East 83rd Street

A brownstone in New York City where Arthur Lester rents out an attic room from landlady Marie.

## Description

A three-story brownstone building with a blackened painted rooftop. A set of stairs lead up to the entrance from the street. The grocer, J Scherzer Whole Grocer, is connected to the house somehow, possibly a side door.

Inside the door is a small foyer and circular staircase. The front door locks from behind. To the back of the staircase there’s a kitchen. To the right is a sitting room. The walls have faded, peeling yellow wallpaper that looks almost skin-tone. The home shows signs of age and negligence: cobwebs in corners, the wooden stairs rough and poorly kept.

On the 2nd floor, there is a bathroom down the hall to the left of the stairs. Marie’s room is over the front door, a room that receives lots of light. Taking a sharp left at the end of the hall leads to two doors: one is the door to the attic, and to the immediate right of the attic door is a locked door that should not be opened under any circumstances.

On the 3rd floor, there is an attic room which locks from the inside. Tight wooden steps lead up to an A-frame room. Wooden boards line the floors and walls. To the left side from the stairs, there is a single square window with a basin beneath. The window has view of New York City. The glass is warped, broken and repaired; the glass has an intricate pattern to it.

At the center of the attic room is a single cot bed on a wire frame. Small round carpet at top of stairs, faded blue design with flowers, to wipe shoes. On the north side of the room is the bed headboard and a writing desk with a single chair at it. The north wall also has impressions of shapes that used to hang there, including a cross. In the far corner of the room opposite the window, there is a crack in the floor to see into the room below.

## House Schedule & Rules

* 7am - Marie leaves the house
* 12pm - Marie returns for a light lunch
* 1pm - Marie makes tea; tenants can join her
* Afternoon - Marie uses the sitting room to read; tenants are welcome to join her
* 6pm - Marie retires to her bedroom
* 8pm - Marie is asleep
* 11pm - Front door is not to be opened after this time; if a tenant is out past 11pm, they should stay out for the night
* Tenants can use the kitchen, but must buy their own groceries
* Bathroom on the 2nd floor only to be used if Marie has left the house
* The locked door to the right of the attic door should not be opened under any circumstances
* The rent ($4 a week) must be paid in advance

## Arcane Attributes & Creatures

It is unclear if all these features share the same source, or if they represent two or more presences in the house.

### Shadows

When approaching the building, an arcane shadow can be seen on the house. Described as an eerie haze seething with an energy John cannot place, the presence cannot be seen by the naked eye. The shadow gives the house an almost crooked appearance, and the architecture of the house itself is odd as if hiding something. can’t tell where shadows stop and building begins.

While the shadow has an energy signature not from this world, the house does not feel like the hotel in Leerie, and likely does not contain a merging of the Dreamlands with this plane.

### Rot Creature

Inside, the air is thick and hazy, like something within this house is rotting it away and tainting the air. On the second floor, a dark forest green hue seeps around the corner. The air feels especially damp on this floor. After turning the corner, the rot can be seen slithering out in wisps of smoke from underneath the closed door to the right of the attic door. When Arthur and John listen at the door, they hear the buzzing of flies, thumping and scraping, and a creature sniffing and calling.

Later in the night, Marie can be heard talking to the creature, offering it a bite to eat. When Arthur lays by the crack in the floor to try to see down into the room, the creature moves over and uses its keen nose to recognize Arthur's scent.

### Attic Creature

In the crevasse where the roofs meet above Arthur's bed, there is a darkness too thick to see through. The light can't touch the darkness. The creature exists inside the darkness, and stares out from within the shadows. It clings to the ceiling with its arms and legs pressed to either side, as if ready to drop down. It emanates the sensation of waiting until its prey has given up, and the sensation that it is starving. It can be seen smiling.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Part 30