The Campaign Builder's Guild

[ic=Introduction]Your name is Mildred Symes.  You are very ill.  The physician has come and gone, prodding your twelve-year-old body and plying you with tonics, his gaunt features contorted, bushy eyebrows knit and thin lips pessimistically pinched.  You heard him say something about "brain fever" to your mother and father out in the hall.

Your skin is extremely warm.  You lie in a large four-poster bed watching the rain patter against the window and listening to the sounds of London outside – the clip-clop of horses' hooves on the cobblestones, the hoarse cries of a watercress seller, the distant croak of a street organ.  Downstairs, the grandfather clock strikes seven.  You are unsure if it is morning or evening; your head feels full of smog.  Flames crackle in the hearth, and on your chest of drawers the cat, Jinx, slumbers beside your old doll, Clementine, her bisque porcelain face shimmering in the firelight.  Through the floorboards you can hear the servants busying themselves in the kitchen.

Your head nods.  Your eyelids droop.  Outside, a London particular is rolling in, tendrils of fog caressing the windowpane.  You slip into unconsciousness...

You awake to the sound of the grandfather clock chiming once again.  You count the toll:

One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Six... Seven... Eight... Nine... Ten... Eleven... Twelve... Thirteen.

That doesn't seem quite right.  Perhaps you miscounted.  Outside it certainly looks dark.  The fog has gotten thicker, though it is a queer colour – tinted dark pink, almost reddish.  The fire still flickers in the hearth, though it is burning low.  You can't hear anything out in the street, or elsewhere in the house, save for the distant, low ticking of the grandfather clock.

You are extremely thirsty, your throat parched and rasping.  You quite desperately need a drink of water.[/ic]

[ic=Inventory]Nightshirt[/ic]

[ooc]I am feeling whimsical.  Inspired by Nomadic's "Massively Multiplayer Forum Roleplaying Game" of several years ago, this is an experimental Play-by-Post game in which the first person to respond to the a post determines the protagonist's next action – in other words, a PbP in which everyone controls the player character (the young lady of privilege Mildred Symes).  I'm the GM, so I'll describe new areas, characters, story developments, etc - you just decide on an action for Mildred to take.  I'm not sure where this will go, but hopefully it will be fun![/ooc]

Mildred gropes around on the nightstand, in search of a glass of water.

[ic=Nightstand]You feel for a glass of water - usually Henrietta leaves one for you - but don't find one.  Instead your small hand touches the cold metal of a candlestick.[/ic]

[ic=Inventory]Nightshirt[/ic]

Mildred struggles out of bed, and weakly stumbles to the door in order to open it.

[ic=Doorknob]You attempt to open the door, groping for the knob in the gloom, but your hand touches wood.  Squinting in the darkness you realize that the doorknob appears to be on the left side of the door instead of the right, where you remember it.[/ic]

[ic=Inventory]Nightshirt[/ic]

Mildred hesitates, but reaches to open the door. She sticks her head out past the doorframe, peering down the hallway. "Mother?" she calls. "..Father?" her voice rasping.

[ic=Corridor]There is no answer.  The corridor is clotted with uncannily dense blackness - you can't see more than a few feet down the hall in either direction.[/ic]

[ic=Inventory]Nightshirt[/ic]

Mildred shivers, her body seized by a momentary feeling of utter dread. She quietly closes the door and returns to the nightstand to fetch the candlestick. She slowly bears it over to the dying fire - careful not to stumble in the darkness - and tries to light the wick on the embers.

[ic=Candlestick]You light the candle carefully.  Its ruddy glow throws strange shadows on the walls, the outlines of objects eerily distorted.  As the room brightens in the candlelight you realize something odd - your doll, Clementine, is missing from her usual spot atop the chest of drawers.[/ic]

[ic=Inventory]Nightshirt, Candlestick (Lit)[/ic]

Mildred frowns in confusion. Something is very, very wrong; she can feel it. For a moment, she considers staying in her bed until the morning light arrives to dispel the burgeoning eeriness of this night, but she's just so thirsty. "Jinx? Where did you get off to, kitten?" she calls, glancing about the room as she makes her way over to reopen the door.

[ic=Jinx]Jinx, like Clementine, is conspicuously absent from the room.  You quickly check in all of her favourite spots - by the fireplace, under the bed, snug up against the wardrobe in the far corner.  No sign of her.  How did she get out if the door was closed, anyway?

You open the door again.  Your taper sheds a little light into the hall, but the thick darkness devours the candlelight after a few feet.  Which way should you go - right, to your parents' chambers, or left, to the stairs?[/ic]

[ic=Inventory]Nightshirt, Candlestick (Lit)[/ic]

Mildred heads right, in the darkness and to her parents chambers. However, her curiosity sometime seems to get the better of her, she can't help but turn to look to the stairs from time to time.

[ic=Door]Perhaps the darkness is playing tricks on you, but the corridor seems to go on quite a bit further than it should, and soon the flickering pool of reddish light spilling into the hall from the fire in your room looks quite distant, nearly swallowed by the seeping blackness behind you.  You pass the door to your father's study on the left, a room you are not generally allowed into.  Presently, after what seems far too long a time, you come to your parents' door, at the far end of the hall.  As with your own door, the doorknob is on the wrong side, unless your memory deceives you.[/ic]

[ic=Inventory]Nightshirt, Candlestick (Lit)[/ic]

Mildred raps lightly at the bedroom door, "mother? father?". Without waiting she turns the knob and pushes the door open. "Is anyone here?"

[ic=Locked]How queer!  The door is locked.  You've never known your parents to lock their door before.[/ic]

[ic=Inventory]Nightshirt, Candlestick (Lit)[/ic]