Scenario 1

Hartwood examines the Bell on his way to the Vermont Buyer

Somewhere else, in a hostel near Hartford Connecticut, Hartwood examines his plunder in a dark quiet room, the bell.  Genuine!  And, it appears to be, much, much older than anyone would have guessed . . . difficult to judge it’s exact age without the assistance of an archeologist or someone with more specific expertise in that field - - but, given its absolutely extraordinary age, Hartwood realizes the piece could fetch upwards of $250,000 dollars (given the right buyer of course).  He does notice one unique feature on the metal - - engravings . . . windmills?  Is that typical of Tibetan artifacts?

Elated and enthusiastic about his valuation but, outwardly calm, as per his usual demeanor, Hartwood makes some calls to his usual dealers and contacts (though more often dealing in books, he’s familiar with a few that might know of where to find an appropriate buyer for an antiquity like this).

After making a few calls, one of Hartwood’s dealer/brokers relate they’ve received several inquiries from a potential buyer in Bennington Vermont, someone who’s claimed to have lots of cash and has lately been looking for bells believe it or not and, some other occult types of artifacts generally falling into two specific categories (1) bells (2) medieval plate armor and/or swords - - really anything that seems associated with metal pieces from that era, crowns, for example.  Hartwood curses himself for not finding a way to grab the plate armor as well.

Hartwood jots down the name, phone number and address of the potential buyer in Bennington.  However, every time he tries a call, strangely, the phone sounds as though it rings once or twice before the call drops.  Hartwood decides to get some rest (a nap perhaps) and then make plans to get to Bennington, a train will likely get him close, he can hitchhike from there.

What Orrin learns of The Oscillates at the New York Public Library

Hull finds his way to the public library and hits the card catalogue . . . ‘Oscillates.’  After some digging, Hull does get to some information about a religious sect known as the Oscillates:

Several hundred years ago (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries), there was, in certain parts of eastern Europe and the Caucasus a religious sect that identified themselves as the Oscillates.  They were understood, at that time, to be a reemergence of a much older cultural people that hadn’t been seen for fifteen hundred or two thousand years previously that may have had connections with the ancient Phoenicians.  There was a prejudice against the Oscillates, primarily, in the sixteenth century, that led to their persecution in the societies they lived in.

After the sixteenth century, they appear to fade into obscurity in the historical texts.  It is not clear if it was a mere pejorative or, if it was genuine but, there are indications the Oscillates had an idol, a creature with horns, like a minotaur they worshipped.

The texts are then silent on them for nearly all of the seventeenth through twentieth centuries but then, in the modern era, references to them resurface where certain religious groups (that some assert are cults) claim to be the descendants of the Oscillates but it is not known if any of these groups are truly descendants of the Oscillates of the sixteenth century A.D. or, the earlier Oscillates of two thousand years ago or, if they are merely a contemporary phenomenon of people assuming the identity of a lost culture.

Hull is fascinated and then looks to see what he can find on the 433 W 88th Street address.

It does reveal it to be a Masonic Temple with the usual suspicions about The Masons . . . but nothing else notable.  And, nothing indicating or creating a link between the Masons and the Oscillates.

Hull then looks to see what he can find out about Charles Fort’s Book of the Damned.  In fact, there is a copy available in the library.  Hull peruses it and finds its contents interesting, it mostly talks about falling objects, objects falling from the sky (such as rains of blood or flesh), that are supposedly, real data suggestive of the idea that conventional science is misleading, corrupting and inaccurate and presents a false picture of the world and reality.  The copy in the library lacks however, the additional chapters that are referenced elsewhere (and that were supposedly included in the manuscript at auction) supposedly dealing with darker sides of the occult such as topics about human sacrifice and summoning demons are not in the mass published copies or the copy Hull finds himself examining in the library - - nevertheless, Hull checks out the book.

The Pages Found by Dr. Madison from Rod’s Basement

The pages Dr. Madison collected from the basement of Rodney Lake’s house were as disturbing as they were cryptic . . . he’d never really seen anything like them.

Though in typeface, the punctuation was awful, rife with misspellings and sentence fragments, inconsistent narrative and what (as far as he could tell in many places) were fake or made-up words.  Moreover, the style seemed to shift from something akin to a poetic stream of consciousness to instructional text.

Worse . . . they were written in at least three different languages, English, which obviously he could read but, also German and Hebrew of which neither he was anything close to fluent in.

The writings generally seemed to dwell on the concept of bondage - - in every sense of the word.  Servitude, confinement, imprisonment, bindings physical and psychological, only the darkest of minds could have authored such pages . . .

Though they seemed as if they were written in the early twentieth century, it was difficult to discern exactly when but, certainly pre-war by at least a decade.

Several references were made to a location in New England, Massachusetts . . . of course, it had to be Salem . . . something buried underneath the old prison . . . and other references . . . to a reef several thousand feet offshore, near the harbor there.

Of the instructional information, it seemed rambling, compulsive and labyrinthian . . . but . . . in one part, as far as he could comprehend, it seemed to be instructions for some type of symbol . . . a ward of sorts . . . in the other part . . . they were instructions for something else . . . chills ran down Dr. Madison’s spine when he first understood the words . . . “Summon Beelzebub.”

This was madness.

Dr. Madison Examines the Goo in the Basement

Rod’s Living Room

“Help me get my car out.”  Hudson responds turning back inside to get the keys for Rod’s truck, Madison following him in.

Upon walking in, Madison looks around, shocked and ill at ease at the scene “So, who was your brother’s decorator?” sarcastically.  Madison cranes his neck and examines the code covering the walls, dwells on it for a moment . . . “the ‘WOW!’ signal.”

“The what?”  Hudson asks hearing Madison’s understated exclamation.

“The ‘WOW!’ signal . . .”  Madison begins elaborating “it was a strong narrowband radio signal detected about 4 years ago by The University of Michigan’s Big Ear radio telescope, the signal appeared to originate from the Star Aldebarran in the Constellation of Tarus, it bore all the expected hallmarks of extraterrestrial origin.”