The Gentleman From Hell |S1| Ep. 21

Rusty Quill presents

Good evening, gentlemen and gentle ladies of hell.

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I think we've come up with a precise issue,

but I

How are things going with the notes?

Honestly, we could pick up a few pointers from those guys.

Everything's precise, informative, and neat as a pin.

Well, they are ex-FBI.

Organizing information is kind of their specialty.

It's just so tough to wrap my head around all of this.

Like Phyllis said, I've never even read about anything so active and profound.

We're dealing with bestial apparitions, some sort of cult, Mfitkian relics and deities, teleportation, a videotape with who knows what on it, and that's not even half of it.

It's all just so

overwhelming.

Considering this is the most mysterious event

by far that anyone's ever come across, I'd say that checks out.

Ben Veers' research has proved rather intriguing, though.

From what I've gleaned from his manuscript, it reads very much like my own work.

The idea that the paranormal has underlying rules, that it relates to human consciousness in more ways than is typically accepted.

What about you?

Were you and Leon able to salvage anything from what happened to them at the cemetery?

That's what I came to tell you.

We got the laptop up and running long enough to transfer some images and video.

We're going to check it out in a few minutes.

I figured you'd want to be on hand.

Indeed, I would.

As much as I don't doubt anything that's been said, it would certainly be nice to see some of these things for myself.

Okay, so here's the first batch of photos.

This is the first room we looked into.

There's quite a few crates in there, but the only one that's open is this one.

Yeah, that's the one filled with all those funky cylinders.

Hold up.

Let's zoom into those.

Yep, that's what I thought they were.

Wax cylinders.

They're used to play and record sound on a phonograph.

When we first started working with EVP, I experimented a little with them.

I wanted to get as unedited a recording as I could, in addition to a lot of background crackle.

At the time, I was worried that more modern tech might filter out too much noise, which is where a lot of EVP tends to happen.

Could be a whole lot of usable information on those.

Good luck retrieving them.

We'd have to be nuts to go down there after what happened last time.

Well, it's possible that the resonator might help with that.

You want to drag that thing all the way out there?

Oh, we wouldn't have to.

There's two portable units we could use.

They're not as powerful as the primary device, but they should do the trick.

They were made specifically so Margaret and me could follow whatever might pop up during an investigation.

Even so, I thought the resonator just allowed you to see stuff we ordinarily wouldn't.

Not seeing how that could help us down there.

We've found that it allows you to see the paranormal happen in real time.

Now, I have to admit, we've never tested the tech against anything that comes even close to the scope of what you've got here, but there's a good chance it'll give you a head start whenever shit hits the fan.

Better than nothing, that's for damn sure.

By the way, where's Phyllis?

I thought she was feeling better.

Yeah,

about that.

Uh, when we told you about the woman who spoke with us through the drone,

well, we sort of left out the fact that it was uh

Phil's mother, or whatever was down there pretending to be her mother.

She really didn't want to take the chance of seeing or hearing that all over again.

Good lord, I don't blame her.

This place really is unreal.

That's why I'm on a level with you.

Before you two showed up, we were just about ready to back it in.

We haven't been able to make so much as a dent in this place.

It's just played us at every turn.

And honestly, I'm not even sure that machine of yours is gonna make much of a difference.

To whatever the fuck is here.

Phil's in her 60s.

And that shit with the drone?

You gotta understand, she's family.

We look after her first and foremost, but this place

Christ didn't know where, when, and exactly how to hit you.

I just don't know if she can stick out much longer.

The woman's an ox, though.

I talked to her right before I crashed, and she wants to see what you two can pull off with the machine.

But, like May said, we might not have a lot of fight left in us.

We completely understand, and we also appreciate you giving us a chance before you conclude things.

you guys never mentioned taking any pictures like these.

What the

that's because we never saw that stuff.

Must have been taken when the feed changed after that power surge.

Christ, looks like some kind of underground temple.

There's certainly far more than earthen tunnels, that's for sure.

The whole thing looks carved from stone.

No small undertaking to be certain.

The pillars and wall flourishing have a uniformity to them, something patterned.

Likely historical.

So while we were seeing the solder compound and Isabel, the cameras were rolling on what was really down there?

That would be my assessment.

Look at that shit right there.

There's a line of figures carved into a wall.

