T - Keys for a Door (Harps invite only)

[Nathalia]

The door opened without a sound once the key had been turned.
Faust watched Dania pick up an oddly familiar lamp, though he couldn't have placed it, and twitched a little, knife held tightly at his side, as the door opened, and the ladder descended.
The attic smelled the same as it did before, musty, dusty, and old.
The corpse of Lysaras and the other once-attacker seem to have been cleared up, the only sign of their every having been there seen in the red stain on the floor where the once-Queen had attacked Dania, the odd substance ground too far into the woodwork to be washed back out.
The small door in the corner, under the table is locked once again...though the door appears...different somehow.

(Everyone should roll a die.)

[Lucca]

Colin found himself holding his breath as the ladder descended from the attic again. Some emotion gripped his heart, hard, though what it was he didn't wish to examine too closely. He felt almost sick with it as he climbed the ladder, just a bit behind Joel. After all, it wasn't the Queen who should go first into a potentially bad situation. The smell of the attic hit him, triggering memories more strongly than anything else so far, and for a moment his limbs threatened to freeze up on him.

Stop this! he told himself firmly. You're not a coward and you never have been. This is your responsibility to see it through to the end, as a potential threat to your Court! Bolstered thus, the Cardinal made his way to the top of the ladder and out into the room. Avoiding the suspicious stains and other unsavory marks of their past visit, Colin made a short sweep of this area of the room and turned back to face them.

"I assume that the key will fit something up here," he said, and was proud when his voice stayed steady. "I'm not sure what, yet, so everyone keep an eye out until--" He broke off as he noticed the door. It was the one Joel had disappeared in last time, but...was it just his eyes playing tricks on him in the low light, or did it look...different than last time?

"Sorry about that," he started again. "I thought I saw something odd. As I was saying, everyone keep an eye out for doors or chests that weren't here before."

(BECAUSE I'M A MORON AND FORGOT TO ROLL AT FIRST: 12)

[Harpsdesire]

(Dania rolls 9, Joel rolls 11!)

Joel’s expression was serious, for once, as the sight and scent of the attic brought back fearful memories. It looked very much the same, although quite a bit of the dust had been removed although with the mess created by their previous visit. The ashes that had spilled on Dania and the dust from the corpse-queens had been swept away, and with them many of the spiderwebs that has been evident before.

He wondered with a touch of horrified fascination if the bodies of the queens had been properly buried once they were discovered. He rather hoped the creepy things might have been burned. He would ask Colin once they were safely downstairs. Now just didn’t seem like the time.

”Will do.” He told the queen, and began poking around cautiously, mindful of what he had found here before. He was trying a couple ordinary-looking chests to see if any of them were locked when Dania’s face poked above the trapdoor.

The rat cringed visibly at the sight of the reddish smear on the floor. Whatever that stuff was, it had given her a rather horrible power—one which she had never used and hoped she would never feel the need to. She entered the attic rather gingerly, as if she hesitated to touch anything, no matter how ordinary it looked.

She nodded respectfully to Colin, but after moment’s thought it occurred to her that if the keys were here before, it was likely that whatever they unlocked was here, too. They shouldn’t be seeking something altogether new, but something they had overlooked the first time. Maybe the keys were even spares for something they had already opened…

She eyed the door under the table critically and walked tentatively further into the attic to peer under the table for a better look. ”Um, does that door look different to anyone else?”

[Nathalia]

Faust gazed around the room and felt the insides of his chest begin making a mad attempt to wriggle out of his skin.
His feathers began lifting his shirt oddly in places, making the poor man look slightly lumpy as he tried his best to suppress his fears.
The attic trap door banged shut behind them.

As Colin looked at the door...it almost seemed to...pulse.
Not good...must have been his vision, not the door...right?
He also managed to hear what sounded like an odd crackling sound.
An oddly familiar crackling sound; a bit like dry paper sliding over smooth stone.
Faust's eyes flicked rapidly around the room as he tried not to imagine what could be coming, but to focus instead on the present in order to take out anything that might so much as shiver.
Before it could burst out of a wall and start changing shape, like...
He shook his head slightly to clear it, back to the group, facing the darkness of the extended attic and away.

