(Your target discovers a cursed object in a thrift shop or estate sale – perhaps an old mirror, music box, or piece of jewelry. Once touched or purchased, it begins attracting malevolent spirits to the owner. The spirits grow stronger each night, and the object cannot simply be discarded or destroyed. The target must discover the tragic history behind the object and find a way to put the restless dead to peace before they become corporeal enough to cause real harm.)

Kai had been bumming around the campus fountain, but was growing bored, she he may have wandered off somewhere.

That fountain wasn’t going to be interesting enough forever, and there are only so many cloud shapes one can view before running out of ideas, perhaps. The wandering away from the fountain seemed to bring Kai towards one of the many shops of artifacts and relics within New Haven, though it wasn’t the shop itself that might draw the man’s attention. There, out front of the shop, was something near the curb of the street, and it was shiny. There was a sparkle as sunlight hit it just right, maybe it was a coin, maybe it was a lost knife from a streetfight of late, or maybe…

Kai moseys along down the street, his hands in his hoodie, bloodshot-eyes peering around listlessly. Once he notices a little shiny bit of something or other near the curb, he angles toward it, brows lifted and, once he’s nearer, kneels down to take a look, a little grin on his lips.

As Kai approaches, he might find himself on the lucky side of life today. Might. There is something shiny and it does appear to be gold, but as he kneels down to take a look, from the detrius of the street leaps forth that shiny golden object! It seems to be a ring at first, but it is hard to tell exactly, and it flies towards his right hand, in his hoodie pocket, bashing against his hoodie in an attempt to seek skin contact, though it doesn’t seem to be able to fine-tune aim itself properly, but there is certainly something special about it! It continues to seek what might be his fingers, pressing against that fabric of his hoodie over and over again as if the object itself wants nothing more than to be worn.

“Hmm..” Kai says at first when he notices it’s a ring, but as soon as it moves of its own accord, he jerks back and lets out a manly yelp, “Fuck, take me to to dinner first,” he tells the ring and takes several steps back. His instinct is to lift his hands up to swat at the ring, which unfortunately may make it wasier for the little sentient(?) bit of jewelry to achieve its goal of slipping onto one of his fingers, “Shoo, bad ring, settle. Heel ring!” he tries a few different commands to chide the ring.

The ring itself doesn’t seem to listen, but the swatting does cause Kai’s fingers to be a moving target, and soon, the reason behind it seems more apparently. As the ring touches skin, the flashes and imagery of something else entirely slip into the man’s mind. Images, moving, swirling, blackness and then suddenly, everything. A scene unfolds in mere moments showing a man on his knee, looking up towards a beautiful woman for the time, a big smile, smiles all around and then a split second image of a burning house, darkness, smoke, coughing, and it is over. The ring itself smacks into Kai’s hand over and over again before what seems to be a man holding the ring can be seen, pushing it towards Kai’s fingers in frantic motions. The motions are becoming more violent though, and Kai can begin to feel the menace in the air.

Kai blinks several times, his eyelids fluttering as a rush of images flood into his mind, he takes a few steps back and swings his hand out and down to try to chuck the ring away from him and toward the ground, his other hand whips out in a poor facsimile of a karate chop at the man he sees as well. All the while he’s scrambling backward to get away, “Hey, no! It’s too soon! We hardly know each other,” he lapses into trying to quip to the being, ghost, hallucination as he tries to run back, rain beating down on him, causing some of his hair to flop wetly across his forehead and eyes.

The karate chop seems to disrupt the ordeal for a few moments, but now a more menacing aspect of the spirit seems to take hold. The face distorted, scarred, burned, it all presses in towards Kai in horror as a scream echoes inside of his head, more screams, the crackling of wood, the shouting and hooting and hollering of people celebrating. The spirit rises up and away from Kai, vanishing, the ring falling down towards him again, for now, motionless.

Kai looks around wildly when the spirit disappears, he brushes the hair back from his eyes and glances at the ring, then sighs and reaches down to try to scoop it up, using the end of his hoodie sleeve as a makeshift glove to avoid direct skin contact, “Hold still,” he commands it, as if the ring’s listened to him before.

As soon as Kai touches the ring, even through the hoodie…another flash of imagery slips into Kai’s mind, visions, burning, wood crackling, laughing and then an article, an old newspaper. A brief story about the deaths of a man and his wife, a tragic housefire, and the location where they will be buried.

