Out of Character (OOC):
Verbal notes from Agent Jonathan Simmons, Cultor:
The following requires Status: Guardian of the Veil OOO and/or a Guardian vault of library to access.
- This is the voice of an entity of the Lower Depths, not an Abyssal Entity? Final answer is that it
manipulates Paradox and detects the Abyss, has to by Abyssal right?
- Summons Shadow People: living shadows/undead/extradimentional/lower depths, has to be Lower Depths right?
- Shadow people are extradimentional/parallel universe bleed-over, Bodachs!
- Stinger on The Unsound from the Black Tapes Podcast. Created by Lucifier himself reveal to whoever... if you listen to it you will die in one year.
- Cannot be copied mundanely, only records the data by the strange sounds are missing
- Data can be copied with magic (Forces), but doesn't have the badness.. or enough meaning to glean the Rotes
- Holy shit it was in Los Angeles!
- Resists destruction? Too valuable to destroy! And two wanted.
- Found in a Guardian Vault by Chimera, they keep it under guard.
- May attract Scelesti, Tremere, entities.
- No curse is detectable on this item, mage sight reveals nothing except really bad resonance
- People who try to hang on to it tend to live short lives, this may just be bad luck though...
- Listeners develops a Fixation with it.
- Shadow People - parrallel dimension? Lower Depths? Bodachs
A Different Perspective
Because of its unique nature and the sort of company it seems to “prefer” to keep (see below), the Hildebrand Recording can make for an interesting challenge for a group of ordinary mortals who travel in the occult, criminal, or even law enforcement or intelligence communities. While such characters cannot actually make use of the grimoire’s spells, that’s not really the point of the exercise; rather, such a chronicle focuses more upon the nature of the recording as a horrific unknown, a sort of “Devil’s Bible” of the modern paranormal.
This sort of chronicle likely follows the globetrotting exploits of the characters as they pursue legends of the Hildebrand Recording and start to discern the forces, both mundane and supernatural, aligned against their search. Occult scholars may be expecting this sort of thing, but what about the average underworld thug or intelligence operative? A journey of this sort represents a wildly divergent perspective on the nature of grimoires in the World of Darkness: that of the object as a perilous treasure unto itself, irrespective of the mystical abilities it unlocks for the Awakened.
An “unholy grail” of modern paranormal investigation, the so-called Hildebrand Recording is a digital audio recording that runs for 15 minutes, 36 seconds. It is one of the most profoundly convincing examples of electronic voice phenomenon (or, more succinctly, EVP) known to the occult community, though fewer than a dozen parapsychologists, metaphysicians, and other “experts of the unknown” have credibly claimed to have listened to it.
The Hildebrand Recording is imprinted upon a nondescript golden-hued recordable compact disc with bluish highlights, in a dark blue jewel case, with a plain white label — skewed ever so slightly — in the middle of the front cover, bearing the characters “Hildebrand — 12/14/03” neatly printed with what was obviously a black gel pen. Naturally, as with almost any artifact known to (or widely believed in by) the occult community, forgeries exist. Most look nothing like the actual Hildebrand disc, though some studious counterfeiters have managed to very closely replicate the appearance of the original.
The true Hildebrand Recording bears a terrifying resonance when viewed with Mage Sights, most especially those employing the Death, Mind, Prime or Spirit Arcana. One Moros likened it to “staring at something that died so long ago it’s forgotten that it isn’t alive anymore.” Some speculate that the recording itself has a consciousness of one sort or another — a malevolent and alien consciousness, to be sure, but a consciousness, nevertheless. No known attempt to communicate with the recording (or the thing heard on the recording ), however, has ever been successful.
Some of those who have come into proximity with the Hildebrand Recording report the momentary recollection of scents that remind them of dark times from their pasts. It is uncertain as to whether this is an actual whiff of scent or just a sense memory rising to the surface, and there is no apparent pattern to explain why one person standing near the disc catches the momentary smell of the cloying odor of the bouquets at his father’s funeral from when he was seven years old, or the rotten breath of her would-be rapist from that rain-soaked country road two years ago, and another smells only plastic. Still, the phenomenon is common enough to have entered into the legendry of the Hildebrand Recording, and has, once or twice, been used as a “blind test” indicator of the veracity of the disc. Why the recording appeals to scent, in particular, is uncertain, though modern scientists generally agree that smells trigger the deepest and most emotionally telling memories in the human consciousness, and perhaps the recording is simply inspiring powerful gut reactions in its own unpleasant way.
Also, certain accounts relate that the physical vessel of the true Hildebrand Recording sometimes feels inexplicably “tacky” to the touch, as though stained with some kind of drying liquid. Those that have experienced this sense almost invariably report that they got the distinct impression the “phantom substance” was somehow organic in nature.
While no trace of any such material has ever been reported as staining the disc, the accounts often liken the feeling (and, perhaps, the unconscious association) to that of drying blood, pus, phlegm or bile. A former owner of the recording, now deceased — a retired crime scene investigator in New York City — said of the sensation that it reminded him of the time he got some of the “necrotic soup from a badly decomposed human corpse” inside one of his gloves; “not just the sickeningly sticky feeling, but also that reflexive sense that, days later, you were some - how still ‘dirty.’”
History
While accounts disagree as to the individual to whom the recording first came, almost all those with more than a passing interest in the disc are in accord that Edinburgh was where it first surfaced, in February of 2004. Some say it was Amalia Gardener, the widow of an American expatriate occultist, who came to possess the recording; while others assert it was John Welker, a distant relative of the ill-fated William Hildebrand, and still others hold it was a man who identified himself only as Frater Dis. Regardless, though, it is commonly held as fact among the seekers of the recording that it spent only a single night in the possession of its new owner before a calamity of some sort — a fire in the Gardener estate, John Welker’s fatal third heart attack, or the brutal murder of Frater Dis — caused the recording to move on. (Those who have researched the matter, interestingly enough, report that all three of these events occurred within 48 hours of one another in Edinburgh, though the killing of Frater Dis never made the mainstream media, and his true identity remains unknown to this day.)
Three months later, the Hildebrand Recording resurfaced in Barcelona, Spain, and it was at this time that the first counterfeits began to circulate through the occult community, as well as what are believed to be two or three unsuccessful attempts to copy the disc, at least one of them incomplete by four or five minutes. It is a matter of record that it was Enrique Vargas, a wealthy entrepreneur with a keen interest in the paranormal, who acquired the recording after it came to Spain. Vargas kept the Hildebrand Recording for only three days before shipping it to an old college friend (and much more knowledgeable occultist) in Perth, Australia. The package never arrived, however, and the recording disappeared for nearly a year. As to his time in possession of the Hildebrand Recording, Vargas will say nothing, and he refuses all inquiries into the matter.
