The House of Heron

[Carthrat]

There are three other rooms on this floor; to the right of the bathroom is a master bedroom, complete with antique bed, ripped to shreds. Bookshelves cover both left and right walls, and a toppled lamp lies across the front of the bed, bulb smashed.

In one corner, between a bookshelf and a wardrobe, Raven finds something someone else must have missed- underneath a pile of clothes lies a small wooden box, locked shut with a combination wheel.

Meanwhile, exploring the other two rooms, down a hall to the left, Liron discovers two things. The first room contains an untouched grand piano, left completely alone for some reason. Some music even sits on the stand, but it's untitled, and not one Liron recognizes.

The other room contains naught but a broken mirror and frame, cracked glass reflecting the room at crazy angles. It's not a large room- big enough to be a small study, perhaps, but little beyond that.

Despite the atmosphere, when Liron enters the mirror-room, he feels serene, almost calm, despite what he's just walked through.

[Brian]

Composing himself, Liron takes note of the room with the mirror and considers his options.  He itches to explore the place magically, but doesn't want to go further in that direction without comparing notes with Raven.  He takes one last look around the room before calling down the hall.

"I and I be thinking," he says, before realizing he's been slipping back into his accented Patois.  Switching back to more refined English he continues, "There's some sheet music here, and a piano.  I don't know if it means anything ... but there's a room with a mirror here I think we should look at."  While waiting for Raven to come back, Liron quickly double-checks his rosary, then unslings his guitar and checks the strings, though he doesn't start playing yet.

[Corwin]

Raven commits the place he found the box to memory, and picks it up, heading towards the sound of Liron's voice. "Sounds like a plan," he tells the other man. "I'll also need to take a look back in the bedroom, unless you have any idea how to force a combination wheel lock open."

As he speaks, Raven examines the box in more detail, trying to estimate how sturdy it is and how hard it would be to crack it open with force, if need be.

[Carthrat]

It's a pretty solid wooden box, though you might be able to smash it if you get your whole force behind it.

Be a damn sight easier with an axe or the like, though.

[Corwin]

Reaching the room with the mirror, Raven leans against the doorframe, holding the wooden box on the palm of his right hand for Liron to see. "I think we've found all that we can without using a bit of something extra."

[Brian]

Liron glances at the box and nods.  "Best be looking back, then?" he asks curiously, plucking out the first chord of 'Ave Maria'.

(Time 2, Prime 1: Time-sight, to try and see back to what caused this room to have the resonance that it does.  Roll 1: 1, 8 (ow...) Roll 2: 8, 10.)

[Carthrat]

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The resonance within the room comes not from the room itself, but the mirror within- brought here years ago, the mirror has slowly but surely passed on it's Contemplative resonance to the room about it.

[Corwin]

Nodding in approval at Liron's choice of music, Raven closes his eyes. He lets the opening notes of Ave Maria guide his mind's eye back to the events that resulted in the breaking of the mirror.

(Time 2: Divination, again; 7,2,7)

[Carthrat]

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As Raven focuses on the image, he sees a fairly simple scene, a leather-clad punk rushing in and smashing the mirror with his empty fist. It should have cut him, at least slightly- but he went without injury, glancing at one the shards and picking at his pink mohawk, slightly, before rushing out.

[Corwin]

Raven shares the image with Liron, adding out loud, "Seems to be a friend of the morons who trashed the place downstairs just over a week ago." He pauses, considering, before saying, "Not getting anything else out of the room, but the bedroom might be worth double-checking. You?"

[Brian]

"I think that this was Master Heron's scrying chamber," Liron says, shaking his head.  "But that seems obvious.  That mirror had majesty, once.  It brought this room's true self to where we see today."  He considers this briefly and turns to Raven.  "But that one....  The one who broke the mirror.  Did he know what he did?  Was he just seeking for something to break?  Or was he sent to hide something else behind this violence?"  He shakes his head.  "Too many questions."

Liron stows his guitar again before agreeing, "One more looksie won't hurt.  Let's go."  He pauses long enough to take a reasonably sized chunk of the mirror for later study; if the thing had any magical strength, it's probably long gone.  But the resonance might still remain.

[Corwin]

"If I had to guess, I'd say it was in anger." Raven pauses, contemplating in silence. "Though, perhaps someone hired that group of punks to merely destroy everything in the house," he continues, reminiscing on his earlier vision. "The group downstairs seemed very pissed off, enough so that one of them didn't notice losing his ankh. And the violence they used... it seemed to go beyond a simple search."

He glances at Liron, shrugging. "In any case, yeah, we should go check that room. Heh, I can even show you where the box was at."

[Carthrat]

The bedroom is fairly unremarkable, apart from it's status as shredded to pieces.

The only window in the room is towards the right hand side, opposite the door; it's a big affair that can be opened and closed. There's a pile of washing in a corner where Raven found the box, a dresser with a small, also-smashed mirror on it, and a few odds and ends- combs, hairties, that sort of thing.

There are a couple of bookshelves here, mostly holding pulp adventure and cheap horror novels. As well as that is the large double bed, matress ripped and pillows slashed open, almost as if someone was trying to look inside for something.

[Corwin]

High from the euphoria the notes of Ave Maria evoked in him, Raven hums it. The lyrics flash through his mind, sang by a beautiful voice with just a touch of a Chinese accent that made it all the more exotic. Focusing on those emotions of elation and superiority, Raven reaches with his senses towards the place the box in his hands was found, willing the past to part with its secrets.

(Time 2: Divination; 5, 9, 3)

[Carthrat]

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Was this room but a token effort? Raven sees flashes through his mind of men rushing in and out, almost right away, taking only a small amount of time to destroy the place. They didn't take apart the whole room, much less the floor- but his vision isn't enough to show him how many, or who rushed up these stairs- only that someone did.

Abruptly, Raven's mobile phone starts to ring.