Kai presses the right tight against his chest to keep it from going wild again and checks his phone to figure out where he is in relation to the burial site. He has no car, so once he has a course plotted, he starts to trudge through the rain, too tired currently for a sustained jog, “Just take it easy…” he mutters to the ring, “You’ll be with your… wife and or body soon.”

The ring itself bobbles and wiggles within Kai’s grasp, but perhaps that spirit was taking a break at being so frantic. It seems like there is a yearning, needful energy coming from the object though as Kai finds himself trudging through the rain, the water splashing and running off the sidewalks, taking with it the dirt and grime that sometimes covers the streets. It washes away all of the darkness a few moments at a time, and often shows how something like this ring might end up in a gutter, waiting for the wrong, or right person to pick it up. The location wouldn’t be too far, as if being close might have awakened that lost spirit, that lost object.

Eventually, his strides carry him to the cemetery where the unfortunate married couple are dead and buried. Kai looks around, trying to place the names and realizes he doesn’t know them, so instead he pinches the ring between his finger and thumb (still using the hoodie for a barrier) and walks forward along the rows to see if it reacts to any particular headstones.

The quick thinking of Kai with letting the ring lead seems to work, at leat after a while. Headstones are passed, certain ones ignored, but soon, as he approaches two small, modest gravesites, rundown and not taken care of over the years, the ring begins to react. It pulls, it pushes, and soon, the echoing sounds of screaming and death once again fill his ears, the closer he gets to the gravesite the louder, it almost becomes unbearable towards the end, but maybe if he pushes through it…

Kai grimaces a bit, more from the intensity than the actual images themselves, he continues toward the two modest gravestones, holding tight to the ring as he tries to power through this most recent psychic barrage.

The ring itself pulls and tugs from Kai’s grip as soon as he is close enough and hits the dirt, hard, impacted dirt in a way that tries to drill and dig itself down into the surface. It is making progress, but it might take some time, the two gravestones themselves with faded lettering over the years say, on the left, ‘Jeb-dia- Br-nks’ and on the right, ‘M-lly B-inks’. The ring is plunging to the right gravestone with its intensity.

“Hmmm…” Kai considers as he looks at the ring, a brief few seconds to consider whilst patting his hoodie down for potential shovel material comes up blank, so he starts to back up and away from the drilling bit of gold, “Hopefully it brings you some peace… but if not, remember I helped you and, you know, launch yourself at someone else next time!” he calls to the ring and turns to trudge out of the cemetery, glancing back over his shoulder now and then to make sure he has no airborne ring in pursuit.

There is no airborne ring in pursuit, it continues to drill, plunge and push itself into the compacted dirt, aiming for that long lost love beneath the surface. The spirit might remember Kai, or it might have enough peace from this act to not have to consider haunting anyone again, only time will tell.

(Your target is abducted in their sleep, waking up alone in a locked room. They need to either escape or draw attention to them so their allies can come and provide assistance.
)

The group would slowly wake up, all of them with pounding headaches. Luka puts his palm to his face, groaning as he massages his temples, looking around at the room they’d all found themselves in “… Fucking hell …” Luka groans under his breath, even the dim lightbulb inside the room seeming too bright for him right now “Does anyone remember anything?” The man asks, looking between Reina and Wynne. (Room description is updateD)

Wynne slowly stumbles up, onto one knee, rubbing at both sides of their head. They blink the confusion from their eyes — or at least, they attempt to; but when whatever for or concussion remains clears from their eyes, they only look more confused, their brow raising high up on their face as they scan their surroundings, “No?” They say, uncertain, looking over towards Reina with a worried, if hopeful expression.

Reina winces, clutching her head as she picks herself up off the ground. Her eyes are naturally drawn to the light bulb at the center of the room, seemingly having a hard time to adjust to the flickering. She steels her nerves, noticing Luka and Wynne both in the room with her, and gather inventory. For whatever reason, she seemed to still have everything she remembered carrying before being dragged here. “I was driving back to my apartment after picking up a few things at the Lodge.” She murmurs. “That’s all I can remember…”

Cackling painfully under his breath, Luka buttscoots himself back enough to rest his back up against the rusted metal wall, a hollow thudding sound coming as he leans back against it. “Looks like someone’s got it out for the lodge.” Luka observes as he glances around. “Not sure how they got all of us, but it looks like we’re trapped now” Luka tells the group#

“.. Bullshit.” Reina declares, marching to the only door visible inside the room – the one locked with a massive wheel, and immediately setting her hands to the task of trying to force it. Her gloves grip against the rusted surface of the wheel lock, and she strains in an attempt to turn it.

