Episode 18 - Seriously, Werewolves? - March 23, 2025

Cast of Characters

Present

Player	Character	Background
John	Keeper	Bringer of torment and delights
Todd	Lawrence “Skinny Larry” Simons	Inventor, saxophonist, and engineer
Eric	Father Gerald “Gentleman Jerry” O’Shea	Catholic priest, former bare-knuckles boxer
Cyle	Aaron Winters	Occultist

Sleeping it Off

Player	Character	Background
Eli	Dr. Kenneth Filmore	Wealthy medical doctor and neurosurgeon
Scott	Ritter Gunter “Stig” von Stiglitz	Former German POW

Journal

From the journal of Lawrence Simons

Tuesday, February 10th, 1925

We decided to follow up on the odd report from The Scoop about some villagers getting mauled by a beast. To recap the article clipped out of the paper:

POLICE BAFFLED

BY MONSTROUS MURDERS!

KILLER BEAST SHOT BUT STILL ALIVE?

DERWENT VALLEY RESIDENTS, shocked last month by two murders and a serious assault on a third victim, are still without a satisfactory explanation or perpetrator of the dreadful attacks.

At that time, Lesser-Edale farmer George Osgood and resident Lydia Perkins were torn to shreds in apparently-unrelated murders on consecutive nights. On the third night, wheelwright Harold Short was nearly killed but managed to drive off his attacker, which he described as a ‘grisly creature’

According to the Lesser-Edale Constabulary, a rabid dog was shot and killed on the night of Mr Short’s attack. The police believe the matter to be closed. Nevertheless, local residents have subsequently claimed to have seen and heard a strange beast lurking about the area. Reportedly, the good folk of Lesser-Edale still endure sleepless nights due to the bizarre wailings of the beast on nights of the full moon.

Readers of The Scoop are reminded of their esteemed journal’s long-standing Danger Protocols, and are advised that the picturesque cloughs of the Derbyshire Peak District have been declared to be a zone of High Danger! Residents of the Midlands are advised to remain indoors at night and to report all mysterious happenings to the police and to The Scoop.

As usual, we’re not totally sure how much of the news report to believe, but this does sound right up our alley. So I bought five train tickets for the group from London to Derby and on to Edale. The town of Lesser-Edale is too small to have rail service, so we are hoping to catch a ride the right of the way from a local - maybe a farmer or a taxi or something.

It’s hard to believe there’s any truth to the old wives’ tales of werewolves, but stranger things have happened to us since we got into this line of work. So we gathered up some silver, and snuck into the laboratory in the basement of the Shipley home. There, I was able to fabricate some silvered weapons. Jerry asked for a silver hand weapon, and I did my best to create such a thing, though I have doubts about its long term durability. I also coated eight .45 caliber bullets in silver, and made six silver shotgun shells.

Wednesday, February 11th, 1925

It was a pleasant train ride, and we arrived in Edale mid-afternoon. A local farmer took us to Lesser-Edale for a shilling. He also gave us some useful information along the way. First, he pointed out the foundation of a 3000 year old fortress called Man Tor. Then he explained that farmer George Osgood is survived by his widow Edith. They live on a farm not far from the village. And Lydia Perkins is survived by her father John, who lives in the village.

Upon arrival, our first stop was to talk to Constable Turnwell. He insists the attacks were done by a rabid dog, whose body they burned. We checked into the inn, then walked to the Osgood farm.

We interviewed the widow Osgood about the attack. She described the attacker as a hunched-over form, tall as a man. She is very upset, though, and could offer no other details. So we said goodbye. On the way off the farm, we spotted some claw marks on the fence. Maybe they were a dog, or maybe they were a werewolf, or maybe they were something else entirely.

Doing a little mental arithmetic, we realized that the date George Osgood was killed was a full moon in December. And it just so turns out that tomorrow will also be a full moon!

Once we walked back to town, we visited the graveyard and found the graves of George Osgood and Lydia Perkins, both still fairly fresh. We noticed both of them had identical silver crosses hung on the gravestones. It seems a little strange that the families of the deceased could afford such fancy silver jewelry.

Our next stop was John Parkins - note that we learned the correct spelling of his name is with an “A” and not an “E” as the newspaper had printed. He thought the constable was a fool, and there’s no way a dog did this act.

I don’t know if this will be a useful clue, but Mr. Parkins mentioned that he saw Lawrence Vain on the night of the murder. He is the son of Lord Arthur Vain, whose family lives north of town in Castle Plum. John told us the wounds didn’t look to him like something a dog could do. He was the one who found his daughter dead, which must be a terrible shock. We also learned from him that there is a veterinarian in the town, named Dr. Wilkins. Maybe we will visit him later.

