Entry 0377

[ghostpatrolne]

Epilogue 9/9

Yeah, I think her blog lays out the most important details. Along with the recordings I was able to salvage and the report I just gave I think we have a pretty clear picture of what’s been happening in Blackwood. Sheriff Harwick is clearly utilizing his position and his backup via the deputies to reign as some sort of enigmatic leader to a subset of the town’s population. I think a full intervention is warranted, and that’s not something I say lightly.

How many hunting seasons do you think that man has gone through? Was he even the first to start doing it? When I pulled up the historical records and gave it a look through I saw disappearances that would line up around this time of year, they all fit a roughly similar profile too. That sick bastard has a lot to pay for. 

The anomalous creature in the woods and the Halfway House basement is likely of little concern. It seemed to stay confined to its haunts and the townsfolk respected them, it was only our and by association the sheriff’s involvement that provoked any significant reaction.

It’s a shame what happened to Melanie and Alex. I’m glad that Sarah wasn’t involved though, and ashamed that I wasn’t able to save the others. I heard the gunshot from around the back of the apothecary’s. From there I was able to evade detection by the sheriff and acquire a different vehicle, shame for whoever owned it but I figure extra-judicial hotwiring and requisition was warranted here. 

I have full confidence in the agency that we’ll be able to handle what we found in Blackwood. If this pays off then my time attached to “Ghost Patrol” will finally have been worth it. Can’t believe I spent eight months chasing ghosts in a van. 

--Official After Action Report, Hugh Shaw, USPRA

[ghostpatrolne]

Last Log 8/9

H-hey ghost squad… so that certainly was an episode. You’ll see it uploaded soon enough. Fuck I’m going to have to take a break from these for a bit. After about another hour on the road we stopped seeing the House on the horizon and got back to the town center. We saw the sheriff’s cruiser pass by us, lights on. For the smallest split second I saw the sheriff in the driver’s seat, I never want to see another human with that expression on their face again. For all the speed we put on getting the hell out of there he didn’t even seem to notice that we were sharing the road with him, he was going just as fast towards the House. I know that’s where he was going. The rictus hunger, elation even. I wonder how often he enjoys his hunting seasons. 

…

We got everything from the apartment, I just wanted to leave but Hugh convinced me. Nothing scary had happened to us until we got into the woods, and nothing truly bad had occurred until we got to the House. We had left a good deal of equipment that required power in the apartment and that good deal of equipment was a bad deal for how expensive it was. 

The sheriff parked his cruiser outside by the van. I guess I’d better go see what’s up? I really wish I didn’t have to but I don’t see any other way out of this town.

--editor and host Melanie Howe

*last known post from Ghost Patrol*

[ghostpatrolne]

Hunting 7/9

At last, the face of my tormentor, come into the light so that we may resolve ourselves of this interminable conflict. I invoke the name of my lineage, venerable and potent as it is. Good! Kindly servants of the world that was that is and that shall be! In the name of my sister before me, my mother, my grandfather, all the ghosts of the House of Good!

…

Hunting season awaits me, and I am pr---

*the creak of an old door*

--ey no longer

Well… you again, at least you recognize the season

*gunshot*

[ghostpatrolne]

House on Halfway St. 6/9

What the fuck just what the fuck?! Something in that House was not right. I can still see the victorian tower over the treeline, the circular window gleaming the reflected sunset. We got back in the van and started driving an hour ago! Why can we still see the House!? Oh my god oh my fucking god!

There w-was something in the basement, what was that thing in the basement! I think it might’ve been the same thing that was in the woods with us last night. How the hell could I have ever thought it was a bear. I fucking wish it had just been a bear…

Hugh got out just after me, he ditched the camera and ran, got in the van just as I got the engine running. But Alex just stayed behind. I don’t even want to think about it, I just want to get out of this fucking town. 

Why can I still see the tower?!

Why can I still see the tower?

I just want to go home.

