Vampire Bats In The Belfry

[etcircenses]

Who| Those who dare stop the ringing
What| The bells, bells, bells, bells, bells...
Where| The catacombs.
When| Monday and on...
Warnings/Notes| Possible violence. Please warn for more in headers. Please see the sign ups for this event here.

In the depths of the catacombs with the rot and the rats, one tunnel leads on. Axes swing down from the walls and stones crumble upon those who are too slow. Bats take bites out of Tributes and the Rats also. Poisonous spiders slip down from the ceiling and some tunnels split off into pitfalls of water.

Eventually after so long walking further down into the dark, some small bit of natural light peeks through for those who've made it through. Light from above illuminates a spiralling staircase. Up the stairs is a new room, one which Tributes would not have been able to reach before. Out of the dark they can now see the stone door that had blocked the way before. The windows are high and barred but the bells sway even higher behind the bars of a locked jail.

Within the room several things have been scattered:

-A locked chest on the first side with a carved in mockingjay, jabberjay, and eagle with wings all spread. Each bird can be pressed, but only a specific pattern will open it and only at set time-- the completion of the puzzle.

-A basin and several soaked pieces of clothing within. Underneath this clothing is a red dot.

-A grate full of water with holes big enough to allow an arm through; inside is a key kept afloat by a bob though just too far to reach.

-Several barrels, one marked with a red dot. On lifting the lid, torn pages of Hamlet with numbers written in the top corners can be found. Only small parts of it are not blackened by ink or mould.

-Twelve ropes in six sections on the other side of the jail. Each rope must be pulled a set number of times. When done correctly, the bells will quiet. From it a paper featuring the letters 'E', 'J', and 'M' will fall.

The Hamlet pages show the following:

1. GHOST I am thy father's spirit, Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night And for the day confined to fast in fires Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away. But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combinèd locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porpentine. But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. -Act 1 Scene 2

2. HAMLET The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds More relative than this. The play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King. -Act 2 Scene 2 3. HAMLET O good Horatio, I’ll take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound. Didst perceive? -Act 3 Scene 2 4. GHOST Mark me. HAMLET I will. -Act 1 Scene 5

5. HAMLET That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once. -Act 5 Scene 1 6. GHOST If thou hast any sound or use of voice, Speak to me. If there be any good thing to be done That may to thee do ease and grace to me, Speak to me. If thou art privy to thy country’s fate, Which happily foreknowing may avoid, Oh, speak! Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth, For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, Speak of it. Stay and speak! -Act 1 Scene 1

Tributes will need to use their wit to solve the puzzle. Not only that, but they will need to do so while fighting their way through the bats that fly in and out through the windows, biting at them as they go. However, once the bells cease ringing, so too do the bats immediately settle. Not only that but they will find within that chest a ton of in-arena treasures such as food rations, water, a med-kit, and ear-plugs. Multiple rooms just like this exist in the catacombs where they hadn't before which means multiple people can take a shot at the puzzle though whether they succeed is down to their perspicacity and, of course, their luck.

Comments

[yoknapatawpha]

"I think they're the cause. With the church we built in Jefferson, if you ring the bells then all these birds fly out. I reckon it's the same idea here." Bayard chews at his knuckle, squinting a bit to try and relieve tension from the swollen bite on his head.

"I won't go without you, but my say is that we go investigate it, at the least. If those bats are biting us they must be eating up everyone else alive too, and we don't have all our friends and allies in our two camps yet." Despite the fact that he's so easily fallen into the role of being a child to Maxwell and Tabris, since hearing the voices in the woods he's spoken up a bit more as well, with that same even-tempered, calm consideration he has with anything important enough.

[dreadinquisitor]

Back up on his feet, Maxwell felt a little better, a little sharper, and he gave his head just a gentle shake to clear it further.

"I agree, Bayard. And if the bells have already chased them out for tonight, we shouldn't have any many to worry about inside." He looked out toward the castle, dark shapes dotted against the sky like freckles - growing smaller as they fanned out across the arena.

Looking for tributes, hunting for fresh blood.

"I say we get a small pack together and head out now while they're busy. With any luck we can be back before the night's done."

