((OOC: Continued from The Long Road To Hell thread))

Alouette, Jake Lawrence, William Pierce:

"Why do I have to be the one to think of all the bleedin' things?" Danny grouses. He searches the wall, and comes back with a dark lantern. "Got a match?"

Mr. Lurch shakes his head. "Noooooooo Staaaaaaaiiiiirssss. Nooooooo Laaaaaaddeeeeer. Noooo Seeecoooond Flooooor."

As the giant is speaking, Alouette senses something coming toward them...something familiar.

William walks through the silent town. Most of the people must be cowering in the City Hall...the only movement he can see is the occasional Dust Adder watching the street from a rooftop.

That damn chicken from the church seems to have followed him, and clucks quietly to itself as it follows. It seems to be bothering one of the four silent figures that glide along behind him.

The building he's heading toward looks like a mausoleum:



There's a symbol on the building:



This must be the place. But the front door is open, and William can see the shine of brass...it's that crazy clank!

"Self does not require another floor, Tall Cooked Man - self requires roof, to see more world and locate Owl Comanche," the clank protests. It stands and ticks for a bit, then asks:

"Are you allowed in the outside that belongs to the Lodge?" It then looks at the ceiling and responds to something no-one else can hear: "The nice one? Okay."

It leans back to see through the front door and greets its vampire buddy: "Howdy William Piercefather! ...howdy Deputy Chicken!"

[[How high is the lip of the roof, chief?]]

William furrows his brow. That clank was not only crazy, but apparently stupid. Well, what would you expect?

I wonder when that thing finally explodes, if that'll kill me again...

The gunman ignores the clank, but nods a greeting towards Jake and Danny. Unsure about how to introduce himself, he goes with the truth.
"Father O'Rourke asked me to join and help you. Name's Pierce. William Pierce."
His right hand is near the grip of his pistol, his eyes never leaving the tall, slow-talking figure.
"What's the deal with him?"

Mr. Lurch shakes his head. "Noooo Laaaaddeeer Tooooooo Giiiive." He shakes it again. "Noooooo. IIIIIII Muuuust Reeeemaaaaaaain Heeeereeee."

The giant reacts to William by stepping in front of the doorway, barring his entrance. "IIIIII Aaaaaaaam Miiiiiisteeeer Luuuuuurch. IIIIIIII Taaaaakeee Caaaare Oooof Theeeee Plaaaace Whiiiiile Theeeee Maaaasteeeers Aaaaare Aaaaawaaaaay. Wheeereeee Iiiiis Yooooour Baaaaadge?"

((OOC: The lip of the roof is about ten feet from the ground, rising to fifteen feet because of the peak.))
This message was last edited by the player at 09:02, Mon 30 July 2012.

"Badge? I'm with them."
William looks up to the giant, shaking his chin towards the others.

"Bitter Waters has a badge for going in, Pierce William Pierce," the clank chirps, taking due note of the name-correction, then looks around and points at about where William's standing.

"Are you allowed to put the desk outside, Miiiiiisteeeer Luuuuuurch? Self will not cause done damage or use it for no dang teepee poles or nothing," it reassures him.

"Not even a match around here, huh?" Jake says mostly to himself as he surveys what little of the room he can actually make out.

OOC: Notice?
11:43, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 7,4 using 1d8,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 7,4. Notice.

The Burned giant considers, this, then moves to let William past. It shrugs. "Veeeeryyyyy Weeeeell." It moves deeper into the gloom, past Danny and Jake. A horrible scraping comes from one corner of the darkness, and the giant returns to view, dragging a heavy stone desk behind it in fits and starts. Papers fly off the desk each time the giant jerks it toward the door, and each jerk scores the stonework of the floor a little more.

Jake does manage to find a match and light the lantern. The room is huge. His lantern reveals row upon row of benches and an ornate pedestal in the center of the room with an opened book bearing the crest of the Enlightened Society embossed on it. Against one wall are three high-backed chairs like thrones, one in the center higher than the other two. This arrangement is repeated on the other side, except there's an overturned chair there, and a trail of scattered paper and scores in the stonework floor from Mr. Lurch's handiwork.

