\ Haven:Mist and Shadow Encounterlogs/Pennys Odd Encounter Sr Sam 241204
Encounterlogs

Pennys Odd Encounter Sr Sam 241204

Penny's night takes an unexpected turn when, after leaving Apartment 204 at Elm Apartments, she encounters a scruffy man who drops a peculiar Rubik's cube-like artifact. This artifact, beating with a clenched crimson hand, transports her to a demonic realm as she touches it and enters the elevator. In this realm, filled with the smell of brimstone and the sight of obsidian floors, Penny is confronted by a raspy, mocking voice and numerous watching eyes. This voice, representing demonic entities, challenges her to solve a series of dark riddles as part of a ritual aimed at strengthening the demons' control over the world. Penny, though hesitant and disoriented, agrees to play their twisted games.

The challenges test Penny's wits and resolve, involving blood sacrifices and facing her fears. Through the trials, she navigates the puzzles with a mixture of determination and frustration, offering answers that appease the demonic audience. Each correct answer is met with chaotic approval from the unseen creatures around her. Finally, after solving the riddles and agreeing to a mysterious task involving a tarot card reader, Penny is suddenly returned to the familiar corridor of Elm Apartments, artifact gone, as if nothing had happened. The same scruffy man reappears to retrieve his dropped cube, thanking Penny with a grin before vanishing into the shadows, leaving her to process the bizarre and hellish ordeal she just endured.
(Penny's odd encounter(SRSam):SRSam)

[Tue Dec 3 2024]

In the second floor

It is night, about 41F(5C) degrees, and there are a few dark grey stormclouds in the sky. There is a waxing crescent moon.

Penny has just exited from Apartment 204 in the Elm Apartments and is making her way down the hall toward the elevator, fiddling with her phone.

(Your target receives an ancient artifact with connections to the Destined Host - a faction known for its dedication to demons. Upon touching the artifact, they are transported to a different realm where they must solve a series of riddles and challenges posed by the demons. The demons promise that if your target is successful, they will be returned to their world unharmed, but failure could result in dire consequences. What your target doesn't know is that these challenges are actually part of a dark ritual aimed at strengthening the demons' hold on the world.)
A scruffy man approaches. He has simple, slightly shabby clothes. He looks around, and mutters, seemingly heavily distracted.

"Shit, shit..." He looks down at his watch, and scurries right along.

Something falls to the ground, from the man's pocket as he disappears from the corridoor:
A colourful rubix cube. Innoculous as it might seem, it lays there, every middle block beating a clenched, crimson hand. A symbol of sorts.

Penny looks over as she hears the soft thud of something falling. She frowns at the sight of the strange rubix cube, but is quick to pick it up, "Hey! Guy! You-..." He's already around the corner. "...Dropped somehting." She sighs heavily, starting to walk quickly in the direction the guy was heading to see if she can catch up with him.

As soon as Penny picks the thing up, something feels strange. Off almost. Then, as she enters the elevator, the buttons glow hot, and the number above shows: 2, 1, 0, -1.... H.@Line


A tug, then, at her belly button, much like like someone has attached a hook to it.

Briefly, the world seems to melt away, and darkness surrounds her.

A pause, then. Slowly, several things become clear:
The smell. Brimstone. And sulphur.
The radiating heat, all around her.
And the darkness, barely giving way, revealing an obsidian floor, etched with words in a language perhaps no mortal should understand.

From the darkness, a chuckle, and a raspy, gutteral voice speaks. "You will do nicely."
The voice is arrogant, nasty, and every syllable like the rasp of a nail on a blackboard.
"Will you take the test, Child of the Moon?"

Penny is disoriented, hackles raised as the darkness closes in and the spell of sulphur and brimstone fill her nose. "W-hat...?" She tugs a little at her jacket collar as it also feels incredibly warmer.

"Test? What test?" She looks around a bit, trying to see the source of the voice. "What the fuck is goin' on?"

The big, glowing, yellowish eyes blink slowly. "You carry the burden."

As the voice speaks, several more eyes seem to open, all over the darkness of the room. They look at Penny with curiosity, the rasping sound of claws sharpening against stone, and gnashing fangs and teeth present everywhere.

"Chosen! ChOsEn!" The voices speak out in a cacophony of yelps.

In Penny's hand, the rubix cube is still there, but now a strange, metal device of rings, gears, and buttons, semingly twisting and turning of it's own accord, in ways that no physicist would approve of.

"Play, or yield... What say you?"

The voice speaks, again, rasping, echoing, demanding.

A low growl emits from Penny, taking one wary step back with the several more eyes opening. A glance down turns into a second closer look at the now even -stranger- rubix cube.

"...I guess....I'll play?" Not entirely certain about it but also not seeing an immediate way out of this space.

As Penny agrees, the device glows, a reddish, clearly un-natural hue to it.

The voice chuckles, and the other sounds cease. "Such is the free will of mortals."

