Episode one: Trapped in Durango

Cast:
Zhozha - Scholar
Melina Bettencourt - Debutant
Kerrigan - Fixer
Simon - Techie
Ian Brinks - Psychologist
Jonny Mounts - Cameraman / Key Grip

The above collection of people applied to a series of positions with the Ghost Hunters TV series, a show about the exploration of the paranormal and extraordinary airing weekly on the Science and Fantasy (Sci Fan! ) Network, Cable channel 605. Everything with the interview process seemed straightforward; from the usual Q&A, to the behavioral and psychological questions, the technical screen, on and on. Even the extensive paperwork covering liability and waivers for working with the company seemed… well , not too bad. But eventually everyone met Nigel Pennington.

Nigel is a flamboyant sort, straight out of the hooligan gangs of Manchester so it would seem. His diction was laced with outlandish witticisms as he struck the pose of an archetype ‘football hooligan’; attired with piercings and tattoos and the remnant of what appeared to be an 80’s Mohawk. Not the sort one would expect to be listed as the ‘Producer’ of a large scale television production. On the other hand, this is Hollywood. So who knows?

In any event, after a brief face to face with the entire group, Nigel informed them that they were hired as the pre-scouting team for the show. It would be their job to be ‘location scouts’; to examine various sites and properties to determine their suitability for television. The group’s first destination? The Stately hotel in Durango, Colorado.

On the next day they all gathered in the Studio parking lot to get outfitted for their expedition. There in the lot was a ‘corporate van’; a diesel 8 cylinder, four wheel drive monstrosity the interior of which had been gutted – the back rows replaced with electronic gear, servers, a generator, satellite uplink, and all sorts of goodies. Half the group packed into the van, the rest into Melina’s roadster.

They took a leisurely drive to Durango, taking two days thanks to their per diem and expense account. On arrival the group checked into the Stately, a hallmark of the old west as it is described. The Hotel is constructed in true 19th century throwback extravagance and splendor, all wood, brass, stone and polish. Not a shred of modernity immediately visible, except for the electric lights which had been reasonably camouflaged as gaslight. Soon the group was checked in for the night and ready to explore. They spent some time in the restaurant and saloon, enjoying themselves and interviewing the staff.

The main ‘ghost story’ they encountered was the odd happenings in room 14, which, once upon a time, had been room 13, where a woman disappeared or committed suicide, or something. The group set up their recording equipment and proceeded to sleep. The next morning reviewing the footage and sound instruments revealed some sort of St. Elmo’s fire and odd noises in the room. They choose to dig deeper.

Over the next couple of days the group managed to interview the Dean of Cultural Anthropology and Ft. Lewis College, a Vernon Nightfeather who is head of the Historical Society, dig through the local newspaper archives, and go over the Hotel with a fine tooth comb. They discover that there was all sorts of interesting occurrences back during prohibition, a potential suicide/disappearance (corroborating evidence for the room 13 rumors) and odd tales from back when the hotel was built in the 1850’s. Most importantly, they discovered there were once a couple of extra rooms down in the basement, which now appear to have been sealed off. So with the approval of the Hotel management, they open the rooms to find a still room with a ramp leading off to the North east, and an extra broiler room with coal chutes and a ‘well’ which seemed to drop much farther than expected.

Meanwhile the group was able to take more recordings of sounds and lights and oddness around room 14 and as it turns out, the basement itself. All clues pointing toward a spectral presence associated with those two locations.

The next day (Wednesday) the party descended down the ramp in the ‘still’ room they excavated. This lead to something unexpected: a large cavern. Inside the cavern the group found the remains of a shipping area, where barrels of liquor were assembled and carted out a tunnel which ‘appears’ to exit somewhere around the college for further distribution. As they were meandering around this area, one of the group also happened to notice a small, disused path heading further into the cavern. Curiosity should be listed synonymously with doom within the lexicon of Adventure.

