"What the....?" Bradford asked. "How many new kids are there in here?"

"She's not new." Bobby said, in a know-it-all voice. "That's the old woman from before. Just listen to her voice."

"He's right." the little girl said, trying to get the cup into the best position for Henri. "I touched the Babble Book. It's right over there." she said, nudging her head in the direction towards the corner.

There was a leather-bound book in the corner of the room. It sat there, the binding resting against the wall.

If he could have held it himself, Henri would have tried to drink the glass of water in one gulp, and probably spilled most of it in the attempt.  As it was he gratefully swallowed small sips of it at a time.  The water going down his parched throat felt better than almost anything he could remember and he began to feel somewhat revived, at least from the dehydration.  "Merci beaucoup," he murmured, the raspy edge to his voice lessening.  "I mean 'Thank You,'" he said, remembering to speak English.

Ron looked the new kid over for a few moments before introducing himself.  He took the little girl in stride now, and wondered how much more craziness he would have to just accept in the days ahead.  "My name's Ron and that's my friend Bradford and my sister Dawn is over there sleeping.  The little girl with the water says that this place is safe from the clown as long as we don't leave."  Remembering how ragged the boy had looked the other night, he queried, "Are you alright?  You looked pretty rough when you came through the wall last night."

Henri slowly finished the glass of water and nodded his head to the others.  "May I have some more please," he said, still having some trouble talking.  "I have not had anything thing to drink or eat for days I think.  I am not sure how long I was in the pet shop wall."  He swallowed with some difficulty.  "My name is Henri," he continued in accented English.

"Pet shop?" Bobby objected. "You weren't in a pet shop, you were in the wall. I saw you there and you came right out, just like that. What gives?"

April got up and walked over to the kitchen, fixed a drink for Henri and then resumed her same position, resting Henri's body against hers while she gave him the water.

"They come from all different places when they escape the road." She explained. "He could have been anywhere at any place. Once the Cherrywinks clown starts looking for kids, he doesn't stop until everyone on the list is crossed off. You're lucky you got away. I guess we all are. It's not really that common."

She looked down at Henri, whose head had sort of slumped into her lap.

"How are you feeling?" She asked. To Henri, there was a strange way about her. A voice that while, speaking English, reminded him of old movies on the Silver Screen.

Henri drank more of the water, savoring every sip.  He tried to sit up fully, but just didn't have much strength.  "My arm hurts and I can't really move my hand," he said, cradling his right arm.  "I think I have a cut on my back and I hit my face hard," he continued reaching up and gingerly touching the side of his face.  "And I feel like I'm covered in something."

He sipped some more water and looked over at Bobby.  "I think I was in a pet store, or something like a pet store.  It's hard to remember everything."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:22, Mon 10 Oct 2016.

Naomi's eyes widened as she looked around the room. It seemed that a lot had been happening. There were two new kids here now? Well, maybe just one new kid. It was strange seeing Ms. Humperdink as an ordinary kid now. She had gotten used to seeing her as an adult. It was almost disappointing. Before when she was an adult she had seemed like she might be more on top of things...but now she was just another kid. That just made things harder. It was a shame, but there really wasn't much she could do about it right now. She gulped a bit. "You were in...a pet store? That is...kinda scary." She had to admit that much. Could people really be brought to weird places after falling aside on the road? She was just walking through the forest...maybe she was lucky? She took a deep breath and nodded. "A-at least you're alright now...w-well, for the most part anyway." She took a deep breath as she tried to remember first Aid...could she help?

"The only thing to eat or drink around here is bread, mayo and cheese from what she says."  Ron points to the formerly old woman turned little girl.  "There's apparently all kids of weird, magic stuff going on here."  Ron hopped to his feet.  "I'm gonna go make some sandwiches or something if someone wants to come help.  I know Henri", here he pronounces it like 'Henry', "said he was hungry.  I figure we can eat and then think about what we're gonna do."

Ron got up and got to work on the sandwiches. It was good that he did. He knew that once Dawnie got up, she would bound to be grumpy if there was no food at hand.


OOC: Ron Rolls Wits + Crafts With the Following results

0 Successes, Too much cheese or too much mayo: its one or the other, and no one is satisfied with their sandwich. Ron manages to make everyone disgusted with his version of what was already a gross dish.

1 Success: Its pretty much the same as before. Just like the old woman made, nothing really changes around the cabin. Ron makes the same tasting sandwiches as before.

2 Successes: Ron manages to make the best of the few materials at hand. He finds the right combination. Everyone else feels good about their sandwich: All PCs get +1 to their next dice roll in this scene.

"It's usually hard when you come through to this place to remember everything." April said soothingly. "That's what happens to everyone. Don't feel bad about it. It happened to me in the 1930s."

"Whoa! 1930! That's when they only had horses." Bradford said, energetically. "Well, probably not, but you probably saw more horses and things" he self-corrected.

