Prima Luce

Trios

@Metatrooper@citrouille@Lumiere

Prior to Kaldalis answering the door, one guard extends a well-polished sword and places its cold steel against the exposed upper thigh of Ahnciel.

“You are interfering with the order of the mayor and town guard, a crime punishable by death in Trios.” His voice is crisp and clean, unfitting for a man of his rugged, unshaven features. “You’re new here, so consider this a warning. Step back and let us conduct our business.”

This particular guard then takes the time to turn his eyes down the hall and read the bloody word smeared on the wall. Looking back to Ahnciel, he lowers the tip of his sword and finishes in a cloyed tone:

“If you know what’s good for you, best you stay clear of Agartha Mine. Now back away, we have a murderer to apprehend.”

As then Kaldalis opens the door, the five guards pause before entering, in which moment they observe the mutilated corpse on the floor of the room… though their reaction does lack surprise. Two of the guards, armed like the others with short swords, use their free hands to seize Kaldalis by each arm. The guard that had been speaking with Ahnciel moves in quickly to take Kaldalis's sword before retreating to the hallway once more. Another guard then steps forth to confront their captive, extending one arm to present a parchment that unravels for Kaldalis to read. The notice on the parchment is written carelessly, as though printed by the hands of a child in black paint:

The Singing Fish Inn.
Room 13.
The innkeeper shall be slain this day

It is after reading the message that Kaldalis would have noticed something especially peculiar about this guard, as the limbus of his irises did flash a vibrant shade of gold while he began his conceited speech:

“We were warned about you. Everything we need to know but your name. But there’s time for the unimportant details.” The guard now proceeds to roll up the parchment. Shoving the rolled parchments behind his metal tasset and drawing his own sword, he completes his speech: “By order of Jake Steele and the Town Guard, you will accompany us down to Trios Hold. Come peacefully or by force. These are your only choices. Probably best you don't argue.”

While Kaldalis was being spoken to, another of the five guards turned their attention back to Allysse. He observed the clear and present fear on her face before speaking. As he speaks, the outer rim of his irises did flare a vibrant hue of gold for her to witness:

“The innkeeper to this establishment is dead. There’s no free rides in Trios. If you haven’t already paid, best you be leaving this Inn and find another. There’s plenty of others in town. This isn’t open for discussion. Go now if you know what's good for you.”

Meanwhile, a reinforcement of five more guards are gathering outside the entrance to the Inn.

Trios

@Metatrooper

Kaldalis opens the door to find the Innkeeper standing before him, though it would seem the man has changed a great deal since Kaldalis last laid eyes on him. The innkeeper’s head is listlessly angled to one side and his skin is now morbidly pale. His eyes have the glaze of death and his throat has been torn out, the blood from which has drenched his green jacket, brown trousers, and is flooding the floor. Though the man is obviously dead, he nevertheless appears to be standing of his own will.

No doubt Kaldalis is at least a little disturbed by this display, though perhaps not as much as he will be. The short instant after opening the door is ended when the corpse speaks:

“Relax, let us play with you.”

Its voice however is not that of a man, rather that of a young girl. Unfortunately, Kaldalis has no time to respond before the corpse strikes Kaldalis in his chest plating. The blow is inhumanly fast and powerful and launches the warrior clean across the room where he slams back-first into the wall.

The obviously possessed corpse now shuffles inside the room. Behind the corpse, the door slams shut. The cat has since stopped purring. The corpse shifts its eyes towards the feline for a short moment, then turns its dead gaze back to Kaldalis. The cat sits up on the table, apparently eager to see what will happen next. With its limp hand, the corpse then prods and grasps at the buttons of its crotch in a clumsy attempt to expose itself to Kaldalis. While doing so it continues speaking to Kaldalis in the voice of a young girl:

“You know you want this.”

The corpse has now managed to uncover its blood dripping appendage for Kaldalis, which it then proceeds to rip from its person with a violent yanking motion. It then throws the detached appendage across the room at Kaldalis.

“Here’s your sweet candy!”

The cat watches the appendage fly across the room in Kaldalis’s direction before quickly diverting her eyes, now speaking to the corpse in a casual, familiarizing tone:

“Hello… Sarah.”

