Amanda follows inside ahead of Fran and Louise; seeing the disgusting state of the house, she turns back for a second and prepares the other two for what they're about to see.
When everyone has entered and had some time to fight the nausea and revulsion, she assumes a rather authoritarian tone. "Ok, there must be something here that will shed more light into this mess. Fran, you start looking through those scrawlings; Louise, you take the kitchen; Eugene, you take the living room. I will be jumping in between you and trying to connect the pieces."
With Amanda's help, the group is able to quickly gather what she believes to be all the relevant material from the various rooms in the house.
The various pieces of papers seem to all be about a summoning ritual of some kind and are written in English and what appears to be Arabic.
Exactly what the author is attempting to summon could only be discovered by someone with a deep knowledge of the occult, a more than passing familiarity with the Arabic language, and a few hours of careful translation.
Amanda also realizes that what at first appears to be a poorly-written summoning sigil to actually be a map of some kind. Dr. Lansdale spent a good deal of time backpacking as a youth, and is able to interpret that someone's attention seems to be focused on a quarry north of the farmhouse
Amanda stares at the piles of organised papers and cannot shake the sensation that they are singing to her, beckoning her to dwell on them for a moment longer. 'Focus! Chadwick needs you!' she thinks and shakes her head.
"So, no sign of Chadwick," she says, squeezing Fran's shoulder. [b]"Our best bet now is to," Amanda shivers when she suggests their next move, "go to this quarry. Whoever did all this is probably going to be there, if they're still alive. What do you think?"
Louise screams, albeit with a hand over her mouth, because Amanda screams. But nothing terrible seems to happen and she continues on to the barn and house with the other woman. Louise helps with looking around through the mess inside while trying to touch as little as possible.
Once Amanda has looked through the papers found among the chaos in the room and tells them what it probably means she agrees to continue on to the quarry.
"Is it far? Should we get the car and drive there?"
Eugene is tired, scared out of his wits and just wants to throw up at the grisly display that is around. But some sort of pride forces him to display a bravery he doesn't feel, if his companions are as well.
"How're you doin'it?" he asks Amanda and Lian. "How are you so at ease in this hellish nightmare, how don't you wanna tail it and just go drink away the memories?"
"More than anything." Amanda looks outside through a blood-stained window. "But we've seen what's happening here. We can't leave Chadwick behing and condemn him to this grim end. And," she looks back to Eugene, "I guess I'm a bit selfish, but I need to know what's happening here, to get to the bottom of this horror and make sure it's over. There's no alcohol in the world that will drown the fear of seeing this again."
Louise is both shocked and disappointed by Eugene.
"Chadwick's life is in danger. We can't just leave him."
"All we know, he's already kicked the can. But we'd like others to do that for us, wouldn't we? Let's get to the quarry."
Judging by the map you find in the farmhouse, it will be quicker to get there in the car, as there seems that there is a small dirt load leading up the quarry. You quickly pile in the car and head at top speed up the dirt road. Fran takes the wheel, as she claims to be the best driver. Less than five minutes you reach the crest of the hill and look down on an unsettling scene.
The stone quarry is of the large, open variety, with sloping sides that descend at 30 degree angles to the floor of the quarry some 50 feet below. Five enormous strips of what looks to be copper roofing material have been laid out on the sides of the quarry, approximately equally spaced from one another. A small stone altar has been erected at the center of the coppers strips. Chadwick lies on the alter, his legs and arms tied, while a male figure stands over him reading from a notebook and gesticulating wildly.
An enormous, winged figure flies over the quarry, looking like a cross between a bat, a monkey, and an octopus, with a long, barbed tail and curved horns. It is the same figure that decapitated the policeman at the barricade and carried off Chadwick.
The figure standing over Chadwick does not seem to be aware of your presence, although you can see the flying monstrosity's head turn toward you as the car's headlights briefly sweep across its unnatural form. It thankfully continues circling above the floor of the quarry and pays you no further mind.
Amanda grabs Louise's hand and squeezes it, breathing loudly. "It's the thing, the creature! Fran, turn off the headlights!" Once she has calmed down, the journalist asks her companions: "Should…should we try to reason with the man? Or distract him and the thing while someone else can release Chadwick?"
Fran cuts the headlights and slows the car. "What is that, that thing?" she hisses to the others, though it seems unlikely it can hear them from such a distance away. Her mind starts reeling - was that what was being summoned, or is the worst yet to come? Her eyes flash over to Chadwick on the altar, being spoken over. She must save him, she owed it to him, and so much more besides.
"I am not sure a man who is summoning monsters will listen to reason. But perhaps threats will work. Does anyone have any weapons?"
Amanda takes the revolver our of her purse. "I borrowed this from one of the dead troopers. Its fully loaded. What's your plan?"
Judging from his struggling, Chadwick definitely seems to be alive, but also seems to be very well secured and unable to move.
"I can try to circle around and knock out that Satanist, or whatever that is."
"Yes Eugene, try to do that. We'll go down there and try to delay him. That", Louise points to Amanda's pistol, "will be our bargaining chip."
"We'd better hurry! I don't like how those metal plates are glowing. Something bad is going to happen."
