The small town of Grainville was typically a quiet place, seemingly far removed from the epic warfare and magic of the rest of the world. People were friendly to one another and there was no crime to speak of. That is, until recently. It started a few months ago when a dog ran away from its owners near the old abandoned mansion; it went inside the building, but never left. Then the mayor's nine year old daughter disappeared. She had been dared to go in by a friend and nobody has seen her since. Distraught at the thought of never seeing his child again, the mayor ordered the city guardsman to rescue her; he, too, has vanished.

In response to this, the mayor has called an emergency meeting to discuss what to do about the disappearances. Someone in the audience proposed that a search party be made of trusted citizens to discover what has happened and hopefully recover the town's missing citizens. The mayor agreed to the plan and asks for volunteers: Five brave people decided to help their town. A ragtag group of people, the government official thought, but these were all good people who cared about Grainville. They could help solve this crisis. After thanking everyone for stepping up, the mayor finishes the meeting and gathered the volunteers in a separate room. He then asks everyone: are you ready to search the abandoned mansion?

Thinking a crowd could create potential vulnerable targets for [i]whatever[/i] was causing the disappearances, the mayor decided to guide the small group past the front door to the lobby of the complex by himself in the evening hours. The old Cornwall Mansion was, in the past, a place of luxury and splendor. Built by the nobleman Charles Cornwall as a vacation house, this huge estate with multiple rooms and a grand outdoor garden was the epitome of class. Years of neglect, however, have turned it into a stately shadow of its former self. Even before the current crisis, this place had been overcome by weeds and decay. Despite this, the lobby had remnants of its former grandeur; beneath the grunge, the flooring made of white marble tile looked secure, and the walls were painted a now-faded gold color. The room itself was in the shape of an upside-down U from where the front door was, with a wooden door on the immediate left and a grand staircase to the right leading to the second floor. In front (the curved part of the “U”), there was an open archway. Some sort of faded light could be seen in the distance, but otherwise nothing was visible from the group’s position by the front door. In the middle of the “U,” there was a worn but still presentable red carpet.

“Once again, thank you for your help,” the mayor said, giving a lit [url=https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwarisanlighting.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fparser%2Fantique-aladdin-oil-lamps-3.jpg&f=1&nofb=1]oil lamp[/url] to the shepherd, “and best of luck to you.” The government official bowed slightly, then took his leave. 

The group had hardly said a word to each other before the mayor’s departure; the kindly man in his late forties had provided most of the guidance until now and he didn’t provide any sort of strategy for the task ahead of them. What would the group of five do now?