The central board flickers. A maintenance schematic overlays its controls, tracing lines from the mansion entrance to concealed mechanisms beneath the floor panels.
On the entrance feed, several panels shift by fractions, settling back into place with precise mechanical clicks. The movement is too deliberate to be a gate response.
Yuki Sorimachi
The click beneath the entrance was part of a larger trigger network.
An automated log expands across the display: STAGED SEQUENCE, FLOOR NETWORK ARMED, CURRENT TARGET RETAINED. A second line identifies the mechanism as a game-control system.
Mika
That floor was never just unstable. The entrance was the first step in a sequence, and someone assigned a target before we arrived.
Aya
Can the system show who the target is? Or does it only know where the trap is supposed to activate?
The schematic highlights one route in amber, then divides it into two selectable paths. Beneath them, a prompt waits without a countdown.
the speaker voice
Preserve the trap's current target, or redirect activation. Selection is required to continue.
✓ Quest Accepted
Interrupt the death trap's activation against the survivors
“make my escape out of the mansion myself”
SUCCESS (Superb Trap Evasion, rolled +0)
Yuki ignores the selectable paths and follows the schematic's maintenance route, stripping a keyed cover from the lower board with a flat tool. The panel releases.
She redirects the floor network's active trigger into the entrance reset, then moves through a service passage marked on the display. The mansion shudders with controlled clicks behind her.
the speaker voice
Individual egress detected. Group separation recorded. Yuki Sorimachi, your departure is now part of the session.
Yuki reaches the entrance hall alone. A concealed panel has opened beside the steel gate, revealing a narrow exit into the rain-dark grounds.
The gate begins descending again as she slips through. Its edge catches her shoulder, tearing fabric and leaving a shallow bruise, but she clears the threshold.
Mika
Yuki, where are you going? We can still use the route you opened!
Outside, Yuki crosses the weed-choked drive alone. The mansion seals behind her with a heavy metallic boom, and every exterior light snaps on, exposing her escape to whoever is watching.
✓ Quest Accepted
Bring the survivors out of the mansion
“I look for a nearby phone booth and call a taxi home”
FAILURE (Great Investigation, rolled +1)
Yuki follows the weed-choked drive toward the road, scanning beneath the mansion’s harsh exterior lights for a glass booth or any public telephone shelter.
Yuki Sorimachi
There is no phone booth on the grounds.
The drive opens onto a narrow roadside, but the expected booth is absent. Rain beads on an empty concrete pad, and no handset or directory is within reach.
She checks the lit perimeter rather than circling back. Beyond the gate, a squat gatehouse stands beside the service road, its windows dark except for a single green glow.
A metal plaque beside the gatehouse reads SECURITY OFFICE. Beneath it, a weatherproof intercom and a fixed black telephone handset sit under a small awning.
The taxi call cannot happen from the missing booth, and returning to the mansion would only repeat the failed approach. The gatehouse offers a reachable alternative.
“I use the gatehouse telephone to call for help home and sleep”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +3)
Yuki lifts the fixed black handset from its cradle. The gatehouse line gives a dial tone, and she uses the posted emergency directory to place a call home.
Yuki Sorimachi
I need help. I am at the mansion’s gatehouse, outside the main gate.
the voice on the telephone
I hear you. Stay where you are. We will send someone to you and contact the authorities.
The call remains connected while the voice confirms the location and repeats that help is coming. Yuki sets the handset down only after the instructions are understood.
Yuki Sorimachi
The gatehouse is dry, lit, and lockable.
She checks the door, finds a narrow bench beneath the window, and settles there with her injured shoulder against the wall. Rain ticks steadily on the awning.
With the telephone within reach and the perimeter lights visible through the glass, Yuki closes her eyes and sleeps until help arrives.
“Use my flying skill to fly home”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +1)
Morning light fills the gatehouse windows. A rescue helicopter settles onto the mansion’s service road, its rotors beating rainwater from the pavement as responders approach.
A middle-aged woman pilot in a navy flight suit steps from the aircraft, visor tucked beneath one arm, and gestures toward the open cockpit.
the pilot
Your flight home is cleared. We can take the direct route.
Yuki boards, takes the controls under the pilot’s supervision, and lifts the helicopter above the gatehouse. The mansion shrinks beneath the gray morning cloud.
Her practiced handling carries the aircraft over familiar roads and rooftops. The storm thins behind her, revealing the city where home waits.
the pilot
You have the approach. Bring us down when you are ready.
Yuki completes the flight and lands safely at home. The rotors slow, and the long night finally ends behind her.
“I tell responders the survivors remain inside”
FAILURE (Good Reasoning, rolled -2)
Yuki Sorimachi
The survivors are still inside the mansion. They need extraction, not just an investigation.
Rotor wash tears the words apart before the responders can hear them. Yuki points toward the sealed mansion, repeating the gesture as rain and engine noise swallow her voice.
the pilot
I cannot hear you over the aircraft. Use the gatehouse handset, or write it down.
The pilot guides her beneath the helicopter’s sheltering side, where a responder, a young adult man with a lean build, brown skin, close-cropped black hair, and a yellow rain shell over dark trousers, offers a waterproof clipboard. Through the gatehouse window, the fixed telephone remains connected to the outside line.
the pilot
Put the information on record here. I can transmit it to ground control and request a controlled entry.
Yuki Sorimachi
The aircraft noise blocks my voice, but the gatehouse line still works.
The failed shout becomes a choice between the written report and the working handset. Beyond the glass, the mansion’s sealed entrance waits under the responders’ growing attention.
