Victor silently continues down the stairs , keeping his gun leveled on the two men. Once he has them in sight he will say quietly No sudden movements gentlemen and do not go for any weapons. What are you doing in this house?
Their whispering stops abruptly and one of them says, without truning to you
Looking for our friend, Victor Harris...guess you are pointing a weapon at us, eh? May we turn around?
Victor checks to make sure the safety catch is off before saying Slowly and keep your hands where I can see them. How do you know Mr. Harris?
They both turn around very slowly. Both men are about forty and well dressed. They don't look too nervous or concerned which you think is a bad sign
How come you do not know him and are in his house with a gun? His name's not Victor...
You can't see a holster and so you are pretty sure they are unarmed.
Hence the reason why I said Mr. Harris and not Victor. In point of fact, my name is Victor. How about your names? As it is I have not had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Harris but a friend of mine told me he could be trusted. Victor keeps his gun on the two of them, hoping to get out of this without any holes in his hide.
John Wittingham and...
Ben Fletcher
The two men look at each other, unsure what to make of the weird situation. It's Wittingham who speaks first
Ok mister, you got the gun, so I have no reason not to believe what you are saying...if you haven't met John, where can he be? The guy in the grocery shop said he had left Dunwich to meet with his uncle...but I know he has no uncle...so please, what the heck is all this about?
Victor looks hard at the men for a second before saying Reggie! Could you come down here please?
Charlie, after listening to the scene unfold downstairs, decides to slip back to the room with the strange carpeting before going downstairs and backing up Victor. Using his knife, he'll cut out the carpeting around the bulkiness and try to pull whatever it is from the floor.
@ Charlie:
The voices slowly fade away as you move back to the master bedroom. Cutting the carpet is no problem with the keen knife and so you pretty soon find something that totally puzzles you .
The floor of the whole room is covered with small white pebbles. As you move to the corners of the room you notice that the carpet has not been affixed to the floor - has maybe just been rolled out hastily to cover the stones.
Charlie tries to pick up a few of the stones, and inspects them for any peculiarities they might have.
Perception
The stones look like normal pebbles - most probably they stem from no farther than the Miskatonic River.
"Right with you Dr. Allen..."
On sighting the two strange men.
"Not him too.. Who are you and what have you done with Mr. Harris!"
Wittingham arches an eyebrow and looks at Dr. Alden
I don' wanna repeat myself, kay? We are also looking for him, he's an old friend.
@ the sawmill:
As Daniel runs over to Cummings he finds the ex-cop crouching in the centre of the large factory hall. He seems to inspect some stones lying scattered on the ground - the scene is totally unremarkable and Daniel can't see the point in shouting so loud.
"So, I came as fast as I...well, at what am I supposed to look again?"
Victor looks them over and says This is Reggie. He knew Mr. Harris. Why are you looking for Mr. Harris?
@ Daniel:
Cummings looks at you as if you were demented, but then he points to a platform about 5m above you.
Get up there and tell me what you see.
@ Victor:
We're old friends of him...comrades from the war, you know...just wanted to visit him, but this whole trip turns out to be a travel to mystery-land, mhm?
Now that Reggie has arrived the two men look rather uneasy.
Is there a ladder or some other visible way of getting up there? If so, Daniel will just nod and get on his way.
"Well he is not here. There has been some trouble in town lately. A gang of thugs are practicaly running the place. If you gentlemen still have a working automobile. Maybe it would be best if we took this discussion to the state police in Boston."
Charlie will continue searching the upstairs, and then, assuming there is nothing to find, will follow Reggie and Victor downstairs to talk to the men.
Perception
Too old for a regular soldier - not too old for an officer's post.
As Charlie arrives at the scene Wittingham sighs and says
Yeah, wecouldn't help but notice that thistown is a bit strange...we don't have a car, we took the bus to Arkham and then we hitchhiked to Dunwich - now, can you explain "thug"? Are you speaking of criminals?
@ Daniel:
You find a rusty staiwell leading up to the platform and once you have ascended it and walked to the edge of the platform, you realize what Cummings meant:
The whole floor of the at least 30 X 20m large hall is full of man-sized pentagrams laid out with small white and grey pebbles!
The professor has a hard time keeping up once you have found and begun to drag him over to the hall
Daniel, what is it...what do you want to show me...Daniel please stop, careful, the stairs, oh Daniel you...oh...mhm...most interesting.
The professor begins to scribble some notes in his book at once and after some moments says
Daniel, could you please measure the distance between each pentagram?
"Sure thing, sir"
If the Professor provides some sort of measure, Daniel will use that, otherwise he will use the well know unit of 'stove irons' (1SI, 1,5SI etc). He will try to help the Prfessor to make sense of this (almost) every way he asks.
Victor lowers his weapon but keeps it out. There is definitely something weird going on. We were attacked by some sort of cult and have been prevented from leaving. We haven't exactly figured out what's going on.
The professor hands you his cane (which he does not really need) and tells you to use it to measure the distances. After about an hour he has his small notebook full of numbers and some drawings.
This is really strange, Daniel...I would love to compare these numbers to an old book in the library back at the university.
@ Victor:
Fletcher nods and quickly says
Ok, let's assume we are all caught in this messy situation, maybe we should stick together then?
"No Problem Professor, provided we get out of here alive that is. Is there anything you could say right now, at least a suspicion?"
The professor hands you his cane (which he does not really need) and tells you to use it to measure the distances. After about an hour he has his small notebook full of numbers and some drawings.
This is really strange, Daniel...I would love to compare these numbers to an old book in the library back at the university.
