O Apple Tree

On the edge of town there is an apple tree that stands alone in a field, its branches picked clean of fresh green apples around summertime by the town’s children. This year is no different as the children make the journey across the field, keeping below the line of the hedges to avoid the farmer’s eye line, and filling their upturned shirts with apples before making the return journey back to market to sell the apples to the market stall, eating the choicest ones on the way.

However, something is different this year. The children fall sick and are confined to their beds, and a few even die. Thankfully no one else eats the apples and gets sick, but the town is still looking for someone to blame for the deaths of the children.

Possibilities

1 Farmer Evan Wolcott’s farm is failing, and every year he has had a smaller harvest, and had to sell on a little of his land to neighbours. Wolcott has turned to extreme measures to protect his interests, and a few months ago he turned to the books locked away in the attic that had belonged to his brother, the one who had travelled east to learn about magic and summoning.

On the first day of summer, Wolcott carried out a solstice ritual from the book and asked for the old gods of fertility to bless his farm, which they did, infusing the farm with a vigour that Wolcott had never known before. The nature spirits that guard the farm against ruin are ruthless. The spirits struck out against the children for stealing from the farm, and the sickness will kill the rest of them if something isn’t done.

2 The apple tree had a name a few hundred years ago; the Gallows Tree. A notorious witch was hung from the tree by the name of Jane Williams and her last words were reputed to be that she’d live on forever. Williams used magic to bind her spirit to the tree, and she has remained within the tree since then. She has strived to recreate her old body by exerting her limited influence on anyone who lingers near the tree and has been responsible for a small number of murders and suicides in the town.

When the children came this year, she tried a new tactic by transferring a portion of her soul to the apples the children picked. The cursed apples will eventually kill all the children and Williams plans to reanimate their bodies and then enact a ritual to restore her body.

3 The apples have nothing to do with the sickness of the children, but the man who bought the apples from the children did. The apple vendor is a serial killer who travels from town to town poisoning children. He gave the children some poisoned sweets as thanks for the apples, which cause the sickness. 

© 2009 Paul Hebron

Hoarder of the Unspoken Words

When you step inside the damp, dark forest and walk straight for about a mile; you will come acrose a cave made of solid granite. If you dare step inside; you will have two tunnels to choose from. If you go to the right one, you will fall to your death over a steep cliff. If you go to your left you will enter an open, hollow space.

Image by artflow.ai

You will probably fall dead when you see the crumpled figure in front of you, but if you don’t you will be able to cast your eyes upon the lady’s face. She will give you a toothless smile. You will ignore her and look around the small cave. Will you will notice are many shelves, and thousands of jars piled on those shelves. Then maybe, if you have a keen eye, you would notice that inside the jars, small entities whizz around.

The old hag would take one step closer. You won’t notice her, because you are in awe at the contents of the small cave. The old lady will promptly topple you over. She will bend down and inhale your soul. Your voice will soon follow your soul. You will die instantly, and the lady will place your voice and soul in an empty jar.

Possibilities

1 When unlucky visitors like you stumble upon the old hag’s cottage, she grabs you, sucks out your soul and your voice, and places them in a jar. It is said that only one person has ever escaped from the witch. Nobody knows for sure why the old thing collects people’s souls and voices, but some people say that she never had her own soul or voice, so she doesn’t want others to have some either.

2 The old hag is just a hallucination of the mind. After wandering for about an hour in the forest, most people are so used to the damp darkness that they start having crazy illusions. Humans shouldn’t be in pitch dark with their eyes open for more than an hour, so it is very possible that this is the case. The hallucination is probably very strong, so the people who see it die.

3 The witch is just a made-up story.

© Sakuni Egodawatte

Fallen Grace

It’s been happening for three days now. At first I thought it was a trick of the light, or that I was short of sleep.

If only.

I see her in mirrors, in windows, in puddles of dirty rain-water. Sometimes she’s alone; sometimes, there are others, behind her. Waiting, watching.

Her name is Grace. I don’t know how I know that, but I do.

I also know I’ll be seeing her soon.

Grace appears to be a young girl with long, straggly blonde hair and guarded blue eyes. She’s dressed in rags, and looks like she’s been surviving on her own for some time now. She can be seen in any reflective surface; at first she appears infrequently, but as time passes and her urgency increases, she begins to haunt her target.

