You lift Aunt Jane’s photo, certain now of her guilt. She poisoned Elsie early that fateful evening by lacing her cocoa with arsenic. Before she could clean up the evidence, however, Vera ushered her away on an errand. While gone, the unknowing neighbor Birdie stumbled upon the arsenic in the kitchen and, believing it to be sugar, emptied it into the cocoa to later be served to the unsuspecting house by way of Vera’s hospitality. Jane never even knew she had inadvertently poisoned herself until it was too late.

As you remove the photo from its place on the altar, the candle sparks to life, the dark flames seeming to reach towards your hand before falling back into place. Your eyes are drawn to the photograph in your hand, the face of a murderer of decades past, still causing pain to her victims, both intentional and unintentional, after all this time. You thrust the photo into the dark flame. For a moment, you can feel a presence behind you, and a man’s rough voice chanting soft, unintelligible words. There’s no turning to look, however, as a form suddenly appears across the altar from you.

Appearing before you more solid than you’ve seen her so far, Jane’s wide-eyed gaze is pinned to something over your shoulder.

“Charlie, Charlie, look you can’t believe I did this! Why would I hurt that little girl, Charlie?! You can’t believe these strangers over your own sister, Charlie! I didn’t do this, no Charlie, please-”

Her protests are cut off with a sharp cry of pain. The photograph has finally caught up the dark flames of the candle, and is rapidly being eaten away. Similar flames have appeared around Jane and to your horror, begin to devour her as well. You drop the photograph before the flames reach your finger, and the fire seems to wrap itself around the remnants, swallowing the last few pieces. You can’t look away as the writhing shape of Jane is likewise devoured by the hungry flames surrounding her. One final shriek rings in your ears as you’re suddenly plunged into darkness. The chanting from behind you comes to a stop. There’s a soft sigh, as of relief.

“Daddy?”

There before you, with a smile like a ray of sun, is Elsie. She runs past you, and you turn in time to see her throw herself into the arms of a middle aged man. Tears are visible on his cheeks. The other spirits appear one by one, years of weariness lifted from them. Charles looks around at them all, Elsie held close to his side.

“Come on, everyone, let’s get going.”

He glances over and gives you a nod and small smile, before turning away with the others. They slowly fade, leaving you sitting for a moment in darkness.

After some unknowable amount of time, light slowly blooms around you, revealing your companions gathered close. From one of the windows, sunrise is visible, revealing a much changed house. Though no longer plagued by rot and malignant shadows, McDermott House now simply looks old, and a little tired. With quiet voices, you and your companions gather yourselves and leave the now truly empty house.

Time passes, and while the stories of the McDermott House Murder still swirl, no word of dark happenings at the McDermott House surface. You truly hope the spirits you met that night all rest quietly, now that justice has finally been brought.

It takes a lot of work to solve a mystery like this one. Teamwork, intelligence, communication and organization are but a few of the ingredients necessary to find all of the solutions, but now that you’ve done it we hope you can rest in peace!

Thanks for playing, we hope you had fun, and we’ll see you in the next adventure!