How we began

Okay so I decided to create a game for Halloween 2020. I figured  it would be cool to start off as a monster rather than a hero or set of heroes

For those who don't know my Twitter based IntFic or interactive fiction runs like a choose your own adventure but the choices are voted on by the twitter audience:

For example a choice they had to make at one point was:

 Manifest and Attack one of the many soldiers on the perimeter of the  Mansion or Retreat inside and deal with the intruders as they enter.

And I wrote the next part based on the answer to that.

I don't have a specific plan when I sit down to write, I usually have a vague idea what I'll do for the next one  but not anything to firm as the players don't always pick the sensible option. 

In fact they rarely do :)

Bearing that in mind....

We begin:

In the burned out ruins of a mansion, on a hill over looking a small rural town, something stirs, you stir... You become aware, the barrier between the worlds of the living, the dead and the damned must be reaching it's weakest point. You are bound for eternity to prevent that portal ever being opened and have done so since the day you came to be. Visions of that day swim up from your memory, the fires, the screaming and the final command from a dying creator, as they sacrificed themself to seal the portal. "Let no living thing pass through this portal!"

You inspect your surroundings, the portal room and the locks seem the same as ever. Satisfied there has been no disturbance in your absence, you float up through the ceiling. The mansion remains a ruin, the roof has not collapsed any further, the remaining structure is sound but

there is evidence that someone had lit a small fire in the main entrance and the detritus surrounding indicates they may have been drug users. The portal attracted people with these weaknesses, fortunately once they got into the mansion, images leaked through the portal drove

them off or killed them with terror. That helpfully left some corpses you had been able to use to frighten off other intruders for a while. Finding no new props, you float through the walls and look towards the town below. There are fewer lights and it's much quieter than usual.

You had sensed a growing darkness in the world the last few times you'd awakened. Perhaps it has killed off the humans? While bound to protect the portal you're not bound to its location. You decide to take a form and go see what has occurred. You become a Maintenance Worker

You choose the appearance of a maintenance worker with overalls, a cap and a toolbox. You fly towards the town, landing on the main street where you make yourself corporeal so you can interact with things. The street is empty but you can hear some traffic

in the distance and the lights and sounds in the apartments above some shop fronts indicate human activity. These signs that humanity still exists are pleasing to you, this watch would be rather dull without them. You walk down to the electrical store, it had been there for

many visits now.

It was useful as they left their televisions on in the window and you could learn what was scaring people these days. It's windows are dark, all the machines are off, but there are illustrated posters up. Masks are mandatory! Aha it must be a plague, they haven'tvdone one of these in an age! Marvellous! That will keep them indoors!  

Then you remember the previous plagues, not everyone had complied with the rules. In fact you'd been quite busy scaring off people searching for refuge. You need more information!  You decide to visit

You opt for the library, wonderful place. Thanks to occasionally haunting the classes they run, you have a gained a passing familiarity with modern technology, taxes, grief counselling and needlework. It is, of course, closed but it looks like they haven't changed their alarm set up. Once inside you should be able to turn corporeal without setting off alarms. You slide through the walls and you're pleased to find it's being maintained despite not being open to the public. You opt to:

Remembering your lessons, you become corporeal and turn on a computer. You search the Town + Mansion.for the last year. You're alarmed to find results about a: Ghosthunter style TV Show

TV shows meant cast and crew, the type of show means there may well be an occult researcher.... This could be a covert attempt to access the portal! You need to take action! You will try to stop them coming with:

You decide you should simply make it impossible for them to shoot at the mansion. You check the email accounts you set up, not a single request for permission to shoot at the mansion. You'd maintained a chain of fake absentee heirs to keep the state from claiming it was derelict and claiming it. You look up the estates lawyers but they're closed due to the plague outbreak. Given that the crew are due tomorrow and drawing the attention of the authorities with trespass complaints was a non-starter so you have to opt for acts of sabotage. 

You research the programme and it's cast a little and flit back to the mansion to prepare. You will:

You must become corporeal to interact with physical objects. You have chosen to take the form of a maintenance worker when you need to do that. You have learned that a paranormal investigation TV show is coming to  film at your mansion, due to sightings of you over the years.

You've opted to try and sabotage the gear of the crew so they can't record anything. You do have some time to wait until they get here. While you are waiting you:

You cannot decide a course of action and then it;s two late, You hear the old Iron gates creak open as you flit out you see three  large vehicles, two trucks and a bus bouncing along the decrepit  driveway. They come to a stop in the courtyard and disgorges a surprising amount of people.

