Unease growing towards complete unrest (nevermind how Dmitri looked at him just now, nevermind that now or ever-) Faolan follows Rin into the library.
Sen isn't here.
He knows Sen didn't come out of here. They would have seen him, even if he was being stealthy about it.
Unless he climbed up the fucking chimney, though...
Faolan breathes out a sound of faint distress and releases Dmitri's hand ( [ I'm sorry- ]) to reach for his scimitar. Not unsheathed, not yet, but his hand is on the hilt (and so much colder for the loss of a (Dima's) hand.)
And everyone who's looking around the library, roll a perception check.
[ f: 4 r: 17 d: 8; he’s is rather occupied with the entire Moment that happened just now, and thinks Sen probably slipped out the window, the goddamn elf. ]
Faolan and Dima find nothing of consequence in the room and Dima might even suspect there's nothing TO find.
Rin, however, will find the red-bound false book if they examine the bookshelves.
<.>
Dima can’t shake the image of Faolan’s distress; of the hand leaving his own, and the apology that followed. (He didn’t have to apologize. He should never have felt the need.) (Oh, but it was heartening to hear.) [ I’ll be right here. ] And he offers a small, tentative smile.
Dima then checks the position of his own dagger and, after a look around the room, shakes his head. Speaks under his breath, “The jackass went out the window.” Got bored with the room and moved along; that seems right to Dima.
Rin isn’t sure about that, at all. When they find the book, they hiss softly under their breath, then offer, their own voice hushed, “I don’t think so.”
Taking their shortsword in-hand, they pull at the book.
<.>
The door to the secret room swings open, prompting Faolan to grasp Dmitri's wrist and hustle over to join Rin.
The three of them crowd in the doorway to find Sen seated on the ground with his arm around the bony shoulders of a skeleton.
He has been in the process of telling it all the things it's missed since it's been dead, but abruptly interrupts himself to thrust out a hand and cry out, "No, no, don't come in here! The door's rigged!"
<.>
For.
Shit's.
Sake.
Okay, the elf didn't go out the window. Okay, this *also* tracks. Or. Sen chattering away at the skeleton tracks; the presence of the skeleton is not precisely reassuring, to say the least.
Dima wants a look at the skeleton. So he turns his head to Faolan, then back to the apparently rigged door.
"Would you mind holding the door while I examine the remains?" And, shooting A Look at Sen, "Assuming our companion here hasn't learned anything, which I don't believe is a vast assumption."
Rin's just glad to see Sen's all right, really. The skeleton is... Weird. The room is weird? There's a question about that, but first they're waving to Sen and beckoning him to join back in the world of the not-secret-closet: "Weird book, right?"
And, as they turn to begin checking the room for other little... well, surprises, traps: "Weird room, too. Is that all there is, a skeleton? Who keeps a room for a skeleton?
"...I guess I might. But maybe that's why people don't just give me rooms."
<.>
Now that there's light shed in the room, it can be seen that there are bookshelves packed with tomes bearing titles relating to the occult and necromancy. Sen and the skeleton are leaning back against an open chest.
<.>
Dima. Absolutely wants to take a look through these shelves after checking the skeleton. Though first, since he’s already going into the room, or planning to. He'd like to look at the chest, maybe, after checking the remains.
(He's not NOT considering snagging a few fingerbones while he's at it.)
<.>
Faolan reluctantly lets go of Dima's hand to hold the door; Sen is all too happy to clear out of the room without searching for loot.
Close inspection of the skeleton reveals that it belongs to a human who triggered a poison dart trap. Three darts are stuck in the leather armor at his chest.
Apparently, there's no more trap, as everyone going in and out of the room has not been hit by anything.
Clutched in the skeleton's left hand is a letter bearing the seal of a distant, well-known entity named Strahd von Zarovich.
<.>
Dima is going to bow out on inspecting the chest. Having seen the poison darts, he's going to take the letter, attempt to snag one (1) finger from the skeleton (breaking off the forefinger from the first knuckle), then move to examine the books.
If no one else moves toward the chest, Rin will move in and have a look.
<.>
Rin finds three blank books with black leather covers, three spell scrolls, two property deeds, and a signed will.
Further inspection of these items shows the will is signed by Gustav and Elisabeth Durst and bequeaths the house (deed 1), the windmill (deed 2), and all other family property to Rosavelda and Thornboldt Durst in the event of their parents' deaths.
