After a day’s walk across a subdued wilderness, you suddenly sight a collection of ragged-looking structures.
“HELLO?” yells the Warrior of Darkness. “MY PARENTS ARE DEAD.”
There’s no answer.
“Kehaar will fly over,” says Kehaar. He does so, while the rest of you shake rocks out of your shoes. “Kehaar returns! Ees nobody there. You are welcome for service.”
You approach the deserted camp. There are a couple ramshackle huts, a fire pit and the weathered remains of some dogsleds. Rotted-out canvas packs spill tools and provisions out onto the ground.
“I feel like this is an underwhelming choice for a date location,” says the man who incorrectly believes this is a dating show, “but at the same time it’s challenging. It’s good to be ready for the inevitable challenges of relationships.”
“Who be ye talking to?” says the pirate captain, poking one of the sleds with his cutlass. The gray wood splinters under the point.
“This would burn excellently,” says Willow to herself.
“It would look even better submerged,” suggests the Tidal Bore.
“Would not!”
“Would too!”
“Simmer down, y’all,” says Hezekiah Purcell. “I’m fixin’ to explore them cabins. Anybody want in with me?”
“I will help,” says the person who is definitely not a bear. They stomp into one cabin, which immediate collapses around them. “There. I helped.”
“You mebbe just stay right there,” says Purcell. “Anyone else want to help me?”
“WAHOO,” says Mario. Purcell sighs.
In the other cabin, they find a couple of bunk beds and a collapsible table. One bed has a skeleton.
“Oh no!” says Mario.
“Easy, son,” says Purcell. “It’s only death.” He turns to the table. There’s a kerosene lamp and a journal. He takes both and walks back outside.
“I found this here ‘Captain’s Log,'” he says, while handing the lamp to Willow, who squeaks with enthusiasm. “Care to give it a look, Mr. Shackleton? I cain’t read this here handwriting. Too squiggly for me.”
Shackleton accepts the volume and and runs a thumb through the dust covering the gold-foil letters on the cover. The spine creaks as he opens it.
“Let’s see here… Thank you, Miss Witless,” he says, accepting her lorgnette. “This is the logbook for the Thrash Polar Expedition of 1893. I remember hearing about that one. Apparently they all died, except for one workman who came back stark raving mad. Night phantasms or somesuch.”
“Captain Thrash is prob’ly that there skeleton in the cabin, then,” says Purcell.
“That’s the father of the guy who’s trying to kill us, right?” says Joan Crawford.
Shackleton thumbs to the last page with writing in it. “‘It is my hope,'” he reads, “‘to return to my beloved wife and ne’er-do-well bookworm of a son.’ It certainly seems that way.”
“How dreadful,” says Crawford.
“Wasn’t Dr. Thrush or whatever talking about his dad like he was still alive?” says Bob McKenzie, uneasily.
“Do you think he knows this camp is even here?” says Dorothy Baker, who then bursts into tears for unclear reasons.
“Probably not,” says Shackleton, spinning in place while pointing to the horizon. “Look, there’s hills all around. You can’t see this area from the outside. We’re probably the first people to come here in 30 years.”
You ponder that while the icy winds pick up.
The sun soon sets again. You sit on crates of provisions around a fire built from mildewed burlap.
“WE SHOULD DO A WATCH OR SOMETHING,” suggests The Farm. “I CALL FIRST SHIFT.”
That seems sensible. You work out a shift system and bunk down next to the embers. Surely you’re safe tonight. Surely.
Nothing happens during the first shift. Second shift goes to Victor Columbia Edison, the talking phonograph, who looks both ways, then wanders over to the bear and kills it by playing a waltz really fast in one ear.
The person who said they weren’t a bear (Raven and Rose) was, in fact, a bear, but they were also a PARTY-GOER (Vanilla Town).
“Play me again,” Victor hums to itself, walking back to its sentry post. “Play me again. Play me a-“
“That’s enough out of you,” says the voice of Dr. Edwin Thrash, from behind. There’s a terrible sound of breaking machinery. “FOOLS! Your trust will be your undoing.”