A large blonde haired man that you recognise as the host and producer Biff starts giving orders. The crew start pulling boxed out of the vehicles holds and large cables are run out to what looks like a giant plug board. A tent with a desk and a lot of screens is set up

A box of what look like the little cameras you've see on the buildings in town is put there two. "Okay, we're going to shoot the introduction here and send it back so they can get it on the air asap." A man carrying what you assume is a camera moves around with him until he finds a good angle.

While Biff is making his introduction, something about the troubled  history of Tweeting Manor you become corporeal momentarily and detach  the large power cables running from one of the trucks then you go incorporeal again.

The screens go off, people swear, Biff gets mad at them for swearing  during his bit, those people get mad at the people who plugged into the  cables. Biff's co-star Hazel Mc Queen sighs dramatically and tells Biff to call her when he's actually ready and goes to the bus There seems to be a lot of underlying tension among these people.

You follow her onto the bus, it's a double decker, the bottom floor has a  make up section manned by a bored looking middle aged lady and a small  kitchenette. Hazel ignores her and goes to the upper floor. You follow and find it is a divided into a set of small sleeping cabins, Hazel goes into a cabin marked Biff. You follow her in, it's just a bed and a locker. Hazel opens a locker and takes out a small container marked "enthusiasm".

She opens it,.

It's full of a white powder. She takes a sachet of white powder out of her pocket and mixes it in. She places it back and wipes it and everything she touches with a handkerchief. Someone calls for her from below and she scurries down #Intfic #Halloween2020

The other cabin is strewn with papers, bedclothes are on the floor, the  locker is overturned, someone has either burgled her or there's been  quite the tantrum thrown. Your reading isn't very good but you do recognise the words "notice of termination" on a paper. You study it.

As far as you understand it, this is Hazels last show, the company is cutting costs in this uncertain time. So she's likely trying to get rid of the Biff person to save her own job. That's useful information. You decide too

You return to Biffs cabin and become corporeal, you take the box with the poisoned drugs and place it in your toolbox. Now you're real you have to walk down the bus stairs, the make up lady, looks up from her book, sees you and asks "Hey, are you supposed to be here?"

You try to respond and realize you forgot to form a mouth and nose! You start shaping one but it's too late she's seen your blank slate of a face. She shrieks in horror! The crew start looking towards the bus.. You:

You go ghost, strangely, your sudden disappearance does not stop her shrieking. As your incorporeal now, the box drops on the floor. The crew pile in the door demanding to know what's happened and one of them spots the box on the floor by the door. 

While the cast and crew come running over to the bus you take the opportunity to detach the power cables again. There's a lot of yelling in the bus, Biff's drugs box has been discovered, he's trying to stop people opening it This going well, you have options now.

You quickly flit over to the directors tent, everyone's attention is  still on the bus, where it seems a brawl will break out any second over  Biffs box. Seems like the make up lady is being accused of theft but the crews not having it. You take the cameras and run to:

You manage to carry the box of small cameras into the garden unseen, now what to do with it?

You fling them about the bushes, you've got them well spread about the  Garden, it'll take them quite a while to find them, if they bother  looking. You ghost back to the crew, your theft has been discovered! Now the  crew's arguing in two groups, one at the bus and one at the tent

You ghost into truck 1. It's a filled with various plugs, wires camera  lenses, more small cameras, tools and things you haven't seen before. You're sure you can't take anything out of the truck without getting spotted so you opt to: #intfic

You dig out a pair of snips out of a tool box and set to cutting. You're about half way through the task when you hear a male voice approaching the truck saying "Look got spare ones in here anyway, lets set them up and we can..." The door to the truck starts to open.

The doors truck opens, a crew member stares at you in shock. You look him dead in the eyes and say (vote below) and vanish!

"This isn't radio shack!" you say and vanish, The stunned crew member stands there gaping for a few moments before he thinks to call someone over. You flit outside, people have stopped arguing at the tent and bus but you can sense the tension between them all.

