Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

Chapter 16: Past Events at the Castle

While idle, the group began to assign rooms. As the only lady, Wang Siyi naturally occupied a small room by herself. Since no one was willing to share a room with Bai Hecheng, he ended up alone as well, leaving the large room to be shared by Liu Xing, Wang Qi, and Chen Ling. However, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Liu Xing and the others had no intention of spending the night in the Castle. Their plan was to complete the main quest and find a way to leave the Castle and the town of Eins as soon as possible.

After the rooms were distributed, Wang Siyi, finding nothing else to do, went to rest in her own room. Bai Hecheng, under the adamant insistence of Liu Xing and Chen Ling, along with the persuasive (physical) encouragement of Wang Qi, unhappily retreated to his own room.

The Castle's large guest room was about fifty square meters, furnished with simple decor and two large beds, from which one could view the Castle's rear garden through the windows.

That said, calling it a rear garden might be too generous; it was more of a neglected courtyard, overgrown with weeds, clearly untended for a long time.

This state of affairs made sense to Liu Xing, who since entering the Castle had only seen Old Wayne, the butler, and no other servants. It seemed the lord of the Castle was either concerned about having too many prying eyes, potentially discovering his secrets, or he was economically constrained and thus could not afford more staff.

Liu Xing felt the latter was more likely; the guest room's sparse furnishing was hardly befitting the indulgent and vanity-prone English nobility. Even the garden was long neglected, and the Castle was maintained by a single elderly butler, suggesting the lord was indeed facing a financial crisis.

Rubbing his chin, Liu Xing began to ponder whether there was an opportunity for him to exploit. If his previous conjectures were correct, the lord of the Castle might be a human with knowledge of the Cthulhu Mythos, possibly versed in some spells or able to summon lower-level mythological creatures. However, as long as one's SAN (Sanity) value wasn't alarmingly low, Liu Xing felt he could still employ his persuasive skills on the Castle's lord, perhaps by pretending to be a Wealthy Young Gentleman offering economic aid.

It seemed like a decent plan.

"Player Old Chinese Doctor, because you have been observing the Castle's rear garden for an extended period, your vision blurs suddenly, as if something is hiding deep within the underbrush. Please make an Idea roll." Out of nowhere, KP004's voice rang in Liu Xing's ear.

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Liu Xing's brow furrowed; he hadn't expected to trigger an Idea roll. In situations like this, passing an Idea roll could likely lead to an encounter with mythological creatures or supernatural phenomena, ultimately reducing one's SAN value—one of the least desirable outcomes for a player in a Cthulhu role-playing game.

Yet, with Liu Xing's Idea being as high as 90, failing the roll would be a challenge.

Resigned, Liu Xing could only say, "KP, let's proceed with the Idea roll."

Idea, 95/90, failure. (The author swears upon their integrity that the roll of 95 was what they themselves cast, with no manipulation of the dice whatsoever.)

...

Liu Xing and KP004 fell into a stunned silence, not expecting a roll with a 90% success rate to fail.

KP004 spoke with a hint of resignation, "I didn't expect your luck to be so good that even this could fail. However, since it ended in failure, it means you've discovered nothing. You probably just thought you saw something that wasn't there."

Liu Xing breathed a sigh of relief. After all, it was a stroke of luck that the intuition check had not been successful; he had been fully prepared to lose some sanity points.

However, upon reflection, Liu Xing noticed that Wang Qi and Chen Ling hadn't looked his way; it was as if they were unaware of the intuition check he had just experienced.

With this in mind, Liu Xing contacted KP004, "KP, was the result of that intuition check not shared with the other players?"

KP004, perhaps still sulking from the failed intuition check, didn't respond to Liu Xing immediately. "Ah, right, the players can make either open or secret rolls, and we, the KPs, decide whether to have players roll in secret based on the circumstances. The results of these hidden rolls, along with their occurrence, are only known to the player making them. Other players receive no notifications or hints about them. Of course, it's up to the player to decide whether to share this information with others."

Liu Xing nodded silently, understanding the intent of KP004. It was akin to a player triggering a personal storyline, so only the player who triggered it would carry out the relevant checks and receive messages about the plot.

Liu Xing felt that had his intuition check been successful, he would likely have triggered a side quest. Whether this was a stroke of luck or a curse, he couldn't tell.

Nonetheless, Liu Xing decided to inform his teammates about this, urging them to be wary. Losing sanity points was one thing, but triggering unnecessary storylines or, worse, summoning a mythological creature, was not desirable.

Just then, a new check began.

Library Use, 70/70, successful.

The skill of Library Use was, in essence, an information-gathering skill. It didn't require the player to physically be in a library; instead, it was used when a player sought information through books, newspapers, the internet, etc., allowing for faster and more comprehensive intelligence gathering.

It was indeed a very practical skill, which Liu Xing lamented not having enough interest Skill Points to acquire.

Liu Xing surmised that it must have been Wang Siyi who used this Library Use skill, for if he remembered correctly, it was a professional skill of journalists.

Shortly after, Wang Siyi entered the room with a book, followed by Bai Hecheng, who had hurried over.

"I found this book in the room. It contains records of various events that have happened in this Castle, and reveals that the owners are the Raphael Family," Wang Siyi explained, placing the book on the table.

"The three main incidents recorded are as follows: The first took place a thousand years ago when the founder of the Castle, Marquis Raphael I, chose the location in the town of Eins to construct the Castle. During the construction, there were accidents leading to worker casualties, with thirteen recorded deaths and more than ten disappearances. Later, Raphael I discovered a Demon beneath the foundations of the Castle and defeated it."

"The second event occurred about three hundred years ago when a Secret Society that worshiped the Demon emerged in Eins. The then lord of the Castle led his troops to eradicate this Secret Society. In the garden behind the Castle, they shattered the statue of the Eldritch God that the society worshipped and buried it in the ground."

"The third event happened a century ago when a hundred well-equipped English Soldiers took refuge in the Castle during a storm. After a night of torrential rain, this group of English Soldiers mysteriously vanished. Officials from Manchester came to hold the then lord accountable, but left without any evidence to press charges."