Monday, October 13th, 2014
Final Turn
Mary-Anne sighed, squinting at the empty attic. Maryn had definitely been up here at one point, but, just as definitely, she wasn't here any longer. She needed a bell for that child.
Mary-Anne clicked off the light that Maryn had left on and headed down the attic stairs. She'd be exploring something, somewhere, and when Mary-Anne found her she'd be sent to explore the dustiest reaches of the house with a featherwand.
Click of the attic light and head back downstairs. If Maryn isn't in evidence, ask Garen where he last saw her.
...Mary-Anne sighs. The wind howls outside, and raindrops begin to drum on the roof. Just once, she'd like to have a family dinner that doesn't involve tracking down the participants like she was a bounty hunter. She reaches up and yanks the light cord, plunging the attic into darkness.
Descending from the attic, Mary-Anne fiddles with the side of the hatch; she quickly finds the locking mechanism holding the stairs in the down position, and after a quick flip the hatch slowly slides closed, shutting with a soft click. Mary-Anne tucks the pull-cord away, then looks around the hallway, pursing her lips. She doesn't have the time or the energy to look through each and every room for her wayward daughter; maybe Garen-
Mary-Anne hears a giggle from behind a closed door. It sounds like Maryn. Moving quickly, Mary-Anne pushes open the door; the room is dark, but a quick flip of the lightswitch causes a table lamp on a desk to glow into life, illuminating the Study.
The massive oaken writing desk dominates the left wall of the red carpeted room. The walls are covered in shelves, themselves filled with bizarre trophies. A snarling bear's head is mounted over the desk. Two crossed sabers are over the door. One wall has an ornately painted African tribal shield, a carved spear, a faded black and white photograph of a safari, and a painted triptych of a jungle scene, full of wildlife.
A stone statue of a fertility goddess rests on a stand by its own, and another stand holds a massive Diver's helmet. A tiger skin adorns another wall. An oaken chest beneath the room's small, narrow window seems to be the mate for the writing desk, being the same color.
Overall, the decor seems rather garish and horrible to Mary-Anne, though no doubt it's the sort of thing that Maryn would be fascinated with. However, it seems rather unlikely that Maryn would be taking in the spectacle in the dark; Mary-Anne must have misheard.
Luckily, she hears Garen and Floyd talking as they come up the hallway. Mary-Anne sticks her head out to confront them. "Garen! Where
exactly is the last place you saw Maryn?"
"Maryn?" Garen asks, surprised. "She's downstairs eating. I thought you'd chased her downstairs."
"She's almost done." Floyd says affectionately. "Head down, hun, before your food gets cold."
Floyd and Garen head off down the hallway, leaving Mary-Anne to scratch her head in puzzlement. Maryn must have snuck past her somehow. Well, no use worrying about it now. Mary-Anne heads down to enjoy her not-entirely-cold meal.
Mary-Anne Objective Met! +3XPscarf down my food, then go charge upstairs and check out the library!
...Maryn shovels the last of her toasty cheesy meal into her mouth as Mary-Anne joins her at the table. Gulping it down, she flashes her most impudent grin and dashes off before Mary-Anne can turn her suspicious glance into suspicious words. Barreling back upstairs, Maryn heads back to the most interesting room she'd found; the Library!
Standing inside the soft, quiet room, Maryn looks around for interesting things. The filing cabinet near the desk holds long, thin trays full of little cards made of stiff paper, covered in tiny black-inked words, separated by tabs with letters on them. Pulling out a card at random, she reads "Melville, Herman.
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale" before losing interest and tossing it back into the cabinet drawer.
Maryn pads her way between the bookcases, peering onto the shelves. Many of the books are bound in leather, while others are wrapped in some kind of durable cloth, and still others have the pages tied between two pieces of wood. Many of the books are dusty, and one shelf has cobwebs in the corner.
Now that she's further in the room, Maryn notices a bookshelf toward the back of the room covered in oddly sized books. Maryn pokes through them with interest. Some just seem like regular books that were made very large for some reason, but others have paintings and pictures inside, and a few contain collections of old newspapers.
One book in particular catches her eye. It's a smaller tome, more the size of the books on the other shelves. The leather cover is embossed with odd vines climbing stylized boulders. A pentacle is in the center of the cover, right beneath the title:
Grimoire de Aretstikapha. The pages are made of some kind of fancy paper, and rather than print they're filled with tight cursive writing, often accompanied by sketches of body parts, odd contraptions and diagrams, or detailed plants.
"Maryn!" Floyd calls from the hallway. "Come here so we can unpack your stuff!"
"Coming!" Maryn shouts back. Setting the book aside, she scampers off to the
best room to find a spot for her stuff.
Garen scooted his chair out, getting out and preparing to walk up the stairs. "I'll show you."
Garen leads his father to his room.
"Yeah. Definitely a winner." Floyd petted Harpo again and picked up the empty plate from the floor, then left it on the table. Mary-Anne would probably know what to do with it. "So, which one's your room? I can haul your stuff up to it as we go," he offered.
Floyd goes to Garen's room - taking the boy's luggage with him - to inspect the damaged window.
