Upper Floor
You climb the stairs. With every step you take, a hollowed thump echoes through the room. The sound is soft and low but in this room where there is nothing but silence, it is loud. At the top, you briefly scout both of the paths to see what lies ahead of them and discover that they are both connected to the same hallway. You shrug your shoulders and walk through the right one.
A long hallway lies before you, riddled with doors on either side. There is a fancy carpet beneath your feet that extends to what looks to be the entire hallway. On top of you, lining the ceiling down the hall are silver chandeliers. Many of them have melted wax on them, reminders of the candles that once lit them up. Countless paintings litter the walls. There are portraits of people, still lifes, landscape art, everything. The family that lived here in the past must have been quite wealthy. It must have cost a fortune to amass this many paintings.
You walk down the hallway and look around. There are name plates and signs on the doors but most are too faded out to make out what they say. You probe the doors, checking to see if any of them are open, but find no success. The locks are doing their job as they were made to do. Still, you try every door you come across until a handle turns. You raise your eyes in astonishment, not expecting there would be an unlocked door. With your hand still on the handle, you turn your head and look down the hallway to see how many doors are left. You discover that you are approaching the end of the hallway and there are only a handful of doors you have yet to check.
You back away from the doors and walk to the other doors to check and see if any of them are unlocked too. As it so happens, the first door you check directly across the hall is also unlocked. You open the door a little and stick the lantern in along with your head to scout out a bit of the room. The first thing you see is a large bed that takes up just a little under half of the room. The sheets and blanket are all neatly wrapped up. There is also furniture crammed in every empty space in the room. A drawer lies snuggled next to the bed, and against the wall right next to that are three identical wardrobes, as tall as a bear. There is a table and chair on the other end opposite the wardrobes with a chest next to it. Expensive jewelry and ornaments are spread out across the table and in front of a big mirror.
There are a lot of things in the room but one thing that is not in the room that should be is a window. It must be hidden behind one of the wardrobes. This room gives off more of the sense of being a storage room for furniture than someone’s living space. You are intrigued by what kind of person lived here in this room and even more interested in how they managed to fit any of the furniture through this small door and how they lived in a room like this. Maybe there is something of use in this messy treasure trove that can be of use?
There is too much in the room that trying to find anything useful in here is either a hit or a miss. You could find a mountainload of useful things in the room or you could find nothing at all. Either way, it will take too much time to go through the items in the room so you close the door and go on your way. There is only one door to check now, and it is the one that stands out the most. The door stands tall at the end of the hallway, facing towards the hall itself rather than sitting at the left and right sides. There is no doubt who this room belonged to. The person in charge of this house is the one who resides in it.
You gather your courage to approach the imposing door. You also feel a presence at your back and an urge to kneel before the door. The door has the same engraving as the huge chained door on the first floor. A knight holding his sword and standing before a demon-like entity. On either side of the door are statues of knights, standing tall and proud, clad in armor from head to foot. A longsword at their side and a towering diamond-shaped shield pressed against the floor, daring any blind fool to challenge them. An impressive red cape drapes the floor behind them.
On the shield is a symbol of a ferocious lion. Its head is reared up and its mouth is wide open, bearing razor-sharp teeth. The lion’s manes are made of fire and the end of the tail is oddly shaped like a flail. The longer you look at the picture, the less it resembles a lion and the more it looks like a mythological beast. There are plenty of other small details on not just the shield but the armor, sword, and the pedestal itself that the knights stand on. They are all probably related to the history and background of the family, and not knowing anything about the people who lived here, you cannot figure out the significance nor meaning behind any of the symbols.
You take your eyes off the statues and stand directly in front of the menacing door. There are no handles or knobs on the door. In their place are two massive rings looming over you on the left and right. The design and placement of the rings make you believe that you are to pull them both at the same time while pushing the door to open it.