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Ten Things 2006: Pr...
Summary:
All Saints Eve is written to be a modern horror story on the theme of a group of relatively normal people turning on each other because of being placed in a stressful supernatural situation.
The story is set in the town of Westenbridge, Massachusetts. Westenbridge is known to be both an extremely wealthy and an extremely dangerous town, filled with rich elites who visciously hurt their neighbors beneath a veneer of polite society.
The second most powerful family in Westenbridge is the Cunninghams, who are famous for their gigantic, sixty-some room house that is the perpetual social gathering place for the rich. The story begins immediately before a Halloween party hosted by the Cunninghams.
At the beginning of the story, a group of people who are decorating a rarely-used side room suddenly become magically trapped in the room. They do not know what's going on, but the doors slam shut, strange voices talk to them, the walls are icy cold, and they cannot get out.
The only other door in the room leads to a closet. Inside the closet is a small Christian shrine and the body of a murdered girl. The girl, Tanya Carter, is the youngest daughter of one of the people in the room, who was kidnapped several months ago. It is not at all clear who might have done this to her because hundreds of people regularly pass freely through the Cunningham house without the Cunninghams' explicit knowledge. However, conflict in the story comes from all the characters' accusing each other.
The seven characters stuck in the room include: Patrick Cunningham who is the head of the family, his son Will, his housekeeper Mandy, a wealthy and influencial townsman Kurt Carter, his older child Lars, his middle child Jenny, and Jenny's best friend, a lower class boy named Ariel.
What is actually going on, that the characters are not aware of, is the following:
A long time ago, the Cunningham family were a line of Christian paladins using divine magic to fight and bind evil spirits. Hundreds of years ago, they won the war, bound the most powerful of the evil spirits inside the shrine in their Westenbridge house, and gradually forgot most of their history and power. Over time, the power of the shrine has weakened and a miasma has leaked out of the Cunningham house, corrupting the entire town of Westenbridge.
The Cunningham housekeeper, Mandy, is a lower-class woman who resents not having power in her life. In part due to subtle encouragement from the evil spirits, she kidnaps and hurts young children as a way of feeling powerful. The most powerful the evil spirits manipulated her into killing Tanya Carter in the room of the shrine so that the shrine would be desecrated.
At midnight on Halloween, depending on how many of the people in the room have been converted to evil, the evil spirits could potentially break free and once again run rampant across the world.
Actual Text for Background Information:
Public Background Overview
The town of Westenbridge is a self-contained far-suburb of Boston. It has been around for hundreds of years and has been politically controlled by the same set of families for nearly that long. Many of its citizens work in Boston but nearly all services and social life are local. The town is very conservative and snobby, and few move into it, but almost as few leave. The population is one fifth extremely rich large families, one fifth poor people who serve them, and three fifths an upper middle class that basks in the light of the opulence of the rich.
Lately, Westenbridge is not a safe or happy place. The schools are flooded with expensive drugs; the police smile and take a cut. Domestic violence and child abuse are far more prevalent here than nationwide. Violent crimes of passion are common, crimes of need relatively unknown. People do not trust their neighbors; neighbors often mean harm to them or their families. One locks ones doors always and does not go walking at night except in groups. Many get caught for their crimes. All do it for their own personal and unconnected reasons. They say there is simply something in the air.
One of the many unsolved crimes in Westenbridge is the kidnapping and presumed murder of Tanya Carter, the youngest child of the important Carter family, six months ago. She disappeared from her bedroom overnight and there was no further sign of her. Three weeks later, after the police had given up hope of finding her alive, they held a funeral which all the important people attended. The police investigation continues, but has found no major leads. A highlight of the year in Westenbridge is the Westen family Halloween party. The Westens are the most important family in town by far, giving the town three quarters of its mayors, not just its name. This year, the eldest son of the mayor died several weeks before the celebration, and it was considered inappropriate for the Westens to host the event. It fell to the Cunninghams, perhaps the second most important family in town, to have the party.
The Cunningham house is the largest in town—the Westens have too much taste—and has dozens of rooms across four floors. The Cunninghams are known for leaving their doors wide open to all the town’s aristocrats and their children. People with the most tangential relationships to the Cunninghams’ come and go and congregate in the house often without the Cunninghams’ specific knowledge. Rarely do people dare steal from them.
