Early Culautumnus: A Mystery Arises [Open Posting]

[Sahji]

WELCOME, BOILS AND GHOULS
Sorry, could not help myself. I've been waiting to do that ever since I watched Tales from the Darkside at an impressionable age. Anyways...

In Ravenswatch, in Cear, in cities all across the world as far as we know it.... A building has appeared.

It is a building neighbors testify to knowing and seeing for years--Yet, no records ever exist of it. It has a variety of names across a variety of cultures. It always looks like a rich, massive mansion, albeit worn down.

In the neighborhoods of these mansions, rumors fly. They speak of a tragedy, of lovers long lost: the sort of curiosity any tale-seeker would inspire to uncover. They speak of the riches left there hidden--invaluable treasures, some with incredible powers (a stone that gives immortality, a book that kills anyone whose name is written in it, a blade that feeds on the energies of those it slays, to name a few). Some attest it is a place of horrible torture, where youth or cultists go to practice dark arts. And then, there are the disappearances. So-and-so's kid daughter wandered in there and hasn't come out; an uncle, a dislocated friend, a favorite pet, a foolhardy adventurer...or two. Or three....

This is a Halloween event where your characters will face their greatest fears and struggle in a place distinct and separate from the reality they've always known. There are horrors, traps, hellish nightmares all awaiting for those that dare brave the mansion's many entrances....will anyone escape?

[[NOTE: If you are late to the party, no problem! Come on in, the scares are good]]

[Sahji]

THE CAST AND CREW

Player-DMs
Roleplay Hall-monitors and stirrers of the void.

Sahji
Grandmaster of the void of this mansion. She's known for her taste for chaos and wildly mercurial moods. Rile at your own risk.

Sabre
Your benevolent mother figure, think a mixture of Mommie Dearest, Mother Nature, and the Celtic goddess Morrigan. She's is a pixiespawned, demented caretaker who in her spare time bakes cookies...made with real tears. It is not wise to mess with the Momma.

Athena AKA Domina
Passive eyes cross over you with moderate care. Yet the sparkle of mischief and intrigue linger. Heart testing and demanding are the fears of the mind...so they shall be revealed.
_____________________________________________________________________

Starring:
The poor souls who have wandered into an abyss....

Cole Ashallows

• Played by: Silas North
  Race/Ethnicity/Gender: Male
  Job/Affiliations: Priest of the Nuarari church (Cear branch)
  Age: 26
  Short Biography: As a priest, Cole has been tasked with the creation of new and improved formulas for the sleep remedies already used by the church today. Though Cole has made some breaking ground in this, his choice of himself as a test subject over the years has left him narcoleptic. Despite this handicap, he's formed a unique connection of sorts with his dreams. At times they prove prophetic, a warning. It was a dream that saved him from the first assassin's dagger after his entanglement with The Organization and these dreams that told him to trust the mysterious woman in black that ended up saving him. Now the dreams show the exterior of this strange home, though what lays within Cole is unable to ascertain if it is wicked, benevolent, or even anything in between. The dreams never show him details but urge his approach. He has requested permission to investigate this manor, to which his superiors have agreed, now a bit concerned themselves as to what lays beneath.

Thayne Achius Rhaz

• Played by: Karma
  Race/Ethnicity/Gender: Human Varanite Male
  Job/Affiliations: Pirate, Slaver, Mercenary Commander, Agent
  Age: 38
  Short Biography: Thayne Rhaz. A noble son of Cear who has lived a life of piracy and indulgence in all things sinful. Friend to as many as enemy. He has come to the mansion seeking a lost relic said to hold immeasurable power. A relentless man with little to fear, yet everyone bears hidden terrors. The question is, what is his?