The Party found themselves in a rather unexpected… place. A plaza. And ancient not quite ruin which displayed both Olmec and Anastazi characteristics. Within the center of a plaza was a now dry pool basin, with some sort of 9 foot tall manlike statue of Malachite with prostrate worshippers around its base. To the left and right were Olmec step Ziggurats, one with the upper step rimmed in Gold, the other silver. At the far end of the plaza was an Anastazi style ‘apartment’ complex, six floors high reaching over 70 feet into the air with openings within the roof of each building.

The group first explored the ziggurats, which lead to the first disaster. They ascended to the summit of the Ziggurat of Silver (or of the moon) where they found a large, stone basin? Brazier? Something along those lines, with a hole through the stem which appeared to extend down into the structure. Various ideas about human sacrifice were brandied about, until Melina tossed a burning brand down one of the vessels – which ignited the pooled natural gas reservoir below. Needless to say, both sconces exploded with a merry column of flame, badly singing several of the group. On the positive side, the cavern was no longer quite so dark and dreary with the lights on.

The group then decided to leave the Ziggurats for now and set about exploring the ‘apartments’. Therein they found several interesting bits. In the first room were the remains of a deceased Spanish Conquistador, some artifacts with appropriately dated his remains to the early 1500’s and hard to discern murals.

In the second room they explored they discovered another version of the statue. This statue was significantly odder: in front was some sort of votive altar. The statue had three distinct cone – shaped heads, facing left, straight and right respectively. Finally the statue was holding two objects: a ‘dog-lizard-fish with nasty teeth’, and a six armed baby holding various tools. Zhozha was naturally atwitter with the archeological implications of the site, but the rest of the group had decided the weirdness meter was getting a bit to high – so they decided to head back to the hotel.

And here’s where things started to get weird: Simon and Ian didn’t make it out of the cavern back to the shipping platform. In fact, they ended up back in the plaza. Those who made it out either went to the hospital to seek treatment for advanced singing, or went back into find the missing members of the group. Kerrigian tied a rope to herself, Simon and Ian, but she only had Simon with her when she reached the platform – the rope just ended with no Ian. So back in she went to look for him.

Ian at this point was thoroughly disgusted by the entire affair and as such decided to go an entirely different way. We traveled around the Sun statue and found a path leading away. Eventually he found another cavern with some sort of pool. And lying next to it was the unmistakable glow stick that had been dropped down the well. Looking up, Ian could swear he could see the faint ring of light shining down through the wellhead, but he wasn’t certain. But before he could be certain there was the unmistakable sound of wet claws scrabbling on the lake bank. Ian swung his flashlight around to reveal a Lovecraftian horror of the best sort, 100 pounds of *thing*, all teeth, muscular limbs and a fish tail – all poised to pounce. Worse, it wasn’t the only one.

The first creature sprang on Ian, biting him savagely. He was able to beat the creature off with this flashlight, gaining a momentary respite. But more were moving toward him. So he did the only sensible thing, Ian ran like hell back to the plaza.

There he found Kerrigan, who was able to startle the pursuing beasts with a couple of well aimed shots and enable their escape. This time, everyone was lucky and both Ian and Kerrigan arrived at the ‘shipping’ area.

The next morning the group reunited and headed over to see Vernon Nightfeather. Whereas in the last interview he was reticent and evasive, this time he seemed rather effusive with helpful suggestions, implying that the group would see increasing troubles unless and until they worked their way through the ‘curse’ they now found themselves under. He gave them some trinkets; malachite arrows and knives and a set of dream-catchers to help them on their path. Of course, Vernon couldn’t let them go without on last parting shot: “Remember, everyone dies in the end…”

In all of this Zhozha noticed something; the engraving of Lucifer in Dante’s Inferno bore an ominous resemblance to the three headed statue in the antechamber. With this, and some newly acquired holy water and gear from REI, the group headed back into the Undercity.

This time the group decided to explore further than the plaza. They headed in the direction opposite of the monstrous cavern. As they explored they ran into a series of, well, challenges for lack of a better description. Once it was giant bats. The next time they had to cross a rivulet in spite of an overwhelming urge to drink. Another was a group of faceless, pale figures who attacked them. Each encounter was punctuated by the presence of the glow-stick. Several members of the group suggested it was somehow guiding them.

