A Birth day

Joseph, Jack, Radagast and Aria all moved with Angus and Marcus towards a door Radagast heard Kate and sighed " I was being optimistic and hoping that's what it was , but sadly your right" he said softly as they moved once in the room they spread out Joseph staying not too close to Jack and Aria staying next to Marcus.

All stood and listened then moved quickly into the room further as it seemed the walls were closing in on them. But once it stopped they regained there poise as the woman spoke to Robert , Angus, Edward and Kate. " sometimes its good not to be known" Jack said smirking as she had missed Michael and himself, which to him was an over sight on her part.

"We don't want to be recognized," Michael said to Jack in a whisper. "Those of us that haven't been in the paper are, for her, wild cards. She's not going to know what to expect of us unless we tip our hands with some smartassed remarks or some sort of body language. She's going to believe she knows the ones she's just named, and she's going to think she's going to be able to predict their movements. That leaves the rest of us far more flexibility here. If our friends are smart, and I believe they are, they're going to try to get her to focus on them so we can work to undermine her."

"I am a proper hostess, so I would have started our evening with supper. I don't believe you lot are, however, amenible guests. We'll see if you change your minds a little later. For now, though, let's see just how sporting you really are. She did a nonverbal spell with surprisingly little effort. The first thing that happened was that a couple of trap doors opened. Radagast was standing on one, and it opened with no noise at all, dropping him down a long twisting slide in the pitch dark. A second trap door opened at the same time, dropping Ruby down a similar slide, and yet a third dropped Marcus down an identical sllide.

Marcus felt like this stupid slide was going to go forever. And finally he was spit out of a ceiling onto a stone floor. He drew his wand and lit it and found he was alone in a cellar dungeon cell. 

For those who remained, Pearl looked at them and gave them a menacing smile. 

"Hang onto your hats. the night's young. We're just getting started," she said. "Oh, and you, my new little boy toy, come with me," she motioned for Angus to come with her. He had no intention of going anywhere with her, but she gave a yanking motion and the transfigured into a sort of giant snake and coiled around him and dragged him off behind her, as she stepped through a secret passage in a wall. Robert swept Kate tightly against him to try to protect her. and at that moment the room started to spin around and around, slowly getting faster and faster as the walls started to close in, making the room smaller and smaller.

Jack heard Michael and nodded " agreed" he said but tensed as he saw Ruby , Radagast and Marcus drop threw the floor but he stayed his position . when she started to drag Angus away he wanted to punce and slice the snake to pieces but the force that hit him threw him back against the wall beside Joseph and Michael. " shit , I hated this ride" he said elongating his claws ready to grip the wall to pull himself around to the others.

Ruby and Radagast felt the floor give and the downward force as they fell. Ruby as she slid cast Lumos to see where she was going soon she landed and rolled to stand up in a dungeon like cell. She heard Radagast curse from her left and another thump to her right. " okay whose down here?" she asked loudly.

"welp I am cher" Radagast said brushing his trousers clean of the dirt he had gathered riding that slide." that you Ruby?" he asked and received an affirmative. " any one else down here?" he asked now looking around the room.

"Yeah," Marcus replied. "Give me a minute to work this out. "You both alright?"

Robert and Kate were thrown against the wall, and he held tightly to her hand as they were stuck there like flies on flypaper. 

"She's got Angus, right off the rip," Edward said, far more concerned for Angus than he was for himself. "And Marcus isn't with him."

"Well, let's hope Marcus checks his pockets," Michael said. "I left him a surprise, just in case something stupid like this happened." 

The room spun faster and faster and faster and then the floor changed shape. It became a sort of a funnel, and all the furniture dropped down through the hole in the center of the floor. 

"Do try to avoid dropping on those two suits of armor with the lances, you lot," Robert called. "That's going to hurt, and I don't think my plasters are that big."

The spell that stuck them to the wall suddenly gave way. and they were suddenly falling to the floor and sliding very quickly down to the center of the room and through the neck of the funnel to whatever lay below.

Robert hit water with a splash. He heard some of the others dropping in as well. It took him a moment. He dropped quite a long way down in the water before he could push himself back up. He couldn't see a bloody thing in this water, and he wasn't sure why. He pushed his way to the surface and then he realized why. The water was coal black, completely opaque, and it stunk to high heaven. He found there was a tiled edge, like the edge of a swimming pool, and he pulled himself up on it, out of the putrid water.

