The Directors (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
productions) wrote2013-09-13 12:41 pm
productions) wrote2013-09-13 12:41 pm
Entry tags:
setting
The setting of this game is Mordswell Manor, a stately mansion on a deserted grounds. The manor itself is large and sprawling, with several stories and many wings. The grounds are even more spacious. But there is an emptiness to this place; you and your fellow captives appear to be alone here, and while the manor is in good condition and clean, it feels as though no one has lived here for some time.
Still, you are free to explore, as long as you don't try to escape...
✖ sleeping wings
✖ first floor
✖ second floor
✖ third floor
✖ basement
✖ grounds
✖ notes
If you're to survive in this game, it is essential you be familiar with the layout of the mansion.
The manor has six different sleeping wings, each made up of five bedrooms and a common bath. Each wing is decorated in a different color - a rich blood red, a pastel green, a pale grey-blue, a deep wine, a butter yellow, or a crisp white - but is otherwise identical in furnishing and amenities. Each room locks automatically, as does the bath. Each bedroom opens onto a narrow hall from which the bath can be accessed.
Inside the bedroom, players will find a wardrobe and chest, inside of which are clothes - day wear, active wear, glamorous evening wear, accessories, and even pajamas, all in an upscale 1920s and 1930s style. Attached to the bedroom area is a small sitting area, cabinet, and desk. The cabinet is stocked with liquor bottles, but in the drawer of the desk, players will find a letter opener, a small vial, a pocket knife, and a handkerchief with your initials embroidered on the corner. On top of the desk is a key ring with three keys attached - one unlocks your bedroom door, one the bathroom door, and one the drawer of your desk.
The bathroom is lovely but spare, with a sink, a bathtub, and any toiletries you might need (and not all period appropriate).
The front door to the mansion opens from the foyer, a large and open room. From the foyer, you may enter the parlor and dining room on either side, or open into the hall that leads to the ballroom and the Ruby Wing. The magnificent staircase leads up to the second floor and opens to the drawing room. West of the foyer, near the Ruby wing, is a second, smaller staircase. It is possible to go upstairs from there, but the door it leads to seems to be locked for now.
The front door is a large, heavy oak door that would be sure to be difficult to break into. However, it remains unlocked at all times.
West of the foyer is the parlor. This room is lavishly decorated, but also stiffly formal in a manner that implies it is seldom used. Still, it may be a quite respite - in order to facilitate a pleasant guest reception, the walls seem to be thick enough to be soundproof. The windows of the parlor look out onto the front lawn. Most items in this room are meant purely for decor, like the heavy candlesticks on the mantle or the poorly tended to plants. The fireplace is usable, and there is a small pile of firewood inside and a set of four pokers next to it. However, if anyone starts a fire they'll find it quickly becomes very smoky inside the room. In the cabinet are several books, including several historical books, the Dialogues of Plato, and a guide to wild plants, as well as a pair of scissors, some ink and pens, buttons, and a small sewing kit. Towards the northwest corner, a small door opens into the conservatory.
Isolated on the far west side of the house, the conservatory is a small but comfortable place to relax on a sunny afternoon. Build with the glass walls and roof, the conservatory functions both as a greenhouse and as a sunroom, and will remain warm even if the weather is chill outside. A small table and chairs are surrounded by a lush variety of tropical plants from all over the world. A door in the southwest corner opens out onto the grounds.
To the east of the foyer is a magnificent dining room. The table is set with china and silver, and flower arrangements in large vases and heavy candlesticks are placed for decor. Towards the back of the room is a cabinet stocked with more china as well as wine glasses and matches. The windows of the room overlook the front gardens, but heavy red curtains can be drawn to dim the light to dine by candlelight. Of course, whoever set the table does not seem to have been prepared for your arrival - there are only ten place settings and ten chairs in all.
Connected by a short hallway to the dining room, bar, and ballroom is the kitchen. This room is less lavishly decorated than the rest of the house, but it is quaint and comfortable. Although food is provided, if you are looking to cook, what you need is here. You can find pots, pans, utensils, kitchen knives, and measuring cups along with ingredients like flour, spices, coffee beans, fruits, vegetables, and meat. There is a chilled ice box as well as a very large oven and a stove. There is also often a large wheeled buffet table in the kitchen where meals are laid out an hour before they are served.
