---

^{@Alamantus@Vertigo}
“Definitely some sort of drain or vent. We don't really have a hook, yeah, there’s the drain.”

Pebs glanced towards the drain, then the paper, then towards the doorknob. “Well, I hope the key isn’t for this door because that’d be kinda useless.”

Seeing as Duncan had reached a hand through the hole he’d made without much trouble, Pebs figured he had the door handled, and that whatever bad might happen would have already happened. Therefore, she was free to go about checking on the drain in the room, but with what light?

“Oh!”

Pebs snapped her fingers, fishing her phone out of her pocket. While it was a rather rudimentary smartphone, it was still a smartphone with a camera, and a smartphone with a camera meant a built-in light source.

After a brief moment to check her signal, hoping but not quite believing that she’d have any, she showed Duncan the phone and shook her head. “No signal. Classic.”

She sighed. “I’ll go check out the drain with this. You good with the door, right? Lemme know if you need any of the other stuff I found from the cabinets. There were also a pair of pliers, if you need more tools.”

After making sure Duncan agreed that he could handle the door, Pebs walked over to the drain, kneeling down on the floor and turning the flash on her phone into the drain. Then, after taking a breath to steady her nerves, she lined her eye up with a hole and peered in, hoping to see a key and nothing more.

As Pebs peers down into the drain, she sees a glint far down in the drain. As she strains to see what it might be, she eventually makes out what she was hoping for—a key! Strangely, there appears to be a large-ish metallic hoop attached to the key standing straight up as it is weighed down by the key. The hoop is positioned right in the middle of the drain about 3 feet down, almost as if it was begging to be pulled up by some means.

As he waited for her answer, Duncan pocketed the screwdriver and fished out his phone instead. As expected, there were no messages - but at the very least, he could check what time it was. The lack of windows made it difficult to tell otherwise.

The clock on Duncan's phone displays 9:38AM, and the date is just one day after what he remembers. It seems the two of them must have spent the night in the room before waking up.

---

^{@Alamantus@Vertigo}
“There’s a key here! But we need a hook for fishing,” Pebs said, getting back on her feet. “It has some sort of metal ring on it, but we don’t have a hook.”

Glancing at the table, Pebs walked over to it to look the items over again. Tool-wise, there was a pair of pliers with a built-in wire-stripping edge, and she set that aside to stow away or use depending. There were wires, which she pushed near the pliers, and batteries that she put together and pushed aside as well. What was left was the speaker and the sizable miniature pick-up truck, which she set about examining. She rolled the speakers over in her hand, looking for somewhere to place batteries or connect wires to. Then, after setting down the speakers, she moved onto the miniature truck, looking it over for any hidden compartments or otherwise. It was fairly big, so was there something inside?

What was left was the speaker and the sizable miniature pick-up truck, which she set about examining. She rolled the speakers over in her hand, looking for somewhere to place batteries or connect wires to. Then, after setting down the speakers, she moved onto the miniature truck, looking it over for any hidden compartments or otherwise. It was fairly big, so was there something inside?

The speaker is simply a bare speaker that has 2 connections on the back with colors that actually appear to match those of two of the wires! Nothing else appears to be particularly interesting about it.

As Pebs shifts the truck around looking for compartments, she hears some slight clattering as it moves. She finds the only compartment that's wouldn't require deconstructing the truck to be the battery compartment on the bottom! In small letters, it says that it requires 2 D batteries, and the compartment is shut with a single little screw.

---

^{@Alamantus@Vertigo}
Pebs’ exploration of the speakers yielded little results, but on the truck she found a closed compartment with a note that two D-sized batteries were required. A quick glance at the existing stash of batteries showed that there was only one D-sized battery, which meant they were one short. However, the clattering from inside the truck made it sound like there was something inside, and Pebs figured it wouldn’t hurt to unscrew some things and check.

“Hey Duncan, wanna try unscrewing this compartment on the truck with the screwdriver? We have one battery right now, but maybe there’s one inside or something.”

