The Crack’d and Crook’d Manse 03: ‘Advanced Mansions & Madness’

*“In which a scene-stealing parapsychological experiment provides a real breakthrough…”*

## Advanced Mansions & Madness

### Players

Joseph Chance as Rose Damien
Danann McAleer as Sebastian Palmer
Dan Wheeler as Dr. Bergmann

### Podcast Link

Episode 03

Picking up at the front of the Fitzgerald Manse, we rejoin the investigators just prior to entering the main house. The structure itself looks off — crooked, one might say. Sebastian heads right to the front door and gives it a knock before taking a look at the back door, Rose in tow, finding a loading area and two hatches to what seems to be the cellar. Deciding to enter through the front door, the trio reconvene and head inside. Everything is damp and falling apart, seemingly abandoned. They begin their search in the library, with the two men forging ahead while Rose takes a moment to change.

## Synopsis (Spoiler Warning)

### Intro

A brief flashback opens this episode, also apparently from Cornthwaite’s time in South America, where he has uncovered a temple where a tomb was thought to be. Fast-forwarding to the scenario present, audio clips from the previous episodes catch us up: at the house, the grounds are silent — too silent.

### Scene 1: Outside the Manse

A grand manse suggesting a nod to Southern influence, there’s something slightly off about the house: it seems crooked, perhaps from some subsidence. Rose is upset that her clothes are wet, stinking, and ruined, although their bags are available so she is hoping to quickly change once inside. While she and Dr. Bergmann are chatting, Sebastian — in characteristically hurried fashion — charges up to the door and starts to knock, his foot just catching on a root.

> I do like a man who takes charge.
>
> Rose Damien

Sebastian and Dr. Bergmann take note of the lack of wildlife (birds, mammals, even insects), and a tree branch hits Johannes on the head. They decide to check the back prior to entering the house, and Sebastian and Rose go together to do so, leaving Dr. Bergmann to keep an eye on the front door. Rose lets Sebastian lead, playing her part in the proceedings. Around the back, it’s just as wild and overgrown; there seems to be a truck unloading area and two wooden hatches, perhaps to the cellar, and one has a hole with strange vines growing out of it. This may have been where the salt was to be delivered, although of course the order was never fulfilled.

At the front, meanwhile, Dr. Bergmann takes a listen as he sits, drinks a quick swig, and instead takes amphetamines to focus his mind. He fails, but seems to hear something like old machinery whirring to life; looking at the house behind him, the brickwork seems to be moving, resulting in a Sanity roll, fail, and -1 SAN.

Rose and Sebastian decide to come back around to the front to enter the house, although not without some discussion first. The two rejoin Dr. Bergmann at the front, where they find him staring at the wall, Luger reloaded and in hand. He says he’s fine, but Sebastian is concerned. They discuss the nature of ghosts and the metaphysical. After discussion and debate, they unlock the front door to finally enter.

### Scene 2: Inside the Manse

The house is shuttered and gloomy, and as they enter a piece of plaster peels and falls from the ceiling. It looks and smells very damp, and much more damaged than it should be considering how recently it was supposedly lived in. Rose grabs a flashlight from her bag. Sebastian grabs a gas lamp prior to Danann remembering his fire phobia, then exchanges it for Rose’s flashlight instead of lighting it (absolutely fascinating to Dr. Bergmann). Corridors and doors branch off from the entryway; Sebastian and Dr. Bergmann discover the library and start opening up the damp and moldy window shutters while Rose opens the door to a closet. A dark figure with an axe stands over her — but it is a curious shadow only. She decides to get changed quickly here despite the scare. The door shuts on her.

> I’m just jumpin’ at shadows, gentlemen!
>
> Rose Damien

Dr. Bergmann notes gaps on the shelves, with the missing books almost certainly being those donated to the library. The books here, however, seem more damp and moldy, indicating a relatively rapid deterioration of conditions at the house. Dr. Bergmann decides to conduct a cutting-edge parapsychological experiment by blindfolding Sebastian, having him concentrate on his connection to Cornthwaite and turning him around before asking him to reach out to the first book that he feels drawn toward. One successful POW roll later, Sebastian finds not a book but a knot of wood, which seems to be a hidden compartment of some kind. In trying to pull out the cylinder hidden by the knot, his other hand pushes through the wall, making contact with something viscous, slimy, and unnatural.

## Places

* Fitzgerald Manse grounds
* Fitzgerald Manse interior (lower floor)

## Quotes

JOSEPH: ”The Apocalypse Players do not approve of drug use. As an institution.”

ROSE (JOSEPH): ”I seem to remember someone saying, ‘If it doesn’t damage the lock,’ to me then, but it was a very different context.”

## Trivia

* This is the first published episode to refer to the “zonkey” inside joke.
* Dom narrates that the house was built in the Civil War era, although it was established in the first episode that the Fitzgeralds built it in 1805. However, most likely he means the house reminds them of the style of architecture most closely associated with the antebellum period in the American South.
* The Cthudonymn for this episode is “Keeper of the Gamwell Gazette Payer-Review”.

1. ↑ Episode 01: The Brothers Dodge, 1:02:50