Game Thread

[FunkyWaltDogg]

"Henry! Good timing. Have a look at this letter, I'll see about getting some light in here."

David hands the letter to Henry, then sets about lighting the lamps in the living room, study, and then the library. Taking his cue from David, Benjamin gets to work lighting the sitting room and dining room.

[Squashua]

Everyone pitches in to help light the rooms by filling lamps with oil, lighting wicks, and various fireplaces.

In the living room, the fireplace and several hurricane-style lamps are now lit. The fireplaces in the study and library are also lit, as are the oil lamps in the library chandelier, through clever use of a chair. Benjamin eyed the chandelier in the foyer, but decided against it, but he does set the fireplace in the sitting room ablaze. After a brief cobweb-lighting scenario, the large, crystal chandelier in the dining room, as well as the two silver candelabra on the table are lit.

With everything seemingly calm and non-outside light filling the rooms (no one mentioned trying to get additional shutters re-opened), Henry (who has now read the suicide note of Elizabeth Dubois) settles back to reading the journal of Aaron Dubois in the living room, Roger and Benjamin delve into the business papers across the dining room table, and Daniel picks up where he left off in the diary of Beatrice Dubois. David twiddles his thumbs and silently wishes for a better education, then picks up the Journees of Brandon Dubois and starts reading through it.

You know, assuming no one else thought of anything better to do.

The time is
1 : 25 PM


Next post will pend based on
1 - Alterations to the above interactions

2 - Any player interaction / discussion regarding the suicide note (discussions are likely short and will have no overall bearing on time spent; probably taking place during the 1 : 15 - 1 : 25 timespan, but let's be serious - you guys would totally chat about something like that).

3 - The next character who finishes reading their item(s) to add information to the mix (to be alerted by PM and maybe posted a bout mildly in the thread).

4 - Anyone sharing additional information not yet shared or deemed pertinent to the group.

5 - Charles' arrival in the late 2 PM range.

I'll see if anyone posts anything by tomorrow before forging ahead.

[Squashua]

Summaries of time spent reading

Daniel
12 : 50 - 13 : 05 | 15m - Beatrice Diary
TOTAL: 15m

Henry
12 : 15 - 12 : 20 | 5m - Journees of Brandon
TOTAL: 5m

12 : 25 - 12 : 30 | 5m - Aaron Journal
12 : 50 - 13 : 00 | 10m - Aaron Journal
TOTAL: 15m

Roger
12 : 10 - 12 : 15 | 5m - Biz docs
12 : 20 - 12 : 30 | 10m - Biz docs
12 : 50 - 13 : 05 | 15m - Biz docs
TOTAL: 30m

Benjamin
12 : 50 - 13 : 05 | 15m - Biz docs
TOTAL: 15m

Man, time dilation sucks.

Pend for next post, momentarily.

[Squashua]

Time passes, with everyone slightly nervous, but buried in their work. The house still feels imposing, but the smothering is actually comforting, allowing proper focus on the reading. The sounds quiet down, there aren't any odd creaks, and the shutters haven't slammed for some time. Around two o'clock, Daniel puts down the diary he's been reading and blinks. "Man, I'm hungry." And I gotta pee.

Others also feel the unrelenting calls of both nature and nurture.

The time is
2 : 00 PM


Sent PM to Daniel / Embark

[Squashua]

Meanwhile, at 2 : 00 PM, twenty minutes outside of town, stiff-walking distance...

Charles estimates in his head that if it takes a likely fifteen minutes to get to the mansion, and the car drives a likely average of 35 miles per hour as it's searching for the appropriate road and slows down, speeds up, etc., and a person walks at an average speed of 4mph, it should take approximately an hour and a half to reach the mansion, walking from town at this pace. He'd make it by 3 : 10 PM if he's lucky.

sigh.


This reminded him of the time he had to forge that river and bring a dog and a chicken along, but only two could fit in the boat at the same time. That chicken was delicious.

[Oats]

The dog was also decent company.

Kept the sheepdogs at bay, too.

Nothing like a canine to keep you safe at night, that much he was sure of.

Charles doubted anyone would willingly drive him to the mansion, given the reaction of the homely little waitress.