Shula'Sky or the Beastly Maid

• Played by: Kell
  Race/Ethnicity/Gender: Halfling / Dasarian / Female
  Job/Affiliations: Currently she is a servant and source of entertainment to Family D'Hemrath in Ravenwatch. In the past she was an initiate Silverback to a Coven of halfling druids and rangers, in the Forest of Daris.
  Age: 19
  
  Short Biography
  Shula'Sky was born as a pale, dark eyed and dark haired halfling, in a hidden halfling village in the forest of Daris. Due to her affinity to nature and her roaming, free spirit, her village elders gave her parents, Shula'Arid and Shula'Noor, the task to raise her as a forest guardian. She was given to a local coven of halfling druids and rangers to begin her ascension into their ranks. Her studies began small and generic, but around her 8th year it became clear that Shula'Sky would continue to specialize to become like Brother Wolf. Intelligent, social and with a strongly developed intuition she was destined to become a Silverback, a balancer.
  
  In her fourteenth year, as she was about to head home after a long journey through the dark, tall woods, she encountered a group of travelers heading west. She took on the appearance of Brother Wolf and followed them to learn of their nature but due to an inexperienced mind and still weak control of her wildshape form she was found out. She was captured and transported to be sold to Cuhannan slavetraders at Thrall's Gate.
  
  In her fifteenth year she found herself in service to a wealthy, native Old Varana family living in Ravenwatch. Over the last four years Shula has been used by her Masters as mindless half-beast, providing freakshow entertainment to the lady of the house, her two cruel children and their guests. These days she is tasked to perform chores whilst wearing a white apron over a black dress appearing as half wolf and half woman; as the Beastly Maid.
  
  One evening Shula'Sky overhears one of the guests talking about a dark, unwelcoming house where everything is presumed dead. She grows curious and decides to go and see for herself during her one free day in the week. Numbed by years of subdued servitude she heads off on a sunday, desperate for change. If only the house will distract her a moment from her meaningless existence at her family's Mansion; anything and everything to feed her spirit.
  
  Is everything really dead? If so, is it haunted? Are there monsters? Is it any colder there? Is there anything she can do to save anything, or anyone? Is there the tiniest of chances that she can become a hero to rise above the stupid, worthless status of freak servant? Oh how she longs to show the world she is far more than what her family forces her to be. Anything to break free and live again. With cautious, feverish anticipation she keeps asking herself; how bad can it truly be? Everything she has ever done has lead up to this. For once in her life, luck has to be on her side. Perhaps this is her big break.

Tatianna Borden

• Played by: Iduna
  Race/Ethnicity/Gender: Human/Varanite/Female
  Classes: Bard/Shadowdancer
  Age: 18
  Short Biography: Born to a wealthy family within Ravenswatch, Tatianna was given every comfort. She was spoiled rotten, and her personality shows it. She is tyrannical, rude, and carries with her a strong sense of self-entitlement. As she is easily bored, she is constantly looking for new thrills and adventures to occupy herself, which often lands her in some rather dangerous situations. To keep her safe, her family hired bodyguards to keep a constant watch over their wayward daughter, only to learn that Tatianna has become quite adept at dodging their watchful eye. Along the way, Tatianna has learned that she has the talent of merging her musical gifts with arcane magic, as well as the ability to pull the shadows around her so she can hide, which has often pulled her out of some tight places. After a successful foray into a rat infested cellar of an abandoned inn, Tatianna found herself bored, once again. This is when she heard the rumors of the abandoned mansion. She had seen it many times, during her childhood, but had paid it no thought beyond thinking it an eyesore, until whispers of strange happenings reached her ears. She immediately packed a few essentials, which include: her silver combs for her long blonde hair, silk rope, a satin gown (for sleeping in, of course), a woolen blanket, a skin of fine wine, and a tin full of sweet biscuits. Once again dodging the annoying guard placed upon her, she made her way to the large house where her latest adventure awaits.

Enrique Ribeiro, or Ric (for friends)

• Played By: Jain Zar
  Age: 25
  Job: sailor and ex-pirate
  Race: Human
  Features: muscled, brown long hair, beardy, ocean eyes, speaks a dialect of common.
  Specialties: cursing in Cuhannan, dirty fighting and passionate love making with his Bella.
  Warning : may hit first and ask questions later.
  In short: a piece of hard-core. He got a lil drunk, wandered off on his way from one town to another, lost track and well...

