idolpro | Aug. 2nd, 2018

Aug. 2nd, 2018

[ You spill out of the elevator onto a Bloody Room— the elevator is gone when you look back.

How . . . how appropriately named. It looks like it used to be someone's bedroom - a child's, perhaps, from how the walls have bright colors and animal print, although the colors have long since faded and the animal print is peeling. Now it looks creepy with all of the blood - and there is a lot. Did a murder happen here? Did two? Three? No matter the number, it seems like it's not enough to explain the numerous bloody handprints that claw up all four walls, reaching even the ceiling, and after a certain point below it seems like the whole room was flooded with blood, matching mid-waist on average. That's really concerning!

Aside from . . . all the blood, there is a twin sized bed - the mystery, really, is how this bed ended up not being so bloody; although there are stains against the wood that indicate handprints, the sheets themselves are mostly clean and white except for one handprint on the corner. It's also entirely too big for a child, sized for an adult; across it, there is a vanity and several full-length mirrors aligned to allow someone to look at themself in every angle. Sitting on the vanity is a white veil, flowery and sheer; hanging on one of the mirrors is one near-perfectly intact bridal dress, completely in white - except for the bloody handprint square against the chest.

You can't help looking at the veil, the dress - and feel a tightening in your chest and a flood of emotions overwhelms you briefly - jealous, ugly, and lonely. Spiteful-- fine, so unwanted were they? Then this would be the end of it. A death that would marr the happiness the other sought to obtain by abandoning it, and the letter penned at the desk would make certain everyone knew whose feet to lay blame out. A knife in the drawer ready to be buried in the wrists and soon everything would be done— none of those feelings are yours. They exist like reading a letter, a record of someone else's thoughts, someone else's life tucked away inside an envelope. You could open it again, read it until you could imagine it real, but why would you want to? But if you lose your sanity, or are damaged too far, that envelope will open and it will be read again, loud enough to drown you out.

A ring sits on the vanity, with Exael's hologram sitting backwards at the chair there facing towards you and reflecting in none of the mirrors. If you have questions and she's not busy with hosting or another unit, she'll appear here to answer them.

A readout on your phone tells you the rules and displays the sanity goal (explore rooms) and your traitor goal (bring someone to the altar and murder them, or otherwise make out with them and then kill them) as well as the item that you've been given (ring). It looks like nothing is stopping you from committing the traitor goal even while you're sane, if you wish to.

There is one exit: West. ]

[ You spill out of the elevator into a Pentagram Chamber— the elevator is gone when you look back.

It's a Pentagram Chamber. As in, it is a chamber with the markings of a pentagram - or several pentagrams, rather. One takes up the whole wall, unrecognizable runes drawn upon it in what looks like blood, with an accompanying circle. The second, matching circle sits on the ground, where a rock slab sits in the middle. Put two and two together: clearly, the ground's circle is where you put the sacrifice in, and the wall circle's where whatever you summoned comes. . . out. Probably.

There's a shovel in this room, sitting in the corner; dirt tracks from the chamber to the singular entrance and exit.

There's a fuzzy impression of something off here in the back of your mind. Like this place should look different, or maybe it even did once. Something happened here - not in this room, but in the very earth it's built on. A person was kept still there once, amidst the low hum of funeral rites. Or so you think, anyway - it's hard to be sure of even that much. You probably don't want to dwell on it any further than that; you're already feeling a little drawn to the shovel, as if it might help alleviate the ugly, helpless feelings permeating the air. If you lose your sanity, or are damaged too far, the sensation will overwhelm you.

A mask sits on the rock slab, and Exael's leans against the wall, standing apart from both pentagrams. If you have questions and she's not busy with hosting or another unit, she'll appear here to answer them.

A readout on your phone tells you the rules and displays the sanity goal (explore rooms) and your traitor goal (bury someone alive) as well as the item that you've been given (mask). It looks like nothing is stopping you from committing the traitor goal even while you're sane, if you wish to.

There is one exit: East. ]

[ You spill out of the elevator into a graveyard— the elevator is gone when you look back.

It is, predictably, spooky as fuck: cobwebs culminate to huge masses of spindly white on the iron bars that line the plot of land, as well as on the various headstones. They're unreadable by this point, text worn away by time and wind, but while many of these graves have only been exposed to forces of nature, some of them have been tampered by what could only be human hands. Several grave plots have been completely upturned, caskets open and skeletons exposed, bodies completely broken and arranged messily as if someone had manhandled them in order to look for something. The caskets give a clear idea of what that might be: there are parts missing to them, the lining and the decorative emblems and even the hinges, on some caskets. Grave robbing seems to be popular, here.

There are also just a few graves with an open coffin and no body. How . . . mysterious. . .

Not everyone who died here was given a coffin, or a grave. The sight of an empty coffin's decadent lining fills you with a sense of revulsion; you get the feeling that some people's finery came at other people's expense. Someone amidst the less fortunate once tried to bring justice - only to fail, and die a nameless, unknown death, while these people went on to one day even rot in more silk and gold. But it's just a hunch - the knowledge sits uncertainly in your head, faint and far-off. You could bring it into focus, maybe, but the vague impression of loathing and despair - well, it's probably better off left a vague impression. If you lose your sanity, or are damaged too far, though, it will overwhelm you.

