Mystery Trackers: Blackrow's Secret

**Mystery Trackers: Blackrow's Secret** is the seventh installment in the *Mystery Trackers* series by Elephant Games.

## Plot

As the game opens, Amber is driving the actress Norma Shine home. Norma has been receiving strange threats and is very fearful, expressing her conviction that something bad is going to happen. Suddenly a screaming ghost appears in the road, and Amber crashes the car. As she fights to stay awake, she sees a large figure approach Norma from behind. The figure chloroforms Norma and carries her away, and Amber blacks out. When she wakes up a few minutes later, she hears whimpering and realizes that Elf is still trapped in the crashed car - which is leaking fuel. A fire starts, and Amber forces herself upright to rescue her beloved dog.

With the fire out and Elf safe, Amber can better assess her surroundings. They are at the locked gates of a neighborhood called the Forbidden District; a plaque on the gate explains that the area was quarantined during a plague outbreak in 1815, and never reopened. She locates a saw and cuts through the wooden bar which holds the gate closed, then slips through to a narrow alley. She catches sight of Norma and her kidnapper on the other side of another gate, heading toward the abandoned Blackrow mansion in the quarantine area. As she explores the area, Amber is suddenly beset by the same ghost who caused her to crash the car; the ghost tells her she shouldn't have come there. She finds a pocketknife and returns to the scene of the crash, where she uses the knife to cut open her suitcase and listen to an instructional video about how to use her most recent piece of Mystery Trackers tech, which detects energy anomalies known as 'memory areas'; it will let her see the memories of people who participated in events in a location. Agent Brown warns Amber that she is the first agent to test this equipment in the field, so she needs to be careful. She immediately puts it to use and is able to see the memories of a plague doctor, who observes that people were forced to stay in the afflicted district regardless of whether they were sick in order to contain the outbreak. After a bit more searching, she locates a pair of bolt cutters and removes the chain holding the gate shut, enabling her to enter the heart of the abandoned area.

As she approaches the front door of the Blackrow Mansion, Amber sees the door open and a woman holding a picture of Norma tells her there's nothing of interest there. She slams the door and a magic symbol appears on it, signifying that it's been warded shut. Peering through the window, Amber watches the woman shut a hidden entrance to her basement. Worried that Norma is down there, she works to get inside and find a way to get into the basement. Investigating the area, she finds a note from someone who was working to find the secrets of immortality. Locating a diamond ring, she cuts the glass on the window and opens the latch, then climbs into the house. Through a keyhole, she peers into the next room and sees the woman talking to the shadowy figure who abducted Norma; the woman says that she doesn't think she's strong enough to drive Amber away on her own, as she can sense that Amber has strange power.

Using the device, Amber sees the woman's memories. Her name is Abigail Blackrow, and after the sudden death of her husband Samuel, she was left to raise their twin daughters alone. She continued his alchemical research to preserve his legacy, but also to find the secret of immortality. After some more sleuthing, Amber breaks into the basement, where there are many mystic circles; Norma is tied to a chair within one of these, but the ghost from earlier flies down the stairs and shuts the door to the room where Norma is kept, sealing it with a rune. Looking around, she finds that the house was infiltrated by a treasure hunter, and realizes from his wanted poster that this is the shadowy figure who kidnapped Norma. Using the device unlocks another memory, which reveals that when the plague struck, Abigail ordered her manservant to seal the entire household - who were still alive - in the family tomb. He suspected that she might have been using them in one of her alchemical rituals, but he was bound to obey. It takes some more investigating, but Amber finally breaks into the sealed room where Norma is held.

As Amber watches, the ghosts of Abigail's twin daughters fight over who will get to possess Norma's body. They both do, and then command someone called Hilbert to attack Amber; Hilbert is the former treasure hunter, Norma's kidnapper. Amber is knocked unconscious, and wakes to find herself in a tomb. Engineering a way to climb through the ceiling, she encounters Hilbert again, but he makes no move toward her; instead, he tosses something into the tomb. She unwraps this to find a note in which he says he doesn't want to hurt her, but if Abigail orders it, he will have no choice. The note contains an item she will need as well. Escaping into the now-empty room, she finds a book explaining just how the twins were able to take possession of Norma's body. In the corridor she finds Norma, who almost stabs her but is able to stop herself in time; she begs Amber not to come any closer because she, like Hilbert, doesn't want to hurt her. Back in the ritual room, the device helps Amber watch the treasure hunter's memory of how he came to enter the Blackrow house and what happened to him when he did - Hilbert was the manservant forced to seal them all in the family tomb, and when the treasure hunter stumbled into the ritual circle, Hilbert possessed his body.

Continuing her investigation, Amber learns that Abigail hand-selected Norma to be possessed by one of her daughters, because of her beauty and fame, but hadn't decided which daughter. She also learns that Hilbert was right to think Abigail sealed them all in the tomb as part of her rituals, because someone being buried alive is a crucial step in the process of achieving immortality. The device shows her the memory of a young journalist, who was lured to the house for a story and ended up being possessed by Abigail herself. Amber also finds the tomb of Samuel Blackrow in the backyard, with a note saying that he learned the secret of immortality but felt the price was too high to pay and he would not cross that line. Opening the back gate, she finds Abigail and Norma on the street; Abigail throws a flask at Amber to try to stop her. She and the possessed Norma run across a bridge, which Abigail then raises. Amber's device shows her a memory of how Abigail rendered Hilbert mute as punishment for questioning her plans.

