Suite 1313
When she was alive, Ruth Anne Quinn lived in the Black Box Casino's luxury penthouse apartment, Suite 1313. Unfortunately, no one can use the apartment to confirm Ruth's existence because no one can find it!
And yet, a surprising number of people claim to have been there.
Most of the stories are just that, stories. People want to seem in the know, they take the mystery and turn it into a rumor that they have the power to confirm or deny. "Oh, yeah, I've been there, but it's not what you've heard." These stories pass from tourist to tourist like a rotovirus or the flu.
Those who have actually been delivered to Suite 1313 by the Rosen Lift tell the tale with all the reluctance of someone revisiting trauma through the twisted lens of a nightmare.
The Worldbuilder's Note
For this one, I stopped to consider: what is the difference between a mystery and a rumor? They are similar in many ways. But there is also an aspect about them that strikes me as completely opposite.
A mystery is an open lack of information. While a rumor is an open assertion of uncertain information as certain. "There's going to be a garbage strike." "That's just a rumor." "Yeah, but I heard it from my cousin who drives a garbage hauler."
Now...what makes it different if we say "There's going to be a garbage strike." "Is there?" "That's what my cousin told me. He drives a garbage hauler." "Huh. I wonder why?"
Looking at my own choices here, I find myself pulled to that question. "Is there?" If I change that to match the first example, then there's something about the whole construct that immediately falls apart. That leading curiosity is what upholds the drive to solve the mystery of why. The rumor isn't a mystery, but the source of it is mysterious and begs a curious mind to investigate.
We drive audience curiosity with the curious perspective of a curious character.




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