Tale Weaver's Vampire: The Masquerade Game Board

[Strider_Koln]

Koln
[sblock]
Going down the hallway to where the woman was running from leads you to a wine cellar. Shelves with wine bottles line all the walls. Some of the bottles look really old and have cobwebs hanging from them. To your left (right on the map) are a set of sliding doors that you assume lead to a wine shaft used for sending wine bottles to the upper levels of the house. You notice some of the bottles start to quiver a bit as you come close to them.
[/sblock]

updated map

How Koln got seperated from the girls:
[sblock]
"Why don't we split up?"
Father Koln's thoughts: Did Clover just say that?! After hearing that, the rest of what Clover says simply does not register, I just hear 'blahblahblah.' There is so much wrong with that plan... Firstly, whether Clover realizes it or not, I am her protector. And I could never leave Ruby alone... if anything happens to her I swear to God I will NEVER forgive Clover.
Lastly... without them, I am weak. Don't leave me alone...

Koln's train of thought is cut off by a piercing scream that pierces his senses, stinging his ear drums. The scream seems to from all around him, when he turns around to ask Clover and Ruby if they heard that they are no longer there. He looks into his pocket only to find Socrates missing.
In a panic he backs up to a wall but nearly falls over, finding the surface not nearly as solid as it appeared. His shoulders and back are all crimson in color - that smell... the walls are bleeding? No, the walls are blood! The house is alive... it is its own demonic entity!

As if someone was reading his thoughts he hears from outside men shouting in familiar voices, "Brûlez! Brûlez l'hérétique" (Burn! Burn the heretic!... although it's similar to the english) What follows is very hard for any nonmalkavian mind to fully comprehend: the wood of the floor breaking, splintering, shifting, rupturing in the image of an inferno. The floorboards expand, grow, shift, spray spinters into their air in thick rusty-red clouds. As the hall contorts about, the walls become blood, and the floor a mock fire, with the air becoming dense with smoke, the screams return.

Koln does his best to seek safetly, eventually huddling into a corner and holding his knees to his chest, repeatedly telling himself, Ce n'est pas réel. Ce n'est pas réel. (This is not real. This is not real) in a voice choked with anger, rage, and dispair as he is reminded that he is forever at his own insanity's mercy. That is... unless.. of course! Koln smiles at his cunning plan, it is his mind. His brain has been ing with him since he was turned, well enough is enough! With a laugh, which strangely echoes and silences the screams, he raises his gun to the side of his head. He hopes this does not kill him... everything he's read about vampires has suggested it would, but hopefully he will live and just be brainless. Clover likes to pretend he is, so why does it matter? And what good Christian really needs a brain anyway? It just gets in the way.


As he applies pressure to the trigger he suddenly feels an arm wrap around his, and another tightly grip his shoulder. Someone, inside the dripping barrier of blood, seems to be gently dragging Koln inside with him, and Koln does not resist. Why bother to fight the chaos that is his own mind? It does no good. He stands, now in what appears to be a void... and he gets the feeling as if he was just pulled out from his very own thoughts! Indeed, he does not belong here in this mindless dreamless void.. no sentient being does... A voice whipsers, very weakly, as if uttered from a dying man, "Vous êtes sûrs ici le fils... et la vérité viendra à temps." (You are safe here son... the truth will come in time.)

Koln rubs his eyes, hearing Socrates squeak in his pocket and look up at him. The darkness slowly dissipates but the madness remains.

[/sblock]

Before him are a set of stairs... He knew it. The basement! Koln smiles and (VERY CAUTIOUSLY) proceeds down the stairs, taking one step at a time... before reaching the bottom and entering the wine cellar.
He approaches a set of rather interesting bottles, but as he gets closer to the bottles they start to rattle. Koln mutters to himself, "No.. I don't think so, not this time." He smirks, turning away from the crazy bottles and sliding open the doors. "A wine shaft I wonder..?"

 

[izillama]

Ruby & Clover
[sblock]
You come to the large metal door with the light shining over it. The door is locked but Clover slides the newly found key into the door and it fits perfectly. (Assuming Ruby goes in first) Once inside you see that this is clearly a boiler room. There is a generator at the far back wall that is running and supplying power to small things like the light bulb above the door. There are two large pipes in the middle of the room running from the wall closest to the door into the floor. Looking between the pipes you can see a cylinder shaped boiler that appears to be off.
[/sblock]

Cautiously, Clover peered over Ruby's shoulder into the room. The key felt warm in her palm, even after using it to open the door. What had it been doing in the dryer, anyway? Who had put it there?
More importantly, for an abandoned house, why was the generator on? Was someone using it?
'Ghosts don't need generators. They don't need to see in the dark.'
Slowly, she stepped over to the generator and leaned down to inspect it, wondering how long it had been on and how much gasoline it had left. Had whoever had set it up expected an extended stay?

Gather Information
1d20+6 → [7,6] = (13)

 

[Tale_Weaver]

The Emerson Estate

Before him are a set of stairs... He knew it. The basement! Koln smiles and (VERY CAUTIOUSLY) proceeds down the stairs, taking one step at a time... before reaching the bottom and entering the wine cellar.
He approaches a set of rather interesting bottles, but as he gets closer to the bottles they start to rattle. Koln mutters to himself, "No.. I don't think so, not this time." He smirks, turning away from the crazy bottles and sliding open the doors. "A wine shaft I wonder..?"

