the night is filled with joyous laughter

Up next: Haunted Saddlemead.

While I was waiting for Fawkes, I sat down on a bench.

Big mistake.



Oh, hey, I remember this bug...

By the time I managed to find my way back, I realized the lady by the Haunted Saddlemead sign was the designer. It's always a bit daunting to walk through someone's haunted parcel while they're watching, so to speak.



Miss Chadbourne was ever so polite, though.

Haunted Saddlemead is small, but has a lovely vintage feel. From the layout of the pumpkin patch to the small graveyard, the carved wooden sign to the manor house, small and precise--the best word we found to describe it was quaint.

Quaint, lovely, esoteric, and prettily designed.



And we mean that in all good ways. This is a small haunted parcel that any Caledonian could attend with nary a qualm in their hearts. Not because it's that blah, but because it's that vintage.



I mean, low ceiling or not--and we found out why later--this is a charming room. Walk in, everything's laid out and lovely, and your eye drifts over the fireplace before you notice the back wall is bright red; drifts over the mantel photograph before you realize it's a skull. Then the music on the Victrola starts up, and you're slowly drawn upstairs...



This was why the ceiling was so low. This was just so clever, I was in awe. We stood in the attic and watched the attic things swirl around and around on their own...



A small but adorable churchyard...



...and an actual hayride complete the piquant tableau.

Do check it out. The atmosphere is wonderful, the sound effects perfection--really, for her space, she couldn't have done better. Well worth your time.

Next up: Killtower's Haunted Water Ride. But that will have to wait until tomorrow...

where the sunlight never ever touched the poisoned ground

Pandoria has their !Finished! Maze this year. They seem very hyped about the fact that it's !Finished! in the ads.



First of all, watch that first step--if you don't hit the teleport right, you end up SEVERAL hundred meters below in the Fermi Sandbox!

Ow.

Then I ended up in whitespace...



And then in a lecture hall!



So far, the randomness is very frightening.

I begged Fawkes to port me to where he was, because I couldn't find it on my own from ground level.



Unfortunately, I didn't arrive in time to save Fawkes.

...When I finally got to the main level, warnings abounded. It was intended for mature audiences! Make sure you're set to midnight! If you need to leave, here's how!

I figured, either it's good, or it's ridiculously overhyped.



As we started in, it turned out to be a warren of switchback stone passages, with various haunts scattered throughout. Some of them were static, some moved, some made noise--the crunchy spiders that seem to be all the rage this year were in abundance.



There were a lot of body bits scattered around, signs, burning green flames and the like. In the end, it couldn't decide if it was an evil zombie lab, or a stone castle, and trying to juggle and be both didn't exactly work.



I did love the signs, though.



Most of the haunts were incredibly detailed.



There were just enough dead ends to give the place some little sense of adventure, if not precisely a ton of scares.



And I have to laud them on their creative use of colored fog effects.

At the end of everything, there was a large white button, and the sign said, TP TO SAFETY!

I ended up porting to London Spengler's home--well, 700 meters over Mr. Spengler's home, and then fell--he was the fellow who designed !FINISHED!.



I blame him for how often I hit the ground. I really do.

Go if you want, I wouldn't entirely recommend it. We've seen better--*koff* Devil's Labyrinth *koff*--and they didn't involve crash-landing to the ground. Twice.

oh hear my cries for help and mercy

((New tag--"haunted houses". If you just want to see the haunted house posts as the month goes by, click that link.))

(Why yes, I did post four entries today. Why?)

And then, Gloomy Sunday in StormWind.



Gloomy Sunday takes a long, long time to load. Once we got in, we knew why.



Rain of frogs. And Cthulhu in the corner.



One little, two little, three little tentacle beasts...



And their granddaddy. (Note: frog in upper right quadrant.)

We found a narrow switchback trail leading up from the rain of frogs, and the graveyard. We were watched going up the stairs...





Lili! NOOOOO!

...it's a good thing she heals fast.



"You're too young, Lili."

Actually, the thing was? The patch below with the rain of frogs was infinitely cooler than the haunted house itself. Still, a lot of work and effort went into it, and there are a lot of lovely little places to sit and look out over the sim. The view is spectacular from some of these balcony nooks.

Plus? Up in the house proper was the one thing that really creeped both of us out. And it was so innocuous on the surface--a DJ station, two speakers, a dance ball--touch to dance. The usual, right?

Until we read the color text floating over it.

We were the only two people in the sim going through.

It said, 28 out of 16 people are dancing.

Yeah.

Let that sink in.

Only two people in the sim. And we weren't dancing.



I would say, for the rain of frogs if nothing else, Gloomy Sunday is well worth your time this season. Do check it out. After, find one of the many cuddle blankets or balcony nooks and you can sit and talk, and look over some creative sort's charming bit of macabre delight. It may not have much for actual scares, but it more than makes up for that in atmosphere.

I gasp for air, I scream for sight, I fight against torment and dread

((New tag--"haunted houses". If you just want to see the haunted house posts as the month goes by, click that link.))

Next: the Dark Arya haunted factory at Omega City.



(Miss Neome, myself and Lili wondering if the hearse outside the factory was a portent of things to come.)

Mostly? The Factory? Contains rust. And poltergeists. And many, many ways to die.



Think I'm kidding? This is Miss Neome and myself on meathooks. OW!



"Neome? I...found the...gas chamberzzz...." *thud*!



"Neome! No! Lili, why didn't you stop her!"



It was all too much for me. I found a gun.



