The fifth installment of the Magic: The Gathering Duskmourn: House of Horror story picks up with Zimone and Tyvar making their way deeper into the house – now equipped with a better understanding of how to use their surroundings and transmutation magic to their advantage.
Treating it like a light switch, Tyvar begins using his magic in small bursts to cloak himself and Zimone in the “flesh” of the house when they move through the more open areas, but turning it off before they begin to lose themselves. Now with relatively safe passage, the duo explores deeper and finds themselves inside a new room unlike any of the rest – appearing pristine, warm, and safe.
In this totally out-of-place room, they find a youthful girl drinking tea and reading a book. Zimone remarks that she recognizes the girl from a very old picture she had seen when they first arrived, and that there was no way she could be alive, let alone more youthful than her.
Trying to wrap her brain around what she’s seeing, Zimone pulls out a device that detects any signs of temporal magic, to which it comes up negative. Before they can ponder further, the girl closes her book and begins to leave the room, still seemingly unaware of the duo’s presence.
Tyvar and Zimone watch as the girl moves passed them out the door, at which point the warm and pristine room immediately begins to decay back to the Duskmourn standard they’ve grown accustomed to. Instinctively, Zimone turns and follows the girl, Tyvar close behind.
Catching up to the mysterious girl, Tyvar and Zimone watch in awe as the parlor surrounding the youth began to “come alive.” Long-dead plants came back to life, overgrown vines retreated to their pots, and the space itself regained the same warm and cozy feeling they had just experienced in the previous room. Feeling safe in the transformed space, Zimone asks Tyvar to drop the magic, and she calls out to the girl who, naturally, is so startled she screams and drops her drink.
After reassuring the girl they’re not intruders trying to kill her and apologizing profusely, Zimone and Tyvar introduce themselves and request to speak with her. Now more at ease, the girl introduces herself as Marina Vendrell, and asks what the pair is doing in her home. Zimone then details the chaos they’d gone through since arriving in Duskmourn, but Marina appears totally bewildered – clearly having not experienced any of the same horrors.
Following up, Zimone states that the book she found in the library containing the history of the home didn’t have records of the horrors either. Hearing this, Marina then identifies the book by the title An Architectural Accounting, and states it was written by “the last person to live here.”
Without thinking, Tyvar asks Marina if she was the one who left the “academically unpleasant magic annotated in the margins.” Clearly embarrassed, the girl states she was “…just taking notes…” but when Zimone explained how dangerous that magic was, Marina reacts like a “…much younger child being told that she’d been naughty…” She then covers her ears and shuts her eyes, all the while repeating “You’re not real…” over and over.
“While the square of floor directly under her feet remained unchanged, the rest of the room began to warp and twist, the walls opening into holes from which crawled pustulant nightmare beasts, their long, multijointed limbs reaching for Tyvar and Zimone.”
Running for their lives, Tyvar and Zimone quickly turn a corner and while out of sight, Tyvar throws up his magic and thankfully, the camouflage works and their pursuers continue passed them. Now safe, the pair duck into a quiet room and Zimone brandishes a tattered book, claiming it was Marina’s journal and that she had snatched it before they fled.
Marina’s journal revealed that when she moved into the house, she felt drawn to a presence in the basement where she discovered a powerful demon named Valgavoth. The demon explained that he was summoned by previous owners, who had attempted to conjure a lesser demon to help with simple chores, but fled after realizing that he was far to powerful. Despite the owners leaving, Valgavoth remained bound to the house – waiting for the next owner to discover him.
With each new entry, Marina detailed how her school life was miserable and she had become a victim of bullying. Over time, her comfort with Valgavoth grew and she began to see him as her only friend. Taking advantage of her need for companionship, the great demon directed Marina to various books that contained the magic needed to release him. After consuming all she could about the occult magic, Marina felt confident she could break the bindings on Valgavoth, but still decided against it, as she knew deep-down that if she released him, many people would die.
