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karohemdPreviously
In this double entry, a church is damaged, the "restless dead" released, parlour games played, a body is found and a mighty beast is slain in our dreams.
Episode 5
As it was only late afternoon we (including the Reverend who had come out from his room to join us again) thought we could try and find a lead on Dr Parsons so headed down to the pub. It was quite empty but "Smelly" Jim was there (the old mad codger who thought he could smell odd things in the churchyard) propping up one end of the bar and muttering to himself. Prof. Carter went and talked to him. I asked the landlord about Parsons and while he hadn't been to the pub in a while (since the day he tried to leave) he had asked about anyone enquiring about him. I obviously asked the landlord to not mention us (and gave him a good tip). Then I spotted Jim (bowler hat, piercing blue eyes, you remember the chap), shall we call him "Bowler Hat Jim", lurking outside the window so I went outside and followed him around the corner. We had a brief conversation about Dr Parsons and that none of us had been able to spot him. He also insisted that the box and the ball belonged together and that as soon as we had them, he would take them back to their rightful owners. I pride myself a good judge of character and I slowly begin to think that Jim's concerns are genuine and that we should trust him. We'll see. Anyway, we also agreed to meet the following morning with the aim to find Dr Parsons, possibly in one of the abandoned houses on the island.
Back in the pub a mad plan was hatched with Smelly Jim. The Professor wanted to do some excavating in the churchyard both to find the source of the mysterious smell (which he claimed to be able to smell, too) and to have a look at that curious dilapitated tomb. Jim was obviously part of the plan as he would be able to locate the source of the smell best. So it was decided to meet up with Smelly Jim by the church after we'd gone back to the castle to get tools and, well, weapons might come in handy, too.
Back at the castle, everything was in order, even William was up and about but understandably still under shock. While the others got ready and then headed to the church, I decided to stay behind and keep William company. We enjoyed a fine supper and talked about our adventures which seemed to cheer him up a bit.
Just as a rather nice blackberry crumble was served, there was a ruccus outside and the front door was thrown open. I had a look and spotted Thomas, Robert, the Reverend and the Professor just throwing the door shut and bolting it as well as instructing Jenkins to shutter the windows. They all looked shocked, especially Professor Carter, and were shouting and babbling about abominations and the walking dead. It took a while to get a coherent thought out of them but it finally became clear that they dug at the church wall and found a very deep grave, covered by the original front stone of that tomb face down. There was a well-preserved wooden lid that had suddenly be shattered and a hand had emerged at which point even the Professor started to run. Everyone was accounted for and unhurt, thankfully. Smelly Jim had apparently fled towards the village, to the pub most likely. We weren't really worried that he might blab about some of us digging at the church and even if he did, it was unlikely that anyone would believe him.
So another mad plan was hatched. After making sure the house was secure, we (William's friends without William or the house staff) took all the weapons we could find, lights etc. and headed towards the church. Robert made a big fuss about ordering us around to make sure we wouldn't shoot each other and cover as much ground as possible. We arrived at the church without seeing anything on our way but there was a flicker of light in the church and the sound of broken glass when we got closer so we hurried towards the churchyard.
It all gets a bit muddled from here so excuse me if things aren't quite in order.
Outside the church, we spotted a ... thing with red glowing eyes by the old tomb but it disappeared before we got a good look at it. There was some noise from inside so we went around and inside. There was no one inside but the church wasn't in a good state, various windows were broken and things were strewn about. We split up and a good look around and just as I wanted to move the curtain to the clocktower aside, I heard a shout from behind me. Another one of those things had dropped from the ceiling and attacked carter, biting him in and almost through the upper arm. It was an ugly thing, human in shape but not more than skin and bones, maggot-eaten and horrible, with those eyes glowing with an unholy fire. There was a scuffle and then a shotgun blast and the thing fled out of the window.
