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<blockquote data-quote="The Forsaken One" data-source="post: 455463" data-attributes="member: 799"><p><strong>chapter 1, session 1, day 2</strong></p><p></p><p>Sometime early during the next morning, our five serial murder suspects are approached by the mysterious Native American they saw following them around the day before when they were in town for shopping and a little research. He introduces himself as John Stonehill, the old man’s face betrays a nervous desperation that he somehow keeps out of his voice.</p><p></p><p>“I must speak with you,” he says softly. “For the Beast has marked you, and the Darkness grows stronger every night.”</p><p></p><p>The old man’s paranoia is at once unnerving to the five investigators and contagious: He refuses to explain himself further until they take him somewhere private. They escort him to the conference room while the Indian constantly looks over his shoulder and narrows his eyes suspiciously at anyone who comes near them on the way up to the conference room. </p><p></p><p>“Hurry,” he insists. “There isn’t much time!” and his eyes are everywhere.</p><p></p><p>Once they arrive at the conference room and he is convinced that no one can overhear their conversation, Stonehill continues. Rom posts himself at the door, carrying his crossbow to keep watch for anyone that might try and eavesdrop on them.</p><p></p><p>“This,” he says, gesturing toward the snow and the sky, “this is the time of the Beast. When the snow is deep and the moon is full, the Beast returns to this valley to quench its thirst for blood. But the Beast…the Beast is not the problem.”</p><p></p><p>Stonehill goes on to explain about the Darkness in the valley, and tells the investigators that his people have warred against it for many generations. But now the Darkness is growing stronger each day. Soon his people’s medicine will not be enough to keep it at bay. Furthermore, he says, the werewolf is only a servant of the Darkness. It is an ill omen that the Beast grows bolder, but it means that the Darkness is also growing stronger.</p><p></p><p>Before the werewolf first arrived more than a hundred years ago, Stonehill says, the Native Americans prayed and were granted by the Sky Father a circle of metal that weakened the Darkness. Later, their warriors used the disc in battle and badly wounded the werewolf, but it ran away before they could kill it. The next night, they sent their best warrior to find and kill the beast. He never returned, and the disc was lost with him.</p><p></p><p>“Through our medicine, we have found where the sky-metal lies. But we are old now, too weak to carry spears, too weak to war against the Beast. We are old and now one of our circle’s number is dead—run down in the road like a dog.” Stonehill gives the investigators a sharp meaningful look after that last remark.</p><p>He goes on to say that it is their duty now to retrieve the sky-metal disc from the bottom of the Delaney’s copper mine where it has waited all these years. They have but one day to complete this task. Any longer than that and the Darkness will be too powerful for his circle’s ritual. One way or the other the circle is performing the ritual tomorrow he tells the five. But without the sky-metal to protect them, he fears that they will all be killed before they can complete it.</p><p></p><p>After that Stonehill quickly answers all their questions about the Darkness and the Beast and is surprised when he hears about their adventure the night before and the cabin they found in the woods. About the Darkness, he knows only that it was in the mountain long before his people settled in the valley many centuries ago. That it is a malignant force without shape but that it is restricted to one location. It’s currently trapped in the valley by the Indian Shaman’s circle-magic but will soon be able to overpower them. </p><p>Mark now speaks up and shares his experience at the Valley View Restaurant the evening before and in answer to that Stonehill acknowledges that Delaney is the physical manifestation of the Darkness.</p><p></p><p>“This is its form, yes, for we have trapped it in the human flesh with our medicine.”</p><p></p><p>He continues about the Beast that spears and guns seems to have very little effect against it, and that only the sky-metal disc seemed truly to cause it pain and injury. And he warns them that it is difficult to hunt the beast because it:</p><p></p><p>“Wears the skin of man by day, but kills in fur and fang by night. It can change and attack at any time, but it is strongest beneath a full moon.”</p><p>At that the investigators just smile broadly and continue to make several jokes about fire before they get back paying attention to the old Native American and proceed to ask question to how they might gain easy access to the mine.