Lights Out

Two guests had just arrived at the Bed & Breakfast earlier that day, a young girl and her father. When the lights went out, the dad wasted no time in volunteering himself and his daughter for the expedition to the basement.

"Don't worry, little guy!" Bill Dabrowski says to Parish. "You can count on me! I've never met a fuse box I didn't like!"

Lily Dabrowski sighs dramatically and rolls her eyes. She'd convinced her dad to take her here to Yazeba's in order for her to be close to a real-life actual witch. Maybe if she tries hard enough, she can impress Yazeba and get her recommendation for wizarding school. But her dad is a clueless non-magical man who likes to make everything about himself. This was going to be a long vacation...

Bill chuckles when he sees the particularly unpleasant skeleton join the brigade. "Hey, that's some get-up you've got on, buddy. I didn't know it was Halloween yet!"

"Oh my... what a team... Ok... I will join too, after all I am a B&B employee... and... with all my respects guys... none of you look like the kind of people that knows how a generator looks like... so... I will help... Arrrrr.... Are we taking some food for the trip? We dont know for how long it will take to solve 'the problem'... "

Parish is happy to see so many friends have shown up to help on this quest to the basement. "Excelent!" He says. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name." He tells Rag and Bones.

It sure was great to see Bill and Lily joining. A dad for sure knows everything there is to know about fuseboxes. "I am honored to have your wealth of home-owner knowledge on board!" He tells Bill.

"Snacks. Yes, great idea, Grackle!" He responds to the crowblin (crow-goblin). "I've got some cookies on me. Please feel free to bring anything you'd like to munch on. But we should be back before breakfast." His tone of voice made it sound like this will be a piece of cake, but breakfast time was still a long time from now.

"Well, let's get started then." Parish takes the first step down the stairs, broom in hand and his head held high like the leader of a marching band. "Breakfast Brigade, move out!" With the glow of some candles, he descends.

"Cookies! hmmm that is nice!
Look! I brought some fertilizer... The first bite might be weird... perhaps the second and third too... but once you get used to it, it is spicy and tasty!
Anyone wants?""So... well done Parish... I am impressed! ha!

Breakfast brigade, breakfast brigade... we should be the Dirty basement brigade! he adds imitating Parish's voice

"Welcome aboard, Bo'B!" Parish said, happy that the new guest was so willing to help even though they had not spent even a night there yet, as far as Parish knew. "Boy there sure are a lot of rats down in this basement." He commented as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "I keep hearing them."

When Grackle offers some fertilizer, he shudders "Oh yes, what a treat. I uhm maybe..." He stumbles for words, but then luckily finds a distraction. "... Ah! The fuse box. That means the generator would be right over there." The frog points his broom stick to the other corner of the room where no generator can be seen. "That's odd. It's not there." Instead there's just a pile of cardboard boxes. Confused by the situation, they call out to the best person to aid in this case. "Mr. Dabrowski, what do you make of this?"

Grackle observes the boxes
"Ajaaaa those are so helpful! We should take one! If we find the generator it might be dangerous to touch but cardboard will protect us!

OOC:

Bingo? spot some treasure which everyone else assumed was junk

Mr.Bob, so you work in Health and safety? That is something this place needs ohhhhh yes! It was time that someone came to keep an eye on Yazeba and some residents... hmmm... methods!"

Bill Dabrowski scratches his head. "Hmm. Well, it seems to me that the generator is missing! We're gonna need to find it to get the power back on!" he says confidently.

Lily sighs. "Brilliant deduction, dad," she grumbles. "Can we just hurry up and find it? I was just about to get to a good chapter in my book..."

Hang on a second... Parish thought. Something was not adding up. This new resident just happened to show up when we're about to explore the basement after not being there in a long time. He pondered about this some more. And now he mentioned health and safety. That's it! He reached a logical conclusion.

"I'm onto you, mister Bo'B!" He exclaimed, pointing the broom at Rag and Bones. "You're not just a resident at all. You're ..." He paused for dramatic effect "... A safety inspector who is trying to do an incognito investigation to see if Yazeba is following the correct protocols." He stared at the skeleton figure. "I'm right aren't I?"

Happy and just a little bit smug about finding out Bo'B's secret, Parish too starts to move to an adjacent room when the squeak is heard. The figure of what could very well be a goblin surprises him and instinctively, Parish wants to attack it with his broom, but something under his feet slips away and he falls down head first in the direction of the looming shape.

