The Beacon and the Dancing Skeleton
This was the first Strange Worlds story about The Beacon. It was improvised on March 9th, 2013.
Episode Summary
A pair of stage magicians gather at a restaurant cafe catering to their profession of prestidigitation and discuss the Aztec Tomb trick, one claiming it was perfected two years prior by his great grandfather, the legendary Mortimer Chumley (who had reportedly once made the Statue of Liberty disappear). He confides in his friend that Chumley has become a bit of a recluse...and, worse yet, a necromancer! At that moment, before his great grandson can spill any more secrets, a pack of Chumley’s zombies attack and kill them both!
Rick White pays a visit to the medium Madame Zara, inquiring about his dead mother’s final words. Madame Zara channels her spirit and tells Rick she was proud of him and wanted him to be strong like his father. Rick reveals his mother was Hungarian and didn’t speak a word of English, exposing Madame Zara as a fraud. After being slapped by the disgruntled con woman, Rick takes his leave.
Mortimer Chumley’s manservant Benjamin wakes him to tell him of the escaped zombies. Chumley reveals that it is too soon to release all of them according to his plan as he corrals a couple of stray zombies shambling about his estate. Madame Zara arrives, enlisting and enticing Chumley to her cause of exacting revenge upon Rick White, playing upon his ego by pledging her fealty and speaking of his greatness. Chumley agrees.
Rick asks his assistant Marigold to reserve a pair of tickets to his upcoming show for his aunt and cousin, visiting from the old country. She tells him of rumors she’s heard of a necromancer operating in the city. Rick dismisses it as nothing but rumor and fancy, then asks Marigold to be his guest for dinner that night.
Chumley visits an old magician colleague of his, Mr. Van Der Pferffer, and his manservant Stephenson. Van Der Pferffer is a collector of the arcane, with an extensive library of magical tomes and a bejeweled amulet around his neck. Chumley asks to borrow the Librum of the Bones. Van Der Pferffer demands to see his long dead wife once more in exchange. A dark and ominous voice urges Chumley to agree. He does so, and the deal is struck.
Rick’s aunt and cousin come to see him perform. Rick asks for a volunteer from the audience, and Chumley comes up onstage. After performing a bit of sleight of hand, Chumley offers to perform his own trick. Summoning Marigold forth, he uses a spell from the Librum of the Bones to age her 100 years in mere seconds before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
Chumley returns home and gloats to Benjamin before Rick arrives, undoing the several locks on Chumley’s front door to work his way in and confront the old magician. Exposed as the necromancer, Chumley offers to show Rick a trick he learned in Chicago and pulls a gun. His plan is to bury Rick alive in a tomb, and once he is dead and desiccated to use him as one of his zombie puppets.
Buried alive in a marble sarcophagus, Rick White is visited by his Spirit Guide who tells him she has been working on moving things with her mind. To offer a demonstration to Rick’s skeptical mind, she pushes dirt in towards him before removing it and the marble lid of his tomb. As he escapes, zombies lurch towards him. He uses a simple spell to render them unconscious as his Spirit Guide tells him of the crystal Chumley keeps in his pocket, the source of his power and long life. As the zombies begin to revive, Rick runs away.
Chumley prepares to unleash the zombie army upon the city, first offering Benjamin the privilege of pulling the lever before deciding his longtime manservant can better serve him by sacrificing his life force to Chumley’s crystal, prolonging his own life, increasing his power, and restoring some of his youth. The dark and ominous voice tells Chumley that it is almost complete as he begins to pull the lever himself. Rick enters and produces a gun, but his bullets and punches have no effect as the necromancer heals from them all. But the attack proves to have been a ruse as Rick lifts the crystal from Chumley’s pocket. Chumley demands that he give it back, and Rick agrees...giving the life force back first to Benjamin and then to Chumley’s zombie army. With each life restores, Chumley ages more and more until he collapses on the ground. Aged to his true 300 years of age, he demands that Rick fight him, but Rick instead leaves him to the mercy of his formerly undead slaves, to be chained in his own dungeon. Rick tells him if he wants release, he will have to take it himself as he drops the gun on Chumley’s desiccated form. Van Der Pferffer arrives to retrieve his book, only to find his restored wife waiting for him.
Rick uses the crystal to restore Marigold’s youth before locking it away in his safe with other items of dangerous arcane power. Marigold asks him if he’s tempted to use the crystal himself to prolong his own youth, and what he’ll do when she grows old for real. He responds that he’ll grow old with her before showing her his final trick, kissing her deeply.