[ARC, d: 10; with Guidance from Fae]
The books are fiend-summoning rituals and necromantic rites of a cult called the Priests of Osybus.
[INS, d: nat 20]
Dima at first thinks these tomes are intriguing, but recalling his GODDAMN EDUCATION, knows every word is totally bogus and none of these spells could possibly work.
<.>
Fae reaches to take the letter and, finding the seal already broken, unfolds it and reads aloud while Rin and Dima search and Sen peers over his shoulder.
"My most pathetic servant,
“I am not a messiah sent to you by the Dark Powers of this land. I have not come to lead you on a path to immortality. However many souls you have bled on your hidden altar, however many visitors you have tortured in your dungeon, know that you are not the ones who brought me to this beautiful land. You are but worms writing in my earth.
“You say that you are cursed, your fortunes spent. You abandoned love for madness, took solace in the bosom of another woman, and sired a stillborn son. Cursed by darkness? Of that I have no doubt. Save you from your wretchedness? I think not. I much prefer you as you are.
“Your dread lord and master, Strahd von Zarovich."
[HIST, d: 11]
Dima can't remember anything more, but something about all of this just keeps niggling at him.
<.>
[q: Does Dima recognize/know anything about this Priests of Osybus cult? a: His history check says nope.]
Dima, growing increasingly irritated by his failure to catch whatever memory keeps slipping his hold (and, perhaps, by the hand he's lost hold of), feeling uneased by the letter, begins with "This stinks of desperation. The melodramatic, the megolomaniac as well." Speaking partly in order to find some way toward a point; none of this is adding up. He's missing something key.
And, flipping through another of the books, lip ticking. "It's nonsense, all of this. None of this is functional.”
He's been talking more to himself than the others, but when he glances back, meets Fae's eyes, he feels a little bit more grounded. Cants his head and thinks, thinks. "The letter was to your" (nodding to Sen) "skeletal friend, or to someone else entirely. Begging the question— Where is the altar."
Rin, rocking back and forth on their heels, hasn't really been listening to Dima. They have been trying to examine the deeds, but they also really, really don't care for legalize, and they wave the papers toward Sen, "Do you know about houses? Or windmills." And, idly, not really considering the remark, "You know what, I don't think stillborn infants do a lot of crying."
<.>
Sen takes the papers and examines them thoughtfully. "If there is some stillborn infant in question here - well. Judging by his condition-"
He motions towards the skeleton.
"It was certainly long enough in the past for another babe to come along, surely."
Looking back down to the papers, he simply shrugs. "These are only land deeds. Some windmill in Vallaki - haven't the foggiest where that is. The other is for this place, I imagine. Boravia? We're apparently in Boravia. I don't suppose any of you know where that is?"
Before anyone can answer, he nods to the letter Faolan is silently re-reading. "I think Dima has a point, there. What altar? What fucking dungeon? I -"
He stops abruptly and fishes out the iron key he found in the desk drawer, slowly waggles for the other three to see.
"In case we find a door with a lock. But I didn't see anything on the first floor leading down, so perhaps we continue 'up' for now."
Faolan folds the letter carefully and passes it back to Dmitri before speaking. "We heard someone moving around up here. Maybe we ask them the questions."
<.>
Something about this still doesn’t sit right with Rin. But also maybe they just don’t trust kids who run up to the first strangers in view and forget to mention their tiny brother.
…They do have one question though. “How old’s the skeleton?”
Dima will answer if his look over the remains made this clear; if not, and if Sen learned nothing, Rin will simply let the question be.
[note: It's hard to tell; it's clearly been in here for some time; granted, it's a locked secret room that may have been untouched for years by the master of the house. After all, he hardly needs bogus occult tomes.]
Dima conveys this information; Rin decides there’s more to be seen and anyway the skeleton’s not going anywhere. Rin’s ready to move onward and upward.
Dima is going to suggest taking the items from the chest and putting them in Rin’s bag, if nothing else; he’ll take the scrolls if no one else does - for examining another time - then reclaim Faolan’s hand, Messaging [ Thank you. ]
Dima is now ready to move on as well, and will be holding Fae’s hand just a little tighter. Thinking to message ‘Stay with me, please,’; deciding it doesn’t need to be said.
no subject
Sen isn't here.
