Play@YSDC

This Dining Car is an exercise in exquisite luxury. Its carpet stretches across the floor. The teak wall panelling, inlaid with rosewood, are suffused with the scents and memories of bygone meals. The carved scrolls, cornices, and scallops at the friezes and borders, are adorned with gilded metal flowers and that reach up but never reach the arched ceilings. The racks, resting upon hand-wrought gilded brackets, into which diners may desposit small articles run the length of the car on both sides.

The Dining Car has group tables with four seats on one side and couple's tables with two seats on the other allowing for a few configurations to dine in peace while sitting upon comfortable red seats with a mahogany frame. Flowered-damask drapes are held back with gold thread and tassels, revealing a cream-coloured spring-loaded roller blind that can be pulled up or down to allow or obscure the outside world. Each table is lit by a single, flickering flame on a heavily burned down candle. All the other candles are gutted and weak. There are others here, sitting and talking in quiet voices, wearing rich fabrics and hairstyles that are just a little bit old-fashioned.

The napkins are folded like butterflies perched tenderly upon the pure white table cloths. A delicate lamp with a pink shade rests upon the middle of the table, beside a slim glass vase, weighted against the movement of the train or sudden knocks against the table. The vase contains a single red flower, a splash of colour matched only by the gold-rimmed porcelain plates that are adorned with the Compagnie crest. Solid silver cutlery flank the plates and sit below the wine glasses.

The head waitor approaches to seat you.

Go backward for the Smoking Car.
Go forward past the curtain to the Kitchen half of the Dining Car.

Ilona gives a sigh of relief as she's greeted by the waiter. "Oh, thank goodness, there are other people on this train! The First few cars looked quite abandoned, apart from one very rude and unhelpful piano man. We need help! Something terrible is going on!"

"My apologies, mademoselle, I will be sure to pass along your complaints to the conductor," says the waitor in a French accent. "Would you care to be seated and then perhaps we could discuss whatever it is your complaint may be?"

Ilona allows herself to be lead to a seat by the waiter. "You must have a way of contacting the police from this train right? Awful things have been happening, we need to contact them immediately!"

She finds herself seated before an elderly woman in a stunning old-fashioned gown. Was the woman sitting there before she sat down? She must've been. Perhaps Ilona was just distracted by the waitor and hadn't been paying any attention. This room is also quite cold, very cold. Not comfortable at all. The woman across the table from her sounds quite normal, however, when she says, "There, there, my dear, you mustn't let yourself get upset. You wouldn't want to sprout any wrinkles on that delicate young skin of yours, now would you?" She reaches across the table, aiming to pat Ilona's hand with her own gloved one.

The waitor merely passes them both menus, seeming to ignore Ilona's anxious requests.

"W-wait a moment, you aren't going to help me?" She asks the waiter as she takes a seat, glancing at the woman and back to the waiter and sighs in defeat. "Could I at least get a cup of tea?"

The waitor nods, giving her a menu. "Of course I will help you. I will get you your water right away." And with that he vanishes through the red curtain divider into the kitchen at the other end of the dining car.



"It isn't very polite to ignore the lady you are dining with, though I suppose given your dress you haven't been among the first class long or I presume you simply saved up for your ticket?" asked the woman. "But where are my manners. I am Lady Madeleine Moreau. And who might you be?"

Jonathan enters the Dining Car and remains frozen in place seeing the unexpected crowd of people. So there are passengers on this train. Why only here, though?, he thinks. Jonathan quickly searches for Miss Aston and walks towards her.

"Miss Aston, here you are.", he then turns towards the older woman, "Good Evening Madam"

Charlie follows Jonathan into the car, almost running into him as he suddenly stops. As Jonathan continues on Charlie stays back and takes in the room.

The conductor enters the train from the kitchen segment of the dining car and approaches the new passengers with a friendly smile. He looks at Ilona first, "Tickets please."

Ilona stands up and faces the conductor. "Tickets? I don't have one! Something awful happened at the station and I couldn't get one! Now, will you help us contact the authorities or are you going to be unhelpful, just like everyone on this train!"

Spending 1 on a Sense Trouble roll

[dice]0[/dice]

Charlie backs up and slips out of the carriage.

Spending 1 on Stealth [dice]0[/dice]

Jonathan prepares his ticket to show the conductor.

The conductor pauses before Ilona, frowning thoughtfully at her tale of woe. Then he says, quite simply, "You're very loud." And slits her throat.

[dice]0[/dice] to hit.
[dice]1[/dice] for damage.

Jonathan screams in shock, then throws himself against the conductor, trying to immobilize him. "Help!", he screams, hoping that someone else in the car will help him with this dangerous madman.

