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I I I I I I I I 1 I I I I I I

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Foreword Real or Unknown? .......................................... 4

An Unholy Visitor ............................................. 4 Legally Haunted ................................................ 4

Introduction ........................................................... 8 Overview ............................................................... 9

Organization ...................................................... 9 Warning to the CM ........................................... 10 Disclaimer ......................................................... 10

Haunted Places ................................................... 12 Bienmot ............................................................ 12 Cat Village ........................................................ 16 City in the Sand ................................................ 19 East Bend .......................................................... 2 1 Field of Nightmares .......................................... 25 “The Front” ....................................................... 27 The Grave of the Andrea Doria ........................ 29 Millersylvania Battleground ............................. 3 1 Ontario First Bank ............................................ 32 Seven Devils ..................................................... 34 Shawnigan Lake ............................................... 37 St . Thomas Aquinas School for Boys ............... 39 Telchac Ruins ................................................... 42

Sites of Power ...................................................... 44 Mount Shasta .................................................... 45 Lechuguilla Cave .............................................. 47

Creatures of the Unknown ......................... 50

Locations ................................................................. 1 I

Altum ................................................................ 5 1 Apostate ............................................................ 52 Beast Ghost ....................................................... 54 Bogy ................................................................. 55 Crying Spirit ..................................................... 56 Drowned One .................................................... 57 Factory Remnant .............................................. 59 Fun-fair Remnant .............................................. 60 Guardian Spirit ................................................. 62 Hodag ............................................................... 64 Lord of the Plains ............................................. 65 Mimic ............................................................... 66 Noo-Qua (Lightning Snake) ............................. 68 Oathbreaker ...................................................... 70 Ravager ............................................................. 7 1 Sasquatch .......................................................... 72 Spirit Wolf ........................................................ 74 Swile ................................................................. 74

Items .......................................................................... 76

Objects of Power ................................................ 77 Hands ................................................................ 77 Miter Crystal ..................................................... 78

Focuses of the Unknown ................................... 79 Focus Crystal .................................................... 79 Soul Stone ......................................................... 80

Once Bitten ........................................................... 8i Location ............................................................ 82 Plot Synopsis .................................................... 82 Involvement of the Unknown ........................... 84 Subplot Synopsis .............................................. 85 Involvement of the Unknown ........................... 86 Timeline ........................................................... 87

The Supporting Cast .......................................... 88 Rev . James Bartholomew ................................. 88 Miriam Blake .................................................... 88 Bunkhouse Boys ............................................... 88

Jimmy Bartholomew ................................. 88 Larry Ewald ............................................... 89 Cal Geuvrement ........................................ 89 Tad Johnson .............................................. 89 Link Maurinier .......................................... 90 Geoff Mianato ........................................... 90

Holly Girard ..................................................... 91 Mark Girard ...................................................... 91 Virgil Hood ...................................................... 92 Lucy Kobayashi ................................................ 92 Jacques Lanier .................................................. 92 Tony Mianato ................................................... 93 Randy Reymore ................................................ 93 Dick Sharmen ................................................... 94 Police Chief John Stone ................................... 94 Mill Workers .................................................... 94 Other Townsfolk .............................................. 95

Running Once Bitten ......................................... 95 Skills ................................................................. 96 Disciplines ........................................................ 96 Getting Underway ............................................ 96 Preparations for Departure ............................... 97

The Investigation ................................................ 97 The “Satanists” and the “Vampire” .................. 97 The Bunkhouse Boys ....................................... 99 Jacques Lanier’s Death ..................................... 99 Randy Reymore’s Death ................................ 100 Mark Girard .................................................... 100 Holly Girard ................................................... 101 Other Information ........................................... 102

Chronology Encounters .................................. 102

Location Encounters ........................................ 107 Epilogue .............................................................. 114

Mark Girard and the Remnants ...................... 114 Destroying the Ccoa ....................................... 114 Jimmy Bartholomew ...................................... 114 The Fruits of Success ..................................... 114

