Impatient, the dog gets up and starts sniffing around by the harpsichord. The dog seems to have caught the scent of something beneath the aroma of freshly cooked meat. He follows the scent walking around the group and outside the conservatory back onto the upper hall. He then follows the scent to the other set of doors. Here the dog sits waiting just outside of the door that is open a crack.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go check on Walter.” Vice says. He puts his hands in his pockets and listens as Star finishes the last notes of the song. “There’s different kinds of scary, I think. In a dark forest, there might be unknown predators or monsters behind you. But their actions are predictable, most of them are just trying to feed, following their natural instinct. What men are capable of, on the other hand - that darkness runs much deeper, and often without reason.”

He notices Lancelot seems to be sniffing something, and he follows the dog where he sits down in front of the other set of doors. Vice furrows his brows and quietly tries to look into the crack. “Are your masters in there?” He whispers to Lancelot.

"Out of this house, out of the forest. Away from howling wolves and self-locking houses. Where I can cook and eat a good meal without worrying about what watches me from between the trees or from behind the door. Wouldn't that be better than both?" Emma walks out of the room, standing at the foot of the staircase, ready to ascend once the others follow. 

“Wait a minute, Lancelot thinks there’s something in here.” Vice says, Lancelot’s action seems to tell him there’s something important. On the other hand, it could also just be the room where they keep the dog food. He knocks on the ajar door where Lancelot sits waiting, and follows with, “Hello?”

Juniper answers Emma. “Yeah but what if there’s something unfriendly upstairs with Walter? And what if there’s also something in there,” pointing to the study, “just waiting for us to go upstairs before jumping us from behind. I’d rather only have one to deal with at a time, wouldn’t you?” The slight-shouldered elf raises her wooden shield once again before standing beside Vice and listening for any response to his knocking. If there’s no answer, she gently pushes the door open.

After knocking and calling through the door, Vice receives no response. When Juniper pushes the door open, Lancelot walks into the room.

Vice and Juniper discover a place of study. A wealth of knowledge sits on floor-to-ceiling bookshelves: weighty tomes of untold worth—novels, treatises, encyclopedias, poetry, histories. So vast is this library that a rolling ladder is necessary to reach the high shelves. An exquisite desk faces the hearth, and upon the mantelpiece, thereof hangs a framed portrait of a windmill perched atop a rocky crag. Two reading chairs flank the fireplace, stuffed and lovely and inviting. Red velvet drapes cover the windows of this room, and upon the desk rests a letter.

Lancelot wanders around the room before sniffing a corner of the room opposite the mahogany desk.

Emma would rather not deal with either, which is exactly why she wants to get away from this house, but she doesn't say that. It seems like it would be pointless. Rather, like before, she would wait behind the others, either at the hall or the doorstep to the study, where she will be able to see everyone else but not farther into the room than that. "Then... be careful." Perhaps needless to say, it was the most Emma could offer.

When the open door reveals another empty room, no evil spirits, no harpsichordist, Juniper cannot ignore the thought that Lancelot is pointing to some secret exit from the library through which the unpracticed keyboardist has vanished. Find the keyboardist, learn some answers. Maybe even find another way out of this fog-bound dollhouse.

“What’s over there, young one?,” she coos, following Lancelot to the corner opposite the desk and there opening her senses to sounds, drafts, or anything else which might seem out of place. (OOC: If Lancelot doesn’t reveal a more quotidian object of doggie interest, Juniper gently pushes wall planks and shelves to see if anything gives way at all.)

"You know what this reminds of?" Vice starts when he sees there's the room is empty, and the hand on his scabbard relaxes. "When I was young, maybe ten, a group of my friends decided to explore this haunted house at the edge of the town. An old man died there alone, when he was discovered he was all rotted down to the bone. Guess he was a grumpy guy, had no friends or family and no one bothered to check in on him. Anyway, every door we opened, I expected to see his dead body lying behind them. There was nothing, of course. He was buried. But still," He lifts the corner of his mouth, "Now I feel like I'm ten again."

