ConteAmarula

All we do for Gold [Weird West Horror Mystery RP]

All we do for Gold

It has well been known for sometime that no one goes to the town of Fortunes End. There was a time when people making the pilgrimage was quite common, posters would appear all across the country asking for assistance with a matter and promising your weight in gold if you could help. Naturally there were few who could resist such an offer, even as news spread of people never returning there was still an abundance of adventurers and desperate people willing to roll those dice. But people learn, slowly perhaps but they do learn, and eventually there were few around who were willing to visit Fortunes End, and if there were any they were quickly dissuaded by others who knew better. But as less people made their way to the town, more and more posters would appear, all with the same plea and offer. No one was sure where the posters came from, they seemed to appear over night, and those that tried to catch the culprits hanging them swore on their lives that one second there were no posters then they blinked and the town was covered. People burned them for fuel, stuffed them into mattresses and coats for warmth, some towns would even use the backs of the posters to print newspapers. Despite the abundance of reminders of the Fortune’s End and it’s offer, the missing people and the strange never ending deluge of posters kept people heavily invested in never visiting.

Of course, desperate times make desperate people.

The world faced an economic collapse that effected every person at every level of society. No one came out unscathed, even the rich who always seemed to prevail in such times. Perhaps it was the usual foolishness of people that brought this about, perhaps Fortunes End was reaching out beyond it’s borders. The exact cause hardly mattered, when the dust settled, many people were left in dire circumstance. Homes and fortunes were lost, food was scarce, what little was available would cost most people a months worth of wages to purchase, and the only people who were managing to stay afloat in these dire times were the grave diggers.

It was in these times a few desperate people came to the conclusion that the unknown horrors of the town couldn’t be much worse than the horror story they lived everyday. With little to loose, and the promise of enough gold to start over, people from all over picked up one of the endlessly spawning posters and followed the directions to Fortune’s End.

---

This is a weird west (Weird Western) style RPG, however this is only a general style and does not stick closely to the Americanization that often comes with western style media. For those unfamiliar with weird west, it is a style that mixes the tropes/setting/visuals of western style stories with that of horror/fantasy/sci-fi. The entirety of the first campaign will take place exclusively in the fictional town of Fortune’s End, and I have deliberately not specified the country this town supposedly exists in so feel free to have your character’s origin be from where you want, however the time period of the characters and the knowledge/tools they would have access to is from as late as 1885.

There is a mystery element to this RP, which will likely require deductive/inductive reasoning, and will often require a great deal of sleuthing/snooping/speaking. Not many things will, or should, be straight forward and I encourage asking lots of questions both in game and out of game.
For those of you who aren’t super into mystery elements there will be plenty of ways to contribute/ interact with the story that will still push the plot along and answer questions. Not everyone needs to be an aspiring detective to participate.

This is a collaborative story, however I will be acting as a pseudo game-master. Mostly to keep things on track and ensure we’re all moving in the same direction, enforce some of the rules, to keep track of the mystery, and to act as a sort of administrator for things. But please do not take that as meaning you need to clear everything with me, so long as you don’t go off the rails in an unfitting direction you’re free to expand the story/setting/mystery/characters in any direction you like.

Special Rules:

Fate Points:

When you using an exclusive character you must stick to the character sheet and any limitations you (or another person if you are collaborating) has made for that character. However, everyone starts the RP with three fate points that can be spent at anytime, for any reason, that allows that character to, for a moment, go beyond what they should be normally capable of. This could be anything from making an impossible shot with your gun, to convincing someone to share information with you even though you are notoriously bad at that sort of thing. Bare in mind that you must still present a plausible scenario for what you are doing. Fate Points don’t let you fire a gun with no bullets and can’t help you convince someone to tell you about the secrets of the town if they wouldn’t plausibly know the answers.

These are meant to help and also give everyone the ability to create cool and memorable moments. Please don’t abuse these.

Points are refunded when and if we complete an arc.

Character Control:

Every player gets one main character, and one secondary character that they exclusively control and have the ability to make changes to. Even I don’t have the ability to seize control or permanently change these characters. If anyone wants to make use of your characters they must ask permission from you. Even for minor things it is better to ask the controlling character.

As I am the one running the story I get more exclusive characters than any of you but not too many or else I’ll be in a never ending storm of collaborations.

Any character that is not exclusive is free game for anyone to control and change, provided what you do doesn’t contradict already established character traits.

Character Dibs:

There is a maximum of 27 characters to be added to the town of Fortune’s End not counting the main characters, and a secondary town of sorts with room for more (though with greater restrictions). So there is plenty of space for everyone to add characters to the story.

If you ever have an idea for a character, but you’re in a place in the story where it doesn’t make sense to add them in. You can call dibs by name dropping that character in any of your posts. Once you’ve done that you can add the character to either the Exclusive Characters or the Free Characters depending on if you want exclusive control over them or not. You don’t need to fill out the whole character sheet at that time you just need to make a post with their name. You can’t call dibs on a character you haven’t named, and again, please don’t abuse this. It’s meant to make sure everyone can move the story in the direction they want. Once you do a post where the character is introduce properly, if you haven’t already, you must then go and fill out the character sheet.

Character Creation:

Everyone starts the story having just arrived in Fortune's End and made their way to the Saloon where they will be staying. The character you start with is your main character, and this character must be visibly human. They might have secrets hiding beneath their skin, but from just a visual perspective they look normal. They made their way to Fortune's End for their own personal reasons, but they knew the town had something odd about it before they set off on their journey. This main character is the first of two "exclusive" characters you can make. Your secondary character can be another person arriving in Fortune's End, a monster-person from Fortune's End itself, or someone from Fortune Found. You don't need to make your secondary character right away, but your Main Character, the one you start the story with, must have a fully filled out character sheet before anything can start.

Any exclusive characters must have a fully filled out character sheet (see “Characters” tab). You do not need to fill out the entire character sheet for free characters, and I would encourage not fully filling those sheets out just so others can add to them. When you want to add to an existing character just message the player who originally made them with your addition. If you’re adding an addition for another player, be sure to note who requested the addition at the end of what ever you put in.

There are 27 available character slots in the town of Fortune’s End and you are free to do what ever you want with them so long as they adhere to the followings three rules.

1) They are visibly a monster of some kind. You are not going to mistake anyone from Fortune’s End for a regular person.

2) They can’t leave the town.

3) No one character has the full story and knows precisely whats going on. Everyone has smalls bits of information that must come together.

There is also a secondary town of sorts called Fortune Found. This “town” has more room for characters, and can be a good source of your secondary character if you don’t want your other exclusive character to be a monster. You must keep the following in mind for these characters.

1) They have been trapped for a long time and they are trapped because they couldn’t figure things out. So they know even less than the “people” of Fortune’s End.

2) Many of them won’t enter Fortune’s End without an extremely good reason. At this point in their lives the promise of gold, or anything they don’t need to survive or thrive, is not a good reason. Currently the only ones willing to enter are a man named Quill, and an unnamed group who takes resources from the town during the day.

3) They are all loyal to each other. Hurting or pissing off one will earn the ire of all and make dealing with them in the future even harder.

Post Length:

I personally care more about post frequency than post length. If you’re too busy or aren’t up to writing, a quick paragraph to check in with your character will go a long way. I’d rather have a lot of short posts then a few long posts separated by months of inactivity. If you haven’t posted in over a month, your character will be removed in some fashion.

---

If you decide part way through this isn’t for you, please have the courtesy to shoot me a message so I can open the game back up and invite people in who want to play or try things out. Don’t just disappear and leave things in limbo for weeks or months while people wonder if you’re ever coming back.

Your main character is someone who is not from Fortune's End but someone who went there for one reason or another. This is the only real hard restriction for your main character. Your secondary exclusive character is less restricted.

There are six available slots for players, first come first serve.

I already have my First Post up if you'd like an idea of what to expect.

And that is everything! Feel free to message me if you have any questions or would like to join!

All we do for Gold [Weird West Horror Mystery RP]

@BangoSkank

Hello!

So everyone has to make their "Main Character" and that can more or less be anything so long as they are not visibly a monster. So vampires, werewolves, undead cowboys are all acceptable options. But if your character is a "monster" of sorts that counts as a power and you will need to come up with rules and limitations. Like if you pick vampire we need to be clear on the type and weaknesses and such. Gamblers with debts to demons is also acceptable, as are Lovecraftian detectives.

If you want one of your other exclusive characters to be from Fortune's End, they can be anything you want so long as they are a visible monster. Can be something established, or something made up. I already have my First Post up if you'd like an idea of what to expect monster wise.

At the moment a Native American vampire of sorts would work just fine.

All we do for Gold [Weird West Horror Mystery RP]

All we do for Gold

It has well been known for sometime that no one goes to the town of Fortunes End. There was a time when people making the pilgrimage was quite common, posters would appear all across the country asking for assistance with a matter and promising your weight in gold if you could help. Naturally there were few who could resist such an offer, even as news spread of people never returning there was still an abundance of adventurers and desperate people willing to roll those dice. But people learn, slowly perhaps but they do learn, and eventually there were few around who were willing to visit Fortunes End, and if there were any they were quickly dissuaded by others who knew better. But as less people made their way to the town, more and more posters would appear, all with the same plea and offer. No one was sure where the posters came from, they seemed to appear over night, and those that tried to catch the culprits hanging them swore on their lives that one second there were no posters then they blinked and the town was covered. People burned them for fuel, stuffed them into mattresses and coats for warmth, some towns would even use the backs of the posters to print newspapers. Despite the abundance of reminders of the Fortune’s End and it’s offer, the missing people and the strange never ending deluge of posters kept people heavily invested in never visiting.