How to Use This Book ................................. 115

Player Aids ........................................................... 125

PCS ............................................................................. 117

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I I I I

I I I , I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I t I I I I I

Real or Unknown? Reports of paranormal activity have been among the

most persistent folklore and first-person history through the ages. How did we come to have these terms: ghost, polter- geist, apparition, undead, vampire? If these things are all imagined, enough people have similar imaginations to cre- ate an entire lexicon of terms. And the stories just keep coming. Though the supermarket tabloids destroy their own credibility, stories almost as strange grace more stately forums. The two hauntings that follow are cases in point.

An Unholy Visitor This story is summarized from events reported in

American History Illustrated magazine, October 1980. It concerns Reverend Eliakim Phelps, his wife, and four step- children. Rev. Phelps was a respected Presbyterian minister in Stratford, Connecticut, in the 1850s.

Family members were plagued by poltergeist activity for a year and a half. The events were varied and numerous: all manner of objects levitated or flew throughout the house, strange noises became common, and mysterious writings appeared.

The spirit’s most elaborate work was a group of 11 figures made of clothing from throughout the house and stuffed to resemble humans. The figures held open Bibles, with the fingers of their gloves pointing to particular verses.

Many visitors to the parsonage witnessed this activity. One wrote: “In my presence the elder boy was carried across

the room by invisible hands and gently deposited on the floor. . . . In one instance the boy’s clothes were cut to ribbons. . . . In the presence of several persons, articles moved through the air, and a brass candle-stick fell from the mantelpiece and continued to dash itself against the floor until broken. A shovel-and-tongs set moved out from the fireplace and proceeded to hop about in adance in the middle of the floor. . . and a lamp moved across the room and set fire to some papers.”

When Mrs. Phelps and her children went to Pennsylva- nia, the activity stopped. They returned about six months later, but the poltergeist never bothered the family again.

Legally Haunted On July 18, 1991, the Appellate Division of the State

Supreme Court of New York ruled a house in Nyack, N.Y., to be haunted “as a matter of law.” The question of whether the house was haunted or not came to be in the New York court system after the 18-room mansion was sold to a couple from out of town.

The house had had the reputation of being haunted for decades, and it was so billed on a house tour in 1989 (riverfront Victorian-with ghost). But nobody told Jeffrey and Patrice Stambovsky, who bought the place for $650,000. When they found out about the house’s reputation, they went to court to get their money back.

In the majority ruling, Justice Israel Rubin wrote: “The notion that a haunting is a condition which can and should be ascertained upon reasonable inspection of the premises is a hobgoblin which should be exorcised from the body of legal precedent and laid quietly to rest.”

Central to the outcome of the case was the fact that the seller, Helen Ackley, had publicized that the house was haunted. Besides being the subject of local interviews, she wrote an article in the May 1977 issue of Reader’s Digest describing experiences. Excerpts of that article follow.

She tells of an exchange with her husband, George (who died in 1989), at bedtime on a night soon after they moved into the house:

Sliding in beside him, I realized the hall light was burning. With a groan I started up.

“Where are you going?” George demanded. “To turn off the light, of course.” “Leave it on.” I lookedat him. “Since when have you slept with a light on?” “Since the first night I moved in here, and I don’t want

to discuss it. Good night!” He turned over, his back to me.

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Mrs. Ackley describes an incident that began when she was looking out her dining room window, which overlooks the Hudson River:

The leaves were gone from the trees, and shore lights shone across the water. The diamond necklace of the Tappan Zee Bridge undulated with light over the still river. As I stood storing the magnificent memory, achill engulfedmy lef side. Someone was standing beside me. Very close beside me. Every hair on my neck and scalp stirred as I slowly turned my head. No body stood there, but an entity certainly did occupy that space.

