The Hotel is visually stunning. Its architecture is intricate, and it looks rather like a brick-and-mortar parthenon. A magnificent, castle-like thing that seems like it would look more at home in the old plantations of the south, or on the grounds of an English noble estate, rather than on the foggy, somewhat chilly beaches of... Wherever this was.

You received the invitation to a small town in Maine called Maushire a while ago. The paper was bizarrely fancy, and, for some reason, completely un-creaseable. Heavy, too. The shiny, stamped-in print might have been in real gold... But that was beside the point. Things got really weird when you actually arrived in Maushire. The locals were all very friendly and quiet, and the town was all very old. It looked like it hadn't been remodeled or restored since the 50s. The shiny new limousine that somehow found you (and all the other guests, it seemed) was very out of place... You can't exactly tell how you got here either, the windows were stained so dark that it was impossible to see.

From the snapping of branches, rumble of gravel roads, and the occassional animal noise, you could only assume that you had come through a forest. It made sense, there was a forest behind the building some distance away... But the trip just felt too short to have travelled through the massive behemoth of a woods, or across the few acres of meadow where the hotel was...

But oh well, perhaps you were just tired from all the travel. You were here now, with a (moderately) beautiful beach view, a beautiful, glowing building that totally isn't creepy at all. The limosine had pulled up on a roundabout in an illustrious courtyard, there was a fountain in the middle of it, and a glistening marble statue with its podium surrounded by padded, marble benches, for each of the cardinal directions. (The Hotel, and the brick path leading up to it, was perfectly to the northeast.)

A slight warming breeze exits the building as two lobby boys open the door. Syrupy jazz can be heard on the inside as other (NPC) guests head out of the limousine and hurry toward the hotel. Seems welcoming enough, you can't exactly plan the weather around here.

@Sombrero

Jonathan Lambert the young writer made his way to the desk to check in,Limping towards the woman at the desk finally stopping pulling out his wallet before looking straight into the eyes of the desk clerk."Hello..i've book Room 237 under Lambert..I am Jonathan Lambert" He said in his noticeable Cajun accent.

"Lambert? 237?" The woman at the desk, in a modest, businesslike uniform, appeared to have been daydreaming for a second. Perhaps caught up in the music, or the grandeur of the enormous lobby he had walked into, the voices of incoming guests echoing off the walls.

She typed something into her computer and scanned the page briefly.

"Ah, that's on the second floor, first right along the hallway." she said, trying hard to recount where the room was "Nice view of the courtyard from the balcony." She added, cheerfully, handing him a bronze-colored card of some sort.

If one side of the card or the other was supposed to be scanned, it wasn't apparent which was which. Both sides were identical, reflective orange. She may well have handed him a peice of well-polished scrap metal.

@Sombrero

"Elise Williams, room 413."

With a cheery smile she presented the little online receipt that she'd printed at home. The ride to the hotel had been peaceful, albeit a little weird that so much...secrecy had been employed on the trip. But in the end it was worth it; the view was great by her standards and the hotel itself was charming in how rustic and out-of-the-way it was.

As she waited for her turn to be checked in, she turned, leaning her back against the counter while she admired the view through the front doors. Simply charming. Not like her apartment in the city, dingy and noisy.

A small smile grew on her face.

She was going to enjoy it here.

"413?" The woman smiled, playfully adding "Don't tell anyone, but that's my favorite. The sunrise always seems to hit it first!"

She handed Elise a gray, gritty-looking, keycard-shaped peice of metal that someone seemed to have gone through great trouble to provide with a steampunk aesthetic. It even had indents shaped like welds and rivets!... Heaven knows how it would fit into any sort of coventional keycard reader without some adjustments...

"Top floor, up those stairs. It's facing the front, in the eastern corner."

@Sombrero

"Thank you Mademoiselle" He said quietly to her taking the card and asking if he will have to pay for anything before he gets into his room.He had his luggage behind him with his books and typewriter along with some alcohol and some cocaine that was hidden form prying eyes.He took a quick look at Elise studying her before looking back at the clerk.

@Sombrero @Eviledd1984

"Thank you."

She smiled and accepted the worn, metal card with both hands, inwardly curious as to why the other guest next to her had a different card. Different themes for different floors? She didn't know.

She could feel Lambert's prying gaze on her as she pocketed the card and adjusted the strap on her bag. She was dressed rather casually, with a loose wool sweater on over a long tee shirt, blue jeans and faded black sneakers. She gave him a smile and a nod as she walked past him and towards the stairs.

Her footfalls echoed down the empty halls as she approached the top floor. Her floor. Her room was right at the top of the stairs too, its door facing outward as she walked up to it, found the keyboard slot and inserted her card.

Once inside she closed and locked the door and flopped down on the bed, breathing a sigh of relief. Without reason to unpack just yet, she left her luggage where it stood, next to the door, while she stretched out on the bed to unwind.

@Eviledd1984
"Oh, no. It's all pre-paid, assuming you got one of those invitations." The clerk said, smiling, "You know, promotional stuff. We'd just appreciate a good review on Yelp."

The clerk went back to her work, addressing another guest, providing him with a room number, (106) and passing him a... Rusty card?

