peckenpaugh | THE LIBRARY TOWER DOOR

something strange on halloween night...

knock knock... It’s close to midnight on this dark, cold, near moonless Halloween night and a Peckenpaugh tradition is about to begin. In pairs of two and three and four, students sneakily ascend the library tower as they do every year. At the top of the stairs, in the cramped corridor, groups of students approach the old oak and iron door as they have done for years and years. Holding their breath, they rap their knuckles on the wood in tandem. The silence that follows is expected, but what’s not is the way it is cut by a sudden change in the air. Before their eyes, the wooden spaces between the door's wrought iron overlay become as glass.

For some, the room beyond seems warm and inviting. For others, the room beyond appears dark and full of shadows. For one, there is only gray light.

SLAM. SLAM. Before anyone has had time to process what’s just happened, the wrought iron knocker on the door rises and falls twice on its own. Someone is knocking.

Each student that answers the call and passes through the door is greeted first by darkness and then by a voice like creeping things whispering: “Trick or treat.” And the next step each student takes is into a strange new locale...

trick-or-treaters!

A COZY COTTAGE

Bijou
Gideon
Felicity
Armani
Jupiter
Aristotle

AN UNFAMILIAR STREET

Scarlett
Skip
Mary Grace
Valkyrie
Gertrude
Holland

SOMEWHERE GRAY

Audrey
x
x
x
x
x

how this works! 🚪 Welcome to Peckenpaugh’s first petition event! This is an experimental minigame meant to hearken back to text-based and point-and-click adventure games. Petition selectees, feel free to poke around, experiment and explore your surroundings. The object is to find cool stuff, whether it's information or trinkets for your kid to take back to campus. We're very excited to share this experience with everyone, and welcome comments and suggestions. We hope to offer more petition-based content in the future using different formats.

🚪 So what happened? Tonight around midnight, a handful of students were able to pass through the weird door in the library tower and were deposited in one of three possible locations: A Cozy Cottage, A Strange and Unfamiliar Street, or Somewhere Gray. Time to explore your surroundings, kids!

🚪 Group threads are always encouraged, but are not necessary to proceed! You are welcome to thread anywhere under your subheaders, and even characters that didn't make it through the door can thread in the At The Door and End of the Night sections. Direct interaction with each set piece is one-on-one between character and mod. As you poke around, you may find interesting items or information, spooks and scares, or just some new friends.

🚪 How Do I Interact With The Set Pieces?

In an effort to let everyone have time to explore this event at their own pace and find something interesting, we are running the actual interactable parts a bit like the halfway point between tabletop dungeon delve and text-based adventure game.

Characters can EXAMINE, SEARCH or otherwise creatively INTERACT (including but not limited to: PICK UP, USE WITH, TALK TO, SMELL, LICK, LISTEN TO, SHOW TO, DRAW ON) with their surroundings to explore, learn and maybe acquire goodies or other interesting items.

You can technically, potentially interact with anything, but in the text adventure tradition, we have CAPITALIZED anything that's worth particular attention.

Respond to the main header, or specific subheader with your command in short, simple language. One action per comment and no narrative prose necessary.
- EX: Jupiter wants to LICK the WALL.
- EX: Mary Grace is going to storm into the ROOM and SHINE A LIGHT at the moving shadow.
- EX: Winter SEARCHES the REFUSE PILE.
Each character gets Four Major Interactions with their subheader. That is, a complete interaction with an object or NPC in the set piece. We will note at the conclusion of an interaction (some interactions may take multiple comments) when an Action has been used up. If the action is incidental, we may not count it as a Major Interaction. We may up this limit later depending on how much ground is getting covered. We’ll let y’all know. It’s a fun experiment!

Please do re-explore items that others have already poked through. For many of the set piece items, each character will get unique responses depending on what they try.

We will respond to set piece interactions through Sunday, November 3rd! Take your time, but keep in mind that the game will continue to move.

🚪 We encourage you to thread in the provided spaces! Through this weekend, we may randomly interact with any player threads that spring up.

🚪 Your character only has on hand what was listed in their petition. We have two exceptions to this rule: (1) You can assume your character has any medical necessities on them (glasses, inhalers, etc.). (2) If you did not list your character as having a journal and would like to participate in any journals that go up, you can go ahead and assume they DID bring their journal.

