Manor of Origin (REDUX)

"Okay, well dancing is very silly, but you tell me if you grow any feathers. Let's go show Faux your new clothes."

Holding her hand, the priestess of death escorts the little girl from the interstitial refuge back into the house of horrors.

Waiting for the girls to be done in the small secret corridor, Gregory is thinking.
"There is chance that someone not very pleasant in on other side. The Inquisitor was not very silent in his inquisition of secret door, eh eh." he whispers to his companions. "This may be good chokepoint to steal a kill if you are single monster stalking group. Not only chokepoint. Also stabpoint or shootpoint. Like corner in trenches."

"Who wishes to be first in the sight of the sniper?"

Sigh...

"Can you refrain from making such jokes?" said Gharn to Danzig; "They're disturbing at least, not to mention that it's not helping our little comrade to loosen up..."

Gharn buckled up, deploying his shield and getting out his sword. "I'll be our vanguard; I'm well-trained and armoured. And I did make a ruckus... But what is done, is done. Onwards then!" said Gharn and exited the hidden room first.

Gregory walks after the Inquisitor, the smirk gone from his face. As soon as he realizes that the room is safe for the moment, he walks up to the half-orc.
"This" and he taps the warrior's armor, with a bit of impertinence "is protection. Jokes are also protection. Maybe armor stops blade, and maybe makes you drown in the mud. But you judge it is good balance, yes? Advantage and disadvantage." he stares Inquisitor right in the eyes "When in War, joke maybe lifts up your spirit, maybe makes people mad. I judged it was good balance."

He looks back at the hidden room where Banshee and the girl are experiencing a bit of privacy. "Maybe joke make her uncomfortable, maybe she reacts to one and opens up." he shrugs "I do not know. I do not know if she was legendary hero in other life. Or maybe just scared child."

He pulls his newsboy cap lower over his brow "You go with me, I make joke. I also watch your back and find secret door. Good balance, yes?" he walks off, smirking once again.

"Amen to that!" Luc holds up a glass of wine created by the Minor Illusion as if toasting what Gregory has just said.

Suddenly, his attention shifts to Banshee and the girl coming from the other room. "Oh! Look at you! You look so beautiful in that dress! Si belle!"

From across the room Archie suppresses a snicker behind his fist.
Smirking at the spectacle he mutters something under his breath. Looking quite smug.

Banshee ignores the girl's shyness, but doesn't force her to do anything. Instead, she looks about the room. "That room seemed to be a refuge. Can we lock it behind us?"

"I think the Inquisitor has ruled out that idea," Louis replies wryly, with a pointed glance at the wreckage of the door. "Let’s keep going. I’m itching to shoot something and the sooner we find this so-called ‘cannibal ghost’, the sooner I can riddle him full of holes."

A knock comes from the door to the laundry room.

"Oh, look at that. He knocks. How polite." In the blink of an eye, Louis draws his heavy pistol and fires at the closed door, hoping to hit the murderous phantom that he believes is standing on the other side.

From the other side a raspy chuckle can be heard.
"Occupied huh? That’s fine,I’ll come back later."
The laugh starts to fade into the distance.

"That is very annoying."
Acting quickly as he hears the laughter fade away, Gregory runs up to the door trying to gauge the direction that the cannibal is taking. He lets the lantern lie on the floor to make some light filter from under the door; forcefully blows on the smoking hole left by Chariot's gunshot then glues his eye to it, hoping to see the back of the stalker disappear behind an hallway.

As Danzig peers through the newly created peephole he sees the menace just a few feet down the hall, lowering himself into a hole in the destroyed floor. As his head is about to disappear into the dark, he turns and meets Danzig’s eye. He grins widely, a knowing dangerous gleam in his gaze. As hen he disappears amongst the floorboards.

Louis curses and re-holsters his pistol. "Well, that was a waste of bullets. Guess I should’ve known better than to try to shoot a ghost…" He glances at Danzig, where he is standing with his eye pressed up to the bullet hole. "See where he went?"

"Yes." Gregory turns back towards his companions, calming himself from the adrenaline "He disappeared into a hole in broken floor. This cannibal... he plays cat and mouse with us, yes?" he pats himself, felling his various weapons hidden under his clothes as a way of reassuring himself. "But once, in trenches, I saw group of very hungry rats devour cat with broken leg, eh eh" he pats Chariot on the shooting arm "next time you break his leg, yes? Then he does not run away so smiling."

"Maybe we should try to lure the cannibal in trap? Room with graves was nice discovery, but I feel we are without much direction. If we do not know where to go, maybe we can wander without the worry of this stalker?" he looks in particular towards Inquisitor and Banshee, that seem to have been in the manor for longer.

Gharn sighs.
"Beats me if I know where to head to lad... Seems like he knows this place way better than meself or Ol' Archie over here. If you ask me, we should go check the other rooms in this hallway and then move onwards from the room where we found Lance and the little lassie here. We'll confront this... person sooner or later anyway. I don't intend on killing them on sight though, I should warn you. Archie here was a mess when we first met and not so pleasant either. We should try to get as much information as we can about this place, right?"

Archie gives Inquisitor an annoyed glare.
"Sorry for being so unfriendly with a bullet in my gut and half my blood on the ground Captain Criticism."

"Ha! Be glad I wasn't quick on the trigger my friend. At least I am." said Gharn, giving Archie an all-too wide grin. "What I'm trying to say is that you never know, right? Perhaps this place has messed with his head and he needs help. Or he's a murderous psycho. Either he gets a helping hand or a helping putting-him-out-of-his-misery bullet to the head. Or sword to the throat. I don't care really, taking a life isn't my idea of fun times."