Adventures in Abandoned Mining Town Exorcisms

[Gotham Witch]

Not too long ago I was contracted by an R&D company to see about the survey and likely exorcism/pest removal of a pair of abandoned mining towns located on the Ontario/Quebec provincial border. The job, while large, seemed straight forward enough, and the terms were quite generous.

The company's initial plan was relatively straight forward - bulldoze the older 1800s town, renovate and upgrade the newer settlement. Complications arose when a series of supernatural incidents (ghosts sightings, machinery breaking down, items floating or being tossed around, etc) were reported. The land owner, while expecting some possible hauntings, had not expected quite so much trouble when he purchased what seemed like a steal of a land buy. Construction could not continue until the supernatural situation was dealt with.

That's where I come in.

[Gotham Witch]

42 Gremlins

That isn't a typo. There were 42 of them across the area, and they were my most immediate problem.

Issues began to arise almost from the moment I set up camp in one of the newer town's old buildings. The generator I had set up to get me electricity suffered a catastrophic failure within an hour of my arrival. Further investigation revealed ripped wires and busted circuitry. The deliberate nature of the sabotage was obvious even before Esme managed to drag one to me, snapping its neck as it dis-incorporated.

Sometimes cats have their uses.

There wasn't a whole lot of technology left to bust. The newer town had been abandoned sometime ago, and whoever had once lived in older ghost town had never so much heard of electricity. Of course, I was the only living thing in the area that would be of much interest to the little mongrels, and they were... innovative to say the least.

I spent a good share of my morning clearing out the houses near my area with my Remington, an air rifle loaded with copper pellets, a hunting cat and little tricks of magic. I had to play this carefully since gremlins were known for their trickery. A ceiling fan rigged to decapitate someone (avoided by clever use of magical sound and an illusion), a collapsed staircase (levitation), and being attacked by a riding mower (pouncing cat) were amongst some of their attempts to get rid of me.

Things got dicier as soon as I approached the mines and the maintenance areas. My employer had brought in some machinery and retrofitted some older excavation equipment for his upgrades, so this would be where the gremlins would have focused their efforts.

I approached the area that the excavation equipment had been digging a large square hole before the project was abandoned, the owner likely expanding the storage and maintenance facility. The equipment had been abandoned where it sat, likely due to equipment failure or something scaring off the workers.

I took an approach between some of the houses at the edge of the pit, opting to try and stay out of sight. There was the distinct smell of propane nearby; likely one of the household tanks had sprung a leak. Clearly I had to be careful not to create a spark.

Lo and behold, I spotted one of the mischievous things atop an excavator, smashing at the console. Quietly, i moved closer, grabbing my air rifle and lining up my shot.

That's when I heard a giggle from behind me, followed by the lighting of a match.

Cursing, I scrambled over the precipice and went tumbling down the side of the carved out hole not half a second before the explosion. Flaming debris rained down around me as i went tumbling down the hill, ears ringing.

I crashed hard into a pile of dirt clods at the bottom, my head spinning as I sat up. Over the tinnitus in my ears I could hear cackling laughter all around me, small silhouettes hovering over the edge of the pit all around me.

There was a a squeak of a brake being released above me. I looked up and to my left, just in time to see an excavating machine, smoke trailing from its exhaust beginning to slide down the hill. I could see a gremlin in the cabin laughing as he aimed for me. Not at my most coordinated, I managed to fall out of the way as the machinery rolled past, crashing into the side of the pit.

Looking around, I saw my shotgun underneath the the excavator, undamaged but stuck for now. The air rifle however was within arm's reach, and I managed to grab it as the arm on the excavator swung about, the gremlin trying to hit me with the bucket.

Tumbling backwards, the bucket swept past me as i lined up a shot, taking aim at the gremlin from the un-windowed side of the cabin. There was a soft thwunp as the pellet struck the little bastard right in the eye, causing him to scream in pain as he dissipated into a small explosion of ashes and smoke.