--editor and host Melanie Howe

[ghostpatrolne]

Woods Path 5/9

Hey ghost squad, we got a lot of good footage from last night. Temperature dips and spikes, em recordings, even visual apparitions that Hugh caught. Alex said they got something but hasn’t let Hugh or I hear it yet, said they wanted to have some time to clean it up and isolate it from the natural sounds of the forest. This isn’t something Sarah ever did but I guess everyone has their own process…

Truth be told, I think that was the most scared I’ve been on a job in a while, since the Oakbridge House in episode seven at least. I was excited too of course, so many good readings, but out in the woods here it gets very dark. We heard something moving around that was definitely living, probably a bear. I’m glad Hugh brought his gun. I had my crucifix and salt, the usual tools for things the gun wouldn’t work on. Alex though Alex had some kind of knife, like one you’d see as a prop in a movie, the blade was wavvy with deep and jagged inscriptions along the center, it almost looked cuneiform but I’m definitely no expert there. 

Again, it’s much easier to record this indoors and in the light of day, but that night was wild. I can’t wait for you all to see it in the episode. I really hope Alex got good captures on the sound, the stuff we heard… I wonder what the sheriff meant when he was talking about hunting season, I can’t imagine the people here can’t hear the woods at night.

When the sun rose and it stopped, I asked Alex about where they got the knife. They said they’d worked with a similar team before, Supernatural Searchers, what a dumb name. Regardless, they’ve worked with other teams before and they said the knife was from an older sister, more for show than actual stabbing. It could be cool to do a segment on the extended family of the team members, if Alex’s sister is just goth or if she’s in an actual cult. It might make for good behind the scenes material either way.

After we recuperated we had breakfast at a small diner/coffee shop in town, the Book & Cook, I saw plenty of evidence of the latter if not the former, when I asked the owner he said it was because he was married to the town librarian and it was a it of an inside joke, as a result they’ve made a small section of books available to patrons of the “B&K”. The place also seemed to be a gathering spot for the younger inhabitants of the town, very “hip”. If the rest of the town is a decaying remnant of the years of the lumber barons, this place is a holdout of life.

--editor and host Melanie Howe

[ghostpatrolne]

Old Estate 4/9

Hey ghost squad. The Goesbrecht estate proved to be more than a little disappointing. It was easily the smallest of any of the estates that line the outskirts of the town. Of course the bigger and more intricate estates still have extant families living there, remnants of the town’s old lumber trade. A few of them have moved to different industries, the D’Arlingtons seem to own a good chunk of the businesses in the town center and even have holdings in the neighboring villages, even a foothold in Llyscaern city. 

The estate has of course the Goesbrecht mansion, several dilapidated shacks bordering the woods, and a decent area of the woods themselves. It expands Eastwards to the overlook path, South some distance into the Blackwoods, and to the North and West are other estates and the town. The shacks and sheds were in such a state of disrepair that it was hard to tell what they had originally been intended for, likely a combination of storage, garages, and equipment sheds that blended together in purpose for the original owners. The whole time we were going through them Alex kept getting distracted and looking off into the woods. We kept having to get Alex back on task. Luckily we are open about our positions as researchers and so it’s not like we have to keep the mics off camera, but it was still taking away from our ability to shoot the scenes we needed to shoot.

The mansion itself was barely better to talk about here. There were some decent shots that should come across well on the show, small phenomena here and there, but no big moments that we usually use as big pieces of evidence for various locations. If anything, everything in Blackwood but the Goesbrecht estate makes for good content. The building has evidently been maintained by some group within the town, some sort of historical preservation project perhaps? 

Regardless, the estate took up most of our daylight hours, so after a bit of time to recuperate we’ll be heading to the overlook path next to get some nighttime shots of that location. Talk to you all in the next update!

--editor and host Melanie Howe

[ghostpatrolne]

Encounter 3/9

Hey ghost squad, after a brief guided tour of the overlook path by Deputy Procter, he only took us on the shortest loop, we broke off to look around the town some, shoot b-roll, explore, before doing the bigger shoots. The path itself is pretty mundane under the light of the sun, but I think it will make for a fine shooting location at night. 

