Tag Archive | prompt: dice

The Mystery of the Broke(n) Church

Sep5

I rolled my story dice and ended up with this. 

🎭

The church theatre company was hurting.

Everything about the church was almost always hurting.  It was in a town that had once been prosperous, it had tried gimmick after gimmick – including painting the church purple – to draw in attendance – and it was suffering from having been built in the early 1800s and, purple siding or not, in need of repairs, constantly in need of repairs.

The theatre company brought in a little money, but their costumes were all fifth-hand, the stage was sad and falling apart, and the only person they could get as a stage manager was going deaf.

Then Pastor Jim had a brilliant idea.

“It is going to be sad to see this church go,” he commented at the little stop-and-shop, when he knew one of the town busybodies was listening.  “We’re never going to find out what happened behind that brick wall.”

“What brick wall?”

Pastor Jim would feel bad using Trent Sheperd like this, but Trent was just the right sort of person.  And his voice carried.

“You know, in the basement.  They covered it over in the last renovation, of course…”

The next Sunday, the pews were packed – and the theatre company’s basement rendition of Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart opened to a sold-out house.

Pastor Jim kept laying clues, and spent the rest of his time getting in the way of people trying to follow those clues.

If he came up with something clever enough, he reckoned, they might even raise enough to fix the broken old wall behind the brick wall.  And maybe the ancient catacomb behind that.

 
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A Quest? A story Beginning from Story Dice.

Apr30

written as an experiment in Story Dice; Image at end of story

There was a sign.

Poul had not been expecting a sign.

That was not entirely accurate. Poul had not been expecting a literal sign, the sort that was on a post and had an arrow. Maybe an omen. Maybe an old lady who needed some berries picked.

If this was a storybook. If this was a fairy tale. Poul… sometimes was not too clear on if it was or wasn’t. That had caused some problems over the years, truth be told, but had, in the end, led to Poul setting out on a quest, because either there would be signs and something to do, or Poul would find someplace more interesting to live.

But there was a literal sign pointing down the road, “This way to the locked tower.”

This way to the locked tower sounded like a sign, all right, of both sorts.

Poul headed that way. The road was long, and it twisted and turned as it went, and the sun set long before Poul reached anything but another sign.

“This Way to the Locked Tower,” the second sign read, and below it, in smaller words, “Bring tribute.”

Poul had nothing to bring as tribute, so Poul looked around. The moon was a sliver in the sky, but it was a clear night, and Poul could still make out enough to see the flowers at the roadside.

Flowers were appreciated, right? Poul picked a large bouquet, and tied them up with a bandanna. Then the road beckoned, and Poul continued, adding other roadside plants as the night stretched on.

The moon was thinking of setting when Poul reached an intersection. In the middle of the intersection was a tall woman with bits and pieces of scavenged metal hammered into armor, standing between four barred roads.

“Halt!” She held up her hand. “You can only pass if you bring proper tribute.”

Smiling, Poul held out the flowers.

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