Story 1: The Fate of Vandals

Delaware arrives in the remains of the Morrisville Manor. He enters through the front doors, which are unlocked. The room is the Lobby and it is a total mess from vandals spray-painting all over the walls and destroying the furniture and fixtures. The place has been abandoned for years and from the looks of it, not even vandals have been in it in a long time. Suddenly a ringing noise is heard. Delaware finds a COMMUNICATOR DEVICE, VIC, in his coat pocket.

Kelly has found the building schematic and tells Delaware there’s a backup generator in the basement. At this point Delaware only has a flashlight so his exploration is limited. Delaware follows Kelly’s directions to locate the basement door.

As Delaware walks through the Lobby there’s a flash of lighting and in between the flashes he sees a little girl in a nightgown up on the balcony. She begins singing then vanishes. As quickly as it came, the voice and girl are gone. Delaware continues to the basement.

The basement is stacked with old, rotting furniture. It’s pitch black except for Delaware’s flashlight. A chair suddenly moves across the basement floor, on its own. Delaware makes his way into the back of the basement to a door. His progress is halted when he realizes the back section of the basement is flooded. While facing the door, if Delaware turns to the left and looks around he’ll find a pair of fishing boots. He puts them on and can now wade through the water.

Straight across from where he enters, there’s a fuse box. He’s looking for an emergency backup generator but the fuse box isn’t totally useless. It contains the Handyman’s Note. Delaware can take a photo of the Handyman Note to get Kelly involved in the puzzle.

Puzzle: Emergency Generator

The Handyman’s Note is a strange paragraph about remembering the code to the emergency backup generator’s locked shell. But the handyman who wrote it doesn’t want his dumb assistant to know it or he’ll start playing with it and possibly break it. So he put it in a riddle form:

“Our new backup generater is all ready to go. To make sure that new hire Ben doesn’t mess with it, I put a lock on it. I’m not good at remembering combinashuns so I’m gonna rite it in here but in a code so only I know how to unlock it.

Eight marbels, two candles, three flowers, six beans, lined up backwords”

The emergency generator is located across from the fuse box. There’s a keypad for the generator on the outside of the case. The puzzle is simple, 6, 3, 2, 8, the numbers reversed. Delaware pushes the ON button then enters the code to bring the emergency generator to life. It illuminates some lights in the basement and upstairs, just in time too, Delaware’s flashlight fails at the same moment.

Delaware is now free to walk back upstairs to the Lobby, which is now lit. Upon arriving upstairs, Delaware has a vision of five kids hanging out in the Lobby. The image fades away and Delaware explores the Lobby more. He turns back to the basement door and notices a staircase next to the door, but unfortunately the stairs are long gone, he comments he needs to find something to help him up.

With the Lobby explored Delaware discovers a set of wooden double doors that are unlocked. He opens them and enters into the Lounge.

The room is a huge mess from where tables and chairs have been thrown around and broken all over the place. Delaware makes his way to the Bar. At the bar an image of a girl and boy appear, they seem to have gotten into trouble. The images fade out.

When Delaware examines the bar he finds an earring. Delaware picks up the earring and continues exploring the Lounge.

To continue exploring the rest of the building, Delaware has to get past the main floor. He tried the elevator in the Lobby but despite having power the doors won’t open.

In the Lounge, to the left of the stairs leading to the balcony, Delaware finds a stepladder. He takes the stepladder and can use it to get up the stairwell in the Lobby.

The stairwell takes Delaware to the First Floor but not beyond it since the stairwell up to the second floor is packed with furniture and boxes.

This floor is beaten down. There are holes in the walls, graffiti everywhere. Some of the remaining fixtures are lit but most are missing or dead. When Delaware first enters into the hall he catches a glimpse of two people dragging a body into a room at the end of the hall, Room 111. Delaware reaches Room 111 and the door is ajar, he goes inside. Inside, it’s dark with the intact lights barely lighting the room. The bed has a comforter on it however there’s a silhouette of a body on the bed. Upon examination of the bed Delaware notices another earring. Delaware places the right earring that he acquired from the bar down on the silhouette and a ghostly “Thank you…” is heard as the shadow fades away.

As Delaware explores the room he notices a notebook sitting on the couch that wasn’t there before. He examines the inside cover of the book and sees: “From the diary of: Heather Malcolm.” In the book is a passage Heather had written about her and her friends arriving at the hotel.

