Chapter 9: A Stately Manner
As Patterson opens the door for their next game night, Rich bursts in wearing a white tuxedo, a fake cigar between his lips, and a Martini mixer. "The name's Bond, James Bond," he says with a huge grin plastered on his face. "I figured it out, and I did not bother you at work about it. Aren't you proud?!"
"Now that you mention it, it was incredibly quiet at work this week. I actually felt like I was more productive than usual…" Patterson trails off while a smirk creeps onto her face. "I'm kidding, I was actually worried that your smug look meant you did something to my tea or pulled a prank on me somehow that I just had not figured out yet."
"Oh, you would know if I pulled a prank. You wouldn't know what I did, but you most certainly would know something was up." Rich says as he chews on his cigar.
"You do know that James Bond probably smoked Cubans, right?" Patterson says, smirk still present on her face.
As Patterson finishes her reply, Rich bites down hard, eating a piece of the cigar. With a full mouth, he says, "It's chocolate… way better… than… the real thing." He finishes it off and licks his fingers. "Nothing beats chocolate."
Tasha pops her head out from the bedroom, "Chocolate? Who has chocolate?!"
Rich smiles and reaches into his bag to produce the carton of chocolate cigars. He bends at the waist, slightly bowing, "For you, my dear. Only the finest cigars for you, why they are even wrapped in gold! Gold I say!"
Chuckling, Tasha takes one of the cigars. "You may be cheesy, but I'm not about to turn down chocolate. Thanks for bringing it." After a moment's pause, she turns back to him, "Why did you bring them? These are an odd snack choice."
Rich puts on a smug grin. "I know where to find the bad guy, and all this," he pauses for a flourish of his hand, sweeping over his wardrobe choice, drink choice, and smoke choice, "relates to where we need to go."
Tasha looks him up and down quizzically, "Miami?"
"You are not worthy. You will have to find out with the others. Barkeep! I'd like a martini, shaken, not stirred." Rich shakes his head at her and with a huff, turns away. He walks past Patterson and goes into the kitchen to create his own drink, adding along the way in a stage whisper, "I'm disappointed in you, too. How can you guys not have binged 007 yet?"
"It's on the to do list, right behind Spaceballs," Patterson says, while doing the President Skroob salute.
Tasha rolls her eyes, she knows the nerd side of Patterson is larger and deeper than the ocean, and she absolutely loves her for it. Sitting through movies and shows that she would not normally watch is more than worth it to see her girlfriend light up like a beacon any time some insanely nerdy reference or phrase comes up.
A knock on the door knocks Tasha out of her daze, and she goes to answer it. "Hey guys! Rich is already here, but don't ask him if he is supposed to be from Miami, he's a little touchy about his costume."
Jane and Kurt smile and shake their head, while Reade just rolls his eyes and follows his friends through the door.
Upon seeing Rich, Jane immediately asks gleefully, "So how was the flight from Miami?"
Rich glares and points a finger at Tasha, "You set that up. If you must know, tonight the name is Bond, James Bond, thank you very much. I'm currently taking applications for Moneypenny's role if you know anyone who wants to apply."
"Actually, I think you're more of a 'Q' than a 'Bond'," Tasha says with a sly smirk. She sees the shocked face of Patterson and adds, "Of course I have seen some James Bond movies. Hot girls, action packed, sign me up!"
"If you knew about James Bond, how did you not get my reference earlier?" Rich asks, trying to hide the hurt from creeping into his voice. He thought he hit the nail on the head with his outfit.
"Oh, I did. All it took was seeing the Martini mix and the fancy tailored suit to know where you were going with it. I just thought it would be good not to fluff your ego too much." Tasha gives Rich a warm smile, "You do look like you could belong in a Bond movie, so props for that."
"Thank you, that's very kind of you to admit." Rich clears his throat, getting rid of the sentimentality he briefly felt, "So, martini anyone?"
After everyone gets their drinks and snacks ready, they all find their way to the table, sitting in their normal spots. Notebooks and pencils get brought out, Rich gets out his fancy new dice tray he recently purchased, and the sound of dice clattering onto the table is ever-present.
