Murphy Weller

**Murphy Weller** is a playable character and the main protagonist of *The Summoning*.

## Description

### Appearance

Murphy is an adult Caucasian man of unspecified age height and weight. He wears a blue security guard uniform, consisting of a navy blue cap with a golden hat badge, a lapis blue long-sleeved shirt with a name tag, grey pants and black shoes.

### Personality

Murphy is a man with a jaded, no-nonsense attitude, likely stemming from his experiences at work, harboring a dislike for adventure seekers and vandals. Even though he makes no attempt to hide his annoyance with the job, he is shown to dutifully fulfill his contract, arriving punctually to replace his colleague and never leaving his post.

### Histoy

Murphy is employed as a security guard for a private security agency. Alongside Walter Taylor, he has been sent to a rough side of the local town to surveil the infamous "Massacre House", a ruined house where many murders have occured in recent years. Although he is not a particularly superstitious, Murphy admits that the location sends shivers down his spine, as does the entire crime-ridden area, but nevertheless, takes on the 12-hour night shifts for the next three upcoming days

## *The Summoning*

### Night 1

Murphy arrives to the "Massacre House" on foot, taking in the scenery, mostly comprise of other abandoned buildings, creepy graffiti and countless missing posters. In the antechamber, he meets Walt, who first talks fearfully about "seeing this old woman from the corner of [his] eye", before bursting into laughter and stating that everything was calm to the point where he could sleep for his whole shift. Walter brings Murphy up to speed on his tasks and before leaving, he voices his suspicion that a homeless man might be illegally squatting inside the building, but doubts that he's dangerous and likely won't show his face while someone else is inside.

While Murphy goes his rounds, he finds several panicked notes made by different people, including the vagrant, a newspaper that reveals that the home was owned by an old lady named Martha, later discovered to be a prolific serial killer, as well as a video tape. Watching it in his make-shift station upstairs, the tape contains a bizarre video of what appears to be a dead woman having a nail and tooth ripped off with pliers, her crying at the end showing that she's still alive. Murphy eventually discovers a large hole in the ground, from which a monster emerges soon after. Depending on the player's choice, Murphy is either caught by the monster, suddenly waking up in his bed at home, or escapes into the foyer, just in time Walt to replace him.

### Night 2

On his way to the house, Murphy runs into a stranger, who somehow knows of his business there and briefly touches on Murphy's survival of the previous night, saying that he may not be so lucky this time. Murphy checks in with Walt, who is surprised by his arrival, not having reallized that his shift has already passed, appearing a lot more shaken in general than on the first day, and hopes that whatever has him feeling this weird goes away once their done with the "Massacre House".

More bizarre happenings begin to haunt Murphy, such as a mirror, with a bloody "LOOK" written beneath, shows the grinning reflection of an elderly woman, as well as his camera equipment showing the monster from before rushing through the house, towards the security room. He discovers another tape, this time of a news crew, who shot a story on the urban legend surrounding the "Massacre House", from their intro from the front yard, their panic after getting trapped inside, with the impossibly tall monster standing in a nearby doorframe, right to the last footage of the reporter having her head ripped apart by the monster.

Murphy finds fresh blood on the floor near a painting, which hides a switch activating a hidden pathway connecting one of the rooms with a fresh crime scene. He now also finds that the basement door is open, but decides to wait for Walt before he goes exploring. Soon enough, he smells smoke coming from a part of the house, stumbling upon a Satanic ritual site, whereupon a number of burning specters begin to surround and pursue Murphy through the house. Depending on the player's choice, Murphy is either caught by the entities, again waking up at home, or manages to reach the front door, where he runs into Walt once again, who chastises him for his unprofessional behavior and threatens to fire Murphy should he catch him acting up like this again.

### Night 3

Upon arriving for his last shift, Murphy finds Walt absent. The night quickly takes a turn for the worse when an inhuman face shows up on camera, the walls begin to bleed, and a TV with monstrous arms and legs shows Murphy being crucified and bisected, before the power goes out and mannequins with bloodied faces appear. Finally, Murphy enters the basement to search for Walt, discovering huge halls connected by tunnels, filled with beds and IV drips, as well as dozens of torture devices, some only recently used. When Murphy finds Walt, he warns his colleague that "she" is here and tells him to run, just as he is torn to pieces by Martha and her many demonic forms. Murphy tries to escape through a seemingly endless hallway, but is eventually caught, seemingly waking up back in his bedroom, but still covered in Walt's blood, he realizes that he is still in the house. If the player was caught in the previous nights, Murphy is snatched up by through the ground by a massive hand as he wanders the house and pulled down into the abyss. If the player was never caught in the previous nights, Murphy is able to make it to the front door, leaving Martha's lair behind forever.

#### Endings

##### Bad Ending

Murphy and Walter are both killed by Martha, rekindling the already thriving urban legend around the "Massacre House". Although the unrecovered security guards are officially filed away as victims of gang-related violence, locals now report occasional sightings of a new spectral entity just at the doorway, wailing and screaming for help, heavily implied to be Murphy, now spiritually bound to the property and tortured beyond death like dozens before him. It is further said that once the media circus around the newest disappearances die down, more thrill seekers will come to investigate the home, thus repeating the cycle.

##### Good Ending

Murphy is able to escape the "Massacre House", right before it spontaneously bursts into flames. As he loses consciousness, a crowd of bystanders gather around the street while emergency services respond to the fire. Murphy knows that he will likely be blamed for the destruction of the house, but finds peace in the thought that the souls trapped within have been freed and the murders stopped for good.

## Trivia

* Murphy's name is a reference to *RoboCop* (1987), taking his first name from the titular RoboCop's real name, Alex Murphy, while his last name is that of the actor who portays RoboCop, Peter Weller. Furthermore, both characters are diligent, mild-mannered lawmen, who (determinant for Murphy) are horrifically maimed on duty.