Chimney Passages¶
The Chimney Passages are a network of secret climbing routes cut into every chimney of the Roulet House, which let the intruder reach any major room from his hidden attic lair.
| Type | Lore (architecture) |
| Location | Roulet House |
| First appearance | Roulet Estate 02 |
Description¶
Every chimney in the house has been modified in the same way, invisibly from the outside. Inside each flue are climbing notches and a gap in the side. On top of each chimney sits a flap that keeps the weather out, also blocks smoke from below, and can be lifted from inside as an exit. The agents had searched the house in Roulet Estate 01 and found no way into the attic (Roulet Estate 01, Roulet Estate 02).
History¶
Kurt breaks up furniture and lights a fire in one fireplace. The room fills with smoke, and he douses it ("My Vietnam instincts are tingling"), then uses a mirror and flashlight to see a gap in the chimney's side and the notches. The other chimneys prove to be the same, and the modifications cannot be seen from outside. Kurt and Andrew climb up; the Biz and Huell cannot fit. A gap where about five by six bricks have been removed opens into the hidden attic lair (Roulet Estate 02).
Andre tells Kurt that someone has lived in the attic for at least a year, probably without the owners' knowledge, and could enter every major room by chimney. The owners had added inside locks to their bedroom doors. The route accounts for the attic Polaroids of the sleeping Roulets (Roulet Estate 02).
Climbing down, Andrew hallucinates that the bricks around him turn into rolling muscle that swallows him, drops three feet onto Kurt, and is talked down by Dante (as Kurt) with "Is it really worse than your dad?" He then realizes that the water he has been drinking tastes strange (Roulet Estate 02).
What remains unknown¶
The episodes do not say who built the passages: the intruder, or someone before him. Nor do they explain how the intruder moved so freely through the house without the Roulets noticing (Roulet Estate 02).