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

ROLL

[okayimin]

"Edgard-" She tries to say, when he finally goes quiet. She can't raise her voice too much, can't bring herself to take that risk. She says it anyway, even as he starts screaming again: "Shut up."

With no other option, she keeps working on freeing herself from the chains as quickly as she can. There didn't seem much reason in trying to be quiet at this point.

ROLL: NARROW FAILURE.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: Under the weight of the chains, Sawbones slips and falls, but somehow doesn't manage to severely injure herself more in the process.

The doorknob begins to turn and Sawbones is still not free.

ROLL

[muckspout]

As the axe clanks down another inch, Edgard screams more, but hears falling chains to the side of him. Instead of thinking this might be an ally, he assumes its someone threatening and yells all the louder.

He can't let that axe go much further or he'll stop screaming forever. Since he can't move at all on the table, he starts heaving his weight back and forth to try to flip the table over. It won't help with the being stuck to the table problem, but one thing at a time.

With every rock of the table, he lets out a scream as if to some sort of strange beat.

ROLL: NARROW SUCCESS.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: Edgard manages to give the table a good wiggle. It doesn't flip, but the two legs at the head (Edgard's head) of the table break, making the table lurch downward. Edgard is now at an acute angle, his head very near the floor. The axe is further away, but still falling.

The door opens. Whoever is on the threshold seems to be waiting in the shadows, watching.

ROLL

[okayimin]

The sudden rattle and bang of Edgar's table somehow makes her flinch. It's no louder than he's being, but the movement sends her looking around the room they're in, as if expecting to be caught.

And they very much are. The door opening has her freezing, eyes wild and breath coming in little pants. Then she starts struggling against the chains again.

ROLL: MAJOR SUCCESS.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: Sawbones is not only able to wiggle out of her chains almost silently, but she finds a place to hide under one of the tables, too high for her to see the dead Gawen on top of it.

The Murderer enters. It's gentle old Medrod. He smiles down at Edgard, and tsks him as one would a beloved cat. "You've made quite a racket, haven't you?"

ROLL

[muckspout]

Edgard's screams are only momentarily interrupted as he stares wild-eyed at Medrod. He then takes a deep inhale and spits in his face. As he does this, the axe cranks down another inch.

His bellows rise all the louder as he slams his legs to one side trying to hit Medrod with the table.

ROLL: 🎉 GREAT SUCCESS. 🎉

[murderbaby]

You did it, you freak of nature.

OUTCOME: Not only does Edgard manage to kick Medrod's face, but he stumbles backward hard and accidentally closes the door behind him. You can hear a scraping sound of someone running away along the hall.

The Murderer will be back, but not for a bit...

ROLL

[okayimin]

Well. That went significantly better than one could have expected.

Sawbones waits until the sound of footsteps seem to have faded before she crawls out from her hiding spot and scuttles across the floor on hands and knees to where Edgard's head is. Then she promptly pulls off her wimple and stuffs it in his mouth to muffle the screaming. "Shut up," she hisses, "I'm going to try to get you off the table, but keep your fucking. Mouth. Shut."

She's maybe feeling a bit stressed with all the noise happening. And she does not wait for a response, moving instead to try and get his hands unbound.

ROLL: NARROW SUCCESS.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: Sawbones can barely manage to pry open the manacles, owing to the fact that her hands are very small and it's fucking metal. Luckily it's rusty enough that it opens a tiny bit.

If Edgard puts his back (wrists?) into it, he can pull his hands free. He might get them a bit cut up in the attempt, up to you if so and how much.

ROLL

[muckspout]

He stops screaming with the wimple stuffed in his mouth, but it is very clear he is saying more than a few off color phrases to Sawbones, albeit not so loudly.

He quiets when she attempts to help unchain his hands, but can quite get them loose. Edgard, with a great heave, busts his hands out of the chains. They are cut up and bloody from the effort. No matter, Edgard's adrenaline is pumping.

First, he takes the wimple out of his mouth and throws it at Sawbones.

"Thank you for helping," He spits. "But keep that on your head!" It's a little bloody from his hands.

Next, he grabs the axe and pries it loose. It's his now. And lastly, he uses the axe to try to remove the chains from his legs.

ROLL: NARROW SUCCESS.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: Edgard manages to free his legs. However, he's still at an angle and hits his head on the floor when he slides free. He also maybe jostles the axe a bit and slices himself, but nothing too serious.

That looked kind of silly, but it worked.

ROLL

[okayimin]

She manages not to flinch when he throws her wimple back at her, but she does bare her teeth at him a little when he turns away. At least he's not screaming anymore.

She does not put the wimple back on, but keeps it on hand, letting him get on with getting himself out while she turns to investigate the room, looking for anything that would be useful.

"All right?" she asks when she turns back around to see Edgard on the floor.

ROLL: MEDIUM SUCCESS.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: The floor is somewhat uneven, so Sawbones is luckily in a position to see the table and the dead man lying atop it. Lacking arms and legs and a fair bit of his lower torso, the head and shoulders have been rather well preserved, and the resemblance to Lady Elsed is striking.

So, that's fun.