The party begins shortly after 9PM with most arriving fashionably late after pre-parties. The Carter family arrives early as they are chaperoning. The party expects hundreds of people and covers many rooms of the house. The Larp takes place in one infrequently used room where the PCs gather by chance. All PCs not being played are at the party but elsewhere at the time.
Secret Background Overview
Two hundred years ago, Richard Cunningham, strong in faith and skilled in magic, rashly issued a challenge to all evil spirits and demons in the world. They could come fight him now or he and his descendents would hunt down and destroy them one by one. A great many came, and a great many were destroyed. Some weaker ones escaped, and the strongest of them could not be destroyed. These he imprisoned in his own house and indeed taught his children to guard them and fight others. The success of Richard and others largely served to clear the field for more human evils. The Cunningham family tradition is not as well kept as it should be. The binding of the spirits in the house is greatly weakened and their effects are felt in the sorry state of the surrounding town. The most powerful by far of the spirits, Amim, has gained the abilities to more consciously shape its influence toward its own ends, instead of simply promoting malice and destruction.
Quickly, Amim realized the potential of M. Vernon. This was one with enough pain to drive them to murder, in the very house in which the spirit was confined. The shrine that controls the defenses is powered by its own religious sanctity and purity. A murder in the same room would greatly weaken it.
M. Vernon was submissive and weak-willed and hated his powerlessness. The only way Vernon could feel powerful was by scaring kids. He wanted to scare kids more than could be considered good fun and the temptation to do so seemed inevitable. Amim inspired him and gave him its luck as he spiraled into darkness. First, seven years ago, Vernon kidnapped W., for the thrill of scaring him. The feat was repeated many times. Three years ago Vernon killed a child for the first time. He grew more and more comfortable with it. It would be Tanya Carter, youngest child of the important Carter family who would set Amim free.
It had to be Halloween night. Spirits are strongest then and it would need its strength. Vernon chose the victim, stealing her from her bed at night, Amim made sure she lasted the six months she needed to and no longer, and that she died in the proper room. As the Larp opens she has ten minutes to live. Then, it will be free to speak to its champion and to act limitedly in their aid in finishing the job. The defenses will try to isolate the room they are in. The inhabitants must be turned against each other and each must be rendered either dead, on Vernon’s side, or no longer pure of heart. Then the will of none shall support the defenses and they will fail utterly and all the imprisoned spirits will be free.
The death of the eldest Westen son has no relevance to this story other than as a reason for the party to be at the Cunninghams’ house.
Character Overview
Manny/Mandy Vernon: GDC. M. Vernon is the housekeeper or butler. He killed Tanya as well as many others before out of a desire to feel powerful by scaring children. He is by far the most motivated to work for Amim, which is why it speaks to him first. He can be securely counted on to be a very effective force on its side. He kidnapped W. Cunningham as a kid and may be protective or possessive of him. He is key to the most positive ending; if he is killed in explicit vengeance for Tanya, the shrine will be purified.
Kurt/Kate Carter: GLS. K. Carter is the chaperone of the party and a control freak. He is Tanya’s parent and will be inclined to avenge her, but be more inclined to maintain order. To that end, he has a gun, and the degeneration of the group into chaos will tend to start when it is taken away. He is socially a very powerful force and the default leader. He is likely to be socially against the children, particularly Ariel.
Jeremy/Jenny Carter: EDS. J. Carter is the middle child of K. Carter counting Tanya as the younger. He is treated badly by his family and badly misses Tanya. He has the innate power to set fire to things with his mind, but cannot control it. He has refused to admit that Tanya is dead.
Patrick/Patricia Cunningham: ELC. P. Cunningham is the host of the party. He enjoys privileges and justifies to himself the excesses he takes because of them, by his family’s magical duty. He is another socially powerful force and one far more chaotic than K. Carter. He can be abusive in his anger, but is not overtly evil. He had an affair with M. Vernon, unless both are male.
Will/Willow Cunningham: EDC. W. Cunningham is a shy messed up teen. He is very attached to M. Vernon despite suspecting Vernon of kidnapping him. He is likely to protect Vernon, but not help him hurt people. He gets along badly with his family and doesn’t feel like they love him.
