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

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?"

"I don't know if you'd say 'good,' but..."

He reappears with an open book, turning so she can read the passage:

CHAPTER 3
MANIFESTATIONS OF DELUSIONS
Poltergeists are among these. Negative emotions, like fear, worry, or stress manifest into external energy with physical effects. Nightmares have, in some cases, been shown to trigger them. However, one such phenomena doesn't appear to happen to just anyone. Although it's not clear why, adolescents, especially girls, are prone to such occurrences.

"I wonder if it means anything."

Jo traded books with him. So he could see hers.

She looked about the room.

Adolescent girls. Well, she only knew the names of two young girls now. Alessa and Cheryl. The second of which would be quite younger in comparison.

Instead, she posited, closing the book. "Maybe the baby thing was one?"

"Maybe... Anyway, we'd better keep going. There's got to be some way out of this mess." He takes out a map of the school, spreading it on the table. "Let's see... we're here, so that's the second floor... I guess either the roof or the basement."

Jo considered it, then gave a bland shrug.

Walked over and pulled her knife out of the stomped faceless kid.

"We're half up already. We could check the top and then head down."

"Right." He nods.

The halls are infested with monsters, but the stairwell seems to be clear (ignoring a wheelchair and a couple of cloaked figures behind the grating), as does the roof.

"I guess we're going down, then..." He squints into the darkness before they do, disappointed that there's nothing to be seen.

"I've never seen darkness this thick before."

Jo, very specifically, doesn't say she hasn't.

Or that her skin prickles in a few places.

"Yeah. It blows. This isn't going to be any help."

She follows Harry out, with a glare at the retreating outside darkness. Beginning to get an inkling of what this is, beyond what it might be.

And not liking that idea, at all.

And then, the basement boiler room.

Which is now not so much a boiler room as a set of pipes and valves and a gated door.

"That wasn't there before..."

One way to go.

"Great place to hide something. Basement of it's evil twin."

Jo pulled on the door, to try and make it open.

It's rusty and screeching, but it does open. And then screeches shut behind them again.

The next room is octagonal and dark. In the center, a burner starts up, flames rising to engulf another cloaked figure.

In the warm light, a massive, lizardlike creature moves, turning its head toward them.

"Seems we've got a friend."

And that would be Jo now reloading her revolver.

In a movement that is attempting quick without frantic.

Edited Date: 2008-06-17 06:11 pm (UTC)

Wordlessly, Harry aims and fires.

The beast ignores the blast, continuing toward them.

Two bullets fall on the floor as she watches his bullets have no effect.

She jams a hand into her pocket for more, turning up only a few let there.
Two are jammed into the gun. And she tries the same.

Even though...she's thinking, really. It couldn't be...

Harry's in the process of reloading when the thing reaches him, butting him with its monstrous head. He goes sprawling, gun scattering across the floor.