It was actually just a hallway but sure Koln can think they're stairs...

Koln
[sblock]
As you look into the wine shaft you can see that the elevator itself is on this level. It looks large enough to hold a person but who knows if it could withstand the weight, it is only meant to carry buckets of wine after all. While you are looking in the shaft you hear a woman's voice whisper "Up here...". It sounds like the voice is coming from up the shaft. You look up and you can only see the darkness where the shaft leads to the upper levels of the house.
[/sblock]

 

[Tale_Weaver]

The Emerson Estate

Cautiously, Clover peered over Ruby's shoulder into the room. The key felt warm in her palm, even after using it to open the door. What had it been doing in the dryer, anyway? Who had put it there?
More importantly, for an abandoned house, why was the generator on? Was someone using it?
'Ghosts don't need generators. They don't need to see in the dark.'
Slowly, she stepped over to the generator and leaned down to inspect it, wondering how long it had been on and how much gasoline it had left. Had whoever had set it up expected an extended stay?

Gather Information
1d20+6 → [7,6] = (13)

Clover
[sblock]
The only thing you can come up with while inspecting the generator is that it turned on automatically when the boiler was shut off. It's way too small to be powering the house so it must act as some sort of emergency power supply. It looks like it's almost out of gas so it must have been on for quite some time.
[/sblock]

 

[ladyphoenix]

"Why is this house still running? I thought it was abandoned.." Ruby questioned as she along with Clover searched the boiler room. Some of the objects looked foreign to her, but they reminded her of the ones she saw in Prestor's basement that halloween.
She decides to do some investigating of the general room on her own while Clover looks at the lone foreign boiler object.
Search check
1d20+5 → [5,5] = (10)
Roll Lookup

 

[Strider_Koln]

Koln's heightened senses pick up the woman's call, and he replies, "Do not worry, I am coming!"
Before entering the elevator he takes one last quick look around the wine cellar.

Search
1d20+8+2 → [11,8,2] = (21)
Roll Lookup

 

[izillama]

Clover
[sblock]
The only thing you can come up with while inspecting the generator is that it turned on automatically when the boiler was shut off. It's way too small to be powering the house so it must act as some sort of emergency power supply. It looks like it's almost out of gas so it must have been on for quite some time.
[/sblock]

This felt so hopeless. Rather aggravating, too. Clover had always been a good student, but sometimes she always wished that she was better at piecing together the parts of puzzles. She frowned at the generator, not quite sure if what she was seeing and understanding was even relevant.
'What does this mean?' She wracked her brain, but no answers came. She felt as though all of her intellect had been sucked dry.
Finally, she looked back to Ruby and watched her search around the room for clues. True, she would feel embarrassed if the Amish girl managed to figure it out when she couldn't. But on the other hand, she just wanted to solve the mystery and get out of the house. It was probably too late towards morning to be safe.

Time check?

 

[Tale_Weaver]

"Why is this house still running? I thought it was abandoned.." Ruby questioned as she along with Clover searched the boiler room. Some of the objects looked foreign to her, but they reminded her of the ones she saw in Prestor's basement that halloween.
She decides to do some investigating of the general room on her own while Clover looks at the lone foreign boiler object.
Search check
1d20+5 → [5,5] = (10)
Roll Lookup

Ruby
[sblock]
You walk around the pipes in the middle of the room and come to the large boiler (Clover is looking at the generator). There are so many buttons, levers, and gauges on the thing that you have no idea where to start and can't find any clues as to what does what.
[/sblock]

Clover can see Ruby staring at the boiler curiously like a child looking at the controls in their parents' car. Clover takes out her phone to check the time, it is now 2:43am.

 

[Tale_Weaver]

The Emerson Estate

Koln's heightened senses pick up the woman's call, and he replies, "Do not worry, I am coming!"
Before entering the elevator he takes one last quick look around the wine cellar.

Search
1d20+8+2 → [11,8,2] = (21)
Roll Lookup

Koln
[sblock]
Looking around the wine cellar reveals nothing out of the ordinary. The old wine bottles stopped shaking and there doesn't seem to be anything else of interest in the room. When you climb into the wine shaft you immediately realize that only one person at a time can possibly fit in this thing. You push a button that you saw on the wall before you entered the shaft and shut the doors. The elevator silently brings you up through the shaft which looks like the inside of a castle, there are sconces on the wall holding flaming torches and small windows carved into the stone where you can see the night sky. As the elevator reaches the top of the shaft you can hear chanting, like some cult ritual of some sort. You come to the other door at the top of the shaft which is made out of wood as opposed to the metal doors at the bottom. Through the crack in the two doors you can see light piercing through, candlelight, with many people in robes huddled around what looks like a man's body lying on the floor.
[/sblock]

 

[izillama]

Clover walked back over to Ruby, looking at her watch and saying quietly as she did, "It's 2:43, Ruby. We shouldn't stay here much longer, if we know what's good for us." She frowned as she stepped up beside the Amish girl (who looked just slightly more confused than she did) in front of the boiler. Now why had this silly thing turned off in the first place? Was it out of fuel?
Shrugging, she searched the piece of machinery, hoping to find the ON switch to play with. Just for good measure, of course.

Searching for the ON switch!
1d20+11 → [20,11] = (31)