The Horror at Hareden:

In the Dead of Winter

Wherein the children uncover a web of depravity and death
lurking beneath the surface of an Orphanage while attempting to
wait out an immense snow storm.
Introduction
This is a scenario designed for the 1920s, and set in an orphanage in the
remote countryside of England. It could be transported to any place or era where a
bleak orphanage would be surmised.
The children uncover a quagmire of depravity swallowing the isolated
orphanage beneath the faade of strict and structured education. It is a sorrowful
place with a history of secrets and blasphemy.
The scenario could be used as a one-shot adventure, or as the start of a new
campaign in the form of a childhood memory and connection for later gathering the
investigators together as adults.
Keepers Information
There is something inhuman trapped beneath the dark shadows of the
Hareden Academy & Orphanage. A terrible and ancient thing that lurks with
insatiable hunger. It is a devourer of children that delights in consuming flesh of the
youth. It leads vulnerable adults into service with dreams and promises of power.
The thing is known as the Mouth, The Eater of Worlds, or the Devourer. It is a
unique creature consisting of a maw of teeth and vile breath, long waiting
nourishment enough to escape its subterranean prison. Its food is generally not
killed, but only mangled upon being swallowed, and remains alive in the things
stomach being slowly digested. Struggling food in the Mouths stomach give it
pleasure. The abomination is an infantile larvae, and given enough food will grow
into the next stage where it will begin to impregnate victims to create horrid
offspring.
It is a static entity and may be very large in reality. It disguises its true nature
by changing its appearance or by illusions that speak for it. Perhaps in a nearby lake
it dwells, or in a well leading to caves of a sort. Originally it may have been small
enough to emerge out of the wellhead or lake and travel through the tunnels and
speak to servants but it is too large to do that now.

It may be large and powerful but its main strength is magic and emotional
manipulation. It can feed on cultists MP. It can also use these to burn off like ablative
armor. If attacked heavily enough cult members will fall unconscious. It is eager for
new recruits for food and resilience.
It can also use MP to summon shadowy apparitions which can stalk the area
creeping in to steal MP or artefacts from the area. A sorcerer used to call on it and
they had an agreement, but it has been neglected for some time and is initially
weak in power when the scenario starts. Its oddly inhuman, subtly unearthly and
displaced in a way thats disturbing. It has a strong psychic presence that grates
against human minds. It wears glamour that masks its real guise as its true form
would shake the hold it has on its mesmerized cult.
Players Information
Your parents are dead, whoever they were. It was though familial wealth and
designated in your parents will, or unlikely connection that you were offered a spot
at Stoneleigh Prospect Hill Academy, a small but esteemed orphanage and private
school for troubled boys and girls. It is a colonial manor standing on a hill looking
over Greenfield to the South and swamps to the North, which consists of several
free standing buildings. The orphanage is flanked by thick woods to the North West
and East up Maynard Mountain. There is a single narrow track which leads up to the
orphanage after crossing the Cherry Rum Brook.
Its autumn when you arrive at the orphanage along with several other new
boys and girls. The manor looks abandoned as you approach, escorted by your
family or the Commonwealth executor appointed to your familys estate. When you
arrive at the entrance you see pale faces of other children watching from upper
windows. A great feeling of solitude reaches over you, even with the view to
Greenfield. It almost feels lonelier that the world is continuing on without caring
about you or your parents for that matter.

