The Secret in the Forest - Episode 8

The Secret

Cesar and Joui talking at the Ape Hangers.

Campaign

The Secret in the Forest

Episode

8

Exhibited in

05/30/2020

Duration

04:06:01 (YouTube)
04:26:47 (Twitch)

Episode link

Twitch^[restricted]
YouTube

Previous episode	Posterior episode
"Cemetery"	"Holy Cradle"

Characters in the episode

Locations in the episode

On this wide wooden arch, in front of you, is written: 'Holy Cradle'.

GM^[1]

The Secret is the eighth episode of The Secret in the Forest. It aired on May 30, 2020.

Synopsis[]

Still recovering from the losses and wounds from the mission, the team takes out the night to repass every information of the case. Until Elizabeth introduces the game "Never Have I Ever" to the group.

Sumário[]

Still at night, at the Ape Hangers, Cesar, Elizabeth and Thiago researches about Paula Verdante. Despite their efforts, they do not find much about her. The strangest in Cesar’s research is Paula’s last purchase of fertilizers, which has no record of having reached its destination. Meanwhile, Arthur goes outside to smoke near the graves of his family, and Joui stays quiet in the corner.

As soon as Arthur returns, Liz explains in more details to him about what is happening and why they are there. After talking a little more, the scientist questions Joui about his silence, and he still claims to feel guilty for what he did, still looking very affected by his actions in the cemetery. Liz ends her explanation, leaving Arthur on the same page as the rest of the group, explaining in more detail to him about what is happening and why they are there.

The team decides to take a break to rest. Arthur and Thiago go get some water and whiskies for the group, and Liz takes Joui by the arm to a corner and hugs him tight, comforting him. She says she’s not mad at the gymnast, that he didn’t do anything wrong. Arthur and Cesar affirm Joui’s kindness and sweetness, and all embrace him, and Cesar takes a selfie of the moment. Soon after, Liz proposes that the group play "Never Have I Ever".

The drink is served to the quintet by the girl in the group. Cesar begins, talking about LOL, and is the only one to drink. Joui is next, talking about giving a rear-naked choke at old people. He and Thiago drinks. Then Liz talks about having scars in missions. Thiago drinks, along with Arthur, but Joui invents an excuse to not drink. Liz then drinks after Thiago pokes at the question of her sleeping on the stairs. The game continues, with most of the group focusing on Joui.

Arthur and Thiago challenge the gymnast to give a mortal back, failing miserably. He then drinks for staying with a boy and a girl at the same party and Arthur drinks without needing to. Joui continues drinking, and the two mentioned get drunk. Arthur tries to do a cartwheel to imitate Joui, and manages to stay balanced, partially. Arthur pokes Thiago and Cesar’s wound over doors. Cesar and Thiago get serious, but they drink.

Continuing, Liz makes everyone drink with "I’ve never seen a paranormal creature", while Cesar hacks into Arthur’s Instagram, putting a picture of himself and writing "HaCkEd By AnGeL oF tHe NiGhT" on his profile. The group continues drinking, and Arthur almost falls. Cesar talks about having a band, and Arthur drinks crying, because all of his band died. Then, Arthur falls to the floor trying to get up. Cesar helps him, and hugs him, leading him to the bathroom.

Joui teases the group about getting naked on a mission, and Thiago tries to refute him with arguments that make no sense. Meanwhile, Arthur pees and Cesar returns with him to the table. The two immediately become Liz’s target, proposing that "she never went to the Ape Hangers' bathroom". Cesar says they should sleep, but Joui asks the hacker to stay. Cesar drinks some more, and gets drunk, stating that he will stay.

At one point, however, the mood gets more tense when Joui mentions his father. This mainly affects Arthur, Thiago and Cesar.

Little by little, the focus turns completely to the drink, and everyone drinks even out of the game. Arthur puts on music, and people start dancing.