Quite flustered, we searched the church and found what was left of the pastor all over his quarters. Poor man. What were those things and why on Earth did Carter dig them up? We did not know but now had to deal with them. The grave was outside the church and apparently there were still more of them in there so Dunbar poured a can of petrol into it and threw a match. After a sizeable fireball, we all fled because we really didn't want to get caught causing another fire. Supporting Professor Carter between us, we made our way back to the castle. We heard voices and saw lights coming up from the village so we extinguished our lights and continued in darkness. We arrived at the castle without incident and nobody followed us, either.
Back and safe in the drawing room, we pondered what to do and decided to wait it out. After the events of the evening, nobody had any desire to investigate anything should we wake up in the odd place again so we agreed on camping out in the drawing room, only Jenkins and the cook went to their quarters. Sure enough, shortly after we'd fallen asleep we were awake again. The main door to the lobby was shut but the other one opened into a square room, with one door each for the servants and one that most likely led to the broken city. We shut the door and spend time playing cards, dominoes and parlour games until we fell asleep again.
Episode 6
Morning dawned and all was back to normal. Well, at least with the house. Dunbar reported that smoke was coming from the church and a lot of people were milling around there. Thankfully, no mob bearing torches and pitchforks had yet turned up at our doorstep so we seemed safe from suspicion. Until there was a knock on the door. True enough it was the constable, clearly distraught but he didn't come with accusations but was mainly concerned with our well-being and if we had seen anything. Even Prof. Carter's injury was explained away with an attack by a wild dog.
Now comes the best bit. The current theory as to the cause of the explosion at the church and its partial destruction was an invasion of revolutionary "Red Bolsheviks" bent on the disruption of rural life on the island. Also, various people were injured and some disappeared after townsfolk investigated the church.
During the morning, we split up to look after various clues. Dunbar continued his attempt of losing lots of money at the bookmakers so he might pose as a possible victim for Dr Parsons (someone in need of money to hire), Prof. Carter and Thomas visited the missing maid's fiancee (who didn't know any more than before but had seen Parsons at the bookmakers where he worked once) and Robert and I met up with Blue Eye Jim.
There were far too many people in and around the pub (the whole town was up and about and discussing the night's happenings it seems) so we chose a little cafe further away. Jim still had no clue about Parsons' whereabouts but some clues as to what we encountered at the church. He called them "the Restless Dead". We agreed to another meeting the next day.
There was some hubbub at the docks, people shouting and pointing at one of the boats but it was time to meet the others at the pub so we went there first.
Dunbar had the worst news. A little boy had come up to him saying he needed to show him something at the beach. Turns out it was the maid's body, possibly with a broken neck. Sad news indeed...
He also found out that Parsons had bought quite a lot of provisions and supplies and things like blankets, a mirror, a clothes brush etc. which supported our theory that he had holed up somewhere like a barn, one of the beach huts or even one of the holiday cottages.
The excitement at the docks was due to one of the boats being stolen. Later, we assumed it had been Smelly Jim and the theory that the "Red Zombies" had stolen the boat (the Restless Dead not really known for sailing skills) was dropped.
Back at the castle, the doctor visited, had a good look at Prof. Carter's arm and was extremely surprised at how well his arm had healed already. We then remembered that the good professor had eaten one of those pods from the little bag the dead man at the warehouse had on him. The stuff inside tasted really nice and it seems it has healing properties, too.
As we didn't want to poke around too much and possibly draw unwanted attention to ourselves, we decided to lie low and just relax for an evening. There was also Prof. Carter's arm and Thomas didn't feel well, either (after falling out of his window a few nights ago) so a good rest would do all of us some good. If there was rest...
Oh, I almost forgot, I had a look at Thomas' painting and the "flappy thing" was now sitting on the "tower".
The camping out in one room didn't change anything last night so many of us slept in their own rooms. Sure enough, we woke in a differently configured house with a central room into which all the doors led.
