Through Sorcerer's eyes - Oct 27, in which the pattern falls apart

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

Starts here.

October 27

Graymalk tells Snuff that the Good Doctor's farmhouse has burned down. They go over to investigate. The place is a burnt wreck, although the nearby barn has been spared. The eternal storm is gone. As Snuff approaches he suddenly rushes over to the barn, to trap Bubo in a crate. Bubo is morose - turns out he was never part of the Game, and neither was the Good Doctor.

Weeks ago, Bubo, who'd previously simply taken leftovers from the Good Doctor's experiments, caught wind of some goings on, and saw all the actual companion animals talking to and helping each other, so he gathered information and pretended to be involved, and that he was the Good Doctor's companion, so that he was a player.

However, rather than caring about the Game, the Doctor's purpose was bringing to life the Experiment Man - previously known as the Corpse Man or the Big Man - which he stitched up from several dead body parts. Once the Experiment Man was brought to life, they got into several arguments, and the latest one had him burn the whole place down by accident. The Experiment Man went to the barn to sulk, followed by Bubo, then left for parts unknown. It's not clear whether either the Good Doctor or the Hunched Man escaped.

This revelation has two consequences - in story, this means that the Doctor is not a player, which means that Snuff's diagram can be updated to calculate a new site for the event. From our point of view, we see that Bubo was able to converse with other animals without being assigned a Possessor, or any sort of sorcerous intervention - the clearest indication of someone unrelated to sorcery being nevertheless an intelligently communicating animal.

As for whether the Good Doctor is a sorcerer or not - stitching bodies together and using electricity from a supernatural storm to bring the resulting amalgam to some kind of life sounds sorcerous enough to me. Especially with dead body parts established as the lingua franca of the sorcerous world. The easiest way to incorporate the Good Doctor would be to consider him a sorcerer who is simply either unaware or unconcerned with the Game. The Experiment Man would be a Possessor that he was able to Summon, though perhaps not to Bind consistently. Possibly it's a very bad Binding roll, -3 and below. But a complete lack of control, as opposed to a tense relationship, suggests perhaps that it wasn't Bound at all. Maybe Contained within the amalgamated body?

Sorcerers and Demons

• Jack - Binder of Snuff (probably 0 or +/-1), a wand, and a big knife (probably 0 or +/-1), as well as a Container of several Things. Keeps a curse connected to his knife which has him lose control to murderous urges. Has played the Game before, as a Closer.
• "Crazy" Jill - Witch, Binder of Graymalk, and a flying broom. Friendly with Jack, but an Opener.
• The Good Doctor - Binder (-3 or below) or just Summoner and Container of the Experiment Man, with the Hunched Man as accomplice. Weird science and stormy weather. Not a player. Missing.
• 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, as a Closer
• Graymalk - a Possessor of a cat. Possible abilities: Cloak, Travel: teleportation. Possible Need/Desire: burying and uncovering things. An Opener.
• The Experiment Man, AKA The Big Man or The Corpse Man - a Possessor of a stitching together of several dead bodies. Not very bright or forceful, but strong, and a speed belied by the awkwardness of his movement. Probably high Stamina, low Will.
• Bubo - an actual rat who has figured out the Game without being a player himself. Low Stamina, high Will.

Sorcery and Setting

• Again we see speech between animals as being standard, rather than assumed to be sorcerous.
• There are sorcerers entirely uninterested in the Game.
• Corpse parts and inclement weather reinforced as central to sorcery.