Chapter Text
It started with a knock on my door.
There was a postman with a letter from the lawyer of a distant cousin I never knew I had. Yes, "had" the letter was delivered with the intentions of informing me of his passing. Why me in particular? Because he had chosen me to inherit his estate. Said estate was a three-story mansion built in the 1920s. The house was fully furbished, had an amazing view, and was over all incredibly beautiful. After much consideration, I decided that I would move in, with the intention of auctioning it off to the highest bidder. However, the house had different ideas.
After moving in, I started suffering from terrible nightmares of monstrous creatures hunting me down with the intention of killing me. None of the dreams would end with me escaping, for the record. After my demise, I would wake up in a different place in the house from where I slept. Some of my personal belongings would be destroyed or missing entirely, and I would have ink stains on my hands. I tried sleeping in a nearby hotel once in hopes the nightmares would stop, but exactly the opposite happened. I had the worst nightmare of them all that night, and after dying I woke up in the house yet again. Not only that, but I was covered in bruises and cuts. One of those cuts in particular was on my forearm, and it spelt out a message I would soon take to heart.
"No One Escapes The Night"
Elsewhere, a certain mechanic girl could be seen opening her mailbox and pulling out a letter and package. "Woof. What the heck is this?". She walked back inside her house, opened the letter, and started reading. "Dear, Rebecha. You are invited to a enjoy a night of festivities at a mansion on a hill. In seven days, a car will arrive at your house to escort you there."
Elsewhere, the rockstar UmJammer Lammy is reading a copy of the same letter, addressed to her. "The p- party is themed after the 1920s, and guests are expected to wear provided costumes that equivalate to special roles that match y- you."
"Since the party is in the 1920s, you are also not permitted to bring any devices that would not fit in that era." continued Jenny Wakeman. "(Note: you as a person will be the only exception to this rule.)"
"I hope you enjoy the party. Best regards, Phantasma Manor." finished Flippy. He paused, debating whether or not he should go, before saying, "I got nothing better to do."
"Are you sure about this Moxxie?" Millie asked, "I mean, we don't even know who sent these."
"Any chance to go on a date with you without Blitzø interrupting is a chance I'm taking."
"Heh," Lizbert said, "might as well bring the party there."
"I gotta say Pim, this is one of the weirdest job requests we've gotten." said Charlie Dompler
"Yeah, but if going along with this party will make this person smile, I think it's worth it!"
Sure enough, as the letter foretold, a car visited each of the invitees one by one and drove them to the house of festivities. The driver was... weirdly silent the whole trip, which struck some of the guests as odd. As they arrived, the guests exited the vehicles and entered the beautiful house in front of them.
"Hi, I'm Moxxie, and I'm The Thespian."
"Hiya! I'm Millie and I'm The Bruiser."
"H- Hey I'm Lammy and I'm The Guitarist."
"I'm Flippy, The War Veteran."
"Greetings, I'm Jenny, The Automaton."
"My name is Pim and I'm The Optimist."
"Uhhh I'm Charlie and I'm The Pessimist... because of course I am."
"I'm The Explorer but you can just call me Lizbert."
"Woof. I'm Rebecha, The Mechanic."
Upon arrival, the guests began to converse with each other.
-{Confessionals}- "To be honest," Moxxie stated, "I'm already getting weird vibes from this place." Moxxie and Millie are seen casually chatting with Flippy and Rebecha, although M&M seem a little on edge. "We were under the impression the other guests would be demons also, so we didn't bring any human disguises,"
Millie, now in the confessional instead, continued with, "What's weird is that no one seems to mind that we're, ya know, MOTHERF***ING DEMONS!" Millie sighed, calmed herself down, and added, "Also that sheep with the red hair and yellow guy said they've 'been to h***' even though they're clearly not demons, which really confused me..." -{End Confessionals}-
Speaking of Lammy, she was standing away from the rest of the group, clearly feeling very awkward and stressed.
-{Confessionals}- Lammy said, "I- I'm feeling a bit o- overwhelmed..." Lammy gulped and continued, "I don't do very well with large crowds, unless I have my guitar, but I co- couldn't bring it because it didn't fit in with the 1920s theme." Making sure no one could see her, she slipped away from the center of festivities. "The only upside is they allowed gave me this old-fashioned one with my invite.. it makes me feel just a bit calmer, but it's just not the same." -{End Confessionals}-
"Wow Charlie, this house looks great!" said Pim, "And there's so many people here; if this doesn't make the client smile, I don't know what will."
"I'll admit, I was hesitant about coming here, but it seems everything's pretty chill here so far," Charlie said, nodding, "But on that note, where is the client?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure, maybe we should ask the others."
