TSW - Chapter 3: Disruption (1) - The Girl and the Storm

To travel from Darkperch to Auspar; it would usually take a couple of hours through the woods and into the open plains and fields around the caldera. Along this road, heavy cart tracks have gullied the sides between the mines and the city; but for its distance and the mines importance, the route was normally unguarded. That was until Chancellor Pheylor became Chancellor Regent. With the uncertainty of the princess' existence and disappearance of the King following The Great Descent, Pheylor had taken control of the royal court and in essence crowned himself King.  With his new power, he had increased what most citizens of Thaemor protested against with the old king, the Shadow Tax.

Holva the First had created this tax under the proviso to the people that it was for their benefit. His subjects on the other hand, had other ideas. His infamous insanity left no quarter for chances, and every action was left  full of doubt and suspicion by his people. They believed that his madness had caused innumerable and unforgiving laws and so nearly all his proclamations were ignored. The first and foremost example of that was the Shadow Tax. Under Pheylor, the people had no choice but to accept the Chancellor regent's laws, as they perceived Pheylor to be sound of mind.  Along with the money, there needed to be a guarantee that the wealth would not only be collected but also returned to the crown in safety. The Grapnel Guard, like the citizens of Thaemor, had ignored the old king however but had no objection to Pheylor and became his loyal guard. Although nobody any real idea what the Shadow Tax was really for it seemed in part go to towards Pheylor's newly coined Shadow Guard. The old Grapnel Guard had never left the city and had left most of the jurisdiction to Ferral Hawkson purpose but they were now venturing out in the Steadfast, requisitioning supplies for outposts along the road towards Jyrek. The  first of these was now between Eryn, Xera, Danton and his butler. Chance was nowhere to be seen. In fact he had received a mysterious letter some days ago calling him back to Qi. WHatever was in that letter he had taken up the opportunity without delay although he did not notice the penmanship similar to that of Eryn.

The outpost was nothing more than a shack at appearances, made out of refuse wood and metal. The construction was sturdy enough for the shack to stand up  adorned with bladed or powered defences. There was no sign of anyone around and the open plains around the building were to deserted. From the tree line Eryn noticed that darkening clouds were heading his way, but luckily it wasn't the Iron Wind, at least from appearances he hoped. He turned around to the group to consult on their best course of action, when a branch gave way under the dark canopy of leaves a small distance away. A slight figure fell to the ground before scurrying behind a tree.

He told the group to stand back while he went over to investigate, with Danton ignoring him completely. Eryn called out to behind the tree. Eyes with a faint golden glow, peered out from the shadows before darting back. His constant reassurance, crossed with Danton's interventions, slowly brought the figure out. Eryn ignited his halo as to illuminate who was approaching him. She, was a young girl, not much older than sixteen. She meekly stepped into the light with shuffling feet. She seemed utterly taken by the fire and by the same token, did not answer any questions. It was plain for all to see, that the girl was malnourished and also and more importantly a Guldspar. This fact was barely noticeable on her marred skin. Her clothes were torn and muddied and her hair was in a similar, knotted and dry. The group had encountered the golden veins before but not how she had in some part embodied the golden colour. Not only did her eyes have it’s tint, so too did her skin and the tips of her dark brown hair.

She had had refused not only to speak, but now to move as she was transfixed on Eryn's flames. Danton had tried to lure her with food but without saying a word, she opened up her satchel and showed a set of rations while still maintaining eye contact with the flames.  As Eryn tried to take the bread Danton was offering, the girl crawled forward from where she sat, following him. In the shadow cast by Eryn’s halo, the veins had extended beyond her flesh and now gilded her shadow. The new fact allowed him to bring her back to Jarvan and Xera, who were now more concerned about the looming storm. They both told Eryn and Danton they could taste iron in the air, and the hairs on their arms were now standing on end. Even the young girl nodded along showing off her tongue and arms, inadvertently showing her forearm blade.

The sensations intensified as lightning struck the ground in the distance. The wind was now picking up and the shack beyond the tree line was on the edge of being shaken apart. As the clouds gathered overhead,lhe strikes of lightning increased in number. Metal objects, such as Danton's karambit and Jarvan's letter opening started to curl on their person. In a blink, the small metal objects from the shack that had been shaken free by the wind; were now floating upwards towards the sky, in what looked like a vortex.  

From out of nowhere the young girl cried out in pain as her forearm blade had twisted and lodged itself in a deep cut that it had slashed into her arm. Although she was not bleeding she was crying in pain for a minute or two with both Danton and Jarvan rushing to help her. She, in turn, bit her lip and rebuked them. She scrunched her eyes while feeling around her satchel for a glove. It was made from rings and finger tip coverings along with a back plate and a central gemstone  setting in the palm connecting the separate pieces by chains and wires. The material looked like synth while the gemstone was unidentifiable, even to Danton. She placed her glove on the opposite hand to the wound, breathed in deeply and clenched her teeth.

