Sinister Semester X: Leftfield Takes another Bad Turn

Content Warning: death amongst teens  

-- Some Quick Background and Links --

A week or so ago, Brite Palette posted a version of Sinister Semester X to the Solo_Roleplaying subreddit and asked for feedback. I played through it and gave feedback. The version on Itch (first link) is the final version with some additional tweaks and some nice graphics. 

It is a cool little "experience" generator that emulates a kind of J-Horror inspired "bad semester"//horror movie. Winning is in the eye of the beholder. The idea is to mostly take the punches as they show up and have a good time putting the experience to journal. There are classmates that become marked or get killed, and rules for making allies and exploring the town and finding clues and such. 

In my first attempt, I got really lucky playing as the Over Achiever and inadvertently had a speed run to get the "Light Ritual" ending. 

Let's see how it goes...this time. 

-- A Return to Leftfield --

Leftfield, AL was once the "zipper capital" of the world, producing Falco Zipper parts used in all the major brands. Levi, Wrangle, Lee were major clients and outlet shops made Leftfield a destination for brand name clothing shop at cheaper prices. Photographs from the 70s and 80s show various movie and rock stars coming to town to work on designer deals and to show off iconic clothing brands. Posing beside mayors and store owners, eating at historic restaurants. The "Falco Pearl" line that was used by several key Calvin Klein designs is rumored to have been a personal favorite of Michael Jackson in his heyday. 

Nowadays, outsourcing and overseas clothes production has shut all but the administrative building for the Falco campus and poverty is strong across the 30,000 residents that remain. The outlet shops have shut, mostly, though several discount clothing lines keep the spirit somewhat alive. There are some fishing spots, some nice hiking trails, and a few once-famous hotels still running that bring in a particular kind of older customer but the clock is ticking.

Last year, the Leftfield High School was the center of events still not properly known. Some kids went missing and a few died. Rumors of a strange cult, dedicated to "He Who Devours," are discussed online, bringing in a new type of tourist: ghost hunters and students of the occult. Jack Crowley had a Youtube special dedicated to the town (1.2 million views) while Discovery's Weird America shot an episode (yet to air). 

One student, Del Eustace, is wanted for an explosion that destroyed the old building. Eustace has not been seen since and many think he was killed. 

One of the old Falco factory buildings was donated by the company to the city along with millions of dollars to turn it into a functional school. Classrooms right next to old machinery. The new Falco High acting as a placeholder until city and state funds can finish a new building. 

-- Tamara Lane: Teenage Psychic --

Tamara Lane always fit a bit oddly into Leftfield's social life. 

In third grade she told her teacher, Mrs. Avery, to turn left at the stop sign. That night, Avery, turning right, was struck by a semi and killed. Only a few kids even noted the incident but parents were told and rumors began to take off. 

At the age of thirteen, she ran to a neighbor's house - the Jackson family - to tell them that someone was hiding out in an unused upstairs bedroom. Tom Jackson laughed it off and went to show Tamara that it was all some youthful fear. However, opening the door they found a strange young man inside, with a knife. The guy had gotten inside days ago and had been hiding out. The stranger attacked Tom but luckily Tom lived and later gave credit to Tamara for saving his whole family. Leftfield practically blamed Tamara for the incident, saying she was in on it and it was a set-up.

Last year, Tamara had a panic attack at school, screaming about He Who Devours and how its hungry, dark mouth was coming to eat them all. She fainted and spent most of the school year at home. Her friends have been very concerned and her family went all in to get her help. Friends and family are her true bright spot, even if they are in doubt about her claims to see things she cannot explain. 

Tamara is a psychic and despite all the support, she can feel something new is dark and brooding. Leftfield is about to be visited again. When Lilith Kore, Pastor Kore's ultra religious daughter, goes missing: Tamara knows before anyone else, but doesn't say a word. She also senses a dark cloud over Rue Belford: a member of the Leftfield basketball team and Tamara's crush. 

