Prologue - Death House

Taniwha pauses at the threshold of the door exiting the study, there he stands still for the briefest before turning to the window. "Did you see the Blonde human Knight? Did she come in the window?" Noticing the windows are still clean he walks light over to the open one and leans out. "Are you coming . . . Avalyn? Tower stay outside." He looks for the obviously educated one ready to help her up.

With nothing else interesting in the den, the party moves through the main hall of the house. This is a wide hall with a black marble fireplace at one end and a red marble staircase at the other. A carving of nymphs and satyrs playing among the trees wraps around the walls of this massive room following the stairs upward.

Drina notices that each step creaks as she walks; perhaps the wood under the marble paneling has seen better days. The party continues up past the second floor, spying a hall as elegant as the one below it. This hall is lit only by the dim light from the floor below, although there are unlit oil lamps and another marble fireplace. Most prominent in here are four suits of armor, two along the east wall and two along the west.

As the party continues further up the stairs, a cold draft meets them, along with a feeling of foreboding. The light gets weaker and weaker the higher you go. Following the banister, you come to a balcony overlooking the massive staircase. A faint circle of light thirty feet down reveals the first floor and tells you which way is down. It is too dark to see anything up here, but the stench of mold is pungent.

Even from the shadows of his hood Taniwha walks with confidence in the shadows and dark, moving to be beside Drina. Drawing next to her he places a gentle yet firm hand upon her shoulder get her attention, he raises his other hand flat open palm facing her indicating for her to stop. "You may want some light." He says simply as he turns to examine the walls, "This place is off."

Taniwha makes his way down the halls carefully running his fingers over the pictures, and examining his surroundings for any dangers or traps. "Look closely at the forest, see the corpses and worms? This is not a family home."

Amalthea wrinkles her nose up in what seems like disgust, but then she sneezes rather loudly.

"Ope, excuse me. He's right though, this floor is full of cobwebs and mold. What parent would let their children and babies be living with this? Do any of you have something to make a light?"

While she asks this, she moves to the nearest door and gingerly attempts to open it.

Woefully unprepared, the ranger had realized the light was definitely becoming an issue. The moon and the stars were usually enough for the one nimble on her feet but no ambient light streamed through any opening and the downstairs light kept its radiance at bay. Trying to breathe steady as a rising sense of panic curled up from the pit of her stomach.

The green eyed woman almost loosed a scream as a force gripped her shoulder. Jumping back, Drina leaned against the wall slumping in relief as she make out her companion with the hood. It was only her companion! Relief washed over the ranger until she realized the wall had actually been touched which only increased the intensity of the mold smell. "Sorry" Drina offered as Amalthea sneezed.

Taniwha notices no traps in the hall. He traces the seam in the west wall at right angles until he realizes that he's looking at a secret door. At the same time, Amalthea moves to the nearest door, but a rough, ice-cold hand clamps on her shoulder! The suit of armor, one gauntlet on Amalthea, stares blankly with its empty wolf's-head helmet. (The humans cannot see what's going on, but the clanking of the armor may lead them to believe that some armored enemy is hidden in the darkness.)

Lost in his own thoughts that he had not meant to scare the kindly Drina, just warn her, that he doesn’t notice something odd about the armour until the hand grabs Amalthea . . .

.

The hand that had touched Drina was friendly but Amalthea did not prove to be as lucky. Gaging by sound the party was no longer alone. Where is that damned light when you need it?

"What is it...?

As Amalthea stops from opening the door and turns to whoever has grabbed her shoulder, she is clocked across the head! She ducks down and away to try and remove herself from her assailant.

Amalthea, still reeling, wrenches herself from the ice cold grip of the armor. Way behind the party, Avalyn shrieks and dashes down the stairs in a panic.

Armour Sentry’s are common place among many houses, so after the initial self blame for missing something so obvious Taniwha subtly changes his weight displacement. His right hand slides along the shaft of his spear finding the balance required to bring it down upon the arm of Amalthea‘s assailant, in an attempt to break its grip.

Using the momentum of the strike Taniwha shifts forward driving the flat of his foot into the knee joint, attempting to place his full weight upon the weak point of the connection.

Abraham was just about to comment regarding the state if the house, and question the progression of time -- specifically, if it was possible more had passed inside the house than outside -- when a suit of armor grabbed one of the people who had entered the house (more or less) with him. Putting the question aside, Abe quickly draws his blade and steps towards the sentry.

Amalthea tries to recall her training.

"Oy, does anyone have some type of cancelling magic ability?"

She puts her shield up and with the other hand smoothly pulls out her warhammer and swings as hard as she can at its torso.

Taniwha's spear crushes down on the armor's right in the crook of its arm. The arm clanks back down to the thing's side. As he tries to plant his foot, the armor thrusts its knee and parries the attack. Abraham rushes to the armor's side (C3), swinging his blade wildly in the dark. The armor raises its arm, the blade ringing off harmlessly. A spray of sparks illuminates the snarling wolf helm, then everything is black again.

Amalthea swings her warhammer, but the hall is too crowded to swing properly. The head only scuffs the armor, spitting more sparks.

The armor flings both hands out at Amalthea, its cold hands squeezing around her neck. At the same time, it tries to shove her off the balcony and down the stairwell.

Amalthea flashes back for a moment to that fatal battle, but the hands that clutched around her throat then were warm and smaller, the size of her hands. She panic attacks a bit, but summons her strength and tries to plant her feet on the dusty wooden floor.

This was ridiculous! Drina had expected sleeping chambers with draped canopies over the bed meant to shroud the occupants from daylight incursion. And yes, an area for the children to learn their letters and such while being littered with a few toys. The worst that would happen was one of those with her to maybe step on a block letting out a stream of curse words. The monster was suppose to be in the basement!

But there were definitely things that go bump in the night and from the ruckus, it was thumping hard. Shins screamed in pain as a solid object collided into the ranger. Drina out of a reflexive action almost added to the forward momentum the object had to tumble down the stairs until realization occurred that it wasn't a what but a who. More specifically the one who had shared her blanket but unconscious.

Not having an abundance of strength, the green eyed ranger often had to work around her deficit by being fast. Dropping on top of Amalthea, Drina wrapped her body around the other woman's to form a protective cocoon keeping especially her head from receiving further trauma as the ranger guided their descent down the stairs.

As his spear strikes hard against the armoured assailant Taniwha is thankful once again for his dark vision, but thankfulness fades to misbelief as gauntlet hands tosses Amalthea aside like a doll. His free hand pulls away the cloak wrapping his appearance for this was no time for restraint, nor petty gestures to hide one’s true identity.

Planting his right foot weight balance allows him to thrust his spear at the armoured ghast, hoping to distract it away from the fallen Dwarf. Sliding his weight onto his front left foot the young Tiefling drives his right knee into the hip joint, hoping to disengage a part of the armour.