Heather’s Journal Entry 1

“So here we are at the place they call Midnight Manor. Mark insisted this would be a wicked place to crash, but this place is creepy. Aunt Caroline has warned me over and over that this place is haunted, but I figure, ‘What the hell,’ I’ll see for myself. Mark calls me a “wannabe goth chick” for talking about these spirits that supposedly live here. But the fact is, no one knows what happened to all those people years ago. It kind of feels like part of them is still around here. Like we’re being watched from behind the walls. It’s a very strange sensation. If it weren’t for Lisa dragging me along, I probably wouldn’t be here. But I couldn’t leave her alone with Mark. He’s a jerk. I know Mark only brought her here to get her to cling to him more. Disgusting. Speaking of, I’m going to check out the basement. Mark and Lisa are down there looking through the old junk that’s still here. Maybe they found something cool.”

Delaware takes this passage as a suggestion to check the basement.

Back in the basement Delaware looks around and has a vision of two teenagers walking towards the old washroom in the basement. They pass through a door and into the room. When they’re inside, screams are heard. When Delaware comes to the door he realizes it’s stuck. Kelly calls Delaware on VIC and their conversation leads him to notice the fragile condition of the door. A special icon appears on the door and when clicked, Delaware will break open the door.

With the door now open, Delaware can explore the laundry room.

The laundry room is a very dirty room with unfinished brick walls and rusting equipment. On the one wall, Delaware can make out two shadowy marks just like the one on the bed upstairs. Delaware compares the markings, once again body-shaped. When Delaware explores the marks, they vanish but then he suddenly has a vision. He sees a plant, a long dead plant with dried soil.

Delaware heads upstairs to the Lobby to look around more. Up on the balcony he finds the same plant in his vision, when he checks the dirt he discovers a key hidden there, it’s the key to Room 104. Delaware heads back down to the main floor and starts for the stairs when Heather appears with a warning that something is coming for him. Something evil has woke in the manor and is chasing after Delaware. He now has 60 seconds to get upstairs to room 104 where it’s safe. If he does not make it he will be caught and has to start over.

Delaware runs to Room 104 and uses the key to get in. He slams the door behind him and just in time, something big slams against the door from the other side, it growls and hits again then all’s quiet. Kelly calls Delaware on VIC and he explains about the creature that was following him, after the call he is free to explore Room 104.

In the closet Delaware finds a piece of paper and another shadow outline of a guy crouched in the closet corner. Examining the shadow causes it to fade way, the paper is another one of Heather’s journal entries:

Heather’s Journal Entry 2

“Okay, I now really realize we should not have come here. Aunt Caroline was right about this place. Brendan brought Melissa up to the room. She was unconscious. I told him we needed to get her out of here and to the hospital, but he was screaming about not being able to get out of the hotel. He ran from the room, just leaving Melissa on the bed. I started to follow Brendan, but finally had to stop because I couldn’t catch him. When I came back into the room, Melissa wasn’t on the bed. In her place was a dark shadow where she had been! Right now I’m waiting here in Room 104. I went to the basement earlier to find Lisa and Mark but they weren’t down there. I’m hoping this is just another one of Mark’s pranks, they’re in bad taste but I’d rather think that than the other possibilities for what’s going on here.”

Delaware leaves Room 104 and enters back into the first floor hallway. But something’s different. When Delaware looks down the hall, he sees no end to the corridor. The hall seems to go forever and when he turns around he sees the same in the other direction. Delaware is in the endless hallway.

Puzzle: The Endless Darkness

The halls are long and extend into forever, eventually fading into blackness. If Delaware walks in any given direction, he will only proceed to walk forever and never make it anywhere. Heather appears and scratches directions in the wall. The first set of directions are: Right, Right, Forward. When he steps away from the wall he moves forward to where the hallways intersect and turns to the right, walks down the hall to the next intersection, turns to the right, walks down the hall then follows the hall forward at the last intersection. When he reaches the next intersection, Heather appears and motions to a door. Delaware enters the door she shows him.

The door leads to another hallway. Heather appears again with another set of directions: Forward, Left, Left, Right, Forward. Delaware follows these directions and Heather shows him another door to enter. At any time Delaware is lost he can enter any door and the current sequence will start over.

After entering the second door, Heather will appear one more time with the final set of directions: Left, Right, Forward, Forward, Right, Right, Left, Forward. Once this set is complete Delaware will find himself in the stairwell outside of the First Floor, he made it out!

