the abbott murder
the abbott's have been in hell close to the beginning but weren't founders. they are a family is strict baptists that followed the lords teachings and rules pretty strictly but were considered to always be good, god fearing people that'd help anyone in need. modern day gagreth abbott met alicia o'gorman by chance one day and even though she was a mormon, the two of them fell in love and she stayed with him in hell where they married only 3 weeks after meeting. they had five children (4 boys and 1 girl) and operated and ran hell's shelter for more than 30 years. alicia was murdered horrifically in the family home while none of he kids were home, all at camp or out with friends. there were no other suspects other than gareth abbott. the entire town pointed the finger at and blamed him almost instantly. there wasn't enough evidence to find him guilty of it, so many think he got away with murder. eventually, gareth took his own life everything to bobby abbott. the business, the family home, everything. he'd always been the favorite child but it didn't do much for the relationship between all the siblings either who may or may not have remained living in their home town. no one knows for sure now whether or not gareth actually committed the crime, but still stains the abbott family name and anyone who lives in the town would've known about it, especially after it became a netflix documentary and a a popular story among true crime fans.

asher and dolly walsh
no one grew up in hell without hearing the old wive's tale about the 8 year old twins called asher and dolly walsh. the urban legend dates back to 1898 and tells the tale of both asher and dolly's disappearance. it is said that the children complained to their parents, abraham and sarah, that they were being visited by the boogeyman every sunday night. the fear they expressed grew as each sunday passed for six months straight. no action to investigate was taken by the walsh family and they dismissed asher and dolly's claims due to their age. on the final sunday they were to be seen, a loud crash sounded from their bedroom in the middle of the night. before abraham and sarah could intervene, asher and dolly were missing from their beds and never heard from or seen again. the walsh family in this story is said to be the same as the walsh family living in hell today. the walsh's claim they have never been able to confirm asher or dolly's existence, only abraham and sarah's. the historical society is always looking for concrete information on asher and dolly. some in hell believe that the walsh family is hiding the truth of the tale behind stored family documents they are unwilling to share. others believe the story grew as a concocted urban legend to caution adults in hell from dismissing what children are trying to tell them.

the black hollow mine
first opened in 1895, the black hollow mine was a primary employer of hell's men, producing coal and strange black stone used in construction across the region. but after a collapse in 1931 killed nearly a hundred men, the mine was sealed shut. miner's families began reporting that their husbands returned home at night, knocking softly on windows, only to vanish when the door was opened. the company dynamited the entrance, but to this day, residents say they can still hear the sound of pickaxes tapping faintly under the ground when the wind is still. no one goes near the hollow now, though every so often a lantern light is spotted deep in the woods where the entrance once stood.

bloody handprints
on rainy nights, bloody handprints appear on the windows of cars parked on any street in hell. if a driver wipes them away and drives on, they often crash before reaching the other side. survivors say they saw a woman in the road, reaching out for help.

the clockmaker's curse
the morrows were once one of hell's most respected families, known for their exquisite craftsmanship in timepieces. elias morrow opened morrow & sons clockworks in 1898, and for decades, nearly every home in town had a morrow clock ticking away inside. the family claimed their clocks were unmatched because of elias's "special precision," though whispers suggested the gears were wound with something more than springs and steel. then came the fire of 1902, which destroyed the original shop and killed two of elias's sons. when the rubble was cleared, several clocks were found intact, their hands still moving. strangely, the times didn't match the present and they pointed to dates and hours of tragedies that would later occur in hell. from that day forward, the morrows' reputation soured. though descendants still live quietly in town, they are regarded with suspicion. people say the morrows can hear clocks tick even in silence, and some claim their eyes twitch at the exact moment someone in town is about to die. a handful of their surviving timepieces remain scattered through antique shops and family attics, and every so often, a story emerges of one counting down not the hours of the day, but the days of a life.

the crooked mile
old superstition says that the road steals "a piece of time" from anyone who walks it. those who return home sometimes find their clocks all stopped at the same hour usually midnight. then, some townsfolk warn against traveling the crooked mile alone. some say you'll see yourself walking a few steps ahead. you will need to catch up to that vision, as only one of you leaves the road.