Scuffling,I spend two points and roll a seven: http://orokos.com/roll/469063 Assuming that he's armed with a knife or something like that, I'll try to disarm him. Also, do we have to roll Stability? (I know I'm going to regret asking :D )

Ilona steps back in shock; one hand coming to her neck where the conducter tried to slit her throat, the other frantically searching the table for a weapon. She grabs hold of a small knife and waves it at the conducter.
"Don't... D-don't you dare come near me!" She shouts between sobs.

The conductor's face doesn't change, doesn't shift, as Jonathon grabs him, barely managing to wrench his arms behind his back. The man is superhumanly strong and seems to care little for the risk of tearing tendons in his shoulders. Jonathon can hold him, but barely.

OOC,At the end of the scene when in combat. I like the "adrenaline covers a multitude of sins," angle when dealing with human-on-human violence. The aftershocks can be more amusing and realistic, too. You'll need to roll again soon as well. You'll get one more post apiece. I'll put your scream in the next car over.

"I... I don't know how long I can keep him down", Jonathan says to Ilona, his face distorted from the effort of keeping the man blocked. He looks around to see if anyone is moving to help him.

Ilona stares at the man struggling with the conductor in shock for a long moment, then tries to reach for the two of them, trying to help in the struggle.

Spend two Scuffling.

[dice]0[/dice]

The Maitre D steps up behind her. "What seems to be the problem, madam?" And a glint of steel as he stabs her in the throat with something wickedly sharp, causing blood to trickle down her collar.

[dice]0[/dice] +2

[dice]1[/dice] +1 damage

"M-Madness....", Jonathan is astonished, then screams: "Ms. Aston! Run! Get out of here!". Giving her a couple of seconds of advantage, Jonathan will release the conductor and make a run in the opposite direction, towards the kitchen.

This section of the car has a thin, tight corridor to the right while the left contains the kitchen itself. A curtained doorway leads into the kitchen, from which he can smell all sorts of delicious scents. A door stands further along that would lead into the Baggage Car.

Ilona finds herself trapped between the two staff members. The Maitr D before her and the conductor behind her. Rather than hunt down Jonathon and following his disappearing form, they merely turn their attention fully toward her. Their eyes are cold, like chips of ice, and their movements seem stiff and poorly controlled. And yet.... And yet....

Maitr D's strike (1-pt spend).
[dice]0[/dice] for attack
[dice]1[/dice] for damage

Conductor's strike (1-pt spend).
[dice]2[/dice] for attack
[dice]3[/dice] for damage

(Add 1 to each result. It keeps subtracting rather than adding the damage.

One blade slashes across Ilona's face, opening up her cheek and sending a burning pain to flare across her face while the other blade tears across her neck, missing the most vital parts and shredding down to lodge itself under her clavicle. He pulls it loose with a jerk. The pain is overwhelming. Her vision darkens.

Will she pass out?
[dice]0[/dice]

She choked on a scream, feeling the pain in her face. Oh god, please don't let me die.... Don't let me die.... I can't die now.... My business.... My....

But then the second hit strikes her by the neck, and she feels the blood leave her, and her eyes roll to the back of her head as she slumps to the dining room floor.

The train conductor leans down to grab her by the hair, hauling her head and upper body off the floor. With a practiced stroke, he slits her throat from ear to ear and lets the blood flow to the floor. Finally, without looking in any other direction, he starts dragging her body across the floor toward the kitchen.

This Dining Car is an exercise in exquisite luxury. Its carpet stretches across the floor. The teak wall panelling, inlaid with rosewood, are suffused with the scents and memories of bygone meals. The carved scrolls, cornices, and scallops at the friezes and borders, are adorned with gilded metal flowers and that reach up but never reach the arched ceilings. The racks, resting upon hand-wrought gilded brackets, into which diners may desposit small articles run the length of the car on both sides.

The Dining Car has group tables with four seats on one side and couple's tables with two seats on the other allowing for a few configurations to dine in peace while sitting upon comfortable red seats with a mahogany frame. Flowered-damask drapes are held back with gold thread and tassels, revealing a cream-coloured spring-loaded roller blind that can be pulled up or down to allow or obscure the outside world. Each table is lit by a single, flickering flame on a heavily burned down candle. All the other candles are gutted and weak. There are others here, sitting and talking in quiet voices, wearing rich fabrics and hairstyles that are just a little bit old-fashioned.