Reaching beneath the now immobile excavator, I dragged my shotgun out as I looked around, seeing the gremlins scattering about in a panic. There was only one way out of the pit, and that was up a dirt ramp - one that currently had a skid loader barreling down it, several gremlins behind the controls screaming something or another at me.

I looked up above, seeing several more attempting to roll some high pressure tanks of industrial gas or liquid on me. Taking aim with my shotgun, I fired at one of the tanks, dinging it and causing a low hissing noise.

There was a look of panic on the gremlin's face as I snapped my fingers and gestured, the tanks exploding with fire and shrapnel from a largely safe distance.

Looking back, the skid loader was barreling down on me, its windshield too shieded for me to directly assault the gremlins. However, the excavator was still operational, if not pilotless.

Reaching over as I took a few steps back, I focused a bit of magical power as I 'grabbed' the control lever I saw the gremlin pulling, tugging down on it. Immediately the excavator's arm swung around, into the path of the skid loader, smashing the pilot's compartment as it knocked the vehicle on its side.

Had I known how to bring the bucket down to crush the gremlins, I would have done that. Instead I just fired a few angry blasts of buckshot into the compartment. Little bastards.

The rest of the day was spent clearing the remaining area of the pests. I want to say it was exciting, but really it was Esme herding them into the open while I exterminated them through various cathartic means.

42 gremlins, 11 hours, numerous scrapes and ringing ears. Sheesh. Can this trip get worse?

[Cybermancer]

I hate Gremlins. Bloody rotten little blotters.

Looks like you're off to a good start up there, Mel.

[Athena]

Gremlins sound scary.

[Grace]

That's a lot of Gremlins. Any idea why there were so many in one spot?

[Gotham Witch]

Honestly, after some exploration of the copper mine, I'm wondering if someone did not find some way to herd and trap them in there. There are some rooms where copper is clearly exposed in the walls but never excavated.

Why they didn't just kill them, I'm not sure.

[Gotham Witch]

6 Ghosts

There were six ghostly entities present at the site, a smaller number than I had expected. What wasn't expected was the unusual difficulty of their removal. Attempts to exorcise or banish them failed; they continued returning, more or less acting out some traumatic event in their lives. That event however was not always the one that killed them. Regardless, helping them come to terms with what happened to them in life allowed them to move onto the next life.

I'll go into more detail in future posts.

[Gotham Witch]

Werewolves

Not long after I set up shop, I started hearing howling at night - a lot of it. After my recent encounters with therians over the psat few years, I took the steps to board up the house I had commandeered, warding it and loading silver into my shotgun.

Still, there was no encounter until the next night, when I was going through the 'new' town looking for any lingering gremlins. Esme began hissing, which I thought was her sensing more of the little bastards.

That was, of course, until a large furry arm punched a hole through the door, ripping the rest of it off of its hinges to reveal the rest of the large, snarling werewolf.

I didn't have silver loaded, since I was hunting gremlins. I did have a silver plated knife, but I wasn't about to go in stabbing range. So, being brave under pressure, I ran for the living room to clear space between us, cat in tow. What can I say? I'm not suicidal.

The werewolf snarled as it lumbered after me, picking up a kitchen chair and tossing it at my head. He narrowly missed (not by a lot, mind) as I ducked around the corner, the chair striking the doorway and shattering into a hail of splinters. Getting a brief respite, I reached into my messenger bag to pull out a round glass vessel, shaking it quickly as fine particulates mixed within a clear solution.

I slipped in thinking the therian was going to go around the corner. As I waited for him to stick his head out, the hound's huge hand went crashing through the wall, socking me hard enough to send me spiraling to the ground several feet away. As it leaned its head through the space that used to be a wall, I managed enough wherewithal to toss the globe right into its face.

The glass shattered harmlessly, lacking silver to actually hurt it. But it was the contents that mattered; the solution sprayed into a fine mist as the werewolf wheezed and coughed, covering its eyes.

I drew my knife as I picked myself off the ground, shuffling back and murmuring a spell. Now blind and pissed, the werewolf swatted where I was, missing as I telekinetically tossed my knife, impaling him straight in the shoulder with a howl. Continuing to back up, I pulled my hand downwards, the silver edge in kind as it cut through fur and muscle.