Possibilities

1 Grace’s father, Professor Henry Avebury, worships something ancient and nameless. Centuries ago the creature’s body was destroyed, and now its mind roams free, seeking a way back to the world. A month ago, Professor Avebury performed a ritual on Grace to draw the beast’s essence into her body. Unfortunately for Henry, the ritual backfired; Grace was left with limited telepathic abilities, but was otherwise unharmed, and the beast was drawn into Henry’s mind instead.

The beast isn’t shy about calling forth servitors to do its dirty work. Grace is desperate for help, and is calling for it, although she doesn’t know it.

2 In life, Grace was a powerful witch. Six years ago her cottage burnt to the ground; she was trapped inside, and her body was reduced to ash. Her soul, however, survived, and now it’s looking for a way back.

Grace can manifest physically in a shape of her choosing for up to a minute at a time, but must rest between manifestations. She needs to persuade someone to carry out a ritual to bind her to a new body if she is to have any meaningful existence.

She tells the investigators about an invisible hunter which can shift in and out of reality; she claims that this beast is what killed her, and that the ritual she wants the investigators to perform will banish it. 

If necessary, Grace is prepared to kill to provide evidence of her claims.

3 A shape-shifting creature is hungry, and has found that victims are easiest to take when alone and desperate. Who can ignore a helpless child in terrible danger? And who’s going to tell people about someone they can only see in mirrors? The creature preys on the minds of its victims, hounding them until they no longer dare to look in a mirror, until they hide alone, afraid, in the darkness -- and then it strikes. 

© Matt Harvey

Eyes in the Mirror

Local night time drivers have been reporting seeing strange eyes following their vehicles when they look back in their rear-view mirrors. The eyes seem to all have appeared as they drove down a stretch of local road known for strange occurrences, accidents and mysterious crimes. So far none of the drivers has reported anything more than a simple presence of the eyes, but every person reporting them has been so frightened by the encounter that they have stopped using the road or at least only used it before nightfall.

Local authorities have dismissed the stories as the stuff of rural folklore and urban legend. Many of the witnesses have reputations as crackpots and other local persons of “character”. Still, the locals all share a certain feeling of dread for the eerie phenomenon and the growing dread of the town can be felt.

Possibilities

1 The eyes are the result of a local witch bent on driving the township to madness out of revenge for some past event. Perhaps she or one of her ancestors was a victim of the township. Perhaps her vengeance is focused more toward a specific member of the community but indirectly through sewing unrest among the townsfolk.

2 The eyes are a manifestation of a malign spirit that has haunted this region for centuries. The spirit comes and goes, stirred by the actions of the community until it reaps its vengeance on one or more of the townsfolk.

3 The township is the stalking grounds of a legendary creature, such as a Moth Man or Owl Man, that has remerged in recent months to hunt and prey on the townsfolk. The creature is remarkably selective about its prey and the sightings in the rear-view mirrors have only been coincidental spotting of an otherwise stealthy and crafty beast. Nobody knows who the creature will choose as its prey but all live in dread as its presence in the community grows.

© Eli Arndt

The Lady Macbeth

When the investigators are stalled in the investigation of a crime, their suspicions are drawn to a middle-aged woman of nervous disposition, who seems to have few friends, wears black gloves in spite of the summer heat and frequently excuses herself to ‘powder her nose’. It is eventually revealed that the woman’s hands are continually covered in blood, which no amount of washing can remove.

Possibilities

1 The woman is a witch, and her family has long been suspected by the townspeople of conducting degenerate rituals and blasphemous rites for personal gain and to bring about ill-fortune for those who slight them. However, her recent attempt to summon Azathoth itself went terribly wrong and robbed her of her sanity. In trying to remove the remembered taint, she has developed an obsessive compulsion to wash her hands. She scrubs them so raw that they bleed.

2 The woman is a scientist examining meteorites for signs of life. Her studies involve taking samples from fresh meteorites and incubating them to coax any life-forms that may be present to vigour.  Upon analysis, the substance on the woman’s hands turns out not to be blood - at least, not blood in its original form. It is an ichor that seems to have something chemically in common with the faeces of vampire bats. The ichor is in fact the visible manifestation of a parasitic alien organism, which draws the blood into its invisible body and then excretes it. Thus, no amount of washing will make these hands clean.

3 She is suffering from the rare condition of acquired haemophilia, which was triggered by pregnancy. One month ago, she brought a daughter into the world, and her condition has rapidly deteriorated. The pain and stress caused by haemophilia probably contributed to the severe postnatal depression she felt, which led her to smother her baby with a pillow. Although the death was written off as “sudden infant death syndrome” and she has escaped earthly punishment, her guilt has tipped her over the edge. She will not take care of herself and is convinced that her bleeding is not a symptom of illness, but a punishment from God.

