Your dreams terrify you.

When darkness approaches you begin drinking coffee, take cold showers -- anything to stave off sleep. But eventually you succumb. Like a drowning victim, you sink into the dreams, your sheets knotting themselves around you as you thrash and moan, the key gripped tightly in your left hand.

The image that frightens you most is the gray mansion. It towers over you, impossibly old. It breathes menace. Shadows flicker past the shuttered windows. Up from a nearby cliffside you hear the angry noise of the sea crashing and crashing into rocks. You cannot stop shivering.

You've dreamed of the mansion every night for the last eight days. Lately you've learned (with the certainty of dream knowledge) that you are being pursued. A strong presence has pursued you, closing in. It wants the key.

There's something terribly sad about the mansion. The histories of its inhabitants have stained it; it is heavy with a sense of loss, and yearning too.

...

Tonight, you are resolved: you must enter the mansion, knowing that there are both mysteries and answers within.

[Introduction]