Memory And Madness IC

[Komodo]

The haze lifts, slightly, from your mind, and you open your eyes…

Six of you are in a room together, lying in random positions on the floor. Five of you are male, one of you is female. All of you have lost your memory, some of you cannot even remember your own name. All of you are wearing heavy robes made of hide. They are hot, and they itch.

You look around you. You appear to be outside…wait, no…not quite. You’re lying on a stone floor, and around you is a short stone wall. Above you is the open sky. It is night, and the stars are shining brightly, although there is no moon in sight.

Around you are two tables, one of which has a glass bottle on it, the other has an empty plate and some silverware. No chairs, oddly. Set apart from the tables is a chest. Leaning against the chest is a bit of parchment, a sextant, and a small collection of books.

There are a few grates in the floor. A chain has been wrapped through and locked to one of these grates. The other end of the chain lies somewhere on the other side of the wall.

Pressed up against the wall, a small, closed trap-door lies shut.

Taking all this in, you realize that this should be familiar to you, yet it isn’t. You haven’t the foggiest idea of where you are. Some of you can’t even remember your own name…

[Fortuna]

This one stumbles to his feet, as-yet bleary but determined to start getting his bearings by searching the chest.

[pirateking89]

I struggle to my feet, starting on all fours and pulling myself up on the leg of the table. Once I get my feet under me, I stumble over to the chest, running my hands over the paper and other assorted items. Then i start slowly searching through the books for a recognizable title or author.

[antonm1107]

I shall examine the grates and chain (assuming that it counts as one action - if not, I'll just check out the grates). I shall also wonder why nobody bothers to speak to each other or introduce themselves, though I'm not about to be the one to break the silence.

[omnitricks]

Getting up, the only female of the group made sure she was alright finding some strange possessions before taking a quick glance around the room and finding that everyone is sleeping on the floor and others were searching for something.

Going to one of the tables that caught her eye she asked "soooo...what are we looking for?" searching it bottle and all.

[Nesori]

I stand, taking a quick look at my surroundings before approaching and examining the trap door for a conceivable way to open it. "A way out, I'm not supposed to be here...I think, and I doubt you all should be either."

[oblivion6]

I awole with a start, hearing the sounds of people talking nearby. Looking around, he grew confused. Who were these people? Why were they here? Why the hell couldnt he remember anything?

"This is one strange place..." I muttered, pulling myself to my feet. "Anyone have any clue whats going on here? I dont remember a thing..." I would say to the others in the room before moving to examine the items on the table with the woman, looking for anything to give me any clue who I was or what was going on.

[Komodo]

One man slowly moves over to the side and examines the chest. It appears sturdy and well-made, although simple and undecorated. He reaches to open it, and finds the lid unlocked, albeit rather heavy, and it seems the hinges had gone a while without oil. After exerting a bit of force, he manages it open, although the effort made him pant. Within, he sees an pouch of coins and a tinderbox. As he looked at the both of them, he began to get cross-eyed, and his vision began to blurr…

Another man silently crawled his way next to the first. Remaining on the floor, he picked up some of the books next to the chest and began shuffling through them. Hmm…some of these had an air of familiarity about them…as he flipped through the pages, looking for something familiar, he involuntarily groaned, as though in pain…

A third edged his way over to the wall. Remaining bent down, he examined the grate. Hmm…well he could see that the floor was well built, with the floor sloping from the center to the wall, to catch rain. The chain was wrapped around the grate and held fast by a padlock. All three seemed sturdy, and the chain was pulled taut, as though there were something weighing it down on the other side. Further investigation of the chain will require its own action. Looking deeper into the grate, he noticed something… Something in there dimly reflected the starlight. It was just out of the reach of his fingers, though.

One more fellow plodded over to the trapdoor and kneeled down next to it. The door seemed big enough to admit a person easily, if it were opened. Which it would surely be, but it appeared that the door’s handle had been padlocked to the floor. Hmm…the lock had a large keyhole, might not be too hard to pick, and the door itself, while the wood seemed strong, didn’t appear to be reinforced…

Finally, the last man and a lady move over to the table, and examine the bottle of wine, which appears to be the only thing on that particular table. The wine’s label contains some manner of artwork that it is too dark to make out, but above the picture you can make out a word, Margeaux. Why does that name sound familiar… Anyway, the bottle appears to be about half-full of good wine. One would only need remove the cork first.

