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File: Haunted House.jpg (205 KB, 1200x675)
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You are standing in front of a haunted house. Why did you come here?

>"I am a priest. I came here to banish the evil spirits that dwell here." [Low Combat Skills, Moderate Investigative Skills, High Faith]

>"I am a demon hunter. I came here to destroy the evil spirits that haunt this place." [High Combat Skills, Low Investigative Skills, Moderate Faith]

>"I am a detective. I came here to investigate the mysterious deaths that occurred here." [Moderate Combat Skills, High Investigative Skills, Low Faith]
>>
>>1830343
>>"I am a detective. I came here to investigate the mysterious deaths that occurred here." [Moderate Combat Skills, High Investigative Skills, Low Faith]
>>
>>1830343
>>"I am a detective. I came here to investigate the mysterious deaths that occurred here." [Moderate Combat Skills, High Investigative Skills, Low Faith]
>>
>>1830378
>>1830399
You are a detective who has been investigating the occult for a while.

You are in your late thirties, not as strong nor as fast as you were when you were younger, but you can still handle yourself in a fight.

You are pretty good at being an investigator though, you tend to notice things other people would miss. You are also good at interrogating suspects and solving mysteries.

You are skeptical when it comes to religion however. Not someone who would carry a cross or know how to perform exorcisms.
>>
>>1830415
Anyway, who was the previous owner of this house?

>An aristocrat who dabbled in alchemy, necromancy, and other occult topics

>A renowned doctor who was accused of war crimes and human experimentation

>A group of fanatical cultists rumored to serve an ancient horror

>A serial killer whose victims were found drained of blood

>[Write in]
>>
>>1830422
A Psycho Killer.
>>
>>1830422
>>A renowned doctor who was accused of war crimes and human experimentation
>>
>>1830422

>A group of fanatical cultists rumored to serve an ancient horror

We're Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth now...

Hopefully there will be fewer gamebreaking bugs in this version...
>>
>>1830422
>>An aristocrat who dabbled in alchemy, necromancy, and other occult topics
>>
Really. We're all going to pick different things and then just sit here?

You people are ridiculous...

Changing my vote (>>1830444) to: (>>1830442)
>>
>>1830581
Could I convince you to go for the cultists again if I change my vote >>1830450
To cultists? Because I think that would be more interesting than muh mutants.
>>
>>1830435
>>1830442
>>1830444
>>1830450
>>1830581

The house belonged to a German doctor who was accused of experimenting on prisoners of war.

It was claimed that his unit almost succeeded in creating a homonculous before their side lost the war.

He denied those charges after the war and was not prosecuted because lack of evidence.

However it was rumored that he continued his experiments in secret.
>>
>>1830608

You are in front of the Main Gate. What do you do?

>Investigate Your Surroundings
>Enter the Main Building
>>
>>1830618
>>Investigate Your Surroundings
>>
>>1830622
>Roll 1d20 to check success
>>
>>1830605

You could have, but it's too late now...
>>
Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>1830646

> Investigate Your Surroundings
>>
>>1830653
I prefer to let the players do the rolls for the MC's actions, makes it feel more interactive in my opinion

>>1830654
You don't notice anything out of the ordinary.

You entered the main building after a few minutes.

You are in the First Floor.

What do you do?

>Check the [Library]

>Check the [Storage Room]

>Check the [Office Room]

>Go [Upstairs]

>Go [Outside]
>>
>>1830691
>>Check the [Library]
>>
>>1830691

> I prefer to let the players do the rolls for the MC's actions, makes it feel more interactive in my opinion

?

...

>>1830701

Support...
>>
>>1830691
>>Check the [Library]
IT WAS COLONEL MUSTARD
WITH THE CANDLE STICK
>>
>>1830701
>>1830725
>>1830739

You decided to check the library.

The library contains a number of complex books on science and medicine, you realize it will take too long to go through all of them, unless you knew which books to look for.

You find a few fiction novels as well, most of the classic gothics. You recognize Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Viy by Nikolai Gogol, and several books by Edgar Allen Poe. It seems like the doctor was fascinated by books on the reanimation of the dead, curious choice of books for a man of science.

You notice a number of very strange books - De Vermis Mysteriis by Ludwig Prinn, Cultes des Ghoules by Comte d'Erlette, and an old leather tome whose name seems to have been scratched off.