In late March of 2005, the Hildebrand Recording resurfaced in or around Phoenix, Arizona, in the United States. By this time, at least nine distinct counterfeit recordings were in circulation, each one of which had been copied at least once and some of them up to a dozen times. Current research indicates that the disc ended up in the possession of one Allison Lees, a wealthy recluse with a chronic immunodeficiency. If the story of Geraldo DeJesus, a security guard in Lees’ compound, is to be believed, she never so much as played the recording once, instead vacuum-sealing it up in a case on a pedestal in her expansive library of the paranormal. Three months after acquiring the recording Lees sold it to an unknown buyer for an undisclosed price (though the rumor, for whatever reason, is that she parted with it for a ridiculously small sum).
In August of 2005 the recording turned up in the collection of one Asløg Madsen, an international drug smuggler who claimed, in an offhand comment to a seeker of the Hildebrand Recording, to have acquired it “in payment of a debt.” Madsen held the recording for six months and, according to a former enforcer in his entourage — now under protective custody in a mental institution in Sweden — is known to have played it for the amusement of friends and associates. During an attack by a rival criminal organization, Madsen lost the recording (as well as his right eye and the ring and little fingers of his right hand; the bodyguard who took the brunt of the shotgun blast, on the other hand, was killed instantly). Immediately after recovering from his injuries, Madsen launched a retributive strike against his enemy, only to discover that the other kingpin had never been in possession of the recording and that it had simply vanished on the night of the attack. In addition to the extensive search for the disc Madsen has organized, he has offered a 10-million Euro bounty for the safe recovery of the Hildebrand Recording, no questions asked. Of course, rumors have already begun to circulate throughout Europe’s underworld as to the fate of three young men who tried to pawn a fake off on the ruthless criminal; after three weeks of starvation they were simply thankful for a meal and never thought to ask what had been done with their limbs after they were sawed off. Allegedly, at least one of them is still alive, now nothing more than a head and torso, in a hospital in either Germany or the Netherlands — accounts disagree as to which.
Since disappearing from Asløg Madsen’s keeping, the Hildebrand Recording has surfaced here and there throughout the world. Most of its owners manage to hold onto it for a matter of only days or, at most, weeks, before they either willingly part with it or else lose it through various sorts of unfortunate circumstances. Occasionally evidence will point to someone keeping the recording for up to a month or two, but these accounts are rare and, often, suspect.
Widely considered to be the only truly believable such claimant, Dorian Wheeler of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a small-time dealer in paranormal artifacts, alleges that, after 39 days in the house, the disc drove his wife to murder their two children with a carving knife, to attack him, and then — when he fled, badly wounded, and locked himself in the bathroom — to eviscerate herself in the parlor. While Wheeler was (barely) cleared of any suspicion in the murder-suicide, the recording could not be found anywhere among his possessions afterward.
As to the Hildebrand Recording’s present location, none can say for certain. Some believe it is currently the property of a small cadre of bankers in the Caribbean, while others believe the Catholic Church has acquired (and is studying) the recording, and still others maintain the disc is in the hands of one DJ Atropos, believed to be somewhere in Los Angeles, California. (but recently vanished, seemingly without a trace) after several brief samples of William Hildebrand’s speech from the first two and a half minutes of the recording were heard in one of her last known club mixes.
A Bit Nonstandard
Needless to say, the Hildebrand Recording is unlike most other grimoires out there. First of all, it doesn’t take the form of a series of written symbols, but, rather, an audio recording. This is a significant distinction unto itself. Some mages wonder how it is that the Hildebrand Recording can be a grimoire at all, given its unusual medium.
Second, none of the few Awakened who’ve ever set eyes on the recording can determine exactly how it was that the disc became a grimoire. Since experimentation with the Prime Arcanum spell used to craft grimoires doesn’t seem to be able to create this sort of effect with respect to recorded sounds, the strongest remaining possibility is that the entity communicating with Hildebrand — which, it is generally agreed-upon by the recording’s Awakened self-proclaimed scholars, could not have been a willworker — somehow did so, whether intentionally or otherwise. Attempts to record the disc’s contents to another storage medium always fail, as the garbled noises made by the entity are somehow completely lost in the process (though all other sounds, including William Hildebrand’s horrific screams of agony and terror, transfer perfectly). No amount of magical or mundane manipulation can overcome this limitation, and so the grimoire, like others of its kind, remains unique.
Third, one or two willworkers out there claim to have destroyed the Hildebrand Recording, only for it to pop up again somewhere else in the occult underground. No spell can be detected on the recording that would allow for this regeneration and spontaneous transport, and many reflexively doubt the word of any who’ve claimed to have destroyed the disc, though others wonder whether there are deeper mysteries still at work in this matter.
Fourth, and perhaps most interestingly, the Hildebrand Recording has moved almost exclusively through the hands of Sleepers during its time in this world. While the Awakened have sometimes managed to hold onto it for a fleeting instant here and there, the disc somehow seems to want to be in the possession of ordinary people — for a little while, anyway, before moving on to the next owner (or host, or victim).
Whatever the case, all these facts, rumors and suppositions only go to prove that magic is not a thing that can be readily confined to simple categorizations; some detail hanging raggedly from the edge of the known and quantifiable always manages to elude the boundaries of “established lore.” Ultimately, the Hildebrand Recording is an enigma — for the Awakened just as much as for the Sleeper occultists who track its movements and aspire to unravel its significance — and therein lies its allure.
Contents
The Hildebrand Recording is of especial interest to the Awakened, given the unique magics said to be concealed within the “speech” of the entity; decipherable only through the Mind 3 “Universal Language” spell (Mage: The Awakening, p. 213) or an effect like it. Note that the mage using the spell knows what the entity is “saying,” but cannot in any way — not even with other magic — articulate, translate or transcribe this communication. She can learn the spells it teaches, but cannot meaningfully record such knowledge or impart it to others; only the recording itself can bestow its unclean lore. The spells hidden within the Hildebrand Recording are as follows:
Rote: Abyssal Perception (Death • + Prime • + Space • + Spirit •) This spell enables a mage to perceive the presence of Abyssal phenomena, though it is not properly a Mage Sight. Rather, this sense manifests as a powerful awareness of the pressing “wrongness” of the Abyss as the willworker closes on it (or, conversely, as it closes on the willworker…).
Practice: Knowing
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
After casting this spell, the mage becomes attuned to the alien emanations of the Abyss, detecting them through feelings and images of fear, pain, horror and otherwise skewed awareness of the world around him. Ordinary scenes and occurrences take on a malevolent cast, as inhuman whispers circulate through the crowd at a train station, deformed faces leer from shadowed corners (and vanish the instant the character looks back), moans of suffering and ecstasy well up from manhole covers and other images of the gruesome and nightmarish transpire just at the edge of perception. Characters unprepared for the experience (think of the title character’s glimpses of the bizarre and the terrifying in the 1990 film Jacob’s Ladder for an idea of just how this sense manifests) are likely to develop 1 or more derangements.
