Walking through local woods recently, we came across some scraps of paper covered in a spidery scrawl. They were dirty, soaked with water and what, disturbingly, appeared to be blood. Pulling them from a cleft in a tree, it was all we could do to transcribe them as best we could before they disintegrated into pulp. Who knows if what we pieced together is something from a joker with a poor sense of humour or the genuine scribblings of someone fearing for their life. It is for you to decide, but the notes start by describing where the writer began their descent into the unknown.
January 15th 2011
I caught the bus from Bath to Dundas, planning to look for some caches. As soon as I got into the trees the atmosphere felt weird and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched. I should have left then. Still, rather than enter deeper into the woods I decided to skirt the trees but started to hear rustling noises. I tried to compose myself – telling myself it was just a muggle on a walk, but when I heard a hissing behind me, I started running.
I had picked a bad spot to make a break for it as the ground was rough and muddy. My foot went into a hole and jammed between a rock and a big piece of old tree stump. The hissing was louder now and I tried franticly to pull my leg free. With a final heave I was up and running without daring to look back.
Whatever was stalking me remained in the trees and all that I could do was rush up the track. When I glanced behind, a human-like figure jumped across the path. I stumbled and fell and, as I scrambled up, something pounced and clawed at my shoulders. I rolled, grabbed a rock from the path and swung it at the figure on top of me. It screeched and jumped back and finally I got a proper look at it. I had never seen anything like it before. It was about a metre tall, thin with spindly limbs. Its skin was white, as if it rarely saw daylight, and its red eyes matched a bloodied open mouth. I scrambled up into a tree and it struggled to follow. In that instant I thought that I might be safe but, under my weight, the tree gave way and fell across the path. Luckily for me, it struck the creature and I scrambled down.
Blindly, I crashed through the trees but now there was another of the things to my right. Veering left, I scrambled upwards and managed to get ahead but then stumbled across a host of the monsters swarming out of what must have been their lair. I thought, "I've got no chance now", but spotted a cleft in the rock into which I could just squeeze. There was no way that I was going to venture out as night fell and I wedged myself backwards into the rift. As I crouched there my hand brushed against what I thought was a pebble although it felt much too heavy. Looking at it incredulously, I realised that it was a gold nugget and I stuffed it into my rucksack. It was quiet outside now but I couldn’t bring myself to move. I pulled some scraps of paper out of my bag and all that I could think to do was to scribble down what had happened to me.
It’s getting light now and I haven’t heard a sound for hours. I’m going to sneak out in a while. I think that if I’m quiet I’ll be able to get up out of the woods and from there I should be ok but, just in case, I’ll stuff these notes into a tree trunk somewhere.
You would be wise to take the cache page with you, especially the following information:
| A=21 |
B=18 |
C=1 |
D=18 |
E=20 |
F=2 |
G=6 |
H=1 |
I=0 |
J=0 |
K=1 |
L=7 |
M=21 |
| N=1 |
O=19 |
P=6 |
Q=8 |
R=3 |
S=5 |
T=3 |
U=22 |
V=7 |
W=0 |
X=2 |
Y=5 |
Z=7 |
The "no children" attribute is ticked because both the first and last stages are in potentially very dangerous locations. The dangers are different but should be obvious. There shouldn't be a problem if children are well supervised at these spots and don't go on ahead towards the final stage. (If supervised, children will hopefully enjoy all of the stages.) Similarly, there is potential danger in a night visit but you'll be ok with care and a decent torch. Remember that you attempt all stages at your own risk. Since March 2018 the final is a little awkward to extract but, with wiggling and patience, no brute force or too much delving in is needed.
The cache is rated as 3/4 but in summer is closer to 3.5 terrain while, with less tree cover, its difficulty might be 2.5
You must sign the log sheet to log this as a find.
There is treasure for the First to Find. Well done to antpeng for claiming it (and to bargee for his persistence).