What do you do now?

>Check the [Storage Room]

>Check the [Office]

>Go [Upstairs]

>Go [Outside]

I have to go now, work and other stuff. Hopefully I'll be able to resume the quest soon.
>>
>>1830889
>>Check the [Office]
>>
>>1830906

Support...
>>
>>1830906
Support
>>
>>1830343
>>"I am a demon hunter. I came here to destroy the evil spirits that haunt this place." [High Combat Skills, Low Investigative Skills, Moderate Faith]
>>
>>1831570
You missed that vote a long time ago fren.
>>
>>1830906
>>1830911
>>1830982
>>1831570
>>1831743

You decided to check the Office.

The office room contains dusty wooden cabinets filled with volumes of old case files on the doctor's patients. Seems like a fire hazard just waiting to happen.

You take a look at some of the case files, mostly just background information and medical history of the patients. Seems pretty mundane for the most part.

You also notice the doctor's desk in the corner, which has a series of drawers. You check the drawers in search of clues, but find nothing but generic office stationeries.

Do you notice anything odd? [Difficulty Class lowered because of High Investigative Skills]

>Examine the Cabinets [Roll 1d20, DC 6]

>Examine the Case Files [Roll 1d20, DC 8]

>Examine the Desk [Roll 1d20, DC 10]

>Check the [Library]

>Check the [Storage Room]

>Go [Upstairs]

>Go [Outside]
>>
Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>1832606
>>Examine the Case Files [Roll 1d20, DC 8]
>>
Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>1832606
>Examine the Case Files [Roll 1d20, DC 8]
>>
Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>1832609
>>
Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>1832606
>>Examine the Case Files [Roll 1d20, DC 8
>>
>>1832609
>>1832618
>>1832619
>>1832645

You examine the case files more carefully.

You notice that that one of the folders is curiously named “Victor F”.

You open the folder and find some old pages from what you assume was once the doctor's journal.

You begin reading the pages.

>Cont.
>>
>>1832669

August 30, 1941

The experiment failed, as I had predicted. The high command wants us to make the perfect human, when the human physique itself is incredibly flawed.

We had used the cadaver of a healthy young male as the base for the homunculus. Although only recently deceased, the inner functions had already ceased by the time we had started.

The end result was an appalling mockery of the human frame. A hideously ugly thing with glassy eyes whose soggy flesh decayed further even as it was technically ‘alive’.

The subject was terminated, but not before it managed to kill several guards. Additional precautions will need to be taken for future experiments.


>Cont.
>>
>>1832673

March 15, 1942

The Modern Prometheus project will move ahead in spite of our initial failures. We found an unlikely benefactor in an influential occult society from Munich. It is rare that a community dedicated to the occult would be sympathetic to a scientific cause. However, it seems they found our homunculi to be quite intriguing.

I personally met with their representative. A short pale man who claimed to be an aristocrat from the eastern provinces. He told me that similar experiments had been performed in the Kingdom of Sardinia, Tsarist Russia, and Eastern Moldavia. All of them ended in disastrous failures however, he warned me.

I had expected the meeting to be another dry affair, but it was a rather pleasant evening. Our benefactor told me to study the works of Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Magnus - medieval alchemists who were said to have cheated death and found the elixir of life.

I have little faith in medieval legends, but I have to admit that some of their ideas were quite fascinating.


>Cont.
>>
>>1832680

November 7, 1942

Our mistake was using corpses when we should have been using live subjects. The human body deteriorates far too rapidly after death, we needed to perform the procedure when the subjects were still alive.

Perhaps a bigger mistake was trying to build the ‘perfect human’, when we should have been trying to go beyond the limitations of the human flesh and created something that would be ‘above humans’.

Modern medicine is going the wrong direction. Death does not need to be one’s end, it can be a way to ascend to a higher form. Our work here will change the concept of life and death itself.


>Cont.
>>
>>1832687

April 23, 1943

We took multiple organs and tissue material from different living subjects to create our ‘Colossus’. The idea was to take the best features of each subject to create something that would exceed their original hosts.

The final result was an eight foot tall goliath, with six healthy hearts and the brains of two of our most intellectual prisoners of war.

