Game Thread

[Obbi]

Oh dag, I mistook it for the short one, I thought Beatrice was the huge one!

Gonna edit my post to change that.

[Squashua]

I'll wait for the others to pick books. Of note:

Unnamed book - No one read yet; looks cryptic.
Allen Diary - No one read yet; looks long.
Beatrice Diary - Daniel read it in under an hour, but didn't glean much (check Embarkation's earlier posts).
Aaron Post-War Journal - Benjamin had started reading it, but stopped.
Bertrand Journal - No one read it yet, but flipping through it reveals it is full of science! And pomposity!

[Mr. Embark]

18:35
The group arrives at the motel in town. Daniel and Benjamin decide to share a room. Daniel takes his belongings upstairs to their room, picking the bed near the window. Daniel peers outside then returns to unpacking. Daniel decides to take a quick shower and clean himself up.

18:45
Daniel heads to Henry's room to meet with the others. Chatting with the others, a knock interrupts the conversation. Roger answers the door to find that it's Charles. The others continue their discussions and plan out the events for the next day.

18: 55
Daniel decides to pick up the strange book and Allen Dubious journal in hopes both hold some key information. Daniel begins reading the strange book, occasionally checking the journal for any hints or clues as to information about the book and it's history. Informing the others of any information he finds that may be important to the investigation.

22:30
Daniel feels a bit tired of the lengthy book and journal and decides to retire to his room. He explains he'll be up early for breakfast if anyone wishes to join him.

I'll write more later just busy at the moment

[Oats]

Can we kill the colon-three smiley with fire please?

[Squashua]

See, that's why I put a space on either side of every colon I post in a "The time is now" post.

I refer to said spaces as "the taint".

[Squashua]

Jul 29, 2009 9:37:55 GMT -5 Mr. Embark said:

18: 55
Daniel decides to pick up the strange book and Allen Dubious journal in hopes both hold some key information.

Cockblock'd.

Allen's journal is not only exorbitantly long and disorganized, it details Allen's hatreds and idiosyncrasies, with rambling, racist rants that don't correlate with the strange book at all. It would take several hours simply parsing through the journal alone to find reference to the untitled volume book. Meanwhile, the old book itself is some sort of occultist text written in Olde English language, and slightly faded at times, a process which would easily consume one's full attention.

[FunkyWaltDogg]

18 : 35

Upon arriving at the hotel with the others, David gives Charles his order for dinner ("Make it cheap!"), then carries his and Charles' belongings up to their room. After getting everything squared away, he heads for Henry's room to meet with the others.

18 : 50

Soon Charles returns with dinner. David enjoys his sandwich while listening to Charles' tales of exotic ladies. When talk turns to plans for the following day, David keeps mostly quiet. However, since he has little desire to stay indoors and clean up the mess, he is careful to point out that he has a great deal of experience in hunting, tracking and the like.

19 : 00

As no one else has grabbed it yet, David picks up the nameless mystery book Bertrand's journal and begins to read.

22 : 30

Daniel mentions that he intends to rise early for breakfast, and heads for his room. Having had quite enough of the strange book for one night, David decides to go to bed as well, planning to get up and eat breakfast with Daniel in the morning.

Sleep 'til about 0630 maybe? 8 hrs or so

[Squashua]

As an FYI, I'm just going to consolidate all the posts and make sense of them in bulk, and maybe repost the amalgamated mess as one huge post, so read what others wrote and write what you want appropriately, and edit your own posts accordingly.

[Wildcat]

-18 : 35-

Benjamin books a double room, charging it to his expenses, which he and Daniel intend to use for tonight. When Charles collects some coins for dinner purchases Ben hands over a few dollars ("No pork, please") and is engaged in conversation by Roger, who congratulates him on convincing Hans to let them remove the books from the house. "Thank you, Roger. I was hoping I wouldn't have to get into threats but Hans jumped to the required conclusion quickly enough.

"As you say, I wonder if there is more to it than simply being too scared to fulfil their duties? Did they find something else in the house, perhaps?"

-18 : 50-

Like the others, Ben is startled to hear foreign gibberish from outside the door to Henry's room, where the men have congregated to await Charles' return, but all is revealed when the seemingly much-recovered academic enters with a happy grin and even happier vittles. Carefully extracting his portion from the rest, Ben munches on his tuna sandwiches whilst listening to Charles' whoopers with half an ear.

After completing their repast the group works up a general outline for action the next morning. Ideally two of their number will work on cleaning up the chandelier, one will see to the buckshot (Ben, rather embarrassed, intently studies his notepads when this topic arises) and the rest will explore the as-yet untouched areas of the property.