Eventually the group came to a cavern which was ‘walled off’ by a giant expanse of… well, skin for the lack of a better term. Figures, hands and faces could be seen occasionally stretching against its taut surface. Melina thought to burn It with a portable welding torch, but it regenerated far to fast – and it seemed to cause agitation to the ‘figures’ inside the membrane. Next Kerrigan tried to walk around it, which seemed to work – except she realized that the wall didn’t curve. You simply started walking to the left or right and the person would end up back wherever they started.

Eventually one of them realized that tapping on the membrane caused it to vibrate like a drum, allowing them to produce something like speech or Morse or something. At least they could all understand. In a manner of speaking. One of the group lighted on the idea of telling their worst fault, at which point they disappeared into the membrane (for lack of a more coherent description). Each member of the group did this, and spend an indeterminate amount of time reconciling themselves with their regrets.

Eventually, they all found themselves reunited on a plain not far to an archway that lead unmistakably to a city. There they stood, staring in wonder – down below was an immense medieval city, teeming with… everything. Aliens to People from every era. Down below, in the center of the city they could see an immense statue, a Chrysler building in the central square of Mayberry, just like the three headed statue within the cavern where it all started. And the archway? Engraved in 5 foot letters about the walkway were three simple letters: D I S.

The group made their way down the broad avenue, marveling at the throng where they were greeted by a Roman Centurion. Several of the group spoke Latin well enough to pass a small amount of time as the crowd teemed around them. They spoke of the city and passing time and where they where. The Centurion? He simply wondered where his family had gone, and how he could get to Elysium.

So the group travelled onward ,toward the center of the vast circular city – coming to grips with centaurs, grey aliens in flight suits, winged demons and Lawyers until they reached the central plaza. A Hush fell over the city, as the moved toward the massive statue, which they now noticed had a small shack at one foot – a small shack with a distinctive glow-stick ganging from the knocker. In they all went; into the infinite darkness of the room with the well. There, standing in the infinitely bright glow of the basement of the Stately Hotel stood Vernon Nightfeather. You could hear a pin drop in the silence of that moment as it stretched on for an infinity as no one dared to breathe. Until he spoke:

“Remember, everyone dies in the end”

And with that his head blurred for an instant into three, and he stepped to one side as the wall instantly sealed itself encasing the group in darkness. Darkness broken only by hundreds of pale, faceless creatures climbing up the well, each toting a glow stick.

So it came to pass that each member of the group woke up. Except, it was apparently two days previously: Tuesday. They meandered around, and realized that the excavation into the boiler room had not yet happened. And Simon discovered that the noises that they had been recoding in the basement and in room 13 was snippets of conversation from their trek.

To which everyone basically quit and headed out to points yonder, where they discovered that the world was slightly different from what they remembered: Durango was far less ‘dangerous’ than they recalled.

Ian flew back to the UK.

Jonny and Simon headed back to LA.

Kerrigan, Melina and Zhozha? Well, they meandered over to the Hopi reservation and found a shaman to talk about ghost dances and curses. It was there that Zhozha realized that the dream catchers were gone. Except for Melinas’, which was now a silver, gold amulet with a Malachite center – which Melina swore her Grandmother gave to her. On further inspection Zhozha and Kerrigan realized that the amulet has the same street layout as DIS. Which irritated Melina to no end.

In any even the elderly Hopi woman they found told them they would have to find a way to break the curse – most likely by gathering all the cursed individuals and performing a ritual to destroy the amulet. With upset Melina even further.

Needless to say, each member of the group went their own way – and within a month or two each of them had died in some sort of tragic accident.

Whereupon they all woke up again. On Tuesday.

This cycle repeated a time or two, until they lit upon the idea of performing the ritual and breaking Melina’s amulet. The ritual was performed and eventually they all passed out from the exhaustion. And woke up the next morning, Wednesday.

This time the world was a bit different again: most importantly, Vernon Nightfeathers’ home was a ruin, since it evidently had never been rebuilt from when it was destroyed in the 30’s.

Ian, Zhozha , Jonny and Melina headed off for points unknown, quitting the Ghost Hunter staff. But Simon and Kerrigan decided to stay on, to discover what other strange and wondrous things awaited them.