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

Before the merchant knew what had happened he had been hogtied by Xera, dropping  both letters to the table as his hands were bound. With wild eyes, the merchant wheeled around and pleaded with Xera to let him go. This was not going to happen. Xera tried to persuade the merchant to reveal his true intentions and what had happened to his companions and the others is in the bar. The merchant stayed silent. Xera had no choice but to tighten the restraints. The merchant pulled his hands to his chest and winced. He fiddled with his coat lapel with his bound hands, bringing them into his chest in a comforting manner, then came the waterworks.

With reddening eyes the merchant explained his plight. He was an 'artist' of the dealership world. His trading skills were legendary among the art scene as well as a few select relic hunters. His home city of Qi tailored to his needs rather than Auspar. He needed to remain secretive and well informed and being so close to so many privy ears and eyes in Auspar had swayed his decision. His patrons had been associated with high-standing families such as those in Auspar. He  quickly rose in stature and security, becoming a Merchant Lord in Qi and attracting the eyes of a rival group. Soon he was faced with direct, fierce and underhanded competition but he held his ground for as long as he could. The money from the sale of the art he had acquired soon funded more outrageous 'acquisitions', with him selling the painting before the paint was even dry and commonly finding himself alone in its retrieval. At the same time, Chance was slowly influencing his buyers unconsciously, artwork would become more intricate, the framing more ornate, but he started to receive multiple complaints when the artwork was hung and was comparably duller than what they had purchased. The word soon spread to his rivals. They gradually started using the negativity to shut him down. The fault slowly dawned on him, he was creating the embellishments as he witnessed the artwork regaining what it had lost when he touched it again. With time he started to gain control over what people saw and had even fine tuned the style into a more ornate and highly artistic pattern. However the more he gained in power, the harder his enemies pushed to discredit him and proclaim him a fraud and succeeded. He had been travelling the steadfast looking for a place to take refuge, or at least a place with art.

After his speech his whole body and dropped, the stature of a proud lord was replaced with meekness with those in the Foundations. For most citizens of Auspar money was like sand. It fell through peoples' fingertips, pulling them down with it. Well respected and successful people had all plunged into the depths at one time or another. Xera had seen the results down near where his lab  used to be. There was nothing about the merchant that, at the time, seemed false.  The merchant finally told Xera his name, Chance, and then once again pleaded with Xera to let him go. He felt a twinge of guilt, the same twinge when the cloud of activated Black Sunshine poured out of his lab and into the city. He sighed to himself and let Chance go, on the proviso that he undid whatever he had done to everyone else.

With another deft wave of his hand the dancers and the violinist  disappeared into a baroque light. It was as if everyone had been released from an elastic tension, as all of them took a step backwards before regaining their focus. The woman who had tried to take the letter stepped further back, constantly watching the position where the entertainment had been. She had become as pale as she had when she head of the house that Froge mentioned. Her companion seemed relieved to be able to put his violin down, although he was disappointed that he could not finish his sonata with the guest violinist. Eryn on the other hand was ready to explode.

He had had just about enough of being manipulated and fooled, and charged at Chance. With a daggered smile he mentioned how nice the performance was, to which Chance denied having any involvement. Eryn's broad and towering figure, now adorned with a violent halo of flame caused instant fear in Chance. He profusely denied anything and everything, in hopes that Eryn would leave him alone. In fact it only made things worse as Eryn grabbed Chance by his collar with one hand and lifted him off the ground. Chance had now frozen in fear. But before anything further could be said, they were interrupted by a loud wheezing cough. Forge, from his wheelchair, looked on with anger at Eryn. He accused him of being just like Jarvi, a Feral Hawk. The antithesis and an insult to that of City Hawks. Eryn twitched at the mention of Jarvi's name and proceeded to put Chance down.

Froge looked over to the woman and asked for her name. She whispered under breath the name Lavinia, to which Froge asked her to speak louder. She did through gritted teeth and Froge gently smiled. She then introduced her travelling companion, Randall. At the mention of his name, Randall took his bow, grabbing his violin bow just before as if after a concerto. Froge asked her what she had seen inside in the house, as it was obvious to him that she had visited it before. Calmly, through deep breaths and wincing eyes, she described her time at the house. Her memories were just like Froge's, fragmented and terrifying. When she had been inside ,she and a group of people she had never met, were sat around the dining table. They were strapped into the chairs and then were asked to decide the least worthy. After countless agonising hours, one was chosen. The lights darkened until the room was pitch black. When the lights returned the one that was the least worthy was now dead and ready to be carved up. Their restraints were lifted, which allowed them to read a note beside, stating that nobody was to leave until the victim had been consumed by the group.