Not a one of them had the right arms, just like that statue of Gil or Gil or whatever the hell his name was.

I can't imagine how long something like this would have taken to complete.

Could have predated the city, even.

Is it safe to come in?

Have you examined all the images from the drone?

Come on in, Phil.

Looks like the drone's cameras picked up the real images from under the cemetery.

Not the bullshit we were being blasted with.

What do you mean, the real images?

The drone didn't take images of what we saw.

It took these.

That's what was down there?

My god, it looks like something you'd see unearthed by a team of archaeologists.

But it does appear more like what I sensed when the power went out in the van.

A place deep underground, filled with pain and cries for help.

I'd say the phenomena is actively trying to ward you away from those tunnels.

Which might make them the best place to keep looking.

So many of these designs carved into the wall are straight out of Mephitican mythology.

In your notes, you mentioned Edward Veers as a collector of Mephitica.

But where did you hear that term?

It's one of the most obscure topics in all occult history.

The Veers lawyer, Charlie Prist.

He said he went to some antique dealer in Connecticut to get the stuff Edward tracked down, the Mephitica.

Seems he was a big collector of the junk.

Prist said it was a subcategory of Satanism, or something like that.

It's not Satanism at all.

It originates from one of the earliest, if not the earliest, written accounts of what many cultures came to interpret as hell.

And if you ask me, I'd say that's the angle where all this stuff lines up.

But I thought that Giel guy was sort of like, you know, the devil.

He may have shaped later conceptions of the devil, yet he functioned more like an agent of hell.

A wrangler of evil souls, so to speak.

In fact, according to certain strands of Mephitican lore, the term giel was sometimes used to denote hell itself.

Well, if it helps, the name of the antique dealer should be in those notes we just gave you.

Just don't mind the guy's still kicking.

So, if I understand all this correctly, you believe all this could be caused by a sort of...

hell-like phenomenon?

I guess I'm having trouble with the idea, since you seem to be excluding demons and devils.

If such creatures are absent, what's left to qualify it as hell-like at all?

The damned.

See, from the Mephitican view, damned souls are the agents of evil.

Their sins land them in hell, where they're sort of taken out of the universal equation, quarantined, prevented from ruining creation.

And that's because Mephitican myths hold that souls, once created, can't be destroyed.

They can only be contained.

So that's what this cult is all about?

Worshipping the damned?

It's hard to say how much lore they've incorporated.

But if they're responsible for all that stonework, the symbolism,

it certainly seems they're drawing on quite a bit of it.

What's known of it at any rate?

Most of the core texts were destroyed by the Roman Catholic Church.

Not much survived, which is why it's so prized by collectors.

I'd lay odds you'll find most of what's left down in the basement.

There's tons of it.

We'll definitely have to check that out.

But before we do anything, I think we should try to recover that drone.

It's got onboard storage, right?

Yep, should be plenty of footage on it.

The cameras were running the whole time.

If we're gonna do this, we gotta be real careful about it.

And Phil, I'm thinking it might be a good idea if you sit this one out.

Nonsense.

This is precisely why I'm here.

I realize I've been rather out of sorts since I, um...

Well, since I heard that voice.

Even so, I really should have known better.

After all, I'm the one most acquainted with how such entities go about terrorizing people.

Frankly, I'm a bit embarrassed that I've let it affect me so.

You've got nothing to be embarrassed about, Phil.

Not a single thing.

I mean, we've all lost it a time or two since we got here.

We brought plenty of tech that served us pretty well so far, so we should be as protected as we can be.

I'll just need some time to set everything up.

I'll give you a hand.

Besides, you could probably put some of the equipment Hughes gave us to good use.

A lot of it was designed specifically for investigating the paranormal, which, as you can probably tell, I don't know much about.

Well, you certainly picked a hell of a place to start.

Trust me, tracking the supernatural was the last thing I expected when I signed up for this gig.

Take a look around.

This is our makeshift evidence room.

Up on that shelf, we got all the audio tapes we already gone through.

Bend stash, the EVP recordings, our chair with David Harmon, and that funky farmhouse tape.

Over in this little nook, we keep the odds and ends we're still digging into.

There's a portrait of some fella alongside the Aino we told you about, a few books from Ben's library we're digging into, and a bunch of pics Leon snapped to some stuff in the Historical Society.

