001-003 » a chilling mathias welcome

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: The east end of Mathias, along the waterfront.
WHEN: Days 001-003
WHAT: The newest residents of Mathias Township are welcomed with a storm.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: A small love letter from your mod. This spot can be used for plotting.

RECOMMENDED ♫ Deadly Avenger "Mara"

DAY 001
THE ARRIVAL BEGINS

Is it the whooshing crash of waves on dark jagged rocks that wakes you? Perhaps. It might also be the near-continuous rumble of thunder growing closer every second, the vibrations almost seeming to come from the wet sand beneath your hands. Or maybe it’s the shivering of your own body as water recedes from the pebble-covered shore, the cold sinking into your very bones as a chilled wind picks up. It could be any of these things that rouse you from a deep slumber that leaves you feeling groggy and out of sorts--

But it’s the fear that gets you moving. A deep, intense terror grips your chest and squeezes the breath right out of you, and you know without a shred of doubt that you have mere minutes before whatever it is you’re so afraid of arrives on that stretch of rocky beach to greet you. Even if you want to stay rooted to that spot and faced it head-on, your body betrays you, a survival instinct etched into your genetic code forcing you to seek shelter.

Welcome to Mathias. You should probably run now.



THE STORM ARRIVES

When the storm crashes into the small township, it's hard to remember what life was like before it. The ocean becomes a raging thing, waves rising and falling as if trying to attack whatever they can reach along the coast. Any foolish enough to venture along the beach have no hope of surviving the encounter; their bodies will be swept out with the current, gone in the blink of an eye.

The wind is a howling beast, screaming between buildings and driving spikes of cold into any crevice it can reach. The rain is just shy of freezing, every drop like a shard of icicle trying to itself into your skin. It will bite at your nerves and leave you shaking if you stay out in it too long, so you had best get inside if you haven't already. You certainly don't want to attract the attention of the lightning that arcs in the sky like a vengeful god ready to unleash its wrath.

The Grey Gull restaurant sits at the edge of the town along the beach, and just a few yards away are two parallel rows of houses lining what might be a picturesque street if the world weren't beginning to resemble an apocalyptic landscape.

Move quickly, and choose wisely.

DAY 002
THE STORM RAGES ON

The storm has somehow become even more violent overnight. The world outside your shelter might be trapped in an endless night, for all you can see through the thick covering of storm clouds. Lightning continues to streak across the sky, thunder following almost immediately in its wake, threatening just how near those spikes of electricity truly are. You can see them touch the shore at times, even the street between the homes, but never the buildings themselves. A blessing, perhaps, or an oddity to take note of?

Some may be foolish enough to try venturing outside. They are welcome to, of course, that is their right, but the rain is still like ice and that lightning is so very near. You may try heading further into town, and you can certainly see buildings beyond this row of houses, but should you walk toward them...

Well. It is far from a pleasant experience. Exhaustion sinks into your bones so quickly that it leaves you reeling, and every second you push through it makes you physically ill with a feeling that you might collapse at any moment. The second you turn away from that path, however, you feel infinitely, and even more so each step back the way you came.

Something wants you to stay where you are. Perhaps you should.

DAY 003
THE CALM DESCENDS

The third day begins much as the second, with waves crashing upon the shore and thunder booming with such force that the ground seems to shake. It feels very much like the world might end right there, torn apart by a force of nature unlike any seen before. Any who venture outside at this time are almost immediately afflicted with a terror so intense that they can make it no more than a few yards or the short distance to cross a street before they become incapacitated by the fear that sets their heart beating dangerously fast. The term scared to death may very well become literal this day.

And then, suddenly it stops. The rain, thunder, lighting— all if it just stops and the silence that fills the night is deafening. There are no sounds of life within the town, no car motors or dogs barking or the voices of anyone beside those new arrivals in the immediate vicinity. In fact, none of those things even exist in Mathias. There are no cars, no animals or insects, no other people. There is just... emptiness and silence.

It may be best to wait until daylight to move further inland.



THE NIGHT DARKENS

For those who are foolish enough to leave the relative safety of the cluster of houses near the Grey Gull, they will find their journey quite chilling, in a very literal sense. There is another row of houses beyond where they had been, branching off on either side into a neighborhood. There are no lights on in any of these homes, though there are occasional streetlights illuminating their way. But as they continue further, reaching a third block of houses, those lights begin to dim, until they have gone out completely, and what had previously been a simple fall chill becomes biting cold as the temperature sharply drops.

In all of this, there is silence. No sounds travel through that night air to comfort them, and even looking up to the sky stretched out above them offers little reassurance. That sky is black, without a single star and not even the faintest outline of the moon to guide them. All that reaches them here is the barest hint of light traveling from the way they've come. The longer they linger outside in this place, the colder it will become, and any light they carry with them will slowly begin to dim as well.

Truly, they should have waited until the sun rose once more.

---

LOCATIONS

THE GREY GULL is what one might expect of the most frequented restaurant in a small coastal town. The wrap-around porch is lined with white chairs characterized by peeling paint. Exposed wooden walls and worn seating speak to its many years of existence, and the mishmash of décor confirms that the owner never much cared for how the place looked. What mattered here was the food, and faded chalk menus advertise soup specials and a daily pie. The bar appears to have once been well-stocked, but all the bottles remaining are unfortunately empty. There is, however, quite a bit of food in the kitchen that is somehow as fresh as if it were purchased that day.

