Music: Majestic Nature by Craig Stuart Garfinkle Artwork by Steve English The script: Episode 1 - Prologue Yorkshire is a magical place. But that said, it’s not always good magic – although usually, it is. However, very occasionally, it’s downright nasty! More enchantment and entrapment than puppy dogs and ponies! Take for example a little piece of North Yorkshire, probably somewhere in the North York Moors, but more hidden than elsewhere. And when I say hidden, what I really mean is locked away - isolated. This area is so enchanted that the people inside, the ones who were there when it got locked away and isolated – aren’t able to leave. In fact, they can’t even remember why they were isolated - or anything from before that isolation. When they do try and leave, when they go to the invisible boundary between this place and the rest of the world, instead of leaving - they find themselves coming back into some other part of their locked away land. (Laugh) Interestingly, when they try and go - and regardless of where they leave from, they always come back to the same fixed point – which can actually be quiet helpful depending on where that point is. I mean, for some people it can be a quick way home. All they need to do is walk to the nearest boundary, and no matter where that boundary is, they end up back in their village or even their own homes! But for others, it can be a little awkward. Pity the poor soul who accidentally leaves only to find themselves entering a busy pig-pen! Cruelly, visitors from outside, people who weren’t inside when the isolation happened, come and go at will. But, because of the enchantment, or whatever it is - once those visitors leave, they don’t remember details. All they know is that they went somewhere and came back again – and have no desire to remember anything else. Inside this locked away and enchanted part of Yorkshire there’s a Manor and three villages. No-one can remember the original names of the villages, as that seems to have been lost when the enchantment arrived. So, for now, they’re known by what happens to the villages and the villagers at the stroke of midnight on a full moon. (P) In all honesty, it starts getting really bad on the day that the full moon’s going to happen and tends to last until the morning after. It’s just hit’s it peak (or trough depending on how you look at it) at midnight on the night of full moon. OK, so the first village is known as Rott. This is because the people (and the village itself) literally rot to pretty much nothing on the night of the full moon. That said, by sunrise, the next morning, the village and the villagers are kind of back to normal. So, it doesn’t last. Although it can make for some fascinating discussions and experiences around the night of full moon! The next village is called Grott - because those villagers turn into a slimy, grotty mucus-like substance. And the third village is called Snott. Not because they turn into a mucus-like substance – they don’t. Instead, they shrink, and with that shrinkage tends to come an attitude – so pretty quickly they got known as ‘Little Snotts’ - and the name ‘Snott’ stuck. The Manor – or Manor Rott, Grott & Snott – to give it its present title. Is lived in by the Baron. You may as well go on a hunt for snails teeth than look for someone who appears more evil, nasty and wicked than the Baron. Some think they can even see the evil coming off him in a vapour! But just one look at him and you KNOW he’s the personification of wickedness. Somehow, there’re still servants working at the Manor, but nowadays there’re only 2 – which is suspicious! I mean, it’s quite a large Manor, so where did all the other servants go? How’s all the work done? And, why did these 2 stay? Of those remaining servants, the oldest is the butler and known as Thornton. He is extraordinarily deaf (when it suits him) and not known for doing … well … anything really. In fact, as far Support this podcast
