Into The Caverns
Game Date: 02 Apr 2011
Present: Cindy, Kim, Maer, Andy, and Jim
Hanny Saulnier is sent a telebram in the middle of the night before the dawn of our second day on the estate. She leaves immediately to take care of Selene's amalgamated animals. Or rather, the animal those delving into her research has engendered--a mastatdon is roaming the streets of London right now. The research Josephine had put in the authorities' custody proved too enticing to leave alone.
Selene, meanwhile, has not been idle since her return to England. She'd converted the dilapidated greenhouse off the south wing of the main house into a makeshift lab. When we look for her to give her the news, the horrible stink from her latest experiment leads us there. She's not entirely pleased to hear it and Josephine apologizes--it was her judgment call to put her research into the English government's hands.
The party readies itself to investigate the caves under the property today. Selene shows us a map of the place--there are only five rooms in the cavern complex and the ley lines intersect under the Temple. A room is said to rise from below into the Temple itself.
We enter the cavern at 10 A.M. and the sight of the huge carved skull over the entrance causes Flora to fall into a panic. She runs and Bertie has to grapple her to the ground to contain her. After a few moments she calms down and is able to proceed with us.
Katherine and Flora are both Channelers and they involuntarily seance the spirits of the place. The spirits are telling us to come in. Katherine grabs Ezekiel's hand and says:
Katherine: Flora, do you feel it?
She means the spirits and Flora, of course, answers in the affirmative.
It's dark under the ground and Beignet casts a ghastlight spell to light our way, sending it ahead so we can see. We enter a room--more of an entry way, really. It's about 100 feet long, a tunnel, but a tunnel carved out of the rock in the form of the nave of a Gothic Church, complete with the columns and the groin vaulting overhead. The stone is native Wycombe flint. There is a Latin inscription carved into the walls. For those who can read Latin, it’s pretty easy to translate. The inscription is in two parts. The first part says: Erected by Sir Francis Dashwood 1752. The second part says: Oxford 22 miles. Ellsbury 15 miles, City 30 miles. Everyone there understand the word ‘City’ to mean London. After all, all the roads in England lead there.
We continue through the nave and into the corridor beyond. We come to a room on the right. It has pick axes and wheel barrows and some food. The food is fresh, as is the evidence the wheel barrows and pick axes have been used. Could the user be the person Josephine saw crossing the estate in the night? Katherine and Ezekiel arm themselves with a pick axe each. They take the first rank in the marching order and Josephine takes the second rank to guard their backs.
Fifty feet along, we find a small room with an urn on a podium and an inscription is found on its base. It says: As a token to his warm attachment to the Founder. Ezekiel lifts the lid of the urn and a huge ashy black cloud shoots out and hits him full in the face. As he coughs and gags and staggers back, the two Channelers of our party are attacked by the ghost of Paul Whitehead as it rises from the urn.
Paul looks like a secretary from the turn of the 1800s. He’s quite irate and tells all of us to leave his place. Flora protests this is not his place, but hers. He says she’s not on the ledger of people allowed in here.
Since Ezekiel is momentarily incapacitated by the dust, Katherine and Flora engage in mental combat with the ghost. Katherine’s resolve fails, however, and she runs in the face of Whitehead’s intimidation. Josephine follows to protect Katherine and bring her back. Flora stands her ground and fights. By God, this is her home, her estate, and no jumped up, self-important, ghost of a dead secretary is going to bulldog her off her property. Whitehead is unable to withstand her indignation and will, and he retreats back into his urn, pulling the lid from Ezekiel’s fingers on the way and settling it into place on the urn.
Meanwhile, Josephine has caught up with Katherine, who has returned to her senses on her own and is blinking in confusion. They return to the party, Katherine much chagrined by her failure. Ezekiel coughs out the last of Whitehead’s ashes and pushes the party onward.
The tunnel goes round in a circle, describing the circumference of a large carved pillar centered in the tunnel. The pillar is easily 6 to 8 feet wide and is covered top to bottom with deep bas relief carvings. The tunnel wall opposite the pillar is carved in relief as well. The carvings themselves depict all manner of fleshly delights. Beignet stares at the carvings and is strongly taken by the notion that there is a hidden door in the carvings, perhaps to another passage or even a room, if we could but find the door. It takes pressure on both breasts of a caryatid to trigger the door mechanism and it sinks into the column a foot or two before sliding aside.
Entering the space beyond, we see it is a circular room and what we thought was a solid pillar are its walls. It is outfitted as a bedroom big enough to host an orgy and there are S&M accoutrements stored in chests in that room.
How banal.
We leave. The corridor continues to the right and there are more bas relief carvings. Again, Beignet is convinced that there is something hidden behind the carvings, a hidden passage.
Beignet: I am absolutely certain that it is hidden, but I cannot find it.
Ezekiel: (deadpan) Look for the vagina in the Bas Relief on the wall.
Beignet laughs. Ezekiel is not in a laughing mood.
Ezekiel: You think I’m joking?
We proceed onward, to an area marked as Franklin’s Cave on Selene’s map. It’s a circle that’s been divided into six small segments. The background of magical energy that’s running through this place is stronger here. Ezekiel wonders what the purpose of this place is. He senses that it’s not evil but it will get stronger the deeper we go into the cavern.
We push on and encounter several more urns. We look at them first. Ezekiel senses that there are spirits inside them. Should we move on? Yes. We go on and encounter the Banquet Hall, as marked on the map. It has statues in niches and an semi-circular table. We discover compartments with food in them—and the food is fresh, kept so by some sort of magical refrigeration. Here again we have evidence that someone must be living or frequenting the caverns. Why else have food kept fresh?
We push on.
We enter a triangular room with a pit centered in the floor. It’s about 30 feet deep. It’s obvious that something has been dug out of this pit and recently. The entire room is glowing with magic to anyone who can see magic.
Those with investigatory skills can see that the pit is chalk. In fact, the entire room is made of it, with inclusions of the native flint throughout. The chalk and the magic glow aren’t evil, just magical. Beignet takes a chalk chunk and slips it into his pocket. It would be very useful for drawing magical circles.
We push on.
We come across water we must cross. The magically gifted among us sense something that gives them the jeebies. The water is a very slow moving stream. Katherine tests the water with a cautious fingertip and gets a jolt. There isn’t an evil or a good feeling to it—it’s just a jolt. Ezekiel steps into the stream next and feels a weird energy to it. The stream is 20 feet wide and it’s barely knee high. Bertie is convinced to carry Beignet across on his shoulders. Katherine follows her husband, Josephine follows Katherine. Bertie follows Josephine and Flora follows Bertie. Josephine is the only person in the party that hasn’t a scrap of magical ability in her and she feels nothing but wet crossing the stream.
We push on.
We pass by Greek theatre masks mounted on the walls—male on side, female on the other. They line the passage that empties out into the Inner Sanctum (as marked on the map)
(There is more, but I am going to bed now. The rest of the synopsis will follow soon.)
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