None of the chests Joel tried were locked and they seemed to be filled with nothing exciting; old clothing, some paintings, some books, nothing too amazing.
The bone key began to vibrate hard enough to shake Joel's frame...best to spread out and search? Or try the door? Or see what else you can think of...

[Lucca]

Colin felt his breath catch uncomfortably in his throat as, despite his words, he found his eyes drawn back from the door and it--but that was impossible, wasn't it? Doors didn't do that. He felt his heart thrum hard in his chest, like it was trying to escape. Colin mentally told it to stop and turned forcibly away from the door. "No," he said to Dania, a little too quickly. "Just forget the--" A loud sound interrupted him; that of the trap door banging shut. His heart picked up its frantic rhythm again in answer, and Colin had to swallow a few times before finding his voice again.

In those moments, there was another sound. It sounded like paper and put him in mind of all the paperwork piled on his desk, except that it shouldn't be moving. Still, paper was generally harmless enough (unless it was in the claws of a vindictive Club, but this was the Court of Spades, so he hardly thought he needed to worry about that, right?) so he shook his head and brought a wing to it, briefly, running feathers over his forehead.

In order to distract himself, if for no other reason, Colin walked -away- from the door and over to search the area of the attic away from it. Old furniture was piled high, most of it still covered with moth-eaten sheets, and the drawers of the desks he experimentally pulled open held nothing but dust. The Cardinal coughed, and sighed, and shook his head. He was only putting off the inevitable and he knew it. Was he really going to shame himself that much by giving in to fear? He turned back around.

"Joel, maybe we should take another look at that door," he said quietly, moving back to the group.

[Harpsdesire]

Despite Colin's words, Dania still looked at the little door thoughtfully. It really did seem to be somehow--

Dania jumped when the trap door shut, clutching at Faust's hand reflexively. When she realized what had caused the sound and sudden decrease in light she giggled softly, a sound of nerves rather than amusement, a turned up the wick of her lamp a bit. She considered opening the trap again to get the comforting light from the hall windows back, but with no obvious way to prop it open she figured that she was just be subjecting herself to more sudden startling bangs as it re-closed.

The crash of the shutting door hardly seemed to bother Joel, who was currently quite distracted by the almost painful buzzing of the key in his bag. "Argh..." He muttered to himself, and started to dig it out from the other assorted tools and debris in his bag while Colin began to open various drawers on the far side of the attic. (He was pleased to see nothing that looked anything like a coat rack currently standing over there.)

After a moment more of rummaging, the corvie fished the key in its pouch out from beneath his box of screams. He almost immediately dropped it with a mutter that could have been a mild swear-- it was vibrating so strongly it made his paw go instantly numb, even with the fabric to insulate.

"The key from before is gone." Joel observed, looking again at the little door. "Maybe if we... use one of these?" He would try with the still, bone key first, since it wasn't trying to rattle him to bits. In fact, it felt cool, smooth and utterly ordinary in his paw.

Since he held the keys, and the others were clearly too big for the door, he would be the one to try it out. He had grown a bit even in the short time since they had last been here-- he hoped he could still fit through the door.

Joel studied the small portal critically. It had been only just big enough for him last time, and it still seemed like he would just barely fit now. Was it his imagination, or was the door... a little bit bigger?

Dania shifted uncomfortably at Faust's side. "Maybe we could look around in here a little more first?" She tried to tell herself that she wasn't just avoiding the obvious out of fear, and began busily, if futilely, poking about in an aged chifforobe full of half-rotting nightdresses and musty-smelling tablecloths.

Joel shrugged, shoved the table aside, and placed the bone key in the lock of the little door. So far so good-- but would it turn? Steeling himself for some unknown but expected unpleasantness, he tried it.