Of course, desperate times make desperate people.

The world faced an economic collapse that effected every person at every level of society. No one came out unscathed, even the rich who always seemed to prevail in such times. Perhaps it was the usual foolishness of people that brought this about, perhaps Fortunes End was reaching out beyond it’s borders. The exact cause hardly mattered, when the dust settled, many people were left in dire circumstance. Homes and fortunes were lost, food was scarce, what little was available would cost most people a months worth of wages to purchase, and the only people who were managing to stay afloat in these dire times were the grave diggers.

It was in these times a few desperate people came to the conclusion that the unknown horrors of the town couldn’t be much worse than the horror story they lived everyday. With little to loose, and the promise of enough gold to start over, people from all over picked up one of the endlessly spawning posters and followed the directions to Fortune’s End.

---

This is a weird west (Weird Western) style RPG, however this is only a general style and does not stick closely to the Americanization that often comes with western style media. For those unfamiliar with weird west, it is a style that mixes the tropes/setting/visuals of western style stories with that of horror/fantasy/sci-fi. The entirety of the first campaign will take place exclusively in the fictional town of Fortune’s End, and I have deliberately not specified the country this town supposedly exists in so feel free to have your character’s origin be from where you want, however the time period of the characters and the knowledge/tools they would have access to is from as late as 1885.

There is a mystery element to this RP, which will likely require deductive/inductive reasoning, and will often require a great deal of sleuthing/snooping/speaking. Not many things will, or should, be straight forward and I encourage asking lots of questions both in game and out of game.
For those of you who aren’t super into mystery elements there will be plenty of ways to contribute/ interact with the story that will still push the plot along and answer questions. Not everyone needs to be an aspiring detective to participate.

This is a collaborative story, however I will be acting as a pseudo game-master. Mostly to keep things on track and ensure we’re all moving in the same direction, enforce some of the rules, to keep track of the mystery, and to act as a sort of administrator for things. But please do not take that as meaning you need to clear everything with me, so long as you don’t go off the rails in an unfitting direction you’re free to expand the story/setting/mystery/characters in any direction you like.

Special Rules:

Fate Points:

When you using an exclusive character you must stick to the character sheet and any limitations you (or another person if you are collaborating) has made for that character. However, everyone starts the RP with three fate points that can be spent at anytime, for any reason, that allows that character to, for a moment, go beyond what they should be normally capable of. This could be anything from making an impossible shot with your gun, to convincing someone to share information with you even though you are notoriously bad at that sort of thing. Bare in mind that you must still present a plausible scenario for what you are doing. Fate Points don’t let you fire a gun with no bullets and can’t help you convince someone to tell you about the secrets of the town if they wouldn’t plausibly know the answers.

These are meant to help and also give everyone the ability to create cool and memorable moments. Please don’t abuse these.

Points are refunded when and if we complete an arc.

Character Control:

Every player gets one main character, and one secondary character that they exclusively control and have the ability to make changes to. Even I don’t have the ability to seize control or permanently change these characters. If anyone wants to make use of your characters they must ask permission from you. Even for minor things it is better to ask the controlling character.

As I am the one running the story I get more exclusive characters than any of you but not too many or else I’ll be in a never ending storm of collaborations.

Any character that is not exclusive is free game for anyone to control and change, provided what you do doesn’t contradict already established character traits.

Character Dibs:

There is a maximum of 27 characters to be added to the town of Fortune’s End not counting the main characters, and a secondary town of sorts with room for more (though with greater restrictions). So there is plenty of space for everyone to add characters to the story.

If you ever have an idea for a character, but you’re in a place in the story where it doesn’t make sense to add them in. You can call dibs by name dropping that character in any of your posts. Once you’ve done that you can add the character to either the Exclusive Characters or the Free Characters depending on if you want exclusive control over them or not. You don’t need to fill out the whole character sheet at that time you just need to make a post with their name. You can’t call dibs on a character you haven’t named, and again, please don’t abuse this. It’s meant to make sure everyone can move the story in the direction they want. Once you do a post where the character is introduce properly, if you haven’t already, you must then go and fill out the character sheet.

Character Creation:

Everyone starts the story having just arrived in Fortune's End and made their way to the Saloon where they will be staying. The character you start with is your main character, and this character must be visibly human. They might have secrets hiding beneath their skin, but from just a visual perspective they look normal. They made their way to Fortune's End for their own personal reasons, but they knew the town had something odd about it before they set off on their journey. This main character is the first of two "exclusive" characters you can make. Your secondary character can be another person arriving in Fortune's End, a monster-person from Fortune's End itself, or someone from Fortune Found. You don't need to make your secondary character right away, but your Main Character, the one you start the story with, must have a fully filled out character sheet before anything can start.

Any exclusive characters must have a fully filled out character sheet (see “Characters” tab). You do not need to fill out the entire character sheet for free characters, and I would encourage not fully filling those sheets out just so others can add to them. When you want to add to an existing character just message the player who originally made them with your addition. If you’re adding an addition for another player, be sure to note who requested the addition at the end of what ever you put in.

There are 27 available character slots in the town of Fortune’s End and you are free to do what ever you want with them so long as they adhere to the followings three rules.

1) They are visibly a monster of some kind. You are not going to mistake anyone from Fortune’s End for a regular person.

2) They can’t leave the town.

3) No one character has the full story and knows precisely whats going on. Everyone has smalls bits of information that must come together.

There is also a secondary town of sorts called Fortune Found. This “town” has more room for characters, and can be a good source of your secondary character if you don’t want your other exclusive character to be a monster. You must keep the following in mind for these characters.

1) They have been trapped for a long time and they are trapped because they couldn’t figure things out. So they know even less than the “people” of Fortune’s End.

2) Many of them won’t enter Fortune’s End without an extremely good reason. At this point in their lives the promise of gold, or anything they don’t need to survive or thrive, is not a good reason. Currently the only ones willing to enter are a man named Quill, and an unnamed group who takes resources from the town during the day.

3) They are all loyal to each other. Hurting or pissing off one will earn the ire of all and make dealing with them in the future even harder.

Post Length:

I personally care more about post frequency than post length. If you’re too busy or aren’t up to writing, a quick paragraph to check in with your character will go a long way. I’d rather have a lot of short posts then a few long posts separated by months of inactivity. If you haven’t posted in over a month, your character will be removed in some fashion.

---

If you decide part way through this isn’t for you, please have the courtesy to shoot me a message so I can open the game back up and invite people in who want to play or try things out. Don’t just disappear and leave things in limbo for weeks or months while people wonder if you’re ever coming back.

Your main character is someone who is not from Fortune's End but someone who went there for one reason or another. This is the only real hard restriction for your main character. Your secondary exclusive character is less restricted.

There are six available slots for players, first come first serve.

I already have my First Post up if you'd like an idea of what to expect.

And that is everything! Feel free to message me if you have any questions or would like to join!

All We Do for Gold

---

Character Roster

When you make a character, at the top of the character sheet before the name please put [EXL] if the character is exclusive or [FREE] if it is a free to use character. This will help everyone, and myself, out a lot. Thanks.

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Exclusive Characters

- This section is for characters that are only controlled by one player and you must collaborate with them or seek permission to use these characters.

Astrid Ava Helgadóttir - Kapuchu
Jane Adriana Guerrero - geminironin
Céleste Madeleine Rousseau - ConteAmarula
Dylan B. Pierce - Kidgoat
Benjamin Lloyd Giffard - divinedisease
Vergil Hawthorne - Theyra

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Free Characters

- This section is for characters that can be used by anyone without permission.

Blood-jab Joe - Kidgoat

All We Do for Gold

Character Sheet

Title: (If applicable)
Name: (Full)
Alias:
Age:
Gender:
Blood Type:

Has your character killed?: (A simple yes or no will suffice but feel free to go into detail)

Characters Appearance: (Describe your character in as much detail as you like and/or provide a picture.)

Notable Skills: (What skill set makes your character stand out? Are they a gunslinger, a rogue, a mathematician or a philosopher? You can have as many as you like, but please don’t go too crazy, and keep to big character defining skill sets. We don’t need to know your character can sew and bake unless that stuff is integral to your character.)

Special Knowledge: (What things have your character studied that might set them apart from others? Do they have knowledge of technology from other worlds? Do they know the lore of long dead gods? Or are they simply knowledgeable about physics and regular technology? No need to feel obligated to fill out this section, some characters are more fun when we’re experiencing them gaining their special knowledge. Oh and being able to do magic, doesn’t mean you know anything about it. If you do fill it out, please stick to general topics such as those listed above, and not things like "The Ghosts Lions of Sacre Mento")

Powers: (As this is weirdwest it is possible for people to posses magical or psychic powers. Powers in this setting tend to be simple. No one is walking around as a 20th level wizard with metamagic. You can have multiple powers or even be a spellcaster with a roster of spells, but keep in mind not to go to big with it. You can discuss with me if you need help, but I would encourage using Sanderson’s laws of magic to come up with a good power. stormlightarchive.fandom.com/wiki/San…)

Characters Personality: (Who are they, what are their values, how do they typically handle problems, are they hot tempered? Cool headed? Nervous? What ever you describe here you must stick with so make sure you create someone you’ll enjoy playing even if playing them accurately puts them in a bad spot)

Motivations: (Your character set out to Fortune’s End with a purpose. What is it? Why? Is it the economic state of the world or something else?)

