OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To codify the domain of my character's... employer.
- Image Credit: Luminessa Media
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Someplace Else
- Structure Name: Mount Misery
- Classification: Homestead
- Location: Dahrtag
- Affiliation: The Maestro | William Wolfe
- Accessibility: This is remote private (and technically condemned) property surrounded by a wrought iron fence. There is only one road leading to Mount Misery - an overgrown pathway through the forest.
- Description: This grand, imposing mansion on top of a mountain is visible to the townspeople in Black Valley below. Dilapidated and decaying in the absence of living contact, recent attempts by the town's leadership to demolish it were met with fierce resistance from Mount Misery's ghostly occupants.
- The Gate - The house is surrounded by a wrought iron fence. Beside the gate is a small weather-worn plaque, the words now completely illegible.
- Main Entrance - The house's "porch" consists of a couple of brick steps and a marble column on either side of the double doors.
- Foyer - Just beyond the front doors, a large staircase is visible leading up to the second floor. There are also long, winding hallways to the left and right, though these areas are mostly unused and in poor condition. The walls of virtually every room inside the house are lined with old-fashioned paintings, mostly portraits of distant ancestors of the family which built the mansion, the Wolfes. Some of these have been covered by white sheets, which are in turn buried under a layer of dust and cobwebs.
- Ballroom - If you take a right in the foyer, the first room on the left is the ballroom. Two inert knights in armor guard the double doors to this massive chamber. As the largest and most intact area of the house, it is the Maestro's usual haunt. The floor consists of black and white tiles somewhat similar to a chessboard, and chandeliers hang from the cavernous ceiling. At the opposite end of the room from the doorway, there is a large fireplace; marble columns line either side of the room along the way, along with tall windows, though many of the windows are broken or missing panels, and the intact glass is cloudy with dirt. Scattered bits of furniture can be found here or there - a sofa, a chair, a desk, a wooden shelf or two - clearly moved into the room to save them from the rampant decay that pervades the rest of the mansion. Like the paintings, most of these are covered up with sheets - except for one high-backed armchair which sits facing the fire.
- Another entrance on the right side of the room is covered up by a ratty green velvet curtain. This door leads to a small storage area that was once used to hold guests' coats and cloaks. Notably, there is also a chest full of masques.
- Garden - A glass-paned door on the left side of the ballroom leads outside. The stone pathway through the garden is overgrown and choked with weeds. Apart from a few night-blooming flowers, all of the plants appear to be dead or dying.
- Second Floor - Most of the rooms on the second floor of the mansion have been sealed off - the doors simply will not open. A few, on the other hand, can be entered.
- The Nursery - This out-of-the-way room still harbors some toys and decomposing stuffed animals. There is also a broken repulsorchair lying in a corner, gathering dust.
- Diana's Room - Here's where things start to get a little bit weirder. On the surface, this appears to be a young woman's bedroom, circa about seventy years ago. But sometimes, the room seems to shift. The white walls become gray stone, the modern furniture is replaced with more arcane minutiae, and on some nights people can be seen inside. People who have been dead for much, much longer than the average ghostly resident at Mount Misery. These people from the past playact various scenes over and over again, but the most common one is a heated argument between a newly married couple (still dressed in their wedding finery) which ends in violence. The ghosts at Mount Misery refer to this bizarre phenomena as "time out of mind", and many believe the house was built on the same spot where an ancient castle once stood.
- Guest Room (?) - The cleanest spot in the house. There is a large four-poster bed with a canopy and freshly laundered sheets neatly folded, an old-fashioned wardrobe, a writing desk, a table and chair, and a couple of bookshelves. Despite this, the room appears rarely used - it is presumably maintained in the unlikely event that a living person decides to stay there.
- Someplace Else - Underneath the mansion are caverns and a Netherworld rift.
Medium; While the Maestro has complete control over the house, enabling him to open, close, and lock its doors at will, for instance, the structure is not built to handle a full-blown assault by the police, let alone military personnel or starship weaponry. Should it be attacked, the Maestro and his "family" - consisting of an army of ghosts and other undead summoned via necromancy - will attempt to repel the invaders using sorcerous means.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Dahrtag was hit particularly hard during the Gulag Plague. Not only did people die and chaos reign, but many of the planetary records were destroyed, and thousands of years of Necropolitan history was lost. Thus, only more recent records survive detailing the history of the piece of land that would come to be known as Mount Misery.
Roughly a hundred and twenty years ago, the aristocrat John Wolfe decided to build a mansion on mountain land he had inherited from his father. The mansion was constructed in a traditional Necropolitan design, with gargoyles and other monsters incorporated into the architecture to frighten away evil spirits. John Wolfe, recently widowed, moved his two young children, Will and Mina, into the mansion as soon as it was completed. He lived there for the next twenty years as a hermit, rarely seen in public.
Tragedy would soon strike the Wolfe family as Will, possessed by a bloodthirsty spirit, would go on a vicious killing spree culminating with the murder of his father and sister. The townspeople discovered his crimes and an angry mob descended upon the house, intent on exacting justice. But by the time they arrived, Will was already dead, having taken his own life.
Despite the macabre events which occurred there, the empty house was soon purchased and occupied again, this time by the Carmichael family. They suffered a tragedy of their own which, while not as dramatic as what had happened to the Wolfes, was no less painful: the death of their young son Joseph from drowning. They moved out soon after, and were replaced by another owner... and another... With a series of further tragedies striking each successive resident, the townspeople grew convinced that the property was cursed. The mansion was put up for sale one final time, but there was little interest in what had become known as "Mount Misery" to the locals.
That said, the mansion is not truly abandoned. For nearly a century, it has been occupied by a mysterious being who identifies himself as "the Maestro". He and the townspeople of Black Valley have a complicated relationship. For the most part, they are extremely wary of him, begrudgingly allowing him to stay in the mansion. But over the decades, attempts at expelling him from Mount Misery have been made, and most recently the house itself was nearly demolished - the Maestro appeared and stopped the demolition team before they could proceed with the operation, but the mercurial "magician" feels slighted and has declared war upon Black Valley and its citizens...
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Again, sorry for the confusion and I hope you enjoy your haunted mansion!
