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Introduction:
Early in the foetid spring months of the year of Our Lord two thousand and fifteen, an unusually savage storm struck the ancient village of Shoreham, Nova Scotia, leading to a hideous discovery and ultimately the creation of the book which you now hold in your hands.
Spring Storms are not uncommon to the region, although this particular storm was unusual both in its savage intensity and its untimely arrival. Dubbed ‘Ana’ by the powers that be who are responsible for the naming of such monstrosities of nature, the storm began its violent life in the Greater Antilles and wound its trough of destruction of the Eastern coast of North America an entire month before such things usually begin to occur.
It is a strange coincidence that a known leader of the local Cult was incarcerated shortly before the storm hit the region after vowing to unleash the fury of the Wind-God Pazuzu upon the villagers for their part in his arrest, but that is a story for another text.
What is certain is that on May the twelfth of that year, Ana made landfall at Shoreham, bringing with her a deluge of rain such as had not been not seen in that particular region in several decades. While the damage from wind normally associated with such storms was negligible, and there were no deaths nor injury reported, many homes and businesses were flooded beyond repair.
The plot of land now occupied by the descendants of the venerable and eccentric Whitford clan was spared the brunt of the Ana’s wrath, except for an aged barn which occupied the North-Eastern corner of the family plot. The foundation of the small barn was severely undermined by the virulent runoff, and it collapsed into an undiscovered or forgotten chamber that had existed beneath it.
After the storm had subsided, members of the family investigated the wreckage and discovered that the barn had been built atop the ancient and unremembered foundations of the Temperance Hall, which had occupied the land in the late Nineteenth Century.
The discovery of human remains at the site is now a matter of public record, if one is inclined to dig. The media reports about the discovery appear to have been suppressed, although the current owners have been cleared beyond doubt of any wrongdoing, the coroner having determined the skeletal remains had been interred at the site for over a hundred years.
The coroner’s report, if one is able to locate it, has many curious points to make. The condition of the bones is said to be poor, and the not all of the gnawing had been performed by rats. Nor was all of it postmortem. The condition of the space in which the grisly discovery was made was destroyed by a combination of time, Ana’s filthy waters, and the broken debris of the barn that had come crashing through the ancient ceiling. Nonetheless, there remained some evidence of the ritualistic nature of the killings.
What was not made public knowledge, until now, was the discovery of a locked chest which had been placed into an alcove in the original foundation. It was discovered some time after the media coverage and investigation by the authorities had run their course, having been walled over sometime well before the killings had occurred. Within the chest was, among other non-disclosed valuables, a folio bound in some kind of scaled leather that comprised a thin stack of aged, moldy papers and drawings.
After much consideration, and at much personal risk, certain members of the surviving descendants of the Whitford clan have decided that the contents of the folio should be made known, in the interest of public safety.
Thus it is that ninety additional pages of the ancient Whitford’s personal notes and coded correspondence with the infamous J. Whateley have been compiled into this tome and translated, or at least paraphrased, in order that this ancient knowledge not be lost to time nor subterfuge.
Be warned, this knowledge, like that contained in all such eldritch texts, must not be misused.
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