Ember Glade: The Buried Secrets of the Coal Supervisor

Ember Glade, a sprawling Victorian manor, was utterly dependent on the constant flow of fuel, a dependency managed entirely by Mr. Tobias Crowe, the estate’s Coal Logistics Supervisor from 1875 to 1890. Tobias’s administrative domain was a small, brick-lined office adjacent to the main coal chute, a perpetually chilly space that served as the nerve center for the manor’s warmth. The air here was sharp with the metallic smell of rust and the deep, pervasive scent of processed carbon. On a simple, deal-wood desk, we found the material residue of his profession: several stacks of brittle, yellowed waybills and delivery receipts, meticulously tallied with precise, looping script. The numbers charted the relentless, seasonal demand of the manor, documenting deliveries from Newcastle and Durham. However, one specific compartment within the desk, designed for important papers, was entirely empty, leaving a stark, rectangular patch of clean wood amidst the surrounding dust, a Buried absence more telling than any object.

The Supervisor’s Personal Ledger

Tobias Crowe’s ledgers, while outwardly professional, revealed an increasing divergence between the official deliveries and the actual stock he recorded as being consumed by the manor. From 1888 onward, his notes included persistent, worried references to “shortages” and “unaccountable consumption,” far exceeding the requirements of the house and its staff. In the margins, he had scratched small, frantic calculations attempting to reconcile the missing tonnage, all ending in frustrated question marks. One sheet, taped precariously inside the back cover, was a partial, handwritten list of names—local dock workers and haulers—with corresponding amounts of shillings noted beside them, suggesting side payments or bribes. The final, chronological entry in the ledger, dated December 1890, was terse: “The deficit is Buried. I can hold this line no further.” There was no further inventory and no record of his subsequent employment or whereabouts.

A Cache of Hidden Artifacts

The last tangible link to Tobias Crowe was found, fittingly, in the darkest section of the main cellar, right at the base of the unused service elevator shaft. Here, beneath a scattering of discarded burlap sacks, lay his personal effects. The cache included the heavy, iron key mentioned in the image prompt—a master key to the logistics yard, long since deactivated—and the silver hip flask, its contents long evaporated, leaving only a faint, peppery residue. Most notably, the rolled parchment was not a deed or a will, but a carefully drawn, three-dimensional schematic of the manor’s foundation, with certain sub-floor areas around the central heating ducts circled and labelled simply, “Access Point.” This final drawing strongly suggests that Tobias Crowe did not simply leave his post due to accounting errors, but may have discovered and documented a deeply Buried secret or, perhaps, a deliberate act of theft or sabotage perpetrated through the very supply lines he was meant to supervise. His final fate remains as Buried as the secrets he documented on the plans for Ember Glade.
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