"Kinda looks that way." Billy says, almost disappointed.
"I suppose we should look around the place to see if they bastards left any clues as to where they went or what in the hell they did to us."
Miles' hands are still trembling as he points the musket at the house.
"...I'm not sure whether I should be relieved or even more worried..." He mumbles, trying to keep his eyes on the house.
"What happened back there? When Billy attacked... I don't remember what happened next."
Henry pauses and turns back to Miles, "You both attacked the man and... you really don't remember?"
"I guess he doesn't." Billy says to Henry. "Miles, you see the thing is we both attacked him, bit him, and drank his blood. Hell you drank the poor old bastard dry."
Miles' face turns even paler than before. "...what? No. No, you can't be serious."
It sounds more like he's trying to convince himself more than anything.
"Wish I could say that I wasn't serious, but I can't."
"Billy is right. Put that behind you for now Lad, we need to search this place and thoroughly. If these villains have fled we need to find a way to track them down".
Henry starts heading towards the front door of the house once more...
Miles swallows (or at least tries to--something prevents him from doing so) and follows suit.
As you enter the house you are sure this was the place that you were last night. But someone has emptied the place quite effectively. If you didn't know better you would swear this place had been closed up for months if not years. The rooms are empty, other than some ash in the fireplaces.
Henry will look for the stairs leading down to the basement.
Henry will look for the stairs leading down to the basement.
The rooms in the basement have been cleared out. There isn't even a sign on the dirt floor or walls that symbols were carved into them or that multiple people bleed out into the dirt.
Henry curses and heads back up the stairs, "How in the bloody hell is this possible, there has to be some clue somewhere! Perhaps tracks outside from foot or wagon wheel!?"
Nothing going off the roads. any of you can make an Int+Alertness check to remember something distinctive about the men who captured you. Or you could make a wits+streetwise check to see if you know any places that are normally overlooked when clearing out a building.
Miles thinks...
Intelligence + Alertness
Wits + Streetwise
As the three of you pause to think you come up with two places that stuff could still be. In the ashes of the fireplaces, as burning large volumes of paper tends to leave some un-burned pieces and in the attic, people always forget the attic.
You also remember that one of the robed men who survived had a long scar on the left side of his face, strangely it was darker than the rest of his skin. Perhaps it was only a tattoo of a scar.
Henry grins, "I'll check the attic my friends, the rest of you the fireplace as that will be a time consuming and delicate process". Henry races upstairs his heart.... he stops, his heart is not beating at all. He is a young man but not a shapely man, he has others work for him. He should be flush, out of breath, instead nothing. His mood becomes more somber as he heads to find the stairs to the attic...
"Got it." Billy says with a nod as he begins sorting through the ashes.
As you sift through the ashes you find a couple of small pieces of paper.
Emil Smo....
It was good to rece...
your new laboratory...
but it is clear that...
impressive specimen. H...
Thus I close.
Your friend as always,
Gregor, keeper of verdant flame
Acoylte of the 4th mystery
...that we of the green order are an offs...
..der of the Dragon. But such is a simpl...
...ylte of 6th mystery do not know the fu...
In the attic Henry finds what looks like old lab equipment. Some of the vials, tubes and other equipment seem to have the dried residue of whatever substances were last held in them.
Henry will pick up the tube and dab his finer in it to try and taste the substance.
Henry tastes blood, old dried blood. You think there might be something mixed into it, but you can't identify it based on taste.
Miles frowns. "So, it looks like an Emil Smo-something or other is responsible, perhaps? Either that or this 'Gregor of the Verdant Flame'."
Henry will bring as much of the equipment down with him as he can to the fireplace.
"Looks like we both found something eh? This tastes like blood in this tube. Perhaps we can start by ascertaining who would have access to such items. The common man certainly would not!"
Henry sighs, "Gentlemen, I has a proposition. I believe whatever has happened to us has slain us and somehow reanimated us. My run up the stairs should have winded me it did not. My pulse should have been racing, I can't even feel it at all! I do not know what was done and... I... I never believed in black magic before, but the circle we saw. The dead man we saw, what else could explain all of this?! The devils work taints us"...
Miles' face turns paler than he thought possible. "...oh."
Considering what's happened so far, anything's possible...
Henry turns to Rory as he calls into the house, "You did not see a soul on the way here did you?"