Alas, this experiment failed as well. The colossus became enraged when it was awakened. It ripped off its restraints and violently cannibalized a dozen of our guards.

Bullets were ineffective against its skin, in the end we had to use a military flamethrower to kill it. Before it died, the colossus ‘spoke’ in a human voice and cursed us for eternity.

All in all, it was a dreadful affair. Yet I would still consider it a success. We managed to create something that was both ‘alive’ and ‘more than human’.


>Cont.
>>
>>1832693

December 14, 1943

We reported our findings to the society. Our benefactors were very enthusiastic about the recent progress. We were told that even at the highest level of government, men were aware of our project and we would receive whatever support we needed.

I received several exceptionally rare occult books from the society, some thought to be merely legends - De Vermis Mysteriis by Ludwig Prinn, Cultes des Ghoules by Comte d'Erlette, and an incomplete version of the dreaded Necronomicon, written on human skin by the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred.

The previous books suggested by the society were very helpful to my research. So despite my skepticism of the occult, I found myself breezing through the books they sent me this time. I’m not ashamed to admit that the Necronomicon, even its incomplete form, was far too complex for me to grasp. I found myself plagued with headaches whenever I tried to decipher that accursed text.

The other books were comparatively easier to follow. In spite of their reputation in the occult community, they were written almost in the manner of scientific journals. The books discussed otherworldly abominations and alien horrors in a manner that a scientist might discuss some rare but real specimen. They discussed rituals of alchemy and necromancy as a scientist might discuss the procedures of a scientific experiment.

One thing I observed was that our experiments so far had been constrained by our lack of imagination. We, as scientists, tried to create the homunculi, the colossi, and the golems in our own image - in the image of man. Our experiments were grounded in and limited by our own understanding of reality.

However the eldritch things mentioned in the occult books, if they ever truly existed, were nothing like any living thing known to men. They were amorphous, shapeless things, virtually incomprehensible by the human mind. Perhaps that should be our goal, to create something so alien that human minds would have a hard time just to comprehend their very existence.


>Cont.
>>
>>1832727

June 8, 1944

Something extremely horrific just happened and I’m beginning to wonder if we went too far this time in our experimentations. It is too late now though, we must see the end of what we started. Science demands that we continue, no matter what lies at the end of this journey.

Inspired by the abominations mentioned in the arcane texts sent by the society, we had started testing the limits of our theories. Instead of taking organ material and combining them in a humanoid frame, we combined multiple living subjects together using a procedure inspired by the works of medieval alchemists.

The result of our experiments was a putrid mass of flesh, living but with barely any resemblance to its human origin. Some of my colleagues with weaker stomachs vomited when that terrible, indescribable thing crawled towards us and screeched in a ‘voice’ so terrible that no human ears should ever be exposed to again.

We expected the ‘abomination’ to be a mindless horror, something we could perhaps tame and use against the enemy. However we realized it was far too alien to be tamed or controlled by the likes of us. It was something truly beyond the comprehension of the human mind, something primordial and evil that never should have been brought to existence.

As we were debating our next step, that putrid mass of flesh somehow escaped its enclosure. It was faster and more intelligent than it had any right to be. It had an insatiable hunger and ‘absorbed’ several of my colleagues before we could understand what just happened. I ran, leaving my colleagues to a fate worse than death. Their horrific screams continued until their flesh disintegrated and they too became part of the abomination.

The abomination was eventually ‘killed’ through the use of flamethrowers, though I have doubts whether it was ever ‘alive’ as we understand life. Or perhaps it had a superior form of life than ours, something beyond our comprehension.

Some of my colleagues are saying that we should perhaps discontinue our experiments, however I refused. No matter what happens, I will finish what I started or die trying.


>Cont.
>>
>>1832885

January 8, 1945

Bad news from the east, the Red Army has defeated our forces and their tanks are approaching our location. We just received orders from the high command to destroy all evidence of our work.

Though it greatly pains me to destroy several years’ worth of work, I understand the necessity. I should be the one to finish the work, the Soviets have no right to the secrets we unveiled.

After the records are destroyed and the remaining prisoners are liquidated, we will escape to the west. Perhaps I’ll change my name, continue my experiments in secret somewhere.