Froge now turned to Eryn with pleading eyes and an almost polite tone to his voice. He asked Eryn to go with her, to follow the invitation and to find out what really was going on; and to bring Froge back the heart of the house. Eryn asked why it was him that had to go. Froge bluntly stated that since Jarvi had gone, and Lina was still ill, he was the most senior member of the Hawk-Eyes in Darkperch and was therefore responsible for the welfare of the villagers. He was in essence sheriff, mayor and agony uncle all rolled into one. Eryn gulped realising his now spiralling responsibilities and could only feel more pressure as he still wasn't officially a Hawk-Eye. He shook his head and went against his better judgement. He agreed, noting the place stated on the invite, The Morianna Reserve. Xera and Danton, along with his butler, Lavinia and Randall all decided to immediately go with Eryn. However Chance needed convincing. He asked Froge about his memories and the  about the possibility of rare artwork inside the house. Froge shrugged his shoulders saying it was most likely. Chance needed no more information than that and returned downstairs with his equipment ready before the others had even started upstairs to their rooms.

TSW - Chapter 2: The Heart of the House (1) - The Invitation

It had been nearly a week before Eryn had the courage to talk to the surviving fiancée. She had locked herself in a room in the Drunken Tallon and would only allow Mavis to bring her sustenance. There had been no word or movement from the mines after wherever Eryn had been had materialised in the universe. He had assumed that the people inside might have gotten out but there was no telling if any survived, and if any did, what state they were in. The fact that the missing fiancée had aged around fifty or sixty years was playing on his mind. The fate of anyone in the mines was left un-discussed and to Eryn's relief only Mavis had tried to get information out of Eryn but he kept quiet. He only mentioned that Jarvi had gone on another mission for the Hawk-Eyes and would not be returning soon. As he approached the door of the young woman, Mavis stopped him with a stern look before walking him downstairs.

Mavis left Eryn to his own devices downstairs as she made the most of Jarvan donning the mantle of innkeeper with aplomb. Within a fraction of the time it would have taken Eryn, she was drunk and hunched over the bar. Eryn was distracted by the appearance an old man he had met once when trying to secure the vacant buildings in Darkperch. A reclusive man by the name of Froge, who refused any help and practically any conversation when Eryn had visited him. He was  sitting in his wheelchair, nursing a hearty mug of ale while glancing down a letter on the table. Eryn knew something was wrong with Froge as he was the most antisocial of characters that Eryn had ever met.Before he could enquire, he went over to Mavis. In her inebriated state, Eryn found it was easier to discuss the ring he had taken.  He left little information with her apart from that the young woman's fiancée was still missing and hoped that in her state should would remember.

Froge had noticed Eryn enter and looked around the room at the other faces. He saw Danton sitting in one of the corners keeping an eye on everyone while Xera was looking over notes and an obscure piece of jewellery. Behind Eryn another man after entered the bar from upstairs. He was dressed in merchant clothes, edging on the possibility of nobility or a lord.  The edges around his clothes were frayed and the gold threads had lost their lustre. Froge noticed that the man kept a constant eye on everyone in the room while simultaneously eying up a painting behind the bar. With Mavis nearly asleep and the bar being manned by Jarvan; Froge witnessed the man sneak behind the bar to get a better look at the painting. There was also, at least to Froge, an annoying violinist in the corner of the room with a young woman. She seemed a rough character while the violinist was, at a glance, a fop. Both, at least on appearance, seemed at odds with each other. Eryn too had similarly noticed the new accompaniment to the drinking as well as the merchant. Eryn knew they were strangers but presumed that all three of them had arrived from Qi with  builders for Auspar's repairs. As long as they didn't interfere with anything Eryn was doing, they were allowed their anonymity.

Froge had brought the letter up to his eyes and tipped his glasses forward to read. He grabbed at his hair with obviously clammy hands and tried to steady it on the ale mug. Eryn noticed the man's distress and as carefully as he could, broached the subject. With almost distaste for what he was saying, Froge reluctantly asked Eryn for help. He had received a letter from a place in his past, a place where his fellow writer and researcher never returned from. He mentioned the fractured memory he had of the place. He had been researching the folk tale of the Acardaeum. At at the heart of the house, was wood from it, apparently giving the house life.  The word echoed through the inn, Danton, and Xera both looked over to Froge, along with the merchant, who had momentarily stopped from assessing the painting.