Locations
The Hareden Schools
Nestled in a valley in the Lancashire Pennines, the Hareden Schools perch on
opposite hillsides amidst the heather. An old manor house is home to Haredon
Manor School for Girls and its now 200 pupils. The antique building lends a touch of
quaintness and elegance to the bustling school. Despite its remote location, its
gifted Headmistress and excellent record provide a steady stream of pupils. Across
the way sits Hareden Grammar School, a boys school of Victorian brick housing and
300 souls. The school is respected, but neither fasionable nor famous. Founded with
a strong charity ethos, many of its pupils rely on scholarships from generous
patrons in the countys industries. However, many others come from affluent
families, some of whom feel the schools isolation and scholarly atmosphere will
benefit unruly children.
At the beginning of January 1929, unusually severe weather sweeps across
Britain. Hareden is accustomed to snow, and the schools have plentiful stocks of
winter provisions, so news that the roads are blocked is a mere inconvenience.
However, the days pass and snow falls steadily and relentlessly, stacking up inch
upon glittering inch. The staff do their best to keep everything as normal, to keep
worried minds busy and restless bodies out of mischief. However, a tinge of concern
slowly permeates both schools. After two weeks without sign of relief, the schools
reluctantly order strict rationing to begin. After four, they are in a state of virtual
siege, reluctant even to have messengers struggle across the valley.
In the Grammar School, attempts to keep the grounds clear of snow have
been abandoned; passages have been constructed through the snow to join the
school rooms, chapel, and dining room with the boarding houses. With both food
and fuel restricted, everyone is feeling the cold. For the most part, the pleasure of
playing in the snow has long faded. Teachers patience is waning as is their
attention, and the schools strict discipline is beginning to crumble. At the Manor,
the dorms and classrooms are still housed in the Manor House, sparing them the
need to clear passages. The girls grow increasingly restless as they are forced to
wait indoors and mischief mushrooms in unlikely places. Adjured to do their duty by
each other, the girls grow quietly competitive in their ability to serve. In both
schools, adults and children alike are suffering the claustrophobic effects of their
confinement, and succumbing to nervous strain. Wildlife intrudes upon the schools
looking for shelter and food. The infirmaries begin to fill up, as hunger, cold, strain,
and accidents take their toll on the pupils. Tensions build between worried staff,
while bored and frustrated children begin to run wild. As the situation slowly takes
its toll on the physical and mental health of the schools, a few inhabitants begin to
mutter that something more sinister than simple weather is at work.

Hareden Grammar School

The grammar school is a purpose built Victorian red-brick school with a
number of buildings around its grounds. The boys live in ten boarding houses, thirty
to a house, under the care of a housemaster. Two blocks to east and west house
classrooms, while the chapel rears above them on a hillside to the south. The
domestic quarters are distributed around the grounds, amidst the extensive gardens
and sports grounds. The Headmasters house is near the school gate, where he can
keep a sharp eye on comings and goings. Walls and fances separate the school and
its immediate grounds from the fields and fells outside. The school strives for a
rugged and healthy lifestyle, and the boys often work in the allotments, gardens,
and woodlands. Older boys may serve in both the Officer Training Corps and the Fire
Brigade.
(Charterhouse?)
Hareden Manor School for Girls
The Manor School is a manor house dating back to the Tudor times, but
adapted heavily in the intervening centuries. While the original manor is largely
intact, it has been greatly extended as a country sea, and again in the late 18th
century to provide a suitable home for the original grammar school. Nearly fifty
years ago, bursting at the seams, the grammar school decamped across the valley,
where a new school of fine red brick was built to their specifications. In their wake,
the manor was taken over by the headmistress of a local girls school, and the
Hareden Manor School for Girls was born.
The school consists mostly of a single great structure centered around the old
manor with extensive wings providing the dormitories and classrooms of the schools
200 girls. The elegant harden has been preserved through the centuries to its
original design with little change, and the great maze is a notable feature. The
school bears the signs of its age; it is riddled with architectural curiosities, some of
them used like old servants stairs, and some unknown, like an number of priests
holes and passageways. The east wing houses the lower school dormitory and the
west wing the upper school. Classrooms are on the ground floor and staff
apartments and offices are in the old manor at the centre of the school. Only the
headmistress has her own house, set back from the school to allow her privacy.
(Stowe House?)
The Manor Schools formal gardens contain the historic maze, which existed
as far back as records began. It is fairly bewildering to most visitors. A set of notes
concealed somewhere in the school suggest there is an alternate route through the
maze, or the key to the maze. Following the instructions seem counter-intuitive to
anyone familiar with the usual route, and will take the wanderer to a place that is
not quite there, where certain items may await them.

