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Scout, her sister, and Doctor Nice pulled up to a bar in Mythton. Noticing an old woman standing outside the bar, Doctor Nice asked her if he could use the restrooms inside. She pulled out a shotgun and pointed it at them, saying that they weren’t allowed to enter. Scout challenged her to be let in if she could outshoot her.
The loud noises from their challenge caused Vic and Yuul to approach them. Yuul asked Vic if she knew them, and Vic responded by saying he only knew the old lady who was the bouncer. After sorting out the confusion, the lady learned that Scout was here to join the team and let them in, meeting Watoto and the kid merchant inside. Doctor Nice noticed Yuul’s wounds and immediately went to help her.
The next evening, Vic left for what he called one final job. That night he returned and brought Tiara and her owl Uhu. Watoto tried to pet Uhu, but instead got pecked a lot. Among the commotion, a woman approached and welcomed everyone to The Homestead Bar: a special bar for people who know about supernaturals. However, the hunter cell at this bar didn’t strive to harm supernaturals, but instead aimed to maintain peace and equity. The lady explained that her mother started the bar 35 years ago, and she followed in her footsteps to run it by recruiting strangers to help out. Having just met, Scout, Yuul, Watoto, and Tiara expressed reluctance to cooperate, causing the lady to apologize for not realizing her plan wouldn’t proceed as easily as she thought. She explained the benefits of joining the hunter cell: they will be safe from supernaturals, will get paid money for their work, and will receive special drinks. She further explained that the place, boarding, and food are all free. Prompted by the woman, everyone introduced themselves.
The lady gave them a tour of the place. On the first floor was the main bar area, bartop, bathroom, and back room. Behind the bar were a set of stairs leading to an underground area containing a variety of rooms and amenities: Kid’s Market, where drugs and guns can be purchased; a computer lab; a crafting room; and garage and forge; a combat training room; a common area; and five rooms, one of which was Vic’s.
Finally the lady introduced the members of the Homestead Bar: Madam M, herself; Kid the merchant; Bertha, the bouncer; and Vic, the janitor. Tiara asked whether Vic was necessary to have in the group, and Yuul mentioned he saved her life. Vic sprayed cologne on Watoto, making nearly everyone think he smelled worse except Tiara who was reminded of her home country. The group noted that there are no windows in the basement, but there was a ventilation system. Then all of them sat at the bar as Madam M made them drinks.
Then she presented them a choice between two missions:
The group chose to attend the ball at the Crimson Manor. When the group asked about funding and getting clothes, Madam M suggested that they get the clothes on the way, perhaps from the contact for the request. She mentioned that the party will be in two days, but it’s a bit of a long drive. She mentioned that they have a van, and the group decided that Yuul would drive and Watoto would sit in the shotgun seat.
They all went to the garage to inspect the van. Tiara asked why the van wasn’t in a good state, and Madam M mentioned that the rest of the funding was spent on the other amenities in the bar. Watoto painted a mushroom poorly on the side of the van. Scout suggested scouting ahead to find what the group was getting themselves into. Madam M mentioned that this was an undercover mission to expose a vampire family who had a monopoly on a certain business. Yuul asked for garlic, but Madam M said vampires weren’t weak to it.
The team began their preparations for the mission. Scout forged a regular dagger. Tiara got a knife and exchanged her pistol for a revolver. Yuul got a tazer and modified it to become lethal. Watoto crafted a sound gun. Everyone received walkie-talkies. Then they all piled into the van and set off.
The drive to Crimson Manor was estimated to be a 5-6 hours long. Midway during the trip, Watoto said he needed to use the restroom. Yuul saw that the closest rest area was 10 km away. Scout looked outside and saw an ice cream stall. Yuul pulled over and Watoto bought ice cream: cookie dough for Scout, Somewhere-Elsian ice flavor for Tiara, and the special promotional Shrek flavor for himself. Then Scout and Tiara arm wrestled to a standstill for a taste of each other’s ice cream. Watoto was about to arm wrestle Scout, but then Yuul discovered that the car stopped running.
Checking the van, Yuul found the engine completely throttled. She figured that if she continued driving, the car would likely explode. They asked the ice cream vendor for help, and she told them that the closest repair place was 10 km away and a hotel was half a mile away. Watoto briefly considered connecting his sound gun to the radio to make a distress call, but given the lethal properties of the gun he decided against it. Everyone then pushed the car to the hotel while Yuul steered. As the powerhouse of the group, Tiara kept pushing and pushing and pushing until the group reached Scotty’s Motel at night.
Watoto and Tiara asked the grumpy receptionist for two rooms, and she replied that it was $25 per room per night. The group learned from her that the closest convenience store was 9.5 km away. She allowed them to use the phone to make a call. Yuul checked the phone book, then called Randall’s Repair Service, and an employee said they would come tomorrow around lunch time with tacos.
The group split into rooms. Scout roomed with Yuul while Tiara roomed with Watoto because she liked his scent. In Yuul’s room, Yuul searched for the remote for the TV. She found it in the couch between the cushions along with bags of Doritos and a couple of unopened Pepsis. Scout checked behind the mirror and discovered many cockroaches, which started flying around. They quickly left to go to Tiara’s and Watoto’s room.
Meanwhile, in his room Watoto dismantled the TV for parts and put the frame back together. Noticing that Uhu was hungry, Tiara asked Watoto if he still had the worm he mentioned earlier and if he could share it with Uhu and he agreed. Uhu aggressively pecked at Watoto’s hand, injuring him. Tiara blew on the wound to make it better. Watching this scene unfold, Scout and Yuul decided to leave.
