Black Dog: Narrative Beat Sheet

1. Opening Image: An opening snapshot. 

Detective Eckart (second person perspective: "you" established as being Detective Eckart) wakes up at his apartment. Eckart didn't sleep. When he takes to smoke a cigarette outside, the familiar burn is lacking. He can’t feel anything like he used to after he was attacked on his last case. Something was wrong with him now—something that he refused to contend with, let alone mention it. He’d rather smoke his cigarette and feel nothing. 

2. Theme Stated: We are introduced to the central theme or lesson of the story. 

The phone on the wall of his apartment rings. A familiar voice is on the other end—although he had just quit the force after his latest case going horribly wrong, he recognizes the voice of none other than Lt. Kegan. He’s calling to check up on him, talking about another call/case. Possible bad ending for not answering the phone. 

3. Set Up: The hero and the 'ordinary world' are introduced. 

After the phone call, Eckart can’t help but want to investigate the case Kegan was talking about. Despite the condition he is currently in, he leaves his apartment to look into the case: a woman was mysteriously poisoned and died. Motives are unclear, evidence is unclear. The dead woman displayed clear signs of being poisoned: she had convulsions, dry mouth/throat, dilated pupils (something akin to deadly nightshade symptoms). She died in her own home, roughly three blocks away from Eckart’s apartment. 

4. Catalyst: Something happens that sets the story in motion. 

Eckart arrives at the scene of the crime. He hides his face—he is noticeably sensitive to light on his walk to the crime scene. 

5. Debate: The hero is hesitant to take action. 

The scene/crime is just as “unsolvable” as Kegan painted it to be. Eckart considers his own issues, and debates whether or not to take up the case (likely against the wishes of the force, since he is no longer employed). Also consider having a vampire-y crisis? Seeing a dead body makes Eckart hungry or something, describe his interaction with light, lack of interaction with people, etc. 

6. Break Into Two: The hero takes up the challenge. 

OPTION 1 BREAK: Eckart decides that he doesn’t want to focus on his problems, and would rather (somewhat selflessly) help others as a sort of distraction. 

OPTION 2 BREAK (ENDING): Eckart cuts his losses and returns to the apartment. Possible game ending here, perhaps cutting to a newspaper clipping of some crazed man killing people and drinking their blood. 

7. B Story: The subplot kicks in, introducing a character who helps the hero in their transformation. 

A mysterious woman with dusty blonde hair (Sarah) stops Eckart as he leaves the house. She asks if he’s okay, to which he dismisses. He instead asks if she has any information. She laughs, and hands him a business card (fortune teller or something, something witchy). She walks away shortly afterwards. 

8. Fun and Games: The hero in the throes of their challenge or journey. 

Eckart, now frustrated by the hoops he must jump through to get answers out of the blonde woman (Sarah), resorts to poking around the individuals related to the crime. There’s the man that the dead woman was seeing (Steve), police are viewing him as a prime suspect simply due to their relationship. Finally, there is also the landlord. The story can split here (sort of) based on who Eckart investigates first, in what order, etc. 

9. Midpoint: The stakes are raised. 

After confronting the other suspects (each of which seem to have equal ties to the victim, it's unclear who is the perp. I’m thinking the boyfriend will be the red herring, maybe he cheated on her. Or maybe the woman was cheating on him... I’ll worry about the logistics later), Eckart finally goes to the mysterious blonde woman based off of the business card he was handed. She speaks strangely, as if peering directly in to the darkest parts of him. She seems to know something about him that he doesn’t.  

She seems to know a lot of things, actually. Slowly she becomes more and more suspicious—she seems like she might have been the one who killed the woman. 

10. Bad Guys Close In [55-75]: Things start going downhill for the hero. 

Eckart becomes increasingly agitated. A familiar feeling of hunger washes over him, his hands twitch as the pounding of the woman’s heart echoes in her laugh. She keeps pushing, asking him damning questions about his condition. Asks how he felt seeing the dead woman in her home. 

