Framingham near Boston, Massachusetts.
Characters
Player Characters |
Non-Player Characters |
| Notting, Dr Alexander – intense middle-aged archaeologist, Harvard University (Ben) | Aspen, Roderick – a boarder at the Wheedon Estate |
| Occultree, Professor Edwin – Yale University (Simon) | Buckinghamshire, Sir Andrew – Oxford University |
| van Buren, Charles | |
| van Buren, Sarah Ann | |
| Hardin, Detective Luther | |
| Haughton, Miss Rebecca | |
| Haughton, Edward – Rebecca’s Grandfather and Civil War veteran, an ex drummer boy | |
| Pender, Gerber – Cemetery Caretaker | |
| Wheedon, Upton Lamar – Civil War veteran and hero of the 2nd Battle of Bull Run |
Involvement
Recruited by Dr Notting and Professor Occultree.
Highlights
Sir Andrew Buckinghamshire received a request for help from a Miss Rebecca Haughton, a resident of Framingham, a small town near Boston. Miss Haughton informed Sir Buckinghamshire that her problem involved her invalid grandfather Edward Haughton and recent unsolved vandalising of a Civil War Memorial.
Initial research confirmed that the Framingham Veterans Hospital was home to Edward Haughton, a drummer boy at the time of the Civil War. A famous Union Forces Memorial was funded by the Mayor of Framingham in February 1866 and constructed in Framingham cemetery on the outskirts of town.
During the Civil War, Framingham sent 50 volunteers to join the 23rd Massachusetts Regiment. They were involved in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign and the 2nd Battle of Bull Run in which 27 of the Framingham volunteers were slain. The dead were later buried in the town cemetery.
Framingham’s 1st Lt Upton Lamar Wheedon rallied some men and led a charge that almost turned the battle around. However, most were killed and Wheedon lost his leg. After the battle, Wheedon was promoted to Captain and repatriated home.
Newspapers of the time reported only one survivor – Wheedon. Dr Lucas B. Wight’s book “Our Boys In Blue: Framingham and The Civil War” stated that only Wheedon survived, even though it had photographs of Wheedon and Haughton.
Beasley Faraday’s book “Massachusetts and the Civil War” described Wheedon’s charge, but it also mentioned that Haughton survived and went on to a number of other battles. In 1867 there was a small newspaper article on the Framingham drummer boy.
Dr Notting and Professor Occultree met up with Charles and Sarah van Buren at Framingham. They visited the Memorial and found it cracked from within, with ooze running from the cracks.
Dr Notting took a sample of the ooze while Professor Occultree talked with the cemetery caretaker, Gerber Pender, to find out if he knew what had happened to the Memorial. Pender told Professor Occultree that Wheedon was still alive and living as a recluse outside of town.
While Charles and Sarah returned to the hotel, Dr Notting and Professor Occultree proceeded to Miss Haughton’s address. They learned that Miss Haughton’s grandfather was hospitalised the previous year and had been neglected by hospital staff. Edward Haughton claimed in the past that “some evil was out there”, and had become very agitated on hearing of the vandalism of the Memorial.
Dr Notting and Professor Occultree then proceeded to the Framingham Veteran’s Hospital, where Nurse O’Malley let them speak to Haughton. Haughton stated that he was reliving the nightmare of Wheedon rallying everybody to attack a gap in the Confederate line, and then fleeing as the attack commenced. Afterwards, the night nurse confirmed Haughton’s story.
On returning to the hotel, Dr Notting and Professor Occultree arranged for their sample to be sent to Harvard for examination. Then they retraced their steps to the cemetery. Here Dr Notting saw dead bodies, winged things and other unidentifiable creatures crawling over the Memorial.
Professor Occultree ushered a shaken Dr Notting back to the hotel, where they discussed the problem with Sarah and Charles. The van Burens advised Dr Notting and Professor Occultree that summoning was taking place and that the summoner had to be stopped.
The next morning Professor Occultree went to the cemetery again but found it cordoned off by police. Detective Luther Hardin accepted Professor Occultree’s offer of assistance. Professor Occultree then learned from Gerber Pender that at midnight the previous night Gerber heard a sound in the vicinity of the Memorial. When Gerber went out to have a look, he saw the Memorial glowing and it’s surface moving and doing “stuff”.
When Dr Notting subsequently arrived at the cemetery he again became severely distressed on seeing the Memorial. Professor Occultree ushered Dr Notting back to the hotel where Charles reiterated the dangers of summoning. The outcome would be very bad for everyone involved.
Dr Notting, Professor Occultree and the van Burens travelled to the Wheedon Estate on the outskirts of town. Here Roderick Aspen, a recent boarder at the Estate answered the door. Aspen has been experiencing the same nightmares as Edward Haughton.
Professor Occultree managed to hypnotise Aspen without alerting his suspicions and put him to sleep. Once Aspen was asleep, the party investigated the Estate.
Charles picked a locked door downstairs, only to find Wheedon. After a confrontation, Charles agreed to leave, but as Wheedon didn’t follow Charles, the party continued to investigate.
Upstairs was a room with a tabletop recreation of the 2nd Battle of Bull Run set in the Wheedon Estate grounds, and matching wall maps. Sarah found Wheedon’s diary in the upstairs library. In it was a map of a tunnel from the house to a well house in the woods.
Charles and Professor Occultree climbed down the well and found a secret door at the bottom. They followed the tunnel back to the house, all the while under attack from clawed hands that reached out from the tunnel floor and walls. Under the house, they found a number of basement rooms and another book.
The party returned to their hotel to regroup. Dr Occultree determined that Boden Dandee, a West African witch doctor, wrote the book, called “Corpus Modus”. It was a treatise on animating the dead and summoning an Effigy of Hate. Charles called Matthew Patterson for advice and was told to kill the summoner, and then destroy the “totem” used to summon the Effigy of Hate.
The party, armed and dangerous, returned to the Wheedon Estate. They entered a thick fog that surrounded the house and grounds and barely concealed giant inhuman “stretcher bearers”. The party fled into the house, where they found a youthful Wheedon in the upstairs map room. A fight ensued during which Sarah accidentally shot Dr Notting in the back. The party eventually defeated Wheedon, set fire to the house including the tabletop “totem”, then fled with Aspen and the seriously injured Dr Notting.
The van Burens paid all medical costs for Dr Notting.