He knows Sen didn't come out of here. They would have seen him, even if he was being stealthy about it.
Unless he climbed up the fucking chimney, though...
Faolan breathes out a sound of faint distress and releases Dmitri's hand ( [ I'm sorry- ]) to reach for his scimitar. Not unsheathed, not yet, but his hand is on the hilt (and so much colder for the loss of a (Dima's) hand.)
And everyone who's looking around the library, roll a perception check.
[ f: 4
r: 17
d: 8; he’s is rather occupied with the entire Moment that happened just now, and thinks Sen probably slipped out the window, the goddamn elf. ]
Faolan and Dima find nothing of consequence in the room and Dima might even suspect there's nothing TO find.
Rin, however, will find the red-bound false book if they examine the bookshelves.
<.>
Dima can’t shake the image of Faolan’s distress; of the hand leaving his own, and the apology that followed. (He didn’t have to apologize. He should never have felt the need.) (Oh, but it was heartening to hear.) [ I’ll be right here. ] And he offers a small, tentative smile.
Dima then checks the position of his own dagger and, after a look around the room, shakes his head. Speaks under his breath, “The jackass went out the window.” Got bored with the room and moved along; that seems right to Dima.
Rin isn’t sure about that, at all. When they find the book, they hiss softly under their breath, then offer, their own voice hushed, “I don’t think so.”
Taking their shortsword in-hand, they pull at the book.
<.>
The door to the secret room swings open, prompting Faolan to grasp Dmitri's wrist and hustle over to join Rin.
The three of them crowd in the doorway to find Sen seated on the ground with his arm around the bony shoulders of a skeleton.
He has been in the process of telling it all the things it's missed since it's been dead, but abruptly interrupts himself to thrust out a hand and cry out, "No, no, don't come in here! The door's rigged!"
<.>
For.
Shit's.
Sake.
Okay, the elf didn't go out the window. Okay, this *also* tracks. Or. Sen chattering away at the skeleton tracks; the presence of the skeleton is not precisely reassuring, to say the least.
Dima wants a look at the skeleton. So he turns his head to Faolan, then back to the apparently rigged door.
"Would you mind holding the door while I examine the remains?" And, shooting A Look at Sen, "Assuming our companion here hasn't learned anything, which I don't believe is a vast assumption."
Rin's just glad to see Sen's all right, really. The skeleton is... Weird. The room is weird? There's a question about that, but first they're waving to Sen and beckoning him to join back in the world of the not-secret-closet: "Weird book, right?"
And, as they turn to begin checking the room for other little... well, surprises, traps: "Weird room, too. Is that all there is, a skeleton? Who keeps a room for a skeleton?
"...I guess I might. But maybe that's why people don't just give me rooms."
<.>
Now that there's light shed in the room, it can be seen that there are bookshelves packed with tomes bearing titles relating to the occult and necromancy. Sen and the skeleton are leaning back against an open chest.
<.>
Dima. Absolutely wants to take a look through these shelves after checking the skeleton. Though first, since he’s already going into the room, or planning to. He'd like to look at the chest, maybe, after checking the remains.
(He's not NOT considering snagging a few fingerbones while he's at it.)
<.>
Faolan reluctantly lets go of Dima's hand to hold the door; Sen is all too happy to clear out of the room without searching for loot.
Close inspection of the skeleton reveals that it belongs to a human who triggered a poison dart trap. Three darts are stuck in the leather armor at his chest.
Apparently, there's no more trap, as everyone going in and out of the room has not been hit by anything.
Clutched in the skeleton's left hand is a letter bearing the seal of a distant, well-known entity named Strahd von Zarovich.
<.>
Dima is going to bow out on inspecting the chest. Having seen the poison darts, he's going to take the letter, attempt to snag one (1) finger from the skeleton (breaking off the forefinger from the first knuckle), then move to examine the books.
If no one else moves toward the chest, Rin will move in and have a look.
<.>
Rin finds three blank books with black leather covers, three spell scrolls, two property deeds, and a signed will.
Further inspection of these items shows the will is signed by Gustav and Elisabeth Durst and bequeaths the house (deed 1), the windmill (deed 2), and all other family property to Rosavelda and Thornboldt Durst in the event of their parents' deaths.
