Log:This Spooky Old House: Exploration Edition, Part 2

This Spooky Old House 2020/07/06 	 Felix Bran Kid Tengu Blink Phantom

2

All the teens present seem to have agreed to head into this Spooky Old House. Whether it's to get of the grounds which seem to be sprouting skeletons (maybe a little less than a dozen are tottering out of the woods on the edge of the cleared yard) or to get away from translucent figure of Chalmers Hornbeck who seems to be holding tight to something while shouting soundlessly at you all, or simply out of that curiosity that motivates a cat, Code Dark plus 1 although presently minus the fashionably late Tessa heads up the walkway.

It curves slightly as it approaches the house with well maintained bushes alternately from one side to the other. The air here is still heavy with unseen eyes and it's cooler and dimmer inside these fenced in grounds than outside the property. (Game Effects: Cooler and dimmer: -1 Temp Level and -1 PER Sight plus CReepy: -3 PRE)

"I don't suppose anyone can understand that Chalmers is saying? I'm really starting to worry about that," Phantom says as she tugging on his leg stops.

Felix looks over at Chalmers Hornbeck who continues to silently shout. It's apparent by the way the ghost's head is tracking you all that he's aware of you. But, he seems to be holding onto something and struggling a little against an invisisble wind tugging at his arms and towards the closed door of the house.

"Can any of you read lips?" Felix asks.

Bran shakes his head, "I can't, I'm afraid. Sorry."

"Based on what happened before, do you think that's a good idea, Phantom? NIght Hound was holding you before, right?" He then stops for a moment as his gaze goes to Chalmers Hornbeck. "Which I bet is what he's doing. I bet he's holding onto someone. To keep them from getting sucked into the house."

KT springs ahead, lashing out his arms and yanking himself forward, giving himself enough momentum to catch up to Summer as she heads for the front porch. There he reaches to get the door, visibly armoring up before he does so. His bronze skin takes on a chitinous texture and he bulks up a bit more to better provide protection for those behind him.

He stops focusing on that and looks back to the others. He shakes his head. "I can't either... not reliably anyway."

He smiles at Phantom and nods. "You got it." He says as he moves to stand right next to Phantom. He even becomes a copy of Phantom- just bigger.

Bran looks confused. "So...are we going inside?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he's holding on to Night Hound. I can sense their minds together. Which...is weird, because it means Chalmers isn't affected," Phantom says and turns his head Chalmer's way. He sighs and looks to Bran. "I guess so. The house's mind retreated deeper. I think you and I can at least affect it while the others deal with physical threats. We just got to find it again. I just wish I knew what Chalmers was yelling."

BLAMF

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

"Who's yelling about what?" Blink asks through a mouthful of chips. She's being professional, now, though, and left the bag elsewhere. Possibly in a hidden pocket in her suit. Why most people never seem to think to put pockets in theirs, she'll never know.

"Warning, danger Will Phantom, danger!" mutters Felix under his breath.

"I assume you're referring to Blink and -not- the skeletons in the garden," Phantom says dryly to Felix.

Felix gives a tilt of his head that matches, for those who know him well, a mild glare and frown if his face was uncovered to Phantom. "Heya Tessa. We're ab out to go into the haunted house following fearless leader. Also, can you lip read? Cause it'd be good to know what Casper's saying, maybe."

(repose) Felix gives a tilt of his head that matches, for those who know him well, a mild glare and frown if his face was uncovered to Phantom. "Heya Blink. We're ab out to go into the haunted house following fearless leader. Also, can you lip read? Cause it'd be good to know what Casper's saying, maybe."

It's very hard to make contact with Chalmers mind. Well, not difficult to contact it but difficult to get into his mind. In the end, you succeed only becuase you think he lowers some hefty defenses. It is, well, ghostly in his surface thoughts, his thoughts strong but somehow distant. "Yes?"

"What are you trying to tell us?" Phantom asks aloud and directly to Chalmer's mind.

Blink swallows her mouthful of chips. "Haunted house? Nice..." She looks to the house, then around her associates. "Are we solving a mystery? Did anybody bring a big, scaredy dog? And what's the deal with the dirty dozen boners shambling this way?" A helpful point at the skeletons is offered, in case nobody had noticed them before. "If they're hungry and looking for brains, they're going to be really disappointed."

"That you kids are in mortal danger! Harrington's still in there and quite powerful. He means to take your hearts and consume your souls! Just leave here and have the place burned then exorcised!" replies the ghost to Phantom mentally.

KT notices the mention of the dog again. He looks forward to understanding the way of Scooby. He shrugs at Blink, not knowing why humans require this mascot for mystery solving.

