House of Mr. Fox

[CorvusCornix]

Greetings, esteemed masters of horror,

Once again my imagination seems to have run dry - or maybe my lack of knowledge of English fairy tales is to blame? My PCs have already encountered a victim of Mr. Fox (Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends) - although they haven't realized that yet. As some more victims are about to follow, I assume that sooner or later my PCs will want to get rid of this nuisance. Should they start looking for the appropriate book of children's tales, they'll find a hint of how to get to the house of Mr. Fox.

Now finally to the question: what do you imagine this House would look like? Pretty weird, I'd assume, it's inhabited by a bogeyman after all. I've thought maybe some weird physics, like suddenly being in the basement of the house, even though all the stairs led upward. Maybe some strange factory for his toys? Or somehow the children re-appear in his house - although I rather prefer the idea that the children are actually trapped IN the toys... Or maybe it's inhabited by the ghosts of the children he "killed"?

Any kind of advice would be very welcome!
Felix

[Joël of the FoS]

I'd make it an oubliette à la VRGttMists.

Using the toys in a certain way opens this oubliette?

Inside: a room is a bleak toy "factory" where children makes his toys? The beaten children are feeble and drained of all energy and emotion? But they do not want to leave as they will loose their place in the game? (or whatever insane thing Mr Fox put in their mind to keep them obedient)

Joël

[CorvusCornix]

Thanks a lot for the hint with the Oubliette, Joël! I hadn't gotten around to reading VRGttM yet, but looked up the description of Oubliettes just now, they fit perfectly. I'll fit the way to open the Oubliette into the fairy tale the PCs find (like, "when the sun began to set, the whole path started to glow in a soft red light where the hero's blood had dried, and the toy in his hand began to hum").

Hm, some kind of mad factory, with zombielike children painting dolls and the like, mindlessly continueing their work night and day, maybe with a "newcomer" between them who still behaves kind of normally but is constantly crying and slowly driven mad by these surroundings and the punishments for his "sloppy work". I like that .

[Rotipher of the FoS]

Perhaps instead of being in a trance, the children are transformed into rag dolls and puppets and so forth, which labor to craft more toys? Once in a while a "doll" might start showing signs of independence -- picking up and putting down the same tool over and over, as if unsure why it's doing this work; tears leaking down its face as it labors; picking up a doll that says "Mama" when squeezed, and squeezing it over and over; etc -- that hints at the child's spirit trapped inside.

Of course, when the dolls nearby -- dolls, which are also children -- notice this deviant behavior, it's part of their ingrained function to calmly and wordlessly sieze the aberrant 'doll', disassemble it, and distribute its parts among the various newly-crafted workers that are just joining the assembly-lines....

[CorvusCornix]

Oo, that's SO EVIL! I love it! Very much! I hope I don't get any nightmares tonight because I can't get that picture out of my head in time Thanks a lot, now I can't wait for my players to get to that house