3. On Monsters, Men, and Gods and their Magic. (draft)

1.  Demonic/possessed creatures.

• May overcome you with their fearful appearance and embodiment of soul-shredding evil. 
•  Have a strength that belies their size.
• Cold Iron is effectively baneful against devil-dogs.
• Be aware demonic creatures may be summoned by dabblers in black magic who are not powerful enough to effectively control the monster.  The summoning may be via a magical talisman (ex, an amulet).EDIT: Hollis appeared to attempt to summon the Huntsman by "opening the gate" using the severed hands of the Order of the Chalice, candles, and the ley lines of the Wigan swamps, but failed to control what he had summoned, and was duly punished for his proud blasphemy.
• Bury any remains in consecrated ground to ensure no further disturbance, and to grant any possessed soul its due rest. (see below note on African beliefs regarding war-demons). 

2.  Vampires. Note, I have been told there are many "types of vampires." Not all weapons may work for each species.

    A. Romanian-Byzantine Vampire

• Looks like a handsome, high-born man of elegance and good manners, but exceedingly pale. Was able to shift-shape into the form of a large bat, and also many smaller bats which bite.
• Could climb to the rooftop (or fly).  
• Enormous strength. Normal weapons and silver bullets seemed ineffective. 
• Attacks by sucking the blood from its victims via sharp fangs. May also use brute strength or, presumably, weapons when in human form. 
• Immortal (?) or very long-lived, able to keep its ties with mortals intact
• Lives underground in a coffin lined with dirt (maybe it cannot bear sunlight?)
• I seemed to have some success in weakening its form by concentrating on reducing its will to live, by inviting it to embrace Death. A lady ally also persuaded the creature to accept death.
• The lady's wooden stake through the heart effectively slew the vampire, leaving only dust and bones, which we ensured were collected and buried in consecrated ground, with a proper memorial to honor the ancestor of a prominent lady Mancunian.  

3.   Man-made monsters/hybrids (Note, see Chapter 4, Rippertech for more information).

    A.   Dead bodies reassembled. 

• The reanimated, combined corpse-parts of Herr Spinner's ghastly experiment seemed enlivened only by the presence of a pump apparatus attached near the lower spine containing some unknown liquid. 
• The creatures showed little intelligence other than to perform their tasks at hand, whether they were of great size or small. 
• Herr Spinner also seemed to have created more sophisticated half-man, half-animal soldiers trained to fight as any infantry, but with terrible combinations of dog-heads, cat's paws, etc mixed with human anatomy. 

• Destroyed with sustained attacks of our guns and blades. 

   B.  Were-creatures.

• Half-man, half-lions created by [REDACTED] were of enormous brute strength and ferocity, as if their natural qualities had been greatly exacerbated
• Did not react to wounds, as if pain was beyond them
• Weakened by normal attacks, but felled by bullets of gold and an officer's gilt dress sword.

4.   Miscellaneous Religious Beliefs, Blessings, Protections, Curses, and other Magic.

    A. Christian Churches.

• I have yet to find signs of any holy miracles or protections of the Christian Church; however, we have met a priest who felt his church was a sanctuary from witches' curses and sickness. There were some crosses upon the walls. 
• He also gave me a quantity of holy water, but I do not yet know how to use it. 
•  It is believed that witches may be exterminated by burning them at the stake. 
• GH tells me of the Key of Solomon being used by Rosicrucians as binding magic. 
• The gold chalice was activated when the blood of the cultists, all of whom were apparently descended from knights, was delivered from their bodies by an athame and combined in the cup upon their inscribed altar.  A bit of this power remained, and I was able to view the ghastly murders of the Order as if I had stepped back in time and was there myself to watch Hollis do his terrible deed. 

