Member Profiles - Dotty Mayhew

Dotty held the post of Bursar for The Society between the years 1940 to 1975.

As Bursar Dotty was responsible for monitoring The Society accounts and making or receiving payments from our various affiliates.  Perhaps most importantly Dotty was responsible for granting expenses to members  travelling on behalf of The Society.

 

Upon her retirement Dotty journeyed the world indulging in her twin passions of travelling by steam train and vintage motor car.

Disclosure of information held by The Society.

Whenever members of The Society are sent to investigate occurrences which appear to lie within our remit they are required, if they return, to complete a detailed report of their experiences.

These reports can take many forms. Some may choose to set out a traditional report and others may choose a more esoteric method. One member of The Society chose to complete his report in the style of a novella starring himself in the guise of one of the characters.  This unusual approach proved very popular with other members at the time and many examples of reports of this type exist in the Miskatonic University Archive.

In the current prevailing atmosphere of “open and honest governance” The Society has taken the decision to publish examples of these reports over the coming months although code black access will still be required for full disclosure of some investigations.

 

The Prydonian Society Old Boys

As with all long established influencial organisations The Prydonian Society has a distinguished roll call of former members who have been called to higher academy service.

They upheld our values and we honour them.

                Henry Armstrong-Jay

                      Clyde Boyd

                     Dotty Mayhew

Beattie Plummer

Bret Vyon

Canon Adolphus Black

Carl Bugenhagen

Catherine Mompesson

Charles Calthrop

Countess Von Eisen

Dikko Henderson

Dr. Andrei Smyslov

Dr. Marcus Brody

Father Brennan

Freddy Eynsford-Hill

Flash Blakey

Gerald Wiley

Gerry Leadbetter

Heironymous St John

Henry Palfrey

Henry Willows

Josh Fiddle

Laurence Scarman

Major Johnnie Pagean

Morton Stanley

Mr S. Potter

Justice Olliie Oliphant

Professor Hatton-Jones

Raymond Delauney

Ruby Gates

Selina Redwood

Sir Harold Flashman V.C.

Sir Lancelot Spratt.

Surgeon Lt. Harry Sullivan

Valerie Hollingsworth

The Foxhill Drive Incident

The Foxhill Drive Incident

The Prydonian Society Files

Event # 100503 ‘The Foxhill Drive Incident’

Location: UB5 8TP

The events, which shocked the nation one Saturday night on the 31st of October 1992, actually had their beginnings over a century before. 

Old Mother Seddon was a local ‘baby farmer’ a woman who took in infants from local families who could not afford to support their children.  For a little money Mrs Seddon would be a wet nurse and moral compass to the children until they were old enough to fend for themselves.  At some point due to undisclosed circumstances Old Mother Seddon went insane and rather than caring for the infants placed in her care she took to taking the money from the parents and then drowning their offspring in her little farm house.  Her murderous actions in drowning dozens or possibly even hundreds of defenceless babies caused a deluge of negative psychic energy to seep into the very fabric of the farmhouse and its surrounding environs.

As the decades marched on Old Mother Seddon’s farmhouse was demolished to make way for a council estate and whether by design or incredible misfortune one of the identikit houses standing innoxiously on the newly named Foxhill Drive was built on the very site of the old farmhouse itself (the house will for the remainder of this document be referred to as XX Foxhill Drive to protect current owners anonymity (Archivist Note Ref: 447/4L code black clearance level needed for full disclosure).

XX Foxhill Drive was always a centre for what unenlightened minds might call evil and in the 1960’s one particularly troubled individual moved into the house setting into motion a tragic chain of events.

Raymond Tunstall was a schizophrenic cross dressing paedophile who is documented as having had the disturbing habit of singing the children’s nursery rhyme ‘Round and Round the Garden’ to his victims (Archivist Note Ref: 447/4L: Raymond Tunstall/Pipes, PSL Restricted Section Miskatonic University Facility).

Upon his release from prison Tunstall's strict parole terms meant he must move in with his mother and father at XX Foxhill Drive. Considering the circumstances of their sons past crimes and his return to them being by order of the court Tunstall's  parents chose to spend long periods of time holidaying abroad rather than staying at home and left their son in charge of the family’s numerous pet cats which he dutifully fed and watered. Unfortunately,  being left alone and in isolation  caused Tunstall's  already damaged psyche to fracture even further as he began to believe that he was being haunted and slowly possessed by the ghost of Old Mother Seddon.

