Diary of Pip Rippon

There is a sign on the banks of the Loxley river that says: "No Slipping Past This Point". If you view the image below, you'll soon realise that slipper is what you would refer to in the off-world as a fish. Sometimes a slipper is called a slider, and the two terms can be used interchangeably, the words are often shortened and used as a suffix. As there are in the off-world, there and many types of slippers and sliders, notable species include snarljaw, rainbowslid, dullslid and fallclimber. So what you would call fishing in The Dark Peak is slipping, and what you would call a fisherman is a slipperman etc.. Quite why no slipping is allowed past where that sign is located, I have no idea, I'm sure The Dark Peak District Council has its reasons -- maybe it's a spawning ground, or something.

Here's another regularly seen poster from The Dark Peak District Council. The barker iconography is pretty recognisable, but what you may not understand, is the slogan: "Pickup or Pay Chits". Picking up your barker's smelting (that is The Dark Peak phrase for what you'd politely call in the off-world poop) is a reasonable thing to do for reasonable people, and the majority of Hellsborough residents do clean up after their pets, but there are always those who think that they are above it (I, of course, always clean up after Shad, and messy it is sometimes, something to do with the barghest makeup, I guess). That's where the paying of chits comes in. Everyone in The Dark Peak is monitored by the organic network, so allowing your barker to do its business and not clean it up will mean a fine, a chit referring to the monetary system that operates in The Dark Peak, which will automatically be removed from the balance of your account upon discovery of the misdemeanour. Unfortunately, although in The Dark Peak proper, the organic network operates with 100% coverage, in Hellsborough itself, due to all of the inorganic material such as roads and pathways, network coverage is considerably less, possibly as low as 10%, so many more folk are able to get away without the sometimes substantial fine of chits.

This is exciting. I've had three walks now, all over the last two days, and all to do the same thing -- following a trail I have found that -- to me, looks very much like evidence of denizen activity in Hellsborough. What have I found? I'm not entirely sure without scraping it off the tarmac and taking it back with me to the off-world to get it analysed (since there is no place to get it analysed here, it's not something that is a thing, if you know what I mean. Analysis of anything, just isn't a thing in Hellsborough. And, to be honest, even if I did get it analysed in the off-world, they just wouldn't have a clue what it was, and they'd think it was alien -- and then I'd be accused of all sorts of nonsense). But it's blood. A trail that starts somewhere around the Malin bridge at the confluence of the Rivellin and the Loxley, and continues via the backstreets, right down to that most liminal of places -- the crossroads. After that, I can find no trace. To me, it looks very much like the bleeding out of a denizen -- a Xaexs, a clown, a stray Dyapnid, I have no idea -- but here's the thing, it's not crimson like the blood of you or I, or a jellyhead, it's that turquoise colour, the same as the moon when viewed through the murk. It's the bleeding out of a denizen, for sure.

I first picked the trail up on Watersmeet road, as it traverses that incline, and then continues along though the grizzler copse and onto Thoresby road -- if the denizen (I presuming, still) wanted to stay out of too much sight, it'd have taken the ginnel down to the left onto Limbrick, but it carries on, straight onto Walkley lane, before hanging left. Down to the end, by the crossroads, and that's where it ends. At least that's as far as I have been able to trace it. I'm going to continue looking over the next few days, I'll let you know if I discover anything further.

It's clear to me that at some points the denizen (whatever it is) is bleeding out, there are a couple of instances of excessive blood loss, but then in other places, it is as if it has stopped to tender itself and heal its wounds. Who can tell? All I can say, is that whilst I don't often walk up Watersmeet that often, I do frequent other lanes upon a similar route, and until a day ago I hadn't noticed this particular trail, which leads me to believe it is very recent. What are we to expect next, if the denizens are making encroachments, but more to the point, what caused this particular specimen to bleed out at all? And, what happened after it got to the crossroads? -- Did it somehow crossover into your world, into the off-world? I find that hard to believe, but at the moment, I have no explanation.

Tomorrow, I'll post some photographic evidence, then you can see for yourself what I'm talking about.

ok, so a day or so later than planned, because I've been following other leads about denizen activity in Hellsborough. It all came to nought, all of it just rumour and juxtaposition. But going back to the original sightings, I'm still confused (and excited) by what it means. So here you go, judge for yourselves:

I have noticed that at this time of year, the amount of buzzers that plague me and Shad when out and about on Wadsley common is enough to drive us to distraction. What is the reason for this amount of flies and the like, which just don't want to seem to leave you alone?

My best guess is that Wadsley common, being an ancient settlement -- there are standing stones up there -- has something to do with, and has had something to do with death for a very long time -- and that it is that connection that brings the buzzers out in their millions during hot weather: The stench of death and decay is probably all over the place, it's just that our olfactory apparatus is no longer sensitive enough to pick it up.

The ancient poem about the bracken man of wadsley common rings a bell here as well, and which is again, a poem about death. My feeling is that the common has not always been a place of beauty, but has its dark side as well. The murk is also often very prevalent around this area, and as you probably know, the murk conceals all sorts of cryptids (such as barghests) and other murkspawn such as Syncarid and Morivarid, all of which have their own associations with death.

I've been completely absorbed in two things: Firstly, working with Van to get his memoirs out into the wild (see Chronicles), which has involved a lot of serious drinking and other methods of Van (mainly Van) getting out of his head and off of his face, in order to loosen up some of those more hard to find and recall memories that are stored within the depths of his skull.

Secondly, you'll have read that I was following a lead about possible denizen activity in Hellsborough, and I have been continuing that research. And look what I found! See the image below, recorded near the banks of the Loxley river. I have mentioned The Xin a number of times, in this diary and also in the bestiary, but this certainly looks like someone else has seen the xin, since these images are very close likenesses to hand-drawn sketches that Van has shown me from his own travels.

I'm not sure what all this means, but I'm going to continue looking into it and try and get you some sort of summary together that will make things easier to understand without trawling back through all of my past diary entries. I'll also post the sketches that Van gave me a while back, as soon as I have located them again. I have so much research, I need to think about getting some help!