Patterson gets settled and starts off the night, "Alright guys, where we last left off, you traced the evil genius back to London, to Shakespeare's Globe. You went inside and encountered an arena where you had to get past each of his minions to get to the throne, and him. You answered riddles successfully, with only a few of you taking hits. You got to the end, wisely used some healing drafts, and encountered the end boss. He asked you one simple question, his name. You were unable to answer and he sent a tidal wave to collect you, slamming you out the door and onto the London streets. You all took two wounds, which you all still have since you haven't healed up. You tried to get back in to The Globe, but upon stepping inside, you see that it is very different from what you encountered. It looks just as a theatre should, with a stage and seating. You all are standing outside planning your next move. What would you like to do?"
Reade speaks up first, "I think the very first thing we all should do is use a healing draft. I know that means that Rich, Kurt, and I will all be all out, but I think it would be best. Jane and Tasha would still have one each."
Kurt leans back and crosses his arms over his chest, "I agree. We need to find this guy, and fast. I don't think we have time to fly all the way back to HQ to heal up for free. We still need to figure out where we are supposed to go, and who the hell this person is."
"I'm afraid I'm no help on the latter, but the former I have covered," Rich says with a cocky grin. "I didn't dress like this for fun, guys… Well, not only for fun, anyways. I know where we need to go!"
After a pause, Reade takes the bait, "Where is that?" Before Rich can reply, Reade quickly amends, "Yes, we all know you're Bond, James Bond. But where does that point us to, and why is James Bond the answer for where we need to go?"
Putting on his best Sean Connery impression, Rich responds, "Well, it's quite simple really. All the portraits in the theatre were pointing us towards James Bond. The pictures of women in bikinis, the British sports cars, the martini glass, the gun, which was supposed to be a golden gun." He switches back to his own voice, finding it very hard to consciously say all the 's' sounds exactly like Connery does. "We find out in the James Bond franchise that his family lived in a manor, which also happened to be featured in one of the pieces of artwork. I took the liberty of looking up where that was supposed to be located. So, we just need to head off to the highlands of Scotland!"
"Ok, that is unquestionably a good catch from you," Reade admits. "But, what about his name? What if we get there and he just asks us his name again?"
"Oh, I don't think that will happen. I think The Globe was supposed to be our 'easy way out'. I think now we will be going to his lair, which may make him a much more formidable opponent. We should still try to figure out his name, or find it out somehow if given the opportunity, though." Rich writes down the word 'name' and circles it in his notebook. "Well, let's get these vials down and head toward Scotland. Everyone ready?"
After nods from the rest of the group Patterson takes her cue, "You all hop on a plane to Scotland. Thanks to Rich's knowledge of the area, you find the spot where James Bond's family house should be. As you look out across the green rolling hills, you do see the mansion, but there seems to be something different than the way you remember it Rich. It seems more foreboding, darker, and has a faint aura emanating from it… like decay." Patterson pauses, and when no questions are asked, she continues on, "You two large pillars standing before you, they are bookending the small, single car width, driveway that heads towards the mansion. Rich, on top of the pillars in place of the stag you thought was there before, instead sits a statue of a hand with an eye embedded in the palm. As you all look up to view this, the eye shifts and looks directly at you. You look up towards the other pillar, and you see that on that statue, the eye has also shifted and is looking in your general direction."
"Well, that's not creepy at all. I would say he knows we are here," Rich says out of the side of his mouth. "Is there anything else on the pillars? In the movie there was a sign saying 'Skyfall'."
"Easy enough, you see that yes there is a plaque on the right-most pillar. It states 'Oakford Manor'." Patterson shrugs, "What next?"
Reade raises an eyebrow at the exchange, "That seems too easy for that to be his name. I mean, his business card did have a 'V' inside a circle, which could have been an 'O', but we are still missing the 'V' part of his name."
"Maybe once we get to the house we will see more clues? Or like Rich said, it may be a moot point by now," Tasha suggests.
