by Marcus L. Rowland
Copyright © 1993-6, revised 1998
This is the fourth of a series of source packs, aimed mainly at users of table-top role playing games, but also of interest to SF and fantasy fans and scholars. It is not a computer game; I am simply using shareware distribution as an alternative to printed publication. If you have obtained it thinking that it is software, PLEASE inform the supplier of this mistake.
Before looking at the rest of this document, read at least one of the Carnacki stories. The Horse of the Invisible is an excellent introduction to the character, while The Whistling Room and The Gateway Of The Monster are possibly the most horrific of these stories. The Hog is the longest, contains the most "technical" information on Hodgson's version of the occult, and is probably best read after some of the others.
Please note that the information below and in later sections mentions some of the events of these stories and may reduce your enjoyment; the obvious answer is to read them before continuing with this worldbook.
Previous Forgotten Futures collections have tried to 'rescue' fiction that seemed to be in danger of disappearing; stories and novels that nobody was interested in reprinting, which seemed to be heading for oblivion. This is not the case with the Carnacki stories; they are rediscovered every ten or fifteen years, so copies aren't particularly hard to find, and often appear in anthologies. Despite this, most of the stories have not been published electronically; the versions included in this collection may not have been published since their original appearance in 1910-12. This collection corrects the omission, and brings some extraordinarily good stories to the attention of many readers who are unable to find them elsewhere. My main reason for using them is simple; I like these stories and think that they present a near-perfect background for a supernatural role playing game. Read them and see if you agree.
0.1 Publishing history
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Six of these stories first appeared in British magazines in 1910-12, and were reprinted in the anthology Carnacki The Ghost Finder in 1913. All were illustrated on original publication. A 1948 American printing (edited by August Derleth) added three more stories; The Hog, The Haunted Jarvee and The Find. All subsequent editions have included these stories. The list below shows the names and file names of the stories in order of publication, a code which will be used to refer to them in the remainder of this document, and the file names of any extra illustrations that have been added for this collection:
The earlier stories are scanned from photocopies of the magazines in which they originally appeared, with the headings and art that accompanied them. The last three were scanned from the 1974 Sphere edition, the most common British version. Since some readers may prefer to use the printed book, this worldbook mentions any relevant changes, referring to the printed book (and specifically this edition) as [CGF]. Thus [CGF/WR] means "The version of The Whistling Room in Carnacki The Ghost Finder (1974 Sphere edition)". One story, The Thing Invisible, is included in both versions; there are major differences between them, and the later version is somewhat better. Character details etc. are for the later version.
The Hog is divided into numbered sections; where necessary these numbers are used to refer to the appropriate part of the text; for example, [TH:5] means "The Hog, section 5".
More details of the publishing history is in another file
0.2 Ghost Detectives
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Previous Forgotten Futures collections have concentrated on Scientific Romances, the ancestors of Science Fiction. This collection takes a look at another genre; the world of the ghost detective story.
These stories were most popular around the end of the 19th century, when premature death was much more common than it is today; most families would experience the death of at least one child, and epidemics of typhoid and cholera were almost routine events. Not surprisingly, there was a widespread desire to believe that something compensated for these untimely deaths; somehow a period of rapid technological development also saw a huge expansion in spiritualism, and in death-related fiction including horror and ghost stories.
Ghost detective stories blend elements of science fiction, fantasy, horror, the supernatural and the detective story. Often they were presented as factual; for example, in 1898-9 Pearson's Magazine published two series of 'real ghost stories' by E & H Heron, accompanied by a biography of 'Mr. Flaxman Low - under the thin disguise of which name many are sure to recognise one of the leading scientists of the day...'; these stories included photographs of 'haunted' houses and other 'evidence' of their truth.
The Carnacki stories are perhaps the best example of the type; while there are many others, their heroes (such as the aforementioned Flaxman Low) are usually irritatingly omniscient and super-competent. Carnacki often feels fear, with good reason, and is ready to run if things are going badly wrong. He also makes a fool of himself occasionally, seeing supernatural forces where there are none.
Conventional ghost and horror stories often rely on isolation or alienation for much of their effect, tend to have a limited cast, and are often confined to one key location. In ghost detective stories the protagonist tends to be an outsider, called in to investigate some unusual event, and can call on the resources of the outside world as needed. Generally he (it is almost always a man) knows little of the other characters before the story begins, and is treated as a distinguished expert. Sometimes the detective is regarded as a crank or a charlatan, but this is rare; indeed, police and other authorities are often ready to obey his instructions, even when they seem far-fetched or ridiculous. In Dracula, for example, Van Helsing encourages the other characters to commit grave-robbery and burglary, mutilates corpses and enlists their help in several dangerous hypnotic experiments. Carnacki is less extreme in his requirements, but often enlists the help of the police and other officials.
These stories usually involve a mystery that must be solved to put an end to a haunting. Generally this requires discovery of the truth about some long-forgotten crime, the exhumation of a corpse, or some other ritual which will put an unquiet soul to rest. The Carnacki stories are no exception, but they present a blacker view of the supernatural than most of their rivals; the entities Hodgson describes are usually ravening monsters, not human spirits, and are almost always to be feared and avoided. They certainly can't be charmed or reasoned with, and probably can't be exorcised by clergy.
Another distinction between normal ghost stories and the ghost detective tale is their use of technology. Cameras, barometers, recording thermometers and elaborate traps are common, and Carnacki also makes use of recording phonographs and the famous (and often parodied) electrical pentacle.
Unlike conventional horror stories, ghost detective stories are usually reassuring; they tell us that there are explanations and remedies for supernatural evils. Hodgson breaks from this pattern; Carnacki is usually a closer of doors, but they can probably be opened again. Behind them something extremely nasty is waiting to pounce...
0.3 Language And Units
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The author of Forgotten Futures is British, as was William Hope Hodgson. American readers will occasionally notice that there are differences in spelling and use of language between our 'common' tongues. If that worries you, you are welcome to run documents through a spell checker, but please DON'T distribute modified versions.
The stories use Imperial measurements of length and power; feet and inches, ounces and pounds, miles and horsepower. To retain their flavour these units have mostly been used in the worldbook and adventures. Readers who are unfamiliar with the British (and American) system of weights, or with pre-decimal British currency, will find the awful details in Appendix A of the rules; see TABLES.WK1 for conversion tables and CURRENCY.WK1 for a currency conversion template.
0.4 Role Playing Games
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This collection is a source for game referees, and most sections contain notes for their use. A few sections are written mainly for the game. The Forgotten Futures rules can be found on this CD-Rom, but you are welcome to use the game of your choice and add game statistics to fit its rules. No one will complain, provided you don't distribute a modified version of these files, but if you like the game setting and adventures please register.
The recommended time frame for a campaign based on these stories is roughly 1905-1914, but there is no reason why it can't be set in the Victorian era or the 1920s. Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu and Cthulhu By Gaslight cover these eras in detail, as does Steve Jackson Games' GURPS Horror. Both these games can provide additional background details, mostly from an American viewpoint.
Several excellent games deal with horror, ghosts, spiritualism and the afterlife. Call Of Cthulhu and GURPS Horror cover the horror end of this field, while Wraith (White Wolf) and In Nomine (Steve Jackson Games) are based largely on spiritual aspects. Ghostbusters (West End Games, reprinted with some changes as Ghostbusters International) is a useful source for a more humorous approach, but is out of print. Bureau 13: Stalking The Night Fantastic (Tri-Tac Inc) is set in a world where almost any sort of supernatural or paranormal event, usually deadly, can occur. Over The Edge (Atlas Games) is set in a world of conspiracy and deadly deceptions, and has a background which can easily incorporate these topics. Please note that Wraith, In Nomine and Over The Edge are all marketed as "adult games", and tackle themes which may not be suitable for younger players, as do most horror games.
Two previous Forgotten Futures collections have overlapped the period or themes of the Carnacki stories:
Forgotten Futures II: The Log Of The Astronef is set in the same era as these stories, but in a world where Britain has already conquered space. While there is no supernatural content, it would be easy to set a Carnacki-style ghost detective campaign against the background of the Astronef stories. Ghosts on Ganymede? Vampires on Venus? The possibilities are endless. Some of the historical material from FF2, such as the list of prices and wages, has been reused (and in some cases revised) for this worldbook; if you have already printed it, you may wish to avoid doing so again.
Forgotten Futures III: George E. Challenger's Mysterious World has a background that incorporates spiritualist concepts. Doyle's version of supernatural events is much "cosier" than Hodgson's, but there is no real reason why the nastier phenomena of the Carnacki world should not also exist in Doyle's universe.
Finally, there is one published adventure based on the Carnacki stories; "The Horse Of The Invisible" by A. J. Bradbury (White Dwarf 66, June 1985) used the events of the story as a background for a Call of Cthulhu adventure, assuming that the "horse" was a creature of the Cthulhu Mythos. To the best of my knowledge it has not been reprinted. I am not aware of any others.
0.5 Writing Between The Lines
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At various points this worldbook makes assumptions about things that aren't specifically described in the Carnacki stories, or are mentioned in an ambiguous way. Most of the notes on Carnacki's life and personality, "lost cases", and the "Ab-natural" world fall into this category. There are also numerous inconsistencies; where possible I have chosen the alternative that seems to give the best explanation of events. Since Hodgson rarely says much about the minor characters of the stories, I have sometimes speculated wildly about their prior and subsequent histories, skills, motivation, etc. Carnacki's background is also largely invented. For example, his school was chosen because it was attended by Jerome K. Jerome, the editor of The Idler (which published the first five stories), and because the author of this collection was a pupil there many years later.
One of the conventions of this series is the framing dinner party, in which Carnacki tells friends about his cases. In one sense, this is all that happens; Carnacki tells a tale and his friends then leave for their homes. "Dodgson" (one of the four friends) writes up the story for publication, but it is entirely hearsay. This format implies the possibility that the story-teller is a liar, mistaken, or insane, since the narrator, not the author, describes events. While this argument can sometimes be important in other forms of literature (most notably detective fiction), this worldbook always assumes that whatever Carnacki describes occurred as he tells it and is accurate to the limits of his observational abilities. Occasionally I have gone beyond these limits, basing ideas on Hodgson's other works.
In most ghost fiction supernatural events have no major effect on society. The Carnacki stories imply a "normal" Edwardian background, conforming in all respects to the world we know, except that supernatural events occur and have a very limited degree of scientific acceptance. Most people have no experience of the supernatural; if they are unlucky enough to need help with unnatural events, someone will eventually pass on the name of Carnacki or another savant with similar skills and knowledge. I have assumed that this fringe status continues today; most people don't believe in the Ab-natural, but stories do get around. Carnacki's biographical details are reasonably well-known; the general public remember him as an interesting eccentric, while those who are active in Ab-natural studies are aware of his importance to the field.