Personal Effects: (What did your character bring with them? Do be specific, but you can summarize or group certain things together. For instance if they brought a tool-kit you don’t need to list every tool, but instead list the kind of tool kit. A gunsmiths? A carpenters? A Scientists? They will have only brought with them what they could carry for a long journey. You don’t need to worry about food)

Extra Information: (Put here anything that isn’t covered by the other sections that you want us to know about your character)

You are allowed to have character secrets if it is stuff you wish to spring later, however you must private message me with those details so they are on record at least somewhere.

When making your character please don’t make a character who is unphased by everything. No matter what a person has gone through there are some things that will put white in their hair. A horror setting is no fun if the characters can never be horrified or even slightly disturbed.

All We Do for Gold

You set off on your journey to Fortune’s End, packing what little you could scrounge up; perhaps friends or family gave you some of what they had to help you, hopeful you would bring a bounty home; perhaps you acquired your supplies by less then scrupulous means. Whatever the case, you set off, some of you finding yourselves close to the town sooner than expected, even when you weren’t sure you were going the right way. As though the mere desire to be in the town carried you there. The road leading in is well maintained, though bares no signs of recent use. After an hour of walking in the woods you come across a line in the ground, gouged out of the earth. You kick some dirt into the line expecting it to fill but the dirt simply falls deeper into what you now realize to be a crack. You peer into the woods, first on your left, then your right. The crack stretches past the road into the forest, cutting through ground, but also splitting stones, and stumps, and roots, and the occasional tree. Anything the crack touched had been split. The sight was ominous to say the very least, but the horrors of back home were more than enough to propel you over the line and continue on.

The moment you step over the line you suddenly find yourself somewhere new. Before you is a town unlike anything you’ve ever seen, a chaotic cacophony of buildings piled on top of each other, each trying to take up the space of the other. They stretched far up into the sky, with bridges and ladders and rope creating a tangled web of architecture that blocked the light of the sun. Crooked in all ways it could manage, and not looking the least bit stable, the whole place felt as though it was leaning on itself to stay upright. You look behind you, the road stretches on far into the distance, no sign of the crack. You turn back to the buildings and examine them closer, a strange uncanny feeling squirms it’s way into your brain. Each building was made up of numerous planks, and the occasional log, but they all had the exact same windows right down to having the same crack on the same pane. Now and again you’d spot part of a word on a plank, fancy debossed lettering like one would see on a sign. A few nearby spots where the entirety of the sign could be seen revealed what was written. “Welcome to Fortune’s End”, you can even spot a wall that appeared to have a hole covered up with nothing but these signs.

You look up, finally noticing something directly above your head. Another sign. You step back a few paces to read it from a proper angle. The same sign was once again used but this time was altered to say “Welcome to Fortune Found” the s was crudely gouged away and the word “found” was made of various broken pieces of wood nailed onto the sign and painted red in stark contrast to the unpainted nature of the rest of the sign.

A raspy grunt catches your attention and you quickly look to the source of the sound, ready for some kind of attack. An old man is making his way down the steps of one of the crooked buildings, having emerged from a door that initially looked like just part of a wall. When his feet touch ground he makes his way over with more speed and gusto then would have been expected of such an old and haggard looking person. He glares at you with tired eyes, one of which he seems to be struggling to hold open for some reason.

“I see another idiot made their way here, I sure hope you had a damn good reason...” the man didn’t sound mad or disappointed, his voice carried the weight of someone who had long ago accepted what the world was going to throw at them. You like to think you indeed had a good reason to enter the town but before you can say anything the man holds up his hand. “I’m just here to do my job. I long since stopped caring about pleasantries... come with me, you need to meet the mayor.”

You hesitate, contemplating if it wise to follow. The old man keeps walking; you’re unsure if he noticed you weren’t following, but doubted he would have stopped even if he had. With little else to do, and a strange warped town not being as bad as the things your imagination had conjured up you take off after the old man.

The light from the sun slowly faded to a moody glow, with the majority of helpful light coming from an abundance of lanterns. You are lead through the strange town on a relatively straight path. You catch the occasional glimpse of a person walking around above you across one of the bridges, or make eye contact with someone starring out a familiar window. No one seems to be surprised or to care about your appearance. You spot more examples of the sign being used to build or repair parts of the homes, it felt natural to see them as homes despite nothing about any of the warped buildings appearing very homey.

You aren’t walking for long before you exit the area of the buildings and find yourself in a bright clearing, at the centre of which is a small, normal looking town, more along the lines of what you had been expecting. The cacophonous buildings formed a ring all the way around this central town, leaving a 50 meter gap between of nothing. High in the sky sat the sun, as bright as it could be, without a cloud in sight. The moment you enter the clearing it becomes unbearably hot and you almost instantly begin to sweat.

Unsurprisingly the old man was not slowed or deterred by the odd change, or the sudden heat, and passed under a sign on his way into the smaller town. The sign was familiar, you’ve seen it several dozen times now. “Welcome to Fortunes End”. You pick up the pace to catch up with the old man. On your way into town you can’t help but take notice of how the heat had ravaged the land. There wasn’t a blade of grass to be seen, every post that dotted the area was split and cracking, and even the dirt seemed unnaturally dry.

By the time you make it into the town proper you are drenched with your own sweat and in dire need of something to drink. You look around in search of a saloon or other obvious place one might get a drink. Fortune’s End is comprised of twenty or so different buildings all located around a central town hall, standard for towns once upon a time. The whole place looked fairly normal and unassuming, it was by all accounts a regular mid sized town. You do spot a Saloon, however the old man is making his way towards the hall. Out front of which you can see there is someone sitting in a chair directly in the sun. Given your current state you can’t help but feel that must be extremely uncomfortable for whoever they were. When you get a bit closer you can hear the sounds of hammers and saws and see that there are people who appear to be dismantling the town hall very carefully, making sure not to destroy anything as they do so. You spot a familiar cracked window.

Your attention on the building doesn’t last long as the old man leads you straight to the person in the chair. Though person might be the wrong word as they were clearly a mummified corpse wearing the stereotypical finery of the most pompous of pompous mayors. Gold buttons, gold cuff-links, and gold rings adorned the body.

“This here is the mayor” the old man clarifies. “His name is Finton and he’ll be explaining things to you, ain’t that right Finny.” The corpse begins to move, raising it’s eyeless head, jaw slack, revealing a dried maw on the creature.

“Right you are Quill, right. You. Are.” The voice clearly came from the mummy, it useless jaw wiggled and flapped as it spoke. It’s manner of speaking was slow and deliberate, it’s voice sounding akin to if dust could speak. The so called mayor let out a raspy cough and continued, “Welcome to. Fortune’s End. The town. Where you ca-” what ever clearly planned speech the creature was about to say is cut off by Quill.

“Spare me the blabber you dehydrated sack of bones and just get to the main bit.”

The mummified mayor slowly raised a pointed finger. “Ah, but surely. This fine. Specimen would wish. To hear about the town.”

“Trust me, they don’t give a god damn about the town. We all know why they’re here so just get to it so I can go home.”

The mayor’s raised hand slowly lowered “As you. Wish.” The mayor took a deep haggard breath, “You have. Answered my dire plea for help. I assume?” You nod and show the poster, though it felt odd and unnatural to converse with a speaking corpse.“Splendid. Perhaps you. Will be the hero we need.” Quill kicks the mayor’s chair in an attempt to get him to hurry up his ramble. The mayor presses on, “We, of this town, were cursed. I recall. Not when, nor why. Nor who, nor. How. But I know we are cursed. For what else. Would you call such an existence. You must find. The source of our curse, and, if possible, bring it to an end. As payment. Your weight. In gold shall be awarded. We of Fortune’s End. Hardly need it now.” The mayor, suddenly stops talking and lowers his head back to his chest. You wish to press for questions but are stopped by Quill who spits on the corpse. The spittle hits the dead mans skin with a feint but audible hiss and almost instantly evaporates in the heat.

“Not a god damn useful thing said, ever. Unhelpful bastard.” He spits again, with much the same result, before noticing your expression. “Ask your questions tomorrow, I got other things t’do then sit here and listen to the same waste of time prattle, now come on. New arrivals stay in the saloon.” Quill walks off towards the fairly typical looking saloon. You are grateful for the sudden development as the potential promise of a drink arises.

Quill pushes past the saloon doors which surprisingly don’t creak despite your expectancy they do so, and flap back and forth with the vigour that all freshly made saloon doors should. You follow in, still baffled by the never ending barrage of strangeness you are being forced to accept. The barrage does not end; as you enter the saloon you are assaulted by the fresh smell of wood stain and paint, neither of which is as off putting as the grotesque malformed thing on the far side of the saloon existing behind the counter where one would rent a room for the night. You pause just in the entry way, your need for a drink quickly forgotten.

“Good evening Fredric.” Quill addressed the creature as he made his way across the room, wearing what one might call an attempt at a friendly face. You wonder why this creature warrants more humanity from the man than yourself.

“Well hello there Quill, been some time. Evening to you.” The voice that came out of the malformity was that of a tired old man with a deep American southern drawl. The pair sparks up a conversation comprised of an unusual level of pleasantries given the horror that filled the room. With only a small hint of hesitation you make your way closer, though as you move farther in away from the fresh air entering through the hanging doors the odour of the place becomes even less bearable. Of course bad smells were hardly the most pressing concern.

