Flickering tendrils of flames lashed out against the surrounding darkness, hissing and crackling like a dying animal, screaming not to be the day’s only demise. Night had fallen hours ago, but the date would be damned if it let it allowed silence. Twigs snapped violently as animals scurried unseen in the woods, and wildlife howled and hoo-ed ominously in the distance. The mood was only complemented by the chilled breeze, brushing by the campfire’s gathering. Sitting in a small group as the controlled inferno thrashed once more, they were cast ghoulishly in the light as each individual shadow they had was emphasized to the product of nightmare.

One of those gathered rubbed his hands in an effort to recover lost heat, scooting a bit closer to the fire. “Fitting end for Halloween,” He mused to himself, thinking nothing of it until a sudden thought struck him. In a tattered trench coat meant to resemble Friday the 13th’s Jason and mask to complete the look, his soft hazel eyes scanned the group around him, an unseen grin stretching his features.

“But…” Dropping his voice to match the dark around him, he leaned in, reducing his speech to a whisper, “I know how we could end it right... Anyone know any ghost stories?”

Hey! So according to Pumpkin everything popping up all over the place and huge bags of candy in every store, you may have come to the realization that Halloween is rapidly approaching. The time of frights and scare, horror and gore, and apparently when it suddenly becomes OK to knock on the door of every stranger in a 3 mile radius.

So, who’s down for something festive for the forum as well?

If you are, here’s what I have planned:

All things considered, this is going to be a collection of Halloween or horror themed stories, taking place surrounding a campfire, where each individual will tell a tale. Their story can be an event that actually happened to them or something wildly made up, but all that I ask is to keep in the theme, aspects of it are grim or eerie. If it ends with a plot twist of how everything was silly and no one got hurt after all, that’s perfectly fine. I just don’t want it opening as something a group of people expecting on horror wouldn’t let slide.

The only things that matter about the setting is that it’s really dark beyond the campfire, it’s about 11 at night, clouds obscure the stars, and the gathering is in the forest. Most importantly however, it’s Halloween.

This is going to be a written event with slight pass the story mechanics as I’ve hosted before, which basically means you’ll write a ghost story (or other options) and I’ll pass it along to a couple other people and have them add slight reactions, which will then be returned to you for approval.

We’re doing this in parts though, and I’m taking signups through the 28th, which is a Sunday. By October 1st, I’m going to have the seating arrangements set up, just so we’ll have reference for a story setting standpoint, as well as the order of stories delivered. Seating’s going to be shuffled, but after that it’s going to go clockwise from the chart.

After that, you’ll have through the 15th to create your tale. The setting where the gathering is has to be in 3rd person past so it’ll flow, but the story told can be any perspective and any tense on account of your storyteller, well, telling it. On account of everyone depending on each other, late entries will not be accepted. If you have extenuating circumstances, PM me well in advance so I’ll have a chance to figure something out.

Once this phase is complete, I’ll be sending you the story told before your own so that you and that person can make a transition. I don’t want any massive RPs here, but I’m down with some brief back and forth. Everyone will be involved with two, discounting the people who are first and last. Because getting a hold of someone might suck, you’re going to have a week to have them both complete, even though I’m only expecting this to be maybe a paragraph or a few lines between characters. Again, this is taking place around a campfire. If a long winded conversation wouldn’t fly around one in real life, please don’t send me a 10,000 page novel on it.

By October 24th, I’m going to start sending out stories for the character inserts. These don’t have to be at the very end of the story, but rather reactions to the story during the story. Only try to do one or two per story sent, and I’ll pass you another once it’s done. I don't want overflow to kill the mood. Make sure all passes include me, so I’ll constantly have the most updated version of the story. That being said, if you send it to both me and the original writer, make sure to tell me just so I don’t blow any inboxes up unnecessarily. I’ll be taking these through the end of the 29th, so I’ll have all of Devil’s Night to get the thread set up.

On Halloween, it’s going live!

This is a storytelling, I don’t want physical confrontations or physical threats to the characters.

No doing unnatural things to the weather, it’s fine if you have breeze emphasize something, but it can’t drop 20 degrees, the fire can’t go out, it can’t start raining or anything like that.

Transitions between stories can’t be dragged out too long. If it wouldn’t fly in the real world, please refrain from doing it here.

Your story can be anything from a creepypasta to an old spooky memory, or anything Halloween related. The gathering is full of people expecting those types of stories, so again, if it wouldn’t fly in reality. That being said, I’m fine with plot twists than end with everything having secretly been smiles and sunshine. People do joke at others expense, so I would take it. If you have an idea that you feel is in a grey area by all means post a question here or shoot me a PM.

