Dm Zyren / Heart of Madness |
Mrs. Hobbes agrees and together you have a nice evening with some cold beer and a delicious turkey with mashed potatoes.
The night is very mild and you sleep quite well, only the songs of the whippoorwills sometimes wake you up...it's strange how many of these normally very rare birds live in Dunwich Valley...
The next morning dawning over Dunwich is a nearly cloudless one and you already know that the sun will burn at least as merciless as on the day before.
Now, who joins Murphy and Cummings, everyone?
Dm Zyren / Heart of Madness |
Together you wander down the dusty road and already from the distance you can see Jed Blair cleaning Cummings' Ford. The car has enough place for six people - even though it's a bit crowded in the back then - and all its tires look perfectly OK.
As he sees you approaching, Bill Cummings closes the trunk of the car and beckons you over
Mornin', we will drive to your bus as soon as we have visited the Arkin farm. Have to catch them really early I guess, since Mr. Arkin wanted to drive to Arkham today. Ok with you?
James Chilcott |
James spends his evening sipping at his beer and quietly making notes and calculations in one of his notebooks before retiring to bed early to get a good nights sleep.
When the morning dawns he ignores the slight discomfort of day old clothes and rises early to go for a walk before the sun makes any form of exersize uncomfortable.
"Fine with me, I'll just be glad not to walk again."
James slides in next to Daniel and sits his briefcase on his lap, suit jacket folded and resting on top of it.
Dm Zyren / Heart of Madness |
Soon the car rumbles off on the dusty road to the south. Again you cross the Miskatonic River, but instead of turning left into the rat run you chose as you were on the bus, Cummings follows the road further. You pass several farm buildings and Cummings comments on each of these with naming the owner and if he has still a bill to pay...
As you pass a group of farms, lying rather close to each other, you suddenly hear gunshots - one, two, a short pause and again two in rapid succession followed by the sound of pistols.
With a full brake the car comes to a halt and Cummings looks puzzled over to the farm buildings.
Dr. Victor Alden |
No lads. Those were gunshots. I spent a little time in the military and them was gunshots. You notice him reach under his coat and pull out what looks to be a very nice pistol. It is brushed steel construction and looks to be fairly new. Anyone that knows firearms recognizes it as the model 1911A1. He chambers a round and checks the action before exiting the vehicle. Come on, someone could be in trouble.
Charlie Poolsworth |
"Where I grew up we were taught to run away from gunshots, not towards them. Then again, if we have a veteran with us..." Charlie bites his lip as the armed doctor makes his way toward the sounds. After a moment more of hesitation, he exits the car.
"I don't know the slightest thing about guns except that they kill me, and there was that time my uncle took me duck hunting upstate. Pistols seem to work differently than shotguns, however," he observes as he watches Victor load the chamber.
Dm Zyren / Heart of Madness |
As Cummings notices your weapons, he opens his jacket and draws a Walther M9
Those without a weapon stay behind. I think the sounds came from that farm over there he points to the building farthest away I'll take the front door, Murphy you take the right and the doctor the left side, kay?
Without waiting for your response, Cummings leaves the car and advances slowly to the building. People start looking out of doors and windows of the other farms and one of the farmers has already fetched his shotgun and is about to follow you.
Daniel Tauber |
Sitting in the car doesn't really feel save, and since slowly but steadily his pre booze personality is returning, Daniel steps out of the car. He first looks into the trunk for any tool resembling a metal rod, if he doesn't find anything he'll look around for anything that could be used as a club (not that he can use a weapon for real, but he can look good with it!).
Daniel then follows his armed fellows.
Dm Zyren / Heart of Madness |
The man who left the nearby farm calls over to you
Be'er get insoide from the fron' door. Oi'll cover the back!
Cummings nods to Murphy and Victor and beckons them over to the front.
One enters, two have his back, kay? Who dares to enter first gentlemen?
You clearly notice that Cummings is still more cop than bill collector...
James Chilcott |
James sits for a few moments after the others had left the car, trying to decide on the best course of action. Finally he unclipped his briefcase and pulled out his own Colt 1911, wondering for a second at the slim chance that three of the bus passengers had been armed and all with the same weapon, unlikely to say the least.
Leaving his case and suit jacket on the backseat, James scrambles out of the car and runs over to where the others seem to just be about to burst through a door. He takes a moment to chamber a round in his own weapon and flick the safety off before joining the others.
"Sorry gentlemen, in all the excitement I had a bit of trouble with the locks on my briefcase. I've only a few weeks practice with my pistol so I'd probably not be the best choice for pointman, but I've no fear of heading in first if no one else is up to the task."
Dm Zyren / Heart of Madness |
Cummings nods and Victor enters the house first, crouching low and pressed against a wall - every inch the veteran of the Mother of all Wars.
After moving quickly through a small hallway and past the empty kitchen, you directly enter the also empty living room, which consists of a sofa, an armchair, a large table and some bookshelves. A stairwell leads up to the first floor.
A shotgun rack above the fireplace is empty, some of the drawes in the kitchen stand open and two jars with onions and mixed pickles lie on the floor.
Daniel Tauber |
Daniel waits for Chillcot, Murphy and Cummins to follow alden, then, following Dr Aldens (and countless movie characters) example he follows them, crouching low pressed against the wall...
