Chapter Summaries

Chapter One:

There is a mysterious bog deep in Standby Forest.  A small village of families have been tending to the bog for centuries.  Over time, the families drifted away until only one family was left to make sure the bog got what it needed.

That family lived in a large, white mansion in the forest and called it “Morningstar”.  They started taking in and rehabilitating groups under the umbrella of “Morningstar Rehab”.

Fiona, a young lady servant at Morningstar, is afraid and hiding in a cupboard.  She is covered in muck and blood and bog.  Elsie, and older lady servant at Morningstar, finds Fiona in the cupboard and wants her to come out and finish the job they are doing; serving the bog and “Madam”.  Elsie is also covered in yuck.  Fiona refuses to come out.  Elsie tries to convince her, but is unsuccessful.  Elsie holds onto Fiona’s arms and yanks her out of the cupboard, smacking Fiona’s face on the floor in the process.

Chapter Two:

Hank drives a busload of “campers” to Morningstar Rehab.  They are all executive ladies who have been busted for sexual harassment and need to complete this rehab program to be re-instated.  The campers are: Fran (young, tattooed), Stella (old, thin, blonde), Beth (30’s, redheaded, large), and Esther (middle aged, tan, rich).  Along with the campers is two HR “clipboard ladies”: Luanne (short, brunette, angry), and Debra (older, grey-haired, tired, sad). 

After a rough drive, they are all delivered to the rehab.  They see their cabins.  No one is there to greet them and the clipboard ladies give the executives a chance to leave and come back in a month, the campers decide to stay.  Hank leaves with the bus.

Chapter Three:

The executive ladies are all placed in their cabins (paired up, in two cabins).  They are summoned by a gong to go to the main house.  Madam appears and introduces Morningstar, herself, and the two servants. 

Fiona (the young servant with the broken nose) hands out small books that give the history of Morningstar and the rules for the rehab.  She drops the pile of books in front of Fran (tattooed camper).  When Fran bends down to help Fiona pick up the books, Fiona whispers in Fran’s ear; “Barn”.  The campers are sent to their cabins to review the books and ready themselves for light lunch.

Fran tells her cabin-mate, Esther (tan, rich), about Fiona’s whispered message.  Esther suggests maybe Fran should go to the barn before light lunch to find out what Fiona meant.  Fran sneaks to the barn.

Fiona is not at the barn, Fran goes inside.  Hanging from the rafters are large cat heads (lions, jaguar, etc.), blood dripping onto the hay strewn floor.  Fran runs from the barn.

Chapter Four:

Fran leaves the barn, hiding in the bushes outside the barn.  Fran watches as Fiona arrives at the barn and goes in.  Someone dressed in "filthy rags, or maybe tattered robes that concealed their identity" entered the barn shortly later.  Fiona and the Robed Person burst out of the barn and Fiona gets her head cut off.  Fran sees something else happen to the body that horrifies her.

At light lunch, Madam eats a "whole roast rabbit" grossly, while the rehabbers and clipboard ladies eat "various mashed root vegetables and cold porridges".  Fran bursts in, screaming about someone having a cat head.  

The Fiona Monster (Fiona's body with a large cat's head attached to it) bursts in the dining room through a window.  Everyone clears out of the room and locks the door behind them, trapping the Fiona Monster in the dining room (at least, keeps the monster from them for now).

Chapter Five:

All the ladies are "barricaded in a room deep within the Morningstar rehab center".  Fran tells everyone that the monster is actually Fiona.  Madam tries to assert her control of the situation, but Luanne shoots that down.  

The creature is outside the door and is trying to get in.  Elsie appears and guides the group down a secret passage to a secret room.  Madam is already there and happy to share with the group the existence of Oracle.  Oracle is a Tandy computer that gives Madam directions and is really into compliance and order.  

Debra tells Madam something happened at the barn, the group goes to the barn.  Beth is there, hanging gruesomely from the rafters by a rope around her neck.  Madam demands to know who did this?  Oracle is also in the barn (via speakers) and says it must "Enforce compliance.  Punish defiance".  The doors suddenly lock and the lights go out.  Oracle says "Eliminate threats.  Ensure total compliance."

Chapter Six:

Fran realizes Oracle is going to kill her because she broke the rules by going to the barn to meet Fiona.  Stella reveals Beth used the Morningstar book as toilet paper,  that must be why Oracle killed her.  Crazy coloured lights come on and everyone can see that there is a metallic spider with many legs crawling down to get them.  It lashes out at Fran with a hook on a chain, it cuts her cheek open to her teeth.  Stella pulls out a gun and shoots at the robot, the bullets do no damage.  The robot shoots out chains and hooks at Stella, pulling her apart. 