Although the exact date of the events in the stories is unimportant, the first six are assumed to be set in 1909-10, with the exception of [SEH], which is told as an early experience and is apparently set in the late 19th century. Presumably the other stories are also set prior to the Hodgson's death during the First World War. From the context of the stories it is apparent that Carnacki has much experience of the supernatural, implying that his career began considerably earlier. It's reasonable to guess that he began this work in 1894-5, with [SEH] taking place in 1897.
0.6 Weird Science
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Carnacki's work (and that of the scientists and scholars he occasionally refers to) is on the fringes of orthodoxy; most respectable scientists refuse to admit that the Ab-natural exists, or prefer to have nothing to do with someone who messes around with electric pentacles, chalk, magic and vibrations. At best the uninitiated treat him as a crank or an eccentric; at worse, as little more than an outright fraud. Little of this is apparent in the stories, but they are told from Carnacki's viewpoint and usually describe cases in which someone has already taken the step of calling for his help. Anyone who is sufficiently worried about the supernatural to call in an expert is probably already predisposed to take him seriously.
Carnacki's scientific background is never explored in detail, but he obviously has some knowledge of physics, chemistry, photography and archaeology, and is familiar with ancient and occult writings. His inventions include the electric pentacle, the elaborate vibratory apparatus described in The Haunted Jarvee, and the peculiar experimental chamber and protective clothing of The Hog, which also mentions a device which is a cross between an electroencephalograph and mechanised telepathy. Relatively minor achievements include several feats of forensic science.
Despite these discoveries, Carnacki is less dogmatic about his work than most scientists of early 20th-century fiction; he is always prepared to admit that he doesn't have all the answers and might be completely mistaken.
Later sections of this worldbook try to explain the Ab-normal universe and other aspects of Carnacki's work and personal history, with some input from Hodgson's other stories, but it should be remembered that even Carnacki is rarely sure of the facts and that much remains unknown in his era. If you don't agree with my interpretation, there is plenty of scope for changes!
0.7 Magic And Religion
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The Carnacki stories are set in a world in which magic exists, although it is implied that the spells described are simply triggers for 'natural' forces, with 'natural' taking in the unknown as well as the known. Later sections describe the use of magic, with appropriate game rules, but do not give realistic details of spell casting, beyond the relatively sparse descriptions in the Carnacki stories.
I don't believe in magic, but readers who wish to add greater authenticity can find detailed information in numerous text books on the occult and/or anthropology. Please note that realism in this area is likely to offend anyone with strong religious and/or magical beliefs and that this is, in all respects, a game based on works of fiction, not real life!
Any work related to magic or the supernatural naturally has religious implications. In the Carnacki stories it is apparent that "ghosts" are not "souls" or "spirits" in any normal religious sense, but manifestations of a hostile universe; nevertheless, the use of religious symbols (especially holy water) does sometimes seem to be effective against them. The "Astarral" entities seem to be a force for good, but are not necessarily related to any conventional version of God and/or angels; limited human perceptions may nevertheless see them in that light. Referees should make their own decisions on these matters; the author is NOT prepared to enter into any debates!
0.8 Omissions
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I have not been able to learn anything about Florence Briscoe, who illustrated the Carnacki stories in The Idler; I am also unable to identify the artist who illustrated The Thing Invisible. Further information on these points would be appreciated.
0.9 Technical notes
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Documents were typed using Borland's Sprint word processor, then exported to ASCII format. Sprint was also used to convert these files to HTML.
Graphics came from a variety of sources; some were created using Zing, a 3D modelling package, others are from public domain sources, most notably the Carnacki stories themselves. Diagrams and maps were mostly created using Microsoft's PC Paint, a Windows accessory. File conversion and effects were produced by Micrografyx PhotoMagic, part of Graphics Works.
The magazine art was scanned at low resolution to allow inclusion of all the stories plus game material within a reasonable total file size. As the images were scanned from photocopies, not the original magazines, there wasn't significant loss of clarity. Faces and other details are inset scanned at 300 DPI.
0.10 Acknowledgements
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Thanks to Terry Pratchett and Bridget Wilkinson for their thoughts on Carnacki's personality, and to Roger Robinson and the Science Fiction Foundation for bibliographic information. The publication data in section 0.1 above comes from an article by Michael Ashley, in The Science Fiction Collector No. 15, also found by Roger Robinson. Some of the ideas on improvising adventures in section 7.1 were suggested by an article on improvised theatre by Mike Cule, in InterAction 1.
Thanks to Christopher Beiting for his help in finding (and copying) the first six stories and illustrations in their original form, and to Ken and Jo Walton, who generously gave me collected volumes of Harmsworth's Magazine (later the London Magazine) for 1899 to 1902, and made several valuable suggestions regarding this worldbook.
Other sources include The Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction (Clute & Nicholls), The Cassel Encyclopaedia Dictionary, The Grolier Electronic Encyclopaedia, issues of Pearson's Magazine from 1897 to 1902, Dracula, and various issues of The Skeptic and Fortean Times.
A few "quotes" from films, music and TV have been included in the text; they are parodies used to illustrate the themes of this collection and the effects of the Ab-natural on modern popular culture. There is no intention to infringe copyright. Special thanks to Phil Masters, who suggested some changes and is undoubtedly a better song-writer than I am.
Previous collections were proof-read by my mother, Jessie Rowland. Without her help and her patience in teaching me the rudiments of English grammar, it is unlikely that I would be a writer today. Very few readers will have met her; she attended one science fiction convention as a holiday, but had no real interest in gaming or SF. During her last illness, while in hospital, she insisted on checking most of the Forgotten Futures 3 adventures. She died in 1995, aged 75, and is greatly missed by her family and friends.
1.0 Glossary
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This list defines these terms as they are used in the Carnacki stories, or in the material that follows.
"As for the rest of them, these psychic dabblers, they have no stomach for the truth and would run a mile if they saw it. The only exception is Carnacki, and he has no romance in his soul; a self-taught scientist with the plodding lack of imagination of a bank manager. He even collects pipes and, I believe, Toby jugs! By his own account he has seen the work of the Outer Monstrosities many times, yet comes back for more. This isn't courage - it's a deficiency in his personality!"
(Aleister Crowley, in a letter circa 1912)
Thomas Carnacki is perhaps the most baffling figures of the early twentieth century psychic scene; a man with no apparent reason for involvement in supernatural affairs, who scorned most aspects of psychic research, but nevertheless dedicated his life to its study, who was afraid of the Ab-natural but continued to risk his life and soul investigating it, while remaining so isolated that he was unknown to most of his contemporaries.
He seems to have had few interests outside his work, apart from some knowledge of billiards, gastronomy and bibliography; he did indeed collect pipes, but does not seem to have been interested in Toby jugs. Were it not for a few moments of fame, his friendship with the author Dodgson, and his importance in the history of the Ab-natural, it is likely that he would now be forgotten.
Thomas Carnacki was born in 1872, the only child of Ivan Carnacki, a Russian emigre, and Alice Carnacki (nee Wells), a schoolmistress. The name Carnacki was almost certainly assumed; it isn't a normal Russian name, and there is no record of Ivan prior to 1864, when he would have been in his early twenties. Their marriage licence implies that he was a Catholic, then somewhat persecuted in Russia; since Alice was a member of the Church of England, their marriage was a civil ceremony.
Ivan was euphemistically known as a "confidential agent"; in practice he acted as a translator, spy and messenger for the Foreign and Colonial Office, and was its liaison with several factions in Russia. These activities were covered by involvement in a London-based fur company, which gave him legitimate reasons to visit Russia. He also seems to have used his access to sensitive information, especially items related to currency fluctuations and trade, to make some extremely successful investments.
Ivan's business was potentially dangerous, especially when it took him abroad, but his death was entirely accidental. In 1879 he travelled to Scotland to clear up some minor complications in the delivery of a consignment of sable pelts, and was a victim of the Tay railway bridge disaster. He left Alice and Thomas a comfortable income from his investments, ironically including a large portfolio of railway shares. Alice promptly moved from the East End of London to a genteel home near Regents Park, and settled down to life as a wealthy widow.
Thomas was initially educated by tutors, then attended the nearby Philological School (later St. Marylebone Grammar School; now closed) from 1883 to 1890. The school then specialised in ancient languages and history, and Thomas easily won a scholarship to Queens College, Oxford, where he studied Greats (Greek, Latin and philosophy), eventually achieving a comfortable First. He also seems to have begun his lifetime study of the occult and supernatural; Bodleian Library records show him as a frequent reader of related incunabula (early books), such as the Sigsand Manuscript [SEH]. There is nothing to indicate why he suddenly developed this interest; there is no evidence of any contact with Ab-natural phenomena at the time, although his letters suggest that he experienced something soon after graduation.
Contemporaries rarely mention him in accounts of their college days; he achieved no sporting distinctions and only joined one society, becoming treasurer of the photographic club, 1892-3. With these exceptions, he might almost have been an invisible man.
He returned to London in 1894 and began to manage the family business interests, while developing contacts in scientific and supernatural affairs. The few letters that survive from this period give the impression of an earnest enquirer and hint at some personal (and possibly traumatic) experience of the Ab-natural, which is unfortunately never detailed.
In August 1895 the lease on the Regents Park house ended, and Carnacki's mother decided to move to Appledorn, on the South Coast. He accompanied her, and there experienced his earliest documented encounter with the supernatural [SEH] in 1897. His report of this case notes that "my experience of what I might term 'curious' things was very small at that time.", but he was being characteristically modest; the police already knew him as someone to take seriously. The case was solved in circumstances which made it desirable to leave the house, so they returned to London and a new home at 472 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, a large Georgian house on the Thames embankment.
In 1902 Mrs. Carnacki met Forrest Jones, an American widower. They found that they had much in common and married in 1904, moving to New York after the wedding. Thomas stayed in London. By now he was regularly involved in psychic investigations; he used the rooms freed by his mother's departure to set up an unusual laboratory equipped for a wide range of experiments [HG], and began to design such devices as the electric pentacle [GM etc.]; see Section 5 for more details of this device, 17_PENT.GIF for an illustration.
The electric pentacle was developed after Carnacki was nearly killed in a partially completed pentacle (the "Moving Fur" case [GM]), and after the tragic "Black Veil" case [GM] of 1906-7, which saw Carnacki's first serious brush with the law. Both cases are summarised in section 3; briefly, Carnacki was protected by a pentacle and lived, his colleague Aster felt that this was superstition and was killed by a powerful Aeiirii manifestation. Naturally this lead to an inquest, and the Coroner was unable to accept the involvement of Ab-natural forces. He preferred to believe that Aster had died of heart failure, following a hysterical fit brought about by apprehension and Carnacki's suggestion; in other words, that Carnacki had literally frightened him to death. Fortunately witnesses were able to confirm that Carnacki had not spoken to Aster for more than an hour before his fit, and the final verdict was death by natural causes. Nevertheless the Coroner's criticism of Carnacki was damaging; Aster's family sued him and there was an expensive out of court settlement.
