RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

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Following the maid's instructions, and aided greatly by Alain's magic, the three men enter the house...

The rescuers roll an injured, unconscious man out of a little chamber beneath the scorched, broken stairwell.

They find another man slumped against the inside of the back door. Shoving the door, the rescuers find it's stuck. Their best efforts only waste precious air and energy, leaving them panting against the frame.
A spell might break the door.
But Alain spots a shuttered window nearby. Busting that open, he creates a hole through which the man can be pushed, and out of which he and his companions can stick their heads and gulp for air a moment, before returning to the rescue work.


Two men rescued.
Where's the boy?
The maidservant said he'd been in the kitchen. But he's not there now, and that room is burning. Grease in the stove's gone up, where falling bits of burning ceiling material have lighted on it.

Alain notices something the others, half-blind with smoke, miss. A trap door in one corner of the kitchen. And a sooty drag mark near it, like a small body sliding in...

But now Alain's two friends have fallen to violent coughing. The smoke from the stove and the burning ceiling is getting too thick.

Something crashes in a nearby room, sending a spray of hot embers and smoke through a side door.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

Post by VAN »

Sara sees the flames engulfing the house.

"We need to get more water in the house. Clear a path so the others can get safely out."

She looks for any container to get water inside.

Sara spots a trough and a barrel with rain water. She calls the other to help her get that inside. Putting her handkerchief at her face covering her nose and mouth enters the flaming inn and tries to toss the water at the flames in the main corridor in order to clear a path for the others to exit the building.
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

Post by Brock Marsh Runoff »

With the boarding house in flames, Dorgio rushes out with the rest to help rescue survivors. When he realizes that there's still a boy inside, he goes with the others to search the kitchen. Now, the smoke and heat making it hard to breathe, he chants a prayer meant to protect him from the worst of the flames.
"You said I killed you--haunt me, then!...Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!” -Wuthering Heights
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

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As one of the buckets from the brigade goes past, Bennedict dips his handkerchief in the water and re-wraps it around his face. He barks a word of command to his cane, feeling the magical energies strengthen and harden the wood, before reentering the house with the others.

***a moment later***

Tears streaming down his face, barely able to think for the searing pain in his lungs, Bennedict moves to the trap door and tries to force it one way or the other, unable to help himself from picturing one of his children trapped below.
"Of course," Benn mutters, "It would be a damned shame if we ever knew what the hell was actually going on."
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

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Adam wrote:As one of the buckets from the brigade goes past, Bennedict dips his handkerchief in the water and re-wraps it around his face. He barks a word of command to his cane, feeling the magical energies strengthen and harden the wood, before reentering the house with the others.

***a moment later***

Tears streaming down his face, barely able to think for the searing pain in his lungs, Bennedict moves to the trap door and tries to force it one way or the other, unable to help himself from picturing one of his children trapped below.

Raen reads out his mystic scroll, then falls to coughing.

A mighty gust erupts from the front of the house, blowing through, clearing all the smoke for a moment.
Benn enchants his stick. Lifting the enlarged cudgel, the crashes the oak down on the trap door.
The trap door splinters.

A boy crawls up, dirty, weeping, groping blindly.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

Post by alhoon »

Raen tries to fight back the coughs and moves to grab the kid. Even if the kid kicks and bites, they can calm him outside. The important thing is to get the boy out before the flames jump back to full force with the renewed flow of air.
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

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Working together by muscle and magic, the men free the boy from the cellar and all get clear of the burning inn.

A headcount outside shows that everyone from the inn has made it out now, and stands assembled in the clear

everyone who was supposed to be there.

Neither the innkeeper nor his guests admit knowing anything about the men in the stables. And the riders are gone now.
But the boy says he heard something knocking about in the rear of the building, while he was in the kitchen for a late night snack.
And the maidservant says she heard hushed, indistinct voices outside her window, downstairs--but thought it must just be men passing in the street at a late hour. She was napping after chores.

Some of the people from the inn have suffered minor burns, and all have coughs and teary eyes, but none appears seriously injured. They all look better with a bit of wine or water and some clean air (such as mighty be had in Odall's Eats, out of the ashfall)

While all this is going on, Sara and some other are fighting the fire. More local people show up with buckets, and finally a crew of night watchmen with a water-wagon.