"Good idea."
Charlie and Pim went around asking the others if they know where the host was, but they quickly learned that not only did none of them know where they were, they didn't even know WHO they were. After learning this information, they spread it around to everybody, leaving everyone confused.
"Wait so you don't know the host either?" Jenny asked, bewildered.
Lizbert responded, "No, I thought at least one other person here did though."
"Woof. I'm starting to think I shouldn't have come here..." Rebecha said to herself.
Everything was just starting fall to chaos, and the guests had only been here for about thirty minutes. Little did they know, the chaos was only just about to begin.
Meanwhile, Lammy was at the second floor, trying to get some alone time from the large crowd. She thought she could just wait out in a bathroom of sorts until she was calm enough to go back. While looking for one she heard what sounded like banging coming from another room across the hall. Knowing that everyone else was downstairs, she was slightly bewildered. Ultimately, her curiosity got the better of her, and she cracked open the door to try and see what was inside, and what she saw inside shook her to her very core.
The room inside was completely empty, except for a man with blue skin in a suit with three chains attached to their hands and neck. She gasped in surprise at the sight, alerting the man to her presence.
"HEY!" he screamed, eliciting a louder, much more thrill scream from Lammy in return.
"NO NO NO! DON'T BE AFRAID! PLEASE, YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!" he yelled.
At this point the other partygoers had ran upstairs after hearing Lammy's scream.
"What's going on up he-" Flippy tried to ask, before seeing the chained man and interrupting himself, "WHAT THE-"
"WHO THE F*** ARE YOU!?" Moxxie yelled.
"Is that the host?!" Jenny exclaimed.
"Host?" he said, "Host of wh- oh.. oh no."
The host began having a total breakdown, "OH NO NO NO NO NO NO!!! PLEASE, YOU HAVE TO HELP ME!"
"Would you calm down? What in the Sam Hill are you talkin' about?" Lizbert replied
"Listen," he said, "I can't explain much right now, but my name is KM... The Savant and you all are in grave danger." He paused for a second, taking in all of the concerned and beguiled faces in front of them. He had no idea who any of them were, but at this moment in time, he knew they were the only things saving them from a fate worse than death. "The keys to my chains are hidden in the first floor, one in the dining hall, another in the lounge, and the last in the billiards room; find them and get me out of these things, please!"
-{Confessionals}- "I think we all debated for a second if we should help him." Jenny said, "I mean, everything up until this point was already weird enough, but now it's just reached a whole new level!"
The gathering are seen looking at each other and back at the chained man.
"Ultimately, we decided that desperation like that couldn't be faked, and we couldn't just leave him there." Pim said -{End Confessionals}-
"What are we waiting for!?" Lizbert said, "Let's go!"
The group decided to split into three groups in order to cover more ground. Group one consisted of Flippy, Lammy, and Rebecha; group two was made up of Lizbert, Moxxie, and Millie; and finally group three was Jenny, Pim, and Charlie.
Group one was in charge of looking through the dining hall.
-{Confessionals}- Flippy remarked, "So almost as soon as we enter the room, I notice there is one singular dish set up on the table, and when I open it it's filled with six peppers with numbers beside them and a note." -{End Confessionals}-
Lammy picked up the note and read it, "If you want the key to release the savant's left hand, you must in- ingest each pepper. One is the mildest and six is the spiciest. Can you beat the heat, or will you leave him in c- chains forever?"
"Woof. There's six peppers and three of us so we should probably eat two peppers each."
Lammy gulped and asked, "I- I don't really like spice, so is it f- fine if I just eat the first two?"
"Yeah, that's fine," Flippy replied, "I'll take the last one and work backwards; I think I can handle it."
"Guess I'm stuck with three and four. Woof."
Group one took a moment to gather their strength before taking the peppers. Flippy was the first to go, taking the sixth pepper, a habanero pepper, and placing it inside of his mouth. A grimace spread across his face as the spice began to fill his mouth, spreading across his tongue as if it were a platoon of tiny arsonists with the full fire power of the fiery pits of h*** pouring the most flammable alcohol and gasoline on his taste buds before assaulting them with flamethrowers. Despite the agony he was in he tried to play it off as if it was no big deal, in hopes that it would help the others eat their own spices. Lammy was next to eat her peppers, deciding to get it over with by eating both of her peppers at the same time. Immediately, her face turned as red as a tomato, and you could swear there was smoke coming out of her ears. After that, Rebecha ate pepper number three to much of the same effect.
"That's really f***ing hot." Rebecha said through the swelling tears.
"I know," Flippy replied, "I don't think I can eat number *hiccup* five after that. Mind if I take four and you ta- *hiccup* take five instead?"