Prof. Carter couldn't be dissuaded from exploring the city beyond one of the doors so we joined him. Oddly, this time we emerged from the tower closest to the central building. The odd and horrible music was still faintly in the air, emanating from the huge central building. We searched a few of the buildings but nothing but a serpent's head carved in a stone. Everything seemed to be quiet and empty so we moved further towards the central area to have a look at one of the bigger buildings. One of the taller ones had some passing resemblance to the "tower" in the painting. Just as in the painting, that giant winged beast was sitting on top and as we looked on, it took off and swooped towards us. We tried to flee, some of us more successful than others and Dunbar decided to face the beast and shoot it with our hunting rifle. He missed, the thing soared down, swinging its huge spiky tail at Dunbar but thankfully missing him, if barely.
The thing soared up again for another pass, Dunbar shoots and hits, definitely injuring the foul beast which was now screaming in agony! I was finally in a good position and emptied both barrels of my shotgun, the combined shot literally tearing off one of its leathery wings making it lose its bearings and fall instead of fly.
Now there was a problem, the thing was coming straight down at where my man Dunbar was standing. I was still a bit dazed from the recoil of my double blast so was unable to help but Robert ran up and tackled Dunbar to the ground, out of the way of the crashing beast. Phew. The vile monster crashed to the ground and didn't get back up again but was still (breathing?) (alive?) howling a little but Robert stepped up again and emptied both barrels of his shotgun into the thing's head. It spluttered and was finally still.
Thomas had just been standing there staring but suddenly he went mad. He screamed and gibbered, throwing himself to the ground, writhing around and trying to dig and eat his way into the hard, stone slabs. The poor arts dealer had to be grabbed by several of us and eventually he calmed down.
Not wanting to hang around much longer and possibly attracting the attention of another one of those things, we hurried back to the tower and the room connected (hopefully, still) to our reality. We were all positively exhausted and retired to our rooms.
Have I forgotten anything? Let me know.
In this double entry, a church is damaged, the "restless dead" released, parlour games played, a body is found and a mighty beast is slain in our dreams.
Episode 5
As it was only late afternoon we (including the Reverend who had come out from his room to join us again) thought we could try and find a lead on Dr Parsons so headed down to the pub. It was quite empty but "Smelly" Jim was there (the old mad codger who thought he could smell odd things in the churchyard) propping up one end of the bar and muttering to himself. Prof. Carter went and talked to him. I asked the landlord about Parsons and while he hadn't been to the pub in a while (since the day he tried to leave) he had asked about anyone enquiring about him. I obviously asked the landlord to not mention us (and gave him a good tip). Then I spotted Jim (bowler hat, piercing blue eyes, you remember the chap), shall we call him "Bowler Hat Jim", lurking outside the window so I went outside and followed him around the corner. We had a brief conversation about Dr Parsons and that none of us had been able to spot him. He also insisted that the box and the ball belonged together and that as soon as we had them, he would take them back to their rightful owners. I pride myself a good judge of character and I slowly begin to think that Jim's concerns are genuine and that we should trust him. We'll see. Anyway, we also agreed to meet the following morning with the aim to find Dr Parsons, possibly in one of the abandoned houses on the island.
Back in the pub a mad plan was hatched with Smelly Jim. The Professor wanted to do some excavating in the churchyard both to find the source of the mysterious smell (which he claimed to be able to smell, too) and to have a look at that curious dilapitated tomb. Jim was obviously part of the plan as he would be able to locate the source of the smell best. So it was decided to meet up with Smelly Jim by the church after we'd gone back to the castle to get tools and, well, weapons might come in handy, too.
Back at the castle, everything was in order, even William was up and about but understandably still under shock. While the others got ready and then headed to the church, I decided to stay behind and keep William company. We enjoyed a fine supper and talked about our adventures which seemed to cheer him up a bit.
