It was after nightfall on Tuesday, April 13th, 1802 before the group reached London Bridge. They were planning to meet an associate of Sir Barnabas who was to give them a kind of relic that was to help their intended purge of the demonic forces haunting the crypts beneath Southwark Cathedral.

The lamps had been lit, but as they crossed toward south shore they noticed an area near the middle of the bridge where the lamps were out. Beneath a lit lamp on the other side of the darkened area was a figure leaning up against its post. As they approached he moved out to the middle of the bridge, held up his hand, palm out, and told them "Sorry, friends, this end of the bridge is closed tonight."

In truth, the man was stalling as 5 of his buddies attempted to creep up into position behind the group. Unfortunately (for them), they were spotted. When the man saw that the intended sneak attack had failed, he raised a pistol, pointed it at them, and continued with a smirk. "Of course, we'd be willing to let you pass for a toll..."

Gerald took a step or two forward toward the man, checking his watch and saying "There's no toll on the bridge at this hour". The man took a couple steps back and told him to stop and drop his bag. A couple of the others tried to keep a couple of the other thugs distracted. Robert simply stood by, but his size and presence was making the thugs uneasy.

Gerald set his bag down, opened it and began rummaging around in it saying he was looking for money. The man, not buying his reasoning threatened him further to step away and, when he didn't, moved a step forward and kicked Gerald back. When he did so, however, Gerald had managed to grab one of his pistols from the bag and brought it up to point at his assailant. Then he narrowed his eyes and said "Boy, these medical supplies were intended for others' injuries, but if I have to treat you, I will." Despite the Doctor's usual social bumbling, his presence and intimidation were impressive.

The young man began backing away, somewhat frightened. A couple of the thugs tried to grab the ladies' purses, but failed and, between Gerald's pistol and Robert's menacing stance, decided the situation was no longer worth it and ran. The young man who was the lead turned and fled as well.

After recovering their composure from this brief altercation, they continued on to the south shore of the Thames. There they met man in dark clothing wearing a thick blindfold. He didn't look very old, but he was hunched over and his movements were slow and methodical. "You must be the ones Balthazar told me about."

The man handed them a large iron cross. It was about 2 feet long, and a foot and a half across. When Gerald took it, he found that it weighed considerably more even than it looked. With some labor, he handed it over to Robert. After handing it to them, the man simply turned and walked away.

The party continued on to Southwark Cathedral and, after some searching, found a small sub-street-level back door which probably led down to the crypts. As they were examining the door, Robert happened to look up into the bushes where he made eye contact with a startled young boy, who immediately took off running down the street into the dark. The group looked at each other, shrugged, and returned to their task.

Kathrine pulled the key they were given from her purse, put it into the lock and turned it. When she did, the golden key momentarily glowed. It was a dim effect, but it was definitely there. After another moment, she turned it back, removed it, and opened the door.

On the other side of the door the stairway continued downward and, to their surprise, they could see lamplight and could hear voices in quiet conversation.

The group cautiously began making their way down the stairs when a familiar voice called out "Lance? Is that you? What kept you so long?"

Kathrine, believing the small boy they saw might be "Lance", she tried to imitate a young boy's voice, "Yes, It's me." Gerald, who was right behind her, didn't think she sounded convincing. The voices stopped and they heard steps approaching. Gerald decided it was time to act and barreled down the stairs and into the room. Robert immediately followed him.

The crypt below looked anything like but what they could have expected. The most prominent feature of the room was a large, circular table which was surrounded by chairs. Around this, between columns of the arches of the crypt were large bookcases full of books, scrolls, glassware and other eclectic, strange and sometimes unidentifiable objects. In addition, there were several free-standing doors - in frames only, not set into any wall, simply standing between the bookcases.

Standing about 15 feet in front of Gerald was a tall man with long brown hair. Behind him, on the right side of the table was the woman they had seen speaking with Hannington in the Mitre, and across the table from her, now getting to his feet, was Gavin.

The man in front of them spoke, clearly bewildered "What...Who...", but before he was able to say much more, the iron cross Robert was carrying seemed to somehow activate, instantly tripling in weight. In addition, the lower portion of the cross lengthened a few feet, made a sharp, downward point, and jammed it self into the stone floor of the crypt. The man who had approached them took a couple steps back, looking horrified. "Is that... No... It can't be...", but before anyone could react further, blue bolts of electricity burst forth from it, blasting at the three of them as well as the bookcases, the table, and the doors.

