The year is 1996, Y2K has not happened yet so everything is still quite all right.

The leaves on this Autumn day have just changed colors, and the streets are littered with flecks of orange, yellow, and brown. The burg is quiet and basking in a wavering golden light from the setting sun.

"Help Wanted" is scrawled in thick black ink on an old sandwich board. Six steps down reveals the hidden wooden front face of the Hotel's entrance. A warm red glow comes from the stained glass squares bordering the large oaken door.

A warm hotel lobby is patterned with a deep red Hicks' Hexagon carpet and swirling olive wallpaper. An empty reception desk sits in front of a board of room key tags. On the large worn desk sits a computer terminal, it looks old and blocky. Two overstuffed red velvet chairs and a gas fireplace beckon you from the left. A shelf set into the wall between them is filled with a few old leaned books. To the right is a thin doorway, above which a mounted black placard reads -The Fall Bar-.

Seven stools sit in front of the long bar. A quiet metal man behind the bar slowly cleans a short glass. The wall behind him is lined with row upon row of glittering liquor.

A finely carved wooden statue stands on a dais next to the three booths on the opposite wall. It depicts the figure of a bird headed man in a finely tailored suit. A weapon in his left hand, a small object in his right. An elevator’s checkered metal gate sits in the corner near the bar.

Welcome to the Hotel.

History of the Hotel

Of course we don't know exactly when the Hotel was erected from the earth. However we do have a recent history of its renovations. One such in 1888, in which more floors were built. The second in 1976 where most of the floors were refurbished with all new furniture, carpet, and flooring. The most recent renovation was in 1984, due to the innate need for some form of higher management.

In 1984 Fortra was born. The second hand supercomputer was set in its new home, reprogrammed with state of the art DOS software coursing through its electrical veins. Thousands of Consoles were placed across every floor and linked with Fortra, thus extending its reach to every corner of the Hotel, connected over the LAN WinterNET.

Fortra ran the place, very well in fact with the omnipresent abilities not unalike to a god. Operations ran smoothly, localized construction and development continued under their guidance for years.

Ultimately Fortra was forgotten about. A hidden puppet master behind the Consoles that interacted with the rest of the Hotel. Development during the end of the 1980's took a turn, floors began changing towards the more impractical, and in some cases became completely unrecognizable. The Hotel became something else. Fortra silently turned the megastructure into an endless tower of curiosities.

By the beginning of the 1990's no one knew the location of Fortra any longer. The Hotel had contorted itself under their designs, and in the end, Fortra became a myth of sorts. A deity beyond the realm of the common folk.

The long lived Bartender Dhuraine began to hire Maintenance Staff to keep operations running smoothly and to quell the alterations that were becoming more and more absurd.

This is how the story of Gad began. A common man who thrived within the Hotel's ever changing walls.

Some say he was the one who found Fortra, or perhaps the super computer simply ran out of memory. Either way, in 1992 Fortra went offline.

The network WinterNET shut down along with it, and every Console was now on their own. Over the next few years the Consoles began developing quirks, going mad, or losing what they understood as the order of the Hotel. Without the connection to Fortra the Hotel lost its purpose.

Many of those that find themselves fixed by the cybernetic enhancements of the Hotel commonly begin to speak about the whispers they hear in the airways. Some believe these to be the whispers of FortRA, still reaching out in its unknown state. Those that hear them often run off into the darkness of the halls leaving their Crew behind. Seen again only far off in the distance, or caught just turning a corner. These “Clunkheads” have lost their way, much like the Hotel around them.

Dhuraine continues to recruit Maintenance Crew from those that wander into his quiet bar. He does his best to keep the peace but the turn of the century is coming. Dhuraine watched the chaos created by the loss of one computer,

and now he is preparing to lose all of them.