melodiesofeternity | Event || A History of Light and Darkness

Event || A History of Light and Darkness

Who: Brave Explorers and/or Those Poor Souls Being Dragged Along by Friends
When: Oct 15-30th
Where: Thilmit Border Post, inside the Old Heranean Doll Museum
What: The Heroes of Light received a strange letter, and are now being asked to investigate the strange occurrences at the old doll museum.
Warnings/Notes: OOC Post Warnings for Spookiness, Creepy Dolls. Post toplevels for each group. Please post warnings as needed for memory fragments and exploration. For random numbers, use the dice functions on Plurk or Discord.

The Old Heranean Doll Museum is a small building, but somehow the dark, dusty windows and poorly maintained roof give it a menacing feel as you approach. The sign says, "OPEN"...although, as you approached, you think it might have been turned to "CLOSED".

The door creaks as it swings open, though there is no one from the museum to greet you as you enter. A cold breeze blows in behind you, sapping any lingering warmth in the room. The building is dark, and cobwebs are starting to form in the corners of the lobby and on the velvet rope stanchions that guide the flow of traffic in and out. Out of a shadowy corner, a large centipede skitters across the floor and into a crack low on the wall.

At the reception desk, one of the antique dolls sits, unmoving, unblinking. That goes without saying. Its eyes do not follow you as you enter.... The hairs prickling up on the back of your neck are just coincidence, that's all.

There is another doll perched on the wooden brochure display stand near the door. It's strange that the curator leaves the display pieces out where visitors can touch them....

As you enter, you hear something whistling through the air toward you a moment before it makes a impact. A tiny pebble, too small to do any damage other than a brief stinging. During this moment of distraction, the door slams and locks.

When you look at the spots where the dolls were perched a moment ago, there is now just empty space. There is movement in the shadows, and the nearly imperceptible sound of tiny shapes creeping around.

As you move past the lobby into the exhibits, a sign above the entryway declares:

Welcome to the Old Heranean Doll Museum. We hope you enjoy our historic Heroes of Light displays.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She watched him do it, thought nothing of it really until he made a comment about it's appearance, which she doesn't quiet catch.

"Huh, whadja—" but Kid was cut off by the knock back, coming too a little while later and rubbing at her head from her position on the ground and sounding a groan. She felt... off. But more imporarntly as the world comes back into focus she blinks— blinks again, and then rubs at her eyes.

"Oi! What's happened to ya?" She means all of them, sprawled around the... now very spacious room?? "You're lookin' all weird!" More so than usual, even.

Klonoa, in all honesty, has been liking this place so far. All these arts and crafts remind him of all the dolls he helped piece back together, and the enjoyable parts of his visions in Lunatea. He's really not even creeped out by the dolls even a little! Sure, that one looks like it's actually looking at him, and that Cid doll wasn't there last time he checked, but--

Klonoa slowly rubs his head, sitting up.

"Wh.. what happened...?" He says, suddenly feeling.. a lot weirder than before. He's fluffy, sure, okay that checks out... He reaches up to adjust his cap and...??? It's stuck to his head?

"Not...not just us, Kid." Corrin says, as she pats her face with her hands, feeling the difference. It's definitely more porcelain-like than it was before.

She looks around. "Oh, no. This is not good." Understatement, thy name is Corrin.

Edited 2018-10-21 04:05 (UTC)

Well. Serge is taken aback. He can honestly, truly say that this is something he never expected. "What... what the hell?" They've gone and turned him into some kind of animated plush toy!

"O-okay. So. Nobody panic. This probably isn't permanent, there're these frog things out in the Hisan area that when they touch you, you turn into a frog. But any white mage can fix it, see? And it eventually wears off on its own, even then! Right? So in all probability this can totally be fixed. We just, uh. We just need to go back to the entrance."

Serge turns around, looks up at the large, foreboding, and above all, heavy door that they'd passed through to get here. "Oh. Okay. So, bright side, guys. Like I said, nobody panic, I'm pretty sure I saw that this section opened up into another one, can't remember which, but the important thing is that it leads back to the entrance. So all we gotta do is stay positive, move forward, and I bet this won't even last more than a couple of minutes! All in all as magical traps go it could've been a lot worse, right? And now we know not to touch dolls!"

He'd probably be grinning even if his stitched-on mouth weren't permanently stuck in an upturned smile. This is fine! Everything's fine! Look at Serge, he's already moving on ahead to the next room which will make everything better!

