Chapters 4-9: Into darkness

General Summary

The group descends into the basement. They encounter ghouls – freakish contortions of once living men and women, scraps of black garb clinging to their rotting flesh. They are dispatched after a tough battle, in which Alyric and Barnard slow their approach by upending a large table. The basement is a warren, filled with tombs (including those of the Children – Rose and Thorn – which lie empty), and their parents – also empty… Further investigation reveals a rotting smell, growing as the group makes there way into a room grander than most. The body of Mrs Durst sits waiting on a rotting four poster bed. She opens her eyes and hisses – uttering foul things at the intruders. Seeing the rest of them though, she keeps her distance. The group keeps investigating – Esper separating herself from the bulk in the hope of maintaining a safe distance. As the group stumble on more ghouls, Esper opens a door back the way they had come – only to find herself confronted by Mrs Durst – salivating. A fight ensues. The group descend further downwards, and the noise of chanting fills their ears. An outer chamber is encircled by cultish objects – a dagger, a feather, a toy, a claw – the group passes through, seeing an iron gate barring entrance to a large chamber. The voices come from there. The dog Lancelot follows at the groups heels, bravely. Half the group circle round, finding more living quarters – various items are discovered here in footlockers. Esper discovers the body of a dead Wizard – and takes his spellbook. She notes the presence of a secret door in the wall – adjacent to the main room. She opens it and observes the room – columned, with a circumference of raised walkway – the floor covered in water, surrounding a central raised plinth and…and alter? She watches the group open the main iron gate and signals her presence. As they enter, the gate slams shut behind them. The group cross over to the plinth – and as soon as they do so, black robed figures surround them on the walkway, chanting ‘He comes. He comes. ONE MUST DIE’ over and over. The altar is clearly sacrificial – a rusted bloody dagger lies in its centre, surrounded by bloodied rags. But the group doesn’t think twice – they make to leave. The water ripples. From a cavernous fissue in the back wall, a rippling mound of flesh and bone and rot emerges from the water, roaring in anger. Rose and Thorn scream into Alryic and Ichabods minds – ‘RUN!’. They do. Ichabod fiddles the gates mechanism opening it enough for the group to exit – while Esper vanishes back out of the secret doorway. They run for the stairs – but are surrounded by an inpenetrable darkness, clearly magical – remembering the route out – the group stumbles forwards. The house groans and crumbles – it is coming down around them. Back in the main basement upstairs, the group pelts along a corridor – only to realise at the last second, they are running into a spike trap. Everyone but Alyric jumps over successfully, but Alyric stumbles, winding himself, and holds the group up for valuable seconds. Seeing no other option the group climbs back up to the attic. The house is clearly on the verge of collapse. Smoke issues from the fireplaces, blades whirl in doorways, the beams and plaster are crumbling. The group makes for the nurses suite – where they know a balcony to the outside lies. As you rush towards the door, you hear woman shout out, "Tell me to push, one more time, Inala! One more time, I swear to the Morninglord!" but her curses are quickly consumed by cries of pain. You peek into the room: women crowd around a young girl laying in the bed, her feet up. Her face twists with pain while a midwife says, "The baby's coming, but - Gods, it's ankles first!" The balcony—the only way out of this accursed manor—lies nearby, and with frustrated horror, you see that the door has been replaced with bloodied scythe blades that seem to spin even quicker whenever the girl's contractions rage. The group dives through, injuring themselves but seeing no other option. Over the edge of the balcony, a 1000ft chasm confronts them. Ichabod see’s it for what it must be – surely – and illusion. He hopes. “Come with me. Jump!” Alryic doesn’t question him, but the other three are hesitant – too late – the two figures dive off and plummet out of sight. They feels the spirits of Rose and Thorn, crying out, desperate with pain and frief and loneliness and fear – they feel their desire to be at rest – as they are wrenched from their bodies as they fall. The others turn back through the blades and run downstairs. They run past the master suite, catching a flicker of other figures in the room. They run past dumb waiters spitting columns of fire, and fireplaces emitting toxic fumes. In the foyer – to their horror – the main door is being magically bricked up. They run and dive through, just making it past the blades and brick as the house finally collapses around them. Outside, the three stand, filthy and in pain, and the house crumbles to dust. Above them, Ichabod and Alryic float to the ground, supported by skeletal parachutes of Ichabod’s making. A light rain falls, and the mist closes in around them. … The group make their way along the road away from Durst house. The weapons and armour they were using had crumbled to rust as the house collapsed -but some items, those preserved in chests or on the bodies of recent travellers, stayed intact. They discover a body on the road. It has been disembowelled, and has no lower jaw. Inside its pocket is a letter.



Further along the road houses emerge from the mists. Miserable, dark, windows barred. The noise of a woman wailing pierces the silence. A tavern stands out as the only light in the dark. Inside the ‘Blood on the Vine’ tavern, a vacant barman cleans glasses, 3 old women drink by the fire casting dirty look sat the group, and a few men sit drinking alone. A dejected young man drinks at the bar and approaches the group. His name is Ismaark Kolyanovich, son of the recently deceased burgomaster, Kolyan. If the group will hear him out he needs some assistance in a task and can pay – 50 SP. The price seems low, but he is desperate and the group follow him to his home. On the doorstep, the knocks and a beautiful young woman with flame red hair answers – shocked at the presence of the group, the stands back – but does not invite anyone in. Ismaark crosses the threshold and does the same. When the whole group has crossed, they explain that they are being cautious, not impolite. They explain that a Vampire lives in a castle close to the village, that he has dominion over the whole of the land, and that it is his curse that has sunken the land into its present despair. Vampires must be invited into a property – they cannot enter unbidden: thus the doorway theatrics.

Report Date

19 Nov 2024