Chapter Thirty-Two: The Harbinger

In the course of the interview, we learned sparse new details. Sally had kicked out her husband Donald once his obsession grew too… rabid. She believed that he was staying at the church where he was currently working. She didn’t know for sure.

The interview went on until eventually everyone in the house was Off-Screen. This must have been a signal to Valerie that she had obtained about as much information as she was going to.

Then the screaming outside started.

“Arthur!” Janette screamed. “Get out here!”

Arthur leaped up from the table and ran to the front door. As soon as he got there and opened it, I could see him roll his eyes.

The rest of us filed out to see what the commotion was.

Janette was standing next to a tall woman wearing a body-length coat. She might have been in her mid-forties. Most of her attire was muted except for her hair, which had been adorned with beads and jeweled broaches. She carried a large umbrella that she was currently using as a walking stick. Her eyes were lightly shadowed with purple makeup.

On the red wallpaper, I saw that her name was Madam Celia Dane, Proprietor—Ethereal Emporium: Antiques and Spiritual Readings. NPC. Plot Armor: 50.

“You said I didn’t have to interact with these people,” Janette said.

The woman, Celia Dane, looked downright offended. “You’d be a bit kinder if you knew what the spirits were saying about you, Missy.”

She turned to Arthur. “Arthur! My dear friend. I got your message. I thought I might come over here and see if my gift could be of service.”

Arthur didn’t miss a beat.

“Thank you, but the kid’s got that covered,” he said.

“Why I’m sure he does,” she said. “After all, I am the one who recommended him to you, aren’t I.”

“I remember.”

“And aren’t I also the one who sent this case to you?”

“You were.”

“It just seemed so strange. Days ago, this woman appears in my shop asking for help with that vile statue. Now she won’t even look me in the eye. I just thought it was odd that she was staying out here. When the answers to what plagues her might be in there.”

Madam Celia turned to Janette. “Don’t you want to know what has brought this curse down on you?

Janette froze. She had a look on her face between disgust and fear. You might have thought that a slug had just spoken to her.

“I’m sure she does,” Arthur interjected.

It was only then that I realized that we were On-Screen again. This entire interaction had been On-Screen. When we had left Camp Dyer, Arthur made Janette promise that she would not break character unless the Off-Screen status was lit. She didn’t seem too keen on keeping that promise.

“Well come on then,” Celia said. “Let’s get you in there. You might find a way to ease your fate.”

“Madam Celia,” Valerie said. “I think this poor woman has had enough.” She gestured back over her shoulder toward Sally, the NPC. “I think we have a lead. We really should pursue it. Thank you for offering to help but we have it from here.”

“Maybe so. It seems to me that your client might have every incentive to seek the truth. After all, receiving an evil thing like this is a terrible… omen. She must want to get to the bottom of it, is all I mean.”

“I’m sure she does,” Valerie said. “And we’re going to help her do that.”

Madam Celia turned back to Janette. “I hope so. But is she willing to steer the wheel of fate herself?”

For a while, Celia stared at Janette. She shook her head.

With the flick of a light, we were Off-Screen.

Madam Celia began walking away using her umbrella as a walking stick. Like most NPCs, she was quick to exit after a scene was over.

But then she stopped.

She cast an eye toward me.

“So, Arthur, how is the new recruit doing?”

He was slightly taken aback at the question.

“Still reserving my judgment on that,” he answered, raising his eyebrow.

Celia smiled. “That’s good. Sometimes it takes time for the gifted to assert themselves, but I assure you, he does have the gift you… need.”

“I’m sure he does.” Arthur reached out and patted my shoulder. He began walking down the street, beckoning us to follow.

Madam Celia continued. “I am certain that in time, he will find his place in the scheme of things, wouldn’t you say?”

Arthur stopped short. He turned and looked at her. “I… would.”

“It is very important that we all find our place in the scheme of things, wouldn’t you say?”

Arthur bid his time answering. I couldn’t read his face, he was too emotionally closed off for such a thing, but if I had to guess, I would say he was confused.

“I would.”

“Good,” she said. With that, she began walking down the street. The enigmatic harbinger left as quickly and mysteriously as she had come.

When Madam Celia was gone, Valerie asked, “You find that strange?”

Arthur didn’t answer at first.

When he did, he spoke to Janette. “You have to go along with us now. We can’t do this whole thing for you anymore. We need to play a clean game. You have to play your character.”

“You said I didn’t have to,” Janette protested.

“And Carousel said otherwise.”

He began walking away, hauling his large duffel at a quick gait. Valerie ran to catch him. She started asking him questions in a hushed tone.

The rest of us followed.

When we were a good distance from the house, Roxie found me and said, “I’ve never seen Carousel do this much handholding before.”

I thought it odd that she would phrase it that way. “You think sticking her in a storyline way out of her league is handholding?” I asked.

