Dogura followed the air flow around the area until he came to the area where the source was most prominent. He'd blocked out everything that didn't have to with what he was currently involved with, and he was completely captivated by the strange phenomena taking place around the floor of the kitchen. "Does anyone else feel a draft here?" The samurai asked, waving his hand around the area of the draft. "Someone come here and confirm that I'm not crazy." He waved an arm as if come closer.
[Awareness Check]

OOC: Here's to looking in the right place =P
Sorry I missed the last round there, I've been quite the busy guy this week. Again, many apologies from ZV.

"Does anyone else feel a draft here?"

Aria sprang to her feet and hurried to the room Dogura was in; now there was a bit of information the ranger could have learned about my just poking her head in the room. "Why didn't you say something sooner?" she asked, a bit annoyed that the samurai didn't share this information before now. Granted, she kept her idea about using the ladder to replace the staircase a secret, but that was just to make sure it was a good idea first.

Standing near the approximate area Dogura was standing in, the Gerudo could indeed feel a draft. "Yeah, I feel it too," she confirmed. Aria got down to her knees, running her palm against the floor and other man-made structures near by while still using her eyes to look for the source of the draft. [Awareness Check]

A draft! That means there's an opening somewhere nearby.... could be just a hole in the wall, but it could be, maybe... a secret passage? Leth hurried into the room with Dogura. He paused for a moment to inspect the air around him. "If you're crazy, then we're all crazy because I feel it, too." He began turned around and glanced along the walls. "There's something around here... but where to look...." Leth begins searching in earnest now, looking for anything out of place that might give them a clue as to the origin of the mysterious draft. awarness check

OoC: I bet it fails.

Rosen's checking of the clock swiftly reveals something interesting (20+1 vs. 15 Pass). It seems odd that the clock is still running - most of these mechanisms require winding at least once a week, some once a day. Glancing inside the windowpane in the clock's main body, he sees that the pendulum is glowing a soft yellow - hardly noticeable if one isn't looking for it, but definitely there.

Dogura, Aria, and Leth all gather around the southeastern corner of the Kitchen, immediately upsetting the air in the room with the massive influx of numbers. As such, Dogura and Aria are unable to figure out where exactly the cold air is coming from (2+9 vs. 15 Fail, 4+3 vs. 15 Fail) - it is left up to the tracker, Leth, to retain his senses and pinpoint its point of origin. In this the archer is quite successful (20+3 vs. 15 Pass), and he quickly realizes that it is coming from a rather obvious source - the unopened doorway in the southeast corner. At first it had been assumed to be some sort of closet or pantry or something, but if this is the source of the chill in the air then perhaps these assumptions were too quickly jumped to.

OOC:

Leth wrote:OoC: I bet it fails.

Always nice to know that chance has a sense of humor to it... Or is it.....

OOC: Alright, there's two ways I can do this...I can either TRY and see if the clock opens up for me...or I can smash it...Because I WANT THAT GLOWING PENDELUM!


Rosen stood there, knees have bent and palms plastered on the windowpane with eyes mesmerized with the swing of the pendulum. He wondered if it'd be of any use to remove it or to wind it. Feelings of greed and envy surged within him as he began to concoct stories of that game night gone awry, with men hunting wildly and to no avail for this irksome charm that swung menacingly before him.

He quelled them, still hungry to wrap his fingers around the glittering object, if only because of sheer curiosity and the plane glass that stood to deter him. Groping at its face, Rosen searched for a latch of some kind, perhaps a way for clock makers to delve into it should it go to disrepair. The last thing he wanted to do was cause a commotion by shattering the thing.

"I wonder if it'd do anything to wind it back again?" He stumbled. The thought laced the craftsmanship of the clock and followed the goron's hands as he moved forwards in trying to remove the jewel. "Couldn't help to try before taking the darn thing, right?"

Awareness Check

Dogura stood up, and sighed. "I grow tired of wandering around this house aimlessly looking for something that may not even be there." He put a hand to his head, and closed his eye. "Really though, do we have any leads? Are we going to have to search every room as carefully as the last?" That's when it hit him.