[Sahji]

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[Sahji]

GUIDELINES
Follow these guidelines to the best of your ability.

1. Follow Dasaria's rules. DMs are still very much last word here.
2. For the purposes of this roleplay, think of Player-DMs like hall monitors generally and as game masters over a specific scene that they've created. If you're entirely uncomfortable with a situation, you have the right and ability to excuse your character from the scene.
3. You have (limited) creative powers here. You can, at will, create a room to challenge or terrify your friends, with their discretion of course.
4. Player DMs will try to guide the scenes as well as possible. Please let (all) PDMs know if you want to exercise your creative rights: send them a PM with a rundown of your idea. This is in case more than one person wants to create a scene at the same time. If you don't receive a reply within 24 hours, assume that you're greenlighted.
5. Try to keep up with the roleplay. If you don't post within 24 hours of someone interacting with you, you'll be dropped down a trapdoor. But that's okay, because when you come back, you can easily come through another trapdoor and reappear. Hurrah!
6. Seeing as this is a forum event, feel free to play characters that don't even exist in the game. OH! Also, you can play more than one character.
7. Golden rule: Treat others the way you'd like to be treated. Unless you're a masochist. In that case, treat others the way you'd think they'd like to be treated.

[Sahji]

PDM Sahji

The grounds are ill-kept, barren in some places and overgrown in others. The windows are so thick with dust that an observer cannot see through them. There's quite a lack of wildlife on the grounds, though some brave and starving crows encircle the very edges, looking for something to scavenge. This particular early Culautumnus is windy, and the skies an impermeable slate fog. The same sort of fog seems to cling to the grounds, heaviest around the muddy crevice that was once a brook. There's a near-constant breeze that whistles through the branches and makes them creak and bend. Sometimes it is a mournful musical sound. Other times, the wind shrieks, agonized and frenzied, snapping twigs and sending debris into the air.

Everything here is dead.

[[Link to Spooky Symphony on Pandora]]

[Sahji]

A narcoleptic....a brat....a slaver....a wolf in maid's clothing...

Hopes, desires, and perhaps a touch of riskiness?
Perhaps they'll find everything that they're looking for...

The mansion waited, ever patient in its lonely land.
Come, children...come and play.

[SilasNorth]

"Be ever vigilant my children, for the fated hours of all blooms often naught in times of peace nor expectations."

Dedication kept his feet forward.
Scripture kept his heart light.

Still, as accustomed as he was to long travels by foot, a horse would have been welcome. The winds were strong enough to strike like daggers against his flesh even with the protection from the thick cloth of his robes. His eyes narrowed to the sight of the manor in the distance, technically in plain sight and yet arising as if from some unnatural void beneath the very soil he now tread.

He was trained to remember the details of his dreams and in this place he saw the perfect match to the painting displayed by his slumber. The angles of the hills, the scattered array of flora and fauna, and even the weather itself.. This inspired him, reaffirming his already strong faith in the goddess watching over him now. And yet... he worried. No matter what awaited within, he was prepared, like all of his brothers and sisters of the cloister, for the fate that awaited beyond this life. But, it was not just him who's well-being was at risk with steps into the unknown.

Not if the dreams continued their revelation...

He did not know any of the faces... the figures... They were all but shadows in the dreams wandering toward a destination they had no true clue about.

Much like him...

[Kell]

Soft leather boots hurried in a light, flighty step over the cobblestones, up the hill towards University Heights in Ravenwatch. Sky held her skirt and apron up to prevent tripping as she climbed. Her dark eyes shone brightly in anticipation of what today would bring. It was her one day off and she had decided she would investigate the rumors about the house that had always just been there, but she had failed to notice before.

As she skipped over the stones towards the house she felt how her heart began to race. She was nervous because if the rumors she heard about the house were true then what she was about to find would be no sight for the faint of heart. But she wasn't afraid so she straightened her back defiantly even when the lingering, low fog began twirling around her ankles. It was almost as if it was slowly beckoning her closer to the house, she thought. She perked her ears and squinted her eyes as she took in her surroundings with her keen senses.