The man in front, who had been pushed backward by the blast of lightening, drew a silver sword, and the electricity seemed to arc directly to it. "Gwen!", he shouted, "It's an Axis - get out of here!". He arched his sword forward and a couple of the bolts of electricity redirected from his sword and leapt out toward Gerald and Kathrine, but missed.

"No! I'm not leaving!", the woman shouted back in earnest. She seemed to be somehow "catching" the lightening that was arcing toward her and, with some great effort, was keeping it at bay.

Gavin had drawn a pistol but then was hit with a lightening bolt and stumbled backward off his feet behind the table. The bolt that had been linked to him, tracked downward across one of the large chairs which splintered instantly. Taking this to be a symbol that these were the demons they were supposed to purge, the four moved into the room and opened fire on the three.

Their bullets found their marks and, with the help of the lightening artifact, the fight seemed to be going decidedly in their favor when something unexpected happened. The man with the sword stumbled forward, raised his sword, there was a flash of light and he had turned to stone. The woman began waving her arms and flames erupted around her form, but then burned out in a puff of smoke and she, too, had been turned to stone. Gavin had just managed to get up from behind the table at this point, saw the two statues and, full of rage raised his pistol and pulled the trigger. The sparks from the the power pan turned to stone as they ignited and fell to the ground. The bullet never made it out of the gun, and Gavin made the third statue in the room. The lightening then blasted out at the furnishings in earnest and splintered nearly everything in the room before the electricity stopped, the iron cross itself turned to stone, and then crumbled to the floor. The room was eerily silent.

The party took a look around the room, but found very little. Gerald did find a couple of the strange books that were partially intact and put them in his bag. They were still looking around when they heard another, nervous voice from the top of the stairs. "Who...Who's down there?"

It was a priest, father Garrus, associated with the cathedral, along with the boy who'd run away earlier. The group told him that they found trespassers in the crypt, but they kept their details vague. Father Garrus didn't seem to ask too many questions; he just really seemed to want them to leave. They did arrange to return the next day to talk.

The party then returned to Foley Manor to talk to Barnabas. On their arrival, however, they found the manor completely empty. Well, most of them did. Gerald, Molly and Robert walked in and began looking around bewildered, searching for some clue as to what happened to Barnabas - but Kathrine had stopped in the doorway. She had suddenly been hit with the sensation that there were people present - many people. She couldn't see anyone, but she could hear whispered voices coming from the corners of the room and from behind the walls. Eventually, she was able to make out some of the bit of the conversations:

[male voice, blase]

"The Pawns have returned to the Queen’s Bishop row"

[female voice, blase]

"Yes, but the Bishop is not here, he has moved to his next position."

[2nd female voice, interested]

"Balthazar was more successful than even he had hoped, but it has proved to be his undoing."

[2nd male voice, uncertain]

"Circumstances were fortunate....for some"

[2nd female voice, disdainful]

"Indeed, there are no Heretics left to profane this cursed city"

[2nd male voice, uncertain]

"Sophia... some would say there are darker beings than the Heretics"

[2nd female voice, darkly]

"Yes, Philip - things against which the city now has no remaining defense..."

[2nd female voice, closer / moving past, prophetic]

"The last of the candles have burned out and night approaches"

[separate collective of voices (not previous entities), indistinguishable gender, rises from the underlying babble]

"London will fall to the darkness"

The voices then fell silent.

Kathrine shared this with the others. They didn't really understand what she was talking about, but it didn't sound good.


The following day, the group returned to the Cathedral to speak with Father Garrus. He tells them that Ralph, the boy, claimed to have seen someone entering the crypt some nights before, but no one really believed him because they found no evidence. He had been camping out near the crypt entrance in hopes of catching the trespassers at it again.

They talked with Father Garrus for a while about what might have happened and how they did or did not fit into it. Molly asked if they could take the statues and, since Garrus knew they weren't part of the crypt, he agreed to let them. As they further investigated the aftermath of the previous night in the crypt that night, they noticed something etched into the sword held by the first statue, a single word, "Excalibur".

