As night falls the public house fills up with locals. Genevieve seeks out the local constable PC Cundy and has Dawn surreptitiously Detect Evil upon him. He does not appear to be evil. Genevieve spends some time trying to worm information out of him about possible smuggling, and ends up realising that Cundy is talking to her to try and get info about smuggling from her. Cundy is apparently expecting that "if there were some smugglin’, right, and it were in that barn what got blown away, then someone’s going ta want an explanation of what ‘appened to their investment, right?"

Cundy’s other suspect is a gentleman in old fashioned tweeds whom he spotted up by the Horne Barn on the evening after the big storm.

All told, Dawn identifies eighteen residually evil pub regulars, including all nine of the Morris Team but not Walter Wode.

Albrecht is possibly the only Monster Hunter except Jimmy Max who stood a chance of talking Bellnichol into producing some "special", given Bellnichol’s distrust of the Club (since they might be (a) revenuers or (b) disgruntled purchasers of non-supplied items). However, Bellnichol has been reassured about Albrecht after a search of the MHC’s luggage and what he found in a little bag stored in a hidden pocket of Mr Arnheim’s suitcase. After a long wrangle (and on a 13% roll), Albrecht convinced Bellnichol to let him try some "special", which turns out to be some imported Schnapps.

Upon applying a Purify Food and Drink spell to the product, Albrecht notes and unusual fizzing side-effect. As Genevieve is advising Albrecht not to imbibe this liquid, Dawn notes that detect as Evil – and not residually. Albrecht disposes of it tactfully down the lavatory, except for the samples he keeps for later analysis.

Albrecht also attempts to ingratiate himself with Walter Wode, but Walter leaves early grumbling about "bars what don’t serve folks".

Meanwhile, Meridian is conducting some experiments to determine the planar co-ordinates of the area just to satisfy himself that he hasn’t slipped into Ravenloft or somewhere. He hasn’t. This appears to be the Prime Material Plane. However, the liquid in the bottle he and Selkirk discovered in the Horne Barn is definitely extraplanar.

Selkirk amuses himself by sitting in the bath and writing equations on the steamy windows. He agrees with Albrecht’s hypothesis that the toad entered the lintel-stone via some sort of teleportation which somehow displaced just the exact amount of matter from the stone to accommodate the incoming object. This is not usual for a teleport of either the magical or psionic kind, which either shunts the teleported object to a nearby location or to the Astral Plane if attempts are made to appear in a solid object. Stone shape might also work, but Meld into Stone would not leave in indentation afterwards, and is usually of limited duration. None of this explains the toad’s apparent longevity.

When the Monster Hunters retire they take precautions such as blocking doors and keeping watches. This makes for some tires people the following day, but nothing untoward happens during the night.

Revell, Radshaw, and Flaxton arrive in London to investigate the missing chocolate bars and the unaccountable disappearance of sixty yards of northbound track from the Bakerloo line.

The Club were originally called in by Underground Station-Master William Fenell, an aficionado of the Proceedings of the Monster Hunters, who managed to convince Line Controller Daniel StClements that this was the best way to solve the persistent mysteries of the various chocolate machines at Waterloo, Elephant and Castle, Embankment, Charing Cross, and Piccadilly Circus. Chocolate bars were being emptied from the machines even when a covert watch was being mounted on them by Railway Police.

The first confusion the Club had was trying to find out who the machines belonged to, since they were variously described as being Fry’s or as Cadbury’s. Neither company could find records of installing or maintaining machines in those locations, which is in itself a strange omission given that these companies between them supply all the stations in London. Nor would any of the vending-machine supply and maintenance operative admit to stocking or repairing these machines.

By the time the MHC arrive at Waterloo, the morning of Wednesday 27^th June 1951, not only have all the chocolate machines been removed but there is a good deal of schedule confusion by the loss of one of the two tracks through the Waterloo underground station.

The disappearances occurred between 10.45 and 10.51pm last night (26^th June), and nobody on the platform waiting for the 10.51 southbound nor the 10.54 northbound noticed anything. Tramps, station staff and others do not have any memories of a man in tweeds doing anything worthy of notice. The northbound train was derailed but with only minor injuries to the passengers. The timing does not seem particularly significant to any other Monster Hunters investigation, nor to coincide with any trains scheduled to travel towards King’s Dulcarnain.

