The Silver Bane
Season 1, Episode 8 of the MPF Files
Title: The MPF Files
Season 1: Calamity Gulch
Entry #008: The Silver Bane
Ellie Vance, Personal Log. November 5th.
The snow has been falling for hours. A thick, silent blanket that is burying the world. It’s beautiful, and it's terrifying. Frank Patterson's warning echoes in my head: "...before the snow traps you in that valley!" It’s too late. We are well and truly trapped.
But we are not without hope. A name. A journal. "Old Man Hemlock."
Frank’s words gave us a new direction. A prospector's journal, lost for over a century, is our only shot. We have to believe it's still here. And the most logical place to start is the one place every prospector, sane or otherwise, had to go: the Assayer's Office. The domain of Clarence Croft. Silas’s father.
I don't know what we'll find there. But we have to try. The Predator is still out there in the snow, and we are running out of time.
AUDIO-VISUAL LOG: CG-AV-009
TRANSCRIPT
[SCENE START]
INT. ASSAYER'S OFFICE - DAY
The office is small and cramped. A heavy desk dominates the space, littered with dusty scales and sample trays. The air is cold and carries the faint, metallic scent of ore.
(A faint, rhythmic CLINK... CLINK... CLINK... of metal on metal can be heard. Kevin’s EMF meter is pulsing steadily.)
KEVIN
I've got a loop. Auditory and electromagnetic. Same pattern, every twelve seconds.
(A translucent figure, CLARENCE CROFT, is hunched over the desk. He doesn't seem to notice them. He is meticulously weighing a piece of spectral rock on his scales.)
CLARENCE CROFT
(A faint, obsessive whisper)
...four ounces, point seven... troy. Must be precise. They'll try to cheat you... they always do...
CHAD
(Steps forward)
Clarence! Mr. Croft! We need to talk to you. It's about the mine!
(Clarence doesn't react, his form flickering slightly, lost in his loop.)
CHAD
It's no good. He's a broken record.
ELLIE
He's not broken. He's trapped. Let me try.
(Ellie moves slowly towards the desk. She doesn't speak to Clarence, but to the space around him.)
ELLIE
We don't want your silver, Mr. Croft. We're not here to cheat you. We're here because of your son. We're here to help Silas.
(The rhythmic clinking stops. The spectral form of Clarence Croft freezes, his head slowly lifting. For the first time, he looks directly at them, his eyes wide with a century of paranoia and grief.)
CLARENCE CROFT
My boy... Silas...
ELLIE
Yes. We know what's happening to him. We know about The Hunger. We're trying to stop it. We need the journal. The hermit's journal.
CLARENCE CROFT
(His voice a ghostly rasp)
The crazy old man... Hemlock. He tried to warn me. Said the boy was too close to the Deep Noise. Said the silver could keep him safe... keep the Hunger away. I didn't listen. I only saw the gold... the profit...
ELLIE
Where is his journal, Clarence? It's the only way we can help Silas now.
(Clarence lifts a trembling, translucent hand and points not to a shelf, but to the floor in the corner of the room.)
CLARENCE CROFT
He said... he said he hid his words... under the weight of the bane...
(Clarence Croft's form dissolves into a swirl of dust and regret, leaving the room silent. Chad and Kevin immediately go to the corner he indicated. Chad uses a crowbar to pry up a loose floorboard.)
CHAD
Got something.
(He reaches into the dark space and pulls out a leather-bound journal. It's old but perfectly preserved. A simple leather cord is wrapped around it, and tucked under the cord is a single, heavy nugget of raw, unrefined silver ore.)
(They place it on the floor. Ellie carefully removes the silver nugget and opens the journal. The pages are filled with a frantic, looping script.)
ELLIE
(Reading aloud)
"It is not of this earth. It does not eat flesh; it consumes light, memory, warmth. It is a Hunger from the silent spaces between the stars, and this mine is its throat..."
(She flips a few pages.)
ELLIE
"The Predator is its guard dog, drawn to the psychic scent of fear. But The Hunger itself fears one thing. The silver. Not the coin, not the bar. The raw ore, pulled from the earth. It sings a pure song that the Hunger cannot bear. It disrupts its very nature. The silver is our only bane against the dark."
(She looks up from the journal, her eyes meeting Kevin's, then Chad's. The fear is still there, but now it's mixed with something else: grim determination.)
CHAD
So that's it then. We have a weapon.
ELLIE
(Looking out the window at the snow-covered mountain)
No. We have a plan.
[END OF TRANSCRIPT]
