03-22-2015, 10:42 PM
The ‘tavern’ that the paladin spoke of was actually a roadside motel sandwiched between a main north-south road and a river that fed into Lake Toluca. Flanked by the tarkata, Shang’s journey to ‘Riverside Motel’ had been a quiet and uninspired trek through a street devoid of anything other than some debris and a handful of abandoned cars. When they arrived at the little reception area, the sorcerer limped his way over to the main door and gave the knob a twist before shoving it open.
“Find me a map and anything that can be used for self-defense,” Shang barked to the tarkata as he made his way over to the main reception desk. Using the pipe as a crowbar, he forced open the little half-sized door that prevented guests form accessing the area behind the counter. The first thing he noticed was that the cash register had been left open, and as one might imagine, it contained within it only dust and some scraps of coin rolling paper. Sooner, rather than later, Shang knew he would solve the mystery of what happened to this place, but for now, his concerns were on figuring out what this place looked like.
On the wall behind the counter, Shang spotted what seemed to be a display stand where someone would stock pamphlets, coupon books, and all the other mostly garbage documents they handed out at little motels like this. Unfortunately for the sorcerer, the wooden display’s many slots were all empty, and they seemed to have been that way for quite some time.
A grunt from somewhere across the room drew Shang’s focus to one of the tarkatan warriors. The sorcerer turned to see one of the creatures walking over to him with what seemed to be the business end of a bloodstained billiards stick.
“Where did you find that?” Shang inquired as he tried to glance at the other side of the reception area. Although he had an open line-of-sight, his vision had decayed to the point where he had difficulty seeing anything outside of ten feet.
Seeing that its master couldn’t see the crime scene, the tarkatan warrior turned back to face him. “Green table. Covered with blood. Bodies moved.” With no lips and a mouth that was mostly teeth, it spoke with a guttural lisp that probably would have sounded almost silly coming out of any other creature.
“This town holds many secrets,” the sorcerer muttered as the other two tarkata joined the first on the other side of the counter. One of them dropped a key onto the table, while the other produced what appeared to be a brochure about the hotel. The tarkatan warrior folded open the brochure to reveal a map of the establishment, with their location marked with a red star and the word ‘Reception’. Furrowing his brow, Shang scooped up the key and held it up to his face so he could read the words etched onto it. “…Storage.” He glanced up at his map-wielding servant, who promptly pressed his calloused finger down onto the part of the map labeled ‘Storage.’
It would seem that I gave them more brains than I had anticipated. Grinning from ear-to-ear, Shang pocketed the key and scooped up the brochure. He left behind the bloody pool stick and made his way out to the other side of the counter, where the tarkata fell into positions beside and behind him. Their destination was on the opposite corner of the complex, which meant they’d have to make their way through the middle of the place and pass the many rooms and suites. I wonder if there are any guests still at this place. The Sanitarium had been empty save the twisted remains of its caregivers, and while part of Shang didn’t want to run into anymore ‘almost people,’ part of him wouldn’t mind a human face.
…Or a human soul.
From the other side of the parking lot, someone watched through a scoped rifle as the elderly man and his three monsters started to depart from the reception area. As they walked away, the scope dropped down to reveal that its user was a woman in her earlier thirties dressed in loose combat fatigues. Slinging the rifle back over her shoulder, she reached down to her side and retrieved a walkie-talkie. “Still have eyes on him. Seems to be moving further into the Riverside... should I move to intercept?” The soldier let go of the button and waited through the white noise for a response.
“Nah,” a young voice responded with a tone that made it clear he was a source of opinion rather than orders. “If he messes with those two, it’s his own funeral, y’know?”
“I guess… I’m out,” the woman responded as she twisted off the communicator. Once it was secured, she let out a sigh as she pondered the situation. After a few silent moments, she settled on a course of action and shoved up off her haunches.
The trio strode from the reception building and passed under the elevated walkway that connected the pair of two-story structures that housed the motel’s suites and rooms. Much like the rest of the town, a light fog hung over the open area, and if it wasn’t for the large, LED lamps flickering overhead, the little courtyard/patio area would have been pitchblack.
Leading the tarkata, Shang walked forward until he noticed the pool that served as the dominating feature. The man was about to keep walking when a double-take piqued his curiosity. Although it made his joints scream, the sorcerer crouched down to get a better look at the water. Neither blue nor green, the liquid had an almost brown or orange tinged to it, as if someone had poured a bucket filled with ground rust shavings into the water.
