[Collab - Freebuild] The Legend of Haunted Hallowdijk

[Ross Fisher]

Evening mateys. Have we got a story for you? Something a little bit spooky, a little bit strange, a little bit mysterious? Gather round, and listen to the Legend of Haunted Hallowdijk. 

[Professor Thaum]

You over there! Yes you! Fetch a veteran a beer, will you? There's a good lad.
What's that? You want something in return? How about a story?
Have you ever heard the legend of Haunted Hallowdijk? It was a little place up in Eslandola? This would've been, about '03 if I recall correctly. It was a small hamlet. About a dozen houses, on the wrong side of the Madrice Isthmus - as far as the Eslandolans are concerned. The whole area used to belong to a Corrington family called Dogland, but they lost it the last time the border was redrawn. Its all greenie territory now.
Anyway; why you'd choose to live out there in the marshes, I'll never know. It was miles from the High Way, and pretty much always on the verge of sinking into the mud.
At opposite ends of the hamlet was the Church of All Hallows, and the De Bruer Inn. Old Herschel De Bruer was the big landowner in the area, and he collected rents from most of the village. He was a decent enough man though; fat, loud, and happy to share a pint, or a roast on feast days. You can't say fairer than that.
Still, good times couldn't last. So it wasn't a surprise to the cynics among us when the killings started happening. First to go, in January of 603, was Johannes Peersen. He was a polite old fella. Friends with De Bruer from when they moved into the area, but with none of the brains.
What got him, no-one rightly knows. Some say it was wolves, others think it were an abominable spirit - a plaaggeest or a pesta. Some said it were something funny in the rye. All I know is that he was found the next morning wearing nothing but his breeches and a face like Hades himself was chasing him. And maybe, just maybe, Hades caught up.

[Jeff of Clubs]

A fine first chapter! 

[Garmadon]

Love this writing style!  Great job with that sloping path and the fig posing too, Professor (and fleshies?   Never thought I'd see the day that I'd see them in one of your builds! ) but I am very much looking forward to more! 

[Professor Thaum]

12 hours ago, Garmadon said:

 (and fleshies?   Never thought I'd see the day that I'd see them in one of your builds! )

That was needed for the collab'

But your sarcasms will be remembered.

😉

[Captain Braunsfeld]

I am listening!

More! 

[Fraunces]

Off to a good start!

[Ross Fisher]

It's been an age since we last added to this collab. Here's part 2:

Johannes Peersen wasn't the only soul who died that year. No sir. Listen up, and I'll tell you what happened next.
What you need to know is that Hallowdijk was named for its church. It was dedicated to Hades, and consecrated to All Hallows. And that turned out to be a good thing, as there was a lot more hallowed souls in the settlement by the end of that year.  
Well, the priest of All Hallows was young Father Kaspar, the late Maria and Karl Van Marklander's son. He was a decent enough sort. He preferred the tavern rather than his own pulpit, but he had that in common with the rest of the village!
He cared for his mother when his father passed away early. And he carried on doing that right up until Walther De Pfeffel started giving her his own care and attention - if you catch my drift.
Well, De Pfeffel paid for the lad to go off to the seminary, and leave the two of them in peace.
But it didn't do him much good. Three years later the lad was back, building a chapel of Hades and lecturing to his neighbours about their sins.
To make matters worse, in '98 Maria died of the plague and left Walther with only a preaching stepson for company. Now I ask you, what would you do in those circumstances?
Because when Father Van Marklander ended up dead, everyone had a strong suspicion who might have done it. Now, it seemed like the poor man just had too much to drink and froze to death in the ditch. De Pfeffel had a half-decent alibi, but still...
With no resolution to the issue, the Village Fathers sent off to the city for a new priest, buried the old one and went on with life. 

Edited October 10, 2022 by Ross Fisher

[Thomas Waagenaar]

 

Ah, Haunted Hallowdijk, nothing good ever came from there. The area was first settled a couple of hundred years ago, but that settlement eventually collapsed into the mud.
Things picked up again when Herschel De Bruer came and established himself. Some say he wanted to escape the persecution of the city for worshipping Hades. 

