Influenced by the Twilight Zone television show, Night Springs is the name of fictional TV series that players can watch episodes of in their travels across Bright Falls. There are six episodes that you can watch, which will earn you the Couch Potato reward.
Location:
Episode Two. When tasked with finding a vehicle, you follow the path through a warehouse. Head upstairs to find your third TV.
Overview:
A journalist becomes part of the story when he takes part in a supernatural ritual, with similarities to the Lovecraftian Mythos.
Recording:
Transcript:
NARRATOR: We take the facts of our existence for granted. Unaware that they're merely a thin veneer of desperate self-delusion, covering a vast cosmos of madness and horror. All too often, the stars are right... in Night Springs. Tonight's episode a Family Occasion.
NARRATOR: Journalist Alvin Derleth's trip to study the local customs of an insular community in Night Springs has been less than successful.... until tonight.
(Three individuals walk towards a cabin; two men and a woman. The man opens the front door as Alvin lets himself in.)
ALVIN DERLETH: Well, I'm glad you changed your minds about it. Ancient customs, local mythology, my editor loves this kind of stuff.
(The couple follows in afterwards, and then circles him.)
WOMAN: Well, Mr Derleth. We don't want to feel like we're on exhibition, but you have demonstrated the seriousness of your intent.
ALVIN DERLETH: Oh, I am serious. Really, just do your thing. I'll stay out of your way and observe.
WOMAN: Actually... I thought you could assist us. I'm afraid we are a man short.
(The other man smiles.)
WOMAN: It would provide you with an... intimate perspective.
ALVIN DERLETH: Could I really?
MAN: Of course, Mr Derleth.
ALVIN DERLETH: Well, guess that's the least I-... what would I have to do?
WOMAN: Oh. Here, let me show with a kiss.
(She leans forward and kisses Alvin)
ALVIN DERLETH: I er-
(Alvin twitches in pain after the woman backs away from the kiss.)
ALVIN DERLETH: What- what did you- (retches)
(Alvin collapses to the floor, he grabs his stomach as unearthly sounds erupt from it.)
WOMAN: Oh, Mr Derleth, you have well pleased Nik'sih-Pir-kaha, the Dweller in Flesh. Your body shall host his thousand young and all shall be glory.
(The man and women are watching Alvin as shapes move under his stomach.)
WOMAN: Shhh, darling. Be calm. Shhhh.
NARRATOR: Alvin Derleth learnt a harsh lesson, if you go looking for mythology, it may come looking for you. And such quests always bear fruit... in Night Springs.
Notes from Family Occasion:
- Derleth. The name bears a similarity to August Derleth, the original publisher of HP Lovecraft's titles, who coined the term "Cthulhu Mythos" and founded the publishing company, Arkham House. This is one of a few Lovecraftian ties to Alan Wake, with another being a Rocky Mountain Douglas Fir named "The Great Old One" at Lovers' Peak.
- His Thousand Young. "Thousand Young" is a reference to Shub-Niggurath (also referred to as "The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young") from H.P. Lovecraft's "The Last Test" in 1928 (although originally mentioned in "The Dunwich Horror" that same year).
- When the Stars are Right. The narrator's introduction references a part of The Call of Cthulhu, “When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live.”
- Niksi-Pirkka. Nik'sih-Pir-kaha is a local in-joke. It's a reference to Niksi-Pirkka, a feature in K Group's Pirkka magazine in Finland.
Night Springs in American Nightmare:
In Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Alan expands on what Night Springs is and its meaning to him in a series of manuscript pages:
- Alan Wake, The Writer. "My name is Alan Wake, and I’m a writer. I didn’t become one overnight. Like most writers, I struggled with it -- a short story here, an article there. Then I got lucky and spent a year as a staff writer on the Night Springs TV show. It wasn’t the great American novel of my fantasies, but it taught me discipline and craft, and the difference between wanting to be a writer and actually writing."
- Night Springs, the Cult TV Show. "Night Springs doesn’t exist. It’s a fictional town from the TV show I used to work on. It was Anyplace, USA, a place we used as a backdrop for whatever strange story we had that week. One of the stories I wrote for the show involved a man, “the champion of light,” fighting his evil double, “the herald of darkness”. It was something I’d written back in the real world -- something I had a link to, a framework I could build on. I adapted it into a new story. This story."
