Fear Itself

Memories of Mother

Posted on by ibrahim

A Fear Itself scenario by David Springer

There’s magic to a place. To some places, certainly. The whisper of wind through the trees, the glint of the sunlight off the waves, the way people are drawn in. Jekyll Island is one such place. The Guale were drawn to it many centuries ago, living, canoeing, and hunting in its swampy forest. The English were drawn to it, building a fort from which to wage war and peace against other humans. The wealthiest men in the world were drawn to it in the 19th century, building great homes from which to plot and scheme, to shape the coming age. And people are drawn to it still, flocking in droves to its shores, to haunt its forests, to revel in the endless ocean from the “safety” of Jekyll.

EDDY SCOWLS BENEATH HIS BATTERED BALL CAP AS HE SCRUBS GRAFFITI OFF THE HIGH SCHOOL BLEACHERS. HE GLARES SUSPICIOUSLY AT SPRING BREAKERS IN THE DISTANCE.

But as the tide rolls out and the people return to other places, places more mundane, those creatures who call Jekyll their home emerge.

A BLACK CAT SLINKS OUT FROM UNDER A TABLE, WALKS UP TO KIMBERLY AND RUBS AGAINST HER LEG. SHE ABSENTLY STARES OUT THE SUNNY FRONT WINDOW OF HER CAFE, NOTEBOOK ON HER LAP.

Its denizens once more prowl its streets, its paths, its shores. And again they dominate its darker places. 

ROY TURNS AWAY FROM THE JUKEBOX AND BOBS HIS HEAD, SCANNING THE DIMLY LIT BAR. HIS EYES COME TO REST ON A TRIO OF YOUNG WOMEN, AND A CHARMING SMILE WASHES OVER HIS FACE AS HE WALKS TOWARD THEM.

This is where our story begins. The tourist season has ended, the state park, hotels, and shops again peopled sparsely. As the sleepy community of Jekyll Island drifts off, night will tell what dreams may come…

Content warnings: Violence, gore, forced imprisonment, loss of agency, mental subjugation, sexual assault, unnatural birth.

This scenario serves as an introduction to The Ocean Game campaign frame, bringing a group of Fear Itself characters from oblivious civilians to players in the Ocean Game. It also works as a standalone scenario with a few changes.

Hook

A PC has been having recurring dreams of his mother singing to him as a very young child. When this Dreamer questions his mother, she adamantly denies ever hearing the song. He soon learns it’s from a children’s book just a few years old, and the loving mother in his dreams is gradually growing stranger… less human…

The Horrible Truth

The mother in his dreams is a Cuckoo Mother who first preyed on children’s book author Robert Marsh a few years ago. The Cuckoo Mother lured Marsh to her where she mated with him. In so doing, he conceived himself in the past and became a living paradox. His body began shutting down and he died a few months later. Now his storybook song has bled into hers and she’s set her sights on the Dreamer.

Ocean Game Connections

  • The Cuckoo Mother is being kept captive by a member of the Sallow or Obsidian Circle, who extend their lives through their subjugation of her.

  • The Cuckoo Mother’s activity is weakening the membrane and drawing a very dangerous Player of the Ocean Game to the area.

  • She’s also caught the attention of a Mystery Man, who will begin the Ocean Game proper when he becomes interested in the PCs.

The Spine

In Dreams introduces the strangeness of the Dreamer’s escalating dreams and drives the players to learn more. Talking to Mom, he learns that his mother doesn’t remember the song and seems to be acting strangely. Investigating the song and The Author leads the PCs to learn of Robert Marsh. They learn of the author’s connection with their town in A Visit to Jekyll. They can trace his steps to a local college for Researching the Creature or investigate his connection to The Foundation.

At the Phoenix Foundation they’ll meet The Philanthropist, The Help, and The Resident. Stealthy explorations of The Hidden Office will reveal the Cuckoo Mother and her relationship to the foundation. The PCs will finally confront the creature in Come to Mama.

During these investigations they may encounter The Dirty Cop or The Player.

Scenes

Introduction: In Dreams

In this scene, a male PC (referenced in this scenario as the Dreamer) has a dream of himself asleep. He sees his mother crawling into his room and picking him up like he was a baby and singing to him.