   B. Eastern religions. 

• One of my own party believes he is protected from evil by the emblems tattooed on his body of the Hand of Fatima (a protective hand against the evil eye) and the  nabi booti (a wild-grinned, black-faced protector). Updated: When struck by the red hell-fire of the Rakshasha, Murphy's clothes were scorched, but the Hand burned through his shirt and did seem to protect him from a great harmful blast he may have otherwise suffered.
• As a prisoner of war in Afghanistan, I encountered a group of scimitar and opium sickle-wielding women who danced themselves into a strange gyrating frenzy that culminated in unspeakably depraved sexual violence. Their eyes rolled back and they had a strength greater than a man's. Several of the imprisoned men seemed mesmerized and unable to save themselves, even, I daresay, willing to succumb to the murderous and mutilating she-devils.
• The Sikhs and Buddhists of my childhood believed in reincarnation, and sometimes souls could recall their past lives or objects from their past lives. 
• The people of the himalayas believe in dragons, although they are greatly varied and more strange than the ones in our English legends. 
• We fought the Rakshasha, a frightening demon-like man with a wild mask-like face and backwards tiger paws for hands.  He would slap the ground to conjure ghosts of Punjabi warriors. He could make them enlarge. He had a maniacal laugh, and fired hot crimson bolts of burning energy. He would sic his Punjabis on me, but none hurt me. He seemed reluctant to attack me, but as he hurt my compatriots, I had no choice but to attack him in his tiger form. He was soon felled by Ivan's sure bullet. The Rakshasha turned back into a man, staring wildly at the hamsa as he died. The remaining Punjabs disappeared. 

    C.  The Old Ones/Witchcraft/Herbal Magic.

• Boughs of the Alder tree may shield one's person or home from curses/illness.  
• The Deity of Poison, Belghast, was summoned or appeared to protect the Witches at Wigam.
• The witches may also have had a great stag as a familiar, but not all animal companions are evil, or even willing companions. Some are forced into servitude as readily as we break horses.
• Note the Zulus consumed a strange mushroom that agitated them into a bloodthirsty frenzy and also made their eyes turn red.  Even our native forces sometimes partook of this fungi, as well as smoking the Indian hemp grown for rope. 

   D. African Tribal Witchcraft.

• There is a great fear of white things. Not only white men. White symbolizes death. 
• There is a strong belief in the power of the ancestors. 
• There are many superstitions regarding the new moon as a time of inaction unless evil befall you.  
• Singing and dancing can enchant you, allow spirit communication and healing, and strengthen your will for battle while terrifying your enemy. 
• During war, a man is possessed by an evil spirit.  If the man dies, you must remove his head or eviscerate him so the spirit can escape back to hell. Otherwise, the dead man will rise at night and terrorize villagers.  

E.  Magic Powers and Unexplained Phenomena.

   A.  Mental Phenomena.

• in time I shall write in detail of my own experiences with my gifts. 

   B.  Physical Phenomena.

• The horseless carriages that seem to know what direction to take to any destination. 
• Prospero's ability to scale rooftops and fencetops.
• The glowing green lights in the Woods of Wigam. 
•  The reanimated dead at Rorke's Drift and Hlobane. 
• The eclipse at Islandwana.  

    C. People with Arcane Powers.

Dr. Bertram Hollis.  A doctor who failed to cure the sick in Wigam, also described as a warlock.

• The goblins appeared to be at his beck and call, created the illusion of transforming innocent children into creatures similar.  
• When he planted his staff into the ground, it created a great tremor that knocked some on their feet.
• He cast forth a sickly green light which seemed to have a weakening or confusing effect on his victim.
• He appeared to have a magical shield similar to the one I may conjure, if not more powerful.

Black Jack Thorne.  Renown Pugilist, Senior Lodge Member.

• He appeared in a puff of acrid smoke that smelt of burnt wood. Likewise, his skin trailed black ashes when he moved his limbs, and the ground was scorched where he did appear. 
• the man was able to appear with our party, then, in a moment's blink, transport himself invisibly to appear a good 200 yards afoot.
• As he confronted Hollis, Jack's face glowed like the embers of a resurging fire, and I spied two small horns emerging from his hellish brow. But once the threat departed, the man verily became calm and normal-looking.  He says he can "mostly" control this effect. 

Spinner's Gauntlets of Lightning.

• This energy seems to be without magical quality, but it is hard to tell.  Enormously painful volts generated by his massive armored gloves paralyzed and seared those whom suffered from his blows. Perhaps these gauntlets were a secret weapon of the Oldham lodge, and are represented in their black fist emblem?