The Shadow In The Warp - Dark Heresy [IC]

[Thanatos 51-50]

In the Foyer

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Red sighed. Either Rhodes hadn't ever watched the same vids he had, or -- worse, the old codger had and was deliberately put Red in the mind while not stowing any incriminating secrets anywhere.
The soldier put the knife through the canvas one more time, neatly splitting where Octavian's neck stood out in the painting before sliding the knife into its scabbard and approaching the servant's door, giving it a tug and slipping inside.
May as well investigate those.

[LCP]

Jericus & Nova

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There was a lot of furniture to shift if all the carpets were going to be moved. Jericus set to it with a will, putting the various chairs, tables and chaise-longues close to the wall so he could roll up the carpets and leave the centre of the floor bare. With the paintings taken off the walls, the room now looked like it was being prepared by some very thorough removal men.

The floorboards themselves were polished to a shiny finish, and meticulously clean of dust. At a first glance, Jericus couldn't see anything that looked like a trapdoor. A second glance didn't show him anything either.

---

1

Red

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The door Aubrey had used led into a narrow corridor, just wide enough for two people to pass abreast. There were no paintings on the walls, just light fittings; two similar corridors branched off at right angles to the first passageway, and at the far end Red could see a narrow staircase descending into the lower levels of the house.

[Destro_Yersul]

T&T

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"Which of these tell about the tower room?" Tychon asked. "Do you know? If not, I suppose we'll have to look through them the hard way."

[LCP]

Tychon & Tauron

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"I'm afraid I'm not aware of the specific dates," said Aubrey. "All I know is that it last happened when the current master was still a child."

[Thanatos 51-50]

Servant's Passage

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Keeping one hand hovering close to his rifle, Red examined the door he hd entered through, in case it was disguised and he needed to find a different exit, bfore heading towards the stairs and into th bowels of the mansion.
This was more like it. More like home.

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Left turn, if it matters

[Rizhail]

Nova and Jer:

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"Well, this has been amusing. Too bad we still haven't found anything," Nova said from the doorway, watching as Jericus finished pulling up the carpet to check the floor underneath.

Sighing, she reached up to key her commbead. "Let's see how the others are doing. Maybe one of them has hit on a lead or a better way to search."

"Are any of the rest of you having as little luck as Jer and me?" Nova asked through the cell's comms. "We haven't found anything particularly useful yet, and not for lack of trying."

[Thanatos 51-50]

"Mostly dead ends." Red admitted over the comms. "But I have found this nice cozy servant's tunnel."

[LCP]

Red

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The staircase was a narrow, right-angled spiral with bare stone walls. At the corners there would be space for two people to squeeze past; otherwise the stairs were too cramped for anything but single file.

After a few revolutions, Red emerged on a lower level. Here there was none of the lavish decoration that bedecked the entrance hall: the walls were solid and unadorned. A long corridor stretched out to the left and to the right, dotted with plain wooden doors to either side. A metal door that looked to Red like a fire escape capped the end of the corridor to the right, while on the far left he could see a larger door with faded green paint.

Two other corridors branched off at right angles to the one he was one. One was broken by a short flight of six steps, raising the level of the floor; the other was flat. There were more doors leading off from them, but they looked the same as the others. These corridors were wider, too, unlike the cramped passage behind the walls that Aubrey had used upstairs. Red was starting to suspect that this place was bigger than some of the sump settlements back home.

[Destro_Yersul]

T&T

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"Manually it is. Ain't that lovely. That'll be all for now, Aubrey, less Drake here has something more he wants." Raising an eyebrow in the direction of Tauron, Tychon started leafing through the current book in search of details on the tower room. He was damned curious about the place, or any mention of that lion painting he could find. Plus, he hardly expected Tauron to complain much about family histories. Leave the possible heresy for the priest to deal with, this was more on Tychon's level.

[Thragka]

T&T

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"Indeed, thank you Mr Aubrey. You have been ... cooperative." Tauron bid Aubrey be off with a lazy wave.

When the butler had departed, Tauron gave a half-hearted shrug. "That was not very enlightening. Perhaps I had the wrong end of the stick, and the junior members of the staff might be better placed to help our enquiries, being less proficient in service and loyalty."

"Is anyone having more success than Tychon and I?" the cleric asked across the comms in an exasperated tone.

[Rizhail]

"Jer and I aren't. I'm not particularly sure where to go from here. What areas have been searched already? We've hit the downstairs, focusing on the garage, and are in one of the drawing rooms now."

[Destro_Yersul]

"I think most everything upstairs has been looked at," Tychon replied. "Found a few strange things, but it ain't much to go on."

[Thanatos 51-50]

Red clcked his commbead twice, just to let his allies know he was there and monitoring the conversation.

[Secret Passages]

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... as he crept up silently to the metal door and pressed his ear against it, listening for any sounds on the other side.

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Awareness - (1d100)[7]

[LCP]

Red

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Red could hear nothing except a faint, whistling rustle - like wind blowing through a canyon.

[Destro_Yersul]

T&T

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"Reckon there's not a lot more to do here," Tychon said to Tauron, closing the book he was looking at after a few more minutes of flipping through it.

"I'm going to go back and see if I can meet up with Nova and Jericus. You coming?"

After a few minutes' pause, Tychon came back onto the comms. "Which drawing room? I'm on my way to meet you."

[Thragka]

T&T

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Tauron drummed his fingers against the table precisely once. "I must be thorough. But perhaps ... a break, to refresh, would serve us better than driving ourselves into the ground. I'll come."

He spent a moment tidying the table neatly, sorting the few books he'd looked at into piles that the work would be easier to resume, later.

[LCP]

"Scarlet drawing room," said Nova. "We'll wait."

