Dice In The Darkness: Cthulhu Calls

Chapter 18: The Dice Goddess's Mischief

Liu Xing glanced at the untouched dish of "Stargazing" in front of him, contemplating whether he should finish it for the sake of a single point of Willpower reward...

After a moment of silence, Liu Xing shook his head quietly and sighed.

Indeed, it was too much to handle...

As for Wang Qi and the others, like Liu Xing, they gave up after a psychological struggle. After all, willpower is precious, but SAN points are worth even more. To consume "Stargazing," both could be cast aside...

Once lunchtime ended, Liu Xing and his companions returned to the large guest room. Everyone looked at Bai Hecheng with respect, for only a true warrior would dare to finish the "Stargazing."

Bai Hecheng expressed his regret: "Ah, why didn't any of you eat the 'Stargazing'? I thought it tasted quite good, and it even boosts your Willpower attribute."

Everyone tacitly shook their heads.

After resting for a while and cleaning up the dining ware, Old Wayne entered the room and spoke, "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to retire to my room for some rest now. You may choose to rest or visit the Castle on your own. However, as the second floor houses the lord's and his family's bedrooms, it is not open for exhibition, so I ask for your understanding."

With that said, Old Wayne deliberately glanced at Bai Hecheng, who had a known history of mischief.

Chen Ling, who was sitting by the door, immediately responded, "Understood. We definitely won't go to the second floor. As for our curious friend here, we'll keep a close eye on him to prevent any wandering off!"

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Wang Qi, sitting nearby, nodded silently, casting a stern look at Bai Hecheng.

After receiving Chen Ling's assurance, Old Wayne smiled, nodded, and then departed.

Waiting for a moment, Chen Ling slipped out to confirm that Old Wayne was indeed out of the main building before coming back to notify everyone. They then started their exploration as originally planned.

Firstly, Liu Xing and his group came to a locked room on the first floor and discovered that its door was made of iron, unlike the wooden doors of the other rooms in the Castle's main building.

There's something fishy when things deviate from the norm.

The trouble was, among Liu Xing's group, only Chen Ling, due to his background as a retired scout, had a Lockpicking Skill of 30 points. The others had not invested in that skill and thus only had a base value of 1 point in Lockpicking...

It was time to rely on luck once again.

"Okay, everyone needs to pass a lockpicking check."

Liu Xing, 1/1, a great success.

Bai Hecheng, 88/1, failed.

Chen Ling, 47/30, failed.

Wang Siyi, 14/1, failed.

Wang Qi, 65/1, failed.

Unexpectedly to Liu Xing, it was as if he had been blessed by the Dice Goddess herself, having achieved a critical success.

"You casually poked at the keyhole with your fingernail, and to your surprise, the door opened. Moreover, the alarm mechanism linked to the door, due to years of neglect, failed to sound an alarm," KP004 said in a resigned tone, clearly not anticipating Liu Xing's incredible stroke of luck in achieving such a success.

When a 1 is rolled during a check, it signifies a critical success. In addition to the expected outcome, this usually grants additional rewards. Now, not only did Liu Xing manage to unlock the door, but he also did not trigger the alarm mechanism, which should have required the lockpicker to pass a difficult Luck check (a difficult check is one where the player's relevant value is halved for the test; there's also an extreme check, where only one-fifth of the value is used) to avoid setting off the alarm. Had the check failed, Old Wayne would have heard the alarm and come to investigate.

Beyond that, as Liu Xing's Lockpicking Skill check this time was based on a basic value, he earned a skill growth marker. After the current Cthulhu campaign concludes, Liu Xing will roll a 1d100. Provided the roll is above 1, he will get another roll, this time a 1d20 (the rulebook originally stipulates a 1d10 for growth, but the book modifies it to 1d20 for narrative purposes, with other similar changes following suit). The number rolled will be added to Liu Xing's Lockpicking Skill.

For the first time, Liu Xing discovered that he might just have the blood of the "European King," a term for the incredibly lucky.

"Liu Xing, your luck is simply too good," Chen Ling said enviously. In other games, luck is just part of one's strength, but in a Cthulhu RPG Game, luck could very well be everything.

Liu Xing chuckled and shook his head. "Just a fluke, let's go inside."

The locked room was filled with miscellaneous items and covered with a thick layer of dust—it seemed it hadn't been cleaned in a long time.

Due to the abundance of dust, a clear footprint would be left with every step, so Liu Xing and the others didn't dare to carelessly enter the room. They could only observe from the doorway, thus finding nothing of value.

However, it was now time for a check.

"KP, I want to make a Spot Hidden roll," Liu Xing said to KP004.

Spot Hidden, 83/60, failure.

The law of conserving luck wasn't just a joke; failure came just as quickly as success.

"After a thorough observation of the room, you find nothing," KP004 said, somewhat gleefully.

Chen Ling and the others also began their Spot Hidden checks.

Bai Hecheng, Spot Hidden, 55/40, failure.

Chen Ling, Spot Hidden, 84/75, failure.

Wang Siyi, Spot Hidden, 91/79, failure.

Wang Qi, Spot Hidden, 68/65, failure.

...

Complete team failure.

Even KP004 seemed at a loss for words momentarily; these were supposed to be simple checks, given the players' not-insignificant Spot Hidden skills. Yet, they all failed.

"Uh, you all feel there is nothing unusual about this room; it's just an ordinary storeroom," KP004 quickly finished the sentence and then fell silent, leading Liu Xing to believe KP004 was pondering the next plot development.

Clearly, this locked room was unlikely to be a mere storeroom, especially since storerooms aren't typically fitted with alarm systems. Moreover, if things were as expected, this room could very well house a private chamber, pivotal to the main storyline.

But now, as all players failed their Spot Hidden checks, there was no reason to continue the search, and thus this plotline came to an abrupt halt...

Liu Xing couldn't help thinking that this might just be a jest from the Dice Goddess.

Shaking his head, Liu Xing led the group away from the room to conduct a search in the lobby on the first floor.

Upon reaching the lobby and after a cursory glance that revealed nothing of interest, Liu Xing moved to a spot suitable for a Jump check. In the Cthulhu RPG Game, there's a limit to how high humans can jump—about 2.4 meters, as Liu Xing vaguely recalled. So if a height exceeded 2.4 meters, one couldn't make a Jump check.`