"I'm going to try something." you say, pulling out the talismans and folding your legs on the ground.
"And what might that be?" Wile E. Coyote asks as you situate yourself on the dusty floor.
"I'm going to be very vulnerable for a few minutes." you explain. "I'll be counting on the thre- four of you," you amend hastily as you see Bonkers start to wilt, "to get us out of here if anything goes wrong."
"Oho! So we are getting ready for ze special spy stuff, eh?" Ludivine asks.
You begin to breathe slowly, in and out. The talisman in your hand begins to glow slightly, its power activating.
"Zo, vhen do we see the beeg fireworks or whaddever-"
You conk out immediately and land face first on the ground.
Bonkers blinks a few times. "Huh, that was kinda a let down, wasn't it?"
Coyote screamed.
"Stop explaining the jo-!"
---
Luck Check: 1d100
36
Something is very wrong.
You unlock this door with the key of your imagination. Beyond it is another dimension. A dimension of sight, a dimension of sound, a dimension of mind.
You can tell immediately that this hotel has earned its reputation. The entire world is washed out to greyscale gloom, as always, but the Mindscape is darker here than you could have imagined.
Did you guys hear someone say something?
I told you, we need to stay quiet, he'll hear us.
Every wall looms like a monster, every dark crevice and corner is filled with twisting shadows whispering just on the edge of hearing. The only light is given off by dim and dusty lamps that should not be working.
Amid the glitz and the glitter of a bustling young movie town at the height of its golden age, the Hollywood Tower Hotel was a star in its own right. A beacon for the show business elite. Now, like a dark omen of what was to come for this town, something terrible came along to change all that.
The ceiling has disappeared, fading off into darkness and mist. But the empty shaft of the elevator flashes with blinding, coruscating light. You can feel it, instinctively.
The time is now, on an afternoon like any other, but in a place you have not often seen before. Tonight's story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. We invite you, if you dare, to step aboard because in tonight's episode you are the star.
You are Agent Russ, a man who spends his time in the dark so that the light can yet shine on someone else. Today you seek the truth, not recognizing the lie that surrounds the last bright spot you have allowed yourself in this world. I am sorry to tell you this, but sooner or later the truth will collide with fiction.
You are entering a place that will test what you believe, whether you know it or not. And as you cross over into the Twilight Zone I have one piece of advice for you:
Don't go into the elevator.
A moment ago the outside world was a sunny California day; now the edge of your hearing is filled with the drilling rain and booming thunder of a lightning storm. The world is stuck on the twilit edge between darkness and light.
Occult Check: Navigate the Twilight
DC 90
54+15=69
Failure
Without consciously deciding on it, you find yourself walking through the hotel. The inky darkness is broken only by the crackling of lightning outside.
No.
The lightning is inside the hotel.
You leap back in shock as you realize the hallway you are standing in is crackling with coruscating electricity. The lightning twists, sparks, runs across and around and along the walls until it coalesces into six figures.
Occult Check: Sight and Sound
DC 30/50/70/90
68+15=83
Four of the figures are adults. Their forms hazy and indistinct like static from a dead channel, barely visible within a halo of sparks and sound. The fifth is a young child, a girl, holding a doll shaped like a rabbit.
The sixth is Alonso Hawk.
He's trying to tell you something. You see his mouth open like rolling storm clouds, his voice echoes like booming thunder, his storm grey eyes beg something of you across a limitless expanse. You strain to hear, to understand, but the only sound to reach your ears is the sound of the small girl singing a nursery tune.
It's raining, it's pouring-
All at once the figures explode, crackling into wild electricity!
Occult Check: How do you fight in here?
DC 40/60
33+15=48
Partial Success!
This is a place not only of sight and sound but of mind. Both shadow and substance, things and ideas. What you believe and imagine is real here. You attempt to call upon it. You think of the walls rising up to protect you. But you fail. The realm of the mind is not so easily mastered, despite your training. In desperation, you reach out for the key to your Spycycle, the one device that has carried you through countless firefights.
And it appears.
The handlebars come first, fading into existence as if daring you to claim they were not always there. The rest of the vehicle appears moments later, just as the lightning reaches you.
---
Agent Russ has gained the use of his Spycycle in the Mindscape! Tooned In does not activate despite nearby toons!
---
Martial check: Dodge!
DC 55
79+14+12=105
Incredible Success!
The bolt from the blue strikes the Cycle's headlamp, and is absorbed. The yellow-blue static reflects from your headlight, illuminating the path towards the stairwell.
The last of the electricity moves past you and travels towards the great window at the other end of the hall. Even as it does, a bolt of lightning strikes outside, shattering it. But this does not reveal the world outside. Instead a burst of air flows inwards, snuffing out the lamps one by one even as the light from the wider world fades away.
You are in a void now, and one by one stars flick on around you. You do not know where you are or when. You find yourself soaring towards a set of antique elevator doors, which open with a gentle ding as you soar through. Their edges are lined with brilliant light that winks out as soon as you pass through. A voice speaks, and you feel as much as hear:
"One stormy night eighty years ago five people stepped through the doors of this elevator and into a nightmare. Six months ago a new face joined their ranks. Today that door is opening once again and this time, It's opening for you."
"Who are you?"
You feel yourself watched by invisible eyes at the center of countless doors. The stars around you wink in and out as the fundamental truths of the universe dance behind your eyes.
"Simply an observer, one who wishes to see you survive your trip beyond the fifth dimension. You must prepare yourself. You are about to discover what lies in the deepest, darkest corner of the imagination."
The stars wink out one by one. Suddenly a blinding light assaults your senses. As you squint desperately into the light, you realize the dark has not left you.
Drip.
A droplet of pure darkness lands at your feet. It is inky-black tar like a midnight syrup, and it is only the beginning. From above you falls a monstrosity, something that in your heart of hearts you know should not exist. It is blackness, corroded void formless and amorphous except for two sightless eyes and two grasping claws. It stares at you with pain in its eyes.
Diplomacy Check: ???
DC 150
72+16+20(???) =108
Failure!
An empty maw rears from within the darkness, and it screams your fate.
"DOOOOOOOOM."
You feel a hand on your shoulder.
"You should prepare to run."
Martial Check: Escape its Grasp
DC 75
50+14+12=76
Bare success!
The thing lunges at you faster than you expected, and you leap backwards. Your motorcycle blinks into and out of existence exactly as you need it, blocking a grasping claw or giving you a burst of much needed speed as you race along the halls, before disappearing again in any tight quarters. The black spot races after you, moving like sludge through the halls, staining everything it touches.
Stewardship Check: Navigate the Tower
DC 70
51+10=61
Bare Failure
You race through the halls, but the layout is never quite as simple as the waking world. Hallways twist and turn, fold in on themselves in strange ways you cannot quite account for. That slows you down. As you finally burst out onto the landing and make for the stairs you know the horror chasing you is right behind.
Then, the elevator doors ding open. You are on the thirteenth floor. Your friends, you hope, are on the first.
[ ] Enter the Elevator
-Find the truth, whatever the cost.
[ ] Peek In
-Risk confrontation for a glimpse of what lies beyond.
[ ] Run for the Stairs
Get out while you still can.
There will be a twelve hour moratorium on voting.
