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Old-town church

The old-town church is a century-old stone-and-wood church standing in a clearing deep in the woods near Radford, Virginia. It is where the crucifixions of The Radford Horror take place, where the team fights the Radford Moth, and which burns down during the fight and is then cleaned of evidence.
Type Location (abandoned church)
Aliases The abandoned church; burned church; church in the clearing; burned-out church
Region Woods near Radford, Virginia, by the river
First appearance Radford Horror 07

Description

The church is a stone-and-wood colonial building, at least a hundred years old, in an overgrown clearing of about twenty by thirty feet, an hour's hike into the woods (Radford Horror 07). Its windows are boarded with plywood, its roof has partly caved in and shows a blue glow through the gap, it has a new padlock, and a pile of dog collars sits outside. The rear stained glass of Christ with Longinus's spear is intact. Inside are cleared pews and a pulpit with a crucifixion station plus two more, with medical supplies and heroin. The back rooms are unexplored (Radford Horror 07).

In Radford Horror 08 the church is placed in an abandoned colonial "old town" built near the river, which has since flooded and been abandoned. The church survived the flood. Stone foundations remain, and a quarter mile west an overgrown mill survives, where no heroin was found (Radford Horror 08).

History of events there

The crucifixion site and the fight

Having spotted the building from Freak's plane, the team hikes in at evening. Andrew Howard is overcome with dread and the sense of being watched by a clinical intelligence, like "the stare of a cat on a mouse that it's got pinned between its paws." Inside, a woman is crucified above the pulpit, a naked scarred boy rocks and mutters, and there is motion in the rafters. The boy is Wilbur Whateley (Radford Horror 07). The woman is Phoebe Augustine (Radford Horror 07).

Wilbur tells Andrew "it has to breed. They're born pregnant." A car-sized blue butterfly creature drops from the ceiling, its rolling wings washing the room in blue light and touching the minds of the agents. Kurt counters it with fire (an Everclear Molotov, doubled for its weakness), the Biz rips its wing and gouges its eyes, and Huell cuts off a leg with bolt cutters. The roof catches fire, and the party evacuates Wilbur, Phoebe and the wounded as the building burns. Kurt re-padlocks the door, and something slams against it from inside. Andrew hears "Save me, child! You know the ones who made me—" dissolving into screaming and silence (Radford Horror 07).

At the end of the episode, soldiers without insignia and "volcanologists" in metal suits with flamethrowers approach (Radford Horror 07). The next episode opens in late afternoon on May 29th, 1992, with the church an inferno. Special forces gesture at it while volcanologist men circle it and break glass at the back (Radford Horror 08). See The cleanup crew.

The cover-up

The sheriff presents the police theory in Radford Horror 08: a hidden basement with a spaceman costume containing a journal, a cadaver likely Abelforth Whateley, Wilbur as a serial killer, a cartel link through the heroin found in the church, and Mrs. Whateley's body, crucified, burned and disemboweled, at the back of the church. See The cartel (Radford Horror 08).

When the team returns after discharge, the church is behind police tape and mostly burned. The stained glass window has been smashed out, the moth corpse is gone, and the gore and the dog collars have been cleaned away. A humanoid fat stain marks where Mrs. Whateley lay. The Biz learns that evidence was deliberately removed, and Huell finds no remains of the moth (Radford Horror 08). Kurt tests the strange flashlight by the nearby river with a welding mask (Radford Horror 08).

The second arc

A little less than a year later, Sheriff Molly Underhill tells the team that the people found at the church were almost dead and that cartel members were apparently there too. Daniel Webster distrusts the cartel explanation and the conveniently timed church fire (Radford Horrors 02). Andrew wants to return to the burned-out church, but the team never visits it in the recorded sessions (Radford Horrors 02).

Inhabitants

Appearances