</p><p></p><p>Stonehill informs them that there is a secret entrance into the heart of the Darkness. The original mine used by Jasper Delaney a hundred years ago still exists. He tells them that if the five are willing to brave the dangers inherent in a abandoned mine, they can find the entrance between two large boulders half a mile east of the mining complex itself. He proceeds to warn them that no one has explored the mineshaft in 50 years. On the other hand, it probably is not being guarded.</p><p></p><p>When the five finish asking questions Stonehill turns to leave.</p><p>“I will be back tomorrow,” he says, “and will contact you before we begin the ritual. You will have the disc by then, yes? You better.”</p><p>And with those words the old shaman disappears in the door and leaves five puzzled men behind. The five get their gear together and decide to head for the mine, the sooner they get this stuff over with, the better they think. They dress warmly and load their gear into the Range Rover and the Hum-Vee. And so they take off, two black dots racing through the snow white plain between the mountains, headed east for the old mine.</p><p></p><p>Just as Stonehill said, they find two boulders half a mile east of the Delaney complex. The boarded-up entrance to the abandoned mineshaft is between the boulders and beneath a heavy snowdrift. Unfortunately the site is also two miles from the nearest road so to get there they had to plow their jeeps through snow three to five feet deep in order to reach it.</p><p>The boards have been exposed to the elements for more then two decades and Patrick makes short work of them through use of his crowbar. Before they enter the dark cave they look at each other for one last good time and they al mutter something like what the hell do we think what we are doing here.</p><p></p><p>Inside the mineshaft they are overcome with the strong, dank odor of rot, stagnant water, and dirt. The air is full with dust. The dirt walls and ceiling are propped up with wide timbers that creak loudly in the wind. It is very dark there and a cold chilly wind blows through from somewhere below…</p><p>Twenty feet into the darkness is an open elevator shaft but a quick glance over the controls and mechanism by Richard indicates that the system is broken beyond repair and that the only way down seems to be a series of wooden ladders fastened to the shaft walls.</p><p></p><p>They fasten a couple of ropes and throw down two nightsticks, which to their uneasy surprise disappear into the darkness without hitting any bottom of the shaft. As they throw their ropes down they feel them hit solid ground somewhere so they fasten themselves, check their weapons and proceed to advance down into the darkness below.</p><p></p><p>When they step out of the elevator shaft at the bottom of the mine, all safe and sound, they are immersed in darkness so complete it is more then a lack of light. It is dense and seeps into their skins; they feel kike they are inhaling darkness with every breath they take. When they light their flashlights and nightsticks, the darkness presses closely in on them, reducing the lights’ effective range to a few feet.</p><p></p><p>The temperature here is well below freezing, and their bones ache with a cold that even penetrates their thick winter clothing. They all peer around in the few feet of light they have and they set off into the darkness, leaving a rope tied to all of them to be able to find the way back in this underground maze of eternal darkness. After a few minutes they begin to shiver uncontrollably and their teeth begin to chatter. As they venture further into the darkness under these maddening conditions at the bottom of the mine a bizarre stench fills the tunnel. Rotting eggs soaked in a heavy musk, like the inside of some animal.</p><p></p><p>About two hundred yards down in the mine tunnel, in the heart of the darkness, they find two bodies, decomposed to little more then skeletons in the hundred years they have laid here beneath the rock. One of the skeletons is wearing the faded and rotted remnants of a dress. Around the corpse’s neck is a gold chain with a locket on it. The other body has little more flesh on its dusty bones, suggesting that it hasn’t been here as long as the other body but it has little clothing left as well.</p><p>Near the right hand of the second body is a metal disc, two feet in diameter and covered in arcane runes and symbols. There are four oddly shaped holes through the object, which they discover can be used as finger holes to grasp the disc as Patrick picks the cold metal up.</p><p></p><p>While Patrick picks up the disk Coen and Rom hear something falling in the distance and paranoia strikes again, imprisoned by the darkness they all feel they are about to go mad in this place and they hurry back now they got what they came for. Last in line is Rom who grabs the golden chain from the neck of the other body just before he is dragged away by the rest who hurry back along the rope. </p><p></p><p>As they draw closer to the elevator shaft they hear a couple of voices and two thumping sounds, like something hitting the ground. Shortly after that they hear a voice calling if everything down there is ok. The voice is answered by two voices which are originating very close to our five investigators. </p><p></p><p>“Yeah Hank, we’re fine down here but a couple of yards away it’s pitch black and we can’t see anything down there.”