© Barbara Robson and Stuart Barrow

Bump in the Night

Mr. Harold Winfield was driving home after a long day of hard work. It was dark and the road to his home in the little town of Biltstone was badly lit, only by the full moon. As he was dozing off behind the wheel he didn’t notice the dark shape crossing the road. Mr. Winfield tried to avoid hitting the figure, to no avail. The humanoid form crashed into the screeching car and flew over it. Harold got out, thoroughly shocked he saw the victim (an old man) lying on the road, unconscious and bleeding heavily. He put the poor man in his car and raced towards the village. There, the old man was put under the care of Doctor White. After surviving the night, the man is now in a coma.

Yet, strange things are happening in Biltstone. Mr. Winfield went insane shortly after a visit to the old man at the hospital. Nurses and doctors often perform their surgeries and other tasks imperfectly, with horrible consequences. Patients are scarred for life because of incisions that weren’t even needed. Babies are born with sickening deformities...

Still the old man lies there, no relatives, only under the care of Doctor White, still in a coma. Dr. White becomes more and more reclusive and secretive.

Possibilities

1 The old man is a rare form of Nyarlathotep. It lets itself become wounded or hurt and then starts to terrorize the people who take care of it. Meanwhile, the caretakers are slowly becoming completely devoted to it, dedicating their whole lives to it. At the peak of this dedication (which even surpasses the greatest love), the old man dies, devastating the minds of the caretakers. Should anyone guess at its nature (for example asking him, while in coma: “Hey are you Nyarlathotep?”) he’ll slap them around a bit, when nobody’s watching, scream and moan, spit blood at them, and die.

2 The old man is a witch. He popped out of a gate and was hit by Mr. Winfield. Physically incapacitated, he cursed him and all his relatives (among them Dr. White and some other hospital employees, after all, Biltstone IS a small village).

3 Doctor White is a mad man. After finding some of Herbert West’s notes in the Miskatonic Library he decided to carry on with West’s experiments. With great success: Some of the employees of the hospital are living dead (hence the accidents during surgery and so forth). White intends to make the old man his Opus Magnum, during several operations (including some rituals) the old man will be enhanced with metal parts. He will then be resurrected and herald the coming of a new human race.

© Kars Alfrink

The Hungry Woods

A small community housing project has recently been completed on the edge of a large wood just outside of town. The project’s aim is to create a safe, pleasant environment for parents and young children. Families move in at the start of summer. Once the school holidays arrive the children begin exploring the wood, climbing trees and going wild out of sight of their parents.

A few weeks into the holidays Annie McElroy notices that food is missing from the cupboards and fridge. At first, she thinks it is her husband, snacking during the night. She doesn’t mention it to him but drops it into casual conversation with the neighbours. It seems everyone has been victim of the mysterious food thief – and nobody has admitted to it.

Possibilities

1 Children are stealing the food. Whilst playing in the heart of the wood they encountered a place where the barrier between the Dreamlands and the Waking World is very thin. The Dreamlands point of contact is the Enchanted Wood, where the Zoogs live. These sweet-looking creatures have befriended the children, who are bring food to the creatures. The children will never tell the grown-ups about their new, special friends, The Zoogs are doing their best to entice the children into the Dreamlands proper, and it is only a matter of time before they succeed.

2 The community’s adult males have been subjected to the dream-sendings of a dead witch. She has been persuading them to bring food to her grave in the woods. The food rots rapidly into the ground and nourishes her body, strengthening it and putting flesh back upon the bones. The men have been obeying her instructions in their sleep and have no memories of their actions.

3 Early in the housing project’s construction a body was found in the woods. The body, that of a homeless man judging by the clothes, was badly mangled and parts looked as if they had burst open. To avoid bad publicity the site foreman had the body buried in one house’s foundations and bribed the workers to keep quiet.

The body belonged to a man who had fallen into a narrow hole in the woods and found himself in an underground labyrinth. There he encountered the Great Old One Eihort who offered him the usual choice: death or become host for Eihort’s brood. The man chose the latter and died when the brood erupted from his body.

The Brood have lived in the wood since then, but some have migrated into the houses, hiding in cracks and the shadows of cupboards. It is the brood that has been eating the food.