I burned all other documents, but I cannot bring myself to destroy this journal. I’m not the sympathetic type, but this journal contains data I’ll need if I ever have the chance to continue my experiments.


>Cont.
>>
>>1832922

You finish reading the strange account, wondering what to think.

What do you make of it?

>"The doctor was clearly insane, I would not give any thought to the ramblings of a mad man"

>"I think the doctor was indeed responsible for the recent disappearances, but these pages are too fantastical to be true"

>"This might explain the recent disappearances, though I'm still highly skeptical about the whole thing"

>"I'll give him the benefit of doubt for now and let the police know what I found"

>"I've seen weirder things happen before, so I believe it for the most part"
>>
>>1832964
>>"This might explain the recent disappearances, though I'm still highly skeptical about the whole thing"
>>
>>1832964
>>"This might explain the recent disappearances, though I'm still highly skeptical about the whole thing"
>>
>>1832973
>>1832974

This might explain the recent disappearances. The doctor kidnapped them and used them for his 'experiments'.

However you are still highly skeptical about the whole thing. It could be the doctor was simply insane, and there is some other more rational explanation for the disappearances.

You'll need more information before you can go to the police. Like what happened to the bodies for starters.

What do you do now?

>Check the [Library]

>Check the [Storage Room]

>Go [Upstairs]

>Go [Outside]
>>
>>1833046
>>Check the [Storage Room]
>>
>>1833052

You decided to check the storage room.

There are a lot of boxes, old furniture, and scientific equipment.

Do you notice anything out of the ordinary? [Difficulty Class lowered because of High Investigative Skills]

>Examine the storage [Roll 1d20, DC 10]

>Check the [Library]

>Check the [Office]

>Go [Upstairs]

>Go [Outside]
>>
Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>1833077
>>Examine the storage [Roll 1d20, DC 10]
>>
Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>1833077
>>Examine the storage [Roll 1d20, DC 10]
>>
>>1833080
>>1833081

I'll consider this one a success since the first roll got a 10

You notice a box labeled Flammenwerfer 43.

You open the box and realize doctor had a WWII-era portable flamethrower hidden in his storage.

There are also two cylinders filled with a fuel mixture for the flamethrower in another box.

Whatever doubts you had about the doctor’s sanity is long gone. The man was clearly insane if he kept a military grade flamethrower in a house filled with wooden furniture and paper documents.

>Check the [Library]

>Check the [Office]

>Go [Upstairs]

>Go [Outside]
>>
>>1833098
>check the office
we still havent looked at everything there
>>
>>1833098
>>Check the [Office]
>>
>>1833098
>>Check the [Office]
>>
>>1833104
>>1833107

You returned to the office.

What do you do? [Difficulty Class lowered because of High Investigative Skills]

>Examine the Cabinets [Roll 1d20, DC 6]

>Examine the Desk [Roll 1d20, DC 10]

>Check the [Library]

>Check the [Storage Room]

>Go [Upstairs]

>Go [Outside]
>>
Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>1833136
>examine the cabinet
>>
Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>1833136
>>Examine the Desk [Roll 1d20, DC 10]
>>
>>1833174

You examine the cabinets more carefully.

One of the cabinets sounds hollow when you knock on it.

You remove the case files from the cabinet and notice a hidden compartment in the middle section.

You open it and find a Customized Revolver.

What do you do?

>Take the revolver

>Keep it where it is
>>
>>1833241
>>Take the revolver
This hopefully is legal
>>
>>1833254

You wonder if you should take something that might be evidence in the case.

In the end, you decide would be okay to take it with you for now, just in case something happens.

What do you do now?

>Examine the Desk [Roll 1d20, DC 10]

>Check the [Library]

>Check the [Storage Room]

>Go [Upstairs]

>Go [Outside]
>>
Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>1833288
>>Examine the Desk [Roll 1d20, DC 10]
>>
Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>1833288
>examine the desk
>>
>>1833298
>>1833305

You examine the desk again, but find nothing significant.

Frustrated, you give up even though you feel you missed something.

>Check the [Library]

>Check the [Storage Room]

>Go [Upstairs]

>Go [Outside]
>>
>>1833330
>check the storage room
>>
>>1833330
>>Check the [Storage Room]
>>
>>1833338
>>1833359

You decided to check the storage room again.

