Post by Lizica on Oct 27, 2020 0:55:30 GMT -5
You’re enjoying your Trick-or-Treat jaunt so far tonight--the air is crisp, the blue moon is bright, you’ve met some exceptionally friendly and/or ominous beings so far, and you’ve earned an impressive amount of candy.
You round the corner of an intersection, ready to walk down the next street. But as you do so, a thick fog rolls in all around you, partially obscuring what’s just ahead: Here, in the space between the two streets, you’re confronted with an enormous wrought iron fence.
The iron bars stretch well above your head into the fog, and though bent and rusted in several places, it looks well-kept for something that looks so old. You follow the fence’s edge before eventually stumbling upon the entrance, which is flanked by pumpkins and bright jack-o’-lanterns. There is no gate, simply an open archway that is engraved with the words, “Riddled With Holes.” Pretty elaborate for a caution sign.
You curiously peer in through the archway. The yard is swathed in too much fog to see very far, but pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns continue to line the way forward down a prim gravel pathway into the property.
Well. Jack-o’-lanterns are a pretty good indication that this will be a house that’ll reward your enterprising sense of trick-or-treating adventure. You walk on in.
Your bubble of visibility moves forward with you as you make your way up the foggy pathway. Soon you can no longer make out the wrought iron fence or the archway, and as far as you can tell, there hasn’t been any sign of an actual house on the property at all. Instead, you’re finding that the pathway is pockmarked on both sides with dozens upon dozens of deep, open holes in the ground. They’re all labeled by a jack-o’-lantern, each one carved with a different expression. The holes are all wide enough for someone to leap into. Or maybe they’re all wide enough for something to climb out of. And that is a dang eerie thought. Are you trespassing onto a creepy cemetery? Maybe you should turn back. Maybe you should--
With a start, you suddenly hear an echoing moan coming from the nearest hole.
The low groaning is followed by a scrabbling, scraping sound, as of something clawing its way up from the gaping cavity. Paralyzed, you stare as the sound is punctuated in turn by a dirt-encrusted arm bursting into view. You may or may not be screaming. That’s up to you.
At last, the arm is followed by its head and torso, a hideous creature covered in dirt, its bedraggled plaid cape hanging limply about its shoulders--...
... ...Hey, wait. Is that Lizica? Is she wearing the same beat up Sherlock Holmes costume from three years ago?
Gasping for breath, she hoists herself up to her armpits at the edge of the hole. Noticing you, she calls out, “What’s today, my fine trick-or-treater?”
Hesitant and befuddled, you answer slowly that, today? Why, Halloween night.
“It’s Halloween night!” Lizica exclaims. “I haven’t missed it! The spirits have done it all in one night!” She pauses, observing your costume and taking in the surroundings. “...Either that, or it’s been three years,” she amends. “I bet I missed some good houses. Those spirits can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. Freaking giant bats,” she adds darkly.
Then she seems to remember something and brightens. She takes one arm from the edge of the hole and pulls a small object from her muddy pocket below--a candy wrapper of some kind? “Oh, I got something en route from the last place! Wasn’t a total bust, at least.” She squints at the wrapper in her hand. “‘What’s black and white and read all over?’ What’s that supposed to mean? Is that a typo?” She unwittingly removes her other arm from the edge of the hole in order to more firmly grasp the object in her hand, and in doing so accidentally loses her grip and falls back down into the depths--all before you can do or say anything.
You hurry to the edge of the hole and find that it vanishes into darkness, seemingly without a bottom, but there also appears to be light and sound coming from below somewhere. Distantly, you can hear Lizica’s echoing cry of “dangit, Fly-By-Niiiiiiight” as she disappears from sight. You mirror the bewildered expression of the jack-o’-lantern at the top of this hole.
Welp. Maybe this place isn’t a cemetery, but it sure does seem like it could use way more elaborate caution signs. Still, Lizica made it sound like maybe she’d gotten some neat candy.
So hey, why not pick a hole and dive in to find out what’s down there? You’re an enterprising trick-or-treater hunting for treats, after all.
I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?
You round the corner of an intersection, ready to walk down the next street. But as you do so, a thick fog rolls in all around you, partially obscuring what’s just ahead: Here, in the space between the two streets, you’re confronted with an enormous wrought iron fence.
The iron bars stretch well above your head into the fog, and though bent and rusted in several places, it looks well-kept for something that looks so old. You follow the fence’s edge before eventually stumbling upon the entrance, which is flanked by pumpkins and bright jack-o’-lanterns. There is no gate, simply an open archway that is engraved with the words, “Riddled With Holes.” Pretty elaborate for a caution sign.
You curiously peer in through the archway. The yard is swathed in too much fog to see very far, but pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns continue to line the way forward down a prim gravel pathway into the property.
Well. Jack-o’-lanterns are a pretty good indication that this will be a house that’ll reward your enterprising sense of trick-or-treating adventure. You walk on in.
