Scene 2: Cursed blood

@Cettish,@Squadfather44
Though Elias is used to some discomfort, it is clear that Claire doesn't really enjoy much of the travel back home. Despite the carriage's quality, last night's storm left the roads soggy, the wheels constantly sinking into the mud, forcing the wagon to shake strongly and irregularly. You even get stuck one or twice, but manage to get free easily enough to continue! Overall, you actually manage to travel surprisingly fast and arrive just as the sun is highest.



As you move past the Town and start making your way up the hill, your eyes are drawn to the monolithic and imperial estate. As you approach, you get the strange feeling that the Manor is slowly stretching and growing into an immense construction of surreal size, its shape twisting to slowly embrace you with its shadow. For a brief moment, you get the feeling that even the rays of light are somehow drawn into the massive building, bending to its gravitational core, only to be snuffed into complete darkness. You quickly realize it's probably just a mind trick, played by the moving clouds high above. However, this feeling lingers as you too feel drawn to the place. In comparison to the sheer grandeur of the Manor, you suddenly feel your own insignificance, just another one of the many cogs who have turned before you to keep this family running. It's strange to be back home.

The carriage stops, and the driver opens the doors to let you out. The man quickly takes your luggage to the main door. Once done with his task, he bows, and after the usual courtesies, makes his way back to the carriage, preparing to leave.

---

Surely it is a bumpy morning ride. Muddy trails, rocky roads. A carriage shaking Claire and Elias all up. It's hard to focus and to have a chat if you're all stammering when the carriage is bumping around.

"How...ow...ow have your tra... travels been?" Claire asks as the carriage shakes her around. How she hates this. She is used to the comfort of luxury mansions. It is especially annoying when the carriage gets stuck in the mud, and the one time she actually needed to help to push! But at the smoother part of the paths, more near the manor, it was a more comfortable ride. Claire watched the landscape go by.

Until they finally made it to Rookwood Manor. Claire allowed herself to be guided out of the carriage, her hand held, as she slowly stepped down. Like a true lady. Right... Much less like a lady she cleaned her glasses on the sleeves of her dress as she looked at the manor.

It had been quite a while since she had last seen it. Somehow, it felt like coming home again.

"It's been a while, right Elias?" she asked. "I wonder if we are the first, and who all has been invited. You'd think Alexander would come?"

Roderick spies the carriage arrival from a high gable window.

Here they are, we are gathering here like black clouds ready for unleashing the storm of the century upon these blasted lands... He thinks grimly, a heavy burden on his heart.

Then he sees Claire and Elias are the only carriage passengers, and the sight is a relief. Good. The more tolerable of the Rookwood are first here, it might be a promising omen.

His gaunt figure stays at the window, looking down as if he were a stone gargoyle forever sculpted there...

@Dr_B

Having noticed the strange way in which the chain links had detached, Roderick decided to go back to the Manor. That would have to wait for the next day as he had not prepared for such a cold and humid night. His return to the Manor seemed to take longer than he expected. Besides the occasional distorted cawing from a nearby bird, the freezing winds also made it harder for the old man to move. The constant waving of the fog also created many illusions of movement among the gravestones; but Roderick knew better than to believe his eyes in such conditions. Even so, the moment he crossed the gates, he felt compelled to look back, as if just to check it one last time.

And that was when Roderick noticed it.

A shadow of some sort of deer, half hidden behind one of the many small angel statues. It's antlers rose above the wings of the divine being, Roderick's eyes slowly following the curved shapes to the animal's head... which seems to stare right at him. The creature held Roderick's gaze almost with a magical fascination. It may have been a moment; it may have been an hour. Time meant nothing as the fog whited out all the references the old man could use to estimate its passing. He knows only that it lasted until the creature turned its back and disappeared into the mists... With the forest nearby, this would have been normal, except Roderick could swear it was standing... and walking upright...

He didn't sleep well that night, the strange image running over and over again in his mind. When he woke up, the sun was already high, something which displeased him much as he prided himself of being a most efficient morning person. As he readies himself for the new day, he notices the carriage approaching the Manor. Maybe it was all just a bad dream. After all, these have been some stressful days...

---

@Cettish,@Squadfather44

As Claire turns to ask her older brother what he thought, she notices a shadowy figure staring down at them from one of the windows in the Manor...Players Waiting:

Roderick leaves the gabled room he was watching from, in search of the Caretaker.
I will ask the old fool why he wasn't available all yesterday, and to explain once and for all what's behind this gathering, He broods walking the ancient, echoey hallways of the Rookwood's ancestral home.

Elias laughs at his sister's obvious discomfort from the trip. This was nothing, try staying on the back of a horse, for a full day and night, while doing, maneuvers. That'll make you sit funny.