the cursed well
this well was once a primary source of water in the early days of hell. the well is now a historic and mystical site due to its lore. it is said that charles ware built and installed the well in 1844. once it was up and running, he and his family were ran out of town by the goodale family because gregory goodale believed that charles was having an affair with his wife, clarice. charles was left destitute and died three years after his banishment. in 1874, the grandchildren of charles ware returned to hell under a false family name for revenge. they cursed the well, then framed several members of the goodale family for the murder of the mayor, isaac jones. the curse on the well left anyone who drank from it with nasty boils on their tongues, that refused to heal for half a year. witches in town could not figure out how to break the curse, so it remained. today, residents of hell use the well to cast coins in exchange for wishes. occasionally, a wish in this well comes true and it is said that the mystic forces carefully grant the wishes based on who has ancestors in the town that stood with the goodale family. when a wish is made from someone with ancestral blood that ran them out, the wish is granted but turns bad.

the devil's footprints
in 1926, during a brutal snowstorm, townsfolk awoke to find a line of single hoofprints leading through hell's streets. they ran across rooftops, over frozen ponds, and even up the church's steeple before vanishing into the sky. every few decades, after the first heavy snow, someone swears they’ve seen the tracks again. the last time was in 1993, the winter three homes burned down under suspicious circumstances.

the elf on shelf incident
the garrisons are a respectable family known for their elaborate christmas displays. every december, their house glowed with lights strung all the way up to the chimney, and neighbors whispered that the garrisons left cookies out for something other than santa. in 2015, they joined the modern craze and bought an elf on the shelf doll. at first it seemed harmless, the children giggled when it "moved" each night, perched on chandeliers or tucked inside cupboards. but after the second week, things shifted. the youngest garrison swore she saw the elf blink. the eldest found small bite marks on the candy canes, sharp and irregular. by mid-december, the parents noticed the elf wasn't just moving, it was climbing higher each night, always watching from a new vantage point closer to their bedrooms. on christmas eve, the elf wasn't on the shelf at all. the garrisons woke to find it sitting on the father's chest, tiny hands around his throat, whispering, "naughty, naughty." the family fled the house that night, leaving gifts unopened. when neighbors entered weeks later, they found the elf still perched on the mantle but its eyes had been gouged out and tiny footprints led into the walls. they told all this to the cops, and filed a report. a week later, the rag leaked the police report for the entire town to read. since then, no garrison has celebrated christmas openly. their home is decorated only with plain white candles in the windows, lit from december 1st to january 1st.

the fellowship
the fellowship is not a doomsday cult but it is a community group gone off the rails. the fellowship began in the 1970s as a potluck club that met every friday in the basement of the local baptist church. over time, it transformed into a secretive society of food obsessed townsfolk who believe sharing a meal is the only true way to bind souls together. their ultimate belief being that at the final supper, when every member brings their most important recipe, they will all become one family forever. nobody knows what this actually means. the cult is run by martha kitt who you can read about on the npc page.

the girl at the docks
fishermen claim a young girl appears on the hell's docks in hellport, staring into the water as though waiting for someone to return. when approached, she vanishes, leaving behind only puddles of dirty water. the iverson family denies it, but locals say she matches the description of their great-aunt annabelle, who drowned in 1919.

the harker woods
the harker family owned the timber rights around hell for nearly a century, until a brutal strike in 1935 turned violent. several workers were killed when sheriff's deputies clashed with protesters, and the family name never recovered. today, "harker woods" is just what locals call a small stretch of the forest in north hellport. loggers and park rangers refuse to work there, not out of fear of ghosts but because of the legacy of blood spilled over wages. the woods became a symbol of bitterness and class divide, and older residents still mutter "don't go chopping in harker's land," a warning less about spirits and more about stirring up bad history. the harker family still owns several cabins around that stretch of woods, but they haven't been able to rent it out for over 4 decades.

the house that builds itself
there's an old clapboard house in the elms that seems to shift every decade. staircases appear where closets used to be, doors lead to rooms that weren't there before. realtors swear they've mapped the floorplan a dozen times, only for it to change the next week. the brave who sneak inside tell stories of walking hallways until they feel like they're outside again but when they look back, the house is behind them, windows glowing.

