Project Nemesis is a fan driven website for games that use the One-Roll Engine (like Nemesis, Wild Talents, Reign and Monsters) or Chaosium's Basic Roleplay System (BRP) (like Call of Cthulhu) and the Delta Green setting.
"Red Herring" scenario for intro period of a Delta Green cell.
In the Delta Green sourcebook, under the “Recruitment” section (pages 45 & 46), there is a description of the initial phases of bringing an agent into Delta Green. In a nutshell, this description calls for the agent (or agents) to be given a non-Mythos investigation to conduct. They are not told that there is no preternatural involvement in the case. The investigation is a test to see if the agents can discover the truth without going all Mulder and seeing paranormal involvement where there is none. At least that is the way I interpret and implement it. This scenario is designed to be just such an investigation. It has a ghost story that is associated with it, but it is actually just a case of hoodlums killing people.
(Note: Laneville WV is a real place as are all of the place mentioned in the Brief Summary of Facts. I have never been in the area, nor do I know if my depiction of the area is even remotely accurate. The benefit of using a real location is that now you can do a map search and produce real maps for your players to hold in their hot little fists.)
Our story begins in 1900, when an enterprising young bootlegger by the name of John Odom hit upon an ingenious idea for protecting his illegal distillery from prying eyes. The countryside of West Virginia where Odom lived was dotted with coal mines, both played out and abandoned and currently operational. The immediate area surrounding Odom’s hometown of Laneville had no currently operational mines, They had all been abandoned. The closest one to his house, Odom knew, had actually been abandoned due to low yield. The mine engineer for the McCormick Mining Company had declared the mine played out, and #4 was boarded up in 1839. It was inside this mine that Odom set up and began to operate his first still.
The people of Appalachia have a deep love of storytelling; ghost stories in particular. It was with this in mind that John Odom engineered the following incident.
John knew that a census taker from Richmond was in the area, and would be coming to his home to count his household. He also knew that the census taker’s last stop before coming to his farm would most likely be at the home of an old widow woman named Alice Blount. John assigned his youngest son, 9-year-old Albert, to watch widow Blount’s home for the arrival of the census taker. In the meantime, Odom put together a costume made of tattered old clothes and a miners helmet and pick. This he left sitting in an old hog trough and then filled with fish and deer entrails and left to rot. He assigned the remainder of his seven children the chore of catching lightning bugs and collecting them in mason jars.
A little over a week after embarking on this project, Albert came running down the road yelling for his father. He breathlessly informed John that the census taker was at widow Blount’s. Luck was apparently with Odom, Although it was nearly two hours from sundown, Odom knew that widow Blount would not let the census taker out of her house for at least an hour and a half, especially since he had arranged to have his wife tell the widow that the census taker was both single and rich.
Odom waited until dusk, and then sent Albert with a lantern to the home of widow Blount. Upon arrival, he informed the census taker that his Pa had sent him to escort the census taker so that he wouldn’t have to find the path in the dark. Desperate to make his escape from the charms of widow Blount, the census taker left with Albert.
As they set out from the widow’s homestead, Albert began to relate the real reason that his father had sent him to escort the census taker. He was there to protect him from the ghosts of the McCormick #4 forty. Taking the bait, the census taker demanded to be told the rest of the tale. Albert was glad to oblige. (The tale itself is located in the appendix to this scenario.)
Thus primed by his near-rape at the hands of the widow Blount and by the gruesome and expertly delivered tale told by Albert, the census taker’s reaction at the sight that shambled over the hill towards them was understandable.
The face and hands of the ghostly miner glowed, he stank of rotted flesh, and he howled like a banshee. The census taker screamed, pissed himself, and ran blindly into the night, where he soon struck a tree and was rendered insensate.
When he came too, he found himself lying on the steps of the First Baptist Church in town, several miles away. On the dirt road just outside the property of the church, lay a miner’s helmet and pick, both encrusted with grave-mould.
Needless to say, the story of the McCormick #4 40 soon became widely known and told of throughout the Laneville area. It was even put to song. It soon became embellished with tales of the gruesome ends that had befallen those that had strayed to close to the McCormick #4 after dark. Initially, a few brave souls attempted to put this to the test. A few more sightings of the rank and groaning spirit was all it took to convince local people that there was nothing in the vicinity of that mine that they wanted to see very badly. The people of Appalachia may love to tell stories about “haints” but they will go far out of their way to avoid one if they can. Everyone avoided the area around the McCormick #4.