You also notice some taxidermy tools. Pick two of these: 1 2 3 4 5.

ROLL

[muckspout]

Edgard, dazed a little from hitting his head, takes a moment to get off the floor. He assesses. His hands are bleeding and his leg, but they aren't his main concerns.

He notices the body in the room with wide eyes and gives Sawbones a significant look. Did you see that? He shakes his head like a dog swatting flies away.

"We should get out of here."

He twirls the axe once, forgetting about his hands and wincing though not dropping it, and walks over to the door. He tries to open it.

ROLL: NARROW SUCCESS.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: Good news! The door is not locked! Bad news! Someone seems to be pulling the handle on the other side.

The Murderer is very near.

[okayimin]

Sawbones hastily grabs two tools, giving the body as wide a berth as possible. She doesn't know why it's cut up like that, but it reminds her of... stories.. She'd heard in the Deep Roads.

About why you burn bodies rather than leave them. About why you don't want the Darkspawn to find you helpless and alive. She shares the Significant Look with Edgard, she absolutely sees that and she hates it and she agrees they should immediately leave.

Until Edgard meets resistance with opening the door and Sawbones goes stumbling backwards. "There's someone there..." she whispers, unhelpfully.

ROLL

[muckspout]

Edgard pulls at the door which remains shut and huffs in frustration. Sawbones is fully armed, but apparently utterly useless and just going to sit around, stare, and point out the obvious.

"Oh, someone's there? I had no idea!" Edgard snaps as he puts his full weight into bringing down the axe on the door.

ROLL: 🎉 GREAT SUCCESS. 🎉

[murderbaby]

My dudes...

OUTCOME: Edgard also completely rips the door off its hinges. These doors are clearly not up to code.

Someone is waiting in the darkness.

ROLL

[okayimin]

The force of the axe splintering the door clean off it's hinges just makes her flinch. There's no immediate pouring in of chattering Genlocks, just enough to bring her back to reality.

She bares her teeth again and approaches the door with an enormous amount of caution, catching Edgard's sleeve and tugging to keep him from going out into the darkened hall. "Wait," she says, voice still pitched low and edging slowly through the doorway, "I can see better in the dark than you."

She checks around the doorway first before stepping carefully out into the hall, trying to spot where specifically the shadow is.

ROLL: MEDIUM FAILURE.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: The hallways outside are a maze of mirrors, distorting even the shape and direction of the hallways. It's hard to tell what can be walked through, and what's only a mirror.

But there is a shadow, and it seems to come out of nowhere as it looms over Sawbones. She feels a cut, slow and precise, digging into her shoulder, and then the shadow seems to melt into a mirror-- or move into a hallway?-- and she's alone.

You gain a deep wound to the shoulder and the creeping suspicion that this is just the beginning. The intensity of the wound is up to you, but it's sure bleeding a lot.

[muckspout]

Edgard flinches as Sawbones' blood sprays scarlet onto him. He flings up his own bloody hand that she's not hanging onto that's still holding the axe. Instinctively, he tugs the two of them both away from the door into the corner of the room where the corpse lies. He whitens as he leans down to look at her.

The knife has gone clean through her shoulder and he sees his wide eyes red-reflected in the knife end. He grabs the wimple from her and presses it to her shoulder. As he does so, the sleeve of his arm also becomes wet with blood.

"You still with me, Sister?" He says in a soft voice, distinctly different from before. "If you are, could use some medical advice."

He keeps one eye on the door and his axe nearby, just in case.

[okayimin]

She doesn't move when the knife slices through her shoulder. Too risky, too many things that could go from bad to worse with one sudden movement. And then they're back in the room, in the corner and the smell of blood is overwhelming, but it's fresh and somehow that is slightly less worse.

The pain settles something in her. There's still the terror, but it's banked now. A sensation felt from far away that has nothing to do with what she's about to do. She lets Edgard pull of her wimple and press it to the wound, vaguely aware that she winces and lets out a slow hiss when he does. She holds up the calipers.

"Use this. Get the fabric away from the wound," she says, her voice calm and authoritative, hand steady, "Rip the seam along my shoulder, we can use the sleeve as a bandage."

[muckspout]

Edgard sees Sawbones flinch in pain and he feels like a monster. He shouldn't have let her look around that door. He nods and takes the calipers from her, holding them delicately in his hand and pausing a moment.

"You're alright." He lies to her. "We will get out of here."

He pries away her shirt closes to the knife and then rips along the seam getting the sleeve off completely as his hands become completely drenched in her blood. Edgard looks at the fabric and the wound.

"H-how should I bandage?" He looks helplessly, but knows Sawbones will know the best way if she can stay with him.

[okayimin]

Sawbones ignores the comforting lie. Because it is a lie and hardly any comfort. They'll die or they won't. That's how it is.

"Wrap it under my armpit and tie it at the top," she tells him briskly. She's light headed and her vision tunnels, but neither are new sensations. She sets them aside to focus on the task at hand. "Tie it tightly. Then we'll need to make a fire."

She hasn't a clue what shape the others might be in or what luck they might have trying to find supplies, but fire is always a good starting point for post battle stitching.