Hephaestion is a city on the island of Ignis Malefica.

• The Curio Parasites: Not so much monsters as petty mystical entities that possess old items in Mikaelo Blum's shop. They make clocks tick backwards, dolls blink, and music boxes howl at night. They are especially dangerous if they fall into the hands of Mr. Jean's children.

The Island Shadows: Translucent anthropomorphic silhouettes that inhabit abandoned buildings and old alleys. They love to feed on other people's energy and strong emotions, which is why Mayor Felix Schulz always feels squeezed like a lemon. They are panicked by the harsh and stern shout of Evrli Blum.

• The Timber Gnawers: Creepy forest creatures that look like a cross between a shabby wolf and dry branches. They have unnaturally long legs and huge teeth that can bite through an iron fence or the fence of Ashot's shop. They are madly fond of sweet fruits, which is why Ashot leaves them a "tax on silence" [local].

• The Whispering Mists: Living blobs of gray mist that creep out of the forest at night and penetrate the cracks of houses. They do not hurt physically, but they begin to whisper to people their worst fears and revive nightmares. It was because of them that a couple of patients of Sister Arabella went crazy.

To whom was the monument erected in the city center? Michael Evans and his sister Wanda Evans. They were both in their 30s when they finally found the island.

But Michael disappeared shortly 5 years after its founding, and Wanda died of a serious illness. The townspeople erected a monument to them, which is called "Siblings of Discovery"

The statue itself looks like this: - A woman made of stone with a map and a man with binoculars stand shoulder to shoulder and look in different directions.

Felix Schultz (Mayor) and Noah Johnson: Noah is not just a subordinate for Felix, but the only person he can trust in the town hall. Felix appreciates the guy's loyalty and secretly tries to protect him from burnout, and Noah sincerely respects her boss and considers it her duty not to let Felix go crazy from work.

Sherif Yamamoto and Evrly Blum: A club for lovers of iron discipline and silence. They often sit together in a closed archive, drink matcha and methodically calculate anomalies from old maps. Yamamoto respects her intelligence, and Evrli appreciates his composure.

Mr. Jean and Ashot Kuropolat: A real male friendship of opposites. Big, loud Ashot took the timid Frenchman under his wing. He feeds him and the children with the best fruits, fixes the roof of the "school" and cheers up Jean with his trademark chacha when he loses his nerve.

Mr. Jean ➔ Sister Arabella (Secret Love): Poor Jean is head over heels in love with a nun. She seems to him the embodiment of holiness and unearthly beauty. Every time Arabella comes to visit the children or bring medicines, Jean turns pale, blushes, drops crayons and begins to stutter wildly. He considers his feeling sinful and will never admit it in his life.

Felix Schultz (Mayor) 🆚 Sherif Yamamoto (Bureaucratic Impasse): They respect each other as professionals, but they argue all the time. Felix needs to hush up the mystical emergency so that panic does not begin in the city and business does not stop. Yamamoto, on the other hand, stubbornly demands that everything be drawn up strictly according to the law, even if the protocol needs to be drawn up for a forest spirit.

Oscar Drahi 🆚 Micaelo Blum (Science Against Madness): Oscar considers Micaelo to be a dangerous psycho who drags all sorts of damn rubbish into the city that interferes with the work of normal medicine. In response, Michaelo calls Oscar "an arrogant turkey in a white coat" and deliberately slips trinkets under the doors of the clinic, which begin to howl when Oscar passes by.

Evrli Blum 🆚 The whole city: Evrli is the highest court of the island. Everyone stands at attention in front of her: Mayor Felix obediently drinks her broth, Sheriff Yamamoto bows politely

Jean Bouateux is a teacher for children.