All of which was fine by John Odom. He replaced the boarded up entrance to the mine with a fake boarded up entrance that could be removed to allow trucks to drive into the mine. He then began adding extra stills. All his children were put to work in the family business. By 1914, he was one of the most successful bootleggers in central West Virginia, all without the knowledge of his neighbors. After the Volstead Act was passed, Odom became one of the most successful illegal distillers west of the Mississippi. His hooch went out all over the Eastern Seaboard.
On the rare occasion that someone strayed too close, the Odoms would put on their now several costumes and shamble out of the night at them. They could now even afford to buy radium paint to effect that glowing ghost look.
The end of Prohibition and beginning of WWII brought economic changes that led John Odom to the decision to get out of the illegal distillery business. He instead turned to interstate trucking, using the small fleet of delivery trucks that he already owned. This business prospered and still does today. It is now run by John Odom IV out of an enormous facility in Wheeling, 250 miles away from Laneville. The truth behind the tale is known of by the immediate Odom family (those chosen to have the business handed down to them) but not to other family members or to those outside the family.
Enter Herschel McVay (32), one among a great many great-grandsons of John Odom. Herschel lives in Laneville and is part-owner, along with his two brothers Hiram (29) and Henry (26) and his mother Lilah (50), of a auto-body and repair shop. They live in a house that was built by John Odom Jr. to replace his father’s house when it burned down in 1948. Both the house and the shop were left to them by their father, Leonard McVay when he died from a heart attack ten years ago. About three years ago, Herschel was standing on a corner waiting his turn to score some crystal meth, when he was struck by and idea. He was familiar with the story of how his great-grandfather had used the stills in the old mine to make his fortune. If that old fucker could make product in there, what was to keep him from doing the same? After doing some research into the subject and procuring some materials, Herschel and his brothers produced their first brick of crank in McCormick #4.
The McVay's know about the ghost story of the McCormick #4 40, and they know that their great-grandfather had used the mine to hide his stills. However, none of them know that the story is a deliberate fake nor are they clever enough (or sober enough) to have put two and two together and figured this out.
Unfortunately for the McVay boys, none of them were as clever as their great-grandsire. Perhaps if they were not so willing to taste their own wares things would have gone differently. Nonetheless, on several occasions a stranger or strangers would enter the area of the mine. When this happened, a McVay strung out on crank would usually dispatch them with a shotgun and dump their bodies deep in the recesses of the mine. The vehicles would be stripped in the body shop and all would go back to normal.
Enter Delta Green. Noticing the suspicious disappearances and suspecting the truth, the recruiter of our newbie cell has decided to dispatch them to Laneville to ferret out the facts of the case.
As in "Puppet Shows and Shadow Plays", the players get a summary handout:
Brief Summary of Facts
An unknown person or persons is believed responsible for the disappearances of eight people over the last year in the northern Potomac Highlands region of West Virginia. Known disappearances are as follows
Date Name Notes
6/17/93 Douglas and Donald Fairchild Presumed missing while hunting.
7/02/93 Edward and Patricia Stricker Presumed missing while hiking.
9/25/93 Charles Sherington Presumed missing while researching local legends.
3/04/94 Albert Jenkins and Jim Park Presumed missing while collecting specimens
6/13/94 Woodrow Hicks Presumed missing while researching local history.
Dates are for the last confirmed whereabouts of the victims. No signs of violence in any of these cases. No known enemies. No property connected to any victim has been recovered. No contact from the perpetrator(s) or victims. No suspects. More information on the victims follows.
Douglas and Donald Fairchild: Douglas Fairchild, white male, 41 YOA, insurance salesman from Charleston WV. Employed by WV State Farm Ins. No outstanding debts or other suspicious involvements. Donald Fairchild, white male, 39 YOA, auto parts distributor from Charleston WV. Employed by Napa Auto Parts. No outstanding debts or other suspicious involvements. The brothers were on a hunting trip that was intended to last five days. They were reported missing when they failed to return home. Their last known contact was at the Wal-Mart in Parsons, where they purchased camping supplies.
