The Gothic Journals

[High Priest Mikhal]

(Excerpt from the journals of Alexander Dreamfire, Salt Lake City, UT, July 26, 2011)
The OSA has given me and Kyra and assignment but not one in the States. It's over in Japan, a request from a government-backed organization called the Phantom Hunters Society. There has been some trouble with an abandoned shrine near an isolated mountain town and the PHS can't figure out what's going on. They have a miko on their team but she's not terribly experienced yet. Their primary folklorist only knows it's a shrine to a fox-god and there was some sort of taboo in the town about approaching the shrine after dark. Not much to go on given how rich and diverse Japan's mythology is. Especially with countless regional stories and, I fear, real incidents in the past.

As I write this we're waiting in the lounge for our flight. There isn't much we can do to plan anything out given what information we have and that's visibly eating at Kyra. I guess it goes with being an archivist since information is their bread and butter. As much as I like to know more about what I'll face, I've gotten used to encounters in the field being my first and only way to find out so it doesn't bother me. But I concede it's a bad idea if we're really facing something caused by or linked to a fox spirit. They're one of the most powerful types of spirit beings and it's very easy to offend them even if you observe all the proper rituals and protocols of etiquette. They won't hesitate to attack even other spirits, including me and Kyra, if they judge us easy prey.

(Excerpt from the journals of Alexander Dreamfire, Nohoro, Japan, July 28, 2011)
We were met by Kobayashi Nagisa and Kisaragi Mitsuki at the airport, the folklorist and miko respectively. The rest of the team had already gone ahead to the town while they waited to escort us there. After a sixteen-hour flight we had to decompress on a three-hour train ride and then another two by truck on a poorly maintained road to the town. On the way there they both explained what little they could and even showed us a document in the Spirit Language they couldn't translate. It was a warning not to unseal "the wretched souls of the dead who refuse to move on to the afterlife and are kept secure behind the portal [gate] of the inner shrine." So we weren't going to necessarily face a fox spirit but angry ghosts. The vellum it was written on wasn't all that old, either. Maybe two centuries at most. References to "bloody-minded warriors who refuse to believe their time is over" make me think it was written after Commodore Perry "opened" Japan to Western trade and the country was rapidly industrializing. It was a time of major changes and the samurai, especially, didn't take them well. If these ghosts dated back to that time, they would be absolutely furious with both the living and their likely violent and ignoble deaths.

But why write using a language only the most dedicated kannushi (male Shinto priests) and miko could even read? And who had written it? And who had trapped the ghosts in the shrine? Kobayashi-san confirmed the last caretakers of the shrine were killed in a battle with rebel samurai and there were no records of anyone coming to imprison the angry souls. The people of the town had records of praying fervently to the god of the shrine to end their terror and then nothing. It was like the events just ended without any visible intervention. Maybe there really is a fox spirit involved?

The town itself won't prove to be any sort of help. When we got there, the place was abandoned. Not like the people living there had fled but as though they had vanished. Businesses were still open and unlocked, food was still sitting on tables, even TVs were still on and tuned to various channels. The others of the Phantom Hunters' Society had scoured the town looking for anyone and come up empty. People's shoes were still in the entryways of houses, too. But I did find trails indicating the people had left under their own power, all of them leading into the surrounding forest. By then it was getting dark and the PHS members weren't eager to go into the wilderness at night.

Instead I followed the trails alone, all of them converging onto one clearly treaded path that led higher into the mountain and ended at the foot of a small stone shrine. Immediately I was hit by the odor of rotting flesh and spilled blood but no sight of such. It wasn't hard to find the source, bodies that looked like they'd been dead for weeks and contorted into expressions of abject terror. All spread across the forest floor like the victims had tried to run but were chased down. But were they the bodies of the town's citizens? These had clearly been dead for weeks while everything in town pointed to a mass exodus just a day earlier at most.

Speaking to one, I confirmed they were, indeed, the townsfolk. She told me that they had all heard a strange song coming from the forest after sunset and were unable to stop following it to the shrine. Once there, the song ended and "glowing men dressed like samurai in the movies, covered in blood and deep wounds, appeared and began to attack them all." Some ran but most were paralyzed by overwhelming fear. As each was cut down, their flesh began to visibly decay. The woman I was talking to was one of the last to die, running straight into the blade of a naginata (Japanese polearm) held by a ghost whose head was cleaved in two. She could actually see her flesh rotting the second before death came.