Trios

As Co-GM to this RP, I would like to extend a welcome to any other players who would like to join. If you are indeed looking for adventure and a touch of horror and suspense in a steampunk era, then I feel it would appeal to your liking. Here is the link if you wish to apply:

Your mortal thrill

All good. Have fun ^

Trios

@Metatrooper

The cat takes its leisurely place next to Kaldalis's helmet. Since Kaldalis has made his decision to let the cat remain, the door to the room is now closed.

When Kaldalis completes his welcoming speech to the feline, there is a knock at the door. The knock at the door is soft, sounding like that of a small fist rapping three times. When this occurs, the cat reacts as one confounded by pleasure. Her eyelids become heavy, as though she is receiving a caress from an unseen hand. While Kaldalis notices the cats responsive behavior, a second succession of raps at the door are heard.

This time the three consecutive knocks at the door are loud and abrupt, heavy enough to rattle the door in its frame. Furthermore, at this very same time, the window of the room cracks down the center with a piercing sound, while the mirror in the bathroom can be heard to fall from its placing and shatter when it hits the floor. More than this... as Kaldalis can hear and see these combined events taking place, a flood of blood begins to seep into the room from the crack beneath the door.

Now, the cat begins to purr. Her purrs are loud, reverberating through the room like that of a steam engine starting.

Will Kaldalis answer the door?

Diddly Do

@Dartbored Fairy@Hokum

Dino Gavon is in store for more than he bargained for. The best laid plans come to nothing.

When the Admiral appears on the far side of the passage, out of view of those he left behind, he is down on one knee, perhaps aiming to assault Mili’s abductor, or perhaps overpower him and through a well devised plan of interception retrieve the young, helpless girl. But nothing is so fluid.

As Dino Gavon appears in his arrogantly positioned stance, he is not yet aware of the person standing behind him. This man’s name is Cain. Cain is an old man by any standards. He has with him a staff. With this staff he instantly strikes the Admiral's shoulder. At the exact same time the rock on which Mili slumps transforms into that of a human form, Dnias. As Dnias rises, Milly, who was always Milly, drops to the floor of the passage as any unconscious person would.

Presuming that Dino looks over his shoulder to view the old man behind him, he would not see Dnias rise as Mili falls to the ground.

“Mine.” A familiar word that Dino would remember receiving from the alien vessel before arriving on the planet, now repeated from Cain’s own mouth. As Cain speaks this word, given that Dino is taken by surprise and the dreaded mark of Cain, Cain will tap the end of his cane a second time, this time hard against the ground on which Dino is positioned. The ground beneath Dino falls away like that of an ashen floor. If Dino is not quick as a bird in flight, he will thereby sink fast into the ground.

As this happens, Cain looks upon Dnias and speaks these following words to Dnias:

“Return what is mine.”

Before Cain has finished speaking, Dnias expounds a cry of frustration. This clearly inhuman noise, like that of a tortured goat, is loud enough to be heard by the three people in wait on the opposite side of the stone barrier. As Dnias shrieks, his Vector Pathol on his arm illuminates and Dnias is gone.

In the wake of Dnias’s absence, Cain grits his ancient teeth while stepping over the hole that Dino Gavon has supposedly found himself fallen into. The old man shuffles quickly and picks up the unconscious Mili, taking her under one arm like nothing more than a sack of grain. With his other hand, he uses his cane to strike at the barrier of stone. The stone instantaneously turns to dust, opening the way for those on the other side. Cain carries the child to Pirila and drops her at her feet. The child is still unconscious. Hida, Cas and Pirila will no doubt feel the sensation of mortal dread given off by Cain in his presence. The mark of Cain, given to him by God many years ago, is an inevitable sensation to feel in his company.

Regardless of Cas’s reaction, Cain does not subdue. After depositing the girl, Cain continues down the passage in direction of which the group of four had come, and vanishes into the darkness.

Dnias and Cain have now gone. The alien vessel in orbit of this planet departs a few minutes later.

Trios

@Harlequ

Fortunately for Ilyssa, this hotel, set in a steampunk age, does in fact have a bathroom in each room, rather than a communal tub on the ground floor. How hygienically delightful. On any accord, her wooden tar-sealed tub has a lever-action pump to draw water from the hotels water source. Moving the iron lever up and down pumps water from the tap. It is a simple but effective design, yet can be slightly laboursome and somewhat noisy when a person is trying to sleep….

Perhaps Ilyssa does not hear the initial pitter-patter of footsteps running by her bed while she’s sleeping. The footsteps trail their way into the bathroom and leave a track of bloody footprints in their wake. Ilyssa would, however, find it hard to sleep through the loud, repetitive squeaking grinds of the lever in the bathroom now vigorously moving up and down, pumping fresh water into the empty tub.