Subsequently Carnacki decided to work alone, although he did occasionally recruit outside help when he could be sure that everyone involved would follow his instructions; in at least one case [HAL] this was optimistic.
Aster's death and the resultant publicity marked the start of Carnacki's busiest period, but one that is unfortunately poorly documented. While he was an obsessive record keeper, it is certain that he destroyed many files at the start of the First World War. The best accounts now remaining are anecdotes recorded by a friend, the author William Dodgson. In addition to Dodgson's records and press accounts of the "Moving Fur" and "Black Veil" incidents, we know of the following cases between approximately 1905 and 1910:
Fortunately partial records of most of these cases are still available, and what is known of them is described in more detail in section 3.1; since Carnacki was involved in another five cases in 1909-10, an apparently typical year, there is every reason to believe that many more are missing from this list.
Carnacki's name was again prominent in 1911, when he was accused of partial responsibility for the wreck of the barque Jarvee [HJ]. Newspaper accounts of the period (19_JARVE.GIF) initially suggested that his vibratory machine had somehow caused the destruction of the Jarvee, possibly by shaking it apart. Lloyds of London carried the ship's insurance and brought an action against him. Luckily the court did not agree; there was ample evidence of the severity of the storm, which damaged several other ships in the area. It is perhaps fortunate that Dodgson's version of the incident, based on Carnacki's anecdote, was published well after the case had been settled. An unbiased reader might conclude that Carnacki's experiment had caused the storm!
In 1914 the First World War began. Carnacki volunteered for the army, expecting to serve in the trenches, but was instead selected for intelligence work. His eye for detail and refusal to accept the obvious led to several successes, although the slow pace of most of his investigations apparently exasperated his colleagues. For instance, it took him nearly eight months to trap a ring of German agents operating around Cork, and for much of the period Carnacki was based in an office within 50ft of the ringleader.
Carnacki's war service from March 1917 onwards is still covered by the Official Secrets Act; successive governments have declined to reduce its classification and today it is almost the only mystery remaining from the First World War. It is known that he was hospitalised in Glasgow from March to June 1918, suffering from severe burns, but their cause is unknown and most medical records are missing. Unusually, no hint of the details exist in the records of other nations, such as Germany. At the end of the war he received the Distinguished Service Cross, for "sustained services to military intelligence"; no other details were recorded.
"....While your investigation sounds fascinating, my time is fully taken up with my own work... ... I should add that in my experience the Ab-natural is less pretty than your photographs seem to indicate...."
(Letter to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, undated)
Most of Carnacki's close friends were killed in the war; in particular, Dodgson was killed by enemy fire in April 1918. There is reason to believe that he was working on a biography of Carnacki at the time; unfortunately many irreplaceable papers related to this work seem to have been discarded by his wife while settling his affairs.
Details of Carnacki's subsequent career are mainly inferred from contemporary letters and other documents. He declined an invitation to look into the Cottingley Fairies (a ludicrous fake which took in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and several other prominent spiritualists). He is known to have corresponded with Ernest Rutherford and Aleister Crowley; the latter even purchased an electric pentacle. For years he was a shadowy figure, almost unknown outside a small circle of correspondents. This period, and his life, ended in a blaze of publicity.
The mystery of Carnacki's last case remains unsolved. The facts are simple. In January-April 1926 four watchmen died while guarding the safe deposit vault of a minor branch of the City and Provincial Bank. All four died alone, apparently of heart failure caused by fright; there was no sign of violence, or of any intrusion. One of the directors of the bank knew Carnacki, then aged 56, and brought the case to his attention. He spent two fruitless weeks probing the vault, checking the walls and floors for secret passages, analysing the air, and otherwise ruling out human involvement. Eventually, on May 12th 1933, he was sealed into the vault and was last seen preparing to set up a pentacle. In the morning he had vanished. The vault door was still sealed, inside as well as outside, and the walls, floor, ceiling and deposit boxes were criss-crossed with unbroken threads and ribbons. There were no signs of a disturbance. There was only one clue; one of the tubes of the electric pentacle was burned out, apparently by some powerful overload.
Carnacki's disappearance caused a considerable stir, and for the first time serious scientific attention was focused on the Ab-natural. For a while it seemed that something of real consequence might emerge from their studies. These hopes were premature. For some time there had been a general decline in Ab-natural phenomena, possibly a result of the spread of electric lighting and the demolition of many older houses, which has continued to the present day. Ghosts seemed to be unusually shy, and the few events that occurred could not be verified experimentally. Gradually interest waned, and even today his work, and that of other scholars of the Ab-natural, is ignored by most mainstream scientists. Several authors suggested means for a secret escape from the vault; usually the motive discussed was a desire to cause a sensation and attract attention to the Ab-natural. The best of these works is Agatha Christie's classic novel 'Five Sides of the Question' (1930), in which Carnacki, thinly disguised as "Thomas Straki", vanishes with the aid of two clocks, three mirrors, and the collaboration of a hypnotised bank employee, having stolen diamonds worth several million pounds from a safety deposit box. The method reads well, but Christie had to change many details of vault security to make it work.
Eventually Carnacki was declared dead, and his estate divided amongst various cousins. His books and other manuscripts were donated to the Bodleian Library.
"Something decidedly Ab-natural about this cheese, Gromit..."
(The Wrong Pentacle, 1993)
Carnacki still has an important place in the history of occult studies, but mainstream science prefers to remember him for the "Mentaphone", the opto-electrical device he used to study brain-waves [HG], which is now regarded as an important predecessor of the electroencephalograph, and for some of his other electrical inventions. To the general public he is mainly prominent as a famous character in popular legend, fantasy and historical fiction.
Like Jack the Ripper and H.G. Wells, Carnacki often appears in stories with a Victorian or Edwardian background. In historical fiction Dodgson's memoirs, and his sensational disappearance, have ensured that the otherwise dull facts of his life have acquired a thick coating of myth. In particular, it should be emphasised that there is no evidence that Carnacki ever met any member of the British royal family, Churchill, Chamberlain, Einstein, Wells, Wilde, or Hitler. His mother and step-father did not drown aboard the Titanic (both died of age-related diseases in the 1920s), and he was never a stage magician or a priest of any religion. Although Dodgson's accounts of Carnacki, and the evidence of others who had met him, describe a man who rarely made friends and had little to do with women, there is no reason whatever to believe that he was homosexual; suggestions that his apparently celibate lifestyle was an attempt to repress what was then regarded as a highly illegal perversion are baseless speculation.
He was not involved in black magic; although he corresponded with Aleister Crowley and they had acquaintances in common, they never seem to have met. To quash one of the more ludicrous theories, he was certainly not Jack the Ripper; he was sixteen at the time of the Ripper killings and was on holiday in Ireland with his mother when the first two victims were killed!
Science fiction and fantasy often hurl Carnacki through time and space (presumably from the vaults of the City and Provincial Bank) to appear as a captive of aliens, a stranger in an alternate world, or a guest aboard a star-ship or space-station. Steampunk fiction has confronted him with Holmes, Moriarty, Cavor, Cthulhu and Dracula. His ideas and inventions, as described by Dodgson, are widely plundered in popular fiction; see, for instance, the film Ghostbusters (1984), whose laser containment pentacle is an obvious parody of Carnacki's most famous invention.
While some aspects of this fictional immortality detract from the real personality, they have helped to keep non-specialist interest in Carnacki alive, and ensure that Dodgson's biographical sketches will continue to appeal to new generations of readers. Most regard them as entertaining fiction, but perhaps this is as well; there are appalling dangers on the road to Ab-natural knowledge, and any reader tempted to emulate Carnacki's experiments is playing with something much worse than fire.
2.1 Everyday Life 1900-1914
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Queen Victoria is dead and the staid pace of the Victorian era has ended. Motor cars are becoming an everyday sight, Count Zeppelin's gigantic airships have flown over Germany, and aeroplanes have crossed the Channel. In Belgium monorail trains have exceeded ninety miles an hour and steam turbine ships promise dramatic improvements at sea. It's even rumoured that there may be another attempt to find funds for a Channel Tunnel. Eventually it might be possible for businessmen to commute from London to Paris on a daily basis! At a time when most London homes still have gas lighting and outdoor plumbing, it's hard to believe in these scientific miracles, but they are already starting to be taken for granted. Meanwhile developments on the leading edges of science continue apace; one of the growth areas, although far from the scientific mainstream, is study of the occult in general and the strange world of Ab-natural phenomena in particular.
While Britain presents a facade of military might and strong social structures, the cracks are starting to show. The Boer war revealed serious deficiencies in the army's tactics and strategy; predicted to last a few weeks, it dragged on for two years. The war highlighted one statistic that starkly exposes the ills of modern industrial society; even after the army lowered its standards for recruits, only 10% of the 12,000 men who volunteered in Manchester were medically fit. The rest suffered from a variety of illnesses related to pollution, overwork and malnutrition. The other big industrial cities are little better. In just ten years Britain's population has risen by 3.8 million; meanwhile Ireland's population has shrunk from 6.5 to 4.3 million, largely a result of emigration to America. The government is slowly moving towards granting home rule to Ireland, but the Protestant minority in the province opposes any change. This minority includes many influential land owners and most of the Irish peers and members of Parliament, and the end result will be a series of unsatisfactory compromises leading to bloodshed. It is likely that the "political club" encountered by Carnacki [CGF/HAL] is part of this Protestant backlash.
Britannia still claims to rule the waves, but much of the fleet is poorly equipped, slow and obsolete, and there are similar problems on land. The British army is reasonably well equipped for colonial warfare, but has little experience of combat against foes with modern weapons and tactics. Rearmament will bring new problems, as the major European powers start to see Britain as a threat and expand their own forces.
There is growing unrest in Britain, with the rise of the Labour movement a symptom of political dissatisfaction; 29 Labour and 34 "Lib-Lab" MPs took seats after the 1906 General Election. At first the Labour party simply represents the rights of the working man, later it becomes the voice of socialism in Britain.
A crucial key to the future is the monarchy. When Victoria reigned, the Prince of Wales was widely regarded as a "lightweight" figure, often involved in scandals and far too frivolous to rule. His first public acts as King Edward VII did much to heal this distrust, and most Britons were soon prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. By the Coronation, in 1902, he was widely loved and respected; he spent an unprecedented portion of his time in the public eye and was soon seen by more of his subjects, especially those of the lower classes, than ever saw the reclusive Victoria. During his reign he did much to encourage the modernisation of the armed forces and improvements in social and economic conditions. Unfortunately he died in 1910 and was succeeded by George V, who tried to perpetuate the "popular monarchy" begun by Edward, but lacked his appeal to the masses.
Improved transport is one of the roads to greater democracy. Cheap bus and tram fares make commuting possible, and bicycles allow many workers a degree of mobility that was unimaginable in earlier years. By the 1920s motorcycles will also be affordable for the more prosperous members of the working classes.