[Iduna]

Tatianna carefully bustled her full skirts and secured them on either side of her hips, showing more leg than was thought to be proper. She gave little care to propriety as the heavy fog swirled around her knee high boots made of the finest leather, while making her way up to the house. Looking to her right, then her left, she listened to the sounds of the night warily, having heard the rumors of strange disappearances of others as they made the trek up to this large house upon the hill. A smug smile came to her lips as she thought to herself, "Nothing like that will happen to me. No one would dare hurt a Borden." Straightening her hair and adjusting her tight bodice, she approached the gate as it loomed before her as a silent and foreboding sentinel, waiting to turn away anyone brave or foolish enough to trespass. She took a deep, steadying breath and looked up at the house with a slight smirk, "Now let's see what secrets and treasures you hold inside you, yes?"

[Karma]

A bearded man watched the house from a nearby shadowy alley. He didn't remember this house being here the last time he had perused down this sandswept street. The late night chills and howls licking at his ears, Thayne Rhaz stepped out of the shadows into the pale moonlight. 'This must be the place' His eyes dark yet faintly shimmering of foreboding malevolence scoured the dust caked windows and barely visible grounds for a sign of life... or death. 'Nothing, not a trace. Likely a trap, nay... Definitively a trap' Thaynes lips curled into a mischievous smile and he started towards the building. The groan of his leather and mythral armor near silent as he moved swiftly to the door of the house.

Unlocked and nary a light, he stepped across the threshold. Unfazed by the darkness he took refuge in its cold, lifelessly stale air.Thayne motioned the alley he had come from and three figures emerged, walking towards him. One big, two small, very Cuhannan with their tan skin and heavy accents. They came up to the house to join him. "Knox, mind the door." The large framed man nodded silently, turning his back to the house. A flask of the blackest rum came from Thaynes belt to his lips and he grinned. "Drink up me hearties, yo ho." Passing the flask to the other two, they took a drink and handed it back. Stepping inside the large man shut the door behind them and stood amongst the gathering fog. "Great. another night watch." Knox looked around warily and rested a hand on the hilt of his oversized scimitar.

[Jain Zar]

The man strolling through the alley was mumbling to himself with a deep gravelly voice. Then he stopped to take a swig in silence, and it was only when he raised the bottle at his lips that he saw the house. He had never seen this building here before, right? He rubbed his eyes and glanced at his bottle.


A few hours earlier he had been sharing drinks with Scorpio and his wife for a special occassion. When he wanted to leave after burning through a couple of bottles of fine wine, they had stopped him from leaving ‘too soon’. He had been immediately aware why and he told them he wasn’t a drunkard anymore,... neither was he drunk.
He was just as steady as a baby taking its first steps, he had said.

Though that statement had gained him a rare amused smirk from the boss’s girl, it was only after earth had stopped rocking beneath his feet and his vision turned less wavered, they let him go.


The sleeves of his white shirt were rolled up and the front of his shirt hung open down to the top of his chest, barely hiding his strong and muscular frame. The leather vest over it was pirate black and a dark brown sash was tied around his waist. A large black belt held a fine looking rapier at his left hip and a cruel looking knife with an inwardly curved edge on his right.


The old fence hinges made squeaking sounds each time the wind got strong enough to push the cold metal to the side, and he could swear he also heard the tall and dark house itself creak like the worn knees of a retired pirate. Somehow however, the creepy place pulled on him as if a strange beckoning force was at work.

His soft knee high boots crunched pebbles into the hardened path of earth as he curiously went to the strange building, tucking his bottle away. “What be happenin’ here, lad…” he mumbled to himself. “Cin be som’ opport’inity…”

[Sahji]

Eight Souls stepped onto the grounds...

The first to cross the threshold were a pack of Cuhannans and the Varanite slaver.
No one saw them, distinctly.

However, from their perspectives...

