Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

[tkdguy]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

When I was 11 or 12 years old, I went to Rome with my mother and sister. There was this elevator that would take us up either to the top floor or the ground floor. It took us a few tries to get to our floor. Strangely enough, it only did that when there was only one person in the elevator. It happened to me a couple of times; my sister complained about the same thing. When there were two or more people, the elevator worked perfectly.

[csyphrett]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

The Soda Man

Every day and evening, a man walks through the lobby from the rear of the hotel with a soda in his hand. No one ever sees him enter to get a soda out of a machine, and once he gets out the front, he is not on the street.

 

If stopped, he just explains that he was thirsty and wanted a soda on the way to or from work. He usually excuses himself with I'm late, or similar.

 

The problem is there is no door, or the door is locked from casual passersby, and the drink machine doesn't carry Diet Rally Cola.

CES

[Kyle A.]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

The Four Hour Conversation

 

An effect of the hotel rather then a person. In the hotel's lobby is a massive grandfather clock, twelve feet tall and four feet wide. When the clock chimes ina new hour it can be heard on the first two floors of the hotel. Any conversation held in the lobby, in view of the clock, while its chiming in 4:00 pm, seems normal to those that are involved until the realize its now 8:00pm. If the PCs stake out the lobby to find out what is going on they will see the affected people get up and walk to the elevators, still carrying on heir conversation. As soon as the enter the elevator the doors shut fast enough to prevent anyone or anything else to get in there, and then as soon as they shut the open again revealing an empty elevator. The PCs will be unable to find the people who have vanished. As soon as the grandfather clock chimes the last chime for 8:00pm the people who vanished will walk into the hotel from outside, take up their places, from when the where talking four hours ago, and then end their conversation. They will have no memory of doing anything but standing there an talking for a minute or two. And nobody but the PCs ever notice that anyone has dissappeared.

[AlHazred]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Possibly... but the catch is the "whatever" part. Say a frustrated PC asks for the location of someone they are looking for (as a joke) and then says "Nevermind' date=' just joking, can I have a pot of coffee?" When the coffee arrives, there will be an envelope containing directions to the locations of said person. Now imagine is someone says "Yeah! So-an-so's head on a pike!"[/quote']I don't know if, by itself, that one is really creepy. Strange, yes - but creepy implies some sort of possibly bad result. Perhaps the benefit comes with some subtle cost that the PCs don't at first recognize. Maybe the first innocuous request is granted with no strings. The next request, however, has a hidden cost associated with it - the message with info the PCs need tells them they'll find the info inside a clay jar in the Egyptian Antiquities exhibit in the nearest museum, for instance. Or if they wanted an address, they are given a street and block, and have to canvass the neighborhood, exposing them to the attentions of a vicious street gang. As more requests are made, the requirements to achieve them become extremely dangerous, increasingly criminal, or morally repugnant. If the PCs insist on using this resource, soon they will be indistinguishable from the vile people they hunt...

[Susano]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

I don't know if' date=' by itself, that one is really creepy. Strange, yes - but creepy implies some sort of possibly bad result. Perhaps the benefit comes with some subtle cost that the PCs don't at first recognize. Maybe the first innocuous request is granted with no strings. The next request, however, has a hidden cost associated with it - the message with info the PCs need tells them they'll find the info inside a clay jar in the Egyptian Antiquities exhibit in the nearest museum, for instance. Or if they wanted an address, they are given a street and block, and have to canvass the neighborhood, exposing them to the attentions of a vicious street gang. As more requests are made, the requirements to achieve them become extremely dangerous, increasingly criminal, or morally repugnant. If the PCs insist on using this resource, soon they will be indistinguishable from the vile people they hunt...[/quote']

 

True. I was thinking that perhaps these requests start to have odd repercussions. So if someone asks for a car to be waiting for them -- a car is reported stolen elsewhere. If they ask for information, people connected to the answer end up dead.... So the PCs per se aren't doing these evil deeds, but are they the ones putting them in motion?

 

Oh... another possibility, things asked for start to show up... damaged. Like splattered with blood. And the room service girl (always the same one in this case) doesn't seem to notice.

[The Mad GM]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

A good creepy bit you can use is the suddenly appearing insignificant wounds and cuts on the characters. For instance, you don't remember cutting yourself, but you have a couple of cuts on the back of your hand, already scabbed over. Or your knuckles hurt like you've been in a fight. Nothing that would affect combat in any way, just things that imply actions the characters don't remember doing. Not hotel specific, but it could easily tie in.