She paused, looking back at the drain. “Maybe the drain cover too while you’re at it? I’ll try tying these wires together to try and make some sort of hook-like thing. I don’t think they’ll tangle, but… I’ll set aside these two wires just in case since they match the colors on the speakers.”

She shrugged, then moved over on the counter to give Duncan room to get at the truck. Meanwhile, on the end of the counter, she dragged the mess of wires towards her, picking out the two useful colors and setting them aside before sighing and attempting to tie together the remaining wires. The goal was to not death knot them since they might have future use, and keeping that in mind she went at it, putting the wires together just under the fray and attempting to knot them

Meanwhile, on the end of the counter, she dragged the mess of wires towards her, picking out the two useful colors and setting them aside before sighing and attempting to tie together the remaining wires. The goal was to not death knot them since they might have future use, and keeping that in mind she went at it, putting the wires together just under the fray and attempting to knot them

Dice Rolls [+]

Utility Roll— Tying wires [3d6] = 5, 5, 2

Pebs works with the wires and is able to knot them into something that's not too tight with a more rigid loop sticking out from the main knot to act as a hook of sorts! She's not sure it'll hold the key very well, but it's pretty good considering the lack of materials!

---

^{@Alamantus@Vertigo}
“Ta-dah.” Pebbles raised her knotted handiwork, forcing a smile. While it looked usable and could therefore be counted as a success, she couldn’t help but feel put out by the situation in general. What kind of person put Duncan and her in a room with these things, leaving the key in a drain for them to find? Why her, and why all of this?

She didn’t have answers to her questions, and when she tried to think of one she stepped into an abyss of possibilities that she always backed out of immediately. So, she did the next best thing: focus on the here and now. The contents of the truck’s battery compartment, though, brought a grin to her face as she gasped and fetched the hook and thread inside.

“Oh, this must be it! The hook,” Pebs said, raising it for Duncan to see, then bringing it over to where he was struggling with the drain.

“Perfect fit,” she said, comparing the hook to the drain grates. “Alright, let’s do this.”

At Duncan’s remark about steady hands, Pebs laughed. “Not sure they’re steady, but I can count on them,” she said as she unwrapped the thread from the hook. “If you’ve got steady hands, feel free to take over. Otherwise, I'm going in.”

Pebs lowers the hook into the drain, and combined with the darkness of the drain and the narrow drain holes, she has an unexpectedly hard time not only hooking but also pulling up the key out of the drain! She's at the task for roughly 15 minutes, growing more and more frustrated as she fails to hook the large key ring over and over again. Then, elation when she finally hooks it, which is immediately replaced by more frustration when she has trouble getting the hook and key to turn in the right direction for it to come back out of the drain again.

By the time she finally gets it out, Pebs has earned the Status Effect of Frustrated, which reduces all Utility rolls by 1 die until she is able to successfully perform another action.

The good news, however, is that she now has the key!

---

^{@Alamantus@Vertigo}
As it turns out, fishing for the key wasn’t as easy as Pebs had expected. Down went the hook once, twice, three times before she managed to get the hook down the drain successfully without catching it on the sides. Past that, it still took multiple attempts to figure out where the loop was in comparison to the hook, then some attempts to securely grab it without the hook slipping off. By the time she has it out the grate, which was another struggle in and of itself, she was thoroughly vexed and just about done with the entire situation.

“Let’s grab this stuff and get out of here,” she said, pushing the key into Duncan’s hands and walking over to the strewn pile on the counter. Into her bag went the bare speaker, the pliers, and the C battery, and into her pocket went the tangle of wires after she undid her previous handiwork.

“You think we’ll need this?” Pebs asked, raising the paper diagram from earlier up. “And we can probably put this truck together now since we have enough batteries. There doesn’t seem to be a remote though.”

As she spoke, she slotted the other D battery into the truck, then looked for a place to place the hook.

“Screw this thing back on and we can get going,” she said, sliding the battery compartment lid on the table towards Duncan.