Despite the new democratising influences, social class is still overwhelmingly important. There are dozens of gradations between the lowest and highest ranks, often so subtle that they are only apparent to an insider. At the bottom are the unemployed, the dross of the working classes. Their only recourse is to beg or seek the "charity" of the workhouse, where revolting food and poor accommodation must be paid for with hours of back-breaking toil. Next come the poorest industrial and agricultural workers, often living six or eight to a room, poorly fed and clothed. Above these are foremen and other manual workers whose posts involve some degree of responsibility. All are made to feel inferior to the poorest clerk. Meanwhile servants have their own hierarchy, as do the self-employed, the employers and the aristocracy. At the top, the fate of Britain and the Empire is mainly determined by a tiny minority; the most important landed aristocrats, a few key figures in the armed forces, and leading industrialists. The King knows them all, and spends much of his time at their homes or in their company. He moves with an entourage of at least eighteen servants and detectives, more if he is accompanied by the Queen, and anyone who wishes to take an active role in society must be prepared to accommodate all of them, along with dozens of other guests and a small army of servants, whenever the King makes it known that he might consider accepting an invitation.
The rigid stratification of society is felt in many subtle ways; one of the oddest aspects is the question of headgear. Regardless of class, no man in Britain will willingly be seen outdoors without a hat. Its type and quality reflect social status, occasion and wealth. You raise your hat to show deference to those you meet; without a hat you defer to everyone, regardless of status. Hats are chosen in accordance with the season and the occasion. For example, a gentleman will own two or three top hats of the latest style; the name of his hatter is an instant guide to his position, and even without a label can often be determined by such qualities as the curve of the brim or the finish of the lining (see Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers for a later example). The colour of the hat and its band are even more significant indicators; a subtle mismatch between the occasion and the hat are enough to brand the wearer as nouveau riche or old-fashioned. Naturally there are special hats for special occasions; straw boaters for punting, deer-stalkers for an expedition to the moors, and so forth. Even schoolboys conform to this code. At the poorest end of the spectrum every tramp or chimney sweep owns some sort of hat or cap, even if it has been stolen from a scarecrow, and often guys his betters by wearing a cast-off that is wholly inappropriate to his status. Between these extremes there is little variety; workmen and labourers always wear cloth caps, clerks always wear bowler hats, and anyone who ventures to choose something different will soon hear about it from colleagues and employers. Inventors produce dozens of devices for hat-wearers; everything from self-raising hats powered by clockwork, to hats with concealed cameras and secret compartments.
For the wealthier classes elaborate meals are the norm, often running to ten or twelve courses (although six or so are more usual). For the poor, starvation wages and malnutrition are more common.
While these social contrasts provide one easy way to think of the period, there are many other possibilities. It's the last great age of exploration; within a few years most of the world will be mapped. Technology is changing by the day, with endless wonders like electric light, X-rays, radium and, at the fringes of science, work on the Ab-natural. While most private transport is still horse-drawn, the world is criss-crossed by elaborate rail systems; they are steam-powered, but in the cities public transport is rapidly switching to electric trains and trams, and omnibuses with internal combustion engines. It's the decade of Sherlock Holmes' last cases and Fu Manchu's first crimes, of Marie Curie and Mary Stopes, of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It sees an immense flowering of science, education, and literature, and of spiritualism and dozens of crackpot crazes and religions. Anything that you can imagine is probably happening somewhere - all that you need do is look for it.
2.1.1 Timeline 1891-1914
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Wages
Housemaid £12-30 per year
Cook/Housekeeper £80 per year
Page boy £10 per year
Butler Up to £100 per year
Skilled engineer 36s 6d per week
Assistant to above 19s per week
Bricklayer 38s per week
Assistant to above 18s per week
Clerk £1 10s per week
Foreman £2 5s per week
Miner £1 15s per week
Craftsman in London £2 per week
Cabinet minister £2000 or £5000 per year
(£38 or £96 per week)
Housing
Hovel 4s per week
4 room rural cottage 5s per week, £200 to buy
Small inner London house £200 per year, £1000 to buy
Small suburban house £50 per year, £500 to buy
Boarding house room £1 1s per week
Man's Clothing
Shirt 3s-5s
Collars for above (12) 6s 6d
Detachable cuffs 1s
Leather gloves 3s 3d
Handkerchiefs (12) 8s
Underwear 5s
Good quality boots 11s
Light boots 7s
Walking shoes 14s
Trousers 7s 6d
Bowler hat 12s 6d
Top hat 25s
Soft felt hat 7s 6d
Hat box, leather 15s
Woman's Clothing
Camisole 3s
Chemise 7s
Combinations 5s 6d
Nightdress 6s
Skirt 10s
Stockings 6 1/2d
Shoes 12s-£1 8s
Blouse £1 5s 11d
Food & Drink
1 lb Almonds 2d
1/2 lb tea 8d
2lb sugar 5d
1 lb butter 1s
2 oz tobacco 6d
1 lb fish 1 1/2d
1 lb ham 9 1/2d
1 lb chocolate 1s 2d
1 lb soap 3d
1 lb currants 3d
Pint beer 2d
1 lb Biscuits 2d
Loaf bread 2 1/4d
12 Bottles Cider 14s
12 Bottles Champagne £4 18s
12 Bottles Claret £2 10s
12 Bottles Port £1 14s
12 Bottles Sherry £2 2s
Bottle Whisky 7s
Bottle Brandy 9s 10d
Bottle Gin 4s 6d
Bottle Rum 7s 6d
Miscellaneous
Electricity 6d per unit (kilowatt-hour) *
* rate held artificially high to protect smaller generating companies
1 lb Candles 10d
Safety matches, box 1d
"Thermos" Vacuum flask £1 1s pint, £1 15s quart **
** Both leather with silver fittings
Chest of drawers 17s
Simple bed £1 15s
Luxury bed £19
Piano, upright £105
Piano, grand £210
Violin £2 10s
False teeth 1 guinea per set
Cricket bat 12s 10d
Golf clubs 6s
Golf balls 10s per dozen
Watch, good quality £10
Watch, for schoolboy 12s
Sewing machine £1 10s
If a date is followed by a dash (eg 1910-) without a second figure, the office is still held after 1914.
Britain Monarch Prime Minister
1837-1901 Victoria 1895-1902 Marquis of Salisbury (Con.)
1901-1910 Edward VII 1902-1905 Arthur James Balfour (Con.)
1910- George V 1905-1908 Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Lib.)
1908- Herbert Henry Asquith (Lib.)
Lib. = Liberal, Con. = Conservative
Belgium Monarch Prime Minister
1865-1909 Leopold II 1899-1907 Paul de Smet de Nayer
1907-1908 Jules de Trooz
1908-1911 Frans Schollaert
1909- Albert I 1911- Charles de Broqueville
France President
1899-1906 Emile Loubet
1906- Armand Fallieres
Germany Monarch
1888- Kaiser William II
Russia Monarch
1894- Tsar Nicholas II
USA President
1897-1901 William McKinley (Rep.)
1901-1909 Theodore Roosevelt (Rep.)
1909-1913 William Howard Taft (Rep.)
1913- Woodrow Wilson (Dem.)
Rep. = Republican, Dem. = Democrat
This collection includes three long adventures set in the world of the Carnacki stories. The following are some brief ideas for adventures related to Carnacki's life, which will need a considerable amount of development. Some are incompatible with others; in particular, there are four mutually incompatible variants of the second outline.
1895: The sleepy holiday village of Appledorn is disturbed by reports of a mad dog that has been attacking sheep. Rabies is virtually wiped out in Britain, but Appledorn is on the coast; perhaps someone has smuggled a dog ashore from a foreign ship. But why hasn't anyone seen it, and why do the attacks only occur at night?
This may be a case of rabies, possibly in a nocturnal animal such as a fox, or an Ab-natural incident. All the attacks occur in a relatively small area and it should be possible to track it to its lair (or materialisation point) and confront the beast.
Carnacki is living in Appledorn at the time but should not become involved at first. If it is a rabid animal the adventurers should solve the case without his help and meet him afterwards ("Sorry, Mister Carnacki, there's nothing supernatural about this one. These gentlemen have already shot it!"). Remember that rabies is usually fatal; Pasteur has developed an antiserum, but it is only a little less dangerous than the disease.
If the beast is Ab-natural, the adventurers should realise that there is something odd about it, then enlist Carnacki's help via the police or a mutual acquaintance. Carnacki should NOT take over the case; at this stage he hasn't developed many of his techniques and he should simply give the adventurers a little advice, such as a suggestion that they look for a materialisation portal, before leaving on urgent and prolonged business.
1905: There is an abortive revolution in Russia. Photographs of some of the ringleaders are published in The Times. One of them is a bearded man, captioned as "Ivan Carnacki", who looks remarkably like old photographs of Thomas's father. Is it just a coincidence, or was another body substituted after the Tay disaster? Whoever it is, there's a price on his head and the Okhrana (Russian secret police) are closing in. Carnacki is in Britain and will take days to reach the scene, but some acquaintances (the adventurers) happen to be in Russia. For some reason the British government doesn't seem to be willing to intervene. What's going on, and can the adventurers help?
As above, but the adventurers are agents assigned to rescue Ivan, a "sleeper" for British Intelligence, and Thomas is not involved. There are complications; most notably, Ivan has a wife and children (his marriage to Alice was bigamous), and does not want anyone in Britain to know that he is still alive.
See Forgotten Futures III for more on adventures in pre-revolutionary Russia and on His Majesty's Secret Service.
1911: The adventurers are hired by Lloyds of London to find proof that Carnacki caused the wreck of the Jarvee, or colluded with Captain Thomas to fake her loss. Carnacki has told an unbelievable story about ghosts, but is the truth an accidental loss or a cunning fraud? Is Captain Thomas a liar, musguided, or insane?
1918: Following the Revolution, the Communists are purging counter-revolutionaries in Russia. One of them is a bearded elderly man, "Ivan Carnacki"...
Use the plots of either of the second or third adventure above, modified for this setting. In 1918 Russia is still in relative chaos, with a civil war following the revolution; Britain is on the side of the monarchist White Russian army, which adds extra complications, since "Ivan" is being held by the Red Army...
As (3) above, but "Ivan" is actually Thomas, who has used his father's name while infiltrating the Revolution for His Majesty's Secret Service. He intended to assassinate Lenin, but something has gone badly wrong. Can the adventurers save him?
1910-1930: As electric lighting reaches most areas and many older buildings are demolished, there must gradually be fewer "gateways" for the Ab-natural. Could this mean that those that remain are more likely to attract unwelcome phenomena? If the "civilised" world is gradually becoming less attractive, what about remote places like Africa or the Australian outback? What's really going on in these areas? Do the adventurers really want to know?
3.0 Ab-natural Phenomena
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"Science fiction, double feature,
Meet Doctor X's Ab-natural creature..."
