Spa Town Horrors [Event]

It had only been recently that Xiaomin had arrived in Fiore from Midi. The spa town of Hosenka was to be her base of operations, however she seemed to have arrived while it was celebrating that foreign holiday of "Halloween." Though, perhaps it was incorrect to call it foreign here. Even if Hosenka was a city built by Midian immigrants. Technically speaking, she was the foreigner.

Rather than dwell on such distinctions, she had decided to take part in the festivities. Things like haunted houses did not particularly appeal to her, but it was a potential source of income for the future. Taking measure of it now would help her determine if and how it could be improved. So despite not really wanting to go in, she had forced herself to go to the haunted house being held within the pleasure district of the city.

“We recommend parental supervision for someone your age,” the attendant outside the attraction said to her. This garnered a glare from the petite crime lord in the making, and she opened her suit jacket to reveal the holster of a gun.

“What did you say?” she asked in a cold tone.

“I- uh, we-welcome to the great Hosenka Haunted House!” he said, practically falling over himself to open the door and disappear from her sight. Satisfied she had corrected the man’s insolence, Xiaomin confidently strode through the door to await whatever was within.

238 words
238 total

The member 'Xiaomin' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Normal Dice' :

Entering through the door, the diminutive mage began expecting the decorations. While she did not have much experience with haunted houses, she could see it seemed well constructed. The materials looked realistic, and as she moved from room to room it was certainly creepy. Actually it was super creepy. Wait, were those portraits following her with their eyes? No, that would be weird. Must have been a figment of her imagination. Trying to ignore the eyes that very definitely were following her, Xiaomin rounded the corner only to find clowns in scary makeup.

“Eeep!” exclaimed upon seeing them. After realizing she had let a strange sound escape, her face flushed a bit. It was a good thing there was no one else around, either she would have died from embarrassment, or the witness would have needed silencing. Not wanting anything to do with the clowns, she began to quickly walk in a different direction. Only to hear the sounds of their weird laughter following her. Her footsteps sped up, and so did theirs. She sped up again to the point of almost running, and once again they followed suit.

Feeling herself beginning to sweat, she dove into a side room where she found a mask. The mask was on some kind of altar, clearly meant to be important. Perhaps it was supposed to help with this haunted maze somehow? Hearing the clowns getting closer, she decided to not think about it anymore and quickly snatched up the mask. The moment she put it on and faced the clowns, they shrieked in terror and fled from her. It would see Xiaomin’s guess had proved correct.

After the clowns had fled, she began to feel strange thoughts entering her mind. Thoughts of self harm, or increased desires to harm others. Since she had not felt such emotions before, she could only guess that it was a side effect of putting on the mask. A theory supported by the fact that she could not seem to take the mask off herself. It was not that it was suddenly glued on or anything, her arms just refused to do the motions required.

Growing desperate, magic began to flow from her body and form butterflies in the air around her. With the quiet command of “flutter” they began to do just that, gathering around the edges of the mask. Each one was not terribly strong, but she had formed them with stronger than average wing strength, and glue like leg secretions that held them to the mask. Together they all began to try and fly away from their creator until there was a pop, and the mask came off.

Free from both the clowns and the mask, a sigh of relief escaped Xiaomin. During the struggle with the mask, she had missed that a new door had formed behind her. This was one distinct from the other ones in the maze, larger and with a distinctly magical feel. Understanding she was supposed to go through this door next, she opened it and continued her journey.

510 words
748 total

The member 'Xiaomin' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Normal Dice' :

(I’ve gotten 3 twice already, doing 1 instead)

Instead of an entire haunted maze, this door led her to a single room. It was large and completely covered in clothing, both on racks and on the flow. A single ghost occupied the center of the room, turning to look at Xiaomin as she entered.

“Oh my,” he said before floating over to her excitedly. “A visitor after all this time! You see, I am an eccentric fashion designer who died before I was able to complete the perfect outfit. Until I spy such a perfect outfit, I am unable to pass on to the next world!”

“I’m not interested in your life story,” Xiaomin replied rudely. She had no interest in dealing with ghosts, though she had to admit it was impressive the haunted house had managed to capture one. Though, really, who called themselves “eccentric?”

“Oh, yes, I guess you wouldn’t,” he said looking dejected. “Very well. Then if you wish to pass, you must use my wonderfully tailored garments here to assemble the perfect outfit, just like I attempted to do in life!”

“No,” she said finally. “My current dress is perfect as is. You probably just want to watch me undress, you pervert.”

“What!? No! I’m-I’m not a pervert! I just wanted… oh hells with it. If you won’t help me then you can just die!”

Angered by her insults, and refusal to help, the ghost flew suddenly into the nearest piece of clothing. Starting with that one, the various pieces of clothing began to come together as if they were being worn by invisible phantoms. Which, she supposed, was probably accurate. Fighting off a bunch of dirty laundry had not been on her list of things she expected to do today, yet here she was. Unfortunately for the ghost, she was not the kind of person he should have made his enemy.

