The Summary of The Crucible

This is a Summary of events that have occurred over the course of The Crucible. The Summary is split into two different types: The first is by date, the second is by plot thread. Date offers a chronological approach, whilst plot thread offers a clearer picture of the plot.

'''[NOTE: THE FOLLOWING WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FORM THE VIEWPOINT OF THE PLAYERS OF THE ARG. THE NARRATIVE MAKES ALOT OF FIRST PERSON COMMENTS]'''

13th

 * e-mails are received by various people from Slender Nation, Tumblr, and beyond from a CRUX_Crucible, who wants to know whether they wish to play a game.


 * When responding, CRUX sends out questions for those who wish to participate in the games to fill in. These included: Name, Age, Hobbies/Interests, A little bit about yourself, as well as various forms of contact (Phone, Tumblr, Skype, ect.) The intent of this is to get to know the participants better, as well as a way to set the level of the challenges. He warns against quitting at this point.


 * D's blog begins.


 * Crux issues Practice Challenge 1.

14th

 * CRUX reveals through e-mail correspondence that he knows about The Slender Man, and refers to him as "our mutual acquaintance".


 * CRUX begins providing information to various players. These include links to a Tumblr account, a Twitter feed, and a Facebook profile.


 * ARC is discovered.
 * CRUX issues Practice Challenge 2.
 * CRUX issues Practice Challenge 3.

16th

 * D first mentions seeing The Rake.
 * D is scratched on the leg, presumably by the Rake.
 * D encounters the strange creature at his window.
 * CRUX's real name is revealed.

17th

 * A video of the inside of Dante's house is posted on his Tumblr. Dante says he did not post it himself.
 * D encounters the creature at his window again.
 * Ferdinand_Magellan joins Mibbit chat, saying he knows D, alludes to being a supernatural being. Later, ARC_hangel joins that chat saying he is Ferdinand, and that he is in fact the Fear Archangel, and that he influenced ARC. ARC denies knowing ARC_hangel or Ferdinand _Magellan.
 * CRUX issues Practice Challenge 4.
 * CRUX receives a text message from Dante saying "Watch your back, CRUX." However, Dante denies sending the message, since he was travelling all day and had no cell phone service.
 * CRUX wakes up after sleeping all day with a large head wound, and is unaware of how he got it.
 * D relocates to West Virginia.

18th

 * D's account tweets "Dreams dreams dreams. What will you dream of, Dante Niccals?"


 * Shayde mentions contacting ARC, who informs him to think carefully, and contact him again once he has chosen a side.


 * D confirms that he had a strange dream.


 * The characters in D's dream are identified as the Fears "EAT, the Slender Man and the Rake". There is also another figure that is currently unidentified and wears a maroon hood. It is speculated to be either Redlight or Archangel.


 * Trickster enters the Mibbit chat as "D" and leaves two codes that ultimately translate to "savehim". It is unknown whether the message refers to D, CRUX, ARC, or someone else entirely.


 * It is determined that Trickster is in the same timezone as D.


 * Two hours after Trickster enters the Mibbit chat, he posts the same code directly to D's Tumblr account. D returns home to find both the doors to his house open and his computer logged into Tumblr. After searching the rest of the house, he finds nothing.


 * D mentions his plans to change the locks the next day. After this, he will be the only person with a key to the house.


 * D's wife goes missing.

19th

 * A post is put up on CRUX's Tumblr, with a passage from Hamlet and a code. After going through numerous ciphers, the result is the phrase: "O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!" ever vigilant - HTW.
 * Coded texts are recieved by player KillstheBeat from CRUX. These reveal that CRUX has been kidnapped by Daft, who continues to text KillstheBeat in his place.
 * Daft claims to have found CRUX in the Indian Caves in Perry Farm Park. This is the same location ARC mentioned finding him as well. Daft claims to have taken CRUX to a safer place.
 * Daft mentions that the Slender Man is also present; the texts were not intentionally coded, but were sent as such thanks to his effect on technology.
 * Upon asking about HTW, Daft replies that the letters are meaningless. It is discovered that D misled the Mibbit chat in their analysis of the puzzle. Daft confirms that the players' initial answer, COR, is correct and D becomes evasive about the subject. After the players confront him, he refers to COR as a "he" before leaving the chat.
 * Daft reveals that COR was killed by the Slender Man. Shortly after, he claims that he cannot talk about COR further without angering the Slender Man.
 * CRUX logs into the Mibbit chat and claims to have no memory of the events surrounding his disappearance. He tells the players that the texts in both his Inbox and Outbox have been deleted. He also states that he was not aware of leaving Bradley, having woken up in his own home.
 * D leaves a message on his tumblr about a CPIRA. After several decodings, it leads to a website for the CATALYST Paranormal Investigative and Rescue Association.
 * Members of the site include D, ARC, ODYS, and COR.
 * It is revealed that CRUX may have been part of CPIRA, before leaving for an unknown reason.
 * Crux receives a message from Trickster, who say's he is 'going to get' him

