Melted shoreline¶
The melted shoreline is the stretches of Marblehead's coast, and a crater and wall at the lighthouse, that were fused to volcanic glass by something extremely hot, and the subject that makes the town's chief of police freeze when the task force raises it.
| Type | Phenomenon / evidence |
| Aliases | Volcanic glass; glassy shoreline |
| Location | Marblehead coast and the lighthouse |
| Cause | Unknown |
| First appearance | Summer Service 03 |
Description¶
Behind the lighthouse the team finds that the area beside the viewing platform has been obliterated, leaving a crater that takes out one of the railings. The back of the lighthouse is scorched, with bubbled paint and blackened wood. Looking closely with Investigate a Mystery (Ezra's character the Biz rolls a 14 and asks "what happened here"), the team sees drips of volcanic glass down the back wall, spiky glass filaments on the nails that crumble into micro-shards when touched, and crater rock melted smooth into glass. Andre describes it as if glass had condensed on the building "like water condensing on a cold glass." Inside, every piece of glass in the building is broken. (Summer Service 03)
Dante later tells the town leaders that the team saw other stretches of coast that looked melted, and that they were far too big to be lightning. No recorded scene shows the team seeing these; the sighting presumably dates from the unrecorded Summer Service 02 session. (Summer Service 04)
The chief's reaction¶
At the end of Summer Service 04, after the Board of Selectmen meeting, Dante asks about "the parts of the shore turned to volcanic glass." The chief of police, who has glared at the party, goes very still. The mayor says he knows nothing about it and suggests lightning, or kids dynamite fishing. Dante answers that it was much too large for lightning, and says the team saw it from a boat near the lighthouse. The mayor tells "Jimmy," the chief, to look into it, and the chief nods. The session ends there, leaving the players unsure whether the reaction was a sign of a cover-up. (Summer Service 04)
What remains unknown¶
The cause is never given. In Summer Service 03 the team has also learned of a humming, lit vessel under the water, and the glass at the lighthouse suggests something extremely hot, but no episode connects the two. In the finale the angel thing gives off heat that blisters paint and bursts tires, though no episode ties it to the glass. (Summer Service 03, Summer Service 06)