Episode 19 - Miss Vane's Dirty Little Secret - May 18, 2025

Cast of Characters

Present

Player	Character	Background
John	Keeper	Bringer of torment and delights
Todd	Lawrence “Skinny Larry” Simons	Inventor, saxophonist, and engineer
Cyle	Aaron Winters	Occultist
Eli	Dr. Kenneth Filmore	Wealthy medical doctor and neurosurgeon

Sleeping it Off

Player	Character	Background
Eric	Father Gerald “Gentleman Jerry” O’Shea	Catholic priest, former bare-knuckles boxer
Scott	Ritter Gunter “Stig” von Stiglitz	Former German POW

Journal

From the journal of Lawrence Simons

Thursday, February 12th, 1925

We started the day with a true English breakfast at the Laughing Horse Inn. Kenny and Aaron were up for a day of adventure, but Jerry and Stig decided to spend the day in bed.

Our plan was to go to the vicarage (that’s a place where a vicar lives), and then explore the tor. Today is a full moon, and we’re ready for action.

At the vicarage, we met Mrs. Bright, the housekeeper. She directed us to the church, where we met with the vicar and discussed the matter of the attacks, howls, and deaths.

Vicar Stratton did indeed see the beast. He glanced it in the mist, and heard its heavy breathing. It was a huge shape with red eyes, he said. He bolted into the house for safety, and heard the beast howl again.

We inquired along the lines of whether the beast seemed like a rabid dog, or a person wearing a disguise, or something else. The vicar thought the eyes were about human height, but maybe it was a dog standing on its hind legs. But when it howled, it sounded definitely unearthly. The town has been plagued with howling on the full moon going back three months, he told us.

We also learned of an age-old folk tale called The Black Dog of Eadale. It’s a beast that was said to attack sheep. But the vicar pointed out that much of England has folk tales of this sort, dating back centuries.

After learning all we could, we said goodbye to the vicar. We rented a truck in Eadale, and took an extra can of gas with us up the tor. We spotted the burial mounds, and walked around them. We also found the mines, and learned there is active mining going on there. On the Mam Tor was a birdwatcher named Bill. To pass the time, we looked for birds with him for a while, but I don’t think any of us are natural birders. Our attempts to acquire one of the recently-mined gemstones as a souvenir were unsuccessful.

In preparation of nightfall, we set up between Plum Castle and Lesser Eadale. Then night fell, and we heard the howling. It sounded as if it was coming from many places at once - all over the region. But as the howling went on, I got the impression the main sound was coming from Castle Plum, and the confusing cacophony was due to echoes from hills and such.

Kenny drove Aaron and me up the hill to Castle Plum, where we parked. We spotted a mausoleum, which seemed like a natural place to start our search. On entering, we found it to be very damp, and there is a mysterious claw mark on the inside of the old wood door. But the mark looks old - ancient, in fact, maybe a hundred years old.

It’s a two story mausoleum, unlike any I’ve seen. So we headed down the stairs. The howling got even louder. We stopped to look at some of the nameplates, and found the oldest names in the Plum family were from the 1700s.

On the floor of the lower level, a stone was out of place, so I moved it aside and we found a tunnel leading down with a rusty ladder. Of course we descended. The ladder stopped in a natural cave. Leading ot of it was a man-made tunnel leading toward the castle.

The tunnel just stopped, which seemed fishy. So we looked for a secret door and found one! Kenny opened it up, while Aaron was ready in the doorway with a drawn gun. The door opened into a small finished stone cell, and there before us was a wolf with glowing red eyes. Aaron and I both took shots at it, and it swiped its claws but missed. In a split second, I made the call to retreat, and so Kenny slammed the door back closed.

We backed out the way we came, deciding it was time to confront Lord Vane about the horror in his basement. We knocked at the manor house, and eventually Lawrence Vane answered. Having narrowly escaped death, none of us were in the mood for pleasantries, so we demanded to see Lord Vane. Motivated by some threats (and two angry armed Americans in his foyer), Lawrence took us to his father, and we had a revealing conversation.

The beast, it turns out, is his daughter Eloise. Three months ago she first changed, a couple weeks after her 21st birthday. Lord Vane thinks the curse has something to do with turning 21. That seems strange to me, but it’s all strange. We questioned Lord Vane if this is some sort of a family curse, and it’s uncertain. Eloise is the first girl born to the Vane family in memory. For some reason, Vane men only make boys as far back as Lord Vane can remember.

Lawrence then led us to the basement, and then to the old dungeon (yes, this castle is old enough to have an actual dungeon, just like in story books). From the dungeon, we got to the cell where they locked up Eloise, one cell of a dozen.

But to everyone’s surprise, Eloise has escaped! Even in beast form, she was able to open the secret door, and went out the mausoleum that way. Now she is running amok around the county, and it’s partly our fault.

Now we need to go pursue the girl, by truck and shotgun.