House of the Dead [Event]

Syn was not entirely sure how she had ended up here, but now the only path was forward. Steady but tired steps took her in that direction until the mist faded away and real life seemed to reemerge from the fog. Syn pulled her cloak more tightly around her as she scanned the area. At least some other mages were among the group, judging by their magical presences. She would be wary of them. For now, it seemed like nobody had come here with the intent to harm. As for the reason they all had mysteriously been led to the location, it was beyond her comprehension.

With a glance over the others in the vicinity, Syn decided that nobody was a threat for now. She approached one of the shops, realizing it to be boarded up. By proceeding towards what looked like a tavern, she found that it, too, was dark and the windows shut up with wood planks. Her attention was piqued by a soft sound nearby. Syn turned in the direction of the noise and found a young duo hovering over a doll in one of their hands. She did not approach them yet, but instead observed for a moment. They were all alone in the middle of the street, which was strange enough. Everyone else seemed to be approaching the village, and nobody was already within the small settlement. Perhaps it had been abandoned. She could not understand why the children were present, then.

"What's wrong?" She slowly made her way towards the two children, her hands slightly outstretched in front of her. Syn stopped a few meters away, her eyes questioning.

In response to her careful concern, Syn had received even louder wailing from the little boy. She forced herself to remain calm, barely glancing at the man who introduced himself as a Rune Knight as he stepped closer to their position. As expected of someone of his status, he asked questions that were pertinent to the situation, if a bit abrupt. As the male child slowly began to stifle his cries into sniffling, the girl holding him looked up at Syn and this... Tor. Around them, a few other mages or people with vague magical signatures milled about, discussing the situation. None of them seemed to have a distinct idea of what was going on, leaving the auburn haired girl even more suspicious of this series of events.

However, she turned her attention back to the little girl, as she was now speaking. 'She sounds like she has already been through a lot, but it is possible her weariness and hoarse voice was practiced in order to aid in this ruse,' Syn thought, considering all of the options. The most probably explanation still remained that she was telling the truth. "Why would an ordinary pair of parents be keeping a monster contained in their basement?" She mused out loud, her voice low and questioning. It was not directed at either of the two children, but rather aimed towards the small gathering of more adult individuals surrounding the two adolescents. "Well, Miss Rose and Mister Thorn, I for one will do my best to rescue your brother," the female mage finally vowed, placing a hand over her chest as she promised to make an effort in order to recover the child still inside.

Nonetheless, despite her words and lack of willingness to go back on them, Syn remained suspicious of these circumstances. The parents were missing, as well. "When was the last time you saw your parents? Where are the other residents of the town?" She asked the children as gently as possible before scanning the area around them. Syn scrutinized the mists, attempting to gauge their level of threat. Despite their eeriness, she could not directly conceive an active threat originating from them. It was possible that the mists were still the cause behind the disappearance of the other inhabitants of the town, but the existence of these kids remaining here was questionable in that case. How they had survived the monster and also managed to evade the mists was troubling. Syn would not be ungrateful for good luck in their favor, but she could not ignore the peculiarity.

As it turned out, the children knew nothing about the other residents of the town or the current whereabouts of their parents. Not a surprise at all. The auburn haired girl simply would nod before continuing to listen carefully, not gleaning much more information from the question about why they might have been keeping a monster in the basement. Doctors. Or scientists? Either way, Syn's senses prickled with unease, her instincts telling her that something was awry. She managed to smile as placidly as possible at the children as she watched to see how they took her vow of willingness to help.

The rest of the group milled around, doing various things or attempting to speak to the children. Syndrome hid her slight scowl of disapproval as the young woman, Mythica, abruptly and rather brusquely asked for more specifics of the monster. Although it might be a good idea to try to gauge what they were going against, Syndrome had a feeling that simply asking wouldn't do them much good. The children were not only possibly traumatized to the point of not being able to remember, but they had also already stated they were not really in a position to know much about it. Therefore Syn believed that line of questioning to be a dead end.

Rose seemed eager enough to lead them to the house, so the reddish headed girl followed only a few paces behind. A part of her wanted to lead the way, to stand in front of the children out of a sense of desire for protection, but she knew that was impossible. Had it simply been impractical, the young woman would not have cared.The speed at which the little girl went along and dragged her brother behind her already made it slightly difficult to keep up. Syn tried to teleport in front of them only to be met with some strange phenomenon. Suddenly the pair was still in front of her, and she was left to run. Her senses flaring up once again, she hesitantly activated her high alert mode so to speak.

They had just reached what looked to be an iron gate. Something like a town house was sitting alone, in an eerie way especially with the fog encroaching on their location. Judging from their body language, the two children seemed to be rather uncomfortable, but Syn remembered how she had attempted to get ahead of them before and opened her mouth to speak. "You don't need to go inside first. Stay- stay there. Let us go ahead," she shot a glance slightly behind her and to the side, looking for the Rune Knight. Assumedly that type of person would also be more than ready to go ahead of two nothing more than kids. Unfortunately, right when Syn heard the girl began to say something about the door being open, she heard a horrendous noise. It sounded like floorboards being ripped apart, and Syn immediately turned back. She was barely too late, her feet scrambling as she teleported forwards, only to be met with the doors shut inches away from her face.

