By AlHazred (original post)
Like most hotels, this one has a rodent problem. It's inevitable that they'll be there, all that food left sitting about. Whenever a guest complains, the Management calls in an exterminator to clean it up
Recently, though, something strange has been going on. First, a few exterminators came back to the Front Desk all shaken-up-looking; they loudly said they'd never be back to work at the hotel, and left in a hurry.
Then, a few exterminators disappeared. From different parts of the hotel. In at least one case, an exterminator disappeared from the pool area while a guest was sunning herself; the guest just recalls that the sound of the spray stopped suddenly - when she looked up, the can was sitting on the floor and the exterminator was never seen again.
Worst of all, though, is what happened the last time. A few guests said that the exterminator who came back claiming the job was done didn't look exactly like the one who went into the basement to work. He looked somewhat heavier, and walked with a strange limp. He didn't seem to move his lips much when he talked, either, and spoke in a really raspy voice. Anyway, he left the hotel and vanished from the parking lot - his car was later recovered by his company. At least the police asked fewer questions that time…
1) Mystical: Some time back, a guest died in her room (perhaps the mother of KA’s Little Annie). For some reason, before the body was even noticed (perhaps it was hidden), the mice consumed it utterly. The woman has come back as a ghost, manifesting herself through the mice of the hotel. Perhaps she seeks to destroy the one who killed her. Perhaps she died of natural causes, and just seeks to continue a phantom existence in the hotel. Or perhaps she has become the conduit for even darker forces…
2) Weird Conspiracy: The mice that infest the hotel escaped from a nearby secret government facility. They were experimental rodents, fitted with radio transceivers and computer chips designed to let Uncle Sam use them as the ultimate espionage tool. Something's gone wrong, though, and they managed to flee the lab. The central computer that they interface with seems to have achieved almost some level of sentience. Perhaps it's even managed to “flee” the lab as well, copying itself into a guest's powerful machine (perhaps the one belonging to ThothAmon’s, er, Rape Man)…
3) Fortean: The mice and rats have achieved a hive mind of sorts, perhaps due to something they consumed that they found at the hotel. It’s only this substance that allows them to think at that higher level, and their actions are aimed at finding out how to get more of it. Of course, they have to take care of the exterminators as well; what would happen if more groups of rats and mice managed to achieve hive sentience is left as an exercise for creative GMs. Suffice it to say that after humans became dominant, most of the dangerous animals larger than us disappeared…
Back to creepy_hotel