Just as a rather nice blackberry crumble was served, there was a ruccus outside and the front door was thrown open. I had a look and spotted Thomas, Robert, the Reverend and the Professor just throwing the door shut and bolting it as well as instructing Jenkins to shutter the windows. They all looked shocked, especially Professor Carter, and were shouting and babbling about abominations and the walking dead. It took a while to get a coherent thought out of them but it finally became clear that they dug at the church wall and found a very deep grave, covered by the original front stone of that tomb face down. There was a well-preserved wooden lid that had suddenly be shattered and a hand had emerged at which point even the Professor started to run. Everyone was accounted for and unhurt, thankfully. Smelly Jim had apparently fled towards the village, to the pub most likely. We weren't really worried that he might blab about some of us digging at the church and even if he did, it was unlikely that anyone would believe him.
So another mad plan was hatched. After making sure the house was secure, we (William's friends without William or the house staff) took all the weapons we could find, lights etc. and headed towards the church. Robert made a big fuss about ordering us around to make sure we wouldn't shoot each other and cover as much ground as possible. We arrived at the church without seeing anything on our way but there was a flicker of light in the church and the sound of broken glass when we got closer so we hurried towards the churchyard.
It all gets a bit muddled from here so excuse me if things aren't quite in order.
Outside the church, we spotted a ... thing with red glowing eyes by the old tomb but it disappeared before we got a good look at it. There was some noise from inside so we went around and inside. There was no one inside but the church wasn't in a good state, various windows were broken and things were strewn about. We split up and a good look around and just as I wanted to move the curtain to the clocktower aside, I heard a shout from behind me. Another one of those things had dropped from the ceiling and attacked carter, biting him in and almost through the upper arm. It was an ugly thing, human in shape but not more than skin and bones, maggot-eaten and horrible, with those eyes glowing with an unholy fire. There was a scuffle and then a shotgun blast and the thing fled out of the window.
Quite flustered, we searched the church and found what was left of the pastor all over his quarters. Poor man. What were those things and why on Earth did Carter dig them up? We did not know but now had to deal with them. The grave was outside the church and apparently there were still more of them in there so Dunbar poured a can of petrol into it and threw a match. After a sizeable fireball, we all fled because we really didn't want to get caught causing another fire. Supporting Professor Carter between us, we made our way back to the castle. We heard voices and saw lights coming up from the village so we extinguished our lights and continued in darkness. We arrived at the castle without incident and nobody followed us, either.
Back and safe in the drawing room, we pondered what to do and decided to wait it out. After the events of the evening, nobody had any desire to investigate anything should we wake up in the odd place again so we agreed on camping out in the drawing room, only Jenkins and the cook went to their quarters. Sure enough, shortly after we'd fallen asleep we were awake again. The main door to the lobby was shut but the other one opened into a square room, with one door each for the servants and one that most likely led to the broken city. We shut the door and spend time playing cards, dominoes and parlour games until we fell asleep again.
Episode 6
Morning dawned and all was back to normal. Well, at least with the house. Dunbar reported that smoke was coming from the church and a lot of people were milling around there. Thankfully, no mob bearing torches and pitchforks had yet turned up at our doorstep so we seemed safe from suspicion. Until there was a knock on the door. True enough it was the constable, clearly distraught but he didn't come with accusations but was mainly concerned with our well-being and if we had seen anything. Even Prof. Carter's injury was explained away with an attack by a wild dog.
Now comes the best bit. The current theory as to the cause of the explosion at the church and its partial destruction was an invasion of revolutionary "Red Bolsheviks" bent on the disruption of rural life on the island. Also, various people were injured and some disappeared after townsfolk investigated the church.
During the morning, we split up to look after various clues. Dunbar continued his attempt of losing lots of money at the bookmakers so he might pose as a possible victim for Dr Parsons (someone in need of money to hire), Prof. Carter and Thomas visited the missing maid's fiancee (who didn't know any more than before but had seen Parsons at the bookmakers where he worked once) and Robert and I met up with Blue Eye Jim.
There were far too many people in and around the pub (the whole town was up and about and discussing the night's happenings it seems) so we chose a little cafe further away. Jim still had no clue about Parsons' whereabouts but some clues as to what we encountered at the church. He called them "the Restless Dead". We agreed to another meeting the next day.
