The Basement Fall Hufflepuff MS

Interacting with: Pizza Rat

Leave it, he said. It. Pizza Rat was not an "it"! And she was not going to leave him. Stay close, he said. She did not want to stay close to Howard- well, uh- not at Pizza's expense! His words would fall on deaf ears because Serena was already running straight in. There was literally nothing that would stop her from trying to reunite with her bestest friend in the entire world.

"Pizza, are you okay?" Serena asked softly as she scooped him up in her palm. Her other hand gently supported his back, coddling him a little, "You're okay, buddy, I got you," She continued to whisper as the relief surged through her. She was so grateful to finally find him, "I'm so glad you're okay..."

Her gaze paused for a moment, finally actually taking in what was around her. There seemed to be a broken sheet of... tissue paper? What was this place? Where were they? "What the hell is this place...?" She continued, mostly voicing the question to herself but there was a tiny hope that Pizza would understand her and somehow manage to respond. As crazy as that was. She just needed answers, even if they came from a rat that definitely did not understand her.

A shudder ran down her spine. This whole area felt so creepy, she did not like it. Looking over her shoulder, she stared back at the entrance from where she had come from. It was where Howard's voice had come from. He found Ethen? "Come on, we should get out of here, Pizza. Let's find Ethen," He sort of knew Ethen. The boy had, after all, made an obstacle course out of towels, sponges and a bucket of water for him once. Well, both Ethen and Atlas together.

Turning around, Serena would quickly try and retrace her steps back to the corridor that she had been in. Howard said to go... uh. Through a passage! Uh. "Where the hell do we have to go, Pizza? Where are they...?" She muttered to Pizza as she tried to find the passage that he spoke to. What was it? Home! Right. Home. All she had to do was find a sign that said home and go there. Howard and Ethen would be there.

ACTION: Trying to find the passage marked 'home' and going that way (Maintaining Lumos)

Stamina: 10 | Evasion: 13 | Strength: 1 | Wisdom: 15 | Arcane Power: 5 | Accuracy: 10
Abilities: Part-Goblin, Evasive Maneuvers, Beastmaster
Fifth-Year Armour: +10% auto-dodge on attacks [=20% auto-dodge overall]

Having left the Common Room, Opeila was disoriented at first. It was dark, the air smell weird and- it was quite possible that she only imagined it- she believed to hear quiet wispers, echoing from the stone walls. A cold draft coming from one of the corridors made the young girl shudder. For a moment she just pressed herself flat against the wall, her heart racing to scared to illuminate her wand and possibly attract the attention of something that could harm her.

Then she forced herself to calm down, closed her eyes and took a few deep breath. Tightening her left hand into a fist, she moved her wand. "Lumos!" A mere wisper that felt much too loud anyway. Now, where was Willow? Opeila didn't dare to shout. Could Aaron be down here too? Were her Hufflepuff friends in danger? The thought fuelled her courage and she stepped away from the wall, the common room door, deeper into the dungeons. Whenever something moved, a rat or even if she accidentally kicked a stone, she shoved her wand under her sweater, hiding the light and holding her breath.

"Willow?", she finally wispered, looking around for her classmate. She was still alive, right? She had to be.

Howard called after Serena, but it was to no avail. Nothing was going to keep her from her beloved Pizza rat. Something he had a hard time understanding for he had never bonded with an animal the way some of his peers had. There was once the Greg's that called the Hufflepuff common room home, but they had long disappeared. Who knows where those little fluffs had run off to? (Super dead) They were fun to have around, but enough to risk your life or that of another? Maybe one day.

Howard hesitated for a moment, scared to separate from the other and to leave Serena on her own in such a dark place. However, he had picked up on Ethen's scent and there was no denying that the boy was in a dire situation. As difficult as it was Howard had to make him priority. With a dash his long legs would cary him into the other room. Heightened senses and quick reflexes would easily carry him past suspicious looking bottles that littered the path forward. The acrid smell of cleaning products threatened to overwhelm his nose, but the was no time to investigate what they could be. He had to carry on before he lost Ethen's scent.