Delaware heads downstairs to the Lobby where he has another vision: Heather is sitting on the couch, writing as he listens to her explain to someone else she’s making a charm to repel evil. The image fades out and Delaware goes over to the couch Heather had been sitting on and finds another journal entry:

Heather’s Journal Entry 3

“As I sit here writing, I can feel a cold draft blow across the back of my neck. When I look up, I see something. It’s the outline of a woman standing in front of the door to the Lobby. She smiles lovingly with both arms across her chest. But when I look closer, I can see a bloody cleaver in one hand. I know from working at Aunt Caroline’s shop that I’m seeing a projection from the past. It’s harmless, but that doesn’t make it any less creepy. I read that an image of a person with their arms crossed at the chest suggests they don’t want you to leave, that there’s unfinished business. All the windows in the lobby are too high to reach and the doors to the outside are stuck shut. It’s like something’s blocking them shut. Brendan and I are going to look around one more time.”

Delaware heads back to the Lounge. The theme music stops and a strange thing happens; the chair that had been broken on the floor assembles itself, revealing a piece of paper underneath. It’s the last page in Heather’s journal:

Heather’s Diary Entry 4

“Brendan and I thought that sticking together would be the best idea but when I turned around he was gone. No sound or anything, just gone. My watch stopped working a little while ago but I think it’s now about 9am and outside it’s still pitch black. My Aunt Caroline wasn’t right about ghosts, they can harm the living. I started getting bitten and scratched a little while ago so I put together a crude protection ornament to ward off the dark spirits. It’s worked so far but I can feel the energy is growing here and is only a matter of time before my charm won’t stand up against them. If something does happen to me I can only hope someone finds my journal so they know what is happening here. I am going to move into the lounge since the lobby activity seems to be increasing. I’m sorry I ever came here, I just want to go home.”

Underneath the page is another item: The charm Heather had made. Delaware taked a picture of the charm and Kelly identifies it as a dispel charm that can ward off evil spirits. He picks up the charm.

Puzzle: Defeat the Dead

Heather’s ghost appears on the balcony. Delaware is now armed with a Dispel Charm that he must use to vanquish any spirits that get in his way as he makes his way upstairs.

This is a timing puzzle, Delaware must click the charm on the figures that appear quickly before they hit him, if they hit him he will be knocked out and have to start over. As Delaware gets closer to the shadow the images appear faster. When all the spirits are removed from an area Delaware can move forward.

When Delaware reaches the top of the balcony he finds Heather’s shadow. He places her complete journal on the shadow and it fades out as a light “thank you” is heard. Delaware comments that laying the souls of the five teens to rest isn’t the reason he was brought here and something bigger going to happen before the night is over.

END STORY 1

Story 2: Done With Mirrors

Delaware is standing in the Lounge when the sound of a large audience fades in. An announcer cuts in to introduce a magic show and images fade in of a stage performance. The announcer is psyching the audience up for the anticipated “Human Pin Cushion” trick. Magician Rupert Cosmont has been enclosed in the box as his lovely assistant is pushing blades through the box. Delaware can see the sword-ridden box as the assistant, Fay Harris, raises her arms for Rupert’s exit. Suddenly everything fades out except the box on stage. Delaware moves to the box and opens it, revealing to the audience a horrified expression on Rupert’s face. He is wide-eyed and dead, impaled with swords and still being held up by them. A woman screams in the audience and soon the whole place is in a panic. The voices and stage clear away and Delaware is standing in the crypt remains of the Lounge.

When Delaware examines the Lounge he notices that backstage there are old promotional posters for events at the hotel. One of the posters is for Rupert Cosmont, world famous magician. When Delaware examines the poster he comments the image makes him uneasy. He snaps a picture of the poster for Kelly but when she comments back there’s no poster, only a newspaper article. Delaware examines the poster again, moving it to the side to reveal a newspaper article. The clip is from the Morrisville Times and covers the tragic “accidental death” of Rupert Cosmont. It’s a lead that Delaware photographs and sends to Kelly. After a short bit Kelly comes back to Delaware with info that will direct him to Room 204.

Newspaper Article

Morrisville County Police investigators were called to Morrisville Manor last night to investigate the mysterious death of renowned magician, Rupert Cosmont, 35.

Witnesses say that Cosmont was performing one of his shows last night at local hotel when one of his tricks went terribly wrong.

“He got into a box and his assistant started sliding swords into it. Like an illusion you’d see at any old magic show,” said one dramatic witness, Ryanna Vandersnatch.

But according to police and other witness testimony, when Cosmont’s assistant, Fay Harris, opened the box back up, Cosmont was dead with multiple lacerations to his body.

“You could see what looked like blood dripping from the box. We thought it was part of the trick. Then when she opened it, people just started screaming and it became so chaotic,” said another witness.

After questioning Harris and other witnesses, Capt. Aaron Jefferson of the Morrisville PD said there is no reason to suspect foul play and has ruled the death accidental.

“The trick just went bad,” said Jefferson. “There was no malicious intent on Ms. Harris’ part.”