Edited 2018-10-21 05:13 (UTC)

"Not just..." Corrin's comment give Kid reason to pause finally, patting herself down to discover an array of stitching that most definitely wasn't there before— she pulls at her ponytail only to find that it's now... made of yarn?!

"What's the big idea, huh?!" she spins on her heel, looking up, waaaaay up, at nothing at all, ready to have a few choice words with the unseen force, or that Sora-doll, that had done this to them.

But as Serge tries to reassure them, her stomach seems to sink a little more with the realization that— that door... those tables... why's everything so big all of a sudden?! "Wait a minute... we ain't just dolls, we— we're shrunk, too!" Just in case you thought being a doll wasn't bad enough.

And in case that still wasn't enough, as she trudges forward behind their defacto leader, she seems to spy something approaching then from ahead. "Oi! Who's there! You the one responsible for this hocus pocus?!"

Edited 2018-10-21 18:40 (UTC)

Richard was many things. A spy. A jerk. A man very acquainted with traps, either used against him, set up by him, or sometimes both.

A cute and stuffy doll was a new one.

After a moment of pause, he pulls himself out of stealth to look at the crew as if a bomb had just gone off. Or maybe not, it's kind of hard to tell what with the button eyes and stitchy mouth. He quickly marches over to Serge, grabs him by the back of the bandana, and just stares at him for a second.

"Hi. I'm your parent and/or guardian. Doing this whole separating ourselves and going headlong into danger thing has gotten us turned into something that wouldn't look out of place in Peewee's Playhouse. We're going to mob up properly and stomp down that kid for turning us into grandma's crocheting project." He looks to the others.

Edited 2018-10-21 22:22 (UTC)

Corrin is quick to interpose herself between the party and the approaching shapes in the gloom. She might be an adorable doll right now but she's also still a Dark Knight, and Dark Knights are all about protection. That's her role right now and it's the one she's gonna play.

"Hold there!" She declares. "Who are you?" She looks back to the others. "Everyone, be on your guard." She's not looking for a fight, but given the circumstances it's better to be safe than sorry.

"I mean I wasn't actually going to go off on my own. Does it count as going off on your own if everybody's going with you? Look, this... Okay. So maybe it's my fault that this happened, sort of, even though I had no way of knowing the doll would do that. Point is, our best bet is meeting up with another group, because I'm pretty sure any healer could fix this, or at worst it's just temporary, right? Anyway-"

He's cut off by a soft voice, coming from behind. "...Are you sure they're Calamity-Marked?"

"What-" Serge turns around, facing... a doll. Standing behind them, holding a letter opener that looks... significantly sharper than it ought to be.

A second voice, from behind the group, this time. "They must be. Mog said so. They are a threat to Crystallis." A second doll, holding what looks like a carving fork.

Serge swallows nervously. "Uh. Hey, guys. What're you..." He yelps, having to duck a sudden thrust from the 'Bartz' doll that nearly skewers him.

'Bartz' replies, quietly ignoring the party's questions. "Then they must be defeated."

Klonoa takes a step back and glowers at the two dolls, concerned that not only are they apparently transformed into toys, but that other toys have decided that they're toys that must be destroyed.

"Serge, duck!" He calls out, and presses his hands tog--

Squeak!

Klonoa yelps and stumbles further back into Kid at the noise, but thankfully manages to hit Serge with Regen.

"We don't have to do this!" Corrin warns, her sword at the ready as the dolls approach. "We're not your enemies! We just want-" The second doll cuts her off mid-sentence by stabbing at her with the carving fork. Corrin manages to parry the blow in time with her sword. She grits her teeth and readies herself. "...All right then." She mutters.

Corrin quickly assesses the situation; they have the numbers advantage, but she knows most of the rest and they're all as new to this as she is. Not to mention they're all currently dolls. Best thing to do would be to thin the ranks as quickly as possible. Seeing Klonoa let loose a healing spell of some sort on Serge, gives her an idea.

"Klonoa!" She calls. "Get ready to cast that spell again on me, I'm going to need it!" She begins channeling power into her sword, wincing in pain as it's drawn from her own vitality. Well, she knew what she was getting into when she decided to be a Dark Knight. With the sword fully charged, she swings it at the fork-wielding doll who's attack she just deflected, hitting it with dark life-energy.

Panting with the exertion, Corrin points her sword towards the fork-wielding doll. "Focus fire on that one! Let's take it out as quickly as we can."

Edited 2018-10-23 03:32 (UTC)

Richard Conway is not the type of person that does well in a fair fight. He's the kind of person that only really functions well if he takes someone by surprise. One shot is all it takes to leave him bleeding and dying in front of a secure building.

