7/26 Update - The Happy Mask Salesman

 
The Happy Mask Salesman.wmv 

Synopsis

After defeating Gomess and with the second moon child nowhere to be found, Sarah and Rosa have a moment of respite to begin formulating a plan to try and solve the mystery of this rapidly deteriorating world. As Rosa's memories begin to return, she laments how things have gone so awry from the original goal of wanting a playground free from the horrors of the real world - implying that at some point she was digitized willingly, along with other kids. However, having just been rescued from being trapped in an endless loop of being abducted and brainwashed on the first day of the game - something has indeed gone horribly wrong from their original vision of paradise. It's starting to become apparent that there are a significant amount of human beings that are consciously trapped in the bodies of NPCs in this game with no way to break free - a fate worse than death as Matt put it - unless Sarah can use the Pendant of Memories to wake them up.

Rosa and Sarah decide that the best course of action is to gather as much information as they can about the world, and opt to visit Snowhead and Great Bay. Seeing as the only way to get to Great Bay is by horseback, Rosa offers up Epona to make the journey with her. Being too heavy in her current adult form to ride the young horse, Sarah tries to remove her mask but is physically unable to - having a nightmarish out of body experience. Rosa has a moment of despair as she seems to realize something, and apologies for getting her involved in all of this. 

A storm approaches and as Rosa starts to explain more about her relationship with Nekko, Kevin, Rem, and others - Epona runs off of its own volition away from the ranch. The two, realizing that neither has ever made it this far in this cycle, have no idea what happens next but resolve to solve this mystery and save as many people as they can. Unable to reach Great Bay without Epona, Sarah makes her way to Snowhead - opting to cut through Clock Town to save time. She once again finds that the town has changed - this time completely desolate of any life whatsoever. Exploring the town once again, she finds only rain and a haunting melody - even Matt isn't waiting for her inside the Clock Tower. Distraught and ready to leave, she sees a stoic woman walking by herself in the distance towards the Laundry Pool. Curiously following her, Sarah encounters a disturbing visage and sensing impending doom if she stays, Sarah resolves to leave the town. On her way out, she's finds herself ambushed by the watchful eye of the Wart.

Cornered in the alley, without proper equipment to fight it, and facing an enemy vastly more powerful and dangerous than her previous encounters - our hero finds herself backed into a corner. However, because of the player choice to go to Romani Ranch to save Rosa, Sarah finds herself empowered and is able to fight and defeat the monster instead of flee. Triumphant once again, she makes her way towards Snowhead and begins to ascend the snowy tundra...

Patreon Rewards

They are starting to go out! They won't all come at once, but keep your eyes peeled in the future. Some of you familiar with the community might have noticed that CircleHunter - creator of the Jadusable Wiki (which is an amazing repository of information about the ARG dating all the way back to 2010) - has been canonized in the form of Sarah's fairy that follows her around. He inhabits the body of Tatl in this world, and with the Pendant of Memories that Sarah holds, he has "awakened" from his NPC state and has called himself Circle. 

This was a fun moment for the chat, and you can watch the reaction snippet here (warning: language) 

CircleHunter has, over the years, consistently gone above and beyond to help preserve information about this ARG and has shown an incredible passion for the source material I thought it would be only fitting for him to be canonized as a forest fairy. For those unfamiliar with Zelda lore, a fairy is basically a walking encyclopedia of knowledge of the world meant to guide the player character, and I cannot think of a more fitting person than CircleHunter to represent this in the world of BEN Drowned. 

In the interest of full disclosure this was an exceptionally special role that took into account the amount of time and investment CircleHunter has made in helping the community over the years and his patron tier, so I would not expect every high tier of patronage to receive the same level of "character tier" - so to speak (we can't have 50 Navi's flying around, after all) - but this hopefully will start to give you guys some ideas of what to expect for patron rewards being implemented in the following months.  They will be in a manner that's befitting to the lore, but not so much that it takes you out of the story and it just becomes full of on pandering. As I have stated numerous times in the past, I am very conscientious of the finances of my patrons here - especially given current world events - so I want to make sure that is clear.   

