The Well Below the Valley, Episode 13: Daybreak

A bleak, leafless tree against a sepia-toned sky. Text reads: Space Whales Press presents The Well Below the Valley, an audio drama

Table of Contents

Dramatis Personae
(in order of appearance)

KURT Cross, private investigator who has already seen too much. Male, early 30s, New York accent.

Inspector ISKANDAR Meshkia, who still remembers how to use a sword. Male, late 30s, strong Turkish accent.

Father John WHITNEY, slayer of sacrifices and summoner of monsters. Male, early 50s, Northern English accent.

Eloise “ELLIE” Westmont, who always comes prepared. Female, mid 20s, posh British accent.

Three or more CULTISTS and residents of Whitmoor. Male or female, 30s or 40s, Northern English accents.

Sheriff Norbert OAKS, unofficially the second in command of the cult. Male, mid-40s, Northern English accent.

MARIE Campbell, not quite sacrificed. Female, early 20s, Northern English accent.

Dr. ERNEST Wilde, determined rationalist. Male, early 30s, Northern English accent.

JASMINE Indrani, staunch defender of the women’s shelter and its residents. Female, late 20s, could have a British or Indian Accented English accent.

JONATHAN Martel, butler and caretaker of the Westmont estate. Male, mid-50s, Northern English accent.

MARJANI Kaur, physician and practical optimist. Female, early 30s, could have a British or Indian Accented English accent.

CLAIRE Cooper, holy vessel. Female, late teens, Northern English accent.

Scene 1: Ext. Fields outside Whitmoor – Night

MUSIC: OPENING THEME.

The music fades into the howling of the wind over Whitmoor’s dry fields. In the distance, a copse of dead trees shake and rattle. Underneath the noise, a drone is present, steady and pervasive.

Something enormous and heavy is coming into being among those trees. A heavy footfall shakes the ground, and a dry branch snaps.

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The Well Below the Valley, Episode 12: Sundown

Table of Contents

Dramatis Personae
(in order of appearance)

Inspector ISKANDAR Meshkia, former Ottoman cavalry officer. Male, late 30s, strong Turkish accent.

JASMINE Indrani, practical ex-academic. Female, late 20s, could have a British or Indian Accented English accent.

KURT Cross, reluctantly courageous private eye. Male, early 30s, New York accent.

MARJANI Kaur, director and doctor of the women’s home. Female, early 30s, could have a British or Indian Accented English accent.

VIOLET, a resident of the women’s home after her house was lost in a fire. Female, 50s, Northern English accent.

BELLA, the young daughter of a women’s home resident. Female, four years old, Northern English accent.

WINIFRED, Bella’s mother and a war widow. Female, mid-30s, Northern English accent.

Dr. ERNEST Wilde, who far prefers the boring routines of his lab. Male, early 30s, Northern English accent.

JONATHAN Martel, defender of the Westmont estate and its young mistress. Male, mid-50s, Northern English accent.

Eloise “ELLIE” Westmont, who wants to keep her past and present lives separate. Female, mid 20s, posh British accent.

AURELIA Westmont, less than blissful in ignorance. Female, late teens, posh English accent.

JAMES MacDonald, refugee from the ransacked bookshop. Male, early 30s, Northern English accent.

Sheriff Norbert OAKS, cult enforcer. Male, mid-40s, Northern English accent.

Richard LESTER and Charles PICK, Whitmoor police deputies. Both male, mid-20s, Northern English accents.

Father John WHITNEY, Whitmoor cult leader. Male, early 50s, Northern English accent.

MARIE Campbell, unwilling cult sacrifice. Female, early 20s, Northern English accent.

Scene 1: Int. Whitmoor Area Women’s Home – Night

MUSIC: OPENING THEME.

The music fades out quickly, leaving the tense, empty quiet of the house. A floorboard creaks above; MARJANI and the residents are upstairs, while JASMINE waits by the front door. We can hear her breathing softly. Distant, muffled shouts indicate the activity in the town.

The loud, rapid pounding of a fist on the outside of the door breaks the quiet. JASMINE draws in a breath.

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The Well Below the Valley, Episode 11: Dust to Dust

Table of Contents

Dramatis Personae
(in order of appearance)

Father John WHITNEY, leader of the Whitmoor church and all that entails. Male, early 50s, Northern English accent.

Dr. ERNEST Wilde, botanist and semi-voluntary investigator. Male, early 30s, Northern English accent.

Eloise “ELLIE” Westmont, protective older cousin. Female, mid 20s, posh British accent.

KURT Cross, veteran of the French Foreign Legion, among other things. Male, early 30s, New York accent.

Inspector ISKANDAR Meshkia, who has seen this before. Male, late 30s, strong Turkish accent.

AURELIA Westmont, sheltered heiress. Female, late teens, posh British accent.

A pair of Whitmoor CULTISTS, searching for a particular text. Both male, ages can vary, Northern English accents.

JAMES MacDonald, oblivious citizen and book enthusiast. Male, early 30s, Northern English accent.

Scene 1: Int. Whitmoor Parish Church – Day

MUSIC: OPENING THEME.

Father WHITNEY approaches the investigators at a casual pace. The floorboards creak, and his steps echo; the church is a tall, narrow building.

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The Well Below the Valley, Episode 10: All Who Have Ears to Hear

Table of Contents

Dramatis Personae
(in order of appearance)

KURT Cross, actor, private investigator, and former skeptic. Male, early 30s, New York accent.

Inspector ISKANDAR Meshkia, Metropolitan police detective and raging caffeine addict. Male, late 30s, strong Turkish accent.