A small red light emanated from the jewel that bathed her forearm blade and her skin.  She moved her hand into a more claw like position over the metal, as if going to grab it. Slowly but surely, alongside screams and watery bloodshot eyes, the metal was slowly pulled out of her flesh. The light continued to bathe her skin with the metal removed, closing the wound. She tossed the glove to the ground after the jewel shattered and looked up to the sky. It was dark and bubbling with electricity, that was now striking more and more often. A bolt struck the shack sending a shockwave out along with debris. The trees behind them were slowly being  felled by bolts from the storm. There was nothing left to do but run.

TSW - Chapter 2: The Heart of the House (8) - The Dining Room

Back in the room with Lavinia and Randall, a pale leathery face peered out form the hole in the floor. It stared with it gaping mouths that whispered and chattered and giggled. Randall could see  the face in the corner of his eye. He slowly forced Lavinia out of the room as so they would not attract attention. Without any clear intent, Randall shoved her into a room full of mirrors. Some of the mirrors were freestanding, some were mounted on the wall while others were frameless. There were also a few rare mirrors with ornate scrawled frames, much like the paintings in the house. It was these mirrors that showed signs of cracking. By the light from the chandelier above them,  the hairline fractures that spread out from the frames were easily seen.

There was a dart of red in one of the mirrors that caused Randall to look back behind him. He saw nothing but part of his reflection in another mirror. As he looked however, he slowly saw the reflection of what of in front of himself. There was another dash of red before blood started to ooze out from the fracture that the blob had passed over. Without even turning his head, he decided it was time to prove to Lavinia that these things were not real and took out his rapier. He thrust it forward towards into the glass expecting it to pass right through; in fact the mirror shattered, causing Lavinia to jump out her skin.

The red blob was soon spotted again and again by Randall, jumping from mirror to mirror. It seemed to catch itself on the cracks, causing itself to bleed. One by one, each mirror was frantically smashed down as Randall gave chase. The last mirror refused to crack however. The red blob was now more distinct. It was a writhing mass of flesh that lashed out with bloodied growths at the glass and at the reflection of Randall. Before it darted away, Randall could make out a singular giant orange eye. He was prepared to not tell Lavinia for fear of causing her to panic even further but she had already witnessed it and had fallen to her knees in sobs.

Randall now took the bow from his back and desperately fired at the last mirror. He shot again and again with each arrow only slightly cracking the mirror before bouncing off. It took almost his entire remaining ammunition to destroy the mirror. When it was achieved however, it accompanied by the sounds of children's laughter. As the laughter fell silent, the candles of the chandelier were blown out and both felt their eyes and head becoming heavy as stone.

Upon hearing the laughter and seeing nothing happening to himself, Danton rushed to where thought Lavina and Randall would be. He saw the door to the room down the hall to where they had just been swing shut. He quickly ran for it, and desperately grabbed onto the handle. Xera could only watch on as the metal from it quickly covered his entire body, swallowing him like a serpent until all that remained was the handle. As Xera looked on in stunned dismay, he  he felt a sharp sting in his neck before a leathery hand covered his face and eyes.

***

 The group eventually awoke to find  themselves all around a dining table. Eryn, Zeigev and Chail were all still unconscious for any number of reasons. Lavinia cried out to Randall while Xera noticed there were four pale leathery skinned creatures sat with them. Just as Danton had seen, they were hairless and featureless creatures, save for mouths that adorned the surface of their head. Chance pleaded with them to let the group go before he saw that they too were retrained like he was. This fact now left group squirming in their seats as they had on some level expected these creatures to be their assailants. The restraints themselves that bound them all seemed to be like serpents to Danton, and although he looked high and low for fuzzy neon lights, there were none and panic set in.

The pressure in the air changed for a second, causing everyone's ears to pop, that was apart from Randall and Chance. Within seconds Lavinia was screaming again, pointing wildly around the room and accusing everyone of being less worthy and therefore should be eaten. Danton yelled out for Jarvan expecting to be freed by his butler. Xera looked confused, and before acknowledging his restraints, asked the group when he had left his laboratory in Auspar.

Randall now with a broken heart, tried to mend Lavinia's memories as she lashed out at him. His words however were experienced, carefully chosen and honeyed. She was slowly calmed down and was brought around to his way of thinking, which caused the memories she had lost to be regained. With those memories, she also now saw her stuffed Seskii from her childhood on the plate in front of her. A voice, licked her ear and asked her if she was hungry. Without questioning, she leant her head over the toy and tore into it with her teeth, revealing flesh and bone underneath the fake fur, rather than the stuffing she expected. Although she initially thought to recoil she forced herself to continue.

On Danton's plate molten gold, dripped over cases of pills and vials of drugs and needles, Lavinia's head was served up to Randall, while Chance saw a pair of hands with bloodied carved  designs in the flesh. Chance turned towards Danton and Randall, who were at the other end of the table and who both had both refused their meal, and saw something unexpected. There were Three purple skinned humanoids, around three foot tall, with no facial features save for what looked like their brains protruding the surface of their skulls. Both their feet and hands had tapered into a points and the end of their limbs but they were still able to operate what looked like medical equipment.  