If Ilyssa rises from her bed and ventures into the bathroom to investigate, she will see that the lever appears to be moving on its own. She can see no one else, but she would likely see the obvious set of bloody footprints of what must be a smaller, invisible person standing by the tub. The water continues to pump until the tub is half full, at which point the lever stops moving.

An instant later, the water in the tub makes a splash as though someone has indeed climbed in. The water in the tub then begins to cloud with blood as the sound of a young girl giggling echoes about the room.

Trios

@Dartbored Fairy@Zyngard@Hokum@Quote5@Metatrooper@Karkinos@citrouille@Harlequ

There is a church in the town of Trios. This church has a bell tower that all people at the docks, aboard the ferry and in all surrounding areas can see. Within the tower is a bell, and although it is not time for the bell to sound, it does.

For whom the bell tolls is not known, yet its dull, untimely and aggressively heavy chime resonates out across Trios, surely grabbing the attention of everyone in town. When the citizens and new arrivals to Trios hear it, they will no doubt turn to behold the massive blood-written message high on the wall of the tower:

If the message was not enough to sour the eyes of all who see it, next to the message is a disemboweled woman hanging by her neck from a rope. The bell too is covered in the crimson fluid. Each continuing strike sprays blood from the bell and out from its housing, raining down upon the people below.

Diddly Do

@Dartbored Fairy@Hokum

“Fuck you....” Dino Gavon’s message is not immediately responded to by the alien vessel. However, had the Admiral or the science officer on board the DGS been paying attention in the following moments, they may have observed the quick spike of an energy readout from the alien vessel.

---

On the planet, the group of four have not traveled far down the passage before they observe an obstacle several yards ahead. The passage however is rather dark and the obstacle cannot be made out properly. Dino Gavon will find that Mili’s biological signature is coming from the location of the obstacle. So too is the reading of her abductor. No doubt one of the four party members will shed some light on the situation. When they do so, they will see that Mili is there. She is unconscious and slumped over a large stone. Yet Mili’s abductor cannot be seen.

Perhaps caution is in order.

Trios

@Hokum

Sadly, Boris's very special effort to bluff the bacon is not successful. In that instant, as though reading his mind, it flies clear of his grasp. As Boris's hands clap together empty, the bacon rasher strikes the upper, center region of the mirror. This should be enough to draw Boris's attention to the mirror, specifically.

Given that Boris turns to the Mirror, he will meet more than his own reflection amid the blotches of corrosion. Beside him stands the somewhat transparent reflection of a young girl.

may disturb some readers

The girl is no older than twelve. Her blond hair is tangled and matted with blood. She has blue eyes. Her face is disfigured with bruising and lacerations. She is wearing a short sleeve beige blouse, so too stained with blood. Most of the buttons of the blouse have been torn away, leaving only a few bottoms fastened at the bottom of the blouse. The blouse, however, hangs low enough to cover her lower, private region, where there is no skirt or trousers to otherwise cover her nakedness. The girl wears what looks to be mining boots, yet her legs are bare and a thin rivers of blood can be seen running down the inside of her thighs from her crotch. Her neck, arms, and the areas of her chest exposed by her torn blouse are, like her face, covered in bruising and lacerations….

What was likely once a young, beautiful girl, now stands beside Boris, a bloody and mangles mess of a creature.

Once Boris has seen her, the girl opens her mouth to extend what is left of her severed tongue as blood spills out over her chin. While this takes place, she raises one arm, her finger extended to point at the reflection of Boris. An instant later the top drawer of the dresser slides open abruptly. Within the drawer are numerous makeup products and cheap jewelry. Among these items is a plain wooden trinket box. It does rise from the drawer, floating in the air in much the same fashion that the bacon rasher did. It lands gently on the dresser top. The box is locked, but should not be difficult for a man like Boris to open.

If Boris was to force the box open, he would find a cloth pouch within. Sewn into the lining of this pouch are the words:

Agartha Mine

Within the pouch are three nuggets of gold.

Assuming that Boris fulfills these actions, the reflection of the brutalized girl in the mirror will fade from view. Seconds then pass. The shutters on the window slam shut. Downstairs, the front door to the house opens. No one enters. No one is there. Perhaps the ghost is sending Boris on his way.

Boris has been provided information.