Event || A History of Light and Darkness

[eternitymods]

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.

Comments

[pishirogane]

The sounds they made sent a chill racing up Naoto's spine and briefly made her hands tremble. Okay, there was no more question to this - this was a haunting and she refused to believe it was anything otherwise until there was evidence. Besides that, she wanted to go home.

At her shoulder, the image of Shiva flickered, shifted, and soon coalesced into another form - of one Eidolon that growled and was ready to unleash his own flames upon the dolls right at Kanji's heels.

[topgun_textiles]

Kanji felt that first bite of pain as a razorblade cut through the pant leg between the armor plates. His reply was a snarl and a kick to send that little fucker up and away.

"Be careful, I think they can pile on n' smother!" He had to look out for the little dude, right? But it was up to them to make sure Naoto could find some other passage out of the room.

There had to be SOMETHING, like a damn... a damn breakroom or Employee area or something!

[pishirogane]

Ifrit huffed, but did nothing as a doll fell through it. The convenient thing about Egi Summoning meant the ghostly Eidolon form couldn't really be interacted with; though, at the cost of being able to use strong magic attacks. Still, the one doll on Kanji's leg would find itself ignited by Ifrit's flames in a second.

Meanwhile, Naoto's roving eyes while the boys held the dolls away from her darted around for any potential exit. There did appear to be one boarded up, but another glance to the side and behind the register - ah!

"Kanji-kun! Employee's Office! Behind the front desk! I can see it just down the hallway!"

[topgun_textiles]

Front desk. Hallway. "Got it!"

Now he just needed to clear a path and break away. He began his retreat one step at a time, whirling the greatsword to form some sort of defensive line that would risk injury to any dolls that came in close. He'd been practicing the stupid swordplay dances enough to know how to do that, at least, and finally find a use for it.

"I'll be right behind ya! Go on ahead!"

[pishirogane]

"Right!"

The dolls weren't very happy that Naoto had figured out where their exit might be and weren't particularly keen on just letting them to the desk or hallway. However, as they filed in, they seemed to neglect that Naoto still had a loaded flamethrower and Ifrit was all too eager to back up fire with fire.

Naoto's foot slammed down on a shrieking doll as she took her steps forward, hurrying to the Employee's Only Door.

[topgun_textiles]

"I got somewhere to be! Fuck off!" Saint Cross, another burst of holy energy marked by the thrust of his blade into the wooden floor. As mink and fur flew, he took up his weapon and looked behind him.

Yup, there she goes. Okay, good.

He turned and hurried along to catch up in the confusion.