Jogo Teardrop Falls 1 (ST)

A história atual até agora: O detetive Rick Carson e o legista Alexander Van Houten investigavam uma série de eventos perturbadores em Teardrop Falls. Van Houten, um homem cínico e provocador com uma fascinação mórbida pelo grotesco, constantemente testava os limites de Carson, cujo passado contém traumas não resolvidos.

A investigação os levou a um moinho abandonado na floresta, onde descobriram um cadáver. No local, Carson sofreu um colapso emocional, confrontado por fantasmas de seu próprio histórico, enquanto Van Houten observava com curiosidade clínica. O momento de vulnerabilidade foi interrompido pelo ataque de criaturas não humanas - entidades compostas de decomposição e sombra, que emergiram do riacho próximo.

Uma batalha desesperada se seguiu. Carson, já psicologicamente abalado, tornou-se quase inoperante, forçando Van Houten a enfrentar a maioria das ameaças sozinho. As criaturas demonstravam interesse particular por Van Houten, como se ele fosse um objeto de fascínio para elas.

Sem recursos e cercados, Van Houten fez a escolha final: ordenou que Carson fugisse sozinho, aceitando seu próprio destino. Ele mencionou brevemente uma "maldição da família Van Houten" antes de ser arrastado pelas criaturas. Carson escapou por uma porta, mas não antes de encontrar uma pista deixada para trás - um botão de pérola negra da roupa de Van Houten.

Van Houten está agora desaparecido, presumivelmente morto ou capturado pelas entidades. Carson, traumatizado mas determinado, desenvolveu uma obsessão por descobrir o que aconteceu com o legista e desvendar os mistérios que envolvem tanto as criaturas quanto o passado obscuro da família Van Houten. A cena final mostra Carson sozinho nos becos de Teardrop Falls, com o botão de pérola negra como única conexão física com seu parceiro desaparecido, enquanto a chuva começa a cair sobre a cidade.

Detective Rick Carson and medical examiner Alexander Van Houten have been investigating a series of ritualistic murders in Teardrop Falls. Their relationship was initially tense, marked by sarcasm and morbid teasing, but Carson discovered that Van Houten was actually "Rosa"—an ethereal figure he witnessed as a child during his father’s murder, who had haunted him ever since.

During the investigation at an abandoned mill, Carson suffered an emotional collapse while reliving past trauma, interrupted by an attack from non-human creatures composed of decay and shadow. In the desperate struggle, Van Houten revealed he was the focus of the entities' interest. With no escape, he sacrificed himself so Carson could flee, mentioning a "Van Houten family curse" before being dragged away. Carson escaped but found a black pearl button from Van Houten’s clothing left behind.

Obsessed with the medical examiner’s disappearance, Carson followed clues to an industrial alley, where he found recent bloodstains on a basement window. With the unofficial help of Investigator Lena Petrova, he breached the location and discovered Van Houten kidnapped and injured, with ritualistic symbols painted in blood on his torso. Three hooded figures held him captive.

Carson activated a lever that released emergency bars, separating them from the captors. Lena subdued one assailant while the other two fled through a secret passage. Van Houten revealed he was being targeted for a "binding" ritual with an ancient entity due to ancestral family pacts. His lineage and blood are required to reopen a long-sealed portal.

Among the dead captor’s belongings, Lena found photographs—including one of a young Carson on the night of his father’s murder, tragically connecting their destinies. Van Houten hinted that Carson’s presence that night twenty years ago "changed everything," suggesting the detective is unintentionally part of the ritual and the Van Houten curse.

Now, with reinforcements en route and ancestral secrets exposed, Carson must decide how to protect Van Houten, understand his own role in this supernatural web, and prevent the ritual’s completion—all while grappling with the revelation that his personal history is intrinsically tied to the darkness consuming Teardrop Falls.

Van Houten revealed critical information: the ritual was a "binding," part of an ancient pact made by his family. The cult sought to use his blood—as the last pure Van Houten heir—to open a portal. He also confessed a deeper connection: he was present the night Carson's father was murdered because his family had sent him to "observe." Carson's father had been investigating the Van Houtens and discovered too much.

A threatening sound emerged from the secret passage—reminiscent of the entities from the mill. Van Houten threw Carson a vial of dark liquid, instructing him to throw it into the tunnel as a distraction. Instead of repelling the threat, it enraged it. As Carson retreated, a shadowy tentacle grabbed his ankle. Van Houten and Lena pulled him back, but during the struggle, Van Houten recognized something in the darkness and gasped, "Pai...?" ("Father...?"). The distraction caused all three to fall back into the basement just as the door slammed shut, trapping them in darkness.

Now imprisoned in the basement, they hear a non-human voice whisper from the shadows: "Alexander... you finally came home." The voice implies a familial connection to Van Houten, suggesting his father may be involved in—or transformed by—the ancient evil haunting the town. Carson is injured, Lena is unprepared for supernatural threats, and Van Houten is weakened and psychologically shaken. They are trapped with an unknown entity that seems to know Van Houten intimately, and the true nature of the Van Houten family curse is beginning to reveal itself.

In the basement, they discovered an antique chest that reacted to Carson’s father’s pocket knife—now revealed to be a "Threshold Key." The chest contained his father’s journal (addressed to Carson), a silver locket showing their fathers together when young, and an antique Webley revolver with one bullet. Van Houten explained their fathers were secretly allies trying to prevent the "Ordeal"—a ritual meant to open a supernatural gateway—and were likely killed for it.

As police reinforcements arrived, Captain Reynolds ordered Carson off the case. Carson negotiated for 24 hours and secretly planted a tracker on Van Houten as paramedics took him away. Van Houten whispered for Carson to meet him at the mill at midnight with the journal and the knife.

Carson now possesses his father’s journal, the knife, the locket, and the revolver. He must uncover the full truth behind the Ordeal, the Van Houten curse, and his own hidden connection to the supernatural before the ritual completes at midnight—all while evading his own department and protecting Van Houten, whose bloodline is key to either stopping or fulfilling the ancient pact.

Carson percebe pelo rastreador que colocou em Van Houten que ele não está sendo levado para o hospital e no carro junto com Lena, resolve seguir até o pontão onde o dispositivo aponta que Van Houten está.

A noite engoliu o pontão na escuridão úmida do rio Ash. Carson e Petrova encontraram a viatura abandonada, portas abertas como asas quebradas, rádio sussurrando estática de outro mundo. As pegadas na lama os levaram até a estrutura podre sobre as águas negras - e para o que estava amarrado sob as vigas: Van Houten, pendurado de cabeça para baixo como um morcego gótico, sangue escorrendo de seus pulsos cortados para baldes de metal abaixo. Os símbolos pintados em seu torso brilhavam com um luminescência sinistra. Ele não estava inconsciente. Seus olhos fixos em Carson diziam tudo: Você veio. Eu sabia que você viria.

A batalha foi breve e brutal. Dois capuzes emergiram das sombras, facas curvadas refletindo o pouco de luz. Lena engajou um enquanto Carson cortava as cordas que prendiam Alexander. O segundo atacante fugiu pela passagem secreta no assoalho - um alçapão levando para as águas escuras abaixo. Van Houten, fraco mas lúcido, sussurrou a verdade: não era um ritual de morte, mas de transição. Eles não queriam seu cadáver. Queriam seu corpo como receptáculo.