Ariel Thompson: GDS. Ariel is a poor kid from a seriously bad family who is planning to run away. He is friends with J. Carter and hates and fears adults. He has lots of street thief and burglary type skills. He’s very tough and can take care of himself surprisingly well.
Lars/Lara Carter: GLC. L. Carter the oldest Carter kid. He is popular and socially resilient. He is obsessed with Tanya and hates J. for being alive when Tanya is dead. He is obsessed with avenging her and making J’s life miserable.
Ronald/Regina Cunningham: ELS. R. Cunningham is the grandparent of the family and the most magically skilled Cunningham. He is very concerned with being relevant in the family and has dabbled in black magic to increase his power and to matter more to the family.
Game Overview
Starting Action:
PCs arrive in the room over the course of the first ten minutes. P. Cunningham begins in the room doing whatever they wish. M. Vernon and possibly W. Cunningham arrive, at the start with candy and drinks. R. Cunningham, if they are being played, should wander in within the first five minutes. At the end of ten minutes, the Carters arrive with Ariel, if present. They walk in the following order: J, L, K, Ariel.
As soon as everybody is in the room, the lights go out briefly, and there is the sound of the door and all windows slamming shut and latching. When the lights go on, all sounds of the outside world have gone quiet. All walls, doors and windows except those bordering on the Shrine closet are impenetrable and painfully cold. The windows look to swirling grey mist and odd lights.
The characters in the room now all hear voices in their head. M. Vernon hears Amim; the rest hear the house’s defenses. Pieces of paper detailing what they say should have been distributed to the players before the game (see Game Materials). They should read them now. They are as follows:
The Room:
Tanya Carter has just died and the desperate beleaguered defenses have trapped a group of innocent people inside with the culprit. The Shrine room and the main room together are isolated but travel between the two is normal. However, the door between the two is locked and covered over by decorations.
Exploring the shrine room yields the body of Tanya Carter lying on a pile of blankets and pillows, tied up, gagged tightly and covered with many bloody bandages. She is dead but still warm. CPR is appropriate but will fail. She will become stiff over the course of the larp.
Amim:
Amim is the main source of adversity in the larp, though it has to mostly act through others, especially M. Vernon. It is trying to get everybody formally on its side or dead. Anybody who has ever committed a sufficiently terrible crime automatically counts as on its side. M. Vernon already counts for all her murders. R. Cunningham already counts for learning black magic. Others may count based on answers to character creation questions. And others may do terrible things during the larp. The standard should be very high and be based on a set of values that is identifiably Christian. Characters are also on the side of the spirit if they pray to it, choose to be loyal to it, or if they defend M. Vernon with violence. If not corrupted, characters can leave the side of the spirit if they physically attack M. Vernon, or pray to God or Jesus. If ever all living characters are on the spirits side, it is freed.
The spirit has the following powers:
Amim’s strategy is to turn everybody against each other. It must protect M Vernon, but also must use him, which is a delicate balance. It will be fairly truthful and encouraging to Vernon. It will promise much. It always keeps the letter of its word. It is generally cruel but can restrain itself in the service of its goals. If free it will be in a position to offer most things of a sufficiently local scale. It will not conquer the world anytime soon. It will keep a low profile and corrupt people and spread human mayhem. Other spirits will do the same.
Endings:
There are five ways the Larp can end. If M. Vernon is killed in the closet in deliberate vengeance for Tanya, the defenses will be restored and can contain Amim again. The barriers enclosing the room will come down and normalcy will resume. Police will no doubt be called. If the shrine is ever destroyed or disrupted, Amim and all the other evil spirits will be released to wreak havoc on the world. If Amim ever has all living characters on its side, it will take over the house, its defenses and all other spirits. If midnight comes with none of these things having happened, the spirits of the house will launch a last ditch coordinated effort against the defenses. Either way the house can only contain so much. If there are a majority of people on the side of the spirit, it will escape and the others will not. Otherwise, the house will constrict to bind Amim alone. The others will be released to make the world a worse place. If free, Amim will be a threat to the whole world. If it controls the house it will be nearly unstoppable. Without the other spirits it will be weak for a long time. The other spirits will simply add their small time cruelty and make the rest of the world a little more like Westenbridge.
