The Hunchback of Adventure Bay

Prolouge

Ryder: MORNING IN PARIS, THE CITY AWAKES TO THE BELLS OF ADVENTURE BAY THE FISHERMAN FISHES, THE BAKERMAN BAKES TO THE BELLS OF NOTRE DAME TO THE BIG BELLS AS LOUD AS THE THUNDER TO THE LITTLE BELLS SOFT AS A PSALM AND SOME SAY THE SOUL OF THE CITY'S THE TOLL OF THE BELLS THE BELLS OF ADVENTURE BAY Listen, they're beautiful, no? So many colours of sounds, so many changing moods. Because, you know, they don't ring all by themselves.

Puppet: They don't?!?

Ryder: No, silly boy. Up there, high, high in the dark bell tower, lives the mysterious bell ringer. Who is this creature?

Puppet: Who?

Ryder: What is he?

Puppet: What?

Ryder: How did he come to be there?

Puppet: How?

Ryder: Hush!

Puppet: Ohhh...

Ryder: And Ryder will tell you. It is a tale, a tale of a man and a monster!

(A wipe to a dark night. A band of gypsies quietly proceeding down the Seine, hoping to avoid detection. A baby in the woman's arms begins to cry.)

Ryder: DARK WAS THE NIGHT WHEN OUR TALE WAS BEGUN ON THE DOCKS NEAR ADVENTURE BAY

Gypsy 1: Shut it up, will you!

Gypsy 2: We'll be spotted!

Gypsy Mother: Hush, little one!

Ryder: FOUR FRIGHTENED GYPSIES SLID SILENTLY UNDER THE DOCKS NEAR ADVENTURE BAY

Boatman: Four gilders for safe passage into Foggybottom

Ryder: BUT A TRAP HAD BEEN LAID FOR THE GYPSIES AND THEY GAZED UP IN FEAR AND ALARM AT A FIGURE WHOSE CLUTCHES WERE IRON AS MUCH AS THE BELLS

Gypsy: Judge Humdinger!

Ryder: THE BELLS OF ADVENTURE BAY JUDGE HUMDINGER LONGED TO PURGE THE WORLD OF VICE AND SIN AND HE SAW CORRUPTION EVERYWHERE EXCEPT WITHIN.

Humdinger: Bring these gypsy vermin to the Palace of Justice.

Guard: (To mother) You there! What are you hiding!?!

Humdinger: Stolen goods, no doubt. Take them from her.

Ryder: She ran!

(As the gypsy mother tries to escape with her baby, Judge Humdinger gives chase on horseback. She reaches the doors of The Lookout and pounds on them.)

Gypsy Mother: Sanctuary! Please give us sanctuary!

(Humdinger finally catches up to her on the steps of the cathedral. He rips the still covered bundle from her arms, and kicks her, sending her crashing to the cement steps, where she is knocked unconscious. The baby begins to cry.)

Humdinger : A baby?

(Humdinger uncovers the baby's head, seeing the deformed infant.)

Humdinger: A monster!

[He looks around, searching for a way to dispose of the creature. He sees a well, and rides over to it. He is about to drop the baby down the well when a voice (a lightning flash between Ryder and the Archdeacon) shouts out.]

Archdeacon: Stop!

Ryder: Cried the archdeacon.

Humdinger: This is an unholy demon. I'm sending it back to hell, where it belongs!

Archdeacon: SEE THERE THE INNOCENT BLOOD YOU HAVE SPILT ON THE STEPS OF NOTRE DAME.

Humdinger: I am guiltless--she ran, I pursued.

Archdeacon: NOW YOU WOULD ADD THIS CHILD'S BLOOD TO YOUR GUILT ON THE STEPS OF THE LOOKOUT.

Ryder: My conscience is clear!

Archdeacon: YOU CAN LIE TO YOURSELF AND YOUR MINIONS YOU CAN CLAIM THAT YOU HAVEN'T A QUALM BUT YOU NEVER CAN RUN FROM,
NOR HIDE WHAT YOU'VE DONE FROM THE EYES THE VERY EYES OF THE LOOKOUT

Ryder: AND FOR ONE TIME IN HIS LIFE OF POWER AND CONTROL
HUMDINGER FELT A TWINGE OF FEAR FOR HIS IMMORTAL SOUL

Humdinger: What must I do?

Archdeacon: Care for the child, raise it as your own.

Humdinger: What? I'm to be saddled with this misshapen--

(He pauses as a thought creeps across his face.)

Humdinger: Very well. Let him live with you, in your church.

Archdeacon: Live here? But where?

Humdinger: Anywhere. JUST SO HE'S KEPT LOCKED AWAY WHERE NO ONE ELSE CAN SEE. The bell tower, perhaps. And who knows--our Lord works in mysterious ways. EVEN THIS FOUL CREATURE MAY YET PROVE ONE DAY TO BE OF USE TO ME.

Ryder: And Humdinger gave the child a cruel name. A name that means half-formed... Tracker! NOW HERE IS A RIDDLE TO GUESS IF YOU CAN SING THE BELLS OF THE LOOKOUT. WHO IS THE MONSTER AND WHO IS THE MAN? SING THE BELLS, BELLS, BELLS, BELLS, BELLS, BELLS, BELLS, BELLS, BELLS OF THE LOOKOUT

We have wiped from watching Ryder's puppet show to the actual bells ringing in the tower,