Phase 2


Upon returning from their first searches, and inspecting their acquisitions, they determined a brand new plan. More knowledge leads to more questions, like the branches of a tree leading to more branches, leaves, and fruit. What they wanted was fruit, but they feared the thorns. Lola Richards (Myrddraal), continued feeling a sense of déjà vu she could not explain, "We have to be careful, I have a terrible feeling about this place... it's haunted. It's evil!"

Jake Kelly (Montmorency) continued with his planning, "We need four teams, one to find some food, I know I'm not the only person who's stomach is growling. Also a team to explore those other doors in the hallway, one to thoroughly check that bedroom complex, and another to check out that secret bathroom."

"Who has secret bathrooms, that's so odd." Bradley Palmer (El Barto) added plainly. Truly it is an interesting notion, privacy was clearly important to the original owner.

Lola spoke up again, "Okay, Charlie (Golden1Knight), you come with me, we're getting some food. Anybody else want to come?"

Bradley and Hayden Hicks (autolycus), who had woken up shortly after the original teams left, also volunteered.

Hollie Daniels (Winston Hughes) also had an idea, "We can try using the alcohol on the blank books to see if we can reveal the invisible ink too."

"Great, see what you can find!" Jake responded.

"Use the mirror to look around corners and under doors, if there's anything dangerous out there, we want to see them first!" Kyle Bevan (Ironside) added. He handed it to Leon Cartwright (seireikhaan), the designated "door opener" for the Kitchen Team.

Once they had convened, they departed once more, in hopes of learning more, escaping this mansion, and surviving. A tall order.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Team Bedroom

The team of 3, Corey, Jake, and Kyle chose to more thoroughly search the bedroom, closet, and bathroom that was discovered earlier. Upon entering the room, still using caution of course, they thoroughly checked the room again for useful items, clues, anything that could help them.

"Guys, look over here!" Corey said as he found a small tear in the carpet next to the bed. He folded it back as the others watched to reveal a small secret compartment. The wooden door opened to a small cache of .38 caliber ammunition and a small key.

"Goes to that revolver from the library?" Asked Jake.

"Maybe." Kyle answered, his knowledge in mechanics leaning him toward the obvious choice to handle the ammo.

"What about the key?" He asked as she stood up holding it.

The other two shrugged, and He pocketed it for later.

Upon further searching, they found nothing of note, the closet was just a closet, and the bathroom. Standard.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Team Explore

At the same time the three entered the bedroom, three others determined to search the doors opposite them. Faith Faulkner (GeneralHankerchief), Kieran Hurst (Greyblades), and Callum Simmons (Choxorn) composed this group.

Being the medical extraordinaire by comparison to the rest of the strangers, Faith remained in between the other two, and Kieran opened the door as Callum waited in the rear.

Using caution after hearing silence, Kieran snuck into the dark room and flipped on the light. Inside revealed a fairly decent sized room consisting of primarily similar padded leather chairs and small tables. At the end of the room, a small fireplace.

"A sitting room!" Faith said once she entered, followed by Callum. They fanned out, looking for oddities and anything of interest. Some lighter fluid sit in a blue bottle next to the fireplace, and some matches on the mantle. Disappointed after searching for several hours, they determined the room was just a bare shell used by the owner to rest and perhaps socialize.

"Let's go into the door on the end now, this place has nothing for us." Concluded Callum and the other two followed, one carrying the lighter fluid and matches. They approached the end of the hallway, hearing the team in the bedroom as they passed the door. "Okay, last door!" Callum whispered looking back at the other two. He opened the door, and the light from the hallway revealed a small broom closet. Inside lie an old broom, dust pan, strange patterned wallpaper uncharacteristic to the rest of the rooms, and the smell of dust compiling for years, maybe even decades.

They glanced in, saw nothing, looked at each other and grabbed the broom. Possible weapon? They made their way back down the hall...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

TeamStudy

Left behind to investigate the books, notes, etcetera were Leo Webb (Beskar), Hollie, and Jack Foster (Jarema). Also left behind was Elizabeth Banks (johnhughthom) who had fallen unconscious at the thought of there being monsters downstairs (inactive - no PM ).

Firstly, Jack drug a bookshelf outside the door with the help of Leo and set it near the staircase in case of a pursuit. He also set himself up a chair to act as a watch for the groups.