For a while Elias goes silent as he looks out the window and watches the scenery go by. The closer they get to the manor, the more Elias begins to recognize where he's at. The closer we get the more I recognize and remember...both good and bad memories. Have I really been gone this long?

As the carriage stops at the front of the manor, Elias steps out, momentarily ensures it's safe, then turns and helps Claire down from the carriage. See..the worst is over. Now that we've arrived there's nothing to worry about.

"I kinda do like riding horse..." Claire said. "At the stables and the meadows... for an hour or so... I'd bet you'd been riding quite differently, haven't you?"

She takes Elias's hand as she strides out of the carriage and looks around at the magnificent sight the manor is.
"I am not worried... much... I just sincerely hope that grandfather is doing OK."

She then notices a figure at the windows. "Look!"

She gives a little wave, but the figure is already gone. It was grandfather, right? It had to be. Who else would it have been?

@Dr_B Roderick walks the empty hallways of the Rookwood Manor looking for the Caretaker. The building has virtually been abandoned by now, with only a skeleton staff still maintaining it. Although the old man initially found this perfect to have some peace and quiet, he is increasingly frustrated about how tiring and time consuming it is to find anyone in these many empty rooms.

After searching for a moment, he finds himself back in the hallway where he met Gunther last night. He walks past the painting of his brother and decides to take a moment to breathe, looking out the window. That damned bird is still standing on the same tree. As you look at it, it looks back at you; it caws three times and then flies away...

.. and from behind that tree, the Caretaker is revealed. It looks like the man just left and may be walking deeper into the Manor's grounds.

---

@Cettish,@Squadfather44

Elias is too late to notice anyone where Claire pointed. Whoever it was, they may have not seen you, as it doesn't look like anyone is coming to the main door to greet you. Players Waiting:

What the devil? The old fool is in a hurry to get somewhere... Now, that tree... Could it conceal a passage that the Caretaker uses to get in and out of the Manor unobserved? He thinks.

Only one way to find out...
He hastens towards the Pantry, remembering there is a door to the grounds the servants used to get supplies in. The shortest route to go and check that strange tree.
The Pantry hits his senses with its stacks of of boxes and jars playing tricks with the shadowy cirners, its smell of spices and cured meats, the rough surface of its shelves against which he has to lean to get through the room.
He reaches the grounds door and opens it silently.

Once reasonably sure he is not observed (this wing of the house being not in sight of the main entrance) he starts pursuing the Caretaker, taking a good look at the crow tree as he passes it.

"Come on," Claire said, taking steps forward, heading toward the big frontdoors of the manor. "Let's go find grandfather and offer our condoleances with the loss of... his... wife?"

She looked a little uncertain at Elias, still not entirely sure who grandmother Rookwood had been anyway. She already made her way up to the strais, leading to the big double doors. The manor sort of felt like home, although she'd been calling another place home as well lately.

It was... weird being back, still she was quite glad to be back, even though it was a grim and sad reason to be here right now.

Elias nods his head and follows Claire up the stairs. Pausing long enough to motion at the driver to unload the bags, Elias grabs the knocker and raps it against the door. Standing beside his sister, Elias felt an odd mixture of hesitation and joy at being back at the ancestral Rookwood home.

@Dr_B


Even though the Caretaker doesn't seem to be hiding or in a hurry to get anywhere, Roderick is a suspicious man... and yesterday, he couldn't find the servant! He can always get the man later, but for now, there is only one question on his mind: Why does it look like the Caretaker came from the tree? If there is a secret way in and out of the Manor, he should know about it!

This is another thing he enjoys about the Manor being understaffed... he can easily sneak around unnoticed. Using the servants door through the Pantry, a place a man of his standing should not be seen in, Roderick is standing in front of the dead tree in no time. As he turns to see if there is something about the old tree, he is stunned to notice that the tree seems to be happy about seeing him too. He rubs his eyes in disbelief. The lack of sleep from the rough night is probably starting to get to him. Though he is clearly imagining things, he does notice the "mouth" of the tree can fit a person...

---

@Cettish,@Squadfather44


Elias, knocks once, then again. No answer. However, the third time, the door seems to move slightly. Could it be that someone left it open? He decides to try and open it, revealing the old richly adorned entrance to the manor. As if time doesn't move forward in this place, it is exactly as you both remember it, its impressive states and paintings arranged in the perfect fashion to highlight the family's wealth and influence. Players Waiting:

Claire looks around while standing at the entrance. It had been a while, but so much seemed just like she had remembered. The staircases, the rich chandeliers, the art work of Rookwoods long gone. She wondered if one of them was grandmother in her younger years. Probably not, she would have heard about it.

Still, it was strange that none of the servants nor grandfather welcomed them here. She would have expected Gunther at least. Not that she liked the man much, he always gave her a bit of the creeps. But still... where was he?