[Nathalia]

Faust gripped Dania's paw back and watched Joel move about the room, Colin gazing around imperiously.
The presence of the Queen did a little to alleviate Faust's fears. After all, the man had done an excellent job protecting them last time...perhaps he would do so again.
He glanced after the Queen as he paced over the attic floor, curious about something niggling at his brain. "Excuse me for a moment, Dania. Your Majesty? I- Well, have you sent anyone up here to clean since we- Well, it does seem awfully...nice considering what we did to the place, and the...others seem to have been removed."
It wasn't right.
Everything was spick and span, in its place and, albeit a touch dusty and that red smear, looked as though they had never come through and smashed up corpses and chairs.

Joel's bone key did fit the lock, but when turned opened only onto a bricked up wall, nothing else.

[Lucca]

For such a bright boy, Joel was being a little slow interpreting what Colin wanted him to do. What Colin -knew- he -had- to do. He felt a flare of irritation at the boy that made a few of his feathers stand up, but he forced it under control as best he could. Launching into one of his little tirades, as satisfying as it might be, would not help right now. So he merely nodded. "Yes, please do so. Whichever you think best." The Queen took a position where he could easily both see and possibly accost anything that might come flying out of the door when it was opened.

He stared intently at the door, not looking away even as Faust spoke to him. He felt a slight chill go down his spine at the words, and he had to swallow a few times, hoping it wasn't audible. That was exactly the thought he'd been avoiding. "No, I didn't order such a thing. But that doesn't mean that one of the other nobles didn't do so." That was an lame excuse and he knew it. In fact, if one of them had, they would have been going behind his back about it, since Colin had issued a discrete order for the castle staff to avoid the attic if at all possible. He hadn't wanted any unfortunate accidents. But surely this just meant one of the overzealous maids had ignored him, right? The alternatives were unthinkable.

Still, his brain couldn't help but supply a few thoughts of its own on the matter, and he watched the doorway even more anxiously. So it was more than a bit anticlimactic when it opened to a brick wall. "What?" he sputtered in surprise and a bit of indignation at the universe. He moved forward to press on the wall with his foot, but it was as solid as the walls of the palace. "This makes no sense whatsoever," he muttered, more to himself than his companions.

[Harpsdesire]

Joel failed to take note of Colin's irritation at all; he was focused fully on the little door as he turned the bone key. Behind him, Dania followed Colin's lead in taking a defensive position, readying a spell in her mind, just in case. She looked almost relieved when the door opened onto flat brick, but Joel made a sound of frank disappointment. Nothing but a wall, a boring wall, after this key had slid up the stairs under its own power. At least there was still another one. Of course it made more sense to use the key that was buzzing violently, but he had rather hoped to avoid touching it.

"Well that's... strange..." Dania said, looking about in a somewhat bemused fashion. "It does seem... much cleaner in here... There's even less dust than before." Oddly enough, she almost regretted that the Sorgaire queen-mummy she had previously met was missing from the attic, although she was deeply pleased not to see the others. She couldn't help but shudder when the implications of Colin's words sunk in. The avian himself hardly sounded convinced by his own excuse.

Joel, on the other hand, and opened and shut, locked and unlocked the small door several times as the others spoke, but got no more interesting a result than the first time. Now there was no backing down, so he grit his teeth and took the amber key from its wrapping. Behind him, the Torquehelm Queen resumed her vigilant stance as Joel struggled slightly to get the painfully vibrating key into the keyhole and turn it. Once more he opened the door and stepped back as it swung open.

[Nathalia]

Faust felt his knuckles go white and for the first time in a long while actually hoped to see their long dead Sorgaire companion...if it meant she would be the only horror that would greet them.
"Ah...I see." Was all he could think of in response to the Queen.
It was a touch dim, in his opinion, to think, after he'd seen the way it had looked last time, that anyone would have bothered to clean up here.
Which meant that either something was afoot, or a rather neatness-insistive spirit had moved in.
He enjoyed the thought of neither option.

Meanwhile, Joel's amber key ceased buzzing once in the lock.
The door opened with a woosh of stale air, revealing cavernous insides!
The depth of them was out of his ability to quite ascertain, seeing as the only light he had available was flooding in from his own side, but already he could see stacks of books, old chairs, and wall hangings.
This looks promising.