The Gentleman From Hell |S1| Ep. 16

Speaker 1 Rusty Quill presents

Speaker 2 Good evening, gentlemen and gentle ladies of hell. First and foremost, thank you for tuning in.
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Speaker 9 This is from the rough synopsis of the Isabel Dieri, coupled together from what little historical information the family sent along with the statue.

Speaker 9 We intend to put it all on a placard that will be set out next to the exhibit. Whenever the plans for the museum are finalized, of course.

Speaker 9 Here's what we have so far.

Speaker 9 Gil possesses only a left arm, symbolizing the path of sinister intentions, as the left side has been historically associated with ill omens and the unconventional.

Speaker 9 This singular arm is often depicted clutching a crooked scepter or an inverted scale, representing imbalance and injustice.

Speaker 9 His wings are also inverted, pointing downward instead of upward.

Speaker 9 This unusual feature signifies the fall from grace and a rebellion against the natural order. Gil was regarded as something akin to a patron saint of the damned,

Speaker 9 overseeing those who willingly chose the left-hand path towards hell, guiding them inexorably along their route to eternal damnation.

Speaker 9 Uniquely, this eerie deity found reverence in only one known place,

Speaker 9 a remote and unassuming colonial settlement called Isabel.

Speaker 9 Gil's likeness is fashioned from a grotesque amalgamation of human and animal parts interspersed with stone and wood. Its overall form a symbol of times both barbaric and ruthlessly spiritual.

Speaker 6 You said some family that traces its roots all the way back to Isabel donated the statue and the historical materials?

Speaker 9 Yes, but unfortunately, I can't give you the name.

Speaker 9 While the family gave no instructions as to when and how the statue statue could be made public, they were very specific on one point: that their name not be associated with the statue or any of its history.

Speaker 9 The impression I got was that they were eager to see the statue removed from their ownership.

Speaker 15 We completely understand, Miss Telfan, and we greatly appreciate you helping us out as much as you have.

Speaker 9 You're quite welcome, Miss Chambers. It's the least I can do.
After all, you three did a real real service to the country by ridding it of that monstrous cult.

Speaker 12 I mean, uh, if no one minds, I'm not feeling very well. I think I'm gonna go head out to the car.

Speaker 9 Oh, by all means. I do hope you feel better, Mr.
Oates.

Speaker 16 I'll come out with you.

Speaker 6 Actually, I think we should all probably get going. But we really appreciate all your help, Miss

Speaker 6 Telfer.

Speaker 6 Yes, Telfer.

Speaker 6 And thanks again.

Speaker 9 You're very welcome.

Speaker 9 Don't hesitate to call or visit again.

Speaker 9 We're always happy to help.

Speaker 16 Leon, are you sure you're alright?

Speaker 12 Yeah, yeah, I'll be okay. Just

Speaker 12 didn't expect anything to happen while we were away from the place you know

Speaker 6 so what happened

Speaker 12 same thing it's been doing rubbing my nose and the shit that went down at the pinnacle it just took things farther than before

Speaker 12 it trapped me the

Speaker 12 the kids from the pinnacle god damn this thing

Speaker 6 Just how much shit can it throw at us for fuck's sake? We're nowhere near Cold Sparrow.

Speaker 13 Perhaps not, but some of its legendary is.

Speaker 15 And it's not at all uncommon for the paranormal to attach itself to someone. Follow them after their involvement.
It's called the Hitchhiker effect.

Speaker 12 Yeah, well, there's more legends in there than you think. I checked out their restricted collections room, and there's a shit ton of dirt on Isabel.

Speaker 12 I wasn't supposed to, but I scanned a lot of the stuff into my phone. And then, of course, there was the statue, which I assume was what you saw in the tunnels.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 6 Yeah, it was.

Speaker 12 Uh, anyway, what what did Prist have to say?

Speaker 6 I got a few things, but I'm guessing Phil might have heard more than he was actually saying.

Speaker 15 Edward Veers was in on whatever occurred in Cold Sparrow. Before he died, he did something to that tape.

Speaker 13 Cursed it, maybe?

Speaker 15 I'm not sure. He left Prist peculiar instructions on how to handle and deliver it.
Another thing, at some point, Prist heard something awful.

Speaker 15 Screams layered upon screams, as if blaring through a a loudspeaker or some kind of radio transmission.

Speaker 15 The last bit I got regarded something that frightened him while he was driving through a storm, though I couldn't make out what it was.

Speaker 6 Sounds like we might have to pay old Charlie another visit.

Speaker 15 Quite possibly.

Speaker 6 You sure you're okay, Leon? You don't look so good.

Speaker 6 It was

Speaker 7 just a lot.

Speaker 6 Went on and on.

Speaker 12 I think I just need to get out and get some air. You think there's a place around here here we could just

Speaker 12 get out and maybe walk around a bit and grab something to drink?

