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

[sulahnan]

Luckily with Barrow being so much bigger than herself, he's able to pull with more strength than she could, even on somebody else. When it gets hard to not be pulled forward along with her arm, she starts to lean away from him, nodding slightly to show that it's good, it's fine, this is what's supposed to happen, until—

Pop.

Athessa stops leaning, lets out the breath she was holding, and squeezes her eyes shut against the dizzying pain of bone thonking against bone.

"Okay," she says, and pats his hand. "That's that."

ROLL

[thereneverwas]

Exhaling with relief, Barrow nods, even smiles a bit, and then hurries over to the door to try and open it.

ROLL: 🎉 GREAT SUCCESS. 🎉

[murderbaby]

Guys, what the fuck.

OUTCOME: Barrow rips the door completely off its hinges.

To be fair, it's a pretty creaky door and the wood was maybe rotting a little bit.

ROLL

[thereneverwas]

Looking back at Athessa like 'whoops', he winces and then peers out to try and get his bearings.

ROLL: MEDIUM FAILURE.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: Barrow steps out the doorway without falling and killing himself. It's shadowy and dark, nearly impossible for human eyes to see any distance. The screaming has stopped, but you can hear somebody shuffling around in the darkness.

A knife glints in the shadows.

[thereneverwas]

Ducking back in, Barrow beckons Athessa over and mouths 'there's someone there'.

ROLL!

[sulahnan]

Athessa, having gotten off the table and currently holding her arm folded against her chest, steps quietly toward the door and gestures to her eyes. She can see in the dark.

Keeping close to the doorframe, She leans out to glance down the hallway in the direction Barrow saw "someone."

ROLL: NARROW FAILURE.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: Athessa, what do your elf eyes see... not much. It's a hallway, nobody's in it, but-- from the scuffling sound nearby-- somebody just was.

There's a strange quality to the walls, and Athessa's elven eyes are capable of noting their reflective surface. A hall of mirrors, it's hard to tell where you're going even if you're able to see in darkness. Only someone who has the pathways perfectly memorized could navigate it perfectly, knowing how to see and not be seen.

Someone is watching you.

ROLL but not really

[sulahnan]

Athessa extends her middle finger. Watch this, asshole.

ROLL: MAJOR SUCCESS.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: You extend your middle finger without injuring yourself or anyone around you.

You cast the bird at the darkness.

ROLL

[sulahnan]

Stepping back into the room, she turns and leans her back against the wall.

"Whoever it is isn't there anymore," she whispers, and without moving from her semi-comfortable lean, glances around the room for a weapon.

ROLL: NARROW SUCCESS.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: Now that Athessa is freed, she can use the object of her torture as weapons of her freedom. The rusty, loose nails in the side of the rack and the chains can be used as separate weapons, or combined. Some of the chains are small enough to be wrapped around the fist like brass knuckles, and sticking the nails in the chains may give them an extra edge. Or you could just smack the big chains at people, like a whip.

You hear scuffling in the halls; someone is still out there.

[thereneverwas]

Following Athessa's gaze, Barrow hurries back over to the rack and starts pulling down two of the chains, wrapping one and then the other around his hands.
As he goes back toward the door, he nods at her, ready when she is.

ROLL

[sulahnan]

For her part, Athessa wrenches a few rusty nails out and drops them into her left pocket, just in case. She doesn't wrap the chain around her fist, mostly because it's heavy and hard to maneuver one-handed, but she folds it over on itself to make it twice as thick and wields it like a flail.

"Alright," she says, walking back over to the door and nodding to Barrow. "It's time to break some fucking mirrors."

Without waiting for him, she steps out into the hallway and swings her chain at the closest wall to smash the mirrored surface.

ROLL: 🎉 GREAT SUCCESS. 🎉

[murderbaby]

What the fuck.

OUTCOME: You think you're aiming for a mirror, but there's no mirror there. The chain connects with something living in the hallway, and it cries out in pain, strangely animal. You can hear it running away.

The hallways are now empty... probably.