Plot Strands
Burwells Relapse: During familiar conditions to the war, he begins to adopt old
habits and militarizing pupils, especially those in OTC, and it eventually ends
culminating in posting sentries at tunnel entrances, declaring martial law and siege
conditions.
The Expedition: In the early weeks of the storm an expedition is formed from stout
chaps, mostly from OTC, or Scouts. It is an attempt to gain supplies, food, and news
from the rest of the world. If able it also is to recruit help to excavate the pass to the
school.
Rats in the Walls: A teacher scolds a student for sleeping in class, and he
apologizes saying he hasnt slept in days because he hears scratching in the walls
at night. His house mates back him up, while others say they havent heard
anything. It is in fact a nest of rats burrowing in the walls for warmth.
Legend of the Deepwitch: An old local tale about a monster dwelling in the area
leads to many students to start claiming more than just harsh weather is at work.
The creature begins to gather a cult of student followers to gain power enough to
escape to the sea.

Characters Encountered
Major Characters:
James Burwell: The Science Master of the Grammar School. A veteran of the
War, Burwell served in the Royal engineers and is experienced in fortification,
tunneling, construction and maintenance. He did not engage in much active
combat, but the relentless danger and oppressive life took an unseen toll on his
mind. He is intelligent, firm, and has unusual sympathy with more delicate or
sensitive boys. As the school becomes isolated by the snow, he takes charge of
clearing work and uses his experience to make the work safe and efficient.
However, under the pressure of too-familiar work and old memories, he slowly
regresses to his wartime mindset.

Minor Characters:
Captains:
Donald Werrin: Head Boy
Jack Tidiman: School Captain
Daniel Fairclough: Captain of the First XV
Maurice Beeby: Captain of the First XI
House Captains:
Henry Jefferson: Captain of Salamanca House
Geoffrey Douglas: Captain of Trafalgar House.
Stanley Bigland: Captain of Agincourt House
Arthur Calvert (Calvert Maximus): Captain of Gravelines House
Geoffrey Mount: Captain of Wright House
Allan Sibson: Captain of Bagley House
Cedric Garth: Captain of Lees House.
Simon Sharpe: Captain of Bulloughs House
Andrew Pickthall: Captain of St. Peters House
Peter Anderton: Captain of St. Pauls House

Books and Texts Encountered

Hareden Gazette The School Magazine
Issue CXC, Lent 1911
Hareden Horrors Ghost Stories from the Fells
The Hell Hound, by R.J.V. Heyden (Salamanca)
In 1577, twas a terrible tempest that thundered throu the Norfolk town. Rain, and
thunder and lightning and it felt like the very earth would quake. Townsfolk took
refuge in the church from the tumult. Lightning struck the church and all feared they
would perish and prayed mightily.
In the crashing storm, a hound from hell, darker than night raced along the nave
terrifying the gathered congregation. People prayed for deliverance but the devil
dog dragged two of the damned and rent their necks, leaving them doomed.
Another man was shrivld by the passing of the dark demon and turned into a dried
doll. The verger, working on the roof was struck down by the storm and hurled to
the very Earth buy by the Grace etc, was saved.
If you dont believe this tale, the Church door in that quiet town still bears the
scorch marks where the very hell hound passed through.
Pray you all for mercy.
School Life at Hareden Grammar School, Or, The reminisces of a Hareden
junior with a glossary of words, phrases, and customs, peculiar to Hareden
Grammar School. London 1868.
Page 149 Chapter XI
The Junior on Hills.
On-Mizmaze-the Badger-Swimming Lessons-Practical Jokes-Trial for Assault-Town and
Gown Row.
Soon after morning chapel on a Holiday or Remedy all the boys assembled at
Gates i.e., in seventh chamber passage each boy choosing a Socius, or
companion, as in marching on to the hills we always walked two and two, college
first, and commoners after. At the word On from the Praefect of Hall we started off
at quick pace, the Praefects walking on the road, the rest on the footpath. The
former had the privilege of calling off an Inferior to walk with them as they were
allowed to range the country; whereas the others were confined to the top of St.
Catherines Hill. On we went, the small College boys at a sharp trot to keep up with