20th

 * Crux recieves another voice mail from Trickster, in which he leaves a joke. It can be found here


 * D hears something on his roof, but nothing comes of it. CRUX also hears his dogs barking outside his window, even though they shouldn't be there.

22nd

 * Crux left to go get a drink, finishes his water from dinner.


 * Trickster shows up in the chat, claiming that Crux belongs to EAT.


 * Crux winds up in the beginning of possession by EAT, forcing the players to test him to figure out what exactly is wrong with him. Crux constantly corrects everyone's grammar and spelling, to the point where he boots people out for "antagonizing" him with intentional bad typing and grammar.


 * It gets so bad Crux leaves the chat, leaving the players to figure out how to help him.


 * ARC is contacted, and informs the players that a shower or a swim (pure water, as opposed to what he drank) would bring Crux back to himself.


 * Possible Daft involvement is also suspected, as a creepy tumblr post conveniently popped up while this was happening.


 * Half an hour after the players convince Crux to take a shower, he comes back to the chat apologetic and guilt-ridden.


 * Later, Dante's wife calls him from a blocked number, saying she left him for another man, and wasn't actually missing.

24th

 * Daft kidnaps Crux for the second time. This is discovered after player Killsthebeat texts Crux and receives replies from Daft. Finally Crux goes to sleep and wakes up later to find Daft gone.


 * A download link for a video with the filename "CPIRA Casefile #001" was posted to Dante's tumblr. Downloading this link actually gave a video with a message from Trickster, which stated that those who downloaded it had just given him access to their computers. (The video was later uploaded by Zander, so that no more players would become "infected")


 * COSM enters the chat for the first time. He talks with the present players about the player Pryex, trying to get information on him. It is revealed he has been following Pryex for a few days. He warns the players not to tell Pryex this or there will be severe consequences.


 * Practice Challenge 5 is issued

25th

 * An unknown user named WhiteDove enters the chat for the first time, mentions the name Saxton Fewes and leaves. This sparks a conversation about a case from 2008 which CRUX, SERC, and ARC were working on.


 * COSM enters the chat and discovers that despite the warnings, Crux has told Pryex about COSM.


 * COSM sets out to punish Crux for this by threatening the player SingerOfTheLost, who Crux has mentioned has posted his favorite practice challenges of all the players. He tells Crux there will be special challenges to complete to assure her safety.


 * COSM begins issuing challenges to Crux via tumblr post.

26th

 * SingerOfTheLost is cut off from human contact. Is it still unclear exactly what happened to her, though apparently COSM called in a favor to make this happen.


 * Crux issues Practice Challenges 6 and 7.

27th

 * COSM and ODYS enter the chat and exchange various threats with each other.


 * SingerOfTheLost still missing.

28th

 * Dante and RED make plans to save RED from RedRage and the Tree.


 * RedRage takes Pseudomuse into the Empty City. Dante follows. An automated message is posted to Dante's Tumblr to notify the players.


 * RED begins sending messages from within the Empty City. These messages appear to be from the future, and out of order, as time in the Empty City is wibbly-wobbly.


 * SERCH enters the mibbit chat looking for Dante. He is at Dante's home but Dante is not there.


 * EAT takes claim of CRUX once more, causing him to sleep excessively and preventing him from completing the tasks to rescue SingerOfTheLost. Trickster injures CRUX.


 * CRUX is rescued from Trickster and brought to the hospital.


 * When CRUX is released from the hospital, he is free of EAT's influence.

29th

 * Messages from RED within the Empty City continue, some painting a grim future for RED.


 * ODYS and SERCH look through Dante's computer files to find a way to save him from the Empty City.


 * Dante is saved from the Empty City.


 * Soon after, Pseudomuse emerges from the Empty City. Pseudomuse renames himself Blackmuse.