The "standard detects" do not find anything anomalous, and are too late to have much chance of picking up residual traces. Given the technical nature of this Operating Team they will quickly note that the various machines have been wrenched from the walls with considerable force (estimate Strength 18/50) by something with opposable thumbs and a hand’s grasp of roughly eleven inches from spread thumb to smallest finger.

The missing rails are also interesting. They were indeed the rails where anomalous electrical fluctuations had previously been discerned. Where the rails are severs they have actually been bent downwards and dragged into the ground. The MHC have to dig down round them about six inches to find the point where the rails snapped due to tension [estimate strength 20, assuming something could pull the steel rails vertically downwards through rock without disturbing the rock itself]. There is no indication of the use of Transmute Metal to Wood.

The third rail was presumably live when this damage happened, yet somehow the power continued in the track until after the northbound derailment even though the circuit was presumably broken, and continued to operate until one of the first railmen on the scene of the accident commented on it, whereupon it went dead.

The Club’s attempts to investigate are further hampered by the disappearance of Line Controller Daniel StClements, who has not been seen since 8.40pm last night when he was left alone working in his office on budget forecasts. His office was found uncharacteristically unlocked this morning.

With the added assistance of a grid-map location some mile and a half east of the place where Radshaw’s vehicle stalled from Magda’s all-night scrying vigil and Albrecht’s advice to look for a nearby body of water, the MHC back in Harrogate locate Radshaw’s missing car in the tarn beside Blubberhouses. The vehicle is retrieved by Redvers-Ainderbury and a conscripted team of army engineers . Zany inspects it her diagnosis of the reason for engine failure is the failure of the vehicle to have an engine. There are micron-smooth edges where the engine-block has vanished. This accords with Albrecht’s adduced theory regarding the oily crushed patch on the ground near the site of the assault.

Back at the assault site the Club once again bemoan the lack of a ranger and cannot find any tracks to help them with how the tweeded stranger arrived or departed. Qayrawun finds oak trees nearby. The material of the ferrule is not discernible from the evidence at hand, although it can reasonably be assumed to be metallic.

Desk research into the possible dweomers used by the tweed man on Radshaw suggest that his symptoms were not consistent with Symbol of Hopelessness. A reduce spell would allow Radshaw to be shrunk in size, but more than one would be required to get him to letterbox size. Item does not work on living creatures. There is not much to go on to determine the level of Radshaw’s attacker. There is no evidence of wrapping paper which may have been around Radshaw in the pillar box. Two stamps are missing off the sheet found, sufficient to send two first-class letters.

Aveyard is consulted on ways to prevent Radshaw being charmed in future. Aveyard suggests the scientist develops some willpower and tries to be less useless.

Qayrawun familiarises himself with some of the aspects of the Celtic druidical tradition, but finds nothing definitive to confirm or allay his suspicions. He finds that the crown is a popular motif, and unsurprisingly it usually has connotations of sovereignty. The rising sun is a symbol of Mithras. The only similar symbol he can find in the Monster Hunters records is a series of almost-identical designs drawn on the wall of a Chillwater Street confinement cell by former Monster Hunter Gareth McGuffie during his insane period circa 1905.

Emmanuelle is very kind to an outraged clergyman who has just met with Magda. In her spare time she checks that the tweed suit described by Radshaw could have been bought at any number of gentlemans’ outfitters which cater for the more old-fashioned type of country gent. She is appalled by Radshaw’s inability to remember collar details and tweed patterns.

For details of toad types and places of origin, see Chapter One.

Angherad, Emmanuelle, and Qayrawun are all independently checking the Horne connection. Emmanuelle finds a good paper on the legends of the Horned Man, and is jolly pleased until she notes it was published by Angherad. The Horned Man is an ancient mythic archetype that manifests in various legends as Herne the Hunter, Herla, Oberon, Bran the Blessed, Gwynn ap Nudd, Arawn, Odin, and many others. He is often depicted as having large antlers and other, um, large attributes, and his worship was not always done vertically.

The Hornes are first mentioned in the tax rolls of 1412 as owning land and ships at King’s Dulcarnain. They were evidently well established and prosperous by that time, and became more so as King’s Dulcarnain developed into a fairly major medieval port. At various times they owned land in Milton of Campsie in East Dunbartonshire, Strumble Head in Pembrokeshire, and some undescribed territory in Ireland.

