Thank you Quill and Silver for the comments and the tops! I'd love a revival of your ski lodge! I loved the concept, the unique setting, your writing style... it may not have lasted long but it was very memorable!

Day 12, part 2

Leafy was looking out of the window, waiting for the rest of the guests who wanted to explore, when she saw something very strange. A kind of strange that she hadn't experienced yet at the cabin. It was the kind of strange that happens when you look out of the window and see an actual and literal volcano near a snowy hill and wonder when the heck it got there, how it can be there, and how you haven't noticed it before- you know, that very relatable kind of strange. This was obviously the kind of strange that you also want everyone to share in, so Leafy looked around for some random person to come stare at the volcano with her. She encountered Bakerloo, Honeybee, and Tumble and decided that they were perfect candidates to do so.

"Hi yes hello you guys are cool would you like to see a volcano of course you would! Follow me!" Leafy said in a single breath. The three looked at each other, shrugged, and followed her. What they did not expect was to see an actual and literal volcano and experience a kind of strange where- you know, I'm just going to fast forward a few minutes when the four guests went to ask a staff member what the heck was happening.

The staff member they first came to was Remi. She's the most logical of the staff, Honeybee reasoned with herself. Surely she'll give us a straight answer.

"The volcano?" Remi said nonchalantly. "Oh, it's been there forever. It likes to pop up on occasion. Don't you worry about it."

"But this is a snowy hill and it's definitely a rather fiery volcano!" Bakerloo said.

Remi chortled. "When have you noticed this cabin having normal, cold snow or being logical?"

"I... that's a decent point," Honeybee said.

"I feel like we should have seen this coming," Bakerloo commented. "We'll have seen just about everything before this vacation is over."

"Watch ooutt!" Tumble squealed as a lemming scurried away from Abcde with her fan club pins in its mouth, Liddy trailing behind Abcde with a frying pan wrapped in her dragonic tail.

"What did I tell you?" Bakerloo said. And thus the mystery of the actual and literal volcano that causes a very particular strange feeling was solved in the most anticlimactic way possible.

Fear not, dear reader! Our guests went to explore a ski lodge set in Mount Olympus, and some lovely shenanigans ensued.

They first had to travel through a strange door to get there. "The world is canonically considered a pocket dimension," Remi explained. "Most ski lodges don't say much about how they fit in with the regular world, but this one did." They were greeted by Greek gods, much to the delight of the mythology and/or Riordan fans. Nox almost screamed with excitement when Artemis offered to show them all to the library. Unfortunately the only book that was written in English was "Hades, God of the Dead". They still had a fun time observing everything, though.

Quill: this is all so cool!

Faith: check out that statue... and that window sill... and the cold cup of tea over there... and this neat rug!!

Dionysus: This carpet got ruined! I can't bear to look at it. What a disgrace.

Artemis: a child was murdered here.

Dionysus: Oh. Right. ...But my rug...

Faith: well it's, um, despite the stain thing, and the tragedy, uh... it's a, uh, very nice rug, I mean I'm sure you're very right and that, um, it was better before, and I would have loved to see it in its, er, original state, but uh, I seemed to have left my time machine in my other pants....

Firefly: it was a valiant effort, Faith.

While two of her AEs were having such misadventures, dreamii herself was browsing the books, not to read any, but just to appreciate the beauty of such a library. There was a very grand-looking maroon-colored volume with intricate gold borders that caught her eye. Ever so carefully, she pulled it from the shelf, ran a finger over its glossy spine, and opened it.

The book sprang to life and started singing to her about the dangers of piemonia and wise potatoes who educate people on Death by McDonald's. dreamii squealed, dropped the book, and scurried away in an anxious flurry. 