-- Back to School: Week One -- 

Besides Tamara, Lilith, and Rue, the Leftfield senior class includes

• Diedre Blake - A transfer student from New Orleans whose dad moved to Leftfield to handle some of the Falco administration.
• Killian Vane - baseball star, top of the Leftfield team but not really destined for greatness
• Doyle Graves - habitual liar who is wants to be a content creator
• Tristan Moreland - daydreamer and big fan of fantasy novels
• Mallory Oakley - the class clown who plans to leave for New York
• Diggory Winters - the class flirt with a thing for tea
• Perdita Reeves - the non-conformist regularly spotted with Peace Corp pamphlets
• Soledito Reyes - street smart kid who runs the the larges garage in town
• Bethany Faust - the class gossip whose mom works with Diedre's dad

Mr. Winsome, history teacher, is the home room teacher and throughout the week he has the kids talk about their summer. Diggory talks about visiting cousins in Texas. Perdita talks about her family's trip to Belize. Doyle claims to have spent time with "a certain star out in LA". Mallory tells funny stories about her cousins who visited over the summer.

When it is Tamara's turn, she takes a deep breath. Afraid that people will make fun of her absence last year, she finds it strangely comforting to find that they have have long accepted Tamara's strange turns. Between Del's blowing up the old school and Lilith going missing, Tamara is practically normal.

On Friday, Mr. Winsome asks Tamara to take a packet of homework to Rue. Tamara plays it off as something she can possibly work in if she has to but deep down her stomach is all butterflies. Rue kept visiting her last year and the two girls got kind of close, just not, you know that close. Flirty but not picking up on Tamara's hints. Rue was one of the main reasons Tamara wanted to be back in class. Those blue eyes have haunted quite a few of Tamara's thoughts. Also, Tamara has had a sense that something is wrong and is worried for friend and, crossing fingers, hopefully future life-mate. 

Showing up the Belford's light green house on Peach Street, Tamara knocks and nervously waits. Ms. Belford says that Rue is resting but that Tamara can go up for a few minutes. When Tamara sees Rue, she is shocked to see Rue's blonde hair has gone fully white. Tamara makes a fuss but Rue cuts her off...

"Tamara. They are all insane. They want me dead!"

"WHO? Who wants you dead!?" 

But Rue is strangely evasive of the question and starts crying. Tamara locks her in a hug and the two embrace until a light cough, Ms. Belford is at the doorway, breaks them up. "Tamara, Rue needs to rest. maybe you can come back in a couple of days." Tamara gets up and starts to say goodbye but notices that while hugging, Rue has pressed something into her hands. 

She waits until she gets outside to look at it closer. It is a skeleton keychain. Tamara bought it for Rue during a class field trip to Mobile a couple of years back. Her heart flutters to note that Rue has kept the little trinket all these years. What she doesn't know is what the key on it could possibly mean. [1]

-- Week Two: The Strange Meetings in Falco's Back Lot -- 

One day in the lunchroom, Tamara approaches Bethany. If anyone might have clues about what is going down, it would be this class gossip. Tamara says she met Rue (leaving out that Rue's hair had turned white) and hints that Rue seemed nervous about something. 

Bethany looks around before asking Tamara to meet her by the lockers on the way back to class. By Bethany's locker, Tamara is handed a thumb drive. "This is a copy of something I was going to ask Rue about. Since the two of you are close, maybe you can find out what is up with this. Security guard was asking me about it and I played it off. Remember though, you figure it out you let me know!" 

When she gets home, Tamara plugs the usb drive and despite the poor quality of the footage (a large moth corpse obscures some of the frame) is interested to see Rue in the back lot of the Falco Admin building. She can't tell who Rue is talking to (the other person is blocked from the camera frame by the moth) but Tamara notes that Rue seems excited about something. The time: 11:32pm. The date is July 14. Two weeks before Lilith went missing. 

Why was Rue visiting Falco that late at night?

Later that night, Tamara has dreams of a now white-haired Rue in that same lot. Panicked and screaming as someone or something approaches. Rue lifts her arms to block an attack and.... Tamara wakes up in a sweat. Looking at the clock, it is 11:17pm. Barely thinking, Tamara sneaks downstairs and rides her back at full speed to the Falco building. There she finds Rue shouting at someone in the shadows. Right as the shadowy figure starts to run towards Rue, Tamara starts shouting and ringing her bike bell. Rue turns to face her and the shadowy person, whoever it was, runs off into the night. 

Hand in hand, Tamara walks Rue back home and the two embrace with a much longer hug (still no kiss). Rue promises to explain all in due time. [2]

-- Week Three: Foam Party and More Death---

Rue returns to school and people are getting more into the groove of the semester. Mrs. Clayton has a bake sale to raise money for the band. LEG, the Leftfield Entertainment Group (a group of juniors and seniors who organize events for the school) sets up a foam party with a beat-the-heat Friday afternoon school party: sprinklers, watermelon, bouncy castles, and fizzy drinks are handed out. Kids from eighth grade up are all invited. 