© Robin Low

The Fatted Calf

Hilary Eastfield notices that over a period of several weeks she is gaining weight. No matter how much exercise she does or how little she eats she keeps piling on the fat. There is no end to her ever-increasing girth and calculations reveal she is steadily gaining a pound a day. Doctors shed no light on the phenomenon and give the impression that they think she is hiding psychological problems that manifest themselves as a compulsive eating disorder.

Maybe they are right. However, if Hilary asks a close friend to keep watch on her at all times she discovers that the weight gain has nothing to do with excess eating and actually occurs at midnight every night.

Possibilities

1 Hilary has been selected as the next carrier of the Bloated Woman avatar. Upon reaching about 400 pounds she is visited by a tall, strongly-built man with jet-black skin who rapes her. As he does so, Hilary’s soul and consciousness are driven out of her body and the chaos of Nyarlathotep takes over.

2 Hoping to derive power from Ghatanathoa, a witch, cultist and sorceress has identified Hilary as a prime sacrifice. As sacrifices need fattening, she is using her powers to bring this about. If Hilary is unable to track down the witch, she will eventually be visited by a manifestation of Ghatanathoa who feasts upon her living flesh.

3 Craig Hampson is the grotesquely fat leader of a local cult. His voracious eating habits mean that he has had to find a way to rid himself of the excess weight. Whilst trawling through ancient Sumerian texts he found a spell that may help him.

He selected Hilary at random; his trial victim. His spell is a success and weight transfers from his frame to Hilary’s. Once she dies (from obesity) he chooses another victim.

© Simon Taylor

Stones of Doom

The investigators are spending an uneventful night in a supposedly haunted house (it isn’t). At two in the morning they hear the drum of heavy rain, then the clattering of hail. This soon changes to a heavy thumping sound as windows are smashed by severe hail. While trying to block up the broken windows, the investigators see that the hail is not melting on the floor but sinking through it!

One investigator grabs a newspaper, attempts to capture the weird hailstones. These sink right through the paper and into the floor. Another investigator uses a silver tea tray from the table. Only the stones that land on metal survive, leaving three small stones which are of uniform colour and close in size. There are strange markings on the stones...

Possibilities

1 While investigating the stones, the investigators come across the name of Ormand Blecht, a self-proclaimed witch and maker of stone charms. While visiting his remote home, the investigators are attacked by his large black dog, his familiar. They may have to kill it or be severely maimed. This act makes Blecht lie to them about the stones and he says that they are very dangerous in their present state. He recommends the stones be re-assembled during a full moon then buried, so that their power may be neutralized. Doing so causes the stones to hum loudly – and summons two shantaks to assault the investigators.

2 If the investigators re-assemble the stones, the fragments join, creating a solid crystal. This crystal as such is harmless.

Investigation brings the investigators to Dr. Hamilton Crabtree, researcher at Miskatonic University. Crabtree offers to expose the crystal to his light cannon, a primitive laser. (If the investigators refuse, he steals them.) Doing so creates a Field of Silence from the Plain of Sound. (The players must then proceed without speaking to each other.)

The Field of Silence continues to expand until the crystal is destroyed. The Beings of Sghluo (from the Plain) send three dimensional shamblers to guard the gateway in advance of their invasion.

3 The investigators notice immediately that the stones are attracted to each other, almost if they were magnetic. As they near joining they give off a wicked energy. They should not be allowed to join or a great explosion occurs.

Research on the hieroglyphs proves them to be of Atlantean origin, a time when wizards fought battles against each other using such devices. If the stones are placed in separate areas, for example, a safe, a drawer and a pocket, they escape and begin to creep together again. The stones can melt through any non-living material to rejoin.

If the investigators decide to allow the stones to join in a remote place, the explosion occurs and is followed by the arrival of a Hunting Horror.

© G W Thomas

Hunting Pink

A Rolls Royce Silver Lady is parked at the side of the road. An elderly chauffeur, uniform jacket removed, struggles to change a flat tyre. A little way along the road stands a well-dressed gentleman, hoping to secure assistance.

Simon Beaumains (Bart) of Clovenford is the epitome of English nobility; intelligent, educated, charming, handsome, his ancestors may be traced back to Norman times. He is a staunch Conservative and a defender of law, order, King and country.

Beaumains is very grateful to anyone who helps the elderly Grimes to change the tyre on his Rolls. Good samaritans (and their friends) receive an invitation to spend a weekend as guests of the Clovenfords. It is impossible to refuse without causing offence.