Chance shouted to group about their existence, to which Randall, who had consciously been trying to see through any illusion, now also saw. This fact now also ended the illusion of memory loss within the group. As both Randall and Chance's eyes fixed on the creatures, the creatures themselves seemed startled and the room went black. The candles were somehow quickly relit, only to illuminate the now un-restrained creatures, bearing teeth and claw.

Lavina stared intently at the creature coming for her. Some of its lips were salivating, while others chattered of her death. She forced an image into the creatures mind that caused it so much pain that it collapsed and curled up in to a ball on the floor, muttering incoherently. Chance, only two seats away, had managed for free himself, much like Randall had now done. Another leather faced creature lunged at Xera but he managed to dodge by falling over while still restrained in his chair. The distraction of him falling over, had allowed Danton to free himself before he ran to the double doors and into the hallway.

Chance upon noticing Xera on the floor, ignored the hostile creatures and went to his aid, freeing him and helping him out of the room. In the chaos, Randall was setting up what had attacked Lavinia upstairs. He had no real clue what to do apart from what he understood from Xera's loud and frantic instructions. Time was needed to change it from a large perimeter to one of close quarters and time was running out. Chance saw an opportunity to distract their enemies with a violin and dancers, who now twirled around the room keeping the attention of the creatures.

The apt distraction allowed Chance to grab Chail in his arms, for Danton to throw Eryn over his shoulder and for Xera to hobble out while propping up Zeigev. Danton however quickly pointed out that the door in the ground floor corridor, as they already knew, had had gone and had yet to return. He told them that the only other door they hadn't tried was back in the room they had just left. Randall at the same time had noticed that the dancers were slowing down, and alerted Chance. He knew this meant that the creatures were soon to have their wits again and told the group of this fact. Danton broadened his shoulders before picking up Eryn again and charged into the room and out the other door.

Randall took this as a sign to activate the device and ran out of the room following the others. The device let off salvo after salvo of red light that blasted into the creatures again and again. Discharge after blast was heard thudding into the creatures as their many voices cried out in pain. As soon as everyone was in the room Danton slammed the door shut and kept it held fast, waiting for the desperate scratching of the creatures to stop. Lavinia hurried to the other door in the room, to which Danton was thankful for its existence. She let out an audible scream as she breathed in the fresh air and fell to the ground, clutching the grass in her hands.

***

A few hours later the group returned. Chial was handed over to Jarvan, who was still attending the wounded after the Iron Wind had ripped through the caravan. Eryn was put laid on his bed in his room to rest while the others waited downstairs in the bar while Mavis went to fetch Froge.

Zeigev had taken quite a few shots of some of the strongest stuff behind the bar, which made the rest of them a little nervous. None of them were huge enthusiasts of alcohol and they knew that those that drank that much at taverns had deep running reasons to. It wasn't long before they were given their answer as Mavis returned with Froge.

The second Froge's wheelchair had moved past the threshold of the Drunken Tallon, Zeigev launched at him with a knife and incoherent rage. Froge instinctively stood up from his chair and darted for the door while Zeigev screamed about Froge leaving him for dead, for discrediting him, and for penning atrocities under his name to promote his own work.

The group was left stunned as Froge ran out of the inn. The fight had now spilled out in to main road. Froge was forced to doge around a few carts and a large boulder. It afforded Randall enough time to take aim at his leg and to pin his leg to impair him. Danton, taking Randall's lead, shot Frog with a Khatt-Nipp dosed dart. Froge's eyes widened as he could hear adulation and adoration for his novels. It distracted him long enough for the poison Lavina and just infected him with to work. A third arm burst from his chest, causing him to shout out in pain as the third first started pummelling into him, eventually leaving him bloodied, bruised and lifeless.  

Zeigev could only look on in horror to what had just happened, He turned to the group to ask why but was instead hit with a tranquiliser by Xera and fell to the floor before anything more could be asked. Danton instructed Jarvan to take both bodies inside while he offering Lavinia and Randall a means to contact him. Although Ren had been an odorous creature, he had at least been able to pick mostly capable mercenaries. 

TSW - Chapter 2: The Heart of the House (7) - Prior

Whatever the creatures saw, they scattered almost instantaneously. As the cloud dispersed, the three seemed relatively shaken by what they had seen but Randall could offer no explanation. Lavinia had decided that everything she would see from now on needed to be physically inspected for its reality. So, she leant over the hole the creatures had come through and dropped her torch down expecting it to fall into the room below. Instead it fell into the crawl space between the floorboards, illuminating a construct made of  metal.