The group sat on the bathhouse veranda having afternoon tea for a while before Gerald finally decided he'd better go to the hospital to have his burns treated. As he was leaving, another figure came wandering in - a man called George, a harbor pilot and friend of Molly's. He took a seat at the table and began telling them about how busy the docks have been lately. After some hesitation and some exchanged looks between the other three, they began filling him in on their recent...adventures.

This conversation hadn't been underway too long when they were interrupted by another visitor. A somewhat oddly-dressed young man was shown in and offered Molly a proposition. He wanted to buy the bathhouse property and was willing to pay an amount which was probably three times what it was actually worth. They had a brief conversation about why he would want to buy the property, but none of his answers seemed to fully explain his exorbitant offer. By the time Gerald returned from the hospital, Kathrine had returned to her aunt's house, and Molly and Robert were searching the bathhouse inside and out for any clue as to what the man, called Gavin, would have wanted with it.

The following day (Monday, April 12th, 1802) the group decided to return to Allens Street - this time in daylight. They were able to find the alleyway they had wandered down two nights past rather easily, where they found a couple of things out-of-place.

First, there was a large, leafless tree which seemed to be growing up out of the cobblestone street directly in front of the doorway with the smashed wooden door leading into the basement room they had ventured into previously.

Second, the inside of that room *did* bear scorch marks, ash and other expected evidence of fire, but there was still a large amount of living, growing vegetation. Also, a mostly-intact skeleton buried among the vegetation which they had seen in the room the first time was still present and untouched.

Gerald entered the room and began taking some samples of the vegetation, the ash, some chips of bone from the skeleton and anything else that seemed removable. Kathrine climbed up the tree looking for the gaping maw she and Molly had seen in the large tree-like shadow that had chased them away, but she was unable to find it.

After a while, the group decided they had seen all that was there to observe. After a moments thought and discussion, the decided the only one who could give them more answers was Sir Barnabas.

The group returned to Foley Manor. It was dark and the door was closed, but, after no one answered their knocks, they found that it was unlocked.

They cautiously entered the darkened entryway - which was lit only by the evening light streaming in from the now-open door. Gerald walked over to the door to the West Parlor and opened it. Inside he could see a dark room with a large table, some chairs and couches and a fireplace. Robert walked over to the small table which contained a now-bent candelabra and lit it. Molly walked over to the stairway.

It was Kathrine, however, that returned to the door of the East Parlor, found it unlocked and cracked it open. Inside she saw the room - which seemed a little unnaturally dark - with its fireplace lit. Sitting in a high-backed chair next to it was Sir Barnabas. "Come in.", he said "I knew you would be the first..."

The group gathered in the East Parlor; Gerald wasted very little time before demanding answers. Sir Barnabas didn't answer right away, instead asking his own questions about what they found and what they saw. Once they had told him what they knew, he began to explain.

He told them that what they had seen where echoes of a banished evil. That he (and some organization or society he alluded to) were tasked with ridding the world of the supernatural evils that dwell in the shadows unbeknownst to the Sleeping world. He also told them that, now that they were aware of this world - of what lurks out of site - not only would they be unable to "go back", but they had now made themselves targets by virtue of this knowledge. He told them that if they were not one of the warriors on his side, they would certainly become victims of evil. It was then that they asked him what his motives were - why he had obviously led them along so that they might reach this end - and he told them. There was something he wanted them to do.

The crypts beneath Southwark Cathedral have a reputation for being haunted. He told them a powerful evil resides there and he wants them to destroy it. He possesses a weapon capable of severely weakening or possibly destroying this presence entirely, but he is unable to wield it. Something about himself - which he described as a "taint" - makes it toxic to him in the same way it will affect the evil he wishes to vanquish. He would have one of his contacts meet them on the south side of London Bridge at nightfall the next day to give it to them. It was for this purpose alone that Sir Barnabas had led them here.

The moments immediately following Robert's disappearance were filled with chaos. Kathrine screamed and Gerald reached into his bag for a pistol. As he did so, a gunshot rang out from the room, accompanied by the expected flash of light. Gerald leapt into the doorway and immediately that end of the room erupted into flames. This was followed by a loud cracking/splitting sound which echoed down the alleyway in the direction from which they'd come, which was followed by a steady, loud pounding/crumbling sound which shook the ground as it got closer. The rain and wind picked up and began blowing with increasing force down the alleyway toward them.