Core clue: The song is from a children’s book just a few years old, far too new to have been sung to him as a child (Trivia, Humanities). This likely comes out during PC conversation the next day.

One of his earliest memories is of his mother singing this song to him as a very young child. As he got older, he sometimes dreamed of her crawling into his bedroom to hold him, and singing the same song each time. He has now had the dream several nights in a row, and his mother’s crawl is becoming less and less human.

  • As the days pass, this dream can continue to recur with increasingly disturbing changes.

That morning, he finds a large black feather in his home – sticking up from between the floorboards, uncannily straight up. When picked up, it feels like plucking a feather from flesh. (1-point stability test)

Note: Many children’s books have songs in them, and it may be useful to use or adapt part of an actual children’s book. Bridging the line between real and uncanny is the goal. If one of the players recognizes the book in real life, all the better.

Lead-outs:

  • Talking to Mom

  • The Author

Alternate: Talking to Mom

Core clue: The Dreamer’s mother doesn’t know the song and claims to have never sung it or read the book. 

At first mom behaves normally. But the Cuckoo Mother has been absorbing the true mother’s appearance and behavior for some time, and the transfer goes both ways. As this parasite of the Outer Dark steals from the true mother, it leaves scraps of itself behind in the true mother.

Each time the Dreamer visits his mother, he should notice her doing occasional creepy things that she seems unaware of:

  • A birdlike stomp that just misses the cat

  • Snatches and eats a mouse while gardening

  • Builds a nest of supplies in an arts and crafts room

  • A large black feather which she has saved and can’t explain why

The goal of this scene and her strange behaviors is to create tension. Will his mother be okay? Is this even her, and is the rest of his family safe? This creates pressure to solve the mystery before something terrible happens. 

If the PCs need it, mom or another family member can recognize the song and make the connection that the book is too new to be from his childhood.

Lead-outs:

  • The Author

  • Researching the Creature

Core: The Author:

Core clue: Robert Marsh was a well-known children’s author and this book was a departure in tone for him. He traveled to Jekyll Island shortly before his death.

This scene can take place anywhere, with the PCs investigating the author in libraries or with conversations with likely experts or locals.

Computer use: The book was his last and was inspired by a dream of his mother.

Research/any appropriate interpersonal skill: He traveled to Jekyll Island shortly before his death. 

Computer use/Medicine: His trip to Jekyll aligns with the start of his general health breakdown, ending in his death within a few months.

1 point Computer use/Bureaucracy/Medicine spend:

  • His autopsy reported his cause of death as general organ failure.

  • It also mentions a very rare genetic condition called osteo-pneumatica, meaning he had hollow bones like a bird. This wasn’t the cause of his death and is noted as strangely missing from his medical records.

Lead-outs: 

  • Marsh in Jekyll Island

Core: Marsh in Jekyll Island:

Core clue: (Research, History, Computer Use) On his visit to Jekyll Island, Robert Marsh spoke at the local college and visited the local Phoenix Foundation.

Asking around the town or researching at local establishments show that he gave a lecture at the College of Coastal Georgia.

  • Elaine Flanagan, head of the English department, hosted his visit and attended his lecture. (see Researching the Creature)

  • Reassurance, Flattery: He seemed distracted and perhaps even a bit unhinged.

Flanagan tells them that he was asking about the mansion on the hill. On learning it houses the Phoenix Foundation, he decided to visit. “Come to think of it, I suppose it is a bit strange that he only became interested in the foundation after asking about the house. It’s hardly the only historical mansion home in town…”

Lead-outs: 

  • The Foundation

  • Researching the Creature

  • The Mansion

Alternate: Researching the Creature

Core clue: There are examples of creatures from history that sound a lot like the dream mother.

However the PCs decide to research the creature, they can find a couple of examples of similar creatures through history.