(The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1975)
Most of what is known about the Ab-natural derives from the work of a few experimenters, often working against extreme prejudice and under very difficult conditions. The information they have produced is largely fragmentary, tiny pieces of a colossal jigsaw puzzle. Thomas Carnacki would be the first to agree that he rarely had all the answers when he was dealing with the Ab-natural. His exploits suggest some general principles, but that is all. It is difficult to improve on Carnacki's own descriptions [GM,WR,HG,SEH], although it should be remembered that they make certain simplifications for a non-technical audience; what follows is simply a summary of these phenomena as they affect life on Earth.
Briefly, the Ab-natural phenomena encountered on Earth are a pale shadow of the forces that exist in a "belt" of ether extending from a hundred thousand to several million miles from the Earth (see 20_WORLD.GIF). Their activities in this belt are unknown, but do not seem to involve material objects, although Forteans will later suggest that some satellite malfunctions and the death of some early cosmonauts are caused by these entities. There will also be persistent rumours of a massive government cover-up, concealing much more blatant manifestations of the Ab-natural. However, this is irrelevant to events in Carnacki's lifetime.
The Earth's upper atmosphere is electrically charged, and it is believed that this is one of the main barriers against intrusions from these entities. Occasionally this defence is weakened, perhaps by natural forces, possibly by magic, but most usually by some accidental combination of emotion and repetition whose exact nature is still unclear. When this happens the Ab-natural effects can penetrate to Earth. Unfortunately it is all too apparent that they are hostile to life and to spiritual energies, and if possible will consolidate any beach-head to ensure continual access to the Earth.
Fortunately two factors prevent the Ab-natural world totally dominating our own. One is the presence of the mysterious Astarral entities, at one time worshipped by "...the Ab-human Priests in the Incantation of the Raaee..."; the other is an apparent allergy to sunlight and (to a lesser extent) to other forms of bright light. Since space around the Earth is usually illuminated, except in the Earth's shadow, it seems certain that light simply disrupts their interaction with the physical world, rather than harming them; anyone expecting a ghost to be permanently destroyed by a few hours of sun or use of a flashgun will be disappointed.
Five main forms of Ab-natural phenomenon were known to Carnacki; one type, mediumistic contact with the dead, was only mentioned in passing while discussing Carnacki's reading of Garder's "Experiments with a Medium" [GM]. It is likely that he had more intimate contact with it in one of the "lost" cases, or one that was never mentioned in his after-dinner talks.
"...I saw nothing, until I became really frightened; then I saw, not the Woman; but a Child, running away from Something or Someone. However, I will touch on that later. In short, until a very strong degree of fear was present, no one was affected by the Force which made Itself evident, as a Woman..." [SEH]
The first, least dangerous, of the forms encountered by Carnacki is a type of psychic "leakage" from another plane, in which sounds and visions can be perceived by the psychicaly sensitive [SEH]. These visions are theoretically harmless, but they "feed" on strong emotions, especially fear and grief; if they are seen by someone that fears them, they become stronger and more vivid. Profound sorrow also intensifies them. Repetition and intensification can eventually give more power to these visions and open a "door" to the more dangerous phenomena described below. There may also be a similar form of psychic "recording", not initially involving active Ab-natural forces, but also capable of amplification by repetition [WR, HI].
"...as I stared, something began slowly to grow upon my sight - a moving shadow, a little darker than the surrounding shadows. I lost the thing amid the vagueness and for a moment or two I glanced swiftly from side to side, with a fresh, new sense of impending danger..." [GM]
The second class of phenomena are "The usual Aeiirii forms of semi-materialisation" [WR], so-called ghosts which can affect the physical world but are not themselves composed of normal matter. Aeiiriii phenomena are dangerous; they can sometimes kill and may be able to interfere with a susceptible mind. However, they have definite limits to their power; in particular, they must materialise from a focus object or in a particular place [GM], are sometimes stopped by physical walls, and are stopped by defences such as the electric pentacle and more traditional forms of magical protection. Carnacki believed that some religious symbols helped; for instance, his pentacles include bowls of "a certain water" [GM], probably holy water.
All evidence suggests that the Aeiirii manifestations (and the Saiitii phenomena described below) are often released or created by the human mind; they appear as giant hands, invisible horses, and the like, and seem to be a development of the purely sensory "ghosts" described above. It is easy to assume a malevolent alien origin [HG], but it is possible that they simply represent one aspect of a neutral force that powers such "positive" phenomena as magic, the Astarral entities, and the Saaamaaa Ritual, but is triggered in a destructive form by human malice.
The effects of Aeiirii manifestations can include physical damage [GM], mental aberrations and hallucinations [GM,HG], and damage to the soul itself [HG,WR] which may leave the victim mindless or insane. Carnacki regarded suicide as preferable to this fate [WR].
"...It was a true instance of Saiitii manifestation, which I can best explain by likening it to a living spiritual fungus, which involves the very structure of the aether-fibre itself..." [WR]
The third type, and by far the most dangerous, are Saiitii manifestations. Dead matter is infested with a grisly parody of life and moves as though it were living flesh [WR]. True Saiitii manifestations can take over the material of defences; their advance may be slowed [HG:6], but it isn't stopped. Fire is effective as a defence and the one means of destroying material that has been infested; the chaotic movement of particles and energy in flame presumably disrupts the controlling essence of the manifestation. Even so, it is difficult to imagine a fire defence that would work for extended periods; a ring of burning petrol might give some temporary protection, but it would eventually burn out, and a powerful Saiitii manifestation might be able to undermine it to drain the fluid.
Saiitii manifestations have the same harmful effects as Aeiirii phenomena, but their ability to "infest" material objects is peculiarly frightening and gives them greater mobility. While an Aeiirii manifestation is always linked to one locale, or tied to one object, Saaitii manifestations spread and may even be able to assume mobile forms. This makes them hard to confine or destroy. There is reason to believe that the classic 'elementals' of mythology were Saaitii manifestations.
There are undoubtedly intermediate phases between these different types of phenomena; for example, weak Saiitii manifestations, hallucinations with some limited physical effect, etc. In one case [HG] Carnacki encountered an apparent hallucination that eventually involved Aiirii and Saiitii effects.
"...there is some inscrutable Protective Force constantly intervening between the human-soul (not the body, mind you) and the Outer Monstrosities. Am I clear?" [GM]
"...one of those inscrutable forces which govern the spinning of the outer circle..." [HG:6]
The final class are the Astarral entities, such as the Raaee, which apparently act to protect life (and especially the soul) against Ab-natural phenomena. Their intervention usually takes the form of a mental suggestion or warning. For example, on several occasions Carnacki was saved by a mental prompting which allowed him to complete the Unknown Last Line of the Saaamaaa Ritual (see section 4 below), or by a sudden flash of intuition which gave him time to escape. There are hints of more direct forms of intervention, in old manuscripts and legend; for instance, the Raaee undoubtedly took material form on occasion, although the details have long been lost. Carnacki experienced direct intervention once [HG:6].
Why these entities should take such an interest in humanity remains unclear; altruism is one possibility, but Carnacki's addenda to Harzam's monograph speaks of a balancing of vibrations [HG:6], which implies that they are harmed if the Ab-natural world gains too much power. Why this should be so is a mystery; Carnacki's analogy of the "electrical machine" [HG:6] is presumably a reference to the Wimshurst high-voltage electrostatic generator, which implies the existence of "positive" and "negative" forces which must cancel each other. But the scant evidence available suggests that these are conscious intelligent beings, albeit on a scale that humans can't readily understand, and can presumably make choices in this matter. It remains unexplained.
One further point; Carnacki and other experts prefer to avoid loose use of the words 'ghost' and 'haunting', but they are very convenient 'shorthands' when discussing Ab-natural entities, manifestations, etc., and have been used widely in the remainder of this worldbook.
3.1 The "Lost" Cases
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"...These files are really old, Buck, they go right back to Carnacki's Yellow Finger experiments!"
"Keep at it, Pecos, the answer has to be there somewhere..."
(Buckaroo Banzai And The World Crime Syndicate, 1988)
Dodgson's accounts of Carnacki's exploits mention several cases which are not detailed. A search of Carnacki's records has shed some light on the matter, but the brief reports that follow include conjecture and some outright guesswork. It should be added that most of these cases were less interesting than those chronicled by Dodgson, who seems to have selected stories for maximum sensationalism.
Gaming note: With a little work any of these cases can be run as an adventure. If you decide to use them in this way, it is not advisable to allow players to read this section.
"..you all remember the Black Veil case, in which I believe my life was saved by a very similar form of protection, whilst Aster, who sneered at it and would not come inside, died..." [GM]
This is the best-documented and most tragic of the "lost" cases. In November 1906 Carnacki was asked to investigate a suburban haunting, an unusual incident in which a modern mansion in the village of Chalfont St. Giles, on the outskirts of London, was haunted only months after it was built. Witnesses described a pall of darkness, moving around an unoccupied bedroom, which slowly grew larger, darker and colder as the weeks went by. When the family dog was found dead, the occupants sought help.
At the time Carnacki was working with Dr. Gerald Aster, a physicist who believed that ghosts were mobile electromagnetic fields. After several days they had found no evidence of any trickery; caged mice and canaries that were left in the room died overnight, and timed photographs showed dark patches which did not appear to be any form of smoke, vapour, or cloth. They felt that they had found a genuine case and determined to take a closer look.
Carnacki had recently reviewed some old manuscripts relating to magical protection, and proposed spending the night in the room inside a pentacle. The owner of the house and two servants decided to join him, but Aster felt that use of a pentacle was a throwback to pagan superstition and witchcraft, and refused to participate. Instead he erected a copper mesh Faraday cage, which he believed would keep out any electromagnetic entity. It was worse than useless; when the haunting eventually began, at about three in the morning, the ghost proved to be a powerful Aeiirii manifestation, an amorphous black mist which promptly moved into the cage and attacked Aster. In the dark Aster couldn't find his way out of the cage and was engulfed before the others were fully aware of his peril. In the dim light Carnacki and the others saw him clawing at his own eyes, and heard him screaming uncontrollably. They spent the rest of the night trapped in the pentacle, while the ghost made a series of attempts to break through its protection. In the morning Aster was alive and unconscious, but his eyes were bleeding empty sockets. He died a few hours later.
Later Carnacki was accused of causing Aster's death by fright, as described in section 2.0 above, but the other witnesses vouched for his innocence. The haunting continued for some weeks, then an "accidental" fire destroyed that wing of the house. It seems likely that Carnacki arranged the incident, with the blessings of the owner; he and his servants seem to have been unusually well prepared for a blaze, which led to difficulties with the subsequent insurance claim. During the subsequent rebuilding an old stone barrow (which had been buried during the foundation work) was excavated, and the remains it contained were carefully cremated. There was no repetition of the haunting.
