Haunted House - 2nd edition

[Syrax]

{This is moved from Casual as all players except for one have dropped out. The RP is continued from the already existing RP Haunted House. Player post next.}

[SilverRain]

Continues on from here:
http://roleplayerguild.com/showthrea...=1#post8434601

Annie
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You inspect the carpet, but it is one long roll and does not give. There is no way to remove it. As you speak up, the other four turn back to look at you. The woman you closed the door responds.
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"I like the way you think, but we're safe right here. See the carpet? Every written report we've seen says that this hallway is like a checkpoint. This hall is safe, and so is whatever room we're about to enter. But after this, anyone can die at any time."
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She looks back to the door ahead of the group. The man who was identified as Patrick answers your second question. "Most everyone here has only dealt with the rats. But on a different raid, we encountered a minotaur. Out of our group of four, only two of us survived." He shakes his head slowly. "The more we break the rules, the deadlier the house gets. If we stay holed up in the parlour for too many more days, the house might just kill all of us outright. Now, let's keep moving."
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With that, he opens the door. The room inside is brightly lit with silver candles. The flames from these candles emit no smoke. There is a single, expertly carved wooden door on the other side of what looks to be a very formal greeting room.

Annie froze when she heard about the potential to meet a minotaur. Her mind tried make sense of it. The rats weren't too much of a surprise, because they could be just results from a science experiment, if anythign. But then a minotaur?! How could humans possibly defeat that? Then again, if the walls and weird layout was possible then anything else could. This was some sort of ghost house anyway. Annie dreaded what else there could be. Hydra? Creepy eyeball monsters? Ceberus? She cringed at those thoughts. But just as long as she followed the rules she would be safe right? Uh, what were the rules? There was so much going through Annie's mind that she didn't know what to think. She seemed okay so far, so maybe that was safe.

When they entered the room, Annie studied the door for a moment. "Why do I have this feeling that something judgemental is beind that?" Annie tried to peep under the door to see if anything was there. Next she walked to the silver candles. They were pretty (or maybe it was just the want of having inventory for any situation that came up). Annie looked towards the others. "Hey guys, do you think it would be okay if I took the candles? I'm thinking about it from a game perspective - is it against the rules to take a candle? Maybe like the auras we have, these candles can let us see special things" said Annie as she tried to think back to the candles she saw earlier in the room with three doors. What colour were they?

Whether Annie was allowed to take the candles or not, she would then slowly tiptoe up to the large door and press her ear to it to see if she could hear anything. Her hands were shaking a bit... she didn't want to hear those creepy noises again. Did they live in the walls only? She hoped they weren't in the doors.

If Annie didn't hear anything, she would politely knock on the door... Though if she did hear something, then her plan would change.

(The OOC me doesn't quite remember if there were specific rules, but I mostly think about this with a survival mindset)

[Syrax]

The group hesitates. "We're out of the safe area. If you want to take the candles, go ahead. You can see things we can. But there might be a trap with them." Then the other four position themselves on either side of the door. They have the dusk on one side, and the dawn on the other. As if anticipating your thoughts, Patrick says: "Best thing to do is surprise them. Be bold. This place is haunted, and if you let them they'll get to your head. We need to see whoever is there as fast as possible. Ready?"
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Waiting for you to make a decision about the candles, the group stands ready with weapons out at the door.

[SilverRain]

Annie's hand hovered about the candle for a while. One side told her to just take it for the sake of taking it (it was kinda pretty anyway), but eventually she didn't. She left the candles where they were, if simply because she headed the warning from the others. She didn't want to risk falling down a spiked trap or something. That and what if taking the candles was considered vandalism and a breaking of the rules? Annie decided to just let them be.

She gripped her pipe hard as she returned to where the others were. The others were standing at the door and it seemed they were waiting for her to do something. Oh, she was the monster magnet thing right? In that case she would have to open the door. Annie gulped and tried to stop her hands from shaking.

"I'll open the door and if the bad things run into this room, I'll run away in an...anti clockwise direction" said Annie pointing to her right. "That should give you guys a chance to beat the juice out of the things" Annie then pause as she tried to think of what would happen next. "If there is only one monster, we all run into the next room and close the door on the monster, hopefully trapping it in this room. If there are many monsters, then we close the door and trap them here whilst we fight them. We can try to corner them in a wall. How does that sound?"

[Syrax]

They nod. "Though I doubt it'll come to that, better safe than sorry. We don't exactly know the rules of what goes on here, but after being holed up for a while they seem to want to attack us."
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And with that, Patrick opens the door...which reveals another brick wall. The party stares at it for a moment, then relaxes. "Seems like a puzzle, not a battle. See what you can find." The group begin to inspect the wall, door, and candles. You get the feeling that they've done this before.
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Then the walls begin to chatter again.