"Perhaps... Perhaps we're thinking too hard." He made way for the entrance, and stared at the wrecked stair case. "Where is Saber with that ladder of his? We should be able to use it to scale to the second floor." He figured as long as he was waiting, he might as well scan the room from where he stood.

[Awareness Check]

OOC: Taking your idea, HnS, and actually making haste with it.

Altair not sure what do do stood around making notes on his current allys in his mind. The assasin felt the coldness made no mention of it figuring evereyone else had that covered and instaed moved to the unopen door. Turning the handle he was ready to dodge any traps.

Alpha glanced over the contents of the desk, feeling fairly disappointed in the results - no diary, no notes, no messages that might convey what had occurred here and why the town was devoid of people . . . and of any trace of said people also. The only thing of interest was the scheduling book, which told him really only one thing: the people hadn't been planning to leave. Otherwise there probably would have been some note beyond "Game Night w Kids"; some mention would have been made concerning preparations. So that likely meant that the keeper of this book, and therefore likely the entire Sarian populace, had been caught off guard with whatever had taken or forced them away. Either that, or the guy didn't take very meticulous notes. He really couldn't say.

The Sheikah glanced back towards the door as he heard people gathering about the entrance again - Dogura in particular mentioned something of a ladder. He looked back, then grabbed the day planner and carefully made his way through the room. "I found a locked safe and a journal that mentions a Game Night with kids," he announced, a lack of excitement at these discoveries clearly evident in his voice. "And if you're wanting a ladder," he replied to Dogura, "I've got one right here."

Walking over to a shadowed wall, his scar abruptly began glowing a sharp violet, and he yanked the ladder straight out of the Void portal that had appeared in the darkness. While it was probably a shocking sight for most, the Sheikah didn't seem to think anything of it; he just glanced back at Dogura and stated simply, "Where do we put it?" He began looking over the collapsed stairs, trying to ascertain where a good place to put it would be; he'd heard Aria's troubles moments earlier.

While Rosen is unable to locate any way to re-wind the clock (11+1 vs. 15 Fail), it's fairly obvious that the glass in front of the old clock is on hinges, ones which swiftly squeak open as the Goron plays around with it. He immediately has access to the pendulums, though how to remove them is the question. It probably won't be too difficult with one of his strength, though, so that too probably should not be worried about.

As Alpha moves the ladder over to the stairwell, Dogura's glance around the room gives him a few more details that had been missed in the earlier, passing inspections (17+9 vs. 15 Pass). The scorched remains of paintings hang along every wall, and what remains of the flame-consumed furniture in the room shows hints of jewels or gold - real or not, it more than likely means that this family was doing fairly well for itself. Of course, the primary item of note is the stairwell: the boards of the stairs, burned to collapsing at some point since the South's occupation began, now lie in a pile that covers up completely the middle part of the back half of the flooring. Splinters and upturned nails abound, and even if they are careful enough to avoid them, there's no telling whether or not the boards will shift or crack anew if weight is applied in excess or in the wrong places.

This appears to be the case as Alpha steps forward; though the Sheikah is a swift and cautious one, he still cannot avoid the unexpected shifting of wood beneath his feet as he steps on a loose board (3+5 vs. 15 Fail). Just like Aria before him, he doesn't have time to even try putting up the ladder before his balance is stolen out from under him, and he collapses to the ground. It's fortunate that he avoided any nails or pointed ends of the wood; chances are that the group's luck won't hold out much longer if they keep risking it.

But that does not mean their luck is gone, for while the others stand in the hallway trying to scale the large gap, Altair is still poking around in the kitchen. Unlike anyone else, the man decides to do the fairly obvious thing and open the pantry door in the southeast corner, looking to discover the source of the cold air - and realizes that this is no pantry at all.

It's a staircase.

Sure, this one's leading down into some sort of basement rather than upwards to the second floor, but it's a new area, right? Something new to explore, and perhaps a few more secrets to uncover in the process. And maybe something down there will be what they need to at least start solving the riddle of their blocked ascension.