Upon closer inspection, it was revealed to be a sturdy tripod with that supported a large red ball. As Lavinia lent down to take a better look at the finer details, she was blasted by a force of energy that knocked her back and winded her, causing shooting pains on her left side. Randall immediately dived over to Lavinia to support her. Xera on the other hand, knowing he didn't need to help her, had become intrigued the object and used every last ounce of knowledge he had to try and understand what he had attacked Lavinia. After a while, Xera was able to gleam information on what he had found. It was a device that mostly likely could be used to set up a large parameter defence from a central point. A fact the other two had missed as they had both had gone downstairs while Xera had rambled about the possibilities of it .   

Lavinia and Randall had passed Chance on their way down, but did not stop to tell him of what had happened. They both had quickly ushered themselves, as well as Danton, back into the room where Zeigev had changed. Although Danton protested, they were forcefully persuasive and he eventually relented.  He found to his confusion, only scratch marks where Zeigev had been. Outside the corridor, Xera had followed them downstairs, ignoring Chance as well, trying to now get into a better position to hear the conversation. Without warning Lavinia burst into apologies before Randall offered clarity. They spoke of their contract to a man named Ren, who they believed was under Danton's employment. This sparked apprehension and curiosity in him as they explained the vision of the man upstairs. The alluded to the fact that this had been a man Danton had wanted to Ren to 'keep silent' and had obviously found someone to do it for him. Danton was now curious as to why this person, if they were telling the truth, would even be up there and not under lock and key. There was a few moments pause before Danton raised his eyebrow. Lavinia turned her head and looked to the floor as Randall shifted his eyes sideways away from Danton's. He explained that the man had escaped and they had not been able to stop him. His tone changed, Randall was now fearful and almost stumbled over his words. He stressed to Danton that with the connections the prisoner had, his return to them would mean all their lives were under threat. They said that they had intended after getting to the truth of the letter to warn him. They had tried to get in contact with him through Ren, but Ren had been already been murdered

Upstairs Chance had been drawn by the smell of fire and went into the empty room that had presented itself as a playroom from Lavinia's past. To Chance, it was the perfect empty room. There was a small amount of cloth and shards of broken wooden furniture. As he had walked up the stairs he could feel the paint from the paintings he had tied to his back, drip and bleed onto his clothes. They had ran down his back and his legs to which they had dripped onto the floor leaving dark trails behind him. As he had tried to wipe it off his person, he found that the paint was more like blood than the oils used. He had desperately tried to keep himself under control going up the stairs. He by now had realised the every piece of art here was cursed, and that no matter what the value of them, they could only cause pain. In anger at the situation, he threw the paintings into the middle of the room with the scraps of cloth and pieces of wood before he took a torch to them and watched them burn.

Danton below had paced up and down the room a few times before he demanded he see the room for himself. They marched upstairs with Xera, sheepishly following, as Danton quickly made it obvious that he had been seen. There again was laughter as they trod upstair while the paintings in front of Chance slowly smouldered in changing hues. Danton ignored Chance and headed straight for the door Lavinia pointed too from behind him. As he tried the handle, it too showed resistance like it had to Xera. Before he could be warned, the door gave way, causing Danton to fall and for more laughter to follow. The room was empty. There was not even a sign of where the candles would have been held that  Randall and Lavinia had seen earlier. Danton questioned them again on their reliability, and what they knew of Ren. They explained he was a man who adored violence and food, and would stuff money with his sweaty greasy hands into his pocket as easily as gristle into his mouth. 

Danton swallowed for a second, Ren had always made him feel a little queasy, and an accurate description did as much as seeing him in person. Before he could give them a proper response, he heard shouting from across the landing by Chance. He was yelling about a fire in the room going out of control. Randall stopped Lavinia before she could rush out, pointing out to her that the last fire in that room had not been real. Danton however went to investigate and found an empty room apart from a torch to one side and a pile of burning wood in the centre. There was also two footprints made of ash, a few feet away from the painting within arm's reach of the torch. The fire soon snuffed itself out and through the ash Danton could see there were fragments of something that hadn't burned.

Xera cleared his throat behind Danton and startled him. Xera had followed Danton in cautiously, after Danton had proved the room was empty. He too looked down at the ash pile and saw what hadn't been burned and took a closer eye to it. Upon inspection, Xera told Danton that the shards that hadn't burned, were either shavings or splinters of some kind of underknown wood. He told him this fact almost disbelieving. Neither of them could understand why the wood hadn't burned while the rest had. They both decided it was best if they took a samples back with them for further analysis, although Danton walked away smiling.

TSW - Chapter 2: The Heart of the House (6) - Laughter

A picture hook fell to the floor from where a picture had once hung. The sounds of scratching intensified around them, as if swirling in the walls. Chance turned towards where the hook had had once been fixed. He could see flashes of green behind the tiny hole and decided to widen it by stabbing it with his sword. The scuttling continued to the point where Chance could feel his rapier almost vibrate by the traffic going over it. Zeigev was still moaning about the voices he could hear but had now started to gingerly point towards the fireplace.