30th

 * It has been revealed that, unfortunately, SERCH has been killed. This was set up by COSM of course. More details were posted by Dante in a tumblr post.


 * SingerOfTheLost still missing. COSM tells the other players they must record and post videos of themselves doing the Safety Dance in order to ensure her protection.


 * ODYS sets out to get revenge on COSM for killing SERCH.


 * First Dante and then later Crux end up with some sort of computer virus that makes their text appear in Zalgo format.

1st

 * The Crucible officially begins, as detailed in CRUX's Tumblr post. He details that Round One has begun, and will form a series of challanges similar to the practice ones given, with a new one given every five days until the end of the round.


 * The first of these chalanges is given, with it being 'take a nap in a public place'.

2nd
-Crux/Dante/RedOperative/Singerofthelost:

Early in the morning, Crux and Dante reveal that they are now dating. The supprising, yet happy news falls short by an apperance of Trickster. Dante and Crux log out and Crux starts sending odd text messages with distrubing audio clips to various players. He talks about being cold and alone.

Trickster somehow logs on under alternate multiple people, making fun and talking as demented versions of both Crux and Dante.

When Crux does log back on, he can't see or hear anyone weather it be by chat, text or phonecall. He starts getting very upset and blaming himself and players for not responding.

Dante logs back on and not only has the Zalgo virus again, but starts rambling about how he hates Crux and wants him to kill himself.

Trickster logs off.

Redoperative logs on and is able to communicate. While he is in the middle of the situation he offers the solution to the problem. Saying that Crux has to say the lords prayer. Eventually Crux gets the message, says the prayer and logs out.

When he comes back again he is back to normal and long appologies between him, Dante, Red and Singer ensue. Red suggests that Crux take a shower and with that Crux and Red log off.

Players get a text from “Crux” with audio of him singing in the shower.

Crux's siblings also arrive home while this is happening.

Trickster as Crux sends a few more text messages. He gets upset that Crux, forgives himself for all the problems he's been blamed/blaming himself for. Trickster runs away and Crux ends up back in his room safe. Crux also said that Trickster resembles Daft.

Crux/Cosm-AKA Dean:

Appearing for a while on chat Crux calls out Cosm and taunts him. Cosm is unusually quiet during the entire event.

Redoperative:

Red reaches the door to our world in the Empty City. With the help of Singerofthelost's singing, he escapes and is now back in our world. Unfortunately when he returns he finds out that his girlfriend Sarah/TGoddess, has broken up with him.

The Daft Student:

Daft makes an apperance on chat after being absent for quiet some time. He admits to having Trickster control him from time to time. He leaves almost as quickly as he came in.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">Devarin:

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in">He checks in and is catching a flight with Singerofthelost tonight back to the states.

3rd
-Dante receives a package containing strange papers, including some from a necronomicron.

-Blackmuse continues to be unstable.

''Also in this span of time, DEAN makes threats against Inkflamewriter. The other players try to dissuade him, but his mind is settled.''

8th
-Kirsten tells Blackmuse what happened to him, that he was fractured upon seeing the tree. Blackmuse returns to being Pseudomuse.

9th
-Dante arrives at Inkflamewriter's house, intent on protecting her against DEAN's threats.

-Daft/Trickster stole the strange papers from Dante's home while Dante is away.

-Dante receives a phone call and goes to assist an old high school friend, Allison, who is being attacked by the Rake.

-Ink is murdered by DEAN.

10th
-Dante is attacked by the Rake and hospitalized.

-CRUX pays a visit to Perry Farms. He enters the chat as "Crucible," speaking in a different way than he has before.

-Allison enters the chat to update the players on Dante's status.

-RED continues his journeyings in the Empty City.

-SingerOfTheLost proposes that the players choose some object to have with them, something to represent the players' bond and friendship. This leads to the "Pieces of Eight" concept.

11th
-Pseudomuse chooses a Harrow Deck as his Piece of Eight. He does a reading for the players of the game. The text is here.

12th
-Daft commits suicide. Using the instructions from the Necronomicron, Trickster arises as Gorger, the Sin of Gluttony.

-RED reports that within the Empty City, one of several pillars that stand in a certain area has started to sprout branches. Fears are hoisting corpses onto the branches of this tree.

-Players receive phone calls from Gorger.

-Mennos and Tiro both agree to say a prayer to Gorger to keep him from eating other players

13th
-(Or thereabouts) Blackmuse begins to assert himself again from within Pseudomuse, while Pseudomuse is asleep.