Edward and Patricia Stricker: Edward Stricker, white male, 33 YOA. Accountant with Zwiefel, Lisciandro, and Burt in Wheeling. No outstanding debts or other suspicious involvements. Patricia Stricker, white female, 35 YOA, librarian with Wheeling Public Library. According to friends, the couple was on a sightseeing tour from Wheeling to Washington, DC. They were also noted hiking and outdoor enthusiasts. Last known contact was at Eagle's Nest Outfitter's in Petersburg, where they purchased camping equipment, maps of West Virginia, and expressed to the manager a desire to go hiking in the Allegheny Mountains.
Charles Sherington: White male, 29 YOA, journalist and author specializing in paranormal phenomenon. Resident of Baltimore MD. He is the author of a series of books, Ghosts and Spirits of Maryland, Ghosts and Spirits of Pennsylvania, Ghosts and Spirits of the Carolinas, etc. According to colleagues he was working on Ghosts and Spirits of West Virginia. His last known contact was at the Conaco 425 in Davis, where he purchased gas and food and asked for directions to Laneville.
Albert Jenkins and Jim Park: Albert Jenkins, black male, 47 YOA. Professor of botany with the University of Virginia. No outstanding debts or other suspicious involvements. Jim Park, Asian male, 32 YOA. Graduate student in botany with the University of Virginia. No outstanding debts or other suspicious involvements. The pair was involved in a field study, collecting plant specimens and other data in the area of eastern WV and northern VA. Their last known contact was at the U of V Cooperative Extension Office in Keyser, where they had dropped off botany samples and picked up several maps of Tucker and Randolph Counties.
Woodrow Hicks: White male, 53 YOA. Plant manager for Temple-Easton, a lumber and paper supplier in Memphis, TN. He had attended a three-day industry symposium in Washington, DC and was reportedly returning home. He was reportedly an avid genealogy and history enthusiast and had expressed to his wife an intention to visit some sites that interested him along his route home. His last known contact was at the Tucker Co. courthouse in Parsons where he requested to see several municipal records from the early 1800's.
You can cut and paste this and change the dates or other circumstances to suit you.
The Missing
Douglas and Donald Fairchild: These two followed a mortally wounded deer into the vicinity of the mine and were killed by the brothers.
Edward and Patricia Stricker: These two stopped at the McVay house to ask for directions and were killed by Hiram in a crank-fueled fit of paranoia.
Charles Sherington: He stopped at the McVay house to ask if they knew the location of the McCormick #4 mine. Herschel offered to show him, and show him he did.
Albert Jenkins and Jim Park: These two wandered into the vicinity of the mine collecting plant samples and were killed.
Woodrow Hicks: Hicks was looking for evidence of an ancestor (John Armour Hicks) that had lived in the area in the 1800's. At the Tucker County Courthouse, he discovered that John Armour Hicks had lived in Laneville and had been buried in the cemetery of the First Baptist Church of Laneville. he drove to Laneville to find the church and the grave. Thinking he was nearby, he went to the McVay house to ask where the church was. Bang!
Laneville
The town itself consists of a single street lined with a post office trailer (This is a 14' x 60' mobile home that is used as a post office in very rural areas. They usually sit on a gravel parking lot), a convenience store/diner/truck stop called the “Bread N’ Buggy”, and the empty old elementary school building. Houses and farms and the occasional business (puppy farm, furniture outlet, farm equipment rental, small scrap metal recycling business) are interspersed randomly about the countryside. The McVay’s house and garage are located about a fifteen minute drive from the main street.
Bread N' Buggy
This is the closest thing to a central gathering area would be the Bread N' Buggy. During daylight hours there will be people here eating in the diner and chewing the fat. Most patrons are locals or truck drivers that happen to be in the area. If the agents ask for information here, they should expect it to take a while. These people are reasonably friendly but the pace of life here is languid, and they will take their time in telling if asked for info more than just "where is so-and-so". If the agents are rude or abrupt, then the locals will become uncooperative. Remember, these people are country as cornbread, but they aren't stupid. They shouldn't be played as such. (Unless it's really fun!)
If the agents ask about the First Baptist Church, they will be directed to the one 30 miles away (this is where all the local Baptists attend). The original First Baptist Church (the one where the census taker came to) burned down in the 50's, and was never rebuilt. Its cemetery still exists, but it is now about fifty feet from the road and very overgrown.
As luck would have it, none of the missing stopped at the Bread N' Buggy during their brief and brutal stay in Laneville.