"Ridiculous, I can't imagine why anyone would move the clock forward!" He grumbled as his fingers wrapped around the glowing pendelums, giving each a good thrust and yanking them from their place holders. Magical items surely won't break because of a little brute force, the goron decided. And hopefully, he won't have to spend any more time in the company of this irksome time keeper whose gallant figure is beginning to weigh itself on his nerves.

"I'll just keep these for later," he mumbled, while his arms wriggled each pendelum loose. "Better not be anything else, round here." His eyes strolled towards the sounds that echoed behind him, outside the door and creaking with the banter of fragile floor boards.

"Gotta show these to someone!"

OOC: I really hope that I'm not making a mistake in not trying harder to fix that clock. BUT COME ON!

Alatir began a descent down the staircase looking straight down keeping one hand on his weapon. He looked around trying to notice anything worth noticing. Awarness check.

Dogura couldn't help but laugh as Alpha fell to the floor. He tried to speak, but doubled over resting his hands on his knees, laughing even harder. "I'm- I'm so-HAHAHAHAH- I'm sorry, just... Hold on a moment." The samurai knew he'd better get his act together. He'd known the mage for a long time, and he knew the kinds of fireworks he was capable of.

He knew Alpha wouldn't purposely attack him with a powerful spell, but then again, he only knew the man so well. "Ahhh... It would seem our robe-clad friend has found something. Shall we?" Dogura extended a hand in the man's direction offering for help up. Should the Sheikah accept the offer after all of the humiliating laughter, Dogura would follow him down the stairs to see what has yet to be seen.

OOC: I cannot, for the life of me, see Alpha falling like that XD

Alpha stumbled back as the boards suddenly shifted beneath his feet, immediately dropping back onto the training that had been drilled into him by Master Zaris and years on the run. The man agilely dropped a hand to a safe spot on the ground - how he'd known it was safe was anyone's guess, including his own - and spun himself around, rotating his position until he stood over the security of the actually flooring.

He looked up at the samurai, still trying to hold back laughter, and turned a curious eye towards the man. "Something wrong, Dogura?" he asked as he slowly stood up on his own, brushing himself off. The mage reached down to grab his ladder, hoisting it up on his shoulders as he looked off towards the kitchen area. He motioned for his fellow Guardian to lead the way or get out of the way, whichever he preferred.

OOC: Fall like what, ZV?

OOC: No, really, I should have expected something this evil from you

IC: Dogura wiped his eye, and smiled. "My apologies. I just remembered something stupid Darkin did earlier, and... Well, it really doesn't matter." He waved an arm to follow, and continued on after Altair. "You know this house really is old. I mean look at the architecture." He pointed around the room at the old style woodwork. "You really should be more careful on these floors. It wouldn't surprise me if I fell through the floor right now."

Dogura suddenly came to a halt, and looked down at the floors. "Honestly though, what would find in the basement, other than random objects floating around on the water's surface. If this place really did have a recent flood, then the basement would surely be submerged. If the basement is dry..." Dogura's curiosity began to rise, as he picked up his pace, and immediately rounded the corner and descended the stairs. This could be either a really big disappointment- or another clue.

The pendulums snap off the grandfather clock without any difficulty, which shouldn't be surprising given a Goron's innate strength. Immediately their shine fades away into nothingness, and the clock comes to a grinding halt, apparently having ticked its final tock after Rosen's tampering. But there is something that catches the man's eye - on the back of one there are some numbers and letters scratched on it: "36L39R14L26+O" ...except that last one isn't really an 'O', it's more of a circle that looks like it had markings around the edges of it. Very interesting.

The rest of the party is already on their way down the stairs and into the newly uncovered room beneath the floor of the main story. As they descend on the metal stairs, they can easily make out the sound of dripping water - and as they reach the bottom, they'll find that there is nearly a foot of liquid covering the entire ground. Barefoot people would note, thanks to the feel of it, that the ground is dirt, while the walls are concrete, so the water from whenever the last flood was is still trying to escape.
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In front of the concrete, though, are several shelves of materials and rotten, waterlogged foodstuffs. Most of it is food, though there are a few boxes of nails and screws, a couple tools in a pile on one, what looks to be a toy train set, wooden planks and dog supplies, etc. There's really no telling how useful some of this stuff will or will not be.

Investigators, start your engines!