In the present day, two people are drawn to the Irish seaside village of
Doolin; Ellen, a university student with no memory of her childhood who receives a letter from her deceased mother Ingrid, and Keats, editor of the struggling occult magazine
Unknown Realms, who receives a phone call from a woman who says that
Faerys are attacking her. Upon their arrival at Doolin, Ellen quickly befriends villager Suzette. On the night of
Samhain, Ellen and Keats enter the Netherworld, the realm of the dead, through portals and gain power over monsters called the Folk. They are respectively guided by Scarcrow and Belgae, liminal beings known as Half-lives. Ellen meets and allies with the Faery King, who seeks to restore the Netherworld's Core and defeat a faction of rebel Faerys, while Keats allies with the rebel leader Livane, whom Belgae serves. The Faery King reveals his true goal of merging the Netherworld with the human world due to their conflict having driven the Netherworld into despair, but Livane, who is the last descendant of a human clan that sealed off the Netherworld from humanity, seeks to maintain the separation. Meanwhile, murders begin to occur in Doolin, with the victims being people who knew something about Ellen's past, with Ellen helping the survivors by interacting with their spirits in the Netherworld. During her adventure, Ellen learns that when she was a child, she lived in Doolin under the name Cecilia, with her family sharing the same lineage as Livane. She befriended Herve, who was terminally ill; after Cecilia was injured in an accident, Herve donated her blood to save her through a blood transfusion, but died as a result. Her death caused the town to hate Cecilia, as they considered her to be responsible for her death, but a Faery had been possessing and influencing them. Ingrid killed Herve's father when he attacked Ellen, then hid Ellen in the Netherworld and fled from Doolin with her. Herve's mother wrote the letter that Ellen had received, having planned to kill her, but Ingrid's spirit killed her before she could do so. Suzette is revealed to be the current culprit, having sought to stop Ellen from learning the truth about her past after seeing Ingrid's spirit. Upon reaching the Netherworld Core, which has been corrupted by human malice, the Faery King is killed. After recovering her memories, Ellen decides to keep the worlds separate and is forced to fight Scarecrow with help from Keats and Livane after he absorbs the malice and declares that he will spread death to the living world. In the Netherworld Core, Ellen remembers that Livane told her of the place's power and that she had used her blood to make a wish for people to cherish life, creating Scarecrow. Ellen finds Livane, who, as she is dying, tasks her with helping anguished humans through the Netherworld. Keats learns that he is a Half-life created by Herve's dying wish and mentally summoned to Doolin by Herve's wish to protect Ellen; the magazine
Unknown Realms had closed down shortly before Eliot's death, and his appearance is based on Ellen's childhood drawing of what Herve would have looked like as an adult. The game ends with Suzette disappearing, Ellen leaving Doolin with its inhabitants better off, and Keats being visited by a grateful Ellen at his office in the Netherworld. ==Development==