While grateful that Marina had not released the great demon, Zimone’s relief was short-lived, as she turned to a page that was smudged with tears. After she had endured a particularly rough week of bullying, Marina confided in Valgavoth that she had had enough, and he convinced her to invite her bullies to the home. A group of four girls accepted the invitation and Marina led them to the basement where she watched Valgavoth pull the group of girls into the wall, never to be seen again.
Empowered by the mass-sacrifice, Valgavoth had grown even stronger and with it, his reach expanded – first to the whole house, then beyond. The last entry in the diary stated that Marina knew she had made a grave mistake and planned to talk to Valgavoth to make things right. After Zimone closed the diary, she surmised that Marina had failed to stop the demon, and despite still being bound to Duskmourn, Valgavoth had managed to grow the house itself and continued devouring its surroundings until there was nothing left of the entire plane.
The Wanderer & Niko
With Nashi in the lead, the Wanderer, Niko, Winter, and the small group of Nezumi move through the forested room, only to find that each subsequent door led to another similar space, filled with “…forests and thorn breaks and desolate hillsides.”
After the group had walked for some time, the forest gave way to an open meadow, dotted with tiny cottages. Despite the pleasant appearance, Winter warned that they had stumbled upon the Valley of Serenity, home to the most dangerous of Duskmourn’s inhabitants — the Cult of Valgavoth.
With the warning in mind, Nashi pushed the group onward until they found another door that connected to a large cavern that fit the description of a classic cult hideout. As the group made their way through the cavern, they observed chrysalis-like pods hanging on the walls, their contents moving, but still unknown. Not long after, they encounter a group of humanoid figures, each adorned with a long cloak, gathered around a group of humans dressed like Winter.
Among the cultists, one held a book which they were preaching from. Despite being forced to listen to the unholy sermon, two of the three captives still refused to submit, but the third, a younger girl with a deep gash on her leg, couldn’t take the pain anymore and offered to herself to the cult. The robed figures then moved to encase the girl in a waiting chrysalis, but Niko had seen enough and moved to intervene. Despite the intrusion, the cult members hardly reacted, with only the “preacher” uttering the phrase “Amazing… You actually did it.”
Suddenly, a “…strange, placid feeling…” washed over the Wanderer, Nashi, and the other Nezumi, and they found it nearly impossible to break free from the hands of the cultists who had moved to restrain them. After Niko noticed they were the only one free besides Winter, they move to protect Winter’s flank, but soon realize that they too had been affected by whatever magic was binding the others.
With the entire group captured, the preacher then moved forward and placed a hand on Winter’s shoulder and stated “You shall be most favored.” Winter replied with “At this point, I better be…” before he reached for a stone that caused a slab of granite to fall from above. Now totally sealed in, the preacher opened his book and proceeded to blow a dust-like substance onto the group, which caused them to fall unconscious.
The first to awaken, the Wanderer finds herself bound to a rock and is met with the sight of Tamiyo’s scroll echo, suspended above a small black box on a stone altar. While the phantasmal projection of Tamiyo divulged story after story, recalling her life’s work, the cult leader taunted the Wanderer and encouraged her to give up and join them. Though she refused, the cultist remained confident she would have time to change her mind, and turned toward the rest of the group who had begun to stir.
Kaito
After being betrayed by Jace and forced to planeswalk away, Kaito found himself back on the streets of Ravnica. Aside from a piece of wood impaled through his hand, Kaito is mostly unharmed, and immediately attempted return to Duskmourn through the Blind Eternities, but found himself unable. Fearing that his spark had been damaged, he then rushed back to the camp where Niv-Mizzet, Aminatou, Proft and Etrata were waiting.
After Aminatou reassured Kaito his spark was unharmed, he explained the situation to the group, who concluded that the house had identified Kaito as a threat and refused to let him re-enter.
“It knows you now. It knows you’re more trouble than you’re worth. It doesn’t want you inside its walls. Your friend’s fate depends on the people who are already with him. If you chose wisely, he’ll be free.”
With Niv-Mizzet and the others now clued in to what had happened and time of the essence, Proft then pulled Kaito over to a nearby workbench and stated that he has an idea that may help.
Duskmourn: House of Horror is scheduled to release on September 27. View our official preview gallery.
Read the full episode from Wizards of the Coast.
