Hope everyone had a great Halloween!
So, I met with the magic school Principal after Halloween. He's quite old you know; has snow white hair, pale blue eyes, and the beginnings of liver spots on his hands. I'm surprised he isn't retired. We arranged to meet in Lizzy's Place (or, “Elizabeth's Place” if you're not a local of Blackross) on Quay Road at 5pm, November 2nd. We ate good Thai food there and had some damn fine coffee and cherry pie afterwards. I was disappointed I wasn't invited to see the inside the Gothic school building, but apparently the place was shut up for the winter holidays. The Principal gave me back my research documents and I took out a dictaphone I'd brought to record our conversation (a transcription of which I give below):
Principal: I've read all your notes and documentation, John, and I must commend you on your research abilities. I reckon it's not an easy subject to write about?
Me: You got that right, what with all that's happened to me since starting down this road. So, um, Master Thomas, you told me in your letter that this XUAL Community is not unknown to you. Can you tell me something about them that I haven't already uncovered?
Principal: About the XUAL Community?
Me: Yes.
Principal: They were a research group set up to conduct fringe experiments into awareness and consciousness in order to create some sort of, uh, utopian society. Kilmatogh was their test bed. If
their experiments worked they'd expand to the rest of the world.
Me: Are they, I mean, were they bad or good?
Principal: You mean morally?
Me: Yeah.
Principal: Oh, I'm sure it started out that way, but they eventually came into conflict with the
law... and it ended badly for them.
Me: (I smiled) Yes, indeed. I have that in my notes. And what about the site of their experiments;
Kilmatogh bog? What about my nightmares and visions; what do you think they are? What about my friend's visions and experiences and about what happened to the archaeologists who excavated the site back in the mid-1950s?
(He gathered his thoughts. I sensed that a lot of my future research depended on how he was going to answer this.)
Principal: I think all those occurance are not unconnected, I'm afraid to say.
Me: Go on.
Principal: I don't think they're just occurances of different things, but some of them may be. I don't believe they're all just random incidents either. A propos, an Eminence Grise must be behind it.
Me: You think somebody is pulling the strings? Is that your paranoia showing or do you
believe in conspiracy theories?
Principal: It seems to me that encountering whatever is residing at the bog is akin to paranormal
phenomena...eh, hauntings, if you will.
Me: Hauntings?
Principal: Yes, though not like encountering some poltergeist or wimpy chain rattling ghost. Whatever is out there, causes a life-altering experience. Comparable, in some ways, to how people used to describe a "religious conversion". Cross that threshold, it's hard going back.
Me: Do you honestly believe my investigations have gotten me anywhere near the truth of the matter?
Proncipal: Yes.
Me: Then why is it here? Does it just want to scare people?
Principal: Probably doesn't know what it wants.
Me: So, based on that evidence, do you think there's any real or effective way to contain this
thing?
Principal: The only tried and true way is to work out why it's here...and erm, resolve it.
Me: Fabulous! Resolve it how?
Principal: Banish it with an exorcism.
Me: Are you crazy? I saw that movie. Even the priest died!
(The Principal takes out a photocopy of the XUAL Community map of Kilmatogh bog and places it on the table in front of me.)
Principal: Here's the deal: See this spot? (Points to an area on the map highlighted in red marker.) That's where the Bull idol was until recently. It's the entrance to the underground temple the archaeologists discovered in 1956, the hot spot where all the bad mojo is coming from. (He looks around the diner and lowers his voice conspiratorily) We need to create a Mangus tripod.
Me: A what?
(He puts his finger on a place marked on the map.)
Principal: One person chants here on the hot spot, and another three individuals chant in other
places around the spot, forming a triangle.
Me: Will this exorcise it?
Principal: It's suppose to bind the bad mojo and keep it from doing any more harm. I'll take the hot
spot. If there's trouble that's where it'll be.
Me: What do I do?
Principal: Get two other friends to help you form the triangle.
(Tom and Frank, jump to mind.)
Me: When do you want to do this ritual?
Principal: At the winter solstice. When day equals night and the forces of light and dark are perfectly aligned.
Me: Um, that's December 21st, right?
(He folded up the map again and put it in his pocket.)
Principal: Yep. Plenty of time to prepare. Any questions?
Me: Yeah. What if this mangy triangle doesn't work?
Principal: Then school's out for good.
(I look over at the waitress and call out.)
Me: Cheque, please!
Last edited by J.Howey on Mon Apr 24, 2017 4:39 pm; edited 3 times in total