Tychon, Tauron, Nova & Jericus

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The drawing room was as lavishly-appointed as the rest of the house, its wallpaper, carpets and furnishings all decked in various shades of red. Where it differed from the other rooms Tychon had seen so far was that Nova and Jericus had thoroughly dismantled it. Carpets had been rolled up to expose the bare floorboards beneath, paintings had been taken down off the walls, furniture had been pushed up against the walls. The drinks cabinet and a tall grandfather clock looked like practically the only items that hadn't been moved.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Seeeekrits and Passageways

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Red opened the door, as quietly and slowly as possible, examining the room on the othe side centimetre by centimetre

[Etcetera]

All the colours of the wind. Other than Red.

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Jer glanced at Tychon and Tauron, before taking a seat on a rolled-up carpet.
"Any success?"

[LCP]

Red

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The door's handle turned with a heavy thunk of metal, as if it controlled a sizeable deadbolt. The riveted hinges squealed as it swung open, almost leaping from Red's hand.

There was no room on the other side. There was just a drop. Below, the hyperbolic slope of Hive Augusta planed away, tiny rooftops visible amidst the industrial tangles of smokestacks and factories. Red could hear church bells ringing down among the ants below, the foghorn wail of great prayer horns drifting on the wind.

At this altitude, the wind meant business. Red could feel it whipping past his face, trying to push the door further open. Looking down, he saw a flimsy metal platform and a set of stairs, bolted to the wall - or the foundations - of the house. They zig-zagged back and forth, descending a sheer cliff of masonry and rockcrete before disappearing from view into a dark, cylindrical aperture.

[Thanatos 51-50]

The Edge of the World

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Well, that's certainly, interesting. fought the urge to go explore, instead deciding to mentally make not of the passageway, and reached for the hatch to close it. Not without some safety gear.
He'd had enough falling to certain doom already, thank you very much.

"There's a hatch here, leads outside, and then into foundations, can't see where it ends up. Wind is nasty. Not going to descend without precautions."

[Destro_Yersul]

Red Room, No Red

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"Frak, you did a number on this room," was the first thing out of Tychon's mouth when he saw the Scarlet drawing room. "Ought to have you go over the studies, I reckon. Drake an' I ain't had much luck. I found a weird painting, and we got a couple of interesting leads, but nothing you can fire out of a gun."

"So to speak," The gunslinger added, realising the Metallican expression might have gone over a few heads. "We're going to go talk to the staff tomorrow. Had a chat with Aubrey, but either he don't know nothing or he ain't saying what he does."

[Thragka]

Blueshifted; or, the Contracting Universe

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Tauron gave an approving nod when he'd taken in the state of the room. "Prudent. As for Aubrey, I would not be averse to trying more persuasive methods of interrogation - but not until we have exhausted the polite approach."

[Rizhail]

"I've got a grapnel and cord, but nothing I'd consider using in heavy winds. Anyone else have anything amongst their equipment for that kind of work?

Team People-Not-Named-Red

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"So, we have a secret passage and a few odd items to show for today's investigation. I agree with interrogating the staff tomorrow; that will hopefully yield better results than this kind of searching. The passage Red found will be worth fully investigating as well."

Nova looked around the reorganized room and sighed. "If we don't find anything with those methods, then I guess we'll be back to handling all of the rooms like this."

[Thanatos 51-50]

"En route to your 20 to RV," Red keyed through the comms, providing an ETA before heading off to the Scarlet room.

[Thragka]

"Perhaps we can discuss our plans for tomorrow over dinner?" said Tauron. "If Ms Blevins is not on the premises tonight, I propose that the next room we overturn be the kitchen."

[Destro_Yersul]

"That sounds like a damn good plan," Tychon said. "I wonder what kind of food they keep around this place? It's probably a lot better than anything I ever got to eat."

Looking around, the gunslinger made to pull the nearest bell, but reconsidered given the state of the room. "To the dining room, then?"

[LCP]

The dining room wasn't far from the drawing room, but it was on an altogether different scale. Its length reminded Red of the Munitorum mess halls, back when he was in the regiment - but they hadn't had ceilings this high, or furnishings this rich. The ancient rafters were carved with coats of arms, their dusty beams so tall and tangled that it looked like you could lose a flock of birds up there. And everywhere, all along the walls, those bloody paintings. Ranks and ranks of long-dead Rhodeses, looking down their noses at these intruders in their house. Mixed in among them was the odd mounted head, the stuffed jaws of various Xenos beasts slavering down at where the diners would sit.

A huge marble fireplace dominated the centre of the west wall, its iron fireback stained with centuries of soot. In the centre of the room, the long dining table could have seated scores, but it was bare - clearly it hadn't been used in some time. Over in one corner was the bell-pull to summon the servants.

[Destro_Yersul]

Tychon walked over and pulled the bellpull, waiting patiently with his back to the wall for AUbrey to arrive. Once the butler did, he intended to request food, though nothing specific. Just 'whatever can be made quickly.' After not eating for a good portion of the day, the gunslinger was getting hungry. Once that was done, he took a seat at the table and brought out his notes and a quill, setting them beside his place and watching the others.

"So. What's the plan? We've got a lot of ground to cover, here. Let's hear some ideas."

[Rizhail]

Nova plopped down in a chair across the table from Tychon. "I'm thinking the method Jer and me have been using isn't the best way forward. Cathartic, sure, but not the most efficient way to start looking for clues. Questioning the help might produce something, though they're likely ignorant of their master's actions. It wouldn't be a bad idea to track down any other holdings Rhodes might have around here: business investments, official duties, that sort of thing. I know he had some sort of official pass in one of his cars. That might be a place to start."