-The Duke creates a Tumblr and begins posting things. We discover that Blackmuse is The Duke, and he is the Sin of Lust.

-Blackmuse issues threats against Sarah, RED's ex-girlfriend. He intends to make her his concubine unless someone volunteers to take her place.

-Both Cruser and Singer volunteer, conspiring together in the hopes that one can be a strength from the "dark" side and the other a strength from the outside, to save Pseudomuse from the influence of Blackmuse. The Duke chooses Cruser.

14th
-Cruser goes through a ritual and becomes Crusher, Sin of Envy.

-This is Crucible/Beast/Civil's last night of awareness, and CRUX comes back to the forefront of his consciousness full time again.

-At some point in this time period, Civil speaks with Kirsten and persuades her to accept an offer of some sort, once he awakens in full, which he hasn't yet.

16th
-DEAN begins to seek the TREE, intent on looking into it to gain the power necessary to kill Gorger without losing himself. He threatens Pryex to persuade CRUX to find him the path.

-TheMessenger enters the chat and names fourteen, declaring "Every dog will have his day." Those players are DEAN, Dante, CRUX, RED, Muse, Near, Cruser, Paul, Steph, Mennos, Pryex, Sam, Banana, and Kirsten.

-RED discovers another version of himself within the City. RED then becomes trapped with himself inside the City. This other him later becomes known as Green.

17th
-Near has strange dreams. While Near sleeps, neardEATh enters the chat and declares that Near has been entering the Empty City in her sleep.

-Pseudomuse is told, at last, about Cruser's state as Crusher.

-Cruser begins to be allowed to return for an hour a day as herself.

18th
-

Crux
Mostly, CRUX was here and there in all of the above. Sometimes he seems more like a child getting pushed around by bullies and the players exist to protect him. Only recently there was Crucible--who is creepy and enigmatic. He seems to have a thing for the Full Moon as it's brought him out of CRUX's subconscious. Crucible has, apparently, always been there. And there's something about him that's… more than a little bit dangerous.

Dante
Dante comes along investigating CRUX. Dante comes pursued by the Rake. Dante's wife leaves him for another man, as it turns out she's been cheating on him for a while. spends time in chat and one thing leads to another and then Dante and CRUX are all kinds of <3's. Dante also now and then posts this and that pertaining to stuff like aliens all on his tumblr. Random Dante being Dante or actually important to the overall plot? Time will tell.

Dante finds out his old acquaintance RED is being a proxy and manages to get RED sane enough to make a plan to save him. Dante ventures into the Empty City and saves RED, at least a little, but then he sees the TREE long enough that it changes him just slightly but not long enough for him to end up a proxy. He comes back a little more aggressive and raw than he was before. Oh, and his cousin SERCH came with ODYS to save him from thee Empty City by opening a door at a convenient time. Yay! (If it's all-caps, it's probably CPIRA.)

Dante goes to protect one of the players (Ink) from some danger (which will be elaborated in in another section) but that pesky Rake rears its ugly head and goes after his old high school sweetie Allison. So he leaves Ink, and she dies, but Allison doesn't, which is nice. Then the Rake later goes after Dante again, rather inconveniently, so he ends up in the hospital. And now Allison is spendin' time with us and worried with doe-eyes for Dante dear. She seems to have past experience with the paranormal, though she is not CPIRA. (Let's try not to get her killed, shall we?)

CPIRA
(AKA: In Which DEAN does a bunch of ####) CPIRA has attention on CRUX for reasons--possibly out of friendship and to save him, or possibly out of a need to stop the world from being in danger because of him. In 2008, CRUX got kidnapped by the Slender Man while on a mission with CPIRA, but came back and two weeks later there was a lot of pain and death with CRUX at the center. CPIRA was disbanded temporarily and CRUX was expelled and did not get invited back to the party when CPIRA reformed.

There are several branches of CPIRA that investigate different paranormal nonsense. COR is the guy in charge. REC records stuff. And then other people have witty names that reflect what they do. (ARC Providence, with religion under his purveyance, for instance.)

Since the game began…

ARC comes after CRUX and is turned back. For a little bit, CPIRA hangs back mysteriously. Shayde takes up with ARC as "eyes and ears," doing reports for ARC. Kirsten gets in contact with several CPIRA members over time. COSM starts stalking Pryex rather annoyingly. With annoyance. CRUX tells Pryex what's up even though COSM said not to tell, so to punish CRUX, SotL ended up in a short-term coma while CRUX and the players completed some tasks for him. CRUX angsted. REC and ROC came to visit the chat for a little while. SERCH and ODYS did, too. ODYS made threats at COSM. D made threats at COSM. Lots of people made threats at COSM. He laughed and may as well have said, "I am rubber, you are glue, whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you!"

