an admirable history

Through the silence and the darkness you suddenly hear a bloodcurdling shriek.

"WHAT THE HELL IS EVEN—A DRAGON? THIS HAD BETTER NOT BE—SIDNEY, PREPARE FOR A FIGHT, OKAY? GODDAMN THIS STUPID HOUSE!"

. . . there are four figures approaching from lower down on the hill: two boys in their late teens/early twenties, a pink-haired girl, and her unnaturally tall butler.

The pantry is cramped and dark, a single burnt-out lightbulb set in the ceiling, with a long swinging chain hanging down from it. The shelves are all empty (for some reason . . . now. . .), and the walls behind them are brick, and heavy with cobwebs, especially near the back.

"This is where the entrance is," says Bastien-in-Shuri, standing by the door as the others filter in. "But I'm warning you now, this isn't going to be pleasant."

He combs his fingers through the spiderwebs, irritably flicking a spider off his hand, and locates a switch behind a crumbling piece of brick. There is a dull click and something shifts on the floor.

A trapdoor is pulled open to reveal a drop straight down into darkness, with a rickety ladder along one side—it's a narrow descent into darkness, into which you will have to proceed one-by-one.

The hallway at the top of the narrow stairs appears to be—when you have a chance to look around—a dark and narrow hallway, probably for servant use of some kind, with white and undecorated walls and creaky hardwood plank floors. There is one door on either side of the hallway and the wall at the very end of the hallway is filled with a painting and blocked with a low table.

The two unusual kids here are now addressing the group—the older is a white-haired boy with bloody, bandaged hands, and the slightly younger girl has been returned to her wheelchair.

"Now," Maon is saying, "more tae th' point, though—a dinnae ken how come ye'r all here, bit ah think we're trapped in a house that means tae devour us a', so . . . ceud mìle fàilte! I'm Maon an' this is Sitara, an' I'm ever so happy tae see you! Let's allll try not tae die."

You wake up in the dark. The only light appears to be filtering in from outside—a full moon hangs high in the sky, but it's barely enough to illuminate the shapes and shadows of this narrow, cavernously high room.

Six beds line each of the two walls on either side of the room, with a narrow path down the middle. There is a large window at one end of the hall and what appears to be a door at the other, though the shape of it is lost in the gloom. A small stand is near the door; on it is a stone figurine of a naked man with his face in his hands.

By the window hangs a portrait; you can tell that the subject was an older man with only traces of dusty blond left in his white hair, and dressed elegantly in styles of the early 1700s, but you can't see the man's face as it has been smeared liberally with blood.

. . . this room may be somewhat familiar to one or two of you, but not entirely. Nor do any of you have any idea how you got here. There is a heavy sense of weight in the air—a low, ever-present buzzing behind your ears in the silence. Sera, you attach onto Robin's phone automatically.

The door has a red, glowing mark surrounding the knob, the only point of light in the room.

Might as well announce the next game right away! We are aiming to hold the next Demonverse on the weekend of September 6th-September 8th; this will be our Fourth Anniversary Game (yaaaay!). A full sign-up with details will come closer to the date, but please 'sign up' below to let us know if this date works for you (I mean, it would suck if we set a date and nobody can make it and we don't know until the week before).

Both new and old players are welcome to play! As usual:

✚ we can take about 15 players (give or take) per game
✚ we do try to give preference to returning characters, but we also welcome new sign-ups!
✚ (neither of these has been a particular problem lately, so generally speaking, if you want to sign up, please do, and if we think we can't handle it we'll let you know)
✚ characters who now "live" in Demonverse are not included in the cap—just let us know if you're playing or not!
✚ typically we run for ~4 hours a day during evening PST, but we usually run for extra long on the Saturday (starting earlier/ending later)
✚ if you're able to commit 4-5 hours per night during the timeslots, you should be good to sign up!

Please comment to sign up, with your email, your character, what game they're from, and your approximate availability! If you're unsure what kind of character to sign up, a general rule of thumb is characters who would be somewhat inclined to make CR with NPCs rather than characters who will be really resistant.

Let us know if there are any questions!