Prelude: The House Whose Walls Dripped Blood

[Eanwulf]

Chillicothe Correction Institution
Chillicothe Correction Institution, or CCI, is a state run medium security prison on the west bank of the Scioto River just outside Chillicothe, Ohio. It is located adjacent to Ross Correctional Institution and Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. The prison is a former military camp, named for Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman. It later became a federal penitentiary and has housed several high profile prisoners including Charles Manson, bootlegger Junior Johnson, and serial killer Anthony Sowell. Sowell currently resides there and is on death row.

Mr W.D.Salisbury was a Warden for the Institute in 1971

Country music legend Johnny Paycheck also served a 22 month stint in CCI. During Paycheck's time there his friend and fellow musician Merle Haggard performed for the inmates.

Death Row Relocation
On October 3, 2011, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections announced that the majority of Ohio's male death row would be moved to CCI from the Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) in Youngstown and Mansfield Correctional Institution in Mansfield, with some high security death row cells being maintained at OSP and inmates with medical issues being held at the Franklin Medical Center in Columbus. This was done to free up cells at OSP and Mansfield to be used to separate violent inmates from the general population as well as the increased security and reduced costs of transporting condemned inmates from CCI to both the execution chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) in Lucasville and to the Franklin Medical Center for medical treatment. The transfer of death row inmates was completed on January 19, 2012.

Enter Our Story
On October 29th, 2011, one particularly nasty death row inmate by the name of Travis Scrimm somehow managed to escape during his portion of the transfer and successfully fled his way into the nearby region of Pike County. Before Scrimm was found and once more apprehended, he had managed to gather together the workers and management team of a local textile warehouse in Pike County where in lieu of trying to negotiate any terms of surrender, simply slaughtered them all before being gunned down himself in a blaze of glory by the Ohio State Police Department. “The Walls Dripped Blood That Day!” the papers read the morning after Scrimm's death. “Scrimm fought back like a man possessed!” the headlines likewise read.

Since that time, the warehouse was shut down (due to the ownership of said facility having been amongst those murdered during Scrimm's rampage) and other than the occasional transient or miscreant youth, has remained abandoned for the past two years or so. Or so one would think. Nearly a year to the date later of Scrimm's "apprehension," the town of Pee Pee's inhabitants started to spread rumors of the old abandoned warehouse on Prosperity Road whose walls dripped blood at midnight and rumors of those people having seen spectral images roaming the halls of the very same warehouse.

Local authorities have found no evidence of such occurence, but then again put little mind in the way of superstition and town gossip. Still however the case itself is enough to warrant the attention of Mystery Inc. as several missing persons reports (mostly children) have shown strong patterns in occuring in the same region as the abandoned warehouse. Enter our team and the tail-end of their current mission.

[Eanwulf]

Somewhere Near the Witching Hour
February 19th, 2013
The Town Of Pee Pee, Ohio
Pike County
Some Abandoned Warehouse on Prosperity Road

The breaths of four people can be seen rising amidst the dimly lit hallway of an abandoned warehouse; each one illuminated by a hazy halo of light. The eerie effect appears to be caused by the electric lanterns that our group carries and holds out in front of them; each member of the small group toting a single one with a free hand.

One of the members of the group, a rather attractive woman (Hayabusa), also grips a tiny digital camera with her other hand; cradling it carefully and filming everything about her along the way as she travels down the dark mysterious hallway.

Likewise, another member of the group (Shadowwk), appears to be wearing a set of (oversized) padded headphones and looks to be recording the group's audio upon some kind of bulky 'technical' gadget which dangles from his shoulder-belt and rests against the side of his waist.

Ahead of the group, being lead by a Native American Indian (jigglypuff69), is a harnessed bloodhound; the group's mascot, Woofie. The pack-hound appears to be snuffling the ground in front of him and dragging the Native American forwards as if finding something out of the ordinary!

