The Secret in the Woods - Episode 11

Symbol
From left to right: Thiago, Arthur, Elizabeth, Joui and Cesar after receiving their new clothes.
Campaign	The Secret in the Woods
Episode	11
Exhibited in	06/20/2020
Duration	03:50:07 (YouTube) 04:12:31 (Twitch)
Episode link	Twitch[restricted] Twitch (2)[restricted] YouTube
Previous episode	"Hotel"
Posterior episode	"Tower"
Characters in the episode
Arthur Cervero Cesar Cohen Elizabeth Webber Joui Jouki Thiago Fritz Jennifer The Artist The Blacksmith The Doctor The Farmer The Gardener The Gatekeeper The Guard The Hotelier The Miner The Nurse The Tailor The Tavernkeeper The Waitress † Wild Source Old Hotelier (painting)
Creatures in the episode
Figures (2)
Locations in the episode
Holy Cradle Holy Cradle Farm Holy Cradle Hotel Holy Cradle Smithy

I know what you’re thinking. I’m not going to sleep, I’m not going to rest until we find who did this to the Helper. But attacking the new ignarii is not the answer.

The Blacksmith

Symbol is the eleventh episode of The Secret in the Woods. It aired on June 20, 2020.

Synopsis

With Holy Cradle in grief by one of those, the team tries to find whose creature type is attacking the farm animals.

Summary

At the Holy Cradle hotel's lobby, the team picks up the pages of the diary of The Hotelier's father. Even without knowing their order, they look like words of a man repentant of his creations, or as he himself would say, "ironically haunted". He cites the experiments he conducted before arriving at Holy Cradle and the potential that the place presented to them. In some notes, the Lusidii refers to a group that the quintet deduces as Team Kelvin.

According to the man, during their stay at the Hotel, they were "nosey" and, along with the old Blacksmith, entered the Labyrinth and were never seen again. While the team organized the papers and theorized about the identity of the man, the Hotelier, in a sad tone, said goodbye and went to the Tavern. Still surprised by the transformation of Joui, the group is divided between support and fear of the gymnast in its grayish form. To ensure Thiago, Elizabeth shows him the annotation Joui had made on her pad, but his reaction does not express much.

Thiago and Cesar engages ina another battle against a door to enter the Hotelier’s office, but they don'tt find anything special. Soon, they all leave, hungry, towards the Tavern, only to find it in a dreary mood. Liz and Thiago asks The Tavernkeeper if this is due to The Helper's death, and he confirms. The Waitress passes at the tables where the group is sitting and everyone orders one of the Tavern’s specialties, the sandwiched sandwich - a delicious dish consisting of sandwiches one inside the other.

While waiting for his requests, the drunken Hotelier begins to accuse them of being responsible for the death of the Helper, associating their arrival at Holy Cradle with the first murder in recent history of the place. Others around the hall chorus the accusations, like the bereaved Nurse and the victim's father, The Doctor. With this, The Blacksmith gets up from his table and defends the members of the Order, attesting that he was with them when the Helper was killed. Not yet fully convinced, most leave the environment and go to the farewell ritual.

Alone at the Tavern, Elizabeth, Thiago, Cesar, Joui and Arthur theorize about the killer's identity and its obvious relationship with the occultists. In this, the Nurse interrupts their conversation, demanding answers about how they ended up there. When Liz mentions that they are investigators, the woman begs them to question the residents of Holy Cradle and find out what happened to her friend.

At the end of the farewell ritual, the Blacksmith returns to the Tavern and suggests that the team go to the Farm to ascertain the appearance of the symbol on one of the cows. On the way there, Joui approaches The Guard, asking for his assistance in finding out if anyone saw anything suspicious before the Helper’s death.

Upon arriving at the farm, Liz analyzes the symbol cut into the flesh of one of the giant cows in the village. The hysterical Farmer tells them that some kind of creature has been killing her cows and stealing her chickens for months, but that all they’ve been able to see from it so far has been a black blur fading into the night mist. The team makes plans to spend the night in the barn and catch the creature in the act. Then they go to the Smithy, where the community leader hands a new shield to Thiago. Seeking to be more transparent with the people of the village, Liz gives the Blacksmith the paper with the scribbles made by the Crazy Gramps, but he cannot understand its meaning.

So she gives him the black card that the group had found in his body and that seems to remind him of something. The Blacksmith mentions that he will take the five inside the mining cave the next day, to see something resembling a "door". When Liz, Thiago, Cesar, Joui and Arthur set foot on the street, they hear The Gatekeeper ringing the bell that announces the arrival of the night in Holy Cradle. They run towards the Farm and, on the way, Joui passes the Guard, who tells him that the Artist told him that she saw something approaching the Smithy last night, before the Helper’s death.