To Danton's surprise there were flames rising up although they made no sound. He looked back at Chance trying to get his rapier out of the wall and to Zeigev before leaving them both for the fireplace. As he knelt, he noticed the fire was burning from nothing, there were no logs or kindling of any sort. There was also no heat from it, and no sound. If someone was to encounter the flame, they could be consumed in the cold fire before they even noticed it happening. Cautious of its qualities, Danton put the tip of his blade into fire. Chance had now gotten bored downstairs and had now decided to leave both Zeigev and Danton. Unbeknownst to Danton and Xera, Zeigev had started clawing scratch marks into the wood beside him.

Danton was a little relieved to find he was pretty much alone when he yelped out in pain when applying the blade to his bare skin. The fire was still burning hot even if it wasn't giving off any heat. There was a child's laugh as he burned himself from the direction of Zeigev. Danton slowly turned, expecting Zeigev to be laughing and gripping his blade. In fact the old man's face had now lost all definition and pigmentation. His hair had fallen out and his eyes and nose were  covered with his now pale leathery skin. Adorning his head were now multiple mouths sewn shut at every angle. They seemed to try to speak and shout but the thread that bound them held fast. The only mouth was that of the first just below where the nose had been. It screamed and giggled while the rest of the body contorted and shuddered.

Upstairs Lavinia and Randall had left the now empty room and crossed the upper landing to the opposite room. It was similarly unfurnished and possibly even dustier. Candles with green flames, cast more shadows than light. In the inky darkness a man, tied up to a chair, appeared to them both. The man was a bloodstained shambles. His hair was greasy and matted and fell in tangles over his bowed head. The man's clothes were muddy and torn, with most of the rips tinged with red. As the apparition developed, Randall had now gone as pale Lavinia. Both of them recognised who was sat in front of them  and they didn't know whether to be relieved or scared.  Lavina remembered every cut and bruise she had inflicted on that man. Randall was reminded of the many times they had to carry him to a new place to remain hidden. In Lavinia's mind they had to finish what they had started, even if went against the contract. She grabbed the torch back from Randall and threw it at the restrained man.

The lights flickered for a second,  as a walking fireball now rose from the chair and lumbered towards them. A child's laugh echoed as parts of the man burned away revealing the charred bone underneath. Lavinia's instinct for running to the door failed her again. As she reached out for the handle, she could hear Xera mumbling to himself on the landing and his footsteps were coming closer. She opened her mouth to shout for help but the door slammed on her and Xera. As she turned around, expecting the flaming man, and reached inside her jacket to pull out a poison dart. With desperate force, she tried to kill the creature but the dart flew right though the man, with his body turning into curling wisps and then disappearing into the atmosphere. Randall could see Lavinia was now on the verge of another breakdown and like usual, had to reassure her of her surroundings. It took strong words and fierce shake to bring her back to reality.  Randall could hear her over and over again whispering not real and allowed himself to relax for a split second.

Xera who had been on the other side of the door, had been knocked about ten feet back and had hit the opposing wall. With a heavy head and aching back he stumbled up to his feet. Before going in he lent against the door to assess the danger. Xera heard the mumbled arguments of Lavinia and Randall and the thud of something heavy lodging itself into a wall. The room then fell silent and Xera was compelled to act. He tried the handle but it gave resistance, as if someone was holding on to the other side.  He tried it again and again, until on the last try; the force he had used to try to open the door had laid him flat out on the floor as it opened with ease. Accompanying Xera's pratfall was the all pervading murmur of giggling.

Both Randall and Lavinia were taken aback by Xera's abrupt and unfortunate entrance. They too heard the laughter and, although convinced what Lavinia had seen wasn't real, she screamed at the laughter that seemed to be playing with them. Her shouts stirred something within the walls and the floorboards. The gentle scratching soon grew into cacophony. The floor started to vibrate under their feet. One or two candles fell to the floor as the walls started to shake. From where the man had been sat, the floor burst open, as tiny green reptilian creatures poured forth from the hole in the floor. The mass of scale and claw now tried to drown Randall with their numbers. In a desperate attempt to escape he threw out a matt white ball which had the been the first thing he had found on his person.

As it hit the floor, small holes appeared on its surface, followed by a thick dense cloud of smoke from those holes, that filled the room. To Randall the smoke took on the form of Lavinia dying in front of him over and over again. Lavinia could see the stranger that had been roasted and tressed for the dinner table and Xera saw his cure for Black Sunshine curing him, but killing everyone else.            

TSW - Chapter 2: The Heart of the House (5) - Familiarity

Randall asked what he was seeing, to which Eryn replied he hoped it was whatever drug Danton was afflicted with. Eryn pointed out to Randall, Danton's glowing serpentine eyes, which didn't sit well with Randall.  He told Lavinia to ignore Danton and to meet him back in the hallway, just to make sure she was safe. Eryn could also see that Chance had entered from the hallway into the room with Danton and like Lavinia, Chance was not interested in their companion's plight. In fact he was more concerned with the paintings around him and the one Danton had butchered out of the frame. Eryn and Xera in the other room were satisfied at least, that Danton had at least someone with him and so proceeded to go up the stairs, not wanting to tempt fate by going through the window. They were similarly followed by Randall and Lavinia before the four of them were stopped in their tracks by a loud crash and both Chance and Danton shouting out in terror.