He was about to dip his hand into the water when he heard a muffled groan. Turning his head in the direction of the noise, he found himself staring through the fog toward the south end of the complex. Shang rose to his feet and took a few steps toward where the sound had come from, hoping that it would repeat itself. When he heard nothing, he was about to gesture for his retinue to follow him toward their destination, but just as his head was starting to move, the quartet all heard the sound once more. It was a little clearer this time, and it was distinctly feminine. Rather than fall off, the noise continue—a staccato series of grunts and groans that didn’t seem to be the sound of someone being killed. In fact, it sounded more to Shang as if the individual behind the closed door was having a very nice time.
You’re kidding me, right? Motioning for the tarkatan warriors to hold their position, Shang limped forward until he was standing outside the door marked ‘Rose Suite.’ At this distance, he heard a second source of groaning and had little doubt that two people were putting the room to good use. Who the hell sneaks off to a motel to screw in this place? Try as he might, Shang couldn’t just walk away from this situation nor was he willing to barge in and start demanding answers to the dozens of questions he had about the city.
So he did the only ‘sensible’ thing and crouched in front of the keyhole. Despite the cataracts on his eyes, he had clear enough vision to see through the small hole. Much like its name suggested, the room was all shades of pink and red, with a giant bed currently occupied by two individuals putting it to its intended usage. For reasons that Shang appreciated greatly, the man was still wearing what seemed to be a form of battle armor that covered his torso. The woman, however, was stark naked—her toned, tan form irrefutably attractive.
Whoever they were, Shang didn’t know, and he already felt pathetic for thinking he’d gain some useful information by watching people groan and grunt as they ground their private parts together. Before he could move away from the keyhole, the woman’s head fell to the side and her purple eyes made direct contact with Shang. Despite the fact that it should have been impossible to see him, the sorcerer knew she could, and the grin on her face as she continued to moan with pleasure only confirmed his own displeasure.
Shoving away from the door, Shang collapsed onto his back and let out a curse. On the other side of the door, he heard the sound of sheets being shoved around. “What the fuck was that?” The man’s voice was harsh and angry.
“Get us out of here!” Shang rasped as two of the tarkatan warriors scooped him up and carried him toward the west end of the courtyard. By the time they were around the corner, the sorcerer heard the distinct sound of a door being thrown open and slamming against a wall. Fortunately, the sound of angry footsteps didn’t follow them around to the other side of the complex, and after pausing for a moment to regain his bearings; Shang was placed back on his feet and pointed toward what seemed to be a wooden wall.
“There’s no door,” the sorcerer rasped as he walked over to the wall of the storage room and knocked on the wood. “And this isn’t hollow…” He glanced back down at the map and saw that there wasn’t supposed to be a door here. In fact, the access was inside the southern structure, which meant backtracking all the way to reception and then through the interior. “No… Break that window and be quiet about it!” He barked as he pointed to a single pane window with metal bars on it that was designed to prevent people from sneaking into the maintenance room.
Without complaint, the tarkatan warriors stepped forward, popped out their arm blades, and started to methodically tear apart the window and surrounding wall. Despite the surgical precision with which they saw and tore through wood, steel, and glass, Shang couldn’t suppress the uneasiness he felt at being out in the open. Luckily, the tarkata didn’t need more than a few minutes before they had reduced the window to a jagged hole in the wall. One of the warriors leapt inside the building, and his peers motioned for Shang to come over.
After he was lifted into the maintenance room, Shang made a beeline for the nearby storage room and gently opened the door. The room was dark, but he quickly found a cord connected to a pair of incandescent lights that proceeded to bath the room in a pale yellow glow. Once his eyes adjusted to the poor lighting, Shang couldn’t help but grin. “That’s what we need,” he whispered as he walked over and grabbed a thick pamphlet from an open cardboard box. Although the colors were a little faded from age, it was unmistakable that the document was a foldout map of Silent Hill, complete with smaller sections dedicated to the town’s various areas. At first glance, it was obvious that Silent Hill was a collection of small towns, with none of them dominating the others in terms of size.
