Iron Mansion Trouble! or That Time a Flying Sandwich Changed Fate![Event]

Halloween was still a sort of newish thing to Rhia, while it might have been practiced in Ca-Elum, her hometown didn't participate at all.  She did really like the aesthetic, except for all the skeletons, those made her skin crawl.  Since she entered the city earlier that day, she’s been dragged into several shops by hawkers, seen large street performances and bought too much stuff… It's been one sight after another, but one particular thing kept calling her.  A sign that seems to be posted everywhere, and as far as she could tell, ignored by everyone.  She had no intention of going,  but there were just so many signs.  As she turned down another street sure as the sun, another sign:


”Have I been following these signs?” It seemed to be pointing to the multi-level building just down the street, most of the windows were boarded up, some of the metal inner frame jutted out of the brick facade, the structure looked out of place among all these mre squared buildings on the street. And seemingly nailed above the front door was a painted piece of wood with the word ‘HAUNTED’ painted on it in red. Huh no line lucky me. She was unsure just when she decided doing this was a smart idea but she was very much committed now.  The large, spotless glass door swung freely open as she entered the lobby and closed soundlessly behind her, blocking off all light from outside.  Her arms crawled with goosebumps, she pushed the feeling aside and took the room in. Velvet ropes covered in cobweb led a queue through the room up to an unmanned box office, two tickets sitting on the counter.

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The member 'Rhia Lestae' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Normal Dice' :

Once again, Akio found himself traveling the world hunting for fugitive mages from the Pergrande Empire. Under other circumstances, he might have welcomed the chance to explore the world and see the sights. However, as the circumstances always seemed to involve entering enemy nations, it was surprisingly hard to relax.

Today was not different.

Halloween, or really most holidays, did not excite the Imperial Paladin. He could understand the appeal for children, but he would much rather be relaxing at home with tea and a book. Instead he was tracking a smuggler to the port city of Reinford. The fugitive this time had arrived on a separate boat earlier in the day, and had apparently holed up in an abandoned mansion. Or at least the mansion was supposed to be abandoned.

The copious amount of advertisements leading to it and the somewhat suspect sign hanging above it led him to believe it had been converted into a Haunted House. It made some sense, it would be cheaper to use an already decrepit building rather than decorate a nice one. Whether this meant his smuggler had gone elsewhere or was using the house for cover, he had no idea. Well, as he did not have any other leads there was no choice but to enter.

Once he was through the glass door, he was surprised by it closing and cutting off the light from outside. It was a curious effect, which could only mean magic of some kind was involved. This immediately put him on his guard, though he left the blades strapped under his coat in their sheaths, hidden for now.

Inside he spotted a woman who he first thought might be part of the haunted house. When he saw that she seemed out of place, he changed her identity to possibly being a reveler come for some fun. Moving up to her, he gave a slight Midian bow and let his accent come through a bit stronger, as he usually did when undercover. “Greetings, I take it you are also here to enjoy this haunted house attraction? I am Akio.”

Then he looked around and spotted a pair of tickets waiting for them. Another strange occurrence, though perhaps he should start considering that the normal for such an event. “Well, it would seem we need these to continue.”

Upon picking up the ticket, a doorway opened at the end of the lobby. Obviously this was where they were meant to go. When he entered, he found the strangest party he had ever encountered, being held by what appeared to be… ghosts? A chill ran down his spine when he saw them, only for the twinge of fear to be dispelled once they started talking.

“Yoooooooo!” one of the ghosts yelled. “Welcome to our humble abode dude and dudette. You’re just in time for that dance off! Come on, show us your moves. We’re not letting you through otherwise, you dig?”

Unsure of what to do in this situation, Akio turned to look at his companion.

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Slowly walking through the lobby, Rhia brushed her fingertips on the velvet ropes. As she arrived at the box office and before she could decide what to do with the tickets, the silence of the room was broken by another visitor.  Oh, he’s one of those southerners, how do they work again? Her thoughts were cut off by his introduction. [color=#d1c1f2]”Oh! I-I guess? Hi um, Mr. Akio, Most people call me Rhia, but if You prefer Ms. Le’Stae works too.”[color=undefined] She nodded and followed him into the next room.

