Party 2

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Henry was surprised that he felt relieved that the two weird kids actually had a good suggestion that sounded like Finn might be in good hands, but he didn’t show that to the kids. Instead Henry just nodded “Mmm, that does sound promising. Maybe you could take us there so we can check?” As the kids ask about the others, Henry once again nods, this time rolling his eyes, “Yes, my companions are still faffing about inside, we’re all...visiting. And looking for Finn.” Henry peeked his head back in the door, giving a loud whistle “Oi, let’s go you lot, we got a lead on Finn. Let’s make like a tree and get out of here.”
 
Drae heard Henry's shout and sighed slightly. He had hoped to have more time to talk to the innkeeper and discuss the sense of the 'weave' that he felt from her cards. Some niggling sensation in the back of his neck told him that there was much more to them than just simple cards. "My humblest apologies Mistress, it appears that I am being hailed and my presence is required outside."
Bowing at the waist, he extended his arms to the younger sister. "I look forward to talking to you at greater length, madame. Thank you again for the food as it was most filling."
Turning his head, he called out to Henry. "Coming Henry." Looking at his fellow partners and adventurers, "Shall we?" He places a hand upon the hilt of the rapier to control it, as he maneuvers through the tables and out the door.
 
“I suppose we shall Draeric” Ezra didn’t hear the shout of Henry but he knew well enough to trust whatever Drae was doing. “It seems we have something to attend to, we shall see you soon” He nodded to the woman reading their fortunes and nodded to his fellow companions, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
 
With both Draeric and Ezra stepping out of the tavern, Rose nodded to each of them and said a quick "Hello," while Thorn continued to cling to his older sister's cloak with one hand and his stuffed doll with his other, looking at the party with big brown eyes that seemed he was just a little shy and nervous. A glance through the tavern window would reveal to Draeric, Ezra and Henry that Lillian and Aelar seemed not to have even noticed. Mirabel could be seen calling something to Avik who true to form seemed to be sullenly cleaning beer glasses behind the bar.

Unaware that there were supposed to be five people, Rose continued onward, Thorn following his sister's footsteps, but it was apparent even with the way that Thorn's coat concealed his legs from the ankles up that he was having to practically jog to keep up with Rose. Every step she took seemed to necessitate three steps from Thorn. The cloak, clearly something far too large for a child, barely seemed to ripple in the light breeze as Rose led the way towards her house. The rough dry dirt path barely seemed to slow her down at all.

Rose pushed the way through a small iron gate set in a low brick wall, a good deal more modern than the low stone wall that encompassed the village itself. Winding her way up a path that had once been made to go around an oak tree that appeared to have died a long time ago, Rose climbed up five steps onto a low porch with a large iron gate separating it from the garden. The whole house seemed to have been made of red bricks, though it was weathered. More weathered than the other buildings in Barovia even though it appeared to be a relatively modern addition to the village. Draeric and Ezra would also note that all of the windows seemed to have been boarded up from inside the house. Rose looked to the group, "We - didn't have time to lock up. Our parents keep the keys but they've not been home in a while."
 
Looking at the house, Draeric ran his hand over the hilt of the blade on his hip. He noticed the boarded-up windows on the inside, internal warning bells were going off, at levels that made him want to turn around and walk away and never look back at Barovia or any other thing to do with the mists. The last few days had been one major shock after another...however it wasn't quite bad enough to want to go back home and deal with the political messes and moronic and asinine members of the prince's gatherings of lackeys and sycophants.
Without taking his eyes off of the house, he addressed his next words to the two children. "Have you seen the monster or have any idea of what type of monster it might be?" This was followed up by an internal thought of 'Oh, nothing bad here....nothing bad at all....oh who in the hell am I kidding. It's going to be horrible....Making goblins and wargs seem like puppy dogs and pretty little gnomes...'
With a deep sigh, he moved towards the door. He looked back to the two children, awaiting their response.
 
Thorn continued to grip his sister's cloak in one hand and his stuffed toy in the other hand as he looked up to Draeric and shook his head.

"We've - stayed away from the basement." explained Rose, putting a comforting arm around Thorn's shoulders, "We couldn't see the monster, but we could hear them. From the sounds of it, its a big creature."

"It makes furious howls," added Thorn, his small voice heavily muffled by the fact that his mouth was covered by cloak.
 
Godsdamn this kid, if he wasn't in this creepy ass house and they were about to go get their butts kicked by some freaking monster for no reason, Henry was gonna be pissed. But it seemed like the best lead that they had at the moment, so that was what he was gonna do. Sighing deeply, Henry said, "Alright, we will go inside and check for Finnan, and maybe kill the monster while were at it. But seriously, no promises." Turning to his companions, Henry rolled his eyes "Lets do this, I guess." And he turns to enter the house.
 
As Henry pushed open the door, the old wooden doorframe groaned as the doors swung open. It would be clear enough that the small room beyond led into a larger room. Nearer a set of double doors ahead of them, there was a cloak rack which was empty but seemed to be shining and immaculate, along with two small candle holders on the wall to their right with lit candles within them, the flames covered with glass bulbs. Once Henry and Draeric walked in, the candles seemed to reflect off the cloak rack straight into Henry's eye, giving him a small eye headache.

Pushing forward through the next set of double doors, Draeric and Henry could see a large open hall that seemed to span the width of the house. A large fireplace over which a longsword hung on a wooden frame, a windmill cameo engraved into the hilt. The fireplace was not lit. The wood panels were covered in delicate vine motifs with satyrs and nymphs painted onto the panels seeming to flit around the vines. A large spiral staircase lay to their right with velvet carpeting running up the stairs. In total, there were five doors visible, one single door to their right, two single doors opposite them, spread a little apart. Two more doors stood to their right but also opposite them set at an angle around a corner.