Before him there were two paths forward. Howard focused and closed his eyes, allowing his senses to reach out in search of the younger Huffle. The familiar scent of blood would fins him first, then a burnt smell, but with time he would again find notes of Ethen. Howard was most likely too far away for the others to hear him, so instead he would shrug off his robe and drop it at the entrance of the left passageway. It was the best he could do and there was no time to waste.

Action: Continuing to follow Ethen's scent.

There remained a nagging feeling that she might be better off waiting for some form of help or backup but it was hard to know. She didn’t know if that was her nerves speaking or the more logical side of her brain. Perhaps both. Regardless, as she continued forward, she felt increasingly confused about the mess of seemingly sprung traps and strange dead rats. Whoever had been here before was surely a bit of a twisted person.

Again Atlas would hear someone calling out to her. A familiar voice. The voice of Howard and he was claiming that he had found Ethen...or at least he thought as much. Part of Atlas wanted to run back towards the voice to follow the instructions but another part of her thought it was likely just some ploy to pull her back along with the rest of the group. No, she would not answer the call. If he was right and he found Ethen, then she would be happy. But they wouldn’t need her for that and Atlas believed there was still a chance that her boyfriend was somewhere down this path.

The chemical stench of bleach made Atlas scrunch her face as she moved forward into the next room. However, this room only made her feel more uneasy. Not scared, but confused about what this old inhabitant could have possibly been up to. Clearly there was a heavy use of chemicals. But this new room held something else. There was a mess of scribbles that looked to be some form of twisted art piece. Clearly the work of someone mad.


All of the walls were covered in this chaotic and frantic sketching while also being accompanied by what looked like numbers etched crudely on the wall. Her eyes slowly travelled around the tiny room trying to take in as many details as possible while simultaneously looking for any clue that may help her in the search. But she was growing doubtful. “What is real?” Atlas mumbled as she struggled to read the only perceivable words etched on the ground.

She had no idea what to make of that beyond the confused ravings of a likely madman. There seemed to be three doors, one on each of the walls ahead. But curiously, no door handles. She wondered if it would be as simple as just pushing one of the doors. Her nose was somehow able to pick the scent of flour out of the otherwise chemical-smelling area and she could see a massive bag of the white substance partially blocking the entry.

Atlas stood motionless of a moment. Peering around the room with no sense of what to do. The rooms had shown a variety of traps that had been sprung. But beyond that, there were no concrete things that she could wrap her head around. Why would there even need to be traps in such a place? If there were traps that suggested that there was something hidden. Something worth defending or keeping people out of. It could very well have just been the creations of some madman but maybe there was more purpose in it. But she wouldn’t know for sure if she remained standing foolishly in the open.

“Where are you Ethen?” Atlas muttered to herself, deciding to try her luck in this tiny room. She would move to the handleless doors to try and see if any would actually open for her. This couldn’t be it, there had to be more for her to unravel, and starting with the doors seemed the most logical.

ACTION: Checking to see if any of the doors in the small room will open and maintaining Lumos.

Reducio

STATS:
Stamina: 10
Evasion: 1o
Strength: 4
Wisdom: 7
Arc. Power: 7
Accuracy: 10

ABILITIES:
Fearless
Effect: Fear effects such as a dhmpir's aura, the ability terrible presence, a lycanothrope's intimidation or certain charms, potions and jinxes that would normally cause a fear effect do not work on you as you are immune to them.

Note: some repetition here for the ease of the adventurers.

@Scarlet Salvatore, @Henry Knight, & @Dan Palmer

Scarlet would spill out of the common room proper, Percival Grey sentinel extraordinaire had given up once one of them had breeched his defenses and once he felt assured that it was in fact Willow on the other side of the door. Henry had run off ahead and foe turned ally Dan Palmer was there at her side.

Dan having escaped after Scarlet gave her a bit of a fright. Not that Palmer had an intimidating presence but imaginations can sprint away when someone is in the dark. "Hello?!" Scarlet called out into the darkness, the sound of approach beckoning her attention. Yes, lure the monster or friend towards you... Her survival instinct clearly lacking, relief would wash over her as the moderator decided to not slay her in his great benevolence. It was just the bare-footed (assumedly) Irish lad from the common room, Captain Palmer of the Slytherin Quidditch Team. He had tried to stop them not minutes earlier from making the very same daring escape he had just made.

