Smuggler's Cove
Garrie Hall

	An investigator, an author of weird supernatural tales, is 
approached by a shifty and suspicious looking man wearing a heavy 
overcoat and a fur hat. He has a mass of tangled beard and the voice 
which booms through it is deep and powerful, and Russian.
	His English is good but tainted with accent. He explains his 
predicament - he is a stowaway and a communist. He is also a vampire 
hunter. Since the revolution his group have found it difficult to 
persue their quarry outside of Russian territory due to the attitude 
of neighbouring countries.
	His group had been tracing a vampire, an ex-smuggler, but had 
lost him across the Baltic. Two of his men had been sent to Wisemar 
in Germany, the known destination of the vampire. There has been no 
contact with them in over a month.
	Now he is a stranger in a strange land, devoid of friends and 
allies. He has tracked down this author of strange tales to implore 
him to go to Wisemar and find his men, if he can. He backs his plea 
with a small down payment in Czarist gold, with the hint of more to 
follow.

	In the province of Mecklenburg in Germany lies the 
	Baltic port of Wisemar. Close to this busy port lies 
	Vampyre Cove, a dark, gloomy place. Its weather 
	beaten cliff-face and dank caves set the scene for 
	this book's most recent legend.
	
	High on the cliff stands a foreboding house, grim in 
	countenance and strong in character, which in 
	Rasputin's time housed one of the most vicious 
	smugglers that Germany has ever known. Kurt von 
	Mannheim trafficked in vodka and Eastern Russia's 
	finest cloth and spices, and jealously guarded his 
	hideout to the point of slaughtering everyone that 
	came near it.
	
	Rumours soon spread among superstitious peasants 
	that von Mannheim drank the blood of his victims 
	(although no bodies were found). The band of 
	smugglers were eventually captured and hung by the 
	German authorities but von Mannheim escaped, never 
	to be seen again.

	The area was later renamed Vampyre Cove even though 
	von Mannheim had long since disappeared and the 
	house boarded up. Yet still there were 
	disappearances in the area and so they have 
	continued over the many years since. Von Mannheim 
	may be long dead but his curse appears to live on at 
	least in the superstitions of the peasants.

	Russian translation of BALTIC LORE, Pushkin, 1930

	The house is now in a state of great neglect. It is 
	structurally unsafe and has been threatening to fall down for 
	many years now. The combination of the legend and its isolated 
	location has prevented anyone from developing the site further.
	At the bottom of the cliff are several caves which were used 
	for smuggling. A quite extensive cave network runs through the 
	rock including one passage which leads up to the house.

Possibilities
1       Von Mannheim was, and still is, an active vampire. He now 
lives in a boat, shuttered from the harsh sunlight during the day and 
free to prey at night. The tunnel from the house is blocked off so 
that the only access to the caverns is by sea. 
	Von Mannheim returns periodically and the caves are filled 
with all manner of stolen items from his victims. Von Mannheim is 
alone except for a normal human aide - the captain of the boat. The 
captain is not a servant or slave, he is von Mannheim's friend.
	The two vampire hunters had come too close for comfort. Since 
his earlier discovery von Mannheim has become much more cautious, wary 
of the strength of his prey.

2       Von Mannheim worshipped Dagon and sacrificed trespassers to a 
colony of Deep Ones who live in the deepest part of the Baltic Sea. In 
return for the sacrifices the Deep Ones protected his ship and 
sometimes destroyed his competitors.
	Deep in the cave network, in a cavern with direct access to 
the sea via submerged tunnels he erected a statue of his ancient god. 
Here he held his sacrifices and worshipped Dagon with the Deep Ones.
	Von Mannheim is now a Deep One himself and now only rarely 
returns to Smuggler's Cove. The two vampire hunters stumbled in on a 
ceremony. They found their cloves of garlic a most inadequate 
protection!

3       The legend has been used as a cover by White Russians in the 
years since the revolution. Russian nobility are smuggled through 
Estonia, Latavia and Lithuania and then to Wisemar across the Baltic. 
The house on Vampyre Cove is a safe house and armoury for weaponry 
smuggled back up the route.
	The Bolsheviks have narrowed their search to Wisemar and 
their agents, the two so-called vampire hunters, tracked the White 
Russians to Vampyre Cove. Unfortunately for them they were caught and 
added to the Cove's victims, as will anyone else discovering their 
secret.

Copyright (c) 1990 Garrie Hall