"Let me get this straight, Henry. You think that we are all dead and still somehow walking around? Billy asks increduously.
Taking a few moments to think on the subject a bit more he says, "Alright. Why not? Makes about as much sense as anything else has lately."
Henry turns to Rory, "We found out that these villains are some sort of scientists based on what they have hidden in the attic.
Also a few names. Gregor of the Verdant Flames. Emil Smo... Full name not available due to the fire. And discussion of an rder of the Dragon. I would imagine that first word is Order.
Do any of these names or people seem familiar to any of you? They must have had some presence somewhere near here, Perhaps we can search out who has been granted this land title if none of these names are familiar...
I also believe that somehow these villains have slain us and brought us back from the dead just in observing my own body and how it has reacted to stimulus this last night and day.
Tell me my friends, what did drinking that blood do to you, any physical or mental changes afterwards?"
Miles shrugs. "Honestly, I don't know any of them."
"As to the blood... well, I felt much stronger. And calmer. And I didn't remember what happened beforehand." Miles guiltily looks down at his blood-splattered clothes.
"Yeah, what Miles said. I went from an out of control rage to feeling sated after guzzling down a few pints of the old man's blood."
"Gross as can be, but that's what it felt like..."
"Well we have some leads we just need to figure out how to use those leads to find these ruffians and killers. Do we head back to the farmhouse to rest or head to Birmingham?"
The group spends the rest of the night discussing how to deal with their new state.
As the sun comes up you retreat to the basement to sleep the day away.
======
The next sunset comes and nothing seems to have changed in the manor house when you wake up.
"Right. No point in staying here any longer, I think. We need to get back to town." Miles says, nervously pacing to and fro.
"...preferably without the police noticing us. I need to wash my clothes."
It is a couple of hours after dark by the time the group gets back to Birmingham and the streets are mostly deserted except for drunks and other undesirables. The main streets are well lit and somewhat frequently patrolled by police, anyone off those routes is responsible for their own safety.
"Billy, based on what you have told us about your, unique qualifications, you might be best suited to ask around taverns to fin out who or what these people who kidnapped us are.
Rory, Miles, any idea what other avenues we can take to find something out about our attackers? Perhaps there is a school here or a store here where our assailants bought their beakers and glasses for there horrific experiments?
Going to the Constublary with our tales seems out of the question."
"Yeah, I think I can manage that. I'll stop by and see if Jack and Eli have heard anything, and if not I can get them to help out." Billy says, heading off for the last tavern he can remember being in prior to his abduction.
Billy manages to get you to a run down bar called the Cracked Cog. Smoke hangs thick inside the bar and you can smell stale beer and sweat. His associates Jack and Eli are drinking in a corner, most of the other patrons are staying away from them.
"Hiya boys." Billy says to Eli and Jack as he approaches the table.
"What's the good word?"
"Billy, we thought the coppers had you. Money's running tight, coppers seem to have caught onto our normal scam and have been watching all the usual places more the past few days. So what happened to you; you look like hell man."
"Long story short, some bastards cracked in the back of my bleedin' head and drug me out to the middle of f^%*ing nowhere. All that matters is that I'm back now, and I want a bit of payback. You boys hear about anything similar?"
"Long story short, some bastards cracked in the back of my bleedin' head and drug me out to the middle of f^%*ing nowhere. All that matters is that I'm back now, and I want a bit of payback. You boys hear about anything similar?"
"Sure but normally you find a body in alley robbed of everything, or you grab some rich kid and squeeze money out of him. Kidnapping random people and taking them somewhere seems like a good way not to make money. Who are your new friends. With them we could probably do some bigger jobs, two of them even look like if they cleaned up they could work in a counting house or something, those places usually have lots of coin."
"Those poor bastards ended up in the place I was."
Turning his attention to the others, Billy asks "Where exactly was you said you were before it all went black?"
Miles was staying quiet, trying his best to not get dragged into the conversation, but when Billy more or less introduces them, he sighs. "Well, I remember I just got off the train from Cambridge... then some bastard cracked me over the skull."
Henry nods to Billy's less than savory companions, "I was waylaid in the village of Middlesex. Indeed as your companions noted in a blind alley is where I was struck on the back of the head in similar fashion to what you described Billy".