As Scout and Yuul left the room, Scout heard a car engine revving up and driving away. Their van wasn’t there anymore, and there are new tire tracks leading out of the parking lot and onto the road. Watoto thought about stealing another car, but there are no other cars in the parking lot. Tiara sent Uhu off to the distance to check where the van was headed. Uhu returned and told Tiara the van was stopped in a junkyard. Worried that the van would be stripped for parts, they decided to head there immediately.
Watoto searched for a shopping cart on the side of the road but didn’t find any. Yuul found two flashlights from the receptionist room. Watoto then noticed a person pushing a shopping cart. Scout suggested jumping him, but Watoto suggested speaking to him first. Watoto spoke to the homeless man and asked for his cart. The homeless man asked Watoto what he offered in exchange. Scout tackled the homeless man and they started having a scuffle. Tiara expressed exasperation at the situation. Scout found rope in the shopping cart and used it to tie him up. Watoto gave the man a piece of caramel candy, but he didn’t seem thrilled. Watoto sat in the child’s seat and Scout sat in the main basket and Yuul “drove” the cart while Tiara ran along.
They arrived at the junkyard. Trying to prepare for fighting vampires, Scout found some things made of silver, but only in chunks. Scout then had the idea to press the car fob’s alarm button. Yuul pressed it and they walked towards the car. When they found the van, Yuul checked and found that it was working strangely better than before.
Then Tiara sensed that they were being watched. The group heard a bunch of unnatural metal movement off in the distance. Atop a mountain in the distance, hooded figure pointed at them with a gun. Yuul told everyone to get in the car. As soon as they got in, bullets hit the van.
As Yuul was pulling off a sick maneuver while avoiding bullets, Watoto tried to use his sound gun but it instead summoned two dogs. Yuul then realized they weren’t on the same path they took to get here, and that the maze was warping. Yuul drove up the junk, slowly but surely, then realized the junk was spread out for miles and miles. Yuul discerned an exit and a path, then drove downwards, accidentally causing the car to do a sideways roll. Over the loudspeakers a voice called out, “The hunt is on, my cute little humans. Keep running. This is going to be a fun game!”
As the group traveled through the junkyard, greenery sprouted up between the metal. Tiara let Uhu up into the sky to search for the exit as the pathways got slimmer. They tried to drive into the grass and thorns, but it was like hitting a brick wall. The thorn and grass grew upward to form a forest, blocking Uhu from returning. They all thought of starting a fire. Watoto found a lighter in his pocket, then sucked up gasoline and spit it out, then lit it up. The thorns and vines shrieked against the power of gasoline and fire, pulling back like a magical substance being burnt. A waypoint opened up to a place that looked decently safe, and they drove up to the spot.
The group found themselves in an area with a large tree that provided cover from snipers. In the surroundings were patches of beautiful white flowers with a nice fragrance. When they noticed that there were two paths, the group decided to split up: Tiara and Watoto down one path and Scout and Yuul down the other.
Tiara and Watoto found themselves in a hedge maze. Contrary to a typical maze, they were small and the maze was big. They noticed white fragrant flowers growing along the vines, the same as the flowers that were in the safe area. Watoto perceived nothing dangerous about the flowers, so he took a flower and gave it to Tiara. Delighted, she too picked a flower and gave it to Watoto.
Tiara tried to climb the walls to get a better view of the area. When she made it to the top, she saw that she was at the top of a hedge maze, and beyond was an indecipherable mess of green. Right then, Uhu returned to Tiara, who got the impression from Uhu that this was a confusing place. Thinking about walking along the top of the maze, Tiara stood up but found it difficult. She looked around and noticed that the hedge was changing, constantly forming new paths. Then she saw someone from afar pointing a gun at her. As she warned Watoto to stay down, the sniper shot and knocked her off the wall. Watoto tried to catch her but she fell on him. Strangely enough, her wounds weren’t lethal even though Tiara was hit with real bullets.
When Watoto tried to talk to the assailant with his sound gun, he heard someone replying that he was having too much fun. Thinking that the flowers were protecting Tiara, they went to collect more flowers. Then Watoto gave some powder to Tiara to help her fight. She mixed the flowers and powder to make a concoction, drank the juice, and felt energized. The sniper noticed what she was doing and started to panic. Tiara climbed the hedge wall again only to see the sniper running away.
Then they heard the sounds of big paws approaching. Expecting to see dogs, Watoto outstretched his arms and waited for them to arrive. But when the two animals came into view, he realized they looked like otherworldly beasts that vaguely resembled dogs, covered with vines, dirt, and blood. Scrambling up to scale the wall, Watoto got halfway up before the dogs started snapping at his heels. Tiara shot one dog between the eyes, knocking it against the wall and heavily wounding it. Watoto fired the sound gun intending to harm them, but instead the other dog backed off and started sniffing around. Tiara fired at the second dog, sending it backward towards the thorns on the walls.
Watoto dropped down toward the angry dogs. Tearing one of his mushrooms in half, he threw the pieces to each dog, bonking them on their heads. They sniffed and licked the mushrooms. Then they walked drunkenly away, bumping into the bushes multiple times, leaving a trail of blood behind. Tiara jumped down to join Watoto and they followed the dogs. Eventually they reached a point where the maze stopped shifting and arrived at a peculiar home on a hill.
Scout and Yuul went down a path surrounded by tall trees with vines growing between them. Wanting to craft items for later, Scout used her blade to cut down a tree. She was able to get wood, but the forest seemed to scream in protest and the vines started closing on them.
Desperate for an exit, Yuul found a perfect sized hole for people to fit through that the vines aren’t reaching. Scout went in first, wiggling her way through. Then Yuul tried to fit through the hole as best she could but got stuck. Scout considered cutting a hole wider, in case pulling her through would injure her even more, but perceived that she only needed a pull. Scout took off her pants and used them to drag Yuul out.
After some time, they found themselves at a house in a hill. The outside was decorated with fake flowers, and the lights were off inside. They called out to see if anyone was home, but there was no response. Wanting to pry the door open with the wood they obtained earlier, they crafted it into a tool resembling a crowbar and used it to wedge the front door open.