"Help!" He calls out to the others as the broom handle hits him in the head on its way down.

Grackle runs towards the new room too
"A goblin? let me see...

Hello brother! I am Grackle, you... live here?

Brother?

Ey!

I am talking perfect goblinoid! Look at me!"

Having no answer, and frustated, Grackle tries to knock his speechless friend

Baaaasng!

"Wait a moment! This is not a goblin! It is a weird... thing....
Grumpfffff as everything in this house....

Fertilizer?"

"Don't worry, little buddy! I gotcha!" Bill Dabrowksi shouts as he moves to help Parish. He lifts the broom off of Parish and gently helps the frog to his feet. "There you are! Watch that first step, eh? It's a doozy!" Bill chuckles heartily.

Lily rolls her eyes. "We need to be more careful. We were lucky this time it was just a watering can. But I'm sure there are worse things we could bump into here in the dark. Let's keep our wits about us and take things seriously. Dad," she finishes in a scathing tone that only a long-suffering teenager can manage.

Bill scratches his head. "Oh? Was it something I said?" he asks bashfully.

Lily sighs. "Let's try this door," she says. moving towards it.

"Thank you, Bill." Parish says to the kind man who helped him up. "May I call you Bill?" He confirms before hearing Lily's comments.

"Oh yes, for sure we need to take this seriously." He answers the girl. "We don't know what kind of dangerous things are down here, attracted to Yazeba's magic or banished to the basement for dealing in mischief." He looks at the door that Lily is walking towards. "Why, behind that door may be a horribly evil... Store room?" Parish scratches his head. This room looked familiar to him.

"Oh, this is my store room. Yes, I remember now. I set this up during the last big blizzard!" He tells everyone. "You know, just in case we need to hide again." Then he remembers that a lot of these products will likely be past their expiry date. And with Bo'B here to inspect things, that will make Yazeba look bad.

Luckily, he knows exactly what to do. It's time to be cool as a cucumber! "But enough about that. Hey, yo, daddy-o Mr B to the 0 to the B. If it's all fly with you, dawg, we should checkity out what's up in hea." He opens the door and gestures with gun-fingers to urge Bo'B to go to the next room. Oof, I think I got away with it!

"Hmm now this is something interesting... and tasty! " says Grackle as he eats some snacks

Then, hearing Parish's rap
"Grumpf what is that nonsense Parish! Please, behave yourself, you are our leader!
Now, let me go first this time, we dont want more accidents, do we?" he says pushing his way forward and sending everyone backwards with his wings

Grackle points to what he thinks might be the generator

"Ohhh look! Is that it?
Hmmm Oh well oh well everyone wants to be the hero that finds it... Go go Parish Mr BoB or Mr Bill... You all deserve to be the hero, after all I am just the grumpy goblin.... and Parish made the team, Mr Bob must show off as health and security master and Mr Bill... you are new here so it would impress everyone... Go go any of you, I'll sit here eating some of these tasty food we already found... I am already more than happy with this! "

Bill claps his daughter on the shoulder. "How's about it, Lily? You wanna crawl in there and get that 'jenny?' I'd do it myself, but, y'know... Too many Twinkies! Ha, ha, ha!" He grabs his belly and laughs.

Lily sighs and rolls her eyes. "Whatever," she grumbles. The girl wriggles her way into the crawlspace towards the generator...Wedged into the crawlspace next to the generator is a musty coffin. Lily accidentally knocks the lid off of the coffin, revealing a cackling dracula, with sharp fangs and nothing better to do than to scare you! "Bwah ha ha!" the dracula cackles, leaping out and wiggling his fingers. "BooOOooOO!" He hisses and bares his fangs!

"Ahhhhh noooo I am too young and tasty to die!!"says Grackle as he runs around flapping his wings

Parish, still standing near the door, has to think quickly. He reaches up to something on one of the shelves and pulls out a jar of pickles and a few packets of ketchup. Both items that can be used for years even beyond the expiry date. "Don't worry, friends. I have a plan." He rips open the packets and dumps the sauce into the pickle jar, giving the pickle juice a deep red color.

"Hey Mister fangs, I've got the perfect snack for you here. If you want it, you'll have to leave Lily be and come over here. Looks tasty, doesn't it?" Hopefully the dracula won't notice it's not real blood.

