History Recap / AreYouAfraidOfTheDarkSeason3TheTaleOfTheCarvedStone

* RasputinianDeath: Brother Septimus is said to have been hanged in the fifteenth century.

Through the trees, the Midnight Society, sans Gary, hurry to the clearing. Abruptly, they halt: by the fire stands what looks like a lone figure, enfolded in a heavy black cloak and tilted black fedora. It must be Gary, they reason. Kiki calls sternly for Gary to stop. From behind, Gary greets them with an impudent smile. The others nervously look back at the figure - whose hat blows off in a breeze, revealing the clothes to have been mounted on a branch. Gary claims to have found the ensemble in a trunk in his dad’s magic shop: reputed to have been worn centuries ago by a mystical order of monks, who had the power to control both the human mind and the forces of nature. Inspired by a notion of what might have happened should these long-dead monks have mastered time, he wove a tale of such lordship. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, he calls it “The Tale of the Carved Stone.”

Having recently moved into town with her family, Alison Denny dejectedly looks around her new bedroom, and finds, carved into the wood of the windowsill, the message “TJB was here.” She frustratedly quips a wish that the writer was still here.

On the tranquil street beneath her window, one of four kids around her age accidentally drops something. She hurries outside, but as the four walk on, she accidentally steps on the lost item: a pair of comedy spectacles.

In search of a replacement pair, she visits Sardo’s Magic Mansion. As she explores the quiet shop, she overhears, from the back room, a heated price negotiation. Unmoved by the perilous acquisition of the item in question, the shopkeeper is swayed only by a threat to sell it to Uncle Bobo’s House of Magic.

Alison calls for assistance. The shopkeeper, [[RecurringCharacter Sardo]], emerges from behind the curtain. With suppressed frustration, he [[RunningGag corrects pronunciation of his name]] to “[[{{Catchphrase}} SarDO. No 'mister' - accent on the 'do'.]]" He grandly offers wares of magical exoticism, but Alison just needs another pair of wacky glasses.

As she reaches for her money, Sardo ventures other items - perhaps the house speciality of [[Recap/AreYouAfraidOfTheDarkSeason1TheTaleOfTheSuperSpecs comedy vomit]]? He realises Alison to be new to the area. Her interest peaks at the offer of a [[Recap/AreYouAfraidOfTheDarkSeason2TheTaleOfTheDarkDragon flask of Popularity Potion]].

Sardo produces a chest, whose curios he’s just bought - er, searched the world over for. He retrieves not a potion, but what he claims to be an Egyptian friendship stone. The smooth black pebble, set with intricate hieroglyphs, responds to recitation of the incantation: “amrak vitulin ra.”

While it’s a bit beyond Alison’s budget, Sardo is happy to sell it for seventeen dollars. Outside the shop, as she happily sets off with her purchase, she passes a man in a black overcoat, dark glasses and fedora. He suspiciously glances at her, and heads for the Magic Mansion.

Back home, as Alison struggles to remember the incantation, the doorbell rings. In response to her summons, the kids from before are here. To the boy, Don, she hands the replacement glasses. The girl by him scorns the service as a trivial imposition, and angrily shuns Alison’s offer of fellowship. Dejected, Alison decides to return the so-called friendship stone.

The Magic Mansion is in a bit of a mess, with props toppled and items scattered. Concerned, Alison calls for Sardo. From the back room, Sardo wearily reiterates his correct form of address, and is interrupted by a black-gloved hand across his mouth. The black-clad man from before then calls, in indistinguishable mimicry of Sardo’s voice, a command for Alison to leave at once.

With Alison gone, the black-clad man, Brother Septimus, resumes interrogation of Sardo, and demands to know the location of the Amulet of Ankara. Weary of Sardo’s pleas of innocence, Brother Septimus removes his shades, pulls the shopkeeper’s gaze level with his own, and repeats his demand. Entranced, Sardo confesses having sold it to the new resident of the brown brick house on Maple Street: the girl who just left.

In her bedroom, Alison flings the alleged friendship stone onto her desk. As the Amulet knocks against the full-length mirror, it exudes a distant rushing sound, and discharges several forks of blue lightning, which spread to waver across the glass.

Perplexed, Alison calls out to the boy, who turns his bespectacled head in enquiring response. As Alison retrieves the Amulet, the lightning returns, and the anachronistic reflection fades.

She looks in amazement at the not-so-mundane Amulet. Just then, from outside the window behind her, a cold voice calls her name. Outside, seemingly floating in mid-air, is the black-clad figure of Brother Septimus. The alarming visitor removes his shades, and commands Alison to look into his eyes.

Mesmerised, she asks his business. With instruction to hold his gaze, Brother Septimus demands the Amulet. Unnerved, Alison blocks her gaze, and steps back. Defiant of his urgent commands for her to remain in place, she backs away, Amulet in hand, she falls against the mirror. With a return of the ethereal storm, she falls seamlessly through the glass. Brother Septimus gives a snarl of rage.

