DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Thread Like Summary - 3R - Things that go Bump in the Night

DM

The party finishes their various conversations, with the occasional guard moving around or exchanging duties with another. The guards seem uninterested in the party, and occasionally stoke the fire. It seems it's someone's job (or several someones) to stay up overnight as part of this town's attempt to assure safety of its occupants, their goods, and the local agriculture.

Most of the inn's rooms -- and all available for the party -- are in the basement level, accessed by a set of stairs going down from the northwest corner of the common room.

[OOC: Feel free to assume you're in any of the rooms. It matters little; we'll start grid play at the top of the stairs.]


The flickering light of lanterns casts long shadows across the hallways. Soft snores and the occasional mumbled word can occasionally be heard behind some of the closed doors. It's the perfect place to catch up on some rest.

Suddenly, in the darkest hours in the middle of the night, the tranquility is shattered by a piercing scream, the desperate cry of a familiar voice that echoes through the wooden beams of the inn. It's the young stable girl, the same one who had met the party around the stables earlier in the day. The scream is filled with terror and pain, carrying an urgency that cuts through the veil of sleep and commands immediate attention.

The wooden floor above creaks beneath the weight of footsteps, hurried movements of guards and those few with rooms upstairs as they scramble to their feet. The innkeeper's wife, a stout woman with worry etched on her face, appears at the top of the stairs, calling down loudly, desperately hoping for help from anyone willing. "Something's happening in the stables!" she exclaims, her voice trembling with fear.

OOC: Roll for initiative.

DM

Davroar manages to reach the stairs first, and emerges into the dimly lit common room next to the bar. A long corridor leads straight from there toward the stables, where the anguished scream of Lily, the young stable girl, is now eerily amplified by the corridor's acoustics and beckons anyone willing to rescue. It is a desperate cry for help, but it is abruptly cut short, replaced by a sickening thud that resonates through the wooden structure.

Horses, usually silent companions in their stalls, now join in the chorus of making their fear known. Their panicked neighs and the vibrations of their hooves pounding against the stable floor paint a scene of chaos unfolding in the stables.

A decision presents itself to Davroar: the hallway leading to the stables or the exit door that opens to the outside chaos. The hallway is the faster route to possible rescue, but a more confined approach to whatever the threat is.

A bell rings out an alarm from an unseen room above, awakening all in the town. Some may arrive to help, but certainly not soon enough to help the stable girl or the horses...