To the eastern side of the kitchen is a small stairway that descends to the basement floors; this seems to be the only way to access the basement. There is also a door to a servants' elevator that descends down into the basement and up to the second and third floors, but it does not appear to work - the elevator itself is stuck down in the basement. The doors to the elevator shaft will open if you press the call button from outside, but there is no way to open the doors from the inside anywhere but the basement.
Behind the stairs of the foyer is a magnificent ballroom. With windows opening out onto the courtyard, the ballroom is one of the brightest and sunniest rooms in the manor. Although it is built to host large parties, for now the room is filled with small tables. It is here, rather than the small dining room, that players will have their meals.
Every morning, around 6 AM, a large and delicious breakfast spread is laid out on a long, wheeled buffet table. Breakfast ends at 9 am. Lunch is provided from noon until one, and dinner takes place between 6 and 8 PM. No human can ever be seen changing the meals. Once a meal ends, the table wheels itself to the kitchen, and another table is wheeled out.
Doors on the north wall of the ballroom open onto the courtyard outside, while a door on the east side opens to the bar.
To the back of the ballroom is a door leading into the bar; it is also accessible from the hallway. The room is dimly lit by a low hanging chandelier, with dark red wall paneling, knotted in places, and a brown oak bar and shelves. There are five stools at the bar. The shelf is stocked with a wide variety of liquor, and has been left unlocked.
The staircase of the foyer opens on the second floor to the magnificent drawing room. One of the largest rooms of the house, there is enough furniture here for all guests to sit comfortably. There are small tables around the room serving food and drinks - coffee and pastries between breakfast and lunch, tea, cookies, and tea sandwiches from 3 - 5, and wine and desserts after dinner. The drawing room is also where, once a week, players will be gathered by the hostess to solve that week's murder, before they retire to the smoking room for the vote.
The staircase from the foyer to the drawing room is the only usable staircase currently connecting the first and second floors; on either side of the drawing room is a staircase to the third floor, located in the hallways leading to the Emerald and Sapphire wings. To the west, near the staircase, is another door behind which is the door to the elevator shaft.
To the east of the drawing room, a door leads into the smoking room. This room is far smaller than the drawing room and, except when a trial is in session, will be locked. Portraits of the manor guests line the walls; above the fireplace will hang the portraits of that week's suspects. If you're having difficulty making your decision, there is always time for a quick drink or smoke, a game of chess, or a perusal of the bookshelf at the eastern corner, which contains certain works not found in the library. But be cautious - during a trial, an invisible barrier will prevent players who haven't voted to leave, and once the door locks, anyone trapped inside will be left to starve.
West of the drawing room is the music room. To the west of the room, near the windows overlooking the grounds, is a wooden grand piano. On the other side of the room is a harp. On the shelf near the window is sheet music, a conductor's baton, a violin and bow, instruction books, and marble bust statues of famous composers. The small room is also a comfortable place to sit, away from the business of the drawing room, and like the parlor below, it is soundproofed.
East of the drawing room is the billiards room. This is a game room; in addition to the billiards table, in the shelved players will find playing cards, a set of tiddlywinks, a box of supplies for amateur magic tricks, and a set of cards laying out the rules for parlor games such as Charades, I Spy, and Mafia. The magic supplies include trick handcuffs, weighted die, trick packs of cards, rubber balls, handkerchiefs, soluble adhesive tape, a length of thick rope, weighted coins, and a hat with a trick botton. At the back of the billiards room is a locked door; a cabinet seems to have been set in front of it and it does not look as though it has been used for some time. Presumably the door would lead into the smoking room.
The staircases from the second floor lead to a hallway lined with portraits. To the west, the hall leads to the library and the Amethyst wing. To the east, the hall leads to the Opal and Topaz wings, as well as to a door leading to the elevator shaft. To the north, the hall leads to the study.
Towards the center of the hall, there is a trapdoor built into the ceiling. It may be unlocked with a room key; from the door, a ladder comes down that leads to the rooftop.
