Kelpie (home video)
Kelpie was a P.R.O.B.E. webcast released by BBV Productions in 2021. It was one of the shorts originally exclusive to P.R.O.B.E. Case Files - Volume 1, only being made available as an individual download after P.R.O.B.E. Case Files - Volume 2 was announced.
Publisher's summary
Archie reunites with someone from his past, as him & Giles encounter a mysterious elemental water-entity…
Plot
As he later recounts in his video diary for 8 March 2018, [[P.R.O.B.E. director] Giles learns of reported sightings of "a shape-changing creature made entirely of water" in Scotland — specifically in Falkirk, Archie MacTavish's home town. Though he has no family left there, Archie is keen to go, appearing to have unfinished business of some sort. During the drive, Archie fills Giles in on the folkloric being who best matches the sightings: Kelpies, flesh-eating water spirits who try to lure the underway underwater.
Upon arriving in Falkirk, Archie immediately leads Giles out to a cottage on the edge of town where they are greeted by a hostile-looking local by the name of Hamish, evidently an old acquaintance of Archie's (though the latter refuse to explain the specifics). Hamish, as turns out, survived a Kelpie attack years prior when he was young, but lost nine friends to the creature — all in the unremarkable-looking stream just outside his home. Though there have already been six deaths attributable to the Kelpie, Hamish has thus far been unable to convince the younger generations of the truth of the matter.
Heading back to the shallow stream, they find that the Kelpie has taken the form of a beautiful woman made of water, wearing nothing save for a silver necklace. Feeling a hypnotic draw emanating from the eerie figure, Giles is unable to stop himself from running towards her, even when she turns back into a horse; before he can regain control of his body, he finds himself grabbing the Kelpie's mane and being pulled into its watery being, where he begins to drown. Despite Archie trying to hold him back, Hamish rushes to help, and manages to tear something from the Kelpie's neck before he himself is pulled into the water, distracting the beast long enough for Giles to escape. Seeing Archie scrabbling in the tall grass for the object Hamish threw, Giles spots it before Archie does: the silver necklace that was in evidence on the Kelpie in human form.
When Archie holds it up, it forces the Kelpie to obey him and release Hamish, though it's too late for the courageous old man, who soon expires. Archie, still not elaborating on their past, asks Giles to go back to London home alone while he stays in town for the funeral; returning to HQ, Giles records the case file and ends it by musing on Archie always needing his privacy, and on whether he and Tasha could really hold the fort without Archie, as she insists that they could.
Cast
Characters
Crew
- Art by Warren Lewis & Callum Brown
- PROBE Theme: Mark Ayers
- PROBE Logo: Lucas Kovacs
- Editing: Bill Baggs
Worldbuilding
- Archie MacTavish's P.R.O.B.E. ID was issued on 23 November 2010.
- Giles carries a weapon.
Story notes
to be addedd
Continuity
- The only members of P.R.O.B.E. are Giles, Archie MacTavish and Tasha Williams, placing this story shortly before PROSE: She Came From Another World! [+]Loading...["She Came From Another World! (short story)"].
External links
- Official Kelpie page at bbvproductions.co.uk
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