More goosebumps, she saw ghosts in this room, they can’t be real. Well, at the very least they shouldn’t be malevolent and now a dance invite? She blinked a couple times as Akiogave her a look, while his face didn’t say it, she knew he was trying to say: ‘you do it’. She took a deep breath and silently sighed before stepping into the ‘crowd’, at the last second she grabbed Akio’s hand to drag him in too.

”Just follow my lead”  She slid herself around to Akio’s back, miming drawing a gun, her hand shaped into a pistol, from her hip, she held it with both hands at face level, gun hand pointed into the air.  When the next song started she hip checked Akio and attempted to match her movements to the beat, spinning her right arm counterclockwise while moving into a kneeling pose, facing left of her start.  Then she started pretending to shoot ghosts, slowly standing as she fanned her shots to the right.  After the final shot, now fully standing, she mimed spinning a pistol by the trigger guard before going into a one handed cartwheel, her cape fanned itself in the process looking like the wheel hub. She dumped the imaginary cartridges while inverted. Both arms shot to the side as she came to a stop, then the next beat hit, her elbows pointed out to the side, she snapped her left hand to her belt and her right behind her head, followed by a small jump, hands straight to her sides and landing with ehr ‘gun’ in the holster on her hip and her left hand pointing at Akio. She just now noticed he was not really following her movements. She took that moment to cover her look of surprise by pretending to be shot, her hands went to the ‘wound’ on her chest. Rhia stumbled a couple steps, and fell backwards into a roll. Halfway through the maneuver she kicked her feet out and flexed her neck to spring back to her feet, her elbows fully extended to the side but fingers touching by her chin, she smiled and tilted her head at the ghost who invited the dance.

“Whoa! Dudes! Whoaaaa…” The ghost exclaimed before fading into mist, the music in the room went suddenly silent, and the rest of the ghosts poofed back into the ether.  What was a messy room full of snacks and drinks was now a nondescript grey room with a single light source hanging from the ceiling, the only hint of the previous party was her own sweat, and the faint smell of stale beer hanging in the air.  ”What? She looked around seeing only a single doorway to exit the room, her movements left her slightly disoriented as to where the entrance was. ”I guess that’s the next room?”

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The member 'Rhia Lestae' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Normal Dice' :

Unsure how to proceed, the Imperial Paladin found himself dragged into the room by the other guest and told to follow her lead. Expecting a more traditional ballroom dance, something he was familiar with, she instead began to make the most bizarre and impossible to explain motions he had ever witnessed. Without a clue as to how to proceed, he began performing a sword dance, sans the sword. Ultimately their mismatched dancing seemed to meet the approval of the (somehow) stoned ghost and they were allowed passage to the next room.

The instant he entered, Akio found himself surrounded by nothing but darkness. This latest for a few moments before his eyes began to adjust and he noticed a single light in the distance. With no other options, he began walking toward the light. When he grew close enough, he saw that it was a campfire attended to by a fey creature of some kind.

“Tell me a story to chill the blood, or forfeit your soul,” it said.

Taking a seat at the campfire, Akio tried to recall a story scary enough to satisfy the creature. He considered himself well read, but horror stories were not among his usual selection. Finally he gave up on thinking too deeply and began to recount a story of eld from Midi.

“This is a story about a young prince who’s life was turned upside down. While visiting a local park and participating in some local sports, he was absconded by some local trouble makers. Unfortunately he got into a fight with these troublemakers, and while he was not harmed, his mother became afraid for his safety. He was then sent by carriage to the domain of his aunt and uncle for safety. Here the prince was given a fresh start, and it would eventually become the location of his throne.”

The fey creature looked at Akio once he had finished his story, its expression impossible to read. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, began to speak. “That story was… absolutely terrible. You have failed. I shall now take your soul!”