While there, Tamara tries talking to Diedre. Since her dad also works with Falco, maybe she knows something. Diedre, though friendly, freezes up with Tamara mentions people meeting at Falco after hours. She quickly turns away and says something about Stacy Lark, a junior tasked with the cotton candy machine, needing some supplies and runs off. 

The next night, a shocking bit of news rocks Leftfield. Diedre is dead! Her body was found in one of the bouncy castles. The coroner claims she must have been trying to help take down the gear after the Foam Party and got trapped inside as it deflated around her. Apparently Mr. Blake has confirmed she had asthma and so it seems like a terrible accident. 

Only Tamara senses that strange shadowy figure, again. Someone who might not have been out of places spotted on Leftfield's new campus.

[Killian is now also marked. He has strange marks on his body, which he is playing off as an injury he gave himself trying to practice too hard.] [3]

-- Week Four: Another One Goes Missing --

The next next week is just as bad. Perdita had asked her dad to drop her off on Tuesday afternoon so could work on a photography project about the old machinery around the school for her art teacher, Mrs. Dale. Mrs. Dale said she waited for Perdita until six that night but eventually went home. Perdita never returned. 

Killian has bandages on his hands and Tristan makes a big deal about asking him what he was doing with said hands with Killian threatening to punch his old friend. The mood about town is very down. 

Throughout the week, Tamara keeps having a sensation that something is going to happen to Killian. By Saturday evening, it is so strong she breaks down and calls Rue. "I think Killian is danger." Rue says she saw Killian walking past her house with his baseball gear like he was going to practice at the old high school's field. She says she will go and find out what is happening - her and Killian have been sports nerds together for several years - and hangs up. 

Tamara waits, frightened. An hour later, Rue (driving her mom's car) pulls up outside with Killian. Killian has some deep gashes on his arms. Apparently when Rue got there, she heard Killian shouting. She ran around and found him defending himself from an attacker with a knife. Rue ran back, grabbed some of the balls that Killian had loaded up in the pitching machine, and started chucking them at the attacker. The attacker fled and Killian and her raced back here. 

While Tamara is helping to bandage up Killian, she asks if either of them recognized the attacker. Killian shakes his head "no" immediately but Rue hesitates. "Rue?"

"No...I. I mean I thought it was...no, never mind. It couldn't have been. I'm just being silly." 

Tamara wants to press her friend (and would-be girlfriend) but instead of encourages Killian to go to talk to the Leftfield police. Samantha Eustace (cousin to the long missing Del) is a good cop and has some...experience...with taking kids seriously. 

However, that is not all of the story. Killian admits where he got the marks on his hands. Earlier that week he had staying behind at Leftfield High's new campus to help Mr. Winsome clean up. Because everyone was feeling quite down due to Diedre's death, it was a nice way to take his mind off of it. While leaving, he heard an odd noise and went to investigate. Someone was messing around with the school trash bins. Killian, still in a helpful mood, asked if he could help and the  person, which seemed to be a man, ran off. Killian getting a closer look noticed a bag scattered on the ground and picked it up. His hands started burning. Turns out it as a bag of ruined photographs and negatives, soaked until burned by the developing fluid. That's what had burned Killian's hand. The reason he blew it off was because after Diedre's death, it seemed so insignificant. [4]

-- Week Five: The Nightmares --

Samantha Eustace, with the Vanes' permission, comes forth with a press conference on the attack against Killian. With two students missing, another student dead, and a student attacked: the town goes into lockdown for the week, with the kids encouraged to stay home with curfew enforced. 

During this week, Tamara is wracked by dark visions. In them, the old Falco Zipper Factory features prominently. She keeps seeing the factory from the eyes of someone who works there. The clothing makes Tamara think of maybe the late 70s or early 80s by the fashion choices. They go around, talking to folks, take smoke breaks, and other mundane tasks. Mostly they flirt with every young woman around. Several of the young women clearly blow off whoever's eyes Tamara is seeing through, but one woman is receptive. 

Each dream ends the same way: that poor young woman in the factory, only now it is late at night. She is running from whoever's eyes Tamara is trapped in. The person grabs the woman and proceeds to strike her bodily against some of the machinery. In a dazed state, the woman silently begs for her life, but the person grabs her by the head and proceeds to smash her head against the machine. Then uses the woman's shirt to clean up the blood. Gathering up the body the person goes out into the woods behind the factory and....the dream gets fuzzy there. The very last moment of the dream is always the same. The person goes to look into a mirror and though it is clearly a man's clothing: the face looking back is Tamara's own. 