"I agree, I say we go ahead and head towards the house. Keep our eyes peeled for anything with a 'V' in case it is needed again." Jane marks down the name 'Oakford' in her notes, making sure to put the letter 'V' in front of it with an underline to fill in later.
With everyone in agreement, they all head towards the house. Once Patterson knows they will actually be going to the mansion, she gets up from the table and walks over to the couch. Crouching down on her hands and knees, she pulls out two big pieces of foam board she had hid beneath the furniture, each with walls about three inches high outlining the two-story mansion. She sets them on the table, one on top of the other, along with pieces of paper covering the top floor so they cannot see the rooms.
Jane notices a small sign near the door, leaning in closer she sees it is a 'Beware' sign covered in cobwebs. "Are these old Halloween decorations?"
Patterson laughs, "Yeah, they are. I had a few things floating around here and thought it would be a very good fit for this mansion. That particular piece was actually decor on a Halloween cake."
"I think it is perfect!" Jane exclaims, "I love the little touches you've added to make things more visually engaging!"
"Thanks! I thought it was a perfect fit myself." Patterson pauses, glad that her friends enjoyed the extra touches she had added, before continuing on with the story, "So, you guys walk up to the house. I'm assuming with your Kevlar on…" Patterson trails off to look over at Rich, who was quickly trying to close his mouth from the interjection he was going to point out. "Kevlar, but no comms. Remember, they were destroyed in the last session. You get to the door, you notice a 'Beware' sign that looks to be so old that it is falling apart. The decay smell is stronger the closer you get to the mansion, and standing here on the doorstep you are having to fight the urge to gag."
"Can we tear off a piece of our shirt to tie around our faces to help with the stench?" Kurt asks.
"You know what, sure. I would say you would just have to take a little off the bottom of your shirts, so you can still be wearing your clothing under the Kevlar. If you all do so, you notice that the smell is still there, but lessened. You no longer feel as if you are going to hurl at any moment." Patterson smiles, waiting for the next unexpected turn of events. She had originally planned on having the smell be so bad they would have to roll disadvantage on their checks, after all it would have been hard to concentrate on anything other than trying not to puke. Now she will just have to come up with a new strategy, Oh, the life of a Dungeon Master , she thought.
"Let's check the door for traps first, just in case, then we can go in and see what we are dealing with," Rich states. "Miss CIA, would you mind checking for us?"
Tasha rolls her eyes at his comment, but proceeds to roll her d20 and after Patterson tells her what to add, she adds her Investigation modifier shown on her character sheet. "That is an eighteen total."
"You check the door, and you are fairly certain it is not trapped," Patterson says with a straight face.
Rich raises an eyebrow, trying to decipher whether that means something was about to blow up or not. "Kurt, you're buff, want to open the door while we all stand back, you know, just in case?"
Kurt chuckles, but agrees with Rich, "Sure, it would not be a bad idea. Even if the door isn't trapped, we don't know what sort of dangers are lurking behind the door."
"Ok, so, we will say Kurt goes to open the door while everyone else is sidled up against the wall. Kurt you try the door, and it opens with no problem. It does not appear to be trapped, and looking inside you see a large rectangular room with single doors flanking either side. Ahead of you, you see a long stretch of hallway and what appears to be a bannister, the stairs leading up. As you look in, you notice something very strange. It seems as if all the lights are on, everything seems bright and cheery, besides the smell." Patterson wrinkles her nose instinctively, thinking about what that decay would actually smell like.
"Hey, guys, come on in. It doesn't look like a death trap at all," Kurt says in his character's voice sarcastically. "I walk in, and wait for the others."
Reade says tentatively, "I will go in, but can I do one of those Investigation checks to see if I notice anything weird… well weirder than what has already been described?"
"Sure, go ahead and make a Perception check for me," Patterson says with a smile.
"That is a sixteen for Perception." Reade moves his character sheet out of the way so he can bring his notebook closer, waiting to write down anything extra he may find out.