Even when Abyssal phenomena are not at hand, light seems a little cold and thin through the lens of this magic; everything looks a little more rundown, the eyes of living things are flat and unreflective, wind seems a bit too still, while normal noises sound muffled and whispers are a bit too loud. Any mage who uses this spell on too regular a basis will almost certainly find that all sense of reality begins to wear thin, as an expectation of Abyssal intrusion takes hold of her. Eventually, she might become afraid not to have this magic active — who knows when the Abyss will come calling, after all?
Rote: Gazing into the Abyss
Dice Pool: Resolve + Occult + Prime
Pain and fear such as the human mind cannot ken await those who look long into the Abyss. Still, to some Awakened, the power to know the presence of that which must not be is worth the cost, or, at least, so they believe.
Rote: Call Shadow Person (Death ••• + Mind ••• + Spirit •••)
“Shadow People,” as they are known by the Sleeper occult community, are, allegedly, entities from another layer of reality. It is uncertain whether they are demons, ghosts, spirits, astral beings or something else. Often connected to the sites of particularly potent hauntings (not necessarily ghostly in origin), these beings are usually accompanied by feelings of dread and are sometimes reported as chasing or even harming people.
Practice: Weaving
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
Shadow People, apparently, will always consent to be summoned into a place rife with what they consider a pleasing resonance, and are often known to linger long after the Duration of the spell elapses, as though somehow feeding on the darker ambient energies of the Fallen World.
As Shadow People are not normally present anywhere in this reality, no Space component is necessary to call them to the caster’s present location; they simply arrive when called, though the willworker enjoys no particular protection from the entity’s attentions, unless she has taken such preparations in advance. Otherwise, this spell is in every way similar to the “Lesser Spirit Summons” and “Greater Spirit Summons” spells of the Spirit Arcanum (Mage: The Awakening, pp. 247 and 249).
Rote: Call to Darkness
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Intimidation + Death
Some believe the Shadow People are dark powers called up by hurtful magic and sent to afflict one’s enemies with fear and suffering. By way of this spell, a willworker can do just that, sending a hateful darkness to torment her foes, or those who otherwise offend against her.
Shadow Person
Shadow People (also known as Shadow Men, Shadow Folk, and by other such titles) are often-malevolent entities originating in another layer of reality, quite possibly one “near” (or even within) the Underworld, the Abyss, the Astral Realm, or somewhere between the three. These beings tend to be drawn toward sites saturated with negative resonance: pain, fear, madness, violation, and the like.
Sometimes, they simply observe human beings and, sometimes, they frighten, chase, or even attempt to hurt them. These intelligences usually conceal themselves from the scrutiny of corporeal creatures, however, revealing themselves only according to the dictates of their inhuman logic. Shadow People do not verbally or telepathically communicate — not even with magics that allow (or compel) communication; it seems to be an inherent limitation of their “species.”
Shadow People register as “inconclusive” to the “Abyssal Perception” spell, above, though they are clearly spiritual entities of dark and unwholesome purpose. They may be Abyssal in origin, and they may not; that is up to the individual willworker (and, of course, the Storyteller) to decide. The template below describes a “default” Shadow Person. A mage could, with the proper preparation, presumably summon a more (or less) powerful entity.
Rank: 2
Attributes: Power 3, Finesse 6, Resistance 5
Willpower: 8
Essence: 15 (max 15)
Initiative: 9
Defense: 6
Speed: 29 (species factor 20)
Size: 5
Corpus: 10
Numina: Discorporate, Harrow, Materialize
Influence: Dread 3
Ban: Shadow People cannot enter areas of bright light (anything stronger than a flashlight or candlelight) and must flee from such illumination with the greatest possible haste, up to and including moving through the Gauntlet, if such proves to be the most expedient means of escape.
In addition to the spells concealed within the Hildebrand Recording, the disc bestows another, significant perk upon an Awakened owner, who need not be in the object’s presence in order to reap said benefit: any Paradox roll the mage is called upon to make, for any reason, is lessened by 2 dice. No explanation can be found for this Paradox-dampening effect, but the few mages who’ve ever held the recording, however briefly, have reported that it feels more like a displacement than nullification, like the Paradox went somewhere else, but no spell or other paranormal sense has yet been able to discern where, or how. This benefit lasts for as long as the mage in question remains the owner of the Hildebrand Recording (inasmuch as anyone can be said to “own” this horrific object), fading instantly when it is stolen, traded, given away, thrown away, or else meanders off, seemingly of its own independent will. As to what becomes of this thwarted toll in Paradox, none can say, though the aid the recording renders is almost assuredly, in the greater scheme of things, not worth the price.
Dangers
The dangers of the Hildebrand Recording are abundant, and not all of them are best expressed in terms of systems and dots. If the supposed history of the grimoire is to be believed, it is perilous merely to possess, let alone to actually use, and largely on account of phenomena not easily interpreted by ordinary investigation or even magical senses. No discernible curse clings to the recording, but many of its alleged owners, nevertheless, die horribly or otherwise suffer terribly relatively shortly after acquiring it. Some of those who come into contact with the Hildebrand Recording develop an unhealthy preoccupation with it, and no few have gone mad, seemingly by way of nothing more than mere proximity to it. Those that have resisted the temptation to play the recording and those with the wisdom (and, perhaps, the willpower) necessary to part with it have found that they can, apparently, escape its siren song, but even they are, if only in some small way, almost always scarred by their time with it.
Shadow People (see above) occasionally manifest where and when the true recording is replayed, though these incidents are rare. Other similarly dark powers, however, are also sometimes drawn to the Hildebrand Recording, and it seems to act like something of a magnet for the worst human (and inhuman) impulses in the Fallen World.
Tremere, Scelesti, acamoth, and who knows what else can easily be attracted by the rarified siren song of the disc, whether or not it has recently been played. While such beings cannot manage to long possess the recording, they may well inflict many atrocities in the pursuit of it.
Of course, some of the dangers inherent in the Hildebrand Recording are entirely more mundane, but no less urgent: Asløg Madsen, for instance, longs for the recording with a passion that borders on madness, and is ready, willing and able to do very nearly anything to anyone who stands in the way of his quest to reacquire the disc. While still a Sleeper, Madsen has allegedly come to own a gemstone Imbued Item with which he has replaced his missing right eye and which grants to him one or more persistent mystical sights. He may well be beginning to penetrate the Veil in the course of his obsessive quest for the Hildebrand Recording, though he likely has no idea just how much information he actually possesses or what its true significance might be. Willworkers who wish to find the recording will almost certainly have to eventually clash with Madsen’s forces and the considerable power he can bring to bear.
