Chapter Six

hal·low (hl)

v. tr. hal·lowed, hal·low·ing, hal·lows.

1. To make or set apart as holy.

2. To respect or honor greatly; revere.

[Middle English halwen, from Old English hlgian; see kailo- in Indo-European Roots.]

Important derivatives are: whole, wholesome, health, heal, holy, hallow.

Whole, uninjured, of good omen.

a. hale1, whole, from Old English hl, hale, whole;

b. wholesome, from Old English *hlsum (> Middle English holsom), wholesome;

c. (hail2); wassail, from Old Norse heill, healthy. a, b, and c all from Germanic *hailaz.

1. health, from Old English hlth, health, from Germanic *hailith.

2. heal, from Old English hlan, to heal, from Germanic *hailjan.

a. holy, from Old English hlig, holy, sacred;

b. hallow, from Old English hlgian, to consecrate, bless, from Germanic derivative verb *hailagn. Both a and b from Germanic *hailagaz.

hallow \Hal"low\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hallowed; p. pr. & vb. n. Hallowing.] [OE. halowen, halwien, halgien, AS. h[=a]lgian, fr. h[=a]lig holy. See Holy.] To make holy; to set apart for holy or religious use; to consecrate; to treat or keep as sacred; to reverence.

"Hallowed be thy name." --Matt. vi. 9.

Hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein. --Jer. xvii. 24.

His secret altar touched with hallowed fire. --Milton.

In a larger sense . . . we can not hallow this ground [Gettysburg]. --A. Lincoln.

hallow v : render holy by means of religious rites [syn: consecrate, bless, sanctify] [ant: desecrate]

hallow to render sacred, to consecrate (Ex. 28:38; 29:1). This word is from the Saxon, and properly means "to make holy." The name of God is "hallowed", i.e., is reverenced as holy (Matt. 6:9).

hallows: The kingly regalia or emblems off empowerment wielded by a king or hero, often the object of quest. The modern hallows are represented by the regalia of the monarch of Britain – the Sceptre or Rod of Equity and Mercy, the Swords of State, the Ampulla of Holy Oil, and the Crown itself.

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Edward Endelby is dead.

Endelby, the scholar for whom the MHC’s current base, the Edward Endelby Memorial Library, is named, died over a century ago after an unfortunate encounter with Countess Elizabeth Bathory. He has been hiding out in the cellars there as a vampire ever since at the suggestion of his old friend (and one time Monster Hunters’ sage) Nathan Rumbustle. He has steadfastly refused to drink human blood, which makes him a rather weak undead, and he occupies his days with sleeping and his nights with writing obscure monographs for scholarly journals under a number of pseudonyms.

He senses rather than hears the battle in the cellar laboratories. He senses an intruder in his sacred lair. He slips into the darkness.

The second lunge misses Zany and sends the alcohol searing like acid onto the recovered engine block from Radshaw’s car. It seems to linger there as if searching, and then renews its attack.

Things might have turned nasty at this point except that Endelby appears from the shadows at this point and intercepts the attacking columns of liquid. He has difficulty stopping the Saaaiti Manifestation, which is rather more powerful than a mere virgin vampire. On the other hand he feels obliged to defend Zany, whom he rather likes because she is intelligent and remembers times long gone, and his library, which was and is his ruling passion.

It takes Zany ten minutes of scrambling around the remnants of her library and avoiding the combatants to cobble together the Purify Food and Drink potion and apply it to the Saaaiti. There is a huge explosion.

Zany pulls herself from the remains of the lab thinking how much treasurer Revell is going to complain about the repair bill. Then she sees Endelby lying in the wreckage, as close to death as an undead can come, obviously fading fast. Only a transfusion of fresh, preferably human blood can save the vampire. What does she do?

David Mummer is dead.

As soon as the team of Monster Hunters accompanying PC Cundy discover the naturalist’s charred remains in the middle of his library floor they swing into action. While PC Cundy and Redvers-Ainderbury investigate a mysterious knocking outside (caused by Meridian’s Unseen Servant) the rest of the team (Meridian and Crannog) try and work out what has happened to the man who wrote to them about mysterious frogfalls. Meridian is still wary of the residual Abyssal portal, but finding that any magics cast here have had time to dissipate he chooses to Identify the sad ash which appears to be the mortal remains of Dr Mummer.

Meanwhile Cundy and Redvers-Ainderbury check the house for signs of forced entry, but the only anomalous thing they find are scratch marks on the hall floor as if a really large dog or other claw-toed animal had run across it. R-A mutters his theories about spontaneous human combustion (á la that Dickens story) but Crannog answers that this seems far from spontaneous. In any case, the classic profile of a SHC case is of an elderly person who has been drinking who dies while sitting close to , but not dangerously close to, a fire. In this case Mummer appears to have been stood in the centre of a room, and Crannog suspects a fire accelerant may have been involved.