...Finishing dinner, Floyd and Garen grab the boy's things between them and haul them up to Garen's room. Setting the luggage on the bare floor, Floyd turns up the brightness on the room's lamp and turns to the window. Working one callused finger between the plywood and the plastic, he bends the board back and peers through. The window isn't so much broken as it is missing; instead of glass, a sheet of opaque plastic provides insulation and protection from the elements. Another sheet of plastic thrums in the wind, providing an extra layer of protection.
Floyd steps back. "Well, the good news is that most of the structural fixings are already there. We just need to put some glass in there."
"Yeah?" Garen replies hopefully.
"Yeah. I don't know if there's any windowpanes around, but if there is, it's a quick fix." Floyd says confidently. "We'll take a look tomorrow, and see what we can find."
While Garen gets unpacking, Floyd starts unpacking the rest of the family's things, calling for Maryn to show him the room she chose.
The scene fades away. Images flicker from the rest of the night. Maryn, in a room full of plants. Garen in his room, in a tangle of wires. Floyd and Mary-Anne, sharing a moment. Harpo, inspecting his bed in the kitchen. The family unpacking, settling down, sleeping. Dreaming.
... Harpo's tongue lolls out of his mouth as his feet kick in his bed. In his dreams, he leads the pack against the terrible raccoons, and he rides out the night with the taste of victory on his tongue. It tastes like cheese, not bacon.
... Maryn tosses restlessly in her sleep, pushing her sheets away. In her dreams, she darts from room to room, opening doors and lunging for the lights. However, even as she gets another light on, a light flicks off somewhere else.
Somewhere. She has to keep them lit, because she knows that the darkness is... where something is.
Something, watching everyone. The house groans, and grumbles, and even as she makes another lap to relight the flickering lamps she knows Mom tied up the hatch to the attic tight. She can't light up the attic...
Trait Acquired: Properly Paranoid... Garen also sleeps with his covers pushed back; he'd have to ask Dad about turning down the heat in here, too. Though his day was something of a disappointment, Garen's dreams are hopeful, with the promise of light and sunshine just around the corner.
... Mary-Anne mutters uneasily in her sleep, pulling the covers to her side of the bed. Her dreams are of decay, of the little legs and biting mandibles of the things which feast on stagnation and death. Every board and plank in the Mansion is rotten, the underside swarming with centipedes and termites chewing their way ever closer to Mary-Anne's feet. Every piece of meat in the kitchen is crawling with maggots and beetles, tearing apart the flesh and squirming inside. Every dark space and hidden corner has a long-legged interloper waiting to snare a snack, sharp fangs ready to pierce skin and drain blood. Little by little, everything in the Mansion is consumed, and only vile dust remains.
Trait Acquired: Too Many Legs... Floyd can't sleep. While his wife stirs in her sleep. Floyd stares up at the ceiling. A ceiling that seems to be... wider than when he laid down. Like the lid of a box, inches away. Floyd hates boxes. All he ever wanted was some freedom in his life, the open road, a job away from a cubicle. It was supposed to be open up here in the mountains, away from everything else.
The Mansion might be another box, though.
Carefully, Floyd measures his breathing. This is the biggest bedroom. If he reaches out his arms, he will not brush the walls. Floyd was going to be trapped in this house all winter. He'd be fine. He suppressed the urge to go open the bedroom door for some air, because he knew deep down he might not come back to bed. He might go downstairs to the nice open Dining Room, or the Ballroom, or maybe outside. Rain lashes against the window, and thunder rumbles in the distance. Floyd wasn't going to go outside.
He wanted to, though.
Trait Acquired: ClaustrophobiaFloyd the FatherObjective:
Unpack the car!AP:
3/3XP:
3/10Status: Normal
Inventory: Manilla Folder (last seen in Foyer)
Traits:
Gearhead,
Claustrophobia Mary-Anne the MotherObjective:
Feed the family!AP:
2/3XP:
3/10Status: Normal
Inventory: None
Traits:
Mama's Healing Kisses,
Too Many Legs Garen the TeenagerObjective:
Get the best room!,
Unpack!AP: 3/3XP: 0/5Status: Normal
Inventory: Nintendo DSi
Traits: Diverse Interests (Geography) Maryn the Little KidObjective:
Get the best room!,
Explore!AP: 3/3XP: 4/10Status: Normal
Inventory: Little Elephant Statue
Traits: Curious Little Monkey,
Properly Paranoid Harpo the Family Dog.Objectives:
SMELL EVERYTHING,
EAT THE FOREST SMELL!,
CHEEEEEESEAP: 0/3XP: 2/10Status: Normal
Inventory: None
Trait: Loyal Companion
Hee hee! Hey, look at that, hidden mechanics. You can expect Rolls to Dodge Insanity at the end of every Round, and lower rolls result in more severe effects. Insanity effects vary based on the specific form and severity of madness, as well as the ways to deal with the madness. In general, while your Objectives give you a positive reward for doing things, when your Insanity manifests it's more likely to be a penalty for doing/not doing things. It should be self-explanatory when it pops up. Mama's Healing Kisses exists for a reason.
This is the time when leveling up would take place, but since nobody did this time around we'll just proceed to Turn 0 of the next Round as soon as I can rub together the spare minutes.
Author
Topic: Winter on the Mountain: Round 2 (Read 11963 times)