He strode off to the side of the road, while re-doing the basic math in his head.

15:10, if I'm lucky. Why the bloody fuck did I not just steal the bloody fucking book? The librarian was a fucking well classic chump, could've stolen his pants out from under him, and he probably would've thanked me just for showing some fucking interest in his little pisswater library.

Too late now, I suppose.

Charles shook briefly, zips up his fly and carries on down the road.

His mouth waters slightly as he remembers the chicken.

[Squashua]

Figuring it's a good time to take a break, the men go upstairs in cautious groups of two to separately relieve themselves in the (only) house privy. Roger and David are tasked with figuring out how the plumbing works, as the bathroom has no water. They open the cabinet under the sink to reveal a manual pump system to move water upstairs, but as the leather gaskets are dried and crumbling, it's completely unusable. The pump mounted about the sink for the kitchen itself still works though, with almost no leaking. Henry recalls seeing a bucket in the carriage house and rushes out to get it. Soon, a system is set up to bring the water upstairs, through full manual labor though, as no one particularly wants to use the dumbwaiter.

During their individual stays in the bathroom, everyone becomes aware of the intrusive and moldy north wall. David has idly pulled away some of the plaster, which came off easily, and now lies in the bathtub. Beneath the plaster are rotting wooden slats.

The first done, Daniel heads downstairs to take an accounting of the food. Apparently anything that wasn't packaged in cans or tins, like the biscuits from the diner, some brand new boxes of crackers, a new loaf of bread with severely advanced bread mold, and a even a few rolls of now-extremely tough jerky, are spoiled. It puzzles Daniel to no end, but at least the tinned sardines are still tasty.

Twenty-five minutes later, everyone settles back to their reading tasks while Daniel examines the note from Elizabeth (related earlier) and takes a look at the bible that held David's mild interest, then peruses the library for anything else interesting.

Another PM sent to Embarkation.

The time is
2 : 25 PM

[Squashua]

Charles pats the back of the pickup truck. "Thank you for the ride!" It drives off down the gravel road, it's owner off to the town of Sherwood, as Charles makes his way up the dirt path through the woods. It was fortuitous he flagged down the farmer, but the chickens in the back of the truck made an awful ruckus, and he was still getting back his hearing. Charles tromped up the path and ahead of him, fronted by a tall fence, stood what he hoped was the Dubois mansion. All of the windows looked closed as he approached. The gate was closed tight, but there was some activity in the gatehouse to his right.

"Hello?" he called out.

Suddenly O'tway felt something slap lightly against his left shoulder. He put his right hand on it to feel; it came away wet. He looked at his hand.

It was covered in bird crap.

"Untmoment", called back someone from the gatehouse. A slim man came out of the door and started to say something at Charles, but stopped and raised an eyebrow. "Eh, who are you?"

"Charles O'tway, sir. And I expect that you are Hans the groundskeeper."

"Ah yes. Your companions are inside. Ut." he looked at Charles' shoulder. "You need a towel?"

The time is
2 : 40 PM

[Oats]

14:40-

"That would be most splendiferous, my good sir. Merci."

Jokingly, Charles then started "I suppose my compatriots haven't been scared away yet?"

Hans crooked an eyebrow. "Nein, but I haff herd some murmurs from dee house. Also, dat big guy looked a little... *snaps his fingers* shaken. Ja, shaken."

Charles frowned to himself. Hope they didn't wreck anything shiny, valuable or both.

Then, approaching the house it hits him.

Fuck.

If they're shaken, I better announce myself.

[Squashua]

Roger reaches for a pile of envelopes that Benjamin has stacked. "Ut-ut, Rog," Ben intercedes, "I've already gone through those. You can check them if you want, but otherwise, that's all taken care of. Just receipts."

Roger frowned, then waved his arm, "I've handled this side of the table. I haven't gotten to those."

"Well, I think we're both in the same situation," admits Ben. "We can either swap sides and duplicate the others work, or just go with what we have. So far, there's nothing I've read in here that stands out to me as important."

"I agree. The family went from buying orchards, Dubois Orchards, when they first moved here to switching to a furniture manufacturing business, Dubois Manufacturing."

