(OOC Note: This thread covers events happening in Ten Pines village, the primary setting for The Lottery. If you're interested in playing or learning more about the backstory, please see the following thread and post a profile! New villagers and guests are more than welcome! http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=73326.0 (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=73326.0))<br/><br/>[Posting this as a quasi-GM]<br/><br/>Nestled high in the back roads of the Appalachian Mountains, the village of Ten Pines was isolated by the world not only by physical distance, but also by an aura of secrecy. It wasn't marked on any map, and those who visited by accident often seemed to find the village easier to forget than to remember. Perhaps the rumor was true that all who lived in Ten Pines did not choose to come there--the village, and the dark forces within, had chosen them.<br/><br/>The village itself was a modest one; old houses with widow's watches set at arcane angles out of space seemed starkly out of place there, as the village was set hundreds of miles from the sea. Old dirt roads connected the houses of the village, and only a few of the natives had cars--most travel within the village was by foot or bike. The ones who owned vehicles were most often the shopkeepers, merchants, and priests of the village's queer religion, who often left on errands untold.<br/><br/>Leading out the back of the village was an old stone path, traversable only by foot, that led to another mountaintop. Atop this mountain was a strange stone edifice, half building half courtyard, which seemed to move and shift with the winds--although those few sane minds that had returned from the village swore that they saw it moving even on the stillest of days. This was the temple of the old religion of Ten Pines, to gods left best unnamed, and it was here (and conveniently in a separate message thread) that the town's weekly lotteries took place, obscene paeans to gods long thought dead.