Greetings Chittr. #LairsAndLusii has started. I have done the kindness of posting the opening to the campaign below in its entirety. I look forward to updating you all. Hello, dears. It is time. I would say that I hope you are ready, but let us not start off this important proceeding with a lie. You are not ready. Readiness is defined by your responsive levels of terror. You may have anxiety regarding these processions, but not fear. Not yet. The Session has begun noticing you. Some of you will find this flattering. That is unfortunate, but not surprising. At some point tonight, tomorrow, yesterday, or a more personally insulting arrangement of time, something will appear where it should not. For some, a sudden door in the wall, others, a symbol in the condensation of a glass pane, your lusus refusing to enter the room, a book opening to a page that was not there when you bought it, a mirror making eye contact with you first. Then, briefly, a small white aperture. This is the pivotal intake point. The Session has chosen you. You may attempt to avoid this. Some of you will. You may close the book. Break the glass. Turn the lantern out. Threaten the wall. Wake your lusus. Pray. Laugh. Leave the room. Return with a weapon. Return with a friend. Return with a worse idea than either. All acceptable. The aperture will wait. When it opens, you may see a place. Your Lair, perhaps. A wound in the world with architecture around it. A drowned hall. A house with too many cradles. A church where the saints have been turned around. A beach of black salt. A room full of masks, each one doing a poor impression of your face. A throne without a body in it. Do not explain it yet. If the image means something to you, that is your problem. If it means nothing to you, that is also your problem, but later. You may also see a Lusus. This may be your own. It may not. It may be dead. It may be waiting. It may be too large to fit inside the place where you see it. That is normal for this sort of thing. Normal is not the same as comforting. For clarity, my role is as follows. I am Woegothe Curatrix. Session Guardian. Game Host. Curator of this little injury. I will be preserving the shape of the Session, trimming what needs trimming, and keeping the machinery from becoming too stupid to respect. I will not protect you from consequences. I will protect the consequences from being wasted. That is my narrative hospitality. Your task is simple. Let the summons find you. Show us where you are. Show us what it interrupts. Show us the exact moment your life becomes less private. You do not need to enter yet. You only need to be seen. End your post with what you do. Touch it. Leave. Ask it a question. Make a threat. Lie to yourself. Call someone. Say nothing. Do something so characteristic of you that the Session learns your name wrong on purpose. I will answer from there. Try to be interesting. I would hate for the first thing to eat you to be my disappointment. #lairsandlusii #sessionstart #horror #unreality WHAT TO POST FIRST You are not writing your character’s grand entrance. Please do not arrive grandly unless your character is the sort of person who would make that mistake. You are writing the moment before the Session gets its hand around your life. I need enough to work with. That means: Where are you? What are you doing? What gets interrupted? What does the summons use to reach you? What do you see? What notices before you do? What do you do about it? That is the whole thing. You may write it as prose. You may write it cleanly and directly. You may be dramatic. You may be funny. You may make me stare at the ceiling and reconsider the moral cost of allowing you into the game. All are viable. Some guidance follows. Your location should have a little meat on it. A hive. A ship. A market. A chapel. A street corner. A storage room. A beach. A stage. A clinic. A kitchen. A prison. A bedroom you pretend is not a prison. Somewhere with objects, witnesses, habits, smells, noise, weather, dirt, evidence. Give me something the Session can touch. Your interruption matters. If your character was praying, that says something. If they were stealing, that says something else. If they were fixing a weapon, hiding an injury, arguing with their lusus, flirting badly, eating dinner, lying on the floor, cleaning blood out of a sleeve, or rehearsing a speech no one asked for, I can use that. Do not start with the heroic version of yourself. Start with the useful one. The summons should feel personal. A screen is fine if screens matter to you. A mirror is fine if vanity, identity, fear, or recognition matter to you. A wound is fine if the body has been keeping score. A weapon is fine if violence has become a language. A religious symbol is fine if faith has claws in you. A family object is fine if inheritance has done what inheritance does. A lusus is fine if you would like to make everyone uncomfortable quickly. The Session is rude, but rarely random. When you glimpse what waits beyond the aperture, keep it sharp. One or two images. A hall under black water. A white animal sleeping in a butcher’s shrine. A field of broken horns. A dinner table set for someone who died badly. A moon behind glass. A door with your name scratched out and written again. No lore dump yet. Let the thing breathe wrong before you explain its lungs. If your lusus is present, show what it does. Growling is useful. Fear is useful. Recognition is better. Shame is best. If no lusus is present, let the room react. Lights fail. Rain stops. Music slows. Bugs go quiet. The air smells like old paper. Someone nearby forgets what they were saying. Something small dies without spectacle. You should also give me the first part of your character that answers. Curiosity. Fear. Pride. Guilt. Hunger. Obedience. Spite. Loneliness. The need to be chosen. The need not to be chosen. Your classpect may twitch if you want it to. Your dream self may notice first. Your blood may make an opinion known. Then end with a choice. You do not have to enter. Actually, I would prefer most of you do not enter immediately. Let me respond to the way you handle being found. Good endings for a first post include: You touch the aperture. You ask who sent it. You order your lusus to destroy it. You hide it from someone nearby. You call another player. You lie and say you are not afraid. You laugh because it is easier than understanding. You step closer. You step back. You make the worst possible decision for excellent character reasons. That last one is often my favorite. If you need a plain structure, use this: Location: Interruption: How the summons appears: What you glimpse: How your lusus or surroundings react: What part of you answers first: Your final action: You may ignore that structure if your post answers those questions naturally. I am not grading formatting. I am reading for hooks. Bring me a want. Bring me a flaw. Bring me something the Session can threaten without needing to ask your permission first. #lairsandlusii #sessionstart #playerprompt #horror #unreality