[allyorfoe]

"Excellent!" Tabris straightened up, and grabbed her hammer, looking pumped and ready. Fighting she could handle a lot better than all these other tricks that the Capitol kept pulling on them. "Let's just....break the bells. Just hit them hard enough, I bet they could snap in two!"

She looked around the camp, then looked at Bayard, mouth pressing into a thin line. It was tempting to tell him that he had to stay there, that he couldn't fight. But...this should be safe. And if Tabris never let him do anything besides huddle away from the bad things...He'd never be prepared for them if they came and she wasn't there.

This would probably be safe enough. The bats were gone.

"Alright. Bayard, do you have a weapon? Who else should come with us?"

Lilah-mun decided to sit this one out.

[yoknapatawpha]

"I've a knife. Maybe we ought to go with just the three of us? I reckon I'm small enough that I can dodge under any bats that start to come from the ceilings." He picks at the scab on his head from the earlier bite. It's a vain and foolish idea, but he can't imagine there's much else to pin their hopes on but his speed, Tabris' gumption and her and Maxwell's skills.

Without waiting for agreement, he starts to head towards the sound.

"We needn't even break them, just take the tongues out. Of the bells, that is, I bet that'd take us a long time if we did it to each individual bat." It's a gory thought and not one Bayard's particularly keen on. "Come on now, before the bats return!"

[dreadinquisitor]

Maxwell picked up a pack, checking that it had a few small supplies as he fill in with Bayard. Chuckling tiredly, he slung it up onto his back.

"How glad I am you clarified," he joked, reaching across to give Bayard's hair a playful ruffle. "Though I suppose we could have eaten them when we were done."

Not that bat tongue sounded any more appetizing than anything else they'd been eating lately.

[allyorfoe]

"Just the tongue, mind you. Let the rest of the bat go, fly free and tongueless." She continued the joke, following after Bayard, and looking around, keeping an eye on their surroundings. It made her a little nervous, trooping to this mysterious belltower, but whatever. If Bayard and Max were going, you could bet Tabris would be, too.

"You know, I hear in Orlais, that they eat tongue as a treat." She mentioned offhand, hefting the hammer onto her shoulder. "You own Orlais, right, Max? Is that true? Do they eat weird cheeses, too? Do they eat weird cheese AND tongue?"

She paused, and glanced at Bayard. "Don't eat tongue, it might start talking while it's going down."

[yoknapatawpha]

"We ought to defang them too!" Bayard grins, almost like he's oblivious of the danger. "I've eaten tongue before. Deer tongue is right pleasurable when my Granny cooks it, although Ringo won't eat it. He says there's only one mouth it belongs in and that's the deer's."

He keeps a few paces ahead of Tabris and Maxwell, heading towards the obvious tower. A few of the bats seem to be returning. "We should run. Come on!"

[dreadinquisitor]

Despite his fatigue, and the lingering pain, and the proposition of what they were about it to - tongue eating or no - Maxwell laughed. An handsome smile flashing at Tabris.

"I'm a Marcher, thank you very much. I might not understand Ferelden worship of dogs, but I still know a creepy mask when I see one." Bayard waved them on and he picked up pace to light jog. "...But yes. At least to the cheeses. I didn't see any tongue when I was in Halamshiral."

Which wasn't to say there hadn't been any. He'd been busy, and he hadn't exactly been looking.

Though if he had missed it, he couldn't honestly say he was all that sorry.

"What's it like, Bayard?"

[allyorfoe]

"We do not worship dogs! We just appreciate them!" She retorted, sticking her tongue out, even as she hurried after them. "Bayard has dogs too, you know--" As though Bayard's family possessing hunting dogs, an entirely different breed and use than Mabari, would somehow help her argument that putting dogs on every piece of architecture and tapestry was not some kind of worship. "--Bayard! Slow down! Child, I'm getting you a leash! You're gonna look just like that little dog Swann has!"

She resisted adding inbred, high maintenance, neurotic, rat that barks for the cameras, and also because Capitolites might realize that they had a lot in common with their dogs.

But she hurried along, pulling her hammer into both hands, as she dashed after Bayard. That child was going to get himself killed, he really was. And then Cullen would stare at Tabris judgmentally because she's the adult, and apparently she should wrestle Bayard to the ground every time he breaths wrong.