The train thunders on to the future.
The crows swoop and cry in the past.
The sepulchre will open.
As lost souls keep hoping.
That the next trip is also their last.
The Earth crawls its way to the surface.
The Augers look down as they sing.
As the final light dies.
And the island will rise.
In the court of the Charnel House King
The crows swoop and cry in the past.
The sepulchre will open.
As lost souls keep hoping.
That the next trip is also their last.
The Earth crawls its way to the surface.
The Augers look down as they sing.
As the final light dies.
And the island will rise.
In the court of the Charnel House King
—Louis Kassel
The Charnel House Trilogy is an indie horror Adventure Game from 2015 by developer Owl Cave. Two strangers, Alex Davenport, a young woman with a troubled past, and the world-weary, middle-aged Dr. Harold Lang meet on a train at night, a journey which ends up turning into a nightmare, and they are soon forced to face their inner demons and worst fears. Available on Steam here
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The game works as an extended intro to Owl Cave's next project Augur Peak which was originally slated for release in 2016. Augur Peak has however languished for in Development Hell ever since, due to various production issues. In latest update on the project as of this writing, the developer hopes for a 2024 release.
Provides examples of the following tropes:
- Afterlife Express: What the train itself is implied to be. It is a bit abstract, honestly.
- The Bartender: Floyd, with being an Expy of Lloyd and all.
- Body Horror: Rob describes in painstaking detail how he has been removing Gavin's limbs little by litte.
- Buried Alive: A recurring motif. Most notably, Dr. Lang sees (or hallucinates) a massive layer of dirt cover the window to his train compartment, believing that the wagon has been completely encased in the stuff.
- Cry for the Devil: In-Universe. As much as Alex comes to find out how depraved and monstrous an individual her neighbor Rob truly is, she can't help but feel sympathy for him as all the terrible things he has done to her is the result of trauma from losing his young daughter.
- Drunk Driver: Dr. Lang was in an traffic accident while under the influence and had killed someone. He is still very much haunted by it.
- Shout-Out:
- Floyd the bartender is a very overt Expy of Lloyd from the The Shining.
- A couple to The Blackwell Series:
- The radio host mentions having encountered a red-haired woman who appeared to be talking with herself. The woman in question is heavily implied to be Rosa Blackwell, the protagonist in the Blackwell games.
- Rosa Blackwell once posed as a "Alex Davenport" to get past a guard.
- Stalker without a Crush: Rob's main motivation for stalking Alex is that he sees her as a surrogate for his lost daughter.