“Flutter,” she commanded, summoning dozens of butterflies. The butterflies flew across the room and began landing on the clothing. Where they landed, they brushed their wings together, lighting up the flammable powder coating them. A butterfly would land, and within moments the clothing would burst into flames. In practically no time at all, all the clothes in the room were reduced to cinders.

“Noooooooo,” cried the ghost as the clothing was destroyed. Its wail of horror died out with the clothes, and once silence filled the room the door to the next room appeared. Barely even looking at her handiwork, Xiaomin made her way to the next room.

416 words
1164 total

The member 'Xiaomin' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Normal Dice' :

Instead of being filled with clothing, this room was filled with paintings. There was no visible exit, so for now she took some time to admire the works. Some of them looked like they could bring in millions of jewels, and briefly she wondered if stealing them might assist with her war fund. Ultimately she decided against it, more than likely the paintings were fake. Stealing fake paintings seemed like a good way to bring heat on herself, and it was too early for that.

Besides those beautiful pieces, many of the others were downright disturbing. They depicted horrific scenes of unspeakable violence, often with messy, frantic paint strokes. Not one to usually wilt in the presence of violence, even Xiaomin felt a chill run down her spine at the sight of them. Whoever had painted such work had clearly been a truly demented soul. Now she understood why this haunted house required parental supervision.

Just as she was passing one such painting, the lights began to flicker. When the flickering stopped, the paintings began to move. Not the actual object mounted on the wall, but the art on them. A knife wielding hand began to push itself out of one of the nearby horror pieces, blood dripping onto the ground as it did. Moving away to gain some distance, she turned to find a unicorn emerging from one of the masterpieces. Very quickly the room was filling with creatures both horrid and marvelous, with no escape visible.

Then she saw something that boggled her mind, as she spotted a staircase emerge from one of the paintings, the stairs leading up to a hallway. As this was the only painting that did not seem actively dangerous, Xiaomin hoped for the best and climbed up the stairs, jumping into the painting. Feeling a small bit of resistance, there was a pop and then she was inside the hallway. Looking behind her, she could see a wall sized painting of the room she had left behind. In it, the creatures still continued moving toward her.

Not wanting to stick around to see if they could pass through the painting as well, Xiaomin began to walk quickly down the hallway. At the end, she found a door much like the last one she had passed through. Without even taking the time to look behind her, at least partly because she was afraid of what she would see, the short mage ripped the door open and jumped through.

414 words
1578 total

The member 'Xiaomin' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Normal Dice' :

The next door left her outside, but a quick glance around told her it was nowhere near Hosenka. Instead she was in the woods somewhere, standing before a rundown mansion. Approaching the door with trepidation, she spotted a sign that clearly stated “KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN.” Well, that was not ominous at all.

Unfortunately there did not seem like any other option. With this sign here, it was obviously intended for her to enter the mansion and deal with whatever was inside. So reluctantly she entered, where in the foyer she spotted two large statues. Wait, actually they were just standard angel shaped statues. They only seemed large because they were over a foot taller than her. Even inanimate objects mocked her!

Both carried something in their hands, what looked like it might be candy at first glance. Beyond that nothing seemed strange about them… wait did they get closer? No, they seemed solidly in place-ah! They moved again! With a startling realization, Xiaomin realized they jumped a tiny bit closer every time she blinked. The words on the front door surfaced in her mind, and now she did her best not to blink. An essentially impossible task.

Racking her brain about what to do, she took another look at the treats. They certainly felt out of place being held by statues, but what was she supposed to do with them? Getting close enough to grab them might be the solution, yet if that was the case then why was she supposed to keep them from approaching? All she could think of was trying her magic, so she called some butterflies with a shaky “flutter.”

These butterflies were strong, and she sent them forward to try and lift the treats. The moment they touched the candies however, a magical barrier formed around them and destroyed the magic butterflies. Hmm, if they were protected, then maybe the point was to destroy them. By now the statues had started to come uncomfortably close, barely a few feet away. On the other hand, this made aiming easy. Pulling out her silenced pistol, she shot the first treat three times. The bullets shattered the shield, and once the treat was blown away the statue began to crumble. Turning to the other statue, she repeated the process.

The treats gone, the door in the back of the foyer opened. Sliding the gun back into its holster, she gingerly stepped over the rumble from the statues, and made her way through in a hurry. By now her nerves were thoroughly shot and she wanted out of the haunted house. Emerging through the door, she found herself (surprisingly) back at the entrance. The man who had let her in, turned and smiled. “Did you enjoy your time?”

Now wanting to be seen as weak, she quickly got herself together and put on an expressionless face. “It was adequate,” she said with forced calmness. Giving the man a small nod, she turned and went back down the street the way she had originally come. Silently she swore to herself that next time she would get someone else to investigate the haunted house.

522 words
2100 total