#keay

Close ups:

The Magnus Archives 012: First Aid

Albrecht von Closen, 31.03.1816,  Württemberg, Schramberg (modern Germany)

Albrecht sends his colleague Jonah Magnus (the founder of the Magnus institute) discussing some unsettling events from the Winter of 1815/1816.

That winter, he was visiting his family home in Württemberg in the Schwartzwald (the back forrest) with his wife Carla. His nephew - Wilhelm - was living there after his father/Ablrecht’s brother Hendrik passed away. 

Wilhelm seems to recover fairly quickly, but he and his wife become stranded by the severe winter storms and are forced to stay longer than anticipated. He would go for walks in the woods, and one day he stumbled upon a graveyard buried in the snow - 6 miles away from the closest town. The most prominent feature of it was a mausoleum dedicated to Johann von Württemberg. He hadn’t heard the name before, and decided to return to investigate more the following day as it was getting dark.  

The next day, when he returned to the graveyard he encountered a man who wore a large-brimmed hat and frock coat and asked in peasant German if he was planning on exploring the tomb. He also says that Albrecht has nothing to fear from the dead. Wary, Albrecht heads down into the tomb to escape the creepy stranger. As he descends the tomb, he finds marble halls and stairs down - he finds a coin with the intials “JW” carved into it, and marble bookshelves filled with rotting books and small eyes carved in. The coin also had the year 1279 carved into it, and the words “Für die Stille” - “for the silence”

When he left, there was no sign of the stranger. That night, the serving girl told him a story told in her village - that the local kids used to play a game called “Johann’s steps” - in which they would sneak down the stairs of the tomb until they were seen - at which point they would run back out. This ended in the assumed death of one of the parents in the village, after which point the games stopped. She referred to Johann as “Ulrich’s bastard”. 

One evening, he noticed that there was a second set of footsteps coming from the forest in the snow coming back from the graveyard. He turned to see the stranger, who wasn’t wearing his hat. His eyes were missing, but he still stared at Albrecht - who knows somehow he is being seen. The man smiled, reaching towards him, before jerking his head up like he heard a gunshot. He vanishes into thin air, and Albrecht and his wife depart the next day. 

Notes: the recording is interrupted part-way through by Martin, who has been staying in the archives since returning. Jon notes that there are genealogical links between the Keays and the Von Closens. It’s rumored that Ulrich I had a second son out of wedlock, and Wilhelm von Closen was later accused of murder that happened in the woods near his house, but the severity of the injuries sustained by the victim eventually lead to a ruling of animal attack. 

Entities: The eye

Names:

Albrecht Von Closen

Carla Von Closen

Wilhelm Von Closen

Hilda or Helga (serving girl)

Johann von Württemberg

Ulrich I, Ulrich II

Mary Keay

Gerard Keay

Rudolph Ziegler (Man killed who worked at Wilhelm’s estate - he stole jewelry from the manor)

Jonah Magnus

Jan Moira (author mentioned)

H.T Moncreef (author mentioned)

Elsa von Closen

Michael Keay

Spoilers for s4 below the cut