I have made my way up into the hills of West Virginia and have come across stories in the back country camping area I am passing through of an alarming increase of what seem to be disappearances. At this point there are an estimated 10 people who have not checked in when there were supposed to with family and friends, of those 4 where people who went in search of someone who disappeared earlier. As of right now the authorities/media are not doing anything because all of the people are listed as not leaving the area for another week or more, but this has the feeling of something being wrong.

Any ideas on what this could be?

Could be anything from bumbling city slickers to serial killers. You don't have any information at all yet.

All I know so far is that 3 of the people that disappeared are accomplished trackers that knew the area well (hunted and/or worked there).

2 of the people disappeared while others were around. They stayed behind the group with their gear to go look at something they saw the day, and were supposed to meet up by that night at the next chosen campsite and never made it. The other 2 stopped communicating with their loved ones the next night.

The original three that vanished were last know to be going to investigate an abandoned mine that they had found. Their last message said that it looked like it had been untouched for over 100 years at least.

I am currently looking through the local record archives (amazing how few computers there are in this area), and hopefully will find something regarding the mine as it is my only lead.

No bodies? Is the camping gear still around, or has that disappeared as well? How about camping sites, signs of struggle or any strange growths near by? Anything that is unusual that may have been missed by more mundane hunters, such as no animals in area, or increased insect activity or webs? Could be just a bunch of people going missing, but from sound of it, would say no. If supernatural would need more info before hazarding a guess as to what it could be.

I've been saying that forever...

I don't think the world is ready for two Rons.

Adapt or die... hehe

The disappearances are odd. It is like they just vanished while taking a step. I went into the woods with a group of townspeople and found no evidence that anyone had been in the woods in that area, including animals.

Hrmm.. perhaps they ran into what me and some of my collegues like to refer as JumpGates. They are a quantum phenomenon that usually only occur in the areas between sub-atomic to the cellular level. Its basically where a disturbance opens up between two points in space and they sort of switch places. It happens very often. Occasionally it happens on a larger scale due to the earth's magnetic grid, and ionic grid. Interestingly enough, many nexus points coincide with the earth's magnetic gridlines, where they meet, there is also usually a Nexus, but this is not always the case.

Perhaps they ran into a JumpGate, or rift in the fabric of space? Similar has happened before. People just vanishing right in front of their families eyes, without any sort of performer around or anything. They just stepped into what seemed to be nothingness.

(Please note, this is a very very brief description of my entire understanding of this particular subject works... so if need be I will elaborate, but preferably only in PM)

Finally got my first break on this thing. It seems that the mine in question, is a almost forgotten part of this town's history. I found an old archive of a local paper that tells as story of a killer in the region. A latvian family moved into the area to work the mines, and shortly there after a series of brutal murder took place. The last victim, one of the latvian family members, disappeared walking home from work and was never found.

The local version of the story is that a couple of the other workers found out who was responsible and ambushed him on the way home. The dragged him back up to the mine, killed him, and buried him somewhere in the mine itself. The mine got played out a few months later and eventually it was forgotten to almost everyone except local historians.

So I think I might be dealing with some sort of pissed off spirit. I am just not sure how it is managing to make others disappear or why?

We (as in me and a local ranger) ended up having to go out there tonight. Lucky to make it back alive, as it was only my packing rocksalt in my shotgun that saved us.

We did manage to rescue the latest victim (disappeared this afternoon), but was not able to stop whatever it is here fully. We only just managed to bring the mine shaft back down again, hopefully trapping it again.

It appeared to be a phantom wolfman. Not sure exactly what it was, but rocksalt disrupted it. If anyone is feeling up to it and think they can handle this thing, PM me and I will give you the details of where to find this place. Unfortuantely, this one is out of my league.

Phantom wolfman...? Yeah, that sounds like a big league monster to me.

If salt affected it, silver and cold-wrought iron will, too. Any idea what its MO was? How it was luring travelers away, or where the other travelers have ended up?

I am West Virginia, I still have a few days before I have to be here, I can come and look.

I believe the creature was a Vilkacis. It is listed as a type of violent monster that was originally a person. It was similar to a werewolf. Occasionally, a vilkacis brought treasure or was otherwise beneficial. Alternative names include Vilkatas, Vilkatis.

The deeper research turns up that a person becomes one by letting their spirit turn feral either in actions or by dreams. It eventually leaves the body and takes on a wolfman form, but normally gets trapped outside of the body and runs rampant until destoryed. I think it was caught in the cave in and has been trapped for a while.

I think it was using or being used by another spirit that is known as a Vadātājs (translates as Leader). It is a demon that gets people in the woods lost by confusing them. Either by invisibly causing people to walk in circles or visibly as appearing as a dog or person that leads people to their deaths.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to come up with a solution on how to kill it. Perhaps salting and destroying the remains will get rid of the spirit, but to be honest I am really guessing as Latvian creatures are far from my expertise.

Do you have confirmation on your Leader Demon? Dark Fae/Unseelie are fond of creating foxfire, or using Will-o-the-wisps to lure people into places where they will be killed, one way or another...

And the faeries have a bit more of a foothold in our world than demons do, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

In any case, cold iron should help, and as always, proceed with caution.

I am sure it is what I described. It tried multiple times to get us to go in other directions, first appearing as a small lab trying to get us to follow it and then as a small child crying out in the woods. It stopped trying about halfway to the mine. I guess it realized we were already heading where we would be hurt.

Everything that happens point to it being what I describe. It is just hard to believe the two would be working together, but then one might be taking advantage of the other.