This is the story of my first encounter with a demon...

It was back in high school... A couple of my friends had piqued my interests in the occult, and we'd been researching areas around the city of Lawrence, KS, where I lived at the time. One of my friends came on an old story about a local man-made fishing lake in the area, one by the name of Mary's Lake. The story was from a newspaper clipping from the late 1930's... Two men were charged with the murder of a young woman in the middle of the night at that location. Neither man had any association with the other, and both claimed that the woman had been floating on a raft in the lake, when a monster, which both men described as a large aligator with fur, leapt from the water, capsized her raft, and dragged her under...

The men were convicted and hanged, and the woman's body was never found.

Being the young and invincible high school students that we were (read: stupid, naive, and careless), we went out to investigate; I brought my runes, my friend brought his Tarot cards, both to try to speak with any spirits in the area...

VISIT #1: (Yes, we were stupid enough to go back after this point...)

I drove two of my friends there after dusk... One of my friends had already been and gone, having heard a woman's voice telling him it wasn't safe there after dark... (Which was, for the longest time, when the lake closed.)

Well, my friends and I got out of the vehicle... Using our respective runes and cards, we asked if there was anything in the area willing to speak... We both got very definite positive answers. Meanwhile, our other friend was attuning her eyes to see energy and spirits, and reported that there seemed to be some kind of glowing wall on the far side of the lake from us...

About that time, we all felt like we were being watched by something in the water... It still gives me chills, thinking about it... I asked what they wanted... My friend drew the Ten of Swords (Death, Destruction, Failure, etc.), and I drew Tir Inverted (pretty much the same)...

We took the hint, and left for that night, but vowed to come back and figure out who/what was behind that wall...

I'll post the rest later, since this post has already gotten a bit on the long side.

VISIT #2:

We returned to the site about a week or so later... This time, we brought our runes and cards more for protection than communication.

We shouldn't have stayed, that night... My truck's headlights shone between two trees that leaned over the roadway that led around the lake...and the light stopped at the shadow of the trees, as if there were simply nothing to illuminate there in the darkness. No ground, no nothing... Just darkness.

But, being the fools we were, we got out, and approached the lake... We didn't need to be able to see the invisible, as our friend could, to see the eyes looking up at us. They glowed a very faint and pale green... My friend and I cast spells of protection, while our other friend looked again at the wall, trying to see anything on the other side... Just as she was making out a humanoid shape walking along the wall, a tentacle slithered out of the water and grabbed our friend by the leg...

We freaked out. We hit the thing with the strongest spells we knew at the time, and it was the Tarot-reader's quick thinking that helped get our friend free... We ran to my truck, with the thing reaching out for us...

It took a burst of energy to keep it from latching onto the truck before we drove away, as fast as we could...

We should've known we were lucky to be alive. We should've let well enough alone. I did, mostly, but my friends wanted to go back, with greater numbers... I knew it was a bad idea, but I wasn't going to let my friends' names show up in the newspaper as having disappeared without a trace...

FINAL VISIT:

We talked to just about everyone in our school who was interested in the supernatural and the occult. Some of them made false claims of having abilities. Others had abilities, but I very much doubt how they came by those powers...

In any event, there were about 15 of us there that night...including my at-the-time girlfriend. We all arrived at a meeting point near the lake, and carpooled, so we could all arrive as close to the same time as possible... We arrived, and before we could even get out of our cars, we all suddenly felt terribly cold and hot at the same time...

Some of us started to get out, anyway. I don't remember if I was one of them or not... I just remember someone pointing and screaming, everyone piling back into our four or five cars and vans, and driving away as fast as possible...

The eyes were hovering, disembodied, over the water, and were watching us all.

...

I have to wonder who the woman was, in the news clipping... Perhaps she was a practitioner who had known the demon was there. Perhaps she died to seal the demon in the lake itself.

I do know that I have no doubts that the monster in that lake was, indeed, a demon, and that if it weren't at least partially sealed somehow, we would have all been dead on any of those nights... I do fear that our meddling may have been what allowed it to leave the lake as much as it did, but it never seemed able to completely leave the lake, so at least there's that...