One final potential danger — and a persistent theory among scholars of its nature — is that the Hildebrand Recording may, itself, be some manner of hateful, otherworldly intelligence. Perhaps it was impressed with a sliver of consciousness by the unfathomable entity heard on the recording, or maybe something seeped out of the portal that it and William Hildebrand collectively opened between two realities and into plastic and metal foil? No one is sure, but the disc is certainly an unclean thing and many of those who are near it, let alone those who play it, come to suffer for its closeness. Certainly this could simply be coincidence, but the pattern of calamity that follows in the recording’s wake would seem to indicate that some other, darker force is at work. Some of those Awakened who know of its existence believe the Hildebrand Recording is an Abyssal intruder of one sort or another, or perhaps something dredged up from the Underworld or some similarly alien plane of existence.
Researching the Hildebrand Recording
Capping Skill: Occult
Action: Extended — 12 successes
Research Time: 12 hours; 4 hours
Appropriate Libraries: Electronic Voice Phenomenon, Grimoires, Occult Crimes
Possible Modifiers: Researcher interviews one or more individuals connected to the Hildebrand Recording (+1), researcher visits one or more of the sites at which the Hildebrand Recording was known to have been held (+1), researcher is in possession of an actual copy of the Hildebrand Recording (+2)
Successes Information
0-4 Nothing.
5-8 The Hildebrand Recording is allegedly a recording of the interactions of something nightmarish and otherworldly with a man named William Hildebrand. The entity in question is of uncertain origin, but the contents of the recording seem to make it clear the being killed Hildebrand, though it is not known whether the killing was done out of malice or simply a lack of understanding as to the fear and pain the man endured on account of the contact. For the Awakened (in addition to the above): The Hildebrand Recording is, against all known rules regarding the creation of such, a grimoire of some sort.
9-10 Almost everyone who has come into contact with the Hildebrand Recording has suffered one manner of misfortune or another while in possession of it. Often these individuals lose the recording by way of such catastrophes, and several of them have died in this manner. For the Awakened: Despite the obvious mysticism surrounding the Hildebrand Recording, few mages have ever held the grimoire, no matter how briefly.
11 The Hildebrand Recording was once in the possession of the leader of an extremely dangerous international criminal cartel, a man named Asløg Madsen, and he lost the disc in an attack by a rival organization, an attack that cost him an eye and two fingers. He wishes to recover the recording and no deed is too low or foul in the course of his search for it. For the Awakened: The magic revealed by the Hildebrand Recording has something to do with the Underworld, or perhaps the Abyss.
12 The Hildebrand Recording may be more than merely a recording of an otherworldly encounter; it might constitute a portal to some other plane, or perhaps just a window through which something inimical to life can peer into our world. For the Awakened: The Hildebrand Recording may itself be an Abyssal intruder, a consciousness native to the Underworld, or something from another, similarly alien, plane of existence.
Excerpt from the Recording:
...As you suspected, it was in my possession. For just about a week, actually. That’s right; I had it, if only briefly. You must understand, however, why it is that I chose not to share it with you as I promised, Josephine.
It’s…unhealthy. Dark. The sounds are not words, though they are language. I can’t explain. I shouldn’t even try, except to say that it’s not meant for this world. Whoever William Hildebrand was, I pity him. He was there for it all, and I shudder to think of what it did to him at the end. You should have heard his screams. I’m glad you didn’t have to. You can feel free not to forgive me for that, but I’ll go to my grave feeling justified in my choice, happy to have spared you the knowing of what was on that disc.
What I can’t, for the life of me, figure is why Hildebrand never removed his headphones when that... whatever it was... started to communicate with him. I can’t put together why he didn’t turn off his equipment, or even just run. I just — I don’t know, Josephine. It’s haunting, and terrifying. I used to look for reasons to believe. Now, all I want is cause to doubt...
(Approximately 22 seconds of shuffling and rustling of papers and soft banging of equipment.)
“For the record, I am William Hildebrand, and I am preparing to commence with the invocation that will, hopefully, enable me to contact the entity that allegedly haunts this place...”
“...I’m having trouble understanding you. Please, if you are here, give me a sign: move an object, tap on the pipes, speak to me. Just give me something to let me know that you’re here. I mean you no harm.”
(Pause.)
“I’m going to put on my headphones and attempt to listen for your communication there. If you have something to say to me, please do so, and I’ll see if I can hear you through this medium...”
(Garbled sounds of uncertain origin.)
“...Please, you’re scaring me. I know that you want to talk. I sense that you’re in pain. That you…no — oh, God. Please.”
(Pause. Garbled sounds increase in intensity and continue.)
“No.”
(Pause. Garbled sounds continue.)
“Don’t.”
(Pause. Garbled sounds further increase in intensity.)
“I — I... can’t. Please, don’t...”
(Screaming, lasting approximately 31 seconds.)
“...I’m so sorry. I d-didn’t mean. Not for me. Not for me.”
(Garbled sounds move from left speaker to right speaker. Hildebrand’s voice falls to a whimper.)
“I don’t want to see. Please, I beg of you. I don’t want to see. Not again...”
(Screaming resumes.)
(Mostly incoherent mumbling.)
“I dun... I...”
(Crying. Garbled sounds intensify.)
“No. No m-more...”
(Garbled sounds suddenly crescendo. Screaming resumes, punctuated by sobs, for the next 2:13 of the recording, accompanied by the garbled sounds, until the last 12 seconds of the recording, when everything falls silent. Then, with nine seconds remaining, the sound of tearing flesh, splintering bone, and wet, ragged screams. Recording stops at 15:36.)
Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler
Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum
Artifact: The Hildebrand Recording
For more Abyssal goodness, the Hildebrand Recording from Grimoire of Grimoires. Some poor sucker ends up holding a recorded seance, and we get to read about what happens when an Abyssal intruder picks up instead. And yes, there are snippets. The recording itself allows mages to perceive things through the filter of the Abyss (as in, twisted and wrong), but it's also an object of fascination for mortal occultists, who will do anything - anything - to get their hands on it...
And one of those occultists? A Russian mob boss who used to play it for laughs, and once cut off the limbs of people who offended him.
Also, the Hildebrandt Recording is explicitly stated to be an impossibility. Hildebrandt himself was an ordinary man who should never have been able to summon the being at all. He used ordinary equipment, which should have been unable to record its sounds if he did. And for the recording of the seance to become a genuine grimoire should have been flatly impossible. It is, quite literally, a thing that should not be.