A medallion sits on an intact monument and Exael's hologram balances on the edge of it, rocking back and forth and watching you. If you have questions and she's not busy with hosting or another unit, she'll appear here to answer them.

A readout on your phone tells you the rules and displays the sanity goal (explore rooms) and your traitor goal (kill someone and steal an item from them) as well as the item that you've been given (medallion). It looks like nothing is stopping you from committing the traitor goal even while you're sane, if you wish to.

There is one exit: East. ]

[ You spill out of the elevator into the kitchen— the elevator is gone when you look back.

You enter the Kitchen. It gleams, modern, chrome, and threatening. A kitchen needs no haunted house to twist to be threatening— a rack of knives tall as a child is set into a long countertop, pots and pans hang from above. There's stoves with gas and flame, a wood-fired oven and a modern one, a walk in freezer with a very prominent pad-locked— currently left open, but that could change. Inside the freezer, there is nothing but meat. Inside the refrigerator, cake. On the counter, a meat slicer guillotine and jars and jars of pickled ingredients-- hopefully ingredients.

Looking long enough at the fridge or the cupboards gives the shadow impression of a memory of someone rooting through them, looking for a few specific things. A person who hit the point of desperation right at the finish line, just a few details away, who couldn't let go just because they didn't have one or two materials and tore through hunting for makeshift replacements - things to use in place of eyes, fingers, and a heart - until they found the resolution to even use their own, all to no avail. You know this only vaguely, in some distant and uncertain corner of your mind - but you probably don't want to linger too long on the thought that you have more materials around than they did. If you lose your sanity, or are damaged too far, though, it will overwhelm you.

A book sits open on the counter, and Exael's hologram is sprawled on the edge nearby, one arm dangling off the edge of the counter and her head pillowed on her other as she looks over in your direction. If you have questions and she's not busy with hosting or another unit, she'll appear here to answer them.

A readout on your phone tells you the rules and displays the sanity goal (explore rooms) and your traitor goal (complete a partially assembled human body) as well as the item that you've been given (book). It looks like nothing is stopping you from committing the traitor goal even while you're sane, if you wish to.

There is one exit: West. ]

[ You spill out of the elevator into a room with stale air— the elevator is gone when you look back. The room is circular, and through barred windows you can see far below you the distant lights of the hotel and hospital. Nearer— the lights of a mansion below. The room is comfortable, furry bean-bag chairs, a large wide-screen television. Snacks. A singular shelf full of snack wrappers, that might have lasted someone a week, if that.

You know, with a clawing hunger in your gut, that it did not last them any longer, the person that was here before you. The door outside was deadbolted— and still is— and by the time they managed to get it splintered they were too weak to get down with the wind howling on the roof and wedging the door to the mansion from up here shut. You feel this knowledge vaguely; like something you crammed for on a test and aren't positive of it, it's tentative— you need to reach for it. You probably don't want to. If you lose your sanity, or are damaged too far, though, it will overwhelm you.

A backpack with a skull sits near the exit, and Exael's hologram floats above it, perching on her knees and looking down at you. If you have questions and she's not busy with hosting or another unit, she'll appear here to answer them.

A readout on your phone tells you the rules and displays the sanity goal (explore rooms) and your traitor goal (commit an act of cannibalism) as well as the item that you've been given (skull). It looks like nothing is stopping you from committing the traitor goal even while you're sane, if you wish to.

There is one exit: South. ]

[ You spill out of the elevator into the chapel— the elevator is gone when you look back.
Flavor text.

You enter the Chapel. Dazzling chandeliers hang from the high ceilings, the rows of pews draped with gold-embroidered cloth; the candle holders look as if they could go on the market for hundreds of dollars. Such decadence for a place of God.

At the front of the Chapel's hall there is an altar with wilted flowers on the corner of either side that crumble into fine dust to the touch. A holy book sits in the center of the altar - it's hard to read, but there's something that can barely be read: "...God did not spare angels ... but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment…"

Regardless of whether you read the holy book or not, you'll find a feeling bubbling up in your throat, a craving- not yours, not quite. Something out of your reach denied because others were too foolish, too fearful but damn them all! Really damn them all-- they stopped you last time but this time they'll be the ones on the slab and exaltation will be within your reach. It's manic, a line of mania and seething that bleeds out like someone's guts had once been spilled here like confessions from loose lips. But you're fine. Your stomach is whole, sealed, and you have a solid piece of reality between your mind and the manic echo burbling at the back of it. You could reach for it, but you'd have to try and why would you want to? But if you lose your sanity or gain too much damage, that pane between you and it will fall and it'll overwhelm you.

A holy symbol hangs from a hook near the exit, Exael's hologram crouching beneath it, her chin resting on her knees. If you have questions and she's not busy with hosting or another unit, she'll appear here to answer them.

