It was Spring of 1983 when Arianna Grimaldi heard the rumour about the monks. I'll let her tell you how she heard what and from where. The rumour was that between March and May tourists and pilgrims spotted an odd group of monks along the Camino de Santiago, a network of trails that has been used for pilgrimages for hundreds of years.
The monks were silent when questioned and cowled at all times, but appeared to belong to an order that resides in Castle von Wattenwyl, Switzerland. The 6 to 8 monks--accounts vary--were carrying something on a kind of palanquin, but no one could see what was behind the curtains. These monks were spotted several times on a route that took them through the Alps and then northward across France to Dieppe.
Arianna could have just ignored the rumour.
After hearing about the monks from Professor Barone, Arianna had taken the family jet to France, ostensibly for spring break, but in actually she hoped to find out exactly what the monks were doing.
Camping on the route halfway through France, Arianna spent the days waiting on for the monks working on both her swordsmanship and her unarmed combat skills.
She would practice climbing trees and then leaping from branch to branch, working on her ability to tell branches that would hold her weight from those that would not. She had a couple of scares when she first started practicing, and even fell once, but her bizarre gifts allowed her to close her wounds, and so her days were spent without care or much interaction with other people, mainly because hiking through the Alps was not how most people chose to spend their spring break.
The hikers she did meet, however, found her to be a delightful young woman.
Some of the hikers Arianna met spoke of the rumours they heard. The rumours had made their way north and south a few times on the trail, passed from one group of hikers going one way to another group going the opposite more than once since the monks first left the castle.
Arianna learned that when the monks carried the mysterious palanquin out of the Castle and down the windy mountain pass, villagers witnessed bats pouring out of mountain caves, even though it was daytime.
In Spring of 1983, a professor of theology at Ogden College receives a letter from Europe from one of her students who is wealthy enough to travel when her schedule permits. The letter contains rumours about an odd group of the "black monks of Von Wattenwyl Castle, an odd group about whom little is known. The monks have been carrying a large palanquin along an trail network used by religious travellers on pilgrimages.
Soon, Valeria comes across another story she might have otherwise ignored. Valeria hears that the monks' trip ended in Calais where they spent several days waiting for a ship to arrive to deliver their package to its final destination.
La Vierge, the ship hired by the monks, docked in Calais but its departure was delayed a day when it had to take on a new crew after several sailors refused to return to the ship. The sailors described how, when the monks' crate was loaded on La Vierge one evening, a flood of squealing rats poured out of every hole. Taking this as a bad sign, the men quit the ship, barely arguing about lost pay.
What does Valeria do with this information?
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Though Valeria had spent many years researching the occult, she had come across few genuinely enchanted objects. Exposure to the Veil was capricious, and just because Goetic sprits may rub off on the occasional haunted house, or you could find the odd bewitched trinket at your neighbour's garage sale didn't mean that you had found anything truly worthwhile. Most of the time, magic left but a spark, a shadow of the Veil, about as useful to an occultist as the facade pipes of a church organ for the musician. Then, in same rare occasions, something could become so profoundly saturated with otherworldly energy that it ceased to be inanimated to become inhabitated, with a magical aura so strong that even the common of mortals, blind to the Veil and the otherworldly, could no longer ignore that something was happening.
Inexplicable, that's how most people would have described the incident. A swarm of rats leaving a ship was the sight of nightmares, not reality. The truth was that there was an explanation, although few people would actually seek it, and even fewer would find it, or even be ready to hear it.
But then again, Valeria Barone, professor of Theology, was more than used to spend hours on research than maybe two people would read.
Castle von Wattenwyl, a remote place that no one had ever heard of, especially regarding relics, was a good way to start digging. She sent a telegram back to the address indicated on the letter:
Dear Miss Grimaldi,
Will look into CdW. Maybe see if you can track down La V. If you drop at C., find sailors.
Best,
Pr.Barone
PS: If you can, try local specialty speculoos.
Arianna entered the villa she was staying at and discovered the letter that had been left for her. It had been handwritten, but she knew that the words would have originally been sent via telegraph.
After reading the note Arianna paced back and forth for a bit, then decided to work out to pass the time. She had never been that spectacular at waiting. In this case, waiting for the time difference, so that she could reach Professor Barone in her office.