The creature behind the counter was an uncomfortable combination of wood and flesh. Its body melded with the counter, and the walls, and the floor, and the ceiling. The grain of the wood flowed into and over it’s bulbous form and warped and deformed as the creature seemed to breath. It’s face was all that was left of it’s head, it’s features stretching out unpleasantly as they tried to go with the flow of the wood and the grain. The creature wore a set of spectacles that it’s wooden body seemed to grow over and hold in place. It had no legs, but still possessed arms; though one was strangely long and gangly like a decrepit branch from a witches tree, and the other was fused into the rest of the body while still holding onto an extravagant cane with a golden handle. The creature, Fredric, awkwardly held it’s free arm away from it’s body, a series of ropes from the ceiling seemed to assist with this. Obviously he was trying to avoid the fate of his other arm. The cubbies along the wall that were normally there to hold onto letters for guests of the saloon were part of the creatures body, creating an uncomfortable holed pattern along one side. To add to the holy nightmare the thing’s entire body was covered in small termite holes, you can tell they’re termites as you can see them skittering over the things body going from hole to hole, and the occasional mite falls out of it’s mouth as it speaks or climbs out from behind an eye.

“Well I’ll leave it t’you Fredric. Im off.” Quill waved to Fredric, who waved back with his good hand, and left the saloon paying you no mind. Fredric turned it’s attention to you. When he spoke his voice had the sad tinge of someone in great pain but who had come to accept it.

“Welcome to the town stranger, it’s nice to meet you, even if under less than ideal conditions.” He smiles at you with a big toothy smile revealing even his teeth are also warped. Several termites crawl out from the corners of his smile when he does this. You worry about the condition of the rest of the building given the apparent infestation, but a quick look around reveals the termites aren’t going anywhere beyond the creature. If the thing noticed you looking it didn’t say anything. “It’s pretty late, you’ll be wanting to get to bed.” with its long hand it reaches into one of the cubbies on it’s body and produces a key, which he hand’s to you. Part of you doesn’t want to take anything from the creature, but futility quickly wins out and you accept the key. As you do you drop it from surprise as a gunshot rings out. You scramble and pick up the key. Fredric, the thing, chuckles. “You’ll be wanting to get used to that. Clock tower doesn’t work so old Thomas fires off a shot every hour on the hour, all day.” The thing waits a moment to see if you will say anything, but you don’t. There are too many things to say, too many questions, too many obscenities to scream. The thing continues once it realizes you aren’t going to add anything. “Between the heat, the constant sun, and the gun shots most new comers have a hard time sleeping. You can dull some of the sound and block out the light by pinning up the thicker blankets; with the heat most don’t need or want them anyway. Complimentary nails and hammer can be found in your room for just that.” the thing lets out a long tired sigh. “It’s pretty late, you should get to bed. Head on up and find the room that matches your key. There is only 6 so it shouldn’t be to difficult for you. There will be plenty of time for you to unravel whats going on tomorrow.” He closes his eyes. The urge to rouse the thing and bombard it with questions is strong, but you decide against it all the same. It could, or rather would have, to wait for tomorrow.

With little else to do you head to your room. As the thing, Fredric, had said the room was hot and brightly lit from the sun high in the sky. Normally you’d say the position of the sun meant it was freshly noon, but you had been walking long enough to expect the sun to be much lower in the sky, and your own tiredness did make you wonder how late it actually was. With little else to do you settle into your room for the evening and eat some of the food you had brought with you as none had been offered. You also finish off the last of the water in your canteen which you were surprised but happy to find It wasn’t much left but still helped a great deal. While you ate you contemplated what you had seen and heard so far. Some kind of curse was affecting the town, obvious even if you had not been directly told, but other than that there was little else to go on. To earn your pay you would need to uncover much and somehow undo a curse that by the looks of the secondary town built around Fortune’s End, many many people had yet to solve.

Will you be the one to free the town?

All We Do for Gold

All we do for Gold

It has well been known for sometime that no one goes to the town of Fortunes End. There was a time when people making the pilgrimage was quite common, posters would appear all across the country asking for assistance with a matter and promising your weight in gold if you could help. Naturally there were few who could resist such an offer, even as news spread of people never returning there was still an abundance of adventurers and desperate people willing to roll those dice. But people learn, slowly perhaps but they do learn, and eventually there were few around who were willing to visit Fortunes End, and if there were any they were quickly dissuaded by others who knew better. But as less people made their way to the town, more and more posters would appear, all with the same plea and offer. No one was sure where the posters came from, they seemed to appear over night, and those that tried to catch the culprits hanging them swore on their lives that one second there were no posters then they blinked and the town was covered. People burned them for fuel, stuffed them into mattresses and coats for warmth, some towns would even use the backs of the posters to print newspapers. Despite the abundance of reminders of the Fortune’s End and it’s offer, the missing people and the strange never ending deluge of posters kept people heavily invested in never visiting.

Of course, desperate times make desperate people.

The world faced an economic collapse that effected every person at every level of society. No one came out unscathed, even the rich who always seemed to prevail in such times. Perhaps it was the usual foolishness of people that brought this about, perhaps Fortunes End was reaching out beyond it’s borders. The exact cause hardly mattered, when the dust settled, many people were left in dire circumstance. Homes and fortunes were lost, food was scarce, what little was available would cost most people a months worth of wages to purchase, and the only people who were managing to stay afloat in these dire times were the grave diggers.

It was in these times a few desperate people came to the conclusion that the unknown horrors of the town couldn’t be much worse than the horror story they lived everyday. With little to loose, and the promise of enough gold to start over, people from all over picked up one of the endlessly spawning posters and followed the directions to Fortune’s End.

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This is a weird west (Weird Western) style RPG, however this is only a general style and does not stick closely to the Americanization that often comes with western style media. For those unfamiliar with weird west, it is a style that mixes the tropes/setting/visuals of western style stories with that of horror/fantasy/sci-fi. The entirety of the first campaign will take place exclusively in the fictional town of Fortune’s End, and I have deliberately not specified the country this town supposedly exists in so feel free to have your character’s origin be from where you want, however the time period of the characters and the knowledge/tools they would have access to is from as late as 1885.

There is a mystery element to this RP, which will likely require deductive/inductive reasoning, and will often require a great deal of sleuthing/snooping/speaking. Not many things will, or should, be straight forward and I encourage asking lots of questions both in game and out of game.
For those of you who aren’t super into mystery elements there will be plenty of ways to contribute/ interact with the story that will still push the plot along and answer questions. Not everyone needs to be an aspiring detective to participate.

This is a collaborative story, however I will be acting as a pseudo game-master. Mostly to keep things on track and ensure we’re all moving in the same direction, enforce some of the rules, to keep track of the mystery, and to act as a sort of administrator for things. But please do not take that as meaning you need to clear everything with me, so long as you don’t go off the rails in an unfitting direction you’re free to expand the story/setting/mystery/characters in any direction you like.

Special Rules:

Fate Points:

When you using an exclusive character you must stick to the character sheet and any limitations you (or another person if you are collaborating) has made for that character. However, everyone starts the RP with three fate points that can be spent at anytime, for any reason, that allows that character to, for a moment, go beyond what they should be normally capable of. This could be anything from making an impossible shot with your gun, to convincing someone to share information with you even though you are notoriously bad at that sort of thing. Bare in mind that you must still present a plausible scenario for what you are doing. Fate Points don’t let you fire a gun with no bullets and can’t help you convince someone to tell you about the secrets of the town if they wouldn’t plausibly know the answers.

These are meant to help and also give everyone the ability to create cool and memorable moments. Please don’t abuse these.

Points are refunded when and if we complete an arc.

Character Control:

Every player gets one main character, and one secondary character that they exclusively control and have the ability to make changes to. Even I don’t have the ability to seize control or permanently change these characters. If anyone wants to make use of your characters they must ask permission from you. Even for minor things it is better to ask the controlling character.

As I am the one running the story I get more exclusive characters than any of you but not too many or else I’ll be in a never ending storm of collaborations.

Any character that is not exclusive is free game for anyone to control and change, provided what you do doesn’t contradict already established character traits.

Character Dibs:

There is a maximum of 27 characters to be added to the town of Fortune’s End not counting the main characters, and a secondary town of sorts with room for more (though with greater restrictions). So there is plenty of space for everyone to add characters to the story.

If you ever have an idea for a character, but you’re in a place in the story where it doesn’t make sense to add them in. You can call dibs by name dropping that character in any of your posts. Once you’ve done that you can add the character to either the Exclusive Characters or the Free Characters depending on if you want exclusive control over them or not. You don’t need to fill out the whole character sheet at that time you just need to make a post with their name. You can’t call dibs on a character you haven’t named, and again, please don’t abuse this. It’s meant to make sure everyone can move the story in the direction they want. Once you do a post where the character is introduce properly, if you haven’t already, you must then go and fill out the character sheet.

Character Creation:

Any exclusive characters must have a fully filled out character sheet (see “Characters” tab). You do not need to fill out the entire character sheet for free characters, and I would encourage not fully filling those sheets out just so others can add to them. When you want to add to an existing character just message the player who originally made them with your addition. If you’re adding an addition for another player, be sure to note who requested the addition at the end of what ever you put in.

There are 27 available character slots in the town of Fortune’s End and you are free to do what ever you want with them so long as they adhere to the followings three rules.

1) They are visibly a monster of some kind. You are not going to mistake anyone from Fortune’s End for a regular person.

2) They can’t leave the town.

3) No one character has the full story and knows precisely whats going on. Everyone has smalls bits of information that must come together.

There is also a secondary town of sorts called Fortune Found. This “town” has more room for characters, and can be a good source of your secondary character if you don’t want your other exclusive character to be a monster. You must keep the following in mind for these characters.

1) They have been trapped for a long time and they are trapped because they couldn’t figure things out. So they know even less than the “people” of Fortune’s End.

