Mary Kate's handler (Binajane) and I had to rush to write this one, as well as the last bit of last mission's Finale, since of course I was leaving soon for a family trip to Maine, which I spoke quite a bit about in the archive for that last mission.

In fact, I was up later than I would have liked to be, finishing up this mission, the Job Notice and RP notes for it. I'm thankful to Binajane for writing the main story for this Rollover, in fact.

The main page mentions the two games which influenced AIL (although the archive.org links for them seem to be down currently). Job Notice is a tip of the hat to those two games, especially the original game, Mercs. They used the term "mission notice," but that was too similar to the term they used for RP notes, or something, so I changed it a bit. I think.

Instead of a Rollover, they referred to the starting post of a mission as "Mission Notice," and it often was presented more as a letter to the adventurers, rather than a story, if I recall right. (This was over a decade ago.) So I drew inspiration for that for this Rollover, as you will see at the bottom!

This mission debuts two player debuts and sees the return of Sir Fumblies - and it all starts here!

 
Dottie had been working on some documents for her boss, Carlo Penno, when she got the message. She jumped out of her chair and grabbed her sweater as she headed to Carlo's office. She burst into his office without knocking, causing Carlo to look up with a startled look on his face.

"Dottie! what is the meaning of bursting in like this! You know you are supposed to knock first!" scolded Carlo.

"Sorry, sir, but this is an emergency! Pete's been missing for about three hours. I'd like to take time off to go find her," a teary-eyed Dottie told Carlo. "I promise I'll make up the time after I find her. Please let me go!"

"Of course. I'll go along to help. It's getting quite late; you'd find her faster with a little kindly assistance." Carlo hung the "gone fishing" sign on the office door.

As they hurried out the door, Dottie told Carlo, "Pete was last seen playing over by the Haunted Mansion and the rest of the children returned without Pete."

Carlo replied in a worried voice, "With all the rumors that's flying around about that place lately, we should start looking there. If you can think of anywhere she might be around there, we'll look there first."

Dottie thought for a minute and looked at Carlo. "Yes, there's a spot she likes to go to hide from the other kids that's on a little hill not far from the Haunted House."

Carlo nodded to Dottie to lead the way to the hill and as they got closer Dottie caught a slight movement. "I think I see her on the side of the hill!" said Dottie as she broke into a run. Carlo in close pursuit came to a sudden halt when Dottie suddenly threw up her hand as a signal to stop. There, in a depression on the side of the hill, sat Pete playing.

"What's she doing playing in that dirty hole?" asked Carlos, annoyed but relieved that they'd found her safe.

Looking at the depression closer, Dottie let out a gasp and replied in a quiet voice so as not to scare Pete, "Sir, she's not playing in dirt. She's playing with a nest of black snakes and I don't want to yell at her until I get her out of there. You stay back here and I'll get her."

Dottie eased up to the depression and calmly said to Pete, "You have to say goodbye to your friends and come with me so we can get home before it gets dark."

Pete reluctantly stood up and gingerly climbed over the writhing mass of snakes and walked to her mother. "I was playing with the kids and got bored and found my friends here and they asked me to play with me. I'm sorry I scared everyone," said Pete.

Then she saw that Mr. Penno was there also and she started sobbing. "I'm really sorry to have caused all this trouble but I was having so much fun I forgot about the other kids and the time," Pete said between sobs.

Carlo bent over and looked at Pete with as stern a face as he could muster and said, "Young lady, don't you ever scare us like that again. You had your mother worried to death and you could've gotten badly injured. Now you promise me that you won't do that again."

Pete looked at Carlo thru tear filled eyes and said, "I promise, Mr. Penno." Then turning to Dottie, she said, "I'm tired; can we go home now?"

With a chuckle from the adults, they turned and headed back to the office when a very relieved Dottie said, as she took Pete by the hand, "Young lady, we have to have a long talk when we get home."

They hadn't walked too far when they found themselves surrounded by a group of thug rats. "Well now look at what we have here," said the biggest and ugliest looking of the thugs.

"Why don't you give us all your meat and other valuables and we won't hurt you," sneered another ugly thug.

Carlo realized that they were in trouble and he had no weapons and no one knew where they were; since he'd hung the "Gone Fishing" sign on the door, that's where the townspeople would think he'd gone.

The thugs kept glancing over their shoulders as tho they were looking for something or someone, when the lead thug said, "We've got to hurry! That magic barrier is getting closer and will soon surround the whole area around the Mansion."

Carlo overheard the conversation and saw that the barrier was indeed getting closer, pushed the thugs out of the way and yelled to Dottie, "Run, get as far away as you can. I'll try to hold them back."

Pete managed to slip away from her mother, get thru the barrier and run to the Council looking for help, but Carlo and Dottie weren't fast enough and the barrier closed around them trapping them inside.

 
By Binajane

 
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Once they were made aware of the situation, several Council of Loathing members consulted with local town guards and a homeless guy named Mr. Kleoy who claimed to be psychic but really just charged them 90 meat plus 60 meat for each additional minute (don't ask). Within a few hours, they'd drawn up a document for adventurers and got it pushed around the Kingdom by early, early morning.

Posted in the Council's headquarters, it was a simple enough order.

Adventurers were requested/ required to clear out the haunted Spookyraven Mansion. To do so, they'll have to get past the force field surrounding it and several neighboring buildings.

They are to clear the Spookyraven mansion out, since it's causing problems not just from the haunting but from the rats and bats, all of whom are hanging out there.. along with other members of the Somber Six..

Who are the Somber Six? So far we know the consist of Baron van Ratsworth, Boss Bat, and the just revived Lord Spookyraven.

No doubt, we'll hear about the other three members in due time...

Dottie, Mr. Penno and young Pete all debut during the last mission's Rollver, thanks to Mary Kate's handler. Pete's story is actually based on one of her own stories as well which is kind of a cool touch. She isn't in the next mission's Rollover, but I certainly plan and hope we'll see more of the two past this mission!

We'll start the mission with a mainstay in AIL; a Sassy Snake solo, and we'll get a couple pieces of Mary Kate, one with the first debuting SnowCatCuties! But next up: Sassy Snake!