"You do notice with that roll, while everything appears to be lit up as if someone has been living here, you look closer at the furniture, specifically an end table, and see that it is covered in dust. You walk over to a bench seat and run your finger across it, it comes back caked in dust. You get the feeling that if someone is living here currently, they aren't very good housekeepers." After Patterson describes the layout, she takes the second floor's foam board off of the first floor, quickly placing the pieces of paper over the undiscovered rooms. She also puts all of their miniatures, their normal ones, into what would be the foyer.
"Ok, there's tons of dust in here, so there may or may not be someone living here currently. Let's all do a sweep of the house and see what we come across," Reade says to the group as his character.
"Copy. Left, right, or stairs first?" Kurt asks, moving his miniature to take point.
"Left, always left. Let's make sure to clear the lower level before going up the stairs. We don't want to be ambushed from behind," Rich states in a low whisper and a serious look on his face.
"Well, you know shit got real when Rich doesn't even make a joke about being ambushed from behind," Tasha quips. "Alright, I'm in. Let's go."
"Taking the door on the left, you arrive in what looks to be a formal dining room. There is a nice solid wood table, with nine chairs seated around it. There are four plain chairs on each side, and one bigger, grander, chair with armrests sitting at the helm. You look over to the left and see a cabinet with antique china, and silverware that don't appear to be from this era. On the right-hand side, there is a French door, that looking through the glass panes leads to the kitchen." Patterson makes sure to move the papers off every room they discover, so they can see the diorama more clearly.
"Why don't we check out the whole house first, then do a secondary sweep? That way we can take more time to make sure we don't miss anything, and not be worried about enemies," Jane's character suggests.
"I will nod towards Jane, and then head into the kitchen, motioning for everyone to follow." Kurt says stoically.
"Ok, you all make it into the kitchen. You see before you a really ginormous kitchen, fully outfitted with a long stretch of countertops stretching the length of the left-hand side of the room. In the middle of the room is a small island made out of wood and metal, the wood part seems to be decaying slightly. The appliances that are there, are very, very old. Across from where you walked in, you see another door, and with further investigation you find a pantry there. What you think were once meats, fruits, and veggies have all turned into grey mush and mold. To the right of the doors you entered, there is another set of French doors about halfway down the length of the wall.
Kurt nods to Patterson to continue. "You step through the doors and you notice you are at the back of the hallway you saw earlier from the foyer. Straight in front of you is the stairs, if you look diagonally to the left, you see another short hallway that appears to lead into another room." With yet another gesture from the group, Patterson continues on, removing the paper from a much larger room. "You walk into what could be called a 'den'. You see shelves made from real, thick, wood lining the left-hand side wall. On the shelves you see mainly books, which have seen better days. There are also a couple old pistols and a knife collection. Ahead of you, you see a fireplace with a couch and a few chairs gathered around it. In between the chairs lays what used to be an expensive, lavish, rug. The rug now has holes and the patterns have faded. There is one more door to the right of the room."
"Same deal," Kurt says, focusing on the diorama Patterson had painstakingly built. She had even included small miniature book models on the shelves.
"Through those doors, you find a sitting room. There's nothing here besides a few chairs. You see the door to the foyer to the right of you, you have now circled back around to the front of the house. Up the stairs now?" Once again, Kurt nods, so Patterson plows on, "You get upstairs with no problem, the bannister seems to be dilapidating a bit, but the stairs are still functional. You seem to be on a landing, with one door to your left, ahead of you are portraits on the wall of unsmiling people in dated dress. There is a taxidermy bear in the corner on the right-hand side, and on the right wall you see some rifles displayed proudly. The room on the left turns out to be a quaint bathroom, with only the bare necessities. As you walk along the wall looking at the portraits you see that there is another hallway running alongside the stairwell, with another door on the left side of the hallway about halfway down. You also see, across from the bear, there is a door leading to another room. Do you want to take the hallway, or the door?" Patterson asks.
Jane leans forward to look at the setup of the second floor that Patterson had set down when they were on the stairs. "Well, it looks like the door on the landing, across from this bear, may lead to a room with multiple doorways. We've already seen down the hallway and there's a door that leads to presumably the same area as this one. My vote is the hallway, let's see the whole layout of where this hallway leads first."
