10th Aniversary Necromancy!

[[NPC] Jim]

Meanwhile, Jim and his party check the room next door.

Jim's party has entered the Library. The shelves go as high as 4 meters, and are completely filled with books with not a single vacant spot to be found.

Oooooh, now this is impressive!

BERKS!!!!!!1

Empty. And nowhere to hide in here either. We should check another room.

B-But but but but but...! B-BERKS!!!!

Do not resist the books, Risky. The books commaaaaaaand you~

I'm sure we could hang around in here for a little while. It'll give us time to set up a proper bunker in case of emergency, and satiate Amy's bibliophilia.

I can't help it! I get dizzy whenever I see bookshelves taller than most houses. I love books. Especially the magic kind. They make me happy in my pants.

OMG IT EVEN SMELLS OLD AND MUSKY, LIKE IT HASN'T BEEN USED IN YEARS!

We're setting a bunker up in a library?

What better place?

Yesssss! Let's doo eet!

Come oooon Risky! Help us make a castle of books!

A castle of books? As you wish, Miss Amy. I shall construct a kingdom fit for a queen.

N-no, I was just kiddi-

Risky is already stacking books into a makeshift fort somewhere in the middle of the room.

...Lad seems inclined to bend over backwards for you a bit, doesn't he?

Don't remind me. I need to find a way to get him unstucks from me or I'm going to go insane.

Also, he just killed my girl-boner. He's going to pay for that.

Goldie dear, we found a safe zone. Would you like to come out now?

[[NPC] Goldie]

SEEEKRRRIT AGENT GOLDIE RRREDY FUR ACSHUN!!!!!!!!

How would you like to help us set up a bunker in the library?

Yayayayaya!

Fantastic! Amy needs help looking for as many magical tomes as we can find. And while you two are busy searching I'll be making a protective ring of salt around the perimeter.

Ah, but I don't want to ruin the carpet... Hmmm...

Risky, you have anything that we could use to draw a circle on carpet? We can't have any gaps either or it won't work.

Could we uh... make an imprint of a circle? Would that work?

Mmmm, It might get disturbed though. And we can't have that.

Well if you want a more permanent solution we could paint a pattern on the floor. Not like anybody is going to use this place again. Or, you know, just vacuum up the salt when you're done.

Shhhhh! Not so loud. Goldie is scared of vacuum cleaners.

WH-WHO SAID THAT?!
Did somewan invoke da screaming demons naem?!

Nobody's invoking anyone, dear! It's just your imagination!

Amy, have you found any magic tomes yet?

This library sucks! There's hardly anything related to magic in here! It's all just alchemy and sciency stuff! The only magical books they have here are on the dangers of magic! Sacrilege!

Well considering the US is a Passive World country I wouldn't be surprised if everyone was anti-magic.

HEATHENS! NON-BELIEVERS! THE GREAT SPIRIT OF MAGIC SHALL JUDGE YOOOOOOU!

[[NPC] Marvin]

JIM?! JIM?! JIIIIM!?
Something unbelievable jut happened!

Ooooh you don't say?

My PDA just imploded!

Holy crap Marvin, I didn't think your luck could get that bad.

I didn't do anything! Some hand came out of the screen a-a-a-and pulled the entire thing in with it! Kinda like how you turn a hand puppet inside out, except it gets sucked into nothing when you do!

...You know what this means... don't you Amy?

Y-Yeah... this is...

A HAUNTED MANSION!!!

[[NPC] Lewis]

DIANA, I HAVE AN IDEA!

Lewis no.

Lewis yes! Sam's trick has spooked Jim's party enough to think this place is haunted. Ergo, we double down and spook them all so badly they'll be running for whatever exit they can find!

Lewis, that is the worst possible idea you could have come up with. It's never going to work. Jim loves paranormal shit. If you run with this haunted mansion idea he'll only want to dig deeper.

Oh Diana Diana Diana... How your lack of faith hurts me in my undead heart. Trust me on this one. I got this.

I won't try and stop you, but this is a bad idea.

Sam, make more shit look like the place is haunted. Come on, chop chop.

[[NPC] Samantha]

Samantha looks for a reflective surface to breach the natural world from, but there are very few she can use in this room. She finds a light bulb above the bookshelves and uses a nearby ladder to climb to the top and reach through. She manages to get a few fingers over to the other side and touch one of the books.

The book falls off the shelf. Nobody notices.

What was that?! Sam, you gotta spook 'em! They aren't going to be spooked by such a weak ghost!

I'm trying!

Try harder!!!

Hey Sam, is it only you who can mess with the natural world, or can me and Lewis eff with Jim as well in here?

Sorry, I'm the only one with this power. If you want to scare them you'll need me to do it.

Well is there any way you can help us mess with Jim and his friends?

I can make portals into the natural world through any reflective surface if I touch them, but they'll go back to normal after a while.

Can you try and break one of the light bulbs up there?

I don't know what it is you're planning, but I can tell it's both stupid and dangerous.

Hey, we're all dead here, aren't we? Get moving Sam or this plan won't work.