There is not even a servant to carry her luggage to her old room. She kinda felt like doing that herself, looking up the stairs.

As her footsteps echo through the hallway, it all feels quite a bit spooky.

"Where is everyone? Where is grandfather? Where is Gunther?"

Roderick looks closely at the gnarled roots of the ancient Ash tree. He has to crane his neck into what his senses read as the tree's mouth.

What is this?... he thinks, squinting his eyes at the sight of stonemasonry peeking through the roots. Man-made structure... They seem like steps going deep down! The stone looks ancient, and the steps show the erosion of centuries of use.

Another detail catches his eye. A deeply engraved symbol carved at the centre of one of the steps.

His curiosity piqued, he pushes further into the hollow, when a sound startles him.

With a horrific creaking sound, the vault of roots above him is slowly moving! The vein-like tendrils of dead wood are tightening from all directions, like long, grotesque skeletal fingers intertwining in a deadly grip.

Feeling the panic surge within him, he scrambles quickly backwards and away from the narrowing mouth among the roots. He falls backwards on the soil just outside, in time to see the living roots sealing the passage below the tree, relentlessly animated by a mysterious force. Soon all is silence, and the roots are still, once again, showing no trace of the mysterious passage.

As his heart rate gradually calms down, he ponders on this new mystery. He tries to memorise that symbol he has glanced. Perhaps it is meaningful.
One thing is certain. The Caretaker knows how to get through that passage. There is more to the old man than meets the eye...

He struggles to his feet and turns in the direction the Caretaker was last seen heading to.
He hastens to see if the man has left footprints in the muddy soil that one could follow.

@Dr_B


Roderick barely has any time to make out the symbol drawn on the stairs before the vein-like tendrils seem to purposefully push him away from whatever secrets lie within the dead ash tree. The surreal experience left the old man struggling to calm his breath. First the letter, the invitation for the Ceremony, then... this tree. He looks at his still shaking hands, the skin hardened by the age. He can feel it in his bones. Something old, maybe even something unnatural...

Last night's storm turns out to be useful, as the grounds are still wet and soft. Roderick hastens to follow the muddy steps into the graveyard... To his surprise, he finds more tracks that could have possibly been done by one man. Perhaps, some are of his own making, from his last night's wonderings... perhaps some are from what he assumed had been only a nightmare....

Roderick's thoughts are interrupted by the unexpected voices of someone talking nearby ...

---

@Cettish

As Claire takes some time to look at the old portraits of Rookwoods long gone, a few of the women in the family capture her attention with their almost unnatural grace. She is however, disturbed by the fact that she doesn't recognize her own parents in any of the paintings... It strikes her as strange at first, like the unsettling feeling the memory of her own parents slowly fading.. but then she finds a much more logical explanation: maybe her parents simply didn't have a portrait done before their tragic disappearance.




Claire looks up the stairs, remembering exactly where her old room used to be. She find it strange no one has come to welcome them yet, but she's a big girl and she can take care of herself, right? Claire makes her way to the room, her assumption that that's where she should be confirmed by the fact that it is ready for her to use, faultlessly prepared exactly as it used to be when she was a child.

---

@Squadfather44

You are at the entrance, reliving some old memories when you notice Claire going up the stairs, presumably to her old room.Players Waiting:

Roderick takes some deep breaths to regain his composure, then takes a last look at the uncanny ash tree.

He turns to the multiple tracks, and starts following them, towards the voices.
Calm down, you decrepit fool. Let us find out who these voices belong to, and present a first impression worth of a Rookwood...

Claire goes up the stairs and through the hallways, finally finding herself in her old room.
She gazes around. Someone had been keeping it clean.

So much memories... she took the old teddy bear that was reading at the pillow end of her bed. Held it a moment.
She no longer needed it to chase the monsters away. So she'd put it on top of a big closet, where it could watch over the room instead.

Opening her luggage, she put away some dressed into the closet.
She takes her notebook and puts it away somewhere safe.

She puts her encyclopedia on the shelf. Next to an old fairytale story book.
She flips it open, remembering mom reading at bedtime. She had always loved the scary fairytales.
She flipping through the pages, and looking at the colorful pictures of hags that looked friendlier than their fairytales suggested. She walked around her room a bit, looking at the memories in the pages, trying to recall mothers voice.

At the window she glanced at the graveyard. Always a happy sight from her bedroom...
Who was getting into the graveyard? Grandfather? Yes! It had to be him!
She looked down from the window, putting her storybook away. She looks at grandfather through the window. Should he look the right way, he would certainly see her.

It felt a bit awkward. She wouldn't want to think she'd be spying on him. But she wouldn't want to disturb him either as he probably was preparing... somehow... for grandmother's ceremony.