Before I moved away from Kansas, I'd heard that there were plans to fill the lake in, and put office buildings in its place. Having looked on the Internet recently, I still find a listing of Mary's Lake as a fishing spot near Lawrence...

I wish, too, that I had access to the newspaper clipping, but it's only obtainable in microfilm at the Lawrence Public Library...

I have found two hits in my research this incident that may be of help.

1931: missing person 20 year old Mary O'Conner of Lawerence KS, was reported missing by her mother Ms. O'Conner 43 of Lawerence reported to police that her daughter and some friends left her house the evening of the 5th and when she failed to come home Ms. O'Conner reported her missing to the local authorities. A subsiquent investigation of the two youths youthe Mary was in the company of when she left her house. Found that shortly after she left her house with the younge ladies they parted company. with Mary stating she was going to a local meeting place for young lovers. As of today Ms. O'conner and family are still searching for there missing daugther.

Kansas city star July 9th 1931 edition

Second piece of information I have found is this.

Internal memo:
Marys lake restoration project

Work order 14-0731 is to be suspended till all injuries can be account for.
In the last three weeks workers in an around the drainage junction to I-10 and the clinton lake drainage creek junction have been exceedingly high. to recap 3 falls resulting in minor sprains and 1 broken bone, numerous cuts and as of last week 1 near fatal accident when some how one of the tree saws was left in the tree it almost hit a worker when it fell. So until we can sort out the terrain and worker safety issue on this project. we will move on to road clean up and standard park mantance till further notice.

signed

Senior engineer

I have deleted all the names of officials due to liabiltiy reasons. These two pieced of information. May be of use to a hunter in the area.

I will continue to track down a time line sketchy as it probly will be. I will post more as I find pertant information

Great an earthbound and I'm stuck over here in sunny England dealing with religous fanatics. So as much as I hate to say this, but if I cant make it over their and it does start maulling anything on two legs someone is going to have to go plan "B" and kill it.

KonThaak wrote:...my friends wanted to go back, with greater numbers...

That's how we handled the LA incident back in October. Of course, we took pro's who'd already seen some shit and you only had rookies, but the theory was sound.

Dante Andel wrote:...if I cant make it over their and it does start maulling anything on two legs someone is going to have to go plan "B" and kill it.

Can it be killed? It used to be a fuzzy alligator, and we could handle that, but I've never done better than a draw against a ghost and the incidents in the librarian's report don't sound like a fuzzy alligator's style.

The Lawrence Journal World story that my friend found in the library had the two mens' accounts of seeing what Mr. Long called the "fuzzy alligator"... I don't recall much else of the story, but I thought I remembered that the victim had no real relation with the two men, who were just there fishing...

Of course, the more I've thought about it over the years, the more I've wondered what she was doing on a raft. One doesn't usually fish from a raft on a lake that small, with cottonmouths in abundance in the area...

Librarian, could you possibly run a background check on Ms. Mary O'Conner, and see if maybe she was into things most normal people aren't?

I have found evidence in the archives that may be the key to the puzzle or another dead lead. I have found an incident from 1910 Georges Bank about a group of sailors who was harassed by as they described it monster that looked like a man except for the tail and fins of a dragon. I have a hypnosis’s that what they saw was a kelpie in one of its many forms. For those who are unfamiliar with kelpie I have included a translation from the brotherhoods records


Kelpie also known as the demon horse or dark water nymph

Habitat water mostly oceanic waters were they feed upon sea life or drowning victims but may make short limited trips onto land

Depending on the demons claimed area of habitation

Powers of note:
Shape change may turn into any creature it has come in contact unknown if it can mimic humanoid or bi pedal creatures.

Chameleon powers: can blend into its surrounding totally (witness accounts claim more like invisibility)

Known weaknesses:
Fire, chemical pollutants, destruction of its set home or area of domain

Known predators or enemies:
Vampire: Have a natural dislike for kelpies (reason unknown at this time)
Water nymphs (unknown at this time)
Other kelpies (will only tolerate another demon of its species during mating season)

Procreation: Three month rituals were the male and female will engage in a battle of one ups man ship.
The loser being the eggs host or precipitant

A clutch of eggs will usually be 3 to 4 hundred

During the mating ritual the kelpie will stop it’s preying and hunting of all else except that of a mate

This I have surmised is what is in the lake. But what caused it to be so deeply rooted from its habitat of original origin I do not know as of yet

the librarian wrote:I have a hypnosis’s that what they saw was a kelpie in one of its many forms. For those who are unfamiliar with kelpie I have included a translation from the brotherhoods records...