The Riverside Motel was located in a neighborhood called South Park, which stood between a spattering of tourist sites on the lakeside and ‘Central Silent Hill,’ which seemed to contain a rather high density of businesses and was across the river from ‘Old Silent Hill.’ On the other end of the lake was an area called South Vale and ‘South Silent Hill.’ If one traveled further along the south shore of the lake, they would come across an outlet stream called the Pleasant River and the districts of Hillside and ‘Port District’ nestled next to the river and the surrounding Raccoon Mountains.
The highways that connected the little neighborhoods were dotted with various attractions—manmade and natural—and there were plenty of small motels and piers to keep anyone entertained. If anything, it was obvious that this place had been designed to make people want to come here. As he examined it a little further, Shang had to wonder how the town had been before the fog. Before he allowed his thoughts to wander too far, he spotted the entire reason why he’d come to this motel—Alchemilla Hospital. Much to the sorcerer’s amusement, the hospital was just a few blocks up the road from their present location.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Shang whispered as he folded up the pamphlet and stuffed it into a pocket. The sorcerer started to lead the trio back toward the entrance they’d carved into the outside wall when he was startled by the sound of static hissing out from his walkie-talkie. Plucking it off his belt, he checked the frequency and saw that the channel had been changed. Had he been so clumsy as to smack the device off of something? No… maybe that would have been possible had it moved from ten to nine, but the knob had twisted all the way to seventeen, the last possible channel.
Before he could change the channel, the sea of static parted long enough to allow a female voice through. “Can you hear me?
Pressing down the talk button, the sorcerer lifted the device up to his mouth and spoke in hushed tones. “Yes, I can. Who is this?”
“Probably a friend,” she replied after a short pause. “You’re going to want to avoid traveling back out through the courtyard. He’s still huffing and puffing out there… you’ll want to take the hallway inside the building and leave through the side entrance.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Shang asked as his eyes moved to the other end of the maintenance room, where he spotted the single door leading out into the interior of the southern structure.
“Because my friend out there has enough to live with, and I don’t want him to have to add your life to the rest of it. Just trust me, and I’ll talk to you later.”
“I gue—”
“And try and avoid her… you’ll know who I’m talking about.”
The device went back to spewing out static, and after a few more moments, Shang changed the channel back to the previous setting and killed the power. “That way,” he muttered to the tarkata, who took up their positions as the sorcerer started toward the door that would lead into the interior of the motel.
“Find me a map and anything that can be used for self-defense,” Shang barked to the tarkata as he made his way over to the main reception desk. Using the pipe as a crowbar, he forced open the little half-sized door that prevented guests form accessing the area behind the counter. The first thing he noticed was that the cash register had been left open, and as one might imagine, it contained within it only dust and some scraps of coin rolling paper. Sooner, rather than later, Shang knew he would solve the mystery of what happened to this place, but for now, his concerns were on figuring out what this place looked like.
On the wall behind the counter, Shang spotted what seemed to be a display stand where someone would stock pamphlets, coupon books, and all the other mostly garbage documents they handed out at little motels like this. Unfortunately for the sorcerer, the wooden display’s many slots were all empty, and they seemed to have been that way for quite some time.
A grunt from somewhere across the room drew Shang’s focus to one of the tarkatan warriors. The sorcerer turned to see one of the creatures walking over to him with what seemed to be the business end of a bloodstained billiards stick.
“Where did you find that?” Shang inquired as he tried to glance at the other side of the reception area. Although he had an open line-of-sight, his vision had decayed to the point where he had difficulty seeing anything outside of ten feet.
Seeing that its master couldn’t see the crime scene, the tarkatan warrior turned back to face him. “Green table. Covered with blood. Bodies moved.” With no lips and a mouth that was mostly teeth, it spoke with a guttural lisp that probably would have sounded almost silly coming out of any other creature.
“This town holds many secrets,” the sorcerer muttered as the other two tarkata joined the first on the other side of the counter. One of them dropped a key onto the table, while the other produced what appeared to be a brochure about the hotel. The tarkatan warrior folded open the brochure to reveal a map of the establishment, with their location marked with a red star and the word ‘Reception’. Furrowing his brow, Shang scooped up the key and held it up to his face so he could read the words etched onto it. “…Storage.” He glanced up at his map-wielding servant, who promptly pressed his calloused finger down onto the part of the map labeled ‘Storage.’
