Chapter 7, Part 7: Self Portrait No. 13

The evidence that Maurice Clayborn has truly lost it is piling up in front of the investigators. A massive mound of dirt and clay dominates the sitting parlor in the artist’s residence. The tombstone looms over the investigators and casts a flickering shadow over them and the faceless mannequin mourners that sit in silence around the grave. Nobody is weeping and pungent smell of top soil engulfs the air. Content Warning: Surveillance, Violence, Murder, Mycophobia Experimental artist Maurice Clayborn has dropped contact with his employer and retreated to his home studio complex in the Texas Hills. After receiving a series of threatening messages from the artist and losing a few staff to the gates of Waterfalls at Dawn, the museum director recruits Saint and Alister to track down the artist and get his creative spree to stop. ParaScience is an actual play, paranormal horror podcast told through Fate. It is Game Mastered by the disembodied mind of Ben Hamlin with Ezra Kaye as Man in Black Alister McAndrews, Matty Trumbo-Gomes as agnostic exorcist Saint Garcia Flores and Nik Boylan as conspiracy theorist Jules Ortiz! With a logo by cryptic Terra Bosart and theme by the ethereal Johnny Rinaldo.

Alister rotates the luminescent mushroom in his gloved hands. The light radiating off the mushroom blurs with the light from the moon light coming in from the skylight. Questions arise in the minds of our investigators as the lights shift across the tile walls of the bathroom. Content Warning: Surveillance, Violence, Murder, Mycophobia Experimental artist Maurice Clayborn has dropped contact with his employer and retreated to his home studio complex in the Texas Hills. After receiving a series of threatening messages from the artist and losing a few staff to the gates of Waterfalls at Dawn, the museum director recruits Saint and Alister to track down the artist and get his creative spree to stop.

The harsh kitchen lights filter into the freezer and illuminate the empty, frozen eye sockets of a skull, carved from a solid chunk of ice, and left conspicuously so that our investigators would find it. Between the halogen eyes of the steel face in the lobby, the x-ray film you had to look through and the sculpture of the artist’s own cranium staring back at you; one question rises to the minds of both our investigators “What the fuck is this guy’s problem?” Content Warning: Surveillance, Violence, Murder, Mycophobia Experimental artist Maurice Clayborn has dropped contact with his employer and retreated to his home studio complex in the Texas Hills. After receiving a series of threatening messages from the artist and losing a few staff to the gates of Waterfalls at Dawn, the museum director recruits Saint and Alister to track down the artist and get his creative spree to stop.

Our investigators have already come face to face with the first of Maurice Clayborn’s odd self-depictions. An imposing metal sculpture of the artist’s own face that hid a key to his home. Is this whole process his magnum opus or just a game to him? That’s up to the investigators to decide as they step into the next room, uncertain about what’s to follow. Content Warning: Surveillance, Medical Imagery Experimental artist Maurice Clayborn has dropped contact with his employer and retreated to his home studio complex in the Texas Hills. After receiving a series of threatening messages from the artist and losing a few staff to the gates of Waterfalls at Dawn, the museum director recruits Saint and Alister to track down the artist and get his creative spree to stop.

“Gaze upon my works, ye mighty and enjoy,” the self satisfied tone of Maurice Clayborn uttered that before the VHS tape ran to a stop. The grey fuzzy static replaced him immediately. Questions about what to expect surely echo through the minds of both investigators as the doors to the next room unlock automatically. The investigators are truly going in blind. “Has Saint canonically played Silent Hill? One must wonder.” Content Warning: Surveillance Experimental artist Maurice Clayborn has dropped contact with his employer and retreated to his home studio complex in the Texas Hills. After receiving a series of threatening messages from the artist and losing a few staff to the gates of Waterfalls at Dawn, the museum director recruits Saint and Alister to track down the artist and get his creative spree to stop.