Naw, Jack, weren't kelpies those Japanese things that could be beaten by bowing or offering a personalized cucumber?

Willie Long wrote:Naw, Jack, weren't kelpies those Japanese things that could be beaten by bowing or offering a personalized cucumber?

Heh, I believe you're thinking of Kappas, but I agree... This doesn't make any sense. Why would a Kelpie be in a SMALL man-made lake (and I can attest that the lake was barely larger than a large swimming pool, so maybe the name "Mary's Pond" would've been more accurate), and furthermore, why would it feed only once, PERIOD? And on top of that, I had heard that Kelpies aren't true demons, but rather just monsters...or, if they are demons, as even your accounts imply, they have no more than a predatory animal's intelligence. This thing spoke to us through our divinational tools...

While the shapechanging might make sense, I can't help but believe that whatever's trapped in that lake has only adapted, not truly shapeshifted. And whatever it was in the lake most definitely had more than just a predatorial intent with us... That thing had an aura of malevolence that goes beyond anything a simple predator is capable of.

As I stated it is summary I am only a logistical cleric for the brother hood. I am not a informations gather or recorder. I have access to the archives and briefing summaries of all demons, supernatural creatures and other supernatural forces they have met and faced. I give what I find of pertance and as it was a water creature or demon of oppropriate demos I posted in hope that it may help. I am still looking over the tombs and other refrences at my disposal.

Ok without seeing and talking to this creature I cant make an accurate judgement on what it is but I do have a theory as to what it may be doing.

I'm guessing that it is guarding the lake from people for whatever reason, this could be because one of the older gods told it to or because a mortal who it was close to had hidden something there and its looking after whatever it is. Of course there's many other reasons that you could go by as well.

Now if it is a demon or earth spirit this is where it would get interesting it probably didn’t kill the woman just for the fun of it, what I am guessing is that either:

A- She was Looking for something she had no right looking for.
B- She was trying to bind the Demon (This is an extremely stupid idea as the vast majority of demons are not of Christian or Jewish origin and yelling "The power of Christ commands thee" or whatever generally just pisses them off)

There are other reasons but they are the two most common reasons for entities to attack someone.

Now the reason that I am willing to believe that it was a demon or an earth spirit over anything else is, from what I have heard from this board, trying to cover its tracks so to speak first by framing the two men for the murder thus stopping most people from coming to the lake looking. Course there would always be some other people who are too curious for their own good so when they show up instead of killing them which would lead to more people showing up, it scared them away doing whatever it could. Which in your case was Scary eyes and a tentacle to try and scare you away.

I'll look into this some more once I have the problems closer at home dealt with.

KonThaak wrote:Heh, I believe you're thinking of Kappas...

Yeah, could be. I don't know how some of you keep all those things straight.

Willie Long wrote:

KonThaak wrote:Heh, I believe you're thinking of Kappas...

Yeah, could be. I don't know how some of you keep all those things straight.

Well, I don't normally keep a lot of these things straight, but both my wife and I have studied the Japanese language (and, consequently, the culture) for years, now...and while I'm not completely fluent, I'm told I have a strong Kyoto accent. Oh, yeah, and we learned about things like different kinds of Japanese demons, monsters, oni, etc...and the rather interesting ways they're combatted.

I wouldn't bring a gun or a sword into a fight with most Japanese monsters, but I would bring a healthy helping of sweet red beans, salt, and nicknacks for gifts.

KonThaak wrote:

Willie Long wrote:

KonThaak wrote:Heh, I believe you're thinking of Kappas...

Yeah, could be. I don't know how some of you keep all those things straight.