At that point we returned to the inn. There we learned the details of the Vain family. The Castle Plum is inhabited by Lord Arthur Vain and his children Lawrence (age 23) and Eloise (age 21). They have a number of servants, also.

That ended a very long day, so we retired to our rooms for the night. Tomorrow is February 12. We intend to meet Vicar Jeremy Stratton, and then explore the tor before the full moon rises.

Gentleman Jerry’s Conjectures and Musings

Tuesday, February 10th, 1925

The night of the 12th will be a full moon … if we plan to fight some Werewolves, we had best prepare ! Now what was the story I remember … the legend … Silver Bullets and Weaponry … Wolfsbane ? Belladonna ?

I bought some second-hand silverware for a song and had Larry solder the blades of the butter knives (sharpened, of course) to my trusty axe, and the fork tines to a stout silver chain. Others were making little bullets and filling shotgun shells and the like. Preparedness is the key!

I kept the Bobbie on patrol engaged while the others broke into the house in the Mews. After all, it had a pretty nice laboratory, where the lizard-thing concocted its hallucinogenic agents. Perfect for our needs.

I need to remember to add the fellow to my daily prayer list.

Speaking of the Mews, we really should burn that magic painting before the lizard-thing gets out of it and tries to kill me with its knitting needles. Again.

So we went to Derby, then to Edale, and hitched a ride with a farmer to Lesser Edale. Generosity like this almost restores my faith in mankind. He was willing to chat and fill in some of the details of the vicious rabid dog attacks that killed two villagers.

He pointed out an old … Viking? Roman? Burial mound … more of a hill, to be truthful … he called the “Mantoor” (Tor = hill?) and described it as the ruins of an old fort from three to four thousand years ago. I bet there’s a cave there where the Lycanthropes hide! (We were told that the bedrock here has a lot of Limestone).

We checked in with Constable Turnwell, a portly, red-cheeked fellow, to let him know we were here looking for trouble (haha). He fed us a lot of seeming half-truths, but after all we were “outsiders”. He was pretty shifty about the shooting of the “rabid dog” and burning of the body. There was a Veterinarian in the Village, Dr Wilkens. I offered him the first round at the Laughing Horse Inn later in the evening.

We went to that location to acquire rooms. The Horse on the hanging sign looked like it had flames coming from its nostrils. Rather unsettling.

We trekked out to the Osgood farm about a half a mile outside of this small (30 or so buildings) village. We talked to the wife of George (deceased, killed by the dog or wolf or Werewolf), was her name … Edith? She had two wee bairns clutching her skirts and the whole scene was rather sad.

We lied and said we were from a Disease Control Bureau (Kenny knows the vernacular) and we split up to look into the barn (where George shot the wall, it seems, and was torn apart), the house to continue to talk to poor Edith, and the sheep pen (we found claw marks on a fence post). She did see … something … running away on its hind legs.

I passed Edith a portion of my boxing winnings “so that the girls can have a few good meals”, and intend to take up a collection later. The death occurred on the Full Moon in December.

Then we walked back to the village, where John Parkins (father of the deceased Lidea) told us gruffly that there was no dog, that it was a Demon or something.

Later we mused that there might be two Werewolves, fighting over territory - was George Osgood a Werewolf? Was Lidia seeing this young man from the castle, Lawrence Vane? (Tom Corty, a neighbor, stated he saw the guy running from the site of Lidia’s murder, looking upset).

Lawrence is the son of Lord Arthur Vane; the family resides in a castle (“Castle Plum”) nearby. There is also a sister named Eloise. Were she and Eloise ahem “close” ? (Anything is possible, we’ve learned to look at things from all angles). Seems the dead Lidia wasn’t blessed with good looks.

We stopped at the church and found the two freshest graves. Their stones were each adorned with a silver cross. The groundskeeper wasn’t in the mood to chat. Pretty pricey items for a small, poor community, we mused. Who placed them there? Why?

We were told that Vicar Jeremy Stratton also saw the beast. Heavens, I hope the church isn’t involved in all of this!

This, we found out, when drinking at the Inn. A few rounds will improve almost anyone’s opinion of outsiders. We found a few people that also disbelieved that all this was about a rabid dog. No one knew anything about Wolfsbane nor Belladonna. We couldn’t figure out any connection between the two who had died.

What will we do tomorrow? I think we want to hike the “Mantoor” and see if there are any caves. Also we want to go to Castle Plum and see what Lawrence has to say. Oh, and tomorrow will be the full moon, as well!

Shouldn’t forget to mention that we think there’s more than one beastie because they seem to be howling to communicate for different positions around the village. Also there was a third attack - the survivor packed up and left. We need to tell the Constable that he might be … “diseased”.