There is a portable military flamethrower with enough fuel cylinders to burn the house down.

There are also a lot of boxes, old furniture, and scientific equipment.

What do you do?

>Check the [Library]

>Go [Upstairs]

>Go [Outside]
>>
>>1833404
>go upstairs
that means we checked office, library and storage room completely, right ?
>>
>>1833404
>>Go [Upstairs]
>>
>>1833412
>>1833417

You feel you have checked everything in the first floor and decide to go upstairs.

You are now in the Second Floor.

>Check the [Main Bedroom]

>Check the [Laboratory]
>>
>>1833430
>check hte Main bedroom
>>
>>1833430
>Check the [Main Bedroom]
>>
>>1833433
>>1833462

You enter the doctor's bedroom.

There is a simple white bed in the middle of the room. It seems it hasn't been used in a while.

There is also a small shelf with some books on it. You recognize the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Bardo Thodol, and several other texts dealing with the topic of death and afterlife.

You wonder if the doctor was trying to come to terms with his own mortality.

The most striking part of the room was the classical paintings that lined the wall, most of them quite grotesque and surreal.

You recognize Saturn Devouring His Son and The Colossus, both by Francisco Goya. You also notice a large painting of a bearded figure, chained and naked as an Eagle flies over him ominously.

Do you notice anything odd?

>Examine your surroundings [Roll 1d20, DC:12]

>Visit the [Laboratory]

>Go [Downstairs]
>>
Rolled 5 (1d12)

>>1833559
>examine your surroundings
we should also take all the occult books with us at some point, they might be important to the further investigation
>>
Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>1833559
>>Examine your surroundings [Roll 1d20, DC:12]
>>
>>1833563
>>1833573

We have really awful dice luck this session

Aside from a really disturbing taste in art, you don't notice anything out of the ordinary.

What do you do?

>Check the laboratory

>Go downstairs
>>
>>1833737
>>Check the laboratory
Just make sure to move the pictures in case anything is behind them
>>
>>1833767

>Just make sure to move the pictures in case anything is behind them

Feeling a bit curious, you decide to move the pictures from the wall.

Behind the painting of the chained man with an eagle, you find a hidden safe.

The safe is locked with a password.

>Try to guess the password

>Leave it alone
>>
>>1833891
It'll probably end up locking us out, but it is a word lock right?
>>
>>1833905
>It'll probably end up locking us out, but it is a word lock right?

Yes, word lock. The password is a single word.
>>
>>1833919
>Leave it alone
We'll probably find the code word later
>>
>>1833945

You decide to leave the safe alone and go to the laboratory instead.

You enter the laboratory, there is an awful smell like rotting meat in the room.

You think you see something move in the corner of your eyes.

What do you do?

>Move closer to get a better look

>Shoot at it with the revolver [Roll 1d20, DC:15]

>Try to leave the laboratory
>>
>>1834095
>>Move closer to get a better look
Probably shouldn't shoot at the first thing we see
>>
>>1834095

> Move closer to get a better look
>>
>>1834105
>>1834191

You move closer to get a better look at whatever that had moved in the corner. You fight the urge to throw up as the putrid smell intensifies the closer you go. As your eyes adjust to the half darkened room, you see the most horrific thing you have ever seen in your life.

You cannot bear to describe the awfulness of what you see before your eyes. Something that looks vaguely like a shapeless mass of human flesh and an utterly alien presence at the same time. The sight cripples your consciousness so completely that your first instict is to run without looking back.

The abomination notices your presence as well. It lets out a horrific screech unlike any sound known to men, a sound so alien that it hurts your very essence. The shapeless amorphous entity is the purest embodiment of an occult novelist's 'thing that should not exist'.

It dawns upon you that the doctor did indeed write the truth in his journals and had continued his experiments in this house. The eldritch horror that crawled before you was once human, the same as you. The very thought makes you gag in horror and disgust.

We are approaching endgame, wrong choices or failed dice checks can get us killed here. I might be a bit slow with the updates,
work and other stuff.