Perception 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14
Charlie Poolsworth |
Sitting alone in the car, Charlie watches the others approach the house with weapons drawn. Nervously, he checks the driver's seat to see if Cummings left the keys in the ignition or on the seat. If they're not there, he'll start searching the car for either a spare key or a weapon that may be of some use.
Perception 1d20 ⇒ 12
EDIT: Once the others are inside the house, he'll see if he can open the trunk and check it for something useful, as well.
Daniel Tauber |
@ Those who searched the trunk:
Cummings keeps a crowbar and a baseball bat in his trunk, you may choose which one you grab.
Might I suggest that Daniel, as he checked first and was looking for something like a metal rod, has the crowbar?
Dr. Victor Alden |
Perception1d20 + 6 ⇒ (20) + 6 = 26 lol ok so I am pretty sure I see whatever is there to see. Now watch me get a 1 the first time I fire my gun lol.
Victor whispers to the rest of the group. Stay sharp the shotguns missing. He says pointing with his free hand at the space on the wall. At this he begins heading up the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible. Stealth1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20
Dm Zyren / Heart of Madness |
Upstairs are the children's and the parents' bedrooms. Cautiously you peer into the rooms, but still, no one is here. The doors of the wardrobes stand open and clothes are scattered all over the floor, a half-filled suitcase lies in the doorway...People must have run away in panic...
Then suddenly you hear a scream from outside - could be the farmer who accompanied you!
James Chilcott |
Having remained at the bottom of the stairs as others investigated James jerks his head toward the sound of the scream and trots quickly through the house toward the back door, slowing down as he approaches it and calling out to the farmer on the other side.
"Man with the shotgun? I am coming out the door, please be so kind as to not shoot me."
James then very slowly turns the door handle and gives the door a push with one hand, the other holding his pistol at the ready as he steps through the door.
Dm Zyren / Heart of Madness |
As you open the door, you spot the farmer who went around the house leaning to the back wall of the building, vomitting violently. His face is entirely pale and his eyes widened by terror. As he hears you approach, he points to the open storm doors of the house, yet is unable to speak.
Cold fear creeps in your bones and makes you shudder as you think of what might have shocked this hardy man, who is used to slaughtering animals and hunting black bears, so terribly.
Dr. Victor Alden |
oops sorry, missed that. I have discarded above and replaced with this post.
Victor goes running down the stairs at the sound of the scream and arrives shortly after James. Having seen bodies in all sorts of horrible positions he heads into the storm doors to get the sight over with.
James Chilcott |
James starts backward as the farmer grabs him, nearly tripping himself in his surprise. "What in hell do you mean? We heard only a few gunshots, surely some of the family could still live?" James pulls himself away from the farmer and heads determinedly for the storm doors, his first assumption being that the farmer had simply over reacted to some gunshot wounds or possibly a dead body.
Dm Zyren / Heart of Madness |
As you descend down into the root cellar, which is a simple single room lit by two lanterns and consisting of several shelves of peserves (rhubarb, potatoes etc.), you spot a scene so horrible that even Victor shudders at the sight:
A man, judging by hid body in his forties or fifties, lies in the centre of the room, his face just a bloody mass of sundered flesh. Forty five degrees to his left sits a woman of the same age against a support post with a large shotgung wound in her abdomen. In a dim corner opposite you, you see the bodies of two youths lying in a heap of blood, one male, one female. The smell of cordite is in the air and the swaying lanterns cast weird shadows to the walls.
Sanity check 30% 0/3
The woman next to the post still breathes!
Daniel Tauber |
Daniel 'grabs' the farmers arm as Mr Chilcot lets him go and leads him somewhere, he can sit down, preferably where the farmer can't see the storm doors.
He tries to calm the man as good as he is able to, but ultimatly he is more eager to somehow hear what his fellow travellers might see in there (Although, if he sees Mr Chilcot or Mr Alden coming he will leave the farmer wit a few soothing words and walk towards them, so the farmer will neither hear Daniesl questions nor the answers he might get)
Dr. Victor Alden |
lol i just realized not a single one of us has medicine I don't think.
After yelling to James, Victor does a quick sweep of the room to make sure no one is still in there before rushing over and trying to help the woman however he can. Untrained heal check? 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18
Charlie Poolsworth |
Charlie leaves the house in a rush behind the others, and tries to help bring the terrified farmer back to his senses. "Sir, what's going on? Did you see who did this?" he eyes the shotgun in the man's arms. "You don't need that anymore, everything's going to be okay. Who was firing those shots?"
To James and Victor and whoever else entered the cellar, "What's going on down there?!"
Dm Zyren / Heart of Madness |
No, you have to exceed a certain percentage, in this case 30%, otherwise you lose as many sanity points as indicated by the number behind the slash. If you exceed the percentage you lose the number in front of the slash.
Your untrained knowledge of wounds, gathered on the bombed out fields of Flanders, is sufficient to stabilize the woman for a moment, however you are sure she will die within the next five minutes...such a wound can only be btreated in a hospital, you have seen enough comrades die to know that.
But as you press some cloth to her wound to stop the blood flow, she suddenly opens her eyes and says
Oh Jesus, my Lord at last you've come! and caresses your cheek.
Outside the farmer grabs Kirk violently by the shoulder
It's only four of'em, right? Henri! Henri is not down 'ere.
And as the farmer looks over to the burial ground about 70m behind the farms, you can see a figure standing in front of the gates of the burial ground. Cooly amused he looks to the house, the shotgun casually resting on his shoulder!