The Mysteries of Baroque

A text-only horror novel you steer

If you want a horror story that you read and steer, rather than watch or listen to, this is the kind of thing to look at. The Mysteries of Baroque is a 200,000-word interactive Gothic horror novel by William Brown. It has no graphics and no sound effects, so the text does the work, and the listing says the reader's imagination supplies the rest.

The story opens in a remote mountain castle on a stormy night, where Dr. Holofernes brings you back from the dead. The revival does not last. As the procedure reverses, you start dying again, so the early task is to stay alive long enough to track down the people who killed you, take your revenge and protect the people you love. The action is based at the Grand Guignol Theater and moves through Baroque, which the listing calls the City of Dreadful Night, from its underground slums up to aristocratic mansions.

The listing rates it 10+. At 200,000 words it is a long read even before the choices are counted, and it suits people who enjoy branching fiction and do not need pictures.

Choosing your identity and where you belong

You can play as male, female or non-binary, and as gay, straight or ace. These options shape the character you are reading about from the first page, and the listing presents them as part of the choice rather than a set-up step.

The story also asks what you want to do with your second life. You can fight to reclaim your old life and identity, or make a new home for yourself at the Grand Guignol Theater. The listing describes three central pulls: losing yourself in romance, securing your survival through the Holofernes Procedure, or sacrificing everything for revenge. Each one leads to a different shape of story.

Revenge, allies and the cost of help

Revenge is carried out in person. You stalk your killers through the glittering demimonde, the mansions and the slums of Baroque. The listing presents this as the main hunt of the story, with each location offering different people to pursue.

Getting help costs something. You can trade your soul to a dark god in return for vengeance, or refuse its help and fight alone. You can also throw in with one of three factions: the forces of law and order, the revolutionary Worker's Council, or the enigmatic Vendetta. The listing notes that the factions are all fighting over Baroque's soul.

Your actions also reach the city's population. You can bring comfort and hope to its suffering citizens, or drive them further into darkness in pursuit of your own vengeance.

Science, the occult and a rebuilt body

Your character can use science to devise and build inventions. The listing names death rays, gliders and hallucinogenic grenades as examples. Your body is also rebuilt with clockwork parts, such as wings, a camera eye or steel claws, which the listing ties to the regenerating body you are already living in.

The occult is the riskier route. You can learn its sanity-blasting secrets and use them against your enemies, but each use puts your own mind at risk. The listing presents this as a trade between power and sanity rather than a free upgrade.

Dream quests and night visions are the means of learning new skills and uncovering ancestral memories. They sit alongside the science, occult and clockwork choices as another way to change what your character can do.