The Ghosts of Wolffork Valley
Somewhere in the hills and mountains…
There’s a valley over yon, Wolffork, tike of a crik running through it and the wind howls something fierce at night through the Chestnut forest.
Y’know why it’s called Wolffork? Cause Big Johnny Kilkenny put paid to all the wolves. They was coming out the valley and killing all the cattle, and Big Johnny goes in there on a night when the moon is round like a wheel of Gran’s best cheese!
Well, that night there was such a hollerin’ and a hootin’ as I never did hear, and Big Johnny comes out in the morning all cut up like and carrying a wolf the size of hisself, no kiddin! And all round his waist is the tails of the smaller wolves, 12 all told with the big ‘un being the 13th - a devil’s pack, they call it!
An’ what does Big Johnny do? Why, he nails that varmint to the big Chestnut tree what with the fork in it, and all the tails too, an’ folk started calling the place Wolffork. An’ soon as he does so, Big Johnny keels over dead as doornails!! An so we buried him right there, under the tree with his great big axe!
We had a good few years then, til about oh 10 years back. Then one night was this big storm an’ a bolt of red lightning lances from the heavens with vengeful fury an’ hits the forked tree an’ smites the bones of that big wolf an’ a howl goes up like I never did hear, woke everyone in a hundred leagues, must have! Next day we go up there, and the tree is naught but a burned husk and bless my soul Big Johnny’s grave was all dug up and his bones gone!!
Since then, folk don’t go there no more - Old Man Benjy Kilkenny did with his herd of steers once, but thems never came out! - an folk say the haints1 have it now… but whether it be the cursed souls of them devil wolves, or the ghost of Big Johnny hisself, no one knows…
I tell ye what though, I’ld give a pretty penny- an’ all me kin would at that - to have that valley back. Some of the best grazing in the whole county.
Folklore & History
The above dramatization draws on elements found in "The Story of Wolffork Valley"2 which I encountered in the Foxfire Story book. Foxfire is an anthology of recorded oral tales, legends, and sayings published by the Foxfire Museum in collaboration with Anchor Press - it is a VERY useful trove of information on Southern Appalachia folktales, traditions, and life.
But on to the tales themselves!
Billy Joe Stiles tells the first version of the story in Foxfire, whose words are recorded in the book as follows:
“There was some wolves coming down from the mountains, killing sheep and so forth…. Several men got together and they killed this great big wolf and everybody wanted to see it, so they strung him up in a tree, between the fork of a tree, and people came by and looked at him and admired the big wolf and went on. And, as time went along, they passed this tree, they simply referred to it as the Wolffork, and from then on the Valley got its name–it was called Wolffork Valley.”3
Tim Vinson relates an alternate telling of the tale, recorded as follows in Foxfire:
“Well, a long time ago, where there wasn’t many people living up on Wolffork, there was a bunch of wolves going around killing these children that was playing at night. So, all the men got together and hunted the wolves down and finally caught them. They killed ‘em and cut their tails off and hung it on a forked stick at the head of the valley and they’ve called it Wolffork ever since.”4
On a more historical note, I also found reference to Wolffork Valley on Chenocetah’s Weblog, an independent project developed by John Currahee to “provide authentic information about the origins and meanings of Cherokee-derived place names in the Southeastern United States.”5 In a post titled "Cherokee Place Names, Part 9", the author discusses the placename "Estatowe", recorded by one William Bartram in approximately 1775:
“He [Bartram] places one of them a little below the place where the Tallulah and Chattooga Rivers form the Tugaloo. The other, which he mentions as “Estatowe great,” was on Eastatoe Creek in Pickens County, South Carolina, and the creek bears its name. We should note that the name Eastatoe also occurs in Eastatoe Falls and Eastatoe Gap, near Rosman, NC, not so very far from Eastatoe Creek and Little Eastatoe Creek…. The third Estatowe must not have been in existence in 1775. There are several reports of such a town at the base of Estatoah Falls, in Rabun County, Georgia.... Bartram specifically described this place as he found it after reaching the Little Tennessee River’s headwaters and proceeding downstream.”6
The post goes on to relate that the Little Tennessee River’s headwaters are near Wolf Fork Valley, before including a direct quote from Bartram’s account:
“‘[I was] pursuing my serpentine path, through and over the meadows and green fields and crossing the river.’” He [Bartram] traveled a few miles down the river and came to “‘a very beautiful creek, which flowed into the river just before me; but now behold, high upon the side of a distant mountain overlooking the vale, the fountain of this brisk flowing creek; the unparalleled water fall appears as a vast edifice with crystal front, or a field of ice lying on the bosom of the hill.’”7
The post then includes a photo that “represents the beauty of Wolf Fork Valley, just a few hundred yards from the preceding scene” before discussing a fascinating tale, which I have included in quotes below.