"Hey! Good - you got out too, that prefect just given up then," Scarlet exclaimed with a smile. Someone was happy to see Dan. He did help them after all, at least in the end. "Thanks for your help back there" had Dan ever been thanked for anything before? It was a rarity here in Hogwarts, something worth noting. "...eventually"

What to do... what to do... "Henry and a girl from Hufflepuff went down there," Scarlet explained, Dan being too late to know where the adventuring party went or even why. Deeper into the dungeons, a place that Dan would recognize. Last year they had explored the place, rumor and evidence of someone hiding down there had led them, to disaster. Kaegen Deathmote had been hiding there during his free hours, under the cover of darkness, isolated from his peers and safe from prying eyes or dearth witches. The irony of how right he as in spite of the fact that he was in truth spewing madness. The traps laid were dangerous, causing several of the members of their dorm to get hurt. It was very dangerous down there. Too dangerous to blindly explore. Not that Palmer knew much but he knew more than some. "Shall we get after them, I don't quite like the idea of waiting around here anymore, and I need to check on a friend," Scarlet said vaguely, referring to @Simon Kincaid. Of course then, why did he not stay?

The massive hole in the ceiling of the passageway served as a skylight. "It doesn't look like the Hufflepuff's are having a good night," Scarlet offered in commentary. "Have you seen that?"

"Scarlet! Captain!" Henry Knight would call out from the passage ahead. Yes, Henry had already realized it -- they were returning to the dungeons that nearly killed them. The dungeons that their Head of House was likely going to kill them for returning to if they survive this adventure. Scarlet and Dan were already both on their way but his voice was confirmation. Perhaps a comfort even.

There was no gas yet but the dungeon was obviously trapped. There was something in here that someone did not want found. A secret, a treasure, a mistake best left forgotten.

[co0lor=green]"Mates, come on! There could be someone injured and we should stick together! Hurry!"[/color]

Henry cast Lumos Maxima.
Roll: 11 Success

The light would reveal an eerie space. They were in a large open space that was cluttered with litter. A back scratcher was placed against a wall. Several mason jars, most empty but there were several that had contents -- one was half full of dirt and a rather chubby, sadly deceased earth worm, another had a smaller mason jar stored safely inside and the third was filled with dark, dirty, snarled hair as well as what appeared to be toenail clippings. There was also half, yes half a stool. Two legs, padded top, split in half, the other half mysteriously absent. There were feathers and tangled snarls of hair. Black splotches on the ground, from their left, leading back to the stairs.

The walls of the dungeon were a concern as well. The walls were adorned with 'paintings', drawn with chalk. There was heavy favoritism on drawing eyes. There are a total of four exits in this room. The one from which they came. Over the archway would be a single marking: an X.

The second to the right would have the word HOME written above the threshold. The door was open and a glint of colored glass, many pieces of glass would meet his gaze. The third, the center passageway would have the nothing written over or near the door but there was a curious array of footprints in white dust that led to and from the passageway immediately in front of him. The fourth was a door, an open door made of wood secured with iron. A foul smell came from that direction, like rotted meat. Something was written on the door: NOBODY IS HOME.





___________

@Opeila Winters

Opeila would rush down the darkened hall, past the overturned chair and queer markings on the floor. She would find herself in an open space at the base of a familiar flight of stairs. She had been here before. She had not traveled far but she, like the rest of her house was driven out of the depths by chloramine gas caused by the mixing of ammonia and bleach, two muggle cleaning products. The dangerous gas had aired out, the danger was no more but the obvious truly remained -- someone had trapped the dungeons and these traps could be lethal.

Her thoughts would fall to Aaron and Willow as she traveled deeper. Her wand drawn and the incantation uttered softly -- Lumos.

Opeila casts Lumos.
Roll 2 Success

Barely enough, the tip of her wand would start to glow with a faint light that would offer her a reminder of the eerie space they once explored. She would see Henry Knight and Willow Anderson there already, Serena Towers was just passing through. Serena would go to the right. Scarlet Salvatore would arrive after her, Palmer never posted so he has not yet arrived.