"..always I came through safe, until that Moving Fur case. It was only a partial 'Defense' there and I nearly died in the pentacle..." [GM]
This case indirectly involved Carnacki's father, Ivan Carnacki. Until his death Ivan was senior partner in Carnacki, Jones and Kelly, a Whitechapel fur trading company. In 1907 Carnacki was contacted by Adam Kelly, now the owner of the company, and asked to look into some mysterious problems at their workshops. Furriers arriving in the morning repeatedly found that their work had been ripped apart overnight, the stitches between the individual pelts broken by enormous force and the pelts scattered around the workroom. At first theft was suspected, but nothing was missing and in any case the building was always left locked and barred, with a night-watchman on patrol outside.
Carnacki conducted his usual tests and proved that no human intruder was tampering with the furs. He used a roll-film camera set up with a clockwork timer and film winder to take photographs at hourly intervals; they showed that the furs were moved between two and three in the morning.
Once he had seen the photographs, Carnacki decided to spend a night in the room, using a chalk pentacle with hair-circle and candles for protection; he had not yet invented the electric pentacle, and did not then use holy water in the protection.
Shortly after midnight he began to hear a tearing noise, and the furs on a nearby bench started to move and bunch together, gradually forming the shape of a gigantic wolf. At first it ignored Carnacki, but suddenly it sprang at the pentacle. Although it could not cross the hair circle, it came sufficiently close to knock over some of the candles before it was repelled. Carnacki failed to notice that some of the melting wax had spattered onto the chalked pentacle, breaking one of the lines. On its next approach it was not repelled, and began to attack Carnacki. Fortunately its attack was confined to a physical assault, and the heads and claws of the pelts had already been removed. The creature's "bite" was softened by the fur; even so, it came close to crushing his throat, and broke his arm and four of his ribs. Luckily they rolled onto the candles during the fight, setting some of the furs on fire, and the apparition was momentarily distracted. Carnacki made a break for the door and managed to get outside before the ghost reached him. Fortunately it was stopped by the door.
Once his injuries had been treated, Carnacki returned to the workshop and, over the course of several nights, established that the effect was centred on one of the pelts, a large grey wolf-skin. The method he used is interesting; Carnacki had the pelts split into four piles and placed in separate rooms, then eliminated the three rooms in which the furs were not disturbed. He repeated this procedure until only one fur was left, then had it incinerated. After this the haunting ended.
Carnacki was able to trace the skin to a shipment from Siberia, but beyond that there was no evidence of origin. It seemed in all respects to be a normal wolf-skin, slightly larger and finer than usual. It had been tanned and treated like any other pelt.
Although this case involved the apparent animation of non-living objects, Carnacki recorded it as a strong Aeiirrii manifestation. The pelts were moved by the power of the ghost, but were not "infected"; their animation ceased as soon as they were removed from the room containing the wolf-skin. The force was not able to escape the confines of the work-room and would have been stopped by Carnacki's pentacle if it had been complete.
"..He had heard of me in connection with that Steeple Monster Case..." [HAL]
In February 1905 several witnesses reported seeing a strange glowing light moving around the steeple of the church of an isolated Irish village. The following morning one of the village pensioners was found dead in the snow; the cause of death was apparently cold. The same light was seen six days later, and another villager was found dead the next day. Oddly, neither villager had any apparent reason to go outdoors, and neither was dressed for the weather.
Fearing that his church was haunted, the priest conducted an exorcism; a week later there was a third death, and the priest requested Carnacki's help.
Carnacki established that the first and third victims were senile, the second was feeble-minded and "easily led". It seemed possible that whatever killed them was somehow overcoming their intelligence and controlling their minds. Accordingly, he asked the priest to identify the next likely victims on this basis. There were two strong candidates; a boy who was considered to be "touched" and another senile woman. Carnacki arranged to have both moved to a cottage with a clear view of the church, and mounted a series of overnight vigils with the priest and the district nurse in attendance.
On the fourth night the glow was seen again, and the boy began to leave the cottage, without dressing. Carnacki and the priest stopped him and quickly realised that he seemed to be in a hypnotic trance. Questioning revealed that he was being called by "a lady", and wanted to go to her. He was unable to explain who the "lady" was, or why he had to obey her. Carnacki decided that the best way to solve the case was to allow the boy to go, but keep him warm and in sight at all times. The boy was dressed then released and immediately started to walk towards the church, with Carnacki and the priest in his wake. Once inside, the boy started to climb the belfry, again followed by Carnacki and the vicar.
In the steeple they found a glowing ball of light, roughly the size of a grapefruit, which started to move towards the boy. Carnacki and the priest tried to block it, but it easily dodged them and moved into the boy's head. He immediately started to speak in tongues, then settled into a form of Gaelic; the priest listened for a while, then conducted another exorcism which (Carnacki later noted) "for sheer speed and desperation would take a lot of beating." It appears to have been successful.
Subsequently the priest refused to answer questions about his conversation with the "spirit", and Carnacki claimed that he had not understood it. The boy couldn't remember anything. The case was reported widely in the Irish press, but this anticlimactic conclusion meant that it received little publicity elsewhere.
"I was inclined to parallel the case with that of Hartford's, where the hand of the child kept materialising within the pentacle, and patting the floor. As you will remember, that was a hideous business." [HI]
Nothing is known of this case; the description has obvious parallels to the "Gateway" incident [GM], but it does seem to be a separate haunting. It is certain that it was a genuine Ab-natural incident, so it is doubly unfortunate that no records remain.
"..It is most extraordinary and different from anything that I have had to do with; though that Buzzing Case was very queer, too..." [WR]
The Buzzing Case occurred in Scotland, near the village of Foyers on the banks of Loch Ness, between 1897 and 1908. Briefly, the occupants of a farmhouse near the village frequently heard a buzzing hum which seemed to originate somewhere inside the building. There was no obvious source for the noise and no machinery that might be the culprit. The noise could sometimes be heard by day, and kept the family awake at night.
Carnacki spent days tracking the noise and eventually determined that it was coming from an unexpected source; a poker and coal scuttle in the front parlour fireplace! He found that when the poker was left propped against the coal scuttle, it vibrated. The sheet metal of the scuttle amplified the noise and it spread via the chimney to the rest of the house.
None of this explained why the poker was vibrating. Carnacki's patient experiments showed that it only happened when the poker was moved to certain angles. He then realised that the buzzing was a 60-cycle note, the frequency used for AC electricity in Britain. There was a hydroelectric power station, Britain's first, on the waterfall above Foyers. The poker happened to be exactly the right length to resonate with the magnetic field around cables linking the power station to an aluminium factory in Foyers. Replacing the iron poker with one made of brass cured the problem.
While this case was not a genuine Ab-natural manifestation, it must be remembered that it had baffled the occupants of the house for several years and caused a good deal of distress. Carnacki's intervention ended considerable unhappiness.
"..it was just such a warning that saved me in the 'Grey Dog' Case..." [WR]
This case was in many ways a classic example of a genuine haunting, by a Saiitii manifestation in the form of a monstrous hound. At irregular intervals the "Grey Dog" was seen in the courtyard of the Purfleet Lunatic Asylum, on the outskirts of London, its appearance always coinciding with the death of one of the inmates, or someone living nearby. Initially, shortly before the turn of the century, it was seen as a vague shadowy figure; later it seemed to become darker, more solid, and more menacing, and began to leave tracks.
Carnacki was called in when it mauled one of the children of the asylum's superintendent, in December 1909. Fortunately a guard heard the disturbance and rushed to the rescue; he was also bitten, but saved the child and fought off the hound while fleeing into the building. The hound was stopped by the door. The wounds were undoubtedly left by a gigantic dog's bite, but contained no traces of saliva; instead, they seemed to be full of earth. The child was too young to answer questions, but the guard claimed that the dog was larger than any hound he'd seen and that every part of it, even the teeth, was dull grey or black.
For several days Carnacki set up cameras and traps in the early evening, then retreated to watch the courtyard from an unoccupied cell. The weather was poor and it was usually dark soon after he had completed his preparations.
Eleven days after the attack one of the inmates escaped from his cell, wandered out into the courtyard, and began to break Carnacki's carefully arranged ribbons and threads. The patient was harmless, but it took some time to capture him and repair the damage. As Carnacki was putting a new plate into the last camera, he felt a strong "mental warning", dropped the plate, and sprinted for the nearest door. As it shut behind him, it shook from the impact of a gigantic form crashing into the wood. In the morning Carnacki found deep parallel scratches in the door and a gigantic dog's footprints in the courtyard.
The photograph was lost, but Carnacki's system of threads, ribbons and wafers was effective. It was apparent that the creature had somehow formed from the earth of a flower bed in a corner of the courtyard, and had returned there at the end of its attack. On this evidence it seemed likely that it was a Saiitii manifestation, which ruled out an attempt to stay in the courtyard overnight.
Despite several more days of observation, Carnacki never really saw the dog; it appeared twice and left more prints, but always avoided the light. Eventually he decided to have the bed dug up and the soil incinerated. While doing so, workmen found the bones of two cats and a number of birds, rats and mice, which were also burned. This ended the haunting.
Old records revealed that the former inmates included a murderer named Renfield, a psychopath who tortured, killed and ate animals when he could not reach human prey. He lured birds and other strays to his cell and killed them. A guard eventually remembered that they were subsequently buried in the flower bed. Renfield died in 1897, after hurling himself at the cell walls and floor so violently that his back was broken. Carnacki theorised that some psychic residue of the man's madness clung to the bones of the tortured animals and somehow opened the way for the "Grey Dog". He suspected that the man's insanity might also have been a result of an Ab-natural influence, but this could not be proved.
"..it was just such a warning that saved me... ...in the 'Yellow Finger' Experiments; as well as other times" [WR]
Nothing is known about this incident; Carnacki refers to experiments, not a case, which suggests that it is another example of his rather dangerous approach to research. Perhaps it was one of his ventures into the effects of colour, although yellow is generally considered to be neutral [HG:2]; if so, it probably occurred in his laboratory at Cheyne Walk. It is known that Carnacki experimented on several possessed patients, one of whom committed suicide. Without additional information it is impossible to say more.
"...I told you about that 'Silent Garden' business? Well, this room had just that same malevolent silence..." [WR]
This interesting haunting occurred in a monastery in Wales. The order was reclusive and the monks lived in almost complete isolation, each occupying a "cell" (actually a small stone building entered from the cloisters) with a tiny walled garden, about 16 ft square. Food was delivered to the cells through small service hatches and all communication was by notes.
In 1909 it was noticed that one of the monks had not taken his daily meal. When the prior investigated, he discovered that he was dead; while repairing a chair in the cell's workshop, he had apparently slipped and cut his wrist with a chisel, and bled to death before he could attract attention. The body was cold and death had obviously occurred many hours earlier. Oddly, nobody had noticed that he was missing from the previous night's midnight mass; any absence would usually be reported to the prior, in case the monk concerned was ill.