2) Many of them won’t enter Fortune’s End without an extremely good reason. At this point in their lives the promise of gold, or anything they don’t need to survive or thrive, is not a good reason. Currently the only ones willing to enter are a man named Quill, and an unnamed group who takes resources from the town during the day.

3) They are all loyal to each other. Hurting or pissing off one will earn the ire of all and make dealing with them in the future even harder.

Post Length:

I personally care more about post frequency than post length. If you’re too busy or aren’t up to writing, a quick paragraph to check in with your character will go a long way. I’d rather have a lot of short posts then a few long posts separated by months of inactivity. If you haven’t posted in over a month, your character will be removed in some fashion.

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If you decide part way through this isn’t for you, please have the courtesy to shoot me a message so I can open the game back up and invite people in who want to play or try things out. Don’t just disappear and leave things in limbo for weeks or months while people wonder if you’re ever coming back.

Your main character is someone who is not from Fortune's End but someone who went there for one reason or another. This is the only real hard restriction for your main character. Your secondary exclusive character is less restricted.

There are six available slots for players, first come first serve.

And that is everything! Feel free to message me if you have any questions or would like to join!

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

Optional Reading Concluded

A sword was violently jiggled around in an attempt to force the blade between a door and its' frame. Lillian had given up on trying to find the proper tools for the job and had become quite reasonably desperate to get her tools back. The sword was however proving ineffective and the distressed woman had had enough at that point.

"To hell with this, time to wreck the gaff." With a quick look to the door of the ballroom to ensure no one was sneaking up behind her, she took a step back, lifted a booted foot, and kicked at the door near the latch with all her might. The door burst open as the small latch gave way and came partially off it's hinges. The door slammed into the oil lantern within, breaking it, and spilling a lanterns worth of oil all over her discarded clothes. It hardly mattered, there was no time to change anyway, she simply wanted her tools.

Another glance to the door, then Lillian reached past the broken door and grabbed her kit. She quickly belted it on and fetched one of her specimen pistols. Once armed with a sword and gun she was feeling more confident, more so after she switched the pistol to her dominant hand and held the sword in her off hand. A swordsman she was not, but she had plenty of experience with her special weapon.

There was no time to search the whole house, and less time to fetch the authorities. Or rather she did not know how much time she did or did not have so haste was default. For all she knew she was already too late, but that wasn't about to stop her. She needed to figure out where in the house the killers could have gone.

Taking a deep breath Lillian filtered all the facts she knew about the case through her head. The only piece of information she knew for certain, is the killers had a heavy chest that most likely would have been very difficult to move. Meaning they would have dragged it quite a bit, and had to put it down for rests. With the weight of the chest both of those likelyhoods meant there would be evidence if she simply looked for it.

Entering the hall once more she better took in her surroundings to see what she had to work with. The floor was carpeted, at least on the second story, and the stairs down where halfway between the ballroom and the master bedroom. Lillian walked to the stairs, stopping a few meters from it, and bent low to the ground. She looked down towards the master bedroom, and tilted her head back and forth until she saw what she had expected to see. Very subtle drag marks in the carpet left behind when the killers forced the fibers of the carpeted floor to all go in one direction. It was difficult to see unless you were looking for it, but once you did it was extremely noticeable, especially when compared to the other end of the hall which had undisturbed carpet.

The drag marks stopped at the stairs, and a quick inspection of a few of the steps revealed fresh gouges and scrapes. The stairs lead right into the foyer, however it was clear the killers had not used it -not that Lillian expected they would-. The first floor was not carpeted, however it was clear which direction the murderers had gone as the fools had smashed the chest into an archway and took a sizeable chunk out. Lillian even spotted the piece of wood that had been removed underneath a table.

She was able to follow more subtle clues until she found herself in the kitchen where the trail unfortunately went cold. The floor was tiled, so no scratches or drag-marks to follow, and the kitchen in any household was always a high traffic area so it was difficult to spot any fresh marks in a sea of worn-wood, scratches, gouges, and stains.

There were multiple directions to go, though she was able to narrow down two as one was where she had just entered from, and the other was a door that lead outside and was quite clearly still secured up tight. That left three directions, none of which made much sense for the killers to go. Down to the cellar, into the dinning room, or into a service hall for the staff.

A nagging sensation at the back of her mind was drawing her to the cellar. She appalled operating on instinct however and so focused her mind on reasons why the cellar made sense. She quickly had an idea as to why, and put her sword down. Fishing on her her journals out of a pouch she placed it on the counter and flipped through it with one hand till she found a map she had been working on that detailed the sewers and underground water ways of the city. It was incomplete, but there was enough done to show there was in fact at least one waterway that went under the manor. It was not unlikely to think there might be an entrance to that path via the cellar. The book also had several notes, one of extreme interest was a reminder she had written for herself that certain paths could only be explored at low tide when the tunnels were empty. A quick look at a clock on the wall revealed that the tide would have gone out enough that any one who didn't have an issue getting their knees wet could traverse the tunnels safely.

Lillian snapped the book shut, stuffed it into a pouch, fetched her sword, and took off down into the cellar.

As far as cellars went it was fairly normal for the size of the manor and the wealth of its deceased owner. Something that immediately stuck out was a tun barrel in the corner that took up far too much room. There was no way such a barrel could have been carried down, and another quick look around revealed no exits to the outside to allow for easy delivery of an healthy amount of drink.

Lillian walked up to the barrel, placed an ear against it, and gave a gentle tap. She was unsurprised to hear a hollow thud. Lillian walked to the front of the barrel, leaned her sword against the wall, and grabbed hold of the spigot; turning it like a door knob. There was an audible click, and she found she could pull the front open like a door. She listened a moment and heard the voices of several men echoing from much farther away than one would expect given the size of the barrel. She opened it enough to see inside and found an empty interior, and a large opening in the brick foundation that lead to a tunnel.

Lillian retrieved her sword and slowly venture in towards the voices.

The tunnel she ventured down smelled of damp, and the brick work was made of strange haphazard pieces. As far as Lillian could tell the tunnel was formed using left over bricks from the construction of the manor. The steps that lead downward were formed straight out of a hard clay, with large obvious gouges from what ever tool was used for form it, and a noticeable trail of deformed clay obviously compressed by the chest being dragged down the stairs.

The voices grew louder to the point Lillian was confident whoever it was was just at the bottom. Her breathing picked up, and the grip on her weapons tightened. She was armed, and she had the element of surprise, the only thing to worry about was whether or not she would be able to potentially kill another human being, even if they were a murderer. Part of her screamed no at the thought, but the more logical side of her made it clear that if she was unwilling to use force, then she might as well be marching to her grave.

Deep breath.

Lillian rushed down the last few steps, weapons at the ready. "Don't move!" she screamed as she entered into the halo of lantern light that illuminated three men and a large cedar chest atop a worn carpet. All three men were suitably surprised, with one who had been sitting on the chest falling over off it. Of the trio, she recognized but one, and it was the face of the man she had expected to find behind everything. It was the neighbor whose house she had broken into a few weeks prior, who had a secret room for practicing the occult, and a bevy of stolen art works. He was also invited to the part, and one of the few people who would have even known about it.

Lillian slowly stepped to the side, keeping her weapons poised to strike, and trying to position herself so there was no easy way for any of the three to get the jump on her. "Now, all three of you are going to march back up those steps, o-one of you will tie the other two to some chairs, and then I will tie you to a chair. At that point I will be fetching the authorities." The slight tremble in her voice gave her away and when of the men reached for a pistol that was resting atop the chest. Lillian reacted quickly and fired her pistol, launching a storm of small pins into the man's hand. The human pin cushion screamed out in pain and managed a series of curse words and gender specific insults. Lillian ignored him and dropped the now empty gun so she could grab her next one, but as she let go her neighbor leapt forwards, spurred to action with the misguided confidence of someone who over estimated their odds. Trained swordsman or not, it took very little to stave off an unarmed foe with a blade; a quick flick of her wrist introduced a large slash to her attackers face and drove him back. "Would anyone else like to try that? Or has my tied to a chair plan perhaps become more appealing?" Her words dripped with self-assurance, but it was a well played farce; Lillian was terrified and desperately hoping none of the men could see her struggling to pull out her next pistol. When her hand finally managed to get itself around the grip of her pistol she attempted to yank it out of her pouch quickly, but it became snagged on a strap. Her neighbor noticed this and took the opportunity to turn and run; his fallen comrade made for his pistol again but with his uninjured hand while the remaining man stood stunned, looking at the fleeing neighbor as if he wasn't sure if he should run too.

Just as the pin cushion of a man got his hand on his piece Lillian managed to get her own pistol free and immediately fired a shot at the man's hand. Her weapon now empty the only other standing man took off down the tunnel after the neighbor. Lillian dropped her pistol and rushed over to the chest, grabbing the one that laid on top and took off after the fleeing pair, ignoring the blubbering fool on the ground with both hands full of pins. She had managed to maintain control of the situation without having to kill anyone, which pleased her, but the situation had changed drastically and Lillian was convinced her only options then were to kill or allow the pair to escape. Neither seemed like good options, and the surprising weight of a proper pistol in her hand felt very fitting considering the seriousness of the situation.