As all of your heads begin to clear, you notice something. The wall, which is a bit higher than chest-height, appears to have gaps in it at regular intervals. The term "parapets" comes to mind. And the horizon appears to be farther away than it ought. You get the sensation of having some level of altitude, although none of you have looked over the parapets yet...

Be sure to check your character sheet for flashbacks and commands...

[pirateking89]

This man mutters to himself.
"Ease the pain by sharing."

He then throws a book at the man examining the trap door.

"Hey, you... Do you have a name? Did you find a way out? Or any idea as to where we are?"

[omnitricks]

"I don't know but what I know is I am not going to go near that guy" the lady told the new arrival after seeing the book being thrown at someone else.

"Margeaux?" she asked herself on seeing the label thinking nothing much about it and instead taking the bottle over to the man at the chest with the excuse "you can use this" after using his energy on opening the chest.

"So did you find anything interesting in there?"

[Nesori]

"Ow, it's polite to introduce oneself before asking for names. As for a way out the trap door is padlocked down, anyone got a key or a pick, or want to try their luck breaking the thing?"

[Fortuna]

"Mm. Muh? Oh, er, thank you." He offers the woman a quick smile before scooping up the contents of the chest. The wine, he leaves where it is, walking over instead to the wall to get a good look around.

[antonm1107]

The man does not take part in the conversation; instead he decides to further investigate the chain, hoping that it somehow gets him to that something.

[oblivion6]

"Margeaux...Margeaux...Margeaux" I muttered again and again, a strange feeling coming over me as I saw the bottle. Scooping up the bottle, I went over to the man examining the chain. "Here," I said, holding out the bottle to him. "I have the strangest feeling that his bottle belongs to you...Or somehing...Odd why I feel you should have it..."

[Komodo]

The man with the books has a hard throw, and strikes the man leaning over the trap door with the book squarely in the shoulder. However, the robes that all involved are wearing are thick, and protects him from most of the damage. His shoulder feels sore, but shouldn't hinder his movement any.

The bottle of wine proceeds to get passed around a bit, going from the woman, to the man opening the chest. As she hands it to him, she notices what is in the open chest. The man she gives it to proceeds to set it down, just as the other man who had examined the bottle earlier picks it up and passes it on to the man examining the chain. The man with the bottle sees him pulling on the chain as it dangles over the side of the parapets. However, he does not seem to be having much success. The chain appears to be too heavy for him.

The man on the chain an the man on the chest both take a glance over the wall. For the first time, they get an idea of where they are: atop a tower, very very high off the ground. The tower is on the corner of some ornately designed structure, with tall windows and steeply inclined roofs and other feats of architecture. In the dark, it is hard to get a grasp of the size of the thing. In the horizon, all is dark forest, as far as the eye can see. (Granted, between the dark and the men still feeling that their vision was a bit blurry, the eye couldn't see impressively far, but still.) Down below, the man at the chain could see some object wrapped around the chain. This was the only significant thing to be noticed about the chain, as the other end was merely locked tightly to a grate. He tried pulling it up, but to no avail. He could move the chain a bit, but was unable to lift it all the way. Perhaps if he could convince one of his fellows to help him, he would have more success...

New flashbacks and commands are available.

[Nesori]

The man gazes of into space for a brief moment, ignoring the conversation about the bottle before snapping back to his senses. "uh...does anyone have a hairpin or something, I might be able to do something about the padlock here." He says this as begins searching the floor.

[antonm1107]

This man grunts at the person asking for a hairpin. "Yeah. Got a silver one right here." He passes it to the man searching the floor, assuming that it doesn't use up an action (because I'm out of actions).

[pirateking89]

This one walks over to the chest and searches it hoping to see what has caught the interest of the others.

[Komodo]

You find the chest to be empty. You will not be charged an action for examining it.

[Komodo]

As the night progresses, one man hands another a hairpin he had on his person while the other proceeds to search the floor. Taking the hairpin, he concludes that there isn't much on the floor. Aside from the clutter of books around the chest, and the tables, it's very empty. Just a simple stone floor...maybe the stones are set a bit widely apart...wait a minute...