the long steps of the bigger ones in front, and urged on by the commoners behind,
round the corner of Wardens garden, where some boy would duck under the rails
and dart off to Bungys for strawberries and cream, or sausages according to the
season, taking his chance of another and very different kind of refreshment if
caught in the fact; then over Blackbridge, past Commoners field and Domum
tree, over the three stepping stiles (to be able to jump which, both going and
returning, was a great object of ambition to an enterprising Junior) to Tunbridge,
where (if names were not to be called at the top of Hills) the Praefects and their
Teejays went off on their own devices, and the rest up the steep ascent of St.
Catherines Hill. Here the latter amused themselves by playing cricket, rounders, or
rugby according to the time of the year or state of the weather, plying the
Mousedigger (a diminutive pickaxe) in search of mice, or threading the intricacies
of the Mizmaze, a labyrinth supposed to have been cut in the turft by the author
of Domum during the holidays, when he was forced to remain at Hareden instead
of going home. The legend further declares that he cut the verse of Domum on
the bark of the tree which still bears the name, and then committed suicide. By and
by the voices of the three Juniors calling Domum (two of whom had to make the
circuit of Trench and the other cross the summit of Hills) warned them that it was
time to go on, when, at a signal from the Praefect of Hall below, we rushed down
to Tunbridge, and were marshaled on our way home. If violent rain came on, these
proceedings were dispensed with, and we were allowed to find out way home as
fast as we could, this was called Skrimishing on.
A New Historical And Descriptive Guide To The Countryside And Antiquities
Of Hareden. Compiled From The Best Authorities. 5th Edition. Lancashire,
1898.
Page 40.
This hill has been used for above two centuries, as a place of recreation for the
students of Hareden Grammar School and now Haredon Manor School for Girls. Near
the trees which crown its summit, may be seen the traces of the once famed
mizmaze, which the students formerly felt a pride in preserving, but which is now
neglected, filled up and almost forgotton. Tradition asserts that its origin is to be
traced to a boy at Hareden Grammar School who many years ago had so grossly
transgressed, that when the holidays came and the scholars returned to their
respective homes, he was detained a prisoner at the school, which lay so heavy on
his mind that he sought relief in cutting on the greensward on the adjoining mount,
St. Catherines Hill, a miniature labyrinth, and in writing the words of the celebrated
Dulce Domum, after which, he pined and died, breathing his last under the shade of
a spreading elm long after known as the Domum Tree.
Uncles Old Tome

