The four women crowd into a cramped security office off the stairwell. Aya and Rin shove a filing cabinet against the door while Mika checks the handle twice.
Dust coats the monitor bank, each screen frozen on a different view of the entrance hall. An unlocked cabinet holds gauze, antiseptic, and bottled water.
Yuki rinses the thin cut across her palm and binds it beneath the harsh fluorescent light. The alarm has faded, leaving only the building's settling creaks.
Aya
You knew about the floor, Mika. You looked at it before we crossed.
Mika
I knew the boards were unsafe. I did not know there was a mechanism underneath them.
Rin
That is not an answer. Someone briefed you before we entered this place.
the blond woman
Keep your voices down. If the cameras still work, whoever runs this game may already know exactly where we are.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify who briefed Mika.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether the game runner is monitoring the survivors.
“I inspect the frozen monitors for signs that someone is watching us.”
FAILURE (Good Investigation, rolled -3)
Yuki moves along the monitor bank, comparing timestamps, camera angles, and reflections in the glass without disturbing the others' barricade.
Yuki Sorimachi
Every screen shows the same entrance loop, but the clocks disagree.
She leans closer to the entrance feed. A faint reflection appears behind the gate, too blurred to identify, then the image jumps backward three seconds.
Aya
Did you see that? Someone moved.
Yuki checks the other views, but each monitor repeats its own frozen angle. The control panel has no visible recording indicator or network status.
When she presses the monitor selector, every screen goes black at once. A small amber light beneath the panel switches off, leaving no usable feed to examine.
the blond woman
So we cannot tell whether they are watching us. And now they know we tried to look.
“I press Mika to name her source.”
FAILURE (Good Willpower, rolled -1)
Yuki Sorimachi
Mika, name your source. Who briefed you before we entered?
The room tightens around the question. Mika's hand leaves the door handle, and her gaze shifts to the dark monitor bank instead of meeting Yuki's eyes.
Mika
I cannot give you a name. Not here, and not with those cameras possibly listening.
Rin
That is another refusal. You brought us into a trap and expected silence afterward?
Mika flinches, then crosses to the unlocked cabinet. Beneath the gauze and water sits a thin gray folder, its label torn away and its corner marked with red ink.
Mika
The person who briefed me told me to find this. I never opened it. If you want answers, the folder is your safer lead than my name.
She sets the folder on the desk and steps back. The refusal closes one route, but the marked file offers a concrete choice without requiring anyone to leave the barricaded room.
“I ask Aya to search the security office records.”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +2)
Yuki Sorimachi
Aya, search the security office records. Look for anything tied to the cameras, the entrance loop, or this folder.
Aya
Understood. Rin, keep the cabinet braced. Mika, do not touch that file.
Aya searches the desk drawers, cabinet shelves, and dusty binders with disciplined speed. Behind a stack of maintenance logs, she finds a slim black register clipped beneath the desk.
Aya
Here. Camera maintenance, access codes, and tonight's setup schedule. The entrance feed was deliberately looped before we arrived.
She opens the register beside the gray folder. Several pages list camera blind spots and timed door controls; the final entry is marked in the same red ink as the folder.
Aya
There is a note for the security office: retrieve the gray file only after the first alarm. Someone expected the alarm, and expected us to find this room.
Rin
Then the folder is bait, but the records are real. We can use the blind spots before whoever is watching resets the system.
“I use the camera blind spots to move unseen.”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +1)
Yuki takes the black camera register from Aya, who keeps a finger on the marked page. The listed blind spots form a route through the office and adjoining service corridor.
Aya
The cameras refresh every twelve seconds. Move during the reset, stay left of the stairwell, and avoid the polished floors.
Yuki slips through the office door as the nearest monitor flickers. She crosses beneath a dead camera, using filing cabinets and peeling wall panels to break every remaining angle.
Rin
She is clear of the first junction. Keep the cabinet steady, Mika.
At each timed reset, Yuki advances without a sound. The register's handwritten marks guide her past a service entrance and into a narrow corridor beyond the camera grid.
Mika
The hallway feed just changed. No, wait. It is only the loop repeating.
Yuki reaches the corridor's blind end unseen, beside a locked utility door and a junction box labeled SECURITY. Behind her, the office remains hidden from every active lens.
“I inspect the SECURITY junction box”
SUCCESS (Good Investigation, rolled +1)
Yuki crouches beside the SECURITY junction box. Its painted cover is secured by two loose screws, and the lower hinge has been forced before.
She opens the cover without disturbing the wires. Three labeled bundles run toward the cameras, stairwell doors, and alarm controls; a small digital timer governs the twelve-second refresh.
