Torn curtains surround a staircase at the end of the hall.

The party step into the dim interior of Sam's front hall with Turtle's automatic slingshot-pistol raised.

The room is dimly lit by one candle. Everyone else holds their weapons ready.

Turtle is reminded of the last house he broke into. He ended up in the basement chained to the ceiling. This time around he checks every shadow and tries to watch his back. The first floor turns up nothing. The kitchen is clean. They head up the stairs instead. 

Turtle : "I'll go first, just in case this place is filled with booby traps."

He starts climbing the stairs first.

Tiny : "Let me know if you start hearing loud noises or see anything crazy."

He follows Turtle up the stairs. Ratty is sticking close to Tiny.

About halfway up, Turtle turns around to motion everyone else to come up.

A landing at the top presents them with three doors. The first door is Sam's bedroom. Party toss the mattress and riffle his drawers for anything that might tell them where he took the victims. They find a collection of shoes and lacy underwear. The second door is the toilet. They are about to open the third door when they notice noises coming from inside. It's a scratching noise like nails on wood, large nails.

Turtle : "We need to open that door."

Everyone else : "Do you really think that's wise?"

Turtle pulls out his revolver and peeks through the keyhole. There's something large and hairy in there, like a sort of dog. He thinks there might be more than one. Carefully, he tries the door knob. It's locked. He'll have to kick the door in. Still, he has kicked in enough doors to know that he really has to lay into it and so it will probably bust wide open and he won't have control of that door for a moment.

He quietly whispers : "We ready?"

Everyone else : "Ready."

He raises his foot and...

It takes two kicks to splinter the door open. Boom! The door bursts open and Turtle slams his foot into it.

What Turtle sees inside will haunt his dreams from now on. Spiders-huge ones! They are the size of bulldogs with coarse, black hair and spindly legs and mandibles and eyes.. He screams like a small girl and starts shooting. There are three of them, and they rush the open door. One curls up after he shoots a sharp projectile in its bloated abdomen. The second one scrabbles forward and leaps through the air. He shoots it in midflight and dark blood spatters behind as its loathsome body knocks him back. Meanwhile, the third one charges out into the hall and curls its forelegs around his leg. He feels a sharp pain.

Tiny and Ratty both rush forward. They make a pincer maneuver with the three-legged spider. It desperately tries to crawl about, but they have its legs. Ratty leaps on it like a cat and bites it in the neck with his huge teeth. He bites down and begins to chew. It squirms about, but Ratty has a vice-like grip.

Tiny grabs it by the back of the neck and hurls it against the wall. It bounces off and lands on its back. Tiny grabs a hunk of wood that's left over from the door and smashes its head in. It's still moving, but weakly.

They both jump on its back and start biting at its abdomen. Their combined weight soon suffocates the spider under a mountain of flesh and blood. They sit up and look at each other.

After a long moment of silence, the turtle speaks: "Well, that was certainly an unexpected way to die."

The rat nods in agreement.

Rat: Guardians summoned from another world!

Tiny's face is dripping with sweat and disbelief : "This is some serious black magic."

Turtle: Welcome to the club, buddy.

Turtle's leg is burning. He rolls up his pant leg and inspects the wound. It's not much of a puncture; it must not have gotten a good hold before Tiny and Ratty rained down on it. Still, the small wound is crimson red and puffy. He assures himself that he'll live and then steps into the spider room.

At the end of this hall is a steampunk automaton puppet that looks like a cross between Santa Claus and Nikola Tesla's and if it were possessed by the demon Paimon.

The puppet is an automaton powered by steam & clockwork engine and run by black magic. Magic provides it skills and intelligence. Like an AI software, it’s the source of its mind. It’s programmed to attack the intruders.