Speaker 15 Of course we can. There must be a park or something around here.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I think we could all use some fresh air. I think we passed a park of some kind on the way over to Prist's, just a little ways over there.
Thanks. I just

Speaker 12 need a breather.

Speaker 15 We completely understand.

Speaker 15 Take however long you need.

Speaker 6 Yep, I think this was a good idea. Out here in the sun, walking around in the woods,

Speaker 6 the shitting cold sparrow barely feels real.

Speaker 15 If only it wasn't real.

Speaker 12 I really hope Hughes comes through with some help. We are way over our heads with this shit.

Speaker 6 That reminds me. We gotta stop by the post office, see if any of that equipment came in.

Speaker 15 I'm afraid none of it will do us a bit of good.

Speaker 15 This thing is far too clever to be caught off its guard, and even if it isn't, it seems powerful enough to destroy whatever footage we might catch of it.

Speaker 12 You rethinking the whole it's got limitations thing?

Speaker 13 Not at all.

Speaker 15 I'm merely acknowledging the limitations of whatever technology Mr. Hughes sends us.
We've already seen some of this phenomenon's potential weaknesses.

Speaker 6 We have? I think I might have been absent that day, Beach. Can it explain?

Speaker 15 So I've managed to out-sleuth the professional sleuths, have I?

Speaker 15 Think about it. This entity seems to require assistance.

Speaker 15 If it were genuinely all-powerful, or even close, it wouldn't need people to do its dirty work, nor would it require its dirty little audio tapes to be handled so delicately.

Speaker 15 The fact that it has needs at all is revealing. In many of the paranormal cases I've encountered, or even just read about, these forces feed on something, often human emotions.

Speaker 15 Once those sources are cleansed on a spiritual level, the dark energy usually diminishes, if not disappears entirely. The trouble here, I would think, is one of scale.

Speaker 15 This particular presence seems enormous. To counter it, we'll need something equally formidable.
I'm hoping whoever Mr. Hughes sends will have an answer for that.

Speaker 6 Well, if we can't photograph it, prove it in some way, and we can't get out of its range,

Speaker 6 I'm not sure what chance we got of coming out of this thing with anything but PTSD.

Speaker 12 If we get out of this thing, you mean?

Speaker 6 Oh, we'll get out of here, all right. I'm not about to get my ticket punched by some frickin' paranormal force, no matter how powerful it is.

Speaker 12 I'm sure the hundreds of people in Cold Sparrow thought the same thing.

Speaker 12 And more than likely, so did the god knows how many in Isabel.

Speaker 13 What do you mean?

Speaker 12 Turns out, Whitlock and the town didn't survive much longer than the Sparrows. Three days after Hester dropped dead from trying to dig a hole to hell, there was a rain of dead birds.
Sparrows.

Speaker 12 And three days after that, some kind of plague hit the city. I'm not sure if it was during the plague or after everyone died from it, but at some point the entire city burned to the ground.

Speaker 12 Whatever this thing is, Cold Sparrow wasn't its first rodeo.

Speaker 6 A rain of dead birds?

Speaker 12 I'm assuming that's where Cold Sparrow got its name, because all the birds were covered in frost.

Speaker 15 It seems we figured out where Elias got the name. I'll look through the rest of the book to see if he explores it in more detail.

Speaker 15 I'm also starting to wonder if the opening section, a portion taken from Whitlock's confession, was left unfinished.

Speaker 15 After all, it's strange that Whitlock never mentioned the city coming under any sort of curse after the sparrows were murdered.

Speaker 6 Might not have been the sort of thing you'd want to admit, but the devil could make a comeback after having his star players sacked.

Speaker 16 You just might be right.

Speaker 6 Uh, Phil.

Speaker 16 Yes.

Speaker 12 Did you say something recently about evil not being able to touch the innocent? Or words to that effect?

Speaker 15 Well, yes, I believe I did.

Speaker 15 It was late, and I thought you were asleep. Lace and I were discussing that uh

Speaker 6 well,

Speaker 15 we were talking about recent events.

Speaker 13 Why do you ask?

Speaker 12 I didn't hear you, but something else apparently did.

Speaker 6 The thing

Speaker 6 the kids

Speaker 12 wanted me to give you a message

Speaker 16 that they weren't someplace nice.

Speaker 12 That evil could take anyone it wanted, just like it took the three of us.

Speaker 15 I can't help but feel like we're returning to our prison cells.

Speaker 6 I know you don't have any faith in any of the tech we picked up from Hughes, but some of it does look pretty cutting edge. Who knows? Maybe something in those boxes just might work.

Speaker 12 I noticed that some of the stuff was actually made for ghost hunting, which, I have to admit, it wasn't something I knew existed. I mean, I knew there were EVP recorders and EMF detectors and whatnot.

Speaker 12 Stuff that was all either just repurposed or some kind of aftermarket modification. But some of it was designed to detect paranormal energies, or whatever the more technical term might be.

Speaker 15 I'm certainly not above home,

Speaker 6 but.

Speaker 6 I know.