>Run without looking back

>Shoot at it with the revolver [Roll 1d20, DC:15]
>>
Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>1834247
>>Shoot at it with the revolver [Roll 1d20, DC:15]
I am guessing this revolver might have some special property
>>
Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>1834247

> Shoot at it with the revolver [Roll 1d20, DC:15]
>>
>>1834267

Seriously...
>>
Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>1834274
Atleast one more six would make it worth it
>>
>>1834256
>>1834267
>>1834274

You shoot at the abomination with hands shaking in horror. You were always pretty good with guns, under normal circumstances, you would have never missed one shot from this close.

But your mind is having a hard time accepting the very existence of the horror moving in front of you. You miss your first shot, and the second. The shapeless horror begins to close the distance between the two of you.

>>1834284

In desperation, you try one last shot at the fiend and somehow it reaches its target. You are not a religious man, but at that moment you thank your luck with tears running down your face.

Whatever modification the doctor might have done with the revolver, it seems to make its mark on the monster. While it does not appear to be injured, it does slow down for a while.

You run like a man possessed as you see the eldritch horror regenerating its limbs. You run down the stairs and find yourself back at the first floor.

>Hide in the library

>Go to the storage room and find that flamethrower you saw earlier

>Hide in the office room
>>
>>1834487
>>Go to the storage room and find that flamethrower you saw earlier
Then try to lead it outside if possible
>>
>>1834503

> Go to the storage room and find that flamethrower you saw earlier

The good doctor did say that fire was especially effective...
>>
Re-read the thread. I bet that the code for that safe is 'Prometheus'...
>>
>>1834548
Perhaps, I mean we could try to swing by the safe
>>
>>1834559

Maybe. Although it might not be the best idea, what with that crime against the laws of nature chasing us...
>>
>>1834503
>>1834537

You remember the flamethrower you saw in the storage room. You suddenly remember what you had read in the doctor's old journal pages, how the colossus and the first abomination were destroyed using fire.

It's a long shot, but the only shot you have at the moment. If what the doctor wrote was true, that thing would be far too intelligent to let you leave the house alive.

You hear that accursed screech again and realize that the eldrich horror is close behind you. If it catches you, it will consume you as well and grow even larger. Its very existence is a threat to humanity itself.

You enter the storage room and get the flamethrower out of the box. The device weighs less than you had thought, seems like a more advanced model than what the soldiers used during the war.

The eldritch horror catches up to you and stands between you and the exit. You wonder if this is how you die. You take a long breath and decide that if this is how you die, you'll drag that thing to hell with you.

>Use the flamethrower [Roll 1d20, higher roll will determine the ending]
>>
Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>1834610
Allahu akbar!
>>
Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>1834610
JUST LIKE MY ANIME
>>
>>1834610
Oh yeah, never seen this quest up before so, when you say "end" do you mean it's a one shot or "end of this episode"
>>
Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>1834610

...
>>
File: just 100 dead.jpg (32 KB, 620x350)
32 KB
32 KB JPG
Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>1834668
Is it best of 3? I think it's safe.
>>
>>1834619
>>1834621
>>1834627
>>1834668
>>1834743

The abomination lets out the most horrific of sounds as you use the flamethrower against it. You throw up almost instinctively as the smell of burning flesh and death violates your very existence.

The amorphous, shapeless horror crawls chaotically as its putrid flesh burns in the flame. The fire spreads to the library, consuming the accursed tomes that were once used to bring forth this monstrosity. The fire spreads to the file room as well. The only evidence of the doctor's horrific crimes, and what he would have perhaps considered his greatest triumphs, turning to ash in the flame's all-consuming hunger.

You run towards the exit as the abomination moves out of the way in its desperation to escape the flames. You run as fast as your legs would carry you, knowing that the foundation of the house is too old to survive the fire. There are too many wooden furniture and paper documents in house, the fire would spread to every corner.

Somehow you manage to escape in nick of time. The haunted house collapses in flames, forever burying the existence of the horror that had been unleased there.

>Epilogue
>>
>>1834826

Epilogue

You walked to the nearest town with only minor burns, a far luckier fate than you would have expected given the circumstances.

The case of the disappearances still officially remains unsolved, no one would believe your story even if you had told them.

You can neither show the bodies of the victims, nor can you show any documents that would explain the doctor’s crimes.

Thus the case will likely remain unsolved for the foreseeable future and unfortunately you are not getting paid anytime soon either.

But you did manage to get out of the house alive and sane. Well at least, mostly sane. And you did not get charged for arson, there’s another positive to look at.