"Sure, just make it quick." Rebecha wheezed out as she took number five and inserted it into her maw. After a typhoon of coughing and wheezing, she finished her pepper and sat down on one of the nearby chairs to calm down. Flippy stared at the number four pepper with dread, the state of his mouth was nearly indescribable as is and he knew this would only make it worse.
"I might re- regret saying this," Lammy uttered, "but if you split that in half, I'll e- eat that half."
Flippy looked at Lammy with an expression that mentally asked, "You sure?"
Lammy understood the look and nodded in response. Flippy, in acknowledgement, split the pepper in half and gave her a piece while he crammed down his own. Finally, the peppers were completed, and all of the consumers were left with nothing but an overwhelming wanting for death.
Suddenly, one of the nearby paintings on the wall opened outwards like a tiny door, revealing a hidden cubby in the wall containing a key and three glasses of water. Upon first glance of the water, the group rushed over to gulp down the fresh water and chase the spice building in their mouths.
-{Confessionals}- "That spice was h- honestly terrible." Lammy voiced, "But in the end, we got the key, and could free KM's hand. I just hope the others manage to find their keys." -{End Confessionals}-
Group one left the dining room to help KM, Key and water in hands.
Earlier, group two, consisting of Lizbert, Moxxie, and Millie, arrived at the lounge.
-{Confessionals}- "Gotta admit," said Lizbert with a smirk, "Whoever owns this place has a great sense for décor. Although, I do think sasquatch is a bit too mainstream, but hey, people like him so what can ya do?" -{End Confessionals}-
What she is most likely referring to was most likely the various paintings of monstrous creatures adorning the walls. Underneath those paintings were golden plaques containing the names of the creatures engraved into them as well as a small description of them and their history. The room was, in all honesty, a true beauty, although the same could be said about nearly every other room in the house.
After a while of searching around the room, Moxxie found both a box and a note hidden behind a vase on the mantle. "I think I found something!" he called out while examining the container. The box was a small crate that was kept shut with a five-letter combination lock. The combination was unknown for now, however the note did have some valuable information that could lead to it.
Lizbert, reading the note, stated, "To find the code that will unshackle the savant's right hand, you must solve the ciphers hidden by the cryptids. The key to solving their ciphers is hidden in a game of conflict. Once the key is in your hands, go clockwise from The Great Old One. Good luck."
"What the f*** does any of that mean?" Millie said bluntly
"I have no idea." Moxxie replied, "It said that 'the cyphers were hidden by the cryptids' so maybe it has something to do with the paintings?"
Agreeing with Moxxie's logic, the group turned their attention to the paintings. The cryptids that were featured were as follows: Mothman, El Chupacabre, Bigfoot, The Loch Ness Monster, and Cthulu. However, nothing stood out about the murals, aside from the uncanniness of some of their appearances. Noting that nothing was in the paintings themselves, Lizbert suggested turning their attention to the plaques underneath them, noting that between the informational anecdotes could be a hint towards the combination. Sadly, nothing could be found there either.
-{Confessionals}- "So me, Moxxie, and that explorer girl weren't findin' anything, until I took another look at the note and realized, no s*** we can't find anything, we don't have the key. So I was looking around for this 'game of conflict' and then, out of the corner of ma eye I see a shelf that has a bunch of board games on it. It just so happens, that one of em was called 'Warfare', and I'm thinkin that it's a game about conflict, so maybe it's the key." -{End Confessionals}-
Millie opened the board game onto the table as Liz and Moxxie gathered around to see what she was doing. The game was a appeared to be very similar to battleship, which struck Millie as odd because she didn’t think battleship was invented in the 1920s. The game was much bigger than a normal battleship game however, as there were five game sets instead of the normal two. What caught her attention even more was that some of the pieces, toy soldiers, were already placed. The most eye catching thing was easily that the names of the creatures integrated into the decor were on the top of the games. It was clear evidence the game was the key to solving the riddle, but how?
"Hold on,” Liz interjected, “lemme see something.”
Liz pressed the bottom-half of the game to the plaque underneath Mothman, revealing the two to have the exact same dimensions. From there, the team figured out that by using the soldiers on the board, they could single out certain letters in the tablets, which would spell out numbers which could be inserted into the code.
After discovering the solution to the puzzle, they used the key to decipher the code. Arranging the numbers in order of Cthulhu as the beginning point, then the numbers received by going counterclockwise around the room, they got 85385. Moxxie put the combo into the lock, and voila, the chest was open. The group fished the key out from the container and went back to KM to unchain him.