The coroner felt that the wound would not have caused instantaneous death and was surprised that the victim had been unable to reach help, so police were sent to investigate the exact circumstances. The constables found no sign of foul play, but noticed that there seemed to be an unusual silence in the cottage; even the sounds they made appeared to be dulled, and nothing from the outside was audible. The effect was most noticeable in the garden of the cell; a constable standing there could only be heard if he shouted or blew his whistle. At first they thought it was a natural acoustic effect, but the other cells were built to the same pattern and none showed this peculiarity. Once it was brought to his attention, the prior decided to investigate the possibility that it might be a miracle, and moved into the cell. Three days later he emerged, had the cell locked and sent for Carnacki.
In his written instructions the prior told Carnacki that the silence seemed worse at night and was accompanied by gradual muffling of the other senses. In the cell the light simply seemed dim; in the garden there was an almost complete absence of light. The prior also noticed that his other senses seemed diminished and that he felt unusually cold and tired. He had no explanation for the effect, but was sure that there was something unholy about it. Carnacki visited the cell by day and made a few tests with thermometers, a photo-electric cell and galvanometer, and a recording phonograph and microphone. According to his senses the cell and garden were darker, colder and quieter than the rest of the building, even by day. According to his instruments they were almost identical to their neighbour. It seemed likely that some Ab-natural force was at work.
The monastery's records showed that the cell (which was close to the chapel and infirmary) had customarily been allocated to elderly monks, to reduce the distance they needed to walk. The final occupant was a younger man who had happened to enter the monastery when it was the only vacant accommodation.
Carnacki reasoned that the older monks might have assumed that the effect was a result of their failing faculties, and failed to realise its Ab-natural origin. The younger monk would have felt it more strongly, and might have been stupefied by the dulling of his sensations, failing to notice the injury in time to save his life. In short, Carnacki felt that the monk had been a victim of what would now be termed sensory deprivation. His apparent presence at the midnight mass was more puzzling, but could simply be an oversight by the other monks.
Carnacki left a recording thermograph and other instruments in the cell for several nights, and made an exhaustive examination of the stonework, but found nothing unusual. It seemed certain that the Ab-natural effect was purely subjective, with no effect on instruments. Caged birds and mice left in the cell and garden overnight were unharmed.
Eventually, having exhausted the other possibilities, Carnacki decided to risk an all-night vigil in the garden. None of the monks could accompany him because their religious duties required attendance at midnight mass. He set up a full defence, with electric pentacle, in a corner of the garden, and waited for events to unfold.
As night fell Carnacki already felt that his senses were a little dull, but the glow of the electric pentacle and surrounding candles, and the faint hum of the pentacle's power supply kept up his spirits. Gradually it seemed to get darker and quieter, until the only noise he could hear was the beating of his own heart, and nothing was visible beyond the pentacle.
At about midnight the darkness became total and Carnacki experienced the strange sensory "flip" described by Dodgson elsewhere [SEH]; he saw the darkness as a violet glow and the pentacle and candles as areas of absolute blackness. In this strange light a spectral monk walked out of the cell, crossed to the centre of the garden, and began to embrace someone who could not be seen, then turned, as if startled and was seemingly dragged back, again by unseen forces. The monk's face seemed to be in shadow throughout this vision. As the monk was pulled from view towards the cloisters, the strange reversal of sight ended, and Carnacki gradually began to see the pentacle and candles again.
Carnacki tried on two more nights and saw the same vision each time. He examined the monastery's oldest records and found a possible answer in the twelfth century, when several monks were flogged and expelled from the order for immoral practices; one died from the beating and was subsequently found to be a disguised woman. She was buried in unhallowed ground. Her name was not recorded.
The monastery was destroyed by fire in the seventeenth century and subsequently rebuilt to a larger plan. It seemed possible that the cell was built over her grave. Carnacki persuaded the prior to have the garden excavated, but nothing was found and the haunting continued. The prior felt that there was nothing to be gained by further investigation; he thanked Carnacki for his work and had the cell converted for use as a store house. It is still reputedly haunted, but is rarely visited, and then only by day. There is reason to believe that this type of sensory ghost, a psychic recording, draws its power from its observers. With nobody to haunt, it may gradually fade away.
"..I was practically certain that this was no mere Aeiirii development, but one of the worse forms, as the Saiitii; like that 'Grunting Man' case - you know..." [WR]
This case is obscure; there are no records whatever concerning a separate Grunting Man case. It is tempting to believe that it is actually a reference to the experiment generally known as "The Hog"; the coincidence of grunting and Saiitii manifestations is striking. In the absence of more information, there is no way to tell.
"..I proved it in that 'Nodding Door' business. There is no protection against this particular form of monster, except possibly for a fractional period of time; for it can reproduce itself in, or take to its purposes, the very protective material which you may use and has power to 'forme wythine the pentycle,' though not immediately..." [WR]
This was one of Carnacki's most dangerous cases, and it is extraordinary that Dodgson never wrote more about it; possibly Carnacki never described it to his friends in sufficient detail. Fortunately his notes are intact, and include a phonograph cylinder recorded at its climax.
The Nodding Door is a Devon inn; the name is believed to be a reference to seventeenth century smugglers who used a secret passage and trap door (long since filled in) to reach the establishment. With the growth of tourism the inn was modernised and enlarged, adding plumbing and several guest rooms. Since gas and electricity were not yet available in the area, the bedrooms were still lit by candles, the public rooms by oil lamps. By 1900 it was the most popular inn in the district.
In 1902 the occupants heard noises in the cellar and found a barrel of beer smashed; there was no sign of any intruder. The incident was repeated a few months later. The severity and frequency of the incidents rapidly increased; three or four barrels were smashed at a time, the racks containing the barrels were also damaged, and by 1906 the interval between breakages was less than three months.
Throughout this time money was repeatedly spent on new locks and bolts, and it seemed certain that nobody was breaking in. On several occasions volunteers waited in the cellar, but nothing happened when anyone was there.
Meanwhile the landlord of the inn had been claiming compensation for the damage. His insurers suspected fraud, but it became clear that the incidents were real. An ingenious accountant decided that they could be classed as "acts of God" (which were not covered by the policy) if Ab-natural forces were involved. The company had encountered Carnacki in connection with the Black Veil case, and asked him to investigate; he naturally agreed.
Carnacki had an idea of the interval between attacks, and arranged to arrive at the inn several days early. He intended to set up his ribbons and wafers every night, study the aftermath, then make plans for the next manifestation. Unfortunately nothing happened, although everyone who visited the cellar felt an uneasy sense of someone, or something, watching and waiting.
After nearly three weeks Carnacki decided to force the issue. He arranged to have the inn emptied for a night, set up a purple light (a colour which attracts Ab-natural forces) and assembled his electric pentacle in a corner of the cellar. When the preparations were complete he began to recite the opening or "summoning" phrases of the Saaamaaa ritual, generalising them to avoid naming the being summoned.
After fifteen minutes Carnacki noticed that the cellar seemed to be becoming colder, and guessed that he had attracted the 'attention' of whatever it was that was attacking the inn. He stopped reciting the spell and prepared to make notes. At this point the phonograph cylinder begins:
"Eleven ten. Getting very cold. I can hear something creaking on the far side of the cellar, it could be a barrel. Awaiting developments...
"Eleven twenty-two. I was right, one of the barrels has just burst. Ice at the top must have expanded, the pressure split it open. About ten gallons of beer on the floor. That's odd - I would have said that the floor sloped the other way, but it seems to be flowing towards me. In any event it's freezing fast. No, it's melting at the back, flowing forward and freezing at the front. Definitely something odd there...
"Eleven twenty-five. One of the candles just went out, can't tell why. There's ice coming in through the gap. Umm... three more candles gone... don't like the look of this...
"Eleven thirty. Two more barrels have burst, more beer on the floor. The ring of candles has gone completely. The ice is all around the pentacle, but isn't quite touching it.
"Eleven thirty-five. The floor inside the pentacle is turning white with frost. Odd that the bowls haven't frozen. Maybe the salt in the water has something to do with it... [presumably a reference to bowls of holy water used in the pentacle]
"Eleven thirty-eight. Spoke too soon, the bowls are freezing now. Umm, odd, the ice is forming sharp icicles, all of them pointing in at me. Don't like the look of this at all. It's very cold; I'm shivering and I think I may have frostbite in my foot...
"Eleven forty-five. Ice is - damn...."
At this point there is a loud pop and the recording ends with a prolonged crackling noise. The ice finally touched one of the tubes of the pentacle, which shattered through thermal shock. Immediately the ice began to flow inwards towards Carnacki, but he had made his preparations with unusual care. The pentacle was set up below the hatch used to lower beer into the cellar, with a rope positioned to let him climb out. Within moments he was six feet above the ice and opening the doors. Getting out without falling was difficult, but desperation lent him strength. Although the ice quickly extended spikes towards him, it was unable to follow him outside.
The following morning Carnacki examined the cellar and retrieved what was left of his equipment. The ice had melted and no obvious traces were left.
Carnacki reasoned that he had been attacked by a powerful Saiitii manifestation, an elemental force in the true sense of the word. But there seemed no obvious reason for it to pick on an obscure inn in the middle of nowhere. The answer came to Carnacki while he was eating lunch. The menu listed several cold desserts, including ice cream and water ices, but it was a warm summer day. Where was the ice coming from?
Although commercial refrigerators were already available, they were still very rare, and there was a huge trade in ice from Norway and the other Scandinavian countries. Blocks were shipped to Britain covered in sawdust and sacking, then kept in insulated ice cellars until needed. The inn regularly topped up its ice cellar, which was next to the main cellar, and the landlord could never remember running out. This seemed odd to Carnacki; ice shipments and deliveries often ran into delays, even in towns, and in a rural area it would take remarkably good organisation to keep a constant supply. Sooner or later the last piece would be used or melt.
Although the landlord protested at the expense, Carnacki insisted on clearing out the cellar and exposing the ice to the sun. It soon began to melt, apart from one apparently normal piece which remained solid. Using tongs and an ice-pick, Carnacki pried it apart to reveal a glistening ball of super-hard ice, or icy material, which rapidly covered with frost as moisture condensed from the air. It seemed to be dormant in the daylight, but he was sure that it was the source of the attack. The ice-pick couldn't penetrate it.
Carnacki took it to the local railway station and arranged to have it blasted with superheated steam from a locomotive. It took several minutes to melt, but eventually the last traces were vaporised. For safety, Carnacki had the entire cellar treated with steam, in case traces of the infection remained. Fortunately the Plymouth coastguard had suitable portable equipment, normally used to steam-fumigate the cabins of ships held in quarantine. This ended the incident, and there has been no repetition.
The origin of the ball is unknown, but Carnacki speculated that it might be the last remnant of an icy meteor. Usually they melt long before reaching the ground, but the intervention of one of the Ab-natural powers, or some fluke of nature, could possibly keep one intact. Once it reached the ground it would be a conduit for the Saiitii manifestations Carnacki observed.