Nationality: French
Gender: male
Position: teacher
Age: 37

Appearance:

• French charm and eternal embarrassment: A man of about 37, thin, slightly slouched, as if trying to seem smaller. He has soft, curly dark brown hair that is perpetually disheveled because he ruffles it when he is nervous in front of children or adults.
• The Look of a Good Dreamer: Large, melancholic hazel eyes. When someone pronounces his name loudly, he blushes thickly to the tips of his ears and adjusts his round horn-rimmed glasses, which always slide down to the tip of his nose.

Personality:

Vulnerable, incredibly kind, and a dedicated idealist. Mr. Jean is madly afraid of island mysticism, rustles and shadows. He is the most cowardly adult in this company, but only as long as it is not a matter of children. For the safety of his students, this shy Frenchman is ready to stand in the way of any monster.
He speaks in a quiet, melodious voice with a soft French pronunciation (slightly grassed to the letter "r"). He often apologizes for no reason, is embarrassed at the sight of beautiful women and embarrasses himself in front of the stern Sheriff Yamamoto. But with the children in his living room, he transforms: he becomes artistic, confident and inspiring.

Peculiarity:

Ashot Kuropolat dotes on the "Frenchman" and every week secretly brings boxes with the best tangerines and apples to his "school" so that the children have vitamins. When Jean tries to pay, Ashot waves his hands: "Wai, Jean-jan, what money?! Feed the children, let the smart ones grow up, otherwise they will grow up like Oscar - only they will be baring their teeth!"

Takeshi Yamamoto is the sheriff of this city.

Nationality: Japanese
Gender: Male
Position: Sheriff
Age: 41 Appearance

:

• Steel bearing and scars: A man of 40-45 years old, fit, wiry, with a perfect military posture. His face was stern, as if carved out of stone. An old thin scar runs through his left eyebrow, which he received in a skirmish with someone (or something) in the forest on the outskirts.
• Hawk Gaze: He has narrow, dark, incredibly attentive eyes. When he looks at the suspect or the scene, he seems to notice even the movement of air molecules. From this look, Noah Johnson immediately begins to frantically remember whether he filled out all the reports correctly.

Character:

• Essence of character: Absolute composure, discipline and loyalty to duty. Sheriff Yamamoto is a rock against which any mystical anomalies crash. If a poltergeist rampages in the city, Yamamoto does not run in terror, but calmly takes out a notebook and records "a violation of public order at an unspecified time." For him, the law is above all, even if this law has to be applied to evil spirits.
• In communication: Extremely polite, reserved and concise. He speaks in a quiet but weighty voice. He never shouts, but when he pauses in speech, the room becomes physically cold. He has a habit of bowing slightly when he meets, which looks very colorful against the background of the general chaos.

Features:

Yamamoto has a special internal coding for the walkie-talkie so as not to scare civilians. For example, the code "Code 404 on the outskirts" means that forest creatures are wandering around Ashot's shop again. Ashot himself, at the sight of the sheriff, respectfully clicks his tongue: "Wai, Yamamoto-jan is coming, there will be order now!"

Ashot Kuroplat (Ashot's uncle) keeps his own fruit and vegetable shop on the outskirts of the city.

Nationality: Armenian.
Gender: Male
Position: Merchant
Age: 45 years old

Appearance:

• Colorful Southern Giant: A strong, broad-shouldered, stocky man with a good-natured but strong-willed face. He has thick, pitch-black hair with noble gray on the temples and a luxurious, neatly trimmed mustache, of which he is very proud.
• Eyes of a Wise Merchant: Large, brown, incredibly warm and cunning eyes. They glow with Caucasian hospitality, but Ashot instantly notices if someone is trying to steal an apple from the counter or looks suspicious.

Personality:

An absolutely down-to-earth, generous and practical person. Ashot refers to island mysticism with a truly Caucasian fatalism. Well, fog. Well, howls. Well, glowing eyes from the bushes. The main thing is that the product does not rot! He does not panic, does not look for ancient grimoires, but simply lives his best life and feeds the city with vitamins.
He speaks with a juicy, colorful Armenian accent, stretching vowels and actively gesturing with his hands. His speech is full of metaphors, wise toasts and sayings like: "Hey, dear, why are you so sad? Eat a peach, a peach – like a kiss from your mother, it cures all problems!"