"At a guess, I think they just want to kill us, Blink," mutters Felix, nervously tapping his staff against the ground. "Can we at least put a door between them and us?"

"Ah. Well." Phantom stops and turns to the others. "Seems Harrington's the one in the house, and he wants to take our hearts and consume our souls," he delivers the line rather helpfully. "He suggests we torch the place and get out. But we were able to hurt this guy and make him run away. I think he's running scared. I think we could free the spirits trapped here."

Bran nods. "So...let's head inside, then. Seems pretty...cut and dry, right?" He goes to head for the door.

As Bran approaches the door, it opens for an instaqnt to reveal a blood drenched figure of a man then slams shut with a boom!

"That did not look dry to me." KT notes before taking a long deep breath, and puffing his chest up- playfully trying to look cartoon brave.

Bran shakes his head, "So...it doesn't want us to come inside?"

Bran mutters, "It's like the opposite of a cat. Wants you to come inside...and wants you to stay outside."

"Funny, because I thought it wanted us inside so it could consume us. See? Scared," Phantom concludes, laughing at Bran's analysis of its cat-like nature. He had the benefit of not really seeing it directly with his eyes. Sometimes being blind has its benefits. "So...KT, think you can force that door open?"

"I don't think he gets a choice being dead," murmurs Felix as he comes up beside Bran then tries to open the door. It doesn't budge. "Really? C'mon, you dead ass jerk, either you want us in or not." He hits the door with his staff then steps back to let KT deal with the door.

"Oh yes... I can definitely do that." KT says with a confident nod. He watches Felix bang with his staff while he pulls out two extra arms for the job. He sets a pair on either side of the door, letting trillions of microscopic hairs weave their way across the rough door, clinging to it before moves to yank it off its hinges.

The house feels cold to Kid Tengu's touch, cold as a grave. But, on a physical level, doesn'te resist in any way.

The doors tougher than it looks but you can easily pull it off its hinges and do with it as you will, Kid Tengu.

As you rip to door off, a bloodcurdling scream of pain and rage rises from the house.

Bran furrows hsi brow, "Is the house itself a living thing?"

KTs eyes widen in surprise as the house screams.

He looks back at the others uncertainly, afraid of the anwer to Bran's question.

'What does a door even coorelate to for a solid? A Mouth? Did I jsu trip its lip off?' he wonders to himself while looking for an answer from the others before shaking it off and heading inside.

To Phantom mentally comes the message from Chalmers. "Well, your heroes I see. So be it. Harrington is on the third floor probably. I don't know the way up to it. Be careful! He's a killer."

Felix shakes his head. "Um, no idea." He glances into the darkened hallways revealed then puts on a pair of steampunk style goggles. "I still can't sense any magick about this place."

"It sort of has a mind of its own. But I'm guessing this Harrington guy's ghost is bonded to the house now? Spirits are weird," Phantom opines, trying to hype himself up to go inside. His head turns to Chalmer and nods, and relays the message to the others. "Seems the spirit behind all this is on the third floor. And he's a killer of course, so...we make a beeline there and deal with him?" He looks in Felix's direction. "Really? That's even weirder. Is this all just a rigged illusion or something?" He's the voluntold team leader, so he takes a breath and starts to step towards the door.

The front door opens into a very short hallway, more an entryway than anything else. As Phantom steps in entryway a large mirror on the the wall opposte the door starts to bleed. Letters are formed by the streams of blood that state: GET OUT!

A doorway lies to the right and an open archway opens into a large room on the left.

"Alright well it can't be that far to the third floor, right?" KT reasons looking around. His eyes hang on the mirror well past the time it takes for him to read it.

He takes a step back and then away, deeper into the house to try to find the stairs.

The interior of the house just feels wrong, offputting, oppressive. Even moreso than the outside. At times there are spots of cold which cause your breath to steam.

Bran snorts, "Burning the place down doesn't seem like such a bad idea."

The room beyond the archway is mostly empty. The only items of note are a baby grand piano in the southwest corner, a large fireplace with wooden mantle in the center of the west wall, an archway to another room in the center of the north wall and a closed door just a few feet from the archeay leading in on the west wall.

Phantom gets an extended view of that mirror thanks to Kid Tengu. He pats his teammate on the shoulder. "Right. Just need to go up. And we stick together," he reminds. He casts a grin Bran's way. "We probably should by the end, but...I think the cops would consider it a crime. We tell them it's haunted, I doubt they'd believe us."

As Felix crosses the threshold of the house, he lets out a moan. "Oh, that's...OK, /now/ I can feel the magick...It's cold and tastes like blood...Ugh..."

Summer decided to stay on the porch and keep any skeletons out. She bounces in anticipation.

