Dr. Aldous Brewer, experimental psychologist and chief resident psychiatrist at North Island Sanatorium has recently had an article published in the Journal of American Psychological Society. Based on his research done with three unnamed patients based out of his isolated island sanatorium, he has stumbled across a fascinating possibility in Jungian psychology regarding the collective subconscious. In the article he claims that while conducting deep hypnosis on the patients he has tapped into ancient knowledge from the past and has resulted in incredible findings. His article has sparked a small firestorm of excitement, criticism, and outright dismissal in the academic field.
Soon after publication of Dr. Brewer’s article, psychiatrist and medical doctor, Dr. George Willikars stumbled across it. Interested about the situation he inquired with the state board about the institution where Dr. Brewer was conducting his research. Getting nothing satisfactory to sate his curiosity regarding Brewer or his study, Dr. Willikars resolved to visit the sanatorium. Feeling worried for the welfare of the patients involved he contacted the FBI to alert them to his concerns. The FBI, having been interested in the institution themselves, but with no clear method to infiltrate assigned a young agent Helga Griffon to accompany him as a presumed patient of his. Disliking the deception, but grateful for the security an agent brought him, Dr. Willikars agreed. Writing Dr. Brewer, Willikars wrote a letter to request a tour, and Dr. Brewer eagerly consented to the visit.
After scheduling the visit with Willikars, Dr. Brewer reached out to his niece, Elva Brewer. As a student of psychology at the local university, she has been looking for a place of internship. Knowing that, Aldous wrote to his niece to invite her to join the hosted tour that Willikars would be enjoying. Elva, young and devoted to her uncle, immediately agreed.
Meanwhile, Mickey O’Malley, the down-trodden, semi-handicapped alcoholic giant had been offered the first job since his firing from the city trolley company he had worked at for seven years. Dr. Brewer has extended the job offer to replace the ferry boat pilot and island handyman Ebeneezer Waite that has been working on the island since before it became a sanatorium.
List of Player Characters
Mickey O’Malley – At around 6’8″, this drunk and semi-disabled mechanic has come to the island to replace it’s retiring ferry boat captain and handyman. Somewhat of an idiot savant, he has incredible skill with machines and electricity, but has little ability to come up with ideas or even thoughts of his own.
Dr. George Willikars – A dutiful doctor who holds his Hippocratic oath as sacred, and science as the ultimate authority. Having seen Dr. Brewer’s latest articles, he believes that the “experiments” at North Island may be unethical, and has asked for a tour of the island facilities.
Elva Brewer – An undergraduate student of psychology, and niece of Aldous Brewer, she was extended an invitation to tour North Island Sanatorium along with Dr. Willikars and to visit her favorite uncle.
Agent Helga Griffon – Feeling unnerved about the situation, Dr. Willikars alerted the FBI to the situation, and they assigned an agent to accompany him to the island under the guise of a patient of his. Helga has had years of investigation and interrogation experience, and has come to the island expecting nothing more than
Happenings
At the docks on the mainland, the student, doctor, agent and mechanic all met Ebeneezer Wilde, the eighty-something handyman and ferryboat pilot. Loading their luggage for the week-long stay at the island, the old man wheezed on about the history of the island, and his involvement with the Sanatorium. He explained to the guests, and his soon to be replacement Mickey, about how well he is treated on the island and all the good work that Dr. Brewer has been doing. According to him, the staff and the doctor are committed to helping the patients at North Island Sanatorium and have even taken on a few charity cases despite the patients’s inability to pay for the treatment. Ebeneezer, or Ben to his friends, also droned on during the three hour boat ride about his own personal history. The passengers on the boat kept pressing him for more information about the island, so he began pulling out old myths regarding mermaids and sunken treasure. He told them that there were a lot of old legends from the whalers some seventy years past about strange things in the surrounding seas, but that he had never encountered anything like that while piloting his little ferry. The passengers even brought up murder for some reason. Pesky passengers, asking weird questions, but he tried to entertain their inquiries good-naturedly.
When the boat landed at North Island, a solitary isle bordered with sharp cliffs, the passengers climbed the staircase cut into the face of the precipice to the large Georgian house at the top while Ben went to dock the boat at the larger marina a quarter mile to the north. When the four reached the door of the home and knocked, a wild eyed thin man in his early forties raced around the corner of the house, leaping upon Elva. Shouting and slavering on about “filthy harlots” and “slutty whores” he bit into her ear, tearing a large piece of it away in his mouth. Fortunately Dr. Willikars was able to subdue the man, and Helga Griffon called into the house for help. Shuffling out of the house came a woman in her sixties, in a faded dressing gown. Tut-tutting the man, and calling him “Leonard” she lead him back inside by his collar, and suggested the guests take a seat in the library, as the living room was currently in need of a thorough cleaning.
Whiskey-blind Mickey, bleary eyed and foggy minded, followed the doctor and Helga into the library where they met a young lady reading “Dante’s Inferno.” When attempting to talk to her, the woman would frown disapprovingly and remind them that they’re in a library, and that is not the place for socializing. Helga attempted to get more information about who she was and where the doctor was, but the woman eventually began completely ignoring her.
After being patched up by Dr. Willikars and incensed at losing part of her ear to the bite, Elva, unfamiliar with her surrounds, began barging her way into every room that wasn’t the library, calling out for her uncle. She blundered her way through the dining room, kitchen and pantry before returning to the group disheartened but angry.
Eventually the woman who had hauled away the lunatic returned, and assured the group that the doctor was taking a nap but should be with them shortly. She called herself Blanche, apologized for allowing Leonard to act the way he did and made every attempt to make them at home while they waited. Elva, outraged that her uncle would ignore her, demanded to see him at once. This agitated Blanche, and made the young woman from the corner huff her way out of the library. Blanche began stumbling over her words, trying to impress upon them the importance of sleep for the brain, and that the doctor worked very hard and needed his rest. This, of course, only enraged Elva more, and she stomped out of the room climbing the stairs in the foyer, while the other three guests looked on in curiosity. As Elva climbed the stairs, Blanche began pleading with her to not go upstairs, and became hysterical. The doctor tried to console her, and through his psychoanalytics was able to get a startling revelation out of Blanche.
She was not an employee, but a patient at North Island Sanatorium. And she was fairly certain that Doctor Brewer was dead.