Your bubble of visibility moves forward with you as you make your way up the foggy pathway. Soon you can no longer make out the wrought iron fence or the archway, and as far as you can tell, there hasn’t been any sign of an actual house on the property at all. Instead, you’re finding that the pathway is pockmarked on both sides with dozens upon dozens of deep, open holes in the ground. They’re all labeled by a jack-o’-lantern, each one carved with a different expression. The holes are all wide enough for someone to leap into. Or maybe they’re all wide enough for something to climb out of. And that is a dang eerie thought. Are you trespassing onto a creepy cemetery? Maybe you should turn back. Maybe you should--
With a start, you suddenly hear an echoing moan coming from the nearest hole.
The low groaning is followed by a scrabbling, scraping sound, as of something clawing its way up from the gaping cavity. Paralyzed, you stare as the sound is punctuated in turn by a dirt-encrusted arm bursting into view. You may or may not be screaming. That’s up to you.
At last, the arm is followed by its head and torso, a hideous creature covered in dirt, its bedraggled plaid cape hanging limply about its shoulders--...
... ...Hey, wait. Is that Lizica? Is she wearing the same beat up Sherlock Holmes costume from three years ago?
Gasping for breath, she hoists herself up to her armpits at the edge of the hole. Noticing you, she calls out, “What’s today, my fine trick-or-treater?”
Hesitant and befuddled, you answer slowly that, today? Why, Halloween night.
“It’s Halloween night!” Lizica exclaims. “I haven’t missed it! The spirits have done it all in one night!” She pauses, observing your costume and taking in the surroundings. “...Either that, or it’s been three years,” she amends. “I bet I missed some good houses. Those spirits can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. Freaking giant bats,” she adds darkly.
Then she seems to remember something and brightens. She takes one arm from the edge of the hole and pulls a small object from her muddy pocket below--a candy wrapper of some kind? “Oh, I got something en route from the last place! Wasn’t a total bust, at least.” She squints at the wrapper in her hand. “‘What’s black and white and read all over?’ What’s that supposed to mean? Is that a typo?” She unwittingly removes her other arm from the edge of the hole in order to more firmly grasp the object in her hand, and in doing so accidentally loses her grip and falls back down into the depths--all before you can do or say anything.
You hurry to the edge of the hole and find that it vanishes into darkness, seemingly without a bottom, but there also appears to be light and sound coming from below somewhere. Distantly, you can hear Lizica’s echoing cry of “dangit, Fly-By-Niiiiiiight” as she disappears from sight. You mirror the bewildered expression of the jack-o’-lantern at the top of this hole.
Welp. Maybe this place isn’t a cemetery, but it sure does seem like it could use way more elaborate caution signs. Still, Lizica made it sound like maybe she’d gotten some neat candy.
So hey, why not pick a hole and dive in to find out what’s down there? You’re an enterprising trick-or-treater hunting for treats, after all.
I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?
(Spoilers for how this works, but OOC information for visitors and/or anyone running a ToT house this year if you’d like to help!)
For Visitors:
If you choose to go down a hole, you’ll be given a riddle. After that, even if you don’t solve it, you will soon reach the bottom of the hole, which ends up taking you to the initial stage of another Trick-or-Treat House (or wherever in the house its owner approves).
In-universe, the hole can magically choose where you want to go (if you wish), but OOC, you can choose from the following houses:
Riddled with Holes (this house, for fun magic loops)
Lumen Wood
The Hammock Witch
[ Maybe more coming soon? ]
For other ToT House Owners:
If you’d like visitors from this house to be able to be transported to the beginning of your house, please give me a poke via PM here on the forum or on Discord, and I’ll add you to the list above! Alternately, if you’d like to shake things up and have any visitors of my house be transported to some random place in the middle of your house, also let me know, and we can work something out! =D
(And if you’re not interested in having your house be linked, no worries, you don’t have to do anything! You’re good! \ o /
I'm so sorry for making you read a textwall, aaaaa)
If you choose to go down a hole, you’ll be given a riddle. After that, even if you don’t solve it, you will soon reach the bottom of the hole, which ends up taking you to the initial stage of another Trick-or-Treat House (or wherever in the house its owner approves).
In-universe, the hole can magically choose where you want to go (if you wish), but OOC, you can choose from the following houses:
Riddled with Holes (this house, for fun magic loops)
Lumen Wood
The Hammock Witch
[ Maybe more coming soon? ]
For other ToT House Owners:
If you’d like visitors from this house to be able to be transported to the beginning of your house, please give me a poke via PM here on the forum or on Discord, and I’ll add you to the list above! Alternately, if you’d like to shake things up and have any visitors of my house be transported to some random place in the middle of your house, also let me know, and we can work something out! =D
(And if you’re not interested in having your house be linked, no worries, you don’t have to do anything! You’re good! \ o /