"Ok, I'm fine with that plan, but we need to stay spread out a bit in case something comes out of that particular room at us." Kurt says to Jane.
"Like what, a ghost?" Jane says with a raised eyebrow. "Fine, we can stay spread out, no big deal." She then gestures towards Patterson to continue.
"Down the hallway you go. You reach the end and see another hallway runs perpendicular to where you are currently standing. You see three doors ahead, one straight ahead, another at an angle off to the right, and one more at an angle off to the left. As you walk forward into this new hallway, you turn your head to see there is another door to the far right of you across from one of the doorways you saw just a moment ago. You turn to the left and see the same situation, meaning there's a possible third doorway to the room you bypassed."
"That's worrisome," Rich says as he bites his lip. "Let's check out the other doorways first and leave the three-door room for last."
The group agrees and they push on. "You start with the door straight ahead, there is a child's bedroom, filled with old dollies and wooden toys. The door to the right of that, is another bedroom. Across the hall, there is a smaller, third bedroom. You back-track down the hallway, past the other hallway you first walked through, towards the room with the three doors, before you go in there, you check the final doorway across from it. It too is a bedroom, this one seems to be around the same size as the other two along this wall, but it is outfitted in much finer furnishings. There is a rather large four poster bed, a chest at the end of it, a dresser off to the left, and a mirror off to the right. Beside the bed, flanking it on either side, are a pair of nightstands. Out of all the rooms you have seen, this appears to be a bedroom for adults. The last room you haven't seen is the one across the hall from this master bedroom. Do you proceed?"
"Oh man, oh man, oh man. Why haven't we found anyone yet?" Rich pulls at his hair anxiously. "Does it still smell up here?"
"Yes, it most definitely does. It's interesting, now that you think of it, you seem to remember as you walked past the room with the three doors, the smell got slightly more putrid anytime you were near." Patterson grins widely, "So, do you go in?"
"Yes, I open the door before Rich loses his hair," Kurt says with a wink towards Rich.
"Okay, you open the door with no problem. However, as you open the door, the wave of decay hits you hard. It seems this room has been shut up for a very long time with no ventilation. You walk in slightly, you see before you a library. There are the same wooden shelves lining the walls on three sides of the room. You look to the right and see that the only wall without shelves, has a desk sitting near it with a corpse. You step forward, peering closer at the corpse and you see that it has a very neat hole, about the size of a half dollar, through its skull. It looks like something had gone through this person's forehead, and out the back."
"How old does this corpse appear to be?" Jane asks, trying to hurriedly finish writing down the descriptions from Patterson.
"It's hard to tell. You think because the way this room has been sealed off, that it may have slowed down the decomposition time. There's still meat on the bones rotting off, but your best guess is that this corpse has been here a very, very, very long time."
"Ok, and you said it was sitting at a desk, right?" Jane says as she looks at her notes. "Do we see anything on the desk that would help us figure out who it is?"
"For this, I would say roll an Investigation check, since you are looking for something specific." Patterson nods sagely at Jane.
"Not bad, that is a twenty-one total!" Jane says loudly, while throwing a fist in the air.
Patterson chuckles, and let's Jane know that, "On the desk, you see some stationery that has an elaborate 'O' at the top of the paper, done in calligraphy. At the bottom of the sheets of paper, you see written, 'Dr. Oakford.' You also find a small seal stamp with the same letter 'O' as the letterhead. Looking through the letters on his desk, you just see things about his practice, you do find one that has the date scrawled on it, '1852'."
"Woah, this guy has been here a very long time, I let the group know what I found." Jane shakes her head in dismay. "Does that mean we are at the wrong place? If this is Dr. Oakford, who supposedly owns this house, who is it that we are chasing?"
"Maybe an imposter?" Reade supplies. "I mean, think about it, this place is out in the middle of nowhere. If the occupant died long ago, and no one is aware of it, it would make a nice hideout… if you don't mind the stench."
"True. And if you assumed the Oakford name, you could pass yourself off as a relative. You have everything you need here to forge some documents," Rich says miming stamping a letter.
