Quest Dead Like Me

[Noaru]

“Heh, I knew things were going to get good: maybe, I should follow people in cloaks more often?’’

[...Blink...] Noaru disappears, reappearing just outside the door, he couldn't help but feel unease when left alone in such a place; here something was able to ''see'' him when he was invisible and could even sense him when he was hiding, it wasn't something he could ignore. The spirit began to wander around the building, he turned the corner and looked towards the back of the building--lush green landscaping could still be seen but only slightly within the darkness of night, it was beautiful as if the environment was distracting him from the presence that lurked nearby.


“ I know where the presence is but I'm unsure to if I should try to ''feel'' it... I'm not sure to how big the presence is exactly, it will remain as an idea to because I' am not going to risk trying to do such a thing inside the mansion.’’

Noaru wondered about the mansion, he placed his ghostly palm just barely touching the surface of the wall, he didn't want to disturb anything like Anselm mentioned before but the temptation was killing him! He wills soulmist to circulate within his palm, he grasps onto two small pebble lying on the ground and tosses them at the building almost as if taunting the unknown thing to dare to make its presence known outside.

[Arcane]

@Anselm: Anselm's investigate efforts of engaging the nearby citizenry proved to be somewhat fruitful. Though most of them avoided talking about the topic and went on with their daily lives, it was evident that neither of them liked the house very much, nor its previous residents. "No one's gonna mourn 'em, them Lajamies," A villager shook her head as she muttered before shooing Anselm off. "Thought it'll be better with them gone, at least ye've somethin visible to cuss at," Another villager said. "Can't be gossiping on the job," The guard whom Anselm approached said, "But the Lajamies weren't too popular around with the folks, seeing as they're educated folks and all." @Noaru: Whatever consequence that Noaru hoped to create with his provocation did not occur, and nothing happened. However, the longer he stayed in the mansion the more he would feel his ethereal body being invaded somewhat. It was a difficult feeling pinpoint, but it was a sort of mix between feeling the soulmist in his body dissipating into the surrounding nothingness, and being replaced by some sort of foreign... emotion. He would not feel it, much as a frog would not feel itself getting boiled if one were to slowly raise the temperature while the amphibian is in the pot. However, upon leaving the mansion this realization would struck the ghost when he realized just how together his spiritual body felt, and it was like a gasp of fresh air compared to the suffocating mustiness of the indoors.

[Anselm]

Anselm let himself into the mansion and sat heavily on a couch. He relaxed and turned his focus inward. Then he let Djed flow to his eyes and imagined it flowing out into the room. The mostly monochrome objects in the room slowly shifted into various pastel shades, sharp edges becoming indistinct, lines blurring, colors running together. The room became a kaleidoscope of mostly beige, pink and gray colors. A rodent of some sort ran along a wall and disappeared into a crack in the floor. It appeared as a yellow blur. He scanned the room and then extended his vision beyond the walls of the room looking for other signs of life. He found Noaru's aura out back behind the house. He shut down his auristics and went outside and around back. “Noaru,” he said to the empty air near where he supposed the Ghost to be. “I have learned some interesting things. I cannot be sure yet, but I believe we are dealing with a manifestation of Qamur. What I don't know yet is why it is here. In any case, I have some more questions for Mr. Thomas when he returns and I have planned a little experiment for later tonight to test my hypothesis. “What do you think about all this? And did you learned anything of interest while I was gone?”

[Noaru]

“There's this feeling again accompanied by this uncomfortable sense of lose and defeat... I don't like it, this damned, accursed house!’’

Noaru was now certain that this wasn't a ghost or something he could use or cooperate with... It was a monster. And he had tried to provoke it, he couldn't help but feel slightly nerves about something that could sap away his strength, he glanced towards the house nervously one last time before gaining his composure. Noaru wasn't up for going back into the house again after what he did before, could the presence be angry at him for throwing two harmless pebbles? He didn't want to take any chances and kept his distance from the presence he felt, it was evil more so than he was and after this investigation is done, he would vow not to come to this place again.

“ Wretched monster.... Wait, my power has faded some! Why! I had enough soulmist to perform a few tasks before leaving the house. This is no house, its a monster; you, its all your fault, you should have just killed the humans and made it clear to others that they shouldn't be here! ’’

The spirit shouted at the presence, responding to the loss of his power with anger and aggression, he was now convinced that he should not enter the house again--anymore power taken from him and he would have to retreat. The spirit finally hears what Anselm was saying, placing upon him more discomfort and grief, parting with his soulmist was enough but now a ''Qamur'' what in the world was that!?

