In the small town of Lovecraft, Massachusetts, there is a place called Keyhouse. The house contains many keys. Some open doors, some open boxes, some open…other things.
When he was a teenager, Rendell Locke and his friends discovered the keys and used them to have amazing adventures. But they knew that when they grew up, they would forget the magic, and Rendell had an idea – an idea that might let them hold on to a piece of it for the rest of their lives. Rendell’s idea went wrong, and when they opened up the wrong door, some of them died, and some were forever changed by what came through…
Twenty years later, Rendell is dead, the victim of a brutal spree killer’s attack on the Locke family. The survivors, seeking a fresh start, have come to live at Keyhouse. The house begins to wake up and to reveal its magical keys to the younger Lockes.
But something else wakes up too – a demon from the past who wears the face of one of Rendell’s friends, and will do anything for the keys.
ΩΩΩΩ
Teetering on the top of the ladder, Kinsey tightened the twine holding the plastic skeleton to the rain gutter.
“Hey, keep it steady, man,” Tyler warned Zack. “If she falls from the height-”
“Hey, don’t worry,” Zack replied, tightening his grip on the ladder. “I’d never let anything happen to my girlfriend.”
“He’s right! You’re going to fall and die!” screeched a little voice from the pocket of Kinsey’s overalls.
Kinsey sighed and pulled out the jar. The withered, angry figure of her fear sneered back at her, clawed fingers twisting at his newspaper tunic.
“You’re going to fall and your neck will break and your brains will spill out and you’ll be a vegetable!” he screeched. Behind him, another tiny figure bent over, wracked with sobs.
“I-I-I don’t like behind up here!” Kinsey’s tears wailed. “Th-the roof is where we were hiding when he came, and we couldn’t do anything!”
“He’s going to come back! He’s going to come back and kill you, kill everybody, and—get your foot off of that! That is not a step!” her fear screamed in indignation.
“Sorry, little guys,” Kinsey said, reaching up and tucking the jar into the gutter. “With so many of the keys gone, it’s probably not safe to leave you in my room. I’ll come back and get you later if I need you.”
Like I ever will...
On the ground, Zack turned to Tyler. “Hey, wouldn’t it be easier to use that… didn’t you say there was a key that turned you into a giant?”
“Yeah – it’s one of the missing ones,” Ty said. “Which is most of them at this point.”
“You think that Dark Lady has them?”
“I don’t know. God, I hope not.”
“The…what was it? The Omega Key? Is that one missing too?”
“No, it’s somewhere safe. We’ve still got the Ghost Key and the Head Key, and the one for the Mending Cupboard, and that’s pretty much it.”
Kinsey clambered down the ladder. “You know, this would be a lot easier if we still had the Giant Key.”
“Now why didn’t we think of that?” Zack said, putting his arm around her. “So only, what? Seventy skeletons to go?”
“Honestly, I don’t think we need them,” Tyler said, peering up at the single skeleton twisting in the wind. “Keyhouse practically looks like a haunted mansion already.”
Kinsey smiled. “Yeah, but what’s a high-school Halloween party without some cheesy low-effort decorations?”
“I just think we’re better off spending our time getting more party supplies together. Candy and stuff. And, I mean, we’ve got the wine cellar, but someone really needs to get beer, too. What kind of weirdo party only has wine?”
“Uh oh, did the chaperone just hear what he thinks he heard?” Duncan said, ambling along the path. “And here I thought you’d appreciate my contribution of Mountain Dew.”
“Uh, Uncle Dunc. I-I just meant-”
“Remember, your mother and I will be chaperoning to keep an eye on things. So – just try to keep it responsible, huh?”
“That’s a laugh,” Kinsey muttered when Duncan was out of earshot. “Mom’s going to be making sure we drink responsibly? She’s the one who needs a chaperone.”
“Er, so – speaking of costumes,” Zack said. “What’s everyone going as? I’m going to be—”
Kinsey clapped a hand over his mouth. “Don’t tell us! We’re doing a surprise thing. Like an old-time masquerade. It was Scot’s idea.”
“Still think it’s dumb,” Tyler grunted.
“Don’t worry, Ty,” Kinsey said, rolling her eyes. “I’m sure you’ll still be able to pick out Jordan and her ‘sexy whatever’ costume.”
Bode came running down from the house. “Kinsey, you are so busted! I was flying around as a ghost and I saw you step on the ‘this is not a step’ step!”
