Hotel California
(Created by DarkSoldier (dfloyd84@yahoo.com), with apologies to the Eagles)
Cultural Level: Renaissance (9)
Landscape: No Ecology (Temperate Settled Area).  The Hotel California is a
lovely place, a long, three-storey structure on a dark desert highway with a
sloped roof, a bell tower, and Gothic spires, with shrubs lining the paved
walkways.  When somebody approaches the Hotel, he can smell the warm scent of
colitas and see its shimmering lights in the distance, indicating that the
Hotel is close.  Travelers find themselves growing sleepy, and feel that they
should stop for the night.
	There is plenty of room at the Hotel California; the hotel has fifty
two-bed rooms on each floor, and five penthouse suites.  The penthouse rooms
have mirrored ceilings and pink champagne on ice (though for what purpose is
debateable).
	Five golden eagles perch in one of several tall palms tree around the
Hotel, and the staff has named them: Don, Glen, Don, Joe, and Randy (yes,
there are two eagles named Don).
	Unfortunately, nobody who enters the Hotel California can leave; the
main entrance does not open, the emergency exits do not open, and the windows
do not open.  Occasionally, somebody can be seen exiting the Hotel, but the
door only functions for that person and nobody else.  As well, any room that
is not currently occupied is not accessible.  Looking out the windows only
reveals an endless wall of grey Mist.

Major Settlements: None.  The Hotel is a single settlement.

The Folk: Population - 31.  Languages - the staff speak any language the
visitors can understand.  Religions - none.
	A woman stands in the doorway with a lit candle to welcome visitors,
who will also meet the desk clerk, the bellhops, the maids, the cook (who
calls himself "the Captain"), the night man, and perhaps the manager.
	Several other rooms are occupied, with a total of twenty tenants and
eleven staff residing in the Hotel, and they live it up; the courtyards are
often occupied with dancing and merriment.
	However, many of these tenants are neck-deep in insidious plots and
schemes against their spouses, co-workers, and employers.  The staff takes a
role in this bizarre soap opera, too; the Captain is in love with the candle
woman, who's infatuated with one of the bellhops, who's sleeping with one of
the maids, etc, etc.  It seems as if these people are acting out scenes from
a poorly-written mystery novel.

The Law: Managerial democracy.  The manager and his staff run the Hotel
California.

Trade and Diplomacy: None.  Nobody from the Hotel California makes any
attempt to coax travellers into staying, but people always stay there when
they find it.  A regular room is 2 gp per night, and the penthouses run at
30 gp per night.  Checkout is at noon, and 10% tips are recommended.

Characters: None.




Loyd F.K. Reed, Darklord of the Hotel California
Male human Brd2: CR 2; Medium-size Humanoid (Human) (5 ft. 6 in. tall); HD
2d6; hp 12; Init +0; Spd 30 ft.; AC 10; Atk +0 melee (1d3-1, unarmed strike);
SQ Life imitates art, undying soul; AL CE; SV Fort +0, Ref +3, Will +3; Str
8, Dex 11, Con 11, Int 11, Wis 10, Cha 14.
Skills and Feats: Bluff +8 (6), Concentration +5, Gather Information +8 (6),
Knowledge (writing style) +5, Perform (storytelling) +10 (6); Endurance,
Skill Focus (Perform).
Bard Spells Known: 4/1 per day.  Base DC = 12 + spell level.  0 - light, mage
hand, mending, open/close, read magic; 1st - alarm, erase.
Signature Possessions: A very incomplete copy of "Hotel California."

	Loyd Reed would stand about five and a half feet tall, if he ever
stood upright.  Showing no desire for personal hygiene, his hair is long,
thin, and greasy, sticking to his dirty skin in clumps.  His dark brown eyes
show both madness and obsession (and dark rims that show he rarely sleeps),
though they are hidden behind silver-rimmed lenses, and he hasn't changed his
ink-stained clothes since arriving at the hotel.
	The 54-year-old does not acknowledge anything other than the quill
pen in his hand and the papers on his desk.  Very rarely will he eat or
drink, but as soon as he's finished, he goes right back to work.