“There existed among the Old Cherokee a barely remembered legend of a strange race of white people who were already living near the head of the Little Tennessee River when the Cherokee first arrived, long before the white men came to America. If there is any truth in that legend, Wolf Fork Valley would have been an idyllic place in those long ago days.”8
Today, Wolffork Valley is commemorated in the modern day Wolffork Road, a detour along Route 23 in North-Eastern Georgia just beneath the border of Tennessee near Rabun Gap in Rabun County (context is king). I also found an interesting depiction of a “Wolf Fork Valley” drawn by Joseph Marino-Merlo in the Birmingham Museum of Art. I’ve included a link to the drawing here, which bears striking resemblance to the picture above.
Inspiration
Now to go off the rails and enough dithering about with citations. Bluegrass Barbarians is all about stories, after all, and not just recounting tales past, but imagining those yet to come.
In the first section of this post, I included a dramatized retelling of the myth of Wolffork Valley. I drew heavily on Stiles’ and Vinson’s tales contained in Foxfire, eventually deciding to combine the two in one (though the woodsman, Big Johnny Kilkenny, is a creation of my own design): “An’ what does Big Johnny do? Why, he nails that varmint to the big Chestnut tree what with the fork in it, and all the tails too, an’ folk started calling the place Wolffork. An’ soon as he does so, Big Johnny keels over dead as doornails!! An so we buried him right there, under the tree with his great big axe!”
So, what comes next? First we need a setting. Imagine our story beginning in the town of Dusty Gulch, which sits on a bluff overlooking the confluence of two rivers that wend their watery way down from the hills and mountains, and out into a dry and windswept prairie. That’s how the town got its name, see. Dust from the prairie gets blown in by the gusts of wind. That same wind is blowing now, lashing at the shutters of the Lone Saloon, an aptly named watering hole in a town that’s little more than a well, main street, and a cluster of low-ricked houses. The man telling the yarn from above introduces himself as Plum Vinayger, and is already on his second thumb of applejack brandy as he natters on…
Naturally, you should feel free to modify the introduction, or use a town of your own devising! Next, we need some motivations A large part of table top roleplaying games (TTRPGs) is usually devoted to exploration - motivated the urge to explore, help out the townsfolk, or simply, to find loot. Indeed, Plum Vinayger comes ready made with an offer, subject to negotiations, of course: “I’ld give a pretty penny- an’ all me kin would at that - to have that valley back. Some of the best grazing in the whole county.”
The point is to motivate the players to go into Wolffork Valley, and explore the mystery surrounding it - why did the wolves come back to life? What become of Big Johnny? Why didn’t Benjy Kilkenny (Johnny’s father) come back out from the valley? Most importantly, WHY do the players need to go into the valley?
Let’s take it from the top.
Why did the wolves come back to life? In Plum’s tale, he relates how a bolt of red lightning struck the skeleton of the wolf strung up on it. Perhaps there is some struggle betwixt the gods of the world, and a god of evil from the Underworld desires dominion over Wolffork Valley as a gateway to the realm of mortals, and originally sent the pack of 13 wolves to the Valley to secure it. But it didn’t count on Big Johnny, so it needed a Plan B. Enter our antagonists: the Devil Pack, a fearsome contingent of undead (or demonic, as you like) wolves that were reanimated by this evil deity’s power, and continue to be reanimated each night. What is more, the pack is growing in strength, and if a human or other animal is killed by the pack, they rise from death as devil wolf themselves.
