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

[thegoofball]

[Fine. Be that way.

Lance pouts, hand dropping to his side. He sees how it is.]

Man, this sucks. Who even cares about all these creepy dolls? They're haunted! Case closed!

[He doesn't want to go deeper.]

[pidgeypidge]

[That was actually a good point.] But if it was a gift for the staff, wouldn't they have taken it when they left?

[Unless it was just left behind in all the excitement. But either way it's probably a good idea to keep moving. They could always take a closer look at the wine later.]

Yea, let's go.

[She sees that pout, Lance, and she's trying very hard not to poke at him for it.]

You know, you could always stay in here if you don't want to come see the rest of the building with us.

[Or maybe she's not trying very hard at all.]

[spaceforged]

[He lets the teasing play out. It's harmless and could relieve some tension of being in a creepy dollhouse.]

Either that or it could have been a prop? [They can inspect it later. As they move through the room Shiro checks drawers and cabinets. Most of them don't seem worth anything. But on their way to the door he finds one that's locked.]

...Interesting. [He checks if it can be popped it open with just a tug. Nope.]

Keith, you're up.

[balancingedge]

The liquid inside it is real enough. [He can't smell it that strongly, but the weight told him enough that it's real alright. And now that he's said it he's going to need to keep an eye on Lance going for his backpack again.

He watches Shiro, holding up his lantern so the other can see what he's doing. When one of them refuses to open, he quirks an eyebrow. Well. That needs to be fixed.

He hands Shiro his lantern because he'll need both hands for this. He also pulls out a lockpick set from his pocket and gets to work. Never leaves home without at least one. It takes a bit to figure out how this particular lock works, but soon he has it clicking unlocked and opens it.]

[thegoofball]

Is it real or is it real-real? [He eyes Keith's backpack again, but he doesn't say anything about it.

He does, however, lean in close as Keith begins to pick the lock, hands on his hips.]

Been getting a lot of practice with breaking and entering in, huh?

[No, he's not still mad about his chandelier. Nope.

He pokes through the contents once the door swings open, brow furrowing.]

This all looks like stuff for doll repair - and some weapons?

[pidgeypidge]

[Of course she's not expecting Lance to agree to hang out in this part alone. Still, she can't resist the urge to tease him a little.]

Maybe.

[She's not really sure why they'd need a prop wine bottle, so she just shrugs it off and follows Shiro's lead, keeping an eye out for anything that might look interesting. But really, it's mostly just more of the same generic spooky building stuff aside from that one locked cabinet.

Which Keith is apparently handling. So she makes sure to stand out of the way while Keith works his magic, and then she weasels her way around to get a better look.]

Dibs on the slingshot.

[She doesn't even need a weapon like that, but it might be nice to have.]

[spaceforged]

[Shiro holds up the lamp to let them get a better look at the contents. Pidge is already calling dibs and he can't see anything good coming of allowing it. But, until it's a problem he'll keep observing and letting it happen.]

Good call, Lance. It could supply for doll repair. Maybe for anything immediate and more involved repairs have a specific room? But we still don't know about this mog that wasn't purchased by the museum.

[He ignores Lance's remarks about breaking and entering. He doesn't need to know he's learning how to pick locks himself just by observing. He'd likely explode.]

[balancingedge]

We'll find out when we get home. [That's the last he's saying about it. There's a corkscrew in one of the kitchen drawers. They'll open it and find out later.

If only Lance knew. Eh, why not.] Had a lot of practice growing up.

[He looks to Pidge. Eh, he takes a photo then hands the slingshot to her. Before closing it again and locking it.]

Let's keep moving.

[thegoofball]

Will we? [He perks up at the thought of that. He's not sure why, but it's exciting.]

Seems like you're getting a lot of practice now, too.

[He grimaces as Pidge gets handed the slingshot. He knows that they'll regret that - either soon, or when Pidge makes some sort of super slingshot.]

Do we have to? This Mog doll is clearly some sort of demon! Or something! Case closed.

[pidgeypidge]

[Was she expecting them to just let her take the slingshot? Not really. So she just grins at Keith when he casually hands it over. It's doubtful they'll regret it any time soon, but she might already be wondering how to make it better.

Since there are no protests, the slingshot goes into her pocket.]

Thanks.

[Don't worry Lance, it'll be fine. There isn't much time to poke around the cabinet before Keith locks it again, but everything else was just doll repair stuff and there'll probably be more in other rooms.]

Maybe the Mog doll is the final boss. It's our responsibility to go all the way to the end now.

[spaceforged]

[Shiro tosses Keith a small smirk that lights up his eyes. It could be for anything he'd said but he doesn't enlighten them on what.]

Or, it's the key to the final boss. Bosses aren't straightforward all of the time. [He points out as he scans around them just in case something decides to launch at them. Nothing. They've been lucky so far.

He doubts that will last considering their track record in life...and death.]

I'll swap to Paladin and we can keep moving. [He takes out his slate and swaps his job, feeling the familiar Paladin armor and broadsword take place of his all black gear he'd come in with.]

aaand onto the employees only section top level!

[balancingedge]

Yes, we will. [He may be a lot of things, but liar is something he definitely tries not to be. Omission, yes. Outright? No. He sees that sparkle in Pidge's eyes and replies with a,] You're welcome.

[What she plans to do with it, he doesn't know. He also doesn't care. There's a prank war ongoing so he has a feeling it involves that and maybe a small robot. Just- knowing her. It doesn't take much for him to figure out exactly what that smirk is. He shrugs back at him, and why does he get the slight feeling he's being called out on that video footage Futaba sent at least two of them?]

One way to find out. [He switches to Ninja before he opens the door...