The Ghost of Heddon Manor
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Author: Steve Hatherley
Homepage: http://www.flar.demon.co.uk/
System: Call of Cthulhu
Type: Hook
Category: Horror
Requirements:

	The Ghost of Heddon Manor: The manor of Heddon on 
	the south side of Exmoor in Devonshire, where the 
	winds never cease to blow, is an ancient and 
	haunted place. The moor is steeped in legend and 
	superstition, but none are so well documented as 
	the water-spirit of Heddon Manor.
	  It was first recorded in 1834 by Lord Poppleford, 
	who then lived in the manor.
	  Lord Poppleford often dreamt during his sleep and 
	kept diaries of his lengthy (and often highly 
	unusual) night-time experiences. These were kept by 
	his bed and in them he also recorded the water-
	spirit, as he so described it. He writes:
	  "May 25, 1837. The Water-Spirit visited again last 
	evening. Once again I was made aware of a great 
	sloshing sound that came as if from beneath the very 
	ground on which the manor sits. Having woken me in 
	the dead of night, I listened for over an hour as 
	the sounds paced to and fro. Eventually, they 
	receded. When I woke in the morning, I found that, 
	as before, there were damp stains on the floor and 
	the kitchens were flooded. There was an unholy 
	smell about the manor, as if something wet had 
	died."
	  Other effects attributed to the ghost include 
	"sweating walls" and the air smelling "as of the 
	sea." The damp stains were quite a common sign that 
	it had passed, as were the "sloshing sounds" that it 
	made at night. Lord Poppleford never actually saw 
	the ghost.
	  Since that time the water-spirit has only 
	infrequently appeared. The last documented sighting 
	was in 1895 when it caused the (then current) 
	occupant to move hurriedly. Heddon Manor now stands 
	unoccupied.
	OLD COUNTRY HOUSES, T A Fleming, 1917

Possibilities

1 The Water-Spirit is an old Deep One that lives in subterranean caverns beneath Heddon Manor. It is trapped there by an ancient spell, only able to escape into the manor and feed from the larder at limited times.

2 It is a genuine ghost. The restless spirit of a fisherman haunts the manor. The Lord of the Manor wronged him, sending him to his death in a terrible storm. He now haunts the great house and those that live there.

3 It is mere legend and superstition. The combination of a damp, old house and some unusual, windswept, caverns (which produce the sloshing sounds) caused Lord Poppleford to imagine rather more than there was.

Copyright (c) 1990 Steve Hatherley
steve@flar.demon.co.uk