If your storyteller is meant to be your RHG/wRHG, any weapons and real magic (including and especially proof of the later [I don’t want either to be official in the setting, so just don’t use them]) is forbidden, although they can be referenced in their story.

This should be implied from that, but just to make it extremely clear, you do not have to use a gladiator. Heck, you could use yourself. All are welcome.

And that’s pretty much it!

All that I need for you to be entered in this is just a vague description of what your storyteller looks like, just as a point of reference. This is incase someone wants to allude to yours specifically in their tale. Bear in mind it is Halloween, so whatever they spent the day in, Trick-or-Treating or otherwise, is acceptable. Feel free to bullet point this. Names are not necessarily necessary.

None at the moment.
Ask away!

9/18/14: Sign ups open
9/28/14: Sign ups close
10/15/14: Story due
10/22/14: Transitions due
10/29/14: Story with all inserts due
10/31/14: Live

Crank [Roy]
Hazel eyes, average build, tattered trench coat, white hockey mask, jeans. Basically a Jason costume.

Tremorfist
The clink of chains rattled as a tattered form sat on a chair. His red hair ashen and his skin pale. Apair of sunken eyes stared out . His clothing, a simple sweater and jeans, were torn and bloody, not to mention the manacles strapped to his hands and feet.
(So...rusty chains on hands and feet, torn and bloody shirt and jeans, pale skin, sunken eyes, and hair covered in dust and ash)

WafflesMgee [Richard S.]
A man taller than most at a steady six foot. Grey eyes. His skin's very pale and rather rough. Wears a white shirt with white gloves, grey suit-trousers and black working boots. It should be noticed that his clothes are non-removable (including gloves, excluding boots due to socks under them) and his skin cannot be shown via underneath the shirt's bottom or sleeves, or under the trouser's legs. Though he usually wears make-up to cover his facial scars, he's left his face clean due to it being Halloween, so he has some burn marks around his eyes, a few dots of acid burns here and there.

GuardianTempest
Female adolescent with pale skin and long, unkempt hair. There are scars where her ears used to be and her teeth are unnaturally clean. Her face bears intense trauma and shows the Thousand-Yard Stare. She wears a worn-out dress that's more tattered towards the skirtline. Her limbs cut off into stubs with a ring of scars followed by cybernetic prosthetics; the fingers and toes have metal talons instead of nails.

Aquila [Connor]
Wears a jack-o-lantern over his head, the eyes, nose, and mouth glow from the mask he wears underneath that is a light that covers his whole face. hiding his face. His jack-o-lantern can turn to expression different emotions. It has four sides, a crying, smiling, angry, and the last quarter is blank, signaling that he is hiding. He completes his outfit with a midnight black suit, including his dress shirt, and white skeleton gloves that glow in the dark. So in the dark he would simply look like a floating pumpkin head with hands. In front of the fire you can tell he's wearing the suit and such. The pumpkin isn't comically big, it is a nice pumpkin shaped pumpkin that fits quite snugly but not too much over his head.

zoomxoom [Vagnar]
Also known simply as the Nomad. He walks around wearing clothing covering his whole body from the top of his head to the tips of his toes, leaving only his crimson eyes, which glow red due to some special contacts he buys for just this sort of occasion, exposed to the public eye. His hands have very faint blue glows that can be seen beneath his gloves, and everywhere he moves, streaks of light follow his eyes and hands. For this particular occasion, he will allow his blackened chest to be seen, his rotted flesh exposed, allowing the smell of death to fill the air around him.

Xate
A perpetual smile stretched across his face, Joe the Average sports a white suit, the usual business kind. Wth a matching black tie, he brushed his black hair, one shaping like a crew cut, though slightly longer. His skin was pale, but other than that, there was no other way to distinguish him from average people.

"My name is Joe. Nice to meet you."

Shadowkirby
A young adolescent is seen sitting criss-crossed upon the earth. Purple coat, black t-shirt, loose lime-green tie, black polka-dot pajama pants, and sandals. She's equipped with artificial cat ears and a tail. Her face is covered in makeup, again, bearing the resemblance of a feline. Behind her are the robotic skulls she carries around. She likes to speak with them as if they're real and are actually speaking to her. The skulls are a rare commodity and were used as Halloween decor. The company that made the chattering toys shut down and were no longer selling them. So she manage to have two skulls in possession and gave them names; one is Rome and the other's Julie.