden in the mist.
Before she can identify it--the thing has vanished.
Whatever it was, it was big, as big as a man or even bigger, dark and shaggy or furry, and moved on four legs.
Cautiously, with the gendarmes holding up their torches, she takes a closer look at the lane ahead, walking with slow steps and looking all about.
She finds no tracks.
But what's that on the pavement, at the edge of the gutter?
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A pale hand.

No arm, just broken bones and gnawed flesh below the wrist.
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)
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

Post by alhoon »

BENN AND RAEN
ewancummins wrote: He sinks knee deep in stinking filth.
Raen rushes to help his friend get out of the filth. He keeps a look out for anything that may slip away during the distraction.
"You truly see what a person is made of, when you begin to slice into them" - Semirhage
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

Post by VAN »

Sara turns her head away and without looking at it again points the gnawed hand at the others.

"Apparently we have to do with a kind of animal that looks like a furry man, maybe a little taller but it moves on four legs. Maybe there are more limbs around, better check the area closely."
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

Post by ewancummins »

HUNTING HORNSBY'S KILLER



SARA

KAT


DORGIO

VAN wrote:Sara turns her head away and without looking at it again points the gnawed hand at the others.

"Apparently we have to do with a kind of animal that looks like a furry man, maybe a little taller but it moves on four legs. Maybe there are more limbs around, better check the area closely."

SARA

searches the area, but finds no more grisly surprises.
Nor any clear tracks--but she does find what might be a large animal's paw prints in the muddy street. A closer look with a lantern, and after fanning away the ground fog, reveals the tracks have been scraped and smeared.

It looks like deliberate counter-tracking.

Fresh ash fall obscures the thin, hard-to-follow trail, and soon even Sara's most diligent efforts turn up nothing at all.
Just muck, ash, and cold pavement.

The party searches anyway, investigating alley mouths, looking in abandoned houses, questioning the handful of persons out in the night (harlots, night-soil men, a few lamplighters).
Hours pass...

Nothing.
Hornsby's killer has vanished into mist and darkness.
And still, the Black Cloud rains a thin veil of black soot on the city.
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)
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

Post by ewancummins »

BENN'S PARTY



BENN, RAEN, the hound master and his assistants, and the pack keep up the search, following a winding course through the city by night...


The hounds stop to sniff at the backdoor of the Dead Fish, a particularly seedy winesink in the slums. Though the postern lacks the odiferous sign fixed out front (literally, a dead fish nailed to the door post), the smells that escape through the gap in the jamb suggests offal of fish--and maybe other things pulled from the Musarde.

Snooping near the back window, Benn sees three hooded and cloaked figures playing cards by the faltering light of a candle. It's too dim inside for him to make out many details, but he can see pots and pans hanging on hooks, and a chopping block against the inside wall.

While Benn's spying, a figure in a white robe appears in a widening rectangle of darkness. It seems to be someone coming in through an interior door.
The card players (if they really are playing cards--the light's so poor a man at the table might have trouble reading his hand) don't turn to the newcomer, but instead look toward the back of the building.
One of the hooded figures seems to spot Benn through the greasy window, red eyes glinting under its cowl.

A rough voice speaks from somewhere behind the back door of the tavern,
''Come on in, Gehrman. We heard your dogs coming up the alley.''

The hounds whine and growl, crouching at the back door.
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)
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away, Chapter Five

Post by alhoon »

Raen whispers to Benn "I have a lightning bolt prepared and they are nicely packed..."
"You truly see what a person is made of, when you begin to slice into them" - Semirhage
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