Scout immediately started to scavenge for tools and materials and found rations, rope, two lanterns with matches, and a shovel. Meanwhile, Yuul found strange objects, books, and a journal. One book was titled “The Hedge” with the front cover depicting this area. She read and learned that this place was the border between the real world and Arcadia, the land of the fae. It was populated by changelings and can trap humans. She also learned that some fae don’t like certain flowers, especially darklings. Just when Yuul took notes about this information, they heard the sounds of someone returning home.
Yuul noticed a secret area behind the bookshelf. Pushing it out of the way, she beckoned to Scout to join her, and pushed the bookshelf back in place and hid there. Then the door to the house slammed open. While listening to the sound of rapid footsteps, they looked behind them and saw more fake flowers and a tiny light bulb with a flying light insect inside.
Tiara and Watoto used their walkie-talkies to check on Scout and Yuul, revealing their hiding spot to the homeowner in the process. A hooded figure in a green robe, shrouded in darkness, pushed the bookshelf aside and pointed a sniper rifle at Scout and Yuul. Tiara moved to the open door, drew her weapon, and fired shots, some of them scraping past Yuul’s face. The person turned to face Tiara, noticed that she had white flowers all over her body, and stepped backward. Scout swung a shovel to his head and Yuul tazed him, knocking him out. Tiara took his sniper rifle and Watoto searched his pockets to find bullets, binoculars, foreign money, and a dog whistle.
After Yuul used the rope Scout found to tie him up, Watoto slapped him. Scout pulled his hood down, revealing a humanoid creature with a dark gray complexion and pointy ears. Tiara stood behind him with a dagger to his neck. When he woke up, they interrogated him, and he said his name was Bowlen Sniff and explained that the junkyard was his hunting ground, that he knew nothing about their van, and that he knew of a gateway out of The Hedge. Guided by his instructions, Tiara carried him and they walked for a long time. As they walked, he tried to make contact with her skin, presumably to escape but was unable to.
They arrived at a garden. In it were white flowers that Bowlen disliked and a building with a pair of doors leading to a big bathroom and a mirror. Bowlen proposed to make a contract: if they left him alone, he would leave them alone and give them access to a market in The Hedge. He gave Watoto a whistle made of thorns and warned that the whistle wouldn’t work if he was dead. A golden piece of paper appeared with the simple terms of the contract enscribed on it. Watoto signed the contract, and right after they untied him he realized Tiara had his gun and became angry. With each party unable to harm each other, the main cast entered the mirror.
On the other side was the bathroom in the motel. It was about 3 AM and barely any time had passed. The group looked outside and found that their van wasn’t in the parking lot. After the group did some first aid on themselves, they settled down for the night.
The next morning the sound of loud banjo music played as two friendly looking people in a tow truck arrived carrying tacos. The group explained that their van was lost, and Watoto convinced them to drop them off in the next town in exchange for money. Before they left, they picked up a package from Madam M delivered to the motel containing their phones.
The auto repair people were busy the whole day. After many stops, the group was finally dropped off at the contact point: a bus stop in the middle of nowhere. After a few minutes, the jankiest bus arrived. Yuul bought everyone tickets (except Watoto, who found one on the ground) and they all boarded. On the bus, a man with a business suit, slicked back hair, shades, and an umbrella hat asked the group if they were the team that was supposed to meet him. When Scout asked for his name, he introduced himself as Cornelius.
Just then, the bus stopped as someone in front of the bus waved their arms. Then they saw that the person who boarded was none other than Vic. The group learned that Vic and Cornelius were fraternal twins. Vic handed everyone envelopes with their first paycheck: $50. He explained that the bus would take them to a nearby city, and that the manor was on the city outskirts.
Once the bus arrived at their destination, the group went to a clothing store to shop for outfits for the party. Watoto tried to order a nice tuxedo, but failed to persuade the clerk to lower the price and instead got a substitute that looked a bit rugged and worn. Tiara got a nice red sleeveless dress, short on one side with ruffles to the ground, and convinced the clerk to sell it for $50 in return for her advertising the store. Yuul got a simple dress shirt and pants for $20. Scout tried to find suede tassel chaps, but upon seeing the onesie suede body suit that the clerk brought, changed her mind and got a cheap mustard yellow collared shirt and fashioned something out of it. Finally, the group hopped into a taxi to the Crimson Manor.
On the way, Cornelius gave some background for this mission. The Romanos once shamed his and Vic’s family, snagging a partnership from his family and causing his father to die from malnourishment. Cornelius sought revenge and wanted to ruin their business. However, he didn’t want to eradicate them and completely offset the power balance of vampires, for the Romanos were the last remaining Malkavian royalty in the world. He only wanted to access their ledger from the master bedroom or find some other evidence to ruin their business.
As the taxi pulled up to the mansion, Cornelius gave the group earbuds to communicate discreetly with him. Scout tucked matches in her panties and asked Vic if he had laxatives and received two pills from him. Vic opened the door, offering to help Tiara who refused and instead asked Watoto to support her. Tiara told Uhu to wait outside the master bedroom until she could open the window.
When the group entered the lavish entryway, a short butler with pointed ears asked for their invitations before welcoming them to the ball. The group noticed that there were a mixture of rich humans and vampires attending. Wanting Vic not to attract the attention of the Malkavians, they asked him to get some food and he immediately went away to grab champagne for everyone. Then Tiara asked Cornelius about the family and learned there was Antonio the father, Elena (something like that) the mother, Dominic and Daisy the twins, and a rascal of a little boy. From there, the group decided to split up: Tiara, Watoto, and Scout would chat up the guests while Yuul went to the corner to eavesdrop. However, the waiters mistook Yuul as staff and immediately started giving her food to distribute among the guests. While she was doing that and fishing for tips, a little boy ran up to Yuul and asked for champagne. However, when she refused, he kicked her in the shins, but she was barely able to keep her tray stable.
Tiara approached someone who introduced himself as Willis. Completely disinterested, she turned away and noticed a man and woman together surrounded by suitors forming a line to greet them. They looked young, yet mature, and didn’t seem the age they appeared. While Scout grabbed champagne from Yuul and spiked it with a laxative, Tiara deduced that they were the twins and asked Cornelius for information about Dominic and Daisy. He told her that they have hobbies he’s not comfortable talking about right now, but said if she acts super debaucherous, they will like her very much. He also warned her not to get too close to them, and if she goes into the bedroom she should leave as soon as possible.
Armed with this knowledge, Tiara jumped on top of one of the tables and started doing sexy poses, successfully gaining the crowd’s attention. The twins eyed her with interest and told her to wait in line, but Tiara responded by saying she didn’t like waiting. Scout tried to convince Dominic to take the spiked champagne, but instead he put it on the table next to him.
Then Dominic invited everyone to take shots of tequila, but offered Tiara the good tequila instead of the cheap tequila that everyone else was drinking. While everyone was taking shots, Watoto drank the alcohol so that Tiara could stay sober. Meanwhile, Scout picked up the spiked champagne, walked to the punch bowl, and mixed it in.
Yuul noticed that the lights were slightly red, people were passing out, and that the waitstaff were dragging them away. One waiter asked Yuul to get the special tequila, 8 shot glasses, 2 bottles of champagne, and a big ice bucket, and take it all to the special place behind the second painting in the stairwell.
She went to the kitchen to retrieve the items, and Scout followed her, planning to mix the laxative into the dinner. They observed the busy yet somber staff making lasagna. Yuul tried to distract the chef by talking to him in Italian, but he wasn’t impressed and told her to stop, giving Scout enough time to slip the laxative in before they were both booted from the kitchen. Yuul then asked for Scout’s help to bring the tequila bottle. When they entered the stairway to check for the hidden room, the guards stepped up and pushed aside the correct painting and asked them to be less suspicious.
Yuul and Scout entered a strange underground club with rich patrons sitting on leather couches with drinks in their hands laughing cruelly at humans in cages. Then Antonio entered, snapped his fingers, and asked for a bottle of tequila. When Yuul brought it and responded to his thanks, he angrily asked who talked back to him. Yuul said it was one of the other waiters, and Antonio sucked another waiter’s blood dry. Afterward, he told Yuul he knew the other waiter didn’t really say anything, then invited Yuul to take a seat.
Then Antonio admitted he knew she wasn’t really a waiter. He told her that he was willing to cut her a deal: if she beat him in a rock-paper-scissors style card game, he would let her and her friends leave, but if she lost then she would join the human auction. As Yuul accepted, Scout dumped her drink on the curtains and carpets in the corner of the room, and made a slingshot out of her panties, preparing to make and throw a molotov. Yuul won the first two rounds of the game, then Antonio won the next two rounds.
At the start of the last round, Antonio offered her an additional deal: if Yuul won, then in addition to letting her group go, she could take anything from his house, but if she lost then all her friends would join her in the cages in this room. Yuul accepted, then won the final round. While some guests clapped for Yuul, most of the guests turned around and left in disappointment as Antonio expressed amazement at his loss. He then told Yuul that she could take anything from his house except proof of the human auction, and that she would never step foot in his manor again.
Tiara noticed the partygoers playing spin the bottle, but instead of kissing it developed into weird dancing. Dominic mistook Watoto for a suit-wearing dog and asked Tiara which breed he was, to which she replied that he was a Watoto. They introduced themselves, and Tiara tried to convince the twins to let her and Watoto into their bedroom. After Daisy went to fetch water for Watoto, Dominic told them that they needed to prepare and told them to meet on the second floor, out of sight from their parents.
A short while later, they went to the stairs, briefly making eye contact with Yuul and Scout before entering the bedroom. Inside was a four poster bed with a drawn canopy, a desk near a window with a notepad and folder on top, and various medieval weapons displayed on the walls with fresh blood along their edges. Antonio was also inside, cleaning blood off his face. He told the twins not to make too much of a mess before heading downstairs.
As the twins brought them inside and locked the door, they both had a strange feeling come over them as if they were trying to break out of their skins. Tiara barely fought off the urge to claw off her skin, but Watoto went feral, foamed at the mouth, and tried to itch himself and Tiara. She used her animal ken to calm him down, but afterward they both found that they couldn’t move on their own will.
Dominic started ranting about how the twins couldn’t be themselves, pretending to be social to fit in with the rest of society, and they only had this place where they could truly unleash their desires. As he continued rambling, Watoto whispered to Tiara to take action as he started vomiting on the floor. Tiara called for Uhu, who slammed into the window, then tried to fiddle with the window latch. Dominic grew wise to their plans and the twins used their powers to dominate her. Watoto drew his sound gun as Dominic carried and tied Tiara to the bed. Tiara’s mind felt like it was breaking, and she saw things she wasn’t meant to see like a dollhouse playing out her life for 15 years. Watoto fired his gun but missed, knocking over a vase, grabbing the attention of Daisy who made her way toward him.
Right when Dominic brandished a knife over Tiara, she regained her sanity. And just then, Uhu opened the window and pecked apart the ropes holding her wrist. She then fired a shot at Dominic’s groin. The bullets bounced off, knocking him back from the bed. Tiara rushed to the desk, but Dominic tried to stop her and prepared to charge. Meanwhile, Watoto grabbed a flail from the wall and tried to dodge Daisy’s knife, but was pierced at the side of his body and he fell to the floor.
Just as Dominic was about to lunge, Tiara shot his left eye, blinding him. He cried out in pain and fell backward. Strangely, Daisy stopped trying to attack Watoto and rushed to his side, holding his head in her arms, trying to comfort him. She told them that they would live to regret this and asked them to leave. Tiara and Watoto found the ledger in the desk, handed it to Uhu to deliver to Cornelius, and left the room.
The group all met at the front of the house where Antonio was waiting. When he asked which item they wanted, Scout asked for the deed to the house, to which Antonio refused. Yuul told him that her group caused him enough problems already, and Antonio asked which item she took. Yuul was about to say that she took out his son’s eye, but then changed her mind and said that she took his son’s eyeliner, pretending that it was a brand she always wanted. Confused but nonetheless angry, Antonio told them to leave and never return.
With the ledger, Cornelius was able to prove that the Romano charity ball wasn’t really a charity because all the money raised went to the family. The next day’s newspaper had the headline “Lasagna pants disaster: soiled reputation and soiled pants.”
Several days had passed. In addition to the last mission, the group took a few side missions, resulting in each person earning a total of $600.
One day they were all hanging out in the common room, sitting on a big couch watching Air Bud on a small TV. Then Lady M walked in, telling them all she had news that might interest them. When Scout asked how much they would be earning, she replied that the goal isn’t a monetary reward, but to satisfy her curiosity. She then explained that she received reports of the four of them being seen at the local carnival organized by Yuul’s college. In particular, Yuul was seen volunteering there. However, Yuul said she hadn’t, explaining that she wasn’t much of a partygoer. Their curiosity piqued, the team decided to investigate. As they began to prepare, Lady M warned them not to bring big weapons. The carnival was a family friendly event, and she didn’t want to cause concern among the attendees.
The group visited Kid’s Market, and after some haggling the members purchased various items. Tiara got poison in a soda bottle; Scout got an old motion sensor and a dirty, smelly Brash Candicoot costume; Yuul got a kitchen knife and tear gas; and Watoto got a wooden tube with poison darts. Kid tried to sell special lockpicks to Tiara, but when Scout convinced Tiara to use her hairpins instead Kid angrily closed his shop.
Vic drove a van and dropped them off at the carnival. To their surprise, he dropped them off along with Bertha, who they didn’t realize was also attending. They quickly established a safe word (lingonberry jam) with her so that she could distinguish between them and any imposters. Then she left, talking to someone they couldn’t see.
The carnival looked like a popup place, which made sense for something funded by a college. There were a decent amount of families and children there. The place was full of various attractions like a corn maze and hall of mirrors. A musical guest was supposed to perform at the venue.
It was approaching nighttime when they spotted strange shirtless, heavily tattooed folks wearing sandals and carrying soda cans. Led by her curiosity, Tiara walked up to one of them and asked to try their soda. He obliged, and after she discovered it tasted like lingonberry, he gushed about how he was there to see the concert by the Mad Jester Clan.
Just as Scout put on the Brash Candicoot costume, Yuul was approached by Chad who greeted her. He said he thought she was working at the carnival, then offered to let her group in for free. At first Chad thought Yuul’s group was the cell she belonged to, but she told him they were just family friends. He mentioned that his crew staked out the place and confirmed that there were no supernaturals here, then urged her to relax and have fun. As Chad went back to work at the carnival, Tiara mentioned how Yuul hung around weird people.
They passed through the ticket gates and decided to get face paint to distinguish themselves from their imposters. After waiting an hour, they all got what they wished: Tiara got an owl pattern, Yuul a joker pattern, Watoto a mushroom on his forehead, and Scout got blush marks on the costume. After Tiara left Uhu outside to keep watch, they all stood in line for the concert.
Then Vic, wearing a clown mask, entered the stage and as the MC thanked the audience for coming. He tried to say that the concert was organized by Justa University, but due to his sloppy speech from reading his smudged handwriting the crowd started booing. Vic then introduced tonight’s act with the Mad Jester Clan, featuring Scooby3 Superlit and Pacifist K. When the clown themed duo stepped onstage, the crowd went wild and soda cans sprayed everywhere. They rapped to a hip hop beat while dancing as if in rhythm to some odd chant.
All of a sudden, Scooby3 answered a phone call, hung up, then asked the crowd to repeat strange lyrics together to summon something called The Devourer of Dimensions. The whole crowd, including Tiara, followed the duo and shouted enthusiastically. Yuul tried to join the audience in their dancing, but instead made awkward out-of-tune movements and was scolded by another audience member. Then lightning streaked through the black sky and struck before Yuul as if she had angered a deity.
Everyone including the MCs looked bewildered. The sky became a deep dark blue, and a cracking noise resounded as the earth shook. A rumble broke out across the fairgrounds, and it seemed as if the beach might detach from where it sat. The group noticed that the rides now flickered in a neon color that they hadn’t seen and that eyes now appeared on the merry-go-round. The Mad Jester Clan disappered, and the crowd started to panic. Undeterred by an absence of security, the group went to the back of the stage to investigate and discovered that the edge of the carnival was no longer an ocean, but one of many musky rivers between lifeless mounds of white, and that the carnival itself was floating downstream. The sky pulsated with a dull blue light and the winds grew stronger, carrying ghostly voices. Tiara pulled out her revolver and shot the sky, scaring the people around her and causing them to jump into the water and immediately get swept away into nothingness. The families and children seemed very afraid of these events.
Watoto decided to set up a search and rescue mission to bring all the children to a safe spot. After discussing the plan, the costume-wearing Scout danced with Yuul to lure the children to a chicken coop. About 15 children ran over excited and followed, and the location became a triage center of sorts.
Then Bertha approached, and after mentioning the safe word she said she saw imposters who didn’t know the safe word disappear into the hall of mirrors. Additionally, her husband had now materialized and she could see him now, so she deduced that they were somewhere else. When Tiara expressed her surprise at how calm she was, Bertha explained that she had been here before. She warned the group that they shouldn’t reach the Ocean of Fragments where they’ll surely meet their doom before leaving to find her husband. After Scout walked on the shore to pick up some seashells, the group decided to visit each of the unmanned, yet operational rides to see if they held any clues.
First they went to the merry go round. The people on the ride looked like they were enjoying it, but they seemed to be chanting something. Noticing strange eyes on the merry go round, Tiara shot one of them and it swelled up and exploded, causing the ride to spin faster and faster, screech to a halt, then spin in reverse. All the eyes closed and people fell off the horses unconscious. Tiara noticed that many rides were similar to this, as if they were possessed by ghosts. Checking their surroundings, they saw a castle, ferris wheel, high swing sets, Death Sensei’s Wild Ride, food stalls, a shooting gallery, corn maze, and the hall of mirrors.
Heading to the shooting range, they noticed that the prizes were weird: they were weird plush dolls of the cast, almost as if an imprint of their souls had been copied to them. Even Scout’s doll was wearing the same Brash Candicoot costume with face paint. A tall, dull blue hooded figure stood at the stall, wordlessly putting a demented nerf gun on the counter. When Yuul approached, the figure stopped her with an almost skeletal looking ghostly hand, then motioned towards Yuul’s doll, bringing her to a realization that she needed to shoot her own doll to win it. Yuul took aim and hit her doll squarely in the middle of the forehead. Then a shock went through her. She jolted backwards, feeling a crippingly bad headache before noticing that blood was falling down her head. The figure handed the doll to her, emitting a sense of congratulation.
Resolving to steal the other dolls without shooting at them, they hatched a plan: start a fire near the shooting gallery, then steal the dolls while the owner was distracted. Scout went to the triage area to grab a hay bale. When the children excitedly asked her where she was going, she threatened to eat them, scaring them back to the coop. Placing the hay bale next to the gallery, they lit and tossed a match to set it ablaze. Scout tried to run away, but tripped and fell right as the stall owner approached. The figure reached out a hand and touched her, and she felt as if a piece of her soul was being drained away. Scout walked away, but the ghost continued to stalk her. Meanwhile, Watoto had enough time to take everything from the stall, including a doll that looked like Bertha. Then the shooting gallery’s luster faded, and its demonic look diminished as it burnt to a crisp.
Next, they went to the castle. Glowing in a blue spiritual light, it was the size of a decently large inn with a few spirits floating around. Scout didn’t see a castle like this before entering the carnival: previously it was more like a haunted house. Now ghostly figures exclusively roamed the area. There were multiple entrances, none of which were guarded. Opening the front door, they saw nothing but blackness. Even shining a flashlight revealed nothing. Tiara took a photo with her phone and noticed swirling balls of spiritual energy rotating, twisting, twirling, going down a long way. When they checked the other entrance, they found a black portal awaiting them. Cautious about entering, they picked the lightest person, Watoto, tied a rope to him and lowered him into the portal. As he passed through, they tried to call him. He picked up but couldn’t hear or say anything. Then as he passed deeper, things began to get brighter. Suddenly gravity shifted, and Watoto found himself sitting in a window frame of the castle. He looked down to see his friends below. Seeing him safe, the group jumped into the portal, but their momentum caused them all to fall to the ground outside the castle.
They noticed that the castle was full of dark, spooky energy and that many ghosts were coming out from inside. When Watoto tried to touch one, it slowly pulled on his arm. Just as Scout noticed that the ghost was trying to pull him towards the water, Tiara and Yuul heard distant screams from other people who were getting dragged into the darkness. Watoto managed to wiggle out of the ghost’s grasp and fell onto the sand, noticing that the water had turned into a smoky, milky color. He shined a flashlight on the ghost, irritating it and making it move away.
The group opened the front door and saw that the inside was still pitch black, and tons of specters were still coming out. Scout focused on the ghosts, noting that they started to look like people from various time periods when she stared closely. Tiara tried to speak to one and the ghost told her that they came from everywhere and nowhere, and that they must keep the engine turning. Then the group remembered that there were various attractions that were spinning and that they previously reversed the merry go round. They decided to head to the ferris wheel.
Heading to the main carnival area, they noticed the ground vaguely looked as if it had veins running through it. When they reached the ferris wheel they saw that it was still turning at a slow pace. They all felt a strange feeling of wanting to ride it, as if they were being compelled. It was operated by a large rugged, unfriendly ghost who looked like a bouncer, but more clownish. Watoto looked around and found a little locked shack behind the ride and a ticket booth manned by a less threatening ghost with something that looked like it held passes or a keyring.
Watoto went to the shack and used Tiara’s hairpins to pick the lock, opening the door but also catching the attention of someone. Inside was a broom, pieces of metal, and a large sack for potatoes. Getting inspired by the Ghostbusters movies she saw, Scout decided to craft a vacuum to suck the ghosts. As they heard heavy footsteps approaching, Yuul assisted Scout while Watoto crouched in the corner. They saw the bouncer from earlier, with crossed arms and pitch black eyes. Scout tried to switch on the vacuum, but then realized that it wasn’t plugged in. Watoto quickly grabbed the cord and plugged in into the wall, and with a loud whirring noise the vacuum turned on and tried to suck in the ghost. The group shone their flashlights on him, but unlike the other ghosts the lights didn’t seem to affect him. The vacuum started shaking as if it was going to break. Yuul moved behind the ghost to kick him, but her leg went through his figure. Watoto used a blow dart and missed, hitting Yuul in the shoulder, causing her to sink to her knees and fall forward onto the ground.
Then the bouncer welcomed them to the ferris wheel, and the group felt strangely compelled to enter the ride. While Scout and Watoto managed to resist, Tiara was enthralled and walked to the entrance. They tried to stop Tiara from getting on and succeeded. The bouncer used mind magic again, but this time Tiara resisted. As Yuul woke up, the bouncer gave up, stood by the lever for the ferris wheel, crossed his arms, and refused to leave.
The group then planned to stick an object into the gears to halt the ride. Scout took the broom from earlier and fortified it with pieces of metal. As the bouncer was distracted, welcoming new passengers, they found an area that looked suitable and Watoto shoved the broom in. It made the shuttering sound, and the ferris wheel stopped moving. As they heard someone approaching, they all ran away. They noticed that above them were skeletons in the carriages, and voices of old people asking to be let out. While the ghost was distracted, Scout ran to the lever, flipped it, then kicked the lever off, causing the eyeball in the middle of the ferris wheel to close. Then the ride rolled in reverse, and the people who were previously shouting stepped out looking like they were in their twenties. The other people that were still alive exited, but the skeletons on the rides turned to dust. The entire place began to rumble differently as the carnival slowed its course down the river. Tiara took the broken lever to prevent the ghost from fixing it.
Remembering their previous intel about their imposters, they entered where they were last seen: the house of mirrors. Inside were odd things like deserted swings and abandoned rides. Full of suspicion, Tiara immediately smashed all the mirrors with the broken lever. But when the glass broke, she saw more mirrors behind each mirror. Furthermore, as the shards scattered on the floor, they soon became part of the floor itself. While Tiara picked up some of the glass, Yuul realized that she didn’t know what happened to the exit. She also noticed that some of the mirror projections were moving differently from the others. She shined a light on the mirror and noted how odd it was to see the light bouncing off each mirror in an alternate form of space, as if it were passing through dimensions. With enough finesse, she managed to redirect the light to the version of her that was different.
Suddenly the perspective changed. A light illuminated Yuul, and she was alone in front of a mirror. She had a feeling that she had been stuck there for a long time. The last thing she remembered was odd fireworks, then she was here, and another person who looked like her left. Now a version of her was standing before her with a flashlight. She banged on the mirror, confusing her doppelganger. Tiara checked behind the mirror but it was just a wall. Watoto pulled out his doll and tickled it, noticing that his doppelganger curled up laughing in response. The Tiara outside the mirror stabbed a squishy area in her doll’s upper thigh. When the other her begged her to stop, she stabbed it even more, seriously wounding the Tiara inside the mirror.
Yuul deduced that the real people were inside the mirror, and the people outside the mirror were doppelgangers. Inside the mirror, the team performed first aid on Tiara. Yuul tickled her doll, and the Yuul outside the mirror reacted. Then a voice over the intercom said that there could only be one in this world. The doppelgangers poked at their dolls, starting to figure it out as they watched the team react. Tiara shined her flashlight at the Tiara outside. Light passed through without reflecting, and she briefly saw that her doppelganger was made of sticks and stones. Finally realizing who they were, the doppelgangers stopped talking to the inner mirror selves, and their eyes narrowed with jealousy and malicious intent. Scout decided to unravel her doll, and heard something behind her fall to the ground. She saw her own head looking at her with sticks, stones, and leaves scattered where blood should have been. The rest of the team unraveled their dolls and watched their doppelgangers’ bodies fall before their eyes. In this event, Scout found meaning and reaffirmed her self-worth, and the rest of the team were shocked but otherwise able to cope. Then they realized the glass disappeared, so they walked through and returned to the outside. When they exited, they suddenly had memories of what their doppelgangers were doing.
The water had settled around the fairgrounds, and the place wasn’t moving downstream anymore. However, the ghosts were on a rampage, dragging as many people as they could into the water. The group saw Bertha lost among the mayhem. They shined flashlights to ward off the ghosts while moving toward her. She told them that they needed to finish the reversal ritual and find the central point where everything leads. Remembering that the castle was rumbling and roaring while churning out ghosts, they ran to it. Yuul parkoured ahead, Tiara and Scout managed to fend off the ghosts en route, but Watoto stumbled and fell. Yuul turned around to help him and swatted away the ghosts. Bertha also made it safely.
Waddling to the front door to open it, Bertha asked the team to find a wheel to steer, as if they were pirates riding a ship. Yuul spotted it immediately: at the top of the castle was something similar to a wheel. Scout combined the broken lever with a rope to make a grappling hook and began scaling the castle. Meanwhile the ghosts grabbed Watoto, trying to drag him into the water. Tiara and Yuul pulled on his leg and managed to drag him back. At the top of the building, Scout noticed that the castle had a weird marine theme and that the wheel looked like it could be broken off. On the ground, she saw Bertha using weird chalk to draw a glowing diagram on the ground. Scout ripped off the wheel and looped it through her belt buckle on her pants and began climbing back down. But midway through, the rope snapped and Scout crashed to the floor. As Bertha used the chalk to finish the diagram, it screamed, and she apologized to it but said they needed to escape.
Taking the wheel, Bertha placed it in the center, then spun it. The entire rotation of the carnival was turning around. They felt themselves getting ready to accelerate upward. Then Bertha said they needed an unlimited power source, and asked if anyone knew how to create a paradox to turn the castle in on itself. The team helped Yuul piece together the mirror shards that Tiara collected, then shined a light on the mirror to the portal and watched it bounce back and forth. In an explosion of light, the power source fired off like an engine, and the carnival sped back up the river. The ghosts moved in reverse, as if they were sucked into the castle.
The cast found the beach surrounded by police cars, people arrested left and right for suspicion of murder, ambulances piling up the street, with missing persons reports filed almost nonstop. Just as one of the police officers started to interrogate the main cast, another officer told them they had orders to let them go free. The news explained this mysterious incident as a result of a possible spiking of a soda drink, which was then consumed en masse, causing people to go crazy and run into the waters.
In the end they returned to the bar and were greeted by Madam M, who was glad that no one found out about supernaturals, and paid them all a thousand dollars each.
Three months passed, and after the cast did the usual hunter society missions, Madam M one day visited the common room to chat. She sat down, lit up a cigar, poured a cup of whiskey, took a sip, then mentioned that she would like to know what the main cast wanted. Scout immediately replied with money, but Madam M said that was so surface level. She wanted to learn about each character’s dreams. Yuul wanted to be free of student loan debt. Watoto wanted to build his own compound with a bunker, lab, and satellite. Scout needed to take care of her sister, now that her parents were dead to her. After having a friendly brawl with Scout, M asked Tiara, who replied that she wanted to find different kinds of birds and see her brother, but the missions kept interrupting her. M explained that everyone who decided to leave the group had died at the hands of supernaturals.
M then mentioned that it was important for everyone to know and stick with each other. She heard wind of something bad happening recently about another hunter group that went off on the hinges and murdered other hunter groups, almost as if they became powerful overnight, and that the group would die if they didn’t stick together. She told a story about how a hunter group long ago all went to the Underworld and entered the deepest part but returned crazy, and couldn’t help but think that this insane hunter group was them. M said that this current hunter group had stayed the longest out of the past 60 years.
She suggested that they lay low for awhile, then locked them all inside the common room. With Kid out restocking guns, the cast surveyed the room. Scout suggested making a bomb, but then changed her mind when considering that the door was made of titanium, there were no windows, and ventilation was poor. Watoto spied two small vents that he could climb through. The fridge had takeout leftovers, lo mein, a bittle apple, fried rice, half empty soda, and olive oil. Watoto wanted to get greased up by the olive oil, but Tiara asked not to use too much because she wanted to use it for making pasta.
Yuul yelled wake words for various smart assistants, like “Hey Alexa” and “Okay, Google”, causing the smart assistant Archibald to respond. Scout exclaimed that she was kidnapped and that there was a bomb in the building, prompting Archibald to call the Mythton Police Department. Yuul then tried to order food, pissing off the police, making them think they were being pranked and hanging up. As Tiara scolded Yuul for always eating out, Scout asked Archibald to play the Baywatch theme while Watoto took off his shirt and put on olive oil. Then Watoto tried to enter the vent, but got stuck and wiggled back out. Tiara and Scout tried to push him back in to no avail.
Then Tiara decided to send Uhu through the vent. Scout quickly crafted a helmet that fit Uhu’s head, strapped a phone to it, and joined a Discord call. Uhu waddled into the vent, and the team was able to see through the video stream. At the end of the vent was a big red button. When Uhu stepped on it, the alarms sounded off and all the doors locked, sealing everyone in. Moments later, Madam M banged on the door from the outside, asking why they triggered the emergency alarm. Then they heard M scream as a gunshot sounded off. Uhu returned, looking a bit ruffled and concerned.
The doors to the bedrooms were now unlocked. Watoto found an interesting pattern in the floor beneath the bar, like a trapdoor. Pulling it up, they found that humans could fit in it, and down were stairs leading somewhere dark. They all went to their rooms to gear up, then headed down the stairs into the cellar below.
Suddenly the trapdoor shut from above, and they heard a distorted giggling noise. It began to smell bad, and the team felt very sleepy. Scout quickly pulled her bandana over her mouth and watched as her friends fell down unconscious. Close to sleeping, Scout noticed the trapdoor opening again, and five different members wearing different colored gas masks dragging them up the stairs into the common room and opening the main door, then dragging them into the garage. They were then tied back to back in pairs: Watoto with Tiara and Yuul with Scout.
When they all came to, they saw the five lazily circling around them, using voice changers built into their masks. The kidnappers explained they were going to play a game. They opened a wall to reveal a vault with money. Then they explained the rules of their version of the prisoner’s dilemma. Each pair are tied up so that they can’t see each other’s hands. If both of them give a thumbs up, they both live. If both give a thumbs down, they both die. If one gives thumbs up, then the person who gave thumbs up dies while the person who gave thumbs down gets a portion of the money.
First, Watoto and Tiara gave both thumbs up. Then Yuul and Scout also gave both thumbs up. The kidnappers expressed their disappointment at how boring their responses were. While some of the kidnappers argued about killing them, the leader told them to stop arguing, inadvertently exposing his accent as the same that Tiara had.
Tiara recognized him as her brother and called out to him. He explained he came to this country looking for Tiara and decided to open his own hunter conspiracy, but things didn’t go according to plan and he wasn’t treated nicely by the other groups or supernaturals. He said he was living the only way he knew how, and that he was tired. Tiara sympathized, but mentioned that he needed to see things in a different light. He said he was glad she kept the pendant, then left saying he needed to think things through.
The way some of the kidnappers acted gave Scout a funny feeling, and she confirmed it by verifying that two of them were her parents. Scout expressed her anger at how they abandoned her family and demanded they untie her. Her father said he was proud that he got rich and committed murder. Scout admitted to smashing his Ford, causing him to get angry and storm off to find a belt while his wife tried to calm him down to no avail.
Finally, Watoto’s parents took off their masks and expressed how much they missed their son. They said they found government secrets and that they joined a group of new friends on a mission to take it down. Watoto thought they had died and was sad that they tried to kill Watoto and his friends. They explained it was the fault of the masks they were forced to wear, which made them powerful yet made it difficult to think straight. Watoto said he wanted them to stay safe, and that he could pay all the bills. His parents said they wouldn’t have to worry about bills with all the money they were stealing, but Watoto said they steal from the government, not from the people. Then Mother Watoto started weeping while Father Watoto consoled her. Watoto said he wanted to work with them, but they refused to let him follow their path. They asked him not to make their same mistake and never make a deal with the Wyrm.
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