It would seem that I gave them more brains than I had anticipated. Grinning from ear-to-ear, Shang pocketed the key and scooped up the brochure. He left behind the bloody pool stick and made his way out to the other side of the counter, where the tarkata fell into positions beside and behind him. Their destination was on the opposite corner of the complex, which meant they’d have to make their way through the middle of the place and pass the many rooms and suites. I wonder if there are any guests still at this place. The Sanitarium had been empty save the twisted remains of its caregivers, and while part of Shang didn’t want to run into anymore ‘almost people,’ part of him wouldn’t mind a human face.
…Or a human soul.
***
From the other side of the parking lot, someone watched through a scoped rifle as the elderly man and his three monsters started to depart from the reception area. As they walked away, the scope dropped down to reveal that its user was a woman in her earlier thirties dressed in loose combat fatigues. Slinging the rifle back over her shoulder, she reached down to her side and retrieved a walkie-talkie. “Still have eyes on him. Seems to be moving further into the Riverside... should I move to intercept?” The soldier let go of the button and waited through the white noise for a response.
“Nah,” a young voice responded with a tone that made it clear he was a source of opinion rather than orders. “If he messes with those two, it’s his own funeral, y’know?”
“I guess… I’m out,” the woman responded as she twisted off the communicator. Once it was secured, she let out a sigh as she pondered the situation. After a few silent moments, she settled on a course of action and shoved up off her haunches.
***
The trio strode from the reception building and passed under the elevated walkway that connected the pair of two-story structures that housed the motel’s suites and rooms. Much like the rest of the town, a light fog hung over the open area, and if it wasn’t for the large, LED lamps flickering overhead, the little courtyard/patio area would have been pitchblack.
Leading the tarkata, Shang walked forward until he noticed the pool that served as the dominating feature. The man was about to keep walking when a double-take piqued his curiosity. Although it made his joints scream, the sorcerer crouched down to get a better look at the water. Neither blue nor green, the liquid had an almost brown or orange tinged to it, as if someone had poured a bucket filled with ground rust shavings into the water.
He was about to dip his hand into the water when he heard a muffled groan. Turning his head in the direction of the noise, he found himself staring through the fog toward the south end of the complex. Shang rose to his feet and took a few steps toward where the sound had come from, hoping that it would repeat itself. When he heard nothing, he was about to gesture for his retinue to follow him toward their destination, but just as his head was starting to move, the quartet all heard the sound once more. It was a little clearer this time, and it was distinctly feminine. Rather than fall off, the noise continue—a staccato series of grunts and groans that didn’t seem to be the sound of someone being killed. In fact, it sounded more to Shang as if the individual behind the closed door was having a very nice time.
You’re kidding me, right? Motioning for the tarkatan warriors to hold their position, Shang limped forward until he was standing outside the door marked ‘Rose Suite.’ At this distance, he heard a second source of groaning and had little doubt that two people were putting the room to good use. Who the hell sneaks off to a motel to screw in this place? Try as he might, Shang couldn’t just walk away from this situation nor was he willing to barge in and start demanding answers to the dozens of questions he had about the city.
So he did the only ‘sensible’ thing and crouched in front of the keyhole. Despite the cataracts on his eyes, he had clear enough vision to see through the small hole. Much like its name suggested, the room was all shades of pink and red, with a giant bed currently occupied by two individuals putting it to its intended usage. For reasons that Shang appreciated greatly, the man was still wearing what seemed to be a form of battle armor that covered his torso. The woman, however, was stark naked—her toned, tan form irrefutably attractive.
Whoever they were, Shang didn’t know, and he already felt pathetic for thinking he’d gain some useful information by watching people groan and grunt as they ground their private parts together. Before he could move away from the keyhole, the woman’s head fell to the side and her purple eyes made direct contact with Shang. Despite the fact that it should have been impossible to see him, the sorcerer knew she could, and the grin on her face as she continued to moan with pleasure only confirmed his own displeasure.
Shoving away from the door, Shang collapsed onto his back and let out a curse. On the other side of the door, he heard the sound of sheets being shoved around. “What the fuck was that?” The man’s voice was harsh and angry.