Astarte Hall is an impressive English manor set in immaculate gardens and rolling wooded English countryside. The nearest civilisation is the small village of Clovenford five miles from the Hall. Once settled at the Hall, the elderly and very infirm Baron Clovenford is ‘wheeled’ in to thank the good samaritans for assisting his son. He invites them to take part in a weekend of hunting and shooting activities, then retires.

Guests arriving for the weekend include a selection of famous socialites, wealthy businessmen, artistes and politicians. As the weather worsens the enormous fireplaces are banked with logs and brandy is served. The after-dinner party ends in the wee small hours with everyone in a fair state of inebriation.

Next morning there is commotion at (late) breakfast. The Baron has been found dead near the enormous outdoor maze. His body appears to have been torn apart by a wild animal and there appear to be cloven hoof footprints around the body. The Baron is laid in state in the cold of the family crypt.

The telephone lines are down due to the still-raging storm. The chauffeur returns with the news that the main road bridge at Clovenford has been swept away during the night. The area is cut off until the storm abates. There is no need to worry as there are supplies aplenty in the cellar and a backup generator in case the electricity lines are knocked out. “Honest, guvnor.”

Possibilities

1 The Clovenford Hunt (of which many of the guests are members) is an archetypal English tradition, hunting foxes on horseback accompanied by hounds. It provides a convenient cover for the cult activities of the Beaumains family who have been associated with The Black Goat of the Woods for hundreds of years.

Their favourite sport is hunting a human. The Beaumains horses are an unusually robust and temperamental breed as they are fed on human flesh in classical Greek tradition. The hounds are likewise barely domesticated wolves.

Last night the old Baron was forcibly removed as Master of the Hunt by his son. The new Baron immediately takes charge of the situation and organises a rather unseemly wake to commemorate his father’s passing. The wake becomes a drunken orgy and soon the Hunt members get into a sporting mood. Tonight is again the dark of the moon and the Master of the Hunt must organise a special feast to celebrate his ascension. This celebration will climax with the summoning of a Dark Young to assist the Hunt in pursuing their prey. Guess who is to be the prey?

2 The Beaumains’ bloodline has been contaminated ever since the British campaigns against Napoleon in Egypt; there is a ghoulish ancestor some way down the family tree. It is a matter of historical record that the Beaumains usually pass quietly with only an obituary in The Times, all the better to cover up their degeneration into ghoul. It is a family duty to take care of the Beaumains’ ghouls (the elders) who live in the extensive family crypts, obtaining a steady supply of recently buried corpses.

The new Baron has been properly schooled by his late father in his duties but the lessons did not take. His studies in Beaumains’ extensive occult library have prompted him to an alternative course of action. The new Baron intends to make use of this family curse by offering immortality to many of the influential guests (who are confidantes of his). The first step for them is to become cannibals, a well-documented method of greatly extending the human lifespan.

The elder Baron refused to accept this idea and so was lured outdoors and killed by his son. The guests in the know all participated in a sorcerous quickening ceremony and had a taste of the Baron. They were scared off by the elders, prowling out of the crypt, who become restless around the time of their regular feeding. Using their own magical means the elders will soon know of the new Baron’s plans and they will not approve.

One of the guests disappears later that day, kidnapped by the elders. The Baron realises what is happening and looks for suitable volunteers to descend into the crypt to deal with the family legacy. He makes a private faux confession of the family legacy in the hope of gaining sympathy and assistance. If the brave volunteers survive the ghouls then the cannibals may have fresh meat that night.

3 For untold years the area known as Clovenford has sheltered a large coven of witches. The witches were persecuted by the Beaumains in the years following the Norman conquest, and since then the coven has been very secretive. Many of the Beaumains males have died by violent means, attributed to a non-existent curse laid by the innocent coven.

The new Baron is in considerable debt due to poor play at the bridge table. Angered by his father’s recent refusal to cover his debts, Simon has taken violent action. The previous evening Simon killed his father using a rather blunt dagger from the Great Hall, spirited the body outside via the hidden stairway in the master bedroom, then faked the animal attack. The cloven hoofprints were made with a family heirloom; a plaster casting of ‘The Devils Footprint’ which sits beneath glass in the study, a curio dated 1867.

Simon plays upon the idea of the Curse of the Beaumains, telling many old family tales to back up his story. He even shows off the curio in the study. Unfortunately, he was seen returning last night by one of the guests, the actress Mary Bartlett, his fiancée. She confronts Simon later that morning within sight of one of our heroes, then an hour later accidentally falls to her death from the second-floor balcony. Simon again speaks of the Curse but this time he is watching carefully.