-18 : 55-

Once the planning has concluded, Charles asks Ben to step outside with him. They wend their way downstairs and into the deserted smoking room, where Charles brings up the issue of the stranger occurrences in the house. Ben taps his finger to his upper lip and replies, "Well, I mentioned to some of the others that I saw a most macabre and necrotic vision of myself when I was inspecting the cabinets downstairs. As to the shooting incident, all I can say is that I saw the most horrific vision of a beclawed, raggedly-dressed ... thing that may have been female. It rush towards me and I fired instinctively - but then it passed right through me without pause!" He shivers. "Honestly, I've never felt anything like the feeling that contact brought; terrible, terrible coldness."

Their discussion into the esoteric and macabre is soon interrupted by the arrival of a medical practitioner who sees to Charles' wounds. Ben excuses himself and return to Henry's room.


-19 : 05 to 22 : 45-

Benjamin, seeing that the others have begun to peruse the hard-won journals, points out that Allen's post-war journal makes it very clear that MURDER has taken place on the estate at least once. As Daniel makes a grab for the offending journal Ben contents himself with study of the strange book with its cryptic and voluminous contents.

-7 : 15-

A little later than the others, Ben awakens and freshens up before heading downstairs. He's not at his best first thing in the morning, you understand.

Will edit which book I'm reading depending on which one Embark decides to go for. Also a nice little piece of Lovecraftian anti-foreignism for you there.

[Squashua]

Also 5 Books != 6 Characters. Someone forgot to grab any of the various other sundries from the dining room. Tried to allude to this.

[B:L]

(Henry and Roger on the road to the hotel. The cab pulls over to a market.)

HENRY
(Steps out.)
Thanks, Roger. It'll only take a second for me to pick up tomorrow's snacks.
(Enters the market and stocks up on tinned and canned foods.)

(The hotel. The guests congregate in the lobby.)

HENRY
I looked at my kingdom, I was finally there.

ROGER
Where's that from, Henry?

HENRY
The Prince of Egypt.
(Makes a call to the local doctor.)
Ehh... What's up, doc?

(Henry's hotel room. They are gathered here discussing prior events.)

HENRY
(Shivers visibly.)
And there was this cold, this cold! A frost that froze to the core up
in the attic. Daniel thought it was mere trickery with piping and water,
but no running tap could chill the soul so thoroughly.

ROGER
We should take a look tomorrow!

HENRY
Indeed. We should best be on our guard, especially after noticing
that our suspect snuck past us during that racketous piano solo.

(Later at night.)

HENRY
(Reading Aaron's post-war journal.)
Part two of an epic. I do hope that it concludes agreeably.

ROGER
Nothing about this adventure has concluded agreeably so far!

HENRY
Perhaps you're right. This is getting to be dangerous... but yet I
feel compelled to find the truth of the matter. If we don't, I do not
believe I can ever shake that chilling feeling in my heart.

(They call it a night at around the same time, getting eight hours of sleep for the long tomorrow.)

[Squashua]

Killed several unneeded OOC posts. I will be consolidating soon enough for readability.

This post will be killed as well.

For those of you keeping score at home, here are the current library assignments:

obbi / Roger : Beatrice Diary (shortest book)
FWD / David : Bertrand Journal of Science and Effrontery
B:L / Henry : Aaron Post-War Journal
Oats / Charles : ? - mystery book - ?
MRE / Daniel : ? - mystery book - ?
WC / Ben : Allen Diary (longest book)

I fully expect a fist-fight between Charles and Daniel as no one can do everything simultaneously.

I may actually suggest something in my narrative if no one else thinks of it first (first one who does may get some sort of a bonus).

[Squashua]

Don't expect an update from me on this till tomorrow evening/afternoon; meanwhile an outstanding question that I will have at that time that you guys can answer now to save us all any additional wait time is, WHO IS READING WHAT and WHEN, PER THE PRIOR POST. Maybe you can badger Embarkation / Oats to provide a definitive answer. There is a clue two sentences prior.

Also, if anyone finishes reading anything early based on the read times posted by Oats in the clue thread (the Beatrice Diary is a good contender), does anyone pick up anything else?

[Mr. Embark]

Daniel woke up feeling a bit groggy. He had read the strange book after convincing Charles that he would take as many notes as possible and let him look over the book and notes at a later time after he was more rested and healed up.

Daniel gets ready and wakes his roommate. "Coming to breakfast?"

[B:L]

(Early morning. Henry and Roger's hotel room. The door is locked.)

