Mara

Why is there always one extra chair?

Chibi

What chair?

(The feast is over. Lanterns sway gently above the empty tables. Most of the villagers have already gone home.)

Mara

That one.

(At the center of the largest table stands a single empty chair.)

Chibi

Maybe nobody sat there.

Mara

That’s what empty means.

Chibi

Then what’s strange about it?

Mara

Nobody moved it.

(A pause.)

Chibi

Maybe they forgot.

Mara

Again?

(The wheat fields whisper softly in the evening wind.)

Chibi

Adults forget things.

Mara

Not the same thing every year.

(Silence.)

Chibi

What do you think?

Mara

I think the chair belongs to somebody.

Chibi

Obviously.

Mara

Somebody important.

(She looks toward the Green Man wreath hanging above the table.)

Mara

The person they forgot.

Chibi

You keep saying that.

Mara

Because everybody keeps pretending.

Chibi

Pretending what?

Mara

Pretending they don’t know who the feast is for.

(A long silence.)

Chibi

The feast is for everybody.

Mara

No.

Thank-you parties are always for somebody.

(The words linger between them.)

Chibi

Do you think he’ll come back?

Mara

Who?

Chibi

The missing guest.

(Mara watches the empty chair.)

Mara

I don’t think he ever left.

🎲 PLAY EPIC. FEEL THE STORY.
Game: Pulp Cthulhu: By Gaslight
Campaign: Mythveil Chronicles
Theme: June · Summer · The Empty Chair · The Debt Remembered

If you remember what this felt like —
you already know what you’re missing.

Step back into it.

Or keep missing it.

👉 https://startplaying.games/gm/dunchan

Want to go deeper?

Then don’t stop at the surface.

The full stories.

The dossiers.

The forgotten guests at the center of every celebration.

The names history remembers only when it is too late.

👉 https://www.patreon.com/c/mythveilchronicles_bydunchanhuntergames