The second floor of the restaurant is a sparsely furnished apartment. There are no personal items to be found; perhaps it was waiting to be rented out to someone.

THE HOUSES are well-kept, middle-class homes, four lining either side of the street. Their doors are unlocked, windows unshuttered, and everything within feels like the owners might return at any second. There is running water and electricity, fresh food in the fridge, photographs on the wall... but also dust everywhere. If you didn't know better, you'd say the place had been abandoned for years, and yet nothing has aged. It is both strange and unsettling, and yet no matter how hard you search, no answers may be found within these homes.

What can be found within them, however, is a phone. One single black phone within a main room of the house, and beside it, a list of handwritten numbers and names that have been crossed out.

1302 8-5491 Thomasen
1304 8-9256 Lyrie
1306 8-4712 Anders
1308 8-3201 Mulcalley

1301 8-0415 Sanderson
1303 8-6762 Reese
1305 8-9132 Evers
1307 8-9025 Hirano

Should your character choose to shelter in one of the houses, you are welcome to choose the features of that particular unit. Please reply to the comment thread below with the details you decide upon, specifying the house number in the subject line.

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Comments

[waywardsister]

What kind of things can we find rummaging around the houses?

Pen, paper, cooking utensils, paper clips, occult spell books, keys to the house/rooms, other things of note?

[villagemod]

I see what you slipped in there.

The houses are fully furnished and filled with everything you would find in a normal home in the 1990s — including clothes, pictures, and personal effects of the prior owners. Really, they look like their owners might walk in at any second, except for a nice gross coating of dust all over everything.

So no, no spell books, but yes to everything else!

[waywardsister]

Awesome, thank you so much <3 I assume that means after claiming/searching a house, we can then subsequently lock it?

Weirdly specific follow question re: Anders House:

How about diaries from the former owners?

And: Any chance I can get some details on the pictures in Claire's house, so she can get an idea on who lived in it before?

[villagemod]

The house may be locked, yes! Keys will be located on a table/counter, hanging from a hook, etc., in an obvious way. The houses do have generic locks, however, so they may be easily picked by anyone with the tools and know-how.

The Anders house was occupied by a young couple with a little boy who looks to be too young to have attended school. His room has a good stock of toys and a mural painted on the wall of the old west (he really liked cowboys). The third bedroom was a guest room with no personal effects.

There are no diaries in the house, but there is a baby book for little Evan. He was born March 14 (smudged year) and baptized in April at the Old Church. The certificate of his baptism is folded and tucked into the baby book — there are signatures from the parents (Sam and Shirley) and the officiant, along with a strange spiral symbol in the corner, all written in dark red.... ink?

The photos: A handful of wedding photos and many baby photos.

[waywardsister]

Lockpicking you say....

Speaking of locks: Anything in the house and/or garage conspicuously locked?

Speaking of the garage: Car y/n, anything noteworthy about it, do keys exist?

Lastly: That spiral symbol - can she copy that into her notes without issue, and can she find it elsewhere in the house at all?

Also also, just because she's check: Silver, iron, salt - can she find stuff made of it? Bonus: Any cold spots in the house? (Again, she'd check, feel free to do a quickfire "no" and "holy shit stop asking questions" ;) )

edit: last one, I promise: Any flash lights?

[villagemod]

Regarding locks: Depends where she looks.

Regarding garage: No car. The door is automated, the kind that would use a remote in a car to open. There are some tools on a tool board on the wall and a shelf of various repair supplies.

Regarding the symbol: It can be copied with no issue, but not found anywhere else in the house.

Supplies-wise: A few silver items are throughout the house (a piece of jewelry, a set of candlesticks), iron found in the tool area, and salt in the kitchen cupboard.

No cold spots in the house! For flashlights, see the note about provisions on the setting page.

[waywardsister]

Locked things: Mainly in the master bedroom and garage. If there's anything like a "hobby corner", there too. Anything like a safe, lockbox, locked drawer, hidden occult ritual chamber, y'know, the usual.

Can I assume there's something like a basic backpack of some sort she could snatch out of a closet? Because she's gonna scavenge candles, a crank flashlight, first aid kits, salt, something iron, something silver and a few kitchen knives for future explores that will totally go well.

Given the weird symbol, she's also going to take a cursory glance at the titles of any books in the house, to see if the family conveniently has something along the lines of "Cults 101" lying around - or indeed anything on the shelves/in desks/drawers regarding the town of Mathis itself, like a map of mathis, picture book, chronicle.

[villagemod]

There are no such locked things in these areas.

Yes, either a backpack or a duffle bag could easily be found in a closet. Indulge those scavenger tendencies.

There are no Cultist Handbooks or town maps to be found in the house, though there is what appears to be a weekly newsletter stuck to the fridge. Articles include mention of the elementary school's PTA bake sale and the spectacular results of a recent charity clothes donation drive, where nearly every member in town helped to fill town hall with their old, gently used clothing.

[torsion]

Skirting off this, Jill came in with a lockpick set and could make due otherwise as she's an expert locksport. Is there anything particularly that might be in a safe in a house or anywhere that might be a little less than rudimentary to get into (I don't mind having her fail, even if it's due to ~magic plot~, but I enjoy using her skills) or may be beyond what's in her modest set/electronic, maybe?

[villagemod]

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you on this!

There is nothing to yet be found in this particular area, but stay tuned for the next log...