HENRY
(Yawns as he awakens.)
Rise and shine, Roger! We've got a busy day ahead of us.

ROGER
(Mumbles.)
Go away... Everything's Peaceful...

HENRY
Yeah... I know the feeling. Still, we should check with the local carpenter
for supplies. And I want to ask him if he would know what would
cause that cold spot in the attic. It still sends shivers down my spine.

[Squashua]

You guys might want to wait for results first; sorry, the ensuing conversation might circumvent next-day issues.

[Squashua]

Jul 29, 2009 18:18:50 GMT -5 Squashua said:

Killed several unneeded OOC posts. I will be consolidating soon enough for readability.

This post will be killed as well.

For those of you keeping score at home, here are the current library assignments:

obbi / Roger : Beatrice Diary (shortest book)
FWD / David : Bertrand Journal of Science and Effrontery
B:L / Henry : Aaron Post-War Journal
Oats / Charles : ? - mystery book - ?
MRE / Daniel : ? - mystery book - ?
WC / Ben : Allen Diary (longest book)

I fully expect a fist-fight between Charles and Daniel as no one can do everything simultaneously.

I may actually suggest something in my narrative if no one else thinks of it first (first one who does may get some sort of a bonus).

Also, please clear up the above.

[Mr. Embark]

I totally did in my post as charles was too beat up to read at any length. He also agreed in the OOC thread

[Squashua]

k. Will hopefully post within 48 hours.

[Mr. Embark]

And then Daniel woke up from his dream only to find out that Henry was the demons

[Wildcat]

And then Ben got back to his fluffing

[Squashua]

my work company has consumed all of my free time for the last month until at least week 1 in September

[Oats]

Charles woke up from the first good sleep he'd had since taking this job. He was glad Daniel had insisted on reading that book.

His back and shoulder were still quite tender, but serviceable. Sitting up gingerly, Charles made his way to the bathroom to get tidied up.

Cursing at himself for forgetting his shaving kit, he dreaded what he'd look like come the afternoon. Already his stubble was showing. "People don't trust a man who hasn't shaved" he muttered to himself, disapprovingly.

Being careful to not awaken his room-mate (without even looking to see if he was still around), Charles exits the room. Closing the door behind him, Charles lets out a deep sigh. "What in the bloody hell is wrong with me? Why am I still here? Maurice doesn't have shit on me and I know it" then internally, Besides, a name is easy enough to change and I'm not sure how good of a look he got of me. This beard could turn out to be useful after all.

Sighing, Still, there could be money to be made. Might be able to sue the pants off of Maurice, what with this injury. Especially if he had reason to believe the house to be in such a state of disrepair.

Charles heads downstairs to the lobby and sits down in the most comfortable chair he can find, allowing himself to sink deep inside the cushions. He goes to light one of his few remaining cigarettes but has an uncomfortable memory of his flask and decides against it. He instead helps himself to a nice dark cup of English Breakfast tea.

It reminds him how much he hated home. I could use the money, either way I decide to play this.

Helping himself to the complementary (and paltry) breakfast the hotel offered, he bumped into the others.

[Squashua]

Thanks, now I have to start the rewrites.

[Oats]

That was my thinking.

[FunkyWaltDogg]

"Good morning Charles!" calls David as he spots his roommate carefully making his way down the stairs. Unless he's not doing it carefully. Also why is the ooc text huge now? "Feeling better, I suppose?"

Despite his much-improved appearance from the previous evening, David decides they'd better give Charles a little time to compose himself before bringing up the reading. Turning to Daniel, he asks "What do you say we see about securing some supplies while these gents finish their breakfasts?"

[Oats]

Yes the ooc text is very huge. I'm guessing there was a back-end update so size=2 or whatever it was before is suddenly hugegantic.

Showing the requisite amount of stiff upper lip, Charles takes his tea and jellied scone over to his conscious cohorts. Not feeling terribly like talking, he makes a point of always being in the middle of eating or sipping something when a break appears in the conversation.

His 'friends' are doing much of what they did on the ride here, sharing bits and pieces of their past. Bonding. Charles was more than happy to join in the day before, regaling them with stories he'd told a thousand times before, but this morning he just felt tired, sore and a little paranoid.

[Squashua]

It still looks small pink and italicized to me.

[Wildcat]

Me too.

[Mr. Embark]

David addresses about gathering supplies to help with the investigation.

"Sounds like an ideal plan there David, we can head into the local shop and see what we can find there."

Daniel turns and looks outside, If we're lucky we'll make more sense of the place today.