“ Qamur.... I knew this house, this place wasn't good from the beginning when it started to effect my psyche and sap my strength. ’’

[...Blink...] Noaru vanishes from the back of the house and reappears on the side of the house, he had some distance between him and Anselm but didn't want to waste energy on ''materializing'' so he simply just watched his partner while invisible, unwilling to waste precious soulmist.

[Anselm]

A little before midnight Thomas and Gravis arrived and joined Anselm in the main living area. He wondered if Noaru would make an appearance. He didn't know why the Ghost had decided to remain invisible but it was his business, not Anselm's. “Gentlemen, I have formed a hypothesis about what ails this old house and I propose to perform an experiment to prove or disprove it. But first, I have a question for Mr. Thomas.” He turned toward his employer. “What can you tell me about the history of this house?”

[Arcane]

Mister Thomas peered at Anselm with an expectant gaze, commenting, "I suppose that explanations are in order then?" Together with the spiritist, they took a seat amongst the arrangement of chairs that remained untouched since the previous day. Upon the investigator's sudden question though, the pudgey gentleman gave a surprised expression which quickly turned into a blank one as he considered Anselm. "Well..." He hesitated for a moment, giving the interior of the house a cursory glance before continuing, "This mansion, along with its property, used to be long to an affluent family most notable for their influence in the University of Zeltiva and, by extension, the rest of the city. It has been... vacated quite recently and I spotted a potential business opportunity and so I bought it over from the relatives of the family." Gravis snorted, interrupting, "Vacated? One hell of a vacation that must be." "Excuse me," Mister Thomas blanched, then clarifying, "If you want to know the exact incident, Mister Anselm, though I doubt it has any relevance, was that this place has seen better days. The family, alongside with any buildings that you did not see standing around, were vanquished during the unfortunate storm last spring." "This house continues to discomfort me, and we can always continue trading stories and gossip in safer venues. Mister Anselm, I pray that you carry on with your explanation and perhaps offer a resolution," Anselm's employer finished, taking out a handkerchief to wipe his greasy forehead. It was not hot, but cold sweat began to accumulate amongst the living occupants in the vicinity. Not a short moment after the businessman completed his sentence when a low howl could be heard emanating from deep within the mansion. No one knew where it came from, for none of the four of them had ventured any deeper besides the lobby. "Did you, did you see that?" Mister Thomas squeaked, pointing to the shadowy corridors that linked the lobby to the depths of the house. He produced a curious shrug from the spiritist who happened to be looking at the door at that time. However, if Anselm had been noticing the place where he thought he saw a shadow the previous day, or if his reflexes were fast enough to quickly look at where his employer was pointing at, he would notice blurred humanoid silhouettes just standing at the edge of the corridor, glancing at them. Just before Gravis turned to look at the pointed spot, the silhouettes would turn around calmly and walk into the shadows, causing the spiritist to discover nothing. Should Noaru be observing these shadows, he would find a strange sort of nothingness that emanated from them. They seem like spirits like him, yet there was enough... oblivion within them that made Noaru sure that they could not be spirits. They seemed too alien... too artificial.

[Anselm]

Anselm found his employer's explanation unsatisfying and the curious reaction from the spiritist equally so. There was more to this than they were telling him but apparently they were not going to share everything they knew. Anselm had over the years developed his powers of observation to the point that he was quite competent. Therefore he did not miss the ghostly wraiths at the end of the hall. Something inhuman dwells in this house, he thought. If not ghosts, then what? He had abandoned his hypothesis about Qamur, at least for now. He wracked his brain for some memory that might give him a clue, but nothing was forthcoming. Unless … He grabbed a lamp from a table and hurried down the hallway as fast as his bad leg would allow, watching for the vague creatures and listening for more moans from the building. He suspected the moaning sounds and the appearances were linked. A new hypothesis was forming in his mind. And where is that damn ghost when I need him? he muttered under his breath. Things could get dicey in a minute.

[Noaru]

“ I don't want anything to do with this place anymore...’’

Noaru said this in a plain and emotionless manner, he wasn't to keen on entering it again, something about it, it was to.... haunting. The spirit found himself hesitating, something he believed he did not do often but he had to move, he had a responsibility to take care and he was to not back down in such a crucial moment; he had to tell Anselm what he ''felt'' about the house--what he could sense about the place, he had to tell them everything... this was not the time for him to be selfish! There is something about this place, it snatches from him the very soulmist that covers his soul and this puts him at unease because if it could; instill melancholy upon those that enter it's foundations, sap the strength from him without noticing... what else could it do?