As it screamed, the fey creature then transformed into a monster and charged. In response Akio rolled backward out of the attack, drawing his fold out katana from inside his jacket. He jumped backward to create some space between them so he could assess the situation. His opponent now had four pincer-like arms, and the kind of legs one would expect from an insect.

Using these legs, it jumped at him with incredible speed, swiping with its arms. Skillfully he deflected them with his swords, keeping the fight to a stalemate until he found an opening. Once that opening came, he dodged inside the reach of its arms and drew his swords across his body, cutting the creature in half. The two halves fell to the ground and began to fade away as the fire suddenly roared into a massive plume, before dying out and revealing a glowing door.

“I guess that means we passed,” he said nonchalantly, like he had not just fought a horrific creature.

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The member 'Akio Kahoshi' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Normal Dice' :

The next room was near complete darkness, it felt familiar. Rhia closed her eyes recalling several times camping in a forest on cloudy nights, could almost feel a light breeze and smell the campfire.  No, the breeze had more mass behind it, and the ground crunched in a way that was almost entirely unlike dry leaves, there did turn out to be a campfire so she wasn’t imagining everything.  She and her companion walked towards the fire and Akio decided to tell a story, the scariest part was that he decided to tell it.  What even was that? And now we’re fighting

Rhia hadn’t prepared any combat shells today, just a couple paralyzers and a noisemaker.  She left to the side and stopped with left foot out to a shoulder width, and moved through a couple poses to draw her Caster and a noisemaker shell, loading it and locking the breach in one motion.  She saw her chance lined up and triggered the shell.  It was nearly silent with a puff of glittery yellow smoke, or at least it SHOULD have been yellow and glittery, in this darkness it would be impossible to tell. The spell impacted with no visible effect, but the sound of a heavy creature running from not too far off toward the point of impact was impossible to ignore.  The fey took the bait, to fatal results.  

The darkness faded away leaving an empty room with a single exit.  Rhia pushed her arms into a cross in front of her, tilted the Caster down and ejected the shell, catching it with an exaggerated stance, left arm straight in the air. She spun the ornate breach action pistol by the trigger guard and slid it into its holster, then casually walked towards the door sliding the spent shell into her belt. She sighed and looked back at Akio before responding.

”Seems so, what was up with that story? Don’t they have ghost stories where you’re from?” She wasn’t quite matching his nonchalance at that monstrous fey, and she knew it.  

As she stepped through the new door, she was met with a fairly narrow, dimly lit hallway, blue hardwood floors and green walls lined with darker green doors.  At the end of the hallway was a hulking thing, a large spherical head with a skull visible through a round opening in the front, a cylindrical torso with bulky and similarly cylindrical arms and legs.  The door behind her slammed shut.  The thing shook to life and started to pulse with a green glow. It yelled something unintelligible, like a scream through water, a man drowning.  Skipping the normal preamble, Rhia quickly drew her Caster worked the breach and loaded a paralyzer shell and quickly fired from the hip.  Baby blue flower petals exploded from the barrel with a -FWIP-. The shot passed right through the creature, like some sort of…

”G-G…G-G-G-Ghost! Like, we gotta get outta here!  She yelled, still pointing her Caster at the thing.  She threw open the first door she could reach and dashed inside only to exit into another hallway moments later, even closer to the ghost, she dashed across the hall into the door opposite, the ghost now gave chase.  In her panic she hadn’t noticed the couple second delay between entering a door and exiting the next, or that they all seemed to empty into the same hallway.
The next door she opened she decided to go to the door to the left of the one across the hall, which exited into another hallway, but the ghost somehow exited in front of her and running away into the door opposite, she felt the need to give chase, something didn’t seem right. Upon exiting the next door, the ghost in front of her came out of the door to her front right, how is that possible? They entered through the same door, from the same direction, it turned to continue chasing her. She lept around it and entered the door it had just exited, only to exit another door into a hallway face to face with… herself?