[ARC, d: 10; with Guidance from Fae]
The books are fiend-summoning rituals and necromantic rites of a cult called the Priests of Osybus.
[INS, d: nat 20]
Dima at first thinks these tomes are intriguing, but recalling his GODDAMN EDUCATION, knows every word is totally bogus and none of these spells could possibly work.
<.>
Fae reaches to take the letter and, finding the seal already broken, unfolds it and reads aloud while Rin and Dima search and Sen peers over his shoulder.
"My most pathetic servant,
“I am not a messiah sent to you by the Dark Powers of this land. I have not come to lead you on a path to immortality. However many souls you have bled on your hidden altar, however many visitors you have tortured in your dungeon, know that you are not the ones who brought me to this beautiful land. You are but worms writing in my earth.
“You say that you are cursed, your fortunes spent. You abandoned love for madness, took solace in the bosom of another woman, and sired a stillborn son. Cursed by darkness? Of that I have no doubt. Save you from your wretchedness? I think not. I much prefer you as you are.
“Your dread lord and master, Strahd von Zarovich."
[HIST, d: 11]
Dima can't remember anything more, but something about all of this just keeps niggling at him.
<.>
[q: Does Dima recognize/know anything about this Priests of Osybus cult?
a: His history check says nope.]
Dima, growing increasingly irritated by his failure to catch whatever memory keeps slipping his hold (and, perhaps, by the hand he's lost hold of), feeling uneased by the letter, begins with "This stinks of desperation. The melodramatic, the megolomaniac as well." Speaking partly in order to find some way toward a point; none of this is adding up. He's missing something key.
And, flipping through another of the books, lip ticking. "It's nonsense, all of this. None of this is functional.”
He's been talking more to himself than the others, but when he glances back, meets Fae's eyes, he feels a little bit more grounded. Cants his head and thinks, thinks. "The letter was to your" (nodding to Sen) "skeletal friend, or to someone else entirely. Begging the question— Where is the altar."
Rin, rocking back and forth on their heels, hasn't really been listening to Dima. They have been trying to examine the deeds, but they also really, really don't care for legalize, and they wave the papers toward Sen, "Do you know about houses? Or windmills." And, idly, not really considering the remark, "You know what, I don't think stillborn infants do a lot of crying."
<.>
Sen takes the papers and examines them thoughtfully. "If there is some stillborn infant in question here - well. Judging by his condition-"
He motions towards the skeleton.
"It was certainly long enough in the past for another babe to come along, surely."
Looking back down to the papers, he simply shrugs. "These are only land deeds. Some windmill in Vallaki - haven't the foggiest where that is. The other is for this place, I imagine. Boravia? We're apparently in Boravia. I don't suppose any of you know where that is?"
Before anyone can answer, he nods to the letter Faolan is silently re-reading. "I think Dima has a point, there. What altar? What fucking dungeon? I -"
He stops abruptly and fishes out the iron key he found in the desk drawer, slowly waggles for the other three to see.
"In case we find a door with a lock. But I didn't see anything on the first floor leading down, so perhaps we continue 'up' for now."
Faolan folds the letter carefully and passes it back to Dmitri before speaking. "We heard someone moving around up here. Maybe we ask them the questions."
<.>
Something about this still doesn’t sit right with Rin. But also maybe they just don’t trust kids who run up to the first strangers in view and forget to mention their tiny brother.
…They do have one question though. “How old’s the skeleton?”
Dima will answer if his look over the remains made this clear; if not, and if Sen learned nothing, Rin will simply let the question be.
[note: It's hard to tell; it's clearly been in here for some time; granted, it's a locked secret room that may have been untouched for years by the master of the house. After all, he hardly needs bogus occult tomes.]
Dima conveys this information; Rin decides there’s more to be seen and anyway the skeleton’s not going anywhere. Rin’s ready to move onward and upward.
Dima is going to suggest taking the items from the chest and putting them in Rin’s bag, if nothing else; he’ll take the scrolls if no one else does - for examining another time - then reclaim Faolan’s hand, Messaging [ Thank you. ]
Dima is now ready to move on as well, and will be holding Fae’s hand just a little tighter. Thinking to message ‘Stay with me, please,’; deciding it doesn’t need to be said.
<.>