Enchanted Wood

Just outside Tunbridge Wells in Kent there is a small wood known just as The Wood by locals. The Wood can be found between Tunbridge Wells and one of the surrounding villages; many people pass by, but few stop.

There are several strange stories associated with The Wood - tales of strange beasts and stranger people living there. Sometimes the animals escape and are seen by locals.

None of the locals dare enter The Wood and only talk of it in hushed voices around frothy pints in the local public houses. It is regarded with some suspicion, as are those that seem interested in it. Nothing good ever came out of The Wood.

The Wood barely appears on any map and can be walked around in three hours or so. However, attempts to explore The Wood are usually frustrated, and the curious usually find themselves at the edge again without having penetrated very far.

From a nearby hill, several tantalising views can be seen. Somewhere in The Wood there is a clearing with a tower in the centre. However, reaching the tower is almost impossible as The Wood jealously guards its secrets.

There are several nearby farms and some of these have witnessed some of the things that came out of The Wood. When they hear the strange growlings and snortings they simply close their windows and wait. Eventually the beasts always return to their home in The Wood.

People have also been sighted coming from The Wood, although their manner of speech is always strange and their clothes even stranger.

Occasionally an ‘Outsider’ will move into a nearby farm and take an unusual amount of interest in The Wood. Such people are avoided by locals, considered troublemakers. The Wood is ancient, proud and should be left undisturbed. Stories of ‘Outsiders’ vanishing into The Wood never to return are quite common.

Possibilities

1 The Wood is a gateway to the Dreamlands. It is where the two realities intersect and travellers can cross. However, the gateway is protected and only the very determined can make their way through. Travel is possible in both directions, and the sightings of people and beasts are those that have stumbled through from the Dreamlands.

2 The Wood is haunted by a ghost of a woodsman who lost his girl. She is buried at the tower and he guards her grave jealously. He will try to prevent anyone from reaching her grave, and has strength enough to form long dead beasts from sticks and stones to frighten the curious. His last resort is his unparalleled skill with bow and arrow.

3 This is one of several special places. Dragons, unicorns, elves and the like all live in The Wood protected from outside interference by powerful magics.

© Steve Hatherley

The Sinne Eater

Morton Blakelock is a tall, dark man in his early thirties. Thin to the point of being underweight, Morton dresses neatly and respectfully in black.

His business card gives his name, business and profession:

Morton Blakelock, H. Blakelock & Sons, Sinne Eaters

Sinne eaters offer a service – they consume the sins of the recently deceased. The practice was at its height in the 16th and 17th centuries, when sinne eaters would attend the funerals of the upper class. In return for a penny or two and a hearty meal provided by the bereaved, they would consume the sins of the deceased, permitting the soul to go to heaven.

Sinne eating requires a salted plate placed over the deceased’s heart. Over a period of 24 hours the salt absorbs the sins of the deceased, and at the end of the ritual the sinne eater consumes the sins by mopping the salt up with damp bread.

In modern times, there are very few sinne eaters left. However, in certain strata of Society their service is still requested.

The Blakelock’s have been sinne eaters since the 1800s. Their exclusive service come at a price.

Possibilities

1 Whether Morton actually consumes the sins of the deceased is open to debate. However, thanks to the circles he moves in, Morton knows many influential families. And he knows many of their secrets.

Morton typically attends seven or eight funerals each year. At times of such distress, inevitably guards are lowered and Morton finds himself privvy to confidential information and family secrets.

Of course, he will never reveal any of it. At least, not while his clients are so generous.

2 Morton’s older brother is now in care in Hampstead following a mental breakdown. Mental illness runs in the Blakelock family, but what Morton doesn’t realise is that the illness is caused by the act of eating sins.

The act, or ritual, of sin eating genuinely does mean that the body of the deceased passes to purgatory without sin. However, the price paid by the sinne eater is that they slowly become tainted by the sins of others, and in due course this can express itself as schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

3 Morton is well known by certain members of London’s Metropolitan Police Service who are prepared to explore unorthodox means to solve particularly tricky crimes. It seems that Morton sometimes knows things that only the deceased would know – and has been instrumental in solving a few particularly difficult cases.

Whether the deceased’s sins are actually transferred, Morton does not know. What does transfer during the ritual, however, are some of the deceased’s memories – and Morton sometimes learns details of crimes and other aspects of the deceased’s life. He is happy to share relevant details to the authorities, provided that his reputation with his clients remains intact.