© Peter Devlin

Peverill Manor

Possibilities

1 After the curse had struck, the witch’s grave was exhumed and found to be empty. Her corpse was never found and is still buried near the house. Her presence is disturbing the other ghosts, when she is returned to her true grave they will fade away, at peace.

2 Peverill Manor is built upon a ritual serpent people grave. Residual magic in the reptilian corpses is mistaken for ghosts.

3 Psychic emanations from a demon trapped below the manor are picked up by those above and turned into ghosts. The Church-Peverills do not fear the ghosts so the ones they create are benign. Visitors, however, are less relaxed and create terrible creatures that haunt them from their own nightmares.

© Steve Hatherley

Headaches

It is just like any other day, except for a blinding migraine that doesn’t subside until evening. It’s one of those crippling, agonising migraines that results in a day in bed, away from work, away from everything.

As a result, it isn’t until the following morning that you learn that two days have mysteriously vanished.

What you were up to during those two days prior to the migraine is a mystery; your friends and neighbours can’t tell you. In fact, some may be a little disgruntled at the cavalier way you broke appointments and ignored calls.

Little by little, you build up a picture of what you did during those two days…

Possibilities

1 The migraines are a result of fragmentary possession by one of the Great Race of Yith. Full possession was never achieved, and the creature had to leave.

Were you targeted by the Great Race? Had you discovered, or read something? Had you recently dealt with the flying polyps? If so, it may attempt to regain possession, perhaps this time it will be successful.

Hypnosis may recover some of your memories, revealing alien scenes and sensations: your time in the body of one of Great Race.

2 When you awake you find that your clothes are torn, muddy and splashed with blood. As you slowly piece together the missing time, you discover that you were the target of a coven of evil witches. They used powerful magic to possess you, and guide you to their obscene ceremonies.

Did the coven choose you at random? Or were you singled out for treatment? And will it happen again?

3 Nothing else ever happens. Ever.

Sometime later you discover that a small figurine is missing. (The figurine was carved from an oily dark brown stone, and vaguely African in design. Until now it was entirely unremarkable.) It appears to have gone missing during the missing two days. But why?

The Old Cottage

At the end of an old track, a mile long through dark woods filled with twisted, stunted trees lies a cottage. It’s an old cottage, ruined and overgrown with vegetation. The windows gape open, the door is rotting and ruined. Inside, the cottage is pleasantly unspoiled. The woodwork is in good condition, and there is still even furniture inside.

On top of the old beams, between the joists that hold up the first floor, a small coin-sized artefact can be found. The artefact is silver, and not quite circular. On one side is writing, and on the other is inscribed a five-pointed star inside a six-pointed star on one side.

Possibilities

1     The artefact is a ward of protection - it has protected the cottage from the elements, wildlife and dark forces. As a result, no animal will stay in the cottage and plants wither and die. The ward was created by Zachary Bleach, a nineteenth century occultist and member of the Golden Dawn, who used the cottage as a retreat and haven. Removing the artefact from the cottage destroys the ward.

2     The artefact is an old Moroccan coin that has worn over time. It was placed in the rafters of the cottage by the owners as a lucky charm.

3     The cottage used to belong to Alice Catmint, a white witch whose spirit is bound to the place. When she died, her neighbours tried to remove her body, but when they did the cottage started to immediately decay. So, they returned Alice’s body to the cottage, and put it into the bread-oven in the side of the inglenook fireplace. (A local legend has it that bread baked in the oven brings good luck.)

As for the artefact, it belonged to a stranger who sought shelter from a storm in the cottage. The stranger was Alice’s true love, and she only spent one night with him. Before he left the following morning, she stole a coin from his purse and worked her magic on it. The coin brings good luck to the stranger and his descendants, and it continues to bring good luck to this day. Exposing the coin to moonlight breaks the spell.

© Steve Hatherley

The Gibbet Frame

The old gibbet on Gallows Hill in Shropshire had a long and eventful life before executions were moved to the county town of Shrewsbury. Famed executions that met their end on the old gibbet included murderers, arsonists, poachers and even witches. The gibbet’s most famous victim was Salton Paxton, an unchristian person (it is not appropriate to describe him as a gentleman) who incorporated the bones of his victims in the walls of his hall. These were only found after his death, when the hall was being renovated. The hall has since fallen into ruin.

