Knock Knock

[Storyteller]

Marla and Jessie hang back, trying to carefully hide themselves from the house, without looking too suspicious to any external onlookers.

Michael follows you as you approach the door, keeping close behind you, to cover your back.

You try the door handle, just a little, to see how it reacts. It appears that it's locked, but it's possible it's just stuck. It would take a little more force to find out, but it would probably make a noise.

[Smoothie]

To be on the safe side, Wic went to work with the picks, to be sure and to give the others time to get around the house.

[Storyteller]

You go to work with the picks. It's far from the hardest lock you've ever worked at, and at least you have picks this time, but the darkness doesn't help much.

Dexterity + Larceny roll

A minute or two later, and you feel the last pin pop into place, and the torque wrench turns the lock open.

Michael pats you on the shoulder, and waits behind you.

[Smoothie]

Wic stood to one side and opened the door quickly ((and hopefully quietly)), then takes a step into the house and stopping the door before it hits the wall.

[Storyteller]

The door swings open, surprisingly quietly, and with surprisingly little resistance, for one so old. The interior is dark, almost too dark to see anything, the glare of the streetlights cast your shadow across the threshold, and shed just enough light to spot something moving in the shadows.

[Smoothie]

Reaching for the flashlight, Wic crept into the room and to the side, removing his silhouette from the doorway and making room for the others to enter.

With the flashlight in his left hand, he turned it on.

[Storyteller]

You scan the room with the light, particularly trying to pick out what made the noise. The house is in a poorer state inside than it is on the outside. There's no carpet to speak of, and the paint on the walls has either peeled or faded, not that it was a particularly nice colour to begin with.

What a nice house!

On the far wall away from you is a staircase, wooden and partially fallen in. In the centre of the fairly large hallway is a pile of boxes, crates, by the look of them. Most of them are in a disorderly pile, but one has been set to the side, with three smaller boxes set round it, probably as a table and chairs.

You start as you hear the noise again. Pointing the light, you see a rat scuttle from the general direction of the noise. You hope it was just the rat making the noise.

Map to follow.

[Storyteller]

Sorry, it's a bit sketchy, but it was the best I could do for now. Everything should be fairly clear, with the lines-crossing-walls as doors. The wider door is a double door. The bit in the middle is the pile of boxes, with the single box to the right. You're the coloured dot, and the sprayed area is the rough area for the source of the noise. I'll try and sharpen the map up if it becomes important.

[Smoothie]

Wic kept looking and listening, but mostly he was waiting for the others to follow into the room behind him.

Come now, are you poised for flight just outside?

((Are the other doors open or shut?))

[Storyteller]

All the doors are shut, except the one, conveniently covered in the map by the pink spray, which has some kind of worktop beyond it, perhaps a kitchen. (The door is in the middle of that wall.)

A creak behind and to your right makes you start slightly, but you see it's just Michael, stepping inside. As he walks forward, the streetlamp illuminates the stream of dust rising from the floorboard as he treads.

There....

The noise again.

You manage to pin in down a bit closer. It's probably coming from the room with the open door, but you're not sure whether it is in that room, or just outside it.

[Smoothie]

Using the flashlight, Wic stalked the sound as quietly as he could, moving slowly around the left of the 'table'.

[Storyteller]

As you move round the table, you hear another sound, definitely from in the room; a dull clunk, followed by another sound, like a choke or a gag.

[Smoothie]

Wic's dead adreanal glands quivered impotently, however the thick icor of dead blood fueled him in their stead.

[burns blood for dex to improve the stealth roll]

With the flashlight off, he approached the door, moving by memory.

[Storyteller]

Stealth roll: 7 successes

You advance with the silent skill of a ninja, and move round the door. There's a slight amount of light spilling out of a broken window, highlighting this room as a kitchen. The silohettes of several figures stand in the middle, by a unit. One man has another by the neck from behind, and has an object held near his head, and another crouched figure hovers on the threshold of the window.

[Smoothie]

Not knowing who was who, Wic just waited for breathing or voices to mark friend from foe.