The napkins are folded like butterflies perched tenderly upon the pure white table cloths. A delicate lamp with a pink shade rests upon the middle of the table, beside a slim glass vase, weighted against the movement of the train or sudden knocks against the table. The vase contains a single red flower, a splash of colour matched only by the gold-rimmed porcelain plates that are adorned with the Compagnie crest. Solid silver cutlery flank the plates and sit below the wine glasses.

The head waitor is on his hands and knees, mopping up blood off the floor with a rag. He looks up at you with a smile and stands up, putting the bloody rag in a pant pocket and giving you a charming smile. "Would you like a seat, monsieur? Mademoiselle?"

Go backward for the Smoking Car.
Go forward past the curtain to the Kitchen half of the Dining Car.

Standing in the doorway, Charlie goes pale. "No, that wasn't- who's blood is that?!" He demands, his voice tinged with hysteria.

Kate enters, her syringe stowed away in her medical kit in easy reach. She gasps when she sees the blood, afraid they're already too late.

"What, oh, my, what happened here?" Artemis asked as he came up behind Miss Kate and saw the staff cleaning up blood.

The head waitor merely repeats himself with a polite smile, "Would you like a seat, monsieur? Mademoiselle?" He gestures toward an empty table.

Charlie stares at the waiter as he steps aside to let the others into the car.

"No thank you," says Kate. "We're looking for a young lady who came through here. Have you seen her?" She describes Ilona Aston.

"We have a number of passengers already seated, mademoselle," says the head waitor, gesturing toward the other diners who all appear somewhat out of focus and impossible to define. Simply staring at them makes your eyes itch and your head hurt and it doesn't help you see them any more clearly.

Stability Roll -- Potential loss of 3 Stability. (Charlie rolls twice because of the blood but will only lose a total of 3 stability even if both rolls fail).

Kate shudders and avoids looking at the dinner guests. "I don't think she's here," she says, "or she'd have recognized us. She must have gone past here."

OOC,Stability roll (no points spent): [dice]0[/dice]

Everyone is a little shaken by what they have witnessed thus far. The dining car seems to so peaceful, the food smells so tantalising, so long as you don't attempt to look at the other diners.

"Yeah, we should keep going..." Charlie musters the courage to walk forward and edge past the pool of blood, staring at it the whole time.

Kate nods and proceeds further down the car, looking straight ahead to avoid looking at the patrons.

Artemis followed along with the others all the while hoping that something started to make sense in this place. He had a sense of uncertainty pervaiding his thoughts that he could not easily shake as his walking stick thumped out his steps pausing only to left over the pool of blood on the floor.

They come to reach a section of the car blocked by a partial wall and a red cloth that dangles before you. "Excuse me, mademoselle, monsieurs," said the Maitr D. "Our kitchen is that way and thus it is a staff only area."

"The young lady I'm looking for," says Kate, "Miss Aston, went through there. I'm a nurse, and I have reason to believe she's injured. This is a medical emergency."

The Maitr D looks at her with growing horror! "Injured! Why did you not say so immediately, mademoselle?" He places one hand over his heart. "The poor woman! But of course she cannot have been through there or else my cook would have seen so. I can call for the Train Manager? He will assist you."

"There's no time for that," says Kate. "The bartender saw her come into this car, and she's not here now, so she must have gotten past the cook somehow." She pulls the edge of the curtain aside and peeks into the kitchen.

Charlie watches the Maitr D warily.

OOC:   Spend 1 to Assess Honesty

"We don't need someone else, we just need to find out what happened to our friend." Artemis followed behind Miss Kate.

There are three cooks bustling about around the kitchen on the other side. One is peeling the skin off a log of meat while a few other oddly sized thin limbs stacked beside them. Another is removing the bones from another log of meat, slicing across the top of it and pulling the bone out of the way. The third seems to be bustling around some sort of soup. There's a heavy smear of blood and gore that leads away to the door to the Baggage Car.

Medicine or Biology,the bones look suspiciously human. As do those limbs.... This revelation is worth another 3-pt Stability loss.

Assess Honesty spend on Maitr D,reveals that he is reacting in a rather hollow way to the news. There's a sort of uncanny valley effect to his reactions, in general, as though he weren't really human. There's a certain absence of minor gestures or facial expressions that just make him seem incredibly off. He's not threatening to call the Train Manager. He legitimately seems to believe that it the correct response. You're pretty sure he will call upon him if you attempt to break the rules by passing through the kitchen while he is watching. 1-pt Stability loss for noting the hollowness of his interactions.

Kate suddenly goes pale and backs away from the curtain. "I...I think I need some tea..." she mumbles.