The recording itself has a pair of rotes on it that can be decoded with the proper spell. One of these is a spell that lets a mage detect the presence of the Abyss' influence; Unfortunately, the way the caster perceives said influence is pure distilled Nightmare Fuel: Inhuman whispers, moans of suffering, and general feelings and images of pain and horror. The writeup on the spell says that a mage who uses it is unprepared the first time they use it, they could end up picking up a derangement. On top of all that, the spell is also in-universe Paranoia Fuel. Mages who use it regularly get too scared to go through life without it activated. Perhaps the worst thing about the Hildebrandt Recording is that possessing it is actually sort of useful to the Awakened, because it eats Paradox, lessening its effect on the mage who possesses it; anything that does this is worth its weight in gold. The problem is that it doesn't actually quash Paradox, it just makes it go... somewhere else. So it's less that it stops Paradox so much as it makes it somebody else's
problem.
Verbal notes from Agent Jonathan Simmons, Cultor:
The following requires Status: Guardian of the Veil OOO and/or a Guardian vault of library to access.
- This is the voice of an entity of the Lower Depths, not an Abyssal Entity? Final answer is that it
manipulates Paradox and detects the Abyss, has to by Abyssal right?
- Summons Shadow People: living shadows/undead/extradimentional/lower depths, has to be Lower Depths right?
- Shadow people are extradimentional/parallel universe bleed-over, Bodachs!
- Stinger on The Unsound from the Black Tapes Podcast. Created by Lucifier himself reveal to whoever... if you listen to it you will die in one year.
- Cannot be copied mundanely, only records the data by the strange sounds are missing
- Data can be copied with magic (Forces), but doesn't have the badness.. or enough meaning to glean the Rotes
- Holy shit it was in Los Angeles!
- Resists destruction? Too valuable to destroy! And two wanted.
- Found in a Guardian Vault by Chimera, they keep it under guard.
- May attract Scelesti, Tremere, entities.
- No curse is detectable on this item, mage sight reveals nothing except really bad resonance
- People who try to hang on to it tend to live short lives, this may just be bad luck though...
- Listeners develops a Fixation with it.
- Shadow People - parrallel dimension? Lower Depths? Bodachs
A Different Perspective
Because of its unique nature and the sort of company it seems to “prefer” to keep (see below), the Hildebrand Recording can make for an interesting challenge for a group of ordinary mortals who travel in the occult, criminal, or even law enforcement or intelligence communities. While such characters cannot actually make use of the grimoire’s spells, that’s not really the point of the exercise; rather, such a chronicle focuses more upon the nature of the recording as a horrific unknown, a sort of “Devil’s Bible” of the modern paranormal.
This sort of chronicle likely follows the globetrotting exploits of the characters as they pursue legends of the Hildebrand Recording and start to discern the forces, both mundane and supernatural, aligned against their search. Occult scholars may be expecting this sort of thing, but what about the average underworld thug or intelligence operative? A journey of this sort represents a wildly divergent perspective on the nature of grimoires in the World of Darkness: that of the object as a perilous treasure unto itself, irrespective of the mystical abilities it unlocks for the Awakened.
An “unholy grail” of modern paranormal investigation, the so-called Hildebrand Recording is a digital audio recording that runs for 15 minutes, 36 seconds. It is one of the most profoundly convincing examples of electronic voice phenomenon (or, more succinctly, EVP) known to the occult community, though fewer than a dozen parapsychologists, metaphysicians, and other “experts of the unknown” have credibly claimed to have listened to it.
The Hildebrand Recording is imprinted upon a nondescript golden-hued recordable compact disc with bluish highlights, in a dark blue jewel case, with a plain white label — skewed ever so slightly — in the middle of the front cover, bearing the characters “Hildebrand — 12/14/03” neatly printed with what was obviously a black gel pen. Naturally, as with almost any artifact known to (or widely believed in by) the occult community, forgeries exist. Most look nothing like the actual Hildebrand disc, though some studious counterfeiters have managed to very closely replicate the appearance of the original.
The true Hildebrand Recording bears a terrifying resonance when viewed with Mage Sights, most especially those employing the Death, Mind, Prime or Spirit Arcana. One Moros likened it to “staring at something that died so long ago it’s forgotten that it isn’t alive anymore.” Some speculate that the recording itself has a consciousness of one sort or another — a malevolent and alien consciousness, to be sure, but a consciousness, nevertheless. No known attempt to communicate with the recording (or the thing heard on the recording ), however, has ever been successful.
Some of those who have come into proximity with the Hildebrand Recording report the momentary recollection of scents that remind them of dark times from their pasts. It is uncertain as to whether this is an actual whiff of scent or just a sense memory rising to the surface, and there is no apparent pattern to explain why one person standing near the disc catches the momentary smell of the cloying odor of the bouquets at his father’s funeral from when he was seven years old, or the rotten breath of her would-be rapist from that rain-soaked country road two years ago, and another smells only plastic. Still, the phenomenon is common enough to have entered into the legendry of the Hildebrand Recording, and has, once or twice, been used as a “blind test” indicator of the veracity of the disc. Why the recording appeals to scent, in particular, is uncertain, though modern scientists generally agree that smells trigger the deepest and most emotionally telling memories in the human consciousness, and perhaps the recording is simply inspiring powerful gut reactions in its own unpleasant way.
Also, certain accounts relate that the physical vessel of the true Hildebrand Recording sometimes feels inexplicably “tacky” to the touch, as though stained with some kind of drying liquid. Those that have experienced this sense almost invariably report that they got the distinct impression the “phantom substance” was somehow organic in nature.
While no trace of any such material has ever been reported as staining the disc, the accounts often liken the feeling (and, perhaps, the unconscious association) to that of drying blood, pus, phlegm or bile. A former owner of the recording, now deceased — a retired crime scene investigator in New York City — said of the sensation that it reminded him of the time he got some of the “necrotic soup from a badly decomposed human corpse” inside one of his gloves; “not just the sickeningly sticky feeling, but also that reflexive sense that, days later, you were some - how still ‘dirty.’”
History
While accounts disagree as to the individual to whom the recording first came, almost all those with more than a passing interest in the disc are in accord that Edinburgh was where it first surfaced, in February of 2004. Some say it was Amalia Gardener, the widow of an American expatriate occultist, who came to possess the recording; while others assert it was John Welker, a distant relative of the ill-fated William Hildebrand, and still others hold it was a man who identified himself only as Frater Dis. Regardless, though, it is commonly held as fact among the seekers of the recording that it spent only a single night in the possession of its new owner before a calamity of some sort — a fire in the Gardener estate, John Welker’s fatal third heart attack, or the brutal murder of Frater Dis — caused the recording to move on. (Those who have researched the matter, interestingly enough, report that all three of these events occurred within 48 hours of one another in Edinburgh, though the killing of Frater Dis never made the mainstream media, and his true identity remains unknown to this day.)