[The Mad GM]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Rape Man

 

I think I know this guy.

[Cancer]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

One last throwaway idea before I go to sleep.

 

The Picture in the Lobby

 

In the lobby hangs a painting. It's part of the decor of the hotel - the Management went to a company for their "flair," so it all matches. Well, everything except the painting in the lobby.

 

Actually, a more "mundane" twist on this would be that everyone, no matter who they are, see this painting with their own face as the face of the murdered man. Or, perhaps, the painting always shows the face of a current guest, and the guest who shows up is the one who is the next one to die. Could be later that day, could be years from now; it's just a strange sort of oracle. The face changes as people check in/out (or die).

 

Another idea is a standard creepy meta-theme: Disquieting Things That No One Talks About. It can decor, people, events, other things. It's cooler for the GM is there is an actual reason for the wierdness, even if the players never are told what it is. Examples:

• The open elevator shaft, always cordoned off with "under repair", never fixed. Maybe strange clanking sounds irregularly come from below. The repair crew is never seen.
  
• A very large dead house plant in the lobby. It is watered daily, but it is brown and stiff. Unless you see its reflection in one particular mirror, and there it looks green and flowering....
  
• A chandelier that always goes dark when a guest walks underneath it. Doesn't do that for hotel staff, just guests.
  
• The newspaper box that always has one particular day's paper (probably a date long in the past, recording some macabre event) on display. Open it and it has today's paper; even if you remove the display copy, when you look at it after removing it, it is today's paper. Put a new paper in the display slot and close the box, and again you see the particular date displayed.
  
• A lobby phone that rings every few minutes. If someone answers it, there's just insane gibbering coming over the line. If no one asnwers it, it rings thirteen times and then falls silent for another half hour or so.
  
• The large aquarium in the lobby, bar, or ballroom is populated with carnivorous fish. One of the staff -- who has a hook instead of a right hand -- drops a rat or two into the aquarium every morning, and the fish consume it in a frenzy.
  
• The piano in the ballroom is badly out of tune for everyone except the cadaverous pianist.
  
• There is always a broken heel, as from a woman's black dress pump, on the fifth step of the broad staircase leading from ground-floor entry lobby to the ballroom/promenade level. If someone removes it, an identical one appears in the same place as soon as that person leaves and everyone has looked away.
  

[Susano]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Another idea is a standard creepy meta-theme: Disquieting Things That No One Talks About. It can decor, people, events, other things. It's cooler for the GM is there is an actual reason for the wierdness, even if the players never are told what it is. Examples:

 

• The door that leads to a hallway far larger than the hotel can hold.
  

[AlHazred]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Another idea is a standard creepy meta-theme: Disquieting Things That No One Talks About. It can decor' date=' people, events, other things. It's cooler for the GM is there is an actual reason for the wierdness, even if the players never are told what it is.[/quote']Among the ideas I've been refining for this meme is a mirror that seems to reflect things in a subtly different way. The viewer can't determine if the defect is in the glass, or in the backing, but the image appears to be reflected at a slight angle no matter how the mirror is hung. I haven't been able to come up with a Weird Conspiracy angle for it yet, though, so it lingers in limbo.

[Susano]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Among the ideas I've been refining for this meme is a mirror that seems to reflect things in a subtly different way. The viewer can't determine if the defect is in the glass' date=' or in the backing, but the image appears to be reflected at a slight angle no matter how the mirror is hung. I haven't been able to come up with a Weird Conspiracy angle for it yet, though, so it lingers in limbo.[/quote']

 

There's a Stephen King story where the defect only appears to people who are about to die. Apparently taken by something in the mirror.

[csyphrett]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

The mirror reminds me of a scene from the Taking. Everyone is looking into a bar mirror, and they are all disfigured, and obviously dead, except for the two protagonists who are not in the mirror at all.

CES

[ghost-angel]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

The mirror reflects a scene similar to what is going on now, people are talking, walking through the lobby, ther potted plant in the corner...

 

Except that there are differences that make it obvious it's reflecting either future lobby scene or a past lobby scene.

 

It might suddenly one day depict a murder that occurs in front of it - now is the murder a clue to a past unsolved mystery or a future event about to happen?

 

Of course, just to be difficult sometimes the mirror works perfectly normally, almost always when two or more people are looking into it at once.

[AlHazred]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

There's a Stephen King story where the defect only appears to people who are about to die. Apparently taken by something in the mirror.