OOC,Stability roll for seeing into the kitchen: [dice]0[/dice] Stability roll about the waiter: [dice]1[/dice] I thought that since you'd be adjusting our sheets earlier, we weren't supposed to do it. I adjusted mine now.

"Perhaps we should head back to the lounge car then to relax for a bit, I'm sure if we stay put our missing friend will find their way to us."

OOC:   [dice]0[/dice] roll for stability

"Y-yes, back to the lounge," says Kate, unsteadily taking Charlie's arm, though she knows the others aren't going to find them there. "The three of us need to talk privately."

Artemis followed his two colleagues, shaken and there was an irradict tapping of his cane as he walked behind Miss Kate and Charlie.

None of the servants intervene as they leave the dining car.

Kate returns to the Lounge Car.

This Dining Car is an exercise in exquisite luxury. Its carpet stretches across the floor. The teak wall panelling, inlaid with rosewood, are suffused with the scents and memories of bygone meals. The carved scrolls, cornices, and scallops at the friezes and borders, are adorned with gilded metal flowers and that reach up but never reach the arched ceilings. The racks, resting upon hand-wrought gilded brackets, into which diners may desposit small articles run the length of the car on both sides.

The Dining Car has group tables with four seats on one side and couple's tables with two seats on the other allowing for a few configurations to dine in peace while sitting upon comfortable red seats with a mahogany frame. Flowered-damask drapes are held back with gold thread and tassels, revealing a cream-coloured spring-loaded roller blind that can be pulled up or down to allow or obscure the outside world. Each table is lit by a single, flickering flame on a heavily burned down candle. All the other candles are gutted and weak. There are others here, sitting and talking in quiet voices, wearing rich fabrics and hairstyles that are just a little bit old-fashioned.

The napkins are folded like butterflies perched tenderly upon the pure white table cloths. A delicate lamp with a pink shade rests upon the middle of the table, beside a slim glass vase, weighted against the movement of the train or sudden knocks against the table. The vase contains a single red flower, a splash of colour matched only by the gold-rimmed porcelain plates that are adorned with the Compagnie crest. Solid silver cutlery flank the plates and sit below the wine glasses.

The head waitor is on his hands and knees, mopping up blood off the floor with a rag. He looks up at you with a smile and stands up, putting the bloody rag in a pant pocket and giving you a charming smile. "Would you like a seat, monsieur? Mademoiselle?"

Go backward for the Smoking Car.
Go forward past the curtain to the Kitchen half of the Dining Car.

The Kitchen segment of the Dining Car is divided from the rest of the dining car by a thick partition and a red hanging curtain. The rest of the dining area is crowded with cupboards, sinks, and ovens -- enough to serve 72 meals at a time. Right now the area is dark, with dusty dishes left in place, a few buzzing with flies over dried up old food. There's even a large refridgeration unit over to one side. Upon the stoves there's one dish, in particular, a large pot that stands out among all of the rest. While the others are rusted, this one is polished. As you look upon it, you can almost make out the outline of a person standing over it, the sight of them like a buzzing on the back of your mind. They're saying something, but you can't quite hear them. If you were to focus your attention, really focus, you think you would understand.

If you spend 1 Sanity to focus on the pot,the problem is that you're trying to hear something that doesn't quite sit in the same three dimensional space that you do. If you wish to read it, to understand it, you need to comprehend the geometries at work here. You see, in four dimensional space, once you include time, the conversation was here at one point. In this case, though, you think you can pull the person's words and actions, reveal an intangible version of themselves, to see what came before.

Kate begins to focus on the pot, as much as it pains her. "It's like listening to a recording," she whispers. "Someone was here before but isn't any more. It's a ghost, an echo."

"What is causing the tapping sounds though," Arty couldn't bring himself to focus on the same area, the glimpse had caused him to tense and then twitch along his left shoulder and neck. "Where the hell are the others?"

"The cook was talking with someone about the government delaying the train, searching for something," whispers Kate. "They spent a lot of time opening things in the Baggage Car, and they carved something into some of the crate lids. Then they stopped talking when the conductor approached."

"But there wasn't anyone from the government at the station? I saw something odd, I had to turn away from it," Arty said his neck muscles tightened on the left side of his body as he recalled the office of the baggage car. "I don't recall seeing things carved on anything in there.
We have to find the others and get off this damn train."

"Let's finish searching the kitchen," Kate whispers back. "If they're not here, we can search the Baggage Car fully next."

Arty nodded and panned his flashlight's beam at the refrigerator. He walked over to it and opened it.

Jonathan walks next to Artemis. He doesn't really want to see what's inside... or does he? For a moment, he thinks back at when he thought the strange message in the station was a joke. And a good idea for a novel. Perhaps he'll write that novel after all. If he makes it out of here alive.