The old gibbet was dismantled, and only the stone blocks that made up the foundation remain, slowly weathering over time.

The timber that made up the gibbet was considered unlucky by the Shropshire residents, and left to rot. However, small pieces of the timber were taken by a witch, Luella Cawford and fashioned into a crude picture frame. Luella was eventually caught, tried and put to death by pressing. After her execution, the magistrates returned to her cottage to dispose of Luella’s possessions. They found the cottage completely bare. No one knows what became of her possessions.

Possibilities

1 Luella cursed her enemies with her gibbet frame. She drew or painted a likeness of the object of her enmity (a person or place) and placed it within the frame. From then on, corruption and foulness would befall the individual or location. If a person, they would suffer terrible accidents, or a wasting disease, or a became the victim of a brutal crime: they rarely lived for long. If Luella was cursing a place, then it suffered from infestations of vermin, vandalism, burglary and worse.

As the curse takes effect, the picture foretells reality. If the picture was of a person and the picture showed a bruise, then that person would soon receive a corresponding bruise.

The frame is now in a property managed by the National Trust. The frame is accurately described as being thought to have once belonged to the noted Shropshire witch Luella Cawford. The picture inside the frame is of a ruined folly in the property’s grounds. It seems that no matter what the Trust do, they cannot preserve the folly.

2 Luella used the gibbet frame to escape her fate. Some time before she was arrested as a witch, Luella poured her essence into the frame. From that time on, Luella’s was able to possess the body of whomever’s portrait the frame contained. Upon leaving the body, the victim had only a hazy memory of what had happened, and was often plagued by nightmares.

It mattered not the accuracy or likeness of the image in the frame. If the portrait was drawn with the intent of being the likeness of somebody, then Luella was able to possess that person. If the frame contained a picture of more than one person, Luella could posses any of them. Photographs, however, do not work.

Over time Luella became quite skilled. She learned to ‘lightly’ possess someone and watch through their eyes and listen through their ears, learning their ways and manners before fully taking over. In this way she saw her enemies act against her, and before she was arrested she took flight in the body of one of the magistrate’s clerks, took her possessions and fled.

With her real body gone, Luella is now a body thief. Her frame is now stuffed with portraits, and when she tires of a person, she simply adds a new portrait to the frame. The gibbet frame is her most important possession.

3 Luella was a kind witch and was commissioned by the local landowner, Sir Arthur Musgrove to protect him and his family from harm. For this she crafted the gibbet frame, and instructed Sir Arthur to place likenesses of those he wanted to protect within the frame.

Luella, however, did her work a little too effectively. The frame protects its wards from ill health and unfortunate accidents, and provides lucky escapes from calamities of all kinds. It effectively grants immortality. One side effect, however, is that the frame’s wards become barren and may bear no children.

Sir Arthur’s family enjoyed good health and vitality for many years, until, for reasons unknown, the picture in the frame was changed. Shortly after, Sir Arthur’s family suffered a run of shocking bad luck, as if their good fortune had run out. They were all dead within the year.

The gibbet frame is now owned by the reclusive Whistler family of north London. Mabel Whistler, on learning of the gibbet frame, understood exactly its powers and dangers, and uses it to protect her family - her sons, daughters and grandchildren. They are all much older than they appear.

© Steve Hatherley

Ghostwatch

St Crispin’s church in Church Stenton, in the Vale of York, is one of the most haunted churchyards in England. Dozens of sightings of a lone spectral figure stalking the starlit graveyard have been reported over the decades. Superstition has it that the last person buried is responsible for watching over and protecting St Crispin’s churchyard, and it is this figure that can is seen stalking the lonely churchyard by night.

The superstition originates from the trial and execution in 1644 of Maggie Green. Maggie Green was accused, tried and executed by legendary Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins and at her trial she cursed the community, the church and specifically the priest who turned her in to Hopkins.

Maggie Green was then buried face-down in an unmarked grave outside the churchyard. It's exact location is no longer known.

Once Hopkins had left the villagers, called upon noted alchemist Hector Speight to protect them from the curse. Speight used powerful magics to ensure that the last person buried would watch over the churchyard and keep Church Stenton safe from Maggie Green’s curse.

Possibilities

1     The southern corner of St Crispin’s churchyard is set aside for the Whitstable family plot. The Whitstables are minor aristocrats and can trace their history in Church Stenton back to the fifteenth century.

