Chapter Concept: Alan Wake

I recently completed Alan Wake for the first time and was curious to see if anyone else on the forum had already done a fan chapter on it. Surprisingly I didn’t find much, so I decided to try to take a stab at it.

The Darkness

Biography

The thing that wore Barbara Jagger’s face was angry. Not only had the writer escaped before he finished the story it wanted, but he now possessed a weapon left behind by Thomas Zane. The darkness was now doing everything in its power to simply stop the writer from ever reaching Cauldron Lake and the dark place it came from. It was using every trick in its possession to stop him, every last person and object it had taken in the decades after the rockers’ had woken it up again. Even as the writer was stepping onto the porch of the cabin, the dark presence was using Alice’s voice to confuse him. 

“You will never get her back,” as Alan Wake opened the door to the cabin, the Clicker in hand, the darkness was still defiant. “I am much older than you. Older than your first work of art,” it said to the writer. “I will find a new face to wear. Someone else to dream me free.” The voice that came from Barbara Jagger’s mouth was as deep and distorted as the darkness that surrounded the cabin. It sent chills up Alan’s spine but he still stepped closer.

Suddenly Alan grabbed her, thrust his hand into the hole where Barbara’s heart should be. The dark presence felt nothing but burning pain as Alan activated the Clicker, filling both its body and the cabin with a blinding light. As Barbara’s body burned away and the light faded, Alan knew he had won. He just had to go upstairs and finish the last page, then Alice would be free.

The dark presence woke up again. Not at its home in the dark place beyond the lake but at a campfire in the forest. Strangely, the light here didn’t hurt it. It felt something else, however. A feeling that it had hated since the poet had drug it deep into Cauldron Lake all those years ago. It was trapped here in the form of Barbara Jagger by something that was substantially more powerful than itself. It heard the whispers, felt the commands. The whispers told it about a ritual and the role it would fulfill, but it also warned that failure would not be tolerated. This was a place of torment. The dark presence didn’t know whether the torment was meant for it or for others. Already the darkness was trying to form a plan, a way to free itself. The Entity heard these thoughts and took it upon itself to demonstrate what disobedience earns in this realm.

Appearance

A gray skinned old woman in a black mourning gown. There’s a hole in her chest where her heart should be. She has impossibly dark eyes.

Legendary Skins

• Carl Stucky (weapon is a pipe wrench)
• Agent Robert Nightingale (weapon is a logging axe)
• Mr. Scratch (weapon is a tow hook on a chain)
• Dr. Emil Hartman (weapon is a sickle)

Statistics

Height: Average

Terror Radius: 24 meters

Movement Speed: 110%

Weapon: Summoned Spear

A jagged piece of rebar imbued with darkness. Can be called forth with a simple gesture.

Power: Dark Manifestations

Special Ability: Shadowy Blockade

• Press and hold the power button to charge a Blockade
• The longer the button is held, the further away the blockade will spawn (like a Nurse Blink)
• When the button is released, a wall of debris perpendicular to the direction The Darkness is facing erupts from the ground (if this would be within a survivor’s/survivors’ hit box, spawns on the near side of the nearest hit box to The Darkness)
• The Darkness can be Lightburned while charging a Blockade
• Blockade appears for 5 seconds by default
• Has a cool down of 18 seconds by default

Special Ability: Winged Stalker

• Every time a survivor escapes from chase, a crow will follow them from above
• Crows aren’t the same as the ones that appear for afk players
• Soft cawing emits from the crows that can be heard by the player it follows and anyone in close proximity.
• More crows follow the survivor the more chases they escape. Each crow makes the cawing slightly louder
• All crows are removed if
  • The survivor finishes a generator
  • Another survivor shines a flashlight on them
  • The Darkness makes a successful attack on the survivor
  • Survivor goes back to a previously completed generator. Prompt appears to emit a flash. Survivor must succeed a moderate skill check by default. Successful checks cause a noise notification to appear.

Perks

Touched By Darkness

You can’t always take full control. Sometimes, letting the victims do the work themselves is necessary.

If a survivor attempts to heal another survivor that escaped from a chase within the last 45 seconds, the healer becomes injured.

This perk goes on cooldown for 80/70/60 seconds.

“But for anything more elaborate, as with the writer, it was different. It needed his mind. And so rather than taking him over completely, it merely touched him.” ~ Page from Alan Wake’s Departure

Creative Control

You enjoy shaping the acts of your victims to fit your own goals.

Even if a generator is fully regressed, you can break it. Generators broken in this way become marked. All progress made on other generators while a generator is marked is instead transferred to the marked generator at 100/90/80% efficiency. Only one generator can be marked at a time.

“My manuscript is being heavily revised. These edits are getting very aggressive and each day there’s less of me and more of her.” ~ Recording of Alan in the cabin

Shrouded In Darkness

Using the surrounding darkness, you shroud yourself from watchful eyes.

You gain the undetectable status effect for the first 40/50/60 seconds of a trial.

"Then the moonlight was blotted by dark shadows that raced violently across the ground, moving too swiftly to be natural. Darkness gathered between the trees, and melted again to reveal the Taken." ~ Page from Alan Wake’s Departure

Add-ons

• Decrease cool down time for blockade
• Increase charging speed for blockade
• Increase range for blockade
• Increase time a blockade lasts
• Allows the Darkness to see where the blockade will spawn
• Ultra rare: Lose the ability to create blockades. Any survivor with a crow following them now has their aura revealed outside of 32 meters from the Darkness. Terror radius is increased to 32 meters.
• Ultra rare: Allows the darkness to have three total blockades. Regain all blockades at the same time. Lose the ability to have crows stalk survivors.

Alan Wake

Perks

Torchbearer

You are used to fighting with a flashlight in your hand. Enough so that you have learned to get more use from them.

For every 24/18/12 seconds you are in the Killer’s terror radius and not in a chase, gain 1 charge back to your flashlight.

“Warriors, torchbearers, come redeem our dreams,

Shine a light upon this night of otherworldly fiends”

~ The Old Gods of Asgard’s “Children of the Elder God”

Poetic Flow

You have mastered to arts of rhythm and meter. Using these techniques, you find greater success in other activities.

On every 5th/4th/3rd successful great skill check in a row when repairing or healing, the bonus to that skill check is doubled. If you stop repairing or healing, the counter resets.

“There's an old town wrought

With mystery of Tom

The poet and his muse

And the magic lake

Which gave a life

To the words the poet used”

~ The Old Gods of Asgard’s “The Poet and the Muse”

Guided by Light

Everything has been preordained. You know this because you’ve read the page you are currently acting out.

Whenever a generator is completed, the aura of the farthest incomplete generator from the Killer is revealed to you and and 1/2/3 other survivors for 15 seconds.

“I lifted the page in front of my eyes and read it. In it, I lifted the page in front of my eyes and read it.” ~ Page from Alan Wake’s Departure

Legendary Skins

• Barry Wheeler
• Sheriff Sarah Breaker
• Alice Wake
• Odin and Tor Anderson

Map Ideas

Anderson Farm

Could exist on its own or be part of Coldwind Farm. The stage and bleachers are the main landmarks. Maybe the porch of the farmhouse or one of the barns as well.

Cauldron Lake Lodge

Could exist on its own or be part of Mount Ormond. Could be a half indoor/half outdoor map with both the courtyard and gardens along with the lodge itself comprising the entire map.

Enjoyed the chapter? Check out another concept I had worked on here.