With the coast clear, you think that now might be a good time to check out the vent. Wasting no time, you hop up onto your bed and take a look. In the flickering light, you notice that the bottom two screws have already been removed from the vent. Of the top two, one of them is almost entirely removed. It looks to you like someone has used this vent before.
After removing the loose screw and swinging the vent down on the axis of the remaining screw your suspicions are confirmed. Sitting just inside the vent opening is a small rolled-up paper sack — like something you’d use in grade school to carry your lunch. A quick glance inside reveals a few items of interest:
- A hypodermic needle. It looks pretty well-used and the business end is slightly charred.
- A bent spoon
- A Bic cigarette lighter with a small amount of fuel left
- A metal bolt about 6″ long. One end has been filed down to a point and the other end is wrapped in cloth. The sharpened end is stained with a flaky brown substance that COULD be rust, but you doubt it.
- A plastic baggie filled with a small amount of bright yellow powder
- A handwritten note
You take a brief look at the note. The parts of it that aren’t completely illegible seem to be filled with the ravings of a madman. The page is entirely covered on both sides with a tiny, spidery script — most of which is written in english, but there’s a fair share of symbols on there as well.
You shove the note into a pocket and make a brief attempt to conceal the rest of the items about your person. You’re rushed, so you’ll have to make sure to do a better job of this later.
With a single heave, you manage to get yourself up inside the vent head-first. You’ve only got an inch or two of clearance on either side, so you quickly adjust to put your arms out in front of you so that you can drag yourself along. It’s not comfortable, but it’ll do. Either way, though — turning around is going to be an impossibility. If you come back here, you’ll have to do so backwards.
At first you manage to make pretty good progress, but after only a few minutes your ams quickly begin to tire. In the pitch-blackness of the ventilation system your eyes and ears begin to play tricks on you. With the stale air pushing past you and the bowing of the metal as you crawl through it, it’s almost easy for you to convince yourself that the building itself is breathing. You hear the soft rasping sounds of the furnace machinery and feel the eddies of air swirling around your arms and legs — frankly, it’s hard to convince yourself that you’re NOT surrounded by hundreds of slithering snakes.
But still, you crawl on — undeterred — until at last you see some light up ahead. You are now in a slightly larger, yet still constrictive, shaft. It’s not quite large enough to crawl through, but it’s close. You can see two covered vents leading out of the shaft, one on the left side and one on the right. Ahead of you the shaft dead-ends and proceeds straight up into the blackness.
Both of the vents lead into darkened rooms, each of which has a door facing the vent shaft. The one on the right appears to be a smaller room than the other, and you can make out the silhouettes of some shelving from the light coming under the door. The one on the left is a larger room, but you can’t make much out inside besides part of what looks like a potted plant near the door.
You’re about to set upon the delicate task of removing one of the vent covers from INSIDE when you feel one of the air eddies brush your ankle again and you shiver. When the thing brushing your ankle tightens, however, you start to panic and can barely suppress a scream.
You’re not alone in here. Something is behind you.
And it’s starting to pull you towards it.
[poll id=5]
[poll id=6]
Notes:
The leading choice was “Try to pry the cover off the vent” which beat “Sneak through the halls and try to find Harold” by two votes.
As a note, I’m going to start listening to the comments for suggestions on things to do with the items found in the vent, so make sure to chime in if you would like Vlad to do something specific with them.
I made and recorded a roll for Vlad’s attempt to conceal his findings. Please speak up in the comments if you want him to spend some more time on concealing them later, otherwise he’ll go on as he is currently.
Please vote on BOTH polls this week. I’m trying something new with this one.
We’re trying something different this week. Please vote on both polls.
Goodness, this is a tough one. Stab at the thing at the risk of whatever it is making a loud noise or kick at it at the risk of Vlad making noises against the metal. Then escape to one of three unknown places.
Once Vlad stops (gets to whichever location he goes based on the poll) and isn’t being watched, he should conceal his loot better.
Clearly we have encountered the paraphernalia of a psychic doctor who is also a smoker. Oh no. Whatever will we do.
In all seriousness, if something was grabbing my ankle, I would be down with the stabbing.
This is fun. 😀
Looks like we found somebody’s drug stash, and all the means to use it. I don’t think the lighter is for smoking (we’d have found cigarettes since its hidden). Rather, I think the lighter is for melting the powder on the bent spoon, so you can inject it into yourself with the syringe. Lord only knows what the hell the powder is though. Bright yellow?
Anyway, stabbing seems more both more effective and quieter than kicking free in my opinion. Sure, the creature could make a sound, but kicking it loose practically guarantees we’ll make noise. Besides, an effective attack is considerably more important. Dying silently won’t really help us. 🙂
I figure the shelves are better than the room with the plant. Shelves seem both safer (since they’re unlikely to be alive) and like a better source of information and/or tools.
Well given the constraints of your environment and the fact that the shiv will most not like even reach your ankle since there is no room to turn around, AND its dark… you’d be making an attack against something with near complete concealment. I think trying to stab it will just end up having Vlad stab himself. Now as for the vents… it is less likely that some will be in the room with shelves, than the one with the potted plant. Plus… what do you keep on shelves? STUFF!!!! Free STUFFS! Plus if it turns out to be a storage area there may be better weapons/tools to get your hands on. Now Vlad could most likely use the lighter if he had it handy to get quick glimpses of light. He can also use the shiv to anchor himself to keep him from getting pulled further back when he kicks.
I figure: whatever this grabbing thing is, it’s used to being kicked at. You’ve got to step it up a notch to get anywhere. Just don’t shiv your own ankle. 😕
So I wonder… do people read the comment first, or vote first… we should take a vote on that. 😉
I vote first…which kind of nullifies any opinion my comment may have on other people that do the same.
Oh the quandaries. ;_;
I also vote first.
Do you guys like the two-poll thing? I’m trying to provide more choices without widening the playing field so much that we can’t get a consensus on any one thing.
I’m also trying to consider ways to get input from you guys on choices to offer. Asking for suggestions on what to do with the inventory is one thing, but I’m considering a few others — like putting up a secondary “unofficial” poll that people can add options to, or opening a thread in the forums….
Anyone else have any ideas on that score?