[OPEN] FRIGHTENING FESTIVITIES

[heirring]

WHO: Everyone
WHAT: Celebrating a totally 100% legit wedding.
WHEN: Summerday
WHERE: Edlingham Hall, the Vinmark Foothills
NOTES: cw: Spectral Violence and Ghostly Gore; if you don't want to deal with the spooky ghost adventure half of the evening, feel free to say your character went back to Kirkwall early rather than staying the night.

PARTY;

A few hours' journey from Kirkwall, the great old shape of the house known as Edlingham Hall rises up from out of the Vinmark foothills. In the decades (ages?) since it's abandonment, what must have once been a very imposing stone structure built in the mountain's shadow has given way to age and the elements. What remains is unequivocally a ruin, albeit a stunningly elaborate one. It's a place of columns and alcoves, gutted passages and weather worn stairs leading to the skeletal remains of old towers and chambers, with everything turned to varying shades of brown and green and as it's been grown over or into by the surrounding landscape. There's hardly a roof remaining to be found in the whole of the place.

Luckily, this particular party doesn't require one. In what might have once been the titular hall, a series of tables and benches (borrowed from the Gallows, thank you very much) have been set up around a stretch of cracked tiles which has been more or less cleared for dancing and everything has been lit amply by a collection of merrily burning braziers.

Party-goers will be treated to a host of entertainment, included but not limited to: at least one speech (thank you, Provost Stark), a half dozen toasts, a rather impressive spread of Orlesian-styled cuisine (no doubt prepared by someone devastated to be expected to do so under such rugged conditions), quite a bit of rather good wine, music, dancing, and a few more avant garde Rifter-influenced party games including a vaguely wyvern-shaped pinata and some heinous game called Snap-Dragon.

And if none of that sounds like a good time, then there are ruins to explore, discreet alcoves to investigate, and a campground pitched in the ruin's shadow where one might retire early from the party with only a stock level of scorn.

AT THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT;

An eerie mist begins to stream from the cracked tiles of the dance floor. Riftwatch does not count a fog mage among their midst. Was one perhaps hired? Is this a trick of some science? A peculiar feature of the weather in this region? Such murmurs begin to circulate as the mist continues to thicken, and rise, and sour to a sickly pale yellow. It clashes with the decorations. Its touch seems to wither the impossibly sumptuous meal, curdling cream fillings and souring fine meats.

And then the screaming starts.

In the stone frame of an upper window, see her: a woman, in a long pale gown, with a horrible wound around her neck. Her slippers peep over the sill. Blood begins to drip down her front as her mouth opens, and opens, and opens, until her jaw rests upon her bloody chest.

Guests seated at the table will feel some creature bumping against their legs--something big, and solid, and hot, and hairy. When they pull away in horror, they will find nothing at all beneath the table. But the growling will not stop, nor will the crunching of teeth on bone.

The twisted figure of a man rises from a pile of tumble-down stone. His limbs hang at loose and unnerving angles. One arm has been crushed and droops down too low, brushing at his warped knee. His face is a mask of pain, and his left eye bulges as if ready to burst. Pressure has thrust his circlet of gold low on his brow, cinching his balding head. He shuffles toward the party, reaching with his ruined hands for human flesh. Or perhaps a cup of wine.

A headless body comes running out from the rotting main keep. It is wearing armor but is otherwise without identity. From its stump of a neck sprays a great geyser of blood, spatting party-goers and the ground and the food and whatever else is in its way. Its graying hands are reaching, but without a head, its path is random and monstrous, trampling over anything and anyone without regard. Or it would, if it weren’t spectral.

The ghosts must be stopped. Find the source of the haunting or this marriage will be ruined.

Those not interested in tracking down the source of the haunting will soon discover that the fog which has wreathed Edlingham Hall has become quite impenetrable. Attempting to escape the grounds will result in being impossibly turned around and eventually spit any would-be escapee back into the ruin. Solving the mystery may be optional, but experiencing the haunting by the aforementioned ghosts (and any other thematically appropriately specters your heart might desire for the convenience of creeping out your characters) apparently isn't.

Comments

[rezni]

"Newly arrived to Riftwatch, Kirkwall and Thedas," Nikolai answers, taking the expression of interest and running with it. "My general and I were dropped into mud out of a tear in the sky, which is a matter I've heard is something of an expertise for this organization."

One of the few facts that had presented itself with complete clarity, even if so many other things at play are murky and less easily parsed.

"Is it rude to ask after your method of arrival?"

Green light radiates from nowhere on this man, so Nikolai feels safe in making a few assumptions.

[wearyallalone]

It's a party, so it seems the place for the easily digestible version. (Still true just ... framed.) "Not rude at all. I was a Templar in Nevarra, and I joined the Inquisition. I recently joined Riftwatch in that I feel I can be more useful here." A pause, then: "If you haven't gotten a handle on templars, Nevarra or the Inquisition yet, I don't mind elaborating, but I don't know what order they explain things to new arrivals, frankly."

[rezni]

"My general received a charming survey, but otherwise we've been more or less left to our own devices."

The words aren't unfamiliar. Even his short time in attendance has given him the shape of topics that come up over and over, and the Inquisition has been among such conversation. But the larger meaning is still frustratingly out of his reach

"I've been recommended Genitivi, but if his writing meanders towards templars, I've yet to hit that section," Nikolai admits smoothly, before tacking on, "But of course, this is a party. If there's lighter conversation you'd prefer, I couldn't press you for something that might be better suited to the Gallows."

What a name.

[wearyallalone]

"Genitivi is thorough but fairly dry, even for a native reader," he says. "I don't mind any of the topics raised so far, if you're interested. I can certainly tell you more about Nevarra than I can about, say, popular dances, though the latter is probably more immediately useful to you. But I also realize many people prefer not to think about the state of the world at a party."

In fact, that is often the point of a party, yes.

[rezni]

"I am very interested," Nikolai admits, because why pretend otherwise? "But I suppose I should ask, before I trap you into answering all of my questions: are you one of those people who would prefer to ignore the state of the world?"

[wearyallalone]

The question visibly surprises him. "Have you run into many of those, here with Riftwatch?"

[rezni]

"Not yet."

A point in Riftwatch's favor, really. Whatever else they are, they all seem committed.

"But I've known organizations to hold such people, even when arguably the state of the world was staring them in their face."

[wearyallalone]

"It would be a contrary place to come to try do so," he says, but not as if it's something Nikolai should already know. "Much of the rest of the world is very happy to ignore what's happening with Corypheus, or even the state of other nations. If one prefers not to be involved, one can simply leave. Well, as long as there's no anchor shard to hold them here."

He tips his glass. "To return to the spirit of your original question, I joined the Templars, the Inquisition and the Riftwatch, in sequence, due to what some people have described as an overdeveloped sense of responsibility, so. I'm very happy to answer any questions I'm able to."