@ Victor:
Fletcher nods and quickly says
Ok, let's assume we are all caught in this messy situation, maybe we should stick together then?
"Good idea. We can all get out together." Reggie steps forward and begins opening his cufs amd rolling up his sleeves. "The gang members we have seen so far have all had tattoos on their arms. Would you mind removing your coats gentlemen? I am sure you understand."
@ Daniel:
The professor thinks for a moment, then he slowly muses
Well...either something we are here at the site of a banishing or a summoning...or maybe even both.
He then scratches his head and adds
I mean...presupposed you believe in such things.
@ Harris' house:
Both men show their wrists and there is no sign of such a tattoo
What else can you tell us about this cult?
Fletcher says the word "cult" in a way that indicates he still is not wholly convinced that such a thing exists in Dunwich.
Charlie nods his head slowly. "Safety in numbers is a good plan," Charlie allows, "but we have to ask one thing--to see your hands. Just hold them out and we'll do a quick inspection, if you don't mind. We need to make sure you're not one of them."
Assuming he is allowed, Charlie will take their hands in his and check for any signs of Believer tattoos or tattoo removal, including a close inspection for any makeup or dirt that might be covering something.
Sense Motive
Charlie, who knows quite a bit about film-make-up and such things, is pretty sure that these men don't have or had Believer-tattoos. He is also quite sure that they are telling the truth, but he also has to admit that the whole situation is so enervating that he can't trust his own knowledge of human nature.
"Alright, then, I guess we'll team up. But we need to be careful -- this cult, the Believers, they've been called, has already claimed over dozens of victims! Including this poor man's aunt," he says, gesturing toward Reggie. "We're looking for Mr. Harris because Reggie here thought maybe he could help us. Do you have any idea what may have happened to him?"
"Maybe even more important, are you armed? We don't anticipate they'd let us live much longer, if they ever figured out where we were."
The lines of worry on both men's forehead deepen as they shrug and signat that they aren't armed at all. But then Fletcher says
Wait, Harris always kept weapons at home in a secret closet somewhere in his basement - he told me once when he was a bit tipsy in a bar in Paris!
Wittingham grins
Oh THAT bar, heh.
Victor looks around at the mention of weapons and says Well as it seems we will be together chaps. Let's see if we can all be armed. Where is the basement?
"Let's get to the basement, then, gentlemen. I say we finish exploring the house and look for any signs of what happened to Mr. Harris. I found something strange in the master bedroom upstairs, as well, but maybe it would be best to just show you. Basement first?"
Reggie follows the strangers to the basement "Why would he keep guns in the basement? Wouldn't the damp get to them?"
Fletcher grins and answers
The damp? We had damp weather in the trenches of Verdun, his rifle worked there, why shouldn't it work in desert-like Dunwich, eh?
With thst in mind you descend down the stairs into the small basement. Fletcher uses his lighter to shed some light, but it can hardly pierce through the darkness. Between cardboard boxes and gardening tools stands a massive iron cabinet.
That's it, I guess.
"Is it locked?" Charlie asks, moving forward to check and answer his own question.
A chain with a sturdy padlock hangs at the door of the cabinet, you will need a lock pick and some dexterous fingers to open it!
"A Banishing or a summoning?, I have seen some strangeness, especially here in Dunwich, but I am not sure I am ready to believe in such. But I would be willing to believe you, if you say you have seen things that make you believe."
"Any ideas on what we do from here?" Charlie asks, perplexed. "I found something kinda weird upstairs, these small white marble things were scattered all over the floor underneath the rug in the master bedroom." He shows the others the stones.
"I'm going to go look for a key to this lock, unless any of you have lockpicks and know how to use them."
Charlie returns upstairs and goes to the bedroom, checking drawers and shelves for a key ring. He'll go from room to room, if there's time, looking around for something that might be able to open that cabinet.
Perception
@ Daniel:
The professor nods and says
Sometimes it does not matter what you believe for yourself...sometimes it's the reality of other people's that becomes yours aswell...mostz of the times this is a very destructive process. So Daniel, would you like to accompany me into the basement of this fine building? I have a hunch that more riddles await us there...
@ Harris House:
The two veterans look at the stones, Wittingham picks one up and says
unremarkable...but...I mean why did he do that?
Charlie is unable to find a key - someone else interested in helping him?
"Hmmm, I never really thought about it that way - and as an actor I probably should have..." for a brief moment, Daniel seems to be completly lost in thought. "Of course I will accompany you."
Victor looks at the stones and says Are we even sure that he did it? If he was abducted the believers could have done it. With that Victor goes and helps Charlie look for a key.
Fletcher nods while opening a drawer
True, Dr. Aldern, maybe his abductors left it here as a warning, or something like that.
After about 10 minutes of searching it is Victor who discovers an iron ring with keys under a jacket that was lying underneath the coat rack.
@ Daniel:
Together with the professor and Cummings you search for the stairwell that leads into the basement. It takes some minutes but then it's Cummings' good perception that helps you find the way. An iron hatch in the back of the large hall leads downstairs into a yawning darkness. The only way down are some iron stairs affixed to the wall. No one of you looks very eager to get down first...
...and still, somebody has to, otherwise the cellar remains unexplored.
"Does any one of you have some means to light the stairs while I try do get down?"
I found the keys. Let's see if one of them opens that safe. With that he goes down and opens the lock.
"Excellent find, Doctor!" Charlie says, excited that their search had paid off. "And we can only hope that Mr. Harris isn't caught up in this mess, or else this might've been a really horrible idea."