Rhia peered into Rhia’s eyes with a confused look, meanwhile Rhia reached out with her hand as if testing for a mirror, only to touch Rhia’s face, the other Rhia most certainly did not copy this act.  The ghost entered the hall three doors down and started to give chase, before also coming to a stop, seemingly in confusion.  Both Rhia and Rhia turned and looked at the stunned ghost, then back at each other. Rhia pointed at Rhia and back to the door behind herself, Rhia nodded and the two cautiously walked past each other into the door the other had just exited. It led to a room with little more than a banner reading “Congratulations” over another door. [i]This better be the exit.[i] Luck was not on her side.

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The member 'Saiko Akai' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Normal Dice' :

Arriving in the next room brought a hallway with way more doors than any one hallway had business having. Given how close they were together, the rooms on the other side couldn’t have been wider than where they currently stood. Architecturally it made absolutely no sense. Putting aside that this hall had likely been created by an architect rather than an engineer, Akio could not help but notice the imposing figure at the other end of the hall.

His hands went to the hilts of his blades, but paused when Rhia let out a shot from some strange gun. It looked more like a spell going off than a bullet, which caused him to reevaluate the threat this woman posed. That was a line of thought for later, because more pressing was the fact that her attack had no effect on the creature at the end of the hall. It was clearly a ghost like she yelled, but decidedly less friendly than the ghost bros they had met at the dance contest.

Realizing his blade likely would have no effect on the ghost, he followed suit entering the door behind the mage girl. Only to find himself standing outside a completely different part of the hallway from her, somehow even further down the hall than the creature had been. Thoroughly confused, he entered another door only to come out in yet again another part of the hallway. There had to be some kind of trick to these doors, but they all looked identical and all seemed to lead to a random place.

Now he moved quickly from door to door, trying and failing to find a pattern as he went. His movement only stopped when upon entering one door he was greeted with a large brown dog. They both stared at each other in surprise, before turning around and going through different doors. This pattern seemed to continue until Akio, now wearing a cape for some unknown reason, found himself in a different room for the first time. A kitchen, of all things.

In a room for the first time since arriving in the hall, he took a moment to assess his surroundings. The kitchen seemed fairly large and professional, fully stocked with food. On the counter sat a most strange looking sandwich. Strange, because there appeared to be a cartoonish bundle of dynamite between the slices of bread. Dynamite with a timer attached to it.

A timer that was counting down.

Distracted by the bomb sandwich in front of him, Akio did not notice the ghost enter the kitchen until he heard its bone chilling groan. Thinking quickly, he picked up the plate with the sandwich and threw it frisbee style at the ghost. The moment it left his hand flying toward the specter, he opened up the kitchen’s fridge using its heavy doors as a shield. There was a massive blast that shook the room, and when the paladin looked around his makeshift cover, he found the ghost was gone.

Stepping back into the hallway, he discovered that all the doors but one had opened. Most of them now only led to small, closet sized empty rooms. One, down the hall where the ghost had first been standing remained closed.

“I think this is the door to the next room,” Akio said to Rhia. He then approached it, and carefully opened it.

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The ‘Congratulations’ sign was definitely mocking her, this door took her back out into the same hallway, yet again.  Rhia sighed and looked up and down the hall, no monster, great, now I don’t know where it…  The whole place rocked, plaster shook free from the ceiling here and there, and before her eyes all the doors but the one in front of her were now open, and definitely not the way out.  

”Yeah… What did, never mind, Let’s just get out of this hallway.”  She followed Akio through the door.

Her stomach pulled up into her throat, it felt like she was falling, but the air was still, her feet firmly, no not firmly, they felt like she was standing on marshmallows.  Now she was sitting down, Rhia assumed in a chair; her arms on a hard surface in front of her, a table?  The room was so bright it blurred her vision, as it cleared up she found herself sitting at a small table with a mismatched tea set, none of the colors, materials, or even size scale of the items matched each other.  

She struggled to stand up, her limbs were sluggish, and didn’t bend at the elbows or knees, but she eventually managed. Looking down, her head felt heavy, she was wearing a polka dot dress.  “Oh calm down darling, it’s just tea.”  A wooden doll spoke from the table and immediately after a massive spoon with Face drawn on it did too. ”Might as well panic, Lord Cedrick’s coming back, he’ll torture us, well, not me.”  The second voice was dejected, gloomy, almost as if it regretted not being targeted? Rhia pointed her hand, no, plush arm stump back and forth between the two seemingly animate objects.