The collective light from their wands would reveal an eerie space. They were in a large open space that was cluttered with litter. A back scratcher was placed against a wall. Several mason jars, most empty but there were several that had contents -- one was half full of dirt and a rather chubby, sadly deceased earth worm, another had a smaller mason jar stored safely inside and the third was filled with dark, dirty, snarled hair as well as what appeared to be toenail clippings. There was also half, yes half a stool. Two legs, padded top, split in half, the other half mysteriously absent. There were feathers and tangled snarls of hair. Black splotches on the ground, from her left, leading back to the stairs.

The walls of the dungeon were a concern as well. The walls were adorned with 'paintings', drawn with chalk. There was heavy favoritism on drawing eyes. There are a total of four exits in this room. The one from which they came. Over the archway would be a single marking: an X.

The second to the right would have the word HOME written above the threshold. The door was open and a glint of colored glass, many pieces of glass would meet her gaze. The third, the center passageway would have the nothing written over or near the door but there was a curious array of footprints in white dust that led to and from the passageway immediately in front of her. The fourth was a door, an open door made of wood secured with iron. A foul smell came from that direction, like rotted meat. Something was written on the door: NOBODY IS HOME.





"Willow?"

___________

@Serena Towers & @Howard White

Serena would reunite with Pizza Rat, a rat that looked like any other rat but Serena knew the difference. This one was for whatever reason named after food yet she selfishly would not allow the italian treat to be eaten.

Serena would talk to her rat, there was no question at the very least that she was alive because she never stopped talking.

"Pizza, are you okay?"

"You're okay, buddy, I got you,"

"I'm so glad you're okay..."

Pizza Rat did not answer her verbally but there was likely some sort of psychic connection between them because there was definitely some sort of conversation.

"What the hell is this place...?"

Pizza Rat would know the answer, but could not tell her the truth. This place was a reflection of those that dwelled here at one time or another. Of madness and corruption, of fear and selfish ambition. The drawings, a window into their mind. The well, the false floor removed but the light remaining, an aspect of someone's paranoia. an attempt to harm, to hide, to protect and to buy time.

"Come on, we should get out of here, Pizza. Let's find Ethen."

Yes, @Ehen Emrys the great maker of obstacle courses. Ethen was a friendly figure in both Pizza Rat and Serena's memories. Someone that needed help. Someone that needed saving. She was not going to leave him behind. She would have to pick a direction to travel --

"Where the hell do we have to go, Pizza? Where are they...?"

Serena would maintain Lumos, she would see Henry Knight calling for Scarlet (Salvatore) and 'Captain' (Dan Palmer) whoever they were. He was waiting on them, Serena was trying to catch up. She would have to pick a direction. The walls of the dungeon were a concern as well. The walls were adorned with 'paintings', drawn with chalk. There was heavy favoritism on drawing eyes. There are a total of four exits in this room. The one that would lead back to the Slytherin Common Room and the hole in the floor leading to the Hufflepuff Common Room also.from which they came. Over the archway would be a single marking: an X and a set of stairs would lead into the darkness.

The second to Serena's left (right upon initial entry) would have the word HOME written above the threshold. The door was open and a glint of colored glass, many pieces of glass would meet her gaze. The third, the center passageway to which Serena's back would be to as it was where Serena had procured Pizza Rat had nothing written over or near the door but there was a curious array of footprints in white dust. The fourth was a door, an open door made of wood secured with iron. A foul smell came from that direction, like rotted meat. Something was written on the door: NOBODY IS HOME.

Serena would choose HOME[/size] and attempt to maintain her Lumos.

Serena maintains Lumos.
Roll 3 Success

She was in pursuit of Howard White, he was but a room ahead. This room was quite unnerving. He would hear movement in the room behind him, perhaps recognize the girl's scent. Yes, it was Serena. She was following him perhaps but she would not catch him. Howard was a predator at his very core, he was faster than most and once he caught the scent of blood there was little that could stop hi and there was blood just ahead.

Serena would find herself in a passageway with bottles to either side of her. Many of them to her right were knocked over. The faint scent of cleaning products would fill the air.

Serena avoids the bottles
Roll: 12 Success

The passageway would bisect -- a right and a left passage. The bottles were broken to her right on the right side of the fork but not the left. which way should she go? Howard would not call out her name, a creature of great focus he had Ethen's scent and would barge through a closed door.