Inside the room, Danton had tried to escape the incoming water by climbing on top of the display cases, knocking the one he had hidden under before to the floor. As it hit the floorboards, the metallic lid folded out from the centre revealing a striking orange light that shot up to the ceiling. From this light, faces emerged. To Chance; they were the people he had unintentionally killed, or had caused their death by his actions, while Danton saw terrifying reptilian faces of his own visage. These faces screamed out at them, opening their jaws and they seemed to swallow the two, tearing into their psyche and physical bodies as it passed through them. Lavinia, at the sound of the shouting, readied a barrier of green and blue light around her as she darted from the bottom of the stairs to the door. She was swiftly followed by Randall, then Eryn and Xera. The two inside tried batting away the heads but they could not be touched. As Lavina looked into the room, she too saw faces in the light, faces of the people she had killed or captured for a worthless amount of money.

She scrunched her face in defiance and pulled out a small glass snake with a cord tongue from her jacket and had Eryn light it on fire. Danton immediately saw her actions, although the snake he saw, was coiled around her body. He shouted at her, slightly terrified at who he was talking to, what they should do? In response, she wildly gestured for them to get out of the room as she chucked the glass sculpture in and waited for it to go off.  Randall knew she was too close to whatever the blast would be, and pulled her away from the door. Eryn on the other hand stepped int. The face that he saw was singular, that of Rose. His blood started to boil but Danton stopped him before he could move any further. He told Eryn to step back, while he and Chance jumped out through the window.

Xera, like Randall, pulled Eryn back as the glass exploded into two waves of snaking electrical bolts that filled the room. The faces in the light took on pained and mournful expressions as they started to bubble and pop. From the room behind, Eryn could hear Danton shout at him to blast the box where the light had come from with fire, to which a bolt soon flew from Eryn's halo. Lavinia also stepped up to fight, trying to shock light into submission. The faces slowly died away as the light dimmed, they groaned in pain as one by one the faces melted into nothing. Tendrils of light tried to climb out of the metal box but the lid slammed shut on it, severing the tentacles which slowly faded as the group left. Eryn had noticed whatever had just attacked them was trying to escape. With the image of Rose in his mind, he blasted the box with one last fireball, melting it to the floor. In a blink of an eye, the box exploded causing a bright flash of orange light to fill the room and the open doorway. Lavinia and Randall were already up the stairs, while Chance and Danton were in the other room, so neither pair could see Eryn to disappear in the light. Xera could a fleeting glimpse in the corridor outside before was blinded by the light.

Upstairs Lavinia, still reeling from the whatever had attacked them downstairs. Sbe had chosen the first door to the left on the corridor upstairs. It was childrens' play room, her playroom. She rambled to herself, not specifically at Randall, about a stuffed Seskii she had as a child trying not to alert Randall to the familiarity of the room. No sooner than the cuddly toy was mentioned, twenty five or more stuffed Seskiis appeared out of the gloom of the far reaches of the room. Without hesitation, Randall grabbed the torch that Lavinina was carrying. She struggled against him, knowing what he wanted to do. It was in vain however, as Randall threw the torch into the crowd of stuffed toys; setting them alight in an instant blaze. As they burned, they crawled towards Lavina crying, whimpering, calling out in pain to her. She tried to put the fire out using her jacket, forgetting the poisons she had stored in there. Randall however, did not and wrapped her up in her own jacket to stop her from interfering. The stuffing and fur soon burned away leaving nothing in the room as the burning toys turned into flittering leaves of ash. A child's laugh filled the room as they spun around, now seeing the room they were in had become empty.

Downstairs Danton had been talking to Chance about the woman disappearing on him. Danton soon suspected that the other man in their company, who had surprisingly been absent for most of their time here, had more answers than he was letting on. The man hadn't not searched the house like the rest of them, nor did he battle with the light. Danton soon found him reading a book in the room with the slashed paintings.  Danton tried getting the man's attention but it was as if there was nothing else in the world to the man but the book. Chance, frustrated at the lack of response; took a risk and used the tip of his rapier to fling the book up from the man's grasp. With a impulsive flourish, Chance cut the book half as fell to the floor.

Danton again tried to get Zeigev's attention but as he spoke, the man's breath started to quicken and became shallow. He started shaking and his eyes shifted from left to right. Danton found that Zeigev could not be prised from staring into the fire. The man's body started to convulse as he fell of his chair. He seemed unphased as he backed away into the bookcase behind him, never taking his eyes off the fire. He was now incomprehensible and inconsolable. All he kept repeating was I can hear them,  the whispers, the jagged voices and bladed tongues. I can hear them, I can hear them coming for me.