While chaos abounds in Truck 1 you flit into the next truck, the rear doors are open but there's currently no one there. It's got racks of clothes, some modern and quite a few that belong to times past. There are also floor to roof racks of boxes with devices in them, fortunately

Someone's labelled most of them, you see smoke bombs/machines, squibs,  projectors, shadow shapes, then lighting equipment such as spotlights,  ring lights, various bulbs, some very odd looking like Tungsten and  L.E.D. Sabotage opportunities abound but you don't have long Sabotage:

You examine the smoke bombs, they seem to be very simple devices. You detonate one, accidentally, a smoke bomb. Realising how simple it is you detonate another 10 before ghosting out of the truck. Someone yells fire! You float above the scene, chaos reigns for a few minutes

They surely must be ready to leave? You see a black car with tinted windows coming up the driveway. Biff starts calling for everyone to stop what they're doing and come to the tent. He has to shout, a lot but the crew congregate around him grudgingly as the car comes to a stop.

You ignore the black suited man getting out of the car and move to the bus. You've already checked it out upstairs so you know your options there. Looking at the make up station you think you could put some cloth in the curling tongs to start a fire or wreck the casts rooms.

You turn on the tongs and grab some hair ties and put them in it. The mechanism seems very simple and you turn it on to the highest heat,  it's not long before an acrid smoke starts to billow out from it. The crew are hyper vigilant at this point however and a few rush in to extinguish burgeoning fire. You overhear them talking: "You think that guys right? We have an actual ghost here?"

"Nah, I think some of the locals are messing with us, we didn't really  clear this shoot with anyone so there might be people bent out of shape  that"

You ghost over to where a meeting is being wrapped up. The newcomer is saying "We are here to obtain knowledge, we also believe there is something  here. human or otherwise acting to prevent people accessing that  knowledge, so we will be deploying our own private contractors to protect both the site and your personnel" Another truck, this one clearly military in style though you see no markings. "This will not affect your production, in fact we need you to continue  for operational reasons. To that end we have spare equipment on our  truck to replace any damaged equipment.

"The new truck disgorges soldiers and a set of interesting looking characters. One is dressed in a priests outfit. Another is in traditional American Indian garb. Another is in a tailored suit and holding some sort of compass. More people is not what you wanted

You float over to the odd looking trio, American Indian and priests are  looking at the one holding the thing that looks like a compass. Now you're closer you see that it hasn't got the traditional markings  but rather a set of occult markings, some of which you recognise from  the portal room!

"Well?" the priest asks. "Definite Cthonic energy but faint, like it's being stifled by something"

"Another signal blocking it?" asks the Indian.

"No, more like it's behind or under something with heavy warding"says the compass holder

"Well if you were trying to open a portal to other planes you'd try to ward it?" the priest asks.

"I would and these folks were expert occultists"

"So you think he really did it?"

"Maybe, got close enough to get a perfectly good house wrecked anyway"

They know too much, they're definitely looking for the portal!

You try waving your incorporeal arm through the device, the needle spins suddenly. The suited man looks around startled. "What was that?" the priest demanded. "I don't know! Something sparked it, Molloy can you have a look about with those shaman eyes?"

"That will take a while Ido feel a presence... It's not actively hostile at this time, more curious"

"Will I abjure it?" the priest asks

"You can try but it may not be a Christian construct"

"All things answer to God eventually!"

"A God, not necessarily yours"

"Gentlemen can we find out if my detector is being haunted without a theological debate?"

"That things not haunted but we may have a problem, we've definitely  attracted something's attention" Molloy says looking in your direction  thoughtfully. "

I shall perform an exorcism!" the priest declares. "Of what Chen? The Mansion?

The Grounds? The Town? The State? We don't know enough yet"

"Okay then if we find what the it's anchored to can I send it off?"

"That's not the job we're here for though is it?"

"Gentlemen please! What are we going to do?"

"Lets talk to it! Spirit if you want to talk spin that!"

You leave the trio to their bickering and go investigate their leader,  an African man wearing a black suit and mirrored sun glasses, there's a  silver pin on his lapel, it looks similar to one the creator had. He's talking with Biff slightly apart from the crew.

"We fund you Biff and our research indicates there is something of interest to us in here"

"Yeah but surely finding that sort of thing would make better TV."

"We don't employ you to find real things, we employ you to convince  people places like these are haunted and leave them for us to buy up"

"But I can do more.."

"Not on this show you can't, now stop your whining and get back to work, we can always hire another company"

"You wouldn't dare Akembi! I know too much about you"

"Are you really threatening me in front of a squad of armed men in my employ you silly prick?"

Akembi pulls his shades down his nose far enough to stare at Biff directly. Biff pales realising he's misjudged his position.