She gets a book that her aunt gifted her years ago. Her aunt is into white magic and so tried to encourage Tamara's gifts even when the rest of the family did not. Tamara copies the instructions and sets out seven white and yellow candles in a complicated configuration. She crawls in between them, and falls asleep. Sure enough, the nightmares do not follow and she is free of them, for now. 

As she is going over the week and grieving in her own way (and missing Rue, whom she wants to call but also is starting to distrust) she remembers something and grabs that very first clue Rue gave her, when Rue was weak an not getting out of the house much: that skeleton keychain and its unknown key. If Rue is not willing to talk, then maybe this key can help...if only Tamara knew what lock it opened. [5]

-- Week Six: The Clocktower --

Inspiration strikes Tamara the following week. Students are being let by into school (forbidden to go after hours, and Eustace and other cops are actively patrolling the area). One day while waiting for the new security check, she glances back towards the front of the school and sees the old rickety clock tower. She looks at the key and sees the code carved in it is CT-03. Rue had been one of the students, like several athletes, who had volunteered to help build up the old factory to use as a new school. While the clock tower was not part of that renovation, it is possible that Rue might have spent some time inside. 

Tamara knows her mom will be there to pick her up right as school gets out so she fakes a tummy ache - "women problems - and flees the classroom of a slightly bemused Mr. Winsome. She beelines for the clocktower. It is dangerous to climb up the stairs inside and there is no electric lights that work, but Fiddling with the latches she figures out how to work the shutters to allow in some natural light. She manages to carefully make it up to the second landing where she sees a small room marked "3." It seems to be some sort of gear room but right as she goes to open the door, the shutters slam shut casting the whole area in darkness. She gives a shout and then huddles down. A few minutes later she hears one of the cops patrolling the school - she thinks his name is Officer Murphy - shout to see if someone is in there. Tamara clings to the walls and says nothing. After a few minutes, she hears Murphy coming up, step by step, using his flashlight to illuminate the dark. Just seconds before it would find Tamara's face, it stops, and Murphy heads back down. Shuts the front door behind him.

Tamara is out of time and so has to flee back down, sneak out the door, and head back to class. 

On Thursday, a text says school is once again closed. It is Mallory who spills the beans. Officer Murphy, doing rounds Wednesday night, found the crumpled body of Bethany at the school. The details are scarce but the going verdict is that for some reason Bethany had stayed behind after hours and for some reason had climbed up on some of the old machinery. She must have slipped and failed and bashed her head in on the way down, because her skull was crumpled at the foot at the one of the old machines.

Tamara has a sneaking suspicion she knows exactly which one. 

[It is now time for Tristan to be marked. He is acting strangely.] [6]

-- Week Seven: The Psychic --

The Kores' have brought in a psychic, one of those who claims to be seeing God's will. To find her daughter. To save the children. Pastor Kore on TV, sweating and shaking. Condemning Leftfield for its ways. Shouting. Demanding his daughter return. The psychic an old woman with big hair. She says that more tribulations are in store. 

[Two new students Marked: Mallory and Tamara]. 

In her vision, after last week they have stopped waiting for her to be asleep, Tamara sees Tristan on the empty campus. He breaks a bottom floor window and gets inside. She senses his worry and confusion. She feels...concern. Not for himself. But for Killian, his old friend. Tristan approaches the machine, the one from Tamara's dreams, the one that is now outside of the makeshift biology lab. Police tape surrounds along with the chalk markings that were there to outline poor Bethany's body. 

Tamara senses another presence. Not the police, but someone who knows the place. Someone that SHE knows well. The other person from her visions. She suddenly remembers her phone and calls Tristan. She can hear his ring tone - one of the opening credits from Demon Slayer - ring and he answers. She actually hears his voice both in her vision and in her phone at the same time, a strange echo. 

"Hello?"

"TRISTAN! YOU HAVE TO TRUST ME! RUN! RUN NOW! THE KILLER IS BEHIND YOU!"

"Tamara...?" Tristan starts to ask as he is turning around and then she gets the same glimpse he does, a masked man standing in the biology lab, a few feet a way, a knife in hand. Tristan bolts and runs for it. The vision suddenly ceases and in a panic Tamara calls 911 and shouts that a person with a knife is at the school. A few minutes later she hears sirens a few blocks over. 