Finally, the time was close enough, and she dialed the phone number, impatiently drumming her fingers on the table next to it where she stood, occasionally glancing at the note while she waited for the call to go through.
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Old Swiss castles and potential relics are an unusual topic to research in a library, but then again, Valeria's work makes her no stranger to odd requests. She spends time looking for any information about the castle or the Monk Order, with help from the librarians if necessary.
When Arianna eventually phones her teacher, she can distinctly hear someone flipping a page before a somewhat gruff voice says:
"Professor Valeria Barone, how may I help you?"
"Professor. Thank goodness I reached you. I received your cable, but I was unsure what some of the acronyms meant. I have to say that I'm not sure what the monks were doing, but I haven't encountered them directly. I did hear a few stories that were interesting, but the one I found most telling was there apparently where the monks passed, bats were seen flocking out of the mountains, even during the daytime. Have you learned anything interesting?"
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"Really? I thought I was being quite clear." Maybe that was why her students always formed a diligent line at her desk after getting their annotated papers back. "Are you still in France? Is there any possibility you might investigate what happened on La Vierge? Someone on board might have come across some information as to what the monks were transporting, or what was the next step of their pilgrimage."
"I am currently in Calais, but I am not sure what La Vierge is."
Old Swiss castles and potential relics are an unusual topic to research in a library, but then again, Valeria's work makes her no stranger to odd requests. She spends time looking for any information about the castle or the Monk Order, with help from the librarians if necessary.
[dice=Knowledge (history)]1d20+7
[dice=Knowledge (occult)]1d20+8
[dice=Knowledge (religion)]1d20+7
When Arianna eventually phones her teacher, she can distinctly hear someone flipping a page before a somewhat gruff voice says:
"Professor Valeria Barone, how may I help you?"
Valeria finds out many tidbits about the order of monks staying in the Castle von Wattenwyl. The von Wattenwyl family gifted parts of their estate and eventually their entire castle to The Knights of the Sword, an order of templars, known for hunting the undead. Baron von Wattenwyl was said to have been a retired member of this order when he started a family, either already possessing or marrying into a great fortune. Upon his death, his son is said to have renounced title and left for England. The Castle has belonged to the order for hundreds of years.
Valeria finds one historian of the traces left by the templars who comments on this order in 1923. He writes that most of the brothers were jailhouse converts to religion. The order had a reputation for charity, but, according to the historian, "Nothing of the fighting Templar remains in these men, except a touch of redemption and weary grace." He also mentions their wine cellar was "well-stocked despite being frequently visited."
Very little is said about them otherwise. The order has replaced its numbers over several hundred years by inviting criminals to join them in a life of solitude and prayer in a castle gifted to them by an old templar.
Valeria can't find much about the current charitable status of the order or where the ship went. Perhaps Arianna's family lawyer could help with certain lines of investigation?
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"The ship on which the monks left Calais." There is a pregnant pause, then Valeria sighs. "You didn't write that part in your letter, did you? Let me gather my notebook."
Once Professor Barone has closed her book and gathered herself, she tells Arianna all that she knows about La Vierge, as well as what she learned on the monks:
"Not much is known about them, really," she adds, once she's done with her notes on the historian's work. "And I'm willing to bet that we won't find much. As a recluse religious order, they haven't given much of a reason to arouse suspicions or prompt investigations. As long as they keep their heads down, no one will ask questions. I wonder who is funding them. They might be somewhat self-sustaining, but a castle costs a fortune to be taken care of, and they still have money on the side to give to charities and furnish their wine cellar."
In Valeria's research she came across a statue of the last Baron von Wattenwyl. She can't shake the feeling the face looked familiar, but from a different context.
The newspaper report tries to make the theft of a hearse sound funny, but does so cautiously. It's hard to see how anyone could have pulled this off though. A hearse, as part of a funeral procession, goes under a bridge. The funeral procession comes out the other side of the bridge, without the hearse. Later that day, the deceased--still in his coffin and still very much dead--is found in line outside the Splash and Dash Amusement Park. No one saw the coffin arrive in the line-up. Some thefts are audacious and some are bizarre, but when they're both, that calls for some attention.
