Cassidy and the man prepared the following morning for the journeyed return to the abandoned mansion where it all started; armed with the information and fresh determination because of the journals, they went to see what the mansion held for them.
Pitted against the morning sky, the mansion loomed menacingly, its very silhouette an instant reminder of the darkness that it housed within. Cassidy and the man approached it warily, though their anticipation wasn't exactly concealed either. Within their grasp were the means of venturing into the hidden chamber, along with means of defending oneself from a number of possible perils.
They entered the mansion, went down those very dustily carpeted corridors, creaky floorboards, and an air of impending doom hanging over them. They went straight to the room where they had found a secret compartment and immediately began the setup of their equipment.
Following the instructions in the journals, they found a secret panel in the floor. Really nicely worked into it were all the same symbols they'd seen before around the mansion. Opening the panel with tugs and pulls in combination exposed a dark flight of stairs leading further down.
The steps did, in fact, go down into darkness; Cassidy took point and turned a light on. The deeper down they went, the colder and heavier it got. There were endless steps-twisting, spiraling, and opening up to a very large underground chamber.
The chamber was huge, its walls inscribed with ancient symbols and markings of magical nature. An eerie stillness weighed heavily in the air except the cadence of their footsteps, which echoed along stone walls. Right in the middle of the chamber stood a huge altar structure, ornate-looking, similar to what they had seen but larger and much more decorative.
His eyes cut around the room, piercing. "This must be the place where the Order does their most important rituals. We got to search this place an inch at a time."
Cassidy nodded, her eyes still fixed on the altar. "Alright, let's start upstairs to the altar and canvas around; maybe there's something-any little thing-suggestive of their plan or even some sort of artifact.
As they approached the altar, something like weird signs was observed on it. The symbols were too complex, and because of shifting with the light touch against them, the whole effect was rather eerie. Cassidy suitably documented the symbols for her records through notes and pictures that would be analyzed later.
Lying around the altar was a number of older books and scrolls full of layers of dust. The books looked to be some sort of dark ritual accounts among other occult practices. Cassidy reached out to start going through the texts with quite a focus, trying to find something relevant.
It was then that his eyes came to rest on one secret place in the wall, which was partly masked by a pile of débris. Removing the rubbish, he saw a little chest exquisitely carved and set with iron. It was an old affair, yet somehow pulsed, as if it lived.
"Cassidy, look at this," the man said, holding up the chest. "It may have something of utmost importance inside."
Cassidy joined him, and they opened the chest warily. Inside were several objects of interest, notably: a blood-red-colored gemstone, a dagger in silver with ancient runes upon it, and a folded parchment with some sort of cryptic script.
"This gem," Cassidy said, picking it up. "It's like that Luminous Stone we used before, only this one's dark, and it looks as though it gives off another kind of energy altogether.
The man looked at the silver dagger. "And this dagger does look like it used in some sort of ritual, the runes perhaps part of those dark practices of the Order."
They unrolled the parchment and found it a great map of the mansion, even to the details of the surroundings; yet it showed several points of interest-hidden passages and further chambers beneath the mansion.
Cassidy studied the map intently. "There is more in this mansion than we thought," he said. "We must see the other places. They may contain more information as to what the Order intends to do.
Knowing it in his stomach that this was close to one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle, a feeling of closing in, Cassidy prepared for checking other sites according to the map. Whatever the Order of Shadows was doing, it was big; this was most definitely the epicentre.
First, they followed the map down through some sort of secret passage into an underground vault. The passage was narrow and dark, hence it needed careful negotiations of the passage. After this tense journey, they emerged into a small, fortified vault with a good deal of old, dusty crates and containers.
Along with all of the above items listed in the vault came other, more arcane artifacts and containers of strange substances, some even labeled with the names foretelling of dark magic and forbidden rituals. Cassidy cataloged them with the man; she knew many of these things might be important.
"This is the vault where the Order houses the more dangerous artifacts," he said. "None of these items can fall into the wrong hands."
With the vault that was investigated and the artefacts put away for safekeeping, Cassidy and the man continued into the main chamber-the last place marked on the map led through a series of tunnels farther underground. It was with mixed feelings of excitement and trepidation that they followed the map down into the tunnels. It was much colder, damper, and the air really became oppressive as they went deeper.
They finally came into a big chamber underground, apparently used for conferences or some form of ritual. The chamber was smeared with dark symbols, everywhere traces of a recent occupation: the implements of ritual, candles, strange substances.
"This would appear to be a major ritual site," Cassidy said, glancing around the room. "The Order would have done some of their most recent rituals here."
As they investigated the chamber closer, Cassidy had written many writings around the walls: writings of a supposed ceremony regarding the dark gem that they once retrieved earlier, to be able to summon an immensely strong entity and increase the influence of the Order. "This is it," Cassidy said. Her voice was laden with urgency. "The Order is preparing this big ritual that could lead to some horrible ending. We must stop them before it's too late." He nodded in ascent. "Dudes, we have all the information we need. All we need is to just find when and where this ritual will fall and the action taken against them." With their discovery finally in safe hands, Cassidy and the man hurried toward town, inspired to prevent the Order from creating an apocalypse. The hidden chamber and subterranean tunnels had yielded the critical clues, but the battle was far from over. A determination began to build up within him as they planned the next move of their mission. Things were really heating up in the fight against the Order of Shadows, and they could not get any bigger. The Brink of the grand battle lay out in front, with them surely in need of all the muscle and wit to emerge on top.