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redstringtheories2022-02-01 06:58 am
TDM #8
(cw: potential for severe disorientation/vertigo, claustrophobia, arachnophobia, body horror)
It happens in the blink of an eye. You may have been asleep. You may not have. You may have stepped through a door or turned a corner. You may have seen a flicker of something at the corner of your vision and turned to look. Or maybe you didn't.
It doesn't matter. What matters is that you find yourself somewhere entirely new and entirely unfamiliar. The arrival point is not always the same. (If you're lucky, it might be a canteen or an open office. If you're not, well... you aren't claustrophobic, are you? Or arachnophobic. These ducts do seem to be a bit cobwebby.) There is no one waiting for you but you don’t seem to be alone, either. Even in a janitor’s closet or the bathroom, you’ll find at least one person who seems to be just as out of place as you are.
If characters have arrived in a location devoid of NPCs, they may want to work together to figure out what is going on... or to avoid their 'kidnappers.' If you’ve arrived in the middle of the entry foyer or the gym, there may well be a few people who startle a bit at your arrival and try to approach (or discreetly leave the room... where are they going?). Will you cooperate or fight? Do you even understand what they're saying? You might need to find a translator, if you’re not immediately willing to follow a stranger.
After characters follow their new hosts (or are forcibly taken in) there will be a limited tour and the chance to settle in at the ADI-provided housing. (Do you enjoy living with strangers? Well. It's a new situation to navigate, anyway.)
(cw: choking, burial, suffocation)
Weird things happen in Dogtown, everyone knows it. The Apocalypse Disruption Initiative (ADI) is not above taking advantage of that to test out the waters for its newest arrivals. They're not looking to send anyone to their death, though, especially not with recent events that have transpired surrounding Dogtown. An employee gives you a number to call if anything truly dangerous happens and you've been left with another person at the trailhead. Maybe they're a new arrival, as well, or a more seasoned 'veteran.' Either way, you're together for the next while and you've been asked to find and record any paranormal activity in the park. You have your phones and any other equipment you might have brought with you. Those who succeed in documenting anything peculiar will receive a $100 reward to be used as they see fit.
This month… there are no reports. But considering how often strange things DO happen in Dogtown that’s almost more of a warning flag for ADI. Nothing happening in Dogtown is weird. Just to be on the safe side, the usual pairs are sent over several days. Most days, nothing at all happens. The weather is cold, but clear and on those days, all anyone gets is some exercise and perhaps some bonding time. But one of those days is a little different. Not at the start. The weather forecast is for temperatures that are chilly but not so cold you wouldn’t want to go out in them. Anyone who is out will have the chance to wander the strange paths of Dogtown for a while in fruitless pursuit of “strange”.
The first hint of anything wrong at all are a few licks of cold air. They might be a little biting if you’re not properly dressed for the season but it’s nothing out of the ordinary. Just winter in the Northeast. Then the licks become gusts. Quickly.
The gusts begin to carry snow. It’s not falling from the sky, it’s being borne on the wind and the wind is strong. It’s probably a good idea to head back to where you started. If you can find it. If you can get there in time. After all, the trails in Dogtown are winding and the winds are starting to drive in more and more snow. It becomes hard to see much of anything between the trees except white, and the snow just keeps coming. Sooner rather than later, characters will probably come to the conclusion that they cannot escape this blizzard no matter how hard they try. Stopping for too long to try and work out a way back to civilization and you’ll find the snow beginning to clump and pile around your legs. Worse still, the snow on the air is so thick that you find yourself breathing it in, snow clumps filling your mouth. It might become tough to breathe, if you and your partner can’t work out some way to filter it out.
Better find somehow or somewhere to wait it out. There are cellar holes in the Dogtown Commons, if you can make it that far…. If you don’t get caught in the snow.
(cw: occultism)
In somewhat oddly timed good news for tourism, Hammond Castle has reopened its doors to visitors for the first time in more than a year. The reopening has been lowkey, with little fanfare beyond a simple press release. It seems the curator and caretaker, Simone Clark, is treating this as a soft opening before gearing up for more intensive summer programming. Given ADI's decades-old connection with the Hammonds, however, any activity over at the castle is deemed worthy of at least cursory attention. As such, Hammond Castle is now a recommended stop for new arrivals as well as established operatives. So far as anyone knows nothing untoward is going on at the castle; ADI's presence is equal parts professional courtesy and light snooping.
The castle is almost more of a destination than a full-blown museum, with minimal signage. The building is full of art and antiquities collected by John Hays Hammond Jr. and his wife, Irene, and pamphlets at the front desk focus mainly on the history of the Hammonds and the building itself, detailing John Hays Hammond Jr.'s fascination with medieval history, the unique architecture and design of the building, and his various inventions and innovations. It seems Hammond was a prolific inventor, known best as the "Father of Radio Control"... and a member of the American Spiritualist Movement.
For the most part, characters will simply have a pleasant self-guided tour, though the grounds are a bit cold and snowy for too much wandering beyond the castle itself. Inside the castle proper they'll find galleries of art and artifacts, as well as Hammond's lab preserved in place. Everything seems normal, maybe a little dry for anyone who isn't an enthusiast for medieval history and twentieth century technology...except for the wax tablet lying open on a pedestal in the Great Hall. It's easy to miss, the words etched in it smudged and dusty. Look closely, though, and you'll find that the words are in modern English… and that they're addressed to you. It offers a brief prediction for your future--and an uncannily accurate one at that. Within minutes, hours, or days of reading it, the prediction will come true. Every time you go back you'll find a new prediction waiting for you, the wax wiped smooth and rewritten. Keep going back, though, and eventually everyone gets the same, unchanging prediction:
"You will be buried."