CPIRA fired COSM for being dumb, and then COSM became DEAN. COSM-DEAN, who shall henceforth be referred to as DEAN, declared a vendetta! He had SERCH shot--which didn't make anyone happy. There were some more threats. ODYS went to England to hunt DEAN down and was caught and tortured to death by DEAN. To especially illustrate how powerless everyone is and how awesome he is, DEAN came to the States and personally killed one of the players (Ink). More threats and angsting here.

And then DEAN decided to break up the killing by asking everyone to tell him who they hate most of all the players. If you tell him, he won't kill you. If you don't, he might just. He went back to England, where hopefully he'll get back on his meds (because he truly is on meds, I kid you not) and become more sane again. (He also was studying to become a teacher once. Raise your hands if you want to be taught by DEAN, class!)

Oh, and while DEAN did all that killing, CPIRA was nowhere to be seen---apparently too busy hunting their own crap to clean up their own messes or worry about how a psychopath wants to kill them all. Lovely, right?

RED, a former CPIRA agent, mentioned a few times that CPIRA is full of backstabbing and probably shouldn't be trusted. He expresses concern for player Kirsten's presence in CPIRA.

Psuedomuse/RED
Pseudomuse is one of the players of the Crucible, but came into the game with a game of his own on his shoulders. He had this crazy guy named RedRage following him around and leaving him messages in binary and other such things. RedRage visited the chat and decided it would be cool to type without spaces. RedRage's plan was to introduce Pseudomuse to The TREE to get all scratched up and make him crazy.

Some of the players attempted to befriend RedRage, and learned that maybe he could be saved from being a proxy-thing of this TREE of his. Dante recognized RedRage as RED, and RedRage somehow stopped being rage-y and started using spaces and was temporarily RED And then a scheme was cooked up to get RED and Pseudomuse both to safety. RedRage took Pseud into the Empty City, and Dante followed and shot RedRage. Out of RedRage's death, RED arose and fled. RED, Dante, and Pseud got separated. As previously mentioned, Dante got rescued by SERCH and ODYS.

Pseud made his way out later, but changed his name to Blackmuse, the Muse of Blackness! And next thing we know, a mysterious "TheMessenger" appears and says that there are three entities now battling for control within Muse's body--Pseudomuse, Blackmuse, and The Messenger. Blackmuse is a broken branch and thus dangerous, Pseud is Pseud, And the Messenger is… a messenger. When Kirsten tells Blackmuse about this several days later, Pseudomuse resurfaces and takes dominant control--something Blackmuse isn't particularly happy about. But he wrests control back again and declares he's just letting Pseud strut about to do the boring day-to-day stuff so he can have the fun.

RED is all lost in the Empty City for a while, but keeps in touch with the Players despite some wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff that makes him enter chat from the future now and again. They help him best as he can and he see some weird nonsense. The players and CRUX manage to complete the tasks and get SotL back from being unconscious (see the Non-Dante CPIRA section). Then SotL sings RED out of the Empty City somehow. RED comes back not exactly who he was, but at least not a psychopathic killer, and he remembers to use spaces between words when he types, so we love him. RED helps out with this and that, and then decides it's time to head back into the Empty City and search for answers, so in he goes again. And I do believe that's where he is as of the writing of this.

Trickster/Gorger
Trickster taunts. Trickster laughs. Trickster is probably within his little buddy Daft, AKA David, AKA Dante's long-lost twin brother, torture CRUX some. Daft has a super creeper weird crush thing on CRUX and that doesn't mean good things for CRUX because Daft shows his love by tying him up and piercing his ears and scraping up his feet and other things besides that. But somehow CRUX still sort of likes Daft a bit. He's just a misguided sweetie.

Trickster gets CRUX all attacked by things like EAT and maybe the Cold Boy and the Choir/Texter. The players save CRUX from this. Trickster messes with Dante's computer at inopportune moments. Trickster is generally… tricky.

Then Trickster steals some stuff from Dante while Dante is off protecting Ink and Allison. And Trickster gets Daft to commit suicide and then Trickster rises as the Gorger.