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| Red stairs... |
5
– A Party to Questionable Events
Cement steps climb
through a stairwell filled with echoes of raucous laughter and
dissonant music. Sounds float from the space beneath the door along
with the flickering lights from shadows of movement. Tinged red, the
light beneath the door is dim, it casts the unpainted stairwell
maroon. Unlocked, the simple and unpainted wood door swings easily
open on well oiled hinges. Moving, dancing, talking, eating, and
drinking, anthropomorphic moths clothed in sheer dresses party with
humanoid lizards in shiny suits and slick wigs. If they become aware
of being watched, the music will stop with the hard rip of needle on
vinyl. If they are unaware of interlopers in their midst, they will
continue their party of dark drinks and mating rituals.
 |
| Never party with lizards |
[I want to include
an encounter that is can be resolved through talking or violence.
Perhaps link it to Chad's idea of the Moon Maiden. Maybe one of the
rewards she gives for the optional quest she gives is an object that
will smooth over relations between the players and party-goers.]
 |
| A rusted hatch to deep places. |
5a
– A Hatch to Deep Places
Degraded with the
passage of short ages, the hatch's black paint is blistered and
broken by eruptions of rust. Its latch is fused by rust, requiring
brute strength or ingenuity to open. [Require some kind of strength
test or other means of popping it open] A choir of screaming hinges
herald the opening of the hatch, the timbre to close to that to the
cry of a child. Bright light spills from the opening, revealing the
nature of the stairwell to be the one mundane site an insane maze.
Two passages split away from each other, the first stacked upon the
second. Once again, the down of the current position is in another
direction than the down of the way forward.
 |
| Watch your step. |
6a
– You Take the Low Road
Bucking and rolling
like the sea, the lower passage undulates as if it were alive. Walls
covered in wet paint the color of old linen, the scent of perfume
wafting from the fresh coat. A freshly waxed floor of checkered black
and white tiles give slightly with each wavering step. Bright light
pulses brighter in a steady rhythm, the timing of a visual heartbeat.
Each step risks unbalance and a fall, requiring a skilled grace to
avoid a tumble. [Insert some kind of Dex check or other skill check
to avoid falling]
[If they fail
whatever check, this is what happens]
With a speed that
exceeds normal thought and reflex, an arm forms from each tile
surrounding the fallen. Humanoid in form, and pliable as supple
flesh, the muscled arms of men and graceful arms of women embrace the
prone individual. No matter the form, the arms' strength is hard to
deny, requiring brawn from the victim of help from others. Echoing
off the walls, a sigh without gender rolls through the hall along
with a series of sudden shifts from the floor. [Another check is
required for the other people in the group not to fall and suffer the
same fate] After the sigh, the floor stills, now sated with it
catch(es). Those embraced soon find a mind slipping into a soporific
euphoria, as the body begins sinking onto a overly pliant floor.
[Victim has to make some king of save vs. poison or magic not to zone
out, friends and the victim have to make strength checks to pull the
arms away].
[If and when the
group succeeds at either not falling or escaping the floor's embrace]
Undulations roll
down the hall, risking a fall at every step for the graceless. A long
walk, made longer by the threat of hard embraces and euphoric
suffocation, leading to a downward view of two new diverging paths.
[If someone falls again during the 100 ft long hall, go through the
embrace effects again. Wash, rinse, repeat until the group is out of
the hallway]
 |
| A hallway smoothed with pearl. |
7
– And I'll Take the High Road
The upper of the two
paths has an obvious, but gradual, in the dip of its elevation. Its
yellow walls, checkered floor, and off white ceiling with its
fixtures all have a smooth opalescent sheen covering them. A myriad
of subtle rainbows unveil themselves in the light cast upon the
hall's surfaces. Corners and edges have been rounded by the substance
covering them, as if it was poured over the entire hall in one thick
coat. Perfectly smooth floors make movement difficult, though then
entire hall is dry. After a hundred feet the floor begins to dip,
spiraling down into themselves, though the direction of down still
stays with the floor. Within a dozen feet the spiraling become
tighter, making the curve of the floor more pronounce with the
direction of down still staying with the floor. As the inevitable
terminus approaches a gentle tick-tack can be heard in an
arrhythmic tempo, interrupted by a tiny bell and then a long zip.