"Correct, and towards the end of Aaron's life, he sold off most of the family's holdings, retaining only the house and the few hundred acres of hilly woodland that surround it."

"And there are tons of receipts for business expenses, home furnishings, shipping bills." adds Roger. "Maurice should pay us for organizing all of this."

"He didn't ask you to." interjects Daniel from the study.

At that moment from the front door, "Hello, anyone there?"

Charles steps through into the foyer.

The time is
2 : 45 PM

Reading estimates

Henry thinks he could wrap up the Journal in another hour and a half,
Roger and Benjamin both believe they can cover the work of the other in about an hour,
and David flips through Journeeys and estimates he's about one sixth the way through.

[Squashua]

At this point, I hand the well-worn reins over to you, the players.

Have at it.

[Oats]

I burn the house down, and blame it on a crazed Germanic foreigner.*

Also, I keep the towel he gave me.**

Moving into the lit part of the mansion, Charles can't help but notice that everyone else is pouring over various scraps and books. He realizes this must be the family library.

He notices a copy of Journees and sighs aloud.

Isn't that just bloody fucking typical?

Oh well. May as well sit down and rest a little.

Mayhaps ask these gents what they've been up to in the interim. It doesn't look like a whole lot.

Wonder why that shutter is propped open. . . There's no wind.

Can I make a roll or whatever to see if Charles can smell/see any evidence of the gunshot?
*Totally joking.
**Not joking as much. A towel could come in handy, if Hans doesn't mind me hanging on to the bird-shat towel.

[Squashua]

Though there is no smell of a recent shotgun firing, if he goes to the third floor, he'll likely find shot. Otherwise, the same descriptions as earlier apply to the rooms as Charles discovers them, except for certain things that only someone with his keen eye and several rolls others might have missed might notice.

Like the porcelain birds and wildlife in the foyer being worth a hefty sum on the open market, the elephant foot umbrella stand appearing to be truly authentic, the beautiful wood mantle shared by the living room / study / library being a rich ebony, a dense wood found in Africa, and the library oddly having only several works of, at best, medium worth. A cursory walk around the dining room where Roger and Benjamin have their work spread out shows the larger pieces of silver on the table to be stamped with the name "Revere", which means they likely are authentic, pre-Revolutionary items.

Further casual "checking" of the breakfront and buffet turn up additional pieces of silver, pewter, fine Scottish lines, and antique china made in Dresden.

[Squashua]

Jun 17, 2009 21:12:50 GMT -5 Oats said:

Moving into the lit part of the mansion, Charles can't help but notice that everyone else is pouring over various scraps and books. He realizes this must be the family library.

As an aside, reference an image of the first floor from earlier and read along:

Daniel is wandering the first floor rooms, but hanging in the Study / Living Room perusing books in the Library (in holding pattern till Embarkation gets back).

David (Funky) is reading Journees while sitting in the Living Room, and Henry (B:L) is reading the Journal of Aaron Dubois in the same.

Benjamin (Wildcat) and Roger (Obbi) are in the Dining Room with a ton of office documents spread out on the table.

Charles (Oats) is in the Foyer or casing wandering the first floor, but currently only rooms containing other player characters.

[Obbi]

"There's no sense in going over each other's share of the work, there's nothing to be had here."

Roger stands up from his seat and stretches. He was a bit relieved to see perfectly normal business being held by the Dubois.

"I think I heard somebody come in, I'll be right back."

He walks into the Foyer, looking around but with no signs of the newcomer. He gets uneasy.

"Hello? We're over here!"

[B:L]

HENRY
(Looks over the letter.)
Elizabeth Dubois, eh? Poor girl was suffering from schizophrenia.
I wonder if this is her handwriting... a clever plot twist would be if
this was a plant. What was her relationship to Aaron in the family tree?

DANIEL
Funny you should mention that, there's a family tree in the library.

(Henry looks over the family tree, then returns to researching.)

[Squashua]

Jun 18, 2009 0:28:26 GMT -5 B:L said:

DANIEL
Funny you should mention that, there's a family tree in the FAMILY BIBLE.

(Henry looks over the family tree, then returns to researching.)

The following family tree is listed in the front of the family bible.

____ represents a missing value.

The Dubois family tree at the front of the family bible branches left and right, starting from Erich Dubois, who apparently remarried at some point.