This is the second death to take place this week at Morrisville Manor. Earlier this week, the body of Roxanne Black, a Morrisville Manor maid, was discovered in the hotel stairwell. According to investigators, Black fell down two flights of stairs, breaking her neck. Her death was also ruled an accident.

Jefferson said he could not comment further on the case.

Delaware needs to explore Room 204. The only problem is the stairwell is blocked with a ton of junk beyond the first floor. There is an elevator and it has power, but for some reason it’s not working. He tries the elevator on the first floor and comments that perhaps Kelly knows something. He uses VIC to contact Kelly

Kelly suggests there’s probably a lock on the elevator and to head down to the basement to look for the locking mechanism.

In the basement, Delaware sees a little girl who he finds out is named Katie. Before he can find out anything more she vanishes. Delaware moves straight ahead and locates the base of the elevator. He finds the lock in the form of a keypad on the wall, behind some boxes. In the inside of the door cover Delaware finds another set of Handy Man’s Notes. Eager to keep certain parts of the hotel out of his “foolish” assistants hands, he has set up the trigger key to the elevator lock in puzzle format:

Puzzle: Elevator Lock

In the Handyman’s Notes there is a sentence:

“Ben will never figure out the three digit code.”

“Ben thinks I hate him, 2 4 3 1 2, I hate Ben, I hate him.”

This is a little trickier. The numbers represent the words of the first sentence, so the corresponding second sentence is 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2.

| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
| 7 | 8 | 9 |
| * | 0 | # |

The note says the code is only three digits. The numbers from the sentence are actually three sets of coordinates. The coordinates are 3,1 2,3 and 1,2. On the keypad this would translate to three right, one down, two right, three down and one right, two down making the code 3, 8, 4.

Entering the code unlocks the elevator. Delaware can now go to the first floor where he’s able to enter the elevator and make his way to the second floor.

With the elevator working, Delaware now has access to the second floor where he can go into Room 204.

When Delaware reaches Room 204 he finds it’s locked. He turns and heads back down the hallway when Katie appears again. She’s sitting on the couch and explains a “big cat” broke her toy bunny rabbit. Delaware offers to fix it for her.

Delaware moves towards the couch where Katie sat and then examines the couch up close. A stuffed rabbit appears on the couch, missing an arm and a leg. Delaware has a vision that shows him the location of the first part, it’s on a box. The boxes are familiar of the basement so that’s where he heads. He heads to where he found the fishing boots and looks around to locate the bunny appendage.

With the piece in tow, Delaware heads back to the second floor, looks to the couch and places the piece down. He gets a second vision of the second part of the bunny. It’s sitting on some sort of end table. The area isn’t familiar so he checks out the third floor. While on the third floor he notices something strange. One of the rooms has been long sealed up and covered. Past this sealed door, at the end of the hallway Delaware finds the bunny arm sitting on the table in the right corner.

Delaware takes the bunny arm down to the second floor, attaches it to the bunny and a happy Kattie appears. To thank him for his help she tells him the door to Room 204 is now open. Delaware heads there.

The door is now unlocked and Delaware enters. Once in the room, Delaware has another vision. The room changes from its current empty state into the way it was when Fay Harris and Rupert Cosmont stayed there more than eighty years before. He explores the room in this state. There are posters on the walls and letters around on a desk. Delaware finds a note on the desk written in red ink. Written on it is one name: Roxanne Black. Kelly calls just in time.

It seems the maid is somehow tied into Rupert’s accident. Delaware can now leave the room.

As Delaware steps out into the 2nd floor hallway he has a vision. The ghost of Heather that he saw in the Lobby is now in the middle of the hallway. Written on the wall next to her is “Lounge.” The chase is on again and Delaware must make it to the Lounge before time runs out. Delaware has to escape into the elevator and take it to the First Floor. From there, he takes the stairs down into the Lobby and from there he makes it to the Lounge. Once Delaware makes it to the Lounge the “chase” music ends as we hear the sound of the beast once again dissolving into the night.

Kelly calls just in time with some information about The Hunter, the creature chasing after Delaware. She also has some information regarding the original manager of the manor and talks about how she and her young daughter vanished one night and were never heard from again. The conversations ends and Delaware resumes exploration.

Delaware steps out of the Lounge and into the Lobby where he sees a little girl in a white dress. An image of a door labeled 300 appears quickly then vanishes, along with the image of the little girl.

Upstairs Delaware follows the numbers but there’s no 300. In fact, the place where the door to room 300 should be, is just a wall. Katie appears in front of the sealed doorway and points to the room. As she does the door appears from out of nowhere and Delaware can now enter.