On October 31st 1968 Tunstall's patents told him they were that very evening taking a long vacation to Australia. Within hours of his parents leaving the country Tunstall descended into the cellar through a doorway under the stairs and hung himself from a support beam using piano wire. By the time his parents returned home, the cats had got hungry and identification of Tunstall’s body was only possible by reference to his dental records.

In 1991 the Early family moved into XX Foxhill Drive.  The family consisted of recently divorced mother Pamela and her two young daughters Kim and Suzanne (Archivist Note Ref: 447/7B Early Family PSL Restricted Section Miskatonic University Facility, 447/6T Suzanne Early, PSL Restricted Section Prydonian Medical Complex 4).  The girls quickly sensed the evil that had seeped into the very fabric of the house and began to be haunted by an entity they named "Pipes" due to the entities habit of noisily banging on houses water pipes (Archivist Note Ref: 447/22D Pipes, PSL Restricted Section Prydonian Miskatonic University Facility). At first only normal poltergeist activity occurred, such as objects moving and disappearing, but soon the girls were subject to physical assault by the entity and finally possession with 'Pipes" using Suzanne’s vocal chords to communicate.

After receiving no help from conventional sources Pamela Early turned to the BBC to see if publicity could help unearth an expert in the matter.  The BBC in its infinite wisdom decided to turn the whole enterprise into a 90 minute TV special, which would examine the facets of the haunting and have parapsychology experts voice their opinions on the case.  It was hoped by executives that the BBC might be the first broadcaster to capture proof of paranormal activity live on film and the fact the show was being transmitted on Halloween was a bonus.

On the night of broadcast things got drastically out of hand. It soon became apparent that the broadcast was acting as a giant séance, with the entity known as "Pipes" using the latent psychic powers of the millions watching to feed itself and become stronger. In the ensuing mayhem the Children’s TV presenter chosen to act as one of the outside broadcast presenters at XX Foxhill Drive was tricked into going through the doorway under the stairs and became trapped in the very room Raymond Tunstall hung himself. This act and the terror it induced in viewers meant “Pipes" was able to move himself from XX Foxhill Drive to BBC Television Centre, where he tore apart the studio and managed to possess the studio anchor.  In a panic the broadcast was then pulled and the haunting image of the well-known celebrity muttering in a guttural tone that was not his own the nursery rhyme ‘Round and Round the Garden’ was the last image the viewers saw.

When The Prydonian Society realised the magnitude of what was happening live on screen they immediately sent out a team to subdue and control the rampaging entity.  Fortunately with the broadcast pulled "Pipes" lost much of its psychic power and it was an easy enough matter to exorcise the male anchor and trap the "Pipes" entity in a witch ball made of glass. 

In the immediate aftermath of the broadcast the BBC and the nation were in turmoil. 

The police broke into XX Foxhill Drive to discover that the children’s BBC presenter used in the broadcast had disappeared. Realising that they would suffer a massive backlash for their dangerous broadcast and wanting to limit the damage, the BBC took the drastic action later that week of hiring a lookalike of the female presenter and had her record a short announcement telling the nation’s children she was safe, and that the broadcast the previous week had been a hoax. On the advice of The Prydonian Society this has been the BBC’s official line ever since, the broadcast was a cleverly conceived and executed hoax that fooled a nation.  The children’s presenter was never found alive; she remains unofficially a missing person.

The remains of Raymond Tunstall were exhumed and destroyed using salt and fire. XX Foxhill Drive was then blessed and cleansed by Olive Hawthorne the most powerful white witch in the western hemisphere (Archivist’s note: See Files on the Devil’s End Incident, PSL Restricted Section, MOD facility).

As for the surviving members of the programme all suffered as a result of the experience. One turned to drugs, leading to lurid tabloid headlines about his addiction to Class-A substances and the male anchor, after being exorcised, disappeared from TV screens for several years as his psyche recovered from the brutal psychic intrusion. 

