November 1865 and our heroes have learned that Rev Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, is not happy letting sleeping dogs lie, and has filed a civil suit against Lord George Fallowdrake for the violent assault against him on Glastonbury Tor. Fallowdrake is seeking legal advice and will not need to appear in person at the Somerset Assizes at the end of the month - should he choose to avoid a court appearance (a privilege of a peer of the realm).
Fallowdrake also corresponds with his contacts in the senior clergy, including the Bishop of Bath, whom he recruits in his effort to get the case dropped. Roddy MacLeod writes (anonymously) to Dodgson, hinting that the party has evidence of his pagan activities in Glastonbury which can be brought to the attention of the press (this includes his diary and a photo of him performing a ritual at the Chalice Well).
A hurried note arrives at Harrow House from Reverend James Hatherley in Cheddar, asking for help with an outbreak of "superstitious hysteria" in his village, as well as mysterious spiral patterns being ploughed in the surrounding fields. Graves have been opened and the vicar fears "the Devil is loose in the Mendips".
Research in the occult library at Harrow House found the following:
- Recorded evidence of plague in the area during the Black Death (1348), and swarms of rats emerging from the caves
- Silver bells were traditionally used by villagers in the area to protect themselves from evil
- A doctor called Ephraim Lockett treated miners in the Mendip Hills for a mysterious affliction and wrote in his journal of "unseen voices in the caves" as well as the Heir Below, an entity worshipped by pagan priests
- Isaac Merrow was in correspondence with a man called William Chubb, a student of his, who used to live in Bristol. Chubb reported animal disturbances in the Cheddar district, including livestock mutilations and "unholy births" of rats with too many heads or fused tails.
- Merrow talks in his journals of warning Chubb about proceeding into "the caves beyond the third fall" and refers to the Rule of Six - six hands, six mouths and six hearts.
- The sermons of Father Ambrose of Axbridge in the 1600s mention worship in the Mendip region of something called the Worm Prince and also mentions the "Stag that walks upon the vapours of pestilence."
Fallowdrake summoned the spirit of Isaac Merrow who confirmed that Chubb was a man who "feared the dark" and was impulsive. Merrow did not fully trust him. Fallowdrake felt that Merrow seemed more distant and somehow 'faded'.
The group left for Cheddar by way of Exeter; here they purchased, among other things, silver bells and found a map of the caves in the Cheddar gorge. It is incomplete but they managed to make two copies. They caught the train to Weston-super-Mare and proceeded by cart to Cheddar where they checked into the Olde Cheshire Cheese inn. While unloading their luggage they spotted a house up the street with pipe and accordion music coming from it, and several folk loitering outside.
The landlord of the inn told the party the cottage was owned by a widow called Sarah Verrall, who used it to sell opium to locals. He hinted that she was in fact a witch, and that "something ought to be done about it." He gave the characters directions to the vicarage.
A meeting over sherry with Rev Hatherley discovered that he has been sent a petition by villagers calling for action against Verrall. Among the signatories is William Chubb. He confirmed Chubb now owns a large farm in Cheddar and moved to the village from Bristol in 1862. He also mentioned a group of men from Bristol who came to Cheddar last winter (1864/65) and excavated some of the local plague pits dating back to the 1300s for "archaeological research". He did not meet them personnally. He said they were looking for old bones.
The Adventure of the Shuffling Villagers
While this conversation was happening, William heard some people shuffling past the vicarage going up the street. They seemed to be in a trance of some kind. The group decided to follow them, but got the whiff of opium coming from them. They turned up a lane and went through a wood. One of them suddenly turned around, blocking the way, while the others proceeded onwards. William approached the figure, which turned out to be an animated corpse. The cadaver spoke to William in Latin, but luckily Lord Fallowdrake heard the words too:
"Sorrow is bound into stone/Not in flesh, not in blood,/Let grief lie quiet,/Let this binding hold until its time runs out."
The zombie then collapsed in the mud. William was able to learn that it was wearing 1860s farmer's clothing, had been previously buried, and had been dead some weeks. The other figures were shuffling on, so the group decided to follow them.
The shufflers, indistinct in the rain and the almost pitch dark, entered a gorge with high sides, and approached a cave mouth where they knelt down and began to chant in Old Brythonic. An earthquake started and small stones started to roll into the gorge. The characters saw a giant face form in the cliff above them which spoke in a grinding voice, saying "I see you; against me you come once more, but this time it will be your doom." Larger rocks now began sliding into the gorge and Roddy was injured by falling rocks as the party fled into the night.
Back in the woods, the group conducted a ritual to conform the identity of the vaesen as the spirit of Mordred, the Hollow Wight, who has somehow taken possession of the caves, and is angry. Dr Cedric Fitzpatrick used his Sixth Sense power to confirm that there is a second, more benevolent vaesen in the vicinity, but details on this one remain sketchy, as if it is trying to hide its presence.
The party waited for the return of the shuffling worshippers after the earthquake in the gorge seemed to subside. They turned out to be villagers and not undead. They had not been harmed by the landslide. The PCs confronted one woman with smelling salts from Dr Fitzpatrick's bag. The woman struggled as her trance was broken, mumbling "You should be in the stone..." Eventually, Fallowdrake drew a circle of apple ash around her (I'm assuming he has a bag of the stuff with him) and she passed out. The group decided to carry her back into the village, following the other 'shufflers', who split up and returned to their respective cottages.
The team carried the woman back to Verrall's cottage. The opium dealer did not seem pleased to see them, but recognised the woman - Annie - as one of her 'customers'. As it turned out, Annie's brother Bob was at the cottage sampling opium and agreed to take her home. Verrall did not invite the characters in; they returned to the inn, where the landlord told Roddy that a well-dressed stranger with a foreign (not Scottish) accent had been asking for him and and said he would return for him on the morrow.
The party turned in for the night, and all but Fallowdrake had a dream of the Mourning Queen (bound in Glastonbury in October) sitting in a castle or prison of some kind, rocking an empty cradle while crying tears of blood. She said "Bristol shall be my babe..."
Next time: The Mendip Horror!
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