Wynne stumbles further upwards, finally up and onto their feet. They shuffle across the door and attempt to assist Reina with turning the wheel.

Luka is trying to figure out how the roll command works

Luka winces as Reina fails to open the door, getting slowly up to his feet “Hey, it almost looks like it moved” Luka remarks to the both of them with a short shrug. “Anyone else got any ideas for what might work?”

Reina breathes in, trying to control her breathing. The room was small and crowded enough to invoke a strong feeling of claustrophobia in her. She nervously glances around, her eyes finally settling on the strange statue on the opposite corner of the room – she looks at Wynne, trying to direct their gaze to it.

Luka did not add that statue, he thinks that’s a bug …

Reina says “I.. I don’t know. Why don’t you have a go at the door?“

Wynne rubs at their temples and shuts their eyes, trying to think… “What about the viewport? Does it have a handle on this side? Is there any way we can open it before we try the door again? Just to see what we’re getting into? I doubt we’d be kidnapped and then just dumped into an empty room completely unguarded… …or I can try listening in? I don’t know if I’d be able to hear anything, through the metal, though…”

Luka nods to Wynne “Good ideas, good ideas” The man tells them, slowly picking himself up the floor and folding his arms over his chest. Glancing over at the viewport, it doesn’t seem to have an internal handle, apparently meant to be slid across from the other side “Might be worth trying to slide it open?” Luka asks with a raised eyebrow “If it’s not locked, you should be able to move it just with friction …” He makes his ways over to the door at the mention of it being guarded, the man hovering his face over the ground for a few seconds before shaking his head “Can’t smell anyone nearby …” He confirms

Wynne glances back over towards Reina, before moving over towards the door with Luka, placing a single finger on the sliding hatch and attempting to move it with friction, to check, at the very least, if it was locked.

Reina has taken to crossing her arms and standing still, in the middle of the room. She seems slightly out of it, looking down at her own feet, lost in thought. The light above her continues to flicker.

The slider slides! Revealing what at first seems to be pure darkness, but as their eyes adjust, reveals … There is no hallway outside. The room they’re in was in fact, in the middle of another, larger room! And on the far end of the room, there was an open door way. The only issue, the floor seemed to be a full twelve feet down, and the ceiling another twelve feet up. Looking up, Wynne would notice the metal room they were in, was actually a metal box, and they were suspended from the ceiling by a long metal chain that ran up to the ceiling, all the way along the wall, and then down to some kind of machine with a level attached on the bottom of the greater room’s floor.

Wynne turns over towards Luka, their face a full shade paler than their already ghostly complexion, “…you ever seen that one shlocky French horror movie, The Cube?” Their gaze turns back out the hatch, trying to make out any further details, “…it’s kind of like that… slightly more hopeless, though… Reina, do you have your bow with you?” They beckon Reina over with a hand, their gaze still right out the viewport, though the scoot aside to permit Reina enough space to gaze through it, and their off-hand, the one that wasn’t beckoning, points towards the machine… in the time it takes them to walk over, they thankfully decide to elaborate; “It looks like we’re just… suspended, in the middle of a huge metal room.”

Reina brings herself to walk towards the door, peeking out of the slider along with the group. Not that the view outside put her any more at ease, if anything, it sent a chill up her spine. She instinctively crosses her arms tighter, almost wrapping them around herself, “Luka, where the fuck are we…?” Her voice sounds uncertain, a far cry from her confident cadence.

“I don’t have my bow, no. Just this gun I picked up from the Lodge – had it ordered half a week ago.”

“The Cube …. Doesn’t a guy get his face cut off in that?” Luka asks Wynne, trying to remember if he had actually seen it. He peeks past Reina and Wynne to look down into the room himself, squinting his eyes as they slowly adjust to the darkness as he makes the same observations the other two had made. “Well that’s pretty fucked.” Luka states, quite helpfully. In response to Reina the man glowers a moment “Probably the fucking board room up to more shit” Luka tells her, looking around the room “They’re after Alphonse. We’ve been keeping him from them.”