The other guests soon came to realize that all the other books were just as strange. Spellbound had picked up a volume that yodeled to her about the legendary Double-O-Pie; Honeybee was being lectured about Grieving 101, which consisted of mourning a person for a day then forgetting about them; Nox was being taught about a girl named Maggie and her mission to get to a Fall Out Boy concert or die trying; Leafy was being screamed at about a distressed minigoat named Spice; and Bakerloo was learning about how "Rumor has it that she is an acquaintance of the evil ggggghhfrlghbwEBFLQEHFG2B [FFGF' hjkh;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;"

Strangely enough, all the books spoke or screamed to them in English though they were written in Greek or other ancient languages. This lead to the question of what would happen when the only English book was opened, which Dallas did, to the request and the surprise of no-one. "Hades, God of the Dead" was Hades's journal, this particular section being about a group of his victims who had gone to a ski lodge and had died in strange ways. "There was that dimwit Tiffany who was abducted by a dragon, the girl Lizzy who was murdered with a camera tripod named Maggie (the name of one of the other victims, oddly enough), the murderer himself who simply keeled over from shock, and the girl who was so traumatized by her trip in the Yukarimobile that she perished," Dallas read aloud.

"Isn't that the original ski lodge?" queried Feli.

"It sounds like it," Quill said.

The guests and staff members went back to the cabin soon after that. I'd hate to jinx it, but I don't think the staff members got into any huge argument over their band preferences. It was like a miracle.