Tatianna, Shula'Sky, Cole, and even the still inebriated Mr. Ribeiro saw through the fog a glimpse of a person's shadow moving on the other side of one of the windows. It was not the same window for each of them, and as soon as they noticed it, it had moved on, with no further signs anywhere.

Meeting Thayne and his bodyguards was quite what they expected. The rundown reception room of an old mansion. A layer of dust covered every surface, and cobbweb clung to corners and tight spaces. The interior was dry and unstirring, though just as chilly as the outdoors. The air was thick here and produced a cloistering effect on the sensitive. Lining the walls, several couches lay decrepit and waiting for visitors.

They could not see outside. The fog seemed to cloak the house entirely. And ahead, the mansion creaked. Not another sound.

[Kell]

The hairs in the back of her neck rose as Sky saw the shifting shadow behind the windows. As her body froze she stopped, moving dead in her tracks, and her intuition screamed bloody murder and damnation should she take one more step forward. She looked down at her unmoving feet and pondered her initiative to visit this eerie, cold place. She still had the same intent. The memory of Bastian spitting in her soupbowl last night and his childish, wicked giggle as he ran away in glee lay very fresh in her mind. And the corrective measures Madam had taken after finding out this morning that Sky had thrown the soup had seemed unproportional; the lithe, little girl still felt the warm glow of the beating on her backside. It was simple. No matter how much her senses objected against continuing, her consciousness was far more frightfull about stopping and turning back to the hell she was forced to call home. She had no choice.

Sky drew the scarf that lay around her shoulders over her head and she cast a tentative gaze back up to the window. Then she wriggled her feet loose and managed to wade further through the foggy, overgrown but barren frontyard; all the way up to the frontdoor. She lay a hand on a heavy door-knocker and knocked. Her upperlip jerked up and her little nose twitched as she tried to stay in control of the cowering little creature inside of her. It just wanted to runaway and hide.

But she wasn't going to allow it to take over. Despite the dead and stale air that lingered, she breathed and took a whiff of the undeniable scent of freedom to calm herself down. And then she waited.

[DM Sabre]

Whispers...too faint to make out words. Were they really heard? Was it the mind playing tricks? Or were they echos of a time long passed, memories of the house itself?

Candles one by one, lit themselves, the flickering flames doing little to improve the scene. Instead they created shadows that capered and danced along the walls.

The place appeared deserted, but for the spiders who had made the place their haven. Webs draped like intricate lace, some even dangling from the ceiling to brush against the necks of those who ventured within.

The air was heavy, fetid with the smell of mold and rot. And as the little one knocked...the door just creaked open as if pulled by an unseen hand.

[Kell]

As the door creaked open Sky's hand was drawn back to the nearness of her racing and startled heart. As the door creaked open further she felt how the darkness began to play its trick on her being. Her eyes widened and her pupils dilated as they adjusted to the absence of light and as they did her jaw dropped. She could feel a multitude of tiny eyes turning to look at her, every web in the room was a tiny woven home. Her senses tingled as she recognised the creepy crawlers against the ceiling, in the nooks and between the cracks. So many webs! Likening the sky during a dark blue night they all sparkled, as if dusted by a thousand silver stars, as the silk reflected the flickering candlelight. If this many spiders housed themselves here, then there had to be other bugs on whom they fed. There had to be cockroaches, beetles, flies, larvae and maggots too. No wonder there had been so many whispers. Every single one of them had a voice.

Suddenly Sky was a lot less afraid. That was one of the rumors debunked.. this place wasn't dead. It was bustling with energy and little life. But she recognised why the rumors had started. The place certainly could use a duster, or a mop.

She held her breath as she stepped inside and her tiny fingers crinkled into the white cloth of her apron in excitement. Oh, she knew what to do here. A grin from ear to ear appeared as she broke out a piece of cloth. Now, where to start?.. "Sorry me friends, I ain't gonna break ya home. But I ought ta make it lighter in here. How abouts we start with them silverwear, ya?" she spoke softly, addressing the spiders all around her with a lighthearted sillyness as she reached for a silver chandelier.