Kalifox
Terrarian
Sweet n’ Salty!
Trouble in Terraria Town
Part 1
The sun was splashing vivid puddles of color across the sky as she sank into her boudoir for the night. It was going to be a full moon and the stars were preparing their finest vestments as their voices joined in a single symphonic choir. As a hush fell over the land, a set of skilled fingertips fell to playing ivory piano keys in the small village where the townsfolk of Terraria dwelled. Tony the Arms-Dealer was sitting at the work-bench in his room when he heard a quiet voice in the music room as the piano plinked on to match,
“...But you don’t really care for music, do ya? Well it goes like this - the fourth, the fifth! The minor fall and the major lift: the baffled king composed hallelujah… Hallelujah… Hallelujah... “
He frowned. Not that he paid much attention, but to his knowledge, only the Goblin Tinkerer, the Merchant, and the Wizard played the piano and only the Nurse and Dryad really sang with confidence. He peeked over his shoulder to his bed where the Nurse was sleeping soundly, blonde hair falling in languid strands over her face. She’d been there when he came in earlier and he hadn’t wished to disturb his beau - yet. But somehow - the voice from the music room sounded so much like hers. As the grandfather clock ticked and tocked onwards, a loyal metronome, the singing from down the hall continued until it bothered Tony a great deal. Finally he set down his gun parts and stood with an annoyed grunt. Ammunition clinked on his belt as he stretched a bit and threw open the door to his room.
The music from the piano abruptly halted and the singing died away. The light from the lanterns all flickered for a moment as though a strong gust of wind had frightened them all simultaneously. A window shutter at the end of the hall crashed angrily against the side of the building.
“Trisha needs to check the wiring on the window releases,” He muttered, only to crash straight into Jamundi the Witch-Doctor. His face was pierced with bones and sticks, dyed with mud and paint until his humanity was cloaked in a mask of unruly modifications.
“Hey watch it!”
But Jamundi only leaned close to whisper, “Lynch the Guide!” before sliding down the hall into the shadows, bone charms rattling with wicked laughter.
“The hell are you saying, J-man?” Tony called after him, but was immediately distracted by a piercing scream.
At the top of the stairs, just down the hall, lay the Merchant. His wares lay around him in an organized circle, nothing damaged, nothing tampered with. A pool of blood slowly spread from beneath his weathered coat as his old eyes peered sightlessly down the hall towards the music room where Trisha the Mechanic and Jenna the Nurse stood. Trisha had her hands cupped over her mouth as she tried to keep another scream from bursting out. Jenna ran forward without hesitation and dropped beside him, feeling for a pulse and beginning CPR.
“Tony!” Trisha demanded, tears streaming down her face, “What did you see!? You were right there! What happened?”
“Geezus, I don’t know, I swear to ‘Thulu I don’t know anything!” Tony backed up slowly, creepy-crawlies tumbling over him as he realized that whoever was in his bed wasn’t the Nurse. Trisha started wailing loudly as Jenna pumped the Merchant’s chest with both hands without any results. The other townspeople began to appear from their rooms and other floors. Murmurs and conjecturing filled the hall as Tony slunk back. His room seemed so much darker than he remembered.
He reached the side of his bed and stood silently over the motionless bundle beneath the covers. Beads of sweat collected across his forehead as he reached for the bedspread. How would he explain a body in his bed? What was happening? As his fingers clutched the fabric, he felt moisture. He yanked his hand back which had been stained with blood and a whisper shattered his concentration,
“One of us.”
Something collided with his skull and the Arms-Dealer sank to the ground unconscious. When he woke up, he was tied to a chair and most of the Town were standing around him.
“My head-” He whined, only to have Trisha step towards him, wielding her wrench menacingly,
“Why did you do it, Tony! Give us one good reason why we shouldn’t feed you to the Zombies tonight! I’ll summon Cthulu’s Eye myself and feed every last cell of your worthless meatbag body to him!”
Jenna was covering her eyes with her face but he could see the exhausted wrinkles that bunched across her forehead,
“I thought you were a good man, Tony. Just tell us why you did it.”
“I didn’t!” He strained against his restraints, “I’d never hurt either of them!”
“Either! Aha! See? I told you all, I told you!” Barked Tordak the Demolistionist, “He was going back for da’ second body! He dun’ threw it out dat der’ window in da’ hall. The wires been cut and it were just hangin’ free.”
"Then how did I get knocked out!?” Tony hissed, “I didn’t have anything to do with any of this. Ask Jamundi, he spoke to me in the hall before I even saw Milton.”
“Your hands are all bloody and there’s a huge stain in your bed as though someone were bleeding out, but there’s no body. Where is the body or if you’re innocent, where are your wounds?”
“Look, I don’t have either, okay? Ask the freakin’ Witch-Doctor. He saw me. I went back to my room because I thought Jenna was there. I heard a voice, it told me ‘one of us’ and then someone hit me with something, alright? I don’t have any clue what’s going on in this damn village, but someone’s gone crazy.”
“How do we know it’s not you, Tony?” asked the Guide quietly. He had a strange look on his face, “Prove that you’re innocent, Tony.”
Tony rocked angrily in the chair, “It wasn’t me, dammit! You tell me how we know that it wasn’t you! Or you! OR ANY OF YOU! Jenna, what was the cause of death?”
Jenna exhaled slowly, “As best as I can tell, a frontal stab wound. He bled out within minutes. The blood splatter at the bottom of the stairs indicates it happened there and he made it to the top before collapsing. I don’t know why he didn’t call out for help. Gods, I was right there… I was right in the music room.”
“Nobody leaves.” interrupted the Goblin Tinkerer, “Nobody leaves until we figure this out. Anyone who tries to will be presumed guilty, and killed on sight. Someone here is a murderer.”
“Yes.” whispered the Guide, “One of us.”
SUBSCRIPTION/CREDITS LIST
If you'd like to be tagged every time we release an edition go ahead and ask for a subscription!
Subscribers:
@Teal
@Kalifox
Also, special thanks to @DerpoTheMagnificent for editing together our banner and the dividers! We love you Derpo, not sexually, but we do love you.
Last edited: