MIRIN SCASSELLATI
Designer, Maker, Student
Mystery
In the first episode of Revelation, the players are sent to an abandoned house. A woman they met at the bar, Snow, asked them to visit the place she was held captive and steal back her grandmother's ring. The players had an hour of real-time to explore this house and find out its--and Snow's--secrets.
To simulate the player's experience, click through to explore the house and discover clues for yourself. Since the players were forced to make decisions about what to explore and what to ignore, you can do the same for yourself--or read through as much or as little as you like :)
Outside the house
After traveling through the woods, you reach a secluded cabin at the address Snow gave you.
Purple flowers The flowers are purple spheres with a strange, slightly pungent or biting smell, almost like onions. There's an overwhelming amount of these flowers.
A Wooden Rack By the front door is a wooden rack. It contains mostly pick-axes and mining equipment, some torches, an axe, and wooden mallets.
A Stack of Firewood There's some wooden logs stacked up here, but also what look like cut up remnants of... a door, maybe?
A Well The well itself is largely uneventful. There's a bucket in it, and a stump next to it with a bible on top.
Windows The windows on this cabin aren't typical cabin windows--they're much larger than normal. You're able to see inside the main room, which appears to be a work room/kitchen of some sort. There's also a sign up in one of the windows "Visitors are not welcome".
Front Door The front door is sturdy but doesn't seem to be locked. It swings open without a creak and you find yourself in the house.
Kitchen/Workroom
The room is large and airy, despite it's short ceilings. There's a well-used kitchen in one corner, and three doors leading to other parts of the cabin.
Woodworking supplies There's some carving tools here, and a bunch of pick-axes (or at least, pick-axes-to-be). Maybe they're just replacing the handles when they get worn out, because you only see a few pickaxe heads, but a lot of wooden stakes that would fit into them.
Windows There are windows on the front and back walls of the room. They let in a lot of beautiful natural light. Outside, you can see the purple flowers that decorate the house.
Dining table It's a round wooden table, with 7 seats around it. Walking over to it, the table seems oddly short, almost as though it was made for children.
Doorways There are three doorways leading out of this room--two to your left and one to your right. The two to the left seem to lead to a bathroom and bedroom, while the one to your right leads to a hallway. Where will you explore next?
Bathroom
There's a large vanity mirror here, a sink, and some drawers, plus a toilet and shower. Pretty standard stuff..
Check the Drawers You find some combs, a spray bottle full of water, and a handheld mirror.
Toilet and Showers You bump your head trying to look inside the shower, and the toilet is lower than you're used to.
Bedroom
In the bedroom are seven cots with a nightstand behind each and a drawer at the foot. It looks more like a barracks than a bedroom.
On top of the nightstands You find several cross necklaces, a few glasses of water, and a bible. It's largely unadorned, but there are a few pages dog earred, and "Exod 22:18" is written in the front.
In the nightstands In two of the nightstands, you find a gun and bullets. The bullets feel a little light to you. You also find a dream journal in one of the nightstands, but the owner only gets a few words on each page before seemingly drifting off again.
Bookshelf You find a few interesting books: an engineering book with some diagrams inside (it looks like one of them is for a... water balloon cannon?), a book of combat techniques, and several large encyclopedias with purple flowers pressed between them.
Hallway
The hallway off of the kitchen has one door halfway through and one at the end.
Statue There's a little gargoyle statue in the hallway. On closer look, you realize it's actually a fountain creating a little stream that runs underneath the floor in the hallway.
Vase This vase looks like it's... full of rice? Not sure what that's about.
Living Room
It's decorated like a hunter's lodge--fireplace, weaponry on the wall, and large windows looking out on the forest.
Fireplace There's no fire burning, but you place your hand on the stone and it still feels warm.
Coffee table book There's a journal on the coffee table: Wednesday: everything as normal Thursday: everything as normal Friday: Found journal in room. Some writings. Will try to get D to translate. Saturday: (handwriting shifts) Snuck into her room today and found the paper she was writing. It’s in this super old script so even I can’t really read it but I’m pretty sure it says something about a ritual of… all night? Of darkness? Like I said, it's wicked hard to decode. Okay so ritual components call for ‘dwarven tears’, and ‘blood of a virgin’. Also some sorta stone (the words “walk” and “sun” are in here but I can’t figure out why? Maybe talking about sunstone?) and a lock of flaming hair Ritual of Forever Night Stone of Daywalking (consumed) Dwarven Tears One Lock Flaming Hair Blood of a Virgin Combine ingredients under the light of a full moon, Allow up to 2 hours for full effect. Do not expose ritual to daylight - serve with Time or Thyme as a garnish and enjoy!
Stone Chimney You find a small switch on the side of the chimney. Flipping it causes the fireplace to burst into flames. Must be magic.
Wall Weaponry There are a number of crossbows and spears mounted on the walls. All of the weapons are metal tipped, and there are at least 3 places where weapons could hang that are empty.
Wall Decor There's a large cross hanging over the door.
Calendar There's a calendar hanging on the wall. It has the phases of the moon marked. Today is a full moon.
The Basement
At the end of the hallway is a hatch with a ladder down. Unlike the rest of the cabin, it is very, very, dark.
Floor The floor seems to be covered in some sort of hay.
Tripping hazard As you make your way across the room, you stumble on something on the ground. Are these... chains?
Box There's a long box in the corner, like a shipping crate. The inside is lined with some sort of red silk--lucurious, but in a state of decay. Inside, you find a ring.
Dishes There's a dish and a cup on the floor near the entrance. There's a little red liquid, maybe wine?, still in the bottom of the cup.
Learn the truth The Snow that approached you in the bar is in fact Snow White, and the house you're now at is the cabin of the 7 dwarves. This isn't just a fairytale, though--Snow White is a vampire, and the dwarves vampire hunters. She was in fact imprisoned here, but only to protect the people of this town--as the players learn when she comes back to kill them in the second part of this game. One of our goals for this mystery is that multiple players can contribute to the solving of it. Sure, one player will be the one to realize that she's a vampire, but there are lots of clues that can then be connected back to that solution. Every time someone makes another connection: the bible by the well is to make holy water (and the water-balloon cannon is to disperse it), the onion-smelling flowers are really garlic, the "wine" in the basement is probably blood, the bullets are lighter because they're silver and not lead, the reason for making so many wooden stakes is probably not to serve as pick-axe handles, or any other piece of the puzzle--it creates an opportunity for that player to feel clever, and makes sure the party knows they're on the right track!