CLOSED | if i cut off your arms and cut off your legs,

[murderbaby]

WHO: Mhavos, Barrow, Sawbones, Ellis, Vanadi, Edgard, Athessa, Leander, Dick, & Holden.
WHAT: Slasher Plot / Murderhaus / I should really have come up with a set name for this thing.
WHEN: Late Harvestmere / Early Kingsway.
WHERE: Ostwick.
NOTES: This plot is based on the idea of slasher movies, so there will be blood, violence, torture, cannibalism & NPC death.

YOU MAY REMEMBER going to Ostwick on a Riftwatch mission, closing a rift on the property of the noble Pickney house, and being accosted by the Lady Elsed Pickney. Her (adult) son is missing! Terrible things are afoot!

But that's easy to ignore; Gawen Pickney rather publicly announced his intention to elope with a Dalish elf a few weeks ago. Assurances are made, yes, we'll let you know if we see him, and what can you do but that?

It's time to move on. Traveling back to Kirkwall, a storm breaks out, and everyone decides it's better to find a place to stay for the night than push forward. The Silver Lamp is a cozy Inn on the roadside, and the proprietor, an elderly man named Medrod, is very kind. It's not tourism season in these parts, so he's happy to give everyone a discount for the night, and the meal is on the house. Everyone eats well, has a pleasant enough time, and wanders off to bed for the night.

(The food your characters ate was not people and did not taste strange in any way.)

And then Medrod will let the sleeping gas seep through the Inn, laced with Magebane just in case, and everyone will wake up a few hours later, dizzy and, in many cases, in pain.

(Look for a toplevel with your character's name below.)

HOW WILL THIS WORK? Well, I'll be NPCing Medrod the Murderer. Medrod will be showing up in each thread eventually, after a number of tags I RNG'd. It's entirely possible to escape before he shows up! And don't worry, if you guys get in a rut, I'll make him show up early to spice things up ;)

I'll also be doing dicerolls!

If you have a situation where you feel your character will need to roll (I'm going to let you decide this!) put ROLL in the subject line, and bold what you need me to roll for.

(For example, you can have a whole tag like normal, and then Bob tries to pick the lock. Then I'll roll for success or failure, as well as other factors, and reply to that thread with the results. But if you don't want to rely on dicerolls, for whatever reason, don't worry about it. The dicerolls are an opt-in feature. Use it as much or as little as you want.)

I'll also be rolling for discovery, which will work the same way: if your character is looking for something, put ROLL in the subject line and bold what they're looking for (normal tag normal tag then Alice looked for a lockpick) and I'll reply with results after rolling. But if you just want your character to find the thing without dicerolls, go for it.

IN SHORT, I'm only making this as hard as you want it to be. Your characters are already waking up to torture. If you want them to find the special key and escape in two comments, it's totally fine. (Just respect other people's difficulty levels, if they want to give their characters a harder time.)

The only thing that has to rely on rolls is killing, apprehending or injuring the Murderer, but since I'll be NPCing him, those rolls are automatic and will be baked into his reply comments.

IF YOUR CHARACTERS GET FREE, let me know what they'd want to do next oocly (options below), and I'll set that up for you!

Other potential goals to keep in mind besides escaping:

- Finding / saving others.
- Killing / apprehending Medrod the Murderer.
- Getting evidence of Gawen & his Dalish wife's murder to eventually send to Lady Elsed.
- Getting your stuff back (all obviously visible weapons / staves have been taken away).

You got questions? Lemme know!

DETAILS:

- While in the torture room, your character is free to hear (or not hear) distant screaming. It's muffled enough that you can't identify the source (it's Edgard). The screaming has stopped.

- The hallways between the rooms are pitch-dark, and even those who can see in the dark will find it difficult to navigate, as the walls and ceilings are mirrored, distorting the size, shape, and direction of the hallways.

Comments

POST-ESCAPE.

[murderbaby]

[Watch this space.]

• The Murderer has a significantly bruised face.
• The Murderer has an injury to his scalp, bleeding.
• The Murderer is missing an eye.

SAVE THE ELVES.

[murderbaby]

There are several taxidermized elves, and one taxidermized human, within the maze under the Silver Lamp Inn. Can you save the dead from this dark place?

[sulahnan]

They're out.

How they got there doesn't matter. All that matters is that they're out, and they're all alive if a little worse for wear, and now they're left with the coming dawn and a horrible building looming over them and the knowledge that there are dead bodies beneath their feet.

Dead bodies of Dalish elves who have been abducted and likely tortured before being cobbled together into a madman's sick doll collection. Regardless of whatever talk might be going on, Athessa stares back at the door to the inn, struggling with the images of those faces. Leathery faces with delicate whorls of ink on their skin. Crude stitching on incisions that won't heal. Glassy eyes, unseeing.

Though she had clung tightly to him with the sudden relief of breathing the open air and seeing the waning starlight in the sky, Athessa tries now to slip her hand out of Vanadi's grasp and walk back toward the inn.

[highborn]

Vanadi has not even begun to sort out what he's meant to feel, let alone what he is feeling. Most of it is still locked tight under the tense wariness of self-preservation, a sheet of ice holding everything else in place until — who knows when. Athessa has been a welcome anchor at his side, a clear and present reminder that he's less than alone in the face of this recurring, waking nightmare.

It takes him a second to realize he's lost her hand, but the absence brings him quickly back into himself. He blinks and spins after her with an urgency her pace doesn't really beg.

"Athessa—" There's not really a follow up planned, just the name, sounding a little more desperate than he'd intended. He hides his wince at the sound of it and steps after her.

[sulahnan]

She can hear how quickly he turns even without seeing it happen.

"Don't try to stop me," she says, similarly desperate and walking faster for it. "I have to get them out of there, I have to—to give them rites. I have to!"