The door was stiff, unyielding. As if the wood had perhaps swollen over the years from the dampness in the air. Perhaps locked but it was hard to tell. He could smell death ahead of him. The knob would rattle in his hands and he would have to force his way through.

Howard breaks into the next room
Strength Check 20 Critical Success

Howard ripped the door apart. Ripped in twain, shoulder and claw, hunk of wood would explode inward into the room. The first thing anyone would see was perhaps the flames or the burning embers that were Howard's eyes, not the reflection of the torchlight. He would see it, he would see it all. -- Ethen was there, battered and bloodied. The darkness was there, a massive centipede wrapped around it., Then a *puff* of smoke and the darkness was gone. The charred remains of other centipedes and dolls would litter the strange room. A dead man was sitting in a chair, he had passed a long time ago by the looks of him. A musk filled the room but the obvious rot had faded. Filthy bones covered in clothes and a jeweled gauntlet in his lap. Yes, the sort of gauntlet that Howard might recall from comic books during his younger muggle years if he was that sort of nerd. Ethen was there standing before the glorious, likely dangerous or trapped gauntlet and there was an aggressive, hissing creature on the ground.

Howard -- feel free to enter Ethen's thread.

___________

The furthest place possible from Ethen, Atlas still searched for him. She was too stubborn to answer Howard's summons, it was likely a trick to keep her alive - Merlin forbid. No, she would blindly search for him her way, among the corpses of rats in this cryptic maze. She would see the writings of someone that was broken, at least psychologically. The maddened scribbles asked an important question that she would repeat out loud. “What is real?”

The doors had no handles.

“Where are you Ethen?”

She would ask and nobody would answer. Each wall had a different number. A 1̵̨̻̤̣̺̫̗̼͕̐͐̆̔̋͂̋͌̕͝ ̴̻̖̖̎̍̽̿ behind her on the wall to her rear, the door already open as it was opened from the other side. On further investigation she would in part see what the issue was for @Selim Faust not that she knew of the incident. When that flour fell ensuring the door had sealed itself once again, there was no handle, no means to push the door inward. He was trapped, yet the faint smell of bleach had no source and there was no visible vents. Where was it coming from?

The wall to her right 2̵̧̛̻̳̠̩̘͈͙͗̑́̊̑̆͗͛̕ was written on the wall, the featureless door without a handle would not yield. ̷͚͕̹̤̥̫͚́͛̈3̸͚̳͕̙̲̭͈͙̜̌̅̕ to her immediate left, again the featureless door would not yield to her. Finally, ̴̡̻́̇̈͋̏̓͒͘4̸̼̈́͗̈́͠ immediately in front of her scrawled on the wall. The difficult to discern numbers counted for whatever reason. Was it a clue as to why the question was posed -- what is real? Perhaps. The scent of the cleaning products was the strongest here. The door still did not yield. The wall incredibly smooth to the touch in spite of all appearances that the wall was made of roughly hewn stone.

Running. Full speed. Bare feet making slapping noises on the stone.
The Quidditch Captain and star Seeker was certainly fast and athletic, but this was pushing it a bit.

Then he saw another body.
Dan panted, hands on knees.
Finally, he'd caught up with the others. It certainly took enough energy and time. He knew time was of the essence, but they could at least have waited like, three seconds for him to catch up. It wouldn't have taken long.

"Christ's sake.... could ye have gone..... a LITTLE slower? At least till I caught up? Fer fecks sake.... it took all me godly... seeker sight to make sure I didn't lose ye little langers."

A bit of panting, and then

"Im not saying I'm winded 'r nuthin. Hell no."

It wasn't ENTIRELY untrue. But he'd been through a lot that day, and didn't have a terrible amount of energy left for a full 10 minute sprint.

"So... What the shag is goin' on here? I never got the full story from nunna ye."

Then Scarlet thanked him. Such a thing was rare for him to hear, despite how many things he'd done to deserve it.

"Well, the situation changed, and I-"

"...eventually."

".... Really? Are ye doin this right now? In front of everybody?"

Actions:
Confirming barefootedness for the modder
Catching up finally
Requesting the situation be explained.