I ran back to the others still in town and led them to what I'd found. It's too dangerous to call in the authorities until we're certain the ghosts won't attack or we've put them to rest. This is all so gruesome and lends an extra edge to what we're doing. We're not just dealing with angry ghosts, we're dealing with powerful angry ghosts. Ones who can slaughter an entire town and corrupt the bodies of the dead. Yet something the dead woman told me feels important. They were lured out after sunset. Are these spirits weakened by sunlight? Or is it something else?

We've stumbled onto something none of us were prepared for. It's going to be a long night.
(End transmission)

[High Priest Mikhal]

(Excerpt from the journals of Alexander Dreamfire, Nohoro, Japan, July 29, 2011)
I took first watch so Kyra could rest and regain her spells. The town's streetlights still came on automatically and gave the place an almost peaceful look at night. But the knowledge of what had happened just kept creeping back into my mind and gave everything a foreboding cast. Likewise, the Near Ethereal was oddly quiet and subdued. My attentions were focused so much on looking for any sign the ghosts were coming I almost missed a small form moving about and spying on me and the trailers the other were sleeping inside. Out of the periphery I could make out that it was a fox but with more than one tail. From that angle I couldn't get an accurate count but on a whim I spoke to it in the Spirit Language. It cocked its head and I took another risk by deactivating my hat of alteration so my true form was visible.

That caught its full attention and it approached, turning into a young girl but with nine fox tails. I immediately broke out into a cold sweat as I realized what I was in the presence of. It--she--just walked up to me and looked me over while I stood perfectly still before finally asking what a dream spirit was doing there. When I mentioned the ghosts she just scoffed and told me it was "the dumb humans' fault for breaking the seal." She then explained she'd seen men in uniforms and wearing hardhats at the shrine one night, one of whom touched a badly decaying sacred rope and caused it to finally snap. "It took every ounce of energy I had to seal those ghosts up the first time. Then the people stopped coming to worship and forgot about me so I don't have the power to do it again."

When I asked her if restoring the sacred rope would seal them away again, she laughed. They would have to be forced back into their prison for that to work. As for what was binding them to this world, the villagers had stolen their swords and kept them as trophies. I couldn't help but wince at that; a samurai's sword is considered an extension of their soul. Anyone else touching it without permission would have been killed immediately and taking it from a fallen warrior could spawn a vengeful ghost if their death was traumatic enough. I understand that the samurai were not seen as the good guys in the real world during the Meiji Restoration, and many abandoned the tenets of bushido to preserve their way of life, but no wonder these ghosts were so vengeful.

So we know why they remain in the living world. But the powers they've displayed are ones I've only ever seen possessed by the truly evil dead and they can't be imprisoned again without the help of Anaki, the fox spirit. If we knew where their graves were, it would be a simple matter to return their swords to them and have them pass on. If they don't have graves, their swords might be the only weapons that can permanently destroy them. And even that's just a theory.

When Kyra woke up and took over the watch, I told her what had happened. She understood exactly what I was getting at and recommended we search the town's records after dawn. The others weren't as credulous about the fact I'd talked to the resident "guardian" but did agree that finding out who had those swords and where the ghosts' remains were would be the most effective course of action. Unfortunately our search through the records proved largely useless. The people who had taken the blades didn't have surnames as was the culture of the time so we couldn't match which families might have them. Nor was there any mention of what happened to them after they were taken or where the bodies of the dead samurai ended up. We will have to search each and every building looking for them. To make matters worse, the town has a large number of katanas dating back to the Second World War given the number of commanders Nohoro contributed to the military. Kyra, Mitsuki, and I can determine which ones carry the spiritual taint but just touching them will undoubtedly draw the ire of the ghosts to the one that does so. Thus we need to be sure that as few people actually do as necessary.