"In your patch kits," Robert said. "There's a little tiny envelope with a green dot. Use it now. It's a salve. Eucalyptus scented, in case someone needed to stop some nausea from a smell. Rub just a miniscule amount right under your nose."

Jack saw Joseph being the smallest start to move downward his arm flung out and pinned Joseph to the wall with his claws as he watched the furniture disappear down a hole in the floor. Now he saw the walls tip and Robert slide and fall down into the blackness he grabbed and held on to Joseph as they too fell into the water , quickly he swum to the sides and coughed as did Joseph who then winced . " you okay kid?" he asked

" hit my shoulder on the way down, bruised nothing more" he said as Aria case Lumos so she could take a look , pulling out her kit she took out the salve and put some under her nose and Josephs since he didn't have a kit yet.

"that should stop any nausea , now that shoulder" she took out some bruise salve and wiped it over the forming bruise only for it to start to disappear .

"thanks that feels much better" Joseph said and lanced around as he put his jacket back on and part zipped it up. Jack walke dover to Robert.

" whats our next move?" he asked. Ruby heard Marcus and froze but pulled herself together as she spoke. " yeah, I'm good , already tired of this not so fun house" she said " think alohomora will work on the locks?" she asked as she glanced around " nothing much of anything else around here. " she said walking to the doors and looking out between the bars.

Radagast heard Marcus and sighed " yeah nothing damaged but my pride" he said looking at his now tattered cloak. Taking it off he stood in his suit and his weapon holders with a potions belt around his waist. Reaching into his pocket he took out some small bubbles " huh , found some interesting bubbles in my pocket" he said " think ether Michael or Robert slipped them in there , sneaky bugger" he said and chuckled

"Well, let's try to work this room out," Robert said, looking at the tiled walls that didn't immediately show a door. "I think it's a fair bet that we're down on the cellar level because we didn't fall far enough for it to be the dungeon level. The pool probably extends to that level, I should think. In most castles, the cellars only duplicate the dimensions of the house. And, with the entrance on the south wall of the place, we have to be rather on the south side of things too. Anybody got a compass with them? I should think if we can work out North, then I think that's our best chance of finding a door on that particular wall."

Marcus was checking the floor of his cell, looking for anything helpful, when something poked him in the leg. He reached in his pocket and found one of Michael's enchanted lockpicks. 

"Bless you, Michael," Marcus said. He went to the lock and used the pick and was out in a mere moment. He used the pick again, and found Radagast. "I'm going on an explore," Marcus told him. "Care to come? Your guest room really does not look all that comfortable." He went one more door down and used Michael's pick one more time. "Ah, Ruby. Your room isn't any more elegant than ours was. Care to come explore the place with us?"

Jack, Joseph and Aria stood listening to Robert each checked their pockets but it was Joseph who picked p a metal bowl that looked old taking out a pin from his suit he rubbed it added water then waited , the pin started to swing around and he chuckled " north is that way" he said and walked over to show Robert his makeshift compass. Jack chuckled seeing the bowl

" that's using your head" he said and Joseph shook his head.

"basic physics" was all he said glancing around " so if that's north that way is south he said pointing slightly behind them.

Radagast saw Marcus on the other side of his cell door and chuckled " by all means , it simply a mess" he said and stepped out once the door swung open. Ruby was stood by the door when she saw the two of them and chuckled " defiantly not my style and I think the cleaners had the century off" she added and walked beside Radagast her wand illuminating the way forward.

"The door should be on the north wall," Robert said, going around the room to the north wall. He drew his cigarette case from his pocket. Finding the cigarettes still dry, he lit one.

"This not the most opportune time to smoke, Robert," Kate said.

"Watch and learn, my dear," Robert said. He started to move slowly from one corner of the northern wall to the other, holding the cigarette up to the wall. About a third of the way across the room, the smoke was sucked out of the room. "Here," Robert said. "It's here. Look. See how the cigarette smoke is drawn out of the room through the crack between the wall and the door." He used the cigarette to find exactly where the top, the sides and the bottom of the door was. "Feel around. There has to be some sort of secret switch. A lot of these tiled rooms had a tile that would flip open like a little door, and it would reveal a button that would release the catch on the door. Let's see if we can find it."