© Steve Hatherley

The Tattoo

You don't know how long it has been there, but a friend points it out. In the small of your back, on your left side, near your kidneys. A tattoo of a jewelled spider. It is quite exquisite, quite unusual, oddly evil - and a complete mystery. How on earth did it get there?

The design is surprisingly lifelike - except that you are certain that no spider ever looked quite so malevolent. Tattooists who see it are impressed - the design has a richness of texture and colour that they have never been able to achieve.

Yet the question remains. You have never had a tattoo in your life. So where in hell did this come from?

Possibilities

1  Three weeks later and there's a second tattoo, on the sole of your foot. This time it is a reddish ball, which appears to glow eerily.

Then you begin to feel increasingly tired. You have difficulty waking in the morning, and begin to look drawn and haggard. As the weeks pass you become weaker, and fall prey to the weakest of germs. Coughs and cold cripple you; you are quite sick.

All this time, the spider tattoo never moves, never changes. The same cannot be said for the ball. It swells and grows to the size of a large coin. It becomes oddly translucent, and smaller spidery shapes can be seen inside. It is an egg sac.

Then you wake one morning feeling fresher and brighter than in ages. The sac tattoo has gone, but in its place are dozen of tiny spider tattoos, covering your skin. And three days later they are also gone - as has the larger spider, their mother. They are never seen again.

2  Over a period of time, the tattoo seems to get smaller. In fact, if you measure it, you learn that it is getting smaller. Then one night, it has gone.

Two days later, it reappears - but on a different part of your body. It is bigger, bloated. And again, over a period of several weeks it shrinks, growing smaller until once more it vanishes. Only to reappear.

This cycle is repeated over and over. Each time the tattoo returns, bloated, corpulent and somehow sated. As if it has fed from something. Or someone . . .

3  The tattoo is the mark of the spider-god. Spiders from all around come to be near their god. Your house slowly becomes infested with spiders. They are everywhere, as are their cobwebs. (There is not an insect to be seen, naturally.)

Wherever you goes, spiders are drawn to you. They climb through your clothes, hide in your hair, scamper across your skin.

They simply like being with you, near you.

© Steve Hatherley

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

Stones of Doom

The stone fragments are at the bottom of a shoe box filled with stone arrowheads. Although now broken, they fragments clearly fit together to form a larger stone. The arrowheads have been collected from Anasazi ruins by archaeologist Dr Rachel Smith. She is auctioning them along with her other finds because she needs to raise money fast.

She found the stones of doom in a previously undiscovered Anasazi chamber, but forgot about them. They have been lying in the shoebox with the arrowheads for years, quite forgotten.

Possibilities

1 The stone is an ancient Anasazi fertility symbol. Originally steeped in the milk of Shub-Niggurath, when assembled (and bound together so that it cannot fall apart) the stone causes everything in the immediate area to become fertile. Everything - plants flourish, insects swarm, rats and mice are everywhere. Milk sours overnight, creeping mould is rampant and weeds overrun the garden.

The stone affects humans as well - curing infertility and increasing the likelihood of twins and triplets.

2 The stone is an ancient Anasazi curse stone. The curse inscribed on the stone can be translated only after painstaking research. From what is left to be translated, the curse appears to have been put on a woman who was unfaithful to her husband. Whether the stones had an effect cannot be determined, although the Anasazi took their curses very seriously and held their shaman in high regard.

3 The stone is an old deep one device. When the pieces are assembled the symbols emit a bright light. The stone fuses together into a single piece, and starts sweating. But it appears to do little else.

The stone is a shoggoth leash, used by deep ones to protect themselves from the terrible shoggoth attacks launched at them by the elder things during the war millennia ago. The stone itself causes any shoggoth that comes near to lose control of its mass, reducing itself to bubbling ooze until the holder of the stone moves away. The deep ones have lost the means to create more leashes, and would be interested in recovering the stone (should they learn of it) to rediscover that lost art.

Quite what the stones were doing in Anasazi ruins is a complete mystery, however...

© Steve Hatherley

Gargoyle's Watch

Every old building has its custodian, often a caretaker, who watches over it. They take care of their ward, undertaking repairs and maintenance and ensuring that the building doesn’t fall into ruin. Custodians know their charges like the backs of their hands.