The Fiona monster busts in through the wall and Fran escapes through the hole made.  Others want to leave, but Madam tells them not to go.  Elsie says the bog has magic and will protect them (the ladies are confused by mention of a bog).  Elsie and Debra leave through the hole.  Esther and Luanne stay with Madam in the barn.  Madam gives the spider monster a gentle kiss as it caresses her face.

Chapter Seven:

Elsie and Debra find Fran outside the barn.  She joins them and they start walking to the bog in the forest.  Elsie tells them that the bog has always been there.  A mysterious storm came through and when it left, the bog was there.  And the bog has the power to create creatures.  Fiona made a deal with the bog (she needed to escape Madam and her weirdness) and became a monster.  Madam wanted to “modernize” and control the bog with technology but can an old computer really be more powerful than an ancient, mysterious bog? 

It’s been 200 years since the bog was discovered and the bog’s power is at its peak.  It is ready to create a supercreature, but it needs a sacrifice.  A life.  Elsie explains she can’t be the sacrifice because she needs to be the creator, so Fran or Debra must be transformed by the bog.  Neither wants to be killed, so Elsie suggests they compete in a series of games and the winner will not die. 

They arrive at the bog and Fran and Debra play children’s games - rock, paper, scissors, coin flips, etc.  They are tied at 3 wins each and are preparing for the final game when Elsie just pushes them both into the bog suddenly.  She also kicks in a few animal heads that are stored near the bog.  Inadvertently, she also knocks a lit torch and the bog is bubbling and flaming and out of this chaos “a massive, twisted form, writing as it took shape... unlike anything Elsie had ever seen, a creature of immense size and terrifying power” emerges.  It is the greatest monster, and it “would change everything”.

Chapter Eight:

Madam, Luanne, and Esther are at Morningstar, in a robot workshop.  The “body of Oracle” (aka the spider robot) is laying injured on the floor.  Tiny spider robots are present as well, scuttling about.  Madam “caresses and squeezes” the robot while fixing the damage made by Fiona Monster.  The robot doesn’t like the way she is touching it.  Madam is angry about that and grabs a large box which is connected to the wall with wires.  This is clearly some threat to the robot, and Madam uses its fear of her using the switch on the box to make it expose its “fleshy putrid underbelly” to her and Madam molests the robot.  Esther is disgusted and shocked.  Luanne is also disgusted, but has seen it before.

Elsie and the superbogmonster arrive.  The superbogmonster smashes through the window with its arm and grabs the spider robot, dragging it outside.  The superbogmonster snaps off the robot’s legs.

Elsie enters the room and Madam orders Esther and Luanne to attack.  The superbogmonster throws the spider monster’s corpse between Elsie and the rest to stop the attack.  The spider robot explodes and “Its disgusting bog juice organs bursting upon all in the room”.  Esther pulls out Stella’s old gun and threatens Madam and Luanne with it.

Madam sends the baby spider robots to attack Elsie and Esther (now “teammates”).  Esther shoots them all with the gun, Elsie (now armed with a metal bar) rushes to attack Luanne.  All the baby spiders are killed and Madam shows Elsie that she has the box with the switch.  To Elsie’s dismay, Madam throws the switch.  A screen on the wall shows all that by the bog antennas rise from the ground and zap the bog with electricity which kills the bog.

Elsie is devastated.  The superbogmonster crumbles and dies, turning into mud, etc.  Somehow now Luanne has the gun and tries to shoot at Elsie and Esther, but there are no more bullets.  Madam smiles and says, “Well now, what are we going to do with you?”

Chapter Nine:

A screen on the wall blinks to life, it is Oracle’s ASCII face.  Madam is thrilled to see it.  Oracle encourages her to destroy her enemies (Luanne and Elsie). 

Oracle sends out from the wall its tentacles and attacks and kills Luanne.  Elsie retrieves her metal bar weapon and attacks Esther, killing her with a blow to the head.  Elsie threatens Madam next and Oracle sends its tentacles at Elsie, lifting her off the ground and causing her to drop her metal bar. 

Suddenly, Hank arrives, crashing his bus through the wall.  Elsie escapes through the hole left by the vehicle.  Hank expresses his dissatisfaction with the whole Morningstar situation and the bus explodes.  It had been filled with explosives and Hank accidentally blew himself up as well as everyone in the robot workshop. 

All of Morningstar is destroyed by the explosion, leaving a burning husk.  Everyone but the escaped Elsie is now dead.