(cw: flooding, mention of murder, earthquakes, and car accidents)
On the morning of February 14th, everyone with an ADI-issued device will receive the same message. It's from an account with a photo of a young caucasian man.
un: allmyexes
Howdy, Hello, and a Good Morning Neighbors! Austin's back in town, and I got some good news and bad news. Credentials first, make it all official for Mama Nia:
Austin Yeats, ADI's best field operative, if I do say so myself. Been scouting down in NC, WV, and VA the last half a year. Thanks to whichever of you kids gave us a tip-off about the mines. That was helpful. So…
Good News: I got a lead on a certain Buried avatar named Deepthi who's been causing problems ever since she fell outta whatever reality she's from.
Bad News: That lead's leading me here.
Keep your eyes peeled for this woman:
And if you're thinking 'aw, she looks friendly, cute even!' Well, I ain't faulting you for having eyes, but she's about as dangerous as an 8.0+ on the earthquake magnitude scale if she decides to screw you over. Or us over. DO NOT approach if you see her, just report her, and we'll figure out a strategy to deal with her once we've got eyes. Her hallmarks are unusual ground tremors, sewer blockages, and lone tourists going missing. Hard to track people who are already coming and going.
Be alert, be wary, and keep safe, kids.
-AY
It's later in the day when the bizarre, blizzard-like conditions in Dogtown seem to creep outward in some measure, sending a hard freeze across the city, and driving most people indoors as black ice coats the roads and leads to more than a few car accidents downtown. That might be all right if it had just stayed at the level of traffic snarls. Except…
Except then the problems really start with the pipes. It happens around Bonnie's Flophouse first. The temperatures are edging toward sub-zero outside as the night draws in, and the water stops working. Bonnie assures everyone the pipes are probably just frozen. It should be fine once it warms up, and she has bottled water to tide them over. The Visionary can be seen lurking behind her in the doorway when she makes her pronouncement to the tenants, their pale, chapped lips parted as if to argue, but they press them shut and say nothing.
The pipes burst a few hours later, and it's not ice, but pungent, mud-filled, frigid water that begins pouring into the walls and ceilings of the Flophouse. Help a neighbor save their things, or punch through the wall and find the spigot that can block the flow of water into your room. Do whatever you can because the water is coming. It is cold, and it doesn't stop easily.
Those in the ADI housing complex fare a little better. There are still issues with the plumbing, water only working intermittently, and sometimes coming in blackish sprays of foul-smelling mud, but nothing breaks, probably thanks to the valiant efforts of the onsite maintenance man, Benny Holt, who can be seen moving all around the complex over the next few days. It might be time to help those less fortunate than yourselves… if you feel like it. Maybe you should just leave them to their fate. They chose to live in that run-down flophouse, after all, and those streets are so icy. Is it worth risking a slip and fall?
- ARRIVAL (Feb 1 - 28): Two people will always arrive in the same general location together. Arrivals occur throughout the early month, not all on the same day or in the same place. Arrivals are not naturally fluent in English/other languages immediately upon arrival. Characters may attempt to evade capture, but they will eventually be snagged before they can leave the building. PC's already in-game are more than welcome to interact with and try to guide new PC's to get them oriented. Please refer to the Arrival page for details regarding the arrival and onboarding process.
- Sealed In Fate (Feb 1 - 7): If you want to play out fruitless searching for this prompt, you can certainly do so! The storm will hit on the 7th, after which ADI will stop sending any new recruits to Dogtown while they do some research on what might have caused the freak weather. The blizzard will abate about as abruptly as it started, after about an hour.
- Written in Wax (Feb 1 - 13): When the tablet is first brought to the curator's attention, she suspects a prank and tells the visitors in question off for tampering with the artifacts. After multiple characters attest to the predictions, though (and after surveillance footage fails to reveal a prankster), curator Simone will voluntarily surrender the wax tablet to ADI for destruction or containment. Please note that while the Hammond Castle is a real museum and players are welcome to draw on information available online to supplement their understanding of its layout and grounds, the version of the castle (and the Hammonds) presented here has been fictionalized, much like our setting of Gloucester in general. The predictions offered by the tablet may be as simple as identifying someone a person will meet or a small misfortune that might befall them, to something more complex, like identifying a series of interconnected events that a character might be party to. Lab examination of the tablet will yield no particular results. According to science, it is exactly what it appears to be… it's just still going to be making predictions that it shouldn't be able to.
- Delivered In Danger (Feb 14 - 16): Characters will observe other businesses around Gloucester having plumbing problems, but the places nearest the Flophouse and around ADI seem to be the most heavily impacted. There's no sightings of anyone matching Deepthi's description, but there's certainly the sense that she's around from those who have been with ADI for a longer time than most of the PCs. Bonnie will just be in survival mode in terms of the Flophouse, trying to stop even more things from breaking or going wrong as their home becomes waterlogged. The Visionary will be ever-more reclusive, as well, refusing to speak with people who might try to engage with them. He seems to be especially out of sorts for some reason.
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