As I awoke, I expected to hear Silas greeting me, but he didn't show up quite yet.

I reached up and felt that my Gray Amber mask was on. The tuxedo I had been wearing looked like new.

I got up off the couch and started wandering the halls of the sorcerers' mansion. I found my way back to the ballroom where my teammates were standing about, eating hors d'oeuvres.

That seemed particularly troubling, seeing as we needed to get out of that place before the sorcerers started attacking us. I didn't know how long it would take for the place to get dangerous again, but I knew that it would happen eventually.

I could barely contain my surprise when I saw that Grace was still having a conversation with a now-recovered Cristobal.

As I walked closer to them, their attention turned toward me.

“Mr. Gray Amber,” Cristobal cried out. “You missed all of the excitement.”

He was cheerful.

I looked over to Grace in hopes that she might explain.

“Cristobal has offered to allow us to stay at the mansion for a few days because our flights got canceled due to the storm. Isn't he kind?”

“The kindest,” I said.

"I take care of my friends," Cristobal said. "You are all my friends. You may stay at the Mansion while the other members and I take our leave. I do not know if I will ever come back to this place."

As a newbie, I had been engrained with a very strict "no fraternization with horrific killers" rule. Apparently, Grace had been taught a slightly altered version where we could housesit for them to weather a storm.

Cristobal was conversing with Grace about his experience as a mind slave to Mr. Midnight.

“There could be no better punishment for my sins,” Cristobal said. “To be a slave in my own skin, unable to make amends, unable to forget. But fate is cruel. We are rarely punished alone...” He looked over at the crowds of NPCs who suddenly looked very gaunt and tired.

After a little more talking, Cristobal wandered off with one of his many admirers.

“Is someone going to explain this?” I asked.

“We cleared the storyline,” Chris said. “You know, they didn't always have lodges to go back to. Normally, you clear a storyline so that you have a place to stay.”

I was going to ask for a better explanation, but then I remembered…

The guest rooms in the Astralist’s Castle. The extra dorm rooms at Delta Epsilon Delta. The abandoned church from The Grotesque. Even the underground lab from The Subject of Inquiry.

Dyer's Lodge wasn't the only convenient place to spend the night. They were all over. That was supposed to be part of the reward for clearing a storyline.

The modern set of players really had gotten lazy, hadn't they?

Soon, all of the NPCs had cleared out of the ballroom.

Silas the Showman arrived shortly after.

I barely noticed. I was lost in thought about Anna and Camden.

Chris and Grace got their rewards first. Grace got a level and a trope, as well as some money. Chris just got the money.

Antoine, Kimberly, and I each got two stat tickets from our ordeal.

Antoine received two trope tickets.

Knight in Shining Armor

Type: Buff

Archetype: Any

Aspect: ---

Stat Used: Moxie

Horror Movies have little in common with the Chivalric Romances of old. One thing they do have in common is for the damsel to have a valiant defender.

When equipped, the Player’s Mettle and Grit will be buffed when defending their romantic interest. The extent of the buff will be based on how convincing their love is on-screen (Moxie).

You may try to die for her, but really, you’ll just die before her.