Speaking of miracles, they'd need a bit of one for the next day- alongside their knowledge of the Mystery and their own awesomeness. This was the guests' chance to accomplish what they'd come for, to save something built by many people over many years. Their legacy was about to catch up with them.

~~~~~

Dead: 10. Arya, poisoned. Cherry, stabbed. Olive, concussed and stabbed. Moondrop and Lucinda, poisoned by plant. Orson, stabbed. Azalea, grenade. Nerd, stabbed. Grace, shot with a bow and arrow. Morning, crushed.

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 13.

Suspects: Sterling

References this day: 

Mount Olympus:

http://www.cricketmagkids.com/chatterbox/puddingsplace/node/468325 

Aww, Silver, I'm flattered! I am far from the greatest ski lodge writer, but you've certainly made my night by saying so. :)

Minisode #2

What better time to interrupt your regularly scheduled program than at one of the most suspenseful points? In my head, none! And my head is the only head that matters around here, so there!

Today, we will be taking a closer look at the Battle of the Bands. As you know, Zach and Abie began to argue about music preferences when Zach's beloved 40s heavy metal played at Hotel Le'Faye, the place of the genre's origin. (At least, I think so.) Abie subjected the children to Disdainful Cat's "The Ballad of Sonny", and so on and so forth. Until quite recently, Remi had remained neutral, but she has now taken her own side- that of Ruby Angst, a band formed from a member who quit Disdainful Cat. The tensions are high! Let's first do an interview with dear Abie Bailey, shall we?

Me: Abie, you have shown your passion for the punk band Disdainful Cat over the course of the ski lodge. What made you fall in love with this band?

Abie: Oh, everything about them! Their unique playing style, the palpable dynamic between the band members, the evocative lyrics, the sweet sound of the lead singer's voice... I just adore all of it.

Me: How lovely! How did you discover the band?

Abie: Well... that's a bit of an interesting story... let's just say they were recommended to me by a very particular friend of mine who I may or may not have met in prison. But hey, they do have good taste.

Me: I would press further about your mysterious prison friend, but I'm already scared! Thank you for that enlightening interview!

Abie: my pleasure!

Me: Now we will go interview the opposing side, with none other than our own Zach Lamborghini. Zach, could you tell us a bit about the genre of 40s heavy metal?

Zach: 40s heavy metal is a very unique, beautiful and underappreciated form of music that began not in the forties but in the eleventeens. The idea was first conceived by my greatest hero, Julius Geezer Aldo Galaxy Roxanne Goldie Hope Cicada (or Queen Hazel for short), after they dedicated years of their extraordinary life to perfecting the art of transforming the sound of hunks of metal clanging and banging against each other into a form of music. Very few people in this dimension know of it, but in other ones, the beauty of 40s heavy metal is widely popular. I've visited them myself, it's quite beautiful.

Me: How fantabulous! Could you tell me about how 40s heavy metal has changed and evolved over the years?

Zach: Well, the hunks of metal used to just be whatever people could find lying around. They were usually either rusty or part of something that belonged to someone else. Now the technique has been refined; artists use a mix of types and states of metals to create different sounds and experiment with how they sound when they get thrown at each other. It's quite fascinating. 

Me: Thank you, Zach, that was.... enlightening. Now onto the knowledgeable, trustworthy Remi Mazí, who recently joined the scene with her chosen band, Ruby Angst. Remi, what inspired you to enter the battlefield?

Remi: Well, I was determined to stay out of it for a while. I didn't want to fight with these guys- one of the three of us had to be responsible, anyways. But I did make sure to listen to 40s heavy metal and Disdainful Cat, just to see what all their excitement was about. Neither of them struck me as particularly amazing, but I always appreciated the backup singer and bass guitarist of Disdainful Cat. When I heard that they were forming their own band, well, I had to listen. It was... like nothing I've ever heard before. Like if the noisy yet beautiful ambiance of a public park mixed with the salty, calming smell of the sea merged together and became a song. I think it changed my life, honestly.

Me: Quite the story! What makes Ruby Angst so unique, do you think?

Remi: I'd say it has to do with their subtle ways of creating metaphors and calling out the harmful ways of modern society. They won't just scream a message in your face; they'll hide a message within a story within a punk song.

Me: nesting doll messages. Truly beautiful. Now for a few questions with the leader of the bunch and the neutral party of this conflict, our own Sam Crickett. Sam, how do you feel this argument has impacted the dynamic of your staff members?

Sam: They went from having super weird banter to having super weird banter about obscure music. So there's some difference, but not a lot.

Me: Interesting. Have you ever thought about choosing or creating your own side?

Sam: No way! I think the guests are enjoying the crazy band battle- or at least I hope so- but it's not very helpful when it comes to supervising them. I'm the host of the ski lodge and the one in charge- if I took a side or added a fourth party, I'd just be creating all-out chaos. The wrong kind of all-out chaos, I mean.

Me: Good to know! You're quite responsible, Sam. But I have to know... if you could take or create a side, what would it be?

Sam: Well...

Before Sam could answer, the front door was smashed clean off its hinges by two people, one with weird glasses and the other with a ghostly look about them. They promptly dragged Sam out of the cabin, saying something about protecting the youth from weaponized beavers that hide in mailboxes.

Me: Well, there you have it. I hope you learned something today. I certainly did. Remember, don't be scared of the monsters under your bed. Instead, be scared of  freaky murderous robots and evil faceless people who invade your very normal hotel visit to kill you all. Good day to you all. 

Day 13, part 1

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."

-Margaret Thatcher

~~~~~

Usually in stories that have epic confrontations or battles, there are scenes where everyone is suiting up, or saying something empowering, or whispering something meaningful in the ear of a loved one. There might be some twist, or an attempt to reconcile with the villain. The intensity does its best to smash through the roof.

The thing about the guests confronting the Mystery's attacker is that there was no suiting up; no grand plans to map out; no tangible villain. There were just the guests and the staff members. There was no way to tell how everything would go; they just had to try.

At breakfast, Sam cleared their throat and prepared to say a few things. It was much quieter than usual, and the guests were barely eating anything. "We'll be going in about twenty minutes," they began. "I realize I haven't talked to you very much about the actual logistics of how this is going to go, and for that I apologize. What's going to happen is, I'll do a thingy and we'll all be transported under the cabin and into the place where the Mystery is manifested- meaning all of the guests and me, none of the other staff members. I'll give you any kind of advice or guidance I can, but I won't stick around for long. Remember that you can't fight this with anything physical. It's got to be done using the power of the Mystery. You don't need to do anything special to prepare; just be back in the living room with your game face and your awesomeness in ten minutes."