The inn's upper floor looks to be a total loss, but the ground floor will survive.

A particular pattern on the cobbles, a spray of smoldering debris, suggests something exploded upstairs. Something within the house, possibly, or against the upper wall.

A broken, scorched ladder lies abandoned near one wall.

Benn and Dorgio
VIEW CONTENT:
May notice that area where the blast damage on the second story shows through smoking walls corresponds with the garret apartment where Annabelle was murdered...and that ladder has fallen near that outer wall
Alain...
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

Post by Brock Marsh Runoff »

Dorgio frowns, looking at the pattern of the blast. "A smoke-powder bomb? Damn. So somebody familiar with those infernal weapons...or at least, enough to use it without blowing themselves up in the process. But why use a bomb? Why not set the building on fire from without?"

He follows the trail of debris to the broken ladder, then looks up at he gaping hole in the second story wall. "Damn! The girl's room...whoever did this didn't want us finding something. But what? I thought we'd searched the place thoroughly. What did we miss?"

He finds Raen. "You said men in the stables, not one man? I had thought for sure this was Maytyr's doing, the girl's death. But I hadn't known him to have followers. Perhaps that's changed? Or is there some other party who doesn't want us to find out who killed poor Annabelle?"
"You said I killed you--haunt me, then!...Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!” -Wuthering Heights
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

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Raen coughs and coughs. Then he looks to Diorgio. "Yeah, several men. I don't know if your acquaintance did that or it was magic or an accident. I have already used the spell I have to look for traces of lingering magic. All I have is a spell that would allow me to locate an object within a short distance, if anyone has seen any item that stands out on those riders."
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

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The innkeeper , standing not far away, resting from heaving buckets, turns and stares at RAen.

''They stole the horses? Gah! Damn, my mare!"
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

Post by VAN »

Sara follows Dorgio and sees the broken ladder and the hole at the second floor.

"Well, I suggest we can search whatever remained of the upper floor. Maybe we will find something. I can try to track the riders, even if it will be very difficult to follow them since they are on horses."
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

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Sara picks up the trail of the fleeing horsemen. But the ashen 'snow' covers the hoof prints in another hundred yards, wiping out the signs of the mounted trio's passage at an intersection of narrow cobblestone lanes.
They were headed south, but could have changed direction.

Sara finds a crumpled hat that looks like it could be something dropped by the horsemen.

Alain stands near the inn as others work to douse the flames.
The outlander scans every detail of the firelight scene, moving only his head and eyes.
He walks closer, picks up a bit of burning wood. Sniffs it...

When Sara returns to report her tracking results, Alain shares his discovery.

The sulfurous blast was very likely gunpowder, yes, but whatever went off also included alchemist's fire.
That's the oily, sticky, smoking residue Alain found.


Any PC with craft: alchemy or knowledge: arcana knows:
VIEW CONTENT:
The latter substance is less common, more expensive (than powder) and only produced locally by a few experts. It doesn't ship safely and so boat captains are often reluctant to carry the stuff.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

Post by alhoon »

"That was no ordinary gunpowder. It is a variant that skilled alchemists can use that is a combination of many different things. I am not going to start a debate if it's a magical concoction or not, which I think it is, but I would suggest we visit our alchemist friend Flamarion tomorrow with the traces Alain found. He could tell us if that was a bomb using his material or point to the ones that could have prepared it.
Of course, our quarry may have been good enough to prepare this by himself, but still Flammarion could tell us where the materials can be found."
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

Post by Brock Marsh Runoff »

Dorgio scratches his chin as Raen and Alain discuss the alchemy behind the blast. Though he has lived nearly a decade in Richemulot, firearms may as well be a school of magic he never got the hang of. But he does perk up at the inkeeper's lament.

"She was your mare, sir?" He asks the innkeep before he coughs and spits something black onto the ground. "Do you have anything else of hers, any tack or gear that would have her scent? And do you know of anyone who keeps scent-dogs?"

When Sarah returns, he calls out to her, "Did you find anything?"
"You said I killed you--haunt me, then!...Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!” -Wuthering Heights
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Re: RAVENLOFT: The One That Got Away CHAPTER SEVEN

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The innkeeper confirms the mare was his.
But he's busy helping extinguish the stubborn fire.

''Top floor's a total loss! Damn! The fire just won't quit there."
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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