Three months later, the Hildebrand Recording resurfaced in Barcelona, Spain, and it was at this time that the first counterfeits began to circulate through the occult community, as well as what are believed to be two or three unsuccessful attempts to copy the disc, at least one of them incomplete by four or five minutes. It is a matter of record that it was Enrique Vargas, a wealthy entrepreneur with a keen interest in the paranormal, who acquired the recording after it came to Spain. Vargas kept the Hildebrand Recording for only three days before shipping it to an old college friend (and much more knowledgeable occultist) in Perth, Australia. The package never arrived, however, and the recording disappeared for nearly a year. As to his time in possession of the Hildebrand Recording, Vargas will say nothing, and he refuses all inquiries into the matter.
In late March of 2005, the Hildebrand Recording resurfaced in or around Phoenix, Arizona, in the United States. By this time, at least nine distinct counterfeit recordings were in circulation, each one of which had been copied at least once and some of them up to a dozen times. Current research indicates that the disc ended up in the possession of one Allison Lees, a wealthy recluse with a chronic immunodeficiency. If the story of Geraldo DeJesus, a security guard in Lees’ compound, is to be believed, she never so much as played the recording once, instead vacuum-sealing it up in a case on a pedestal in her expansive library of the paranormal. Three months after acquiring the recording Lees sold it to an unknown buyer for an undisclosed price (though the rumor, for whatever reason, is that she parted with it for a ridiculously small sum).
In August of 2005 the recording turned up in the collection of one Asløg Madsen, an international drug smuggler who claimed, in an offhand comment to a seeker of the Hildebrand Recording, to have acquired it “in payment of a debt.” Madsen held the recording for six months and, according to a former enforcer in his entourage — now under protective custody in a mental institution in Sweden — is known to have played it for the amusement of friends and associates. During an attack by a rival criminal organization, Madsen lost the recording (as well as his right eye and the ring and little fingers of his right hand; the bodyguard who took the brunt of the shotgun blast, on the other hand, was killed instantly). Immediately after recovering from his injuries, Madsen launched a retributive strike against his enemy, only to discover that the other kingpin had never been in possession of the recording and that it had simply vanished on the night of the attack. In addition to the extensive search for the disc Madsen has organized, he has offered a 10-million Euro bounty for the safe recovery of the Hildebrand Recording, no questions asked. Of course, rumors have already begun to circulate throughout Europe’s underworld as to the fate of three young men who tried to pawn a fake off on the ruthless criminal; after three weeks of starvation they were simply thankful for a meal and never thought to ask what had been done with their limbs after they were sawed off. Allegedly, at least one of them is still alive, now nothing more than a head and torso, in a hospital in either Germany or the Netherlands — accounts disagree as to which.
Since disappearing from Asløg Madsen’s keeping, the Hildebrand Recording has surfaced here and there throughout the world. Most of its owners manage to hold onto it for a matter of only days or, at most, weeks, before they either willingly part with it or else lose it through various sorts of unfortunate circumstances. Occasionally evidence will point to someone keeping the recording for up to a month or two, but these accounts are rare and, often, suspect.
Widely considered to be the only truly believable such claimant, Dorian Wheeler of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a small-time dealer in paranormal artifacts, alleges that, after 39 days in the house, the disc drove his wife to murder their two children with a carving knife, to attack him, and then — when he fled, badly wounded, and locked himself in the bathroom — to eviscerate herself in the parlor. While Wheeler was (barely) cleared of any suspicion in the murder-suicide, the recording could not be found anywhere among his possessions afterward.
As to the Hildebrand Recording’s present location, none can say for certain. Some believe it is currently the property of a small cadre of bankers in the Caribbean, while others believe the Catholic Church has acquired (and is studying) the recording, and still others maintain the disc is in the hands of one DJ Atropos, believed to be somewhere in Los Angeles, California. (but recently vanished, seemingly without a trace) after several brief samples of William Hildebrand’s speech from the first two and a half minutes of the recording were heard in one of her last known club mixes.
A Bit Nonstandard
Needless to say, the Hildebrand Recording is unlike most other grimoires out there. First of all, it doesn’t take the form of a series of written symbols, but, rather, an audio recording. This is a significant distinction unto itself. Some mages wonder how it is that the Hildebrand Recording can be a grimoire at all, given its unusual medium.
Second, none of the few Awakened who’ve ever set eyes on the recording can determine exactly how it was that the disc became a grimoire. Since experimentation with the Prime Arcanum spell used to craft grimoires doesn’t seem to be able to create this sort of effect with respect to recorded sounds, the strongest remaining possibility is that the entity communicating with Hildebrand — which, it is generally agreed-upon by the recording’s Awakened self-proclaimed scholars, could not have been a willworker — somehow did so, whether intentionally or otherwise. Attempts to record the disc’s contents to another storage medium always fail, as the garbled noises made by the entity are somehow completely lost in the process (though all other sounds, including William Hildebrand’s horrific screams of agony and terror, transfer perfectly). No amount of magical or mundane manipulation can overcome this limitation, and so the grimoire, like others of its kind, remains unique.
Third, one or two willworkers out there claim to have destroyed the Hildebrand Recording, only for it to pop up again somewhere else in the occult underground. No spell can be detected on the recording that would allow for this regeneration and spontaneous transport, and many reflexively doubt the word of any who’ve claimed to have destroyed the disc, though others wonder whether there are deeper mysteries still at work in this matter.
Fourth, and perhaps most interestingly, the Hildebrand Recording has moved almost exclusively through the hands of Sleepers during its time in this world. While the Awakened have sometimes managed to hold onto it for a fleeting instant here and there, the disc somehow seems to want to be in the possession of ordinary people — for a little while, anyway, before moving on to the next owner (or host, or victim).
Whatever the case, all these facts, rumors and suppositions only go to prove that magic is not a thing that can be readily confined to simple categorizations; some detail hanging raggedly from the edge of the known and quantifiable always manages to elude the boundaries of “established lore.” Ultimately, the Hildebrand Recording is an enigma — for the Awakened just as much as for the Sleeper occultists who track its movements and aspire to unravel its significance — and therein lies its allure.
Contents
The Hildebrand Recording is of especial interest to the Awakened, given the unique magics said to be concealed within the “speech” of the entity; decipherable only through the Mind 3 “Universal Language” spell (Mage: The Awakening, p. 213) or an effect like it. Note that the mage using the spell knows what the entity is “saying,” but cannot in any way — not even with other magic — articulate, translate or transcribe this communication. She can learn the spells it teaches, but cannot meaningfully record such knowledge or impart it to others; only the recording itself can bestow its unclean lore. The spells hidden within the Hildebrand Recording are as follows:
Rote: Abyssal Perception (Death • + Prime • + Space • + Spirit •) This spell enables a mage to perceive the presence of Abyssal phenomena, though it is not properly a Mage Sight. Rather, this sense manifests as a powerful awareness of the pressing “wrongness” of the Abyss as the willworker closes on it (or, conversely, as it closes on the willworker…).