Lowering his gaze, he sees a bit of starlight barely reflected against...some black substance. Touching it, he finds it to be sticky, and surprisingly warm. Tar? Maybe not, but it smells pungent. As he wipes it off his fingers, he suddenly sees another black spot on the ground. And another. They appear to be falling from the sky...

Looking up, he sees that the stars are slowly being covered by some...blackness. There's not enough light to make anything out, and what light there is is slowly being covered. For some reason he could not put his finger on, he suddenly felt he would be a lot safer if he could get the door open.

Around the parapets, a low groaning can be heard. On opposite sides of the tower, silhouetted humanoid hands reach up and grab hold of the ledge, as though pulling the rest of their bodies up behind them. They move very slowly, but fill the people above with a strange disquiet...

[Nesori]

The man takes a deep breathe before going over to the trapdoor's padlock. "I have a bad feeling about all of this" he tries to pick the padlock on the trapdoor with the hairpin.

[pirateking89]

"This is... this is... odd. I think we should get inside as quickly as possible..."

This one stumbles over to the wall and tries to touch one of the hands.

"By the grace of god, do you need help, friend?"

[omnitricks]

Something strange was going on, something which could be dangerous with the unnerving groans going about. Needing something to protect herself the woman ran straight for the other table with the tables and silverware to search for something that might be able to help.

[oblivion6]

"I don't like the looks of this at all." I muttered looking around him. Seeing the woman run to the table, I ran after her, drawing a hammer and chisel I had found on my person. They could be useful in a pinch. "Hurry! We should get inside!"

Spoiler

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GM: I can't check the character sheet right now, but I think it mentioned something about a hammer and chisel? If not, I will edit it out...

[Komodo]

Spoiler

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oblivion6: You did indeed find those items on your person.

[antonm1107]

I follow the guy's instructions and get inside.

[Komodo]

The man at the trap door quickly and nicely twisted the hairpin through the lock, and within seconds it was off. Giving the door a hard pull, he lifted it open. Inside was darkness, except for a few small torches along the wall. They showed a staircase revolving around the inside of the tower, slowly descending into the darkness. However, even in the dark, it was clearly broken at a few points. An unlit chandelier hung in the middle of it all...

Another of the men reached over and touched one of the hands. The arm suddenly recoiled and grabbed at him. He was quick enough to pull his own hand back, but not before receiving a nasty scratch. An aggressive growl resounded from the other side of the wall...

Looking for a means to protect herself, the woman quickly sought for something with which she might protect herself. Looking through the silverware on the table, she saw the knife was a butter knife and too dull to be of any use, and snatched up a fork instead. Its prongs seemed solid and pointy enough. Not a second to late, too, as she quickly felt something grabbing at her robe.

Looking down, she saw that she had stepped in a puddle of the strange black goo. Hands similar to those along the wall were reaching up from it and grabbing at her. That was not possible, the floor was solid stone... Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that the man who had taken the contents of the chest (Random_person) was also being held by these hands. The black liquid seemed to fall more quickly, like some type of sticky, macabre rain...

The man who had picked the lock, the man with the chisel, and another man jumped into the trapdoor. Looking around them, they found the first section of the stairs to be mostly collapsed, leaving a gap of maybe eight feet between them and the rest of the stairs. Across the way, on the intact part of the stairs, a lit candle rested in a firm-looking fixture attached to the stone wall. A short ridge remained along the wall, but one would have to move very slowly across it. Feeling the wall it seemed to have enough ridges to climb across, if one was daring or foolhardy enough to attempt such a thing. Of course, if one were feeling truly foolhardy, there was always the chandelier. Foolhardy...or possibly desperate...

Above them, the shouts of their companions struggling against the unknown rang into the night...

[pirateking89]

"Blast you!"
This one runs from the hands and tries to also escape down the hatch

[Komodo]

The one man descends into the hatch, grabbing his wounded arm, leaving behind the other two on the roof. Perhaps for the best: until they find away to cross over to the stairs across the gap, there really isn't room for another person on the cramped ledge with minimal railing...

[antonm1107]

"So... What should we do?" This one asks his companions.