Well, I don't normally keep a lot of these things straight, but both my wife and I have studied the Japanese language (and, consequently, the culture) for years, now...and while I'm not completely fluent, I'm told I have a strong Kyoto accent. Oh, yeah, and we learned about things like different kinds of Japanese demons, monsters, oni, etc...and the rather interesting ways they're combatted.

I wouldn't bring a gun or a sword into a fight with most Japanese monsters, but I would bring a healthy helping of sweet red beans, salt, and nicknacks for gifts.

And if you are going to deal with a Kappa, you need to bring cucumbers with you. It's the easiest thing to appease a Kappa with.

Librarian, could you possibly run a background check on Ms. Mary O'Conner, and see if maybe she was into things most normal people aren't?

Date May 12th 1911

Born to
Mother: Martha Joe willets- O’Connor age 23
Father: Sean O’Connor age 24

Birth place 117 crest lane
Delivering doctor: Mark Tobbs

Baby: Female
Weight lbs. about

Name Mary O’Connor

This is all that was found on a Ms Mary O’Connor in the census records for Kansas in the town of Lawrence for the years in question.
As for any more info the brotherhood has sent two of our number to invistigate this body of water to take karmic recording and to see if they may accertain the nature of this beast. For any hunter in this area please contact me for contact data if you wish in the collection effort [/quote]

the librarian wrote:Known predators or enemies:
Vampire: Have a natural dislike for kelpies (reason unknown at this time)

I am willing to help in this matter, if you are thinking of returning to resolve the matter. At the rate things are going here, it might be to my advantage to abandon this city, if for a time. If facing vampire hunters will become a nightly ritual, then lowering the crime rate will become far more difficult. But more on that strange escapade later, if there is ever a “more” to expound upon. At the present, there are five hunters that flee whenever I come into contact. They have a means of sensing me; I think I am right in supposing that one of them is a psychic sensitive. They always happen to search my lair when I am out hunting criminals/prey, and they scour the landscape during the day time, when it would be folly to go out and meet them. They have something sinister planned for me.
But back to my reason of posting: if you are seeking to permanently expel this creature from the lake, and it does happen to be a “kelpie,” I offer my services. If it be a more powerful demon seeking to release the restraints of its watery prison, all the more reason to destroy it before innocent lives are lost as they attempt to fill in the lake. Consequently, could this action seal the creature in permanently, or would it be freed?

Celeste Darken

Celeste Darken wrote:Consequently, could this action seal the creature in permanently, or would it be freed?

At this time, it's very difficult to say... For one, we don't know for sure what it is, though I'm almost positive it isn't a Kelpie. For another, we don't know what, exactly, it is bound to...

If it's bound to remain in that area, then filling in the lake wouldn't do anything; neither permanently imprisoning it nor freeing it. However, if it's bound to the waters of the lake, then it may be released into Clinton Lake, where the waters are diverted. While not particularly being freed in this scenario, it would give it a much larger hunting ground, which may or may not empower it. Finally, if it's bound to "Mary's Lake", destroying the lake may permanently imprison it, or free it, depending on how it was bound.

I only know that it had more sinister intent than simple predatory animal intelligence provides, and that the negative energies pouring off it very closely matched the descriptions of most demonic entities I've heard of. Not having dealt with any other demons of that power level since, I guess I have to admit that I'm not absolutely certain that that's what it is, but all signs currently point in that direction...

I have found one other demon of water based origins that may fit your description. If the lake has been blessed this may be it. I am sorry for the translation is a little rough I had to substitute some words as the correct translation made no sense.

From a eleventh century text on demon and water spirts of the known world.
The water-man (Wendish wodny muz), also called the nix (Wendish nykus), as well as the water-woman (wodna zona), lives in the rivers, lakes, and ponds. He tempts passers-by to go bathing or swimming, in order to drown them. This he does to everyone He/She feels slights them or to those who trespass into their domain while partaking of there domains water. Blue spots on a drowned person's body are a sign that the nixes caused the drowning.