“Get us out of here!” Shang rasped as two of the tarkatan warriors scooped him up and carried him toward the west end of the courtyard. By the time they were around the corner, the sorcerer heard the distinct sound of a door being thrown open and slamming against a wall. Fortunately, the sound of angry footsteps didn’t follow them around to the other side of the complex, and after pausing for a moment to regain his bearings; Shang was placed back on his feet and pointed toward what seemed to be a wooden wall.
“There’s no door,” the sorcerer rasped as he walked over to the wall of the storage room and knocked on the wood. “And this isn’t hollow…” He glanced back down at the map and saw that there wasn’t supposed to be a door here. In fact, the access was inside the southern structure, which meant backtracking all the way to reception and then through the interior. “No… Break that window and be quiet about it!” He barked as he pointed to a single pane window with metal bars on it that was designed to prevent people from sneaking into the maintenance room.
Without complaint, the tarkatan warriors stepped forward, popped out their arm blades, and started to methodically tear apart the window and surrounding wall. Despite the surgical precision with which they saw and tore through wood, steel, and glass, Shang couldn’t suppress the uneasiness he felt at being out in the open. Luckily, the tarkata didn’t need more than a few minutes before they had reduced the window to a jagged hole in the wall. One of the warriors leapt inside the building, and his peers motioned for Shang to come over.
After he was lifted into the maintenance room, Shang made a beeline for the nearby storage room and gently opened the door. The room was dark, but he quickly found a cord connected to a pair of incandescent lights that proceeded to bath the room in a pale yellow glow. Once his eyes adjusted to the poor lighting, Shang couldn’t help but grin. “That’s what we need,” he whispered as he walked over and grabbed a thick pamphlet from an open cardboard box. Although the colors were a little faded from age, it was unmistakable that the document was a foldout map of Silent Hill, complete with smaller sections dedicated to the town’s various areas. At first glance, it was obvious that Silent Hill was a collection of small towns, with none of them dominating the others in terms of size.
The Riverside Motel was located in a neighborhood called South Park, which stood between a spattering of tourist sites on the lakeside and ‘Central Silent Hill,’ which seemed to contain a rather high density of businesses and was across the river from ‘Old Silent Hill.’ On the other end of the lake was an area called South Vale and ‘South Silent Hill.’ If one traveled further along the south shore of the lake, they would come across an outlet stream called the Pleasant River and the districts of Hillside and ‘Port District’ nestled next to the river and the surrounding Raccoon Mountains.
The highways that connected the little neighborhoods were dotted with various attractions—manmade and natural—and there were plenty of small motels and piers to keep anyone entertained. If anything, it was obvious that this place had been designed to make people want to come here. As he examined it a little further, Shang had to wonder how the town had been before the fog. Before he allowed his thoughts to wander too far, he spotted the entire reason why he’d come to this motel—Alchemilla Hospital. Much to the sorcerer’s amusement, the hospital was just a few blocks up the road from their present location.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Shang whispered as he folded up the pamphlet and stuffed it into a pocket. The sorcerer started to lead the trio back toward the entrance they’d carved into the outside wall when he was startled by the sound of static hissing out from his walkie-talkie. Plucking it off his belt, he checked the frequency and saw that the channel had been changed. Had he been so clumsy as to smack the device off of something? No… maybe that would have been possible had it moved from ten to nine, but the knob had twisted all the way to seventeen, the last possible channel.
Before he could change the channel, the sea of static parted long enough to allow a female voice through. “Can you hear me?
Pressing down the talk button, the sorcerer lifted the device up to his mouth and spoke in hushed tones. “Yes, I can. Who is this?”
“Probably a friend,” she replied after a short pause. “You’re going to want to avoid traveling back out through the courtyard. He’s still huffing and puffing out there… you’ll want to take the hallway inside the building and leave through the side entrance.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Shang asked as his eyes moved to the other end of the maintenance room, where he spotted the single door leading out into the interior of the southern structure.
“Because my friend out there has enough to live with, and I don’t want him to have to add your life to the rest of it. Just trust me, and I’ll talk to you later.”
“I gue—”
“And try and avoid her… you’ll know who I’m talking about.”
The device went back to spewing out static, and after a few more moments, Shang changed the channel back to the previous setting and killed the power. “That way,” he muttered to the tarkata, who took up their positions as the sorcerer started toward the door that would lead into the interior of the motel.
![[Image: Shang.jpg]](http://www.omniverse-rpg.com/images/Shang.jpg)