❧ Lurking in the night
[sometime in the afternoon, the CAT devices and vidscreens turn on but this time, there is no video montage, but if anyone is listening closely, this song can be softly heard in the background of this recorded message. this time, residents get a view of Mayor Caligin's bowed head, his hands pressed to his temples. he looks up slowly as he begins to speak, a tired and world-weary expression on his face. there is no glistening smile today.]
Oh, dear, dear citizens of Luministi, it wounds me to the core to think such an event could happen in our town and on the most joyous of occasions that was our town's founder's day celebration. My heart aches at the very thought that I could have lost even a single one of my precious citizens to that horrid occurrence. I almost closed The Chrysalis in a moment of blind anger--! [he closes his eyes and sits up straight in his chair, that moment of anger passing in an instant.] After a long and dogged investigation into the incident, I decided not to close the restaurant. The Chrysalis is under new management now and will resume business sometime next week once all old food and drink products have been done away with.
If it weren't for the Doctor Resarci and his team, as well as a few special citizens, many lives would have been lost. As such, I am awarding special commendations to award those whose service has saved our great town from a potential tragedy.
The perpetrators of this heinous crime have yet to be found. The Luministi Sheriff's Office is working around the clock in search of these miscreants, and any tips or clues as to who might have done it will surely be welcomed. As of right now, I am imposing a town curfew. Between the hours of 9 p.m.and 6 a.m. any citizens caught outside without prior permission obtained from the Sheriff's Office will be punished and fined. All businesses have been made aware of the curfew and all will close early. I understand The White Rabbit will only continue to serve patrons who have reserved a room for the night, and the Janus Theatre will host lock-ins every Tuesday and Thursday. Do see both respective businesses for more details.
Until the perpetrators are found or step forward to claim responsibility for their crime, the curfew will remain in effect indefinitely. A few additional members of our town have been deputized recently to increase security in our town. Their services can be called upon to escort you home if you feel unsafe walking alone or find yourself in a situation where curfew violation is inevitable.
I do regret taking these actions, my dear citizens. But this is for your own good.
[as soon as the Mayor's transmission ends, the soft sound like that of a phone ringing can be heard, and soon new residents receive this text message from an unknown CAT device:]
"No time to talk. Find the booth, don't get caught. Come between midnight and one. More to come later."
❧ Plot Details: Lurking in the night
Oh, dear, dear citizens of Luministi, it wounds me to the core to think such an event could happen in our town and on the most joyous of occasions that was our town's founder's day celebration. My heart aches at the very thought that I could have lost even a single one of my precious citizens to that horrid occurrence. I almost closed The Chrysalis in a moment of blind anger--! [he closes his eyes and sits up straight in his chair, that moment of anger passing in an instant.] After a long and dogged investigation into the incident, I decided not to close the restaurant. The Chrysalis is under new management now and will resume business sometime next week once all old food and drink products have been done away with.
If it weren't for the Doctor Resarci and his team, as well as a few special citizens, many lives would have been lost. As such, I am awarding special commendations to award those whose service has saved our great town from a potential tragedy.
The perpetrators of this heinous crime have yet to be found. The Luministi Sheriff's Office is working around the clock in search of these miscreants, and any tips or clues as to who might have done it will surely be welcomed. As of right now, I am imposing a town curfew. Between the hours of 9 p.m.and 6 a.m. any citizens caught outside without prior permission obtained from the Sheriff's Office will be punished and fined. All businesses have been made aware of the curfew and all will close early. I understand The White Rabbit will only continue to serve patrons who have reserved a room for the night, and the Janus Theatre will host lock-ins every Tuesday and Thursday. Do see both respective businesses for more details.
Until the perpetrators are found or step forward to claim responsibility for their crime, the curfew will remain in effect indefinitely. A few additional members of our town have been deputized recently to increase security in our town. Their services can be called upon to escort you home if you feel unsafe walking alone or find yourself in a situation where curfew violation is inevitable.
I do regret taking these actions, my dear citizens. But this is for your own good.
[as soon as the Mayor's transmission ends, the soft sound like that of a phone ringing can be heard, and soon new residents receive this text message from an unknown CAT device:]
"No time to talk. Find the booth, don't get caught. Come between midnight and one. More to come later."