This game has plenty of souls still trapped within it, and utilizing the Pendant of Memories we can begin to "wake up" those who were digitized into the game and had their memories wiped. As we recently saw with Anju, it unfortunately doesn't work on every character. There are those that are ultimately just actual NPCs that have fleeting moments of self awareness before they go back to their pre-programmed routines, as was touched upon in The Last Hero.  

Also, as an important note - Circle or anyone else included in the game does not have any 'insider info' of the story or has any special knowledge or hints of what to do/where to go.

Behind the Scenes 

I will go into more depth about this in a future interview about revisiting this world again as a writer a decade later and looking to bring something new to the table, but I've noticed some people on Youtube wondering why these videos aren't full of "BEN appearing behind you and jump scaring you" moments like in the videos in 2010 were. 

Canonically, it's because we used the Song of Time to travel back to before the Fourth Day Glitch. We are technically in a "prequel" to the original BEN Drowned story. The original videos take place after that glitch has been activated, so all the chaos is ensuing there has yet to transpire in the current timeline. 

As an author, I wanted to have a much more directed focus on world building this time around. I wanted to flesh out the lore of the world, start to answer questions that fans have had for years, and show the steady deterioration of the world as the rot begins to accelerate. Some of these things require a slower build up and need more time to breath, but I hope you guys are enjoying the end result all the same. Some people have already correctly theorized that the death of a certain character in this video might have serious implications of what is starting to happen. 

I like to view it as a TV show to look forward to each week, seeing how most new film and television production has been halted across the country due to COVID - some episodes have more exposition than others, some have more action, but all of them ultimately move the story forward. Rest assured if you're looking for crazy nightmare fuel, then you'll probably want to vote in favor of activating the Fourth Day Glitch when the option comes. 

Speaking of moving forward, Sarah and will now move at a slightly quicker pace, unless some thing really phases her - she is still a human that's playing and reacting to a very confusing cartridge of Majora's Mask after all! 

NEW PLAYERS

It's come to my attention that we have an influx of new players - welcome! This story has been ongoing since March of this year and is a continuation of the original BEN Drowned story creepypasta. Since March,  it has been told through a variety of different mediums - hidden text  logs, encrypted websites, and found footage - with the players  themselves interacting with the story and voting on the direction it  takes (what character to talk to, which place to visit, what items to  take with you, etc). This is typically referred to as a transmedia  narrative - a story told through multiple mediums of entertainment - or an ARG.

Because of this, it can sometimes be a little overwhelming for new players to get "caught up". So there are a few ways  you can simplify this process and get only the necessary information to  be up to date with current events. A lot of players here have a passion  for the  haunted videogame cartridge story-line, so we'll focus on that.

Here are two options:

1. You can start from the Methods of Revolution [Day 21] update and use the Next Chapter/Previous Chapter  links at the bottom of each Patreon update page to navigate in getting  caught up. Each update page has a link to a Youtube video to watch and a  description of the events that occurred. You will be missing some  backstory on what happened in March-May in the hotel phase of the story,  but if your primary concern is just continuing the BEN Drowned  story-line you can start from here. All you need to know is that a girl  wakes up in a mysterious hotel and is given the original haunted  Majora's Mask cartridge to play as an "experiment" by a mysterious man named Abel. Here is the same playlist of videos on Youtube.

2. If you want to go at your own pace, there is a comprehensive wiki that  chronicles everything from 2010 to 2020 about the story, with in depth  articles on specific characters, videos, clues, and even old cached websites (that were used as 'online scavenger hunts' to find more  information during current arcs). It has information on everything from  the latest video to a timeline of events as they occurred in the past.

If you have any questions you can always head to the discord and ask - we  have a community of great people here that are willing to answer and help out newer players:

discord.gg/bendrowned

In Closing

The reaction video to The Happy Mask Salesman will go up for patrons (of any tier) this afternoon around the time this post goes live, so be sure to look for it shortly after. It will be open to the public tomorrow - and it's a pretty funny one! Lots of great reactions and I always enjoy putting these together.

As always if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter.

Next Chapter: The Dying World

Previous Chapter: The Prisoner