Oral history: Elaine Flanagan remembers reading accounts that sound somewhat like the Dreamer’s experiences. She can’t recall the specifics, but remembers the theme of bird creatures feeding on victims through dreams. A suitable interpersonal skill will convince her to find examples over the next few days, or investigative spends can track the info down more quickly:

  • 1 pt Humanities/Research: An Elizabethan drama which contains a bird creature kept by a magician to give them immortality. Presented as a devil’s bargain in the vein of Dr. Faustus, their bird creature drew the life from others and led to a tragic fall for all involved.

  • 1 pt Trivia/Research: A writer in the 1960s presented a series of reinterpreted mythical creatures as twisted birdlike creatures: sirens luring victims across the sea of dream. A phoenix which behaves more like a vampire, drawing life from others for its rebirths through the ages. A modern-day Prometheus who dreams of harpies who gradually hollow him from the inside out. The motif of a vertical black feather recurs several times.

  • 1 pt Law – A lawsuit in 1841 Paris brought by Olivier D’Agnone against a young Eliphas Levi, charging him with being “un sorcier d’oiseau”, or a bird sorcerer, who had “stolen the man’s birth.” 

    • The only evidence the man could provide was a handful of feathers that D’Agnone claimed marked him. The case was thrown out and the plaintiff institutionalized on the grounds that Levi wasn’t yet alive at the man’s birth. There was a brief hullabaloo when at the man’s death, he was found to have hollow bones. At a salon, Levi later quipped that the sentence for frivolous litigation was to serve time as “un cadavre d’oiseau” (or a bird corpse).

Lead-outs:

  • The Foundation

  • The Mansion

Alternate: The Foundation

Core clue: Marsh was involved with the local Phoenix Foundation while in Jekyll Island, despite being apparently unaware of it before his arrival in town.

The Phoenix Foundation is a local nonprofit with the slogan: “Rising from the ashes, building new life.” According to the website, the foundation works with homeless men or former convicts, occasionally houses them temporarily, then moves them to a new place and a new life (to help escape the stigma of their past).

The PCs can easily learn that it’s run by a wealthy local man, Joshua Reynolds. They can investigate the founder in The Philanthropist, the employees in The Help, or visit The Mansion.

Computer Use/Impersonation: They also find that there’s an honor thanking Marsh in the foundation’s records for that year.

The PCs aren’t able to find anyone who was relocated (apparently for the privacy of former residents).

  • 1 point cop talk/computer use spend: After digging deeply into the records, it’s a bit suspicious that the PCs STILL can’t find any former residents. It almost seems like they don’t exist after joining up at the foundation.

  • Going to the authorities may lead Sheriff Skinner to follow up with the PCs in The Dirty Cop. 

Lead-outs: 

  • The Help

  • The Mansion

  • The Philanthropist

Core: The Mansion

Core clue: This mansion is the source of the dreams. The Dreamer will feel this in his bones, or PCs can find out from The Help.

The Phoenix Foundation is housed in a historic mansion on the island. It’s like stepping back in time, having been in the Reynolds family for generations. The mansion houses the foundation, its residents, and its employees.

Most likely, the PCs will meet The Help upon arriving.

Notice or Photography: Photographs in the mansion (not on display) show Mary Tobias and Greg Jamison serving the Reynolds family in the same house almost a century ago. The quality of the photograph makes them impossible to identify, but there’s something eerily familiar about the servants if they’ve met Mary and Greg.

They’ve been feeding on the Cuckoo Mother’s birth for generations, keeping them young and basically immortal.

Only later will the PCs identify Mary and Greg as the same servants (see The Hidden Office).

Lead-outs:

  • The Help

  • The Philanthropist

  • The Resident

  • The Hidden Office

Alternate: The Philanthropist

Core clue: The founder of the Phoenix Foundation is evasive about the specifics of the foundation.

Joshua Reynolds is the wealthy second son of the Reynolds Wrap fortune. He’s charming and friendly, and should be played like a politician. He remembers names and personal details, and his charisma and intelligence are clear.

Oral history: “Oh, Mr. Reynolds? Yes, lovely man. He’s done so much for this community. And he keeps himself so fit! Talk about wearing the years lightly. He looks great for his age, but I guess wealth will do that for you.”

  • If asked about this, he claims that yoga and good diet keep him young.