Practice: Knowing
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Aspect: Covert
Cost: None
After casting this spell, the mage becomes attuned to the alien emanations of the Abyss, detecting them through feelings and images of fear, pain, horror and otherwise skewed awareness of the world around him. Ordinary scenes and occurrences take on a malevolent cast, as inhuman whispers circulate through the crowd at a train station, deformed faces leer from shadowed corners (and vanish the instant the character looks back), moans of suffering and ecstasy well up from manhole covers and other images of the gruesome and nightmarish transpire just at the edge of perception. Characters unprepared for the experience (think of the title character’s glimpses of the bizarre and the terrifying in the 1990 film Jacob’s Ladder for an idea of just how this sense manifests) are likely to develop 1 or more derangements.
Even when Abyssal phenomena are not at hand, light seems a little cold and thin through the lens of this magic; everything looks a little more rundown, the eyes of living things are flat and unreflective, wind seems a bit too still, while normal noises sound muffled and whispers are a bit too loud. Any mage who uses this spell on too regular a basis will almost certainly find that all sense of reality begins to wear thin, as an expectation of Abyssal intrusion takes hold of her. Eventually, she might become afraid not to have this magic active — who knows when the Abyss will come calling, after all?
Rote: Gazing into the Abyss
Dice Pool: Resolve + Occult + Prime
Pain and fear such as the human mind cannot ken await those who look long into the Abyss. Still, to some Awakened, the power to know the presence of that which must not be is worth the cost, or, at least, so they believe.
Rote: Call Shadow Person (Death ••• + Mind ••• + Spirit •••)
“Shadow People,” as they are known by the Sleeper occult community, are, allegedly, entities from another layer of reality. It is uncertain whether they are demons, ghosts, spirits, astral beings or something else. Often connected to the sites of particularly potent hauntings (not necessarily ghostly in origin), these beings are usually accompanied by feelings of dread and are sometimes reported as chasing or even harming people.
Practice: Weaving
Action: Instant
Duration: Prolonged (1 scene)
Aspect: Vulgar
Cost: None
Shadow People, apparently, will always consent to be summoned into a place rife with what they consider a pleasing resonance, and are often known to linger long after the Duration of the spell elapses, as though somehow feeding on the darker ambient energies of the Fallen World.
As Shadow People are not normally present anywhere in this reality, no Space component is necessary to call them to the caster’s present location; they simply arrive when called, though the willworker enjoys no particular protection from the entity’s attentions, unless she has taken such preparations in advance. Otherwise, this spell is in every way similar to the “Lesser Spirit Summons” and “Greater Spirit Summons” spells of the Spirit Arcanum (Mage: The Awakening, pp. 247 and 249).
Rote: Call to Darkness
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Intimidation + Death
Some believe the Shadow People are dark powers called up by hurtful magic and sent to afflict one’s enemies with fear and suffering. By way of this spell, a willworker can do just that, sending a hateful darkness to torment her foes, or those who otherwise offend against her.
Shadow Person
Shadow People (also known as Shadow Men, Shadow Folk, and by other such titles) are often-malevolent entities originating in another layer of reality, quite possibly one “near” (or even within) the Underworld, the Abyss, the Astral Realm, or somewhere between the three. These beings tend to be drawn toward sites saturated with negative resonance: pain, fear, madness, violation, and the like.
Sometimes, they simply observe human beings and, sometimes, they frighten, chase, or even attempt to hurt them. These intelligences usually conceal themselves from the scrutiny of corporeal creatures, however, revealing themselves only according to the dictates of their inhuman logic. Shadow People do not verbally or telepathically communicate — not even with magics that allow (or compel) communication; it seems to be an inherent limitation of their “species.”
Shadow People register as “inconclusive” to the “Abyssal Perception” spell, above, though they are clearly spiritual entities of dark and unwholesome purpose. They may be Abyssal in origin, and they may not; that is up to the individual willworker (and, of course, the Storyteller) to decide. The template below describes a “default” Shadow Person. A mage could, with the proper preparation, presumably summon a more (or less) powerful entity.
Rank: 2
Attributes: Power 3, Finesse 6, Resistance 5
Willpower: 8
Essence: 15 (max 15)
Initiative: 9
Defense: 6
Speed: 29 (species factor 20)
Size: 5
Corpus: 10
Numina: Discorporate, Harrow, Materialize
Influence: Dread 3
Ban: Shadow People cannot enter areas of bright light (anything stronger than a flashlight or candlelight) and must flee from such illumination with the greatest possible haste, up to and including moving through the Gauntlet, if such proves to be the most expedient means of escape.
In addition to the spells concealed within the Hildebrand Recording, the disc bestows another, significant perk upon an Awakened owner, who need not be in the object’s presence in order to reap said benefit: any Paradox roll the mage is called upon to make, for any reason, is lessened by 2 dice. No explanation can be found for this Paradox-dampening effect, but the few mages who’ve ever held the recording, however briefly, have reported that it feels more like a displacement than nullification, like the Paradox went somewhere else, but no spell or other paranormal sense has yet been able to discern where, or how. This benefit lasts for as long as the mage in question remains the owner of the Hildebrand Recording (inasmuch as anyone can be said to “own” this horrific object), fading instantly when it is stolen, traded, given away, thrown away, or else meanders off, seemingly of its own independent will. As to what becomes of this thwarted toll in Paradox, none can say, though the aid the recording renders is almost assuredly, in the greater scheme of things, not worth the price.
Dangers
The dangers of the Hildebrand Recording are abundant, and not all of them are best expressed in terms of systems and dots. If the supposed history of the grimoire is to be believed, it is perilous merely to possess, let alone to actually use, and largely on account of phenomena not easily interpreted by ordinary investigation or even magical senses. No discernible curse clings to the recording, but many of its alleged owners, nevertheless, die horribly or otherwise suffer terribly relatively shortly after acquiring it. Some of those who come into contact with the Hildebrand Recording develop an unhealthy preoccupation with it, and no few have gone mad, seemingly by way of nothing more than mere proximity to it. Those that have resisted the temptation to play the recording and those with the wisdom (and, perhaps, the willpower) necessary to part with it have found that they can, apparently, escape its siren song, but even they are, if only in some small way, almost always scarred by their time with it.
