text: [Themes: Lovecraft]
  
  > Look around
  Town square, Backwater, VT (Marco Innocenti)
  The large, hexagonal-shaped square is paved with big, white stones, polished by rain and wind over the decades; around it, low red-brick buildings look like watching peasants. One single street leaves the square to the north, while less accommodating paths lead west, in the direction of a towering church, and southwest.
  Due east, an iron bridge crosses the river, and southeast, a walkway leads down to its bank.
  
  The swollen, slate-colored clouds that blanket the sky are reflected in the shiny, circular shape embellishing the center of the square, muttering ominous portents amongst themselves.
  
  A man is leaning on the bridge rail, staring intensely at you with his only eye.
  
  > look at the shape
  The big emblem, one yard wide, is embedded in the center of the square like a manhole. The surface looks golden, although you seriously doubt it is anything more than pyrite. Its three rings surround a central circle tightened by bird claws with a single triangular mark pointing northeast. The rings themselves are bedecked by a series of symbols (outer to inner, then clockwise from north):
  
  BLACKBIRD |TREE      |SPARROW   |CUBE      |WOMAN     |FEATHER
  DAAN      |SHI       |AAK'EE    |HAI       |TLÈÈ      |JI
  PIG       |EYE       |WOODPECKER|CROSS     |FISH      |EAGLE.
  
  > ask the man about the shape
  "What is this... emblem, in the center of the square?"
  
  "It is a symbol of sorts. Don't know much about it. Except that you can see similar... designs scattered all around Backwater.
  Usually, though, they are hidd-... I mean: less exposed. They represent some sort of feast, or the likes of it. But, then again..."
  
  He scratches his nose.
  
  "The inscription are in Navajo," he concludes.
  
  > look at the tree
  The outer ring is bedecked by a series of symbols (starting from the outer ring and going clockwise, from the north):
  
  BLACKBIRD |TREE      |SPARROW   |CUBE      |WOMAN     |FEATHER.
  
  > Go north
  The man returns to his pretended duties, while keeping his one eye one you.
  
  A short street terminates here. To the south it opens into the town square. To the east, a few worn steps rise to the entrance of the public library, and to the west you can see a real estate office. A gloomy path leads northwest, towards the woods.
  
  You can see a notice board here.
  
  > read the notice board
  A weatherbeaten community notice board outside the library. Behind glass you can see a community events schedule, a ripped newspaper headline, and the winning stories from a children's writing competition.
  
  > examine the schedule
  Monday: Poetry reading.
  Tuesday: Poetry reading.
  Wednesday: Cross-stitch. NO GUNS.
  Thursday: Poetry reading.
  Friday: Alcoholics Anonymous.
  Saturday: Poker.
  Sunday: CLOSED.
  
  > Examine newspaper
  "Vicious Animals Are Dismembered In Gory Nightly Excess, Pumped High On Drugs"
  
  > read the story
  There are a few stories on the board. You choose one at random to read.
  
  "I am in a band. I play guitar and Stuffy plays guitar and Richard plays guitar and Marie plays drums although she has only got one and Ermentrude sings. Sometimes Ermentrude plays guitar too. We are going on tour in the fall but for now we play live at different places in Backwater. When they catch us they throw us out but we are good at hiding. Our record is thirty-four minutes."
  
  > read the story
  There are a few stories on the board. You choose one at random to read.
  
  "Benjamin Jefferson was not just the presedent he was also a cowboy. He had a horse named Woodrow and he lived in a coffin with wheels. On Friday he would have a gun fight and he nearly always won. One time he met Doctor Abrhaham and they decided to build doge City. They got help from a friendly beaver."
  
  > read story
  There are a few stories on the board. You choose one at random to read.
  
  "Underneath cars is a good place to hide. Sometimes you jump out and surprise the neighbors but sometimes you just lie there and wait where no-one can see you. You can tell when they get in the car because it comes a bit closer to your face and when they switch it on you sometimes cough. If you hold on to the metal stuff you can sometimes get a free ride but watch out because it burns your hands."
  
  > read the story
  There are a few stories on the board. You choose one at random to read.
  
  "My father is a member of the Vermont Cheesers. They are a secret society so I am not allowed to talk about them. They meet in The Creamery and they do not allow girls to join. Sometimes I have to wait in the anti-room so I sneak up on the balcony and watch. Every day they bet on a cheese in a sack and if they do not get it right they have to eat the cheese. One man always talks about Maple Smoked Gouda and another man always talks about The Cheese Trail and sometimes they put the cheese down their trousers. They all smile all the time but you can see in their eyes that they are scared."
  
  > read the story
  There are a few stories on the board. You choose one at random to read.
  
  "I hate chores. Mom makes me empty the trash and sweep the yard and get rid of the dead birds that Misty brings in. I cut off the wings and hide them in the crawlspace and stitch them together. Sometimes I catch butterflies and moths and use their wings too. When I am done I will have two sets of wings and find out which one is better. The bird one I will call SuperSwallow and the butterfly one I will call BeeHaMoth. I will fly over Robert Sutherland's house and shit on it."
  
  > read the story
  There are a few stories on the board. You choose one at random to read.
  
  "My dad always takes me to see jazz. It is crap. He says it is the only true American art form. I pretend to listen but I actually try to use psychic powers to make the jazz people explode. I have tried about a hundred times. One time the trumpet man played a wrong note although it is difficult to tell with jazz. Then blood came out the end of his trumpet. Then he fell over. I got ice cream on the way home."
  
  > read the story
  There are a few stories on the board. You choose one at random to read.
  
  "I have a friend at home she is called Bertrande. She does not go to school. When mom comes in she hides beneath the bed or in the closet and sometimes she makes a joke with a kitchen knife. Bertrande is from France in the sixteenth century where she was a pleasant girl. She was murdured by a noble man and she says if she can collect the bud of an entire family she can travel back in time for revenge. I like her hair."
  
  > read the story
  There are a few stories on the board. You choose one at random to read.
  
  "My uncle showed me a trick where you unscrew a salt cellar in the diner and then the next person gets salt all over their food. I did it a couple of times and stayed around to watch through the window. It was funny. I like to make things better so I swapped the salt for sugar and then for the white stuff from the laundry. If you find a salt cellar with a big enough hole you can also put broken glass in there."
  
  > read the story
  There are a few stories on the board. You choose one at random to read.
  
  "One night I was coming home from school. It was dark. Then I saw a light in the sky. It was a space alium. A light shone down on me and I went on the space ship. They gave me cookies but the chocolate chips were bugs. I was scared. They wanted to take me to their planut but I said I had to be home at 6.30 for dinner. The aliums seemed angry and they dropped me in a pond. My school books got wet. The end."
  
  > read story
  There are a few stories on the board. You choose one at random to read.
  
  "One day I was mixing paint and I made a new color! It was red and green and pink and all the colors at one time! I painted it on a painting and it made a hole with glowy edges! I tried it on the back of my door and it made a bigger hole! But when I looked through it was not our upstairs but another person's house with different colored walls and leg stuff hanging from the ceiling! I am going to climb through and see if it is an adventure!"