As he gets up to smoke a cigarette, Arthur faints on the floor, and there are 4. Cesar puts the pillow under his head, and passes out on top of his body. Soon after, Joui also falls on Cesar, who wakes up scared. Then, the hacker hugs them both for Liz to take a picture of them, and sits back at the table.

Liz mentions the door, which gives Thiago the courage to go to it, totally drunk. He invites Cesar to defeat their greatest enemy. The hacker accepts and joins his best friend in the most intense fight of the entire RPG. The journalist throws the bottle at the door. Joui and Arthur wake up to watch Thiago and Cesar epically run and give a flying kick to the door. Cesar kicks the door before and opens it. The two friends celebrate amid tears and hugs for their noble victory.

Thiago sleeps at the table, Cesar sleeps in bed shortly after, while Arthur removes his pants before bed and Joui and Liz eat sandwiches together. Joui sleeps after meditating on her day, and Liz collapses on the table trying to organize the case papers.

The team sleeps peacefully, until they hear a loud knock on the door at 7 AM. The man on the other side was the policeman Victor Rott. He questions the group about what happened in the cemetery, especially about the mangled grave and the attack on Mrs. Madalena.

Thiago, with his incredible deception, tries to convince the man that there was a permission to move the cemetery grave. Meddling in the conversation, Liz questions the whereabouts of the new missing people. The man retorts, stating that it was nothing serious, that the residents could simply have traveled.

At that moment, the group tries to convince Victor that there is a contagious disease not disclosed by the government, and they were sent there to eliminate traces of this new and unknown pandemic. The policeman believes, frightened, and before leaving, asks for permission on paper to confirm the veracity of Thiago’s speech. The quintet’s new goal became to falsify a credible document to deliver to the policeman.

The file ready cost BRL $10,000.00 and the Order did not have resources to help in this regard. Cesar then readies himself to make a document and succeeds perfectly, sending a photo soon after to Victor.

Liz then picks up her papers, the way they were before, and rearranges her ideas with the group. She uses her materials to reveal the words hidden in the papers found earlier, almost losing one of the pages in the process. The group reads the pages, and talks, creating theories and ideas about everything so far. Liz’s main theory involved time travel.

After a series of discussions, the group decides to go to Casper's Diner, looking for more information. Before that, Cesar prints the selfie of the group taken the day before, and keeps it in his wallet along with the photo of his dad. Soon after, everyone asks for the famous Letício's llonguet. Thiago asks the local waitress, Carol, about unknown people arriving the previous year. Meanwhile, Arthur calls Ivete to know how she is. The quintet talks a little more, eating their breakfast. They finally decide to go to the cave to find out the truth.

Following the map drawn by Lurdete and Ana Vitória, the group goes quietly down the road, until Thiago realizes that there is a car following them. He alerts his friends, uneasy, which is officer Victor’s car. The man catches up with them, and complains of the lie they told him about the alleged disease. Thiago, once again, easily tricks him, and asks him to get away from the forest and let his team investigate the site. Victor agrees, but states that he will wait for them on the road, and would call for reinforcements if they do not return. He pretends to leave, and the group takes their equipment to enter the new environment.

Cesar has a strange chill. He has a mysterious feeling that maybe going to that place has no way back. Like it’s something that’s really important. A kind of void hits it, and the hacker gets scared. His colleagues encourage him, and all go together, protecting themselves on the way.