Disregarding the flames, Gerald jumped into the room, burning himself and igniting his coat in the process. On the other side of the fire, which was burning the vegetation which had somehow been growing around the room, he saw Robert collapsed on the far side of the room. Kneeling over him was a young girl, perhaps in her mid teens, who looked up at Gerald's entrance with an expression of pure contempt. She was very pale and dressed in grayish men's clothing which was noticeably too large for her slight frame. The only obvious sign of color on her came from a deep red flower which had been placed in her hair above her right ear.

There was a third figure in the room as well - a darkly dressed man who immediately leapt onto the rickety wooden stairway and scrambled up to the floor above, breaking a couple of the rotted wooden steps in the process. Noticing he was on fire, Gerald dropped to the ground to try to extinguish himself and managed to do so - and then immediately approached Robert.

Robert seemed to be severely dazed and showed signs of a mild concussion, but he was regaining a sense of his surroundings and trying to get to his feet. Gerald stood up and addressed the girl, asking her what had happened. The girl began replying to him, but no sound came from her lips as she spoke. It was then that Gerald noticed something painted on the floor in the center of the room - a circular symbol composed of a curved-bladed sword through a ring with a stylized splatter pattern, probably meant to be blood. Gerald was sure he'd seen this symbol somewhere before, but couldn't quite place it.

The pounding was continuing outside - and getting louder. Kathrine and Molly had scrambled to the top of the 8ft wall at the end of the alleyway and called in to Gerald, asking if they were alright and telling them that something big was approaching the end of the alleyway.

Robert had managed to find his feet by this time, and looked up to see Gerald in the center of the room, but the girl with the flower was mysteriously gone. He looked up to the broken staircase at the darkness of the landing above. Gerald called back to Molly that Robert was ok and that they were going to try to get upstairs.

Just as Molly and Kathrine were hearing these words, a large, looming being emerged from the darkness. A bipedal tree, perhaps 15 feet tall, was lumbering down the alleyway - bringing with it a whipping wind and driving rain. It had no further discernible features but for a gaping hole in its trunk near the top which resembled nothing so much as a massive, toothed maw.

Kathrine screamed again and, in a panic jumped down from the wall on the other side and began moving quickly down the alley on the other side - only barely restraining herself from a full run so as not to lose Molly in the darkness. Molly climbed down the other side of the wall as quickly as she could and followed Kathrine down the alley. By the time the two reached a point 50 or so feet away where the alley made a right-angle turn to the east, the pounding had stopped, but they were too far away to see if the walking tree was still there.

After finally managing to reach the top of the rotten stairway, Robert and Gerald made their way through what seemed to be an abandoned tenant building of some sort. They found the main entrance, but the wooden stairways that once provided entrance and exit were long gone. The two half jumped, half fell to the stone ground in the alley below and decided to head back to Allens Street.

Meanwhile, Kathrine and Molly were attempting the same thing. Having made it back to the lit street, they had calmed a little. Looking ahead to a point just beyond the entrance to the alley they had originally gone down, they saw a man in a dark coat speaking with a young girl with a red flower in her hair. They were too far away to hear anything that may have been said however, and very shortly afterward, the young girl went skipping down Allens street away from them, and the man crossed the street to an alley on the other side and disappeared from view.

Shortly thereafter, the four met up with each other again and they all decided they wanted nothing more than to be home. The group returned to Molly's bathhouse and arranged for a carriage to return Kathrine to her aunt's residence. The next day they met again - which seemed to be becoming a habit - and began to discuss aspects of the previous night's adventure.

Gerald, Robert, Molly and Kathrine made their way to The Mitre around 6 o'clock on the evening of Saturday, April the 10th. Their plan was to talk to a man called Hannington.

By the time they arrived at the pub, it was starting to cool a bit and the overcast sky was beginning to drizzle. The other patrons of the establishment were somewhat surprised to see the two women enter with Gerald and Robert, but, apart from some occasional glances - particularly at Molly - nothing seemed to come of it.