TSW - Chapter 2: The Heart of the House (4) - The Ground Floor

Lavinia scrambled for the door but she found it had disappeared. It had seemingly been replaced with another bookshelf. It was as if where they had just entered, was a dead end of a corridor. Lavinia latched onto Randall with pleading eyes. He told her that the carpet was still on the floor, and with a second look, Lavinia did indeed see the carpet back in its normal position. However at the mention of the door disappearing, everyone turned around to find that it had, indeed gone. Frustrated and a little confused,  Danton went in search of Chance and took the second door on the left down the corridor. As he opened the door, he saw that inside was a room full of relics and old paintings.

Dust covered every surface and metals were dulled against the candlelight in the room. There was one particular painting that drew Danton's attention. It was a painting of a man in formal black attire, but his head was being served up by the body on a silver tray. As Danton squinted at the painting, trying to make out the detail in the dim light, the face slowly became recognisable. Jarvan's decapitated visage was now on the platter. The cheeks of the face started to bulge as needles and syringes were continuously vomited out of the painting, piling up on the ground in front of it. His emotions twisted within him, causing knots in his stomach and making him queezy. Danton fell to his knees and crawled away and under a table with a small metal box on top; unable to draw his tearful eyes away from the falling paraphernalia. 

Across and up the corridor Lavinia, Randall, Eryn and Xera took a chance upon the double doors at the end of the hallway. Inside was a lavishly dressed table for dinner, with settings for three people. Randall nervously drew his bow before entering and almost fired at a statue in the corner of the room. The three settings on the table had name cards, Froge, Zeigev and Lavinia. At the mention of this fact, Lavinia shuddered, dragging her hands across her face while rubbing her eyes. There was a cupboard  door to the right of the room but nothing else caught their attention. Randall made sure he grabbed the nameplates before anything could happen. It was only as they left the room that they heard a brief laugh before both Eryn and Lavinia felt a burning sensation on their persons. The letters had self combusted leaving nothing but a minute amount of ash. Lavina broke down and fell onto Randall. She cried to him that the last proof of her memories was now gone and that all hope was lost. She then noticed through her sobs that the old man had been in similar discomfort and asked him if he also had a letter. He nodded, being carefully watched by Eryn. Eryn now presumed the old man was Zeigev, Froge's 'missing' assistant.

Chance had been in the first room to the left in the corridor. He was in was a sitting room with a small fireplace, a rug, comfy chairs, a sofa and about nine portraits that hung on the wall.  He inspected each and every one for its quality, and if poorly painted, the next valueable thing, the frame. He became rather too enthralled with the paintings to even notice Chial had dissapeared. As he moved around the room, he felt as if he was being watched. He then remembered Chial and looked down towards where he had left her, only now realising she was gone. The once demure and understated visages of the painter's subjects were now curled into smiles, while their eyes were narrowed and focused on Chance. There were a couple of paintings, although a lot smaller, that were landscapes and he proceeded to remove only them from the wall and  strapped them onto his back. With the others, he could not stand anymore, blaming them for the disappearance of the young girl. He lashed out at them with his rapier, slashing the paintings maliciously, purposefully defacing the art before destroying it out right. The canvases now started to bleed paint and oil onto the wooden floor as they mixed into puddles

Next door Danton had finally realised that what he was seeing was not a product of his own addictions, but rather a projection of the house. To make sure however he took the drugs he needed. Fuzzy lights soon burst around the painting and danced around the room leaving neon trails. With this comfort, he plunged his karambit into the painting and cut it out of the frame. With each successive cut, the painting gave more resistance, fighting being removed. After he had done, he sat in the middle of the room, pleased that the painting was gone, but he was now in his own world, watching the neon lights.

The room across the hall was the drawing room, a large stately room with potted plants, ornately mounted pictures, a grand fireplace and carved wooden chairs. The busts and statues that adorned the room seemed to turn when unobserved, changing their expression to that of almost a smirk. Randall had tried to calm Lavinia down  by sitting her by the fire but she was far too distraught. Between her sobbing, Xera and Eryn could make out the phrase I don't want to eat anyone. They backed away a little to the door, remembering the horror described by her when she was here before. Randall decided to try and knock her out of it by burning the name cards in the fire in front of her, to which she screamed. Lavinia with maddened eyes, grabbed the chair she was sat on and hurled it into the window next the fireplace and held her head and sobbed.

The window next to where Danton had removed the painting, suddenly burst open like it had been hit by the explosion of a bomb. A giant boulder careered through its vortex opening, crushing the room around him. The earth started to shake, as through this ever winding hole in the wall, a giant stepped through, wailing like a banshee, accompanied by a flood of water that poured in from every nook  and cranny in the room. Danton quickly scrambled for dry land. From the view of gallery from drawing room through the window, Xera Eryn and Randall tensly looked on. Somehow the windows lead to one another and it now seemed like the house was claiming the mind of Danton. 

