Curtain Call

(REMINDER TO SELF: Link encounter cards when they appear in the database!)

Jenny gathered her thoughts and raused Leo De Luca from his unnatural slumber. The pair staggered their way to the #Lobby, but the main doors were nowhere to be seen. Leo tried pounding at the windows, but the glass wouldn't shatter. Jenny vaulted over the counter and retrieved her fur cloak and more importantly her twin .45s from the cloakroom. It was at this point that she started hearing voices filling her head with unnatural #Doubt. Leo didn't hear anything, to him the entire theatre was quiet. Jenny did her best to ignore the voices for the time being and reassured herself that without false modesty she was the most decisive and resourceful woman among her peers.

The pair begun to scour the theatre in search of anything that could shed some light on the bizarre happenings. Leo suggested that the best place to start would be the literal #lightning crew's booth. Then, without warning, Leo pulled Jenny backwards. #Yellow-clad cultist lost the element of surprise. Jenny swerved the giant spotlight in his direction and blinded him, giving herself and Leo the seconds needed to bar the door, run past the #Lobby and hide near the #Box Office.

"It seems we aren't the only ones left alive," she commented.

"Indeed, it seems you're not," it wasn't Leo who responded.

Detective McCade stood with legs far apart and his gun pointed at Jenny. His hands were trembling and Jenny knew there would be no reasoning with the stubborn old fool. With her hand hidden under the fur cloak Jenny squeezed the trigger. .41 bullet grazed the detective and moments later Leo rushed and clobbered him to unconsciousness.

But, the #bald cultist had definitely heard the shooting and couldn't be far behind! Worse, the #(Anxiety) whispers in her head intensified. Jenny wiped the bloody sweat from her forehead. Somehow the voices were weathered down to controllable levels without Jenny needing to bash her head against the wall and in time for her to take careful aim the incoming cultist. Two bullets to the chest and the yellow-clad man was dead. Jenny and Leo left the corpse behind and moved to the #balcony overlooking the stage.

Then, everything seemed to happen at once. #Malformed monstrosity appeared at the #stage and more #fanatics appeared in the #Lobby, screaming, wailing and generally doing their darnest to draw the monster's attention to Jenny and her companion!

Click! .41 Derringer was out of ammo! Jenny threw it aside.

Fear gripped her, but she could reload and shot her twin .45s blind!

Miss! Hit! The human fanatic was dead, but Jenny couldn't avoid the toothed monstrosity munching on her fur coat and tearing the skin on her arm! In the midst of all that desperate struggle she glimpsed and unknown #masked man with... Izzie? It could had been her! Jenny almost didn't notice the moment she slain the mass of teeth and tendrils.

ENCORE!

Jenny and Leo slowly made her way #backstage, swatting aside ratsrats and pushing past rotting remains. The Stranger waited for them in the #prop area beneath the stage and was utterly unconcerned with neither the rats swarming around the room nor Jenny shouting questions about Izzie at him. Appealing to calm consideration and academic precision was similarly futile.

The exact same monster as earlier reached backstage. Jenny and Leo riddled it with bullets and the ambient melody ceased, but only momentarily.

ENCORE!

Beneath the trap door The Man in the Pallid Mask was not alone. Jenny had to be careful to her distance from the #Poltergeist, but actually banishing it proved to be trivial as soon as she discovered the ghost thought itself to be of the theatre ticket-punchers. Jenny allowed it to check her ticket. Yet, she still couldn't focus on the masked man, not without at long last extinguishing the #whispers in her head.

It seemed certain that Jenny had asked the right questions, but the Stranger mocked her with silence. Suddenly, Leo warned her that the theatre was #on fire and as soon as Jenny turned her head the masked man gone. Instead, the pair could hear the monster, defeated twice-over so far, slithering its way through the burning corridors.

"Third time's the charm, Jenny?"

"No. We need to catch that man. Follow me!"

Jenny and Leo first climbed the curtain ropes and surveyed the above the burning theatre from above. The masked man was there in the Lobby, but flames and the encore-abomination blocked the direct route.

"Swing?"

Jenny nodded.

In different parts of the building #cultists were being burned alive. Leo's rope snapped and the man crashed into the #lightning equipment. Jenny landed safely, but begun to cough violently as she tried to catch her breath and instead filled her lungs with smoke. For all her education and studies into the occult she had nothing that could put Leo back on his feet. Desperate, she dragged her unconscious companion towards The Man in The Pallid Mask.

Suddenly, the was an exit!

The Stranger bowed and stepped outside. Jenny followed, to the accompaniment of crackling flames, resurfacing inner whispers and all-around cacophony of sounds.

Curtain Call: R2. Jenny chose not to go to the police! The Stranger is onto Jenny! Stranger Tally: 2, Doubt: 1, 2 Tokens, 5XP (Delve Too Deep, Agent of the King, Lightining Box, Balcony, Trap Door)

Seriously, this scenario is way harder than either of the opening scenarios of the Dunwich campaign. It would've been nigh-impossible without good opening hand. Jenny was unable to explore the entire map despite spending 19 rounds in the game!

I'll add more comments after I replay it couple more times for comparison.