Dr. ERNEST Wilde, skeptic enough for the whole group. Male, early 30s, Northern English accent.

Eloise “ELLIE: Westmont, returned home at last. Female, mid 20s, posh British accent.

JASMINE Indrani, haunted by the ghost of her mentor. Female, late 20s, could have a British or Indian Accented English accent.

A Whitmoor FARMER, unwelcoming to outsiders and unphased by recent events. Male, middle aged, Northern English accent.

Constable Ben COREY, who learned not to ask questions. Male, mid 20s, Northern English accent.

MARIE Campbell, post office attendant and dreamer. Female, early 20s, Northern English accent.

Robert SANGFORD, telegraph operator and de facto postmaster. Male, early 40s, Northern English accent.

Father John WHITNEY, Whitmoor parish priest. Male, early 50s, Northern English accent.

Scene 1: Int. Westmont estate, third floor – Day

MUSIC: OPENING THEME.

KURT wakes, shaking off a dream; to represent the dream lingering, the sounds of a drone, a steady drip of water into a metal sink, and the rattle of an old radiator fade in after the music and fade out as he narrates.

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Journey to the Water Chapter L: The Way Down

Journey to the Water cover image: three evergreen trees stand on a hillside, shrouded in bluish fog. Subtitle reads: the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea.

Table of Contents

I fell. The rope went taut, tearing at my hands, just as I broke through a web of thin branches and struck the surface of a wide limb below the platform. The rough bark bit through the thin fabric of my trousers.

As expected, the guards cut the rope. It fell in loose coils at my feet. I stood, brushed myself off, and held out my hand to summon my harpoon.

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Journey to the Water Chapter XLIX: The Treasure-Hall of the Mage-King

Table of Contents

I remained still, one hand on the latch to the vault door and the other hanging in the air, half-reaching for my harpoon. Who was this man? What was he doing here? Kural had assured me the vault would be empty of watchmen, but perhaps I was a fool to trust Kural. He did not make the climb himself, after all. My heart sank into my belly as I thought of Bran’s fate, left alone on the forest floor with an untrustworthy caretaker.

Bran was a steppe horse—a gentle one, but trained for a warrior, nonetheless. I had to trust that he could look after himself.

“Who are you?” I asked the incongruous man in the vault.

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Journey to the Water Chapter XLVIII: To the Upper Kingdom

Table of Contents

A procession of pilgrims, all following the darting, bobbing light of a single lantern suspended from a hooked staff, approached from the direction of the seaside city. Kural swept aside his drawing of the estates above with an open hand, erasing it from view. My eyes lingered in the place it had been, recreating its lines and circles from memory. A few of the shapes escaped me.

I would take the hidden path, I decided, and avoid the court of the kingdom above. What could I say to the gathered noblemen of the treetops that would convince them of my need for their relic? Here was a land where the living worshiped the dead, and where hidden, shadowy gods dueled for control of honored corpses kept within vaults of stone or living wood. Whatever I said had an equal chance of offending with grievous blasphemy as it did of earning their sympathy.

No, for better or worse, I would take the Sage’s Mirror from their vault, and I hoped to board a ship back to Gallia before anyone noticed it was missing. I could make the treacherous climb, I was sure of it.

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Journey to the Water Chapter XLVII: Under the Trees

Table of Contents

Kural took it upon himself to guide me, leaving the strange, silent folk around their bubbling cauldron. The eyes of the market followed us as we went, me leading Bran and Kural on my other side. At his direction, I purchased a great length of rope, as well as enough grain to fill my saddlebags and feed all three of us for several days. On the forest floor, Kural said, only the fungus grew, and while some of its many varieties were safe to eat, it was wiser not to take the risk.

“The mushrooms are better used for holy days,” he said, “or times of great need.”

The grain merchant was a woman of about thirty, tall and stately, with her hair covered in a silk wrap the color of the sea. She eyed Kural with suspicion, and caught my eye when his back was turned.

“That man is a heretic,” she said.

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Journey to the Water Chapter XLVI: Ksadaja, the City of the Dead

Table of Contents

I had left one city and come to another, just as grand, upon the shores of the summer sea. The last city was Gallia, Ramla told me, and this one was Ksadaja, which those from the north called the city of the dead. Indeed, its greatest edifices were tombs, built above and below the ground in towering structures and mazes of tunnels, none of which I would ever be permitted to see. Only the people of Ksadaja could walk the halls of the temples, and only their priests could venture below, where the bodies of the esteemed dead awaited the call of their gods, who at the end of an age of calamity, would bring them once again to life and place them as rulers over the transformed world. Towering obelisks, carved with prayers to the same gods in an ancient language, stood like sentries between the temples and greeted us as Ramla’s ship made its way into the harbor.

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Announcement: The Well Below the Valley

The Well Below the Valley cover image: A dead tree stands on a field of short grass, against a blank gray sky. Text reads, "Space Whales Press presents The Well Below the Valley, an audio drama."

I am starting a new project!

(“But don’t you have enough projects?” Yes. Yes, I do. Let’s not talk about that.)

On a rainy morning in 1922, an archaeologist is found dead in a London hotel room. At first, it is assumed his death was a natural one, but questions soon arise:
Who has been following the professor around Oxford?
What happened on his last field expedition, which was cut short and declared a failure?
What became of his crew?
And how did he drown, miles from the harbor and with no other sources of water nearby?
In a world still living under the shadow of the Great War, four intrepid investigators must discover the secret Professor Ragnarsson was murdered to keep, and learn that the world is darker and more terrible than they could ever have imagined–and that they are the only things standing between the earth and its total destruction.
Introduction to The Well Below the Valley

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