Interacting: @Scarlet Salvatore | Loki
Mentioning: @Dan Palmer | Bridget Collins | Starlee Kennedy
Languages: English | French | Italian | Arabic | Russian
Outfit | Pendant

No explanation would be offered for poor @Dan Palmer, the barefooted Irishman. His feet would be absolutely filthy from running about the dungeons without footwear. In time things would start to go wrong for those in the 'wrong' places. The wrong places being anywhere in these dungeons. They were trapped and the person that laid these traps did not care if intruders were run off or killed.

All he knew was that there was something 'concerning' in the basement. That there were Hufflepuff's down here and that their hall outside their common quarters now had a convenient skylight with a view into said Hufflepuff's common quarters. Senseless destruction often wrought adventure as well as misery. The reason why was left an unknown variable as the brave, potentially misplaced snake ventured onward without being informed.

@Henry Knight would be left at an impasse. There were three ways that they could go, they being the collective sum of the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs that congregated in this eerie space. The obvious abode to a madman. To the left, the right or straight ahead. Henry knew what was ahead of them, an indoor well with a faint light coming from within. A light intended to draw wayward travelers to their doom. He almost lost Starlee and Santario to the draw of that very same light. To the right and left, he knew so much less. He knew that some of his housemates had traveled into each and that they came back badly injured. There was something terrible that awaited them in each of the directions.

Henry was unaware of the fact that most of the early traps had been sprung. That @Atlas Reid was on the cusp of the next dire circumstance. A puzzle that if she chose wrong would spell doom. That ahead of him was nobody (yet), @Serena Towers having returned with Pizza Rat, he had dare travel only a little bit further. The scent of blood last year being what drove him in. To the left, where @Howard White and Serena had went in search of @Ethen Emrys. They were presently out of sight, Ethen had contended with what waited for them in this far-off place.

What could Henry smell this time?

Old death -- it permeated this place, strongest from directly ahead as well as to the right, but a fainter aroma of the same stench even came from the right. This was a place that was not only full of death, but of more than one that was dead.

He could smell people, not the sort of people he was intimately familiar with -- Howard, Serena, Atlas, Ethen. All of them out of sight, their scents leading to the left and to the right respectively. The scent to the right being alone.

Interacting: @Scarlet Salvatore | Loki | @Dan Palmer
Mentioning:
Languages: English | French | Italian | Arabic | Russian
Outfit | Pendant

[font=Trebuchet MS]

Open to Interactions

Scarlet watched as the glow of an illuminated wand faded into the distance down one of the corridors ahead of her, Henry’s voice echoing back down to the chamber in which she found herself. Looking behind her and towards the way she had come from, though she could only make out a few meters in front of her, it looked like Dan had fallen behind, or maybe he had taken a different path. Scarlet could easily imagine that they had passed several other paths off the way they had come, tucked in one of the many corners of shadow.

What had happened though, which was exactly what Scarlet had hoped wouldn’t happen, was that she was now, from what she could tell, separated from anyone she knew now, in whichever part of the dungeons this was. Or at least she thought she was. Turning back around to face the selection of paths ahead, her eyes lingered over what appeared to be an array of jars and other unusual random objects, the presence of each of them adding to the eeriness of the place.

“They went through this one right?” she asked, directing her question to the bearer of the only light source in the room, an older Hufflepuff girl was her only remaining company. Scarlet didn’t hang about much longer after her question, not enough to give any kind of reply to the girl, if she did answer back, she was ninety percent sure of the way she had thought her friend had gone, and she wanted to try and catch up.

Feeling herself slowly be consumed by the shadows as she moved forward alone, she held her wand or in front of her, “Lumos!”, before gradually increasing her speed to a fast walking pace. “Henry!” Scarlet called out into the darkness ahead, ‘he can’t have gotten that far ahead,’ she thought, though began to doubt herself as she waited for any kind of reply.

Action: Going down the path marked ‘Home’ and (if possible to do both) casting Lumos

Interacting with @Henry Knight & @Willow Anderson
Mentions @Dan Palmer

Stats: Stamina - 4 | Evasion - 4 | Strength - 7 | Wisdom - 9 | Arcane Power - 7 | Accuracy - 4
Race: Werewolf | Abilities: Terrible Presence

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