The left branch reads as follows:

Erich Dubois (1762 - ____) was married to Lydia Bishop Kent (1765 - 1793)
They begat
Jonathan Dubois (1787 - ____) who married Elanor Douglas (1794 - ____)
They begat
David Dubois (1803 - ____) who married Mary Closson (1813 - ____)
They begat
Sarah Dubois (1828 - ____) and Allen Closson Dubois (1832 - ____)

The right branch reads as follows:

Erich Dubois (1762 - ____) married Elizabeth Colsby (1782 - 1812)
They begat
Henry Wadsworth Dubois (1802 - ____) and Brandon Hewitt Dubois (1807 - ____)
Henry married Priscilla Dudley (1804 - ____)
They begat
Aaron Dubois (1827 - ____) and Elizabeth Dubois (1832 - ____)
Aaron married Beatrice Jones (1832 - ____)

The family tree ends.

[Squashua]

Don't wait for Embarkation; he mentioned he'd be away for a bit.

"Hi Charles," Daniel gets up to shake his hand. "Glad to see you could make it here. Let me bring you up to speed. We had a little... incident upstairs earlier." His voice lowers to a whisper. "A few of us saw something odd, maybe we imagined it, but we encountered a strange old white-haired woman who ran through our group... and vanished into thin air, according to Roger. You'll notice that though a housekeeper had been hired, the house itself is in disarray. It seems that early on in their career, Hans and his wife Heidi were frightened by a similar apparition, and haven't been back inside since." He raises his voice back up. "We've also heard noises, had shutters close on us unexpectedly, and other... odd incidents. Much that could potentially be explained, but the vision a few of us collectively witnessed..." he shudders.

"Roger and Benjamin over there are covering the business history of the family to see if there was any indication of evidence of the haunt in their history. About a half hour ago, I finished this diary I found upstairs under a mattress. It was started in 1885 and kept by a Beatrice Dubois who, according to this text, was obviously an older, potentially unhinged woman. Among the ramblings about missing her late husband Aaron, writing about 'that bastard' Allen, and putting up with her presumably 'whore of a daughter' Virginia, are writings about her various aches and pains, the foodstuffs she consumed daily, and her constant paranoia regarding her daughter and grandson. Honestly, there was little of note in here, and she apparently spent much time doodling intricate looping designs to decorate the edges of the pages."

Embark isn't around to relate his PM. He can elaborate later if he wishes.

"Meanwhile David, after discovering a strange suicide note in the family bible, as written by an Elizabeth Dubois," he hands over the note, "is paging through a book he said he heard you looking for at the Exeter library. Some sort of family-published book; guess it makes sense the family would have a copy of it at their own home, right? And Henry has been active going through the journal of Aaron Dubois, the man who helped with building up Exeter itself into a more thriving community."

"So far," he swings his arm outward as though to reference the house, "we've been through the first floor, most of the second floor, and only the hallway on the third floor." He lowers his voice again, "that's when the incident I mentioned earlier happened." He raises it up, "Otherwise, we had a storm come through and weren't really able to go outside and walk the grounds or much else. I will say though, there is something odd going on here."

That's about all I can do for exposition.

[FunkyWaltDogg]

"Hey there, Charles. We've had a look around the house, but we didn't finish checking out the third floor on account of the incident Daniel mentioned. After you've had a peek at that letter, why don't you and I head upstairs? There's something odd about the outside wall of the water closet on the second floor, maybe you can shed some light on it."

[Squashua]

"I don't have much else to do at the moment," states Daniel, putting the journal down on the dining room table. "I'll go with you two."

The time is now

2 : 50 PM

FYI, every time that time passes in-game, I update a thread on the private section where time counts are to track reading completion.

[Oats]

"Odd how?"
Followed by, sniffing, "And what smells like rotted vittles?"

[Squashua]

Jun 18, 2009 16:53:35 GMT -5 Oats said:

"Odd how?"
Followed by, sniffing, "And what smells like rotted vittles?"

"It bows outward, into the room," explains Daniel, "and any unpackaged food we brought with us has spoiled."

[Oats]

The food's turned over? Already?

