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

[modelcivilian]

"Huh..." A moogle doll could go through the Rift without issue? Well, that didn't seem fair. If that was something they could learn to do, but where could one even begin trying to learn that?

Looking at the picture again himself, he wondered. "Could this picture have come through the Rift too?" And if not the Rift, he was curious if it could be a surviving remnant of Crystallis.

Accepting the picture back, he'll have to ask the others about it.

[garyoutensei]

"This is all going over my head, I just want to know how to stop it and get paid," Baiken grumbled, letting out several frustrated puffs of smoke.

[neverbeamemory]

Sephiroth paused in his casual searching once he overheard the discussion about the Rift. Indeed he had recognized that from the workshop, briefly before choking and drawing sufficient breath had become an issue. If the moogle doll could come back and forth from the Rift like that-

"And what about the other dolls; were they all made here in the museum?"

It seemed entirely likely to him that should the moogle doll -however absurd it was for dolls to be animated at all- possess such an ability, who knew what or who else he might have brought through onto Vaikuntha.

[eternitynpc]

"Oh no, sir. The dolls weren't made here. They were found in the Dream Width, decades ago. I maintain them here and do any restoration work needed to keep them in prime condition, but their providence is otherworldly."

Celain turns to Adrien. "It's possible, I suppose. Usually objects only appear in the Rifts in the Dream Width, but in theory, a picture that size could come through a rift anywhere."

She thinks it over. "But the Puppetmasters in the photograph are the same as from the rest of the tour, so I don't believe the picture was taken before the dolls arrived here."

She shakes her head, frustrated, before eying Baiken nervously. "I don't have much money, but I do have some collector's items. If you take them and sell them, they might be worth something?"

She pulls a binder of Blitzball Trading Cards from one of her little bookshelves. It's the full line-up from 30 years ago, including a rare misprint of one of the reserve players from Cloud City, and it could be worth some gil to a collector. Please don't break her fingers.

[modelcivilian]

So the puppets were already here... something about that, he doesn't know if that's creepy or cool. Hmm, he's going to settle with both. Both is always one of the best answers.

"That makes sense." She recognizes the Puppet Masters unlike him. "... Well, I'll ask around. With all the weird moogle activity here and outside, maybe another moogle will know."

Frowning, he looks over at Baiken and watches Celain pull out a binder of Trading Cards. Since they haven't had much reason to doubt the Curator so far, she's probably right about those cards. A Blitzball fanatic would likely love to get their hands, claws, or paws on the collection... but would they really?

[garyoutensei]

Baiken looked over the cards, quickly selecting a single card, pulling it out, and stuffing it away in her kimono.

"Consider this my payment. Let's find this moogle and kick its ass already."

[neverbeamemory]

[Sephiroth begins to frown as the relevant topic gets lost a bit there; who gives a damn about Trading Cards. How irritatingly juvenile. It's not long before the expression stretches itself into him folding his leather-clad arms up over this chest.]

Puppetmasters...[He mused, albeit muttering the word mostly to himself. It rings some relevant to him that's personal, something he's most certainly not sharing in present company. Or any company here on Vaikuntha -a matter of fact.]

I don't suppose they're always able of self-animation; is that this Mog dolls' doing, as well?

[eternitynpc]

[The Curator is poised to lead them to the door, but pauses at Sephiroth's words.]

Well...there has always been...rumors...of minor activity on their own. Lost keys being returned to their rightful place the next day, a mess left at closing that is already cleaned by the time the staff arrives in the morning. Just small, benevolent things. But nothing like this. The Mog Doll must be doing something to them.

[She sighs, knowing how odd she must sound.] Give it no mind. If you Outworlders can defeat the moogle doll, I am sure everything will go back to normal.

[[OOC: If you would like to battle the King Moggle Mog doll, the party can encounter him once they leave the office. It is also fine to handwave the encounter if you'd like!]]

[modelcivilian]

[That... did sound weird. And their behavior now was definitely contradictory to their actions before. It did sound like the Mog Doll was the only odd thing out that might be causing the misdeeds.]

... Well, what do you guys want to do?

[He's not opposed to confronting the doll, but he knows these two might not care for anymore adventuring in the museum.]

[garyoutensei]

Kid, you know what I'm gonna say. [ They've known one another long enough by now. ]

I'm only good at one thing. And besides, I already took the payment.

[neverbeamemory]

Let's put an end to all of this.

[There really isn't anything left to do, and Sephiroth is willing to bet the museum doors won't be unlocked until somehow this issue with the King Moggle Mog doll has been resolved.

Hopefully, at least the boss will be on this side of corporeal, unlike the ghost that they'd been beating on previously.]

[[OOC: Happy to run the encounter or handwave it, whatever is preferred!]]

[eternitynpc]

[[OOC: If everyone is fine with handwaving the encounter, we can go with that. If the group decides you would like to play it out, please let us know.]]

[modelcivilian]

[OOC: I believe we're all going with the handwave route.]