antumbrac | WEEK 1

WEEK 1

Your hosts have come and gone, and have left you with nothing but more questions and a key. Regardless of how you reacted or what you decided to do soon after that, it’s a fact that the day must end eventually.

And so it does, with the striking of the clock. As the twelve gongs reverberate and disappear into the night, the rest of the city is left silent save for a chilly wind that skims the streets. Those who have retired to their assigned rooms will find that the furnishings are decent enough to get a good night’s sleep, while those who wander the city will only continue to see empty streets and fog. But regardless of how you spend the night, eventually it will become readily apparent that dawn will not be coming any time soon as the waxing moon continues to hang in the sky even as the clock strikes six or seven or eight.

No one’s stopping you from wallowing in bed or holing up in a building during this perpetual night, but there’s a whole city out there to check out and some interesting additions to the Opera House decor; don’t forget though, a cage is a cage and every good cage needs its bars. While a portion of the streets and buildings are clear, any intrepid explorers won’t find themselves able to get very far through the fog that surrounds them; anyone who tries to venture through will end up getting turned around and end up right back where they started. Still, there’s plenty of other places to check, even if the fog-shrouded buildings are more or less off limits. Fortune favors the bold, after all.

[[Welcome to Week 1! Feel free to make top levels at your discretion, and remember to note it in your header if you plan on investigating any locations. You can also now privately contact The Lady or Rembrandt at your leisure!]]

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[ Dammit—

Okay, wait. Wait. The outside is normal enough (aside from the lack of windows, that's weird), but what it's housing? Decidedly not. His treasure senses are tingling and now he gots to have it. Time to liberate that loot!

Before anything else, he'll feel the base to make sure there isn't any kind of mechanism the statue is sitting on. And to check if the statue is literally attached to the floor. If isn't and if it seems safe, he'll try to pull the ceramic piece out.

~~also is it a goddess statue, can he finally save??~~ ]

[ Depending upon your definition of housing or shelter, this probably qualifies. There isn't any mechanism the statue is sitting on, but feeling the base will reveal a texture he's probably familiar with: straw. Also while he's feeling about, there's five more ceramic figures inside, along with an even smaller rectangular shaped wood piece.

That aside, it does feel safe to pull out the first one he touched which reveals:

....well the statue is actually female shaped and in robes. Does Dragon Quest have Christianity or is Erik going to believe he actually rescued a Goddess? ]

[ Dragon Quest has a religion that's Close Enough that he probably won't think this is an actual Goddess. Maybe. Rule of funny will decide if he calls it a Goddess Statue later.

For now, hm, okay. Straw is weird. Rectangular wood pieces are weird. ]

Maybe I really should've picked up that lantern. [ Briefly he considers going back for it but, nah, let's continue bungling our way through this puzzle!! If it is indeed a puzzle anyway. Are all the ceramic figures the same shape and weight? What happens if he puts this one back inside and puts it on the wood piece?

Can the wood piece come out too, maybe he'll just take everything out!! ]

[Turns out the wood piece is firmly planted onto the surface. No matter how much he pushes or pulls, it stays solidly rooted there.

Putting the Maybe-Goddess-Statue on the wood piece makes there be a sound that's out of place: the sound of something metallic hitting wood. You may have pushed something around when you put that statue on there, Erik! Oh the wonders of doing things blindly.

Speaking of that Maybe-Goddess-Statue, that's the lightest one around. Other ceramic figures are hunched over, but they feel heavier, much heavier. Huh! Want to try pulling one of them up?]

Well, well, now that's a good sound.

[ He knows the sound of a hidden switch when he hears it!! There must be treasure nearby! He was so right to come here, this is the best he's felt since arriving. Too bad there isn't actually treasure at the end of this hunt but, hey. He's enjoying himself and maybe that's a treasure in and of itself.

But okay, sure. There doesn't seem to be a downside to trying and failing (yet). If two statues can fit at once, he'll try the third heaviest statue and lightest statue at the same time. If only one statue fits, he'll try the second heaviest. If there needs to be a different combination, dammit.

If the heavy ones don't come up because they're too heavy, curse this puzzlemaker for not considering the physical limits of dextrous thieves!! ]

[Lifting the third heaviest statue shows what seems to be a shephard of some sort. Rugged, hunched over, with a lamb in his arms, it gets no results with the lightest one. The second heaviest, though -- a man with the same kind of robes than the Maybe-Goddess, does get better results. As soon as both statues are placed on the wooden structure, something snaps.

And snaps real bad. It sounds so loud it's immediately obvious Erik has broken something. Whooops. Way to damage invaluable church stuff, Erik, you have to pay for this.

But for now, it seems your hidden treasure is here. The wooden structure rolls forward, turning out to be a tiny manger, its legs broken due to the weight placed on it before -- and inside it, tied with straw, there's a key.

A modern-looking key with red handle; there is also a tag hanging off it it that reads "2".

Imagine a RPG fanfare in your head, Erik]

[ Prove it was him!! Can't make him pay when he has no money and you have no proof!! ]

And that... was a very bad sound.

[ Hopefully nobody heard that. He's out of practice with his thieving!! That or this was designed to get fucked up. He's going to pretend it's the latter, it's Fine.

He, uh, he quickly scoops up the key and decides that perhaps it is time to abscond with the goods. Anything else he needs to make note of before escaping? ]

[Nope, that seems to be it. The key seems to be completely out of place here in the church, so at least it's easy to deduce whatever it opens isn't located here.

Congratulations, Erik, abscond with the goods before someone sees you here. After all, this is Rembrandt prowling ground! He'll know you're breaking church property!]

[ It was like this when he found it!!!

Not that he's afraid of Rembrandt but he can't foot the bill for this destruction. Absconding now, they'll never be able to find him outside. ]

WEEK 1

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