Victor Columbia Edison (Narrowstrife) has died. They were a WEREWOLF.
The sound wakes you up, but Dr. Thrash could be anyone among you. You look over the dead bear and shattered record player.
“There can be only one Victor,” says Victor Frankenstein. Without preamble, he rips off his shirt and starts punching the remains of the record player.
“Son,” says Hezekiah Purcell, “what ARE you doin’?”
“Absorbing its power! I do this whenever a Victor dies!”
The rest of you find a canister of extremely expired coffee grounds in one of the sleds and drink really shitty coffee out of tin cups.
“This party sucks,” says Mike the travel writer. “I’m at 1 star right now. Gonna take a lot to bring me back from that.”
Twilight will be Thursday, October 22 at 1 p.m. EST
[spoiler title=PLAYERS]
PLAYERS
April LKD / Snowcone seller – Town
Beelzebot / Hezekiah Purcell
Cop on the Edge-ish / Bob and Doug McKenzie
DW / Warrior of Darkness
Emmelemm / Kitty Witless
Goat / Kehaar the seagull
InnDEEEEED / Wayne Campbell – Town
Josephus Brown / THE FARM
Lamb Dance / Anksybay the Piggy Bank – WEREWOLF
Lindsay / Mario
Louie Blue / Ernest Shackleton
Mayelbridwen / Tidal Bore
Mr. I’m My Own Grandfather / Trevor Belmont
Narrowstrife / Victor Columbia Edison – WEREWOLF
Otakunomike / Renowned travel writer Michael
Owen1120 / Pirate Captain
Ralph / Shania Twain – Town
Raven and Rose / Definitely not a bear
Sagittariuskim / Dorothy Baker
Sic Humor / Man who thinks he’s looking for love while actually being hunted for sport, formerly man who thinks he’s being hunted for sport while looking for love
Sister Jude the Obscure / Joan Crawford
Spookyfriend / Victor Frankenstein
The Hayes Code / Willow
BACKUPS
Side Character
Hohopossum
Dicentra
[/spoiler]
[spoiler title=ROLES]
TOWN
13 10 Party-goers (Vanilla Town)
1 Party Sleuth (Investigator)
2 Socialites (Masons, get a one-shot kill)
SCUM
5 3 Werewolves
1 Werewolf Roleblocker
1 Lord Edwin Thrash, M.D. (Serial Killer)
Vanilla town message: Welcome to Thrash Island, where death stalks you at every turn and drinks are free ! You are a PARY-GOER (Vanilla Town), and your win condition is to escape with your life, and also have a great time. Your only power is your vote.[/spoiler]
[spoiler title=RULES]
Win conditions:
The wolves win when they are equal to the number of town-aligned players left (if the SK is dead), or outnumber the non-wolf players (even if the SK is still alive).
Town wins when all the wolves and the serial killer are defeated.
The serial killer wins when it comes down to just them and one other person.
A three-way standoff between the last town, last wolf and SK will result in a special ending.
Night actions:
There isn’t a hard order that night actions occur in. This is to allow as many of them to go through as possible. Roleblocks will always take precedent over the actions of the targeted player, however.
Investigator: All town forces and the SK come back HUMAN, all wolves come back, you guessed it, WOLF.
Voting:
You have the option to vote “No Kill” (or words to that effect). If that option prevails, no one dies at the end of the day.
A majority vote for one player (or No Kill) will end the day early.
A tied vote at twilight will result in no one dying.
There are no secret powers or win conditions in this game. Any changes I have to make to the mechanics will be announced publicly.
If you maintain a game-related outside resource (like a spreadsheet or an in-character Tumblr), stop updating it after you’re dead.
No editing posts.
No quoting or screencapping from your QTs.
If you have any other questions about rules, please ask in QT, and I will answer publicly here.
[/spoiler]