The ghost won't attack anyone who doesn't "defile" their swords, so we feel confident in calling in the authorities to collect the bodies. I spent the last hours of the day asking each who they were in life and placing tags with their names on them so they can be identified and any family notified. They should be here tomorrow while we locate the swords in question. Anaki, who kept hanging around me and Kyra all day, indicated there are eight ghosts so we're looking for eight specific blades. She also mentioned the ghosts were devout followers of Amaterasu-o-mi-kami in life and avoided sunlight "out of shame at what they've become." As for where the bodies are, she doesn't know. Kyra and I will have to capture one and interrogate them once we've found one of the missing swords. If any or all of them were cremated, their blades will have to be destroyed. Not just broken but disintegrated to sever their connection to this world.

As for who those men that broke the seal were, we did find something. The town's mayor was in talks with a company to build a resort and bring tourist money in. Likely the men were surveyors and have no idea what they did and no way of knowing what they caused. I don't plan on trying to inform them, either. They'd either think I was crazy or do something drastic out of guilt if they believed me. All that really matters is putting the ghosts to rest or destroying them if necessary. And for that, we've still got a lot of work ahead of us.
(End transmission)

[High Priest Mikhal]

(Excerpt from the journals of Alexander Dreamfire, Nohoro, Japan, July 31, 2011)
It's been two days since I last wrote and we've been busy searching every building in the town, as well as shutting down anything left on and otherwise cleaning things up out of respect for the dead. The authorities came in and quickly claimed the bodies, which after just three days were pitted bone and blackened flesh. While talking with them they remarked how unnatural the decay was acting since they could actually see the remains rot in real time. They're treating it like some sort of infection or chemical contamination but we know they'll find nothing of the sort.

Our work did turn up seven of the eight swords we need, though the last one is proving elusive. I took one last night and waited for the ghost that owned it to appear while Kyra stood ready and trapped it in bindings of pure magical force. Getting through the madness and obsession of death was almost impossible until sunup, when suddenly the spirit seemed to calm down and regain his composure. The following is a transcription of the brief exchange we had.

Alex: Can you speak?
Unknown Ghost (never identified): Yes, I am calm. The touch of Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto drives us crazy. But the touch of Amaterasu-o-mi-Kami calms us. It is shameful for a warrior to behave like that.
Alex: I wish to return your sword to you. But I must know where your body lies.
UG: We were all buried under the shrine. Behind the ropes.
Alex: Will you be at rest if your sword is returned to you?
UG: Yes! We just want the dishonor to end. Look at the tsuba. They match the insignias we all bear.
Alex: I will hold you to that on pain of destruction.

Kyra let the ghost go and he fled in the direction of the shrine. I followed and watched him sink into the soil, breaking out the old trench spade to quickly excavate the ground. Seven of the bodies were nothing more than bone, with an eighth looking mummified. True to his word, the guard matched a design on an amulet one was wearing. As soon as I laid the blade with it I sensed something "leave" the area, a presence. Even the body no longer registered to stygian discernment, though the others did and quite strongly at that. Each time I laid another sword to the proper body, I felt another presence leave and the aura of undeath grew weaker. The only one left was the mummified one. My instincts were screaming at me that this aberration was more than it seemed but I couldn't figure out what.

By then it was late afternoon and I was filthy and tired from digging and running back and forth between the town and the shrine seven times. I did take the time to cover the ones we'd laid to rest before returning and enjoying a hot shower. The others spent the rest of the day looking for that last sword but came up empty. The aura around it is not easily missed so it had to be deliberately hidden somewhere, maybe even shielded by thick materials or a sheet of lead. Then there was the condition of that final body that kept bugging me. In Japan's climate, there's no way for a body to be mummified by simple burial in soil. In volcanic rock or ash, yes. But the geology here was all wrong for that to be the case. Something had acted on it deliberately.

Kyra was just as confused as I was but it was Mitsuki who came to the answer. That wasn't the anchor of a ghost; it was a gaki, a ghoul-like creature I've encountered before on other worlds. I practically ran from the table we were all eating at to return to the grave and found it empty. That's when I heard Nagisa scream and ran back to the trailers, only to find the creature had grabbed her and was threatening to slit her throat with long claws. Thankfully I'd stopped far enough away it didn't know I was there so I sat and listened as it ranted about "ruining its plans" and "setting its minions free." The creature was also surrounded by an aura of abjuration magic, an armor spell. It was a sorcerer of some sort. What Anaki saw wasn't a ghost but an ethereal projection. It had enslaved the restless ghosts of the murdered samurai. The bodies of the townsfolk weren't "decayed," they were butchered! This thing had worked out how to hide its presence in ingenious ways that fooled all of us.