OOC

Alright then, let's get this party started. BE SURE TO READ the information on our OOC Thread entitled "Rules Summary" and "The GUMSHOE Rules" prior to posting. It'll help get a feel for how you would spend points or inquire as to whether or not someone should try to discern a clue, etc. Additional rules on Piggybacking and Cooperation are also there. Other than that, allow me to fill you in on our prelude:

- You are at the tail-end of your current assignment. Every good Scooby-Doo episode started this way or in transit to some other affair, the mystery popping up along the way.
- I created the prelude this way to help you all get a feel for who you're playing and perhaps a little bit of familiarity with the gaming system before trying to tackle the harder stuff.
- Having paid your respects to Coolsville, Ohio, you were given a brief assignment by one of Daphne's (Mrs. Blake-Jones) Go-To's, a gruff-looking woman who uses the handle of Ms. Barbera.
- The assignment entailed your investigation of the abandoned textile warehouse where escaped death row inmate Travis Scrimm was gunned down only after he managed to brutally murder the entire establishment's work-force, management, and most of ownership. (See first part of this thread for more information)
- Rumors of the place being haunted began to spring up roughly one year after the place was closed and Scrimm's onslaught over with. Tales of walls suddenly 'bleeding' and of the phantom images of Scrimm's ghost were the gist of such rumors.
- The town's sheriff (Sheriff Kimball) did his best to quickly try and stop such rumors but it's always been whispered that the events were there.
- Sheriff Kimball is a real hard-ass. Doing all he can to thwart your investigation so far. So much in fact, you are beginning to suspect that he might have something to do with it all.
- You have managed to get access to the abandoned warehouse under the ruse of being a tv reality show's version of paranormal investigators (something used more frequently than you'd expect in Mystery Inc.) dedicated to scouting out the warehouse for possibly the next episode of your show.
- This tactic has worked in the past and is also a great way of letting esoterrorists know that you are in the vicinity; the former either assuming you to genuinely be easy prey or perhaps on to them, causing them in either event to blunder and/or do something foolish and make their presences known all the more easier.
- The town's mayor (Mayor Sheffield) and deputy (Deputy Starke) loved the idea of possibly being on television and has ordered the town sheriff to fully cooperate. Something Sheriff Kimball apparently loathes to do. Deputy Starke however, has been more than complacent and seems to be fond of Cora Jane Willow.
- The group has been exploring the abandoned warehouse since sundown and other than a couple sites where they managed to find evidence of someone having removed blood from the walls with bleach/ammonia, have found no real proof that the place is haunted.
- Traces of the blood/substance, and some fingerprints have been recorded and sent off via webphone/camera.
- Mystery Inc. handed you this case primarily due to the fact that despite the whispered rumors of the warehouse being haunted. There has most assuredly been a significant increase in the number of missing/abducted children in the surrounding Pike County region and that most trails followed seem to end within two-to-five miles of Scrimm's warehouse. Should this truly be paranormal/esoterrorist behavior, it warrants further investigation to lead to confirmation of such activity.
- And lastly, it's pretty fricking cold this time of night in Ohio during February. Temperature outside is in the low-teens and precipitation factor high. All in all very cold and very wet. Slushy snow outside.

[Hayabusa]

The tiny screen of the digital camera doesn't show much while the walls, ceiling and the floor of the hallway are shown on it. So some time later someone has to go through the stream on something bigger if nothing clear or obviously extraordinary shows up on it right now. Despite that, it's crucial that the camera keeps rolling and the holder keeps it steady so it won't end up all fuzzy and hard to examine it, frame by frame if need be. For now a pair of gray eyes keep staring at the tiny screen.

The owner of these eyes is Madison Moxley, holding the camera in one hand while she slowly follows the Nativa American Indian in front of her. She does not speak at all so that it won't show up on the audio recording but this investigation of the warehouse doesn't really show much progress so far, she thinks. The bar owner is clad in a wide, dark purple cloak against the cold. For a moment she glances ahead to see if Woofie reacts to anything before her eyes wander back to the screen.

[jigglypuff69]

Jonnie Longbow holds onto Wolfie's leash, barely keeping the dog in check. His coyote skin jacket helps keep most of the bite off his skin, but the smallest of gusts still find their way through, chilling the man as he's used to the desert. Not this spirit-forsaken 'glacier' as he calls it.

The hair on his arms and necks stands up from the strain of using his gifts as reaches out with his minds, trying to touch the veil between this world and the next. The sensation is always one of trying to claw your way through thick oil, a hard feat to imagine. At least there's people in this group that understand him. He reaches down for just a moment to pat the large knife on his side, the bone handle and it's cool blade a comfort to the man. "I think Wolfie's on to something..."

[Hayabusa]

"That'd be great, honey, because I got nothing so far," Moxley replies, looking past the tiny camera and at the bloodhound that is much a part of their team as any of them.

[MadVlat]

OCD is definately a flaw that is evident in Cora as she studies a copy of the blue prints for the warehouse that she had dug up at town hall. The prodigy taking note of measurements and design. That is until Jonnie Longbow announces that Woofie may have something. "What is it Jonnie?", she quietly utters her interest suddenly peaked...