But if that was the case, why come all the way out to the marshes of the isthmus? Maybe the land was just cheap? And maybe that's because the sellers knew it were cursed.

It was a shock to everyone in the hamlet when De Bruer himself was found dead outside his own tavern. This time it was clear foul play were afoot!
Well, the village elders got together and decided something had to be done. Any one of them could be next! So they sent someone off to the city to get the guard in.
If only they'd acted sooner, more lives might've been saved...

Edited October 15, 2022 by Thomas Waagenaar

[blackdeathgr]

More, more and MORE please!!! 

[Ayrlego]

On 10/17/2022 at 8:31 AM, blackdeathgr said:

More, more and MORE please!!! 

Ask and ye shall receive!

Fetch me a pint, lads, and I'll tell you what happens next. Now by this stage, people were starting to get spooked. You must understand, this was a small village. Less than 50 people. So while Hades, God of the dead, wasn't a stranger, he rarely visited that often. But something's always wrong when the landlord of the only pub in town has his head caved in.
 

 

Well, by popular demand, the place was given to the Widow Hagen to look after. Rumour said she was the old man's mistress anyway, so it only seemed fitting.

She did a decent enough job; kept everything running in basically the same way it had, tried to look after folks. But it was obvious things weren't the same. The heart had gone out of the place.
Everyone was terrified, wondering whether there would be more deaths or not.

And then, sad to say, Widow Hagen was next. Not brutal like the old man, just quiet, calm. One day she didn't open the Inn, and was found dead in her chamber. No signs of a struggle.
Well, soon enough, people stopped going out. Stayed clear of each other. Kept a weapon close at hand, and prayed every chance they got.

 

[Yperio_Bricks]

Great collab right from the start, great mocs and story  Love it!

[Ross Fisher]

One week later the guards finally showed up. An "Ensign Merrick" and half a dozen greencoats. A surly bunch of louts to be sure; convicts, conscripts and condemned men.

They took over the De Bruer inn, and settled in thoroughly. A few folk took it as a sign that things might get better. There was a bit more life around the place, at least in the daytime. But as neither the inn nor the church got new management, some started moving on. Leaving for the city, or for relatives elsewhere.

Rumour has it Walther De Pfeffel (of priestly-parentage-profaning fame) was planning to leave. Unfortunately, he didn't get any further in his plans.

 

One foggy morning his body was found out at the edge of the settlement. Garrotted, some say. Revenge for what happened to the priest maybe? Who's to say? Either way, it was pretty clear that the guard weren't going to stop the deaths, and even more people started moving on. 

[evancelt]

It takes a special kind of stubborn to live in a place where any of your neighbours could be a murderer. But Hallowdijk breeds stubborn folk like rabbits.

The year got round to autumn, and only a dozen people were left in the village, the guard included.

They were left watchin each other warily, wondering whether the killer was still among them, or whether they'd left town already.

Well finally, it seems the militia got lucky! Merrick and his men picked up young Jacob Daglunder skulking around Peer Van Gruber's House late one night, all the murder weapons in his wallet, and a list of names in his pocket.

Van Gruber admitted that he'd written the lad into his will a few months back, not having any family of his own left to inherit his land.

And, when all was said and done, it was Van Gruber who was left with the De Bruer Inn, and all of its rents. It seems that he was a confidant of old De Pfeffel, the Widow Hagen's brother. If young Daglund had had his way, all the land in the area would have been his.

Quite how a man could bring himself to murder six people, I'll never know. Some people whisper that he was the last living member of the old Dogland family, trying to reclaim his homeland by any means, fair or foul. Others say he was afflicted by the curse of the marshes.

Either way, the town's bad luck died with him. After they stretched his neck from the gallows tree, people started coming back to Hallowdijk. When the new canal was built over the Isthmus, the place became a useful supply station. Nowadays, people forget the way it once was. But not everyone. That place is cursed my lads, and you'd be safer going the long way round...