Lesser-Edale: Wed. Feb 4, 1925

With a full moon about to show itself tonight, the gang decides to get to the bottom of the recent nighttime attacks in Lesser-Edale, and try to discover if it has anything at all to do with their other cult investigations. They hear a rumor in the Laughing Horse pub that the vicar of this little hamlet is secretly a druid, so they will throw that into their investigations as well.

Since Raju has a connection with Sir Arthur Vane (led his cousin on a safari), he drives a cart up the cliff road to Castle Plum on Wednesday morning to see if he can get an audience with Sir Arthur. The servant who opens the door, however, suggests that Raju send a letter and sends him away.

Meanwhile, almost everyone else checks out the caves at the base of the cliff. All five of the former mining caves entrances are sealed tight with piles of rock. Smaller fissures above the entrances would allow birds in and out, but nothing else.

Mickey returns from his research at the University of Nottingham with some new information, and with a new person: Dr. Edwin Bruce. Dr. Bruce is a psychiatrist who, by complete coincidence, recently gave treatment to Harold Short, the one surviving victim of the Lesser-Edale attacks, and happened to run into Mickey, who was looking for answers to some of the same questions that he was at the University library.

Dr. Bruce says that he has recently seen an increase in patients with very strange stories from the eastern counties of England, Short included. Harold Short believes that Sir Arthur Vane's family is subject to a curse of some kind, and Mickey's research just led him to discover this morning that a certain evil priest named Edward Gavigan in 1714 put a curse on the Vane family which involves full moons and beastly transformations. Dr. Bruce would like to help the team get to the bottom of these weird happenings.

Sullie tries his hand at spying on the vicar, the Right Reverend Jeremy Stratton, whose church and vicarage are on the edge of town. As he wanders the adjacent graveyard, the vicar's elderly housekeeper comes out and chats with him. She reports the vicar to have been more nervous in the last month, praying more and locking himself in his study more.

Late that night, Dr. Bruce, Pancho, & Sullie knock on the vicar's door, force their way in, and hold a gun to his head, demanding to know who he really is and what he is doing. He is horribly shaken, and eventually admits that he is translating a very old diary (18th century) of a past vicar who was trying to deal with the "Gavigan curse" that is on the Vane family. What parts the vicar has translated out of ancient Greek (not his forte) confirm that the curse indeed changes some members of the Vane family into werewolves during a full moon.

Pancho discovers a photo on the wall of the vicarage: "Derwent Valley Order of the Golden Druid." It appears to be a group of mostly women and children who might have just come from Sunday School, sitting at a picnic. His "druid" group is just a historical society with an interest in pre-Roman Britain.

The clock in the vicarage strikes midnight and suddenly the horrible howling noises begin echoing throughout the town. The investigators, armed with all manner of silver bullets, trace the sounds to the fissures in the cliff wall. The origin must be a lower chamber of Castle Plum.

Gun to his head, they drag the vicar with them up the cliff road to Castle Plum. They make use of the big knockers, and the surly servant opens the door. The vicar, with Dr. Bruce, persuades the servant to rouse Sir Arthur, while the rest of the group hides in the shadows. As soon as the servant is gone, all others rush the house and search for stairs going down.

The kitchen leads down to a wine cellar and storage. Eventually (when Suzie finds a key), they discover more steps that lead down to an ancient dungeon, complete with torture chamber and holding cells.

Pyle is relieved to see that the torture equipment looks very old and out of usage. The howling now is horribly intense and coming from behind an iron door. Suzie, Raju, Babe, and Pyle all slam into the door to force it open, and--sure enough--there in an iron-cage cell at the end of the hallway is a nasty looking thing, half human, half beast.

Green Vials, Green Valleys

Monday, Feb. 2, and Tuesday, Feb. 3, 1925

Once they are in full force, the gang decides to return to the Shipley home and check for boogadees in the basement. It is a relatively calm trip, though. A careful search of the house, top to bottom, reveals only a few new things: a lacquered box in Miles's closet that contains a syringe and a vial of weird-looking green stuff. A secret room in the basement contains some strange symbols on the wall, large jars full of various substances that are beyond anyone's reckoning, and a stone tub. Sullie does not hesitate. He opens the tub. A severed (and chewed on) head looks back at him. The gang decides to leave the place, but take along all paintings, along with the green stuff in vials.

Back at the hotel, they finally decide to let Miles Shipley go, paying him a sizable amount of money for his paintings. He'll probably be fine...

At the bar that evening, feeling very sad and confused about the Oscar's fate, the gang happens to meet a certain Raju Thomas, a former Sikh soldier who now hosts safaris in the Punjab jungles for spoiled Brits. He hears some of what the investigators are up to and is fascinated, having some experience with murder, Thuggee, and the unnatural things happening in jungles. He asks if he can tag along...

After leaving Oscar's special mask in the hotel safe, everyone hops into the car and heads north out of Lodon towards Lesser-Edale. About 130 miles north of the city, near Derby, is the valley of Derwent, one of the most picturesque parts of England. Its valleys are covered in a new snow today as the gang finds the tiny town of Lesser-Edale: thirty homes with thatched roofs, the Laughing Horse Pub, limestone cliffs with waterfalls. Atop one of the cliffs is the Castle Plum, home to Sir Arthur Vane and his family.

The investigators waste no time entering the pub, chumming up to the locals, and finding plenty of people who will cheerfully talk about the strange night-time attacks of the area that have left two dead and one out of his mind.

Farmer George Osgood was "torn to shreds" on the first night of attacks, several months ago. Miss Lydia Parkins, twenty-year old daughter of horse-dealer John Parkins, was killed the next night. His neighbor Tom Corty witnessed it, and the investigators got from Tom Cortny that he saw Lawrence Vane, son of Sir Arthur, fleeing the scene. Wheelwright Harold Short survived the attack on the third night. He lives alone in Lesser-Edale, but is now recovering at his brother's house in Norfolk County, half a day east of Lesser-Edale. One villager reports that after the attack, the only word he keeps repeating is "Gavigan."

Mickey discovers that the University of Nottingham is only an hour away, and decides to try his hand at doing some research on the area. Maybe he can dig up something useful. Suzie drives him out there for the day.