The Dinner Party

The Lead Up:
Players have received an invitation from members of the cult to a planned event for worship and communication with the Genii Loci. Cult members and players assemble at a "hotspot" for spiritual activity: a bridge in Jackson Park that has been increasingly haunted by dining room furniture. The cult intends to inhabit the space appropriately, with a real dinner party that nevertheless entails specific rules for etiquette as well as ritualistic behavior intended to call out to the spirit world. Players must RSVP if they want a seat.

Cocktail Hour:
Cult members greet players as they approach the bridge/dining room, informing them that in order to have a seat at the table, they must have tokens from the spirits of the park. Players must find these tokens by exploring the area, in part by using clues from listening to the soundwalk with which they are provided.

Appetizers:
The first course is plated and the music stops – our cue to sit down. Players must solve the puzzle of where to sit at the table. Certain cult members do not like each other – did you catch that at cocktail hour? The longer it takes for players to figure out where everyone should sit, the less time they have to obtain information from this course. Salad leaves may have clues or bits of narrative written on them in edible ink, and the bread and condiments passed around the table may contain clues or constitute another puzzle. After a few minutes, plates are taken away and the next course is served.

The Dinner Course:
After everyone has received their dinner plate, a cult member stands, taps his glass to obtain undivided attention, and begins the formal proceedings of the ritual. Using the cult's holy text as a guide, players alternate between offering toasts to pieces of furniture in the dining room, and recounting segments of the Gospel of Genius Loci that feature those pieces of furniture. These stories are improvised upon prompts in the holy text. But certain words are too holy or difficult, and novices in the cult are forbidden to speak them, although they may be written or spoken by cult leaders; for every blaspheme a story contains, an object is taken away. Cult members will offer backstories to explain why the words are not to be used. To succeed, players must recount the whole Gospel of Genius Loci with items still left on the table once they're finished. If they fail, they cannot progress to the dessert course. This puzzle will be playtested in class; the relevant section of the holy book can be found here.

The Dessert Course:
A cult member takes on the role of a moderator, and begins a debate about the proper course of action to resolve the tensions between the furniture and nature spirits. The debate devolves into an insult match, in which cult members and players sympathetic to each side of the issue viciously criticize their perceived opponents. Sounds representing the power of the furniture and nature spirits (dishes clinking and birds chirping, for instance) are heard in the background. Whichever side is judged by the cult members as winning the debate (by hurling the best insults) is loudest in the soundscape. When the dessert on the table is all eaten, the victor is revealed.