An abandoned wooden cabin left in ruins after a devastating fire, long ago, charred it black. It is a small dwelling with little else in its vicinity, save for the dark root cellar from which you arose.
You arrive to this place, by your estimation, at what feels like the first rays of the morning sun – you decide to set your clock either to the first or the second day-time encounter. Looking around the area, there is no time like the present to get to learn your surroundings.
The Ruins of the Cabin
The dark ruins of the burnt cabin creak ominously, as if in the throes of its death.
► ➙ Search the perimeter
You look upon the Black Cabin, its almost completely ruined entrance, and you elect to scout around it instead of trying to head inside, at least for now. Watching for nails, broken glass and all other kinds of hazardous debris upon each step, you keep your eyes trained on the ground and on the cabin, searching for… something, anything of note. And turning around the corner, sure enough, you see something just behind it.
Spend any card of Spades or Clubs to bring in an Entity.
► ➙ Explore the ruins { Daytime }
You gauge your chances of entering the Black Cabin safely – the entrance lays in ruins, but on a closer look, some parts of its wooden frame appear to still be solid enough. Watching your step, testing the durability of every surface, you eventually make it inside the ruins. Inside, it is just as black as on the outside, the whole space smelling of burnt wood and iron… awful little remains of what once made this a home for someone. Luckily, it seems that a few things survived the fire.
You may spend any 2 cards to gain Items.
► ❋ Take a deep breath
You feel a gentle breeze on your skin and your clothes, but it brings with it the smell of smoke. The woods stand quiet, the sun hangs on high, nothing is out of place and yet you feel restless.
Write an entry in your journal regarding your first impressions of this place. Is this what you had expected Unhola to hold for you? What do you suppose happened to the cabin? Has it settled in yet that you will never go home?
► ➙ You see a black dog
You see a large and black shepherd-type dog, sniffing around the burnt ruins. After a while, it seems to notice you stare, and raises its head to meet your gaze with a stern expression. “The hell are you looking at?”, he asks, annoyed.
You meet Pitch Black ➚.
► ➙ There is a warm glow inside the cabin { Night-time }
Against the absolute darkness of the night, a warm glow, like a campfire, flickers within the ruins of the Black Cabin, lighting even the nearby trees through the collapsed walls.
► ⦿ Stay still and watch
Why did its glow remind you of a campfire? Because the way the light moves, or because the burnt cabin evokes a fire through association? You stay in the dark of the night, watching, listening, but almost jump when a large shadow moves within the cabin – a person passing in front of the light.
► ➙ Approach the light
You approach the flame-lit cabin, peeking inside to see what is going on. You had expected a person, and still you are surprised to see one, awkwardly positioned among the rubble – they themselves set aflame, yet entirely unbothered by it.
Before you can think of anything to do regarding this strange person, they suddenly move, struggling to get up, but not giving up – they begin to crawl among the debris, disregarding the broken glass and jutting nails and unstable piles of collapsed logs. You see their body torn, their blood spill onto the floor as they force their way through these obstacles, until one careless move against a hefty log becomes their last. A support beam falls and brings part of the ceiling down with it, crushing the person and snuffing out the fire in an instant, returning you to a quiet and dark night – only small embers remain.
The Root Cellar
You arose from here, this partially underground cellar. It has long since been overtaken by moss and shrubbery, and smells strongly of earth.
► ➙ Return to the root cellar
You return to the root cellar, though unsure what you expect. A part of you wonders if, just maybe, the doorway might still be there. Could you look back, to see the world you left behind? But on the other hand, you know the stories just as well as anyone else – the way back is never there.
You stare at the mouth of the root cellar, realising that you will need a light source to proceed.
► ➙ Enter the root cellar { Light source }
You descent into the root cellar, its narrow steps precarious despite your light. The low ceiling of the cellar only barely misses the top of your head, but otherwise, the space is much wider than it was before – your light only barely reaches the walls on both sides, but not what lies at the other end of the room. You process with care, in no small part to avoid hitting your head, while the room, more like a hallway, stretches on beyond any reason. Sometimes the walls seem to close in on you, sometimes they pull far into the darkness – and when you turn around, you can no longer find the light of the outside world. There is a draft here, damp and earthen, and it comes and goes, as if… it were an inhale, and then an exhale.
► ➙ Your light is a flame, and it is snuffed out
You are swallowed by the darkness, the brief scent of a flame extinguished accompanying you before fleeing as well. You are helpless here – discard all cards from your hand.
By the merciful will of Fortune, you find your way out of the cellar. By the time you emerge, it has turned to night-time. You are beyond saving. You will never find your way out of this place, and your game ends here.