What became of Big Johnny? Well, a man as determined and vengeful as Big Johnny who could take down a pack of 13 wolves single handedly wouldn’t let a little thing like death stop him now, would he? A quick search of Wikipedia tells us that in sub-genres of European folklore, a revenant is a reanimated corpse, revived from its slumber to haunt those who still live.9 Except in Big Johnny’s case, he became a Revenant to haunt the Undead.
Why didn’t Benjy Kilkenny come back out from the valley? Easy. Big Johnny killed him to prevent his beloved da from becoming a part of the Devil Pack.
Why do the players need to go into the valley? The question “why should we do this” is usually the key pivot point for players choosing to do something or not to do something. It is also the hardest to get right. I have two options here, so I’ll present them both:
The Devil Pack is growing in strength and the players need to destroy it before they descend on Dusty Gulch, and thence the rest of the world.
In a more complex version (my preference) the players have some knowledge, either gained in Dusty Gulch or elsewhere, of the calamitous Blood Moon - a once in a century event that occurs when autumn turns to a deadly winter, a Wolf Winter, if you will - and gives the forces of evil power to overcome the barriers and wards that keep them shackled to their dark dwellings. Perhaps Wollffork Valley is ringed by a spell that prevents evil beings from crossing into the rest of the world, but when the Blood Moon comes, they will be able to overcome the old magic and wreak havoc across the land.
Whatever the case may be, by the time the players arrive in Dusty Gulch, they only have a month or so to stop the Devil Pack. I highly recommend incorporating a ticking clock - you can find an EXCELLENT podcast by Hook and Chance on how to do so here.
Now what we have our questions and motivations mostly answered, we need some locations to color in Wolffork Valler. I have created a list in geographic order below particular order, here are some locations for use:
Forked Tree. The burned husk of the forked tree still stands on a low hill at the entrance to the valley with a wide stream about 40 feet across running around the Eastern flank of the hill and into the valley. Willows grow along the river bank, and a small forest of Chestnut trees spread out across the valley.
Wolffork Valley. About 10 miles long and 6 miles wide at its widest point on the north end. Low hills ring the valley, and a large rock called Devil’s Tooth rises at the northern end, which is visible from the Forked Tree that stands at the southern end. A stream, called the crik by locals, runs the length of the valley, terminating in a shallow pool in the north end.
The Crik. Following the crik is the fastest route between the Forked Tree and Devil’s Tooth. Investigating around the crik will reveal the heavy boot prints of a large man, accompanied by wolf-prints.
Grazing Pastures. There are about 7 grazing pastures scattered throughout the valley. In each of them are the slaughtered remains of cows, but in varying states of decay. Some cows appear to have been savaged by wolves, others have lacerations as though slain with an axe (these are the cursed cows that have joined the devil pack). The grass of each clearing appears to be burned in places, as though by fires.
Benjy Kilkenny’s corpse (Big Johnny’s father) may be found in one of the clearings, but without its head (Big Johnny killed his father to prevent him from becoming part of the devil pack).
Devil’s Tooth. The large stone sits atop a hill at the northern end of the valley, rising a full 80 feet into the air above the shallow pool, which itself is shaped like a rough circle about 500 ft in diameter. The pool is shallow enough that a tall man could wade across it with the water only coming up to his upper thigh, except at the base of Devil’s Tooth, where the water becomes so deep no man has ever plumbed the depths. That hole is spoken of in hushed tones by the locals, who whisper that it’s the entrance to Underworld. During the day, the Devil’s Tooth contains the 12 devil wolves of the original pack led by Hukka the Hateful. The players might be able to gain an advantage on the wolves if they can help Big Johnny destroy the rock. But there is a catch: each night the players spend in the valley, another 6 devil wolves emerge from Devil’s Tooth to join the hunt.
Finally, we need allies and enemies for the players to face. I have included descriptions and motivations below for the devil wolves, Hukka the Hateful, and Big Johnny Kilkenny.