The air itself in the house seemed still, cold. Very little outside light was getting through the boarded up windows, though all of the candles in their holders still gave off enough light for the pair to be able to see.
 
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Deciding to move up to the next floor and sweep the house top to bottom, Draeric and Henry cautiously walked up the ornate spiral staircase. As they approached a landing, the second floor appeared to have been separated into two neat parts, with two double doors that faced each other. Directly opposite the landing was a large fireplace with an ornate painting. Four people were depicted in the painting. A tall woman holding a baby in a bundle of cotton and wool. Either side of her was a child while behind her was a man dressed in finely tailored clothes. It was trivial for Draeric's elven eyes to pick out the features on the painting and identify the children as Rose and Thorn. All of the lights on the second floor were unlit and Draeric could see clearly that there were four suits of armor, two flanking each set of double doors. Henry though could only just see two suits of armor before the light reflecting up from the ground floor faded into shadows that were as impenetrable as the fog outside.

As the pair were contemplating the second floor landing, a loud cracking sound came from the floor below them.
 
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'Bloody and bleeding halls of Myth Drannor! What in the Abyss is that...?' Very quickly went through his mind. Trying to weigh the options with only a few seconds to spare, Drae realized that whatever was coming out of the basement wasn't going to give them time to properly explore and eliminate any threats from the second floor. "This is so going to suck Henry! We need to resolve that now and not later." He quickly whispered to Henry as he motioned him to head back down the stairs, quickly but and by all the gods of the Elves, hopefully...quietly...
Knowing that the children were right on the other side of the front doors, they couldn't take a chance on whatever was busting out of the cellar and getting Rose and Thorn. The kids had already lost or had their parents misplaced...or at least that was the lie he was telling himself right now, as he didn't want to think about the fact that they were creepy and gave off some of the most unsettling vibes that he had ever felt since dealing with the Prince's idiotic dolts back in his homeland. The second issue that was bugging him was that they hadn't seen any stairs downward, and the door that he had listened at was deathly silent...'Watch the words you use Drae before you give this land and the mist more ideas....'
 
Henry's instinct was the opposite of Drae's, he was ready to dash up the stairs to avoid dealing with the problem. Not that he was scared, of course, but it just didn't seem like a problem that current Henry had to deal with, he would rather let future Henry deal with that later. But once Drae started heading down the stairs, Henry realized he didn't have much of a chance without his ally, so without a word, he drew his greataxe and followed behind Drae as quietly as he could.
 
While Drae wasn't a coward, he did have a good sense of self-preservation, and this was really starting to push his limits. He moved quietly down the stairs towards the crashing sounds. Squinting his eyes and focusing his hearing he thought he had it narrowed down to one of the two doors, but still not good. He then winced as Henry missed a step and made a loud thump against the stair. Feeling his heart beating twice as fast and working to go faster, he remembered his breathing exercises from his blade masters and worked to keep calm and keep thinking.
Easy there, Drae. Breathe and use your head! You can do this.

Motioning to Henry to line up just out of the line of sight of the door, he focused through the rapier in his hand, and a ghostly hand appeared near the door.
 
With the door being pushed open by a faint purple spectral hand, Liku reacted with a sudden movement into the shadows, pointing his crossbow at the open door. Well, his crossbow in the sense that it was in his hands. The fact it also bore the windmill crest on its stock did not indicate ownership in any way. Meanwhile on the other side of the wall, Henry and Draeric were well hidden from Liku's point of view and he was well hidden from theirs. The house itself seemed to tense, almost as if it anticipated a meeting. Yet neither side were aware - beyond the previous loud crack that had emanated from the room and the sudden opening of the door of what they would be facing.
 
As nothing came charging out of the door, nor were there any attacks, this intensified the hairs that were standing up on the back of his neck. Grimacing, he let the door close. Drae knew that there was at least one if not two creatures in the house. Having been hunted and attacked in the past, he recognized the skill and cunning that was going into whatever was in the one room. He motioned to Henry to help him move something heavy. Positioning it in such a way that he would be able to accomplish his goals. He then moved back to his previous position and opened the door with the mage hand. Looking into the room, he was unable to see anything immediately. This however, was no longer important as he had failed to fully explain the plan to Henry. With the door opened a second time, Henry ran by Drae screaming a battle cry. Drae stood in disbief and shock as Henry went past. Quickly though, he kicked off the shock and proceeded to carefully follow Henry in to the room.
 
With Henry charging into the room, he could see a small hunting den with a large amount of taxidermy hanging from the walls. Two cabinets stood wide open, one of which had clear and obvious signs of having been forced open. Two large high backed chairs stood near a small side table, itself looking to have recently been ransacked if the open drawer was anything to go by. An unlit fireplace was near the two chairs on the left side of the room as someone entered through the door.

To Liku, hiding in his small spot of shadow that concealed him perfectly, he saw a broad tall human man charge into the room wearing clanking scale mail with a greataxe in hand.
 
As nothing came charging out of the door, nor were there any attacks, this intensified the hairs that were standing up on the back of his neck. Grimacing, he let the door close. Drae knew that there was at least one if not two creatures in the house. Having been hunted and attacked in the past, he recognized the skill and cunning that was going into whatever was in the one room. He motioned to Henry to help him move something heavy. Positioning it in such a way that he would be able to accomplish his goals. He then moved back to his previous position and opened the door with the mage hand. As the door opened, he was unable to see anyone or thing in the room. However, as he watches Henry charge past him into the room he just shakes his hand and swings in behind his partner. He hangs back along the wall ready to cast a spell, but eyes are busy sweeping the room looking for anything out of place.
 
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