"Uh... no sir... sorry sir"

"Good, Oh by the by you're rehiring Hazel with a 10% raise"

"What? No way she's..."

"...She's the reason nearly a third of your audience watch this dross, if you can't hold that audience you're  useless to me, you're making more than enough to cover the cost, unless  of course there are expenses you haven't disclosed to my accountants?" Biff visibly squirms.

"Uh, no sir"

"Then get it done and stay out of our way"

"Yes sir" Akembi marches off towards Molloy, Chen and the other one.

Biff swears beneath his breath and walks over to where Hazel and the crew are waiting. The soldiers disperse around the grounds. #intfic

The soldiers spread out around the estate grounds, at first you think  they are mapping ways people could get in but as you listen in to their  conversations it's clear they are mapping ways they can leave in a  hurry.

The soldiers are a bit nonchalant at the moment, perhaps thinking they're safe in the twilight. They each carry an assault rifle, handgun, knife and small grenades. They're quite wary about their assault rifles but you believe you could pull a grenade pin or take a gun or a knife

You opt to flit back into the mansion and see what these people do next. They are setting up a camera right outside the front door, like they did with Biff but this time the presenter is Hazel. Some of the crew are donning hard hats, and loading up with small cameras. Others are getting stepladders and torches,

Akembi and companions are back at the directors tent apparently waiting for Hazel to finish before coming in. The soldiers seem to be holding position on the perimeter. -

Some roars for quiet, silence descends, Hazel begins her introduction to camera.

"Tonight on Spectre Squad live, we'll investigate the murderous haunting  of Tweeting Manor House. It was the site of a mysterious and fatal  explosion in 1813 and has been at the centre of a number of mysterious deaths, all around Halloween, ever since. Will we find the spirits that haunt this place? Will we survive if we do? Join me Hazel Montmercy and my co-star Biff Clancy as we find out live on Spectre Squad tonight at 9!"

Someone yells "Cut"

"Right, Crew in!" calls Biff

You decide to manifest for a flicker of second to see how they react. Immediately the crew that were on their way in, yell in alarm and after a quick head count they are sure it's not a crew member. Biff asks Akembi to check where his men are.

He touches a device by his ear and after a moment shakes his head. The crew aren't coming in so your appearance was effective but now the Soldiers are going to Akembi.

"Okay folks" Biff announces "The Security guys are going to sweep the  house for intruders before we go in, we do know this place attracts  vagrants they might be the cause of our... issues. Security will flush them out  and we'll send them on their way or bring in the local law"

The soldiers form into squads of three and enter the house, Squad 1 goes  left into the ruined part of the manor and Squad 2 go right, a safer  part.

Tie Break needed: Your mansion has been invaded by two small squads of soldiers. Squad one has moved into a ruined area of the manor. Squad two has moved into a mostly intact area. It's clear you folks want to murder someone so which squad do you go after?

Squad 1 are sweeping the ruins efficiently, staying tight together Their leaders weapon seems to have some sort of energy detector attached to his weapon. You could try appearing in different places, separating them, manifest and try pulling a grenade pin or mess with the device

Gah! That's terrible, that;s what I get for trying to do this first thing in the morning. Sorry. "Their leaders weapon seems to have some sort of energy detector attached to it"

The device has multiple symbols, you recognise some from the runes in  the portal room and others look like things you've pushed back through  the portal occasionally. You poke at the one that looks like a:

Oh yeah forgot to mention I decided this is a Call of Cthulhu adventure...    H. P. Lovecraft  https://monster.fandom.com/wiki/Category:H._P._Lovecraft

"Mi-Go!" the leader shouts with alarm. The three soldiers immediately go back to back

"Switch to anti fungal rounds!"

"Switching!" one yells swapping the cartridge in his weapon for another from belt.

"Done!"

The soldier beside him follows suit and then the leader.

"Akembi" the leader speaks quietly but urgently into a device attached to his ear "We're reading a Mi-Go!"

In the silent gloom the three soldiers stand back to back, the beams  from their torches scan the remains of the ceiling and dark corners. It's so quiet that you hear the other squad banging through the rooms on the other side of manor.

The leader holds his hand up.

"Okay orders are withdraw to the front hall and rendezvous with squad two. Ready?"

"Ready!" the other two respond at once.

"Moving" The three form a line and huddle up, they start retreating.