The group took seats at the only empty table - which happened to be near the center of the room. They spent some time discussing what they should do, looking around for anyone who stood out or who may get inebriated to the point of spouting nonsense. They also spoke to the bartender who said he knew the man they were looking for, but at the time said he wasn't present. Some time later, and after pressing the point a bit Molly was able to learn that the man known as Hannington was seated in a booth on the far side of the room.

When Molly walked over to where he was sitting, she interrupted a conversation he was having with another person - a woman in a hooded cloak whom, unlike herself and Kathrine, the room had not seemed to notice. She gave Molly an icy stare before sliding out of the booth and walking out of the establishment. Hannington seemed somewhat relieved by her departure, but quickly became wary of this overly outspoken new woman who'd joined him.

Molly talked with him for a while, trying to subtly prompt him into volunteering some of the information they had come for, but he didn't seem to take the bait, and anytime she became too direct, he seemed to get very uncomfortable. She did learn that he lived on Allens Street, but he wouldn't say anything about his area of town beyond the fact that he didn't like to walk around it at night.

After a while, they were joined by Robert who slipped a sedative provided by Gerald into Hannington's drink and he passed out. They were about to carry him out when the bartender told them he'd take care of it and he and some friends took the unconscious man to a room upstairs.

Having been unsuccessful in their attempt to get Hannington to talk about his experiences, they had a brief discussions as to what they should do next. Kathrine said she probably needed to be heading back to her aunt's house before too long, but the group decided to take a look around Allens Street since the note had referred to that area.

Allens Street was not a major thoroughfare, but it was lit - which was good because the overcast sky was letting almost no moon or starlight through. The area contained a fair number of trees and bushes along the houses and sides of the streets. This was a little uncommon, but not unheard of. They decided to take a quick look around some of the darker alleyways looking for anything unusual.

After 10 or 20 minutes of wandering, they happened upon an alleyway which seemed to have still more trees and bushes up against the buildings. Gerald decided that someone must have planted them there because it seemed unlikely for them to have grown there on their own.

They followed this alleyway until Gerald, who had been leading the group in the dark, ran into a wall at its end. When this sudden stop occurred, Molly lost her balance and fell into a small hole to her left and her right foot stuck into something very sticky on the floor.

Gerald fished around in his bag and eventually found a candle and some matches while Robert helped Molly out of the hole. Once Gerald got the candle lit, they examined the area. Molly had fallen into a small, partial stairwell that provided access to a door that was sunk slightly below street level. The floor of the stairwell was covered with some sticky, golden substance which Gerald eventually identified as sap.

Robert decided he was going to take a look. He stepped down part way into the stairwell and kicked in the door where Molly had cracked it. Trying to avoid stepping in the sap as much as possible, he took the candle from Gerald and leaned inside.

The cellar-like lower floor into which he looked was overgrown with bushes, vines and grass. There was some sort of red mark painted on the floor, but it was obscured by the vegetation. The sap "stream" continued to the middle of the room. Once or twice he thought he saw something move but closer examination revealed nothing.

Robert turned back around to the other three and stated rather matter-of-factly "the room's full of plants". He had barely finished this statement when he was suddenly yanked backward into the darkness...

The group stood in the dimly-lit entrance hall of Foley Manor. There was light coming from beneath the doors to the left and right but the stairway ahead of them was darkened. Figuring that the room on the left - the one to which they had been directed - was where the "other guests" were gathered, they decided to investigate the door on the right - the one to the East Parlor.

The door to the East Parlor, however, was locked. The entrance hall in which they stood was rather bare of furniture, containing only a small table on which a candelabra stood. The table contained a small drawer in which they found a tarnished gold key, but it did not fit the lock on the East Parlor door. The key had been wrapped in a fragment of old parchment which contained a few line fragments from a letter:

est fear is
discovery would shatter
more important. nothing
my love, Sophia

After a few moments consideration, Robert pulled out a lockpick, which he was able to use to force the lock open.

Upon opening the door, whatever light had been shining from inside was suddenly gone. The room inside was dark, illuminated only by the candelabra they had retrieved from the small table in the hall and a faint bluish glow coming from the two windows in the room. The sheer curtain in front of the window on the left fluttered a little in a gentle breeze coming through the window which must have been open.