And old buildings have gargoyles. Often grotesque, always ornamental, gargoyles are everywhere. Custodians can tell you all about the gargoyles - who they are, what they represent, why they are there.

But there’s something the custodians of these old buildings rarely admit to themselves, let alone to other people: sometimes the gargoyles change...

Possibilities

1 When John Dee, the queen’s astrologer, formed the Royal Council of Magii, he did so because he was worried. London was changing. He could sense forces gathering: sidhe, Templars, witchfinders, and others. There was a power struggle looming, and Dee formed the Royal Council of Magii to advise the crown as to the best response.

One of the first commands the council was given was to provide more information. More knowledge. So the Council began to develop a network of eyes and ears.

One small part of that network was known as the ‘stone maiden’, an upright coffin-sized device that, when used correctly, allowed anyone inside it to ‘inhabit’ any gargoyle within a radius of about five miles. The subject’s face would replace the gargoyle, and they would be able to watch and listen.

The ‘stone maiden’ is still in use by the Royal Council, and they are still watching as the forces are still gathering and the true power struggle has yet to begin.

2 The ‘devil’s stone chisel’ is the name given to a stonemason’s chisel found in an unmarked grave uncovered in Wapping in 1782. According to eyewitnesses, the body in the grave was horned and hoofed, and the chisel was clutched in its withered hands. The body and the chisel were quickly removed from the site.

Nobody knows what became of the body, but in 1892 the chisel was used in a series of brutal murders committed by Thaddeus Shrike. Although only three bodies were found (each of them ritually mutilated using a chisel-like implement), Shrike claimed to have killed ten people across London using the ‘devil’s stone chisel,’ which he claimed contained dark magics.

Shrike’s victims, killed by a powerful magic item wielded by a madman, are now restless spirits, their terrified features appearing intermittently as gargoyles.

The chisel itself was never found.

3 Chittern are solid, stonelike creatures of the fae Wildwood. They are ambush predators, waiting patiently for their prey.

Their favoured prey are fae younglings, who are cast into the Wildwood by their unfeeling fae parents. Most fae younglings never survive their first year, eaten by chittern or worse. Those who survive are tough, careful and resilient.

Some fae younglings even make their way out of the Wildwood, crossing where the boundaries are weak. In London, those places include the untidy corners of parks and gardens.

And where the fae younglings go, so chittern have been known to follow. Chittern are drawn to old buildings, with their ornate stonework and decorative gargoyles. They are ideal places to wait in ambush...

© Steve Hatherley

The Tower on Dulas Island

In 1821 Colonel James Hughes constructed a stone tower on Ynys Dulas (Dulas Island), off the north east coast of Anglesey. The tower is nine metres high topped with a tapering top, and was provided as a refuge for shipwrecked sailors. The tower provided shelter, and Hughes stocked it with essential foodstuffs.

The tower was only used three times, in 1825, 1839, and 1842 before better maritime aids eventually rendered it unnecessary. The tower still stands on Dulas Island today.

Possibilities

1 Building the tower was a cover story for a greater purpose: the construction of a great ward, protecting Anglesey from invasion. Colonel Hughes was a member of the secretive Order of the Unseen Crown, who regard Anglesey as sacred.

The great ward is made up of a number of individual smaller wards (the exact number is known only by the Order). On Ynys Dulas, the ward was carved into a stone slab that was placed in the floor of the tower, with tiles then laid over it.

Other wards placed around Anglesey’s coast include the South Stack lighthouse and Church Island.

2 A sea-troll has recently taken the tower as its home. For most of the time it stays on Ynys Dulas, but two or three times a month is steals ashore and takes a sheep in the night, leaving behind nothing but a ravaged carcass.

The attacks are being blamed on a big cat, but no cat has been found and farmers are getting restless.

3 An old, mostly forgotten legend describes Ynys Dulas as being the site of an ancient shrine to a fertility god. These days the legend is mostly forgotten, except for a persistent story that couples who are having difficulty becoming pregnant should visit Ynys Dulas on a full moon. Colonel Hughes’ tower provides all the privacy that couples need.

It is all a story of course, although it is also striking quite how many of the local children are quiet, have dark curly hair, and sea-blue eyes.

© Steve Hatherley