Now straight ahead is where we stole the canvas and photos from the initial FBI investigation right after the mass disappearance.

All those notes we gave you get filed right in, sorted so we can find them quick.

And finally, that cabinet right there in the back is where we lock up the audio tape that got flung at us from an elevator that shouldn't even be running.

We got the thing surrounded by salt and locked up tight.

Just in case it tries to up and go for a walk.

You've certainly been kept busy, that's for sure.

And the audio tape in there is supposed to be a message from Edward to Ben.

Yeah, Ben talks about it in one of his journal entries.

He actually transcribes the whole thing, but he says there's something going on in the background of the tape, something that sounds kind of odd, like chanting, but he's not sure.

Then he starts feeling sort of weird while he's listening to it.

That's the part that worries me.

Especially if the Phil got those images of Ed being in on the whole thing, giving Pris special instructions about how the tape had to be handled and played.

Up till Phil's vision, we were gonna try and deal with it ourselves, but

then we decided to wait for the specialists.

Given what you said earlier, could the chanting, or whatever it was that Ben heard, be some sort of Mephitican ritual?

That's possible, but I can't say for sure.

You haven't tried to do a reading on the tape itself?

I mean, apart from playing it.

No, once I held it in my hand, I could feel the malevolence.

Oh, my lord, what's happening?

Leah, come in.

You got any idea what's happening?

Over.

We turned on the resonator for a sec just to see how much juice it had, and all of a sudden everything went crazy.

The resonator must somehow have reacted with whatever's here.

Come on, let's get away from the windows.

Here's your drink, Ed.

Anything else I can get you?

That will be all, Rupert.

Steer clear of here tonight.

I'm expecting company this evening.

Sure thing, Ed.

Just holler if you need me.

I'll do that very thing.

Good evening,

The time does swiftly approach, and all must be made ready.

The ways must be cleared.

Everything has been seen to.

So tell me, Arthur, how like to the world

now twice tasted

like the oldest,

sweetest wine.

And it shall be sweeter still

in time.

Phil, can you hear me?

It should be all right.

I'm fine.

I just

did to run.

Good in shit.

Is everyone alright?

I'm as good as can be expected.

I'm

I've never experienced anything so...

powerful

You'll find yourself saying that quite a bit.

Trust me

Radio is dead as a thorn.

Another power sage just like before.

Even my watch has stopped.

Come on, let's find Pat and Leon.

All of them.

Every single one of the vehicles is dead.

No juice whatsoever.

It's like someone hit the place with an electromagnetic pulse.

This ever happened before?

We've had all sorts of issues with power, but not quite like this.

Huh.

The resonator, even for the brief moment it was on, it must have somehow massively reacted with the paranormal activity of the house.

For something like that to happen, the energy of this place must be off the goddamn scale.

Hey, you guys out there?

Yeah, we're over here by the trucks.

When the reaction was going on, there sounded like, I don't know, maybe hundreds, thousands of people crying out.

The resonators never exposed so much discarnate energy before.

I just hope Phil is alright.

She tends to get the worst of these sort of things.

Everyone alright?

Yeah, just a little shaken.

You guys weren't fooling around about this place being active.

Phil, you okay?

Still upright, if that's any indication.

We stopped by the Jenny on our way through.

She's good point.

I can't imagine we would walk anywhere before sunset.

Nah, we're way too far out.

Portafoy is a closest city, and it's miles before we hit the main drag to flag down a ride.

Looks like a storm's brewing, too.

Well, we have more than enough candles and lanterns, and the fireplace is big enough to lie down in.

We should be fine till the morning.

Yeah,

but I got a feeling it won't be that easy.

Not with this place.

The Gentleman from Hell is a Meltopia production.

Today's episode was written by Mark Anzalone and performed by Stephen Zivik, Sam Stark, Aubrey Akers, Jesse Van Hove, Kelly Baer.

Sound editing was completed by Stephen Anzalone, and script editing was conducted by Walker Kornfeld.

Be sure to rate and review us on iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.

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If you want unique art and animations of Meltopia's stories, visit our YouTube page or click on the link in the show notes.

And for more exclusive content, such as additional lore, stories, and art, be sure to check out our Patreon at www.patreon.com forward slash Meltopia.

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Show thing in, just holler if you need me.

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