Haunting at Monster Mash Cinema

Discovery, Exploration

A team of heroes, and a few rogues, investigate a lead at Old Town's abandoned Monster Mash Cinema.

Following the lead given to them by homeless degenerate and dwarf, Doogan, an investigative team consisting of Spider-Gwen, Lomri Shiplee, Augustus, Arex, and Valkyrie explored the abandoned Monster Mash Cinema in Old Town. Additionally, Colonel Shaprakh's squadron and the Black Spiral Dancers slowly introduced a proxy battle that involved the heroes as their investigation went on into the night. As the heroes entered the building, they were immediately met with yellowed, crackling fluorescent light. The weeping of a child caught them off guard, allowing for a paranormal force to block off any exits and force them through a narrow, pitch black hallway that stretched beyond the ruined lobby.    As they ventured on, then led by Augustus and his Aether capabilities, they experienced a series of paranormal events including the whizzing force of stray bullets that weren't there, shadows transporting them to different parts of the building and the screams of a terrified child. Soon after, the heroes found themselves in the cinema hall with an innumerable amount of theaters opening their doors to them but only a handful marked with the names of old monster movies - Godzilla, Night of the Living Dead, Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolfman. As the team split up into their chosen movies, each theater revealed a segment of the true story behind the cinema's tragic closing, from the APD officer's insufferable laughter to the accidental death of Alicia Vulpe.   This culminated in Alicia screaming out to the heroes for help from the cinema hall, being dragged into the last theater by the shadowy doppelganger of the APD Black Shield who killed her that night. Bursting into the oddly pristine theater labeled as showing the movie "Children of Men", a pre-recorded message began to play, along with Ivory's likeness on the projector. He started to talk about how they experienced the true nature behind the cinema's closing and how Alicia only wants people to understand that she and her kind aren't mindless monsters. He continues by saying that the true monsters are the APD, the government and the mayor who is heading it all, explaining that these were the types of monsters they couldn't banish with magic words and silver bullets.   The APD specter held Alicia hostage on stage with a gun to her temple, explaining to the heroes that she and her kind were indeed monsters and that they didn't even belong on the Archipelago. He went on to say that they have a responsibility to the people of Apollo to protect humanity. Ivory's recording continues, telling the heroes that it is always the weakest who suffer and no one thinks about the collateral damage and trauma that comes from the clash of good and evil. He says that there is no such thing as good or evil but only what's fair, telling them to decide on what to do with the current situation.   Instead of killing the APD officer, or interfering in the situation in general, the heroes instead used their words to try and de-escalate the situation. But neither Gwen's plea for it to stop nor Augustus' fiery rant about Ivory's hypocritical nature stopped the gun from going off. This left Alicia on the stage alone and the APD officer gone, just like the night of the incident. The last portion of the recording played, this time revealed to be activated by Alicia herself, who had an unknown relationship to the drug kingpin. Ivory told the heroes that their passive nature wasn't surprising and that they shouldn't count on anyone giving them any more clues. However, he then stated that his next move should be more than obvious to anyone who experienced the truth about the city's corruption, finishing by saying that everything he does is to save the people.   Alicia vanished and the heroes were transported back to the dingy yellow halo of the lobby's buzzing lights, left to unravel Ivory's next terrible plan against Apollo City.