Also that thing is dead. You are not a man of faith, never have been. But if there is any good in this world, you pray that something like that never exists in this world ever again.

The End
>>
>>1834849

After Credits

I thought about making the quest longer, but decided to keep it a one-shot instead. Longer quests almost always end up unfinished due to the QMs getting too busy with life or the playerbase losing interest. Even though shorter quests mean less scope for character development and worldbuilding, closure is more important to me as a QM.

The password for the safe was indeed "PROMETHEUS". The clue was the painting being about a 'chained man with an eagle' - which references the most popular myth about Prometheus. Also the original project from the doctor's old journal pages was called 'The Modern Prometheus Project' (which was a reference to the original name of the Frankenstein book). Prometheus was also known for bringing fire to the human race, which goes with the plot device of the homunculus being destroyed with fire.

In the safe, we would have found a detailed list explaining how the doctor secured each of his test subjects - most of them his patients with no family or friends, also runaways and homeless children. There would also be more explanation about the experiments he conducted in the house. It would also explain how the doctor was dying and had willingly allowed the eldritch horror to absorb him, as a way of ascending to a form he considered 'above human'.

If we managed to successfully examine the drawer in the storage room, we would have found a key to the basement. In the basement we would have found discarded body parts belonging to those who disappeared, which could be used as evidence to solve the case.

Originally I planned to run the quest more like a gothic horror - with ghosts and vampires as the enemies that would need to be exorcised. But since the players chose the Doctor route instead, I used Frankenstein, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Lovecraftian Horror for inspiration instead of the more occult route.

--

I would love some feedback about what you guys liked about the quest and what you thought needed improvement.

>Would the quest be better if it had more puzzles like an adventure game? Or would it be better with more worldbuilding fluff?

>Would you be interested in a similar quest? Either as a sequel with the same MC in the same universe or a similar paranormal quest with the same mechanics?

>If we use the detective main character in another quest, either as a protagonist or a support character, what should we name him?
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Nice...
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>>1834855
Short but sweet. /qst/ needs more of these short quests, instead of people trying to create year long quests.

Maybe a continuation with the same character could be cool, like a monster of the week sort of thing. Whether you want to flesh out our MC, or leave it up to us is up to you
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>>1834849
As happy an ending as one can hope in this scenario.


>Would the quest be better if it had more puzzles like an adventure game? Or would it be better with more worldbuilding fluff?
Both seem to be present in good amounts. Started off a bit slow, but I liked the use of notes and things like that to create this "background", and the references that surrounded the puzzles were interesting.

>Would you be interested in a similar quest? Either as a sequel with the same MC in the same universe or a similar paranormal quest with the same mechanics?
I would. It could be an episodic thing so you aren't tied to an overarching plot. Monster of the week deal / investigator of the week deal. Or keep it episodic but retain a "cast", such as the investigator for this one shot.

>If we use the detective main character in another quest, either as a protagonist or a support character, what should we name him?
I vote Detective Baley.
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Is this archived yet?
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>>1834855
>would you be interested in a similar quest
yes definetely
the only thing i didnt like was the long dump of information in the middle, that somewhat slowed down the quest
i like long info dumps, but a little bit shorter would have been better
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Would absolutely love to see more, wasn't quite certain where in time we were until the big infodump from the case-notes. Honestly, I think you should do series of these using the other prompts. The detective can be a supporting character- or, if we're really attached, the protagonist.
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>>1834859
>>1834868
>>1834871
>>1834927
>>1835830
>>1837100

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

I'm planning to start a paranormal anthology quest later. Each thread should have a different setting and a different set of paranormal enemies, but they will all take place in the same fictional universe. Haven't decided yet if we'll use the same protagonist or follow different main characters each session.

Since the stories will be one-shots, players will have closure for the running stories even if I get too busy to start a new session for a while. New players will also be able to join in any thread since the quests will be episodic, with each thread being self-contained stories. However regular players will be the only ones to recognize the easter eggs and the recurring characters.

I'm working on a CYOA image format right now, which the players will be able to use at the beginning of the quest to select the quest setting and starting items and abilities. Let's see if I can come up with a simplistic quest system that gets the job done.

If you guys have any more suggestions feel free to let me know!




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