The distorted and abstract videos that Maurice Clayborn sent to The Austin Art Museum do not paint a clear picture of the artist’s intentions. They’re creepy, seemingly disjointed, but are they trying to communicate anything? In a word of signs, symbols and clues, Exorcist Saint Garcia Flores and Man in Black Alister McAndrews may be facing their most confounding challenge yet: Interpretive Art. Experimental artist Maurice Clayborn has dropped contact with his employer and retreated to his home studio complex in the Texas Hills. After receiving a series of threatening messages from the artist and losing a few staff to the gates of Waterfalls at Dawn, the museum director recruits Saint and Alister to track down the artist and get his creative spree to stop. Experimental artist Maurice Clayborn has dropped contact with his employer and retreated to his home studio complex in the Texas Hills. After receiving a series of threatening messages from the artist and losing a few staff to the gates of Waterfalls at Dawn, the museum director recruits Saint and Alister to track down the artist and get his creative spree to stop. ParaScience is an actual play, paranormal horror podcast told through Fate. It is Game Mastered by the disembodied mind of Ben Hamlin with Ezra Kaye as Man in Black Alister McAndrews, Matty Trumbo-Gomes as agnostic exorcist Saint Garcia Flores and Nik Boylan as conspiracy theorist Jules Ortiz! With a logo by cryptic Terra Bosart and theme by the ethereal Johnny Rinaldo.

She reaches out a hand from a long draping black dress. She has a shock of white hair and rose tinted eyeglasses that mask her smile lines. As she extends her hand toward you, it’s hard not to notice the sapphire tipped rings on her fingers. She wants you to notice and holds her hand that way. Experimental artist Maurice Clayborn has dropped contact with his employer and retreated to his home studio complex in the Texas Hills. After receiving a series of threatening messages from the artist and losing a few staff to the gates of Waterfalls at Dawn, the museum director recruits Saint and Alister to track down the artist and get his creative spree to stop. ParaScience is an actual play, paranormal horror podcast told through Fate. It is Game Mastered by the disembodied mind of Ben Hamlin with Ezra Kaye as Man in Black Alister McAndrews, Matty Trumbo-Gomes as agnostic exorcist Saint Garcia Flores and Nik Boylan as conspiracy theorist Jules Ortiz! With a logo by cryptic Terra Bosart and theme by the ethereal Johnny Rinaldo.

With the tiny town of refinery workers and bartenders in the rearview, the investigators’ next destination is clear. After disbanding a cult, rescuing an immaterial alien, realigning shadowy planes of reality, busting a fraudulent tourist attraction and saving the senior citizens of the Swaying Birches Retirement Community, Alister and Saint’s haphazard partnership has come to its logical conclusion.  Saint’s content to go home and resume his life. Alister’s putting off talking to his boss, Agent Grey. Is this the true end of our investigators’ journey, or will another mystery draw them back together? ParaScience is an actual play, paranormal horror podcast told through Fate. It is Game Mastered by the disembodied mind of Ben Hamlin with Ezra Kaye as Man in Black Alister McAndrews, Matty Trumbo-Gomes as agnostic exorcist Saint Garcia Flores and Nik Boylan as conspiracy theorist Jules Ortiz! With a logo by cryptic Terra Bosart and theme by the ethereal Johnny Rinaldo.

All five candles in Lake Arkansas Texas are lit and only the faded reflections of Saint Garcia Flores and Agent Alister McAndrews flicker in the mirror. The room at the top of the Creek Estate feels very quiet. Still. Silent. The light of the setting sun cuts through the gauzy curtains and fills the room with an orange warmth. Through the single pane of glass, our investigators can hear the chirping of a singular Northern Mockingbird on one of the many Texas Ash trees surrounding the house.  The sun sets over Lake Arkansas. TW// death and grief ParaScience is an actual play, paranormal horror podcast told through Fate. It is Game Mastered by the disembodied mind of Ben Hamlin with Ezra Kaye as Man in Black Alister McAndrews, Matty Trumbo-Gomes as agnostic exorcist Saint Garcia Flores and Nik Boylan as conspiracy theorist Jules Ortiz! With a logo by cryptic Terra Bosart and theme by the ethereal Johnny Rinaldo.

Even with the thick cloth covering the mirror in the attic of the Lakeside Bar and Restaurant, you can feel a seeping malice radiating through the room. Whatever’s on the other side is no friend of the investigators, even if it briefly appeared as one. TW// death and grief. ghosts, blood, knives, drowning, imagery similar to self harm ParaScience is an actual play, paranormal horror podcast told through Fate. It is Game Mastered by the disembodied mind of Ben Hamlin with Ezra Kaye as Man in Black Alister McAndrews, Matty Trumbo-Gomes as agnostic exorcist Saint Garcia Flores and Nik Boylan as conspiracy theorist Jules Ortiz! With a logo by cryptic Terra Bosart and theme by the ethereal Johnny Rinaldo.