Tragedy continued to follow the Early family.  Pamela Early died in a house fire some years after the events at Foxhill Drive.  Kim Early; moved to America where she is now a psychotherapist helping children who have been traumatised by paranormal events.  Suzanne Early remains under the care of Prydonian Medical Complex 4; it is unlikely that she will ever fully recover from her possession by the "Pipes" entity.

In the long term paranormal activity spiked throughout the UK thanks to the nationwide séance effect the programme caused giving the Prydonian Society years of intensive work in its aftermath.

The Crowcombe Imp.

Prydonian Society Files

Event # 5345 “The Crowcombe Imp”.

Location: TA4 4AD

Transcript begins:

Brooding at the foot of the steep south-western slopes of Somerset’s ancient Quantock Hills is the village of Crowcombe.  Its mellow stones and venerable lanes have dreamed away the centuries in a splendid isolation, and her secrets would have remained just that– secret, but for a chance visit of John Stephen Pentecost, an associate member of the Society, in the early 1960s. (Archivist’s note: See files on Pentecost, J S, “The Ever-living Man”- Restricted Section, Prydonian Society Library, (PSL) Forge 3 facility).

The first written mention of Crowcombe was in 854, in a document of King Ethelwulf who was father of Alfred the Great, where it was spelt 'Cerawicombe'. Fifty years later some land at 'Crawncombe' was granted to Alfred's son, King Edward the Elder, and appears to have remained in the possession of the Saxon kings It passed to the Earl Godwin and then on to his death to his widow Gytha. Gytha granted the estate to Winchester to atone for her husband’s sins.

These sins, much documented and long since forgotten, were, however, not to be bought off so easily.  The Ancient Church of the Holy Ghost had been built on the remains of an earlier, Saxon foundation, which in turn had been placed on the site of a grove or shrine sacred to a far older faith. A faith indeed, that some whispered antedated mankind itself. (Archivist’s note: Ref  616/33: Cthulhu Mythos, PSL Resrticted Section, Miskatonic University facility)

Carved into the armrest of the pew or stall dedicated to the Carew family, successors to the Saxon landowners of Cerawicombe, was a curious face or mask. Often described as an example of the traditional “Green Man” of English mythology, the carving had a subtly disturbing aspect, and had been the subject of discussion and controversy for at least two centuries. The visits of such persons as Aleister Crowley and Emil Keller in the 1930s had done little to endear the carving to the staid religionists of Crowcombe. The later brief examination of the carving by the Rev R Magister in the 1970s resulted in the sudden resignation of the incumbent minister, his churchwardens and the final removal of the whole stall itself. (Archivist’s note: See Files on the Devil’s End Incident, PSL Restricted Section, MOD facility)

The Society’s direct involvement in Crowcombe began in August 1966, when the Castellan of the time, (Name withheld), authorised a Class 2 Excision Action following the receipt of certain information from John Stephen Pentecost in July of that year. It was in fact, Pentecost himself who performed the excision, which action resulted in the loss of his life. The Society naturally took on the responsibility of bringing up Pentecost’s as then unborn son (Archivist’s note: See files on Pentecost, J S, “The Ever-living Man”- Restricted Section, Prydonian Society Library, (PSL) Forge 3 facility). Pentecost, a slight, grey haired figure, with curiously mismatched eyes, had been holidaying in the West Country following a troubling experience involving the Police investigations into the Inferno Club in Soho (Pentecost Papers vol 4, PSL Open Section, Forge 3 facility). Instructed by his doctor to rest, he had decided to tour the ancient Mesolithic sites of his beloved Cornwall before returning via Dorset and Somerset to his work in London. He had booked himself into the Carew Arms in Crowcombe, famed for its fine food and finer ales, and looked forward to a peaceful stopover in which to collate his notes and photographs.