And Lili fell on spikes!



Neome...we hardly knew ye...

Thankfully, it's hard to kill vampires. We got her up and turned the corner...



"Em? I...I found a knife...aaaagh..."

About then we found a medical lab, and....well. Things didn't go well:



Never, never, let the nice doctor-man get you on the operating table. It's just not good from there.

We, uh, we have no pictures of what happened next...but it involved a giant, rotating saw.

AAAAAAAAAH!

recite the words of spell

((New tag--"haunted houses". If you just want to see the haunted house posts as the month goes by, click that link.))

Next up: Stay Alive in Readux.

Not so much fun.



Don't get me wrong, it's a great concept. You're given two things upon entering the property--a notecard, and a rose. If at any time, the card says, you feel threatened, there is a spell to intone and you are to drop the rose! It will be your one shot to get out alive!

Also, they go into the history--the actual history--of Erzsébet Báthory, Hungarian countess--and murderess. They postulate that this house, her spirit haunts. That if you go up to the very top floor, you will find her, staring down. But do you want to do that?



So much hype, so little delivery. Mainly the trick to this house? Lots of blind rooms--black unrelieved by anything but flashes, but so small on the build, we could barely turn around to see the spooky before we decided it was a better idea to leave the room!

There were two genuine moments of unease. First, the way the house is structured, it's apparently over the ground level by a significant amount, and at least one of the sections of 'lawn' was left phantomed:



Having Lili yell "HALP!" and not being able to find her...losing Neome, and having her pop out of the ground like toast--and then running to their sides only to fall somehow under the grass myself?

Very unnerving.

Also, this:



is the house. Spooky, right? But this:



is the rest of the sim!

Palm trees and haunted mansions! SPOOOOOKY!

At the very least, on the far side of the property is a small graveyard. With dances. It's a lovely setting, and a lovely way to spend an evening, if nothing else.

Hmm...that gives me...ideas...

everyone hail to the pumpkin song

((New tag--"haunted houses". If you just want to see the haunted house posts as the month goes by, click that link.))

In our continual search for cool haunted houses, let me introduce you to Grimworx. First, the store is beyond nifty. (That's the store, that first link.)



This? Is a toy that may well show up on my Rivula property. It's motion-activated--it's a little open-front room that exactly reproduces the hallway from The Shining.



Oh, yeah. You can see why it had to be mine, right? It goes through the entire scene from the movie.

"Come play with us, Danny....come play with us..."

Hee hee hee.

Okay, but after you're done with all the nifties to be found there--and there are a lot of media-based horror nifties--go to Liquid Heat, their Halloween venture this year.

But a WARNING--do NOT GO unless your connection to the world is strong and true! Kicked young Lili into limbo once, and kept lagging me out to the point where I couldn't move for minutes at a time.



Why? At a guess, a preponderance of sculpted objects (Lindens, you say they do not cause lag but they DOOOO), a plethora of scripts, animations beyond the wildest dream--it's cool, don't get me wrong, but it's laggy as all get-out.



If you have the strength of connection, though, go and wander--first just the lower levels (you can ascend to the haunted house up the hill, but really, it's two levels of blah), and just stand in amazement at the images.



(Diablo and his twin brother torture a campsite.)



(Image from their haunted house.)



(Another from the side room.)

But then, down the path, after you've seen everything on the main level...



...keep going until you find the Haunted Caverns. There are no images saved from the Haunted Caverns. Why? I was having too much sheer, unadulterated FUN!

Walk in to the Caverns--get in the coal cart--ride down the rickety rail system--hope you don't FALL....

Hee. It's grand carnival joy. Very much old-school, very much eek-around-the-corners--oh, just go. Trust me, if you're into haunted house rides? You'll have fun.

thunder only happens when it's raining

At times? Going through my landmark folder gets distinctly odd. Take this trip for instance. This used to be a nightclub.

Now it's a plain of fire and a cave, and the beam-in point? Trapped me half inside a mountain.



This used to be the dearest little frock shop. Now it's the house of some random fur--I know fur, because the welcome mat read, Peace be unto you--but WIPE YOUR PAWS!

And it was some random Jewish fur, and how do I know that? Because the door lintel had a mezuzah affixed to it.

Touching the mezuzah brought me these words:

4. Sh'ma Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad. Hear, O Israel: Adonai is our God; Adonai is one. 5. And you shall love Adonai, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your means. 6. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart. 7. And you shall teach them to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the way, and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for ornaments between your eyes. 9. And you shall inscribe them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 [1]

13. And it will be, if you hearken to My commandments that I command you this day, to love Adonai, your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14. I will give the rain of your land at its time, the early rain and the latter rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil. 15. And I will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat and be sated. 16. Beware, lest your heart be misled, and you turn away and worship strange gods and prostrate yourselves before them. 17. And the wrath of Adonai will be kindled against you, and He will close off the heavens, and there will be no rain, and the ground will not give its produce, and you will perish quickly from upon the good land that Adonai gives you. 18. And you shall set these words of Mine upon your heart and upon your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand and they shall be a reminder between your eyes. 19. And you shall teach them to your children to speak with them, when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20. And you shall inscribe them upon the doorposts of your house and upon your gates, 21. in order that your days may increase and the days of your children, on the land which Adonai swore to your ancestors to give them, as the days of heaven above the earth. Deuteronomy 11:13-21 [2]

Articles of faith in the new world. Mine or not, I'm liking this.

And back we go to random landmark perusal....I'm just hoping tonight for a lack of FIRE, frankly.