Sneak Peek at Carnival of Souls 2007

Warning: Spoilers for Carnival of Souls 2007 ahead! Don't read this post if you want to preserve the magic.

As many of you may know, we've lost a lot of volunteers for 2007. Among the regulars and semi-regulars you won't see haunting our house this year include: Holly, Byron, Jen, Dana, my parents, Barb's parents, Jim, Janice, and Stephanie. We've also got some tentatives and some not-heard-froms. Thankfully, we've recruited many volunteers to pick up the slack, but it still meant we got a very late start this year.

But does that mean we won't have any spine-tingling surprises for our visitors this year? No way! The Carnival of Souls crew are innovating a new garage attraction this year which should be a lot of fun and require fewer workers to maintain.

This year, Madame Sarita's Spirit Parlour will challenge our visitors to do some ghost talking of their own. Sarita is looking for apprentice guardians, and she needs Mystics, Mediums, and Mages to help her defend against the forces of darkness.

Mystics will use the crystal ball to generate the mana required to fuel magic spells. Mediums will use their "third eye" to project their vision into the spirit world. And Mages will cast the spells to put down that which should never be called up.

Here's a shot of the new spirit parlour construction:

You can see the window box we're building. That will house a 4' wide rear-projection screen where the adventure is displayed. An Apple laptop will control the action. You can see the crystal ball which one player will use as a game controller. The "Mystic" player will wave his or her hands over the crystal ball to generate magic power. The skull on the table is a tentative stand-in for the Ouija Board cradle which the "Medium" player will use to control progress in the spirit world.

Here's a shot of the gameplay:

Now, if we can only get it done before Halloween...