The library of "Castle of Chaos"

[KeoSilver]

A castle materializes in front of you, curious you walk to the entry way were it opens.

“Welcome foolish mortals to Castle of Chaos,” you hear a loud, deep, cackling voice as you enter the castle. Dimly lit with candle light flickering off stonewalls, the air ice on you skin. Cautiously moving further into the musty castle Foyer you are greeted by the sound of a door slamming loudly open. Startled you observe the doorway, a candle lit sign with the word “Library” the paint warn and chipping as you can barely make out the wording. Entering the library you are transported to the alternate of Chillingham Castle; walking all the way in a cloaked hooded figure searches for a book, “Don’t let the door hit you its older then it looks.” A voice confident, deep and cheerful meets your ears.

Looking confused the door behind you slams shut and locks you into the chamber. “Who are you, and why am I here?” Looking around observing the columns and rows of books neatly aligned, dusty and covered in web. The books seem to be flickering with the candlelight.

The cloaked figure pulls a book out and blows the dust off the book. The dust cloud almost looks solid in the candlelight as it lazily drifted to settle again on the other books. “I was about to ask you the same thing seeing as you came to my doorstep, and wandered in here on your own free choice.” The figure walks to a desk in the center of the large room, and has a seat in the squeaky wooden chair. An aurora of dust floats away from the chair, looking and trying to see the figures face but fail; the dimness of the room prevents you from making any discernable shapes. Although you couldn’t see it you could feel the persons eyes looking at you, a long sleeve moving up and swinging in an inviting manner.
“Please join me,” hearing the voice that greeted you as you entered the library. You see a wispy cloud of dust flow from your right and across the front of the desk as two wooden chairs materialize.

Walking over you notice the chair to your right is occupied by corpse, skin dried and cracking some of his grey hair still on his head. You gladly take the chair on your left, “Don’t mind him, he won’t bite,” hesitating a moment. “Lets just try to stay on his good side now shall we?” Nodding you sit and look at the cloaked figure.

A few silent seconds pass before the cloaked figure leans in toward you, “Are you a modern person?”

A brow furrows replying, “Yes why did you need to know…”

Interrupted, “Perfect I have just the book for you,” Putting the previously picked book in a drawer behind the desk. “Watch in the center.”

You look at the center of the deck hearing the sound of paper crinkling and twisting, as a book seems to dissolve backward materializing on the desk, the title reading “Band of the Hand by Docc Hilford.”

“Tell me sir do you know who Jack the Ripper is?”

To be continued.

((I am IRL getting ready to brush up on some Halloween effects and have come across my collection of Hilford books and a couple of other great books such as Hauntiques. I am going to review them in this thread so keep an eye out for them.))

Edit:
((Not Hauntiques, but it is definitely on my to buy list, the book I was thinking about was Book of Haunted Magick Rick Maue. Also I am going to give you all some tips and such to help make effects you may know, and turn them into something more eerie.))

 

[KeoSilver]

Band of the Hand


“Tell me sir do you know who Jack the Ripper is?” The cloaked figure asks casually sitting back into his chair.

“I do not know him personally, but I have heard of him.” You sit back relaxed and listen to what the cloaked on has to say.

In this book you will be able to contact Mr. Ripper, or any other spirit for that matter. Jack the Ripper is a modern séance that may be performed in a party atmosphere. Selecting six or seven spectators to participate, collectively the group settles on one yes or no question of there choosing. The magi calls forth the spirit of Jack the Ripper, a die is rolled which lands on a number lets say three. The third spectator is given the label of one of the rippers victims, the magi asks for the butcher knife of the house and places it on the center of the table.

He explains that in order to get a great connection to Jack we need something that he is familiar with; we have one of his victims and now a knife. At that moment the phone rings once, caller id reads unknown. “We have made contact,” Now the magi asks the spirit if his name is Jack the Ripper, ring the phone once for no and twice for yes; the phone rings twice.

Next the spectators ask the yes or no question that they have decided on; lets just say the question is “Is my brother still alive?” The phone rings once and the spectator is baffled, no one except her family knew that. Next the magi asks “Is one of your victims here?” The phone rings twice, “Please tell us all which one of our guests is your victim.” The phone begins to ring once, twice, and on the third time it rings the point of the knife swiftly sings around to point to spectator number three.

It is a very clever method and an ever-ready spirit bell effect. Another scenario could be you’re on the street next to a payphone and contact the spirits on the street. Now you do need some experience in cold reading to get the full effect.
The booklet comes with four other effects that are equally bizarre and I will touch on them in a moment.

Nightmare Coins is a great slice of bizarre pie, the mage talks about a dream a nightmare to be precise revolving around three coins. The coins a copper English penny, a Chinese coin, and a Kennedy half, are taken out of his pocket but get this they are invisible. The mage takes one of the invisible coins and
places it into his palm, asking the spectator what coin he has in his hand he opens it revealing that the coin has appeared ripped from his nightmares.

It’s an easy piece of pie to slide down the throat of any beginner method wise, but like all of these tricks the performer performing these effects have to be well over 100 percent in the theatrics department.

Study in Scarlet is another Ripper tail. The effect is you let a spectator choose a match; this spectator is going to be Jack the Ripper and is instructed to put his initials onto the match then to have a victim selected out of themselves. This is all done while you leave and stand in solitary confinement. Once they are done you instruct them to put the match back into the match box and shake it many times to mix up the match. You begin to lower the lights in the room plunging it into darkness. An ear splitting scream is heard and the magi lights a single match illuminating his face as he walks around the room stopping at one of his guest. “You sir/mam is Jack the Ripper.”

It’s easy and you will laugh at the method, no slight of hand is required to accomplish this effect. Once again though THEATRICS is key.

Swamp water
A wonderful effect involving swampy water, and the souls of the dead, the routine is top notch in my book because the method is so little compared to the amount of story and acting.

Murder by Mail
Are you an anime fan? Have you seen the anime Death note?

Imagine this you mail a small package to a spectator before a show a letter outside of the package instructs the spectator to bring it to your séance the next day. The next day rolls around and the performer thumbs through a newspaper to the obituaries. Either the performer or his guest observes that one of the obits is circled “James Wood” and then some details about there death. The performer asks for the package that has been sealed and not opened or tampered with. The spectator then opens the package were a black drawstring bag is located, the performer then takes the bag and pulls out a folded sheet of paper.

He hands it to the spectator asking him/her if he believes in grim reapers? Regardless of the answer he explains, “Every grim reaper has a list, I was fortunate to obtain a piece of this deadly list please unfold the parchment in your hands.” The piece of parchment is then unfolded and read aloud, “Today’s date, name of person who had died and then details about the death.”

I love this effect, I do not love most effects but this one is one of my top ten favorites.