On our way back to the van to pick up some heavier equipment, we ran into the sheriff. Sheriff Harwick verges at the tail end of middle age but the man seemed very excited. Not because of us, if anything he was very put off by our presence, said the town liked its quiet. What had the sheriff so jubilant was ‘hunting season’, he stopped us just outside the apothecary, to ask us where deputy Procter was. When we told him we’d split off he muttered something about it under his breath… “hunting season”. Now, I’ll admit I’m not any kind of aficionado about the outdoors, but Hugh hunts with his cousins every now and then, and he was adamant that the season had just ended, at least for anything you’d hunt in this corner of the country. At this Alex froze for a second, their eyes wide. I asked them if anything was wrong and it took them a moment to shake themselves out of whatever they were in and answer, they said everything was fine. 

I re-reviewed the documents we’d gotten from Alex when we hired them, I was curious and wanted to check before we went out to the more ‘supernaturally active’ locales. Alex Good was born in Blackwood, and lived here until their mid-teens. Did Alex know something about the sheriff? I didn’t ask directly, didn’t want them knowing I’d been through their documents again.

Our next location is going to be the Old Goesbrecht Estate, I’ll have another update after we finish up there.

--editor and host Melanie Howe

[ghostpatrolne]

Arrival 2/9

Hey ghost squad, we have arrived in Blackwood. Hugh is setting up in the rented room, a bit of a hole really. We’re in a small apartment above the apothecary shop, when we came in here I barely realized there was a second floor, the building is so old and authentic, the staircase up here is barely wide enough to fit up. Hugh had to go sideways, and we left a lot of the equipment in the van, even if we could fit it up the stairs they’re steep enough I’d worry about dropping and damaging it. 

Alex set up some mics around the apartment and I got to talking with Mrs Weathers and some of the other locals. The deputy, Robert Procter, though he insisted on me calling him Rob, offered to show us along the overlook path, he said it “wasn’t too much of trouble”. Apparently crime isn’t a commonality here. Not that that surprises me, the whole town can’t be more than 10,000 people, if even that. Calling it a village would be more accurate, but when I pointed this out “Rob” insisted it was a town. Apparently they were quite the center of business when the lumber trade was more active on this side of the country. Though said business never reached the Blackwoods, it apparently stayed just south of the town line in the less ominously named “Gudenswild”, though this region apparently still likes its archaic names. Nowadays though people call it the green woods, which at least contrasts with the Blackwoods.

Anyway, this will be a slightly shorter update, just letting you all know we have arrived and are getting ready to start.

--editor and host Melanie Howe

[ghostpatrolne]

Introduction 1/9

Hey ghost squad, I have another production update for y’all. We are now officially about to begin filming our 13th episode! Oooh spooky!

This time we’ll be looking into Blackwood Township, there are a bunch of cool locations we can explore there, the infamous Blackwoods themselves, the old Goesbrecht estate, the House on Halfway Street and more. Also, I’ll be trying out something new for the production updates for this episode. I’ll be posting them here as they’re written so for the first time ever you’ll get behind the scenes Ghost Patrol information before the episode comes out!

One last update before I go more into depth on the episode itself, we have a new team member who will be joining us while we film, our new sound tech, Alex Good. After the last few episodes our previous tech Sarah has left to pursue other opportunities. The team from Ghost Patrol wishes Sarah well on her journeys and we all look forward to working with Alex for this and future episodes. Hugh will be staying on as our camera guy, and I will still be hosting/editing, but as always, if you are passionate about ghosts and the supernatural and have experience in media feel free to send us a resume, if the next few episodes go well we’ll be planning to expand our team!

As for our ‘Blackwood Township’ episode, it will be double the standard length for spooky episode #13 and will be posted to our channel after we’ve had a chance to edit and upload the video. The extra time in the episode will allow us to explore multiple locations within the town. As stated earlier we intend to focus on the Goesbrecht estate, Halfway Street House, and the Blackwoods. For the last of those, we’re primarily looking at the overlook path that goes by the lake and up into the mountains to the north of the township. The town itself doesn’t have a large tourist trade so we’ve secured lodging with a resident of Blackwood by the name of Deborah Weathers, who owns the local apothecary (how cool! They call it an apothecary instead of a pharmacy!, it’s like the whole town radiates the exact energy we want for the show!).

Aahh! Being able to film in Blackwood is going to be so cool! I can’t wait for you all to see the episode! Thank you for being such an amazing audience.

--editor and host Melanie Howe