ROLL

[thereneverwas]

Flexing his knuckles, Barrow looks meaningfully at Athessa and starts off in the direction they heard the person-- or whatever it is-- run off. He listens for movement as he goes, feeling his way along mirrors.

ROLL: MEDIUM FAILURE.

[murderbaby]

OUTCOME: Barrow listens closely. So closely. A little too closely. He walks into a mirror.

It mostly hurts his pride.

[thereneverwas]

Giving a start and a snort, Barrow responds by punching the mirror with one of his chainfists. He's not especially mad at it, but the fewer mirrors there are, the better they'll be able to get their bearings.

[sulahnan]

"We should smash as many of these as we can," Athessa whispers. "It'll be easier to tell where we're going, and we'll be able to hear anybody coming up behind us."

She smashes the mirror next to her, wincing slightly as the movement sparks a twinge in her shoulder. No matter, they have to press on. She steps around Barrow to lead the way down the hallway.

"I swear, if I get my hands on whoever orchestrated this—" Smash. Another mirror down. Kinda goes without saying what she'll do to the mastermind behind the murderhaus.

ROLL

[thereneverwas]

Taking one side of the hall while Athessa does the other, Barrow proceeds to punch every mirror in succession, just enough to break it, and the illusion it creates.

If ever they come upon another door, he’ll try to open it.

ROLL: 🎉 GREAT SUCCESS. 🎉

[murderbaby]

Why do you people keep doing this to doors.

OUTCOME: Ripping yet another door clean off its hinges, Barrow discovers a room lit only by candlelight. Inside is empty, but filled with tomes that, if read, reveal tons of alchemical recipes. The annotations in a foreign hand reveal how the alchemy can be 'improved' with human and elven 'ingredients'.

They're all body improvements and youth potions. Whoever did all this shit (just guess) clearly thinks that cannibalism will make him immortal.

You also find some taxidermized bodies, mostly Dalish elves, likely kidnapped from the nearby forest.

[thereneverwas]

Having not yet seen any taxidermied bodies, Barrow walks slowly inside with an expression of dawning horror.

"What the fuck," he whispers, "what the fuck?"

He glances over his shoulder, rather hoping Athessa doesn't follow him in here. But he does grab one of the heavier books, because he's going to bludgeon the bastard with it if he finds him.

[sulahnan]

Of course she follows him in. Splitting up seems foolish, with an unknown number of crazed killers about, and their friends all unaccounted for. But nothing could have prepared Athessa for coming face to face with the desecrated bodies of her kin, crudely preserved and monstrous.

Seeing them is enough of a shock to knock the breath out of her, and the strength out of her legs, but she doesn't fall. She staggers back into the door frame, using it to support herself as she struggles with this new terror. (What if this is what happened? What if this is where they went?)

"No, no, no, no," she whispers, forcing herself to walk forward, to reach out to touch one of their faces. Mythal, the Great Protector. Andruil, Goddess of the Hunt. Sylaise, the Hearthkeeper. The ink on their skin is faded slightly, but still visible. Athessa muffles a sob against her arm, her grip on the chain faltering but not enough to drop it.

[thereneverwas]

"Don't look," Barrow says quickly, after it's far too late, and at the sound of her sob comes after Athessa with the book tucked under one arm, reaching out to grip her good shoulder. He stoops slightly to look into her face.

"What happened to them," he says in a low voice, intense but compassionate, "will not happen to you. We're going to avenge them. All right?"

[sulahnan]

Myriad emotions flicker over her expression, from incredulity that he thinks she's afraid for herself, determination that they'll be avenged, grief, sorrow, pain, hate...

Get control of yourself, girl. Athessa grits her teeth, stifling any further noise beyond her ragged breathing. From the tangle of her feelings she chooses anger, a slow simmering rage deep in her chest to pull free and cling to like a lifeline. Her eyes focus on Barrow's and she nods once.

"I'm gonna carve out the heart of whoever did this," The chain links clink as she tightens her grip on them, hands still shaking but no longer rendered useless by shock. "I'm gonna make him pay."