Yeah, that was my Mystical hook. Grumble, grumble...

 

Ah, well, on to round two!

[csyphrett]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Went to see Zarthura tonight, so thought of this to go with the battle card crowd.

 

Every Sunday, guests are invited to play in a special game. They are required to roll a dice to select a destination. Once there, they will acquire a card that triggers an obstacle they have to overcome to reach the next destination. This continues until they reach the final goal and are rewarded for their perseverance.

CES

[Basil]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

{snip}

• There is always a broken heel, as from a woman's black dress pump, on the fifth step of the broad staircase leading from ground-floor entry lobby to the ballroom/promenade level. If someone removes it, an identical one appears in the same place as soon as that person leaves and everyone has looked away.

I really like this one.

 

It's especially useful because a GM could make it almost any small object instead of a heel. A screwdriver that keeps turning up on the table in the lounge, a wristwatch in the corner of the bar, stuff like that. Cool idea!

[Basil]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

The Tapper

One of the frequent guests has a habit of tapping on things; the bar when he's drinking, the table if he's in the restaurant, the railing as he goes up/down stairs, etc. He's not loud; in fact he does so rather softly. If asked to stop or complained to, he'll be embarrassed, apologize, and stop---for a few minutes. If complained to repeatedly he'll go so far as to stick his hands in his pockets---only to start "tapping" his side in a few minutes.

 

It's not the tapping per se that's the problem. The thing that irritates people, even upsetting the more sensitive is that as soon as a listener catches the rhythm of the tapping, The Tapper changes rhythms; he may be doing a slow 4/4 time piece, then switch to a fast, highly syncopated 3/4. No matter how "flexible" the listener's musical taste may be, The Tapper always seems to find something that throws the listener; 5-against-7 polyrhythm, 14-beat Middle Eastern stuff, etc. He never goes so far as to be actually a-rhythmic, but sometimes he gets awfully close.

 

The longer you listen to him, the worse it gets. If some have tried to stick it out too long, and have become violent, or worse.

 

 

The Wet Spot

There's one spot in one of the public rooms (bar, restaurant, lobby, ???) that keeps turning up with a wet spot---a tiny little "pool" of water no more than a couple inches across. The staff has checked all the plumbing, etc., and no-one can account for water accumulating right there.

 

This would be a minor annoyance save for one thing: the water is always ruddy, as if it bore a lot of dissolved iron-rust . . .

 

Or a little blood.

[rogerfcw]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Normal looking bespectacled young man with a semi permanent frown, occasionally interrupted by a self-knowing smile when he overhears a conversation or has a thought pop into his head.

 

Chain smokes. Nervous twitch in one eye and slightly hunched, probably due to bad posture or laziness. When he sees new guests arrive, he hums "Hotel California" softly to himself.

 

Conversations with him will eventually lead to several related subjects, 1.his migraine that no pain killer can suppress; 2. his migraine hurts so much that he cannot ever sleep; 3. sleep deprivation is aggravating his headache.

 

He seems to be well read at least, as he can always talk quite superficially on most subjects and very learned in some diametrically opposite topics (perhaps 6 topics), e.g. networking and ancient Chinese history, or physics and voodoo practises in the Caribbean (sp?). What he seems to know today, he does not recall the next.

 

Asking him about his childhood or past brings on a wistful look, and deftly deflected into another topic. He pays for his lodgings by cash of legal large denominations from his shirt pocket, but never seems to have more than twenty bucks in the wallet he carries. Only ID is an international driving license from Australia.

 

When seen sitting alone in the lounge or lobby, he always seems to be reading a book or fiddling with an electronic gadget not found in the market. He is never seen to read a newspaper, but seems to know the latest news just as it becomes news.

[BoneDaddy]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

He Ain't Heavy -

 

He ain't. He's a medium height, medium build, medium complexion sort of a guy. But his footfalls sound like an elephant's. He doesn't stomp or anything, but the floor sounds like it is straining heavily under his medium wight. Stairs creek, elevators quiver, once in a while a tile on the floor cracks under his feet. When he gets into a taxi, the shocks strain and the car lists to one side. He travels long distances by train only.