Flattery/Bureaucracy: He loves talking about all the lives they’re changing at the foundation, but tends toward marketing buzz phrases and doesn’t provide many specifics. If the questions get very in-depth he’ll refer the players to his employees (see The Help).

  • If asked, he claims he can’t show them around for the privacy of those the foundation serves. 

  • He doesn’t recall Marsh, but relents that he was a donor/friend of the foundation if reminded of details. 

Bullshit detector: He seems evasive about specifics of the foundation, the residents, and how it operates. He refers players to his employees (see The Help), but something seems off about his claims of not knowing or being able to share due to privacy.

  • In reality, Reynolds loves the warm fuzzy feeling of making the world a better place, but doesn’t involve himself in the day-to-day.

  • His employees, Greg and Mary, have been drawing on the Cuckoo Mother’s power to addle his mind and keep him in the dark. He may have nagging doubts about details over the years, but their efforts have kept him from identifying their immortality and the disappearances of residents.

  • If the PCs give Reynolds enough reason to ask questions, it could bring in the attention of The Dirty Cop to assuage his concerns or quiet the PCs.

This scene should create suspicion and doubt about Reynolds, hopefully opening the doors for the PCs to trust The Help and get them into a sticky situation.

Lead-outs:

  • The Help

  • The Resident

  • The Mansion

  • The Hidden Office

Alternate: The Help

Core clue: Employees of the foundation know what’s really going on.

If the PCs meet the foundation staff, they’re friendly and capable.

Staff:

  • Greg Jamison serves as the foundation manager.

    • Greg has a bushy mustache, a southern twang and a polite affect, and constantly plays classic rock in his office.

    • Claims to leave at 6 pm every day, but actually lives on site.

    • Disappears the bodies of victims when needed.

  • Mary Tobias is the foundation’s doctor.

    • She’s stout, bright, and no-nonsense, used to subduing residents under the influence or helping remove bodies when needed.

    • Lives at the foundation.

  • A rotating cast of volunteers

Greg and Mary seem blue-collar and salt-of-the-earth, but are actually the keepers of the Cuckoo Mother. Mary and Greg secretly use magic to addle Reynolds’ mind and make him oblivious to the Cuckoo Mother. They’re the handlers who let people in to see their “mothers.” They have been serving his family for generations.

With a suitable interpersonal skill, Mary or Greg will imply that Reynolds is behind whatever the PCs suspect. Possibilities include the evidence of what happened to Marsh while he was here, kidnapping of the Dreamer’s true mother, a machine for infiltrating their dreams, or even a version of the truth: he’s keeping a horrible creature captive.

  • Their goal is to trick the Dreamer into visiting the Cuckoo Mother alone.

  • Bullshit detector doesn’t catch any lies to this end. Over the years they’ve become adept at drawing on the Cuckoo Mother’s power to warp perceptions around her.

Lead-outs:

  • The Philanthropist

  • The Resident

  • The Hidden Office

Alternate: The Resident:

Jared Maxwell is the only current resident of the foundation.

  • Core clue: He dreams of his mother most nights – it’s wonderful here and the dreams feel so much more real. 

  • Vacant stare, mostly wants to watch cartoons. 

  • A husk of a man, the foundation employees claim he’s an addict and alcoholic, drying out. 

  • In reality he’s a child-father of the Cuckoo Mother. He’s feeding her each night, which is powering her nocturnal visits to the Dreamer and keeping Jared’s mind addled.

    • This is the Dreamer’s future if they don’t do something about the Cuckoo Mother.

Lead-outs:

  • The Philanthropist

  • The Hidden Office

Core: Hidden Office

Core clue: A horrific creature is feeding on residents of the foundation, including Maxwell and/or Marsh. It’s being controlled by Greg Jamison and Mary Tobias.

Behind a secret door is a hidden office where Greg and Mary record and document the Cuckoo Mother’s behavior.

The office contains evidence of the Cuckoo Mother and its captors:

  • Planner on the desk documents Cuckoo Mother visits. They list the resident’s name, the type of visit, and the time of visit.