”Who are you? What’s going on here? What happened to me? How do I fix this and get out of here?”  She shot off questions hoping these two would be able to answer at least one of them. ”In order? I’m Mrs. Yarlbaith and this is Porky. What’s it look like, having a tea party, hun. As for the others…”  Mrs Yarlbaith, the wooden doll, trailed off her tone slipping from genial to flat.  "You. Are. A. TOY. A psychopath’s plaything. You’ve no hope to escape unless you can convince Lord Cedrick to put you outside, or manage to get that window open.  Those aren’t happening."  The spoon, Porky, continued to speak in that depressing tone, it pointed at an impossibly large window next to a bed so massive it boggled her mind.  She took a moment to look for Akio, but gave up after giving it a few moments though, he’d likely be like her, unrecognizable.

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After stepping through the door, everything went dark. For a few minutes, Akio could not seem to move at first, but gradually feeling came back to his limbs. His eyes opened to find himself underneath a bed, though it had to be a bed for giants as its bottom stood several feet above his head. Attempting to get up, he found his movements to be far stiffer than normal. Eventually, he managed to flip himself onto his front which brought his hands into sight.

Alarmingly they appeared to be made out of plastic, and while there were ball joints to allow movement they did not give the same range of motion as usually. With some effort Akio was able to push himself to his feet, Taking stock of himself, he found his clothing had become plastic as well, though it was still soft and malleable. It would appear he was now a toy. How unfortunate. His swords were no longer metal, instead plastic like he was. Even though they remained sharp, he doubted they would survive any hard blow.

Looking around, he found that there were other toys surrounding him. Were they also visitors to the haunted house that had been trapped? As he walked by them, many were damaged. Some beyond repair. After passing a few, he came across a wooden doll whose face he recognized: it was the mage he had been hunting. Their body was burnt and gouged, any life that had been there was long gone. As he walked through, he saw the toys that had not been destroyed watching him. Their expressions were hopeless, which told him they had been suffering for awhile.

It was then that he felt the ground begin to shake. With a loud bang, a mountain sized door swung open revealing a child of impossible size. As he entered, he was laughing continuously while swinging a toy around its leg.

“What a happy child,” Akio commented to himself.

“That’s not a child!” held one of the damaged toys next to him. “Lord Cedrick is a monster! He’s the one that did this to us, and soon you as well.”

Deciding becoming a broken toy would make it harder to serve the Empire, Akio began planning how to get out of of this mess. Feeling inspiration, he turned and faced the other toys. “If we stay here, then yes he will destroy all of us. But we outnumber him. Alone, we are powerless, but if we act together then no foe can stop us. Now, will you sit here and await your death, or will you join me in rising up and fighting for freedom?!”

“Yeahhhhhh!” The toys cried as they climbed to their… whatever appendages they used for feet. With their battle cry they charged out from under the bed and attacked the maniacal child, which amounted to snapping at his ankles given the size difference. The child yelled in a panic at the toys attacking, apparently having been unaware that they were alive, and began kicking the toys away. Seeing a chance, Akio dove forward and stabbed in plastic blades into the boy’s foot.

“Hey, ow!” the boy screamed before picking him up and throwing him at the window. Akio’s plastic body broke through the class, at which point the darkness from before returned. When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying beside Rhia and a bunch of other people that must have been the other toys before they had gotten stuck. A few feet away was an open door, and outside of it he could see streets. The exit to the mansion. Dusting himself off, he turned to help Rhia stand.

“The haunted houses here in Fiore are far more dangerous than I expected. I will have to keep that in mind for the future. Well, I thank you for your assistance, but I think it is time for me to be returning home. Goodbye.”

Giving the mage a nod of farewell, Akio left through the door. His mission here had been completed, so it was time to return to the Empire and file his report. Hopefully his findings on the dangers of Fiorean haunted houses would prove useful as well.

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