There was some hubbub at the docks, people shouting and pointing at one of the boats but it was time to meet the others at the pub so we went there first.
Dunbar had the worst news. A little boy had come up to him saying he needed to show him something at the beach. Turns out it was the maid's body, possibly with a broken neck. Sad news indeed...
He also found out that Parsons had bought quite a lot of provisions and supplies and things like blankets, a mirror, a clothes brush etc. which supported our theory that he had holed up somewhere like a barn, one of the beach huts or even one of the holiday cottages.
The excitement at the docks was due to one of the boats being stolen. Later, we assumed it had been Smelly Jim and the theory that the "Red Zombies" had stolen the boat (the Restless Dead not really known for sailing skills) was dropped.
Back at the castle, the doctor visited, had a good look at Prof. Carter's arm and was extremely surprised at how well his arm had healed already. We then remembered that the good professor had eaten one of those pods from the little bag the dead man at the warehouse had on him. The stuff inside tasted really nice and it seems it has healing properties, too.
As we didn't want to poke around too much and possibly draw unwanted attention to ourselves, we decided to lie low and just relax for an evening. There was also Prof. Carter's arm and Thomas didn't feel well, either (after falling out of his window a few nights ago) so a good rest would do all of us some good. If there was rest...
Oh, I almost forgot, I had a look at Thomas' painting and the "flappy thing" was now sitting on the "tower".
The camping out in one room didn't change anything last night so many of us slept in their own rooms. Sure enough, we woke in a differently configured house with a central room into which all the doors led.
Prof. Carter couldn't be dissuaded from exploring the city beyond one of the doors so we joined him. Oddly, this time we emerged from the tower closest to the central building. The odd and horrible music was still faintly in the air, emanating from the huge central building. We searched a few of the buildings but nothing but a serpent's head carved in a stone. Everything seemed to be quiet and empty so we moved further towards the central area to have a look at one of the bigger buildings. One of the taller ones had some passing resemblance to the "tower" in the painting. Just as in the painting, that giant winged beast was sitting on top and as we looked on, it took off and swooped towards us. We tried to flee, some of us more successful than others and Dunbar decided to face the beast and shoot it with our hunting rifle. He missed, the thing soared down, swinging its huge spiky tail at Dunbar but thankfully missing him, if barely.
The thing soared up again for another pass, Dunbar shoots and hits, definitely injuring the foul beast which was now screaming in agony! I was finally in a good position and emptied both barrels of my shotgun, the combined shot literally tearing off one of its leathery wings making it lose its bearings and fall instead of fly.
Now there was a problem, the thing was coming straight down at where my man Dunbar was standing. I was still a bit dazed from the recoil of my double blast so was unable to help but Robert ran up and tackled Dunbar to the ground, out of the way of the crashing beast. Phew. The vile monster crashed to the ground and didn't get back up again but was still (breathing?) (alive?) howling a little but Robert stepped up again and emptied both barrels of his shotgun into the thing's head. It spluttered and was finally still.
Thomas had just been standing there staring but suddenly he went mad. He screamed and gibbered, throwing himself to the ground, writhing around and trying to dig and eat his way into the hard, stone slabs. The poor arts dealer had to be grabbed by several of us and eventually he calmed down.
Not wanting to hang around much longer and possibly attracting the attention of another one of those things, we hurried back to the tower and the room connected (hopefully, still) to our reality. We were all positively exhausted and retired to our rooms.
Have I forgotten anything? Let me know.
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no subject
Date: 1/5/08 09:20 pm (UTC)5)
Couple of things; the thing in the church than attacked carter got out through the window; you found the corpse of the dead pastor in his room there as well.
While on the way back to the castle you saw lights and villagers heading over to the church so you extinguished your own lights and legged it back in darkness.
6)
One of the boats had gone missing, that was the hubub at the docks, the rope cut through; theory was Smelly Jim had stolen it to flee.