</p><p></p><p>“Hey check this,” the second voice calls out, “a rope which is moving, I guess they went into the darkness and used this as safety, smart but it won’t protect them from us. Because we’ll be waiting for them when they get back here.”</p><p></p><p>The five in the darkness halt and stumble across each other and whisper about what to do. Richard pumps his shotgun and tells him he’s ready for the two “girls” waiting out there. The five ready their guns and with Patrick in the lead they reappear in the twilight of the bottom of the elevator shaft.</p><p></p><p>“There! I spotted one!” The second voice calls out and he charges straight for Patrick. The second guy following closely behind him while he reaches for the inside of his pocket.</p><p></p><p>The first guy, expecting them to be unarmed, leaps onto Patrick who, although he prepared himself, was caught by surprise by the quick reaction of the thug who is now on top of him and working him to the ground in a grapple. The second guy draws his Glock pistol and keeps Patrick under gun point. Just as he grins and shouts up the shaft that they got one, he is interrupted in his shouting as a gunshot echoes through the elevator shaft. His head is ripped off his torso and his lifeless body slumps to the ground. From the darkness Richard appears, shotgun in his uninjured arm and barrel still smoking. The other guy looks up from his attempt to tie Patrick up with plastic zip-cuffs surprised by the shot, only to see a gun come swinging his way.</p><p></p><p>Coen smacked the guy in the face with the other shotgun and as the guy gets thrown of Patrick by the blow he tries to get up only to be welcomed by more kicks and hits from Coen who beats him senseless. Rom gets his knife out and cuts Patrick lose from his zip-cuffs while Coen and Richard tie the second thug up with his own zip-cuffs. As they finish tying the guy up they hear someone running off at the top of the shaft. Mark and Richard strip the two guys of what they seems useful, two Kevlar vests, some plastic sip-cuffs and a couple of flashlights and glock-17’s with spare ammunition.</p><p></p><p>While Mark and Richard loot the thugs Rom runs towards the ropes and ladders and starts climbing to the top, Coen and Patrick closely behind him. Mark seeing his friends head for the ladders he dumps the unconscious guy to the ground and almost trips over the beheaded body of the other guys as he hasted to catch up with the rest. </p><p></p><p>Rom, almost near the top of the ladder, grabs a some of rotten part of the old ladder and a piece of the ladder breaks off. He falls backwards and attempts to catch one of the ropes which slips just barely through his hands and with a scream he plummets sixty feet to the bottom of the shaft. With a silent thump he hits the bottom just in front of Richard’s and Mark’s feet who totally freak out when a body crashes down in front of them. Coen shouts from up the shaft.</p><p></p><p>“Mark! Richard! Help him! He grabbed a rotten piece of the ladder and fell down, is he ok?!”</p><p></p><p>Mark and Richard bend over to see if he’s still alive and Rom cries in pain as Mark touches him to check for his pulse. Relieved that he is still alive they call back up to tell that he is still alive, although barely. </p><p></p><p>Patrick and Coen get to the top of the Shaft where they draw their weapons and run outside of the mine only to see a guy in a blue parka jump into a already running SUV and make his escape. Patrick stands still for a moment and then the coin fell. These were the same guys as he saw the first night that arrived here. The same blue parkas and the same kind of car in which they drove away so hastily. Suddenly he also understands who must have killed that guy in the room next to his… he must have known to much just as we do now but luckily they failed this time. </p><p>“Crap, why did we screw up that briefcase… I bet that’s what the guy wasn’t supposed to know, what we discovered now…”</p><p></p><p>He and Coen turn back and create a simple stretcher from the wood they can find lying around. So after a few minutes they hauled Richard and Rom back to the top of the shaft when a sweating Mark shows his head over the edge of the shaft as well.</p><p>Tired they all sit down for a moment, looking worried at Rom who lies there breathing heavily, eyes closed. </p><p>Patrick shares his revelation with the rest and afterwards they all pick up Rom together and carry him back to the jeeps. Patrick gets behind the wheel of his Hum-Vee with Rom and a tending Mark in the back. Coen and Richard, guns at the ready in the Range Rover in the lead.