"Nils", Edward says. "Come here, look at this. Is this, this... human blood? Or blood from the animal that made these claw marks?"
You hear 'Doc' shouting from outside the house, though you cannot make out his words.
Nils goes over to where Edward is standing and takes a look at what he found
"That sounds like Doc out there, seems that that damn creature didn't get him after all. Don't know what he is saying, can you make it out?"
Nils gasps, "Its the creature from outside! There are some legends that resemble the thing...but there is no saying, assuming this whole thing is real , what the devil it is and what it wants"
Edward had just mustered the courage to double back toward the front door to see where "Doc" is when Nils begins describing the creature. He turns and glares at Nils.
"Tell me, Edward screams! "Tell me what you know about that damned thing! How can we attach it?! How can we kill it?!"
Edward starts to subconsciously slap at his arms, back and legs. Are the hornets back?
Nils shakes his head, "I don't know, fire if they are similar to other arthropods? I have never seen the warding disks, if they even worked at all so I have no idea what symbolism they had aside from the creatures name...we have to get back to the tent. Maybe that madman will take us back to reality". He thinks for a minute then slaps his knee, "You know what, I might remember a bit of an old parchment that was found at a dig that might have an effect, however small"
There's a distant thump. Nils feels a chill all along his spine: he had learned to dread that sound from his time in trenches in France.
Mortar!
As soon as the recognition of what the sound is hits his mind, Nils drops to his knees and covers his head with his hands, "Down Mayfield, DOWN"
.
Edward follows suit. He was never in the war. In fact, his goiter kept him from serving in the military at all. The closest he's come to warface was watching "All Quiet on the Western Front" on the silver screen. It was a "talkie", after all.
Shaking, Edward curls into a ball, his hands over his ears.
Edward uncurls, gets up and goes to one of the dirty windows. He wipes away the grime and peers outside, hoping he can figure out what the hell is going on. He is still trembling, but he feels like he has to do something, otherwise he is a sitting duck for ... spiders... hornets ... crazed circus freaks... mortar shells.
Can he see anything?
Through the dirty window Dr. Mayfield sees 'Doc' unsteadily making his way back towards the road.
A sudden gust of wind rattles the window in its pane, and shrouds Doc's lurching figure in dust.
Coughing and flailing from the dust and grime, Edward starts to wonder if it was a good idea to look outisde.
A wasp nest, he thinks. That wind could've shaken a wasp's nest. And here I am exposed as a newborn. First one will sting me, then I will start to swell, then I'll have trouble breathing, and the next thing I know is that I'll be a writhing mass of purple on the floor, dying in this purgatory. No, no, that's foolish. Foolish thoughts. Or are they...
He turns to Nils. "It is going to be dark soon. Do you have a flashlight, or know how to make a torch?"
He shivers uncontrollably.
Nils picks himself up off the floor, his face grimly set.
Just like France, you have to push through your fear, and keep moving; otherwise the fear will destroy you.
He inches himself slowly down the hall way.
Edward whirls about, sees Nils retreating and grabs him by shoulders. "I know I panicked back there, but if we both wind up nutty, then we're just sitting ducks. Try to snap out of it. Help me find something to use as a light."
Edward's hands are still trembling, but he manages to check his pistol for bullets.
[ooc]Not a problem, work has been insane this last week[\ooc]
Nils looks vacantly at the hand on his shoulder, but that brings him out of the flashback and he shudders himself back to the present, "No flashlight, I don't have any fire starters, did you see where the kitchen is in here?" Nils looks around his immediate surroundings to see where the kitchen would be
Edward nods and begins searching the house as well, looking for the kitchen as well as looking in any other rooms where there might be an oil lamp.
Nils, still shellshocked, will follow Mayfield either direction
Since Edward can’t tolerate the thought of seeing the other end of the trail of blood, he decides to investigate the door to the right.
The kitchen doesn’t seem to interest Edward. He continues on the same path, the doorway to the right.
As Dr. Mayfield crosses the front room, he catches the scent of something foul and rotten.
Reaching the door, he finds it unlocked. Opening the door he sees a short hallway to the left.
Nils does a quick look towards the table as they pass, but follows Mayfield across the front room to the door
Edward stops short. The smell. That smell. During the one time that he’d been allowed access to the restricted vault of the Miskatonic University library, he’d smelled something similar, just for a second. At the time he’d shuddered, but wrote it off to nerves before seeing those volumes of forbidden lore.
As Nils follows Dr. Mayfield he allows himself a quick glance into the doorway into the kitchen; seeing something laid out on the plain but sturdy table.
.
Spot Hidden Skill Level = 45%
SAN is currently 17. He had started at 30, lost 2, then lost 4 more due to the train disappearing. Then he lost 7 when he saw the thing emerge from the cocoon.
There's a long mirror that runs along the back wall of the dining room.
There is a brief glimmering of sunlight, which strikes the mirror; revealing the gray and swollen corpse of a middle-aged woman laid on the table like it was a funeral bier.
More disturbing though, is the reflection of the vespid fiend, with its long, jointed and folded limbs, that is reflected in the mirror; the horror is just a little way into the room, at the side of the table and its macabre burden.
*
Nils' Spot Hidden roll:
*
Edward, meanwhile, freezes on the threshold of the dining room. He balls his fists against his mouth, trying his best to mute a scream
So Nils see's the woman's corpse on the table.
But in the mirror, instead of an insect horror, he sees Elagabalus cowering behind the wall.