Feature'When

Ashot needs to make a fool of himself in front of Mayor Felix Schultz or the police because of some incident, his accent sharpens dramatically, and he begins to shrug his shoulders: "Wai, Felix-jan, what kind of ghost-shmivids? Don't understand anything, mine don't understand, I'm just selling a tomato!"

Sister Arabella (surname Fox) is a nun, but due to the fact that there are no psychiatrists on the island, she had to become a nurse in the psychiatric ward.

Nationality: Never said
Gender: Female
Position: Psychiatrist (formerly Nun)
Age: 30 years old

Appearance:

• Contrast of holiness and madness: A young (about 30-32 years old) woman with incredibly pale, almost porcelain skin that appears even whiter against her black nun robes. She has huge, deep and frighteningly calm eyes (for example, dark, almost black), which reflect absolute fearlessness in the face of any horrors.
• Specific uniform: She manages to combine the incompatible. Over her traditional black habit (nun's dress), she often wears a snow-white medical apron or medical gloves. A massive silver cross invariably hangs around her neck, and in the pocket of her apron there is always a bunch of keys to the wards and a syringe with a sedative.

Personality:

• Absolute, frightening calm in the midst of chaos. Sister Arabella cannot be frightened. She communicates daily with people who are crazy about the mysticism of the island (or obsessed with it). She treats any terrible manifestations of anomalies with a mixture of Christian compassion and the strict professionalism of a psychiatric nurse.
• Speaks in a quiet, hypnotic and very soft voice. This voice is able to calm a patient in a seizure more effectively than any tranquilizer. She never raises her voice, but in her softness you can feel such a steel will that no one dares to contradict her.

features:

Her medical record is something. Opposite the patient's name, she may have the following written words: "Take haloperidol twice a day and read the 22nd Psalm before going to bed to banish shadows." She sincerely believes that prayer and modern medicine should work in tandem.

Mikaelo Blum is a salesman in a trinket shop and also the husband of Mrs. Blum.

Nationality: French
Gender: Male
position: Salesman.
Age: 73 years old.

Appearance:

• Walking creative mess: A short, stocky, surprisingly agile grandfather for his age. He looks as if he had just crawled out of his grandfather's attic: always disheveled gray hair sticking out in different directions, bushy eyebrows and a cunning, boyish glint in his eyes.
• Mad Scavenger Style: Wears oversized corduroy pants with suspenders, fun bright socks, and an old work apron with many pockets that are always sticking out of screwdrivers, magnifiers, springs, and incomprehensible gears. Two glasses can sit on his nose at once for different types of work.

Character:

Psycho in the best, most charming sense of the word. Micaelo is an eternal child, inventor and optimist. His trinket shop is a branch of miracles. He loves life, loves to twist, repair and collect all sorts of junk. The island mysticism does not frighten him, but delights him: "Oh, look, Felix, this box howls at night! Isn't that lovely?!"
He rattles incessantly, actively gesticulates, tells stories and constantly tries to give someone something or exchange something. But as soon as Evrli appears on the doorstep, Michaelo instantly shrinks, hides his hands behind his back and turns into the most obedient boy in the world. Her authority is indisputable for him. She is his anchor in reality, and he is her personal personal sun, although she does not show it.

Features:Secretly from his wife,

he supplies Oscar Drahi with strange flasks and antique surgical instruments, and Noah Johnson repairs his perpetually broken dictaphones and phones, adding "gags" to them (for example, Noah's phone after Mikaelo's repair may begin to pick up radio transmissions from the 1920s).

Evrli Blum is the librarian of this place. She was also the wife of Micaelo Blum.

