Kelly is born. She grows up, gets various toys, and generally has a happy first few years of childhood.

The family move house. Kelly moves into her new room, and has nightmares for weeks, as her toys fight against the monsters in the room.

This is something Jordan's toys know happened, though not much in the way of details - many of the toys from this era were handed down to cousins rather than being passed to Jordan.

Jordan is born. For the first couple years of their life they sleep in a crib in the smallest room in the house. Over these early years, they amass a small collection of toys, some of which they still have to this day.

Jordan, now starting school, is getting a little big for the small room they started in, so the family gets a bunkbed so that Jordan and Kelly can share a room. Their toy collections mingle somewhat, swap stories, and generally get to know each other.

Over the next few years Jordan gains a few toys of Kelly's that are passed on when they start playing with them more than she does, and several other toys of their own.

The toys get wind that the family are planning to move - only as the first of them are being packed up for transport. Digging deeper, they realise that Jordan and Kelly are going to be split up - and those of Kelly's toys that remember the previous move try to pass over as much information as possible to Jordan's toys about how they dealt with the Monsters in the old house when Kelly first moved in. Given the hurried nature of the discussions and the old memories, this briefing is less helpful than it could have been.

Worse, Jordan's mother has to leave on business, leaving just their dad to handle the final logistics of the move (with some help from Kelly).

Over the next few days, more and more toys vanish into boxes, more and more playsets from their town are taken and packed away. Toys are separated from their accessories, from other toys they have known for years, and wake up in darkness in a cardboard prison.

(i.e. the day before the first session)

The family move to their new house, in a confusing day of movement and vans and boxes getting jostled around and finally, after what seems like hours, the light of a new room.

Not all the toys are there - some boxes haven't made it in the intial round of unpacking, cast up into the attic until both parents are home and they can tackle the rest of the unpacking together. The new room is larger, but that just makes the missing playsets feel more empty, and the new furniture feel more alien. As Jordan is shown around the rest of the house, the toys explore their new room, with whispered fearful discussions about what might await them that night.

(i.e. the night before the first session)

The monsters attack. Scratching sounds come from the window, held at bay by the glass and curtains. Jordan tosses and turns in their sleep, clearly distressed as a horde of bestial warriors sweeps out from under the bed, their apparent aim to pillage what they can from the fledgling new town the toys have made from those playsets that have been unpacked. A few brave scouts slip past the invaders, venturing under the bed to discover what else might lurk there. From above, a slow stomping can be heard from the attic, but those in the room are too busy fighting for their new home to spare any worry for those still up there in boxes.

They are holding their own, just about - disorganised, unpracticed, but managing to defend themselves and their child, until something bursts out of the cupboard. They don't get a good look at it - it's all claws and scales and a suggestion of fangs which the shadows seem to twist around, but it lunges over them and goes straight for the bed.

Jordan wakes up with a scream - the monsters vanish in an instant, the toys collapse as they always do when in a human's eyesight, and a few long moments later Dad rushes in to try and comfort his child.

The screaming stops, and Jordan says they're OK, but they do not get back to sleep that night.

More information about what the toys have managed to glean about the monsters can be found on the monsters page. More information about the events of that first night will be presented in the “turn 0 news” before the Session 1 (29th January).