”A study?  Perhaps there are answers here.”  Razi will wait for direction one of the more skilled… investigators of things that don’t belong to them… and provide help.

Caine moves into the room, rubbing his hands together as he does. He gives the desk a quick once over for traps before searching through the drawers.

Perception for traps: 18   

Perception for searching the desk: 5  

Nelyna is immediately drawn to the bookshelves. This is her favorite room of the house so far. She runs her fingers along the spines of some of the tomes, examining the titles. This is quite the well-stocked library. She pulls a book from the shelf at random and examines it.

Caine takes the iron key from the desk. 

"Maybe this will come in handy," he says as he slips it into this pocket. "Think they actually read all of those?"

He runs his hands over a few of the spines, looking for odd books, or book stops that might seem out of place compared to the the rest of the collection.

"Rich people," he says with a shake of his head.

Perception: 13  

Razi looks at the condition of the room.  Is there a lot of dust?  Does this office look recently used or long abandoned?

Seeing everyone disappear into the other room, Jim shrugs his shoulders and follows. He picks up the sheets of parchment and begins to hold them up to the light.

"Often you can see impressions left in the parchment when someone leans on it. It might reveal what was written on the parchment on top."

If that fails, Jim will then investigate the rest of the room, and attempt to recognise any of the books about the arcane.

(Investigation: 24 Arcana: 22)

Caine looks at the chest and then the three darts.

"If this poor guy is any indication," Caine says. "Best to assume there are more traps around here."

He takes the letter from the skeleton's hand, and standing to one side, flips up the half-open chest lid with his boot.

Once open, he reads the letter aloud for everyone to hear then takes a look inside the chest.

Looking at the corpse, the hidden room, and hearing the contents of the letter, Razi looks at the others and mouths a silent “wow.”

"So," Jim begins before pausing. "So it seems that the father of this family began to worship this Strahd? Possibly even thinking that he summoned Strahd? And he tortured people in a dungeon and seemingly sacrificed people in the hopes of riches?"

He places the parchment down before turning around.

"Wait a minute, this was done in a dungeon and the kids thought that there was a monster in the basement? Do you reckon that it was the sounds of people being tortured and killed that they heard, and not a monster?"

Nelyna shudders at the sight of the skeleton and hearing the words of the letter. Strahd von Zarovich...that must be the name of the cursed prince. She examines the books in the hidden chamber to see if she recognizes any of the tomes.

Investigation - 20

In response to Jim, she only nods. "It's possible. It sounds like this poor man became enthralled by this Strahd, and it turned out very badly for him. I wonder what it means by taking solace in the bosom of another woman? And a bastard child? Is that the baby we saw in the portrait?"

Caine grimaces at the contents of the letter and the conjectures of the others.

"Like I said, rich people," Caine begins. "Bet whoever they tortured downstairs wasn't exactly of the same social class."

He backs out of the secret room, and then catches sight of the edge of the black cloak he's wearing. He shudders and rips it off and tosses it on the floor. Then he looks around for the nearest window and tries opening it. Failing that, he picks up the nearest chair and attempts to smash the window.

"I'd rather find a way out of here than find the basement," Caine says.

Suspecting that might not result in much, if Caine can't get the window open, or break it open, he'll head out of this library and try another one of the doors off the hall with the stairs.

"Well, that just means he had an affair and had a child with her," Jim replies to Nelyna. "So, yes... that was probably the baby."

He then nods his head, "Yeah, rich people. I am also going to guess that the other woman he impregnated was the carer of the two older children. I wonder what happened to her? I bet missus pathetic worm was not too please about the other woman."

Jim watches as Caine attempts to break the window, "I've got a feeling that for us to get out of there, we probably have to head to the basement. And as someone said earlier, to get to the basement, we have to go up."

He then tilts his head to look at the ceiling.

Razi thinks out loud.  "So... the master of this house is attempting to worship this Strahd von Zarovich character.  Perhaps even tried to correspond with him as that letter sounds like a response.  He is torturing and 'bleeding' people in the basement.  He has a bastard child, probably the one in the painting.   No basement.  Secret passage in the study."  He pauses for a long while. 

"A few things that don't make sense to me...

"Who is the skeleton in the secret closet?  And how long ago did he die?  It takes a while to get reduced to just bones.  And he was holding the letter... how long ago was that written?  When did these people live and die?"

"Next... who commissions a portrait to include their bastard infant?  Assuming you did decide you wanted to do it, why pay a painter to capture your wife's look of contempt for the baby?"

"And... why did they seek to worship this Strahd von Zarovich?  It sounds like they wasted their fortune trying to get his attention?  I get he may have been the prince of these lands, but this seems really crazy to me."

"Finally... who brought us in here?  If the children were illusions, and the real parents may be long dead... who is running this horror show?"

"Honestly, the skeleton in there is probably what remains of the master of the house," Jim replies. "Did we get a name for the parents? As for what they wanted from this Strahd... Presuming he is the same man we've been told about... then... didn't he have powers or something?"