Years ago, Tituba Noyes, the matriarch of a Boston family of witches, offered a reward for the heart of a man known locally as 'The Coin.' The reputed thief fled Boston and wasn't seen again until a couple days ago. When word spread that 'The Coin' was seen at a Bed & Breakfast along Maine's Coastal Route 1, the matriarch let it be known far and wide that the bounty stands, the reward remains the gratitude of a powerful witch.
What does Jerry do when she hears this rumour?
Jack wakes up early. It was hard to sleep, like always. He sets his old coffee maker whirring before he walks out on to the small porch of his house and lights a cigarette.
As the smoke rises looks out on to the deep woods his house borders. Things move out there, things far beyond what one could imagine from a sane and normal mind. And yet they moved there.
Once his cigarette burned low, he walked back inside and poured himself a cup of coffee as he heard the paper slam against the front door. Probably the paper boy being a bit vigorous with his throwing arm.
He read as he drank his coffee, but for the first time in a while, something caught his interest. A disappearing hearse, followed by the confusing discovery of the corpse in line to go the Splash and Dash.
He had found his next case.
He quickly drained his coffee before striking out to make contact with the family of the deceased. He could provide counsel in solving the bizarre crime that had affected them.
"Do you happen to know the shipping company that shipped their cargo on the La Vierge? I can try talking to them to see if they could give me their ports of call, as well as asking around the port to see what I can find out."
Jack is offered another biscuit.
This is the third time Mrs. Cavanaugh has offered Jack a biscuit in two minutes. Three minutes ago, while her husband Paul was getting an ashtray from the kitchen, Jill Cavanaugh said of her father-in-law, "I wasn't sorry to see him pass. He never had a kind word for anyone, but don't tell Paul I said that."
She's been looking guilty since Paul returned from the kitchen, whether that's because she's embarrassed to have spoken unkindly of the dead or because she thinks that by doing so she made herself seem like a suspect is unclear.
She takes quick puffs of her cigarette and offers biscuits guiltily while Paul talks, "Hell of a thing to do to a person's dad, you know, putting him in a line up like that for a water park like he's off for a good time. But, I still can't figure out how they did it, you know, because, we were driving right behind the hearse. I mean, it was right there in front of me, and we were going under the bridge, and then, the car stopped suddenly and I slammed on my brakes and then my Uncle Wes, well he didn't stop fast enough and he hit me from behind but then I looked up and da- d- da- .... the hearse was gone and the coffin with it."
Paul takes a lit cigarette from his wife and says, "I don't usually smoke, but ...". Mrs. Cavanaugh has already lit another.
"What's really weird, is that the police just stopped investigating. I talked to the driver--the guy from the funeral home who drives the hearse--and I called the police to talk to them about it, and it's like the police just stopped investigating ... then I called the funeral home back and they just kind of wrote off the hearse and didn't really care anymore. Like none of it mattered. It was like something out of that movie Twilight Zone ..."
"It wasn't like anything in that Twilight Zone, Paul," says Jill.
Paul responds, "No? Everyone just forgets that someone stole a hearse in two seconds in front of a whole funeral procession ..."
"Three cars, including the hearse! ..." retorts Jill.
"You weren't there, Jill," says Paul angrily. "...It was there and then it was gone and no one remembers or cares? It's weird."
Jack sits quietly, nodding politely and subtly jotting notes on a small yellow notepad. Once Jill and Paul have finished bickering Jack smiles slightly and says, ”No thank you ma’am, I’m stuffed. So, this funeral home? You say they aren’t investigating this. There any further details about this place? Your uncle, ah, Wes, was it? Is it possible he might’ve seen anything.”
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"Afraid not. Otherwise, it would have made our work much easier, wouldn't it?" Valeria says with a hint of her typical dry humour. "If French civilization hasn't entirely collapsed when I wasn't looking, I assume that someone would have actually kept record of these kind of things, if you can make the right people talk."
While talking to Arianna, Valeria starts to think about her next move. She has no doubt that her wealthy, charismatic student will be better at gathering information in France than her, but she also gets the feeling that books won't be of much help.
"I'll try to dig up what I can about the late Baron, and keep an eye out for further rumours. There might be people who are investigating it already and that we might contact. How does that sound?"