Background
	For his entire life, Loyd Reed wrote.  Every waking moment he spent
writing stories; fantasies, romances, thrillers, and horrors.  He poured his
soul into every work, treating each creation as if it were his child.  He
spent years carefully crafting every scene, every character, to make them as
real as the people on the streets outside his window.  
	Unfortunately, his works were not well-received.  The local publisher
turned him down, saying that his submissions were contrived, cerebral, or
too difficult to understand.  The people, they told him, wouldn't want to
read his work.  Reed was crushed.  To be told that his work was sub-par was
the greatest insult he could ever receive.  He considered his work superior
to many of the authors and playwrights of his day.
	Only one person besides Reed enjoyed reading his work: his sister
Antonia.  She was the only person who didn't think Loyd insane, as she not
only condoned his maniacal writing, she encouraged it.  When their parents
died, Antonia allowed Reed to stay with her, supporting his obsession without
a second thought.
	With his sister's financial backing, Reed set about creating the
ultimate tale of intrigue, love, and betrayal.  With incredible zeal, he set
about defining every character and every aspect of the story, which he set in
a lonely desert hotel, "Hotel California."  He wouldn't stop unless his
hunger became too great, his thirst became unquenchable, he fell asleep on
his paper, or he ran out of ink.  Antonia always made sure that he had plenty
of paper and ink, and brought him his meals every day.
	Reed's sanity unravelled as he wrote, and he imagined that he walked
into his story, to better understand the subtle nuances of each character
that would ensure him a lucrative contract with the publisher.  He spent
every day of ten years at his desk, surrounded by crumpled pieces of paper
and copious amounts of notes, as a stack of papers slowly grew next to him.
Not once did Antonia feel that his hobby had become an unhealthy obsession.
	When he felt it was finished, he spent another month making a copy to
send to his publisher.  A rejection slip came back.  Reed didn't read any
farther than "we have decided not to accept your novel" before he flew into a
rage.  Antonia tried to talk him down, but he wouldn't listen; instead, Reed
attacked her.  He grabbed his quill pen and stabbed her repeatedly.  Antonia
slowly died from her wounds and blood poisoning, but Reed's first thought
after coming out of his blind fury was not for his sister, he wanted to keep
his book safe.
	He carefully packed the book in a case and took it with him as he
went to another town, hoping to find a publisher with good taste in fiction.
As Reed left, Antonia cursed him with her last breath, saying he would never
find true happiness in his writing.
	As he rode down the dark road, he smelled a warm scent that made him
feel sleepy.  He saw the shimmering lights of a building off in the distance,
and the thought came to him that he should ask to spend the night.
	When he went in, he found that it was exactly like the hotel in his
novel, right down to the descriptions of the bellhops, the clerk, and the
other guests.  He got a room and lay down on the bed, drifting off to sleep,
not knowing that he could check out anytime he liked, but he could never
leave.

Current Sketch
	When he awoke, Reed discovered that "Hotel California" (the book) had
disappeared.  Nobody claimed to have taken it, and thorough searches of the
hotel turned up not one page, so Reed sat down at his desk and started again.
Unfortunately, he no longer remembered any of the events in the story, and
that drove him even farther into madness.  He now spends every day trying to
recreate the story from scratch, but he will never recapture the flair and
style of the original.  He can still write other stories without suffering
from writer's block even once, but his greatest work, "Hotel California,"
will never be the same as it was when he first penned it.
	The dark powers saw his incredible devotion to his work, and created
the Hotel California as it appeared in his novel, and then stole the hard
copy as he slept.  Now, anyone entering the Hotel has to become a character
in the story, and since Reed is more concerned with recreating his book than
the Hotel itself, the new "guests" are unable to leave.
	Moreover, Antonia's spirit haunts Room 318, and she still cannot
believe that Reed was capable of killing her.  She regrets cursing him, and
wishes that she could undo it, but she believes that somebody from outside
could help her help her brother free himself from this prison.

Combat
	Reed is an exceptionally poor combatant; his field is writing, and he
is ill equipped to defend himself if somebody should attack him.  However,
anyone interrupting his writing will cause him to fly into a rage, and he
will attack with unarmed strikes until the interruptors leave.

Life Imitates Art (Su): Anything that Reed writes will happen, but only if it
concerns "Hotel California."  His other stories do not affect the actions of
the Hotel's tenants and staff.
Undying Soul (Su): If killed, Reed will reappear in another room of the hotel
in 1d6 minutes.

Lair
	Ever since arriving at the Hotel California, Reed has stayed in Room
317, and hasn't left.  In fact, except when food and supplies are delivered
to his room, nobody sees him.  The room does not have a sinkhole of evil, but
Reed's mad drive to complete "Hotel California" has given the entire
structure a rank 3 ethereal resonance.

Closing the Borders
	Reed's writing keeps the borders closed.  Although entrance is
allowed, the doors do not open, even by great force.  The only way to leave
is if Reed allows it, by writing into "Hotel California" that the characters
exit.