West of the third floor hallway is the manor's old library. Although it is dim and small, shelves of old books reach the ceilings. Each shelf has a different theme - classical Greek and Roman works, famous works of literature, famous poetry collections, famous plays, history and philosophy, scientific works, and dictionaries and encyclopedias. All works are dated before 1930.
East of the third floor hallway is the manor's study. A comfortable place to sit and read, this room possesses a small sitting area, a desk, a small bookshelf, and a small shelf with a bunsen burner, a sink, a few beakers and test tubes, and a variety of compounds all of which are safe for human consumption. Unlike the library, the shelves are stocked with more contemporary novels, all dating before 1930. The books are primarily mystery novels, as well as some adventure and romance novels. On the bottom shelf are a few blank diaries. On the desk is another diary, filled with scratchy handwriting detailing recipes that make reference to certain chemistry books from the library and certain mystery novels on the bookshelf, a worn typewriter, as well as an old-fashioned globe.
A trapdoor in the ceiling of the third floor hallway leads to the rooftop. The opening onto the roof is narrow, and the roof itself is treacherous - there is no standing place besides the tiled ceiling, and tiles and prone to break and crumble. It is no place for those wary of heights in ordinary conditions, and during a rain all but the most skilled climbers would be likely to fall off and break their necks. Still, it affords an excellent view from the manor of sweeping grounds and empty plains as far as the eye can see.
From the stairway in the kitchen it is possible to reach the pantry. The pantry is stocked with enough ingredients to feed the players of the game for perhaps a year. There are also several large trolleys for moving bulk items, and boxes containing mothworn clothing, linens, cleaning products, pest control products, and toiletries.
At the northwest corner of the pantry is a door leading to the wine cellar. Near the stairway is an old freight elevator that is broken. The door will open if the call button is pressed from the outside, and it will be possible to enter the elevator car that is stuck down there. However, the car will not move.
The wine cellar is accessible from a door to the west of the pantry. Inside the cellar, it is spacious, cool, and stocked with a multitude of wines of different regions and vintages. Many of the wines are very old, and some are assuredly obscenely expensive.
Behind a shelf of reds, there is a tiny hole in the ceiling; looking through it will ordinarily only afford a view of darkness, but at certain times in the late morning and midafternoon, light will flow in. It is possible to hear voices filter down from the floor above.
In front of the mansion, on either side of the stairs leading to the foyer and brushing up against the south side of the wrought iron fence is a lovely flower garden. A variety of flowers can be found here, but many are past bloom; the chill in the air suggests fall. There are also some edible plants - young pumpkins on a vine, green leafy vegetables, as well as herbs, mint, and peppermint.
Just outside the doors to the ballroom is a lovely tree-lined courtyard, with laid brick on the ground and a fountain in the center. It is visible from the ballroom windows, and serves as a nice place to stand and relax when the ballroom becomes crowded and busy during meals, or to sit on a bench near the fountain.
East of the manor lies the servants' wing. The building is run down and in need of repair. The door to the wing is locked and cannot be opened with any of the provided keys or by physical force. The windows have been boarded up.
Exploring the grounds may lead out to the old stable. It is run down and in need of repair. Once it was likely home to several horses, but now it lies empty. Still, it is possible to find some tools in one of the stalls. Ciel has made camp in one of the stalls.
Out near the wrought iron fence to the far northeast of the manor is an old chapel. The chapel is run down and in need of repair, with worn bibles and some pews in a state of rot. The chapel is unlocked, but there is a key on the altar which can be used to lock the chapel door from the inside.
To the northwest, the grounds grow increasingly wooded. Out near the fence, the trees grow tall, and players will also find a small pond with a bridge over it. The pond is perfect for fishing or wading, although it is only deep enough for swimming in the very middle.
Surrounding the grounds on all sides is an old wrought iron fence that stands about ten feet high. The fence cannot be damaged by physical force, and there are no gates to be found. The fence generates a powerful electrical field that causes a painful shock at a slight touch; an average person would be killed before climbing to the top. Even if someone did reach the top, the field extends above the fence indefinitely, as well as between the bars, making it impassable.
- If an item or feature of a room is not mentioned in the description, you can assume certain common sense attributes of a room, but ask before assuming something more specific.
- The above descriptions and maps may or may not encompass every area of the manor players will be able to access.