TSW - Chapter 2: The Heart of the House (3) - The Storm

The Morianna Reserve was on the outskirts of the Hold by the same family. It was known for its unspoilt wild woodlands. The trees made up one of the last remaining forests in Thaemor, protected from being used as lumber. It was about half a day's journey from Darkperch along the trade route between Auspar and Jyrek, although the heart of the reserve was still a few hours trek from the closet point on the road. The group had elected to stay in Darkperch overnight as no trade caravan would travel during the dark. It was Danton who managed to secure passage for the group the next day. A few names mentioned to the right people and they were passengers on a caravan for textile merchants, who were also transporting an Aeon Priest.

On the journey; Xera, unable to identify one of the curiosities he had found in the Feldspar Maw, was keen to sell. Aeon Priests were well known for their compulsion towards these unknown fragments, regardless of their use and practicality.  Xera however, was not  a salesman and his first attempt left him worse off than when he had started. It was why he had teamed up with Styenbeck in Auspar to help with the trade of Black Sunshine and now needed similar intervention to get this item off his hands. The rescue came from an unexpected source. Chance not only advocated the metals intricate and ornate engraving but also the apparent rarities of its other qualities. The Aeon Priest's narrow eyes widened at the prospect of finding such an unusual object for a small price. Shins passed hands but the transaction was soon marked by the shouts of the scouts of the caravan.

A raging storm was approaching from the west. The ink black clouds were bubbling and boiling over themselves as it coursed its way through the sky. Beneath its shadow, the ground exploded and ruptured into flames.  Lighting crashed down into the pools, causing eruptions to blast high into the sky. A few wild animals caught within the winds of it, were swept up into the air and ripped apart atomically. The caravan, the merchants, the guards, the riders and the scouts, all scattered. Danton pulled out a small automaton from his pocket, fashioned into an almost identical replica of Jarvan; who dusted it down and corrected its coiled wire moustache. Danton brought it up to eye level and asked where they should go. Jarvan cocked an eyebrow at it, as it pointed into the woods to a clearing and a structure further in. With its answer given, it collapsed into a heap of constituent parts and spilled onto the floor. Jarvan, before his master could speak, bowed and darted in the opposite direction. There was an understanding between them both with what to do in such situations. Jarvan would find survivors and tend to them in Darkperch.

Danton on the other hand was now running with the rest of the group in to the forest. The ground was shaking beneath them as the storm gathered behind them, closing in at an incredible rate. Trees were blasted from their roots, as channels of lava ran between their stumps. The lighting was followed by intense thunder, while the wind turned the leaves  into airborne razors. The structure in front seemed to be an abandoned shack and somehow still standing. It was barely big enough to fit two or three people comfortably, not the six that were running. Eryn gritted his teeth and leapt onto the wooden porch. The storm was only a few feet away from the rest of them that were following. Eryn could see others from the caravan behind them such as the Priest, while two other figures were keeping pace with his companions. One of them was a waif of a woman with golden hair, and a surprisingly spry old man. Within a breath of being snatched by the storm, the rest of the group had made it, although those behind had not. They survivors watched on as they regained their composure. The Priest and those too slow to outrun the storm were ripped apart in the sky and reassembled in grotesque forms accompanied by  gurgling screams  barely heard above the wind and the thunder.

Above them, Xera noticed that the storm was passing around the house as if something was shielding them. It  buffeted against what was protecting the house, while the flows of lava and the blasts of earth never reached within fifty feat. Chance, now realising that the party had an extra female member, swiftly went to her aid. He pushed back her blonde hair away from her face as she tried to compose herself. He asked her name, and in an exhale, she called herself Chail.  A moment after that her eyes darted side to side, her breath quickened for a few seconds, and then before anyone could intervene, she passed out.  

As her body went limp in Chance's arms, the slowly rotting wooden door creaked open. It was as if that was the only sound now hanging in the air. The raging storm outside inexplicably silenced by its presence before the storm filled their ears again.  Eryn shook his head, knowing what this could signal. Chance however, swept Chail off from the ground and carried her inside before the group could assess the danger. Eryn turned to the other newcomer, the old man, but he remained silent as the others went inside.

Lavinia upon entering, was struck with fear. There were fragments, shards of glass in her memory, digging away at her. The pain of them was coursing through every joint of her body. She closed her eyes, hoping to shut out the pain and scrunched her fists till she could hold out no longer. Her sight was bleary, which made the hallway they were in that much more obscure. For old an old shack, the interior resembled that of a more wealthy, if un-dusted home.  A bright red carpet with golden trim adorned a long hallway. To the left were there were two thick wooden doors and to the right, another of similar quality. In front of them down the hall was a set of carved double doors and a turning in the hallway to the left.

Lavinia remembered some of it, although the layout was scrambled. Things were not in the right places, doors were in the wrong positions . She couldn't place the bookshelves  that adorned every wall and were flanking every door and painting. The carpet in front of her slowly shifted and twitched drawing her attention. Clouds of dust were shaken up into the air as it jerked. The gold trim grew shell like shards from the sides, forming insect legs. Lavinina could see all the way to the doors at the end, and what looked like a head with giant pincers. The carpet hissed at her before it scuttled sideways and up the stairs.  

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