HauntedTrails2000

From Simreal

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I don't have pictures of everyone or everything on the trail... and some of the pictures I do have aren't as good as I would like.

Finally, try as I might, I couldn't remember everyone's name. Sorry.

Click a picture to see the big (1024 pixels wide) version.

The director of this year's Trail was Ronn Brashear. A great guy, who I will miss since he moved to California immediately after the Trail completed. Also, Paige was assistant director, but I don't have a good picture for her.

And, as an army runs on its stomach, so it is with the Trail. Joe (affectionately known as "Food Joe") was our liason with the Wild Basin, and provided endless supplies of food for the volunteers. Thank you Joe!

Sue somehow managed to keep all of the volunteers organized and on track. And that's tough! Every night was different, and she herded them all with care and grace.

The theme of this year's trail was "Family Reunion from Hell." Everyone has gathered here to see of our dear Great Aunt Jezebel... or rather, to partake of her inheritance. It begins as people gather in a parking lot a short distance from the Wild Basin. From there, people are ferried to the ticket area where groups are gathered, logged, marked, and herded towards the first station of the haunt: the Reception.

At the reception you meet a variety of family members. Depending on which night you came, you would see Aunt Lulu (such a dear lady!), Uncle Scrimm (strange guy; the family scholar), Fnurd, Frieda, and of course your guide for the evening: Cousin Aaron (or Erin) DeLaRoche.

A horrible banquet is laid in the rustic shelter in the woods. Strangely enough, few guests partook of its glistening wonder.

After a while, it comes time to view dear departed Aunt Jezebel at the Funeral. The picture shows Andy, as "Bubba" C. Bell the Funeral director. He's very close to his work. Perhaps a bit too close, if you know what I mean.

The guests file past the coffin a gaze down upon the corpse of Jezebel, peaceful at last. After a brief eulogy by Bubba, one of the guests (an actor attached to the group) runs off with her Amulet. Furious, Jezebel rises from the grave (operated with humour and finesse many nights by Rachel) to curse the group and drive them into the night to retrieve her precious gem.

The group passes through a well-populated graveyard and soon comes to a figure lying to the side of the path. "What have you done!" Aaron cries out. As the group approaches, they see the thief is filled with knives, guts flowing forth from the wounds. "Aunt Kitty paid me to steal this... here, take it, it's cursed!"

Nothing that Aaron does can help her now; each attempt to ease her suffering is rewarded with a piercing shriek of agony. In the process, he gets the Amulet.

Soon enough, worry for the thief dissipates as an eight-foot monster storms out of the underbrush and the startled (and sometimes, terrified) guests charge down the path and through a pair of curtains.

Immediately the group comes to a skidding halt, piling up behind Aaron. A gypsy is accosting them now -- "Who are you? What are you doing in our camp?". After a firm talking to (after all, the DeLaRoche family is the cause of their tribe's destruction), the gypsy's prince takes the Amulet and leads the group to a table.

"One of you is the focus of this curse." One of the group (a female, typically) is singled out and called around the table.

Ryan takes her hands, puts them into fists and singles one of them out. "I will see if I can cleanse you of this curse. Put your hand into the water." But, no -- instead of coming clean the hand is pulled from the water and shown to be marked with blood.

Furious, the gypsies drive us from their camp, cursing us again.

The path winds under the trees down the rocky and treacherous path. Aaron laments his fate, cursed again and again because of the actions of his relatives. Soon enough, the group stumbles into a strange clearing -- giant mushrooms and piles of unidentifiable things lay about.

Pausing to look at these mysterious, a fierce "Howdy" leaps at us from behind. It's the gardener (Clivus Multrum). "How you folks doin' tonight?" Clivus quizes the group -- why are they here? Don't they know they are coming in through the back way, and are missing his beautiful gardens?

Unsatisfied with our knowledge, we are lectured on the wonders of compost. As he works his fine compost heap, some of the unidentifiable things become all to identified. "Hey, any of you looking for work? I had me an assistant, but we had, you know, personality confilicts." The economy must be booming, since everyone I went through with were fully employed.