"Pet stores do sound scary. Especially if their evil." Bobby agreed with Naomi. "But soldiers who fight for the American way do all sorts of things that are scary. And they do it anyway. You know why? Because knowing is half the battle."

He gestured towards Henri with one arm, the other one balled up into a fist and placed on his waist like a commander overseeing his forces from the rear of a large battalion.

"The way I see it, this kid, the one who just came through the wall. Ummm...what was your name?"

"Anyway, he's a hero. Like Rambo or like Mr. T. A Real American Hero. Because he did something scary and he did it anyway."

"Sandwiches are a good idea." April agreed as Ron left for the kitchen.

"They'll help everyone feel refreshed."

She paused, looking around the room as if to scan for doubters.

"But there's only one thing that will heal him completely." She said looking down at Henri to check to see if he was feeling better, and to make sure she wasn't spilling water on him.

"And that's the Babble Book."


Now maybe it was just the house settling. Or maybe it was, in fact, exactly what it sounded like. But every kid in that cabin that day heard, at that very moment, the same sound.

It was a fluttering sound, like pages being skimmed. Old pages, yellowed with parchment. The sound was crisp. It came from the corner of the room in the direction that April had nudged her head earlier.

"You hear that?" Bradford tilted his head towards the sound. Then, just as suddenly, the sound stopped.

Since he was in the kitchen making sandwiches, Ron didn't hear the noise or see the pages flutter.  After a few moments, he comes back with a plate piled high with some hastily made sandwiches and sets it down on a surface convenient to the other kids.  Pointing he says, "Most of them have mayo on them, but I made a couple that don't since Naomi and me don't like mayo."  Taking one of the mayo-free sandwiches for himself, he grabbed a regular sandwich for Dawn and went over to wake her up.

[OOC:

Today: Ron King rolled 1 success using 5d10 with the World of Darkness nWoD system with a target of 8, rerolling 10s ((3,2,6,6,8)).]

Naomi was quiet again for a while, lost in thought like she had been oh so many times that day. She took a few deep breaths and nodded to Ron. "Right...sandwiches sound nice." She said with a few deep breaths. She was about to go help him make the sandwiches, but then she heard the sound. It was one that was familiar to her. She had spent many hours in libraries, she had thumbed through many books. The ants brought back dozens, no hundreds of memories of a sound like that. It was a book, but who was moving through it? She nodded. "So that's...the Babble Book. What does the babble book um, do? Can you use it...more than once?" She asked, turning her head. Was it like a spellbook? Or something else? "I don't get what it does yet...before it made you look like an old woman right?"

Dawn got up and stretched. She rubbed her eyes. Then she took the sandwich without saying anything, checked to see that it had mayo on it. When it did, she placed it in her lap.

"The Babble Book is like a spell book."

April explained. "Because kids like us stole it from Mr. Cherrywink's Circus and brought it here. It actually belonged to the Evil Circus' fortune teller. It knows everything and the kids who brought it here...um...what's the word...re-purposed it. You know? So it could be used for good."

"It can do a whole bunch of stuff like make you feel better and tell you where things are. But the kids were using it to try to find clues about how to stop Cherrywinks the Clown. And how to save other kids like us."

"The only problem is that the Fortune Teller didn't want anyone messing with her books. So she put a kind of spell-lock on the Babble Book. And basically, you don't always know what its saying, because it babbles. And it can be confusing at times to know exactly what it's trying to say."

"That's why they named it the Babble Book."

"If they can go anywhere with the Bubble Book, then why didn't they just go home?" Bobby asked, a note of sarcasm in his voice.

"I told you, it's called the Babble Book. Not the Bubble Book." April said, slightly annoyed.

"There's no point to using the Babble Book if you're still on Cherrywink's list." she explained.

"Once you're on the list, he doesn't stop. He'll wait until you're sleeping and then come out of the closet or maybe from under your bed when it's night time."

"You ever see a shadow on the wall and get scared at night when you're in your house? Well once you're on the list, the shadow comes alive and it comes and gets you. Because it isn't a shadow anymore once you're on the list. It's him."


"He's like the Babble Book. He can go anywhere but he actually understands the magic.

Ron munched on his sandwich as he listened to the others talk.  "So, how do we use this book?  You said that we can find others and help them to come here?"  He paused for a moment.  "Can we use the book to hurt Cherrywinks?  Or maybe to kill him?"  Ron had been squirrel hunting before and didn't really like killing things, but he also wanted to go home.  And if all of this crazy talk about magic and stuff was true, then they'd have to get rid of Mr. Cherrywinks to do it.

Henri ate carefully, taking small bites, chewing carefully, and swallowing with some discomfort, but savoring each bite.  "You must get the noses.  That is how you stop them," he said between eating and drinking.