Adam’s Pilgrimage part 5: Biddulph Grange and Alderley Edge, May 10th - 14th

as played via e-mail

 

Thursday May 10th:

And at that moment Adam wakes up in the motel. He immediately realises that he’s been dreaming. He can recall dining out and then returning to his motel, but the dream felt so vivid!

 

Adam will let out a huge sigh of relief. After breakfast Adam will call Victor and relate the dream which he felt was significant in some way.

 

Victor is certain the dream is significant. He points out that the dream is most obviously a metaphor for the battle going on within Adam’s own psyche. Eka-Adam/Wild Man is most obviously represents the ‘taint’ and presumably the woman represents the forces of good.

 

The passage down the stairs to an underground chamber is practically Freudian, representing descent in to your deep subconscious, which is basically where the contest is being fought.

 

The disturbing elements are those that seem to clearly link you with the taint: the fact that the Wild Man looks just like you and that you perceive the woman’s attempted removal of the taint as an act of violence against your own person. These show the taint goes deep and are not good.

 

On the other hand, Victor reckons the dream ended on a high note, with the forces of good triumphant, and you do feel surprisingly upbeat, despite your broken night.

 

You set off once more, hiking out of Birmingham City Centre up the A34 in to Stafford. Although a long march of about 22 miles, the weather is better than the last couple of days, showery rather than continual heavy rain. Despite this, you don’t feel you get anywhere with your meditation and Victor has to gee you up a bit that evening.

 

Friday May 11th:

Alas, the heavy rain returns as you set off north up the A34 again. Fed up with the rain, you are glad to halt in Newcastle-under-Lyme after just 16 miles, with the intent of visiting Biddulph Grange Garden tomorrow.

 

Perhaps because of the reduced distance, you feel your meditation is again a success.

 

Saturday May 12th:

Today the weather is very kind to you indeed, only a few light showers, easily defeated by your waterproof. You set off up the A527, hiking through the industrial landscape of northern Stoke-on-Trent, Tunstall. You reach Biddulph Grange Gardens just as they open around 11am. You plan to spend a couple of leisurely hours in the gardens, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biddulph_Grange_Gardens, followed by a light lunch in the tea-room, before making as many miles as possible in the rest of the afternoon.

 

The free leaflet tells you that “…the garden is set out in a series of connected ‘compartments’. Visitors are taken on a sensory journey of discovery through tunnels and pathways inspired by countries around the world – from the tranquillity of a Chinese garden or an Egyptian court to a formal Italian garden.”

 

Following the guidebook, you visit the Italian Garden, the Lime Avenue, the Tennis Court Lawn, the Rhododendron Ground, the Dahlia Walk, the Shelter House and up the long walk of Wellingtonia Avenue.

 

The gardens are peaceful, despite a steady throng of visitors. Somehow you can feel the place enhancing your ability to commune with your inner self.

 

You walk back down Wellingtonia Avenue; according to the guide, the next section is labelled ‘Egypt’.

 

You turn two corners and suddenly feel a sense of being watched. Standing between two topiary pyramids, you look up to see a familiar face, that of the Wild Man, watching you from the dark tunnel ahead. Unlike your dream in Birmingham, he does not look like you, but you sense the primal wildness in his heart. You sense an ambivalence towards you in his glare.

 

Momentarily intimidated, you step back a pace and immediately become aware of further scrutiny. Looking to your right, there’s a horse-faced woman in white in the direction of the Shelter House. Like the Wild Man, she seems ambivalent.

 

You sense this might be some sort of test.

 

Adam will head towards the woman in white, while keeping an eye on the wild man.

 

This is not possible, as you’re standing in the entrance to Egypt with the Wild Man straight ahead and the Woman in White at right-angles to the right; if you move towards her, you can no longer see the man.

 

So you step sideways towards the Woman in White and a hedge eclipses your view of the Wild Man. The Woman in White slips away as you approach her, of course, down some steps labelled the ‘Stumpery’ which proves to be a broad descending spiral stair through what feels like a rockery with walls planted with upside-down tree roots. You had to come up this after walking the Dahlia Walk.

 

As you emerge from the Stumpery, you catch a glimpse of white vanishing in to a passage to the left. Following her, you find yourself in China, a section of Biddulph Grange Gardens entirely isolated from the rest, designed like a Chinese water garden.

 

You spend some time in China, a sense of peace enveloping you. When you cross the bridge over the water, you feel the power of the ley-line pulsing through you. It seems this heart of the garden is right over the ley.

 

You see no further sign of the Woman in White. Exiting China through a tunnel, you re-emerge in to the light of the Glen, stepping over a stream to re-enter the Rhododendron ground, which is in full bloom and a magnificent sight.

 

Feeling that your visit is over, you make your way back through the Italian Garden to have lunch in the Tea Room. Leafing through the guide book while you eat, you realise you missed out on the Pinetum, Cheshire Cottage and Egypt. Perhaps the Woman in White didn’t want you to see the Ape of Thoth?