He approaches the corner where Lancelot is sniffing at and helps Juniper search. 

"You are correct," Star answers Vice, before they move to the other room. "Many are the tales of betrayal and madness I could tell." He looks about the quiet house. Usually upbeat, everyone's insistence that the house is scary is starting to get to him. "Though perhaps this is not the time."

Entering the study he whistles airily. "This is a great many books! The stories they must tell." He picks a book at random, then sits cross-legged in one of the chairs by the fireplace, flicking through it.

Lancelot doesn't seem to be sniffing any object in particular, but it is clear that the dog has followed a scent to this corner. Vice and Juniper search around the corner, trying to see if they can find anything of interest. However, despite their efforts, they find nothing. There are no moving wall panels or shelves in this corner.

Meanwhile, Star looks at the books that are displayed. The books display titles such as Destruction of the Dusk Elves, Alchemical Secrets Best Left Uknown, Blades of Brass, and Ways of the Wildfolk.  The book Star takes at random bears the title Political Theory in Dismal Days.

Then, Lancelot is on the move again, sniffing around the room. He paces back and forth, following the scent almost randomly around the room. It is almost as if he has lost the scent. He walks under the desk, then around the side as he walks back to the middle of the room. Then he moves over towards Star, sitting on the chair before approaching the bookshelf. He then sits down by the bookshelf and gives himself a good scratch behind the ear. Then he is up again, scratching at the floor just in front of the bookcase.

What sort of thing does Star read, flicking through Political Theory in Dismal Days? Which Days is it about?

Juniper exchanges a glance with Vice after their search for a secret door turns up nothing. She smiles at his story and teases. “So this isn’t the first time you’ve wandered freely through a stranger’s home?” She doesn’t let on that she’d done the same thing, when traveling with her parents. Instead of waiting in the children’s room of the friends they visited, Juniper ranged far and wide. The strange items she found in strangers homes were not what compelled her however. She simply hated feeling cooped up, even as a child.

“Let’s find Walter. Lancelot is probably just sniffing where he found crumbs on the floor months ago.”

"Well, usually when the owner's not home." Vice says with a grin, though there's some truth in that. He doesn't really feel comfortable rooting through other people's house when Rose and Thorn said their parents are in the basement... what, taking care of a monster? That thought is still ridiculous to him.

"Anything interesting?" He asks Star. He pauses at Lancelot's new interest in the floorboard, then agrees with Juniper. "Yes, let's go find Walter."

Political Theory in Dismal Days seems to discuss different conspiracy theories. However, the dates make very little sense to Star, but that's probably because they seem to use a different system than he is used to.

Lancelot turns away from the bookcase as he notices Vice and Juniper move towards the door. He then let's out a bark whilst facing them before turning back to the bookcase.

When Lancelot barks, Juniper stops in her tracks and turns sharply to the hound. ‘I could have sworn he used words just then,’ she thinks, recalling what her Druidic mentor had taught her years ago. ‘If you continue down this path, the voices of wild beasts will ring clearly in your ears, as clear as the written word.’ The young elf looks at Vice again, then walks back to the bookcase Lancelot is facing. “What, boy?,” she coos, squatting beside him and wrapping an arm around him for a moment. “Is there something here you want?” She reaches forward and, trying to sense what he senses, touches various items on the shelves to see what in particular might be of interest to the pooch. 

 (Juniper, make a Wisdom(Perception) check.)

(OOC: Another fantastic roll in the character sheet: 8 :)

Try as she might, Juniper fails to notice anything of interest, even with Lancelot's help.

KAl watched the dog sniffing his way around the room and his odd behavior at the bookcase.  Making his way over, Kal inspects the floor in front of the bookshelf, looking for scratches or indications it might move, then the walls around it, then the bookshelf itself.  

“I wonder if the shelf here could be concealing a secret passage. I’ve seen things like that before. They’re usually opened by pulling a specific book, or possibly a sconce or something on the wall nearby.”

investigation: 17