Tie break needed. The lead soldier has a detector of some sort with a lot of symbols of monsters on it. You tickled the one that looked like a Mi-Go which sparked a hasty retreat. You can tickle the device for another monster or go with your original plan which was to kill them.

You reach out and touch a symbol on the device, you don't recognize it  but you're assuming they're all scary things for these creatures. "Shantak!" the leader calls out, the soldiers start scanning the roof,  moving faster they leave create some space between them you could use...

You reach out and touch the device again.

"Night Gaunt!"

Then they stop moving, the leader swears and speaks to his radio again.

"Akembi! This damn thing just registered a third creature and we have  nothing to indicate anything's actually here. How reliable is this  thing?"

The other soldiers visibly relax and start looking about in a less paranoid manner.

"Listen man if I wanted to be stuck in a shit hole with faulty equipment  and leaders with no clue what was happening, I'd have stayed in the  army. We'll finish the sweep. Send squad 2  back on theirs"

Swearing some more he detaches the device from his weapon.

"You know, this place is a lot nicer than some of the shit holes we've been in"

"Yeah but he doesn't know that, I'll guilt him into buying beers by nights end" the leader replies with a wink.

The other two laugh

"Right lets flush this hobo out and go visit the crews catering tent"

"Actually didn't see one boss"

"Me neither"

"Well isn't that a crap cherry on the shit cake" he replies.

This one seems very concerned about excrement. Their guard is lowered, there won't be a better time to attack

You manifest beside the leader, before he can bring his gun to bear you strike him in the neck with a knife hand and vanish. He falls to his knees desperately trying to breath, the others open fire after you. They pause for a second and one starts treating the wounded leader.

You appear behind the guarding soldier and strike him in the back of the head, hard.

He drops, unconscious as you vanish again, the remaining one is screaming for help on the radio and in general. The other squad comes running to assist followed by Akembi and the others.

You decide to take out the medic. Unfortunately he's in full flight or fight mode and the instant you  materialise he screams and flings himself away, you miss him.

As you go after him you hear Akembi yell

"Spectre rounds"

The oncoming squad opens fire. The bullets! They burn!

They rip and tear through your essence! You dematerialise but even then you feel the remaining rounds tug at your essence as they pass through. You move out of the firing line and assess.

There's less of you than there was, you should return to the portal room to repair but that means taking your eyes off the crew and hoping they don't force a way down there in the meantime.

There's not enough of your essence to take the maintenance man form so  if you stay and have to interact you only the Small Child or Victorian  Lady forms available. #intfic #cthulhu

Two of the new squad help drag the old squad out. Their leaders still breathing, the medic stuck something in his throat to bypass the part you crushed. The unconscious one is still out. The one called Akembi is talking with the still shaking medic.

"Come on now, breath, remember your training, we need an action report now to determine what we do next" The medic gives him a fairly coherent summary of events.

"So you were leaving but then, when it became apparent you were going  turn around and continue in this part of the mansion, it attacked?" "Yes sir"

"Squad 2, you guys saw nothing?"

"Not even a rat, we found some completely intact bedrooms, a library, a study and a kitchen"

"Does the library..."

"Lot of books sir, well preserved too"

"Okay, Squad 2, stretcher them up, we'll send them to the emergency clinic in town, you go with them son" he tells the medic who seems quite relieved.

"Story is  part of the building collapsed as they were looking at it and got hit  with heavy debris. Got it?"

"Yes sir"

"They'll be alright, you just make sure they treat that shock you're going into. Now squad 2,  block the way into this area and guard it, do not enter. What ever is in here  doesn't want us in this part of the house and we'll respect that for now  until I have done so more research. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" they reply in unison. "Okay lets get these boys out of here, then you can show me where this library is, we'll use the story of a collapsing part of the building to keep the TV people out too. Move out"

As they turn to leave Akembi pauses to let the others pass and shouts.

"Hey spirit! We'll leave this part be for now if you'll stop the attacks. Deal?"

You manifest as a slim Victorian woman dressed all in black, you nod slowly and precisely to be sure he understands. You don't believe he'll stay out for long but it offers a chance to heal and drive them off at full power.

He leaves and you flit back to the portal room to heal.

-Players choice here is do you want to wait in the portal room until  something happens and I'll try to fill in the gaps during that or do you  want to know what Akembi and crew discover in the meantime?

-

By now I was interested in where Akembi and the gang would bring me and thankfully the players agreed.

Next Dev Log: 

Meet the Gang.