At the farm, Liz wraps a chain, given by the Blacksmith, around the cow’s neck - now nicknamed Jennifer by Arthur. With the fog covering Holy Cradle increasingly, Thiago and Arthur are surprised by a fog creature, but they manage to get rid of it by entering the barn, where it seems unable to enter. Cesar spends hours awake watching Jennifer, until they suddenly hear a noise in the meadow. They all run out and see only one bipedal creature running through the forest, while the cow was lying on the ground, wounded and agonizing. Arthur stays to take care of the animal while the other four run at full speed after the predator.

Joui takes the lead and reaches a hollow tree, with the symbol drawn countless times inside. He and the others ambush the creature there. Cesar shoves his face into the tree to try to see it, but is attacked by what looks like a young Lusidii with wild behavior. When he goes out to face them, he is weak and confused and ends up knocked out with a stone on the head by Cesar’s sling. As he screams in agony and dies, the group wonders what had just happened there. Upon checking his pulse, they end up witnessing a face of despair, with two tears coming from his eyes.

Documents and evidences

Main page: Documents

Evidence	Description
	Old Hotelier's old diary. Given by his son to Team H. The ignarii who were staying here at the hotel entered the labyrinth and never returned. The Blacksmith and the Helper entered the labyrinth to see if they found them, even if the chances were extremely low to find themselves inside, but did not find anyone. They probably stayed too long inside when the night started and were killed by the creatures or something. Impossible to have arrived in the center. They were not even lusidii yet... This may explain the noises and the fire during the night. There was a time when this diary was used by me to record the atrocities I committed. Reading the records, I am forced to face the horrible monster I was and how my mind was distorted before living in Holy Cradle. Today I pay the price of living, ironically, haunted. Haunted in my own hotel by my own creations, aggressive and out of control just as I was when I created them. Today it is my guilt that feeds them. There is no way to erase the aberrations I created from existence. I tried to at least destroy the records in this diary, but it only resulted in the sadistic creatures I created using it against me. As long as someone in this hotel bears great guilt, this parasite will continue to feed. I’m sorry, my son. I can’t keep this alive anymore. I hope someday, if you read this, you can forgive me. I’m sorry I never had the courage to tell you.
	First ripped page from the Old Hotelier's diary. Given by his son to Team H. What an absurd place! This place is so much more fucking good than that bald old man could imagine with those stupid little plans of his. Here, there's MUCH MORE UNBELIEVABLE THINGS, I see no reason to leave this place and go back to that shitty life I led. Here I can do much more interesting experiments with these bizarre animals, in my OWN HOTEL, without anyone knowing. The "veil", or whatever those scientists called that shit, is all busted up here. Apparently in this place nobody records anything in text, but fuck them all, I always wrote everything I did in diaries and it will not be now that I will stop.
	Third ripped page from the Old Hotelier's diary. Given by his son to Team H. IT’S POSSIBLE, I’M ON THE RIGHT WAY, I’LL BE ABLE TO CONTROL THE DREAMS, I CAN BE A KING, A GOD, AS I WANT. I just need to make this creature more aggressive, but the ability to control the reality of dreams is already greater than I could ever... dream Forcing this thing to parasitize my brain, I can force dreams into my reality while I’m awake. Just realizing that I’m dreaming (I’m getting more used to it) that it assimilates the information from my brain to the reality around me, and the parasite makes all simulated senses become EXTREMELY REALISTIC.
	Second ripped page from the Old Hotelier's diary. Given by his son to Team H. When I got here I knew I was going to have fun with the animals in the area, but I didn’t imagine that the animals literally had special properties that I could use! There is this kind of entity or I don’t know what the fuck this is, that somehow feeds only on other creatures dreaming. I wonder what I could do with it.
	Fourth ripped page from the Old Hotelier's diary. Given by his son to Team H. These new ignarii that the Blacksmith brought on the pilgrimage are extremely nosey, ask too many questions and investigate everything. They also seem to be much more used to what they find in the hotel than normal ignarii. They were able to easily deal with the dream parasites. They seem to be used to it. Did they also know about the Underworld before coming here? They're so incessantly trying to enter the Infinite Labyrinth, but everyone knows that it is impossible.

Episode cast

• Cellbit - Game Master
• Rakin - Thiago Fritz
• Luba - Joui Jouki
• Guaxinim - Arthur Cervero
• Calango - Cesar Cohen
• Gabi Cattuzzo - Elizabeth Webber

Trivia

• Just like in "Holy Cradle", in order to keep the content of the message of Joui to Elizabeth on her notepad, the moment in which Thiago read the paper to try to understand the teammate's behaviour was muted during the stream. Calango and Guaxinim, that plays Cesar and Arthur, continued without knowing its content.