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((Making a roll for the creature.

1-5: It isn't close enough to do anything.
6-7: It's close enough, but fails to act in time to do anything.
8-9: It attacks (second roll to determine who).
10: It eats (second roll to determine who).))


The water level was reaching four and a half, five feet now; it was possible, were Callix or Lethe beneath the trapdoor, that they might just be able to reach the string with the tips of their fingers.

Time was running out, though. The creature was now all but on top of them; gnashing some of its teeth, breaking out wide smiles with others, it spoke.

Still coughing up bits of static-water and trying to decide whether it was really necessary to keep her cool, or whether she was allowed and justified to start throwing a tantrum about this entire "horror house" business, it took Dusty a few seconds to understand that a.) she was out of the water, b.) Callix was trying to make her do something, and c.) HOLY ******** s**t THAT THING WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER.

Eyes wide as a deer caught in the headlights, Dusty bleated surprise at the creature. It was with a numb self-preservation, a mind almost not her own that she directed her arm up, grabbed at the string, and pulled.

The trapdoor fell open, and the end of the ladder splashed down near Callix's head. Dusty wisely opted to scamper up the ladder fist, moving as quickly as her hands and hooves would allow. Whatever was in the darkness of the attic, it had to be better than the monster-infested deathtrap that was the Entertainment Room.

((Just getting this wrapped up once and for all. You guys can beat me and edit the post if there're details you want to add/want taken out.

And yeah, I'm controlling Callix (and the other kids, to some extent) a teensy bit here. Once again, beatings and edits are allowed if I screwed up on something, I'm just trying to finish this all up.))



It was by a narrow margin that Callix managed to scamper up the ladder; the trapdoor was slammed shut to the sound of broken and garbled laughter, and the last thing seen before the room was closed off was a new and tainted image on the static-water, a flicker of a dark congregation filled with twisted forms and gibbering creatures....

It was perhaps only to be expected, then, that as the children recovered their wits and took in their new surroundings, the scene awaiting them was that of only seconds before.

Where they stood, they had a clear view of the scene unrolled before them. And whatever this place was, the Fa'e had the distinct feeling that it was in no way resembling the cramped spaces of the attic they had thought to enter.

Vaulted ceilings faltered in places, dust dripping from the rafters at irregular intervals and old moans drifting down. Eyes rolled around overhead along ribbons tied about the ceiling; many seemed unattached to any creature, just rambling around of their own will, while others fluttered strange wings, or seemed attached to dark tendrils originating from the darker corners of the ceiling space.

Upon the walls were great stained glass artworks, pictures of uneven edges and melted features. Great and terrible figures were depicted there, some of which might have even seemed familiar to the Greek Fa'e child; so badly warped were most, however, that it was difficult to make out for certain what they were intended to depict. Staring too closely at these windows, and one might almost think the figures in them were slowly moving.

More to the immediate interests of the Fa'e, however, were the inhabitants of the ground. Rows upon rows of jagged benches had been raised in the ground, made of something organic and odiferous and quite possibly breathing. Worse than the disgusting look of the unlikely furniture, however, were the creatures occupying them. Because this room was not empty; oh, no. The air was filled with the din of the creatures, twisted parodies of human and semi-human forms, made all the more the mockery by the formal dress they wore over their lumpy and deformed shapes.

One bench after another after another, practically a sea of these benches stretched on, far enough that it seemed impossible for this room to really be contained in the HQ at all. Between them all, a long stretch of red led the way to a raised platform; and on there, a false altar stood. A strange sense of light seemed focused on that altar- strange, in that it could certainly not be true light in this forsaken place, but merely a strange highlight of some sort to draw the eye to that end of the room. A few motionless forms were lain on the ground near where it stood, the faces of which might once again seem somehow familiar to Lethe....

The sickening collection of horrors fell silent, all at once. There was a shadowed form that approached the altar; a sweetly morbid smile spread onto its face as it lifted one hand, almost charmingly so, and gently held it out in the direction of where the three Fa'e stood, the same motion one might make to offer a dance to a lady at a ball. The eyes of the entire monstrous population turned as they twisted about to greet the newcomers....



And, like that, the nightmare was over. Light lit through the windows; daybreak had come at long last, and with it, the devils of the night were fled. The rooms of the HQ were all returned to their normal forms; no damage had occured to the building, by whatever miracle, and all pieces of furniture and other inanimate items are back where they belonged (with the exception of Amaris' stiletto, which is still in the Common Room). Damage sustained by characters seems to have been very real, however, but all psychological conditions are now reverted to "normal". All characters are in the rooms where they were when the haunting ended; however, all locked doors are now open once more.