The McVay Property
The house is a cinder-block rectangle that has been added on to several times over the years. All four of the McVays live here. The garage consists of a concrete slab covered with a sheet-metal Quonset hut and wooden walls at both ends. To lift engine blocks, they actually use a block and tackle affixed to a stout limb on an ancient oak tree.
The Mine
The entrance to the #4 is on the opposite side of the hill that the McVay house sits on. A faint trail can be detected leading from the back door of the Quonset hut, up over the top of the hill, and down to the mine entrance. There is also a trail from the mine entrance that connects to a dirt road nearby. This trail can be navigated by a vehicle. The dirt road does not lead to the same road that the house is on. Unless someone is very familiar with the area, the relationship between the dirt road and the house is impossible to detect.
The entrance to the mine appears to be boarded up, but this is actually just a "door" made from lumber nailed together so that it appears to be attached to the support beams of the opening. If leaned away from the entrance it will fall to the ground with a loud crash, as it is quite heavy. It can then be walked over to enter the mine. The mine goes back about 60 feet and then forks left and right. The left fork goes to the meth lab and the right fork goes to the "dump" where the bodies are. The tunnels are about six feet tall and ten feet wide.
Inside the mine is a fairly well constructed meth lab and supplies for its operation, including a generator for power. In the "dump" can be found the remains of 10 adults, the 8 reported missing as well as two that were not. All have been killed with a 12 gauge shotgun. Unusable parts from their vehicles are here as well.
The McVays
During the day, the brothers may be found sleeping late, screwing around with some car in the garage, hanging out at the Bread N’ Buggy, running errands, or watching TV at home. A knock at the door of the house will be answered by Lilah McVay. At night, Lilah will be asleep. The brothers may be found sleeping, screwing around with some car in the garage, playing video games in the living room or working on a batch of meth in the mine. When out and about the brothers are armed with handguns. They also keep shotguns within easy reach in the house, garage, and mine.
The McVay’s are suspicious of strangers and quick to shed blood. If an agent approaches them alone they will probably attempt to kill them and dispose of the body. If the agents are in numbers or identify themselves as someone who will be missed (law enforcement, journalists, etc) they will try to find out how much they know. If what they find worries them, then they may try to kill them anyway.
The brothers will not attempt to kill anyone in front of their mother. Lilah McVay has no direct knowledge of the meth lab, and had no idea that her son’s have become murderers. She suspects that they are running some sort of illegal business out of the old mine, but doesn’t really want to know any more than that.
In both playtesting sessions, the agents went to the McVay house during the day, and asked about the disappearances and the mine. Lilah and Herschel were home, but Hiram was running errands, and Henry was in the garage. Herschel told them that he knew nothing of the disappearance, but were willing to show the agents the mine if they came back tomorrow about noon. He strongly suggested that the agents not approach the mine without the brothers, especially at night. He stated that although he didn't really believe in the ghosts, and had never seen any, he still got "creepy feeling" near the mine, and felt it best that the agents not go alone. He stated that he had been inside the mine when he was a foolish teenager, but not since, and never at night.
After the agents left, Herschel called Hiram, told him there were strangers asking around about missing people, and told him to come back to the garage. The brothers then met in the garage and planned to kill the agents.
Hiram and Henry would wait back in the mine, far enough that they would not be seen immediately by people entering the mine, especially people who's eyes had not adjusted to the light, but close enough that they can hit them with their shotguns.
Herschel would lead the agents to the mine and try to go in ahead of them. He would tell them to watch their step because the floor was both uneven and slippery. He hopes this will keep their attention focused on the floor. Once they were just inside the entrance and right behind him, he would fall down cursing loudly; pretending to have slipped. This will clear the field of fire for his brothers to blast the agents.
One playtest group was suspicious. One agent planted a listening device (he carried quite a few around with him) in the living room while they were talking with Herschel. He heard the phone conversation. They agents then used a shotgun mike to listened in on the murder plans in the garage.
One playtest group was gullible. They followed Herschel out to the mine. One agent noticed the trail from the garage up and over the hill and down to the mine, but he did not mention it or ask about it on the way. When all was said and done, one brother was dead, two were wounded, and three agents were severely wounded. If it were not for the fact that one of the agents was an MD and was able to stabilize the three severely wounded agents, then all three would have died.
I created several references for the agents to find regarding the story surrounding the mine. Here they are:
(Note: This first one is the oldest such reference in print:)
Excerpt from the Morgantown Public Ledger. March 13, 1901.
