Prelude

The below is a prelude that can be recited to the players at the start of the mystery.

An individual leads six others to a tree silhouetted by the setting sun. As she leads them she talks away her nerves. The six look ahead hearing her words not with meaning but as senseless noise. Nevertheless she continues to create sounds. They respond in kind, with grunts, huffs, and whistles.

As they reach the tree, engulfed by its shadow, they view their prize. A heavy tarnished bell. It hangs from a branch by a heavy rusted chain. The six instinctively circle it and talk and talk. Their speech, full of jargon, overlaps and quickens into a cacophony, the meaning lost to their guide. She promptly leaves, surely nothing strange will happen again. But of course something will happen again, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. And so, as she reaches the entrance of the Oxbury gardens she hears a massive unearthly gong from the bell. She brings out her phone and rings a friend, hopefully her meaning won’t be lost through the panic in her voice.