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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/item_id/2183353-The-Book-of-Masks-Abridged
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by Seuzz
Rated: GC · Book · Supernatural · #2183353
A high school student finds a grimoire that shows how to make magical disguises.
Author's Preface

The Book of Masks began as an interactive, and it still is one: "The Book of Masks. But at 3000+ chapters it sometimes scares newbies.

For this abridged edition I've collected certain key storylines and played them out in a straight line while dropping the chapter choices—which means no one has to worry about taking a wrong turn or getting lost. I've done my best to pick chapters that features key characters, conflicts, magical devices and plot types, to give you a feel for what's in the interactive, and what's important.

None of the storylines are complete, and they break off suddenly, leaping forward and backward in time to pick up places where different choices were made in other parts of the interactive. If you want to continue any storyline, there's an appendix at the end with links to places that continue the stories.

The Book of Masks
Prologue

THERE WAS A PENTAGRAM stamped onto its spine, but that's not why you stopped to stare at it. It wasn't the leather binding, either. You're barely interested in the stuff inside of books, let alone the stuff they're made out of.

No, it was the book's lustrous colors—the blood-scarlet of the cover and the gleaming gold of the pentagram—that caught your eye. Even then, it was only because red and gold are your high school colors. Mr. Walberg had his students out collecting a lot of junk for the school time capsule, and you were shopping for something to throw onto the pile.

And if the book had nothing to do with your high school, your home town, or the current year? So what? Time capsules are stupid.

It was sitting in the special collections cabinet of Arnholm's Used Books with a bunch of other rare and expensive items. The glass door was ajar, so you quietly pulled the book out for a closer look.

Intricate designs of golden thread were woven throughout the cover; the same anarchic, subtly shifting designs covered the title page and facing papers. Just looking at them made you dizzy. Whoever created them had masterfully conveyed the illusion of movement and alteration with his pen strokes. This was especially true of the stylized faces that gazed out serenely along the bottom of the title page: an old man, a young woman, a hale warrior, and a child. As you studied them, they seemed to shift ages and attitudes, so that the old man from a different angle became a double of the young woman, and the child aged into a crone.

So without even looking through the rest of the book you took it up to the front to ask about the price ...