It was not the word that intrigued the other two newcomers but the letter. She had asked her companion to keep the music playing while she looked over at Froge and the letter. Her face turned pale as the last words about the letter fell on Eryns ears. Without hesitation he went up to her and asked her what her business was with it. She feigned ignorance and any details she did remark on were insignificant. Eryn was frustrated, he knew she knew more but he couldn't wring the truth from her. As he pondered, she tried to snatch the letter from his hand, but his strength and powerful grip stopped her. There was definitely something she was not telling Eryn. With her attempt foiled, she retreated back over to her companion, not wanting to aggravate Eryn.

From across  the room the merchant had noticed the room's focus was now away from him and on the letters. With a wave of his hands, almost like a conductor, the attention was drawn from the letters. By the fireplace next to the stairs, there was now a violinist, and two dancers in fanciful dress.Everyone in the room, bar the now sleeping Mavis, were all were drawn to these enigmatic figures as the music and the dancing filled their thoughts. Even the woman's companion who was playing a violin himself, now entered a competition with the new arrival to prove his worth. The merchant, pleased that the letters had been left by the table, went over to investigate what was so interesting about them. He did not however, count on Xera, being unable to see what the others could.

While the merchant was distracted with the letters, Xera looked down at what he had been examining, a tiny biomechanical spider, trapped in a clear stronglass cage, set like a gemstone on the gold ring. From the side of it, the spider was producing a thread, much like the steel spiders he had met previously. He gently teased the wire out, maintaining his cover of being interested in what the others saw. When the merchant turned his back to Xera, Xera leapt on him with now twenty feet of the cord with the aim to tie the merchant up and for him to undo whatever had just done.  

TSW - Chapter 1: The Feldspar Maw (8) - The Void (4)

With his leader now dead Shork now took tried to wrestle the focus off from Danton. Although small in stature his voice was booming, a trait Eryn found admirable. No sooner had the change of power had occurred that the tribe slowly regained their hunger. Shork panicked, noticing his village was about to eat their heroes. He leapt off from the table in front of the fire and beckoned the group to leave as with him as quickly as they could. With the group gaining distance on the encampment, the denizens had to resort to a less fresh meal. A distinct smell of roasting fat and burning hair wafted over the barren sphere, Shork smiled, realising his tribe would still yet eat.

He showed them to a hexagonal hole in the ground at a rough slant to the ground. Within was a black membrane about three inches thick, that reflected light and dust. He forced himself through it as was barely visible from the other side. He was however again curling his finger and waving his hand drawing them towards him. They all went through one by one, the membrane was slimy and warm but left no residue. The air on the other side rushed past them at a constant rate. It echoed and howled through what seemed like to Eryn a honeycomb metal structure.

Shork told them of a room beyond the maze, although the maze itself was a death trap. The room was vast and cavernous, filled with lights that would transport you to other places. He rubbed his belly and pinched as his flesh, showing the fact he ate other animals or plants, rather than the inhabitants of No Hope and its enemies. With that he disappeared off in front as if to lead the group, but disappeared into the gloom of the next room. Although both Eryn and Danton could see in this low light, it was elected that Jarvi would go first as he would be able to sense more than they could see. After their initial assumption was proved right, with Jarvi identifying a canister of gas which Xera held onto. The first few turns lead them down more corridors of honeycomb rooms with the constantly airflow buffeting them. But Jarvi lead them through webs of steel spiders, through flooding rooms and freezing rooms.

Each however had the same covering of blood and bodies from past people who tried to run the maze to find food. They encountered soon after the room that had shortened Danton by half, turned Jarvi's hooves purple, growing bony ridges on Xera's arms and webbing Eryn's hands, uniform trails of blood and clean metal, as if remnants had been cleaned, or at least attempted to be cleaned. Eryn pointed the group towards that direction and they, somewhat half expectantly encounter something, a construct of cleaning utensils. Some were some sharp, others broad and heavy, but all was encrusted on a toxic layer of diseased and decaying flesh that it had swept up from the maze. It was dispatched as quick as the spiders and the way head of them, although back from the construct, had been cleaned to the exit.

The room on the other side was around three stories tall, holding a large turbine in the centre generating the wind. The room they had exited from was part of a wall of on honeycomb rooms, each venting the airflow. Danton spotted near the exit two corpses. He slowly approached, not wanting to wake them if they were sleeping, or the creature if it wasn't human. The bodies were, after a prod, dead. The women were exactly alike, twins. They were dressed as if suited to be in the royal court but each had green stains in their dresses. Eryn immediately took a step backwards, if there was any reason to refuse coming down into the mines, this would have been Eryn's reason. He explained the situation of the Neave constructs to Danton and told him to keep as much of a distance as possible between them and him, in case they were reactivated.