 

Picking him up is easy - he's about medium weight. I'd avoid letting him step on your foot, though.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Actually' date=' a more "mundane" twist on this would be that everyone, no matter who they are, see this painting with their own face as the face of the murdered man. Or, perhaps, the painting always shows the face of a current guest, and the guest who shows up is the one who is the next one to die. Could be later that day, could be years from now; it's just a strange sort of oracle. The face changes as people check in/out (or die).[/quote']Or maybe everyone thinks the murdered man looks very much (but not exactly) like someone they knew who has died (such as an old friend, a grandparent, etc.). The sort of thing that not everyone would comment on right away to their companions. But if they do start comparing notes, they find that everyone thinks the painting looks like a different deceased person they knew, but those deceased people don't necessarily look anything like each other...

 

Just a slightly more low-key spin on it that might draw the weirdness out longer.

[BcAugust]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

(Inspired by rats in the walls)

 

It's rather background at first, the noise from your next door neighbors. A few low murmers, occasional grunts. Sure, you've seen them walk out sometimes before it, but maybe they left a tv on. And it's too... soft to complain.

 

Of course, it also never stops. Waking up at two in the morning, you can hear it still... though it's more like low words, spoken slowly, and the rythems seem off.... just enough to make you pull the covers over your head and go back to sleep.

 

On the other hand, if you put your ears to the wall, you think you can understand the words... but that would be a bad idea.

[BoneDaddy]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Tangential conversation man.

 

He's talking loudly on a cell phone, about facts that relate directly to what the PCs are doing, and predicting dire circumstances. The thing is, the conversation isn't directly about the PCs, or even remotely about the PCs, but it applies too perfectly to what the PCs are doing.

 

Example: the PCs are going to an arranged meeting with an organized crime figure. In the elevator, they stand next to this guy who's yammering into his cell phone.

 

"You can't be serious! They're going to get chopped up and fed to his pigs. No, I'm serious, he keeps pigs and feeds people to them. ... People he thinks need killing, what do I know? I'm not a mobster. ... Anyway, they're toast."

 

If interrupted, he will respond with the same hostility that anyone would if their private conversation was interrupted by a stranger.

[OneWingedAngel]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

The Clatterer

 

Just before dusk, shrieking brakes are heard in the parking lot. A youngish man, with wild hair and generally unkempt clothing, runs into the lobby, hastily arranges for whatever room the clerk has available, and flees into it, carrying two nondescript suitcases that clunk and jingle suggestively. As soon as he gets into his room, the shuts and locks the door, and moving furniture can be heard as he apparently stacks it up to block the entry.

 

Throughout the night, all sorts of strange sounds emerge from the room. Clacking noises almost like railroad noise, strange whistles and hums like a radio, electrical discharges, sizzles, and pops... Calls from the front desk to turn down the noise result in hasty assurances in a panicky voice and, at best, temporary abatement of the noise. (Psychic/mystic PCs get only a fuzzy "static" and a sense of barely-constrained panic.) By morning, the noise is at an all-time peak. Whether the PCs barge in themselves or get the hotel staff to do so is irrelevant.

 

As soon as an entrance is forced (it must be forced due to the fact that all available furniture except the bed has been stacked in front of the door) the noise stops abruptly. The room will be found to be empty except for the two suitcases, sitting open on the bed. The inside of one case has been thoroughly charred, as if a fire was started inside it, yet the smoke alarm never went off. The other seems to have a slight coating of glitter inside, which seems to be suspended in some sort of mildly-acidic slime.

 

Of the man, there is no sign. Nor does anyone fitting his description exist inside any current database. His description does match a missing person case from 1968; that case was marked as "Inconclusive" and closed more than twenty years ago...

 

And his car? If anyone bothers to check, they find a double set of skidmarks in the parking lot, but there is no sign of any car that might have dropped him off. Local traffic cameras or parking lot monitors show a brief period of puzzling blank tape right around the time he came in...

 

Alright, the rest of these, I could see justified any number of fun and interesting ways. But this one...

 

I gotta ask: What the hell???

[lensman]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

the Calculator

 

Man in his late 30's, thin. Wears clothes generally just out of season.

He constantly gets cables, messages, packages and messengered pouches, yet he is never seen calling or ordering anything.

Kids think he is great because he makes fantastic paper airplanes that fly farther than any you've seen.

He counts evrything, stairs, seconds between floors in the elevator, drinks people have in th ebar, revolutios of the ceiling fan in a minute, in an hour, ice cubes made in an hour by the machine down the hall, how many times you have adjusted your necktie, how many syllables you just spoke.

[Trencher]

Re: Help Me Populate A Creepy Hotel

 

Alright, the rest of these, I could see justified any number of fun and interesting ways. But this one...

 

I gotta ask: What the hell???

Sounds like the Yith are up to their usual tricks...