Bran points to a door in the living rooom. "Someone in there. Or it sounds like it. Maybe this house can generate random noises?"

Phantom nods along with Bran. "Could be," he says quietly. "We should be prepared for anything. Might be more skeletons in here, too. Or it might be a distraction to keep us from going up."

The doorknob of the door Bran just pointed at turns, then the door slowly opens seemingly of its own accord. All of you can hear footsteps now, like several people climbing the stairs. The doorway beyond is pitch black.

KT nods at Phantom's gentle comforting pat on the shoulder. At the mention of them all sticking together he sprouts a tail- one long enough to trail behind him 10 meters. It convienently clings to each member of their party to make sure they do all stay togetter.

At the reveal of the pitch black area beyond the door KT takes a long blink and his eyes change to something closer to his Abraxxian lineage- perfect for seeing in the dark.

Those who can perceive either through Night Vision or Spatial Perceptions outside the norm, can see three figures nearly at the top of the stairs. All of them seem to be wrapped in ripped plastic sheeting. Their emaciated bodies seem coated in some white powder which drifts down from their grasping hands as they stumble up the stairs. IN all, hard to tell if they're just zombies or plastic wrapped mummies. In any case, they don;t look friendly.

Kid Tengu moves to block the doorway seeing what's beyond.

"Oh- plastic-wrapped mummies. Is that... like to keep them fresh... or... is this some kind of 'thing' I'm not understanding?" He asks the others.

His four arms come up defensively as he holds his ground.

"They're definitely dead right? So is this a punch it til it stops moving situation... or somehting else?" He inquires, clearly uncertain about things after the door hinge let out such a ghastly scream. He isn't a paranormal hero and is well out of his element!

Bran nods. "Probably a 'hit it' situation. I don't think I'll be able to hurt their minds if they're zombies."

Felix says, "Smash them, KT!" shouts Felix as he reaches back into his tactical backpack."

Kid Tengu nods. "Alright- one bonegrinder coming up!" The shifter stretches his arms out a bit and cocks one across his chest and over his shoulder before hurling it forward at the nearest zombro. He strikes hoping to crash one into another.

Phantom nods slowly with Bran's assessment. "You're right. There's no mind to attack in them." He hunches his shoulders briefly before straightening them out again. I can feel Harrington's mind. Not close enough to attack yet. But I can feel him watching us throughout the house. Kid Tengu, Felix, Bran and I are gonna need your help getting to the third floor and to Harrington's mind so we can do something."

KT's strike is one target and while they don't go bowling over this way and that he does knock all three of them off their feet.

The first one even creaks as its struck and folds against his strike.

"Woah- these things are way tougher than they look..." He says as he realizes.

Bran nods in agreement wiht Phantom, since he knows he likely can't affect the zombies mentally. And if anything he'll be a detriment if he gets knocked out.

Felix slips his metallic-looking staff into the crook of his arm as he pulls out a glwiong green rune incribed crystal sphere. "A to bhe b to the cube root of 4, over the pi of the sum we divide" he shouts as he tosses it into the air. The sphere darts about, flies over the heads of the lime encrusted zombies on the stairs then explodes. Small tears rips into time space damaging everything in the contained area.

Phantom looks to Bran with a faint grin and a shrug. "We could kick the shick out of the walls?" he suggests.

All of the zombies get a number small holes ripped into them. Sadly, only the first zombie, the one KT dirstcly hit, stops moving. The others are struggling to their feet.

Blink hmms at the Zaplocked zombies on the stairs. What to do... There is the old saying about music and savage beasts... "Is that an antique piano?" she asks no one in particular. *BLAMF-BLAMF* Yes, it was. Now it's an antique piano over one of the zombie's heads... with nothing to support it.

As the piano drops, an enraged scream echoes through the house.

In case anyone ever wished to know the sound an antique Steinway Baby Grand makes when falling on some plastic-wrapped zombies... well, mystery solved.

Croonch, in the key of B flat.

Phantom cringes at the awful sounds. At least it was effective.

KT turns to Blink and offers one of his many limbs to offer daps with one hand while the other stretches forward into the darkness- seemingly fearlessly.

For those who can sense anything, his hand seems to be going for something specific in the ruins of the Steinway.

KT pulls out a leather bound bundle tied with a dark brown silk ribbon. It's about the size of one of those plastic paper protectors.

KT hands the thing off to Bran. He's too busy being the attack alien to read and/or open bundles.

Bran takes a look at the item. "What is this thing?"

It's quite thin, Bran, a smooth fine dark leather bound closed by dark brown band of silk. The initial D.H. are on the outside and it feels like there's paper inside.