Chapter One: "The Fake Book

Other links

* "The Book of Masks Homepage: An update blog + quick links to recently added chapters.
* "The Book of Masks: Archives: A range of BoM storylines in interactive format, maintained for those without WdC accounts.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 The Fake Book 8.15k
Chapter 2 Making a Mask 11.07k
Chapter 3 A Conspiracy of Two 11.39k
Chapter 4 You, Yourself, and Him 11.25k
Chapter 5 The Two of You 11.12k
Chapter 6 Where There's a Will 11.19k
Chapter 7 A Life of Entrances and Exits 10.76k
Chapter 8 A Day in Another's Shoes 11.12k
Chapter 9 The Promise of Coffee, the Perils of Lunch 10.80k
Chapter 10 Brief Encounters 10.70k
Chapter 11 Double Dates 11.47k
Chapter 12 People Have Inhibitions for a Reason, You Know 10.69k
Chapter 13 The Solo Magician 10.73k
Chapter 14 Myself, the Guinea Pig 4.06k
Chapter 15 The High Cost of Scientific Advance 9.82k
Chapter 16 Dead Ends 10.31k
Chapter 17 The New Job 8.97k
Chapter 18 The Boy With Two Brains 9.61k
Chapter 19 A Change of Persona 10.50k
Chapter 20 Inside the Actors' Studio 9.98k
Chapter 21 Another Personality Takes the Stage 10.83k
Chapter 22 In Which You Try to Wash Your Hands of It All 1.51k
Chapter 23 School Haze 8.92k
Chapter 24 Crap to the Future 11.13k
Chapter 25 Attempted Recoveries 10.91k
Chapter 26 The Replacements 11.35k
Chapter 27 A Game of Doubles 11.11k
Chapter 28 People Who Aren't There 11.75k
Chapter 29 Kooky Kapers 10.77k
Chapter 30 Paranoia and Paranormality 11.29k
Chapter 31 A Sense of Cindy 11.08k
Chapter 32 The Biggest Secret in the School 11.47k
Chapter 33 My Friend, the Guinea Pig 11.78k
Chapter 34 Concussing Caleb 10.41k
Chapter 35 The High Cost of Scientific Advance 10.74k
Chapter 36 Thefts, Identity and Otherwise 10.53k
Chapter 37 I'm My Own Best Friend! 11.05k
Chapter 38 The Phony Party Crasher 10.71k
Chapter 39 Hangover for an Absent Party Crasher 10.69k
Chapter 40 The Graveyard Thief 5.57k
Chapter 41 A Plot Twist for Caleb Johansson 10.57k
Chapter 42 A Friendship Is Renewed, Sort Of 11.39k
Chapter 43 An Ambush in the Dark 10.57k
Chapter 44 More Mask Fun 6.38k
Chapter 45 A Game and a Garner 6.26k
Chapter 46 Banking on Your New Disguise 5.48k
Chapter 47 The First Day of the Rest of the Project 4.50k
Chapter 48 The Drama Hits the Fan 5.47k
Chapter 49 Clone Show 10.90k
Chapter 50 Send in the Clone 7.00k
Chapter 51 A Company of Three 11.45k
Chapter 52 Bully Sessions 10.94k
Chapter 53 Whose Bully Stinks the Most? 11.14k
Chapter 54 Things Best Left Buried 10.61k
Chapter 55 The Precessionary Times-Picayune 10.65k
Chapter 56 An Unusual Burglary 10.41k
Chapter 57 Caleb as Conspirator 7.90k
Chapter 58 Daddy Issues 10.53k
Chapter 59 Surprise Package 8.82k
Chapter 60 A Temporary Twin 9.80k
Chapter 61 Disaster for Dad 9.45k
Chapter 62 A Dad's-Eye View 9.64k
Chapter 63 Fathers and Sons 10.65k
Chapter 64 The Life of a Dad 11.24k
Chapter 65 Odd Man Out 11.11k
Chapter 66 New Friends 10.80k
Chapter 67 A New You 10.90k
Chapter 68 A New Life 10.89k
Chapter 69 Gym Rats 10.60k
Chapter 70 The Crises of Cameron Huber 10.74k
Chapter 71 James Lamont Joins a Team 11.15k
Chapter 72 Live From the Lamont 10.60k
Chapter 73 A Tree House Conference 11.17k
Chapter 74 Caleb vs. Carson 10.62k
Chapter 75 Reflections on a Plot Thus Far 9.71k
Chapter 76 A Visit to Professor Blackwell 10.36k
Chapter 77 A Raid on Blackwell's 10.90k
Chapter 78 A Cry for Help 11.11k
Chapter 79 Into the Book 9.36k
Chapter 80 The Return of Gordon Black 8.47k
Chapter 81 Lessons on the Sly 10.55k
Chapter 82 Confusions, Confessions, Temptations 11.08k
Chapter 83 Chelsea's Special Touch 11.12k
Chapter 84 Taming a Terror 10.40k
Chapter 85 The Desperate Collector 8.07k
Chapter 86 A Slippery Sale 1.61k
Chapter 87 The Magician's House 10.45k
Chapter 88 The Bully Boy 10.86k
Chapter 89 Fear Strikes Out 10.62k
Chapter 90 The Metaphysics of Magic 7.43k
Chapter 91 The Ones Who Would Be Magicians 10.27k
Chapter 92 The Ambition of Will Prescott 10.20k
Chapter 93 The Making of the First Mask 11.05k
Chapter 94 The Big Double-You 10.57k
Chapter 95 Change of Address 9.04k
Chapter 96 The Vessel 9.28k
Chapter 97 Your Life as a Dog 10.95k
Chapter 98 Further Reading 6.10k

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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/item_id/2183353-The-Book-of-Masks-Abridged