🚪 Regardless of which location you are in, journals do work, but cellphones do not. For those on the Strange and Unfamiliar Street and Somewhere Gray, phones won’t even turn on. For those in the Cozy Cottage, phones work, but there’s no cell service, and if you try to use your camera everything looks too blurry to come through correctly. Take all the creepy and easily debunked cryptid photos you want kids.

🚪 For in character reference, per the rumors & oddities page the library door has supposedly "never opened for anyone," but the rumor is that the door will teleport you. Details beyond that tend to be sketchy. Some say it teleports you "wherever your heart most desires." Others think it's where you most need to be, or where the door itself most needs you to be. Still other students may find themselves disappointed, because they were promised that this door would spit them out in the parking lot of the Waffle House 45 minutes northeast of Elflock Falls.

🚪 The Rescue header for each subsection does not have anything to explore. Groups can thread under these headers if they desire and we may tag in with NPCs when we can. You can assume that each group was Apparated to just outside campus and crossed the bridge back to Peckenpaugh without incident.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Somehow, when Holland had stepped through the door, Aristotle's hand had separated from hers and now she's suddenly in this place. And, oh god, where is this place? Hell Elflock Falls? Her head whips around, and while she can see other familiar faces, Aris's is not among them. She's lost her ~~child~~ cheerbaby, and she's... well, just lost in general. A chill runs through her body, and she wobbles on her heels. Her eyes are starting to sting. Another look around the crowd has her spotting Valkyrie, and immediately she makes her way towards the other girl.

"I don't want to die looking like a cat," she whimpers once she's in earshot, already assuming the worst.

Val catches Holland in her arms. This is the time to be strong, but it's so alien to her. It's easier with Holland against her chest, nearly in tears. The comparison between them bolsters her somehow, and soon she's petting Holland's dark curls. Val herself is a mess of veils and wraps sparkling with constellations and crystals that twinkle the dim light.

"Oh my god, no one's dying," she insists, pulling Holland's head to her breast, "and if you do, you look super hot right now."

Holland knows she should be stronger right now - most of the books she loves so much have bold, fearless women - but it's so much easier to just sink into Val's arms for the moment. She pulls in a breath shakily, but manages to keep from crying as she looks up at the taller girl, painted on whiskers a little smudged.

"A hot corpse is still a corpse," she protests, but it actually does make her feel a little better, so she adds a soft, "thank you."

From her safe and comfortable position wrapped up in her friend's arms, she hazards another look around. "I don't suppose you have any idea where we are, do you?"

Valkyrie wishes she did. This is so frustrating, and she hates seeing Holland like this. Normally, she could fix it with a few words, or a cruel dismissal of whoever upset Holland. Then she's promise to have a fun girls' night, and they'd curl up close and gossip until they were too tired to think. Val searches her mind for some kind of solution or resolution, but there is none. She wants to scream, or throw something.

But she doesn't. Save that for the next Quodpot game. She pulls away from Holland just enough to take her face in her hands. "I know that we're together, which is what's most important."

Letting out a slow sigh in an attempt to center herself, Holland watches Val and doesn't fight any of her movements. The other girl is right: being together is immensely important right now. She almost bites her lip, but that would ruin her lipstick.

"You're right, of course. This... it'll be fine, right? It's just... some stupid weird place. And we can find our way out." She doesn't sound particularly convinced, but she's trying her best, and even manages a half smile.

"Just, uh, stay close to me," Val offers, then finally releases Holland. While it definitely sucks here, she has to believe it's temporary. Soon the teachers will notice that they're missing, and they'll figure out what happened, and they'll be home with a new weird story.

"I'm basically a survival expert," she reminds Holland, bouncing back to her usual perky self.

Holland nods obediently - she'd been planning on staying close, regardless of what the other girl had said. She separates from her friend, but does reach for her hand, mustering more of a smile and a bit of perkiness herself.

"I'm glad I'm in good hands. If this were a party I'd be totally fine, but, alas."

THE LIBRARY TOWER DOOR

A STRANGE AND UNFAMILIAR STREET (THREAD): Holland & Valkyrie

A STRANGE AND UNFAMILIAR STREET (THREAD): Holland & Valkyrie

A STRANGE AND UNFAMILIAR STREET (THREAD): Holland & Valkyrie

A STRANGE AND UNFAMILIAR STREET (THREAD): Holland & Valkyrie

A STRANGE AND UNFAMILIAR STREET (THREAD): Holland & Valkyrie

A STRANGE AND UNFAMILIAR STREET (THREAD): Holland & Valkyrie

A STRANGE AND UNFAMILIAR STREET (THREAD): Holland & Valkyrie