</p><p></p><p>And so they head back, racing through the snow and soaring through the small town. People look frightened from their houses and everyone clears the streets as the two jeeps come roaring past. The five in the cars looking mean and vicious. They had just killed a man and left another to die in that pit of madness. And they’d do it all over again if they had to. </p><p></p><p>The jeeps come screeching to a halt for the Clearwater, and Richard and Coen get out of their Range Rover, shotguns at the ready. Patrick helps Mark carry Rom inside. As they enter the hotel everyone in the foyer takes a step back as the five murder suspects come in busting through the front door, shotguns pointing around, revolvers at their hips.</p><p>They carry Rom upstairs where they discuss for a moment what to do and how to defend themselves until the pass gets cleared and they can make their escape from this god forsaken town. </p><p></p><p>After half an hour Coen, Patrick and Richard come down the stairs and round up all Hotel personel and all the other guests and force them upstairs for their own safety. There they have set up enough beds for everyone in the hallway to stay safely for the night under the investigators’ protection. Richard goes back down with Mark to see what food and supplies they can find and carry them upstairs. When they are done they find some desks and benches and throw them down on the double staircases to block and slow down anyone who might try to rush upstairs. With a thump Rom sets the two gallons of concentrated alcohol down, one on each top of a staircase. With a smile he explains that anything trying to get up here will get a nasty surprise when they get this stuff over them, not even talking about what would happen in they’d throw a match in the mix.</p><p></p><p>Feeling secure they all prepare themselves for the night as the afternoon passes slowly and silently. The hotel staff and the guests slowly begin to trust and appreciate the investigators work and what they are trying to do for them. Patrick sits down after finishing preparing the defenses and takes the golden locket from his pocket, the one he took from the corpse in the mine. He opens it and on the inside are two pictures, one presumably of Clarice Maguire and the other… Rom drops the locket, grabs his Glock and glares around like a mad man. The other picture on the inside of the locket was of Ian Maguire, another hotel guest as Rom recognized, the writer of the other letter over a hundred years ago, a writer trying to protect his last memory of his love, his wife. The writer of that letter, the other face in the locket, the werewolf…</p><p>Rom looks around in a panic but there is no Ian Maguire here… he asks around and he hasn’t checked in since last afternoon. The rest rushes in and asks what’s going on here, Rom explains and after that they all look out of the windows at the snow and the setting sun and all they can do is wonder.</p><p></p><p>Night falls…</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Forsaken One, post: 455463, member: 799"] [b]chapter 1, session 1, day 2[/b] Sometime early during the next morning, our five serial murder suspects are approached by the mysterious Native American they saw following them around the day before when they were in town for shopping and a little research. He introduces himself as John Stonehill, the old man’s face betrays a nervous desperation that he somehow keeps out of his voice. “I must speak with you,” he says softly. “For the Beast has marked you, and the Darkness grows stronger every night.” The old man’s paranoia is at once unnerving to the five investigators and contagious: He refuses to explain himself further until they take him somewhere private. They escort him to the conference room while the Indian constantly looks over his shoulder and narrows his eyes suspiciously at anyone who comes near them on the way up to the conference room. “Hurry,” he insists. “There isn’t much time!” and his eyes are everywhere. Once they arrive at the conference room and he is convinced that no one can overhear their conversation, Stonehill continues. Rom posts himself at the door, carrying his crossbow to keep watch for anyone that might try and eavesdrop on them. “This,” he says, gesturing toward the snow and the sky, “this is the time of the Beast. When the snow is deep and the moon is full, the Beast returns to this valley to quench its thirst for blood. But the Beast…the Beast is not the problem.” Stonehill goes on to explain about the Darkness in the valley, and tells the investigators that his people have warred against it for many generations. But now the Darkness is growing stronger each day. Soon his people’s medicine will not be enough to keep it at bay. Furthermore, he says, the werewolf is only a servant of the Darkness. It is an ill omen that the Beast grows bolder, but it means that the Darkness is also growing stronger. Before the werewolf first arrived more than a hundred years ago, Stonehill says, the Native Americans prayed and were granted by the Sky Father a circle of metal that weakened the Darkness. Later, their warriors used the disc in battle and badly wounded the werewolf, but it ran away before they could kill it. The next