Even in more reasonable boots, Lillian was having a great amount of troubles keeping up with the fleeing men and they quickly fell out of her line of sight. There was barely any light so far into the tunnel, and Lillian felt like she should give up the chase. Just as she slowed to a stop however she hear a strange sound; like something being pulled out of a wall followed, by a strangled gasp, and a large thud. A moment later there was a scream of surprise and another large thud. Just up ahead was an opening and a short staircase that lead into the drain tunnel proper. At the bottom of the stairs was her neighbor and his thug, both in a crumpled mess, and both very unconscious. She carefully made her way down the steps and made a small hop to get over both bodies quickly. She then gave each a few jabs in the side with her foot, and even gave a small quick to the nether regions of her neighbor. When there was no reaction of any kind she felt satisfied enough they were out cold to put down her weapons. A short length of rope was fetched from one of her pouches and cut in half so she could hog tie the pair, an action which gave her an odd sensation of nostalgia for the simple days of being a farmers daughter in Ireland.

It wasn't quite as dark in the tunnel where she was as light from the outside was reflecting it's way down provided just enough illumination for her to see the glistening wounds on each of the men's heads. She quickly checked the pair's pulses to ensure they were simply unconscious, which they were, before she returned to the stairs to figure out what happened. She didn't need much light to spot a rusty lantern hanging from another rust lantern, connected by a length of wire. It was clear the dangling lantern used to be attached to the wall on the other side of the opening, easily verified by the holes in the wall for mounting nails. The wire would have been roughly neck height for the average man, which would have given anyone exiting into the tunnel a nasty surprise. The other trap was a bit harder to find in the low light, but Lillian did eventually find a second length of wire at the bottom of the stairs attached to either side a set of rails. The wire was in two pieces, broken when one of the fleeing men's ankles got caught on it. While inspecting the tripping hazard, Lillian was surprised to find a sapphire necklace on the ground just under the pair of rusting lanterns. She picked it up and noticed immediately something was written on it, but there wasn't quite enough light to read it.

After double checking her knots Lillian returned to the chest and the lantern. The pinned man was still there, quietly sobbing, and using his teeth to pull the pins out one at a time. He had managed to get a good chunk of them out. Lillian did not want to have to deal with a conscious criminal, so took advantage of the back the man was facing away from her. She snuck up as best she could, a task made easier by the man being rather distracted, hoisted her stolen pistol into the air, and brought the butt of the gun down hard on the mans skull between the spinal Axis and the Superior Nuchal Line. The man crumpled forwards and Lillian had to act quick to stop him falling on his hands and making the damage worse. She then uncaringly pulled all the pins out as quick as she could and precured the man's belt to hog time him as well.

Thugs taken care of, and now with a light source, Lillian pulled the sapphire necklace back out and examined it. Written on the back in what was easy to determine to be lipstick were the words 'You're Welcome.' Lillian was not entirely certain who was responsible, though she had a pretty good idea. She pocketed the necklace, intent on keeping it for herself, and turned her attention to the cedar chest. The criminals had been caught, but her curiosity was flaring up quiet fiercely; what could be in the chest worth killing over. Her mind immediately went to objects of wealth, as that seemed to be what the rich often killed over.

The chest was locked tight with four sperate locks, each of which was deftly dealt with by Lillian thanks to the reclamation of her kit. She threw the lid open and was rather confused and surprised to find the entire chest seemed to be filled with rather coarse salt, or at least it appeared to be salt. Lillian leaned forwards and took a large whiff; the was the unmistakable smell of salt to be sure, but there was a stranger smell as well that she could not quite figure out.

Fetching and donning a pair of gloves from one of her pouches Lillian began to sift through the salt. It didn't take her long before she found something. At first she couldn't be sure what she was looking at so began to take large handfuls of salt out of the chest and dump it on the floor. A few minutes later she had revealed the naked body of a woman with the multihorned head of a bull, and a matching set of gentiles. Lillian's mouth fell agape, in utter shock at what she was seeing. She stood and moved backwards till she pressed against the wall, using it to keep her grounded. She was not, for one moment, fooled by what she was seeing. There was not a doubt in her mind that the creature was a farce, a fabrication meant to look like some occult figure akin to the statue she found in her neighbors home. Fake or not was irrelevant, it was the mutilation of a persons body to form such a monstrosity that had shaken her so. In the name of science and medicine she could accept, and even encourage, all forms of alterations that some might consider desecration. But the woman was not deformed to aid humanity, she was deformed to appease some religious zealot and have her body kept in a chest close by like some kind of trophy.

It was many minutes before Lillian found the will to move. An examination of the body revealed she had been correct, it was a fake; all be it a rather good one. The extra parts had been attached very methodically then blended in with waxes and make-up. There was perhaps a time when it might have looked convincing to even someone who knew what to look for, but that time passed long ago. The natural discoloration of the decaying skin contrasted very noticeably with what had been done to blend the disparate parts together. Lillian was able to determine both the woman's body and the bulls had been fully and properly embalmed, which made her question the purpose of the salt. The only reasonable conclusion was it was included by whoever made the farce to try and hide the trickery as long as possible. Anyone able to properly embalm someone and convincingly graft different parts onto a corpse like some kind of real-life Frankenstein would have known the couldn't fool someone forever.

Lillian carefully closed the lid on the chest and left the tunnels. She found her way back to the foyer of the manor, and with the help of her many tools, managed to bust open the front doors. It did not take long to find an officer as they often patrolled the more wealthy parts of town. An army of soldiers lead by a constable showed up twenty minutes later.

Lillian lead the officers around the house and explained the events that transpired with very few details altered. She left out the thief, and the part about her running around naked. Instead she explained she had simply broken in operating on a hunch; it was a blessing sometimes when her reputation proceeded her as she did not need to elaborate on that particular part of the story. The time it took for the authorities to arrive had given her plenty of time to hide her oil stained clothes, and put the master bedroom back into some semblance of order.

After she informed them of the underground tunnel and explained there must have been some mode of escape at the end it was searched by a few officers. They reported back that they found a boat and four more unconscious and tied up men. Every one of the officers was impressed such a petite woman was able to take on seven men and come out on top. She did not correct them that she had nothing to do with the four at the boat as she did not see what good that would do, and was not entirely certain what had happened herself. She figured she might as well take the credit, having her reputation expand to include being a woman not to trifle with had it's advantages.

On her recommendation, only the constable looked into the chest. He had a similar reaction to Lillian, though it was because unlike her he was unable to recognize it for what it was. When he finally clamed down enough for Lillian to get a word in she pointed out the obvious flaws, which the constable, thankfully, accepted right away. Whether or not it was because her evidence was compelling, or because any evidence would have worked in the face of a demon was unclear. Either way the constable thanked Lillian for her work, and then thanked her again for making sure only he saw what was in the chest. It went unspoken but she was sure it was because he feared what would happen if rumors had the chance to spread. He was grateful enough that he allowed Lillian to assist with the autopsy at her request, which was a rarity indeed. The autopsy revealed the bull head, which had four horns, was completely natural, and that both bodies had been decaying for a few years.

Lillian would spend the next four months of her life trying to track down the identity of the woman in the chest, and the person or persons responsible for her desecration. To everyone's surprise but her own, Lillian did in fact find the answer to both of those questions. After a four month long search she found herself in Castle Combe, Wiltshire, a small town in Britain. The man responsible was the town's mortician, whose brother owned a cow farm. The pair of them had come up with the plan together, and were both hung a few weeks later for their crimes. Lillian refused to attend, though the constable who had seen what was in the chest -and whom Lillian had kept in contact with- made a point to make his way to Britain so he could see the brothers hang with his own eyes. Lillian mused it was some kind of closure, or perhaps a desperate attempt to gather more proof what he saw in the chest was a ruse.

Upon her return to Prague Lillian took a special interest in the occult, and any other magical practices, feeling it was a dark part of society that needed to be kept an eye on.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

Optional Reading Continued

Lillian held within her hands another woman's undergarments, contemplating if she was more comfortable wearing a stranger's unmentionables than simply wearing nothing under her clothes at all. It was a tough choice to be sure, but the longer she took on it the less time she had to catch a killer. With that in mind she opted to wear the undergarments as they were obviously clean. She then assembled an outfit using different pieces of maid's uniforms. The end result was something that looked exactly like a maid's uniform, but one that fit her relatively well. Her petite upper body mixed with a muscular and defined lower body made it difficult to get clothing that fit, which was why everything Lillian owned was made special for her.

She found herself shockingly taken by the uniform and how it looked on her. All black, with a high lace collar, lace trim, and a white apron with a large pouch. It was tight fitting around the neck and arms, but not uncomfortably so, and the leather work boots she had found were mercifully designed for being on one's feet a lot. Surprised as she was by how much she liked the outfit she was the most happy about being clothed.

After she had calmed down from her run in with the thief, she started looking around for some clothing -or some semblance of tools to open the stuck door to her own clothes- and stumbled across the maid's quarters. She found some tools to help with her investigation there, and some clothing, but nothing that would help with the door. She would have preferred her own clothes and her own, proper, tools; but there was simply no time to waste on the task as she had no idea how long that endeavor would last.

Clothed and feeling more herself Lillian returned to ballroom with the piles of corpses. She hoped to determine the cause of death as that might give her some insight into the workings of the killer. Despite having only been gone a few minutes the room had begun to smell rather terrible as over a dozen bodies began to release the various fluids and gases within them that needed to make their way out. Even if she could get her clothes back Lillian feared the maids would never be able to get the smell out.