On the evening of his arrival, Pentecost decided to take a stroll around the village before dinner, and his tour naturally took in the church and its small churchyard. Despite the month, the weather had been disappointing, and the looming hills with their dense, writhing woodlands cast an unseasonable darkness over the village, making it seem far later than it actually was. Having read about the church, its history and encumbrances, Pentecost was curious to view the ancient carving, but despite spending some half hour within the hallowed building, he was unable to actually find it. Deciding to complete his stroll and try to complete his researches in daylight, he set off out of the church and down the lane towards the main road, thinking to walk completely around the village before returning to the inn. He had been walking for only two or three minutes, when a sudden movement caught his eye. Something small, bent and twisted appeared to scurry across the road just behind him and disappear into the hedgerow. A feeling of unaccountable unease came over him, for something in the way the thing had moved struck Pentecost as distorted and unnatural. Examining the hedge where the thing had seemed to vanish, he could however find nothing– no track or disturbance in the grass and leaves to suggest anything larger than a bird had been there at all. Another may have dismissed the incident as nothing more than a fox and a trick of the light, but Pentecost had had cause in the past to trust his instincts, and his instincts were telling him to take care and be on his guard. Accordingly, he loosened the head of the sword-stick he habitually carried and turned to take the shorter route back to his inn.

It was then he heard rather than saw the creature. A curious low whistling, almost on the edge of perception and maddeningly familiar, like a tune from childhood, came from somewhere to his right, while the unmistakable sound of bracken being brushed aside came towards him. What particularly disturbed Pentecost was the fact that the noises indicated a being substantially larger than the twisted dwarf or imp he had seen only a few minutes earlier.  Drawing his sword stick fully out of his cane, he also made several small motions with his left hand, and murmured a few words taught to him by his father’s great friend, the Duc de Richelieu. The weird whistling seemed to falter and stutter, but then returned more loudly and with an even more insistent and even hungry quality. At this point Pentecost discovered to his horror that he could no longer move his legs. He appeared to be held motionless against his conscious efforts to hurry back to the safety of the inn and his room. Calling upon all the Society’s training, and his own experience and knowledge, Pentecost made a decision that was to have long term consequences, and was the indirect cause of his later death during the Excision. He used the blade of his sword stick to open a deep cut across his left hand and used his own blood to prime a small device he had “borrowed” unofficially from the Prydonian Society’s experimental armoury division in (Location withheld ). Activating this device, Pentecost did that thing which should never be done except in the direst emergency, when the very soul is in peril of destruction. In a sharp clear voice he pronounced the last two lines of the dread Sussamma Ritual.

It was almost noon the following day when Pentecost emerged from his room at The Carew Arms and made his way to the dining room. His slight figure seemed leaner than ever, and his grey hair looked oddly thinner, but he ate ravenously and responded to the flirts of his waitress with his usual wry wit. On finishing his lunch he requested the use of the telephone and spent a substantial amount of both time and shillings on the conversation that followed. After this call, he seemed unusually curt and distant and his mismatched eyes were shadowed in a frown of both concentration and concern. He called for and paid his bill, announcing that he needed to cut short his stay and return to London on urgent business, but that he would return in the not too distant future. It was the shocking events of this return visit that resulted in the cleansing of Crowcombe, the death of John Stephen Pentecost and the orphaning of his unborn son, Marcus Stephen Pentecost, a boy who would share both his father’s curiously mismatched eyes and his usefulness to the Prydonian Society.

Fire and Winter

The Villa Winter

In the southern part of the island of Fuerteventura, in Cofete, you can find the legendary Villa Winter. Cofete is a lonely place and the Villa is a mysterious witness of the past. Although the Villa Winter is mentioned in all travelguides, it is not easy to reach. You can only reach it through a bumpy dustroad and with a four-wheel-drive. The place is impressive and massive, two stories high, with notably round arches and a round tower that faces northeast. Architectural details like a coat of arms of the Winter family above the main entrance and a crocodile head cut out of wood make the Villa look like a castle.

The story of the Villa started back in the 1930's. The Nazis, in their quest for occult power, were searching for any incidents of mysterious or unexplainable occurrences across the world as part of what they had called the Tanis Project.

News reached Colonel Oberst Herman Dietrich leader of the Tanis Project that there had been incidents of the local inhabitants of Cofete having strange psychic powers and even in some cases turning to stone.