This tome appears to be a kind of scrapbook put together sometime around

1760. It is a combination of hand-written notes and printed pages taken from
various books, in languages ranging from French, German, Indian Sanskrit, and
Arabian Samedi. The pages are disorganized and often damaged beyond readable
use. Because of this the books actual academic or occult use is minimal. The book
does however mention prominently in several places the Cultes Des Goules, said to
be written in France around 1703. Several diagrams said to be copied from Cultes
Des Goules fill the pages of the book.
Blasphemous Excerpt
Ceremony and the Earths blessing shall distinguish us from the rest, and we
shall eat that which all others will not, what others will not touch, and we will
become closer. We shall eat that which is of the Earth and become of the Earth. The
well-spring shall fill our stomach's, ceremony will fill our minds and life eternal shall
be our gift. These things shall distinguish us from all others at the coming of the
Great Mouth, for the Charnel God is the wellspring and the devourer of all. And he
will look upon his children and know them from all others, who are but carrion
before is eyes.
Availability: Unique
Written: 1760 approximately
Author: N/A
SAN: 1/1d6
Study Time: 1 week
Cthulhu Myhos +3
Language: A mixture of French, German, Indian Sanskrit and Arabian Samedi.
De publica in Latin, by Julius Gregorius, 1782.
This book is a compilation of folk-customs and folklore, with many fascinating
engravings. On closer inspection, the primary text has at some stage been bound
with three other works: Leeuwenhoeks Arcana naturae detecta, a work on natural
history; Glaubners Miraculum mundi, a treatise on alchemy; and between them, a
slender volume named De occulta Brittanica. This anonymous work is along the
same lines as Gregorius writing, but amongst the common folk-tales of Europe are
descriptions of spells and rituals, many of them heavily annotated in two or three
different hands with oddly detailed instructions. Some of these marginalia seem to
imply that the writer had successfully performed the spells and even suggest minor
improvements. One or two refer to other books: an alchemical recipe is annotated in

Formula in Vlasstos is superior, and ritual for communing with the mothergoddess is struck through with a note: Looks unreliable, no ward cf. Goelius.
Keepers Note: this third note is from Charles Pierce.
SAN: 1d3/1d6
Mythos: +1
Occult: +4
Study Time: 16 weeks to study and comprehend.
Spells: Natures Communion (Attracted Animal), Forbiddance (Bind Enemy), Message
of Flame (Candle Communication), Confound (Cloud Memory), Natures Edict
(Command Animal), Dream Omen (Nightmare), Guise (Pose Mundane), Traveller
(Wandering Soul), various charms and potions of negligible effect.
The Stairway in the Sands. The Writings of Ethiopian scholars, exposed
and expounded in English, by Miss R. Mounsey, undated.
This is a tiny book, barely five inches high, and is printed unevenly in a very
old fashioned style, and the pages have been roughly cut. Part Two, On the
Persistance of the Soul, has been torn from the book; only a brief reference to it in
the foreword to the book is a rather rambling philosophical work, purporting to show
how the Ancients knowledge may illumine the mysteries of Being and the Ways of
Life. However, the author frequently diverges into the lives of these scholars and
the ways in which their understanding of the universe granted them near
miraculous powers. In particular, Miss Mounsey recounts their vengeance upon
those that betrayed or wronged them. Certain curses and rituals of retribution are
depicted with a gleeful air, and as the book progresses, it becomes an exultant and
ominous litany of contempt against the worthless fools who hound the seeker after
the truth. The last few pages descend into an unknown language.
SAN: 1d4/1d8
Mythos: +3
Time: 18 weeks
Spells: Cause/Cure Blindness, Mindblass, Voorish Sign, Wrack
Notebook of Charles Pierce in English and Russia, by Charles Pierce,
1833-1836 (various dates)
This is a simple notebook that contains instructions as neat and precise as any
recipe book, for the summoning and banishment of certain spirits and beings. Some

are in English, others in Russian. A number have been crossed out or marked
flawed.
English:
SAN: 1d3/1d6
Mythos: +3
Time: 3 weeks
Spells: Baneful Dust of Hermes Trismegistus, Banishment of Yde Etad, Elemental
Servant (Summon/Blind Fire Vampire), Spirit of the Air (Summon/Bind Nightgaunt),
Unmask Demon
Russian:
SAN: 1d4/1d8,
Mythos: +3
Time: 8 weeks
Spells: Call/Dismiss Shub-Niggurath, Contact Ghoul, Imprison Mind
Keepers Note: Only spells not crossed out by Pierce are listed above. The binding
spell for elemental servant is flawed and incomplete. The summoned fire vampire
will typically attack the summoner. Pierce never actually used this spell. The rituals
listed for imprison mind and call/dismiss shub-niggurath are ineffective.