The room contained some large pieces of furniture which were covered by canvas cloths as well as a number of smaller end-tables, chairs and stools which were scattered haphazardly around the room. The north wall contained some displays of archaic weaponry and some free-standing suits of plate armor on display. Opposite the door between the two windows was a large fireplace with a mantle which contained a long, rectangular display case. A coffee table in the center of the room contained a single large book.

The group hesitated a moment before entering the room, examining its contents. They found the display case on the mantle housed a long, glass rod with a ball at one end. The book turned out to have been hollowed and contained a wilted flower and a scrap of newsprint. The newsprint had a printed address, next to which were handwritten words which read "Miss Diana is no longer there". The silence of the room was broken when Kathrine screamed - having seen a large rat near a corner of the room. It was only a moment later when a strong gust of wind blew in through the open window, extinguishing the candles and causing the door across the room to slam shut. Molly screamed. The chair on which Kathrine had been standing after seeing the rat was suddenly jerked from beneath her and she fell backwards, hitting her head on the floor. Gerald felt something slam into the side of his knee, sending pain shooting through his leg.

What ensued can be looked back upon only as chaos and confusion. There was some malevolent force present in the room - and more than a single hostile entity - but for some reason, the four were unable to perceive exactly what it was. For a few dramatic moments, the group alternately took cover from and lashed out at their shadowy assailants, continuing until the door to the entrance hall suddenly opened.

In the doorway stood a well-dressed man with a curious and confused look on his face. He introduced himself as Sir Barnabas and recommended that the group proceed over to the West Parlor, suggesting that plenty of food from the banquet would be left still. When the group hesitated, he began walking around the room - examining it and making idle conversation with the group until one of them mentioned the hidden message and the "secrets" he seemed to wish to discuss. At that point, he invited them all into the and addressed them.

The next morning, the group awoke in their own beds. Their memories of the past evening were curiously fragmented. They remembered discussions of strange histories and mythologies taking place - often including as facts things they would have chalked up to legend or superstition - but they couldn't remember exactly what was said. They also felt that they had witnessed inexplicable things - even things that shouldn't have been possible - but they couldn't remember any real specifics on those either. At some point during the evening's discussions, Sir Barnabas had seemed to become more sullen and disappointed. He had suggested that the group return to the Manor at a later time and had handed them each an invitation envelope, similar to the first one they'd been given, then showed them out of the manor.

The group met up at Molly's bathhouse over breakfast. The "invitations" they had been given contained a rather strange message:

Perhaps your dreams are not as lucid as I suspected. You should see this as a merciful blessing - your eyes being closed to the darkness as tightly as they are.
If you are still intent on prying them open, I've heard a man called Hannington can tell some interesting stories about the streets near his residence. Most evenings he can be found in The Mitre. I would be very interested to know what you find.

In addition, Robert pointed out that the address they'd found on the newsprint in the hollow book was that of an old cemetery in the north of town near the Foundling Hospital. The doctor was deep in thought over what chemical effect they must have been under to account for the previous evening's hallucinations and fogginess, but the other three decided to travel to the cemetery and have a look around, planning to meet up and head to The Mitre that evening.

The cemetery in question was old, disused and only occasionally cared for. There were a few people in the general area, but it was fairly deserted. After some time wandering amongst the scattered stones, they were able to determine that the cemetery was probably around 100 years old, but had been in regular use up until the last 5 or 10 years. They also happened upon a particular stone which caught their attention as relevant to the message they'd found:

Diana Foley
1775 - 1791

As they were looking at this stone, a young boy (perhaps 14 years) wandered up to them with a handful of wilted flowers, which he placed carefully on Diana's grave. Then, he looked up and asked them "Were you friends of Diana's?" When they admitted they hadn't known Diana, he mumbled "I was her friend, I miss her...". His voice trailed off and he began to wander away toward a small copse of trees. They called after him, but he didn't seem to pay any attention and slipped into the grove before they could catch him.

Robert followed him into the trees and shortly called for the others to join him. There was no sign of the boy, but within the trees there was an odd clearing overgrown with red and yellow flowers. After looking around for a few moments, they found a simple well-worn gravestone buried in the grass:

Thomas Landor
1675 - 1689