You begin to wander around, all sense of direction gone. You find a wall and hold onto its clammy surface, guided by it – whether towards the entrance or deeper in, you are not sure. It seems to twist and turn as if in a labyrinth, sometimes ending and leaving you stranded in the sensory nothingness, before you find another wall again.
Your fate is up to chance. Take both the draw deck and the discard pile, and shuffle them together. Draw a card.
►
➙ Your card is an Ace
►
➙ Your card is not an Ace
► ➙ Your light is electronic, it merely flickers
The flicker of your light makes you nervous, but thankfully it does not betray you. You continue on, until suddenly, your light reflects off something pure white in the distance. A cool wind confirms you to you what you hadn’t thought likely: there is snow here. The air feels frigid, but not unbearably so, as you push on between the mounds of glimmering snow banked up on the corners of the walls, your steps uncertain as the moist flooring has turned to a thin layer of ice.
Ahead, you see an arched doorway, and beyond it, a boundless landscape of snow, illuminated as if it were a moonlit night on the other side. The swirls of powdered snow billow along the distant slopes, yet the cold does not seem to quite reach you here. Your curiosity compels you, but you would not survive the mysterious winter beyond the arch, not like this. The time will come, in due time.
Just as you are about to make your leave of this place, your shoe meets either something solid on the ground. You aim your flashlight down to see the remains of a dog there, possibly of a Dalmatian – its eyes sunken in and gone, and its skin shrunken and tight on its emaciated head.
You may use the Lost Friend’s Head in the construction of a Fabricarnated. This allows it to follow you along even when its Physique has fallen 0 – though any further damage will bring it down for good.
► ❋ Linger on the past, for a moment longer
You pause at this doorway, not quite willing to hurry any which way just yet. Idly feeling the rugged surface of the entrance corner, you find yourself engulfed within a moment of unreality, as if all this were a dream, though you know it is not. But the sensation is unmistakeable.
Draw a card from the draw deck:
► ➙ Its value is 1 – 6
You feel the crumbling corner in your fingertips, but the sensation is dulled, your fingertips tingle. Try as you might to feel the texture of the surface, to cling to this tangible reality, it pulls away from you, the sensation fading to a meaningless notion of a shape, nothing more. You look around but cannot see, you feel your legs but not the earth beneath them, as you fall, disoriented.
You suffer the Lost –affliction. Write a short, disoriented note in your journal for each Encounter that you spend in this state.
► ➙ Its value is 7 – 13
You have made your decision, and for better or for worse, this is your new reality. You let go of the corner of root cellar entrance, your fingers tingly from its cold and unpleasantly rough surface.
Describe in your journal a dream you’ve had, of a place you knew wasn’t real.
The Woods
The Black Cabin is surrounded by The Woods, overgrown and difficult to traverse if you are unaccustomed to physical exertion. Your Physique determines which activities are available to you.
harvesting flora
{ Physique 2 }
You may spend 2 Encounters’ time to find a harvestable Flora in the woods.
encounter an animal
{ Physique 3 }
If you have a Queen card to spend, you may find an animal after 2 Encounters’ time. Discard the Queen, and play any card of Hearts to encounter an Entity.
wandering
{ Physique 2 }
You may spend as much time as you like to wander the woods. After every 3 Encounters, you have a chance to run into something. You may play these Encounters only if you have their card in your hand.
► ➙ 5 of Hearts
You see a dead body, lying face down on the moss. The dark birds, watching you from on high, have ensured that they will never be identified. If you can stomach the stench of death, and the way it will linger upon you, you can approach the body.
You find a Rifle on their person, but no bullets, as well as two other Items.
► ➙ 9 of Spades
You come across a secret landfill, a partially buried pile of garbage. The 200-litre drums have long since rusted and are overgrown by lichen, the broken pieces of vehicle parts are scarcely identifiable, and colourful plastic containers peek through the undergrowth, here and there. The smell here is distinctly chemical, but only faintly so. But… something else is in the air too.
Add an Entity of Diamonds.
► ➙ King of Diamonds
Your wandering is cut short by a sudden agony in your leg – you look down and see that the iron jaws of a bear trap have closed shut on you. If your Knowledge is 3 or higher, you can remove it, otherwise you have no idea how to open this device. You suffer a Moderate Wound, and if you remove the trap by force, you will suffer Major Wound.
► ➙ Ace of Clubs
You can hardly believe your luck – you stumble upon a bountiful berry batch, all ripe for picking! Bilberries, lingonberries and even the rare cloudberries speckle the bushy undergrowth in the vibrant colors of blue, red and orange. You can effortlessly eat your fill here, satisfying your Hunger, and even pick some up on the go if you have the means to carry your bounty.