Clivus soon becomes distracted. "Do you smell something good? I smell blood..." He procedes to single out the girl who was "cleansed" by the gypsies earlier... takes her hand... and licks it in a way that can't be described in mere text.

Needless to say, the group is more than ready to move on by then.

Nervously, the group moves down the trail. An admonishment flies out, "Don't step on my roses!" Then, quietly, "Don't wake up my dogs."

Dogs?

A kennel appears out of the night, light flickering erratically.

Technical note: The flicker effect is a simple circuit that was surprisingly 
effective. In my book, Animatronics it is a 555-timer (Figure 12-5) that is 
feeding a zero-cross AC driver (Figure 11-1). The beat frequency between the 
timer's (variable; set to a good effect) pulse and the 60Hz switching limit of 
the AC made an eery stuttering flicker. 

There is no choice but to squeeze between the close-set chain link walls. The group nervously passes by, facing the dilapidated doghouse. A quick startle, "Yip yip yip!" and a small furry head pops out of the door. Jump, relax, and Aaron promps "Is that all?"

Then from behind, the Frantic woofing of a much larger beast, then a crash against the chainlink brings the group's collective heart into their mouths. No fear, it's safely locked away in its cage.

Again, the group makes its way down the path. A scream echoes from behind, as the large dog comes through the open wall of the kennel into the midst of the party! They make a mad dash down the trail, Aaron desperately trying to stay ahead of the stampede.

Once Aaron has been able to rally the group again, they all pass through the darkest area of the woods. It is eerily quiet, with strange sounds emanating from here and there. Sometimes, the darkness will reach out to them. Other times, a bush becomes not a bush, to the disquiet of all.

At the end of the woods, there was to be another station with Raye as the Leather Nun. The first night or two, she did a beautiful job of trying to get the group to just "step into the circle with the amulet and the curse will be lifted!" But in the circle were the remains of the previous foolish mortal who attempted that.

Passing through her space, another victim, disemboweled, reaches out to us and entreats us to make haste, for the Nun is not to be trusted. Death himself then chases us further down the trail.

Alas, Raye had an injured knee as was not able to continue with her station. She has surgery scheduled for November 14th, and I hope it all goes well.

Finally, we escape the woods and turn a corner onto the gravel path that leads into the house. But all is not clear -- someone is waiting for us on the path.

She claims to be a good priestess, and will take our amulet and troubles away from us. Alas, another lady appears soon after and disputes the first's claims of goodness. An argument ensues, ending with the death of one priestess and the group making haste up the trail.

We had a variety of ladies in these roles, and each of them brought a unique vision and charm to the role. Who says that all frights in a haunt must be ugly?

Alas, Poeta, who was the original priestess of this station (with Theresa) was sick most of the run. However, each variation of this station was enjoyable, as different volunteers stepped into the gaps.

Safe at last, we find ourselves on the patio of the DeLaRoch family homestead. We pause for a moment; multiply cursed, Aaron entreats them to find some good fortune at the family shrine to Saint Dunstan.

But the restless dead do not sanction our prayers. Aunt Jezebel reappears, a ghost flickering in the tortuous flames of Hell: BurningGhost.

Technical Note: Jezebel's Ghost is a simple Pepper's Ghost illusion. A sheet 
of plexiglass sits at a 45-degree angle in the shrine.  It reflects her 
illuminated image, ghostlike, within the room. The fire flicker was done the
hard way, with a Goblin System Brain module (prototype) driving a Goblin 
Muscle AC module (essentially, two "Animatronic" figure 11-1s in a box).
A random-number routine flickered two of the Brain's digital outputs, made 
their way through the Muscle, and powered a pair of 500-watt work lights with
colored gels on them. This effect got a lot of mention by guests.

Jezebel entreats us again to take her Amulet to the realm of Astoroth, so she might be reunited with it. She also insists that the group give this Amulet to her favorite nephew, Aaron. "Aaron, you're the brightest of this group of inbred relatives. You lead them now. You'll know what to do. And whatever you do, don't let my sister Kitty get it!"