“You see any keys while you were up there, buddy?” Zack asked.
“Oh…no.” Bode’s face fell. “Sorry. I’ve been looking for all the missing ones, but—”
“It’s okay, little guy, you’ll find ‘em.” Zack shrugged. “Hey, I better get going. I told Aunt Ellie I’d get my homework done before the party.”
Kinsey leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips. “Don’t be late, okay?”
“Oh, believe me, I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
ΩΩΩΩ
“Idiots!” Dodge fumed. “How am I supposed to steal the keys from them if they’ve already lost them?”
“Luke, honey, please—” Ellie fretted.
“When are you going to get it through your thick head that you need to call me Zack now? I swear, if you blow my cover because you can’t this one little simple thing straight—ugh. Whatever. I hope you finished our costumes, at least.”
“O…our?”
“That’s right. We’re never going to get another opportunity to go through that house from top to bottom, and I need every pair of hands I can get, even yours. Hell, the Locke brats still have a few keys, so if we get one of them alone – well, maybe those ugly meathooks will come in handy for something after all. So you better find a sitter for Rufus, because we’re partying tonight.” He smirked. “Just like the old days, huh, Ellie?”
ΩΩΩΩ
As night fell and the guests began to arrive, a pair of eyes watched dully from the bushes. Wasn’t this always how it was? Parties for everyone else? Friends for everyone else? Well, tonight he was going to play a party game of his own. A little round of pin the tail on the assholes.
One last time, he felt the comforting shape of the long knife concealed in his costume. Then Sam Lesser slunk out of the bushes and disappeared into the crowd.
[spoiler title=Rules]
In this game, powers work a little differently. They are connected to magical keys, which can be found, given away, or even stolen – including by the demons! Please read them carefully. Your life could depend on it!
BODE, KINSEY, TYLER, and NINA each start with a key.
BODE finds a new key at the beginning of each day. (The house prefers to show its keys to an innocent, someone without malice.) If BODE is killed, new keys will be instead be found by KINSEY. And so on, the succession afterwards being TYLER, SCOT, JAMAL, JACKIE, JORDAN, DUNCAN, NINA.
During the day, a player may choose to give away any number of keys that they currently hold by naming in their QT, in bold, each recipient’s name and which key they wish to give them. They may change their mind about this at any time during the day – for purposes of the game, the transfer happens at Twilight, immediately after the daykill. Thus, if the intended recipient is daykilled, the transfer doesn’t happen. (You may name a second choice recipient if desired, to avoid this.)
During the night, any player holding a key may choose to use the power of that key. If a player holds more than one key during the night phase, they may choose only one to use.
A player may not pass Twilight while holding more than one key. If they do not choose keys and recipients before Twilight while holding multiple keys, they will lose keys at random, and they will be found by random targets.
If a player is daykilled while holding a key, a random person who voted for them will find the key on their body.
If a player is nightkilled while holding a key, their killer receives the key.
Writeups will mention any keys lost by a killed target, but not who receives them.
You may not use the same key on the same person two nights in a row. However, the same person can be targeted two nights in a row if the key is passed from one person to another.
ORDER OF OPERATIONS:
-Any keys are transferred
-[A character-specific action]
-Use of the Ghost Key
-Use of the Head Key
-Nightkill attempts.
-Use of the Mending Key
-[A character-specific action]
– stolen/looted keys received
In addition to the keys, all named characters (both town and demon) have a special ability or quality of some kind.
A NOTE ON HOW DEMON KILLS WORK:
Because the power to observe actions exists in this game, it’s important to specify WHICH of the demon players is actually performing the demon’s nightkill – therefore, there’s an order in which they’ll attempt to make the kill. The default order is THE DARK LADY, THE CLOCKWORK OWL, DODGE, ELLIE. That is, if the demons choose to kill a target, and someone is watching the player who is The Dark Lady, they will see the attempt. If they are watching one of the other demon players, they won’t see the attempt.
This DOES NOT mean that jailing or blocking The Dark Lady will prevent the demon’s nightkill! If the designated killer is blocked or incapacitated, the next demon on the list will make the attempt instead, and so on. The nightkill can only be prevent by blocking/incapacitating all demons or using a healing/blocking power on the intended target.
The player who is Dodge may change this order if desired. If Dodge is killed, the order can only be changed further by unanimous consent of the remaining demon players.