    • March 23: Maxwell feeding. 11:50 PM

    • March 13: Maxwell feeding. 2:16 AM

    • November 7 (years earlier): Marsh hatching. 1:41 AM

    • Investigative procedure/Research: There are many residents listed in the planner over the years, including both Jared Maxwell currently and Robert Marsh when he was on Jekyll Island.

  • TV (off when they arrive). It’s set to automatically turn on and record when someone visits the Cuckoo Mother.

  • TV/VHS combo unit

  • Shelf of VHS tapes labeled by date. The tapes display the feedings listed in the planner.

  • A wedding photo of Greg Jamison and Mary Tobias, this time clear enough to identify them. It’s dated at least 50 years ago, which is impossible given their apparent age (1-point stability test)

Playing a tape: If a tape is played, it always begins the same way. A grainy video of a tiled space, with the center lit by a bulb and shadow swallowing the background. Shortly after the video begins, you begin to hear an unnerving, scratchy squawking and cooing. A man enters the space, walking as if in a daze. The quality is grainy, but he looks enough like Maxwell or Marsh to be recognizable. Then a Cuckoo Mother (see Fear Itself p. 94) emerges from the darkness into the light, dragging a chain attached to her ankle.

  • Feeding: The man approaches and reclines on the Cuckoo Mother’s lap. While she continues cooing to him, he lies back and opens his mouth, and a sort of ectoplasm begins rising up from his mouth into hers. After a few minutes of this, she hacks some of it back into his mouth and he rises and dazedly walks out again. 3 point stability test for watching this

  • Hatching: The Cuckoo Mother performs a different sort of call and lies on her back. The man dazedly disrobes, then mounts her and mates with her. After, he shudders and rolls off, lying in a fetal position. Over the next minute or so, her already swollen belly engorges more and she gives birth to a mass of semi-solid material.

    • Two people rush into the frame from the same direction as the victim. They scoop up the birth with containers and their hands, eating it as quickly as they can. When it’s consumed, they lick it off the floor. This lasts several minutes and the video may cut off before they finish.

    • 4 point stability test for watching

If this scenario introduces the Ocean Game, the PC may also find evidence of Greg/Mary’s relationship to either the Sallow or the Obsidian Circle. (The Ocean Game, p. XX and YY)

  • If the Sallow, they send some of the immortalizing birth goop to other Sallow connections.

  • If the Obsidian Circle, their studies began as an effort to understand the Cuckoo Mother scientifically before gradually devolving into a depraved scheme for immortality.

This scene shows the Cuckoo Mother’s life cycle. It lures men to the Phoenix Foundation by infiltrating their dreams, then steals their life force through the feedings. Then it mates with them and steals their birth by giving birth to them in the past. The modern-day birth material holds much of their life force, which Greg and Mary consume to extend their lives. Once their birth is stolen, the victim’s body begins to break down, leading quickly to their death. This is what happened to Robert Marsh, and the fate that awaits Jared Maxwell and possibly the Dreamer.

Ideally, this scene should play out in parallel with Come to Mama. While one PC is learning the truth of the Cuckoo Mother in the hidden office, the blank TV comes on and they see the Dreamer enter its room in a daze.

Lead-out: Come to Mama

Core: Come to Mama

If the PCs are investigating the foundation separately, the Dreamer should find the Cuckoo Mother’s den alone while another PC finds the Hidden Office. If needed, this scene can also be run as an antagonist reaction, where the Dreamer is drawn to the Cuckoo Mother in his sleep.

In either case, he approaches it in a dreamlike state. The Cuckoo Mother is held in an old unused portion of the mansion, a dry basement swimming pool.

  • If other PCs are present, Greg and Mary will attempt to ambush them, sedating and/or restraining them to ensure they don’t interfere. This doesn’t wake the Dreamer from his daze unless he wins the stability contest below.

When the Dreamer approaches, the Cuckoo Mother appears to be his true mother, calls to him and sings to him.

Aberrance vs. stability contest

  • If he wins, he sees clues of her abnormality and snaps back to reality just as he reaches her.

  • If she wins, he believes he’s in a loving maternal embrace while she either feeds on him or mates with him as described in The Hidden Office. 