❧ Plot Details: Lurking in the night
- Oh dear, the Mayor must be extremely upset to take such drastic measures! And who'd blame him? Poisoning an entire restaurant's worth of people simply doesn't happen in a town like Luministi! But it has and the culprit, or culprits, remain loose and free to do what they please. Perhaps imposing the curfew was a good thing after all, huh?
There are now four deputies plus the sheriff patrolling the town at all times, either on foot or by bike--though poor Deputy Drew still remains behind in the office, holding down the fort. If characters do wander out at night, it will be up to you as the player if you'd like your character to get caught without permission to be out while curfew is in effect. The punishment is a night in a holding cell with only the worst sort of polka music ever created by man for you to listen to. (And no amount of shouting, pleading, or threatening will get it turned off. Deputy Drew does love his polka.) Do note that once all possessions, except for the CAT, have been removed and your character is inside the holding cell, any abilities not needed for survival will be neutralized. So no teleporting, summoning weapons from hammerspace, or anything. There is, however, a somewhat decent bed to curl up on and a partition set up for lavatory purposes.
In addition to being caught and held overnight, curfew violators will have their line of credit frozen for the rest of the week--but will not know that it has until they go to pay for something. If they are discovering this at the end of a meal in, say, the steakhouse, be prepared to work a few hours to pay off that meal (and if this happens in the pub, you can bet Audrey will put you to work!) Fortunately, all other businesses will ask you to return your items to the places you found them around the store before you can leave, and the cinema workers will simply turn away customers who can't pay for their tickets. If your character runs into this problem, they are free to tag along with others who have access to the credits on their CATs and receive services as normal.
Oh yes, the Mayor had mentioned something about commendations, hadn't he? Well, those who participated in the solving of the riddle, like Fuu and Braxiatel, etc, will find, some time after the Mayor's message, a little gift basket at their door containing more coupons for free food at restaurants that are not the The Chrysalis, a box of chocolate-covered cherries, and a plaque. Also, shoved into the basket rather haphazardly, is a small rectangular box wrapped in brown paper with the words, "Open this in the bathroom" written on it. Inside the box are a pair of sunglasses and another message that reads: "You'll need these if you want to learn the truth." Characters are free to discuss these objects with one another, as well as the messages, but how seriously they take the message is up to them.
Now, as for that text message, as said above, it originated from an unknown CAT device, so it isn't in the town registry, nor can it receive messages in return. The booth spoken about in the text message is a phone booth just like this one. It can be found between the cinema and the pub, ringing non-stop. None of the NPC residents can hear the phone, nor can can they see the phone booth itself. They'll have no idea what you're talking about if you ask them about a ringing phone. But that phone will keep on ringing until it is answered and the sender of the text message is able to pass on what needs to be told. The sound will grow fainter the farther away from the phone booth you are, but characters will hear it no matter where they are. Not even earplugs or headphones can cut the sound out. If characters answer it any time before midnight, they'll only get hear this, and then the phone will begin to ring again once the receiver is hung back up in the cradle. This may anger some residents, but surprisingly, nothing in the phone booth can be broken or torn away. It's incredibly resilient, so smash away, though you may do more damage to yourself in the end.
If you do happen to answer the phone during the right time, you will hear the following words put through a voice modifier to disguise who is speaking: "Someone in town is lying and not who they appear to be. The poison was just the start of the trials to come. Keep each other safe and never forget who you are!" Then there will be a click followed by silence. The phone won't ring again after that, though others who haven't answered the phone will continue to hear it for the duration of this plot.
Oh yes, one more thing. Those who did receive those sunglasses? If the character wears them at night while attempting to go find the phone, they will find that they can walk right in front of the sheriff and his deputies without being noticed. Cloaking technology was built into frames to hide the wearer of the sunglasses. Unfortunately, the only way to find that out is if someone ventures out with them on during curfew. The cloaking technology only works at night for some reason--but at least the sunglasses will still function like normal sunglasses during the day!
On a final note of business, starting with next week's plot, we'll be making a change to our plot pacing and slowing things down a bit. Plots will last a week and a half instead of merely a week, so hopefully this will help ease any pressure on our players.
As always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns or anything else, please let us know!