Ten minutes later, the nineteen remaining guests met in the living room. Most of them had their game faces, or were at least trying to have such things. All of them had their awesomeness, since they were all awesome by nature.

"Are you ready?" Sam asked. Their smile gave some of the guests confidence. When they all nodded, Sam- well, no-one was quite sure what exactly Sam did, but one moment they were standing in the living room, and the next they were in a nondescript cave... or tunnel... or cellar...

"W-what is this place?" Starlight asked anxiously.

"The place where the Mystery lives!" Sam beamed. "It's very undefined because, well, so is the Mystery. It's hard to match things like the Mystery with physical spaces."

"Where is the Mystery?" Spellbound asked.

"It's not something that can be seen," Sam replied. "It's all around us- it always is, sure, since we're in a ski lodge and all, but like I've said before, this is where its power is concentrated. A sort of home base for it."

"But if we're not able to see the Mystery, will we be able to see the thing attacking it? How can we destroy something we can't see?" Bakerloo questioned.

"True, you won't be able to see the force, but you will be able to feel it. And that's all you'll need to be able to destroy it!" Sam looked around themselves. "Okay, I don't have much more time to be here with you all. I promise you, this is going to be okay, and you will do wonderfully. Does anyone have any other questions?" Sam's own certainty and confident demeanor faltered at the sight of the guests' anxious expressions. But they couldn't let the guests see that.

"You didn't think to tell us all of this stuff before we were in a weird creepy cave or tunnel or whatever, just about to destroy a freaking scary unknown thing in a way we don't know?" Dallas asked, trying to mask his fear with anger. It sort of worked.

"No, I didn't, and I'm sorry about that."

"Okay, but like, how are we actually going to attack this thing?? I get that we can't use our fists and stuff, but how are we supposed to use the Mystery?" Leafy shouted.

"I know it's hard to understand, but you won't be able to use anything. It's not like you can raise your hands or say some special words to call upon your powers or whatever. I guess it's like... the Mystery will be working through you."

"What does that even mean?" Leafy asked, her voice pitching an octave higher than usual.

But there was no response. Sam had gone. The guests were on their own.

Thank you Morning for the comments and tops, as well as all other readers and toppers! I appreciate you!

Morning, I'm a bit confused about which bits you're referring to? I'll be happy to answer your question and give credit where credit is due and if you could point me to a certain scene / part / etc then that would be very cooliosis :)

Day 13, part 2

The guests stood, shocked and nervous, too afraid to speak. Somewhere, not far from where they all were, there was- a whisper? a growl? a snarl?- from a growing patch of shadows. This was it; whatever the force was, it was here.

It was impossible to see, but the CBers could feel it; oh, they could feel it. The force borrowed a home within their minds and whispered sinister things; evil things; hopeless things. What could be done about it? What could stop it? Nothing. Nothing at all...

Then, just before the guests could give in to all the hopelessness gripping at their hearts, the Mystery reared up from inside of them, ready to defend itself, to attack. They suddenly understood what Sam meant about the Mystery working through them; the guests were motionless, soundless, but the power inside of them wasn't. There was an internal battle happening within all of them; nineteen different fights, yet they were all the same.

And a battle it was: the powers of the unidentified force and the Mystery clashed against one another, but nothing could be seen- the guests were used as vessels, as the battlefield. There was no good way for them to tell what was happening- they could hear the taunts of the Force, its desire to tear down everything the Mystery stood for. It had no voice, but oh, how it spoke. It talked without ceasing.

The Mystery responded with its own mute words- gentle yet powerful, wild yet graceful, odd and beautifully so. It drew power from something higher than the Force did; something meaningful and infinite. The Mystery had not been around forever, but its roots had been, and that made it stronger.

And yet, the guests started to feel that something was going wrong.

