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.[1] The full address is 411 East 83rd St.
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.[1]
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.[1]
Hattie's Room[]
The locked door leads to Hattie's room. The room opens to the right of the door, as the left wall is directly beside it. Sitting against the left wall is a small, round coffee table. There is a basin in the corner, and set into the wall above it, a mirror. The glass of the mirror is warped, similar to the window in the attic room. On the northern wall is a shelf and a fireplace. A bookshelf is tucked into the northeast corner. Against the east wall is a dilapidated, broken bed, with an accompanying small table. Just to the right of the door is another bookshelf. At the foot of the door is a rug with a line of dust across the top, and a crack in the ceiling that looks up into the attic room..[2]
One of the bookshelves is set into the wall. On the second shelf is a hidden mechanism that opens a hidden room in the wall between the fireplace and the shelf on the northern wall. It opens into a small, dust-covered room with cobwebs in the corners. There is a broken, old shelf, and on the far wall, a small desk. There is a large, circular symbol with an inwardly repeating pattern carved into the floor. This symbol appears on the Bestiary.[2]
The Attic Room[]
On the 3rd floor, there is an attic room which locks from the inside. Tight wooden steps lead up to an A-frame room. There is a small round carpet at top of stairs, faded blue design with flowers, to wipe shoes. 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.[1]
At the center of the attic room is a single cot bed on a wire frame. 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.[1] Against the south wall is an alcove near the stairs that has a rolled up carpet in it and a few boxes.[2]
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[]
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.[1]
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.[1]