"..after telling us the short incident of the Three Straw Platters, he had lapsed into a contented silence... [SEH]
By coincidence this minor case was also set in a public house; it was a fake haunting contrived by mischievous pot-boys in 1910.
The Frog and Firkin was a typical village inn in Surrey. The "platters" (woven straw dishes used for cheese and fruit) were kept on a shelf behind the bar. The wall behind the bar was a wooden partition, with the kitchen on the other side, and there were several gaps in the boards. The boys discovered that it was possible to use a piece of stiff wire to push the platters off the shelf and, knowing that the landlord was superstitious, decided to have some fun by pretending that the inn was haunted. Carnacki was called in by the local vicar, after numerous witnesses had seen the platters "fly off the shelf". He soon realised that one or another of the boys was out of sight whenever the platters fell.
When he confronted the boys with his suspicions, he learned that they were now thoroughly bored with the pretence; the landlord had caught them in the act and was making them continue because custom at the inn had risen by a third, with many extra clients coming to see the "haunted" room. Carnacki and the vicar persuaded the landlord to give up the hoax, without revealing that it was a fake; some of the new customers eventually left when it became clear that the incidents had stopped, but enough remained to satisfy the landlord.
Carnacki's resolution of the case is reasonably well-known, since his notes were printed in "The Journal of Ab-natural Studies" for June 1912 ("An Interesting Fraud", pp 22-3), but this hasn't stopped several anthologists from using the story in "supernatural" and "unexplained" collections. It is often claimed that it is Carnacki's only unsolved case!
"..I have twice seen a somewhat similar thing; in The Dark Light Case and in that trouble of Maaetheson's, which you know about..." [SEH]
This is a reference to the "Silent Garden" case described above; Carnacki had a bad habit of using multiple nicknames for the same episode. Fortunately his notes make it clear that these are indeed the same incident.
"..that trouble of Maaetheson's, which you know about..." [SEH]
This last case was one of Carnacki's failures. Maaetheson was a detective working for the London Mendicity Institute, an organisation set up to monitor the behaviour of beggars. His work involved tracing the authors of begging letters, investigating their true circumstances, and often arranging for their arrest on fraud charges.
In 1907-8 his pursuit of James Dooley (alias James Donoghue, Jimmy Patterson, The Revd. James Douglas, etc. etc.), a particularly blatant fraudster, led to the accidental death of Dooley's eight-year-old son and the subsequent suicide of his wife.
Dooley was an Irishman who on various occasions claimed to be the victim of a bank fraud, a missionary fallen on hard times, a child with a dying mother, etc. To avoid being traced, Dooley used a series of accommodation addresses in central London and sent his son to pick up the letters. If stopped by the police, the boy claimed that "a big man with a beard" had given him a penny to collect the post and bring it back to a local public house; Dooley was short and beardless, and never went near the place. Once an accommodation address was exposed, Dooley would never use it again.
After witnessing this trick, Maaetheson decided to try following the child without intercepting him and arrest Dooley when the boy handed over the letters. Unfortunately Dooley noticed one of the plain-clothes policemen accompanying Maaetheson, and gave his son a signal to avoid making contact. The boy set off, tried to lose his pursuers by dashing across a busy road, and was run down by a cab. Dooley saw the accident, ran to help his son, and was arrested by one of the policemen. Later the child died in hospital.
Dooley was subsequently found guilty on eight counts of obtaining money by deception, his fifth conviction, and sentenced to three years hard labour. His wife, an invalid, was deeply depressed by the double loss; when her money ran out early in 1908, she was evicted and committed suicide in preference to going to the workhouse.
In June 1908 Maaetheson began to see Dooley's wife and child in his dreams, leading to chronic insomnia. A few days later he looked up from a book to find them standing in his room, staring at him and weeping. After a few minutes they disappeared.
This happened several times. Maaetheson went to his doctor, asking for a sleeping draught, and told him about the "dream". The doctor was one of Carnacki's contacts and was prepared to consider the possibility that this was some form of ghost. He spent a night at Maaetheson's home and came away convinced that he had seen the same vision, though in much less detail than Maaetheson described.
At the time Carnacki was busy with another case, and it was several weeks before he found time to visit Maaetheson. By then the latter was deeply depressed, convinced that the ghosts were trying to drive him insane. Carnacki decided to exhaust some other possibilities first. His main idea was that friends of Dooley might be faking the haunting, to get revenge on Maaetheson.
A search of the house uncovered no traces of deception; there were no secret entrances, no concealed magic lantern projectors, and nothing else that might be used to produce the vision Maaetheson described.
That evening Carnacki sat up with Maaetheson and prepared to watch for the ghosts. A little after twelve he noticed that Maaetheson was sweating profusely and seemed to have difficulty breathing. A few seconds later he noticed the curious light reversal described elsewhere [SEH], and began to see two vague figures standing to one side of the room. They stood there for what seemed to be several minutes, then faded away as the light reversal ended. Checking his watch, Carnacki found that the apparition had lasted less than a minute, although it seemed much longer.
When they compared notes, Carnacki found that Maaetheson had again seem the woman and child, in much more detail than Carnacki's vision. He took particular note of the clothes Maaetheson described. The child was wearing a sailor suit, which he had worn when he died, the woman was wearing a dark blue dress. The next day Carnacki checked and found that Mrs. Dooley was wearing a brown dress when she committed suicide; Maaetheson had described the dress she wore the last time he saw her, at her husband's trial. There were some other discrepancies; the ghost had brown hair, as Mrs. Dooley had when Maaetheson last saw her, but by the time of her death, eight months later, she was prematurely grey. It wore a brooch like Mrs. Dooley's, but she had pawned it soon after the trial.
Carnacki began to think that Maaetheson was imagining the ghosts, but his own vision was impossible to explain away. The following night it happened again; Maaetheson saw the same vision, while Carnacki felt that he saw something a little more like Maaetheson's description. By the end of a week Carnacki was seeing the vision almost as clearly as Maaetheson, and could pick out Mrs. Dooley's photograph from a dozen others, although he had never met her.
It seemed certain that this was a genuine haunting, but Carnacki still felt that something was wrong. Acting on a hunch, he visited again a few nights later and slipped a sleeping potion into Maaetheson's tea; eventually the vision appeared, but much of the detail was missing. It was only a little clearer than Carnacki's first sighting.
At this point Carnacki realised the truth; Maaetheson was an untrained medium, and his depression and feelings of guilt were gradually opening up a route for some Ab-natural power, which was manifesting in a form imposed by his subconscious. To test this idea, Carnacki persuaded Maaetheson to spend a few nights at his house. On the first evening Carnacki stayed at Maaetheson's home; the vision did appear, but was again diffuse and lacking in detail. Maaetheson was delighted; his evening had passed without any apparition. The following night it appeared at Carnacki's home, as clearly as he or Carnacki had ever seen it. Maaetheson was deeply disappointed; Carnacki had half expected something to happen.
At this point Carnacki was yet to develop the colour "focusing" method used in his later experiments [HG], but had perfected the first electric pentacle. The next night he arranged separate pentacles for himself and Maaetheson, and prepared to await events. As he had half expected, the ghosts appeared again - inside Maaetheson's pentacle. As in one of his later cases [GM], Ab-natural forces were able to enter a pentacle if there was a suitable conduit within.
After this experiment Carnacki explained his theories to Maaetheson, but was unexpectedly rebuffed; Maaetheson seemed to be unable to believe that his own mind could be betraying him in this way. He insisted that the ghosts were as "real" as any other, and nothing to do with his mind. They were materialising near him because they were haunting him, not because he was summoning them.
Carnacki felt that Maaetheson needed psychiatric help, but he adamantly refused to take this advice. When they last met, Maaetheson told him to go to Hell, and ordered his housemaid to refuse to admit Carnacki again. On a long shot, Carnacki visited Dooley, explained the situation and asked him to agree to see Maaetheson and "forgive him, if you can." Dooley refused, even when Carnacki offered to use his influence to obtain a review of his sentence. When Carnacki explained that he feared for Maaetheson's sanity if the apparitions continued, Dooley simply said "Good."
Six months later Carnacki heard that Maaetheson was dead; he had suffered a heart attack and died in his bed a week later. The nurse told Carnacki that Maaetheson had spent the last week pleading with someone only he could see, although towards the end she "...began to think that I was seeing something myself." In subsequent years the house was widely reputed to be haunted and remains so to this day. All accounts of the ghosts agree with Maaetheson's last glimpses of Mrs. Dooley and her son.
This case uniquely shows one of the mechanisms by which the Ab-natural gains a foothold in our world. While its ending was unfortunate, it led to later successes, as in the case of Bains [HG].
3.2 Game Data
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"...They are tremendous psychic forces, bred out of its elements just as an octopus or shark is bred out of the sea, or a tiger or any other physical force is bred out of the elements of its earth-and-air surroundings..." [HG: 7]
All Ab-natural entities encountered on Earth are manifestations of (literally) higher powers; the denizens of the ether cloud surrounding our world's outer atmosphere. What we see (or hear or feel) on Earth is a psychic presence; sometimes capable of interacting with matter, though not itself part of it [GM, HI, HJ], sometimes clothed in material substance [WR] and sometimes purely sensory [SEH]. Even the most tangible forms are tiny reflections of the power of the real creatures and are inevitably filtered by the preconceptions of their observers. The most "concrete" manifestations of the Ab-natural [WR, GM] take on familiar forms, not because they are in any way comparable to life on Earth, but because these forms are "keys" which fit into psychic "locks" created by the human mind. In other words, they have human or animal shapes because we expect them to have such shapes and because assuming such forms helps them to reinforce their presence on Earth. The longer such creatures have to establish a foothold, the more powerful they become. Similarly, we might see an Astarral entity as an angel, or some comparable force for good, simply because the concept is one that the human mind can understand.
In a typical case [WR] a human mind opened the way to a minor manifestation, which was probably little more than a faint auditory illusion at first. Gradually it consolidated its power, becoming louder and gaining more ability to influence its surroundings. Every human mind that heard it strengthened its "lock" on Earth. At some point it may have had the capabilities associated with Aeiirii manifestations, but eventually it gained enough power to embody itself in normal matter, as a Saiitii manifestation. For game purposes the exact mechanics of this process are irrelevant. Carnacki deals with the end results of these creatures' manifestations, not their origins.
The remaining information in this section is for referees only; if you do not intend to run adventures in Carnacki's world, STOP READING NOW.
Ab-natural creatures are almost by definition hostile; those that are not are usually waiting, reinforcing their presence on Earth and gathering strength from human emotions. They are capable of physical and mental attacks. Section 3.2.1 is a brief summary of the creatures encountered by Carnacki; it should not be considered as a definitive listing of all Ab-natural creatures, since each case is unique.
Ab-natural creatures don't have normal physical bodies or minds, and their souls are totally alien, but the usual Forgotten Futures games statistics are useful in determining their cunning, their ability to harm adventurers and to overcome the protections offered by magic o