[SilverRain]

Annie looked around, wondering if she could use the candles to light up the brick wall. Maybe it might show something? Oh and maybe she could use her pipe to poke the ceiling as well and see if the other player was around here. But then she started to hear the voices again. She frantically looked around, trying to see if she could discern where the voices were coming from. Were... were the walls going to bulge again? Annie didn't want to find out.

"I'm hearing the voices again. They're not human" said Annie as she continued to listen. What was the tone of the voices? Were they talking, angry, laughing?

Annie gripped her pipe hard. She guessed that they weren't going to go away. But if this was a puzzle then whatever was provided would be the clues to solving it. Since the voices were here, then it could be a voice based one or something like that. And with that Annie took a gulp and poked the floor two times, followed by the ceiling. If wall monsters were one thing, then would the opposite be the ceiling and floor?

If nothing happened, she would try to take one of the candles and move the flame closer in the direction of the voices (if there was a direction).

[Syrax]

"Alright, not a puzzle room," says a girl, about 20 years of age. "It's a fight room."
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You poke the floor, but nothing happens. The inhuman chattering continues. But, as you reach for one of the candles, each and every single candle retracts into the wall. The light is eliminated, but you can still faintly see everybody and the shape of the room.
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"Ah, crap! Pitch black!" You see your fellow members crouch lower to the ground, and they seem to be able to see nothing. Then, the chattering gets louder as about a dozen rats suddenly pour into the room from one of the corners.

[SilverRain]

Annie panicked when the rats rushed in. It seemed the others couldn't see them. How in the world could she attack those rats with the pipe? The pipe was no good for rat killing. Annie wanted to run into the corner and block it... maybe with her jacket. Oh the bottle! She could use that! But if the rats were going to come for her it would only be suicide.

"Everyone run to the corners of the walls! Use your pipe to prop yourself up and move your legs up the wall so that you are parallel to the floor! Then shout and make noises as loud as you can! Bellow! Shout! Scream! Wail!" shouted Annie at the top of her voice as she tried to position herself up the wall. She gripped her pipe hard with both hands as she screamed and wailed.

Hopefully the rats would fear loud noises or think that the humans were predators. That was one thing Annie learned whilst being in the military. Whoever was the loudest would win. That was how animals determined pecking order as well. One animal would fear another if the other simply made the same noises as a fearsome predator.

(OOC: I'm not sure if the using the pipe would work (haven't actually tried it myself in RL), so its okay if you say that it fails)

[Syrax]

Your command is drowned out as a few team members begin to scream. There are only about a dozen rats, and there are no more coming; however, those few rats are making plenty enough of an attack force. They leap at a person's legs, bite, then scurry off as fast as possible. Your team swats at them, and a couple swings make contact. Even if they aren't hitting particularly hard, the stricken rats lie motionless.
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Even though you are Mid-Day, they do not attack you immediately. Instead, while biting other legs, they make their way towards you slowly. This gives you enough time to prop yourself up on the wall, though your balance is very wobbly on the pipe.
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After a few seconds, the rats have finished with your teammates. They seem to no longer care about them. They only care about you. The nine or tem rats that are left move in a semi-circle around your pipe. You begin wailing, hoping that it will scare the rats off.
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"Augh!! Everyone alright?!" Patrick seems like he is a little hurt, but mostly scared. "Where did they go??" At that point, the rats start chattering. It is the same chattering that you've heard in the walls. Except, it seems different this time. They don't react to your screaming in the way that you though they would. Instead of running off, they are making their rather eerie chattering noise.
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This chattering is a bit different. Instead of the mocking, almost laughing kind of noise, the chattering seems like it's....in tune? Worse, actually, than simply "in tune".
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It sounds like they are singing.

[SilverRain]

OOC: Sorry about the delay. I had writers block and am a fence sitter. Didn't know what Annie could do apart from the below

"...No" whispered Annie as she saw the rats bite the others. Her paranoia kicked in. Why was it only one bit? Was it something like a zombie infection? she would have to be wary of the others from now on. The rats then gathered below her as her pipe trembled in her arms. Annie couldn't hold on much longer but she didn't want to fall and land face first on them. What if they decided to eat her face? Or what if they turned her as well? Somehow she couldn't get the thought of that one bite out of her head. It felt as if there was no other path but doom.

Then she heard the rats start to 'sing'. So these were the source of the voices from the walls? So that sounded like it. Rats could fit in walls. And that would explain the bulge from earlier. 'If you can't beat them, join them' came a thought in Annie's mind. She had no other ideas, no other way to escape. She tried to follow their tune and see if she can well, join in with their squeaking. It was too hard to squeak in her current state, so Annie just made 'la la la' sounds. Disregarding the fact that she might sound weird (especially if the others can't hear the rats), Annie would try to follow the tune. But deep inside she wondered what would happen if she did this. Would she be turned into a mouse as well?