Quote from WhiteByakko >>

Sho looked at Onyx for answers, and turned back to Erven's equally expectant eyes as the fawning puppy. He touched his nose bridge and sighed at those two pairs of wide brown eyes. "Let Erven keep it. He's a ranger. He needs a beast friend."

Also insight: 8, does Erven just really like the dog?

 You watch as Erven pets Bear, eventually getting her to roll on her back and giving her a belly rub - it seems he just likes the dog (the dog is a female by the way).  

Erven looks up at everyone, "What?  I'm not going crazy!  I just like the dog, ok?  After all of the friggin death we have seen in this place, it is nice to have a little joy....  I am used to being in the woods, around animals, and this pup is a little hope for me."  After a few minutes, Erven stands though and gets serious.  "Onward.  I'll stand behind you Onyx, ready to do my part.  And if Bear turns weird on me, I'll put it down, don't you worry.  I hope that I don't have to though..."  Erven is hurting mentally and physically, but forces a smile onto his face.  

The crazy elf makes sense. Talion smiles and nods at Erven. "You might want to see if she knows how to 'stay'. She's clearly got the good sense to hide, but keeping her alive in here might be difficult."

Before they leave the room, Talion checks again under the bed and around the room for any sign of dog toys.

Erven, you can make a animal handling roll with advantage of you like. 

Talion, you don’t see much under there - some scratches, feces, pee stains, some old bones. 

What’s the elven word for “friggin’”?  

I think the elvish word for friggin is “frigaril”. ((😂))

Animal handling :  17

Bertolt lowers his crossbow but is in the same ship of not trusting the dog completely. While he does not speak against it be will keep his eye on it. "These items should prove useful but I still wish to find my own before we leave this house. For now let us look for the crying child and pray to the gods that it is not some further abomination..."

@Erven
Bear seems to respond to your voice and is especially drawn to you, perhaps sensing your own connection with nature.
Anyone can roll to see if they can interact with the dog but it's safe to say, unless you do something hostile, it will react to you....well, like a nice dog.

Anything else that you would like to do in the room?

Erven stands up and Bear at his heels, starts to head to the southern door, where the sounds is coming from.  He waits for Onyx to lead the charge into the room. 

Onyx takes the hint, moves to the southern door.  With another glance towards Erven, he moves to open the door.

[small note: BEST won't work everywhere since the rooms aren't always big enough.  maybe you indicate front line/back line?]

Onyx stands in front of the doorway and opens the door.  Dust and cobwebs shroud an elegantly appointed bedroom.  On the left side of the room, ten feet from the door you opened, is a small door with curtains covering it.  Double doors set with panes of stained glass are visible on the left side of the room, ten feet further down than the small door mentioned above.  The bedroom contains a large bed, two end tables, and an wardrobe. Mounted on the wall next to the wardrobe is a full-length mirror with an ornate wooden frame carved to look like ivy and berries. 

You hear gentle singing and cooing coming from the small, curtained door, along with the sounds of a baby laughing and making raspberry sounds...

MAP

Marching order in tight spaces (correct me if I'm wrong) :

Onyx, then Erven, then Talion, then Bertold, then Sho.  

Perception, with Talion's help when entering the room :  23

How is Bear behaving?  Ok with the room, or scared?

Bertolt will listen to the song to see if he is able to catch if it is a song he has heard before. If so he will begin to sing along in a quiet voice.

You enter the room and about ten feet in you all stop. The curtain to your right flutters slightly and Bear backs out of the room, tail between her legs. 
Bertolt you do know this song, it’s an ancient lullaby called Little Baby in the Dark House. You all pause and you listen to the mournful, yet menacing, tune:

You have seen the sun rise
Why are you crying?
Why are you screaming?
You have disturbed the house god
“Who has disturbed me?” says the house god
It is the baby who has disturbed you
“Who scared me?” says the house god
The baby has disturbed yoU
The baby has scared you
Making noises like a drunkard
Who cannot sit still on his stool
He has disturbed your sleep
“Call the baby now,” says the house god

You look through the curtain - the door is already open - and you see a dark figure standing over a small bed set on curved wood - a baby’s cradle and finely made.