Jack sits quietly, nodding politely and subtly jotting notes on a small yellow notepad. Once Jill and Paul have finished bickering Jack smiles slightly and says, ”No thank you ma’am, I’m stuffed. So, this funeral home? You say they aren’t investigating this. There any further details about this place? Your uncle, ah, Wes, was it? Is it possible he might’ve seen anything.”
"Nobody saw anything!" says Paul Cavanaugh. "Except the driver of the hearse. The first time I talked to him, he said there was a man standing in the road, but he said it was like he was seeing double or something ... and he stopped and the man just walked up to the hearse. He said he didn't remember what happened after that."
"Okay, now that was strange," Jill agrees.
Paul continues, "And, now he says he doesn't remember any man at all. He doesn't remember telling me about a man. He doesn't remember why he stopped the hearse. Ah, well, what does it matter. Dad's in the ground, even if he took the long way to the cemetery."
"He would have liked making things difficult," Jill agrees.
"A man? In the road in front of the funeral line? Do you have any way to contact this driver? I've got to say, this is one of the more intriguing cases that's come my way, and I would be more than happy to look into this. I'd even be quite willing to waive my initial consultation fee and carry investigations forward for a limited price.
The plate with the biscuits, being offered for the 5th time, is snapped back at the word "price."
Mrs. Cavanaugh gets up and goes to the kitchen and before the trail of her cigarette smoke can dissipate returns with the phone book. She quickly finds the advertisement for the funeral home in the yellow pages and tears it out. "Here you are. You should ask your questions to them. And ask them about your limited price, too. It is their missing hearse after all."
She does not sit. Paul takes a biscuit. Jill glares at him. Paul stands too.
The torn yellow page refers Jack to Farmington Funerals. An ornate wreath dominates the advertisement.
"That sounds good professor. I'll take a walk down to the docks in the morning and see what I can find. Is there anything else you think I should know or that you want me to check up on?"
Jerry's first response to the rumor was skepticism. What, are the crabcakes really that good that **this** is what finally got him back on radar?
A few sniffs determined that her undershirt was good for at least another day, and she hit the streets. A few hours running down the source of the lead might save her a lot of time...
A few hours running down the source of the lead might save her a lot of time...
[dice=Street]d20+5
There aren't many places outside of Boston that are more firmly connected to the intersection of Boston's LGBT subculture and Boston's organized occult underground than the string of haunted bed & breakfasts, haunted lighthouses, and haunted pubs that dot the coastal route north of Boston. Even without leaving town and checking out any of the places first hand, it doesn't take Jerry long to find out that The Coin hasn't shown up in any of them; he's shown up in all of them. He danced his way up the coastal route hitting every used book store that has genuinely occult texts, every pub in which the American revolution is still fought some nights, and every graveyard where good advice can be sought from restless spirits. Other than this, it's been a swirl of rumours about what he said and what he's doing. One thing is for sure, he isn't avoiding the radar.
She thanked the latest clerk to give her info, and stepped outside to grab a quick smoke and a long think.
Crap. This smells like a trap. Or a hex that's making him careless finally caught up with him... Hmmp...
"Hell, trap or not, Mama Noyes wants him found, probably a good idea to find him. And if he's kicking up this much fuss, next rumor could be that someone else found him..."
The smell of burning plastic warned her that her cigarette had burned down to its filter, so with a curse she put it out against the side of her neck and dropped it.
"Guess I'd better go pack..."
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Valeria thinks about the eerie feeling she gets every time she looks at the Baron's face, but judges it best not to bother Arianna with it right now. Without seeing the sculpture for herself, there is little her student might say about it, and this inexplicable sense of déjà vu is too difficult to put into words. She'd rather share concrete information than vague and fleeting intuition.
"Not really," she answers. "Direct your investigation as you please and keep an eye out for anything related to the monks or the Von Wattenwyl family. They're connected to this mystery somehow, and I don't know yet if we should be more wary of the Von Wattenwyl ancestors or their descendants."
Jack thanks the couple for their time before leaving.
He makes his way to the funeral home, ready for whatever lies in store.
Jack finds the driver of the hearse at Farmington Funerals when he visits. He trims the tiny hedges in front of the large old home while Jack asks him questions. At first, he only recalls something about a hearse being stolen. With prodding he recalls a man stepping in front of the car and then walking up to the window of the hearse.