Do The Ghosts of McCormick #4 Stalk Tucker County?
These past few months fear has been stalking the residents of the isolated community of Laneville; fear, and perhaps something more substantial. This fear has its origins, according to the frightened locals, in a small army of the restless dead.
According to local legend, always a powerful force in these rural mountain villages, back in the 1850's there were several coal mines operating in the area and owned by a Mr. "Black" Jack McCormick. McCormick is described as a ruthless and avaricious man who treated his miners as chattel. He demanded that they work round the clock, a practice unheard-of at the time. He was quoted as saying, "Down in the dark it doesn't matter if the sun is shining anyway!" McCormick was repeatedly warned about unsafe conditions in his #4 mine, and repeatedly ordered his miners back into it despite the danger. Ultimately, during a bitter cold winter at midnight, there was a cave-in that claimed the lives of forty miners. McCormick was not only unrepentant, according to the legend he added the cost of the miners "burial" in his mine to their family's already crushing debts at his company store, and then evicted them all from his squalid company housing.
A year to the day after the deadly cave-in McCormick was riding past the ruins of #4 while making surprise inspections of his mining operations, an endeavor that he often engaged in at odd hours. The hour in question was midnight, a fact that was confirmed when he asked his young servant, Ephram Odom, to tell him the time. When he discovered that it was midnight on the anniversary of the tragedy, he reportedly laughed long and loud and then called out to the wretched monument to his greed. "Ho there, boys! I hope you all are still enjoying your stay in the house that Black Jack built!" With these words spoken there came a rumbling from deep in the earth. McCormick's horse reared, throwing the blackheart to the cold ground, and then bolted from the scene. McCormick stood and shouted obscenities at the retreating beast and at young Ephram who now stood before him riveted to the spot with fright, riveted because of what he was seeing over the shoulder of his master. Behind the evildoer and unbeknownst to him, figures were emerging from the black maw of McCormick #4. These figures moved without making a sound or leaving a footprint as they advanced over the snow; glowing with foxfire and inexorable with justice. Finally feeling the approach of his unearthly comeuppance, McCormick turned about and saw what had emerged from the "house that Black Jack built".
The forty miners that he had sent to rank and unmarked graves were gathered before him, their pick-axes and cold dead fingers hungry for the blood of retribution. He drew his pistol and ordered them to "Get back into Hell where you belong!" They continued their merciless advance. The McCormick #4 Forty apparently had no intention of returning to Hell unaccompanied. In a final act of defiance, McCormick put the pistol to his own head. "No miserable pack of dead fools are going to lay their hands on Black Jack. And lest I forget, you're all fired." With that said he put a minnie ball through his head.
Denied the satisfaction of McCormick's flesh, the Forty howled in their fury and stumbled towards young Ephram. His paralysis left him then, and he fled with the mad screams of the damned miners close at his heels. The unholy mob pursued him to the steps of the First Baptist Church in Laneville, but were able to press further. Thwarted, they circled the church grounds until midnight, all the while calling out to Ephram to join them in their endless and insatiable hunt for justice to be meted out upon the living. As dawn came, or so the legend goes, Ephram saw that the miners began to melt away like smoke or mist. But, just before the warm light of the sun drove them back to their miserable pit, he could see that there were now forty-one of them. With his pistol still gripped in his phantom fist, Black Jack McCormick had achieved a solidarity with his men in death that he had avoided as a plague in life.
This reporter discovered this tale as he was investigating the reports of the panic that has swept through the lonely country of Tucker County. Apparently, there have been several sightings of the #4 Forty over the past few months, all in the area surrounding the old McCormick #4 mine. There have been at least sixteen such sightings thus far, with the result that the hills around the old #4 have become bereft of human habitation, with the notable exception of one man and his family.
In investigating this story this reporter traveled to the tiny town of Laneville, West Virginia. The stories of the #4 Forty were quick to come to the lips of almost anyone that was asked about it. It would seem that every one of these folk had either seen the "haints" themselves or knew someone who had. Some have seen them from afar, and some have been close enough to smell their decay. Some have seen them at night and some during the day. Some have even been pursued by the specters and, in one notable case, a mail carrier was actually shot at in broad daylight, reportedly by the evil shade of Black Jack McCormick himself! The descriptions of the spirits generally all match. The ghostly miners are described as having pale skin that glowed with an unearthly light, ragged clothes that were matted with gravemold and mud from their dank, ersatz tomb, and the stench of flesh long given to corruption. When asked about the origin of these apparitions, the locals all told some version of the legend, but everyone agreed that the true local expert on the subject was the man who alone was able to survive unmolested living less than a quarter mile from the old McCormick #4; a man who the locals referred to with no small measure of superstitious awe.