A readout on your phone tells you the rules and displays the sanity goal (explore rooms) and your traitor goal (perform a human sacrifice to summon a demon) as well as the item that you've been given (holy item). It looks like nothing is stopping you from committing the traitor goal even while you're sane, if you wish to.

There is one exit: East. ]

[ You spill out of the elevator into a Crypt— the elevator is gone when you look back.

It's huge, just like the rest of this house is - but largely it seems to be for just one guy. One dead body. Hmm. The coffin in the middle of the room stands tall, with lights illuminating it from underneath a bevelled stone indent in the ground. Currently, the lights are a dim red, though they flicker on and off rapidly and in general are liable to cause a headache. On the walls are hieroglyphs in Egyptian style, depicting this guy's life or something. Who knows? You're not Egyptian, probably. You can't read it. What you can see is that the hieroglyphs seem to depict some sort of game, as well as a spreading darkness from one corner of the room to the last hieroglyph: a man standing triumphant while others bow before him, with rivers of red running between the standing man and the bowing men. How ominous.

The coffin seems to be slightly ajar. Check it out? Maybe there's something in there. Like, something useful, I mean.

Those indecipherable hieroglyphics resonate strangely with you, and though you can't read them you understand. Someone had done wrong, and it had to be corrected but instead injustice stood. The worst case scenario came to be. It cannot stand. It cannot stand. One more game, and it can be put right— or at least, what was wrong can be repaid in kind. But you don't understand any further. What lies beyond feels pitch dark and sweltering, a feeling that's not yours and not one that wants to be. It's inscrutable and won't reveal itself unless you break, fear, pain or overwhelming loss making it accept you in kind. Hopefully, you will stay whole and it will not have to.

A spirit board is placed on the sarcophagus, and Exael's hologram floats at eye level with it, blowing on the planchette like she's seeing if she can move it that way. If you have questions and she's not busy with hosting or another unit, she'll appear here to answer them.

A readout on your phone tells you the rules and displays the sanity goal (explore rooms) and your traitor goal (play a death game against someone and win) as well as the item that you've been given (spirit board). It looks like nothing is stopping you from committing the traitor goal even while you're sane, if you wish to.

There is one exit: North. ]

[ You spill out of the elevator into an abandoned room — the elevator is gone when you look back. Before you spreads a room empty of everything save dust. Your steps and the hems of your robes leave footprints and trails through the floor, tracking where you're the first person to be in a long time. There is only one place in the room without dust before you move through— before the wall, where broken glass litters the floor.

They once stood tall and proud there, a silver floor length mirror. A reflection kept for company, a place to scry and keep watch no matter that they couldn't be reached. But now even watching is impossible— someone was left here alone until their mind collapsed, still reaching for a person they couldn't get at, slamming their hands into it until it shattered and sliced them and left them without even that small reprieve. You feel this knowledge vaguely; like something you crammed for on a test and aren't positive of it, it's tentative— you need to reach for it. You probably don't want to. If you lose your sanity, or are damaged too far, though, it will overwhelm you.

A crystal ball sits in the middle of the glass shard pile, with Exael floating above it, cross-legged, upside down, and watching you with her twin-tails dangling. If you have questions and she's not busy with hosting or another unit, she'll appear here to answer them.

A readout on your phone tells you the rules and displays the sanity goal (explore rooms) and your traitor goal (shove someone through the looking-glass) as well as the item that you've been given (crystal ball). It looks like nothing is stopping you from committing the traitor goal even while you're sane, if you wish to.

There is one exit: East. ]

[ You spill out of the elevator onto a balcony— the elevator is gone when you look back.
Flavor text.

You enter the Balcony. It's expansive. A pool drained dry suffocates in the night air; an engine that's meant to be circulating the water instead heaves and sputters but refuses to die. Dim lights meant for an ambient glow outline the crags of an artificial waterfall, now just jagged rocks. Lounge chairs and patio furniture circle the pool, cushioned to extend an invitation— stay.

Looking to the pool fills you with a sense of dread, but more than that, a gut-wrenching fascination. Though it isn't filled with water anymore, you know - somehow, you know - that was, is, the gravesite of the last person here before you. The knowledge is a thick feeling in the back of your throat like pressure from holding your breath underwater, and maybe you are holding your breath after all. At least, you're definitely aware of how your chest rises and falls, how easily it could stop doing that, how it feels like your heart could burst from oxygen deprivation at any moment. It's a dull feeling, vague; like something you crammed for on a test and aren't positive of it, it's tentative— you need to reach for it. In other words, easy to ignore while you have your wits about you, but an almost-uncomfortable presence that threatens to overwhelm you if you lose your sanity, or if you acquire enough damage.

Besides the empty pool sits a spear, pulsing with power. Exael's hologram twines her fingers through her pigtails, twisting them absently nearby as she watches you. If you have questions and she's not busy with hosting or another unit, she'll appear here to answer them.

A readout on your phone tells you the rules and displays the sanity goal (explore rooms) and your traitor goal (drown someone) as well as the item that you've been given (spear). It looks like nothing is stopping you from committing the traitor goal even while you're sane, if you wish to.

There is one exit: North. ]