At the near terminus
of the hall, a woman can be seen sitting at a desk, her slender long
fingers tapping away at the mechanical source of the tick-tack,
ding, and zzzzzzip noises. Behind her is a wooden door,
a window framed in its upper portion, lettering stenciled in gold
upon the glass' surface. Golden words read:
Edsel Q. Forsythia
Project Station Manager
[So, the 'secretary'
is actually a strange crustacean with moveable armor plates that
combine to make her look just like a lovely redhead in her twenties.
When in place, the plates do not move, so she always appears to be
bent over typing. Her voice would be 'normal' but having a hollow
quality, as if she was speaking through a short pipe. The players
should be given a chance to notice there are no legs or feet beneath
the desk. She will bar entrance into Edsel's office, since the door
is just another piece of moveable chitin. If pressed she will attack,
casting aside the desk to reveal a lobster like body with hundreds of
feeding appendages and swimmers below a vertically aligned mouth and
two black eyes on stalks. The 'door' is actually just the upper parts
of two HUGE pincers fitted together to appear like a door. The hall
is just the interior of the secretary crab's shell]
 |
| An all seeing eye. |
6b
– Eye Above, Floor Below
Same checkered
floor, same yellow plaster walls, same white plaster ceiling and
light fixtures, new direction for 'down'. Acrobatic skill is needed
to land and cope with the new sense of 'down', otherwise a hard fall
is the only other option. A few yards into the hall, its ceiling
opens up into a wide dome painted a midnight blue, its surface dotted
with light fixtures to simulate stars. Set upon a ledge opposite of
the entrance is a large eye-ball. Attaching the eye to the ledge are
movable silver struts, allowing it to pivot in any direction. Though
it is painted to appear life-like, closer inspection reveals it to be
mechanical, rounded rivet heads dotting the yard wide sphere. Lit
green, the iris expands and contracts as it regards the new
visitor(s). A pencil thin green beam of light is emitted from the
pupil aimed at the floor directly beneath it. Juddering and sweeping,
the light beam creates the illusion of green words flickering on the
floor. Unsteady green words spell out:
Please do one of the following
options, otherwise lethal force will be used.
1) Present Valid Process Company
Identification.
2) Halt all forward progress.
3) Return by the way you entered
into the area.
[So, I was thinking
one of the things the Moon Maiden can give the party is a valid
Process Company badge. This badge can be used to smooth things over
with the Moth and Reptile party in room 5. Otherwise the party has to
turn back or fight a laser shooting robo-eye.]
 |
| A climb through a mechanical heart. |
6c
– Through the Works of Restive Machines
Beyond the
mechanical gaze, the floor slants down to a larger, dimly lit space.
Tapping, clicking, and humming pervades the air while the form of a
large machine is resolved in scant light. Flush against the floor,
the smooth black face of the machine looms over the floor. It blocks
progress, requiring a climb of forty feet over the obstacle or some
way through it. [So, I was thinking of having a very difficult climb
check, or a easier check for secret doors]
[For a successful
climb check]
Atop the smooth
humming block, another machine can be seen before the slant of the
floor levels into another room. Black and vibrating minutely, the
surface is covered in small tessellated images of candles subtly lit
in the shifting hues of flame. Below is a short area of slanted floor
before the corkscrewing form of another machine.
[For a successful
secret doors check]
A panel slides
smoothly back and away into the machine, revealing a space the width
of a human and half as tall. It is lit in the hues of flame, the
colors shifting slower than any flame. Steel grating makes up the
floor of the space, the same light follows the space beneath the
floor down beyond the sight of a bottom. To either side of the path
through the machine are rows of black cylinders filling back into an
infinity that spreads beyond the boundaries of the machine. Each
cylinder is topped with a teardrop curve of wire that gives off the
colors of flame filling the room. A similar panel has slid away from
the far end of the passage, allowing an exit through the machine.
Another small
stretch of checkered floor, another machine rises up to block further
progress. Rotating planes of bundled wire orbit a smooth black
cylinder, the wire inwardly lit the color of fire. Spinning wire the
color of fire creates the illusion of a flaming crown surrounding a
black candle. It spreads to take up the entire width of the room,
requiring a jump between the wire to get beyond the obstacle.
[So, some kind of
dex or acrobatics check is needed to get beyond the obstacle,
otherwise they get burned by heated coils of wire. Maybe allow a spot
check and a to hit roll to notice a switch or machine box. To hit
roll to hit the switch or destroy the box to make the wire stop
moving. If they jump through then they will need a second roll to
get back out.]
Beyond the coils,
the floor continues to slant down until it levels out at the floor of
a large room bathed in shifting hues of prismatic light.
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