Meridian’s diagnosis is a gruesome one. He detects vestiges of Hold Person and Produce Flame. Mummer appears to have been paralysed but alive when he was set alight. Crannog’s later forensic tests confirm that he was doused in brandy.

A number of gaps appear in the rows of books on Mummer’s shelves, and the file marked "History of the Horne Family" is empty. A picture of Mummer’s mother which Cundy remembers being prominently displayed on the hall table is also missing.

The Chafont Didbury contingent hurry back to join Dawn and Magda. Genevieve has determined that Saaaiitaii-possessed alcohol remains so after leaving the vicinity of King’s Dulcarnain (as evidenced by Zany’s problem). Emmanuelle determines that alcohol, however good, which is brought back into the George and Dragon becomes contaminated. Enquiries in both Chalfont Dudbury and King’s Dulcarnain about "the Hallows" are met with blank stares.

At the point that a lot of policemen start to appear because of the Mummer case (nobody is saying murder at this point) Mr Smith and Mr Jones politely and quietly check out, load a huge amount of Mr Bellnichol’s stock, and intend to drive away. Dawn is desperate to stop them leaving with Saaiitaii-possessed liquor and attempts to dissuade them. Mr Jones hits dawn and might have got nasty has he not suddenly been cursed (via Magda) with chronic diarrhoea. At that point Crannog and R-A return bearing the debilitated Meridian (Identify spells temporarily drain 8 constitution points from the caster) and remonstrate with the gentlemen offering violence to the ladies. Fisticuffs ensue.

A mysterious and invisible force (Meridian’s Unseen Servant) removes all the wires from Mr Smith’s automobile carburettor.

All of this fracas attracts the attention of the officers of the law. Dawn presses assault charges against Mr Smith and Mr Jones. Crannog wonders out loud if Smith and Jones have purchase proof or import licenses for the alcohol in their car. Mr Jones demands medical attention to get this tranquilliser dart out of his gonads. Mr Smith demands dental aid.

By the time that argument is well under way and Mssrs Smith and Jones are handcuffed, demanding lawyers, and warning Dawn that "Mr Gent won’t like this one little bit, and you’re all dead!", the Chalfont Didbury team are back and Albrecht treats the confiscated alcohol to a Purify Food and Drink. The second one works (the Saaaiti Manifestation gets a saving throw vs spell).

There is a hurried team conference as the Operating Team draw their evidence together. The question of whether the toad in the stone could have been placed there by magic before the lintel was cut is discussed; the view is that the stonecutter would have had to be quite accurate to locate it centrally in the finished block. Emanuelle’s shadier import/export contacts are not aware (they say) of any smuggling coming into King’s Dulcarnain, although Bellnichol clearly has some source since he passes on quite a lot of stuff. No secret areas or extradimensional spaces can be found in the remains of the Horne barn. The crown motifs on the broken lintel and the Horne tomb are similar but not identical. Many Morris dances feature a "king" or "knight", but an inspection of the King’s Men’s equipment reveals nothing unusual about it. PC Cundy does not recall anything particularly unusual in the days preceding midsummer. Meridian notes that Mummer is an unlikely name. Magda adds that Bellnichol or Bellsnickle is the name for the sooty imp/jester companion to Santa Klaus in Germanic legend. Crannog contributes that Wode is a variant spelling of woad, the plant Cruciferae, and Albrecht contributes that it is a useless herb to smoke. Magda cannot scry any marked alcohol or anything else, since her scrying ability is a granted power given to her one every month (or similar)

The MHC decide that the Saaaiti menace has to be exorcised. In this instance the best person for the job is the elementalist Albrecht Arnheim, assisted by Dawn D’Aosta and Richard Selkirk. Albrecht and Dawn retire to her room (to knowing looks from the barmaid) and shortly thereafter there are thumps and other curious rhythmic noises.

Emmanuelle collars R-A to take her to a nearby airfield so she can convince come pilot to let her see an aerial view of the landscape. Crannog, Magda, and Genevieve head off to track down the absent Walter Wode. Meridian goes to his room and moans quietly.

Alistair Courtney is not dead. Only nearly dead.

When Qayrawun and Aveyard break through the old stone wall of the Harrogate Central Post Office they find a hollow inner skin between the outer and inner courses. There in that nine-inch deep cavity a starving and terrified man has been shouting and scratching for help since he found himself here on the day that Revell was attacked.

It takes a work gang over an hour to free Courtney, then Aveyard has to calm the man down enough to get any sense out of him. This is Courtney’s eventual statement.

The authorities are puzzled as to how a man could have got behind twenty-year-old plasterwork to have made the sounds that were interpreted as a haunting.

