Session 4

Session Report - Played Monday 29th May, 2006

November 9th 1928

After dinner - the investigators decide what to do next. They have leads to Lawrence Bacon, Malcolm Quarrie and Edwards and have been told of the 'Nine Teeth' prepared at Clare Melford. Over port and cigars they make their plans.

Withers offers to set his private detective the task of checking up on Edwards, Bacon and Quarrie - to see if their current addresses match those given by Vincent Tuck.

The decision is made to drive to Clare Melford on Saturday.

November 10th 1928

In Japan, the Emperor Hirohito is enthroned. In England, the four investigators drive, in Saunders' Cowley, to Suffolk. The day is cold, but clear, with snow on the ground. They stop in Clare for lunch at the Plough Inn before heading into Clare Melford.

In Clare Melford they visit the Railway Inn and meet the landlord, Dick Blair. He only moved to the village in early 1926, so is no help with regards to the events of late 1925, so they start to talk to the locals.

They hear of 'the night of the curse' on New Year's Eve 1925, when 5 locals (4 elderly and 1 small child) all died of apparently natural causes. They also hear of the nearby Springer Mound, on the land of local farmer Harold Jennings, who has kept a part of his land uncultivated and does not take kindly to strangers.

It is decided that walk past Jennings' land on the public footpath is in order. While examining Springer Mound from a distance, the investigators encounter the bellicose Jennings and his large, vicious looking dogs, Henry and Lucas. Jennings is unfriendly and basically warns them off.

Nathaniel Browne spots two dark shapes circling high above the mound - others look at them through Withers' binoculars, but the best guess is that they are some kind of bat or large bird.

The group drives to nearby Long Melford and finds rooms for the night at the Ox Tavern. There they find locals who remember a large bearded man fitting the description of Lawrence Bacon who stayed in the village with a group of 'well-to-do Londoners' at New Year 1925. These men left the village on the evening of New Year's Eve and did not return. That night five people died in Clare Melford.

November 11th 1928

Withers has to leave for Windsor first thing on Saturday to be back for the Armistice day ceremonies. he catches the train from Sudbury with Bartlett and the two men spend their day with Withers' regiment at both the ceremony and the extended drinking session that follows.

In Suffolk, Saunders and Browne decide to take a walk to Springer Mound from the Long Melford side. Trudging through fresh snow, they climb the hill where they discover a viscous pool of foul-smelling tar-like liquid.

Browne puts his foot in a hole hidden under the snow and falls heavily, spraining his ankle. The hole proves to be large enough to have held a standing stone. Looking down into the heavily overgrown area on the other side, Saunders sees several large stones lying on their side amongst the bushes and goes down to examine them, leaving Browne to rest.

There are nine stones, each a large granite obelisk of recent manufacture, engraved with lines of poetry, or ritual, in English. Saunders has just noticed a reference to 'Hastur' when an angry Harold Jennings appears, with his dogs and starts waving his shotgun at Saunders.

As Saunders tries to explain himself, Jennings fires - either a warning shot or an accidental discharge - and hits one of the stones. At this point, one of the two flying creatures seen above the Mound the previous day drops like a stone from the sky, straight past Browne, and swoops towards Jennings.

Jennings screams, tries to raise his gun and is hit by a horror beyond imagining. Saunders gets a clear view as one of the Springer Mound Monsters rips Jennings' throat out in front of him. Saunders flees towards Browne, shouting 'Run, run!

The thing that killed Jennings is taller than a man, part insect, part reptile, with huge leathery wings, sharp claws and a head like the skull of a horse, yet filled with knifelike teeth.

As Saunders and Browne flee across the snow, Browne hobbling on his bad ankle, the creature rises into the air, circles once then flies back down in the direction of Jennings' farm. Browne and Saunders make it to the Inn in Long Melford and immediately ask for a doctor.