[[NPC] Samantha]

Samantha turns the bulb into a portal to the natural world and reaches through. The distance between Sam and the bulb is farther than she can reach, and she has to stand on the ends of her toes to reach it. Her foot slips and she falls off the ladder, but she grabs onto the bulb to save herself from falling. Sam is now dangling from the light with her hand sticking out of the bulb on the other side. Jim and his party still don't notice.

HEEEEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPPP!!!!!!

Hold on Sam! Lewis and I will get you down!

This is getting us nowhere! We should have just shot them all in the hallway from the start!

You know that would have never worked, Lewis!

You don't know if it wouldn't!

Bullets wouldn't have killed Jim, Lewis! It wasn't going to work!

Lewis and Diana get Sam safely down from the light bulb.

Thank you. And sorry I messed up again.

It's okay. We'll think of something else. Lewis's idea was probably donkey dung anyway.

Was not!

Okay, then what was your brilliant plan?

Glad you asked! Lemme explain, In song!

Yep.

This is the first part of my master plaaaaaan~
I'd have Sam break the bulb so the pieces would scatter around the floor~
All those glass shards I could use~
to make tiny portals into the natural world~
I'd have Sam turn each one into a portal~




THEN I PULL OUT MY GUN!

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

And I fire a round into each portal maaaaaaade~

......

Yeah that was a really donkey doodoo idea.

[[NPC] Lewis]

Alright, we can't spook 'em in the Library. How about this? We get Sam to lead Jim and his friends down to the secret subway tunnel under Central Park.

A subway tunnel?!

Exactly. Remember those stairs on the map? Take those and you'll find an abandoned subway station. We'll just lead a trail of bread crumbs down there for Jim to follow.

And then what?

Haven't thought that far. We could ditch Sam with them. Sam you gotta make sure they don't come back here, okay?

We're not leaving Sam with them. We should have stuck with my plan and waited for them to leave while we hit the town. We've been stuck in this building for two whole days and I'm getting sick of it. Come on Sam. If we're quiet we can sneak through another mirror and escape out the elevator shaft. Lewis, when you think of the rest of your plan, let me know.

......

Lewis reluctantly follows Diana and Samantha.

[[NPC] Diana]

Diana, Lewis and Samantha exit the mirror world through the wall-mounted mirror in room 66 and head straight for their escape route, the elevator shaft across the hall.

Months ago, Lewis broke into this mansion hoping for some easy lodging. With the lack of tourism lately he thought him and his gang wouldn't be disturbed. What he found was even better: a hidden elevator shaft leading to a secret underground lair. Whoever built this place was kind enough to install a service ladder for easy navigation. Now Diana is planning to leave the mansion this way, go downtown to the local pub, have a pint, and wait for the whole thing with Fadbury to blow over. No way in hell is she confronting him again.

Diana notices something moving around in the elevator shaft.

It's a little bat. There's a bat in the elevator shaft.

Lewis, of course, throws something at the bat to scare it away.

Hey, if you still wanna bail, now's your chance.

I'm not leaving unless you're coming with.

And I'm not leaving out of fear of losing this sweet spot.

This is government property, Lewis. It was never gonna last. Let's find somewhere else to crash.

You don't understand! This place is abandoned. Nobody else knows about it besides us, and it's awesome! Where are we going to find a better place than this?

Why are we still wearing our masks when there's no one around?

Cuz we need to represent! If we get caught these masks hide our identities as well as let other's know we're the infamous Zombie Gang!

There's like... two of us... in total.

We'll just have to find some new recruits then. Hey Sam! Wanna become an official member of the Zombie Gang?

[[NPC] Samantha]

Samantha peers over the edge of the elevator shaft, looking for the bat Lewis scared away.

Out of nowhere, the bat flies at Sam's face, startling her and causing her to drop Diana's PDA down the elevator shaft.

AAAAHHHHH!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Relax Sam. It's just a bat.

NOOOOO, NOT THAT! THE PDA!

What about the-

Diana notices the glow from the screen descending the elevator and vanishing into the darkness below.

......shit.

Two! That's two PDA's you've broken!

I-I-I-IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!

I take back what I said. You're definitely not joining the Zombie Gang.

Ugh, shut up Lewis. A PDA isn't going to break falling down a tiny hole like this. I'll be right back.

I guess this means we're staying in here for a while longer. Don't cause any trouble while I'm gone, okay? You two should hide so you don't get caught. Stay safe Sam.

Diana climbs down the elevator shaft.

[[NPC] Diana]

Diana reaches the bottom of the elevator shaft. The cables for the elevator snapped some ten or more years ago and has been resting down here ever since. Diana was hoping she'd be able to find her PDA from the backlight emitted from the screen, but by the time she got to the bottom it occurred to her that in the time it took to get down there the screen would have gone to sleep, and she doesn't have a flashlight on her.

She does, however, have a box of matches somewhere in her coat. She'll just have to be very careful not to drop that too. Finding a PDA in this darkness is almost impossible. A tiny matchbox? Forget about it.

She lights a single match to illuminate the pitch black elevator shaft. No PDA in sight. The emergency hatch for the elevator is open, which is probably where her PDA fell into.

Diana checks inside the elevator. Nothing.

Using one of the broken lift cables, she climbs down the emergency hatch to check the floor outside the elevator shaft. Can't find anything. Her match goes out. Great.

She goes to light another one...

She light's another match.