Part 20: Day Two- Page 20

Everyone seems to agree. Let's start with the Sitting room.

>East
Back Hall
>South
Foyer

Your luggage is still here, spread out all over the foyer.

The Sitting Room is East of the Foyer. It may have been the first place one is supposed to visit in this game.

>East


Sitting Room
The east wall is occupied by a beautiful antique sofa, and a large, hand-woven rug covers the hardwood floor. The huge marble fireplace in the north wall helps complete the impression of comfort and warmth, and for a moment or two you can almost think of this place as somewhere you could live, as opposed to merely somewhere others have died. The foyer lies west, and a doorway to the left of the fireplace leads north.

Your brief sense of comfort quickly drains away, however, as you become aware of the icy and maniacal stare emanating from the great portrait hanging over the mantelpiece. Under the malefic gaze of those red-rimmed eyes, the most comforting thought you can muster is that of immediate flight.

On the sofa is a family album.

>look at sofa
It's a 19th century William IV-style sofa with wide, flaring armrests and beautifully scrolled mahogany woodwork. The upholstery is a soft, faded wine color.

A subtle movement from the portrait makes you turn. For a moment, it seems like the eyes are looking directly at you, but it's only a trick of the light.

Oooh! That looks comfortable!

>sit
There's nowhere here for you to sit.

What are you talking about, Game? This is the sitting room.

>sit on sofa
You can't sit on the sofa.

But... But...
It's a SOFA!

>look at album
It's a slim, hardbound volume in dark leather, unadorned except for name "Verlac" embossed on the front. Glancing at the title page, you notice two details: one, the book was self-published; and two, it was published in 1944. So it's a good bet that Edward Verlac and his family aren't mentioned here.

A subtle movement from the portrait makes you turn. For a moment, it seems like the eyes are looking directly at you, but it's only a trick of the light.

>take album
Taken.

What was that baby's name? William?

>look up william in album
You cannot find that name anywhere in the album.

Huh. Well, if he's the family secret, I guess that only makes sense.

>look up Edward in album
Since this book was only published in 1944, there is no mention of Edward Verlac or his family. He probably wasn't even born yet.

I could hope. Actually, except for Edward and William, we don't have that many names of the Verlacs.
Maybe the Album can introduce us.

>read album
The book contains portraits and brief biographies (although, strangely, no birth or death dates) on some two hundred members of the Verlac clan, from the central family figures to the distant second cousins. If you want to read about someone in here, you'll have to look them up by name.

I know what you're thinking. Michael surely could not be in this book.

>look up Michael in Album
No mention of Michael in here, which isn't surprising, since he wasn't born until 1973. Even so, Michael is such an extremely distant relative, it's doubtful he would have been in this book in any case.

>put album in coat
You slip the family album into the pocket of your trenchcoat.

That just leaves...

>look at painting
The man in the portrait is the apotheosis of everything cruel and inhuman that you have ever laid eyes on. His archaic Puritan dress would indicate that he must have lived a very long time ago; perhaps he was the founder of the Verlac family in this region. If so, it's no wonder they all wound up murdered or mad: the red-rimmed eyes glaring down from his gaunt and haggard face seem to blaze with a terrible insanity. There is nothing regal, fatherly or dignified about this portrait. It is the essence of raving, gibbering evil captured on canvas.

How lovely and uplifting that this should be in the parlor. We wouldn't want to make the guests feel welcome, now would we?
And... And those eyes.

>look at eyes
They are the eyes from your dream, without question.

Alright, then there's the attic.

>West
Foyer

Your luggage is still here, spread out all over the foyer.
>Up
Upstairs Landing
>East
Upstairs Hall
There is a cord dangling in mid-air here, right about level with your face.
>pull cord
With a rusty, ratcheting groan and a brief shower of dust, the trap door swings down and folds back, revealing a rickety wooden ladder leading up into darkness.
>up
The ancient rungs creak alarmingly as you ascend.

Attic
It's much cooler up here than in the rest of the house, and you find it hard to suppress a shiver. Grotesque, looming shadows crawl across the low, slanted ceiling, and the dust hangs thick and motionless in the air. To the west the ceiling dips even lower until the space beneath leaves hardly room enough to crawl, while to the north stands a wooden door, draped in shadows and half-hidden by the slanting eaves.

Oddly, I think being in other parts of the house triggered a second description for the Attic, which is why it's giving us another look at the place.
Now, I'm not going to waste matches while we have this Harry Mason brand flashlight.

>turn on flashlight
The flashlight emits a warm yellow beam.

>West

Crawlspace
The ceiling descends here to no more than three feet from the floor; you are forced to crawl through the cramped darkness on your hands and knees. To the east the attic becomes more spacious, while the northwest corner opens into an oddly-angled corridor.

Lovely.
We can see the attic is larger than we first thought. Might as well let is lead us.
Goons with sharp memories will recall when we first saw the house from the outside, there was a dome.
Miranda would like to see what's inside that dome.

>Northwest
As you make your way down the corridor, you begin to get dizzy, then nauseous. Lines seem to cross without bending, the ceiling becomes the walls and the floor becomes the ceiling. Half-blind, unsure even of which direction you were going in, you stagger forward and suddenly find yourself in a...

Crawlspace

What?

Huh?

>look

Crawlspace
The ceiling descends here to no more than three feet from the floor; you are forced to crawl through the cramped darkness on your hands and knees. To the east the attic becomes more spacious, while the northwest corner opens into an oddly-angled corridor.

Is this the same crawlspace?

>drop broom
Dropped.

>Nw
As you make your way down the corridor, you begin to get dizzy, then nauseous. Lines seem to cross without bending, the ceiling becomes the walls and the floor becomes the ceiling. Half-blind, unsure even of which direction you were going in, you stagger forward and suddenly find yourself in a...

Crawlspace

You can see a broom here.

What witchery is this? Heading Northwest spits Miranda back into the place she left?
This maybe a dead end... For now.


>take broom
Taken.

>East

Attic

>turn off flashlight
You switch the flashlight off.

>

Alright, I'll end this here for now.
Next update, I'll check out both the Gallery and the Dinning room together, then it's up to you where we explore next.

In the meantime, if you have any suggestions about what to do with the attic or anything else, leave it in Bold, as per normal.

Items

In Trenchcoat