Angus wasn't sure what happened to him. The last he knew, the rug was coiled around him and was trying to suffocate him. As he looked around to see where he was, he found himself. And then it registered with him. He was chained to a wooden table--one he knew too well. This was a rack, and this room was another torture chamber. Not again. Not one more time. He wasn't sure he was going to be able to cope. His mind seemed to be buckling.

"Your mind has been so deliciously open," the woman's voice came to him. "You're such a babe, and your keepers have not kept you in arms as they should. I know far more about you than I should. I saw the torture chambers. You showed them to me yourself in your sleep. So, of course, where would I keep you, dear boy? You've shown me all. Your greatest loves and your greatest fears."

"Why? Why are you doing this?"

"Why does anyone do anything?"

"What is it? Money? Power? What?"

"Well," she shrugged, "I suppose those excuses are as good as any, but the question you should be puzzling over is why you, in particular. Now, I must leave you, You can either work it out in our mind or you can let the discomfort drive you mad." She flicked her fingers at the axle on the rack and it turned until Angus felt like his shoulders were going to be ripped from their sockets. Then she turned and left him there, shut the iron door with a clang and locked it.

Jack and Joseph nodded and moved to the north wall with Michael to the wall and watched as he lit a cigarette , Joseph watched as the smoke got sucked out revealing a door shape. " I get it now" he said and moved his hands around the door then moved away to one side it was now his fingers hit a hole and he pulled away vies that had grown over it. " Here!" he called out Jack walked over and inspected it.

"could be a switch, but whose sticking their hand in it" he asked as Joseph stepped forward .

"I'm the only one whose not important I'll do it" he said and slowly pushed his hand into it finding his fingers brush against a small leaver he pushed it all the way till his shoulder hit the wall " there" he said as a click came from inside , he felt a sting against his skin but said nothing and pulled back out. Looking at his arm he saw two small holes but very little blood. he shook his head and chuckled " poison?" he said " shesh how unoriginal" he pulled his sleeve down but Jack stopped him and looked at him dead in the eye don't worry I'm immune to snake venom, pitfalls of a bad youth I guess" he said and straightened out his sleeve but knowing he'd have a head ache from hell and want to sleep for a week after but he could push threw.

Jack saw the door open and looked to Michael " lets find the others" he said

"Good work," Robert told Joseph. "Stick together as much as you can." They walked out into the hallway and Kate cast a reveal spell. It didn't seem to reveal anything of any consequence. 

"Figures," she sighed. "The evil goes through and through. It's so pervasive that the spell does utterly nothing in here. We're on our own, I'm afraid."

"In this place? I'd say that was good news," Robert said. "Let's go." 

"We have to find Angus as quickly as possible," Kate told Robert. "He's in trouble. I can feel it."

"We'll do our best," Robert told her.

Marcus headed down the hallway, but as they went down the hallway, he was sure he heard an iron door clang and he heard footsteps heading away. He listened to them carefully, and he believed he was hearing the light, slowed footsteps of a woman--a woman who could no longer walk the quick steps of a young woman. 

"This way," Marcus said turning around to head down the hallway the other way, to his left. The hallway eventually made a right hand turn, and as they turned, Marcus heard another door shut and lock, this one much further away. He was hoping what he heard was Pearl leaving the area. 

"If you see that damned little foul-tempered garden gnome mash him, won't you?" Marcus said. They started to see doorways again, and as they did, Marcus started to look into the windows in the doors to check and see if he saw any of their companions. 

"Angus?" Marcus called, careful not to be overly loud. "Angus? You down here, Mate?"

"Marcus!" Angus called. "Here. I'm here!" Marcus could tell from the sharp strain in Angus's voice that something was dramatically wrong. Marcus hastened his steps hoping they could soon find him. Then he looked in one of the rooms and saw a darkened torture chamber. He couldn't see much of the room because the light was so dim there. He shown his wand through the window on the door.  

"God!" Marcus exclaimed. He opened the door and rushed, without a thought for himself to the other side of the room where Angus was chained to the rack. "Radagast, turn back the axle while I try to unlock the chains. Let's get him out. Hold on, Mate. We'll have it in a jiffy."

"A quicker jiffy would be appreciated," Angus said, trying not to cave to the pain.