Finding a way to lower the bridge, Amber follows Abigail to the main square of town, where Abigail reveals her plan - the plague and quarantine cost many innocent people their lives, but her large-scale ritual will give them new lives to enjoy properly. She activates a massive circle of power, and the dead begin to rise. Hilbert suddenly appears and grabs Amber, running through the streets to carry her back to the Blackrow Mansion. There, she meets the spirit of Samuel Blackrow, who is willing to trust Amber because Hilbert brought her; he is horrified by his wife's actions, and gives Amber his ring, which will protect her from the spirits. He urges her to stop Abigail from completing the ritual, which will allow all of the restless spirits to possess living people.

With the help of Samuel's ring, Amber gets inside the abandoned cathedral. She fights the possessed Norma and manages to drive the spirits of the twins out of her body, then watches one final memory with the device. It reveals that it was one of Abigail's experiments which caused the plague, not a natural illness, and her guilt drove her to devise the ritual she is attempting to enact. Amber defeats Abigail at last, driving her out of the reporter's body, and the spirit of Hilbert thanks her for his freedom before leaving the body of the treasure hunter.

### Bonus Chapter

Some time after the events of the main game, Amber is contacted by Norma Shine, who is worried about her friend Judy. Judy and a camera crew went to the Forbidden District, which is no longer forbidden, to film a horror movie, but Norma hasn't heard from her and is concerned that something's wrong. As she arrives, Amber can see that Norma's fears are well-founded, because the film crew's equipment has been abandoned and there's no sign of any of them. Investigating the area, she catches sight of a hooded figure and hopes that this person can tell her what happened. In the narrow alley leading to the Blackrow Mansion, she finds a camera and reviews the footage - the film was progressing normally when a ghost arrived on the scene and terrorized the crew into running for their lives.

Guessing that she'll find answers in the old mansion, Amber looks to make her way inside. She locates the film director inside the nearby pharmacy; he's alive, but frozen in place. As she approaches the mansion, the entrance crumbles and collapses, blocking her way. Using items in the pharmacy, she creates an explosive to clear the path. She finds a poster advertising a play being performed in the area, starring an engaged couple named Jeffrey and Emily. Inside, she spots Judy, who is frozen in place just like her director friend, and concludes that something paranormal is at work. The device shows her a memory of a lovers' quarrel, but who is involved is unclear. Farther within the house she finds Alan, the star of the film, and he's not frozen; he urges Amber to leave, because "she only needs me," but the ghost of a cloaked woman appears and sends Amber crashing to the floor. She takes Alan and vanishes, and Amber guesses that they're heading for the neighborhood theater. Before leaving, she finds a note inviting Samuel Blackrow to Jeffrey and Emily's wedding.

The theater is not far from the Blackrow Mansion, and as she arrives, Amber can see figures moving on the upper floor. The device shows another memory, this time of the play being performed. Emily's character drew a gun on Jeffrey's and fired, but to her horror, the gun was real and she actually killed her beloved. Stumbling in terror, she knocked over a candelabra and set the theater on fire, sending the audience running for their lives. Inside the theater, Amber finds a memory which explains this; the director of the play was in love with Emily, and she kept rebuffing him, so he secretly replaced her prop gun with a real one in order to eliminate his rival. Documents show that both Jeffrey's death and the theater fire were declared accidental, but Emily's spirit is still restless.

Making her way up to the stage, Amber finds Emily's spirit urging Alan to keep running his lines, because the show has to be perfect. While the ghost is distracted, Alan tells Amber that his only hope of surviving the re-enactment is for her to switch the bullets in the gun with blanks, so she sets to work doing exactly that. Emily shoots Alan in the play, but instead of dying like Jeffrey, he sits up and tells her that it was an incredible performance. Overjoyed that he's alive, Emily is finally released from her earthly guilt and ascends to the afterlife, and the other members of the film crew are restored to their proper state.

## Characters

* Amber and Elf: A Mystery Trackers field agent and her companion animal.
* Norma Shine: A young actress who has been receiving death threats.
* Abigail Blackrow: A widowed alchemist who sought the secrets of immortality.
* Hilbert: Abigail's hulking manservant.
* The twins: Abigail's identical daughters.
* Samuel Blackrow: Abigail's late husband, who was an alchemist but never went as far as she does.
* Judy: In the bonus chapter, a filmmaker friend of Norma's who visits the Forbidden District with her camera crew and gets into trouble.
* Emily and Jeffrey: In the bonus chapter, they were an engaged couple in the early 1800s whose relationship ended in tragedy.

## Connections

* Early in the game, Amber opens her case and watches a video about how to use the latest piece of technology from the Mystery Trackers; roughly halfway through the video, the agent speaking appears onscreen and is revealed to be Dorian Brown, who has had multiple appearances of this type in various games.
* Abigail mentions at one point that she doesn't think she's strong enough to stop Amber, adding that she can sense that the agent has "strange powers." This is a subtle reference to *Mystery Trackers: Silent Hollow*, in which it was revealed that Amber is descended from Morpheus and has inherited some of his abilities.

## Trivia

* The Mystery Trackers logo changes for this game, with the usual helmet being replaced by a plague doctor's mask.
* According to in-game documentation, the plague outbreak happened in 1815. But some characters seen in the memories are dressed in clothes which are more accurate to the time of the actual Black Plague in Europe, a few hundred years earlier. (However, plague doctor masks were still in use as late as the 18th century, so it's not too farfetched that they would be seen in this game.)
* In addition to using it to find memories, the player uses the device to reveal the hidden locations of collectibles.
* The first names of the Blackrow twins are never revealed.

## External Links

* *Blackrow's Secret* at the Elephant Games website
* *Mystery Trackers* at TV Tropes
* Elephant Games on Facebook