Ghosts of Gauntcliff, Chapter Seven

[Brock Marsh Runoff]

"Kurva," Dorgio mutters under his breath. "I'll go after him!"

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"Benn. Edict," Everline rasps, and she tries to smile. "Jon. Jonas. Welcome back."

[Ail]

Eustace looks around, concerned and repressing a wicked smile, while thinking to himself

"Oh, I know what you want, bastard... you want to have us all separated so you can pick on us one by one. And I want to avoid that."

He cries out to Dorgio

"No, Dorgio, stay! Dodds wants us all separated! Let Primeiro recover!"

Init 12
Intended action:

a hard call. I'd like to save the dispel magic for an eventual attack in the ballroom, so I guess Light of Lunia for now.

How far are we from a cliff or somewhere dangerous for a crazed person?

[Adam]

Bennedict points out Charlotte to Jonas and the three rush into an embrace in the center of the ballroom. They hold tight, tears in every eye, and Benn whispers in her ear "I will always protect him. Know that. There is no limit to what I will do for him."

When the reunion is over, he turns back to Everline, handing her the broken remains of her morningstar. "Apologies, mein frau. It served me well, but we took a tumble down a ravine. If we all survive this, I'll see to its repair when we get home."

[ewancummins]

THE CHATEAU


By the BACK GATE Eustace calls down the blessed Light of Lunia.
Penda the Half-Man cries out--''There, look, the Shadow!" The enemy, if it was truly there, has vanished into the night by the time Eustace looks.

Dorgio makes it halfway down the gentle back slope of the hill, almost to Primeiro, when Primeiro stops running. The young gentleman collapses onto the dirt, sobbing and shaking.
Dorgio is able to escort him back to the big house without trouble-- Primeiro is too stunned to put up a fight. He mumbles “Fredrik was a nice man.” He repeats that phrase over and over again. “Why did he have to go away?”

There are no more attacks or strange incidents as the party returned from the ruins unloads the mules. Primeiro recovers, but doesn't seem to recall anything of his strange fit.

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In the BALLROOM, Benn helps his wife and the others set things back in order. The madness has ceased, for now at least. With the sailors gone, the room is less crowded and a bit more comfortable—but no one seems able to sleep.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Everline beckons to Benn, Charlotte and Jonas, but does not get up. Provided they come to her, she whispers: "I must apolo. Gize to you, Charlotte, Jon. As. I have frightened you both, when I wished to prot. Ect you, instead. I am... weaker than I. Wish. Benn. I am sad to not have. My morningstar now, but. Not just for me. It was our only magic. Weapon. It will be. Harder to kill. That filth, now."

[Adam]

"I believe that Dorgio's spear is at least cold iron, and he can make it magical, but we shall see," Benn assures her, "As my mother always said, there is no use crying over the things you left at home."

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"Mag. Ic. Yes," Everline mutters, her eyes glazing over. "Maybe an ans. Wer in mag. Ic. Wormshchild Principle. Wormschild's Second Principle? Arcane princip. Les of the Dementlieu Dep. Artment of Arcane Philosophies. Maybe? But proper applic. Ation requires more. Factors." Everline starts to mutter to herself, and it is possible that only Benn realizes that she is reciting and trying to combine fairly intricate arcane laws and theorems.

[Ken of Ghastria]

Primeiro seems more embarrassed than frightened over his "fit," and that soon gives way to anger. As he helps to unpack the mules, he says, "That damn spectral eunuch is still on the loose. Best we see what's been happening inside quickly."

As he, Dorgio, and Eustace re-enter the chateau and head toward the ballroom, he looks at the terrified & exhausted crowd, the shattered windows, Benn's ripped, blood-stained clothes, and -- oddly most disturbing of all -- Everline speaking in a savage, guttural dialect, with eyes that seem to have gazed into a black pit of madness.

"Ezra's bones...." he mutters.