Aside from the door they came in, there's no openings in the walls. It's very much like a large stone tomb.


((OOC: this map's from a masonic temple from Last Sons, but ignore the scale...if it was correct the place would be as large as my high-school gym, and there just isn't that many Moonies in town. Instead, each square is 3 feet, and there's some high-backed chairs on either side of the room where the "Altars" are mentioned.))

Alouette happily follows Mr.Lurch about, dragging the less ornate chair and occasionally picking up and "eating" paperwork via the hatch near its boiler.

[[Anything interesting in its Investigative foray there?
Alouette rolled 7,3 using d6-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of (6+2)8,4. evidence nom nom.]]

Jake motions for Danny Boy to follow him as the Huckster looks about trying to see if anything causes his spidie sense to tingle.

OOC: Hey look possible occult stuff!
12:50, Today: Jake Lawrence rolled 2,8 using 1d4,1d6, rerolling max with rolls of 2,(6+2)8. Know (Occult).

William follows, wearily, subconsciously checking the draw on his holster while scratching his beard with his left.

He turns here and there, taking in the room.
"You don't know much about humans and their names, clank, hm?"
He follows after Jake.

I know this fellow... somehow. "Hey - you're name's Bitter Waters? You don't look indian. And what are we looking for here, anyway?"

Danny ignores the trail of papers, and instead starts exploring the floor, tapping it with the butt of his knife, testing the ground.

Alouette picks up some tidbits from the trail of documents. The paperwork it collects includes the minutes for several recent meetings, as well as a few receipts.

Jake's eyes are drawn to the book on the pedestal in the middle of the room. He looks it over. The cover is black leather and has a distinctive sigil on it, one he remembers hearing about during his investigations into Hoyle's book. This looks like a copy of Trismesitgus! It's supposedly a work filled with all sorts of strange hermetic rituals and odd occult lore, and has been denounced by the Catholic Church as heretical and pornographic. This seems to be a real find here.

Danny's knocking suddenly turns hollow. "Hey! Think I've found somethin' here!" he says. "Some kind o' trap door. Someone help me lift it!"

((OOC: Danny Boy attempts to search for secret doors...10:28, Today: Danny Boy rolled 9,1 using d6,d6, rerolling max with rolls of (6+3)9,1. Notice.))

"Angel," the clank corrects, continuing to witter as William walks away from it and Deputy Chicken runs over to peck at a stray bit of cooked Mr. Lurch.

"Self knows some things about the names of humans: lots of humans have different names, and some humans have names that Are, like Bitter Waters - he has more name, but the one that Is got plus clear after Bitter Waters went into the room with the sticky and the tacks and then came out feeling of Archangel Sky Coyote..."

When Lurch has pushed the desk over the threshold, the automaton barricades the entrance still further by placing its chair on the desk. Apparently pleased with this masterpiece of feng shui, the metallic marvel gets onto the desk easily enough, blithely steps onto the chair, calculates the most efficient point of leverage and grabs what's logically the best handhold available. It's a shame it failed to anticipate the tipping point of the chair in its calculations.

Danny's triumphant announcement is rapidly punctuated by the crashing *KATAklatacau* of wood on stone...and all that can be seen of Alouette is a pair of brass feet dangling at the top of the doorway.
There's a faint "hmm," from outside.


[[2 Climb, and yay for informations...I forsee the Mayor having kittens.]]

"I think we can forget about sneaking, then."

Pierce crouches down next to Danny. "Got a knife or find some handle?"



Assuming we have some way of pulling the thing open...
22:04, Today: William Pierce rolled 3,6 using d10-1,d6-1, rerolling max with rolls of 4,(6+1)7. Strength, still one wound.