“It’s beautiful on the river, isn’t it?” I asked aloud. (It isn’t that I was calm, but I do react steadily in times of stress.) As I spoke, my hair eased back into place, and Ifelt no threat in the presence beside me. We stood looking out the window for a few more minutes. Then I turned to leave. My invisible companion turned with me and walked beside me across the room. I hesitated at the door. So did the other.

“Thank you for sharing the view with me. I’m going to bed now. Good night.” I walked alone down the hall to my bedroom, quivering, and closed the door behind me.

Mr. and Mrs. Ackley were not the only family members visited. She describes solving a problem for her daughter, Cynthia:

Cynthia had never been hard to arouse in the mornings, but now she began to get up and dress even before George andl rolledout ofbed. “It’s spooky, Mother,” she explained. “Every morning at exactly the same time my bed starts shaking. And i f I don’tget up rightaway, the bed shakes even harder. ”

Cyn was not scared or even upset. She hadjust hoped to sleep in later during the pending Christmas holiday. The plan we hit upon was not logical, perhaps, but it worked. Cynthia explained the situation to her invisible alarm clock, out loud, before going to bed that night. And during the vacation Cyn slept in every morning.

The Ackleys sometimes worried that their extensive renovations to the house might anger its invisible boarders. Mrs. Ackley relates what happened once when she was remodeling:

One day I attacked the battleship-gray living room. Paint time was at hand, and I was perched atop an eight-jbot stepladder when I felt watching eyes. The feeling was not unfamiliar, but it was still a bit unnerving. I knew George was at work and the kids were in school.

I turned my head. The room was empty. I started working again. But the eerie feeling persisted, so I spoke out loud. “ I hope you like the color. Hope you’re pleased with what we’re doing to the house. It certainly must have been lovely when it wasfirst built.”

As I talked I kept painting, but I felt the energy of those eyes, focused on the nape of my neck. I looked over- my shoulder again. “He” sat there in midair, smiling at mefi-om in front of the cold fireplace. Hands clasped around his crossed knees, he was nodding and rocking. He faded slowly, still smiling, and was gone. But I knew then that he approved of the work our family had lavished on our mutual home.

What did he look like? He was the most cheerful and solid-looking little person I’ve ever seen. A cap of white hair framed his round, apple-cheekedface, and there were pierc- ing blue eyes under thick white eyebrowls. His light-blue suit was immaculate, the cuffs of the short unbuttoned ,jucket turned back over ruffles at his wrists. A white rufled stock showed at his throat. Below breeches cut to his kneecaps he wore white hose and shiny black pumps with buckles.

When she told the rest of her family about the experi- ence, Mrs. Ackley got an unexpected reaction from her daughter:

Cynthia was interested in my description ofthe gentle- man because her shadowy roommate was quite different. On two or three occasions she had seen the outline . f a thin hoodedfigure of medium height, and was quite sure it was a woman.

Mrs. Ackley also tells about the experiences of people outside her immediate family:

Through the years, a number of ourfriends have told us of odd experiences they’ve had in our home-doors that wouldn’t stay closed, voices coming from empty rooms, a sense of being watched or even warned away. But not until my cousin Alfred, his wife, Ingrid, and their- daughter came to visit in 1974 did anyone outside our immediate family “meet” one of our ghosts.

At breakfast after their first night with us, Ingrid’s hands shook as she held her coffee cup. She had awakened before daylight, she said, aware that someone was walking around in the room. Then, silhouetted against the French doors, she saw the figure of a man dressed in a long jacket of the Revolutionary period. On his head was a curled, white-powdered wig.

He moved to the foot of the bed and sat down with his back toward Ingrid. The mattress gave as ifsomeone had sat down on the ed<qe. The the figure opened a big book in midair. The bookglowedas ifit were lightedfrom inside. The figure turned the pages one by one as though he were looking for something. Finally he closed it, stood up, and was gone.

The next time you walk past a “haunted house” or hear a strange noise coming from the basement, remember, it’s a proven fact, haunted houses and apparitions do exist!

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