With the element of surprise, I was able to throw my mind blade into its back. Not deep enough to risk hurting Nagisa but enough to cause the creature to release her at the sudden pain of positive energy flowing into its unliving body. Kyra then struck with a bolt of glory, practically turning it into ash in one strike. Nagisa was understandably shocked and horrified, but the threat was over. There was still something I had to take care of, though.

Anaki was understandably hesitant to face me. She was the guardian spirit of the shrine and had missed an intruder desecrating it, even mistaking it for one of the spirits she was supposed to guard. I don't know the specifics, but in spirit culture across the multiverse it's a major crime to fail at a task like that. My people failed to stop the true Nightmare Court from gaining access to the Web of Dreams and we've been atoning for it for millennia. A spirit of higher "rank" must pass judgement on the offender and determine a suitable punishment. That meant I had to give her a task to perform to make up for this laxity. Really, I could think of only one that fit: tutoring Mitsuki in the ways of magic and the spirits until she was able to drive away her new teacher with her powers. At that point the young miko would no longer need guidance and could stand on her own.

The fox-spirit took on humanoid form for the first time since we'd met and I was a bit shocked. She was an albino, white hair and almost-translucent skin with red eyes, not merely a fox with a white coat. Though she did retain all nine tails in humanoid form as the legends say. She immediately introduced herself to her new student, albeit invisible and inaudible to the others, and I had to hold back a laugh. They were going to make an interesting pair for Nagisa and the others to work with.

So the mystery of Nohoro is solved and Kyra and I can return home. I'm mildly interested in what will happen to the town but after everything we've seen and done it may be better that it remains abandoned. There are too many old and new sins buried here. Tomorrow after we've rested, Kyra and I will teleport home and see what else the Office wants us to take care of. Hopefully something less intense than this.
(End transmission)

[High Priest Mikhal]

(Excerpt from the journals of Alexander Dreamfire, Draper, UT, Aug. 2, 2011)
I'm almost embarrassed at how both Kyra and I handled what happened in Nohoro. We've clearly lost our touch when it comes to using all the resources at our disposal. The necromantic miasma wasn't so thick that spells and powers to detect the undead would have failed completely and that means there's no real excuse for our failure to recognize that gaki when we first saw it. Nor should we have failed to detect the aura it was projecting that could rot flesh and bone in real time. In the past I learned not to rely on my psionic powers so much as my abilities as a soulknife but even then I still used them when necessary. Hiding our abilities in this world has become so reflexive we sometimes forget that we have them. It's needless self-handicapping that could have led to far worse results than we got. Worse, we have the ability to hide them. My cloak-cum-coat covers me in a constant mind blank and I can easily hide any signs of my powers while Kyra's magic lacks most of the visual and auditory cues they would have in other worlds so it's just as easy for her to hide them with a little sleight of hand and she casts the same spell my cloak uses on herself daily.

Those are lessons we'll need to learn in the field because we've already gotten another assignment from the Office. What's odd is we're going in blind on what exactly we're supposed to investigate; the Office has "psychics" who predict when and where something is going to happen and they send out agents based on those predictions. Half the time it's a minor manifestation not worth the effort while another twenty-five percent of the time it's nothing at all. Those times it is something serious, however, the Office has been able to stop or greatly mitigate major supernatural disasters. Our destination?

Miskatonic. Oh, that's just great! Are we going to once again investigate Dr. West and his mansion? Have some of his creations gotten loose? At least it's not Silent Hill. That's one place we both absolutely refuse to ever visit again.