During the course, at first, there does not seem to be any trail, but eventually a path begins to form. Anxiety begins to consume the protagonists. The ground becomes more marked and visible, and the trees make strange and unusual curves, like a spiral. A thin fog reveals itself. It was about 20 minutes walk. The fog is becoming more and more dense, at a point where it is not possible to see even their own hands. The trees form a type of tunnel with the leaves of unusual colors, and the environment becomes increasingly closed and dark. Further ahead, it was possible to see an entrance on the right. Upon entering, the protagonists make a right turn, and see, from a high point of view, looking at a large space, which is revealed in the forest in the middle of the trees. Just above the quintet, there is a huge wooden arch. In the distance, there are several houses, large and small, with a medieval aspect, as well as farms and mining places, it was a town in the middle of the forest. There is also a large tower, and a forest with cut logs. There are grey-skinned people walking normally through the village. All the buildings are around what appears to be a large spiral garden covered in fog, seeming to form a labyrinth, around 5 large statues. In the large arch at the entrance the protagonists can visibly read the words "Holy Cradle".

Documents and evidences[]

Main page: Documents

Evidence	Description
	Sketch of the Subject 03 that was glued in another paper.^[2] Subject 03 - Project HC Long claws - Slit of hair Anatomical analysis
No Illustration	Photo of Team H taken by Cesar Oliveira Cohen on Ape Hangers.^[3]
	First page of Eric Jour's diary made completely readable by removing the ink by Elizabeth Webber.^[4] Initiation - October 7, 2019 Starting here my personal diary related to the project HC headed by me, Dr. Eric Jour, based on the archaeological findings of Dr. Eva van Gloss. Complementary team: Dr. Mick Vultz, 51 - Civil engineer Dr. Paula Verdante, 37 - Agronomist engineer and zootechnician Dr. Valter Luz, 42 - Medicine We found the operational team for the project HC. Historical events, local legend and social isolation determine the perfect conditions for our work. Local criminal data also indicate little government efficiency, which gives us a comfortable space to perform the necessary actions until any relevant authority begins an investigation The next few days will be installation and adaptation to life without technology, then we will start cataloging the HC tests. This is the beginning of the future.
	Second page of Eric Jour's diary made completely readable by removing the ink by Elizabeth Webber.^[5] Unforeseen - October 8, 2019 The night before was more intense than we expected. A gang of local bikers seems to use this ground for actions much more rudimentary than ours. Studying the location and entities found, it looks like they maintain some kind of torture club using the weakening of the veil for entertainment. Typical of what would be expected of the ruralists of this region. Dr. Mick claims to already be providing a strategy to bribe them and avoid trouble. It's not like we need to save money.
	Fifth page of Eric Jour's diary made completely readable by removing the ink by Elizabeth Webber.^[6] Calculations - November 10, 2019 The calculations are right. Everything is right. I did. And did it again. I don’t need to sleep, I need to keep calculating. Recalculating. Again and again. Another day calculating. Just one more. If they continue to work, it will happen. The Holy Cradle will prosper. Our Holy Cradle. We need to get the sources of concentrated PE flow tomorrow. Just another day of calculation.
	Fourth page of Eric Jour's diary made completely readable by removing the ink by Elizabeth Webber.^[7] Dr. Eva once more! - October 28, 2019 Praised be Dr. Eva van Gloss and her finds! I knew that her archaeological nose would bring another gift for us! Apparently she found a lost diary of the former residents. The situation with that creature in the basement was getting way worrying, I can’t sleep right in over a week. But that gives me time to calculate. Placing a shelf in front of the door helps muffle the sound. I will check the information of Eva’s find. If what I presume that is recorded in this diary is correct, we can abandon the experiments in these remains of decrepit mortals and have a source of energy that is infinite. The Holy Cradle will prosper.
	Third page of Eric Jour's diary made completely readable by removing the ink by Elizabeth Webber.^[8] Analysis of veil fragmentation - October 15, 2019 Initial tests of PE radiation with the mortal remains recovered by Dr. Valter demonstrate a feedback kinda promising, but not enough for sustain the Project HC alone. I'm still worried about the situation with that gang of vicious biker primates that we are forced to bribe. What we are making here is much bigger than those worms. We are creating the future. But their weapons are bigger than ours. Dr. Paula is optimistic and suggested that in the future they will be useful to us, probably making the dirty work of the kidnapping of the necessary PE sources.