He needs a little more prodding to remember what the man said, "Look here now ... shiny, isn't it?"
He can't seem to recall much else at all.
Walking towards the docks in the morning, Arianna finds a number of small offices along the street next to the canal. Most of these offices are without signs to announce the name of their business, just numbers on the doors or only the name of the proprietor for a business name. The docks are quite extensive and built up around a bit of a bay. Some of the docks are quiet while others busy as goods are loaded onto a ship.
One of the doors catches her eye. Like many of the others, there is no sign on the small shop, but the door knocker is a ouroboros designed with particular attention to mystical detail and inscribed with alchemical runes.
One of the dock workers also catches her eye. Rough and weather-worn like many of the men Arianna sees, what makes this one stand apart is the number of magical symbols he has tattooed on his arms, most of them wards against evil and protective symbols. Some Arianna recognizes as authentic, others as nonsensical.
Arianna doesn't manage to find one of the monks, but she finds the next best thing--Rayan, one of the sailors who refused to sail on La Vierge.
Rayan describes how he joined the crew of La Vierge in Dieppe. The ship sailed to Calais to receive a shipment that bound for America. Rayan doesn't know exactly where in America, just that it was "home" for La Vierge and the town where it was built.
The men who loaded the shipment were said to be monks, but Rayan knows criminals when he sees them. They had the look. After they loaded the 4'x 4'x 8' crate onto La Vierge, four of the so-called monks remained on the ship to travel with the crate.
The ship's departure was delayed by a day, however, after dozens of rats fled the ship when the crate was loaded. The departure of the rats convinced Rayan and some others that something evil was in that crate. That and the criminal look of the monks who remained on the ship led several sailors to reconsider the job.
Arianna thanks the man for his time and hands him $200.
"Do you recall the man doing anything after he said that? Did he motion to anything that might've been what he was referring to?"
The case was getting good. Jack knew that something greater was afoot here.
"Do you recall the man doing anything after he said that? Did he motion to anything that might've been what he was referring to?"
The case was getting good. Jack knew that something greater was afoot here.
The man shrugs and thinks hard. "I can't remember ... something in his hand ... I must have hit my head when I stopped the hearse because ..."
The man pauses and, then, with a touch of an accent that wasn't there before says, "Look here now ... shiny, in'n't it?" He gestures with his right hand to his left, wiggling the fingers of his left hand as if playing with an object. He snaps out of it and says, "Sorry, that I can't be of more help. Let me know if you find anything. Wouldn't mind the car back."
The trail of the missing hearse grew cold, however, and it wasn't until August 22nd when Jack got a phone call from Jill Cavanaugh, "You know, I don't really approve of what it is you do, taking money to look into secrets and stuff, but, well ... Paul won't shut up about the hearse so I've asked my friends to keep an eye out and my friend Margaret collects tolls for the ferry between Bath and Okham and she says she saw the hearse, the driver paid his toll and tipped well too. And, as I said, Paul won't shut up. It's not my hearse, but I'll pay for your gas to Okham and lunch or whatever, just to get some peace and quiet."
The trail of The Coin grew cold, however, and it wasn't until August 22nd when Jerry heard from a friend, "Are you still looking for that guy that everyone's looking for? I've got a hot tip for $20..."
Maybe he's not a friend, so much as a person who might sell this tip to Jerry before he sells it to anyone else. "My friend Maggie says she saw The Coin on his way to Arkham ... or Okham ... or something. That town south of Bath. Okham. Wasn't even trying to hide; strutting around like he used to around here in a purple suit with a stupid hat. That worth $20?"
The trail of La Vierge grew cold, however, as the ship had literally sailed and other than Rayan, no one associated with it stayed behind in Calais. La Vierge is headed for home, which is somewhere on the east coast of the United States.
All avenues of research seemingly cut off, Arianna packs her bags and heads to the private airport, where she boards her plane back to the US (and school).
All avenues of research seemingly cut off, Arianna packs her bags and heads to the private airport, where she boards her plane back to the US (and school).
"That tip? Worthy twenty bucks?! Nah." She handed over the crumpled bill anyways. "That's for not spreading it around."