Part 9: Day 2 Part 6: Preacher's Bane

Day 2 just keeps going! I'm not sure why this day is so long with so much stuff to do in it, but I guess Nigel wanted to make up for the lost time from Day 1. It's hard to believe he's only been in Saxton a little more than 24 hours.

Nigel's not done yet, though. He's got an agenda - treasure and ghost hunting - and as we learned from his palm reading, he's a hard worker. He did lie down for a little while in the evening, but he wakes up late at night, 3am if the ringing bell from the sleeping cutscene is accurate. He's got a new to-do list:



And there's some kind of knocking and rattling noise going on downstairs. Let's go find out what that might be.




The bathroom door is shut. But there's a keyhole....

Harbour Cottage ghost activity - Night 2 (2.5 minutes)


:O

... maybe it's whoever lit all those candles?

Now Nigel can open the door and hit the lights...




Stupid dress form. Wait, is that a giant hairball in the sink?

Then the light goes out... we hear deep grunts and piglike squeals... and after a few seconds, the light comes back on.



The rats came back to get their sink-hair! No, actually: Molina's diary mentions his wife started losing hair when she became ill. Taking a photo of the mirror worked before, so let's try again:



The phantom was Nigel all along! How about the bathtub?



We can see some little white orbs floating up from the tub, but that's it.

We can also take a new photo of the chair:



By all accounts it's quite a hike to Northfield Church, so let's get going. We're hardly out the door when Nigel notices a note on the drainpipe (a different one) and stops to read it:




Sounds promising! Pretty generous of him, considering we only met him yesterday. Let's go there first, since it's close by.




Only a little spooky. We can use our gadgets on the photos the Station Master mentioned.

Ghosts at Saxton Station (2 mintues)

These guys must have missed annual photo day.



Using the camcorder on a different photo reveals misty passengers waiting on the platform.



Nigel can also make an audio recording of one of the photos, which is mainly steam engine noises and train whistles.

OK, we want to visit Bob Tawny tonight too, as he said he could tell us some local stories. He said he'd be in The Bear.



I guess Morgan needs a break, but when does Bob get one?

Good evening, Mr. Tawny.
Bob please, lad. We're outside working hours now.



I've been exploring the countryside outside of town.
Have you now. I bet you ran into old Russett.
The gravedigger?
That's him. But don't let him hear you calling him that.


I met the Karswells, at Ager House.
Hush lad, we don't go saying that name.
Which name? Karswell or Ag-
Like I said. We don't say it.


You said you'd be able to tell me about folklore and crafts?
Indeed I did! I can do better than tell you.
You can?
Yup. Take this book... it's been on my shelf for many a year.
I thought you said you couldn't... ahem.
Yeah, well, that's as may be... but it's got pictures, see?
I'll take a look later tonight.
Good bedtime stories, they are.
Enjoy your evening.
You too, my boy. Get yourself some mead.



It's nice of him to loan us a book, and trusting too. Let's take a look at it:



She can't have known him that well if she gave him a book.

Hmm. There's a little mystery, mostly wrapped up. Explained: Nanny's first name is Rose. Bob has an old photo of a Rose and a Cole on his workshop wall. He and Nanny Noah were married(?) at some point and had a child, Cole. We know that Nanny Noah's son drowned in the sea... in fact we saw a gravestone for Cole Tawny in the game's opening cinematic.. I don't know why Nanny Noah wrote "1958" when the book was published in 1973... maybe an important year?






In this story Nigel is the terrible, deformed, and ugly warlock. Am I joking? Wait and see!

And rather than get some mead like Bob suggested, we check to make sure the pub's cat is okay. (She is.)

Time to hit the tracks and head for Northfield. We've had a couple of people warn us against these tracks. It's pretty clear we should be on the lookout for danger. Thankfully, the game warps us most of the way there.



It's us, Nigel. We're watching you. Partway down the tracks, Nigel stops to look at the stuck signal again... which rattles and becomes unstuck as he watches.



Really ominous music starts, and a dark mist grows into the screen from ahead....



This next bit is really out of place. We have to 'use' the charm Nanny Noah gave us on the dark mist, and then the view changes to a first person "shooter."


Pew pew!

About eight phantoms swoop toward us from the darkness one-by-one, and we have to click on them before they reach us. If we're successful, the mist will recede:


What the hell were those things? Phantoms?

(If we're not successful, we have to retreat a screen and retry the minigame.) We can continue toward the church now. On the way, we pass by the crossroads of the woods and the road to the Karswells- Nigel won't go further towards either of them, as he says he can feel a presence watching him from the darkness. Additionally, from the direction of the Karswell house there's a thick black smoke filling the path.



Northfield Church is isolated and surrounded by oppressive woods, so it's pitch black. The only way to navigate around is with the nightvision on the camcorder. (I hate this whole section, but here's a few screenshots.)