He really did not like that, snarling and swatting blindly where he thought I was, a bit oblivious to the fact no hand was holding that knife. By this point though, it didn't matter as I was already out the front door, yanking the knife inward towards his chest as hard as I could before I lost concentration. It wasn't going to kill him, but it would be enough to hopefully make him lose interest as I made my escape.

I managed to make it back to my 'fort', locking myself behind fortified doors and spells while loading silver shells and waiting for the worst.

Several hours passed and nobody came, until 4 AM, when there was a polite knock on my door.

[Grace]

Those polite knocks are always the worst.

[Gotham Witch]

I woke up on the floor of dipapitated house I'm certain I had never been in before, covered in mud and aching everywhere.

No, I didn't forget I was telling a story from last post. I just didn't remember what happened after the doorbell rang, which probably means someone was messing around in my head. I never like it when that happens.

I sat up and took stock of things. I had a lot of mud on me and blood - not all of which I was sure was mine. I had some sizable gashes along my forearm and flank. I was fairly certain my left elbow was dislocated. I made the mistake of trying to extend my arm and found myself hard-pressed not to curse in latin. Yep, it was probably dislocated.

My equipment situation wasn't much better. I was unarmed except for a pocket knife, and had nothing else except my clothes. My messenger bag was missing too. While I could work magic just fine with it, it did limit me to simpler incantations.

Besides, that bag had sentimental value. I needed it back.

I took a few moments to reset my elbow, using the technique Darcy showed me once to twist the radius back in line with the joint. It hurt possibly more than me finding out it was dislocated, but at least I could move my arm again... sort of.

Stepping out of the shack, I saw that it was along a creek near the edge of the hill. I was a few miles away from base, the valley with the old town on the other side of the town. My watch said it was about 5 PM - meaning I was missing about 12-15 hours of my life.

Oh yeah, there was a dead werewolf practically on my doorstep.

As I approached warily, ignoring the flies swarming around it, I could see that its chest cavity was split open, its contents spilled out down the drainage towards the creek. It was like someone had tried to wash away its entrails with a hose and did a shoddy job at it. The corpse wasn't even gnawed upon - it was just ripped open and left to rot.

I really wish I knew what happened last night.

I opted to drop out of sight - literally and invisibly - as I made my approach back towards town along the creek. I needed to get back to my 'base' so I could rearm, maybe treat some of these cuts before they got infected. It was starting to get dark too and I didn't want to be in the woods late.

It was a long walk back to down if it were a straight shot. Along the creek it wasn't much quicker, though it was dry. Of course, as it got darker, I started becoming more concerned with the shadows hovering over me.

I was almost back to town when I began to hear howling in the distance. That wasn't the first time I had ever heard it, but it was a lot closer than I would have preferred. The unsettling part was there was more than one, and they sounded... angry?

Briskly, I continued on, exhausted but at a good pace all things considered.I could see the silhouette of the old mill along the next bend. If I could just get into town I'd feel less exposed.

Of course, that's when I saw movement on top of the hill. At least five figures, roughly humanoid and larger than a man. One of them paused up there, howling up into the sky. The other four joined in, sending a shiver down my shine.

Werewolves. Again. Crap.

I did the rational thing one could do in this situation and dived for cover, hoping they hadn't seen me I took cover beneath an overhanging bend of the creek, under some long grass roots. I had just enough magic left in me to weave a concealment together, blending me in with the shadows. Hopefully, it would be enough.

I heard several heavy footsteps come to a stop above me, followed by some growling and heavy breathing. I held my breath, waiting to see what would happen, even as I felt like my heartbeat was going to give me away. Eventually, the figures leaped forth, the furry giants bounding on both sides of the creek into the woods.

I waited a few seconds after they were out of sight, before I scrambled out of the creek and up towards the mill.

It was long to be a long night.

[Last Moon]

Gotham Witch, if you have the time I would like to hear more of your encounter with these therianthropes.