EVENTS:

Eigla locates the now-rusted key, inserts it into the lock, and turns it with some effort. The door squeaks rather loudly as it opens.


Eigla: "Hello? Anyone home?"

No one answers her calls as she steps into a rather spacious entrance hall. An old chandelier hangs from the ceiling, and the phantasmal shapes of tarp-covered pieces of furniture and art line the walls. Whoever lived here took some effort to prepare the house for their absence.

Small amounts of sunlight enter through the boarded-up windows, illuminating the grand staircase and doors to other rooms. Cobwebs and dust cover most surfaces, but there isn't much in terms of moisture. The roof and walls ought to still be sound.

EVENTS:

The group carefully explores the mansion. There's a large dining room, a kitchen with appliances that might once have been modern, a rather empty pantry, a doorway leading to the cellar... It all feels, unusually normal. Like an old, comfortable house, estranged from the madness outside.

Finally, they enter the main living room. There's a few sofas, a dead flatscreen TV on a side, rugs carefully rolled to protect them from the dust, and, above the great fireplace... A huge painting, brown and faded with time.

The respectable-looking man and woman, you don't recognize them. But the adolescent girl between them, smiling peacefully - She looks a lot like Eigla, doesn't she?

EVENTS:

Eigla checks the upper floor. An empty office, and a rather large library. The books seem yellowed, but the glass-faced shelves have kept the dust out.

A main bedroom, and some guest rooms. Bathrooms abound. A... strangely, bare, room. Just a dresser with plain dresses and pajamas, and a bed. The final room is locked, and she threw the key away.

Wait, who did?



Rosa approaches the painting. It looks very much like Eigla, but she can't be sure. She doesn't remember ever having set eyes on it before, or... had she?

There are three small metal plaques set on the base of the frame. She blows the dust off the middle one.

Eileen Graham Lauffeuer



Klimt and his troupe step down onto the cellar. There is a definite dampness to the air there, and the walls crawl with mold. They stumble through the darkness, feeling for a path amid the many barrels of coal, and wine. Emilia steps on an object with a loud crunching sound, and they find it's an empty plastic bottle. Many others are strewn across the floor, as well as old MRE wrappers.

In the darkness, they hear a heartbeat. And then another. Slow, but deep and echo-filled. Curie begins backing out, towards the stairs to the surface, and Peggy slowly raises her rifle.

EVENTS:

The girls leave the cellar one by one, while Klimt slowly backs out. The heartbeats grow fainter and fainter, eventually disappearing into the distance, but the scent of blood begins to fill his nostrils. He feels, threatened.


He manages to reach the top of the stairs, seeing Rosa and Eigla waiting for him on the threshold. Well, nothing attacked him this time!