11. All is Lost: Things go from bad to worse. The hero hits rock bottom. 

Just as Eckart fully loses control of himself, his vampiric instincts washing over any semblance of humanity, the woman stands and throws a single hand up. Eckart freezes in place, as if suspended by chains in mid air. The woman smiles and calls him a vampire. A monster, just as she suspected. She says that it’s her duty to kill monsters, and thats why she had to kill the one woman as well (not sure what kind of monster the woman was yet though). 

12. Dark Night of the Soul: Faced with defeat, the hero must reckon with their loss and how they got there. 

Eckart, restrained and heaving, argues with the woman. He is only still here because she agrees with her—his last case seemed to have caused his current condition, though he wasn’t quite sure what that condition entailed. 

The woman hears him out. She laughs at him again, calling him foolish for not recognizing it sooner. The two go back and forth about the situation, until the woman offers to teach him about him being a monster and all in exchange for letting go of the investigation. She confesses it was her that killed the woman. 

**STORY SPLITS HERE BASED ON WHETHER OR NOT ECKART DECIDES TO ACCEPT HER PROPOSAL, OR IF HE WISHES TO CONTINUE THE INVESTIGATION 

13. Break Into Three [85]: The hero realizes a truth that’s been evading them all this time. 

Route A: Vampire knowledge. Eckart agrees to drop the case completely in order to hear more about himself. She shares with him the telltale signs of transformation, and how he should come to live with it. She shares the symptoms and the necessities for vampires. Ultimately, she tells him that most cannot survive without killing humans. Because of this she confesses that, while he seems like a great, stand-up guy, she still has to kill you. 

Route B: Offended by her even asking, Eckart spits that he is going to solve this case—especially since the perp is sitting right across from him. 

14. Finale: Putting their new awareness into action, the hero conquers the bad guys. 

Route A: Eckart writhes under her shockingly strong grasp, attempting to break free from her impenetrable magic. All the while, the woman has raised both hands and begun uttering strange words under her breath. She continues to approach him slowly, uttering the words, while Eckart becomes more and more frantic. He feels like a cornered animal. Just inches from his face, the woman gently kisses Eckart and steps back. 

Route B: Eckart fights against the woman—who is revealed to be a witch. The two fight, Eckart’s strength and hunger capable of overpowering her magic that was holding him back. With her magic broken, he lunges forward and sinks his teeth into her neck. 

15. Final Image: A snapshot that mirrors or contrasts the opening image. 

Route A: Eckart dies. The kiss radiates heat across his face and burrows deep into the core of his body—A body that has not felt that kind of warmth in a while. It felt like the sun itself were erupting from his heart, as he struggles for breath. The woman releases her restraint on him as he crumples to the ground, clawing at his chest, attempting to put out the fire coursing through his veins. Until finally, he stops. The curse kills Eckart, and the woman gets away. 

Route B: Eckart lives. Eckart will either kill the woman, draining all of the blood from her body, or stop just before she dies in order to turn her over to police. In the even he doesn’t kill her, he sends an “anonymous” tip to Kegan. If he does though, the final moments question if the woman was right all along—if he truly is the monster he says he is. 

TOTAL ENDINGS: 

1. Bad A: Eckart decides not to pursue the case. Optionally, he kills someone in the night and is read about in the paper for the ending 

2. Eckart could also elect not to pick up the phone, resulting in a similar ending. 

3. Bad B: Eckart is killed when he abandons the case to learn more about vampires. He is cursed by the witch woman. 

4. Neutral: Eckart prioritizes the case and kills the witch woman. He questions whether or not he truly is a monster, as the woman said. He reports his murder to the police and flees before they arrive. 

5. Good: Eckart weakens the witch woman just enough to turn her over to the police. He brings her to the station and leaves a note for Kegan before returning home. He doesn’t quite understand what he is still, but maybe that doesn’t matter—all that matters is that he is still serving the justice he always has.