The toad sent by Mummer is dead.

An autopsy determines that the cause of death is energy drain. When he sees the calculations Selkirk may speculate that the problem is more properly energy debt – a force used to project the toads to their destination has been exhausted, ambient magic hasn’t been sufficient to maintain them, and so they have first drained their own energies (and those of the seagulls that feasted on them) and then faded away.

The ichor on the other seagull’s talons proves to be daemon blood, according to the old match in Dr Julius Quilp’s files (Zany’s father). Daemons are, in the usual course of things, immune to seagulls.

No alcohol at the Edward Endelby Memorial Library now detects as evil.

The hand that was discovered under the place where the Waterloo underground tracks were dragged into the Earth is attached to an arm and to a whole greater fiend of the Abyssal Waste. Angherad arrives to take charge of the dig and is able to confirm using her Voodoo Staff that the creature is no more.

The cause of death appears to have been constriction. The upper and lower ribcages, arms, stomach and pelvis are mashed (estimated strength 25), and it appears to have been phased down into the earth and left there. Some force has clearly prevented it returning to its own plane, and although it is now decaying fast as it is disinterred it has actually had a true death. Metal filings under its nails match the shreds of chocolate machine fixings left hanging on the platform walls.

Attempts to use item to aid the body’s removal are hampered by nobody present having the item spell, but preliminary investigation from Revell suggests that planar magics are currently inhibited in the area. A sink spell may be one possibility for how the creature was placed where it was found, but Pit Fiends are usually extremely magic resistant (and bear in mind this is AD&D 2^nd edition rules where magic resistance doesn’t vary compared to level of caster – it’s absolute).

Nobody has reported missing a pit fiend.

Aveyard is sent for to talk to Fennell, and he and Qayrawun will meet the Operating Team at Finchley and accompany them back to interview the Station Master.

Revell easily substitutes the "good" chocolate in StClement’s office for a substitute and conducts an Identify upon it as he drives to Finchley with Radshaw and Flaxton. It is magical and so is its wrapper, which was created with an effect not unlike the basic genie-ability of create soft goods or create food and drink. In this instance, the chocolate has the virtue of providing anyone who consumes it with +1 to all saving throws for eight hours, providing the person who ate it was of good alignment and showed no fear.

Walter Wode is dead.

Peering through the window of his fishermans’ cottage, Crannog and Genevieve can see his mangled corpse handing on a tree that seems to have grown through the flagstones of his kitchen. In fact the tree seems to have grown up through him. Magda is too distracted by the vast ebbing ley energies around the building. "It’s as if the land itself woke up and killed him," the witch shudders. A detect magic discerns a "nature magic" field strength waning from strength 3 (very powerful indeed).

The Stankey Family are dead.

Revell manages to open to door when there is no reply to the Club’s knock and Flaxton notices two days’ unopened milk on the back step. David, Maureen, Roland, and another adult male later identified as brother Ben Stankey all lie on the hall floor. David appears to have strangled Ben and Maureen after a bloody struggle, and then committed suicide. Little Roland’s throat has been cut but no weapon is evident. Initial bloodstains suggest he was standing up when he was cut, and continued to stand for a while as blood streamed down him before falling dead on the floor. There is no sign of young Deborah. Qayrawun’s gens locate the cat Mr Furry hiding terrified in an airing cupboard.

The walls of the hall are marked with crown motifs in blood. All Mrs Stankey’s clothes, including those she is wearing, are six inches too short for her but otherwise fit.

Finchley Road is on the Jubilee Underground Line (which does actually include Waterloo). Mrs Stankey’s maiden name was Whiteneck. No particular tradition of "piercing adulterers" leaps out to the research team (although I’m sure there must be one somewhere on the planet). Nothing more is known of the location of the Roman Temple. A walk around the area finds it being rapidly built up into cheap terraced and semi-detached commuter houses. The remaining woodland is still quite attractive, and much used by courting couples.

Due to circumstances beyond their control, the MHC may have to work a little harder to find the origins of Mr Furry.

Presumably at some point the Operating Team will alert the police to the tragedy at the Stankey household?

Next episode reaches what I estimate to be roughly the half-way point in the investigation, and in a break with tradition will also feature the first tranche of whodunnit questions which actually award experience points. It should tie up some of the mysteries to date and set up the threads for the second half of the case. In the mean time players may wish to reflect upon the following decisions:

• Should Edward Endelby be saved, and if so how?
• How can the Saaaiti Manifestation be exorcised with maximum effectiveness?
• What should happen at the Wode cottage?
• What should happen at the Pit Fiend dig?
• What should happen at the Finchley massacre?
• What about the other Horne estates?

Replies by 7pm on Thursday 22^nd February please.