[Shadowwk]

Issak, for one, has no clue what these people keep whining about. This is balmy compared to his visits back to Russia. Every now and then he'd get a blip or noise on his rig, which was usually nothing but static or footfalls. Noticing the commotion up ahead, the college student slipped the muffs to his neck. "Did ze pup find somezhing?"

[jigglypuff69]

"I dunno. Woofie here has his fur in a bunch over something. Maybe he's got a scent or something. Hey, boy...", he says to the dog. "Come on, follow it, go get it boy!"

[Eanwulf]

Woofie sniffs the ground in front of him and appears to be ignoring everyone's comments around him save for Jonnie's last one. Having been given the green light to go ahead, our lovable canine mascot quickly tugs against his leash quite harshly and guides the group northwards along the cold dank hallway and out into a desolate-looking assembly room. Mostly abandoned, the room still contains the remnants of whatever machinery was used for the processing and manufacturing of textiles back in the day when the facility was once open. Odd-looking mannequin heads and torsos poke out amongst a scattering of log-sized rolls of plastic. The entire assortment appearing as if some kind of a giant had cast the proverbial bones across the ground and was now ready to try and read them.

Continuing to tug against his leash, Woofie then proceeds to cross one corner of the assembly room and nudges his way past a door with his nose and forepaw to lead the group down an adjacent hallway. The two-toned walls of this new (rather gaudy) hallway are adorned with the gold and olive green colors of a rather faded floral wallpaper and by the dull-yellow scuff-mark and scratch-riddled panes of an equally as faded cherrywood paneling. The hall itself appears to be one that factory workers would have used, various post-its and marketing paraphernalia cluttering its walls.

Oblivious to all but the scent in front of him, Woofie continues to drag the party along the hallway to a bend in the corridor. Stopping only long enough to wait for another signal to continue, the loyal animal then proceeds to make his way around the bend and about one-third the way down the hallway before suddenly pausing to let out a troublesome-sounding *Woof!*

The walls along the hall have begun to bleed!

OOC

Or should one say, the walls around you have suddenly begun to ooze and secrete a glistening substance that greatly resembles blood. So much in fact, that it's outright unnerving!

You will all be facing a potential 3 point-loss of Stability. Standard roll is d6 vs a TN 4. You can spend points from your Stability rating to add to this roll if so desired, essentially 'lessening' the blow of shock by improving your chances to succeed and grasp a hold of reality.

Think trade-off when deciding whether or not you wish to spent such points, i.e. an average d6 roll is a 2-3, 1 pt of Stability spent raising it to 3-4, 2 pts spent to 4-5, etc.; or overall a decent chance of succeeding the test and avoiding losing the full 3 pts if failed.

Since this is a Prelude, I'll simply state that each of you roll straight up.

[Cora's Stability check, TN 4, d6=3, Fail, 3 Stability lost]

[Issak's Stability check, TN 4, d6= 3, Fail, 3 Stability lost]

[Jonnie's Stability check, TN 4, d6= 6, Success, 0 Stability lost]

[Madison's Stability check, TN 4, d6= 6, Success, 0 Stability lost]

[Woofie's Stability check, TN 4, d6= 2, Fail, 3 Stability lost]

You are fine as long as your Stability remains positive.

Losing It

Like Health, your Stability pool can drop below 0.

If your Stability ranges from 0 to –5, you are shaken. You can still do your job, but seem distracted. You can't spend points from the pools of your Investigative abilities. Difficulty Numbers for all general abilities increase by 1.

If your Stability ranges from –6 to –11, you acquire a mental illness. This stays with you even after your Stability pool is restored to normal. See below for more. You also continue to suffer the ill effects of being shaken. Furthermore, you permanently lose 1 point from your Stability rating. The only way to get it back it to purchase it again with build points.

When your Stability reaches –12 or less, you are incurably insane. You may commit one last crazy act, which must either be self-destructively heroic or self-destructively destructive. Or you may choose merely to gibber and drool. Assuming you survive your permanent journey to the shores of madness, your character is quietly shipped off to a secure top secret psych facility, never to be seen again. Time to create a new character.

[Shadowwk]

"H..h..holy shit, are you all seeing zis too? Somevne shine ze light, I need to record zis." Shaken a bit, Issak takes a pull from his trusty flask before moving into better position to fill his new-found obsession, the supernatural.