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

For Zed

[justoutrunyou]

This had to be one of the stupidest things she'd done in a long time.

Somehow almost every arena had one of these moments where she risked her life foolishly with hopes of some kind of reward that would see her through to the end of the arena. And usually she came up wanting. Sometimes it worked but most often this was the sort of thing that got her hurt or worse.

Swallowing hard as she delved into the darkness she decided if there was ever a better time to use her stone form and risk a backfire it was when she was surging deep into the darkest depths of a rat and spider filled hell. It had been hard enough avoiding sickness and disease up till this point and she didn't intend on living out the rest of her arena in a fevered state.

Bracing herself she felt the familiar comfort of her skin and hair hardening, spreading to her cheap knight costume making her look actually somewhat formidable despite her size. Her tabbard fluttered faintly over stone coated fabric and as expected a ball of flame appeared over her head alerting all to her location.

Sandy had hoped that perhaps given she was underground the flame's light wouldn't travel far, but it was far enough that she wouldn't be tripping over anything.

One second...two seconds.

Nothing.

Just as Sandy dared to breath a sigh of relief, faint splashing from up ahead warned her of something coming, something fast! It was barely audible over the bells booming outside but the echoing of the stone chambers brought it to her ears.

In the narrow tunnel Sandy only had two options, stand and fight or flee back the way she came up into the night and hope there were no other tributes behind her.

Raising her crossbow Sandy's eyes narrowed. Maybe if she was lucky she could catch this thing in the eyes like she had with the purple tribute...

However as the creature drew closer Sandy was confronted not by a pair of eyes, but by hundreds!!!

A swarm of rats had bundled together as tall as she was and were rolling towards her in a constant writhing mob of diseased teeth and claws. She let out a startled cry and loosed a bolt into the mass of muddy, greasy fur. It vanished without even a squeak of a landed hit.

Would her stone skin be enough to power through this blob of plague and feral rodents?

Bayard, Maxwell and Tabris

[yoknapatawpha]

He knows that Maxwell, Cullen and Tabris are concerned about his well-being, thinking he's been traumatized by the Cornucopia, and so he does his best to act as if it hasn't affected him. That's easy enough to brush aside, but when the voices start up each day something in him changes. All his effort to continue surviving in the Arena as normal seems to evaporate, and he'll go lay down at their camp for the hour or so until the calls stop, eyes shut and arms around his ears, responsive only to the worst prodding.

Other than that, he doesn't seem to act as if they're fighting for their lives. He collects wood, hunts, hides supplies up a tree so it's less likely to be gotten by animals, and ventures into the abandoned buildings to retrieve any item that might be useful. By now they've collected a cache of cured fish and a sizable set of rations that Bayard snuck away from the banquet the night before, banking on his speed and the other Tributes' hesitation to hurt a child.

The bats at night, however, have become a problem. The first night everyone manages to take shelter, but by Thursday it's clear something must be done. They're running through their medical supplies with treating the ugly bites they leave. A bite over Bayard's eyebrow has left part of his forehead swollen and red.

When the bells start tonight, he gets up from where he's making a rope trap and taps at Maxwell's elbow."We ought to do something about it."

Nitou | OTA

[infinitemayonnaise]

Nitou didn't have too much in the way of weapons, but he was going to go check out the catacombs anyway. He was carrying a big rock he thought he could use to smash things with, surely that would be enough.

The traps--the axes and the crumbling ceilings--didn't bother him. He was an archaeologist. He'd been in all sorts of interesting ancient ruins. He'd seen this sort of thing before. But he couldn't prepare for so many bats. There were so very many bats.

Oh, sure, there was yelling and noise as he tried to fight them off, but in the end, there were too much for him. Anyone in the area when the bats left his drained corpse would see a flash of gold light as a large black lionish creature emerge from Nitou's body--and promptly eat it.

Chimera stretched and walked down the hall of the catacombs, looking for somewhere to sleep off his meal--or perhaps find another one. The catacombs were too small for him to move very comfortably, and it was a tight squeeze once he found a doorway to emerge from. But maybe he'd find a little fun before the Capitol decided to shut that fun down and magically take him away...not that he was aware of that inevitable outcome.