[DJAtomika]

The wing of the hotel she was in was shaped a bit like an 8 on a digital clock. Each floor was mostly hallways, with rooms on one side and a pleasant view all the way down to the lobby and balconies of the other "floors". The next hall presumably led to yet more 8-shaped balconies.

The room was well-lit, even without the lights on. The fog cleared over the ocean, of all places, and there was just enough of a gap in the clouds for a late-afternoon orange to peak through... That was on the other side of the building, however, so it looked rather like a glowing orange beach was literally melting away into nighttime.

Aside from the view in the big window-doors, (which also led to a balcony that seemed even higher) there was plentiful art-deco furniture. Soft, comfortable, and charmingly dated. All very nice, though the room may have been a little warm. The maid or whoever set the thermostat might have been trying to compensate for the unseasonable chill outside this evening.

@Sombrero

"Oh okay then that will be all then" Jonathan said putting his wallet back into his pocket."Is their any events going on later today or in the next few days?" Jonathan then asked looking at the card wondering if the first floor and the rooms are much older and need older technology.He brought the luggage closer to him feeling like someone was watching him perhaps he was being paranoid.

@Sombrero

She noticed the warmth a few minutes after laying down to relax. A light sheen of perspiration began building on her forehead as she sat up and took off her sweater and wiped her face with it.

"Hmm."

Elise stood and looked for the thermostat, finding it on the wall and turning it down a degree or two. No sense being uncomfortable when she was here to relax.

@Eviledd1984

"Oh, not really. Dinner will be served at 6:00-8:00 tonight." the woman said, checking her computer again, "I don't know if there's anything else, but Mr. Beaumond will likely announce further events over dinner."

She adjusted her glasses and looked up at Jonathan for a second.

"Are you quite comfortable, sir?"

@DJAtomika

Elise was treated to a breeze from the air vent quickly obliging her request. There was a small table up against the wall, beneath the thermostat. It looked like some sort of list was on it.

@Sombrero

"Yeah im fine thank you for the information" Jonathan nodding his head to the woman before leaving to head into his room,Once he head into his room he placed his luggage beside his bed taking a seat on his bed.He took a look at his watch seeing it would be a hour or so before dinner would be ready,"That means i have time..." He said to himself pulling out a small baggie out of his luggage placing it carefully on the drawer. It was cocaine a drug he has been addicted too for four months now.

Using a rolled up dollar bill he started snorting the cocaine in his nose breathing heavily wiping the drug content form his nose.

@Eviledd1984

It isn't long before the delicious brain-powder begins its glorious consumption. His heart rate may speed up, and perhaps he may become aware of some things less observant people might not be... Cocaine isn't normally a hallucinogen, which makes it especially odd when there's such an odd scratching noise, seemingly coming out of the air in the middle of the room, clawing and clawing, like a rat in the walls of reality itself, or something else that claws... It's quite a disgusting scratching sound, it feels quite like a spider scraping its legs around the walls of one's ear, yet also a good distance away from him.

@Sombrero

"Hm?"

Elise noticed the list and picked it up in her hand, giving it a slow once-over as she returned to the bed and sat down on its edge. She kicked off her shoes and laid down, the little note clasped gently in her hand.

@Sombrero

"Mhm the coke isn't suppose to do this..." Jonathan said to himself shaking his head as he took a bottle of whiskey form his luggage,Taking a big swig of the brown liquid inside the bottle letting the bitter taste in his mouth enjoying the taste of the whiskey.Moving closer to the wall taping it gently with the knuckle of his hands feeling frightened by the noise in the wall.

@DJAtomika

The note wasn't very unusual. It was made out of the same fancy, strangely indestructible paper as her invitation.

Pool Hours: 24/7, 4:00 AM - 12: PM on weekends for cleaning.

Breakfast: 5:00 AM - 8:00 AM

Lunch: 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM

Dinner: 3:00 PM - 8:00 PM

The odd thing, however, was that someone had scribbled something in barely legible print along the bottom. It was two words long, and one of them started with a B, probably...

@Eviledd1984

The simultaneous uppening and downening may momentarily blur his vision and skew his balance. He could, to some extent, feel the anger of whatever it was behind the grate, pounding and pounding away. Something with teeth tried to nip at his knuckle as the force behind it dented and dented the loud, metal sheet...

@Sombrero

"Fuck what the fuck is that noise?" He said to himself putting his ear the wall hearing the noise becoming a bit louder.After a while he removed his ear from the wall heading to his luggage taking a long swig of the whiskey bottle.He then took out his typewriter putting a piece of paper in the typewriter and started to write but for some reason he could still hear the noise in the wall and was in fact becoming louder.

@EvilEdd1984
When he ducked down, his ears were assaulted with a terrible noise, a loud burst as the grate exploded open just out of view and... A note came out, floating down in front of him. He could hear something crawling back up the vent as the scratching persisted...

@Sombrero

She examined the note closer, peeking over her spectacles as she held the little scrap of paper near to her face. They were so small and badly written, even for her, that she struggled to try and read them.

@Sombrero

The grate bursting out with the note flowing out scared the hell out of Jonathan making him jump dropping the typewriter with a loud thud."What the fuck was that?" He said quickly picking up the typewriter placing it on the bed.Taking the note looking the note over reading what was on the note.

He didn't know how the hell someone or something could get in the vent but something did and he had thoughts of a some monster in the vent who gave him the note.