In 1650, six years after Maggie Green was executed, Sir Horace Whistable’s daughter died. Sightings of the spectral watcher had already been reported, and Sir Horace quickly reached the conclusion that while it was acceptable for a commoner to watch over St Crispin’s churchyard, it was quite unacceptable behaviour for a member of the aristocracy. So he contracted the family solicitor, Silas Nettle, to ensure that whenever a Whitstable was buried in St Crispin’s churchyard, the service and burial would take place in the morning. And in the afternoon, a second burial would take place – that of someone lower born.

The contract has been in place ever since.

Whenever there is a Whitstable burial in their family plot, their solicitors (now Creep and Nettle Solicitors, based in York) arrange for a second burial that same day. Usually their contacts in the hospitals and funeral parlours of Yorkshire ensures that no laws are broken. Sometimes, however, their contacts fail them – and then they resort to murder.

2     In 1706, as he lay on his deathbed, John Chobham made the Church Stenton community leaders an offer that they found it hard to refuse. In return for an annual fee (to be paid to his family and amounting to 10% of each year’s burial costs), he offered to be the ghost-watch. Forever. The agreement was made and papers drawn up.

Following each funeral, Chobham’s body is exhumed and then re-buried in a new plot - thus ensuring that he continues the ghost-watch and relieves the parishioners of Church Stenton from that particular burden. This continues to this day – and Chobham’s descendants are amongst the wealthiest in Church Stenton.

3     Church Stenton has started experiencing a series of troubles. The village pond has suddenly turned stagnant, killing the fish. A dog has gone missing. A barn has burned down. There have been a spate of mechanical and electrical failures. The church roof has developed a leak. So far, while these incidents are annoying, none of them have caused injury. So far.

The incidents are the result of Maggie Green’s slow return to power. A few weeks before the incidents started, the body of the last person buried in the churchyard was exhumed by the authorities following the re-opening of a murder investigation. The body will be kept until the case is closed.

However, removing the body also meant removing the spectral watcher and without her ghostly jailer, Maggie’s power has slowly built unchecked. Her strength is now growing rapidly, and it will not be long before she is able to dig herself out of her unmarked grave. Until then, Maggie is vulnerable and another burial at the church (or the return of the exhumed body) will create another spectral watcher and check her recent growth.

© Steve Hatherley

The Witch Tree

In North Dulwich, London, there’s an imposing three-storey Victorian house with a large garden set back from the street. In the garden is a curious, stunted oak tree. Leaves never grow on the tree, although flowers bloom each year and it produces curious blackened acorns that never germinate.

The tree is known locally as the witch tree, and according to a local ghost story Eliza Halfpenny, a witch, lived on the site of the present house. Eliza was tried for witchcraft in 1642 by the Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins and burned at the stake in her garden. From the ashes of the fire the oak tree grew, and according to the story, if the oak tree ever dies Eliza will return.

The owners of the house now work in the City. They have a gardener and pay the tree no attention at all.

Possibilities

1 Although Eliza was burned at the stake she didn’t die. Instead she entered a torpid state to recover from her wounds. To the inexpert eye she appeared to be dead. Eliza’s charred remains were buried where they lay, and she remains there to this day.

Normally Eliza would expect to recover from her injuries within a year or so, but before she could recover fully an acorn was planted by Hector Speight (Hopkins’ alchemist). The acorn grew into an oak tree that draws nourishment from Eliza (its roots are entwined around her body) and prevents her from making a full recovery. As a side effect, it produces no leaves and its acorns are infertile.  If the tree is removed or dies, then Eliza will heal and she will return.

2 Eliza died when she was burned at the stake. As the fire died down a rainstorm washed her ashes into the soil. Into this rich fertile soil an acorn fell and, affected by Eliza’s magical residue, grew into the twisted, stunted, leafless oak tree present today.

Although infertile, the acorns produced by the tree do have unusual properties and are harvested each year (without the knowledge of the property’s current owners) by Eliza’s descendants.

3 Nobody knows whether the story about Eliza Halfpenny is true or not (although there are records that Matthew Hopkins was present in Dulwich in 1642) and nobody knows what has caused the oak tree’s peculiar appearance. And certainly nobody believes in witches.

Nobody except the gardener.

The gardener is the latest in a long line of watchers, responsible for caring for the tree and ensuring its health. The line of watchers can trace their existence back to the trial of Eliza Halfpenny – and three other witches in the Dulwich area. The gardener is responsible for all four trees and, thankfully, all are in excellent health.

© Steve Hatherley