Louise pulls at Amanda and Fran to get them all moving down into the pit.
"I see them too! Fran, you seem to know more about the occult than everyone else…could it be some sort of protection? Perhaps that flying monster will attack us only if we cross it? Or is it going to…blow up?!" Amanda lets herself be guided by Louise.
"I can run really fast , so I was thinking I could distract the satanist and Eugene could sneak around and release Chadwick, while Louise waited at the wheel and Fran tried to take down that thing if it gets in the way…but I'm not too sure about that now, with these copper things."
"I don't know how to drive" admits Louise.
I'm going to die, in a really stupid way. Yes, this is how I die. Like an idiot, rushing against a monster. That's how Eugene Stafford dies, and maybe I'll have a gravestone saying "he could've just got the hell out".
Despite his grim thoughts, Eugene tries to keep to the darkest of shadows.
Louise urges the other women to get moving down into the pit.
"Eugene is going to need us there as a distraction before he makes his move. We need to go now!"
Regardless of their role as a distraction, Louise still thinks it best they get in close without too much notice from the man or the thing above. She keeps a low profile and moves as quietly as she can. She also readies her camera flash, holding it tight in her hand.
"Ok, just one quick thing before we move in," Amanda says as she grabs a stick from the ground and tries to poke one of the copper plates from a safe distance.
The stick Amanda is holding sparks as she gets close to the copper pate and the end begins to blacken.
As Louise attempts to sneak toward the bottom of the pit, she is spotted by the creature flying about through the air who dives toward it, clawed hands outstretched!
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Louise needs to run, but she doesn't have too many options down in the pit. It seems unlikely she can cross one of the metal plates with without it killing her, however exactly it would kill her. That means running directly at the alter, and that means bringing the flying thing to exactly where everyone else is converging. Bad.
Besides, she needs to be running toward something that could provide her some cover. She doubts she can just run away from it forever.
Louise screams and runs toward the car.
Seeing the creature diving towards Louise, Amanda mutters a curse under her breath. "Louise! Dammit! Ok, it's now or never! Fran, run to that madman and distract him!"
Amanda aims the best she can, waits until the creature is flying in a straight line and shoots.
Louise runs screaming for the car and dives in just as the creature swoops past her. It pulls out of the dive and lands on top of the Ford, eerily quiet for a thing of its size.
Amanda shoots the police revolver at the monstrosity sitting on the car, hitting it dead center. It bellows in response and swings around to hiss at her. It's clear she now its attention!
Seeing that the creature is momentarily distracted by the other two women, Eugene creeps around the edge of the pit, unseen by anyone. He picks up a large rock and charges down the side of the pit toward the man standing over Chadwick. He turns just as the pitcher hits him upside his head with the rock.
Now bleeding heavily from a head wound, the man looks surprised that he is facing opposition.
"Who are you? Where did you come from?" he mutters while blood spills liberally from his head wound. "You weren't supposed to be with Chadwick. It was only supposed to be that b#%@* Tyler. No matter, my pet will soon make an end to all of you." Counter-intuitively, he then turns back to Chadwick while continuing his incantation.
"How about I make an end to you instead?" shrieks Eugene, bringing the rock down again against the man, aiming for the head. He had never liked to resort to violence, but the only way not to keel over in horror was to keep the adrenaline high. But his frantic action meant that his attack went wild, striking only air.
Amanda gasps at the still alive creature and takes a step back; she feels her skin tingling with the proximity of the copper structures, looks at it, looks back at the monster. She sighs, shakes her head and then starts waving her arms to get the creature's attention.
"You see me now, eh, you big, ugly lizard thing?! Are you hungry?! Come and get a piece of this juicy, juicy lady here! I'm way yummier than those troopers, I can assure you!"
She can feel her charm against the occult banging against her neck 'Mr. Cayce, please, help me!'
When the creature dives for its attack, Amanda waits until the last moment before jumping away to maximise the chance it will hit the copper structures.
Fran guns the Ford, sending Louise in the back seat tumbling to the floor, and causing the creature still on top to lose its balance. It digs in with its long fingers, but fails to find enough purchase and tumbles off into the gravel at the top of the quarry.
The car flips over the embankment and speeds toward the center of the quarry. Fran stomps hard on the breaks, causing the vehicle to begin to fish-tail, and she is barely able to get it to stop 8 feet from the sight of the occult ceremony. Eugene and the cultist have to jump out of the way to avoid being hit.
The creature collects itself and focuses on the only remaining human near it: Amanda. It clicks its mandibles in anticipation and leaps into the air before turning in mid-air to perform a dive directly toward her!
Amanda tries to dodge out of the way at the last minute, but the creature is faster. It attempts to wrap its long sinuous tail around the young woman, but Amanda jumps out of the way at the last second. The creature pulls out of its dive and flies back up into the air.
Eugene, off his feet after dodging the vehicle, rolls towards the cultist and grapples him, trying to smash his head on the ground.
Panicked, Amanda points the revolver at beast's back as it flies back into the air. Screaming and closing her eyes, she fires a blind shot at the monster, missing wildly.