Ghost Stories for Christmas- The Black Hand of Inver

It’s Christmas time and once again the legends and folklore of the British Isles provide lumps of coal aplenty for all your players. We are again (we’ve done it twice so it’s a tradition now) looking at British ghost stories and picking out bits to adapt for Victoriana adventures. As before, all our tales come from the fabulous “Gazetteer of British, Scottish, & Irish Ghosts” by Peter Underwood, a terrific guide full of horrific hauntings.  So bring a torch Jennette Isabella, we’re telling Ghost Stories for Christmas!

In Aberdeenshire, Scotland two miles west south-west of Balmoral, the waters of Fearder Burn flow into the River Dee. A small patch of land called “the Inver” sits before these waters meet, with the burn to the north and the river in the south. Inver holds little of interest, only an inn for travelers, a post office, some granite quarries in the west, and a centuries-old meal mill grinding the grain of the surrounding farms. Despite the tranquil simplicity of Inver, mill workers live in fear of “The Black Hand”. For centuries, locals whisper of a ghostly hairy hand cut off at the wrist floating inside the mill. Some claim the hand belonged to a captured solder whose hands were cut off with his own sword before he was thrown into the River Dee and drowned.

In 1767, a mill worker named John Davidson put the Black Hand to rest. One winter night, John glanced up from his work in the mill and spotted the spectral hand. Instead of running, Davidson stood his ground and grappled with the Black Hand. Although he never told anyone what happened next, the next morning John Davidson dug a deep hole near the mill, uncovering a basket-hilt broadsword. Davidson hung the sword over the meal mill’s fireplace and no one saw the Black Hand again.

Adventure Ideas

Obviously, you should just cut and paste this whole ghostly visitation into whatever adventure you’re in right now. If the players need an ancient artifact, there are few better delivery systems than being attacked by a monstrous disembodied hand.

My favorite part of the story is the big blank between Davidson wrestling the hand and him digging up the sword the next morning.  Some versions suggest the Black Hand “told” Davidson where to find the sword that cut it from its body. Just imagine the role-playing opportunities of interrogating a severed hand through gestures and yes or no questions!

If the sword Davidson dug up is the same that cleaved the Black Hand from its body, the hand may lurk semi-corporally until it beats someone wielding that sword in a duel. Anyone armed with the sword faces a fierce five-fingered opponent. Attacks targeting the Black Hand suffer 6 Black Dice. The Black Hand has 5 health points (one for each finger, if it loses all its fingers, it vanishes for now).

Alternatively, some stories describe the Black Hand as gigantic. A hairy, floating, severed hand the size of a child would make for a very creepy fight. If the ghostly hand belonged to a giant, its sword must be enormous and incredibly valuable.

If the hand did belong to a giant, this tale might be connected with the story of Druon Antigoon, the Flemish giant. He extorted tolls from travelers over the river Sheldt. If they couldn’t pay, he cut off one of their hands as punishment. His terror continued until a Roman soldier named Brabo killed him, cut off the giant’s hand, and tossed it into the river.

With Balmoral Castle just two miles away it seems a waste to leave it out of the story.  Prince Albert arranged to buy the Balmoral estate in 1848 as a peaceful country home, but the royal family quickly decided the current house was too small for their needs. By 1855, their new house, Balmoral Castle, nears the completions of its construction. If the Black Hand’s sword (or whatever the player’s need to dig up) is buried on the house’s excavations, they’ll have to act fast or it may be gone forever.