Chapter 5 – Day one

The contents of the note found on Alister's doorstep -

Hello Alister Bellintine -

We hoped you enjoyed your time settling into your new Ḩ̴͓̹͖̕͝O̶̯͙̚M̴̗͂̍̓̕͝ͅE̸̋͒̇̓ͅ here in the great city of Alagara.

Alas you cannot get anywhere by doing anything all day, the time for work has come. Although looking through several of your past records what we ask of you might be closer to a fun night out in your eyes.

You will be participating as a " horror ". Horrors are permanent residents of Alagara with extremely low insanity levels, whose jobs mostly revolve around spreading insanity and horror. This can range from setting up and creating horrific events and supernatural phenomenon, to hunting " players " or other creatures.

" Players " are people and creatures that have relatively high sanity levels and only temporarily stay in Alagara. All you need to know about them is that they are totally disposable and that you will eventually kill your fair share of them.

There are a quite a few other residents of Alagara that you are might meet, but for now, you don't need to know about them.

All we ask of you is to participate and help run the games that spread the insanity and corruption that our great city thrives on. Although you do not yet have the authority to know how this works, we can tell you that you will achieve wonderful results by just following the orders given to you while cooperating with your fellow " horrors " .

To get you started we will place you as one of the horrors in a rather simple hunting scenario called " three totems ". All you have to do is cooperate two other horrors in an attempt to prevent any players from deactivating them. We do encourage the killing of players in this scenario, in fact make it as gory and horrific as you can.

If any player deactivates a totem you sadly can't get to touch them anymore and they leave the game. If all three totems are deactivated then all the players get to escape back to their residence, so make sure to prevent that.

You will have a good three days to familiarise yourself with the terrain and your fellow horrors.

You are allowed to keep any strange trophies or items you find, though it might not be worth the effort. You will be paid at the end of every scenario depending on the results so collecting things might waste time.

- Best Wishes, From the city of Alagara's Vermosa City Council,

All Hail the Queen in Rags

Sitting down on his on a well-made bed Alister read over the note once more.

There wasn't much to remember but he didn't want to forget anything lest he get caught unaware.

The whole game was quite interesting in Alister's opinion. It was like one of those games that he played when he was younger. Although better.... after all everything becomes sooooo much more interesting with a little bit of murder involved, right ???

Alister made a few last-minute preparations before he was about to leave to take part in the game. Wiping down everything in his house once more, watering and pruning that lovely plant Kruk gave to him, and giving his new favorite knife a quick wipe down. It was only staring down the empty hallways of his new house for a few minutes that Alister was finally satisfied with his preparations.

It was time to go.

Grasping an imaginary partner Alister began to Waltz through his empty bedroom, turning several empty hallways, and spinning across his bare-bones kitchen.

He started to spin faster and faster and faster, practically flying through the air. Locked into a beautiful spinning dance with nothing but the air himself. Spinning, spinning, and spinning towards the closed front door speeding up as he approached it.

Spinning around one last time Alister flew right into the door, sinking into the strange grey wood it was made of and into a strange void for a moment.

BAM

Alisters feet hit the ground as gravity took over once more and he found himself spinning around in a new and strange environment.

Grasping the bark of a ginormous red tree Alister steadied himself as he adjusted to the new level of gravity that was present around him.

Looking around he found himself standing in a vast decayed forest. Withered trees covered in crimson bark completely filled his surroundings, encroaching upon his personal space. Complemented by an oppressive foul-smelling mist obscured his vision preventing him from seeing very far.

Alister found himself not too fond of the strange forest he found himself in.

The silence that filled the air was broken as a shrill voice echoed from behind Alister followed by a strange grunting noise.

" Hisssssss.... Well, that's new. I don't believe I've ever seen anyone spin right through reality like that.... "

* Urgggggg