Taking deep breaths flooded her smell receptors with the foul odor rapidly, allowing every other smell to drown the foulness out. It was a trick she had discovered some time ago and was helpful for situations where the odor was bad, but not dangerous. Stench dealt with to some degree she began to walk around the corpse pile, deftly avoiding the discarded clothing even as he eyes remained on the bodies. There were no visible wounds, and the no obvious discoloration of the bodies; there were some scratch marks but Lillian was reasonably sure they had nothing to do with the murder. It was as if they all dropped dead at the same time, which left the only likely cause. Lillian walked over to the table covered in cups and had a look, finding out very quickly many of the cups were in various states of being empty, each holding the same dark purple drink. Poison was by all accounts the most reasonable option given the relatively unmarred nature of the bodies, however very odd that they all were effected by what ever poisons was used, almost simultaneously, as if they had all drank from the cups at the same time. Lillian did not recall that happening at any point proceeding the orgy, nor at the start of it. She had been in the changing room for some time and her nervousness had been quite the distraction from the goings on so it was entirely possible they stopped what they were doing to have a toast of some kind.

She decided determining the poison might shed some light on the events and grabbed a cup that was only half full. She sloshed it around to kick up some aromas but found the smells of the room made it nigh impossible to tell, even with her trick, so left the room cup in hand to try again. Lillian then lifted the cup close to her nose and held it there a moment, gently sloshing it back and forth, allowing the aroma to waft into her nostrils without her having to breath in and risk poison finding its way into her lungs. There was an odd odor of unripen tomato's; as soon as she identified the smell Lillian threw the cup as far away from her as she could. The cup hit a wall and liquid exploded out of the cup before it fell to the ground and toppled over, spilling what remained all over the floor. Suddenly the colouration of the odd drink, and the effectiveness of the poison made complete sense. The drinks had been spiked with Belladonna, or possibly even completely made out of it's berries as they had a sweet enough taste a drink made with them could pass for wine. While in small doses it was possible to survive ingestion of Nightshade, if one were to use the plant's roots and refined the active poison down it would create a dose so large it could kill in minutes. Not to mention the advanced age of the members of the orgy meant they were all far more likely to be effected by even a small dose of poison. Belladonna was known to cause hallucinations, so it was likely the licentious cult members simply thought what ever spell or incantation they were invoking was working and pressed on till they all died. Hallucinations would also explain the appetent simultaneous death; it was likely each member died at different times and no one else noticed. Too enthralled by the supposed magic and their own lust.

Lillian frowned at her own thought. While highly plausible it did not account for how every member of the orgy had been effected. Surely not ever single person became thirsty at roughly the same time. The most reasonable explanation was a toast of some kind had been called while Lillian was getting changed. To test this theory she re-entered the ballroom, taking deep breaths, and made her way over to the large book the host had been reading from. It was still wide open on the page he had been reading, and after a quick perusal Lily found that part of the orgy's ritual called for a toast where each member drank at the same time. The drink was even meant to be mixed with a plant, though it was not Belladonna, but Mandrake. A plant well known to be used in occult practices for it's hallucinogenic effects. Every member of the party did in fact drank at the same time and had even been expecting to hallucinate to some degree.

While anyone with means and motive could poison some drinks, only someone with advanced knowledge of the cult and it's practices would know which poison to use and how to use it. It was that line of thinking that allowed Lillian to create a fairly confident hypothesis as to who the culprit was. All she needed at that point was to locate some solid evidence to support her theory, then she would be able to take off after the killer. In search of that evidence she returned to the master bedroom and the satchel of goods the thief had left lying on the floor. She grabbed the bag and emptied the contents onto the bed and began to sift through it. There was nothing of note, just a great deal of expensive items that anyone incline to do so would want to steal. Lillian briefly lamented that the thief lost out on a big hall for nothing, but quickly pushed the thought aside, believing she would meet the woman again someday and could make up for her mistake then. In the meantime she began to search around the room, checking the usual spots people liked to hide important items in. She found a small box of pictures filled with photos of woman from around around the world in various states of de-dress, as well as a talisman of sorts that had been placed under the mattress. Neither were terribly helpful, though she pocketed the box of photos to dispose of later.

She gave the room one more search, and found that as she walked over a specific section of flooring she could feel it dip ever so slightly. A closer inspection reveled the floorboards in one corner of the room, dipped, slightly downward. She also found four indentations and a small series of scratch marks that abruptly ended. Lillian was very confident the item in question was an extremely heavy chest, and that it must have been the item in question the killer was after. The scratch marks, or more accurately their sudden disappearance, was rather clear as well. Some minor discoloration on the wall indicated there used to be a large piece of drapery or carpet hanging up at one point, but no longer was. The killer likely found the chest difficult to carry and took the carpet or drapery down to drag the chest along with.

Once again Lillian frowned at her own thought. Based on the markings left in the wood, and the fact that there was deformation of the floor boards at all, indicated the chest was likely too heavy even when being dragged with a carpet. The most reasonable explanation as to how the chest was being moved, was the killer had at least one other accomplice. A secondary implication of that realization caused Lillian to run and pick up the sword she had left on the ground. The entire manor had been locked down, and there was no way to easily get out with a large heavy chest. Which meant the killer or killers, were likely sill in the building.

Ianus Congreatio: Secret societies, horror, and mystery in the shadows of Prague.

Optional Reading

Lucie McClellen and Lucie Ruzicka in:
The Cedar Chest

Lillian McClellen stood as stark naked as the day she was born, but for a golden fox mask affixed to her face. A carefully placed arm covered her breasts, and a hand covered her womanhood; she felt very uncomfortable, very vulnerable, and very seen. Despite the fact that everyone in the room but her was currently in a pile on the ground, very dead, and not paying attention to anyone's nakedness.

A few weeks prior Lily was snooping around a neighbors house while they were away; She was under the suspicion that said neighbor possessed several stolen pieces of important art. She had in fact found the art, but also found a secret room with a demonic shrine hidden within. A large statue of a multi-horned bipedal bull with an unfamiliar symbol carved on its forehead took up most of the space. At the foot of the statue was a series of occult related items and accoutrement, and a tapestry on the floor depicting various demons fornicating with humans and then presenting them with gold or power served as a place to kneel and worship based on wear marks. Among the items in the hidden room was a small book detailing numerous practices and methods for paying tribute to various dark deities and even summoning them. Within the pages of the book she found a letter that served as invitation to a party hosted by a noble within the city that Lily was familiar with, and had had suspicions of for some time. The letter wasn't addressed to anyone specific, so naturally Lily went to the party and presented the invite as though it were her own. The gentleman at the door had been very suspicions; Lily was known around the city, as was her penitent for finding her way into private events. He asked a few questions that he must have assumed only certain people would know and received the appropriate answers; answers known to Lillian only because she made a point to read the book she had found at the shrine. The night started off rather normal and boring with a lot of rich people eating expensive food and chattering on about the woes of being rich. Lily did her best to fit in. At some point in the night the whole house was locked down, and the entire serving staff for the whole house left and, according to the host, would not be returning until the next morning.

Golden masks were passed out, and everyone was ushered into the ball room which had a large pile of pillows set up in the center, and a long table covered in cups filled with a dark red liquid was set up against one wall. It was around then that Lily had initially become a tad concerned as none of what she saw matched anything in the book she read. Her concerns were temporarily elevated when the host began speaking about pacts with demons, power, and how they were all mere hours away from becoming the most powerful humans on the planet. There was much cheering at that, with several of the guests yelling out thanks to various entities with difficult to pronounce names. Lillian was sure she heard the same named said four different ways.

The night took a turn however when the host pulled out a much larger version of the book Lily had read, and it was then that she realized she might not have known as much about the cult and it's practices as she had originally thought. A point that was proven immediately correct as everyone was directed to strip their clothes and begin fornicating on the pillows as part of preparation for a ritual. The quests were informed there were rooms at the back that had been built for those who wished to undress in some privacy, though few seemed to take the host up on the offer and began stripping right out in the open. Lillian had very much not been prepared for such a turn; she had mentally prepared for nonsense speech's, depictions of gore, perhaps even an animal sacrifice. But a full out orgy was well outside her comfort zone, so she immediately turned and ran towards the closest of the changing rooms, elbowing an older woman out of the way as she did so. The room was small, but had an oil lamp to provide light and a latch on the door to prevent others from entering.

Lillian sat on a velvet covered bench inside the room for several minutes contemplating her next course of action. She had gotten herself into quite the pickle and needed to react in a sensible way. Secret occult societies were not ones to let outsiders know about them and their practices, so running away held a lot of risks even if she got away; plus that plan relied on the house not being locked down. She could have simply stayed in the room and waited things out, hope none of them noticed her absence. But that meant staying in a small poorly lit room for god only knew how long, willingly cornering herself in the event things went south. And the final option, strip and get back out there. Which was as appealing as trying to fight a hive of bee's with one's face.

In the end she concluded she should leave the room, devoid of her clothing, and make an appearance. She wasn't comfortable participating but reasoned out the others would be too distracted to notice she was on the side lines. Decision wearily made she hung her pouches on a hook, which immediately broke causing all her personal effects clang loudly on the floor, and began to stip. As she started she could hear the beginnings of moaning, and the unmistakable sound of flesh slapping against flesh as the pre-ritual orgy got under way. The sounds made her second guess her decision and her undressing slowed to a crawl.

It took her several minutes to de-clothe, and she was so flustered and fixated on the process she failed to notice the sounds outside had stopped. Once she was naked, she spent several more minutes trying to decide if she should focus on covering her breasts or her womanhood, as she would need a hand to open the door, leaving one of those spots vulnerable to lascivious eyes. She eventually decided on covering her breasts as they were the most overt and noticeable part when unhidden. When she opened the door and stepped out her face burned red hot from embarrassment, a feeling that did not go away as she found the entire group of quests dead in various positions and stages of coitous. The heat in her face traveled down her neck as she noticed several pairs of lifeless eyes looking in her direction and she instantly moved her spare hand to cover the rest of herself. There she stood for a solid minute, unmoving, struggling to understand what it was that had had happened and trying to cope with the fact she felt very uncomfortable.