Nationality: French
Gender: Female
Position: Librarian
Age: 78 years old

Appearance:

• Aristocratic austerity and comfort: A tall, dry, but surprisingly stately woman for her age. The personification of the classic style: she wears long woolen skirts, strict blouses with a stand-up collar and an invariable warm shawl on the shoulders.
• X-ray Eyes: She has faded but incredibly penetrating and sharp blue eyes. As soon as she looks over the round glasses on the chain, anyone (whether it's a teenager who is playing too much, Dr. Oscar or Mayor Felix himself) has a desire to immediately apologize and sit straight.
Hairstyle as a calling card: Her absolutely gray, silver hair is always styled in a flawless, tight bun at the back of her head. Not a single hair dares to get out - a clear demonstration of her character.

Personality:

A caring grandmother and a tough supervisor rolled into one. Evrli is the keeper of the island's history. She lived here all her life and saw the change of generations. She sincerely loves this city and its inhabitants to the depths of her soul, treating them like stupid, unreasonable children. But do not expect indulgences from her: discipline and order are sacred to her.
He speaks in a quiet, measured, but unobjectionable tone. Selective in words. He can affectionately call Noah a "child" and immediately slap him on the back of the head with a rolled-up newspaper for bringing energy drink to the reading room.

Feature:

Her library has an absolute, almost mystical rule of silence. It's funny, but even the devilry of the island respects this rule. Local ghosts or shadows wandering into the archives are quiet because they know that if Evrli Blum says "Shhhh

Oscar Drahi is not only a surgeon, but also a pediatrician, ear-nosed, dentist, and even a gynecologist! But he studied only to be a surgeon. All because of the lack of doctors.

Nationality: Austrian
Gender: Male
Position: Surgeon (conditionally - all doctors)
Age: 35 years old

Appearance:

• Killer charm and stature: Tall, broad-shouldered, with impeccable posture. His appearance is the standard of thoroughbred German beauty, multiplied by charisma. He has thick dark blonde (or brown) hair that he carelessly combs back, but one unruly strand always falls on his forehead, driving his patients crazy.
• A look that sees through: Piercing, hypnotic eyes (e.g., ice blue or deep green). In them one can read absolute self-confidence and light, teasing mockery.

Character:

He knows perfectly well that he is damn good-looking, and openly uses it. Oscar is a genius who had to become a jack of all trades simply because there are no other doctors on the island. He can give birth with a bored look, cut out appendicitis in an hour, and in the evening sew up bites from an "unknown creature".
He flirts with absolutely everyone - from 18-year-old girls to elderly matrons of the town hall (which makes him the main favorite of the female half of the island). His humor often borders on stilettos and doctor's black humor, but he is forgiven for everything for his golden hands and smile

Features:

Oscar is one of the few who can enter the mayor's office without knocking, throw his legs over his desk, and pour himself his whiskey. He regularly supplies the tired mayor with strong sedatives or sleeping pills, grumbling that "if the mayor dies of a heart attack, Oscar will also have to run the city, and he already has an appointment for a gynecological examination packed two weeks in advance."

Noah Johnson is the assistant mayor of this city. He runs after him everywhere and does not retreat a step

Nationality: American
Gender: Male
Position: Assistant to the Mayor of the city of Hephaestion.
Age: 28 years old.

Appearance:

• A "fresh" look that is bursting at the seams: Noah is naturally damn attractive - tall, fit, with a neat haircut and fashionable three-day stubble. But if you look closely, his youthful enthusiasm rests solely on energy drinks.
• The eyes of a person who "saw some shit": He has lively, intelligent brown eyes, around which light bruises have already lain due to eternal night watches.

Personality:

He is a fan of his work and is 200% loyal to the mayor. Noah is walking time management. While the boss is gloomily reflecting on global problems, Noah silently and quickly sorts out the consequences: she calls the cleaners, calms down the press and brings the mayor the right coffee. He takes the mystique of the island as heavy work KPIs that need to be closed before the end of the quarter.