Room 300 is old, and emptied out. As he looks around Delaware has a vision of Victoria and her daughter sleeping in bed when an image of two men appears, standing over them, everything disappears, the room is old and empty again. Delaware explores the room and finds a key on the night stand, he takes it. As he turns to leave the room, Kelly calls to check in on his progress.

Delaware leaves the room, and when he does, the door to the room vanishes as well.

He heads to the elevator and when the doors open he sees the two men that were in Room 300, both dressed dark, holding Victoria and the little girl. The image vanishes. Delaware gets into the elevator and takes it to the first floor.

The key he’s holding is an older skeleton key. He suspects the trunk in the basement might be a good match. He heads down to the basement and to the trunk. Using the key on the trunk it pops open. Inside the large trunk are two sacs, one big one and one small one, Delaware knows what’s inside and doesn’t need to open them.

Right after the discovery in the basement, Kelly calls. Delaware tells her he’s found the bodies of Victoria and Katie. Kelly has information about the maid, Roxanne Black. She tells him she died in the third floor stairwell. Delaware heads back upstairs to the third floor stairwell.

Upon arriving at the scene, Delaware sees images of the event. A young woman in a maid’s uniform at the bottom of the stairs, lying on the floor with towels tossed about. The image fades out and leaves the shadow figure on the floor where the body was found. A noise is then heard. It’s unintelligible, but loops over and over.

This is a mystery that can be solved with the recording unit of VIC. Delaware pushes the RECORD button on the device and automatically contacts Kelly.

Kelly deciphers the voice and tells Delaware it’s saying “Room 306…closet” over and over. Delaware heads to room 306.

Room 306 is locked but Delaware needs to get in. The Hit icon appears on the door and he is able to bully his way into the room.

The room is empty, as if it had been closed long before the rest of the hotel. When Delaware explores the closet door a message appears on the back of the door: “What’s the magic word?” Delaware can photograph this door to get help from Kelly.

Puzzle: “What’s the Magic Word?”

On the back of the closet door the sentence “What’s the magic word” appears. Ten other words appear on the door as well. The puzzle here is ONE of the words is related to what Delaware is looking for in the closet. The other nine are red herrings. Delaware picks a word and the door will open. If Delaware picks the wrong word the door will open to blackness and Delaware will be transported to another part of the manor. When Delaware picks the correct word the door will open to the closet and Delaware will be able to explore inside. The “magic” word here is “towels” since Roxanne died while carrying towels.

With the closet door open, Delaware looks inside to discover a small key on the back wall. Delaware takes the unmarked key.

Delaware remembers there are boxes in the basement, so it’s back down to the dark basement. In the back corner of the basement is a stack of boxes with a keepsake box exposed…the one in Delaware’s vision. Delaware uses the key to open the box. Inside is a photograph of a woman and man together.

Delaware uses the PICTURE feature of VIC to send an image to Kelly. Delaware takes the photograph, with it he can give Roxanne’s soul rest.

Delaware takes the photo and places it on the shadow in the stairwell of the third floor. The photo vanishes along with the shadow.

With Roxanne taken care of, Delaware heads back to Room 204 where he has another vision. A woman, Fay, is standing by the window, talking to herself. She’s upset. She speaks aloud of her plan to “make them pay” and then vanishes.

After she’s gone Delaware notices something by the window, behind the radiator. He finds a note that confesses Fay’s intentions.

He takes Fay’s Note and knows he must bring it to the Lounge stage where Rupert died. Delaware makes his way into the hall and a flash of the Hunter is seen ahead. Kelly calls in at that moment.

Kelly explains that the rooms Delaware was running to for protection were actually intended as traps for the Hunter. Without knowing which room is “protected” Delaware moves down the hall

At the elevator Heather appears to Delaware. She writes on the wall: Room 305.

Delaware makes his way up to room 305 with the Hunter hot on his heals. Once inside, Delaware leaves the door open and the creature follows him in. Almost immediately, the creature becomes trapped in the room, appearing as only a face surrounded by smoke. It speaks to Delaware, teasing him and alluding to something bigger is coming for him.

When the conversation is done the creature vanishes and Delaware is alone in Room 305.

The creature is gone, fading into nothingness.

With the confession note in hand, Delaware heads back down to the Lounge where he sees the boxed body of Rupert on the stage. He gives the confession note to Rupert and a low “thank you” is heard.

Delaware and Kelly have one last chat about the evening’s events and speculate a bit about what’s to come. With the Hunter defeated and the souls at rest, the job is done here.

Congratulations, you've completed Delaware St. John Volume 1: The Curse of Midnight Manor!