Light spills out the door revealing a smooth, cement hallway about 5 feet wide. There's a long, blue rug stretching down the middle into darkness, and on the left side a few steps into the hall is a narrow wooden table up against the wall that also stretches into the darkness. It's too dark to see much beyond that or even if there's anything on the table...

On the wall to the right, just out the door, is another illuminated light switch.

---

^{@Alamantus@Vertigo}
“Ready,” Pebs said, swapping the truck for the C-type battery in her bag, which she tucked into her pocket instead before zipping up her backpack. Then, whipping out her phone and turning on the flashlight function, she nodded, walking towards the door.

“Phone ready, let’s do this.”

The door unlocked easily, opening up into a hallway with a blue rug. There wasn’t much to see by their phone’s light other than a table some distance down, and Pebs’ eyes quickly caught on the light switch near the door.

“Light,” she said, walking over and flipping the switch.

A long fluorescent bulb flickers to life with a buzz and illuminates the rest of the hallway.

The table does indeed span the exact center of the hallway and another door like the first is at the far end of the hall. Pebs and Duncan can now see what appears to be an old boom box on the table. One of the speakers is clearly missing with just a socket where the wires. The table has a small drawer situated in the middle, but is otherwise bare. The walls are likewise bare and white, and the only decoration in the room is a little potted palm tree in the corner by the opposite door.

Splinters of the broken door are scattered on the floor just outside the door they are coming through.

The fluorescent bulb flickers, goes out, but then slowly illuminates again with a more dim light than before.

As he waited for Pebs to bring the speaker over, he checked the drawer. They did have a key without a lock, after all.

The small drawer contains only one thing: a remote control for a radio-controlled car. It's pretty light—probably missing its battery. Shaking it does not cause any rattling noises.

---

^{@Alamantus@Vertigo}
It wasn’t until the blinding light hit her that Pebs realized that she should have braced herself. Somehow the lights here always seemed to be too bright, but as soon as the momentary adjustment passed she figured that didn’t matter.

The room ahead looked as innocuous as the first room with its empty space and clean surfaces, and it was because of the lack of substance that Pebs’ eyes were drawn first to the potted plant in the far corner. While it was far from out of place, the room had no other decorations, and that was what made it all the stranger.

At Duncan’s prompt, Pebs nodded, fishing the speaker out of her bag, then the wires out of her pocket for good measure. Handing them over as Duncan opened the drawer, she paused, then fished out the pliers and handed them over as well.

“Funny how these things all connect,” she said, pulling a face as she peeked into the drawer. The remote inside didn’t do much to convince her that the situation was doing better, and she picked it up and looked it over, frowning.

“This for the car?” she asked, giving it a shake. No rattle, but seeing how light it was despite the battery compartment on the back, she figured it was probably missing its battery.

A moment of fidgeting saw her pop the compartment lid off, and a glance later Pebs was fishing out the C-type battery in her bag. When she found it, she popped it into the remote, then slipped the plastic lid back onto the now-filled compartment.

“Right, that’s both batteries used.”

She frowned, glancing back at the plant, then walking over to it.

“This thing’s the only thing alive other than us, but what’s the point of having it at all,” she muttered, bending down to check over the pot.

She frowned, glancing back at the plant, then walking over to it.

“This thing’s the only thing alive other than us, but what’s the point of having it at all,” she muttered, bending down to check over the pot.

Thought Check [+]

2d6 = 2,5

The potted palm tree's soil is damp, as if it had been recently watered, but the soil appears undisturbed. As Pebs looks at the plant and it's pot, trying to think of the best way to approach it, she decides that before digging through the dirt, she'll check underneath. Unfortunately, this task is surprisingly difficult, because the pot is unexpectedly heavy. She's able to tilt it and turn it so it's moved off of its original space a bit, and to her pleasure, a small, normal-looking, stainless steel key is lying under the pot!

She looks back at the tree and decides to take another quick look, which reveals that what had been the back of the pot had been hiding another piece of paper folded up and taped to the side of the pot!