The figure rocks the cradle gently, singing and the baby responds with cooing sounds. The singing stops, the cradle stops rocking, and the baby begins to cry. The figure looks at you all.  It’s a woman’s face, a black shawl covering it. A preternatural wind blows the shawl and you see the face of a young beautiful woman, maybe 30 years old. 
“It’s MY baby!  My Walter! They took him from me!”  As she speaks, her face grows dark.  Her skin begins to flake off and she wails in pain. In seconds she Becomes a disembodied skeletal figure, nothing like the beautiful woman you saw before.

The cries coming from the cradle begin again and she turns substantial once more, the beautiful woman the same as before......She begins to shush at something in the cradle again, speaking soft words.....

You all stand still not sure what to do...... 

Talion slowly gets over the shock, his expression fearful, clearly expecting an attack, "I don't want to go near that" he says, pointing in the direction of the crying baby and apparition. "But I can open the curtains from here if you like..."

He looks around nervously as he says this, then glances back at Bear to make sure that she is still just a dog. He ran, that's a good sign.

A spectral hand floats nearby, ready to open the curtains if everyone agrees, but in the mean time he uses the spectral hand and enlists Ervan's aid in investigating the cabinets and wardrobe near the bed, and under the bed, starting as far from the baby as possible. As he works, he finds himself alternating between watching the horrible pantomime in the next room, and trying to avoid looking at it.

Investigation: 15

Erven speaks in a low voice calmly and trying not to provoke, "Madame Durst, tell us what happened.  Who took Walter from you?"

Bertolt stops singing as he sees the woman, about to say something until the turns into a skeleton and then back to a human appearance. He pulls his crossbow back out, back away from the room. "I think that we can check this room off...."

The figure seen through the tattered curtain was not plainly recognisable, the looming silhouette of Madame Durst on the other side of the drape, repeatedly singing an eerie lullaby, smiling, crying, screaming, agonising, tormenting, reliving the fragments of a broken life over and over again. The feeling was almost intrusive - they were standing on the other side of a river of time, watching the passive occurrence of a scene forever stuck in the past, moving further and further away from them as time flowed on. Sho looked at his companions with the same stunned and disturbed expressions as he had, brushing past them, he stepped forward gingerly and lifted the curtain, walking straight towards the woman, not looking at her twisted display as he stopped on the other side of the cradle and peered inside.

Talion, you find some children’s toys, some hand-drawn and brittle drawings, moth eaten uniforms, a few empty vials, and several letters (hidden in a false back) addressed to “Esme” signed by “G.”  They talk of true love, of a baby on the way, and of “G” taking care of and protecting her and “Walter.”  In your mind, you begin to piece together what is going on.  The ghostly form did not look like Mrs. Durst at all - you surmise it's in fact Esme that you are seeing.  Which means Walter...

Erven, as you utter the words, "Mrs. Durst" the form stops rocking, and everything gets a bit darker than normal, and the baby's cries cease..  You all feel the pressure in your eyes increase.  You hear sobbing: plaintive and in agony.  "I knew it, she would never let me have him.  They took him, they took him. How could they? Only a baby, only a baby..."  The pressure increases and a deep bass vibrating can be felt.  The figure falls to her knees.  

Sho, as you approach, you also see that this woman is not the woman from the paintings.  You make it to the cradle, where you notice a black shroud has materialized around it.  You part the shroud and see a tightly-wrapped, baby-sized bundle...
Sho, the woman watches you as you come nearer.  Her eyes black as coal.  Her sobs turn to a cruel laughter as you part the curtains, "You can never have him Elizabeth, he's safe now, with me.  You and your evil cultists did your deed - an innocent child! How could you?!  He loved me, he loved Walter but you loved the idea of a fake god!"  She looks right at you Sho, delirious with pain and fury, "You Elizabeth," she looks at the rest of you, "and your lackies will pay for what you've done!  You may have killed me in life to keep me from them but now you will die a million times!"  The woman smiles and begins to radiate and icy aura.  She begins to laugh.  The laughter builds and builds and it becomes a shriek that seems to vibrate the entire house.....

She rushes through you Sho -

 and emerges from the back of you and flies straight into the wall, coming out in the hall behind Onyx (C4 on the map).  It screams again and disappears through the wall on your right and you don't see it after that...

Everyone, roll initiative!

19
E init  - 3 

MAP (sorry the blue is meant to be black but too lazy to fix it right now - as usual, if you don't like where you are here on the map just let me know where you thought your character would be).

Talion initiative: 13

Onyx Initiative 9