mother_of_god | Midwich Elementary School (Nightmare World)

[Monsters: Faceless children, ghost babies, a few roaches]

[Tasks: Wander around inside. The walls and floors are now made of chain link and grating, and covered with blood and similar organic goo. Chains hang from the ceilings, and in several places, strange cloaked statues are displayed in inaccessible rectangular gibbets. The exit doors in the lobby are replaced by a giant set of sharp-bladed fans- trying to get out would result in slicing and dicing.
-There's a pair of the cloaked statues inside the school office, flanking a strange door with no handle. It does, however, have a slot in the center, and a conveniently slot-sized card on the ground in front of it. This door leads to the rest of the school; all the others are jammed or blocked.
-In the first floor girls' bathroom, the sound of a child sobbing breaks out. There are no children to be found inside.
-Upon exiting that bathroom, the characters find themselves on another floor. Reentering will put them in a different bathroom. This time, the stall door opens to reveal a decayed corpse, strung up with medical equipment. "Leonard Rhine- the Monster Lurks" is written on the wall behind it in blood.
-There's a classroom with only a table full of telephones and scattered cards. One telephone may ring and lead to an NPC conversation.
-The library has shelves stocked with religious-looking books. One shelf has a book of fairy tales, open to a relevant page [which I'll put in when the time comes]. Another, more out of the way, has less-relevant but vaguely interesting info [which I'll also put in].
-Depending on how things go and player preference, there may be an NPC encounter and boss fight.]

It's the courtyard again. The snow has turned to a steady, warm rain, and there's something "off" about the whole place- the building looks more distressed, the hedges thornier. The sharp smell of burning bites the nose.

In the concrete in the center, a mysterious occult symbol has been burned.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Before she gets into hers, Jo is almost certain she hears the sound of someone crying. No, definitely sure. And it's not mixed with the moaning.

She opened the door, cautiously, as the sound of sobs got louder. "Is someone in here?"

The stall doors were kicked in, so her hands could stay on her gun and flash light, but no one was there. Right. Stickin' with creepy. She walked back out...only to find herself somewhere completely new. She took a few steps, but then remembered Mark. The Civilian-Not Civilian, which made her more likely to want to go back for him.

Jo opened the bathroom door again, thinking to try what she did and see if it would take her back. The doors are kicked in, not paying much attention, until suddenly, the stall door she kicks open, betrays a stall thats not empty.

"Fuck," Jo said, grimacing at the corpse before her. There was a decaying corpse strung up with medical equipment and on the wall behind it, smeared in blood were the words Leonard Rhine- the Monster Lurks.

The tally of people she hoped were eaten by monsters was getting bigger.

Jo shook her head, holding her gun knew her, and letting out a breath. She made herself take it all in and then headed back for the door.

Harry's standing on the other side, scratching his head.

"Jo!" He brightens. "You didn't come out, so I checked, and..." He gestures with the shotgun around the place.

"It changed on me, too." Jo nodded, shaking her head. "There's a corpse in my bathroom now. Decayed with medical equipment. Anything in yours?"

He shakes his head. "Just more monsters. Let's keep going." Only way is forward!

Or, in this case, into a classroom. Along with more of the cloaked figures chained in gibbets, there's an old, stained table. Rotary telephones and cards are scattered across its surface.

"Not like any damn classroom I've seen before."

She's eying the figures, more than the phone in case they start moving.

Which is why she jumps, turning around and almost shooting the table, when the phone rings.

"That's fucked. You want it or me?"

He wordlessly moves, lifting the receiver.

In the silence, the little girl's voice is clear even to Jo.

"Daddy? Help me! ....Daddy! Where are you?!"

And then a click and dial tone.

"CHERYL!" Harry shouts, gripping the table's edge.

"That was Cheryl's voice... I know it!"

"Going to go out on a limb and guess creepy phone don't do call back."

Jo looked across the phone. "Do you have any idea who might have wanted to take your daughter? Or why?" Beat. "Or how the hell they or she managed to call a room we just walked into?"

He stares hard at the phone.

"I'm not sure myself. But, you know..." Something dawns in his face.

"Cheryl isn't my biological daughter. I actually haven't told her yet. She probably already knows anyway, though. We found her abandoned on the side of the highway. Nobody knew where she came from. We didn't have any kids of our own, my wife was sick, and it didn't look like she was getting any better. So we took Cheryl in."

Right.

Creepy set up, now with missing girl...who doesn't originally belong to the dad looking for her.

Jo nods toward the door, and moved that way. Since the room was eerily quiet post call. "Found her where?"

"It was... when we first visited this town."

He hangs up, then strides decisively behind her. "No matter what, I have to find her! Cheryl's still my little girl."

If she had a spider-sense it would be hyperactive now.

Which doesn't show in her face.

"How long ago was that?"

She opens the next door she can find and peers in.

"It's been seven years. She was just a baby."

A large, empty room, with a few stained shelves and tables. Books lie everywhere.

Harry's radio crackles to life again as he enters.

Coincidences? Jo thinks not.

The flashlight is switched out for a knife, as she looks around the room for the source of the disturbance.

There's a squeak, and something shadowy and toddler-shaped runs forward, out from under the tables.

The squeak gets a strange face. What scary thing goes squeak?

"Over there," Jo says suddenly.

Aiming for the baby-shaped thing with her gun.

Letting off rounds that don't stop it.

Harry fires a shell into it. Through it. The blast hits the floor.

And the thing runs through his legs. Literally.

It then trips and falls over with a squeak, before getting up again and running off.

"...huh."

Jo's gaze had moved form it, to it going through Harry, to where it had fled.

"Weird baby ghosts that don't want to hurt us?" Then a look around in. "In a school library?"

She frowned walking forward, gun still raised. "I feel like I should be comforted."

Her tone obviously is not.

"I don't think anything about this place makes sense," he comments, watching the ghost go.

Then something slices his leg.

Jo, who had been nudging a book with her gun, in case anything else in this room was intangible, whirled around at his surprise.

"Damn!" He jumps away and turns, gun up.

Another faceless monster emerges from under a table, knife red.

It went almost without thinking.

The knife from her hand aimed for it's nondescript head.

"How sweet. More fodder."

He shoots and stomps, just to make sure.

"I shouldn't have let my guard down like that," he comments, checking the spreading stain on his jeans.

The radio still crackles, as the little ghost continues its wanderings. Then, it walks through a wall. The noise fades to silence again.

The silence is heavier.

"You should tourniquet it."

There's a vague motion to the cloth tight around her thigh. It's not just a crazy girl fashion statement.

Jo's turned to the shelves, looking at them. She'll retrieve her knife in a minute.

"Most of them look religious." Then. "Well, and here's some kids stuff."

"Yeah..." Um... O hay, there's a convenient bookshelf! He is so not taking his pants off right there in front of her.

The kids stuff title may catch her eye:
"the Monster Lurks," by Leonard Rhine.

The current page is part of a story:
Hearing this, the hunter armed with bow and arrow said, "I will kill the Lizard." But upon meeting his opponent, he held back, taunting, "Who's afraid of a Reptile?" At this, the furious Lizard hissed, "I'll swallow you in a single bite!" Then, the huge creature attacked, jaws open wide. This was what the man wanted. Calmly drawing his bow, he shot into the Lizards gaping mouth. Effortlessly the arrow flew, piercing the defenseless maw. And the Lizard fell down dead.

The title did catch her eye.

Same as the bathroom. Like the notes to the school.

Jo stared at it, tracing some of the lines with a finger.

"Weird fairytale of a hunters and a lizard here." Still holding it she looked over, "Anything good over there?"