“ I have lived for generations and seen the darkness that dwells within the soul. I have dwelled in places so empty that desolation had no place within it but here I must admit: though, painfully! This place creates a deep form of tension around me, is this what living beings call... fear? ’’

Noaru had to move quickly, he blinks several times, almost a fifth time before he realized that he would pass the front door up if he did so! The spirit walks through the door, passing through it's foundation with relative ease; he stood in the living room and force upon his body the will to become solid to manifest into view--here his ghostly form would take on a more visible form as his soulmist vigorously swirled around his body reacting to his will... he became visible to all inside the house, telling about what he had experienced.

“ There is something wrong with these grounds, my strength... some of it was taken from me! What manner of being can do this without me noticing!? There's a presence within this house, dwelling within it...oblivion.’’

The sheer will he had to put forward into manifesting combined with the supple loss of his strength was becoming taxing on the spirits body, he flickered constantly like a bad hologram and this made him think of something.

“ Spiritist! Pardon my rudeness but do you have soulmist with you? I believed that it could help us; my idea is that if soulmist swirls through this area that it mite cause a change within it! I'm not sure of what kind of change but I know that ''if'' there are any invisible entities here that their bodies would react to it unconsciously and me or either you could pick up their presence.’’


The idea was far from perfect: maybe even bad but at least he had thought of something on his part.

[Arcane]

@Noaru: Gravis hesitated for a moment, then reached some sort of internal decision as he reached for a vial within his pocket, removing a lump of swirly white substance within. Throwing it at the ghost, he bottled the vial again and returned it to his pocket. Noaru would find himself being re-energized by the soulmist, a calm sense of well-being pervading his senses. Gravis' soulmist was not top quality, but it was decent enough to cause that brief respite of relaxation. However, strange, invisible tendrils had tugged briefly at the soulmist while it was in mid-flight. It happened so quick and so suddenly and it disappeared in a split-second, causing the two humans to not even notice it. While absorbing the soulmist, Noaru would find himself being similarly pervaded by an unsettling feeling, but this time it was gnawing away at him from within instead of from outside like earlier. This was a different sort. *Flash* "What's happening outside?" "I told you, Vintean, the Lord of Council-" "Laraine, damn the Lord of Council. The University-" "The University, Vintean, the University? It has always been about them! What about us?" Hysterical. "We will seek safety. Anglon! Moran! Guide the lady to the basement." "I do NOT want to go near that filthy-" "Just for this once, darling. Just to hide from this storm." A deep sigh. "I need to secure the stash. Lukis and Pher, follow me. We shall head to the other cellar." *Flash* Noaru would find himself twitching as his immaterial body lay hovering only inches from the floor, the vision having incapacitated him for a while. @Anselm: The nuit chased his hallucinations for a while, and it seemed that the shadows acceded to him. A vague movement here, a soft sigh there. If the nuit had been observant enough to keep up with the abnormalities, he would find himself twisting through the maze of the mansion. However, one thing was certain, he was going higher and higher up, until he found himself in a grand-looking bedroom. Moonlight shone through the cracks in the ceiling. A hushed, muffled voice that seemed to come from all directions. "The sky does not seem bright today." "Could it be... it?" The ghostly voices disappeared, as the soft murmur trailed off into the darkness. The mysterious clues stopped right in this bedroom. A tattered bed lay, with various trinkets around the house in disarray. A bag was half-packed with necessities that lay abandoned before an opened closet, while another closet at the opposite of the room had its doors closed. A painting was also above the bed, but the paint was somehow glowing an otherworldly color, the solid yet liquid substance leaking down the wall.

[Noaru]

“Spiritist! If you throw soulmist at me again.... I ... will.’’

Noaru could sense it happening that feeling was returning with a vengeance! He began to resist, fighting off the sensation of despair and energy deprivation; he closed his eyes and trashed wildly trying to be as defiant as possible to this invasive presence and whatever force that was bringing this upon him... until. The spirit was shown a vision of two men and a women talking then heading towards a cellar? The University, Lord of Council... he didn't known any of these entities!

Once the vision had ended Noaru felt his power dwindling quickly! He had to tell the others about the cellar but at the rate his power was depleting, he believed that he wouldn't even be able to tell them in time, he had to try!

“ The cellar... CHEC-!... I-! ’’

Noaru found himself unable to talk and out of strength to materialize again. The spirit had so few options to take as of now; he had to continue onwards alone and maybe come to understand the meaning behind the vision he had just seen seconds ago. Noaru placed his ghostly form onto the floor and began to sink into it, he had to go the cellar or at least he hoped so--in order to put an end to these strange events. Noaru's body was now completely submerged into the floor, traveling down into the depths of the mansion, he sought to find the strange houses answers.

“ I don't understand--the meaning behind what you have shown me. I will not intrude, if this domain is yours but should this be your way of communicating... I will listen and end your curse. ’’


“ ’’