Disconcerted, the group wanders away from the shrine. Aaron recalls a secret way into the house, so they can avoid the crush of relatives that are sure to be there at the reception. Perhaps, through this passage, we can find Uncle Scrimm's library -- its books full of mysterious and arcane knowledge may help us find our way to Astoroth (whoever that is).

The passage, known from Aaron's youth, is pitch black. The group is herded into its tight confines. The door slams shut, and Aaron urges them to find a l ightswitch, for the exit seems to be barred! Tangles of webs, and the touch of unspeakable things on the walls, keep the group huddled nervously in the center of the room. Soon, an harsh noise as of water and rats fills the air. A rush and hiss fills the room, with unseen hands (air through latex tubes) caress the guests. Eventually, strobes illuminate the walls, showing things better left imagined, and Aaron finds the way to open the doors.

"We're almost there... just through this passage, and we should be in Scrimm's library." A short crawl through the padded tube, and, "What! No, this isn't right! This isn't the library..."

Kitty's helper comes forward as Kitty addresses the group. "Do we have the Amulet? Do we have the blood of a <nop>DeLaRoche?" The helper grabs Aaron from where he is cowering, takes the Amulet, and drives a knife into his heart. Aaron dies a painful death at the foot of the altar, as Kitty summons the minions of Astaroth.

Aaron reaches out and grabs the ankle of the nearest relative. "Take the amulet," he gasps, in his final breath. In a moment of uncharacteristic bravery, the relative reaches out to the alter and steals the amulet back.

No matter if the amulet is retrieved or not, the Demon is angry at Kitty, the "False Priestess." Kitty and her helper are summarily killed, and the guests chased through the door into the worst fright of all...

... a plain room with a lawyer sitting within.

There are other mourners here in the room. (At this point, my knowledge of the story is sketchy... I died in the previous scene, you see!) The lawyer, unhappy with the interruption, insists the new relatives sit down. He hands out these dorky glasses, and insists that everyone wears them. "You have to, it's in the will."

Opening this disgustingly bound book, the lawyer begins to read in some strange language. A sound. "What's that? What are you doing!"

The lights black out and a sound like the end of the universe accosts the cowering guests. Then a flashing strobe fills the room, and red runes shine out from obelisks where once there was a wall. Everything has changed, and the guests are in another world.

Technical Note:  Yes, that's my 250-watt PA system plus 80-watt powered subwoofer 
there... gotta love it. During the darkness, the free-standing walls showing 
the lawyer's bland decor are folded back against the real walls... revealing 
a dark space with colored oddities and stars floating in 3d. Chromatek... 
gotta love it.

The guests are, umm, encouraged to leave through the portal between the two glowing obelisks. Red runes leap out like living things from the stone towers.

They find themselves in a black passage, ushered on hands and knees through a (sometimes) spinning tube. Crawling around a corner, the are finally able to stand, only be be greeted with a truly rickety bridge through the darkness.

Back down to their knees, they crawl through a tunnel into a strange and dark 
place. Before them lies the flashing confusion of Noth's realm, gateway to Asteroth.

Hedging past the writhing tentacles of Noth, careful to avoid the hideous deformities protruding from his walls, the cursed relatives of Jezebel are berated further. Finally, they are given admittance to the realm of Astoroth.

Once secured in the pit, with no way out, Asteroth himself appears and insults them. Leaning impossibly far over the pit (except for one run, when he had forgotten he had removed his harness. That time, he just fell on them), Asteroth retrieves the Amulet, and allows one person, "The brave one," out.

Then, the others are covered by minions. The darkness is absolute, until Asteroth frees them into the night.

Groping through more hanging snakes, the group (less the brave one) finds their way outside again to a sort of funeral reception. But where is their other member? The litany of the director (when we had one) drowned out the noises from within the coffin. At the end, the brave soul is released from the grave and the group completes its journey, rewarded with their Haunted Trails T-Shirt, and ferried back to their vehicles.

The End.