A grey November morning in 1865 and our heroes congregated for breakfast at the Cheshire Cheese Inn in Cheddar. A conversation with the landlord revealed that the woman Annie Brown whom the party 'rescued' the previous evening had lost her mother recently. The landlord himself remained vehemently convinced that Sarah Verrell was the root of all evil in the village of Cheddar, and that the Reverend James Hatherley was simply not doing enough to drive her out.
He did give the party directions to the farm of William Chubb, which was about 30 minutes' walk away in the direction of Axbridge. On the way Lord Fallowdrake noticed Chubb's fields were ploughed with large, anti-clockwise spirals, about 50-70 yards in diameter. Arriving at the farm, they found Chubb eating a late breakfast in his parlour.
A somewhat heated discussion with Chubb ensued. The team learned that he had been in contact with a group of six people from Bristol, claiming to be archaeologists, who had excavated the plague pit at Cheddar over the previous winter. They had been to Cheddar several times, and one of them was Hiram Quill, last seen unconscious on a train leaving Glastonbury for Bristol.
Chubb is aware of the existence of the Hollow Wight and seems to recognise its evil, but his focus is very much on Verrell, whom he wants to see expelled from the village or "dealt with." He said he moved from Bristol to Cheddar to make money from farming. He admitted being in correspondence with Isaac Merrow, whom he still seems to hold in high regard.
Chubb said that his fields were being repeatedly ploughed up with the odd spiral patterns and blamed this on demons in league with the witch Verrell. Sadly the interview became argumentative and led to Dr Fitzpatrick storming out and Chubb ordering the others off his property. He took a particular dislike to William.
 |
| William Chubb |
The investigators moved on to Sarah Verrell's cottage, but here they found the front door had been smashed in and there were signs of disturbance inside. There was no evidence of Verrell. Their hunting dog picked up the scent, however, and Roddy managed to find an impressionable young neighbour who told him that a group of villagers attacked the house in the night, dragging Sarah off to the caves. The party repaired back to the inn to pick up their weapons and equipment.
Here Roddy encountered a strange, well-dressed man in his room who seemed to know him. It quickly became apparent the man was in fact a vaesen, a stag spirit who said Roddy had stolen its antlers and offered Roddy the return of his beloved Arabella Sinclair in exchange for them. Roddy agreed to a pact with the man, who transformed into a human in robes with the head of a deer. It offered the Scotsman a fragment of antler which it said could be burned as part of a ritual to banish the evil in the caves, before vanishing into thin air.
A somewhat pale Roddy and the rest of the group hastened in the direction of the caves in the hills above Cheddar, and found six young farming toughs guarding the cave entrance. The farmers retreated into the caves and the party followed. William threatened the men and strangely four of them appeared quite terrified of him and fled, leaving only two to fight the party, who quickly overpowered them. From here they used their dog to track fleeing farmers deeper into the cave system, using the map from the Exeter archive to navigate by lamplight.
A second cavern was located, in which five farmers were obviously about to burn the captive Sarah Verrell. A second battle broke out, with two farmers fleeing from William. The others were defeated, sadly two were shot and killed (one took a bullet in the head from Dr Fitzpatrick). Verrell was freed from her bonds. It was at this point however that an earthquake started, and a dreadful apparition formed from the chalky wall of the cave...
Next time: The Cheddar Giant
Comments
Post a Comment