She eventually managed to snap back to reality enough to realize she needed to get dressed and get to the bottom of what had happened. She turned quickly, moving the hand from her breasts to cover her bottom and went back to the changing room. She tried to open the door, but found that it was thoroughly stuck.

"...oh heavens no..." she said aloud as she realized the latch on the door must have activated on it's own. She turned around, moving her hands to covering the correct spots, and looked around the room at all the clothing laying about. She desperately wanted to steal some so she could focus on what needed to be done, but every article of clothing had become evidence and were unusable. She came to the same conclusion as she looked at a table cloth and contemplated a toga. No, if she wanted cloths she either needed to get her hands on some tools to get the door open, or she had to find some clothing elsewhere in the house. The thought of walking around the house in the nude, even one that was empty, made the redness in her face and neck travel to her ears. She decided instead to search the house using her power, and began looking for a place to hide her body. The other changing rooms were an option, but she was once again worried about contaminating evidence, and additionally, she was worried the faulty latches would leave her trapped. It was quickly decided to stow her body in an ottoman tucked into the corner of the room that appeared to have an internal compartment. The ballroom was not all that large so she had to get rather close to the body pile to get where she needed, and it was very difficult dodging all the errant articles of clothing strewn about. At one point she almost fell and had to throw a hand out to keep her balance. She quickly returned the hand to where it was as soon as she was safe, but couldn't help lookin to see if any of the bodies might have seen her. Only one pair of eyes was on her, belonging to an elderly man who had died midway through pleasuring himself. Lillian just about passed out from embarrassment, but managed to pull herself together and accepted that a dead man had seen her bottom.

Once at the ottoman she found that it did indeed have an internal compartment, which was thankfully empty. Lillian stepped inside and curled up as small as she could to fit into the space, letting the lid close on it's own. It was not the most comfortable position, but she felt safer, and comfortable enough to search the house with her power. She activated her ability, and climbed out of her hiding spot. She took a brief moment to look down at her naked form and couldn't help but feel that she looked like a babe in the womb with the way she had tucked herself in. Something about the sight was both odd and comforting at the same time.

She closed the lid and turned to take in the room, double checking that she had not missed anything immediately important before she went hunting for untainted clothes. She quickly discovered however that she had in fact missed something important: counting herself and the host their were twenty people who were at the party, and yet there were only eighteen bodies in the pile. A quick check confirmed there wasn't a lost body hidden under the others. Someone was alive elsewhere in the house and might have very well been the killer.

The house was large, and it's room numerous. The missing corpse could be anywhere, and there wasn't time to search methodically. Instead, Lillian made the logical conclusion that if the missing person were still in the house the most likely place they would be, was the master bedroom.

It didn't take her long to get to her destination, her legs carrying her far and fast when they didn't need to obey physical laws so strictly. She quickly found the room and peered through the keyhole. Sure enough on the other side was, to her knowledge, the only other living person in the house. It was a man, and he was quite tall with rather plain pants but a brilliant indigo tail coat that was hard to miss. She had seen the man at the pre-cult activities fraternizing with the other quests; she had not had a chance to speak with him before.

It was very difficult to make out what he was up to, the keyhole providing a poor window. She watched for a moment, biding her time, until the man's back was turned, and carefully opened the door. Thankfully did not creek, or squeak, or five any other signs of operation allowing her to slip inside without too much issue, contorting her form so she didn't have to open the door too far. Unfortunately despite her efforts, and confidence she'd be quiet enough, the man turned almost immediately and rushed to the door. Lillian deftly leapt out of the way, landing on a wall sconce. The man flung open the door, peered out for a moment, then closed the door; taking a moment to test the handle. He had most likely assumed the door came open on it's own. A reasonable assumption in the face of the evidence; invisible women where, after all, not a likely occurrence.

The gentleman got back to what he had been doing, which was apparently robbing the place. He had a medium sized satchel, something large enough to carry a lot of valuables but not so large as to attract suspicion, and was filling it with various expensive items around the room. Lillian rushed over to the man and begin to take in his features. Like everyone else at the party he wore a simple gold mask -a homage to a bird of some sort- that covered the top half of his face. Up close it was clear his suit wasn't just well made, but very expensive, though that was hardly most noteworthy part of it: the entire suit from vest to pants, had been altered in rather strange ways. Certain places had been taken in, taken out, and had something added to the inner lining to make the area stiffer. To the unobservant onlooker everything would appear fine, but Lily could tell from the way the fabric moved, and interacted with the body, that the suit did not match the form of the wearer.

It seemed strange to disguise one's body in such a manner, so Lillian quickly applied her detail oriented eye to the rest of the man. It did not take long for her to discover, to her great surprise, the man was in fact a woman in disguise. The first obvious clue was the rather obvious lack of and Adam's Apple. However there were other details as well, on close inspection many of the facial features that could be seen had been expertly falsified with makeup. The work was so impressive Lily briefly wondered if it was worth learning some tips from her mother if only to test the lengths of how much one could do with simple face paints.

The other give away were the eyes, as bit difficult to see through the mask, but she could just make out the higher brow and more exaugurated archs that were traits typically found on women. Additionally, based on the woman's glabella and supercillary arches, were she not done up like a man she would most likely had been strikingly beautiful. The eyes especially, which were a rather gorgeous ember, would have made the woman look rather stunning. Only around five-percent of the entire worlds population possessed Ember eyes, so naturally Lily was quite enamored and lamented how, under better circumstances, she would have liked to have spent an afternoon with the woman.

There were various other clues as to the person's identity, at least gender wise. A more rounded mandible, a skull that was more vertical than wide, slimmer wrists than would be expected for someone who actually fit into the suit being worn; and there were several discrepancies in the measurements of the individuals cricoid girth and lateral neck length were they a man of similar height. Not that any of that helped Lilly with her current issue. What did help, was that there was a carefulness to how the woman was looting the room. Most people would have taken anything shinny that appeared expensive. The woman was picking things rather carefully, as if she had some innate sense as to what was more worth her time. She didn't have the air of someone who had all the time in the world to pick through their murder victims belongings, instead she had the appearance of someone making big decisions. Trying to maximize how much wealth they could pilfer without having to take things that would be hard to fence or carry. Lily was quite sure the woman was not the murderer, however she still needed to be stopped as she might have been stealing important clues.

Unsure of what to do but knowing something had to be done, Lily returned to her body. In an instant she was out of her hiding spot and running naked down the hall towards the master bedroom. Along the way she stopped for a moment to pull a saber out of a scabbard that was hung up on display. As she approached the door she slowed so as to not alert the woman on the other side and carefully approached, sword at the ready, and woefully underdressed for a possible life or death encounter. She moved to place her hand on the door, but felt a subtle shift in the wood beneath her feet. Someone, was on the other side of the door.

Perhaps she should have slowed her run sooner, perhaps she wasn't as stealthy as she thought. Regardless of what specific failure lead to her reveal was unimportant, she had a potentially dangerous criminal on the other side of the door. Her grip on the sword tightened, she was unsure if she could kill another person even in self-defense. There were so many ways things could go, many of them bad. Part of her wondered if it was worth it, if she should just walk away, accept she might loose some clues. Lillian thought back to the woman who was tall enough to tower over most men, thought about how much skill and training and discipline goes into being as adept a criminal as the other woman clearly was. But she also thought of the woman's ember eyes, and the careful way she plucked certain items for her bag. Lillian decided to make a gamble.

"H-hello Ma'am. I mean sir. Did you kill all those people down stairs?" There was a long silence. Lillian expected the door to fling open at any moment and unleash a life or death struggle. Her arms shook, her grip on her weapon tightened so much she began to hurt her own hand. Then, quietly, a feminine voice came through the door.

"No." And Lilly believed her.

"Right...well, that's good. Now that that is out of the way, I am going to have to ask you to s-stop your acquisition of the hosts personal possessions, there might be a vital clue that could lead to the culprit of the murders hidden in them. "She paused a moment, thought back to the carful collection of items once more, and what she remembered of what was left in the room. "Except for the box of jewels on the credenza," she added "I am reasonably sure those won't be of importance to my case. " She wasn't actually entirely sure about that, but had enough reason to suspect the box was unimportant enough to offer it as a sort of bribe, or more accurately a sort of conciliatory prize. There were only so many jewels in the world that would warrant killing eighteen people over, and Lilly knew for a fact not one of them was in the Czech Republic at that time.

There was a long time of silence. Lilly stood still for almost 5 minutes, her hand going numb from squeezing the hilt of the sword so tight for so long. She waited for a response, waited for the floor beneath her to shift to indicate the other woman moved away from the door. Unable to stand it any longer Lillian threw open the door, sword at the ready, utterly terrified, and totally mortified all at once.

Inside she found a room devoid of mysterious women. The satchel of stolen items remained on the floor, and the box of jewels which Lily had offered up were gone. The only clue as to how the woman got away was that one of the windows in the room was every so slightly ajar, and the storm shutters - which should have been thoroughly closed from the lock down- were wide open and flapping in the wind.

Lillian let out a breath she had been holding, the breath turning into a sigh of relief. The sword in her hand clattered to the floor and an unpleasant prickling took its place as blood rushed back into the vein's and vessels. She dropped to her knees and leaned forward, one hand supporting her weight, the other covering herself. She allowed herself a few moments to simply breath.