Wolffork Devil Wolves: These evil undead wolves, influenced by dark powers, emanate dark and sinister energy. Their mortal bodies have been twisted and corrupted by hate, granting them immense strength and a thirst for destruction. Their eyes burn with a hellish light, and their fur is matted and blackened with mage. Where patches of skin would be, the flesh instead crawls with maggots and flies, and dark blood drips from inflamed jaws. Their sharp claws are now elongated and razor-sharp, and their jaws are capable of crushing the strongest of bones. The devil wolves hunting down their prey with relentless determination, attacking in groups of three or more to overwhelm even the fiercest adversary. No mere mortal can stand against them, and those foolish enough to face them are likely to meet and untimely end.
Despite their fearsome nature, the devil wolves are greatly weakened by sunlight. Yet even when killed, they are reborn with the dying of the sun, to reign terror in Wolffork Valley again.
Hukka the Hateful: The leader of the devil’s pack is a truly monstrous being, towering over its minions with immense size and raw power. Fueled by an unquenchable hatred and anger, Hukka is a force to be reckoned with: his fur is so thick that it can turn a blow from an axe, his eyes are filled with an inhuman otherworldly intensity that strikes fear into the heart of his prey, and even his breath, reeking of bloody brimston, can turn the bravest warrior’s heart and send them running in fear for their lives. Hukka directs the pack with a cruel heart, reveling in the destruction it causes. He will stop at nothing to achieve the goal of his master, the Lord of the Underworld, and bring all the lands of light under the dominion of darkness.
Hukka shares the weakness to sunlight and gift of reanimation that all devil wolves have, for their power is bound up with his. Indeed, there is only one way to eliminate Hukka and the devil wolves for good: to burn the body of Hukka in a pit 7 feet deep by 4 feet wide by 3 feet in length and burned under the light of the noonday sun. Otherwise, Hukka will return to life with the coming of evening.
Big Johnny Kilkenny: In life, Big Johnny was a bluff, bare-chested woodsman, unafraid to show the scars and bruises of his rough-and-tumble life. Despite his imposing size, he was said to be quick to anger and quicker to laugh. “A man of quicksilver temperament, that boy",” his father, Benjy Kilkenny, was fond saying with a wag of his head.
In death, much of his temperament seems to have lived on in him, though dominated by a relentless hatred and determination to destroy Hukka and the devil pack once and for all. Big Johnny is a force of nature, wielding his massive ax with ease and precision, his sheer physical presence enough to intimidate even the toughest of men.
On the player’s first night in the valley, Big Johnny will approach their fire just as the players hear the first howls of the devil pack. He appears as a bare-chested man standing nearly 7 ft tall, and wields a massive ax, though his skin is ashen and wan in deathly pallor and one of his eye sockets yawns in the night like the entrance to some forbidding cave. The head of a bearded man (Old Benjy Kilkenny) hangs from the leather belt he wears about his sturdy pants. He asks to join the party, as he wants to kill the devil pack once and for all.
You can find all the statblocks for the devil wolves, Hukka the Hateful, and Big Johnny Kilkenny for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition over on my Patreon, Bluegrass Barbarians.10 There are also several magic items and loot, also made for D&D 5e, over there as well.
That’s all we have time for today folks! I hope you enjoyed the ride and have been inspired to start telling tales of your own.
Wandering onto the next tale,
N
Haint - a type of ghost or evil spirit
Billy Joe Stiles and Tim Vinson, “Chapter 3: Legends,” in Foxfire Story: Oral Tradition in Southern Appalachia (Anchor, 2020), pp. 34-34, 34.
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John Currahee: “About,” Chenocetah's Weblog (Chenocetah Press, September 9, 2014), https://chenocetah.wordpress.com/about/.
John Currahee, “Wolffork,” in Cherokee Place Names, Part 9 (Chenocetah Press, December 24, 2010), https://chenocetah.wordpress.com/tag/wolffork/.
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I lied about being done with footnotes. They are just too useful. The term “Revenant” may be derived from the Old Frech revenant, “the returning”, a cognate of which lives on modern French revenir, “to come back”In many traditions, revenants are said to be evil beings of malicious intent. For our purposes, Big Johnny is a friendly revenant. Why? Because stories can evolve and I’m evolving this one!
All content is developed under the Open Game License SRD 5.1.