It Was a Dark and Stormy night...

[Zenith]

...and you were sitting up in the study. You had been on a long holiday to a major castle, around the area the real Dracula had lived. You were majoring in history at Harvard University, and been sent here as a special research project. The castle you were in had an ancient, bloody history, and many claimed it to be haunted. You, however, weren't fooled; you knew there was no such thing as ghosts. A sudden lightning bolt struck the ground near the castle, and the thunder came fast and was extraordinarily loud. You jumped out of your seat, looking out the tower window. You looked back at the paper you were writing. "In his early days, Dracula..." you were so tired. What could just one little nap hurt?

BOOM!. The thunder came again, shaking you out of sleep. Blearily, you looked outside. It was nearly morning, and you figured it must have been at least midnight when you fell asleep. You looked back at your paper, and there, on it, scrawled in blood was a message

"Prepare yourself."

You stare down at it for a minute before looking up. A large cudgel hung on the wall, and you figured it's been there since this castle was made, at least four or five hundred years ago.

BOOM!

The lightning came again. You heard an ominous crack and looked on in horror as a web of cracks spread through the wall behind the cudgel. Too horrified to move, you stood there as the cudgel fell on your head, along with many of the ancient bricks.

You were falling. Why were you falling? Everything was black, and cold.

So cold...but it was projected to be almost ninety today.

Why was it so cold? Everything was already numb...

"The first death has come..." What was that voice?

You hit the ground hard, the wind knocked out of you by the impact. You stood up, dusting yourself off. Oddly enough, your head feels fine, even though the cudgel had hit you right on your head, probably giving you a concussion. You look around. You're in a rickety, broken down shack. Many of the planks are falling off, or already gone, and it's quite drafty. There is one door, and no windows, unless you count the planks that had broken off. The floor is stone, and intricately carved. You notice a mist coming in through the broken planks and the crack underneath the one door, curling around you feet and slightly obscuring the floor from view. Through the cracks, you can see the mist is very, very heavy outside, probably up to your stomach. The cloud cover is dark and ominous, extending much beyond your view range. Very little sunlight filters through the clouds, giving the whole area a dark and shadowy feel. In the distance, probably about five or six miles away, you can see the ocean and a small wharf. Through the other side of the building, you can see a huge, enormous castle (probably three miles away), easily more than a mile square for just the building. The grounds outside of the castle were likely ten times that size or more, and you can make out a large forest. You decide to go outside of the shack, and see a few people milling about a central plaza. There is a shop and very few other buildings in this area, with a lot of farmland just outside of the village. What do you do?

Alright, enough description. Let me explain what this is. This, in the spirit of Halloween, is a little game/RP I cooked up for you. Your very soul has been trapped to this place you're in. If you die somehow, you just come right back. Your goal is to escape. If you die, you come back to life in the beginning shack, with a random one of your items left on your corpse (not anything important, don't worry). Pretty simple, aside from the fact that I'm being pretty mean and won't hold back on killing you. The other catch? You're on your own. No one else is helping you, and I'm designing encounter orders, weaknesses, etc. on a per person basis. that's right, your world is personalized. If you are seriously stuck, you can ask me for a hint. I'm not THAT evil, although this could be seriously evil without some direction.

Now, please let me lay down some ground rules, and give some hints, then feel free to post your first move and a bit more about your character.

Rules:

You don't need to ask to describe an area in a post, I've found in testing this that it just takes too much time, so I'll do that for you.

You can use your character's knowledge of history if you want. Say something along the lines of "I thin about what this sort of an object would be used for..." or what this area is, etc.

Please try to keep this somewhat child-friendly. No swearing, sexual content, or the like, but violence is somewhat allowed and expected. You can say something like "I stab the ____ in (area)", but you can't describe gore or anything, please adhere to this. If you break those rules three times, then I'll just have to stop with the playing, sorry. If you do happen to forget, and remember later, you can edit your post before I see it. I'll understand .

Hints:

Most beings in this world respond (or are weak to) to certain stimuli. Most make sense, but some are just plain silly.

If you're really stuck, I'll help you. Just ask if you really need it. I'm not *all* evil.

The stone floor in the first building is unimportant. Just saying.

It might be a good idea to visit shops, even if you don't have money.

I may put more in this section if it becomes necessary.

Character sheet:

Name(Optional): Your name. Yes, it's optional, it's not really that important.

Gender(Required): Seriously. Male or female.

Age(Required): Older than 22 (23+), younger than 40 (39-)

Appearance(Optional): You can pick the color of the clothes you're wearing. You have a t-shirt on (With Harvard University printed on it), and some khaki pants. Your facial features and whatnot are up to you as well.

So, just put that stuff on a character sheet (You really only need gender and age, other stuff isn't as important), slap it on your first post, along with your first action, and we'll get started. Good luck, have fun!

Edited October 6, 2012 by Zenith