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

[righthandstand]

[Okuyasu slips his fingers so they touch more of Uendo's, but he's not holding hands with an older guy no matter how chill he is. He abandoned handholding for comfort once Keicho turned 12, and he wasn't doing little kid shit anymore.

But this is just for safety. Okuyasu closes his eyes and forces himself to think of some place safe. Tonio's Trattoria, yeah. Why won't the tank show them something nice? What about their house in Myste Aura?

While walking onward, the group passes a small restaurant table with a white tablecloth.]

It can't be that far, right?

[whirluendo_of_puns]

[The hallway and the yard outside don't look completely right -- there certainly shouldn't be a restaurant table there -- but it's still recognizable as the theater. So, where to go from here? Not the stage, she'd just get lost even deeper into that memory. Perhaps if she does the opposite of what actually happened...]

That way. [She nudges them along the hallway to the left. It's not a long walk to the staff entrance. The sounds of police and ambulance sirens blare off in the distance and Kisegawa can't stop her hands from trembling ever so slightly.

She lets go of Okuyasu's fingers and slams the door open. On the other side, the display cases stand silent, just as they'd left them.]

Well, that was thoroughly unpleasant.

[saint_sami]

[Sasami let out a surprised gasp as everything came to an end. That... that was all fake. A terrible trap.]

We’re... we’re okay?

[beariot]

[ Ursula let out a long breath she hadn't even realize she was holding, never more glad to be back in a creepy museum. She hadn't... quite let go of the hands she was holding yet. Give her a moment. ]

Whoever set that trap really knew what they were doing. We're not dealing with amateurs here.

[witchwithoutacause]

[ Damn though, everyone's got...

They've got some trauma, huh? A lot more dead people than she's seen anyways. Amanda's glad to be out of that, but no, she's not letting go just yet either. ]

You think anyone else got hit like that?

[righthandstand]

[Okuyasu slides his hand out of Kisegawa's and into his own pocket.]

Hope not. We can send a message out on the Linkshell to let 'em know.

[Otherwise, he speeds out of the room to the media room that lies beyond. He feels weird and dwelling on the memories of his brother isn't going to help.]

[whirluendo_of_puns]

Slow down, would you? The last thing we need is triggering another trap--

[As it turns out, the informational video playing in the multimedia room already has an audience. Three ghostly skeletons are clustering at the front of the small theatre, cackling and excitedly rattling their semi-corporeal bones.

Countless children may have succumbed to boredom here, but at least someone is getting some joy out of the dry exposition.]

...Perfect timing. [Kisegawa promptly has her tome at ready.] All in favor of blowing off some steam?

[saint_sami]

I wouldn’t mind that at all... [Her Gourmand’s large knife is brandished, ready to fight.] Let’s go!

[beariot]

It's just one thing after another, isn't it? [ Ursula finally let go of Amanda's hand, stepping back and content to let the more experienced fighters handle this situation. Though she did recall in her studies that undead had a certain weakness against fire, so she kept her wand ready to sling spells if she had to... ]

[witchwithoutacause]

I'll take this over illusions!

[ Amanda sounded a lot more excited about this, meanwhile. ]

Want me to start tossin' Fire around or what?

[righthandstand]

You set 'em on fire, I'll get the other one!

[Okuyasu briefly disappears, then reappears three feet closer to the nearest skeleton mid-air, taking it by surprise. He strikes it with a Dragon Kick, knocking its head back. The skeleton, stuck watching the ceiling, stumbles back and falls over a theater seat.]

[whirluendo_of_puns]

[As much as she'd like to bash some skulls herself, Kisegawa's severely lacking in offensive skills with Scholar equipped. The most she can do right now is summon Leviathan-Egi to her side. The cat-sized phantom of the sea goddess swims through the air around her, ready to battle.]

I'll handle the healing. Go!

[The other two skeletons leap into rather uncoordinated action, making a beeline for Sasami and Amanda.]

[saint_sami]

[Sasami let out a battle cry before taking on the skeleton coming for her, hitting it with a Chop attack. She'll keep the rest on reserve for now.]

[beariot]

[ Despite having just told herself she was going to stay back, the moment a skeleton came anywhere near Amanda and Sasami, she flung a fireball right at the thing, a reflexive action.

Well, so much for hanging back... ]

[witchwithoutacause]

[ Amanda's fine chucking Fire around! It's not as cool as swords, but Okuyasu and Sasami are totally cool as a frontline, right? ]

These guys are easy, right?

[righthandstand]

[Okuyasu follows up his first attack with a Tackle , caving in the skeleton's ribcage and pulvarizing the midsection of its body.]

They don't stand a chance against us!

[saint_sami]

I hope so!

[And Sasami decides to try something... performing Bite on a skeleton, freaking at least her opponent out.]

[witchwithoutacause]

[ Amanda steps up forward. Initially, to help support Sasami, but that goal changes to marveling at the girls' attempt to get her daily calcium. ]

You uh... you eat those... bones... girl.

[righthandstand]

[Okuyasu throws a punch at the next nearest skeleton, unable to pull his eyes away from the second Bite he's seen in his life. He's not sure if a grown man eating a god or a small girl chomping down on a skeleton is freakier. They both are, in different ways.]

...You don't look like you need help, huh.

[saint_sami]

[Sasami's hanging on to the skeleton as much as she can, but she's ultimately tossed off, hitting the wall hard.]

...ow...!

[whirluendo_of_puns]

[Okay, that skeleton?

That skeleton is getting destroyed.

But first Kisegawa calls upon Fae's Blessing, summoning the fairy Eos to heal Sasami. As she does so, Leviathan-Egi also spurs into action, pushing the offending skeleton off-balance with Tidal Splash and leaving it wide open to attacks from the rest of the team.]

Crush him.

[witchwithoutacause]

Wow.

[ They have such good parents.

Well whatever! Amanda's gonna finish stepping in, taking a wide slash at the skeleton to get the crushing started. ]

[righthandstand]

Dude.

[Uendo is awesome. One day, he wants to be an adult like him.

As the final skeleton recovers from witnessing the gruesome assault on its comrade, Okuyasu climbs onto a chair and jumps off to knee it in the back. He saw this move on a wrestling match before, and turns out it's fun and effective. The weakened monster cannot put up a fight to Okuyasu's barrage of kicks to turn it into dust.]