The Chafont Didbury tomb is that of March Horne, 1744(?)-1781. It is unknown why he was buried there rather than in the family plot in the now-lost chapel at King’s Dulcarnain. No Monster Hunter has yet visited the tomb.

On June 21^st-23^rd, Genevieve, Albrecht, and Flaxton investigated an alleged poltergeist at 91, Temple Fortune Hill, Finchley, the home of David Stankey (39), his wife Maureen (36), and their children Deborah (13) and Roland (11). Reported phenomenon included unexplained knockings and creaks, the movement of small objects, the appearance of old fashioned Victorian hairpins in beds and clothing, and the disappearance of clothing from wardrobes and its subsequent reappearance in the garden. Of particular interest was graffiti which appeared on walls, written in dark blue ink, and depicting a crudely-rendered crown. On three occasions this was accompanied by an inscription reading, "XXxiiii". The first reported phenomena started about three months ago.

As is often the case with such investigations, the presence of investigators appeared to completely inhibit any poltergeist activity. The Club took witness statements from family and neighbours sufficient to indicate that something, supernatural or fraudulent, was occurring, but could not spare the time for more detailed investigations given the relative insignificance of the case. It was evident from their short visit that the Stankey marriage was not a happy one, and that the parental disharmony was also affecting the children.

A comparison of the crown figure with the carving of the sun-like shape at the Horne Barn does indicate certain similarities to the motifs (read: they look alike).

A land history search by MHC researcher Adele Walker turns up that Temple Fortune Hill was built in 1904 on what used to be part of Hampstead Heath. The house is still only seventy yards from Big Wood, an old oak forest that once formed the northern boundary to the Heath. Meole Dyke, an old tributary to the Mutton Brook, runs somewhere roughly under Temple Fortune Hill. No Horne connection has yet come to light.

Adele’s task was made easier because someone else had been at the Land Registry yesterday looking up much the same information. He signed in as Lucard Nocaut.

Despite Revell’s dire concerns, this investigation seems to have been a case of a disgruntled employee’s malicious pranks which went too far. There is no association with plague-pumps or anything else that sets the alarm bells rolling. The Club was able to prove a mundane method and motive for the apparently inexplicable altering of pump-house settings.

A morning visit to Mr Mummer’s house elicits no response again. The Club will have to tell me what they want to do about this situation.

A joint Crannog/Selkirk yomp for lay lines and frogfall distribution (determined by witness statements since none of the frogs remain) proves interesting. From a cartographic point of view, the Horne barn entrance (east facing) is in alignment with the former site of the Horne mansion, the former site of the King’s Dulcarnain church, and rather more distantly the Chalfont Didbury church. Dowsing gets a few random twitches around the ruined barn but nothing coherent that could be called a telluric energy line. The frogfall seems to have been west-south-westerly in a widening wedge shape covering about three square miles and densest in the middle.

Albrecht and Genevieve walk the coastline to get an idea of possible smuggling routes. The only modern access to the narrow shingle shore is down a somewhat rickety wooden staircase built onto the edge of the crumbling sandstone cliff. There are no caves, and only one easy route to the clifftop. The cliffs drop to dunes around three miles south of King’s Dulcarnain but continue for a long way north. There are a lot of dead seagulls on the shore.

Albrecht and Genevieve have time to do something with the bottle from the barn or the samples of "special" if they wish to, but you need to tell me what that might be.

Meridian assists Dawn in a ritual to determine what is affecting the weather patterns. She discerns that a very powerful Weather Summoning has been done, using ancient energies which were indigenous to the area. This may account for the lack of powered leys if someone has used up the power lying in broken channels. The storm itself seems to have been the material component for some other magic which Dawn cannot fathom. The weather patterns are still disrupted and Dawn frets quite a bit about trying to restore them.

Around 6pm the Monster Hunters’ Operations Bus rolls up having got lost en route due to erroneous signposting. Magda, Emmanuelle, and Redvers-Ainderbury join the King’s Dulcarnain team. It is a good job the bus includes six bunk-berths since Mr Bellnichol regrets that he can only offer two rooms at the George and Dragon tonight because of a previous booking.

Mr Bellnichol’s new guests, Mr Smith and Mr Jones, arrive a few minutes later.