night, they sent their best warrior to find and kill the beast. He never returned, and the disc was lost with him. “Through our medicine, we have found where the sky-metal lies. But we are old now, too weak to carry spears, too weak to war against the Beast. We are old and now one of our circle’s number is dead—run down in the road like a dog.” Stonehill gives the investigators a sharp meaningful look after that last remark. He goes on to say that it is their duty now to retrieve the sky-metal disc from the bottom of the Delaney’s copper mine where it has waited all these years. They have but one day to complete this task. Any longer than that and the Darkness will be too powerful for his circle’s ritual. One way or the other the circle is performing the ritual tomorrow he tells the five. But without the sky-metal to protect them, he fears that they will all be killed before they can complete it. After that Stonehill quickly answers all their questions about the Darkness and the Beast and is surprised when he hears about their adventure the night before and the cabin they found in the woods. About the Darkness, he knows only that it was in the mountain long before his people settled in the valley many centuries ago. That it is a malignant force without shape but that it is restricted to one location. It’s currently trapped in the valley by the Indian Shaman’s circle-magic but will soon be able to overpower them. Mark now speaks up and shares his experience at the Valley View Restaurant the evening before and in answer to that Stonehill acknowledges that Delaney is the physical manifestation of the Darkness. “This is its form, yes, for we have trapped it in the human flesh with our medicine.” He continues about the Beast that spears and guns seems to have very little effect against it, and that only the sky-metal disc seemed truly to cause it pain and injury. And he warns them that it is difficult to hunt the beast because it: “Wears the skin of man by day, but kills in fur and fang by night. It can change and attack at any time, but it is strongest beneath a full moon.” At that the investigators just smile broadly and continue to make several jokes about fire before they get back paying attention to the old Native American and proceed to ask question to how they might gain easy access to the mine. Stonehill informs them that there is a secret entrance into the heart of the Darkness. The original mine used by Jasper Delaney a hundred years ago still exists. He tells them that if the five are willing to brave the dangers inherent in a abandoned mine, they can find the entrance between two large boulders half a mile east of the mining complex itself. He proceeds to warn them that no one has explored the mineshaft in 50 years. On the other hand, it probably is not being guarded. When the five finish asking questions Stonehill turns to leave. “I will be back tomorrow,” he says, “and will contact you before we begin the ritual. You will have the disc by then, yes? You better.” And with those words the old shaman disappears in the door and leaves five puzzled men behind. The five get their gear together and decide to head for the mine, the sooner they get this stuff over with, the better they think. They dress warmly and load their gear into the Range Rover and the Hum-Vee. And so they take off, two black dots racing through the snow white plain between the mountains, headed east for the old mine. Just as Stonehill said, they find two boulders half a mile east of the Delaney complex. The boarded-up entrance to the abandoned mineshaft is between the boulders and beneath a heavy snowdrift. Unfortunately the site is also two miles from the nearest road so to get there they had to plow their jeeps through snow three to five feet deep in order to reach it. The boards have been exposed to the elements for more then two decades and Patrick makes short work of them through use of his crowbar. Before they enter the dark cave they look at each other for one last good time and they al mutter something like what the hell do we think what we are doing here. Inside the mineshaft they are overcome with the strong, dank odor of rot, stagnant water, and dirt. The air is full with dust. The dirt walls and ceiling are propped up with wide timbers that creak loudly in the wind. It is very dark there and a cold chilly wind blows through from somewhere below… Twenty feet into the darkness is an open elevator shaft but a quick glance over the controls and mechanism by Richard indicates that the system is broken beyond repair and that the only way down seems to be a series of wooden ladders fastened to the shaft walls. They fasten a couple of ropes and throw down two nightsticks, which to their uneasy surprise disappear into the darkness without hitting any bottom of the shaft. As they throw their ropes down they feel them hit solid ground somewhere so they fasten themselves, check their weapons and proceed to advance down into the darkness below. When they step out of the elevator shaft at the bottom of the