Speaker 6 It's a lot. Especially after everything we learned.
And.

Speaker 12 Look, the mansion's all lit up.

Speaker 12 Now, what the fuck?

Speaker 15 I suppose it goes without saying that none of us left all those lights on.

Speaker 6 I don't even think there's enough bulbs in the house to light it up that bright.

Speaker 12 So, what do we want to do?

Speaker 16 Turn around, leave, never look back?

Speaker 6 Beyond the obvious, I think he meant.

Speaker 15 Well, we can't treat this like some regular haunting, can we?

Speaker 15 We can't just gather up gear and rush out to take photographs. There could be people, cultists, or whatever they might be in there.
Though Lord only knows why they'd be so brazen about it.

Speaker 6 Are you getting any sense of

Speaker 12 and there go the lights? Not even the ones we left on.

Speaker 13 Hmm.

Speaker 15 Could it possibly be the generator?

Speaker 6 I guess so, but seems a little too coincidental. Lights going off only a few seconds after we see the place lit up like a birthday cake.

Speaker 12 Mace, give me a hand. I want to attach those spotlights to the van.
That way, when we drive up there, we can light up the house and everything around it.

Speaker 6 Just to be on the safe side of the thing now would be.

Speaker 15 I'm way ahead of you, Mr. Rhodes.

Speaker 6 That's what I like to hear, Miss Chambers.

Speaker 12 That's the screen door banging around in the wind.

Speaker 12 The uh screen door I locked on our way out.

Speaker 6 Not seeing anything in the windows or around the house.

Speaker 15 Before either of you asks, yes, I'm coming along. In fact, you can just stop asking that question altogether from now on.

Speaker 6 I suppose we could do this like we would if we were entering a non-haunted structure.

Speaker 6 Who are you kidding?

Speaker 12 In a situation like this, we'd wait for backup and have eyes all over this place before setting a toe in there.

Speaker 6 Yeah,

Speaker 6 there's that too.

Speaker 6 Phil, those antenna of yours dingling?

Speaker 15 Nothing beyond background strangeness I always get the very second we turn onto Pitch Point Road.

Speaker 12 We've got the big guns back there. I say we load for Bear just in case.

Speaker 6 Yeah, I agree. Those mothers will even the odds, even if they got a dozen people in there.

Speaker 15 I'll stick to my handgun. I already look odd enough with it.
I can't imagine how ridiculous I'd look with an automatic rifle.

Speaker 12 All right, then. Let's get at it.

Speaker 6 I'll take point.

Speaker 6 Better to have you behind me. You're a better shot.

Speaker 12 Only now does the truth come out.

Speaker 15 After you, gents, I'm quite comfortable taking up the rear.

Speaker 6 Both doors are unlocked. You ready?

Speaker 12 Whenever you are.

Speaker 12 Power's out.

Speaker 12 Good lord, the place is filled with balloons, streamers, confetti, like there was some kind of party going on.

Speaker 12 This shit's everywhere.

Speaker 12 Let's head to the security hub. Most of the cameras are battery-powered.
Might have picked something up.

Speaker 6 Gotcha.

Speaker 12 Gonna see if the computers boot up.

Speaker 4 Now they've got juice

Speaker 12 Every single camera on the network's been tripped pulling up the footage Here's camera one

Speaker 12 There's no video just audio, but here it is

Speaker 13 It's the elevator coming up from the basement.

Speaker 13 That fucking thing.

Speaker 12 It tripped all the sensors on that side of the house.

Speaker 12 Still no video, just audio.

Speaker 12 What?

Speaker 6 In God's name.

Speaker 12 Looks like we got some video on camera 3.

Speaker 12 Here it is.

Speaker 6 I can hear the crowds, but rooms.

Speaker 6 Rooms completely empty. What about the infrared cameras?

Speaker 6 Nada.

Speaker 12 Just the audio and video from the standard cameras.

Speaker 6 Wait a minute.

Speaker 13 What's wrong?

Speaker 12 All the battery levels are dropping. On the cameras, the computers?

Speaker 12 Reading down the numbers: 50%,

Speaker 12 25,

Speaker 6 10,

Speaker 6 1.

Speaker 6 What the fuck? That came from upstairs, just above our heads.

Speaker 9 I can feel it. Them! They're everywhere!

Speaker 12 It's okay, Phil. You gotta keep it together.

Speaker 6 It'll be okay.

Speaker 7 It'll be okay.

Speaker 6 This can't be real. This shit can't be fucking real.

Speaker 6 They're all in the elevator going down,

Speaker 13 descending

Speaker 13 straight into hell.

Speaker 2 The Gentleman from Hell is a Maltopia production. Today's episode was written by Mark Anzalone and performed by Stephen Zivik, Sam Stark, Aubrey Akers, Jesse Van Hove, and Mark Anzalone.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 And follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Meltopia. If you want unique art and animations of Meltopia's stories, visit our YouTube page or click on the link in the show notes.

Speaker 2 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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