It is not until later that Tristan shows up at her door. "It WAS YOU! HOW did you know?!" 

She tries her best to calm him down - no easy task after he fled from  his attacker until the police sirens spooked the man off - and says, "We need to talk to Rue. Now!" [7]

-- Finale -- 

Tristan, Killian, and Tamara show up at the Belfords and knock on the front door. Mr. Belford, this time, opens up and is surprised to see the kids together in a group. "Well, I guess it makes sense to travel in packs. One second, I'll get Rue." 

The three of them confront Rue with Tamara taking charge. "You know what is up! WHO WERE YOU TALKING TO!?" Rue tries to shush her but Tamara is too wound up. Tristan starts shouting and Killian joins in. The Belfords rush upstairs and Rue tries hard to play it off as everyone being excited about a new videogame. The trio quiet down enough and play along until the parents back off. 

Rue then tells the story. While helping to clean up the school, she found the key in an old drawer. It took her less time than Tamara - funny, considering - to link it to the clock tower. Inside, the old gear room had been made into a makeshift office of sorts. A desk, a chair, some old papers. Lilith showed up and the two of them had gone through the stuff. Some strange hand written notes of dates and times. Some personnel files that seemed to be a lot of women working at the plant. A newspaper clipping talking about John Falco, youngest son, heading up the new plant. And the picture...well, the picture had looked just like Diedre's dad. Rue recognized him because her and Diedre had had a short fling that ended amicably last year while Tamara was being homeschooled. 

Rue figured it would be a funny story to share with an ex-girlfriend. However, it had turned out to not be so funny. A couple of week's later, Rue had gone by Leftfield Library to look up some more information about Falco to share with Diedre and found out that Johnny Falco - the same "John Falco" from the article - was wanted relating to the disappearance of a young worker from the plant that he had been seen dating (despite being married). Johnny had fled, leaving his wife behind. 

Turns out Diedre had also gotten curious about her dad's doppelganger and even tracked down the ex-Mrs. Falco - living in nearby Scottsboro - to see if she could find more pictures. While there, in what had to be a strange afternoon, she had found more photos of the missing Johnny and there was no doubt. Her dad was Johnny Falco. She called Rue and asked to meet in the middle of the night. Rue wondered if Diedre was missing the old days a bit but when Rue got there, Diedre threatened her and said if she told anyone about her dad "just happening to look like Johnny Falco" she would silence Rue for good. Had already apparently called and threatened Lilith. Diedre screamed so loud and long that for a good while Rue thought it was a joke and was playing along until Diedre said something that sunk home...

"I know the real Johnny Falco, and I'll tell him." 

A bit later, Lilith had disappeared. Rue went into a panic attack and could not face school. The scene that Tamara had seen was after Diedre called Rue back, wanted to apologize. Only it wasn't just Diedre there. Someone else was with her. Diedre looked terrified. And then Tamara showed up. 

Rue was sure that was Johnny Falco, and even more sure that it was Mr. Blake. Rue has no idea what the plan was, but it was good to not be there any more. Confronting Diedre on the phone, Rue found out that Diedre was also terrified of her dad. She originally thought he might be hiding a family connection with Johnny. She told Rue about the meeting with ex-Ms. Falco and how scary it was. How she had wanted Rue to back off because maybe her dad had put it behind him. But after he showed up the Falco lot to intercept Rue, Diedre no longer felt safe. Rue kept waiting for them to meet up and hash out a plan.

Only Diedre ended up dead. And who would raise no eyebrows being there along with his daughter, taking down equipment? Just a loving dad who in his new role as a administrator for a dying company had spent all those funds giving him access to an old building and permission to tear down any evidence...only the architects had decided that integrating the old factory into the design would be interesting. So Falco had a problem, keeping an eye on students and making sure no ghosts showed back up. Until a locked room in a condemned clock tower had outed him. 

Rue did not know what to do. Two people who knew were dead, how could she tell Tamara or others?

After hearing the story, the four of them make a plan. They need to set up a trap and catch Falco. They know just how. Tristan calls up "Mr. Blake" and says he recognized him at the school. Meet him there tonight, with a thousand dollars, or he will go right to the cops. 