(Excerpt from the journals of Alexander Dreamfire, Miskatonic, MA, Aug. 5, 2011)
We've only just arrived but already found the town buzzing about the "anniversary of Dr. West's disappearance." At the same time that happened, his mansion collapsed for no discernible reason. No one, and I mean no one, in town has dared investigate or even ask for outside help. Like they're afraid of disturbing a grave. They're actually celebrating by having a rock concert to mirror one that happened the year before during a solar eclipse. All death metal bands like Mastodon, Cavalera Conspiracy, and Lamb of God among others. Not something either of us are interested in but acting like we're there for it is good cover. Some of the students we talked to mentioned how two others disappeared last year, Rick Taylor and Jennifer Willis, at the same time everything else happened. Both of us immediately guessed there's a connection but that's impossible to verify.

Just visiting the outskirts of the former West Mansion showed us it would be impossible to thoroughly investigate without her magic or my powers. The place seems to have imploded and the debris is so thick it would be impossible to clear by hand. There must have been some sort of structure underground because the pile is clearly filling in a depression. There's also no more connection to the Abyss left, just a lingering Sinkhole of Evil that still reflects the horrific, living flesh of the place and even that feels weaker than it did seven years ago. Whatever happened, it seems to have cut off the place completely from whatever Dr. West was channeling. The only other remnant is an aura of undeath and necromantic magic that made us both collapse when we detected it.

We returned to our hotel and immediately took showers from how unclean the place made us feel. Whatever happened there was something beyond even our ken and likely our capabilities of explaining even if we did know. We also don't know if it has anything to do with why we were sent there. We're just supposed to stay vigilant for the next couple of days and see if anything happens.
(End Transmission)

[High Priest Mikhal]

(Excerpt from the journals of Alexander Dreamfire, Miskatonic, MA, Aug. 7, 2011)
I have to give the "psychics" at the Office some credit. They were right that something was going to happen involving the supernatural. Just wrong that it would intrude into the physical plane. This morning the Near Ethereal was hit by a temporal storm flashing images of things that both did and didn't happen a year ago. The exact metaphysics are too complex to write down but what happened at West Manor was so powerful it tore apart space-time and created an alternate timeline. One that has no connections to this world anymore except in the Near Ethereal and then only during rare conjunctions.

Not for the first time I cursed my ability to see into the Near Ethereal because I couldn't block out the images being flashed. I spent most of the day in agonizing pain and nearly paralyzed by what I was seeing. What happened to Rick Taylor and Jennifer Willis when they visited West Manor a year ago. We knew West was drawing on the power of the Abyss but now it became clear which layer: Thanatos. Only it wasn't Orcus that answered but beings far more alien, likely obyriths or even antediluvian gods simply called the Corrupted. Along with a "servant" of theirs locked inside a bone mask that aided Rick in defeating Dr. West and his profane creations but also enabled the Corrupted to enter the world and thus possess Jennifer, even if their final form was destroyed, by supplying "ten-thousand sacrifices."

Kyra, bless her, never left my side as I convulsed on the floor and relayed what I was seeing between attempts to tolerate the pain through grit teeth and even holding my breath to focus on blocking it out mentally. What felt like an eternity lasted only a few hours before the storm abated and the images stopped. I was soaked in sweat and bleeding from my ears and nose both but it was over and what really happened is now known.

This world is lucky that those events were severed from it. But I can't say the same for Rick, Jennifer, and Dr. West. They're stuck in a never-ending loop of those events, doomed to relive those events over and over again. Worse still is there's no way to save them from a fate worse than death now that the conjunction is over. Nor do we even know of a way to do so if it happens again.

What we felt at the site of West Manor has almost no connection left to those events; the severing was that complete. Instead it's the accumulated corruption of almost three centuries of madness, necromantic experimentation, and worship of beings too alien to exist in this reality. Worse, what I saw were crypts powered by remains and relics from countless cultures under the site. Without Dr. West there to maintain it, the power is already waning but the potential for someone or something to spark it anew remains. A true cleansing will require the debris to be removed and entire teams of mystics capable of casting hallow to cover every square inch. The latter is beyond even the Office's capabilities and any attempt to do so would no doubt attract attention to the place from those who would exploit the evil there. It's frustrating and demoralizing to know there's nothing that can be done about any of this except keeping it quiet and guarding the site.

We'll be heading home tomorrow. There's nothing left for us to do here and nothing we can do.
(end transmission)