 

After lunch, you hit the road again, stopping comparatively early in Congleton – your experience in the gardens is preying on your mind and in any case there’s nowhere to stay with reasonable walking distance beyond Congleton.

 

That evening, Victor explains your experience as your subconscious making a simple choice between Good and Evil, whether to accept the Woman in White or to go with the taint of the Wild Man, but somehow you feel Victor’s explanation is missing something.

 

Of course Victor probably doesn’t know of the connection between Thoth and Nyarlathotep. Nonetheless, you feel you’ve made further progress in your spiritual journey.

 

Sunday May 13th:

The next morning you set off up the A34. The weather’s dry and fine and you make good time. You turn off at Nether Alderley towards Alderley Edge with some trepidation. Victor assumed you would be visiting the Edge, since it’s widely regarded as a place of moderate power but you recall your last visit, having tracked the Umayyad Font and finding a pestilential spawn of Shub-Niggurath, and wonder what the place has in store for you.

 

You arrive at Alderley Edge early afternoon and head straight for the Edge. Despite a light shower and the threat of more, the place is quite busy and you decide to take a more circuitous route back to the road.

 

Somehow, having made several changes of course to avoid contact with walkers, all of whom seem to be making more noise than they need, you find yourself passing by an area you recognise – a ravine ostensibly roped off to protect it from erosion, though you know it’s where the Dark Young was hidden.

 

You stand close to the ropes, recalling the way the thing flailed tentacles like black, slimy rope and how agitated it became when the stormtroopers turned a flame-thrower on it. Then you just shrug off the memories and turn toward the road.

 

As you reach the road, you look back over your shoulder. This is where James Elliot set off in to the woods so purposefully. You wanted to warn him, stop him, but you couldn’t reach him in time. The SAS later found him in the woods, raving. You know he spent a short period in the Wilmarth Facility but last you heard he had made a good recovery and was about to take a technical job with MI13.

 

Briefly rejoining the A34 in Alderley Edge, you turn off in to Wilmslow where you pick up the B5166 in to Cheadle and Gatley. There you switch to the A5103 in to the heart of Manchester. It’s a long hike but you feel the need to get through Manchester as quickly as possible.

 

Victor seems pleased with your progress. That night you have dreams but they’re incoherent, all of stalking something horrible in the woods…and being stalked…

 

This is a dream. You know it’s a dream. In your dream you again see James get out of his car and walk purposefully in to the woods. You shout a warning but he doesn’t seem to hear you. Unlike last time, you run after him, intent on stopping him from seeing the foul creature and its black, slimy tentacles.

 

Dream, dream, dream: not nearly as bad as the bull and wild man. If Adam has any control in his dream he will avoid looking at the nasty creature.


You duly select a course to keep James between you and the thing, thereby managing to not see it, although you know it’s there and recall precisely how it looks.

 

But James fails to heed, or perhaps even hear, your warning. Desperately you lunge for him, intent on dragging him back, but at that moment you realise your arm is in fact a rope-like tentacle, slimy and black, and you find yourself slowly raising James to the orifice that serves as your mouth…

 

And then you wake up. You recall the dream with perfect clarity. Your pulse is racing but it gradually subsides and after about half an hour you drift off back to sleep.

 

Monday May 14th:

So, do you want to phone Victor in the morning to discuss this new dream?

 

Yumee! I don't think I can tell Victor about this dream - MI13 wouldn't be happy if I start discussing the Cthulhu Mythos and it would be better for his sanity if he didn't.

 

Very considerate!

 

You breakfast well as it’s raining steadily outside and then set off up the A666 (let’s hope that’s not an omen). It’s urban hiking and not much fun but by lunch you’re in Bolton with the worst of it over and the rain is giving way to showers with occasional sunny spells, which is a lot cheerier.

 

You decide to stop for the night in Darwen after 20 miles.

 

Congratulations! Today makes 7 straight successful Con rolls, which means your Con goes up by 1 to 12, please amend your character sheet accordingly. Adam is basically feeling very fit and in great shape for the next couple of nights camping up on the fells.

 

Regretfully your meditation does not go so well; perhaps it’s last night’s dream or it may be the dirty urban landscape but once through Blackburn tomorrow you should have a much easier time.

 

Victor warns that tomorrow you will have to make a capital purchase (1-man tent, sleeping and cooking gear) and material acquisition rarely mixes well with transcendental meditation but overall he’s very pleased with your progress indeed.

 

Victor feels you should isolate yourself as much as possible while up on the fells so he advises you to keep your phone switched off until you hit civilisation again. That being the case, this will probably be the last chance the two of you have to talk for several nights so if you have anything on your mind you want to talk about, now’s the time.

 

Adam’s mind is clear - let's do this!