The Force was powerful. It was just as old as the Mystery's roots, and it was a powerful thing. It paid no mind to the beauty of the Mystery; all it had was brute strength and a will to survive. Would that be enough for it to be able to defeat the Mystery?

...with fright, the guests started to realize that it might be.

It wasn't a sudden shift, but it was noticeable enough to be concerning. The Force continued to strike at the Mystery, to spit at its face and kick at its feet; but the Mystery was losing its ability to fight back as the Force's massive power surged forward. Some of the guests tried to do something to help the Mystery, but it was no use; the fight was between the two powers and nothing else.

As the battle raged on, Sam tried their best to discern what was happening in case trouble arose- and arise it did. Sam cursed themselves for not looking further into the Force and what it truly was. They had to rescue the guests before it was too late.

In the very moments during which Sam transported themselves back into the Mystery's den, the Force struck out. The Mystery itself wasn't damaged, but its ability to fight was, and the Force's threat and power over the very thing keeping the ski lodge alive grew tremendously. The physical world around the guests began to rumble.

"I need to get you all out of here, NOW!" Sam yelled.

They did just that. The CBers stood, disoriented and panicked, in the cabin- and it was shaking. Not enough that things were falling, but to the point that a few of them had to grab onto furniture to keep steady.

"LISTEN TO ME!" Sam shouted. "We need to get out of the cabin, it's not safe anymore. You have exactly five minutes to grab the things from your luggage that you think are most important. Don't worry about food or anything. Once you're done, run to the bottom of the hill. You'll find Remi and Jem Louise there."

The CBers wasted no time in doing as they were told. As for Sam themselves, they went up to the second floor... into the rooms Faith thankfully hadn't explored. In one of them, Sam gathered some things the murderer would be grateful to have; in another, they took something the guests didn't know existed, didn't know marked the history of ski lodges. Didn't know showed how they were changing history. But the ski lodges of the past had built up to this, a moment that failed to do what should have been done in order to save the Mystery...

Amid the chaos, the panic, and the guilt, a light began to shine like a beacon in Sam's mind. They had failed, this time, but it wasn't the end. Sam knew this, a hopeful, burning thought that carried them to the bottom of the hill to meet the guests with determination like they'd never known it: The Ski Lodge Story had just begun. 

Thank you all, I appreciate you guys so much! "The Ski Lodge Story" is the official name. Why did I wait so long to reveal a fairly basic name? I don't know! But it's here now!

@Morning- thank you for explaining! I've got context for you. The talk book thing was just my excuse to throw some references in, and it was fun in the Mount Olympus setting as it was depicted in the Olympus ski lodge.

Death by McDonald's: from the RMS Tiny; a form of death discussed by the CBers as they fall from a weird flying ship and into a desert with Cerberus and sentient potatoes. (kids, if you ever wonder why my humor borders on insanity, take a glance at my inspirations.)

Double-O-Pie: a legendary, hilarious character, also from the RMS Tiny!

Grieving 101: the Galaxy ski lodge, which isn't extraordinarily well-known, but holds a special place in my heart as the first ski lodge I joined and being full of chaos- such as the running joke with Leafy, her CAPTCHA Hazel, and tofu. And the free popcorn, of course.

Maggie the Fall Out Boy stan: from TON's fourth ski lodge. 

Spice the distressed minigoat: from TON's third ski lodge- a recurring character has Spice as their pet!

"Rumor has it that this keymash is something truly beautiful": also from TON's third; this one always makes me laugh, because someone was killed while they were writing their Nano novel. The others found the character's laptop open to a Google Doc with this keymash as the last thing to be written in their novel. 

Then Hades's journal really does just describe deaths from the original ski lodge. (And yes, tripod Maggie and Fallout Maggie are one in the same.) 

And now back to your regularly schedueled chaos.

Day 13 part 3

As Abcde was running down the hill away from the cabin for her dear, precious life with her whole suitcase and Liddy in tow, she was not thinking about the earthquake. Or the cabin. Or the Mystery. She was thinking about her shoes.

