And in full Tracy CoC fashion, the whole party, save one, ended up insane and dead. It wasn't like I planned, though, which amuses me.
The run-down of the game goes like this:
Location: Virginia Beach
The Cavalier Hotel, The Cavalier Country Club, A.R.E. and a nameless condo along the beach
Time: 2009, around Thanksgiving
Weather: Cold, cloudy, wet
Cast of NPCs:
Mr. Rainey -- The hotel's manager. Stuffy, somewhat snooty but always sees to his guests' comfort. Played by
Larry Miller.
Ms. Anne Dubois -- This is the hotel's assistant manager. She's a bitch; there are no bones about it. She's serious, she's strict, she's no-nonsense, and she won't take shit from
anyone. She does her job efficiently and well and often harsher to deal with than Mr. Rainey. Played by
Famke Janssen, the way she looked and acted in
House on Haunted Hill, but dressed in a business suit with her hair pulled back.
Louis Gardnier -- This is the hotel's head chef. He wound up being Holly Potts (to be mentioned later) most valued friend in the game. He's originally from New Orleans, and his grandmother practices Voudoun, so he's seen some strange shit since he was a little boy (but nothing to prepare him for the crazed alien mushroom clusterfuck). He was played by
Michael Clarke Duncan.
Zeke -- The hotel's waiter. He appeared only briefly during the day scene. A flat character who didn't move the plot along much. He was played by
Hank Azaria.
John -- The head groundskeeper. A good man but a very small part. Not portrayed by anyone that I remember.
David -- The assistant groundskeeper. He was the one who discovered the strange teal-turquoise plant and mushrooms first and had been cut by the edge of the plant part first. It began to affect his behavior really badly. Later he sneaks some of the mushrooms into the soup, which of course, affects several of the patrons in the hotel and Mr. Rainey.
The Little Boy -- His mother had eaten some of the mushroom soup and was taken to the hospital after she'd begun to show teal-turquoise spots on the side of her neck and cheek. His father went to see his mother and left him behind with the hotel staff in case she was contagious. The Little Boy wound up with a row of teal-turquoise eyes across his forehead in a line then later ate one of the black mushrooms and sprouted two of the white spikes from his face. He's five years old and really adorable; I pictured my friend Mikey's son Alex for this part.
There was a bellboy, but all I remember about him was that he was cute and Isaiah (Kass' character) hit on him and invited him up to his room. But the night before the final clusterfuck, too much was going on, and he never had the chance to go up and get some lovin'. Too bad for him and too bad for Isaiah, given how everything went down at the end.
The Cast of Player Characters:
Jay: Holly Pots. A young, pretty cryptobotonist who was called in by the Cavalier hotel (first) to examine the strange plants. Then while she was there, she was called to the Cavalier Country Club. She found the teal-turquoise mushrooms/plants at the hotel and the red mouth ones at the Country Club. After that, she was called by the unnamed condos where she found the black mushrooms with the sunflower plant. The girl wound up having no sleep, nothing to eat, only cups and cups of coffee to drink and eventually flipped out when there was too much contamination, and she pulled the gas lines from the stove, trying to (I'm assuming) knock out the people in the kitchen. It didn't work quite that way.
Jeff: Dr. Jeremiah Balthazar. An archeologist/anthropologist who specialized in Egyptian and Meso-American artifacts and studies. He was OCD, had addictions out the ass and often severe cases of paranoia. He was the one to discover the tome at A.R.E. (where he was to give a lecture), which featured the different types of plants and mushrooms, which were referred to as Messengers or Angels who would be the first to come. They would hail the next wave who would then determine the worthy before the Old Ones arrived. He stole the book from the library at A.R.E. then proceeded to become more paranoid when he thought people were trying to steal the book from him. Of course, while he was losing his mind more and throwing salt and pepper shakers at the window in the dining room (at the hotel) because he saw the assistant groundskeeper staring at him (and he saw the man's bare feet, which were covered in teal-turquoise eyes that were also watching Jeremiah), the book was stolen. This drove Jeremiah into more of a frenzy until he went to the bar, had a few drinks and calmed down again. It was then that Holly Potts came to talk to him, and they saw The Little Boy with possession of the book. He was coloring in it.