  • Note: Be very aware of how your players are responding and be ready to veil out of this scene or opt for the feeding option. While the loss of agency is part of the horror, it’s important that players are aware of safety tools (https://ttrpgsafetytoolkit.com). We’re all ultimately here to have fun.

  • Whenever he snaps back to reality, the Dreamer makes a stability test:

    • 5-point if he sees his mother transform into the Cuckoo Mother

    • 7-point if he has mated with her

    • In either case, the Dreamer loses 2-3 stability even on a success.

After mating, she goes through a very quick, 2-3-minute birth. At the moment of birth, the Dreamer loses 1d6 health and makes a consciousness test. Greg and Mary rush in to catch, store, and consume the birth.

If PCs are watching from the Hidden Office, give them the opportunity to rush to the aid of their companion, likely confronting Greg and Mary as they feed.

  • They can also arrive before the feeding, only to be ambushed by Greg and Mary.

  • Greg and Mary will likely attempt to calm the players down, then surprise them by sedating them. Each PC makes a scuffling test to avoid it. On a failure, they’ll go unconscious within a minute or so.

If it’s a fight, the PCs face at least Greg and Mary, or add the Cuckoo Mother and/or a crazed Jared Maxwell for a more punishing fight.

  • If you’re feeling generous, give the Dreamer a health test to see if he regains consciousness in time to help his allies and/or escape with them.

  • As a last resort, Greg/Mary can initiate a kill switch that quickly gets the house blazing, starting with the Cuckoo Mother’s lair. If this happens, the Cuckoo Mother is likely burned alive and any evidence of what was happening will be lost. Give PCs fleeing tests/health tests to escape with minimal smoke inhalation.

If the Dreamer isn’t rescued by the other PCs:

  • He can make a health test to regain consciousness while Greg and Mary feed. He’ll need to make a stability test as he comes to, and may make an Infiltration or Fleeing test to escape.

  • If not, they’ll either carry him unconscious or usher him into a room for housing. They’ll keep him drugged and sedated and the mother may feed on him a few more times (health test for each) before he’s murdered while sedated by Greg.

If the PCs retreat and leave the Cuckoo Mother alive, the dreams continue as his health declines. (Unless, of course, a Mystery Man inducts him into the Ocean Game and he’s kept alive by the Blessing of Longevity.)

If all PCs are sedated and don’t escape before going unconscious, run a montage of drifting in and out of sedation. Optionally, give each player a health test to see if they can overcome the sedation long enough to escape.

Lead-out: The Mystery Man

Antagonist Reaction: The Dirty Cop

If the PCs bring the authorities in at any point, word will get to Sheriff Jim Skinner.

Skinner arrives to question them, a good old boy who doesn’t want this shit in his town.

  • As a small-town cop, he may know the PCs and present as if he wants to keep them out of trouble.

In reality, he’s allied with the Sallow or Obsidian Circle, and occasionally helps get rid of evidence or witnesses.

He’ll start with friendly advice with implied threats, but may escalate to planted evidence or even forced institutionalization/murder if needed.

He’ll separately be investigating The Player, but will quickly sweep details under the rug to avoid too many questions.

Floating Scene: The Player

Goal: Use when tension is needed, especially for the non-dreaming PCs. Foreshadows future events of The Ocean Game and hints at the power and goals of its Players.

When the PCs are walking at night in a relatively quiet part of town, a pedestrian is suddenly and violently hit by a speeding car. The car slams on the brakes.

The pedestrian starts stirring, and the car backs over them quickly before they can get up. It goes back and forth over them, slowly bringing a tire to rest on their head. The pedestrian’s head is partially crushed and PCs can see the arms still moving, trying to rise.

A passenger gets out of the truck, a tall fat man. He looks at the person struggling and signals to the driver, who hits the gas. The tires squeal, eventually shredding the head and spraying brains out into the street. 

The car pulls forward and the fat man bends down, reaches into the corpse’s neck hole, pulls out something the size of a golf ball. He searches the pedestrian’s bag, takes out a couple similarly sized items. 

He looks around for witnesses. As he stares into the darkness in their direction, start with a stability test for witnessing the grisly murder (4-point).