The corridor beyond split into two directions, one down a trapezoidal corridor into more darkness, or to the left, down an octagonal shaft. Eryn again took charge and opted for the group to travel down the shaft. Jarvi was put first, because he opted to, and refused help otherwise. Eryn took the last position on the decent. Behind him were wires and cords that dangled into the shaft and onto a warped metal floor below. The glowglobe from below illuminated the ceiling above the shaft, a cracked mirror. In the corner he could see a bloody figure slithering over the glass and cutting itself on the fractures. It bled through and poured onto the cables, dripping down and recoating the already sticky surfaces.

How Eryn entered the next room he does not recall. He however was the first into the next room, and like Shork had told them was a room full of lights, and with Danton's brief and stupid head first investigation into them, revealed a volcanic landscape far removed from Thaemor's.   In the centre was a gigantic octagonal pillar that stopped in the centre of the room. With investigation and an hands-on approach by Xera, he discovered that the room functioned as a way to lock onto a planet to allow for something called a transdimentional gramatrix shift. Eryn recalled he had heard that phrase before from Valma who he summoned.

She replied in her now sarcastic tones a begrudging acceptance to help. She was able to interface with the consol that Xera had used and alerted the group to the Chief Scientist in the main reactor. Eryn and Xera asked Valma for directions and it showed them down to a set of stairs underneath the pillar through wedged doors. Danton could only watch on the lights danced from the portals danced in his eyes. He laid himself down on the dark metal floor and admired its slightly blue reflective quality, losing all sense of where he was. Jarvi called out to the group, trying to figure out where they all gone and was directed by his hawk towards the staircase by a series of squawks and body bobbing on his shoulder.

Bellow the three found a room of large onyx cubes of varying sizes, suspending by multiple tubes through them from the ceiling to the floor. Eryn recognised the material, the same from the Obsidian Spire in the centre of Auspar, even down to the golden veins beneath its polished surface. Jarvi could feel an energy in the room and lashed out at the cubes, slashing at the supports. They leaked a black ooze and soon poured out of every crevice of the cubes, the pipes and wires. It soon took a shambling form of a four legged creature spanning the full height of the room at around thirty feet high.  It lashed out at the group in tendrils with globs at the end, smashing down with force on its victims and crushing rock with it missed. It became quickly apparent that physical damage would not work on it.

Eryn had managed with a fireball to set the creature alight and had the idea to summon his hand to punch into the ooze, if would still keep lit, and continuously burn the monster.  

His hand survived the insertion but the burning was not enough, it was slowly pounding on the group to death with each blow. Xera used Shatter stone to attempt to convert the goo into something more solid. It worked like a charm, and even allowed Danton, who had glowing eyes, a few pot shots at the broader sides. Eryn remembered a shell from a similar location under the city. He brought it out and as nimbly as he could ran it across the join between the now solid parts of the creature and the floor. It bonded the two materials together with a concrete like substance, pinning it to the ground. The more Xera converted, the more Eryn could pin down, and then all them could attack.  

This combination proved deadly to the creature, as it bubbled and sloshed to death as it slowly lost viscosity and disappeared into the metal floor. The goo however left behind a crystal disk, which, to the groups surprise, Valma identified as the Chief Science officer. They returned back to the console room, although more cautiously up the ladder after Eryn's warnings of what the creature could be, although did not mention Melch by name. The portal room was large and echoing with the sound of the portals fading in and out and more random and rapid speeds. Jarvi had been at the back of the group at the time and he missed the report by Valma of an engine failure and imminent destruction. He carried on forwards as they turned  to walk up towards  the pillar and on to a portal. Eryn asked if Valma could do anything to save them, and it, reluctantly, placed the crystal disk onto the control panel. It quickly reported that dimension would collapse but with access codes provided by the crystal disk, the entire structure, would re-materialise under Thaemor leading from the Feldspar Maw.

Jarvi had only heard   whispers  carried from the pillar, that of destruction and dimensions collapsing. He remembered Danton mentioning what he had seen through one of them and dived through as the dimension around the rest collapsed. Features of their surroundings blurred into shapes, shapes turned to colour, colour to greyscale and grayscale to black. The remaining three found their way slowly out but not through the Maw. They approached it from the side with Jarvan hunched over it with a lantern. Danton took this opportunity to sneak up on his butler and to comment on the fact that Danton had been down there a very long time. Jarvan replied as though speaking to his master, commenting it had been almost of day and a half he had been missing, while still looking down, not acknowledging who he was talking to. It took a moment or two for Danton's voice to sink in before Jarvan recognised it and sighed to himself, although pleased that Danton was safe. He said no more to Danton but took out his notebook and proceeded to write, Danton worried that there was list of 'social transgressions' that his butler had been keeping score on.