Kass: Isaiah (crap, can't remember his last name). British, researcher. Interested in old Sumerian and Babylonian cultures. He was in VA Beach to hear Jeremiah speak at A.R.E. He heard whispering at night while he was in his hotel room (sounded like it was coming from the next door room). It sounded like Sumerian but it wasn't, but what he could make out was that the whispering mentioned that the messengers were coming. The next day, he went insane pretty quickly after he realized he was being watched by the assistant groundskeeper and later when he went into A.R.E. It wasn't until he went into the gardens there, however, and encountered the purple mushrooms that whispered to him that he fully lost it. Of course, this is partly because he picked one of the big mushrooms with the spikes then heard the baby one whining, so he took it, too. Then he went back to the hotel.
Carlos: Duran. He was a very strange new age priest. He carried crystals around with him, all about the same shape and point but different colors, and he would consult with them. He was pretty belligerent most of the time, insisting that the hotel give him a laptop and all sorts of other things. When that didn't happen, he went to Best Buy. While he was walking alongside the building, he noticed this three-faced priest there staring back at him, and he went batshit insane, screaming and eventually charged the window, trying to get to it. Eventually, the cops came to take him away and when they went to the hotel to look in his room, they discovered a Glock and a Desert Eagle. Of course, later, he escaped from the cops and came back to the hotel, only now,
he had three faces like the priest he saw, and he stole one of the cops' guns, shot through one of the kitchen windows and hit The Little Boy in the head with a bullet.
By this point, Isaiah's been affected by the gash in his hand and the purple mold on his other hand from the baby mushroom. Jeremiah tried to leave the kitchen with the tome, but he ran into Mr. Rainey who'd grown two long sets of fingers coming out of both sides, only they ended in pincer like nails, and he stabbed into Jeremiah. Thus infecting him. This was when Holly decided that everyone was contaminated and pulled the gas line. Then Jeremiah lit a cigarette and blew the hole back of the hotel off. Killing just about everyone.
Here's the fun part:
The Little Boy walked out of the burning kitchen, completely unharmed. He still had the eyes and claws and a bullet hole in his head. He stepped out of the kitchen, took Duran's hand and the Little Boy and Three-Faced New Age Priest walked away from the building together.
The end. LOL
Okay. There were four different mushrooms and plants that grew up before the mushrooms.
All of them come from meteors that are the size and shape of large pecans. When broken, they look as delicate as pecan shells, but when picked up, they're very dense like heavy rocks. Also when broken open, the insides are whatever color that particular plant is, and it oozes out like a thick, viscous jelly, which then seeps into the ground and starts immediate growth.
♥ The first was the sweet grass looking plant:
http://www.madabouthealth.com/upload/madabouthealth/Sweetgrass.jpg Only the grass itself is teal at the outer edge and turquoise inside. The blades look like that, but when touched, the edges are very sharp and will cut through skin easily. The mushrooms that grow from that are a whitish-gray with spots on them that are turquoise ringed with teal. When they're small, they're only spots, but as they grow bigger, the spots become eyes that will stare and wink and blink. From underneath the caps, two fingers with nails and everything will come out and have full mobility. When they're even larger, and if they're pulled from the ground, those fingers will sprout from the bottom of the stem and can actually walk.
♥ The second type comes from a plant that looks very similar to a kalanchoe plant:
http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/Hort/Hort332/images/plantlist/kalanchoe.jpgOnly, the greenery part of the plant is taller and thinner. The flowers are deep blood red.
The mushrooms on these are also a whitish-gray, but the spots are red and as the mushrooms grow, the red spots become lips, which become mouths. They speak in whispery tones and will sound like a language that anyone listening will understand. When they are fully mature, a tail will sprout from either the stem or underneath the cap, and it switches back and forth like a cat's tail, but it's got a barbed point at the end.
♥ The third type has a tall sunflower, which has pale yellow petals and dark black seeds/center.
http://www.essencesonline.com/Sunflower-big.jpgThe mushrooms, however, are solid black with white spots when they're small, and when they get older, the white spots will suddenly shoot out and become sharp white fang-looking spikes. The spikes are solid and will scratch and hurt and cut very easily.
♥ The fourth kind of plant looks like a thistle, but the purple itself is much darker, like a royal purple.
http://www.simplythebests.com/nhoes/images/thistle.jpgThe mushrooms start out lavender and cute and soft looking, but as they get bigger, they darken to the royal purple, and from the edges of the cap, orange spiky rays grow out. These are also sharp and will cut a person very easily.
naughty![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
eclipsegryph pointed me in the direction of an interesting little forum that I decided to join, the wolf side of me has reared her/his head again. So it was just fitting that I honor that totem by an LJ change. :)
sleepy
relaxed
full
happy
starving
amused
ecstatic
in awe
refreshed
bouncy
accomplished