The legend as it has been related to you good readers in this article was told to this reporter by a resident of Tucker County; a Mr. John Odom, who claims descent from the selfsame Ephram Odam who barely escaped from the clutches of the vengeful ghostly miners. It is this John Odom that still dares to live on the slopes of the same hill wherein old McCormick #4 is dug. This reporter interviewed John Odom in his modest home and in the company of his wife and many children. In my ride out to his homestead I found him waiting for me at a bend in the road. He told me that he had met me because it was not safe for me to travel his hill without his accompaniment. He never told how he knew I was coming. Mr. Odom related the legend of the #4 Forty, talked about how they had been seen from time to time ever since that fateful night over fifty years ago; ever on the prowl for new recruits to be added to their wretched ranks, and avoided the issue of how he alone was not accosted by it's hungry ghosts. The most that this reporter could unearth about this mystery were veiled references to the "special" relationship that his family had with the spectral crew. It would seem that the ghosts view the descendants of their first living witness as mascots of a sort! A strange relationship indeed!
Today all the mines in the region are played out; bereft of the coal that once sent men into the treacherous earth for profit. Presumably there would be coal left in old #4, but there have been no investors that have expressed an interest in exploiting this dubious resource. There are no other inhabitants left in the lonely valleys round about the cursed mine; none but the Odoms and their phantasmal neighbors. It will be quite some time before either will be receiving any visitors.
(Note: This next reference is just a reprint of the above article with a header tacked on. I am leaving out the repeated material in the interest of brevity. Just cut and paste it back in when you get ready to make your handouts. Since it is from a folklore journal, and the original article is just from a local newspaper (in 1901!) it is much more likely to be found
From the Journal of the American Folklore Society, vol. 43, #9, pages 87-89. October 1935.
A Legend of Northern West Virginia
The people of extreme rural West Virginia are probably some of the most superstitious white inhabitants of the North American continent. Isolated from modern niceties such as telegraph lines or even roads capable of automobile traffic, these lonely hamlets cling to folk medicine and other superstitions that are, in truth, only thinly removed from paganism. Their very speech is thick with usages unheard of in the rest of the English-speaking world for 400 years. The following tale, originally printed in the Morgantown Public Ledger in 1901 and titled "Do The Ghosts of McCormick #4 Stalk Tucker County?", is a classic example of the sort of folktale produced by such people.
(Cut and paste article body in here.)
(Note: This is from the sort of reference book that the agents may look in.)
Excerpt from Myths and legends of the Allegheny Mountains, Stuart Mills, 1957.
Another such haunting is described in the legend of the #4 Forty, a tale of spectral coal miners that stalk a hill and valley in Tucker County, West Virginia; close by the tiny hamlet of Laneville. These "haints" come out of the mine that claimed their lives in a cave-in, to stalk the living and add them to their number. One would assume that the original Forty would have grown in number by now were it not for the extreme remoteness of their area of influence. Stories of encounters with these ghosts have been apparently been reported periodically since the turn of the century and earlier, but the last documented sighting was in 1940 when a process surver told of being pursued by a band of ragged, glowing men who stank of the grave.
(Note: This is from a coffee-table reference-type book that the agents might run across if they just go to Books-A-Million or Barnes & Noble)
Excerpt from Atlas of the Mysterious in North America (Haunted Places subsection), Rosemary Ellen Guiley, 1990.
Laneville (88) The mountainous country that Laneville is nestled in seems peaceful enough, but the region is haunted by a band of murderous ghosts, or so residents claim. The ghosts are said to be those of miners that were killed in a mine disaster in the 1850's. The legend they originally rose from their graves to seek revenge on the mine owner who had sent them to their deaths. They now seek to add to their numbers from the ranks of the living. The ghosts are described as rotted corpses that glow brightly and smell accordingly. The hill where the mine is located and all the surrounding valleys are regarded as cursed by the residents of the tiny community, who avoid it at all costs. The last reported sighting of the ghosts was by a process server in 1940.