Yuki Sorimachi
The camera loop and the door controls share one timer.
A handwritten maintenance tag hangs inside the box. It identifies a manual override in the service corridor, behind a red access panel, and notes that the override disables the entrance loop.
Aya
Yuki, report. We can hear you moving, but the office cameras still show nothing.
Yuki finds a second note beneath the terminal: SECURITY has a master reset reachable from the service corridor. The panel requires no code, only a guarded physical switch.
Rin
If you found a way to break their loop, use it. We will keep the room secure until you are back.
“I bypass the guarded switch through the blind spots”
FAILURE (Great Agility, rolled -2)
Yuki leaves the junction box open and moves through the service corridor, counting the twelve-second resets from memory. The black register remains in the office with Aya.
She reaches the red access panel during a camera blackout and pries it open. Inside, the guarded switch sits beneath a clear cover linked to a tamper alarm.
Yuki lifts the cover as the reset ends. A nearby indicator snaps from green to amber, and a sharp relay click travels through the corridor before she can reach the switch.
Aya
Yuki, the entrance feed just changed. Whatever you touched, stop there.
She withdraws before the cover seals. The switch remains guarded, but the brief activation exposes a second cable marked SERVICE DOOR, separate from the entrance loop.
Yuki Sorimachi
The override reports tampering through the service-door circuit.
Rin
Can you disable it, or do we abandon the corridor?
The panel's lower conduit runs toward the locked utility door beside the junction box. It offers a new route to isolate the alarm before attempting the master reset.
“I open the utility door and isolate the alarm circuit”
FAILURE (Fair Improvising Tools, rolled -1)
“I trace the service-door cable toward its source”
SUCCESS (Good Investigation, rolled -1)
Yuki follows the labeled SERVICE DOOR cable beneath the panel, tracing its sheath through the wall conduit and back toward the utility door beside the junction box.
The conduit cover gives under her fingers. She exposes the cable's source: a compact alarm interface bolted behind the utility door, separate from the camera timer and entrance controls.
Yuki Sorimachi
The service-door alarm is local, not part of the loop.
As Yuki pulls the conduit free enough to read the terminal labels, one metal clip snaps against the concrete. The sharp crack carries down the corridor.
Aya
We heard that. Did you find the source?
The interface blinks amber and records the disturbance, but its wiring is now clear: the service-door tamper signal runs through a dedicated terminal before reaching the master reset.
Rin
Then we know what has to be isolated. Get back before the next reset, and we move together.
“I isolate the alarm terminal before resetting security”
FAILURE (Good Reasoning, rolled -2)
Yuki follows the dedicated terminal wiring to its bolted housing and searches for a disconnect point. The interface has no accessible terminal block, only a sealed bracket and two short leads disappearing into the wall.
Yuki Sorimachi
The alarm terminal is not here. Someone removed the part needed to isolate it.
She tests the exposed leads without touching the sealed housing, but the circuit remains closed. A red indicator wakes beneath the bracket, and the utility door's lock engages with a heavy click.
Aya
Yuki, the service-door status just changed to locked. Did the alarm catch you?
The attempt has not isolated the alarm. Instead, the local circuit now reports a hard fault, holding the door shut and marking the corridor as tampered.
Rin
Do not keep working that connection. If it is latched, find another way around before the reset.
The guarded master-reset route remains beyond the locked utility door, while the open junction box offers only the camera and door-control wiring. Repeating the same isolation attempt will not help.
“I isolate the alarm terminal before resetting security”
SUCCESS (Fair Improvising Tools, rolled +3)
“I press Mika for her source's identity”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +1)
Yuki Sorimachi
Mika, give me the source's identity. Now.
Yuki's demand carries through the corridor. In the office, the cabinet creaks under Rin's grip, and Mika's silence lasts only until her hidden phone vibrates once.
Mika
His name is Daniel Voss. He recruits players for the organizers and feeds them selective information before each game.
The vibration stops. Mika removes the phone from her pocket and places it face down on the office desk, surrendering the concrete proof along with the name.
Mika
He contacted me three days ago. He knew this mansion's layout, the alarm sequence, and that the gray folder would be here.
Rin
Then Voss expected you to lead us straight into his test. We have his name, but he may know ours already.
From the corridor, Yuki hears a faint electronic chirp answer the phone's vibration. The disclosure is complete, but the office's hidden listening system has gained a fresh signal.
Determine whether Mika knowingly led the survivors into the trap.
Quest Complete
Identify who briefed Mika.
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Good→Great