In appearance a nix cannot be distinguished from a human. On dry land he/she is powerless, and can be taken prisoner and forced into servitude. They produce children like man and wife, and these interact with human children. They even associate with humans at dances and fall in love with pretty girls and young men. In there true form how ever they are reminiscent of a many tentacle monster of the deep. There song is alluring and acts upon the sirens call to all who hear it. The only know defense against this creature is to have the clergy bless all areas that may be considered places of infestation and this will trap the demon beneath the waves and limit its power until it may be banished by the clergy unto the level of hell.

if this is indead the beast then it is a formadable one and it may be destroyed once the consicatrated land has been filled in with blessed earth.

Definitely an interesting lead, but it still leaves one question open... What was with the "fuzzy aligator"...?

I am as of yet unable to find mention of what the gentle men you quoted as saying a" fuzzy aligator", but I am looking for water based supernatural enities that may fit the desciption of the monster that our investigation team has subdued more info as it becomes avaible.

I have urgent and possible grave news to report. My brotherhood has lost contact with the team we sent to investigate said problem. They have missed the last two scheduled contact times as of 0047 last night. At last report they had engaged and subdued what was in there description a minion of the lake demon, A 10 foot reptilian bi-pedal with webbed feet and hand One of the team was injured by the creature but not grievously. There second and final report was to report in that the creature in the lake seems to be for all intents and purposes tied to the lake as its powers of force and mental command lessen at or around 100 meters from the waters edge. But I would call to any hunters in the area that if you are investigating this matter to please help my order in finding our three lost brothers.

I apologize for getting members of your order into trouble... I wish I had the freedom to go back and help, but I'm too far away, now...

It is most ok kon thaak my order have been around for many more yeas than I can devulge. So it is not the first or last time we will lose men to the cuase. But at least they were sent or killed from our realm fighting. That which they swore their lives to defeat.

What every monster in the lake needs, guys in robes telling it get lost. Then it applies the barbeque sauce and its Taco Bell time. Time for a air fuel bomb to clean out the lake. That is of course if you aren't dealing with psycho with a knife.

Gothicfox I appreciate it if you did not make fun of suck a heavy loss, And your idea of fixing the problem is summed up in two words "no Idea" The brothers we sent were trained operatives with many years of field training in these matters. Unlike some they are required to study the known foes and rest of the research is left to my section of the order. An I can tell you sir that we dont wave at demons and tell them to leave. And as for your air bomb technic just tell me and every one here your idea of the value at which you place human life

Human life is something I do value. All be it, selectively considering what I do for a living. So don't get overwrought when I say you may have went in with the wrong mind set to deal with, well, whatever the problem is. If you go to a fight looking for a msytery from the Scooby Doo movie, you get the same result that probably happen with this lake.

You order or whatever your merc group calls itself, needs to be a little more forceful. If I actually believe what been put up, you got enough information to probably figure whats going on with out farting around with the lake unless your trying to provoke what might be there. It already showed signs of hostile aggression towards anyone who shows up looking for it.

What happen to yoru men is what happens alot of the time in the battlefield. They thought they knew what was going on and got whacked because they got over confident. Trust me, it happens.

And take this as personal critizicism. Everyone's got they hang-ups, mine is watching bad ops get compounded with the call for more pepole to come help when you don't really know whats going on.

Sir I think you misread what my brotherhood does. We are not what you call a mercenary group. We are a network of scholars, researchers and historians. Who study and catalog the evil of the world to assist those who do fight it. The men who were sent out were part of our retrieval and capture team. Yes we understand that we may lose men, to this pursuit but it is necessary to the cause. I ask any hunters that were in the area to please be on alert in case one of my brothers showed up on there respective radars. An as for your question of the team poking around the pond they were under orders if they saw it pertinent that they were to try and banish the creature or seal it in permanently As there were two mages in the group. As for the groups MIA status I have inquired into the retrieval divisions option they say it is not uncommon for teams to disperse and have infrequent radio traffic if mission as they said go south so we hold hope. But I must say some good news has come of this incident. I have it on good authority that our Midwest chapter has received the package at which they were sent. I am heading out as of this morning to head up the recording of the research on this find. I will keep the agency posted on our findings.

Seeing as everything has went quiet around here I could fly over to where ever this is in America and help out with an investigation if anyone else is thinking on going there for some recon as Caliburn said. Plus there's some artifacts that my family needs to return to some people over there so it would be a good time to do that aswell.