Chapter 3: The Hidden Floor

General Summary

The group advances slowly up the stairs. The air here smells different, of age and rot. These rooms were never elaborate – but age has brought them close to collapse. The lamps here are unlit. There are are several rooms, leading off a central landing. Lancelot is ordered to stay put proves unruly, bounding ahead of the group, clearly glad of the company. One of the rooms is locked from the outside. The remainder are open. The largest is opened by a cautious DCBC. The room takes up the whole length of the roof (for they are now in the roof) on one side of the house. It is filled with objects, under white dust sheets. Slowly and carefully, the group begin removing the sheets. A rocking chair, Candelbra, a birds cage. Under one is a chest which Ichabod manages to open – inside are the bones and bloodstained dress of maid. The dress shows stab wounds. Vass pulls the cloth down from the tallest object, revealing a vivid, gaudy statue displaying a tall cloaked man, with pale skin and dark hair. In his outstretched hand is a glass orb. Vass touches it, and asked Ichabod what he makes of it. There is something. Some divination magic? It looks ordinary enough, a spell focus perhaps. As vass turns to pocket it, he notices his shadow flit away from the wall it was on….then grow larger, as it pounces. The shadows of each of the group betray them, more and more entering the fray and draining Alryic and Ichabod of their Strength – until eventually Vass makes the connection. Did this start when he touched the strange globe? He takes it from his pocket and smashes it on the ground. The group, beaten down but alive, finish off the last of the dark spectres. The remaining open rooms are searched revealing nothing significant. Ichabod fingers the key taken from the corpse of Mr Durst, and eyes the lock to the final room. Nerves on edge from the shadow attack, he turns the key and bursts into the room, preparing to attack anything that moves…. Instead, he stumbles over a pile of bones. Children’s bones. The bodies of Rose and Thorn lie, decomposed and skeletal on the ground, holding hands. On two small beds either side of the room, Rose and Thorn sit, full bodied, confused and sad. Thorn is crying and clutching his bear. Rose is looking at the bones, as if realising for the first time what they mean. The children describe how their Mother was angry and took Walter downstairs, and how their father, crazed at this realisation, had locked the children in the upstairs bedroom. He told them he would be back. They still think he might come back. They still worry for Walter. They still hear noises from the basement. After some probing, Rose points to the dolls house in the corner of the room, which is a replica of the Durst’s house. There is a secret passage descending from the 3rd floor corridor down to a basement level. That is where Elizabeth took Walter, the children think. The group rest to consider their options, then make to leave the room and descend. They owe the children that much. Rose and Thorn grow desperate as they cross the threshold of the room. Emploring the group to allow them to come with them, Rose’s spirit enters Ichabod, and Thorn’s enters Alryic. They feel their presence as their spirits intertwine. Alyric feels Thorn’s presence, growing close to tears. He is…scared. Ichabod feels Rose’s presence, and steels his will. Noone can tell him what to do – he knows what’s best for the group.

Report Date

19 Nov 2024