All the typical Werewolf rules about quoting QTs and editing posts apply. There’s a lot of special powers out there, with more to come – so it might behoove you to be discreet about your roles and keys. You never know what someone could do with the information… And finally: this game has a lot of moving parts and might get broken or lurch into imbalance pretty easily. If that happens, I reserve the right to toss a couple mercy keys to the side that’s on the ropes, just to keep things interesting! [/spoiler]
[spoiler title=Roles]
Townies:
BODE LOCKE, the rambunctious and curious younger brother
KINSEY LOCKE, a fearless track star and middle child
TYLER LOCKE, a surly hockey player and older brother
NINA LOCKE, a grieving widow and mother
DUNCAN LOCKE, an art teacher and uncle
SCOT KAVANAUGH, ambiguously British punk
JAMAL SATURDAY, best friend of Scot
JACKIE VEDA, Kinsey’s track teammate
JORDAN GATES, wealthy hellraiser
All other town players are HIGH SCHOOLERs. Their QT text reads as follows:
“You are an ordinary HIGH SCHOOLER who’s been invited to a Halloween party at that weird old Keyhouse place. You don’t have any special powers of your own, but if you end up in possession of a key, you can use it.”
Demons:
LUCAS “DODGE” CARAVAGGIO, once a sarcastic but good-hearted teenager, now possessed by one of the Children of Leng. He just wants to stay on Earth, indulging in the many pleasures of the flesh, and he’ll kill anyone who stands in his way.
THE DARK LADY, an echo of the past. She was little more than a voice at the bottom of a well until Bode unwittingly released her. Now she seeks to help her alter ego, Dodge.
THE CLOCKWORK OWL, a wind-up raptor used by Dodge to hunt for keys.
ELLIE WHEDON, the school track coach and unwilling thrall of Dodge. His mental influence forces her to assist him in his plans, but she’s not truly evil.
Other:
SAM LESSER, a psychotic serial killer. He’d really like to finish killing off the Locke family, but he’s got no love for Dodge either. He gets one kill per night. Sam has a chance to hang around as a ghost for a little while if he’s killed, so if he’s wiped out early he may stay around for a night or two, killing from beyond the grave.[/spoiler]
[spoiler title=Players]
1. MSD – Robin Hood
2. Goat – Percival Dunwoody
3. Raven – Napstablook
4. MacCrocodile – Paramedic Joe Hill
5. Nate – Conan the Barbarian
6. Colonel Mustard – Infomercial Ian/Isobel
7. Hoho – Maurice
8. Spooky – Madeline
9. Hicks – The Cast of Can’t Hardly Wait
10. Ralph – The General
11. Owen – William Carlos Williams
12. Stoneheart – Teen Stoneheart
13. Lindsay – Shaggy and Scooby
14. Emmelemm – Marta
15. Captain Video – Woody
16. Louie – Dear Abby
17. Wasp – Count Dorcula
18. Grumproro – Ash
19. Lamb – Mabel Pines
20. Mr. I’m My Own Grandfather – Zapp Rowsdower
21. Sic – Star Butterfly
[/spoiler]
[spoiler title=Keys]
When a new key enters play, an explanation of its powers will be posted. The current keys in play are:
THE GHOST KEY – The Ghost Key unlocks the Ghost Door. Upon passing through this door, the soul is separated from the body temporarily. The soul can fly around, but can’t do much on its own, nor can it be hurt. The holder of the Ghost Key may push anyone through the door (including themself), preventing them from acting or being acted on that night.
THE HEAD KEY – The Head Key unlocks someone’s head so you can see inside. The holder of the Head Key may look into another person’s mind and see if they are GOOD or EVIL.
THE MENDING KEY – The Mending Key opens the Mending Cupboard, which can fix broken objects, including people. It can heal mortal wounds, but can’t bring people back from the dead. The holder of the Mending Key may choose a target (including themself) to put in the Mending Cupboard. If that person is targeted by a mortal wound the same night they go in the Mending Cupboard, it’s healed.
THE OMEGA KEY – The Omega Key opens the door in the caves and lets the demons through. You probably don’t want to do that, so the Omega Key doesn’t do much for the heroes. But if the demons get their hands on it, they can use it to recruit another demon to their side. Protect it at all costs![/spoiler]
Twilight will be Friday, February 21, at 7:00 PM Central Time. With 21 players, it will take 11 votes for autodaykill.