Grasping at the handles, she tried pushing. They had opened inwards, hadn't they? But when that didn't work, she tried pulling. Nothing seemed to get them to budge. Reeling back, the girl was momentarily overcome by emotion and even tried kicking at the doors. Nothing seemed to work, even as she delivered a magically enhanced blow with her open palm next. "We need to find a way inside, hurry," she was just turning her head to growl in frustration at the rest of the party when right in front of her she felt a movement. Jumping away, Syn pointed her rapier at the doors, only to feel strange once more as they slowly creaked open, each door pointing outwards as if welcoming them with open arms. "Highly suspicious," was all she could manage to mutter. This house was demented.

Well, she would go in first if nobody else seemed to desire to. Syn slowly stepped forward, her rapier brandished at the ready. 'Wish, this place is mad,' she remarked grimly to the spirit. They made no reply, but she could feel their thrumming agreement through the telepathic bond.

As Syn approached the entrance, she felt a strangeness in the atmosphere here. Her unease only grew as the specific scent that hung thick and heavy in the air piqued a recollection of the past. Herself, with chestnut pigtails and a ragged smile, holding another girl's hand. Both of them were about the age of eight, and they were marveling over a box of cosmetics. Sitting on the curb, they were talking excitedly as little hands rifled through compacts and waved around brushes. The black haired girl was admiring a hand mirror when a car came screeching by, slamming on the brakes right next to the pair. They stared at it, eyes innocent and wondering. The doors of the vehicle suddenly opened, and then the world went blurry, the only understanding of future events a mixture of pain and confusion. Spinning around and around, Syn's head fell to the pavement. She watched from an askew angle as her friend collapsed on the curb next to her, blood dripping from her mouth. The auburn haired little girl tried to reach out to her friend, whose eyes seemed to be staring into space. Then the world completely darkened as the panic and hurt overwhelmed her.

Shaking her head roughly, Syn glanced up at her surroundings to see that she had only been caught up in her remembrance for a moment. Everyone else was vaguely huddled together, grouped up in what she acknowledged was a smart idea. Depending on the type of traps, spreading out could be an advantage so that they were not all caught together. However, if this was indeed the type of place that was a basis for a horror movie, splitting up would be the first step towards death. The others brandished weapons of their choice. One fingered a katana, the other a bow. The Rune Knight seemed about to become a human lightning rod, the floor under his feet sparking with spider-like, branching threads of lightning. Whatever that did, Syn trusted that he would let them know if it was relevant to the situation. 'Introductions,' Syn mused to herself. Understanding that being able to call out another's name in an emergency situation could be helpful, she nodded firmly. The Rune Knight offered his own moniker as simply 'Tor,' which she made note of and listened as the dark haired woman with pigtails gave a bow and her own mysterious name. 'Mythica,' Syn thought she might have heard that before. Not in the best or worst of context, or else she would have remembered clearly. Perhaps she was misremembering.

The man with the katana introduced himself as simply 'Mura,' so the auburn haired girl guessed they were all going to go with short, one word names to identify each other. That was fine, and she decided now was a suitable time to give her own one word introduction. "Syndrome," she said shortly, "That's my name," the mage added on just in case there was any confusion. Tor appeared to be apprehensive of their surroundings, his expression looked vaguely neutral to Syn but held a touch of alarm or worry. She herself also had her misgivings about this situation and possibly some of the other mages present. At least for the time being, they were temporarily allies. Syn glanced around the area, trying to ground herself in gathering information and filing it away. There was a sword on the wall; perhaps investigating it could give them some more clues, or it might be a good idea to grab it as a weapon. One had to be cautious interacting with their environment when it was a strange and unknown house, but exploring was the only way to gain an upper hand. Otherwise, they would only be sitting ducks when an attack finally came. Alternatively, Syn supposed that they could attempt to set up defenses. She felt like the house was luring them in, welcoming them with those doors which had flung themselves open earlier. Playing its game was their only real option for now. She approached the open cloakroom, ignoring the staircase for now. In the background, she heard a couple of the mages muttering about a strange feeling of being watched. Syn was accustomed to this sensation. The auburn haired girl said nothing, but silently, she was in agreement. They were being monitored.

As she paused in front of the doorway, her eyes glanced over the dark garments hanging on hooks. There were several of them, along with a hat on a nearby shelf. The hat was of a rather fancy nature; could it have belonged to the father? Perhaps the number of cloaks hung up could give them a hint to the amount of residents or guests. Father into the cloakroom were two more doors, neither giving any secrets so far of what might lie behind them. She wanted to explore further, and glancing at the rest of the group, she saw that they had similar thoughts. Apparently, Mura's investigative summons had been cut off from him. If he went upstairs, even if the others disliked the idea of splitting up, she preferred it. They did not have to go alone; they could proceed in small groups.

"Will anyone come check out these doors with me?" She called out to them. Mura mentioned the basement. It was possible one of the doors in the hallway to the right led there, or the other one in the foyer closer to the staircase could have a flight of stairs leading to a lower level. Pulling her cloak more tightly around her and popping up the hood, Syn faded into the shadows, becoming invisible to everything except for the allies she chose to reveal her shape to. In their eyes, she might appear slightly transparent. The trick of light wouldn't work on all enemies or traps that lurked in wait, but she felt better wrapped up in some form or protection. Her movements quick and deft, she entered the cloakroom and scanned the area before approaching the open door. After it was investigated, if there was nothing further, she intended to have a look at the hallway doors, of which there were two.