Then make the PCs choose whether to make a hiding or fleeing test.

  • They must choose individually and secretly, and if any of them flee, he will chase. In the event of a chase, use “Unrelenting Pursuit” rules, Fear Itself p. 40.

  • If he catches any PC, Vaughn won’t harm them. He can sense that they’re fledgling Ocean Game Players and bides his time until he can get more stones for his effort. “Nah, you ain’t even ripe yet. I’ll see you real soon though.”

Vaughn Mesner: Player of the Ocean Game. Tall, fat man. Implacable and ruthless. His victim was another Player, and Vaughn allied with a tag killer (The Ocean Game, p. XX) to drive the car and do his dirty work. If he recognizes the PCs as Ocean Game players, he’ll strike at them later when they’ve had time to get stones of their own.

  • Scuffling: 12, Health: 12, Athletics: 8, Alertness Modifier: +1

Epilogue: The Mystery Man

Goal: Introduce the Mystery Man and the Ocean Game. Parallel the introduction to create a level of metafictional eeriness around the games.

When the PCs have reached relative safety, preferably together, they find themselves dazedly watching the Twilight Zone or similar. On screen they see the host, the Man in Black (see p. XX of The Ocean Game).

If possible, tweak small details of the following to match your players and the choices they made.

SCENE: BLACK AND WHITE BEACH AT NIGHT. A MAN STANDS ON THE BEACH IN A DARK SUIT FACING THE CAMERA. HIS EYES ARE JUST A BIT TOO FAR APART.

“There’s magic to a place. To some places, certainly. The haunting song of the calliope, the gleam of electric bulbs in the night, its uncanny allure. Peppermint Land in Jekyll Island, Georgia, was one such place. From its birth in 1958, the amusement park’s siren song was answered by great and small alike. Rich and poor, wise and foolish, good and evil, walked through its gates, mounted its machines, sought the pleasure it promised.” 

CAMERA PANS AROUND, SHOWING PEPPERMINT LAND THEME PARK BEHIND.

“But magic is wild, and the magic of Jekyll Island was no different. It called to the people of the day, but also to others. Perhaps that was why the largest clutch of sea turtles ever to hatch on a North American shore chose Jekyll Island one night in 1962.”

CAMERA CONTINUES PANNING, SHOWING BABY SEA TURTLES CRAWLING OUT OF THE SAND TOWARD THE LIGHTS OF THE PARK.

“The human wonders of Peppermint Land were a lark. A game for the pleasures of humans, as far from the understanding of a hatchling as a slaughterhouse from a calf.”

WE BEGIN TO SEE SEA TURTLES CRAWLING PAST HIM UP TO THE PARK.

“And as any carnival barker will tell you, every game has winners and losers.”

WE HEAR CRUNCHING, THEN SOON SEE PEOPLE DRESSED IN ’60s GARB WALKING DOWN THE BEACH TOWARD THE WATER. OBLIVIOUS TO THE TURTLES, THE MAN, AND THE CAMERA. THE TURTLES ARE CRUSHED UNDERFOOT.

“But the power of a game is to give fleeting hope – the joy of knowing that the next ring toss, the next gunshot, the next swing of the axe, may bring salvation. May bring understanding. May bring redemption. Certainly that was why Edgar Wormwood, Kimberley O’Hara, and Roy Knox Jr. were drawn to it.”

THE CRUNCHING OF TURTLE SHELLS GETS LOUDER AND LOUDER, ALONG WITH HIS VOICE, ALONG WITH THE CALLIOPE.

“They were lucky, like few, like many before them, to be players in the game. They had answered the call, and time would tell if they were worthy of it.”

THE PLAYERS REALIZE THEY ARE NOW STANDING ON THE BEACH. BLACK AND WHITE WORLD AROUND THEM, THE ROAR OF THE WAVES, THE CONSTANT CRUNCHING OF SHELLS UNDERFOOT, THE INCESSANT SONG OF THE CALLIOPE, AS HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE WALK AROUND THEM DOWN TO THE WAVES, INTO THE OCEAN. 

 “Welcome, players. To the Ocean Game.”

References:

ibrahim

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