For now, it only seems fair to share any horror with his comrades. And God only knows what might be inside that refrigerator.

Kate does not want to look inside the fridge. Keeping an eye and an ear out to make sure nobody approaches provides a convenient excuse not to do so.

Jonathan falls to his knees and pukes. He's shaking now, trying to crawl towards the door. "Out... out of here... out", he whispers with a weak voice, then he starts to cry, muttering nonsense: "I'll write it down... then it won't be real anymore... it won't be real".

Stability,I lose 4 Stability and fall down to 0. https://orokos.com/roll/553913

Kate wraps an arm around Jonathan, helping him to his feet and taking care not to look inside the fridge. "Yes, let's get out of this car," she whispers as she guides him back toward the Baggage Car. "We're going to be all right. And after it's all over, writing it all down will be cathartic."

OOC,I'll spend my last point of Psychoanalysis to get him back to positive Stability.

Psychotherapy skill,in order to increase someone's stability using it you must first make a successful DC 4 roll and THEN spend points to increase their stability. Please roll 1D6 first, Kate.

[Spoiler-Button]Jonathon, can hear creaks and movement from beyond the curtain. He has to get out of here. He's made far too much noise. The station waiting room and the bar car both feel like a cozy oasis in his mind's eye right now. He needs to return.... He must return.... And yet the station platform oozes with mist and he doesn't want to go out there. Not out there where anything can find you, reach you, and do to you what happened to poor Miss Aston.... It's so hard to control his own breathing. The carriage seems to pulse with his own heartbeat. He's not insane, he can tell that it's not real and yet ... and yet it's so hard to breathe.... Those nice cozy rooms, a pen, a book, once written it can't be real.[Spoiler-Button]

Unfortunately, Kate can't get through to Jonathan.

OOC,Psychoanalysis roll: [dice]0[/dice] Can I make a separate try for [b]Artemis[/b]?

Arty gulped and closed the door to the fridge. Jonathan began babbling and Arty focused on the man now on his knees. "You need to get up and we need to get out of here, Miss Kate. She's dead, we need to get out of this place, now."

His voice was low, firm and had a steely edge to it. Part of his mind jumped back to the trenches of Ardennes when he had to convince young men to stand up and continue moving. "Jonathan, get up, write later, get up and get out. "

"M-miss Aston?" asks Kate quietly, her lips quivering and tears spilling down her cheeks. Still, she knows Aretmis is right, and she helps pull Jonathan to his feet and move him back toward the Baggage Car.

Artemis followed along, continuing to talk to Jonathan "We need to move to the baggage car and then out of this place all together. "

Artemis turned back just briefly enough to ensure that no one else was in the kitchen, then he helped to push onward to the baggage car.

"No... I need... inside... write, I need to write, inside... inside I will be... be just fine, thank you... just let me write", Jonathan says as he takes a pen and a notepad out of a pocket with shaking hands.

"You can write in the Baggage Car," whispers Kate, ushering him onwards. "We have to get out of here before the conductor comes back."

"Sure, sure friend, you need to write, hey, there's a desk right through there," Artemis said in the same focused tone helping to move Jonathan along down the corridor and back into the boot between the cars. "It's a nice desk, a bit oddly decorated, but you could sit there and write it all out."

Artemis' face noticeably twitched when he mentioned the desk. His mind shut out the mental equivalent of a twitch as he recalled the blur that caused him to shudder earlier. He continued to nudge Jonathan forward while holding both his flashlight and walking stick in his hands.

Kate,yes you can make a separate roll per person to help them regain Stability.

There's the sound of a plate dropping and shattering in the dining car, coming from somewhere behind the twitching red curtain, followed by a high-pitched scream that sounds not entirely human.

"Hurry," hisses Kate, pulling Jonathan along.

OOC,That will have to wait until we get back to the Baggage Car.

Artemis heard the scream and pushed Jonathan forward.

"Move it soldier, move it now. His voice was still just at a whisper, but now the cold was laced with steel. "You move now, and you can write at a desk."

Jonathan meekly follows the instructions of the others, although reluctantly. He doesn't seem to really want to leave, and needs to be pushed and encouraged.

They leave the Dining Car and enter the in-between space with the ragged hole gaping in the canvas wall. They could squeeze through there and enter the platform or head into the darkened confines of the Baggage Car.

"Shall we proceed to the Baggage Car?" asks Kate.

"Aye, to the baggage car," Artemis agreed and continued pushing forward.

They return to the cold gloom of the Baggage Car.