Roxie didn’t answer right away. She looked like she was considering exactly what to say and how to say it. It was that familiar face that some of the veterans were so quick to wear. The “Do I tell him” face.

“She could have just disappeared.”

I wondered if I could get Roxie to tell me more. “Is that why so many players are missing? Do they just disappear? You didn’t think we would notice that some players outlived their teammates? How exactly is that possible? I thought it was everyone dies, or no one does.”

But she didn’t tell me more. Instead, she looked ahead of us and said, “Look at that!”

I suddenly noticed that we were not anywhere near the neighborhood we had just left. Roxie’s Mystifying Geography ability was just that: mystifying. I had no idea how far we had traveled in only five or ten minutes.

The thing that Roxie had been pointing at was an old-fashion Ferris wheel. We were approaching some fairgrounds. As we passed by, I read the phrase “Carousel Arts and Crafts Fair.”

Behind that, there was a giant limestone statue of a man. He was wearing an evening coat with an ascot. He was posed up as you might see in a statue of a founding father.

“That,” Roxie said, “Is Bartholomew Geist, Founder of Carousel. You can learn about him in a bunch of different storylines.”

Up until that point, I had never learned much about the canonical backstory of Carousel. It made sense that it would have one. Every storyline we had been in so far had its own backstory so why shouldn’t Carousel itself?

“When you say founder… do you mean like a character who is part of Carousel’s fictional history or is that the actual person who made this place that we’re stuck in?”

“I have no idea,” Roxie said with a laugh.

The church we were headed to was another five-minute walk from the fairgrounds. I don’t know how far away it was in terms of actual distance with Roxie’s geography trope active.

The church was a tall, lonely building in the middle of a large graveyard. The architecture was old. I’m not an art historian, but I think the style of the building was called “Covered in Gargoyles.” Needless to say, I knew we were in the right place.

The sun was just starting to set as we approached.

We were On-Screen again.

Arthur turned around before we were too far along in the graveyard.

“You got anything?” he asked.

At first, I didn’t know what he meant but then I figured it out. He meant “psychic readings” or whatever my character was supposed to have. The best we figured it, my character’s abilities were just an in-story explanation for my Film Buff tropes.

He knew to ask me because even though he couldn’t see the tropes of enemy characters, he still had access to the red wallpaper and was still able to see much of what I was seeing when I looked around the church and graveyard.

There were Grotesques spread everywhere. They blended in with the normal gargoyle statues. I didn’t know which was a Grotesque and which was just a statue. Perhaps there were two dozen enemies. I couldn’t give a real count because it was hard to tell where they actually were. But no matter which direction we looked we could see them.

I did have some insight, though. The trouble was I had to filter it through what my character should have known.

“This place is overwhelming,” I said.

I knew how to play a psychic in a horror movie. All you have to do is struggle with every word. You have to pretend like your intestines are being pulled out through your belly button and that the spirits are attacking your very presence because they know you’re a threat.

“There’re too many,” I continued. I started to breathe hard. I gazed around the graveyard like I was seeing the very ghosts that rested there, like I felt their pain. “Some like this one.” I gestured toward the statue that Reggie was carrying.

I winced.

“Most are different. They don’t seek to spread the curse. They are the curse. They seek… violence.”

I tried to make my performance convincing. Or at least passable. I don’t know how Lara or any psychic archetype kept that up full-time. Their tropes were usually Moxie based. They had to pretend to be seeing into the ethereal distance full-time.

I breathed out deeply to signal I was done. I would fill them in on the real details Off-Screen.

Arthur nodded his head.

What we both understood was that many of the Grotesques around us were lower level than the one that we carried. Everyone could see that. What only I knew was that only the strongest ones had the Progenitor ability.

The weakest didn’t even have a high enough Savvy to stop me from reading their tropes. They had three:

Grotesque

Plot Armor: Varies

__________

Tropes

It Plays with Its Food…

This creature spends time toying with its victims. Often, it enjoys the playing more than the killing.

Where’s the Goat?

This creature can sneak up on players with implausible stealth but may not attack until the players notice some seemingly innocuous clue to its presence.

Jekyll and Hyde

This villain has multiple forms. Stone: Grit = 0, Living: Grit = 20.

“Maybe a place like this isn’t somewhere you should be. What with your gift and all,” Arthur said. “Roxie, help him out while we go investigate inside. If we need you, we’ll holler.”

“Don’t worry Big Bro,” she said. “I’ll take care of him.”

I almost forgot that Roxie and Arthur’s characters were siblings in this story.

Roxie and I started to walk back down the path we had entered from.

We were still early in the Party Phase. We shouldn’t run into danger for quite a while.

“You want to go check out the fairgrounds?” she asked. She grabbed me by the hand and started pulling me along. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought she was flirting with me.

But I did know better.

She just needed a “love interest” to make her Get A Room! trope work. I wasn’t going to object. That Ferris wheel did look enticing (as much as I wanted to see the inside of the creepy church).

It was time to go exploring.

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