Escape Hour Austin: Call of the Ancient

As humanity endured the tribulations of the Great Depression, other threats that tried the limits of human sanity persevered from the darkest depths of the void. Seven Freemasons, thought to be amongst a long-expired group of esteemed individuals, stumbled upon a trunk of eldritch knowledge in their travels around the world.

This horrible force that defies the bounds of comprehension has corrupted all but one: the enigmatic James Reynolds, who has realized the direness of their pursuit of power and sought to seal away the alien beings who have begun to leak their influence into the world.

Through the remnants of his sane conscience, which he has locked in a painting, he has issued an urgent request to any who may listen, appearing in their dreams and pleading for them to reverse the summoning. In a twist of fate, you have arrived just in time to undo what has already begun, but you may find the will of the lost elders challenging to navigate.

Time is scarcely an issue for beings that defy definition, but to those who keep their minds intact, time is precious. When the bell tolls midnight, when the veil between worlds is at it’s thinnest, the elder ones will seize the opportunity that the Freemasons have given them and claim the hearts and minds of mankind into their ranks of subservience, as they already have with the men who uncovered them. Armed with only your sanity and your wit, you must push through the barriers the Freemasons have laid between you and the summoning and close the veil between realities.

The Freemasons were once committed to freedom of expression and the orientation of one’s life towards order. But as their influence does with all things, the Great Elder Beings have corrupted their thoughts and made the Freemasons believe that the Grand Architect of the Universe is from beyond the bounds of orthodox comprehension. 

One by one, their convictions were twisted by a grand lie: that the Freemasons would rule the world with the power of the Great Old Ones. Only James managed to see through this lie and realize that the eldritch beings were manipulating him and his kin.

The subconscious mind is a powerful thing, and is in fact the reason you have felt compelled to come to the lodge. Though you cannot quite pinpoint why, your strange dreams and whispers from your conscience have led you here, like following a trail of breadcrumbs. But now that you’ve arrived, there is no turning back. Will you be able to close the gap between the world of the sane and the world of the mad? Or will the world fall into eternal chaos? The fate of humanity is in your hands.