Bloody amateurs. Just my luck, too.

"Well, let's go see this wall then. I'm no architect, mind you.

"Oh, and if there's time, afterwards, I'm going to want to see the damages from that shot. See if we can't obfuscate it at all."

[FunkyWaltDogg]

After grabbing a light, a lamp I guess? whatever we've got David and Daniel lead Charles up the stairs to the second floor and to the entrance of the bathroom. "Here it is," says David, and opens the door.

[Squashua]

Charles, David and Daniel head upstairs to the bathroom.

Snagged and altered from earlier.

The Water Closet

The door opens into a small bathroom containing a porcelain toilet, sink and bathtub. All are dusty, dirty and brown with old stains. The paint is peeling badly and large flakes have fallen from the ceiling onto the thick dust of the floor. The paint on the walls is also slowly dropping off. With a closer inspection, it's obvious that water damage from the shower and years of neglect has taken it's tool on the north wall. Large chunks of plaster have fallen off the north wall into the bathtub, some apparently quite recently, revealing the wooden slats behind, and the wall itself has a perceptible bulge to it, as though it were sagging into the room. There is a quarter-full bucket of water on the floor, and with three people in here, the room is at capacity.



Missing character placements; can't update images till evenings.

The time is
2 : 55 PM

[Squashua]

Benjamin and Roger have finished cleaning up the business documents and putting them back, now organized, into the desk in the study.

[FunkyWaltDogg]

"There's something... wrong with this wall. I'm sure of it." David, Daniel, and Charles begin to carefully examine the northern wall, trying to determine why it might be bulging out and whether it might be concealing something.

[Squashua]

After a brief examination, the trio determine the swelling / molding is definitely attributable to age and shower exposure. The plaster here is or rather, was unusually thick compared to the rest of the room, as though it was gone-over or repaired several times, with varying results. There are several separate layers of paint on the plaster. The wooden slats behind the plaster are solid together, but rotting and warped, probably due to a combination of humidity and age. Either the warping, or an amateurish build job, or a combination of both could be attributed to the wall's bend. Without pulling off an excessive and seriously noticeable amount of plaster from the wall, it would be impossible to determine what is behind it. Knocking on the slats echos back, revealing a hollow of some kind. There is no entrance of any kind through the wall from this room, or the hallway. One could conceivably break a hole through the wall, but again, that would cause severe damage requiring repair.

The time is
3 : 00 PM

[Oats]

Charles takes his handkerchief out of his breast pocket, and covers his right hand with it.

>tap wall with hand

A small amount of plaster falls loose, revealing several colours of paint.

>get chip of plaster

You wrap the plaster chip in your handkerchief, and deposit it in your pocket.

>make note in journal

You pull out your journal, and write the following: "House is in a massive state of disrepair. Shoddy workmanship abounds. No wonder the stooge cannot sell it. Could use some ventilation. House still very... unwelcoming."

Charles begins to wonder if the "novice" craftsmanship could have anything to do with the secret room he'd read about.

"Hrmm.
"I wonder."

"Wonder what?" David blurts out in his... hideous, uncultured American drawl.

"Not being one to blow my own horn, but I've now read a few books and papers on the Dubois family, and one of them held mention of a secret room.

"I do not think it would be particularly prudent of us to go knocking down this wall, but it would stand to reason that the repeated and seemingly rushed repairs to this general vicinity could have something to do with keeping something away from prying eyes. Help is notoriously sticky-fingered, especially when a family has incredible amounts more art then sense. The Dubois family certainly seems to be of that type.

"Hell, they hired a pair of bloody Huns to look after the place, for starters. Moreover, the current Dubois has not inspected his property for quite some time, he has been taking the word of his inferiors at face value, and quite frankly it is no surprise that the house is in such a state of disrepair.

"The entire house is muggly and... wrong. It has a certain wrongness to it which, my experience with manors tells me could be easily solved with some elbow grease, initiative and decent hired hands."

[B:L]

HENRY
(Looks up from his reading.)
If you two are finished with those business documents, you should probably take a look around
outside for that cat or other clues, before it gets dark. Plus, it would be good to get some fresh
air before the mold gets to you. There's also the greenhouse too, but I wouldn't enter without a mask.