The kids sneak down to the school, and lay in wait. Johnny Falco shows up and Tristan, as part of the trap comes out to face him. Before anyone can react, Falco slashes Tristan's throat. Killian rushes out and tries to take the older man down but Falco quickly stabs the local baseball star, completing the attack from a few weeks back. 

Rue and Tamara flee towards the makeshift gym. Rue grabs one of the bar used for weight lifting and leaps out and attacks Falco. The two trade a few blows but Rue is no match for the sheer ferocity Falco brings. Tamara screams watching her third friend killed and is struck in the leg by the same weapon Rue had been trying to use. She manages to kick over the cage that holds the various basketballs and kickballs and buy herself some time, before fleeing down hall back towards the biology lab and the machine that featured in her dreams. 

Despite her limp, she climbs up the machine to hide but soon Johnny is there. Ranting. Raving. Screeching. "Lucinda deserved it! She was going to blackmail me. ME! I was a Falco. We MADE this town!" While he is ranting, Tamara leaps off and smashes into his back. The stunned Falco looks up. "She was going to ruin me..."

Tamara grabs him by the head and smashes his head into the same machine in the exact same motion he had used to kill Lucinda all those years ago.

Tamara limps down past the lab and into the restroom and there, in the mirror, she sees her bloody face.  No longer quite her own. Some element of Johnny behind her eyes. Knowing where Lucinda is buried. Where Lilith and Perdita, curious young teens who had stumbled upon a dark truth in their own ways, are buried right beside her. 

Her face goes blank as the sound of sirens can be heard in the distance. [8]

-- Mechanical Notes --

1. Clue: Mundane, Skeleton. Related to [Tamara]. Encouraging. How a high school student could have a skeleton related to Tamara required a little creative thinking. And what's a keychain without a key? Tamara is up to 1 Mundane Clue.
2. Questioning Scene leading to Clue: Mundane, VHS Tape. Partially damaged. Encouraging. Again, I had to reframe it a bit to fit into the 2024 Alabama setting but I think this works. This means Tamara is up to two mundane clues. Tamara spends 10 spirit points to save Rue and gets an Ally. 
3. Questioning Scene leading to "evasive" but also "friendly". Technically, Diedre tied for the death roll but it was too good to pass up. On the subsequent roll, Killian was picked with "stigmata" as his mark. 
4. The event was "Someone sneaks into school and goes missing, marked as killed". Perdita, the non-conformist, got picked. The photography bit was just a quick free thought. I then slightly back connected it to Killian's "stigmata." I had to actually double check that developing fluid actually could burn someone. There is a growing narrative issue: Rue in theory knows exactly who the attacker is. Rue and Tamara have a thing brewing. Yet, Rue isn't talking. That's not too hard to imagine but it still feels like Rue will be spilling the beans relatively soon. Tamara, by the way, is up to 2 Allies and 2 Mundane clues.
5. Tamara survived her "Detention Slip" which for Psychics involves a powerful psychic attack. Most of that vision was me just trying to frame a reasoning for things to be happening now. It leaves me some wiggle room, eh? 
6. This one was exploration, old clock tower. However, a "darkness" stops her getting any clues. Bethany came up and frankly I *could* have saved her and gotten a third ally but that would have ended the game and I didn't make it to week 7 last time so I figured...why not. It feels mean. Bethany didn't deserve that. I'll try and make it up to her next time. 
7. Got the 2-E result which is "police call psychic". I figured better than the police would be Lilith's family in that way that some deeply religious people in the south are also deeply superstitious. Nostradamus, psychics, and Jesus going hand in hand. Had to mark two students and got both Mallory and Tamara. Only Tristan failed the "mark" roll and it made sense to save him since Tristan and Killian had some history. This gives the three allies to trigger the finale "Night Warriors". 
8. So I had to deal with my mess. The killer was someone who Rue would have trusted, who would have had some connection to the school itself. The weird thing was the "solution" was all down to myself just typing, on the fly, about Mr. Blake (aka, Johnny Falco) saying his daughter had asthma. It just realized it would be weird for her to have it and no one know. Boom. Story mode and exposition scene that tried to make sense of everything. Got the result of 4: "Friends die but you succeed" and the whole plan came down to a bunch of kids confronting a killer. Since I had set up the nonsense notion of Tamara seeing herself in the mirror (just for HORROR VIBES) I ended it roughly how it began: her striking out in the same way he had killed Lucinda. 