When an avalanche of lemmings came stampeding up behind her, when Liddy started rapidly shapeshifting between a pocket dragon and a sugar glider, and when Remi screamed at her to hurry up all at the same time, she was not phased. This was a crisis. Her most beautiful pair of red heels had broken. With such a tragedy, Abcde wasn't sure that she could carry on.

Actually, that was true about a good handful of them- though their tragedies were more the-Force-is-stronger-than-the-Mystery, we-just-failed-the-mission-to-save-ski-lodges, there-was-an-earthquake-and-TON's-cabin-isn't-safe-anymore-related. Not that Abcde's footwear situation wasn't regrettable and of extreme importance. It's just that some of the others had the (quite literally) earth-shattering new developments on their minds.

Sam, to everyone's benefit, was true to the promise they made with themselves. They stayed calm and confident, knowing that reassuring the guests that this was not the end would ensure a clearer path to the kind of ending they'd hoped to reach just now. The first thing they had to do, though, was calm everyone down- something that was shaping up to be a difficult task. Everybody was a bit confused and anxious about the Mystery situation, of course, not to mention the need to abandon TON's own ski lodge because it wasn't safe anymore. Throw in some lemmings, random pieces of luggage, and three staff members who were just as confused as the guests and arguing amongst themselves plus a fourth staff member who had just been stabbed... well. It wasn't convenient for anyone involved.

After many attempts, Sam finally caught everyone's attention. "Listen, you guys, I know that was a lot that just got thrown in your faces. And the first thing I need to do is apologize. I threw you, the guests I'm supposed to be keeping safe, into a reckless situation, knowing that I didn't have all the information that might have been necessary. It was irresponsible.

"Next, I'm going to tell you all what's going to happen next. We are not giving up. What we are going to do is figure out where we're going to make camp- which is easy enough, since we're surrounded by hotels and castles and mansions, plus the earthquake only effected TON's cabin. We can travel from place to place... and I'll have to get more defined answers of what the Force really is, and how we can fight it in a way that'll guarantee a win." Sam paused a moment. "Why did I ever think this was something I would have to figure out all by myself? You guys would know this just as well as me... we can come up with it together..."

Sam had to remind themselves not to fall into guilt. That wouldn't get them anywhere good; and besides, there's a big difference between acknowledging your mistakes and holding onto them and never forgiving yourself.

And so the guests and staff members set out to find a place to stay at. Though they were all ski lodge destinations and had hosted quite a bit of murder, there were some that felt more cursed than others. Hotel Le'Faye, as they had already seen, was just an invitation for everyone to lose their last braincell. Diagon Alley seemed alright; staying at the Leaky Cauldron was a dream come true for some of them. So that's where they decided to camp out. Only when everyone was seated in the dining room, butterbeer in their hands and a fire crackling in the fireplace, did Sam allow themselves to think about what they'd done wrong and what they had done to the Mystery.

They asked everyone what it was like. The CBers described how they had become battlefields, vessels; how they could feel the powers of the Mystery and the Force pulsating and colliding inside of them.

"But that's all wrong..." Sam said, "You guys are supposed to be the weapons, not some pawns..." Weapons against what? Now Sam had a few problems to solve; how to allow the guests to be the soldiers, and knowledge of the enemy's true power. They sighed. 

"You guys have had quite a day. Why don't you all go to sleep, and we can start thinking about this more tomorrow?"

The CBers were too exhausted to object, and the day that was supposed to end with triumph ended with weariness.

~~~~~

Dead: 10. Arya, poisoned. Cherry, stabbed. Olive, concussed and stabbed. Moondrop and Lucinda, poisoned by plant. Orson, stabbed. Azalea, grenade. Nerd, stabbed. Grace, shot with a bow and arrow. Morning, crushed.

Stabbings of Jem Louise Margaret: 14.

Suspects: Sterling

References this day: none.