Halfstreet — Content Bible

For: the mystery text adventure shipped at /mystery. Style anchor: Le Fanu's Carmilla, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, M.R. James's ghost stories. Second person, present tense, sparse, never explains. Length target: 18–22 rooms, ~30–60 minute first playthrough.

Voice rules

Second person, present tense, throughout.
Sentences are short; the silences between them do most of the work.
The narrator never explains the supernatural — it observes.
The narrator never addresses the player as a player ("you, the visitor"). Only as the character ("you").
No metafiction, no winks, no "you are clearly in a video game" jokes.
No proper-noun villains. The things in Halfstreet are nameless.

Rooms

Format: id · title · one-sentence first-visit prose · exits · items · encounter · safe?

id	title	first-visit summary	exits	items	encounter	safe
`outside-gate`	[ The Gate ]	The road behind you is gone; the gate is unlocked.	n: foyer	letter, matches	—	yes
`foyer`	[ Foyer ]	A foyer of cold paper and colder air, with a hallway running impossibly far.	s: outside-gate, n: hallway	—	—	yes
`hallway`	[ Hallway ]	A hallway that runs longer than the house should be wide.	s: foyer, e: study, w: parlor, n: stair-up	lamp	—	—
`parlor`	[ Parlor ]	A parlor of stopped clocks and empty chairs, set as if for company.	e: hallway	brass-key	parlor-figure	—
`study`	[ Study ]	A study where the books have been left open at pages they were not written for.	w: hallway	folded-letter-2	—	—
`stair-up`	[ Upper Stair ]	A stair that turns once and arrives at the wrong landing.	s: hallway, u: bedroom	—	—	—
`bedroom`	[ Bedroom ]	A bedroom kept ready for a sleeper who is not you.	d: stair-up, e: nursery	mirror	—	—
`nursery`	[ Nursery ]	A nursery whose toys have been arranged tonight.	w: bedroom	iron-key	nursery-presence	—
`kitchen`	[ Kitchen ]	A kitchen with a pot still warm on the stove and no one to have warmed it.	(added via locked door from hallway: `n` requires brass-key)	bread-knife	—	—
`back-door`	[ Back Door ]	A door in the kitchen, opening onto the grounds.	s: kitchen, e: garden	—	—	yes
`garden`	[ Garden ]	A garden gone to seed in the dark.	w: back-door, n: well, e: chapel	—	—	—
`well`	[ The Well ]	An old well, dry, with rope going down further than the well is deep.	s: garden, d: well-shaft	rope	—	—
`well-shaft`	[ Well Shaft ]	The shaft, descending past the water-line into the dry.	u: well, n: tunnel	—	—	—
`tunnel`	[ Tunnel ]	A stone tunnel that knows you are here.	s: well-shaft, e: chamber	—	hound	—
`chamber`	[ Antechamber ]	An antechamber whose door is locked with a lock that takes the iron key.	w: tunnel, e: vault (locked, requires iron-key)	—	—	—
`vault`	[ Vault ]	A vault, plain, holding what was buried at Halfstreet.	w: chamber	the-thing-itself	revenant	—
`chapel`	[ Chapel ]	A chapel, deconsecrated, on the edge of the grounds.	w: garden	silver-vial	chapel-watcher	yes
`attic`	[ Attic ]	An attic reached by a staircase that wasn't there before.	d: bedroom (appears after a flag is set)	childhood-photograph	—	—
`cistern`	[ Cistern ]	A cistern beneath the house, found through a grate in the kitchen.	u: kitchen	—	—	—
`endings-room`	(synthetic)	The endings narration room, never directly entered.	—	—	—	—

(Total authored rooms: 19, plus the synthetic endings node.)

