The Transformations of Penny Wren (Patreon)

Penny Wren wrung her hands tightly around the old mag-light. There was always a trick to it… there! The yellowing beam was peppered with the heavy fall rain, casting a hazy ellipse on the old manse in front of her. It was gigantic, easily the largest house in this sleepy college town; maybe the largest in the state. The rumored opulence and ridiculous sizeof the mansion had a storied history: Holden VanCleef (the robber-baron patriarch of the family) trying to out-do the other rich elite of his time; or perhaps a twisted “Winchester-esque” mania of Agnes VanCleef, Holdon’s widow. The most popular one, though, was that Professor Holden VanCleef, son of shipping magnate, poured vast sums of his family’s riches into maintaining the facade to cover up secret chambers where he carried out his extreme experiments.

Locked tight years ago, but a key had been passed down in Penny’s sorority for years. And, every year, Phi Beta Phi sent in one unlucky pledge to bring back a souvenir from the inside of the manse: a rite of passage. Penny checked her watch, wiping the rain from its face. 6:30 pm. The storm had made it pretty dark, but it was still early; plenty of time to get in, poke around for a cool trinket, and maybe get back to catch the X-Files, but she wasn’t going to pass up a chance for something cool. No one had ever gone past the foyer; she was sure that had to have been picked clean.

Penny, flashlight cocked bravely over one shoulder, the pack of tools swinging on the other, strode up to the mansion, the old brass key in hand, thinking on the whole of the mansion… left without a single living soul to disturb its mysterious artifacts.

This year, she thought, that was going to change.

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Equipment: bag of tools, watch, mag-light flashlight, old brass key

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Okay! So, the next couple weeks are going to be art light, so I thought I’d try something else to keep you all engaged. It’s not exactly a choose your own adventure, as much as me running a bit of a role playing session with you all.

I’m going to ask a question, present a scenario or a series of choices at the end of each of these entries. I’d like you all, in the comments, to offer suggestions, courses of action, anything along those lines, but try to keep them directed at what you would do if you were the character. Or in this case, helping me create our character!

Who is Penny Wren? All we know of her is she’s female presenting, has a flashlight and a pack of tools, and is a freshman pledge at the one of the local Sororities. The time period is the 1990’s (so we can forgo pesky cel phones).

So, start describing Penny below! I’ll grab any info I want to include in the next entry. We’ll also keep track of what he have at the bottom of the entry as well as any events of note that need documenting.

Start putting in your ideas for who Penny is, what she’s like, what skills she may have, what tools she could have in her backpack, and what she looks like below.