The dracula's ears perk up and his nostrils flare. "Oooh, that looks tasty, indeed!" He draws his cape over his face, vanishing in a puff of smoke.

Before he reappears, Lily calls out to Parish, "Put garlic in it, too! That's a dracula's weakness!"Parish has just a moment to add in a dash of garlic to the ketchup-pickle juice before the dracula appears again beside him. He licks his lips and takes the drink, guzzling it down. Suddenly, his eyes bulge and he drops the jar, gagging. "Garlic?!? Bleh! Bleh, bleh, bleh! Garlic gives me gas! Urk!"

The dracula starts to belch uncontrollably! He throws his cape over his face again and runs off in shame, the sound of his hiccups and burps slowly fading into the distance.

Bill Dabrowski scratches his head. "Huh. I hope he feels better before the Halloween party," he says.With the dracula defeated, Lily drags the generator out of the crawlspace. But it's out of fuel! You'll have to keep exploring the basement until you can find some.

"Out of fuel? Just our luck!" Parish says, not believing the amount of bad luck they're having tonight. "Uhm.. Let me think. The fuel should be around here somewhere. I believe Yazeba used one when she was working on her flying moped."

"Oh, I always imagined her going up into the clouds on that thing." He mused. "And of course, she would take me with her in the side-carriage." He wasn't sure mopeds had side-carriages, but Yazeba could make it work. "And we'd soar through the night skies, catching fireflies or june bugs. Our long hair trailing behind us like a flag in the wind." Absentmindedly, he opens the door to another room and steps in.

"This basement is full of .. things! Let me teach you what to do"
"If it answers you run, if it sounds like tin or wood, you stay" he whispers to his colleages


Grackle takes a broom/mop and hit whatever is in there, lightly, with the stick

"Hello! who are you? We brought food"

"Ha! told you! The broooom of truthhhhh. Lets continue, if not we are going to spend the night in here, and I would like to go back to my cabin"

Grackle quickly reveals the ghost to just be a clock, but it's already too late. As clocks tend to do, it has already caused alarm. Parish lets out a short shriek of fear and stumbles backwards into Rag and Bones, who is busy revealing his devious plan.

In the process of falling over, he grabs for anything in reach and holds on tight to try and save himself. To no avail. Somehow, the one thing that Parish manages to grab hold of is Rag & Bones' set of fake nose and mustache glasses, which comes off with the noise of someone ripping off Velcro.

"Whoa, hey! Don't panic, little guy!" Bill Dabrowski says as Parish has a mini-panic attack. "It's just a broken clock. And you know what they say, right? 'A broken clock is still right twice a day!' Bwa, ha, ha!" He laughs heartily, slapping his knees.

"DaaAAaad!" Lily groans, burying her face in her hands.

"What? It's true, ain't it?" Bill asks. "Say, what's through this door?"Behind the door is another looming shape in the shadows. Egads! Is that an enormous monster, or just the water heater?!?

Grackle sights
"What did I told you! Someone should clean this place... and install some lights!
Graack....Let me check it again
Remember, if it moves, run!"

Grackle uses his broom stick to uncover the next monster

Grackle's broom clangs against solid metal. Yep, it's just the water heater!

Lily lets out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. Bill just scarfs down another Twinkie and scratches at his head. "This is a pretty big basement? I wonder how much square footage it is..."

Parish slowly gets back up, bending his back and making it pop to realign his spine. "Did anyone get the license plate of that one?" He says jokingly. "Oh Bo'B, I think this is yours." He says as he offers Rag and Bones the nose-glasses. Something in the back of Parish' mind tells him there's something wrong here, but he just can't put a finger on it.

Hmm... I'm sure it'll come to me if it's important. He thinks and gets back to the task at hand. They need to find that fuel. "Say, Grackle, can't we use your fertilizer as fuel? If I'm not mistaken it would burn well."

Grackle approaches Rag and Bones
"Psst Pssst Mr Bob, you seem to be the one knowing what to do around here, I am happy you joined us... this place is dangerous veeeery dangerous, I told Yazeba many times, but she ignores me.... Graaaack .... Hopefully you will be capable of setting some order in here!"Hearing Parish suggestion
"Hmmm delicious fertilizer as fuel... hmmm.... Graaaack .... It might work, it fuels my body after all..... I dont have that much here, but we could try!"
He empties his pockets of fertilizer, and takes a little bite of it with a smile