Danny waves the knife he was using to test the floor in William's face. "Yeah. Right here, boyo. Got any other stupid questions?" He slips it in to a small crack in the floor, and he and William are able to get the panel up with some effort.

A dark hole reveals itself with a gust of foul air, cloying with the scent of dried blood and spoiled meat. "Ewf!" Danny gags at the smell. "Well now I know where that smell was commin' from."

A short ladder descends into darkness. "Hey! Alouette! We found somethin' here! Might want to take a look at it, see if there's any witchin' goin' on before we climb in!" The boy looks over at the doorway, and sees the dangling brass feet.

"Oh for Christ's sake." He mutters.

Irish.

For a moment he remembers his friend, the one that left the gang, back at a time when he William, might have been able to do that as well.
He wondered for a second whatever happened to that mad Irish fool with his outlandish ideas.
Probably henpecked by that whore.
He chuckles, not the most fitting reply to Danny's insult, then grows serious again.
"You don't want to go rounds with me, paddy."
A look over his shoulder, back at Alouette.
"If there's witches down there, they'll be ready for us now. Unless you want to throw the clank down the hole in the vain hope he explodes, the only thing we can do is go down."

"Yeah, sure. Ye don't scare me none, boyo." Danny shoots back. "Look, there's no one here. Frankenstien oe'er there said as much. But Alouette can see things in the aether. She can find magic things. We've not a clue what's down there...could be more deadders, from the smell. Could be this is where the Moonies stitched together Frankenstien...smells like it enough. There was something else here, too...a crawlin' bloody hand, not attached to anythin' at'll. I think we killed it, but there could be more. Trust me on this, boyo...we need Alouette and her magic eye."

He pads over to the dangling automaton. "Alouette? D'ye need some help down?"

"minus platform error," comes the voice from above. It should be pretty easy to crawl up on the desk and retrieve the chair, though.

"Self was attempting to locate higher place, to find the Owl Comanche," it explains when it can see Danny. "Did you find witches in another place?"

Meanwhile, Deputy Chicken wanders to the edge of the hole, recognising the sort of smell that bodes tasty, tasty maggots, and fixes William with a yellow chicken stare.
"bok?"

A twisted smiles crosses Jake as something dark dances in his eyes and perhaps even his soul. "What secrets do you hold?" he mutters to himself.

He picks up the book and turns back to the other. Noting the addition of William with a slight curious look which vanishes as quickly as it appeared, the huckster says, "I think this tome might help us find out more about what's going on around these parts." His eyes gaze upon the possible trap door that Danny and William are fiddling with, "And I see so have you t0o..."

"She?"
Pierce raises an eyebrow, then turns his attention to the demonic chicken.
"You want to go down there?"

Without waiting for an answer, he pushes the chicken into the hole.

The chicken squawks indignantly and madly flaps its wings as it disappears into the darkness.

"She." Danny says firmly. "Trust me on that."

"Alouette!" he calls up as he grabs the tipped over chair. "We can worry about the Comanche later. I think we found the main lair o' the witches, and we'd like you're help searching it out. Don't want to trip over any dangers unawares." He sets the chair beneath Alouette's feet, then looks at Jake. "D'ye think ye can give me a hand keepin' this steady? I don' know if I can manage it meself."

"Folks are worried now..." Alouette protests, but is soon distracted by its primary command: "Fear not! You are protected!"

It tries to get its feet back on the chair. "Should self decend now?"

"If you want to get you chicken back, you should."

He stands back up and looks around, waiting for the clank to take the lead. And hopefully soak up any bullets or whatever somebody would be using against them.

"Found something, Waters?" He asks Jake.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:26, Tue 07 Aug 2012.

In reply to William Pierce (msg # 23):

Jake shrugs, "Just a tome of dark secrets and evil incantations, pretty standard stuff for an secret society of would-be sorcerer types."

"Yeah...yeah, I think you should get down from there." Danny says to Aloutte. "Hey! Bitter Waters!" He shouts over to Jake. "Get yer bloody arse over here and help me keep this chair steady!"