Pim, Charlie, and Jenny arrived at the billiards room. The room was nothing too special, especially when compared to the rest of the house. The most eye-catching thing was the big pool table in the center of the room, which was fully stocked with all the balls in the correct formation. What wasn't supposed to be on the table was a note, which Charlie picked up and read.
"To find the key to unshackle the savant's neck, you must input a code to receive it. The code itself is 222010121322, the problem is inputting it. As time will tell, the solution comes in pairs of two, both in the keys to help solve the puzzle as well as the code itself. Note that three of the keys will not be used. Good Luck."
"Alright... what do we do now." Jenny said.
"It said 'the solution comes in pairs of two', maybe we can start there." Pim replied.
"Good idea."
Starting from there, they deduced that the part of the note that mentions "The code comes in pairs." is referring to the fact that they might need to split the numbers in the code to, well, pairs of two. Now left with the numbers 22, 20,10,12,13, and 22 the group was left with a dilemma, where do they input those numbers and how?
"I mean if we're thinking rationally here," Jenny noted, "if we're trying to solve a combination in a billiards room with a pool table, we might need to use the numbered balls."
"Fair enough," Charlie returned, "but we don't exactly have balls that go up to the twenties."
Charlie was right; the balls only went up to fifteen, plus the white cue ball.
Luckily, Pim came to a revelation, "Well it said the keys also came in pairs so what if we add some of them up in pairs of two?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right, also by that logic, we should probably be putting them in the pockets."
"And!" Jenny remarked, "It said that 'time would tell' which if I had to guess, means we should insert them clockwise."
Now with a game plan established, the bunch began to tally up the numbers on the spheres. They could only use certain balls once, so they had to find combinations without using any repeating numbers. For example, they would use eight and twelve to get twenty, but later, after using various other cue balls, they found it hard to get to twelve with their limited options. So, to compensate, they would swap out the eight and twelve for six and fourteen so they could add the eight to four to get twelve.
-{Confessionals}- Jenny sighed and stated, "You know, all this adding would probably be a lot easier if I could use my computer like brain, but ever since arriving almost all of my... less than human abilities have been completely blocked off from my access." She squinted in an skeptical manner before continuing, "Everything about this place seemed fishy already, but now, it's messing with my software even though none of the obvious signs of sabotage are present." She stopped squinting, now donning a more worried expression instead, "I'm starting feel like we may have gotten into something far worse than what we bargained for." -{End Confessionals}-
Eventually, they got the correct combination, with the only leftover balls being fifteen, five, and the white cue ball, just as the note foretold. After sliding the balls into the right pockets, there was a slight pause, until a small, hidden door in the wall opened up, revealing, of course, a small key.
The puzzle solvers reveled in the spoils of their victory for a moment, before snatching up the the key and making their way to the second floor.
With every key acquired, all groups converged at the room where KM was chained.
KM's eyes lit up when he saw all three keys, and he began to vocalize his gratitude by yelling things like, "YES YES!" and "THANK YOU SO MUCH!"
"Alright, jeez calm down." said Charlie, "Let's get you out of here."
They quickly unlocked the chains keeping him confined, as he continued to scream. You could almost see tears of joy well up his eyes as the chains came off.
"Thank you all so much," he uttered, "Now let's get out of here!"
He tried to make a beeline for the door, but Liz blocked him from exiting. "Not so fast, buddy, we want some answers."
"Yeah!" Moxxie yelled, "What the actual f*** is going on around here?"
"Listen, I'll tell you everything you need to know when we're out of this place, but for now our main priority should be getting out here!"
"P- Please, we just want some answers." said Lammy.
"IF YOU GUYS HAVE A DEATHWISH FINE BY ME BUT LEAVE ME OUT OF IT!" He suddenly yelled. He pushed Lizbert to the ground and sprinted to the exit.
"WHAT THE-"
"DON'T LET EM GET AWAY!"
The group chased after the savant even as he was out the door and running to the car outside. All of a sudden, the driver that had driven each of them to the house suddenly ran out of the car in a panic.
"GET DOWN IT'S GONNA BLOW!" she yelled as she darted away from the machine.
Her unexpected presence was enough to make the group of people freeze in place. A good choice of actions really, as nothing could've prepared them for what happened next. The car detonated, completely destroying it. The guests were in a state of shock and the chauffer fell to ground because of the shockwave. Flippy in particular, froze in place, as yellow began to fill his eyes, before he was hit by a piece of debris that used to be the hood of the car, knocking him out cold. They all ran back inside the house out of fear panic, with Rebecha and Pim taking the time to drag Flippy's unconscious body in as well. Everyone was in a frenzy, but as they all rushed into the house for some sort of safety, one thing was on each of their minds.
Coming here was a huge mistake.