Part 49: Day Three- Page 48

God, I wish.


Seems reasonable.

>put all in coat
hastily written letter: You slip the hastily written letter into the pocket of your trenchcoat.
keyring: You slip the keyring into the pocket of your trenchcoat.
lantern: It wouldn't be very wise to put the lantern in your pocket while it's still burning.
hooded robe: No matter how tightly you roll up the heavy robe, it is still too big to fit in your pocket.

>wear robe
You'll have to take off the trenchcoat first.

A bit out of character, but if we want to blend in...

>remove trenchcoat
You take off the trenchcoat.

>put on robe
You put on the hooded robe.


Miranda IS on the correct side of the river for the Library.

>w

Outside the Real Estate Office

The office door is open.

>close door
You close the real estate office door.

>w

Narrow Street

There appears to be a commotion of sorts to the south, where a group of townsfolk have gathered.

Even tho she has the robe on now, Miranda doesn't want to risk a confrontation with the townsfolk.

>west
Junction
>nw
University Court

There are numerous buildings surrounding this cobbled court, but the only one you are interested in is the library to the west.
>w
Library
>n
Circulation Desk

Hanging on the wall next to the counter is a small, printed sign. Beneath the sign sits a heavy, dog-eared register, and sitting next to the register is a bell.

Alright, let's look up two people in the register and see what's what...

>look at register
It's basically a log, recording what book was checked out, who checked it out, and when. There must be hundreds of names here.

>look up Michael in Register
(in the dog-eared register)
Your husband's name is down at the bottom. The title of the book is A Historical Overview of Superstitions in the Miskaton Valley Region by J. Arnsworth Frazer, pub. 1906. Quite a mouthful.

As with the books in the Verlac study, it's best to reffer to them by author.
This book, for example, is called "Frazer."

Now, about Claudia Benson...

>Look up Benson in register
(in the dog-eared register)
Claudia Benson's name is up near the top of the page. She has checked out several books in the last few weeks: A Historical Overview of Superstitions in the Miskaton Valley Region by J. Arnsworth Frazer; The Righteous Invasion: a History of Indian/Settler Conflicts in the Colonial Period by Warner Greene; Mechanics of Metempsychosis by C. C. H. Horne; and N-Fold Transduction and the Space-Time Barrier: a New Theory in Particle Physics by Lord Wheldrake. Strange; you can't help but wonder why your real estate agent would have amassed such an esoteric reading list.

Wow, what a load.
These books are Frazer, Greene, Horne, Wheldrake.

This update will be large enough, so later on I'll post the full content of these books.

For now, I'll just save this under a different file.

>save
Ok.

On to the Mill.

>s
Library
>e
University Court
>se
Junction
>n
Mill Road
>w
As you cross the railroad tracks, the air becomes warmer, more dingy, and slightly more difficult to breathe.

Entrance to the Paper Mill

Flakes of ash drift gently down from the sky like gray snow, coating everything with a thin layer of soot.

Lovely.

>n

Shanty Town

>take teddy from coat
You remove the teddy bear from the trenchcoat.

>knock on shack 11
After a moment or two of silence, you hear a furtive rattling, and the door opens a crack to reveal a woman's pale and haggard face. She stares out you with a mixture of trepidation and mistrust.

Hey, lady. It's me again! Remember!
The one that brought up terrible memories?


Yeah, I found your dead son's bear.

>give teddy to woman
The woman's eyes widen in sudden recognition, and she takes the teddy bear from you, turning it over to read the name stitched on the back. Tears well up in her eyes, spilling over onto her pale, sunken cheeks. "This is my boy's," she whispers. "This is Jeffrey's."

She looks at you suddenly. "Where did you find this? Did you find..." but then she stops. She can see from your face that you have not found her son, only this one clue. But... even one clue, however tenuous, offers possibility. And the woman's face softens, just a little bit, with something that you guess hasn't made its home there in a very, very, long time:

Hope.

"Come in," she says softly. "Thank you for bringing me this. Please, come in."

She steps aside from the door, and you enter her home.

#11 Mill Town Road
A dirty, ramshackle home, scraped together out of the bits and ends of working-class poverty. The floor is warped and broken wood, bare dirt showing through the cracks between boards. Rags hang across the window in lieu of curtains. Over in the far corner is a rickety old stove; in the opposite corner a threadbare cot; it hits you suddenly that a family of three once lived, slept and ate all in this single room, which is slightly smaller than your bedroom back at the house.

The woman watches you expectantly.

On the threadbare cot is a teddy bear.

A set of grime-smeared overalls hangs on a hook next to the front door to the west.

Your score has just gone up by two points.

I'm sure she's fine with letting a cloaked cultish figure into her humble home.

>ask woman about herself
The woman shrugs tiredly. "I get by," she says softly. "I get by. Though without my Jeffrey, there doesn't seem to be much point to it, these days."

>ask about jeffrey
"It came in the night," the woman tells you, her voice barely above a whisper, "just like when it took all the other children over the years. It came through the window and took him away while we slept." The woman's voice breaks, and she shakes her head, trying not to weep. "Without my Jeffrey, I don't know if I can go on." Her look implores you. "If you do find him, please tell me. Please bring my boy back to me!"

>Ask woman about shack
You can't think of anything to say about that for the moment.

>ask woman about overalls
She smiles, sad and wistful. "Max did maintenance work up at the mill," she says, "until the accident. It was five years ago this September. One of the big presses must have malfunctioned... they told me there were no remains to speak of..." She sighs. "Max was a good man. He took care of Jeffrey and me. I keep his overalls there to remember him by."

I guess Max was her husband. Poor woman has nothing left.

>look at overalls
They look like a normal set of industrial overalls, the kind of uniform you'd see mill workers in. Stitched into the fabric just above the breast pocket is the name "Max".

>look in pocket
Which do you mean, the overalls or the trenchcoat?

>overalls
In the overalls is a long steel key.

>ask woman about steel key
"Max had lots of keys to the mill. He did maintenance work there."

>take steel key
(the long steel key)
That key might just come in handy; while the woman is looking in the other direction, you quickly pluck it from the overall pocket.

Your score has just gone up by one point.

And now she has less.

>put steel key on keyring
(the long steel key on the keyring)
The long steel key is now on the keyring.

I guess we'll have to break the news to her.

>tell woman about well
The woman presses her fist against her mouth and looks away. "No," she says softly, "I can't believe that. I can't believe my little boy could be down in that..." She breaks off, unable even to complete the thought.

>tell woman about william
She shakes her head. "I don't know much about those folks, except that they're bad all the way through. I try to stay away from their business. They said it was Edward who was stealing all those children, but I guess that wasn't ever true."

I try and tell her about the Verlacs and Michael, but she says the same thing.
Game wise, I feel she's just here to give us the key, but I can't help but feel sorry for her.

After all this is over, Miranda will return and take everything else of value.

>

There's really only the one place to go with this key as we rapidly approach the end of the game.
Tomorrow, we head inside the Mill.

Items



In Trenchcoat