Colonel Dietrich's researchers discovered that similar occurrences were detailed in a scroll unearthed in Pompeii in 1923 by British Professor Livesy-smythe.
The scroll contained the chronicles of Caeciluis a Roman marble trader who lived in Pompeii in 79AD and it told of Pyroviles strange 30ft tall creatures from beyond the stars with advanced technologies and skills. Pyroviles had a rock based humanoid form with a magma interior. They could shoot flames from their mouths, disintegrating a human being in seconds and could influence the humans around them, increasing their mental abilities and even allowing them to see the future. The significant drawback to these abilities however was prolonged exposure to the Pyroviles influence turned their user to stone.
Pyroviles could however be killed by sufficient quantities of water snuffing out their internal heat and solidifying their bodies.
This unlikely tale was corroborated when Colonel Dietrich dispatched Nazi agent Major Toht together with archaeologist Rene Belloq and his team to Pompeii. There they discovered evidence of huge Pyrovile footprints and marble circuit technology.

Major Toht and his team then travelled to Cofete and after speaking to the locals and examining the geological landscape concluded that a Pyrovile craft had crashed into the peninsular of Jandia thousands of years ago and recent geological activity had disturbed it, polluting the water table and granting the locals their abilities.

Colonel Dietrich immediately contacted the Fuher with his findings and requesting that a special project team be established with the specific objective of recovering the Pyrovile craft and hopefully its inhabitant.

The friendship between Hitler and Franco meant that just a few weeks later a contract on the Spanish mainland was signed which leased the whole peninsula of Jandia to the Nazi's. A major part of the peninsula was subsequently declared a military zone where no people were allowed. The former inhabitants were driven away without any financial compensation or were forced to move to another village.

German engineer Colonel Gustav Winter then moved to Jandia and settled down in Morro Jable, at that time only a little fishing village.
Gustav Winter was a very conspicuous person who wore dark sunglasses and was always accompanied by a large black dog.

There is written proof that in 1938 there was a meeting between Winter and the III-Canaris defence. It was agreed that Winter would carry out important "mining projects" for the third Reich in Jandia and that he was allowed to recruit German workers for that purpose.

Don Gustavo, as he was called by the local inhabitants, then recruited men from the nearby villages to build a great Villa which in itself was a cover for the mining operations being undertaken beneath it by the German miners.
The Villa and its mine were built under strict secrecy rules. Every morning the builders were brought to the building site and in the evening they all had to leave the area, with the borders watched by guardesman.

Because of the fact that it is favourably situated, Fuerteventura was already at this time being used as a base for the German Navy and the geological history of the Canaries, with its many lavatunnels , allowed for the construction of a subterranean submarine harbour beneath the Villa while excavations for the Pyrovile craft continued.

It is at this point that an associate of Rene Belloq a Dr. Henry Walton Jones Jr. alerted The Societies then Lord High President to the Nazis activities and it was his opinion that they should be brought to a close.
Two Society members were swiftly dispatched to Jandia and armed with both explosives and information about Pyroviles put the Lord High Presidents plan into action. A small but robust experimental thermonuclear device was surreptitiously placed at the interconnection between the Nazis subterranean harbour and mining operation. Once a safe distance had been reached the bomb was remotely detonated, destroying the harbour, filling the mine works with icy Atlantic water and sealing the Pyrovile into a watery tomb.

Although the mining operation was destroyed this wasn't the end of the Villas usefulness for the Nazi menace.
During the last phases of the war Villa Winter was used as a clinic, where Nazi criminals underwent plastic surgery to change their appearance so they could start a new life in South America. Eyewitnesses claimed that these "guests" arrived by the planes which were landing and taking off every night.

Since the 1990's the villa has been owned by a Spanish building company. In future the villa will probably be transformed into a hotel or restaurant. An attempt has been made to turn the villa into a wellness centre but Spanish bureaucracy has stopped these plans. But no matter how the villa will be used in the future, the myths and legends will always accompany her.

The Prydonian Society Academy Grounds

The Golden Grockle is The Academy tavern and is located within the grounds for the exclusive use of Prydonian Society members.

The innkeeper is Mr MacGregor who together with his daughter Willow joined our employment "looking for a new challenge" upon leaving The Green Man public house in Scotland.

The tavern is looked on as a home from home for members visiting on business. There are several rooms available for overnight accommodation and meals will be cooked to order by Willow, with room service being a speciality.

The Golden Grockle is also used as the hub for any events organised by The Lord High President, whether it is a singalong in the tavern bar or a special celebratory bonfire in The Academy grounds there is always something happening.