Through Sorcerer's eyes - Oct 19, in which there are new additions to the neighborhood

Part of a series analyzing Roger Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October through Sorcerer.

Starts here.

October 19

Snuff checks out the old manse, one of the possible locations for the month's culminating event. He finds some fresh lumber lying there, with evidence of new work - and the place is locked down, so he can't explore further. He goes back to Jack's to check on the Things - the one in the Circle is eager to leave, saying it is starting to feel more powerful, and Snuff tells it it will be freed soon enough. The Thing in the Steamer Trunk was able to poke a hole to stare out of with a yellow eye. The Thing in the Wardrobe is snoring. The Things in the Mirror are still centered around some point - and Snuff notices a flaw, albeit one still too small for them to leave out of. He wonders if they are able to push their way out. Perhaps this can be seen as a gradual exercise of attempting to break a Container.

Snuff naps, and is awakened by the sound of a Roma (the less appropriate term is used) caravan coming into town. He follows them for a while, until he runs into Quicklime. He and Rastov had been expecting them, as they are associated with the Count. They are responsible for guarding him during the day, so the theory is that he came in early to stake out a claim and gather up some ingredients, and they followed as fast as they could. Quicklime brings up the possibility of additional resting places for the Count, which Snuff had not considered before. This is important: if any of them were established before the new moon, they count towards the pattern. Quicklime is shocked to realize that Snuff is the calculator rather than Jack - and furthermore, concludes that he is better at it than Rastov. They start thinking about setting up a rotating watch with the other animal companions to make sure and find all of his other potential crypts.

Before this, though, Snuff suggests a more immediate activity for them - he reveals that a ruined church near the Count's crypt is one of the possible places for the event. They go there, and he asks Quicklime to first make sure that the Count and Needle are sleeping in the crypt, which they are, and then to check the ruin. Alas, the place is completely ruined, to the point where it's not likely that anything can be made of it, so it seems clear that it's not the place. Using Snuff's calculations from the previous chapter, this means that the Vicar must be involved. He reveals this to Quicklime, and also that he's performing rites to the Elder Gods (meaning he recognized the mention of Nyarlathotep when he viewed the black mass). He also reveals that the Vicar's vicarage and church are a possible location for the event, if Larry is not a player. He doesn't mention the manse. He then reiterates to the reader that the new moon froze everything in place, that subsequent moving and killing of players doesn't change the pattern that he's seeking, which is why it's urgent that he know where and when the Count might have alternative lodgings. Quicklime backpedals from taking shifts to find out where this is - he instead suggests he will look into an alternate way to get that information in the next few days, and will tell Snuff about it.

Snuff parts with him and goes back to find the Roma's camp. He watches them but sees nothing out of the ordinary, although the display is colorful. He then hears a carriage coming in, and an old lady visiting Larry. He follows the two doggedly from the outside, seeing them having sherry, looking at hte plants, then some more sherry. After she departs he talks to Larry, who is able to communicate with him in human form, and tells him that her name is Linda Enderby, that she introduced herself and was very interested in botany, and that she's moved into the old manse, away from the crowded city. Larry does not seem to realize that she is in fact the Great Detective in disguise, and Snuff doesn't tell him this.

Snuff later meets Graymalk, who tells him that the Vicar lead the search party to its resting place, first, suggesting that he knew where it was, and probably put it there, to intentionally put Jack at risk. She also tells him that Enderby has visited Jill, as well, and seem to know much about herbs and cooking. Snuff tells her almost everything he knows, except that Enderby is the Great Detective, so that he is the one who set up shop in the old manse, and asks that she join him later, and use a broken window he'd noticed to hop on in and look for a chapel - presumably a place for the event.

As Snuff goes on near the Vicar's church, watched by an albino raven, and sees that Enderby has come to visit here, as well.

Sorcerers and Demons

• Jack - Binder of Snuff (probably 0 or +/-1), a wand, and a big knife, as well as a Container of several Things. Described as cursed and having to do much of his work at night - perhaps his Price has to do with insomnia? Has played the Game before.
• Larry Talbot - Possible sorcerer, definite werewolf, Binder of Large Plant. Pledges assistance to Jack, thinks he's a Closer, almost certainly one himself. Large Plant confers some control over his transformation, but it in itself seems natural to the setting
• Vicar Roberts - A sorcerer in his own right railing against sorcery, no Bound demons of his own that we are aware of yet. Some combination of Satanism and Cthulhu Mythos.
• "Crazy" Jill - Witch, Binder of Graymalk, and a flying broom
• The Count - Binder of Needle, a blood-sucking parasite, and possibly the ring. Telltale: needs to be invited in. Might have multiple places to sleep. Served by a group of Roma.
• Snuff - a Passer whose Cover is a watchdog. High Will. Possible abilities: Command: dogs, Hold, Perception: heightened senses, Perception: sorcerous implements, Perception: sorcerous pattern, Special Damage: claws and fangs, Special Damage: holy hell. Able to trace paths between sorcerers. Keeps up with who has which tool. Able to communicate with Jack verbally right after midnight. Has played the Game before
• Large Plant - a Passer whose cover is a large flowering plant? Possible abilities: Boost: Stamina (werewolf transformation), Boost: Will (retaining faculties), Hint, Perception: Future
• Graymalk - a Passer whose Cover is a cat. Possible abilities: Cloak. Possible Need/Desire: burying and uncovering things.
• Needle - a Passer whose cover is a bat.
• Count's Parasite - Possible abilities: Perception: heightened senses, Shapeshift: Large Bat, Travel. Possible Need: other people's blood.
• Thing in the Circle - a Passer of high Will (although much weaker than Snuff's), communicative. Possible abilities: Shapeshift: general or numerous. Possible Telltales: smell, unnatural movement. Its Power might express itself through the environment when fighting against Containment. Becomes more powerful as the moon expands.
• Thing in the Steamer Trunk - High Stamina. Not communicating so far.
• Thing in the Wardrobe - High Stamina and Will, communicative.
• Things in the Mirror - Unknown. Not communicating so far. Able to break out of their mirrors with time. Slither within their confines, change color when excited. Possible abilities: Special Damage: disease, Special Damage: stick, Taint.
• The Great Detective and his companion - Very perceptive, good at disguises (although the smell gives it away), not clearly supernatural or a player in the Game, but taking a keen interest in what is going on, to the point of moving into the neighborhood in disguise and befriending some of the players.

Sorcery and Setting

• Cthulhu Mythos is known as a form or aspect of sorcery.
• The new moon not only separates the gathering of ingredients from acting with them towards the great event, but also freezes the locations of the players in place - and if some of them have more than one resting place, those have to be taken into account, as well.
• The place of the event at the end of the month is expected to be a chapel.
• Breaking Contain could be a long-drawn process.