Through a temporal variation of the mirror, Alison seamlessly falls onto the bare floorboards of the Victorian version of the room as seen before. Alarmed, the boy at the desk asks her name. He reaches for a catapult, aims it at the intruder, and asks how she got through his mirror.

Thomas sternly orders Alison out. Distracted, she peers at the windowsill, into which are carved the boy’s initials - as she saw before.

Thrilled at the implications, she confides to Thomas the apparent time travelling properties of the Amulet. Thomas confirms the current year to be 1892. They marvel at their extraordinary situation, and respectively compare it to a product of the imaginations of Creator/JulesVerne or Creator/StevenSpielberg.

As they creep through the hallway, Alison inspects the Victorian decor. At a distant coughing, Thomas urges quiet, lest his grandmother wake and cane him. Shocked, Alison asks about his parents. Thomas explains himself to be an orphan and an only child.

Seated on the stairs, they thrill at Thomas’s prospective introduction to the next century. At another full length mirror, Alison readies the Amulet, but then remembers her sinister visitor. Thomas offers the deterrent of his trusty slingshot. Lightning once more flares across the glass, and they step through.

Enraptured, Thomas peers at a modern lamp. The doorbell rings. He opens the front door to reveal Sardo, who hastily explains the Amulet to be genuinely magical, and belongs to a rather nasty fellow by the name of Brother Septimus, said to have been hanged in the fifteenth century, but -

Alison urgently leads Sardo to the mirror in Thomas’s bedroom. In awe, Sardo considers the monetary prospects of the time-travelling stone. He applies it to the mirror, and is suddenly pulled into the temporal storm.

Behind him, out steps Thomas, the Amulet loaded in his slingshot. Brother Septimus considers his challenger, and reflects upon a recent lack of victims. With his shades removed, he entrances the boy in place, and pulls off a glove, revealing his right index finger to mount a vicious metal claw.

On the floor, in one of the shards of glass, they see a reflection of Brother Septimus. In a black void, amidst orange flashes of lightning, an orange fog swallows him.

Another voice then echoes distantly. Reflected in another shard of glass, Thomas waves. Alison urges him to come through, but they both realise it to be too late. While they regret their parting, both are happy to have finally made a friend. Thomas gives a final wave as Alison wishes him a good life.

Alison inspects the windowsill, and grins. The century-old inscription has been replaced by another. Encircled by a heart shape, it reads “Alison and Tom...friends forever.”

The Amulet was gone, closes Gary, Brother Septimus was never seen again, and Alison would never forget the first friend she made in her new home. He dons his hat, and closes the meeting. The others laud his story, and Betty Anne asks to try on his hat.

* BadAssBoast: Brother Septimus claims invulnerability, and to defy death.
* BadAssLongCoat: A heavy, cloak-like overcoat.

* CityOfAdventure: Sardo alludes to previous episodes centred around his magic shop, thereby possibly uniting them in the same continuity.

* ShoutOut: Alison and Thomas respectively compare their adventure to a work of Creator/JulesVerne or Creator/StevenSpielberg.

* LonelyTogether: Newly moved Alison and sheltered Thomas.

* ALittleSomethingWeCallRockAndRoll: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]; while Alison and Thomas are keen to savour modern marvels, they never get the chance.
* OurTimeTravelIsDifferent: Holding the Amulet to a reflective surface summons a reflection, and bridge to, the past.
* RasputinianDeath: Brother Septimus is said to have been hanged in the fifteenth century.
* ShoutOut: Alison and Thomas respectively compare their adventure to a work of Creator/JulesVerne or Creator/StevenSpielberg.
**
--> '''Alison:''' If you’re a friendship stone, then I’m Music/{{Madonna}}.

Alison calls for assistance. The shopkeeper, [[RecurringCharacter Sardo]], emerges from behind the curtain. With suppressed frustration, he [[RunningGag corrects pronunciation of his name]] to “[[{{Catchphrase}} SarDO. No 'mister' - accent on the 'do'.]]" He grandly offers wares of magical exotica, but Alison just needs another pair of wacky glasses.

Alison calls for assistance. The shopkeeper, [[RecurringCharacter Sardo]], emerges from behind the curtain. With suppressed frustration, he [[RunningGag corrects pronunciation of his name]] to “[[{{Catchphrase}} Sar-''do''. No 'mister' - accent on the 'do'.]]" He grandly offers wares of magical exotica, but Alison just needs another pair of wacky glasses.

Alison calls for assistance. The shopkeeper, [[RecurringCharacter Sardo]], emerges from behind the curtain. With suppressed frustration, he [[RunningGag corrects pronunciation of his name]] to “[[{{Catchphrase}} Sar''do''. No 'mister' - accent on the 'do'.]]" He grandly offers wares of magical exotica, but Alison just needs another pair of wacky glasses.

* EvilWearsBlack: Shades, black cloak, cloves and fedora.

* ALittleSomethingWeCallRockAndRoll: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]; while Alison and Thomas are keen to savour modern marvels, they get the chance.