-- Doug's Final Notes and Sinister Semester X  review --

First off, Sinister Semester X is pay what you want on Itch and so you can grab a copy yourself. I think it is well worth the $2 suggested price. This is my second time through and both stories were varied, both had a conclusion that worked, and both told a completely satisfactory and actually fairly neat horror story. I'll talk about the first one below and you just read the second one. 

Of course, it is the sort of journaling game where you have to roll with the punches a bit. Experience it, not quite game it. If that sounds like something you like, especially in this horror flavor, hit it up. It is worth it. Just a few different words in one play through compared to the next can make a decent difference. If you have trouble completing those games I'd say give it a try and not sweat the specifics. Also maybe read ahead at what kind of prompts you will get to know the kind of things to expect. 

There are some prompts that can be a bit off for people, depending on the player. One of the "summer prompts" is about a sibling attempting suicide. That can hit some folks hard. The relationship I got this time was love interest and that's fine but it can also be a bit weird playing at "romantic relationships for teenagers". Rue and Tamara could have been a cute couple but I figured I'd mostly give them their privacy in that regards.

It is a horror game but not all horror is for everyone. My advice is if you do not like the prompt just pick another one. Find your joy even in a game about a killer on the loose.

Leftfield was used in my first playthrough. It is a play on "Sinister." Del Eustace was an over achiever and the bit about "He Who Devours" was all down to a single thing I wrote: Del is handed a statue as his first clue and I wrote "it looks human except the head is all a large mouth, there is something off about the statue: no matter how you look at it there is the sense that right out of sight is another arm or leg...the holder will keep turning it over and over trying to glimpse these limbs that are tucked away at some hidden angle". That one ended with Del blowing up the Devourer and the old school, as I mentioned above and a few times in this playthrough. Samantha Eustace was created then to explain why Del was at a police station in one scene. It was fun having her come back in a cameo of sorts. Another returning character was Mr. Winsome. 

Poor man might retire after this one.

Falco and the zipper factory was just...I wanted an oddly specific industry to be the backbone of a town and that oddly specific industry to be something that had left the town behind. While brainstorming this (and not wanting to use cast iron skillets, my first thought, because there is a town somewhat known for that to this day near here), I had an unexpected flash back to the now 40-year-old young adult novel, Son of Interflux by Gordon Korman. I have not thought about that book in years but around 30-years-ago Korman was going to be at some writing workshop type thing where authors who wrote kids books came to talk and I was somehow chosen to be one of the kids to be sent to it. I do not remember where it was even held. Mobile, AL? Montgomery? Pensacola, FL?  At any rate, I think Korman did not make it but I did pick up Interflux (in a failed attempt at would have been my first ever book signing). 

In it, there's some line about the company, which only makes parts that other companies use, making zipper teeth. 

"What can Leftfield be known for 30- or 40-years-ago?" And my answer was, "Why not zipper teeth?" and then: why not the whole zipper? 

In some ways, the mental model of that was Cathedral Caverns State Park here in North Alabama. Back in the mid-20th century, Jay Gurley moved his family to the caves and had big plans to turn them into a major attraction. There were all these photos of cars being in the caves, local high schools having events in them, big advertisements. Plans to build more state of the art visitor centers. A glimpse of a retro future that was, but also was not. That made me think about this town that was once a spot where celebrities might show up because it's kind of a destination for fashion in the middle of nowhere. Where people might come to see the zippers made that designer denim used. The weirdest approach to stardom ever. A dream that died but where photographs of famous people remain, smoke stained, on the walls of restaurants that reflect a different time. 

There is a book of photos about the Caverns that triggers a sense of nostalgia that I cannot quite explain. The kind of idea that seems so...silly and huge and beautiful and destined to fail. If you get the gumption, it can be worth the read.

A few of the story beats were inspired by real life. Nick Crowley became Jack Crowly for reasons. The scene with the shutters slamming shut and panicking Tamara in the clock tower was based me on me climbing up an old rickety fire tower one night and the same essentially happening. My brother and I screamed and clung to the side of the structure, convinced the whole thing was collapsing. 

The whole vibe makes it a strange companion piece to my Gareth Hendrix let's play. That's another story about a queer youth in Alabama crisscrossing horror with the idea of finding yourself. Except, you know, Gareth is a werewolf. I think the whole semi-fictional Youtube references and semi-fictional small town that is based on an actual small town is just... I was in that headspace, you know. I need to get back to some fantasy after this before it's just queer youth facing horror in isolation all the way down.