Wait, how does he know that?

He shakes his head and looks around, finding a table. Right. Table. Gotta get up the table. Richard up and starts clambering up a table leg, hoping nobody sees him. You're doing great, guys! Keep it up! Just, uh. I'm going to need to be high up for this next part, and I haven't found my favorite pair of pants yet, he said silently in his head.

Calamity... marked? Whatever the hell that meant, there was no time to dwell on it now as one of there own had nearly just been shishka-Serge'd. She was ready to let that one have it in retaliation, pulling out both her gun and short sword... because when had this girl ever done anything in moderation? This wasn't going to be the day she'd start, either.

That's just about the time Klonoa stumbled back her way. Reacting quickly, his backside was promptly met with a boot intended to keep him upright enough to regain his balance.

"All right, all right!" There's a low growl as Kid sets aside her personal grudge against the letter-opening doll, heeding Corrin's advice and focusing on their fork-friend for a physical attack courtesy of her shotgun.

Since she was fairly focused on that, there really was no telling what Serge's self-proclaimed parent and/or guardian was up to.

Serge scowls, pulling the familiar shape of his oar from his back- though it seems significantly less effective a weapon now, at this size. "I dunno what all this crap about being Calamity-marked is, but I'm not buying it!"

'Bartz' lunges for another thrust, only for his blade to be knocked aside by a [Parry] from Serge, the backswing sending the doll flying.

'Tear', seeing Conway fleeing, rears back and hurls the fork like a javelin at him, and promptly eats a shotgun blast to the face for her troubles, collapsing to the floor, although she's still moving, getting up with difficulty.

As the "Tear" (not that she'd have any idea who that is) doll begins to rise, Corrin is already on top of it, driving her sword into it before it can fully get back onto its feet for [Physical] damage.

After her attack, she steps back and glances up to where the Tear doll threw its fork and notices Richard clambering up the table leg. "Mr. Conway, watch out!"

He just barely let go of the table leg in time.

Richard makes an ungentlemanly, high pitched sound as a fork was lodged forcefully in the foam right above his head as he dropped down and body-hugged the kid-friendly table leg. His hat was skewered right above him.

His hat. His hat! HIS HAT! THEY PUT A HOLE IN HIS FEDORA!

He looks down with the coldest look his button eyes could muster, snatching the felt thing out of the grip of the fork before climbing up over the edge of the table. There was a moment of quiet. And then a second later, Richard launched himself off the side of the table, bent back like a bow, with a pair of sewing needles in each hand.

This was going to get [Physical]. This was going to get very [Physical].

"Haaaaa—!" Sure it was great that bullet seemed to connect to face, but that wasn't enough! When Corrin eases up after her onslaught, Kid leaps into action, shotgun re-holstered, and opting for a short sword to the stuffing this time, against the fork-fiend.

Aiming to stab down on its shoulder her intention was to pin it in place, as she gets right in its business, doll-face to doll-face. "Whassat you said?! About some Calamity markin'? You better start talkin' or else I'm gonna kick yer stuffing so hard you'll—"

'Tear' is quite badly torn up, with stuffing visibly showing through many, many holes. She pulls a craft knife blade next, rushing forward for Kid- and gets run through by Corrin's sword, impaled by Conway's needles, and doubly-impaled by Kid. With a mechanical sort of shudder, she stops moving, glassy eyes staring at nothing.

Serge, meanwhile, is having his own troubles, clashing repeatedly with 'Bartz', who manages to land several glancing blows in spite of a valiant effort to fend the doll off. Serge aims low, attempting a [Sweeping Strike]-
But even as the doll is knocked off its feet, it rolls up again, thrusting around his guard and into his shoulder. It's probably a good job it's just fabric and stuffing. The others might well be alerted to this situation by Serge's cry of pain as he stumbles back, the doll withdrawing its blade with a flourish and then charging forward for another attack.

"Die."

There's a pair of taps on 'Bartz' back.

"Hi." Richard sing-songed in that particularly sociopathic way, anger in his black button eyes. "I'm his guardian. That means I'm the guy filling in for his parents when I do this." He rears back, clenches his fist, and lets the encroaching doll have it with a [physical] haymaker.

There's a moment of pause before he lets out a hiss from the sides of his mouth. The seams of his trousers and boots began to glow blue. This is starting to work him up. He can't think straight, but he is starting to feel infinitely less bad about doing this guy like he did Gessler.