Shadow People (see above) occasionally manifest where and when the true recording is replayed, though these incidents are rare. Other similarly dark powers, however, are also sometimes drawn to the Hildebrand Recording, and it seems to act like something of a magnet for the worst human (and inhuman) impulses in the Fallen World.
Tremere, Scelesti, acamoth, and who knows what else can easily be attracted by the rarified siren song of the disc, whether or not it has recently been played. While such beings cannot manage to long possess the recording, they may well inflict many atrocities in the pursuit of it.
Of course, some of the dangers inherent in the Hildebrand Recording are entirely more mundane, but no less urgent: Asløg Madsen, for instance, longs for the recording with a passion that borders on madness, and is ready, willing and able to do very nearly anything to anyone who stands in the way of his quest to reacquire the disc. While still a Sleeper, Madsen has allegedly come to own a gemstone Imbued Item with which he has replaced his missing right eye and which grants to him one or more persistent mystical sights. He may well be beginning to penetrate the Veil in the course of his obsessive quest for the Hildebrand Recording, though he likely has no idea just how much information he actually possesses or what its true significance might be. Willworkers who wish to find the recording will almost certainly have to eventually clash with Madsen’s forces and the considerable power he can bring to bear.
One final potential danger — and a persistent theory among scholars of its nature — is that the Hildebrand Recording may, itself, be some manner of hateful, otherworldly intelligence. Perhaps it was impressed with a sliver of consciousness by the unfathomable entity heard on the recording, or maybe something seeped out of the portal that it and William Hildebrand collectively opened between two realities and into plastic and metal foil? No one is sure, but the disc is certainly an unclean thing and many of those who are near it, let alone those who play it, come to suffer for its closeness. Certainly this could simply be coincidence, but the pattern of calamity that follows in the recording’s wake would seem to indicate that some other, darker force is at work. Some of those Awakened who know of its existence believe the Hildebrand Recording is an Abyssal intruder of one sort or another, or perhaps something dredged up from the Underworld or some similarly alien plane of existence.
Researching the Hildebrand Recording
Capping Skill: Occult
Action: Extended — 12 successes
Research Time: 12 hours; 4 hours
Appropriate Libraries: Electronic Voice Phenomenon, Grimoires, Occult Crimes
Possible Modifiers: Researcher interviews one or more individuals connected to the Hildebrand Recording (+1), researcher visits one or more of the sites at which the Hildebrand Recording was known to have been held (+1), researcher is in possession of an actual copy of the Hildebrand Recording (+2)
Successes Information
0-4 Nothing.
5-8 The Hildebrand Recording is allegedly a recording of the interactions of something nightmarish and otherworldly with a man named William Hildebrand. The entity in question is of uncertain origin, but the contents of the recording seem to make it clear the being killed Hildebrand, though it is not known whether the killing was done out of malice or simply a lack of understanding as to the fear and pain the man endured on account of the contact. For the Awakened (in addition to the above): The Hildebrand Recording is, against all known rules regarding the creation of such, a grimoire of some sort.
9-10 Almost everyone who has come into contact with the Hildebrand Recording has suffered one manner of misfortune or another while in possession of it. Often these individuals lose the recording by way of such catastrophes, and several of them have died in this manner. For the Awakened: Despite the obvious mysticism surrounding the Hildebrand Recording, few mages have ever held the grimoire, no matter how briefly.
11 The Hildebrand Recording was once in the possession of the leader of an extremely dangerous international criminal cartel, a man named Asløg Madsen, and he lost the disc in an attack by a rival organization, an attack that cost him an eye and two fingers. He wishes to recover the recording and no deed is too low or foul in the course of his search for it. For the Awakened: The magic revealed by the Hildebrand Recording has something to do with the Underworld, or perhaps the Abyss.
12 The Hildebrand Recording may be more than merely a recording of an otherworldly encounter; it might constitute a portal to some other plane, or perhaps just a window through which something inimical to life can peer into our world. For the Awakened: The Hildebrand Recording may itself be an Abyssal intruder, a consciousness native to the Underworld, or something from another, similarly alien, plane of existence.
Excerpt from the Recording:
...As you suspected, it was in my possession. For just about a week, actually. That’s right; I had it, if only briefly. You must understand, however, why it is that I chose not to share it with you as I promised, Josephine.
It’s…unhealthy. Dark. The sounds are not words, though they are language. I can’t explain. I shouldn’t even try, except to say that it’s not meant for this world. Whoever William Hildebrand was, I pity him. He was there for it all, and I shudder to think of what it did to him at the end. You should have heard his screams. I’m glad you didn’t have to. You can feel free not to forgive me for that, but I’ll go to my grave feeling justified in my choice, happy to have spared you the knowing of what was on that disc.
What I can’t, for the life of me, figure is why Hildebrand never removed his headphones when that... whatever it was... started to communicate with him. I can’t put together why he didn’t turn off his equipment, or even just run. I just — I don’t know, Josephine. It’s haunting, and terrifying. I used to look for reasons to believe. Now, all I want is cause to doubt...
(Approximately 22 seconds of shuffling and rustling of papers and soft banging of equipment.)
“For the record, I am William Hildebrand, and I am preparing to commence with the invocation that will, hopefully, enable me to contact the entity that allegedly haunts this place...”
“...I’m having trouble understanding you. Please, if you are here, give me a sign: move an object, tap on the pipes, speak to me. Just give me something to let me know that you’re here. I mean you no harm.”
(Pause.)
“I’m going to put on my headphones and attempt to listen for your communication there. If you have something to say to me, please do so, and I’ll see if I can hear you through this medium...”
(Garbled sounds of uncertain origin.)
“...Please, you’re scaring me. I know that you want to talk. I sense that you’re in pain. That you…no — oh, God. Please.”
(Pause. Garbled sounds increase in intensity and continue.)
“No.”
(Pause. Garbled sounds continue.)
“Don’t.”
(Pause. Garbled sounds further increase in intensity.)
“I — I... can’t. Please, don’t...”
(Screaming, lasting approximately 31 seconds.)
“...I’m so sorry. I d-didn’t mean. Not for me. Not for me.”
(Garbled sounds move from left speaker to right speaker. Hildebrand’s voice falls to a whimper.)
“I don’t want to see. Please, I beg of you. I don’t want to see. Not again...”
(Screaming resumes.)
(Mostly incoherent mumbling.)
“I dun... I...”
(Crying. Garbled sounds intensify.)
“No. No m-more...”
(Garbled sounds suddenly crescendo. Screaming resumes, punctuated by sobs, for the next 2:13 of the recording, accompanied by the garbled sounds, until the last 12 seconds of the recording, when everything falls silent. Then, with nine seconds remaining, the sound of tearing flesh, splintering bone, and wet, ragged screams. Recording stops at 15:36.)