"We should do a thorough investigation of the rest of the house. This feels like not everything is as it seems." Tasha absentmindedly bites her lip in thought, "Did we notice on the outside if it seemed like maybe there was a basement foundation below?"
Patterson shrugs, "I would say when you arrived you, saw the rock wall of the house, you did not look to see whether there may have been a difference in heights of the floor of the first level and what you saw outside. You're more than welcome to go back outside and look though."
Tasha hums before saying, "I will do that once we all go down to the first floor. I don't want to be too far away from the party."
"Ok, I would say two people roll for the group's investigation check. You're trying to go back over the second floor to see if you find anything of value or importance."
Jane and Reade look at each other and point, then give a thumbs up. They both roll and Reade ends up with a seventeen, where Jane unfortunately ends up with an eight.
"You find on this floor in what would be the master bedroom, an old black and white photo in a frame, sitting on one of the nightstands by the bed. In the photo you see a portly man with a huge smile, next to a petite, but stunning, woman. You know this is a special photo, because back in the 1800s it was sometimes rare to find a photo of people smiling. As you gaze upon the photo, you feel like the happiness from this couple is palpable. You look further down the frame to see the woman has a hand over her stomach. On the other night stand you find a journal, but when you pick it up you see that it is a diary. On the inside is inscribed 'Amelia Lane Oakford, 1852' and see that there are a few entries in the diary. You flip to the last page that is written in a hastily scrawled hand, 'I don't know what is happening, all I know is my dear Mr. Oakford said I had to take the kids and leave for America immediately. He said something about a demon in the house, and that we were not safe. I pleaded with him to come too, but he would not leave his family's estate. He said he would get no rest from beyond the grave if he did not do all he could in the here and now to protect the family's legacy. We are to arrive in Boston, then telegraph the local town to relay the message of our safe travels, so that he can then procure his own ship ticket to join us. I fear he is just saying this ensure our departure, but time will tell. We are off tonight, and I hope we will be reunited again soon.' " Patterson then hands Reade the reproduction of the journal page. "The chest at the end of the bed has one red vial, with a liquid that looks very familiar, you think it may be some kind of healing draft. That is all you find on this upper floor, besides random kid toys and old clothing that are moth eaten."
"Time to go downstairs, gang?" Kurt asks.
"Yeah, I suppose so… I know this is just a game, but my heart hurts for this family. Do you know how scary that must have been for her? Herself and what looks like up to three children. I know this instance isn't real, but I can't help but think that some people in the past encountered similar fates." Jane shakes her head, trying to clear the thought from her mind. Kurt's reassuring squeeze right above her knee helps immensely.
Patterson smiles warmly before proceeding, "Alright, you go back downstairs. Same thing as last time, two people search the downstairs with investigation checks, and Tasha you can do a Perception check outside if you still want to."
"Oh, I do!" Tasha says excitedly. "I rolled an eighteen total."
"Ok, you think you notice that there may be some kind of lower level. Though given how long ago this house was built, it could just be a crawlspace, you're not really sure." Patterson pauses for a moment then adds, "I will say that if the group chooses to, you can have only one person roll an investigation check, but with advantage. You now would have some extra knowledge about the house structure from Tasha."
Reade gestures an open hand to Jane, and in a very sincere voice says, "I think you should take this one. For Amelia."
Jane smiles and mouths "Thank you" to Reade. Jane rolls twice and takes the higher of the two, "Holy crap, that would be a twenty-three. That advantage was clutch, my first roll was a two."
"You walk through the house turning everything over you can, you know that there may be some kind of lower level possibly beneath the floor. Right before you give up and try to pry up a floorboard to look beneath, your eye catches the rug in the den. Even in its decomposing state, something about it just seems off to you, like it raises up a little in the middle. You wouldn't notice it walking around, but you have been on your hands and knees trying to find any inconsistencies. You walk over to the rug and pull it back slowly…" Patterson pauses for a moment.
"AND?!" Jane shouts
"And you find a trap door, that may lead to a lower level!" Patterson says loudly before making a trumpet noise with her mouth. "Before we investigate this, I think we should take a quick bathroom and snack break. I need some refueling."
