Chapter 1: Into the Mists

There are none he can see.

The oak doors are unlocked.

The oaken doors open to a foyer. Hanging on the wall is a shield emblazoned by a coat of arms, flanked by framed portraits of stony-faced aristocrats. Mahogany-framed doors set with panes of stained glass are on the opposite side of the foyer.

Ryn watched as Will snuck into the house, "I guess we're going in then." Ryn drops back down to a knee to look at the kids at their height, "Uh, kids, how old is your brother, and where is he in the house? Are there any locked doors or anything that could be dangerous in the house if we get your brother?" While he's waiting for a response, Ryn examines the kids to see their general well being after being left alone for awhile.

Walter is only a baby and he's in the nursery. The girl say. Now that you look at them, they seem dirty but not malnourished, as if they've been sleeping outside in the same clothes for a couple of days. They couldn't have been alone for more than three days. The nursery is on the third floor.

Ryn's dagger shines in the absence of light in the foyer. As you all advance through the mahogany doors, you observe that it opens up into a main hall that spans the width of the house. It has a black marble fireplace at one end and a sweeping red marble staircase at the other. There are several doors in the hall, one very close on the same wall as the doorway you had come though and four along the opposite wall.

At first, Baroth is startled to see humanoid figures lined against the walls of this grand hall but is relieved to see that they are only suits of armor, each clutching a spear and bearing a visor shaped like a wolf's head. Unlit oil lamps line the room. Above the mantlepiece of another marble fireplace, there hangs a picture of a family: a mother, a father, a swaddled baby in the father's arms, and the children you met outside, Rose and Thorn. The paneling that lines the room depict youths dancing.

There is another marble staircase leading up to the third floor. A cold draft eliminates from the opening. There is a door right next to you as well as two sets of double doors on either side, suits of armor on either side of each.