Secondly, Leo and Hollie went to work on the oddities they had found.

"So, we have three books with no words, a note with some symbols on it, and these notes written backwards. Also interesting stuff, this reddish magnifying glass and that alcohol they found in the bathroom." Hollie analyzed.

Leo responded, "Easiest thing to start with is the backwards writing, let's go to the bathroom."

They stepped in with the notes and held them in front of the mirror. Suddenly the backwards writing was legible, "It's just notes for a business. Profit and loss, marketing schemes." Leo said. He shifted through the pages staring into the mirror, "Strange it would be backw.... wait."

He stopped, Hollie grew more attentive, "What?"

He started to read, "Finally a v.. vi... damn! Can't read this, it's smudged..."

Continuing, he read, "It will be... chaos... a pandemic! And only I will hold the cure..."

Leo stopped, looked at Hollie, eyes wide. "P... pandemic?" She asked.

"This is bad, we have to tell the others!" Leo said frantically, "But while we wait, we might as well check out the other stuff..."

They investigated the books, tried pouring the alcohol on several pages, which revealed nothing. Tried using the magnifying glass with and without the alcohol, still nothing. They looked closely, it appeared to have raises of invisible ink, and if there was, they didn't have the knowledge or the tools to read it.

Finally the note with symbols on it, a series of 3 symbols. The first, a circle with a horizontal line through it. The second, an eagle's head with a lightning bolt over it, and third a triangle missing one of its corners.

"This is odd..." Hollie said after glancing at it, "any ideas?"

Leo looked too, "Of course, first the sun is gonna be split in half, then a giant lightning bird is gonna come out of it and bite off the top of an Egyptian pyramid." he said with a smirk.

The sarcastic response was just what Hollie needed, her nerves were fried...

They chose to wait and see what the group thought, and continued searching the Study and Secret Bathroom. Hollie yelled for Leo, "Come quick!"

He came into the bathroom where she was searching and she revealed a slit in the wall that they had not seen before. Feeling around, he felt a keyhole beneath the wallpaper and ripped it off.

They had revealed a full sized door nearly invisible, locked and held only by a keyhole. "Guess we need to find a key..." Leo said.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Team Kitchen

The five designated to find the food determined the kitchen must be downstairs, but fear of what Corey said he had heard before filled them with fear. As a team of unarmed men and women, they felt the need to be on their guard and use stealth as best as a team of 5 could.

"Charlie and I will lead, Leon will be the door opener. Bradley have our backs and Hayden hang back." Lola ordered, the office machine operator exercising her people skills.

They crept down the stairs, each step popping and cracking as most old stairways do. They attempted to be as quiet as they could, but five sets of feet on old wood can hardly travel silently.

Once they reached the bottom, they waited for sounds of movement. They heard light activity of the teams upstairs, and also the light buzz wings. They smelt something rancid, but also faint. The house was also unnaturally dark. They reached over and found a light switch. Holding their breath, on their guard, they flipped on the light. Only a brief moment of light existed before the bulb popped and burnt out, but what they saw terrified them.

About a dozen bodies lie on the floor in what appeared to be a very large room. The end of the room looked like a foyer for coats and hats and a large door. Also several smaller doors dotted each side of what appeared to be the Great Room. But the bodies were what caught their attention.

Not sure if what they saw were dead bodies or living, they waited for sounds once again. Five... ten... fifteen seconds went by, and still nothing. In near perfect darkness, Lola whispered, "Let's head back." They started creeping back up the stairs when a strong hand grabbed Leon's ankle causing him to trip.

He started yelling for help, attempting to get up. The others looked, unable to see his attacker in the darkness, and went to help him when he started screaming louder.

"It's biting me!!!" He screeched. The others frantically ripped him up and out of the hostile's grasp and they hurried up the stairs.

"Jack! Jack! Get ready!" Lola yelled, and once they had gotten up onto the floor Jack tipped the bookshelf over to barricade the stairwell. Without waiting to see if anything was pursuing, they all ran back into the Study, luckily the other teams had returned as well...

"Quick check his leg!" Lola barked, and Faith inspected the bite. "Bandages now! He's bleeding a lot, but I don't think the Achilles was severed!" They banded together as a team in hopes to save Leon's leg.

Lola stopped as Faith worked and stepped back, muttering something.

Leo and Hollie understood what she said, "The virus..."