[Adam]

Bennedict gives Primeiro a wry smile. "You could say we've had a rough night."

[ewancummins]

Denys Sancerre wanders into the ballroom from the hallway, looking dishevelled and perhaps confused.

''What happened? I found myself outside..The shadow-ghost attacked, is that it?"

[Brock Marsh Runoff]

"Ezra's bones and her half-rotten ass too," Dorgio agrees as he surveys the aftermath in the ballroom. "Er, no offense."

"Denys, are you wounded?" the priest asks, seeing his friend wander back into the ballroom. "It must have been The shadow...or Dodds."

He finds his next cigarillo and starts walking among the people, looking for any wounded. He keeps an eye out for Elianna an Lorna as well. They were both fine when he'd left them, but who in the hells knew what had happened since?

[ewancummins]

Elliana and Lorna appear to be well enough, although Lorna does have a few fresh bruises.


Denys reports that he doesn't remember leaving the building.
''All I recall is a voice, screaming. I..I thought it was Evie calling for me, Dorgio. I don't know...so confused now."

[ewancummins]

THE BALLROOM-
Denys brings down a mechanical clock to keep time, set to chime at dawn. He places the coffer-sized device in the middle of the room.

He tells the others--“We’ve got a western exposure, so we can’t count on the sunrise to rouse us.’’


For a little while, the ballroom remains almost quiet as those gathered in the big room try to sleep, dossed out among blankets and pillows laid on the floor (no bed frames, lest the shadowy foe hide beneath those). Some trick of acoustics amplifies the sound of the clock’s mechanism over the snores and whispers of the people.

Tick tock

Tick tock

Tick Tock

And then it starts again, with Abigail the maid shrieking hysterically. She tries to run out of the room, but the investigators are able to intercept her. When she calms, she remembers nothing except the image of a burned face, and the sound of terrible mocking laughter.

“Mister Dodds” never openly shows himself, but a few times in the night the watchers catch a glimpse of a shadow moving out of place—or perhaps that’s just fatigue and overactive imaginations at work. At least a dozen more sudden outbursts of ‘madness’ occur during the long, wearisome night; fights break out for no apparent reason, women waken screaming and run out of the room, men mumble darkly about strange and terrible things—things that they have forgotten minutes later.

Hardly anyone can sleep for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a stretch; many cannot sleep at all. Jonas cries inconsolably for hours on end, till even Charlotte loses her patience with the boy. She spanks him—which only makes him cry more. More than once, Benn thrashes violently in his bedding, only to wake clutching at the air. Denys sits a vigil beside the broken window, staring out into the darkness and drinking cup after cup of black coffee.

Only the physician sleeps soundly—be he snores so loudly that no one near him can sleep for the noise he makes.

When the clock finally chimes the arrival of day, the western view through the tall windows shows only a gray misty twilight. The morning bells call more people to sleep than to waking, as the exhausted and nervous folk settle in for a good day’s sleep.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Everline sleeps without twitching. In fact, she lies like one of the dead, apart from the whispers. Anyone who comes close enough can hear her words - and will most likely wish they hadn't.

"The first argent law states... filthy bastard, carve off your burned face... that which is incorporeal tears before that which is force... shred you to pieces, screaming in the void... Wormschild's First and Second Laws... kill you kill you kill you kill you... proper application of these laws requires the more modern formulae developed in Dementlieu... shatter your bones, shred your filthy soul... yes, professor, classic applications of thse laws were flawed due to an imperfect understanding by Wormschild's last surviving apprentice, who took Wormschild's books from his ruined tower... you have run out of tomorrows, so I vow... kill you ill you kill you... did the apprentice murder Wormschild in his advanced age... none of the books will say who killed.. killed... kill... kill... kill..."

And so it goes on, until Everline's body finally gives a violent start in late morning, and she rises to her feet in a series of painful-looking movements, her joints creaking. She blinks a few times, then rasps: "Hungry. Thirsty. Everyone... alive?"