"The thought of me brings sickness
The sight of me, despair
Falter while in battle
And you're sure to find me there.
And when your children mourn you
Do not weep or rage
Know that you have passed me down
To endure in them for an age."
A pause, then. "What. Am. I?"

In Penny's hands, the devise whirrs, and changes, forming a bowl of sorts, made of turning rings and whirring gears.

Penny groans as the riddle is read out, looking up at the darkness and then back down at the bowl. "I fuckin' hate riddles." She rubs at her forehead a little, watching the bowl again as she thinks. "...S'it Death?" She offers up after a moment with plenty of uncertainty behind the answer.

"If that is the answer..."
The voice sounds mocking, ironic, evil.
"Then gift it upon the bowl!" The hellish chorus screams, angry, loud, eager, all of these overlapping as flickers of fire are seen in the darkness. Penny's audience is eager, amused, and perhaps enjoying themselves over the woman's distress.

Penny glares toward the voice, grimacing a bit with the hellish chours assaulting her sensitive ears. "Fuckers..." She looks over the bowl, seeing if there may be a needle or something sticking out for it to prick her finger on. "Well if it ain't death -and- it's gotta go in the bowl...then it's gotta be blood." One way or another, she'll find a way with prick her finger enough to draw a drop of blood and let it fall into the bowl. It's possible she still might think this is part of a fever dream.

Penny does in fact find a needle sticking out of the device. As she pricks her finger, and lets the liquid fall into the bowl, a rumble is heard in the room.

"Correct!" The mocking voice speaks.
"CoRrEcT!" The hissing chorus around Penny screams.
The device whirrs and twists, and the eyes in front of her blink, slowly. "The second..."

"No legs have I to dance"
"No lungs have I to breathe"
"No life have I to live or die"
"And yet I do all three."@line Another pause, and the voice rasps out "What am I?"

The device clacks and clicks, the bowl filling with what Penny's canine senses can make out to be a strong alcohol of sorts.

"Fuck me." Penny chews her bottom lip as she mulls on this one. She sniffs a little and looks down at the liquid in the bowl. "You dance, breath, live, and die. Sounds like a plant maybe? A leaf? Unless this is another 'offer it to the bowl' situation." She says dryly to the voice.

There is a pause. "Plant." The voice seems disappointed, a breath sighed out, and no doubt a new mocking remark ready. Then, it pauses.

A soft chuckle lingers into the air as the eyes grow bigger.

"Fear..." It speaks slowly. "Is it fear that you donate?"

Around her, the room grows darker. "Fear for your live?"

A pause. "Fear for..." A shimmer in the air, and a man is seen, one very familiar indeed to Penny. He sits behind a computer, staring at the screen.

"A fear for your heart?" A mocking chuckle.
"Is it fear you give, then, Child of Moon?"

"You're shitty at picking Chosen ones, clearly." Penny retorted at the disappointed sigh, looking a little frustrated. There's a furrowing of her brow when that vision of Eric seems to appear before her. She grips the bowl tighter, a brief flash of yellow in her own eyes before she reins herself in. Tearing her gaze from the mirage she glares back into the darkness. "...Fear. Sure. I'll give fear..."

"Then your dear I shall consume!"
Suddenly, a strange feeling comes over Penny. Real or not, a salm comes over her, and all fear, at least for a day or so, drains from her body.

"Correct!" The voice booms.
"CoRrEcT! CORRECT! CORREEECCT!" The chorus erupts in chaos, and then, silence.

"You did well, Herald of our coming!"
The voice speaks. It chuckles.

"By Blood And Fear, willingly given..."

"You, Child of the Moon!"

"I thank you. Your price today, is thus."

"Seek out the man, of the orient. The man of cards, who thinks he sees fate."

"Speak to him. Ask him if he is content."

"Ask him if changing the books, of the man in the diner, the one he caused to die..."

"Ask him if it satisfies him..." The voices snicker, and scream in amusement.
"Do. We. Have. A /deal/, Child of the Moon?" The voice sounds happy, and eager as a blackened, burnt, clawed hand extends towards penny, offered to shake. Or not.

Penny recoils, uncertain and nervous. "The...tarot card reader?...uh.." She clears her throat, brain catching up with the rest of everything. "Herald of -...what?" She swallows hard and nods a little. "I-uh...I guess we do?" She hestiates a beat before taking the offered hand to shake. "Yeah. That sounds...easy enough to do.."

"DEAAAAAAAL! DEAL! DEAL!" All the voices scream out in ecstasy, and Penny's hand is firmly shaken."
A tug at her belly button, again, and Penny stands before the door of apartment 204. No more device in her hand, no more sulphur, no more brimstone and fire. And then...
A scruffy man approaches. He has simple, slightly shabby clothes. He looks around, and mutters, seemingly heavily distracted.

A thunk, and he pauses, grabbing a rubix cube from the ground. He looks over to Penny. "Thank you!" His grin splits his face, and he steps into the shadows, disappearing from view, leaving Penny alone to consider the evening's events. "