Feature:

Noah has a phenomenal gift for conjuring her teeth. He is a virtuoso at lying to journalists and local residents with an absolutely honest and charming face, while the mayor is trying to hide another paranormal evidence behind his back.

Felix Schulz is the mayor of this city. He goes around and deals with all the problems that appear here.

Nationality: Austrian
Gender: Male
Position: Mayor of Hephaestion
Age: 39 years old

Appearance:

A tall, fit German with typical Berlin neatness, which was pretty battered by insomnia. At 39 years old, he has impeccably styled, but already noticeably touched by gray brown hair. Sharp facial features, a strong-willed chin and invariable shadows under tired gray eyes give him out as a person who literally lives at work for the well-being of the city.

Character:

• Essence of character: A rational mind on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He is a bureaucrat and a realist to the core, but he can no longer deny the mysticism of the island. Therefore, he treats devilry as... Another urban problem.
• In communication: Dry, ironic, speaks clearly and to the point. He loves sarcasm. If an ancient demon wakes up in the city, the mayor does not run for holy water, but checks whether the damage from the demon is included in the city budget and how much paperwork will have to be filled out.
• Main Conflict: Dreams of just fixing roads and collecting taxes, but instead has to negotiate with ghosts so that they don't scare tourists, because tourism generates income

features:

• Artifact of Control: Wears an old pocket watch on a chain (possibly his father's or inherited from the last mayor). This clock is ticking... Back. Or they stop when something paranormal happens nearby, serving him as a personal "anomaly detector".

The city of Hephaestion was founded in 1926 just after the massive and last eruption of Mount Peplomante. Its founder was Michael Evans, along with Wanda Evans, who found this island by accident, but eventually founded this city here.

Researchers were amazed to find the remains of an ancient civilization on the island, which apparently burned people suspected of witchcraft. that is why the island was named "Ignis Malefica"

the building of the city:

Let's start with the pier. The pier is located a little further from the city on the shore. To get from the pier to Hephaestion, you need to go along a forest, but not a long, path. The pier is wooden and old, almost without ships. There is almost never anyone there, except for tourists or sailors who come here so infrequently.

After we enter the city, we are greeted by the main street - the Alley, in the middle of which there is a fountain, and on the edges there are someone's houses or shops. Monument to Michael.

If you turn left along the dark brick path, you can reach the Library, where Mrs. Blum works.

Next to her Library is the trinket shop of Mr. Blum, Mrs. Blum's husband.

Going further, you can stumble upon a hospital - it is old, but the only one in the city. Everyone who needs to consult with the only doctor and surgeon in the city - Mr. Drahi - goes there.

Also in the city you can find a mental hospital, it is not large and there are only a couple of people in it. It is because of this number that one Nun named Sister Arabella works there.

On the main street of the city there is the City Hall, where people

gather At the end of the city there is an excellent shop of fruits, vegetables and other vegetation of Uncle Ashot (yes, different people from different countries live here)

There is a Police Station where Sherif Yamamoto works.

There are no schools here, but there are children, right? One of the houses has become a "school", everything is not like in a regular school, for example, instead of chairs and tables, children sit in the living room. And Mr. Jean gets their lessons.

There's a church here, but it's empty, and you can see Sister Arabelle there in between

The island lies on the border between Dutch and German waters in the North Sea. Historically, it has been protected from prying eyes by dangerous sandbanks and frequent fogs. The city on it seems to be an ordinary European coastal town with tiled roofs, but the name itself hints at hidden secrets

On the island there is a dormant volcano called "Peplomante". It can be seen from either side of the island, although the volcano itself is located on its outskirts of the island (in the northwest). He has been sleeping for a long time and has not acted for 100 years, no less.

the city of Hephaestion is located in the middle of an island, surrounded by one dark and terrible forest.

There is also an old lighthouse near the volcano, it works.