Items

id	names	purpose	state
`letter`	letter, folded letter	Opening exposition; the call to come.	—
`matches`	matches, safety matches	Light the lamp.	—
`lamp`	lamp, oil lamp, torch	Illuminates dark rooms.	`lit: false`
`brass-key`	brass key, key	Unlocks the kitchen door.	—
`iron-key`	iron key, key	Unlocks the vault.	—
`mirror`	mirror, tarnished mirror	The revenant's resolution.	—
`silver-vial`	silver vial, vial	The chapel-watcher's resolution.	—
`bread-knife`	knife, bread knife	A weapon for the hound.	—
`rope`	rope	Required to descend the well shaft.	—
`folded-letter-2`	second letter, page	Bible-context: the burial register page. Reveals the truth needed for the true ending.	—
`the-thing-itself`	(unnamed in prose)	The McGuffin in the vault. State changes based on chosen ending.	`disturbed: false`
`childhood-photograph`	photograph, photo	Triggers the bad-ending choice.	—

Encounters

id	room	initial phase	resolution path	failure path
`parlor-figure`	parlor	seated	`wait` (twice) → `examine figure` → resolved (the figure was a coat). Wrong verbs cost resolve.	retreat to foyer
`nursery-presence`	nursery	listening	`wait` → `extinguish lamp` → resolved (it does not show itself in the dark). Wrong: light costs resolve.	retreat to bedroom
`hound`	tunnel	tracking	`attack hound with knife` → wounded → `attack` → resolved. Pure HP-style fight.	retreat to well-shaft
`chapel-watcher`	chapel	observing	`pour silver-vial on watcher` → resolved. Wrong: any aggressive verb fails the encounter (chapel-watcher is harmless if undisturbed).	exit chapel forced
`revenant`	vault	wary	`examine revenant` → `hold mirror to revenant` → resolved. Other verbs cost resolve.	retreat to chamber

Story flags

letterRead — set after reading the opening letter; gates first hint
revenantLaid — set on revenant resolution; required for true ending
houndPassed — set on hound resolution; required to reach vault
watcherSpared — set on chapel-watcher resolution; alternate path to a hint
photographSeen — set on examining the attic photograph; unlocks bad ending
theThingDisturbed — set if the player attacks the thing in the vault; forces wrong ending
theThingRecognised — set if the player has read the burial register and laid the revenant before reaching the vault; forces true ending

Endings

True ending (when `theThingRecognised` and not `theThingDisturbed`)

You stand in the vault. What is buried at Halfstreet is buried because it was loved, and grieved, and finally let go. You set the lamp down beside it. You speak its name aloud — the name from the page in the study — and the name is enough. You go up. The door opens onto a road that is, suddenly, on every map.

Wrong ending (when `theThingDisturbed`)

You stand in the vault. The thing under the cloth shifts. It was not waiting to be freed. You climb back, fast, but the house has rearranged its rooms. The door you came in by is now north, then west, then nowhere. You walk a corridor that is longer than the house, and longer, and you do not stop.

Bad ending (when `photographSeen` and the player chooses `take photograph` after reading it)

You take the photograph from the attic. The child in it is you. The date is older than you are. Behind you, on the stairs, someone has come up to meet you. You will not go down again.

Opening scene (full prose, used verbatim)

[ The Gate ]

You have arrived at the address you were given. There is no sign,
no number on the gate — only an iron star, twisted and bent, set
into the rust like a wound. The road behind you is gone.

A wind rises from somewhere under the house. The gate, you find,
is not locked.

You are carrying: a folded letter, a box of safety matches.

>

Closing notes for the room-prose authoring

Each room gets three description blocks: firstVisit (180–280 chars), revisit (40–80 chars), examined (300–450 chars).
Per-object descriptions: short (under 30 chars), long (200–400 chars).
Encounter narration: each transition gets one sentence, max two; default-wrong-verb narration for each encounter is one sentence.
Style sample: see the opening scene above.
Style anti-patterns to avoid: words like spooky, creepy, eerie. Adjectives that announce mood. Exclamation marks. The word suddenly.

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