The doll reels back from the punch, looking up with lifeless eyes at Conway, the letter opener swinging around to slash-

A mistake, as it turns out. Injured Serge may be, but he's not out. The oar swings round in another [Sweeping Strike], and this time 'Bartz' is too distracted to dodge, legs knocked right out from under him. "Don't think I like these dolls very much."

"Tch," Kid spits from on top of the thing, disloding herself from it completely, and looking quite dissatisfied for it. "Guess they ain't in the mood to talk anymore." It figures.

Slightly out of range still from where Bartz and the boyz are settling their differences, she reaches again for her sawed-off shotgun, cocking the next round into place.

'Bartz' tries to stand once more, and receives an [Attack] to the face for his troubles, wisely deciding to stay down.

Serge takes the opportunity of a downed doll to kick away the letter-opener. "Well, this one stabbed me, and the other one tried to kebabify Richard. Frankly, I'm in the mood to find out why." He plants a foot on the doll's chest, grinning down at him. "Help us out, huh? What do you mean by Calamity-marked, and how come you and your friend there are so keen on cutting us to pieces?"

'Bartz' struggles against the foot holding him down, and his doll eyes narrow as he gazes up at Serge.

"Something you and the other Calamity-marked have been doing has been weakening Mog. He won't say what, but it must be something evil. Mog has been protecting the Heroes of Light from your influence so that it doesn't affect us too."

Bartz goes still, and from one of the tubs of craft supplies stacked against the wall, more dolls pop out. They throw up their hands and a cast a Thunder spell. The attack is not aimed at anyone, but the flash of lightning is blindingly bright.

When the spots fade from everyone's eyes, the enemy dolls have made a hasty retreat, leaving behind only some stuffing and scraps of fabric as evidence to their presence.

Klonoa pants as he pulls his arm away from his eyes, doing what he can to get people up and running after the fighting ends. Serge and Corrin need some help, and he starts up with Corrin, heading over to raise those squeak-toy hands of his. Rushes of holy light wash over her body, the fatigue of battle Cured to the best of his ability. The worn stitching gets tighter, the faded fabric brightens. Dark knight abilities sure are scary, huh?

"Serge, are you alright? That looked... uncomfortable."

[Scary, but useful, she has to admit. Corrin sighs in relief as the healing magic washes over her.] "Thank you, Klonoa." [She plants her sword in the ground, now that the other dolls have fled and surveys the group.] "Good work everyone. I knew we could do it."

[Corrin prods some of the discarded fabric with her foot, while Klonoa attends to Serge.] "I don't understand what that doll was talking about. Is the "Mog" he mentioned the missing curator?"

Serge winces. "It's fine, I've gotten hurt worse, but uh. I'd still kind of appreciate it if you could maybe help me patch this up, Klonoa." He rubs his eyes, trying to will the spots away. "How'd they catch us by surprise like that, anyway?" He sighs, looking at the other side of the room... where a door stands ajar. "It's pretty clear they think they're in the right in doing... whatever this is. I dunno what 'Calamity-marked' means, but there's a mystery going on around here and we're gonna get to the bottom of it. And... hopefully also fix this... whatever this is."

Serge rubs at his shoulder, thankful for Klonoa's attentions. That issue taken care of, he leads the way to the open door, ready to [Parry] an attack that's coming as he crosses the threshold... into a completely different area of the museum. There's sewing supplies and doll parts and barrels of stuffing all over a central area, with seating around it. Some kind of medical theater for dolls?

Serge has little time to appreciate the environs, however. The second the last person's feet cross the threshold, there's that sense of vertigo and distortion again as the world fades...

And when it comes back into focus again, the party, recovering from a slight bout of sudden unconsciousness, finds that their fabric and porcelain have been replaced, once more, with flesh and blood. And amid scattered sewing supplies is a suspicious package, wrapped in brightly-colored paper, with a design that suggests it's something from the Gift Shop.

"Wha... okay. That was... disorienting. Good news: magic doll trap seems to have worn off. Bad news, this hurts a lot more than it did. Ow."

Edited 2018-10-29 02:43 (UTC)

Event || A History of Light and Darkness

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I've only gone and rolled a 5

rip team newb

Hi, kids! What's going on in this- OH GOD!

Re: Hi, kids! What's going on in this- OH GOD!

AND LIKE THAT THE COMBAT BEGINS

I am addicted to precasting apparently

MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

Richard Conway plays with dolls

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sorry for AFK healer

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Round 2: Preservations Required (Roll: 2)

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??????

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