Plantation Mansion™
 (copyright © 2012 by Towne Square America™)

As soon as you close the desk drawer, the ticking stops, so you breath a sigh of relief. Then you are startled as you hear a creaking sound coming from the bookshelf wall just to your right. Suddenly, a portion of the bookcase swivels open to reveal a secret doorway. You poke your head into the opening to see a narrow passageway leading downward has been revealed. “Must lead to the basement,” you hear yourself say.

You take one last look over your shoulder, out the window at the as it streams in through the windows.

Then you wind your way down the narrow, twisting passageway. Sure enough, you are now in the basement. A light flicked on as you entered the basement. Your first reaction is one of awe at the enormity of spaciousness in this underground cavern in Plantation Mansion™.

You see another stairway leading up that you are sure leads to the main hallway. You walk up the stairway and try to open the door. It is locked, but you can and do unlock it. You open it. Sure enough, you are at the main hallway. You close the door and lock it again behind you as you head back down into the cavern of a basement.

You look over at the passageway you just came down and you see how cleverly the hidden door is “worked in” to the pattern on the wall. Over in the far right corner is a laundry area that doesn’t look too exciting.

You spot a game room and that really looks interesting with darts, a Ping-Pong table, air hockey, a table for playing poker or cards, and a roulette table. This must be a popular place to hang out, you think to yourself.

At the far end of this huge underground area that encompasses space far wider than the width of the Mansion are two bowling lanes which obviously are from the 1920s, because you set your own pins ... and, actually, that seems kinda cool, doesn’t it?

There is a storage area, of course, with items covered in white cloth. Across from that area is an ancient, but still functioning furnace - a BIG furnace!

You decide to go into the game room. It is lined with knotty pine panels. The first thing that catches your attention is a round, rather ordinary, definitely “old looking” clock on the far wall hanging upside down. You turn your head slightly sideways to see the time on the clock reads

You stand there for a bit wondering why the clock is upside down. Someone purposely hung the clock in this manner and you try to imagine why. Was it so you would look differently at time? Did it mean something? Of, did someone just hang it that way on a lark? You just can’t resist the temptation to “right” the clock so you walk over to it to have a look/see..

Just as you are about lift the upside down clock off the wall so you can hang it “the right way,” you notice that the knotty pine pattern for the wood paneling is quite odd. The panels of wood run parallel with the floor. Then you notice one of the panels slightly sticking out from another panel not far from the clock. At that moment you wonder if the clock was hung upside down to draw attention away from or to keep you from noticing the panel that is clearly jutting outward.

As you look closer at that wall panel that is sticking outward, you think for a moment that this kind of “imperfection” just doesn’t fit in with the craftsmanship throughout the rest of Plantation Mansion™. It just didn’t seem like whomever built all of this or added on to it over the years would leave any panels jutting outward.

You run your fingers along the panel. One spot where the panel jutted out is where a wood sliver slices into your finger! You feel the sting deep in your index finger as the sliver’s bite takes hold. Pulling your hand back and grabbing your finger, you yell, “Son of a ...” At the same time, you kick the knotty pine wall as hard as you can. That’s when yet another secret door pops open right in front of you. There is a musty smell and a fine dust particles fill the air, causing the room to take on an orangish glow. You cough from breathing in so much dust.

The room is filled with antiquities and strange looking futuristic yet ancient looking objects. You can’t make out much else. You would need to enter the room and find a light source. But first, you need to tend to your finger. Over in the laundry area you find a sewing basket that has a needle ideal for removing the splinter.

Once you tend to your “wounded” finger and you realize that you will, indeed, live ... you think about entering the secret, musty smelling room that you just discovered. You spot a flash light near the secret door that you could use to “light up” that room.

You could also head back up the secret passage way to the study.

Or, you could just explore the game room.

There is also the option to go check out the bowling lanes. Those look like fun!

Time to decide ...