mine, all safe and sound, they are immersed in darkness so complete it is more then a lack of light. It is dense and seeps into their skins; they feel kike they are inhaling darkness with every breath they take. When they light their flashlights and nightsticks, the darkness presses closely in on them, reducing the lights’ effective range to a few feet. The temperature here is well below freezing, and their bones ache with a cold that even penetrates their thick winter clothing. They all peer around in the few feet of light they have and they set off into the darkness, leaving a rope tied to all of them to be able to find the way back in this underground maze of eternal darkness. After a few minutes they begin to shiver uncontrollably and their teeth begin to chatter. As they venture further into the darkness under these maddening conditions at the bottom of the mine a bizarre stench fills the tunnel. Rotting eggs soaked in a heavy musk, like the inside of some animal. About two hundred yards down in the mine tunnel, in the heart of the darkness, they find two bodies, decomposed to little more then skeletons in the hundred years they have laid here beneath the rock. One of the skeletons is wearing the faded and rotted remnants of a dress. Around the corpse’s neck is a gold chain with a locket on it. The other body has little more flesh on its dusty bones, suggesting that it hasn’t been here as long as the other body but it has little clothing left as well. Near the right hand of the second body is a metal disc, two feet in diameter and covered in arcane runes and symbols. There are four oddly shaped holes through the object, which they discover can be used as finger holes to grasp the disc as Patrick picks the cold metal up. While Patrick picks up the disk Coen and Rom hear something falling in the distance and paranoia strikes again, imprisoned by the darkness they all feel they are about to go mad in this place and they hurry back now they got what they came for. Last in line is Rom who grabs the golden chain from the neck of the other body just before he is dragged away by the rest who hurry back along the rope. As they draw closer to the elevator shaft they hear a couple of voices and two thumping sounds, like something hitting the ground. Shortly after that they hear a voice calling if everything down there is ok. The voice is answered by two voices which are originating very close to our five investigators. “Yeah Hank, we’re fine down here but a couple of yards away it’s pitch black and we can’t see anything down there.” “Hey check this,” the second voice calls out, “a rope which is moving, I guess they went into the darkness and used this as safety, smart but it won’t protect them from us. Because we’ll be waiting for them when they get back here.” The five in the darkness halt and stumble across each other and whisper about what to do. Richard pumps his shotgun and tells him he’s ready for the two “girls” waiting out there. The five ready their guns and with Patrick in the lead they reappear in the twilight of the bottom of the elevator shaft. “There! I spotted one!” The second voice calls out and he charges straight for Patrick. The second guy following closely behind him while he reaches for the inside of his pocket. The first guy, expecting them to be unarmed, leaps onto Patrick who, although he prepared himself, was caught by surprise by the quick reaction of the thug who is now on top of him and working him to the ground in a grapple. The second guy draws his Glock pistol and keeps Patrick under gun point. Just as he grins and shouts up the shaft that they got one, he is interrupted in his shouting as a gunshot echoes through the elevator shaft. His head is ripped off his torso and his lifeless body slumps to the ground. From the darkness Richard appears, shotgun in his uninjured arm and barrel still smoking. The other guy looks up from his attempt to tie Patrick up with plastic zip-cuffs surprised by the shot, only to see a gun come swinging his way. Coen smacked the guy in the face with the other shotgun and as the guy gets thrown of Patrick by the blow he tries to get up only to be welcomed by more kicks and hits from Coen who beats him senseless. Rom gets his knife out and cuts Patrick lose from his zip-cuffs while Coen and Richard tie the second thug up with his own zip-cuffs. As they finish tying the guy up they hear someone running off at the top of the shaft. Mark and Richard strip the two guys of what they seems useful, two Kevlar vests, some plastic sip-cuffs and a couple of flashlights and glock-17’s with spare ammunition. While Mark and Richard loot the thugs Rom runs towards the ropes and ladders and starts climbing to the top, Coen and Patrick closely behind him. Mark seeing his friends head for the ladders he dumps the unconscious guy to the ground and almost trips over the beheaded body of the other guys as he hasted to catch up with the rest. Rom, almost near the top of the ladder, grabs a some of rotten part of the old ladder and a piece of the