On our way to the church entrance, which "inexplicably" takes more screens than it did on our visit earlier today (and most people probably get lost, because there's some turns), we walk right towards this pile of rubble. Let's look at it:




A noxious black mist surrounds the rubble, and Nigel coughs and retreats. But... it looked like there was something in there?

We also pass by this locked door, which is the same one under which we found Thomas Ager's murder-journal. (It is not the entrance.) Black mist grows from this door too!




Again, we're not ready to handle this and we have to retreat.



Well done, Nigel.



Safe and sound in the church lobby. Wait, I thought Nigel took that flyer? Is it a.... g-g-g-GHOST FLYER? Actually, kind of. Explanation of the vicar/Nanny Noah bit: The vicar "lost Thursday" - now, Evelyn Ackland's funeral service is on the coming Thursday, but the vicar was talking almost as if he'd lost the previous Thursday, not the next one. What if that's the day Evelyn died? Did you know that Evelyn can (unusually) be a man's name? Yes, it's probably the vicar's ghost we spoke to. No wonder Nanny Noah was confused about our speaking to the vicar. "So soon?" She thought we meant the replacement vicar. Russett was digging the vicar's grave. Personally, I also suspect the vicar was related to Thomas Ager... he kind of says so, and he also speaks positively of Thomas and negatively of Gurney.

OK, enough of that. Let's see what's up inside.




Look at that, he misspelled both his first AND his last name. I suppose the English back-country might not be highly educated, but Mr. Russett waxes a little too poetic for that. Or... there's just no editor at Darkling Room.



We leave the book on the table after reading it, as we know Mr. Russett values the book. I mean, he tore a page out of it to write us a note (or he has really weird stationery), but Nigel's no thief. I mean, he is, but only sometimes.

Players are expected to take note of that little configuration. I took a screenshot.

Actually, I know this is a little dumb to dwell on but this book is actually really funny to me. Someone in the thread already mentioned that England and Europe saw some massive witch-hunting and burning going on, and Nanny Noah mentioned it in-game as well. There was a thing in 1735 in England called the Witchcraft Act, which made it illegal to accuse someone of practicing witchcraft... but even after that point, witches would still go on trial and whatnot. Let's also assume the book is handwritten (because good luck trying to printing-press a witchcraft book), it seems that possessing a "Hedge Witch Learner" even in 1734 is a bad idea. But I'm sure someone who knows more about England's history with paganism could comment on all of that.

I don't know why I get hung up on having to suspend belief for this book but not on any other part of the game, but there you go.

I don't even know if all of those plants are real/accurate, but you know what, I don't care! Because we have some weed-pulling to do. First, let's see what else we can do in the curch:



More black mist. Well, nevermind then. Let's pull out the ol' camcorder and wander around the churchyard for 10 minutes until we find all of them:







Now we can get all hedge-witch on that door. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but geographically the door ought to connect to the room where Thomas Ager's portrait is. The black mist indoors also cuts us off from anything beyond that room.

Binding Thomas Ager and Freeing Gurney (5 minutes)



I have to work really fast here, as Nigel can't stand the mist for very long before retreating a screen. It usually takes a few tries as you have to compare the sprigs with the book diagram (if you remember it) and place all five. Anyway, now that we've contained the black mist, we might as well investigate that black-misted rubble pile around the corner too.



Hands! Nigel takes them. We know who these belong to, don't we? Let's head back inside.

No more black mist, so we can visit Old Nick Gurney:



He's got something to tell us, but will only do so if we're using the camcorder. If you remember, when we visited the church earlier today we could take an audio recording of someone saying "Ager... he took my hands." His spirit manifests, with some peaceful light and music:



"He took my hands... They took my arms..."

Well, we can fix that!




Err.... actually something's not right there, are you sure those belong to him? Oh well, let's uh... just keep going. Gurney also told us "they" took his arms. Arms... arms? Take a look at the end of the pew on this screen:




Nigel takes a photo. After some poking around, we find and photograph the other two coats of arms in the church:




Nice picture, Nigel!

The next step is to replace them on the bier. Apparently Nigel knows which photo goes where, because he's telling me I'm wrong.



Now we can turn the camcorder back on Gurney for a new message:


"With oil and hair, I captured the crows. Seek the tree. Seek the tree."

With that, the peaceful light and music fades. I think we've just freed Gurney's spirit!

In case we couldn't figure it out ourselves, Nigel thinks this clue through for us.



The game warps us back to Saxton Beach, during whch we are treated to a moon which grows larger and larger as we watch (and some bats which fly in front of and behind the moon!)



And in case we REALLY couldn't figure it out, Nigel basically tells us what it means and where we're supposed to go next. We've got at least one more stop tonight.



Seek the tree? Oil and hair? A painting? All the clues point to something in the town. But what? There's more to learn from the museum, I'm sure of it.



... but I thought the museum was closed at night?