Interactive immersive adventure taking place against the backdrop of Bristol history gets first podcast

BRXSTOL project's creator C.T. O'Brien presents the next step in the immersive interactive adventure at the Bristol Public Library this Saturday, from 1 to 3 p.m. | David Fortier

Posted By: David Fortier February 26, 2024

By David Fortier

The first podcast of an interactive adventure by Bristol’s C.T. O’Brien has been posted on the BRXSTOL website, with several more to come during 2024 and possibly into 2025, according to O’Brien.

The first episode, “The Offer,” is broken into three chapters with the first released last week and a second dropping later this week.

“And the third story, regarding the ‘Secret Ending,’ will be narrated ‘in-person,’ old-school style, at the next BRXSTOL live event,” O’Brien said in an email. The live event will most likely be in late March.

There are four other episodes, O’Brien said, that he will create throughout this year.

“I hoped to get it all done by April 2024,” he said, “but the story continues to develop. The good news is that there will be lots more to come in 2024, and maybe 2025, than I originally planned for, and of course, the big secret reveal at the end.”

O’Brien kicked off the interactive adventure mystery at the Bristol Historical Society late last year, when he introduced the characters involved in the search, including Bristol clockmaker Joseph Ives, who at the end of the presentation was waiting to be bailed out of debtor’s prison in Brooklyn, N.Y.

At one point in the presentation, O’Brien pulled a white sheet off a table by the podium to reveal a 200-year-old clock built just down the street from the historical society building by Bristol clockmaker Chauncey Boardman.

The adventure ends with a gathering of participants at a location in Bristol, where they will learn the final clues to solve the mystery. The idea is for participants to take part in the search for an answer to the mystery by familiarizing themselves with podcasts and information on the website.

The website has the teaser, trailer and eventually the podcast, as well as primary sources for all of the research O’Brien uses to develop his storyline. The storyline is a combination of O’Brien’s research and some speculation that adds fictional elements.

The podcast is available here: https://www.brxstol.com/podcast.

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