ladder breaks off. He falls backwards and attempts to catch one of the ropes which slips just barely through his hands and with a scream he plummets sixty feet to the bottom of the shaft. With a silent thump he hits the bottom just in front of Richard’s and Mark’s feet who totally freak out when a body crashes down in front of them. Coen shouts from up the shaft. “Mark! Richard! Help him! He grabbed a rotten piece of the ladder and fell down, is he ok?!” Mark and Richard bend over to see if he’s still alive and Rom cries in pain as Mark touches him to check for his pulse. Relieved that he is still alive they call back up to tell that he is still alive, although barely. Patrick and Coen get to the top of the Shaft where they draw their weapons and run outside of the mine only to see a guy in a blue parka jump into a already running SUV and make his escape. Patrick stands still for a moment and then the coin fell. These were the same guys as he saw the first night that arrived here. The same blue parkas and the same kind of car in which they drove away so hastily. Suddenly he also understands who must have killed that guy in the room next to his… he must have known to much just as we do now but luckily they failed this time. “Crap, why did we screw up that briefcase… I bet that’s what the guy wasn’t supposed to know, what we discovered now…” He and Coen turn back and create a simple stretcher from the wood they can find lying around. So after a few minutes they hauled Richard and Rom back to the top of the shaft when a sweating Mark shows his head over the edge of the shaft as well. Tired they all sit down for a moment, looking worried at Rom who lies there breathing heavily, eyes closed. Patrick shares his revelation with the rest and afterwards they all pick up Rom together and carry him back to the jeeps. Patrick gets behind the wheel of his Hum-Vee with Rom and a tending Mark in the back. Coen and Richard, guns at the ready in the Range Rover in the lead. And so they head back, racing through the snow and soaring through the small town. People look frightened from their houses and everyone clears the streets as the two jeeps come roaring past. The five in the cars looking mean and vicious. They had just killed a man and left another to die in that pit of madness. And they’d do it all over again if they had to. The jeeps come screeching to a halt for the Clearwater, and Richard and Coen get out of their Range Rover, shotguns at the ready. Patrick helps Mark carry Rom inside. As they enter the hotel everyone in the foyer takes a step back as the five murder suspects come in busting through the front door, shotguns pointing around, revolvers at their hips. They carry Rom upstairs where they discuss for a moment what to do and how to defend themselves until the pass gets cleared and they can make their escape from this god forsaken town. After half an hour Coen, Patrick and Richard come down the stairs and round up all Hotel personel and all the other guests and force them upstairs for their own safety. There they have set up enough beds for everyone in the hallway to stay safely for the night under the investigators’ protection. Richard goes back down with Mark to see what food and supplies they can find and carry them upstairs. When they are done they find some desks and benches and throw them down on the double staircases to block and slow down anyone who might try to rush upstairs. With a thump Rom sets the two gallons of concentrated alcohol down, one on each top of a staircase. With a smile he explains that anything trying to get up here will get a nasty surprise when they get this stuff over them, not even talking about what would happen in they’d throw a match in the mix. Feeling secure they all prepare themselves for the night as the afternoon passes slowly and silently. The hotel staff and the guests slowly begin to trust and appreciate the investigators work and what they are trying to do for them. Patrick sits down after finishing preparing the defenses and takes the golden locket from his pocket, the one he took from the corpse in the mine. He opens it and on the inside are two pictures, one presumably of Clarice Maguire and the other… Rom drops the locket, grabs his Glock and glares around like a mad man. The other picture on the inside of the locket was of Ian Maguire, another hotel guest as Rom recognized, the writer of the other letter over a hundred years ago, a writer trying to protect his last memory of his love, his wife. The writer of that letter, the other face in the locket, the werewolf… Rom looks around in a panic but there is no Ian Maguire here… he asks around and he hasn’t checked in since last afternoon. The rest rushes in and asks what’s going on here, Rom explains and after that they all look out of the windows at the snow and the setting sun and all they can do is wonder. Night falls… [/QUOTE]
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Forsakens CoC Story Hour!: Nocturnum. Night Falls.
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