Something bids her run, and she barely registers her own compliance, the cold air of autumn biting at her cheeks where silent tears have trod.

[highborn]

As if he would — as if he could, even. He doesn't even know what last rites look like here, and can he bring himself to care for dead elves he never met? The ice hasn't cracked yet, and he's not sure. He trails after her, only just quickly enough not to be left behind.

"Don't go alone," he says, more suitably subdued. And then, "I'm coming with you."

[murderbaby]

Mhavos doesn't care about dead elves he's never met. He cares about Athessa, and her making it through this with mind and body intact.

As for himself, he'll hobble along fine, thank you. He's better, but that's a matter of degrees, and he finds himself luke warm at best. "As do we, so stop bloody running!"

[sulahnan]

She does stop — though she's already reached the door by that point — and she turns, looking first to Mhavos, then to Vanadi. And then back to Mhavos with a bit more presence of mind to say:

"You're hurt, Mhav," stoppered or not, he's likely to pop a leak if he does too much. "You shouldn't—you don't have to—"

[murderbaby]

Mhavos rolls his eyes. "And your arm is being held on by glue and good luck. We all saw this. We will finish it together."

He manages to make good ground while he talks, even as he walks at a slower pace. He doesn't want to be left behind.

"Someone has to keep count."

REST AND HEAL.

[murderbaby]

Some people are in no condition to fight, or want to protect against danger. Somewhere, in a secluded and defensible part of this dark maze, they wait-- and work-- for hope.

ROLL

[thereneverwas]

This is a good opportunity to take a minute and recuperate from the horrors they've seen so far, and Barrow is doing so by watching the door, holding anything he may have found useful as a weapon since leaving his and Athessa's chamber.

His back is to those left behind who are too injured or shocked to do much moving about, and by the grim set of his jaw, he's ready to break the face in of anyone unfamiliar who tries to cross the threshold.

ROLL: MEDIUM SUCCESS.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: Aside from jagged mirror glass, Barrow found a taxidermy knife on his travails.

The leather is very high quality.

[thereneverwas]

Barrow is holding: knife.

[okayimin]

Sawbones meanwhile has applied herself with what little supplies she has on hand, stripping down the room of every scrap of fabric and leather that might be remotely useful. Her hands are steady and her demeanor calm, even if her eyes occasionally take on a glazed, unfocused look.

As long as she has something to work on, she's fine. Holden's gaping puncture wound is certainly enough to preoccupy her.

"Be better if we could stitch it," she says to no one in particular, frowning.

[acreage]

"Last time I travel without a first aid kit," he murmurs, thinking back to her Satinalia gift.

Now that he's presumably been laid somewhere, the relative peace and quiet of the room — and the knowledge that the others are actively hunting the murderer — means his adrenaline is fading, which is making it harder to stay awake.

[thereneverwas]

"S'all right," Barrow mutters over his shoulder, smirking faintly in his attempt to keep his-- and their-- spirits up, "it'd have been taken from you anyway."

He sighs and looks forward again. "Wish I had a smoke. Or, you know. A sword."

[okayimin]

"If you had a smoke, I'd steal it," Sawbones says, Dust Town drawl broad and almost like it's own smile, "Could use whatever you pack it with right now." Her wimple had been pressed into service of bandages and torch making, but she still has most of the outer coat of her normal Chantry robes.

"Stitches ain't the best for punctures like that, but given our options, we might have to," she tells Holden, then to the room as a whole, "Don't suppose anybody would like to sacrifice their shirt for our man here." Her wimple was already sacrificed to the making of a torch and one sleeve is being used to cover her own stab wound. She's too small to spare much more fabric.

REVENGE.

[murderbaby]

What has been done here must be answered in kind.

[muckspout]

Edgard still holding the torch in one hand, twirls the axe around in the other. He turns to the others,

"He tried to chop off my head with this axe. Think I'll return the favor. Which way do you think?"

[sulahnan]

Athessa stands close to Vanadi, keeping a white-knuckle grip on the chain she's been using to smash mirrors. At this point it's become her emotional support flail.

"We smashed the mirrors on our way here, so we can probably leave off backtracking for now."

And provided they proceed quietly enough, they should be able to hear anyone walking over the glass they've left behind.

[highborn]

Vanadi, one dagger in hand, decides the second he'd tucked away under his belt is probably better off in Athessa's keeping. He digs it out to hand it over silently (it's rusted, it's nasty, but it will punch through a throat just fine), eyes on the area around them.

"This way, then," he decides with a forward step, based on nothing more than the fact that it won't be backtracking to the mirror-smashers, and they've got to pick something. He nods to Edgard. "Would you like the honors of leading the way?"

ROLL

[muckspout]

Edgard steps to the front, eyes menacing, ready to use that axe as soon as possible.

"As a matter of fact, I would. Thank you."

He steps forward, shining the torch, trying to avoid crunching the broken glass. He looks and listens ahead for any sign of their quarry.

ROLL: MAJOR SUCCESS.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: Edgard manages to avoid walking on any traps, and in the torchlight... doesn't see much, honestly.

But he hears something, the echoing voice of an elderly man not far off. The words, 'them,' 'abomination,' and, 'pretty,' may be heard.

[muckspout]

Edgard stops and shushes the other two who are not being loud in any way.

"I hear him! I think he's ahead."

He starts forward, waving his axe occasionally for safety.

[sulahnan]

The death glare shot at Edgard's back sufficiently covers the wince of pain at having to take the knife from Vanadi with her right hand, but it's better to be in pain and have a weapon in each hand than to have to choose between a blade or a blunt object.

With Edgard advancing, Athessa slows slightly to whisper in an aside to Vanadi: "If you were the killer, would the sound of glass breaking draw you in, or drive you away?"