Wynne shakily exhales, “…what I was going to say next was stupid… I doubt shooting — what I assume at least, to be the machine keeping us suspended — would lower us gently. We’d fall a full story in a metal death-box… tell me you have an idea, Reina. One that’s better than mine? Or what about you, Luka?” They take to wringing out their hands, nervously. “If we could somehow get the door open, maybe the three of us could lower one person down low enough that they could drop down without hurting themselves too bad. Like monkeys in a barrel?”

Reina groans, pushing Wynne aside in a fit of anger. Not at Wynne, of course, but rather at the situation – trapped in a rusty metal box, twelve feet from the ground, afforded not even the respect of having their weapons confiscated. Whoever put them here was a little too sure of their own death trap. She breaks into a half-crouch, both hands wrapping around the door’s wheel once again, as she pushes her entire body’s weight up and against it in another attempt to force open the door.

A second push and this time Reina slams into the door far more powerfully than last time! The initial slam of her body weight buckles the door, cratering the steel as flakes of half rusted steel are thrown throughout the entire room! Once the structural integrity of the door was compromised, it didn’t take much after that to get it of it’s hinges. A mighty scream of tearing iron fills the room and the door swings free, falling down before an ear splitting crash echoes throughout the greater chamber, the sound of the door hitting the ground 12 feet down!

Reina successful, they only had one issue now. The massive impact into the door had sent the entire box they were into a swing, Luka falling to the ground hard enough to bounce his skull off the metal as he loses his balance. He’s out like a light, his body starting to slide around the bottom of the room as the box swings … Sliding next towards the now open doorway!

“Oh, for fuck’s..!” Reina shouts, holding onto the now open doorway with one hand in order to anchor herself. One foot similarly drives into the lower end of the doorway, for additional support, and she crouches a little, another arm outstretched to grab Luka’s unconscious body on its way out of the door.

Wynne plants their feet and attempts to avoid losing their footing, grabbing onto the doorway for any extra support. If Luka happened to be heading out the door, they similarly would join in Reina’s attempts to keep him from sliding out towards a full story drop; provided they were able to keep themselves upright.

Reina gets a grip on Luka’s jacket! But, the man was sliding fast, and despite the grip his body slides right past her and outside the open door! In the chaos of everything going on, Reina wouldn’t quite let go in time, and with the weight of Luka’s body was dragged straight out of the open door herself with him! The two of themselves finding themselves in free fall, Reina and Wynne having seconds to react!

Wynne can’t think of anything to do. It’s a long way down. On instinct alone, they flail their arms for anything to grab onto, but already being in complete free-fall, there’s nothing. All they can do now is brace for the impact, and at least try to give the rapidly approaching ground as much surface area as possible. They try to twist mid-air, to land on their feet, or as close to up-right as they can.

Reina quickly rolls in the air in the little time afforded, trying to place herself on the bottom so as to cushion Luka’s fall – landing on her back with her kevlar vest to help cushion the blow.

Reina and Wynne hit the ground like two sacks of potatoes, but Luka does manage to get the best of it, landing on top of the relatively soft Reina instead of the hard metal floor. Rubbing his head, the man groans as he slowly sits up “Fucking hell, what happened?” Luka asks, looking up at the massive metal box over the top of them still swinging …

Reina lets Luka’s body roll to the side as soon as they land, resting her head against the floor with a slow groan. She stays there for at least ten seconds longer, before sitting up, pushing herself to stand up.

Wynne wheezes, their whole body stinging from the fall… though fortunately it doesn’t feel like anything is broken? So they manage to work themselves up onto their knees, “…we fell… fuck… it feels like my insides were jostled around… let me… let me catch my breath.” Inbetween hurt sounding pants for air, they scan the room, particularly over the area where they had spotted the machine earlier, trying to look for anything that wasn’t hidden.

“We should … Probably get moving …” Luka says, climbing up to his feet with effort, staggering a few steps to the side before getting his feet under him “Someone will have heard that door hit the ground, we gotta move” Luka tells Reina and Wynne, holding out a hand to help Wynne up to her feet before ushering the group towards the open door

Wynne quickly takes the hand and staggers up with the offered assistance, following behind Luka as they lead on.