krueger farms
krueger farms is a farm that has existed within the krueger family since they immigrated to the united states in 1914 from germany. they raise livestock and grow fruit and vegetables to sell to local businesses. their apple orchard is a favorite among citizens in the autumn, who are invited out to pick their own apples from the trees to take home. outside of the orchard, however, the krueger farmhouse and barns are avoided due to a scarecrow that morton krueger put up shortly after building his farm. his wife, heidi krueger, had started dabbling in witchcraft when she arrived and she used an ill-advised spell on the scarecrow. her intent was to rid the farm from spirits but, instead, it backfired. since then, each spirit that once lingered on that farm is said to be trapped in the scarecrow. it is said now that touching the scarecrow will release one spirit into the body of anyone who touches it. the story claims that there is a fifty-fifty chance the spirit may be nice or not so nice. the scarecrow lore is unproven and those who have experienced it have spoken out, only to be doubted by hell residents. too many people convicted of violent crimes over the years have blamed the scarecrow's spirits for taking over their bodies. to date, not one jury has accepted their claims. the farm is located on the outer land of shady canyon.

the lantern man
a ghostly figure said to roam the streets of hell on foggy nights, carrying a lantern that flickers with unnatural light. legend says he was once a lamplighter who went mad after losing his family to a mysterious fire in 1903. children are warned not to follow the light, lest they be led to the edge of town… or vanish entirely. in 2016, the ashford family is the latest family to have a missing child that the town has attributed to the lantern man.

lyla quayle
in 1963, 7 year old lyla quayle vanished during a storm. witnesses said she was playing jump rope near the storm drain by hell's cove, and then she was simply gone. search parties scoured the beach, the woods, and even drained sections of pipe, but no body was ever found. weeks later, her younger brother swore he heard her voice echoing from the grate outside their house, laughing and calling his name, luring him to the grate. since then, townsfolk whisper that every generation of quayles produces a child who disappears near water; a pond, a drain, even the shallow ditch by hell forest. some claim the missing children "live" in the storm tunnels now, appearing only during floods, their pale faces peering from the grates. quayle parents keep their kids on short leashes during storms, but the drainwater always seems to hum with laughter when they pass by.

purgatory putt putt
owned by the byler family, purgatory putt putt is family friendly and a favorite activity among locals and tourists alike. every spring, purgatory putt putt hosts a tournament that widdles down putt putters to the final player. the winner has their picture hung in the main office, is able to play putt putt free for a year, and is known as hell's champion until a new one takes the title. despite the prestige being the purgatory putt putt champion awards, many winners find themselves dealing with bad luck in every other area of their life– two of whom have died. rumor is that 56 year old marlene jessup cursed the winner of the game in 2011 because she lost, and that curse stuck with every winner since. the curse lifts when a new winner takes over.

the sinkhole of bellows field
bellows field was once a fertile stretch of farmland until 1957, when the ground suddenly caved in and swallowed an entire barn. neighbors heard what sounded like voices rising from the sinkhole for three days before it went silent. to this day, the pit remains, fenced off with warning signs. yet kids dare each other to lean over and listen. those who claim to have heard it say the voices don’t sound human, they sound like family members, calling their names.

the suds carwash
the kawashi family claims that the car wash "doesn't just clean cars, it cleans histories." rumors say if you drive through with the windows rolled down at midnight, the brushes won't just scrub paint: they'll whisper secrets back at you, the things you've tried to bury and the things you want to forget will be erased from history. some locals say the water isn't water at all, but runoff collected from storms at the cliffs. others whisper that stains the machines can't remove are omens and one teenager swore the soap formed the outline of a handprint after her father's death.

the unmarked graves
there are a handful of graves in hell's cemetery that have no names, only tall iron posts. locals say the unmarked aren't truly dead, just "resting elsewhere." sometimes fresh flowers appear at these graves, though no one admits to leaving them. town dares involve sending someone to spend a night by one of the markers, but every attempt ends with the person waking up at home, unable to remember how they got there.

the vanishing fair
in the early 1900s, a traveling carnival rolled into hell. town records show the carnival promised "wonders never seen before" and even advertised a ferris wheel taller than the town water tower. yet, when the sun rose the next morning, the fairground was bare. the wagons, tents, and performers were all gone without a trace. ever since, locals claim the fair returns once every 20 years, but only for a single night. few in town claim to have seen it, the last sighting was 2005.

the willow wisp
hell's got its very own infamous cryptid known as the willow wisp, a creature said to lurk along the hell coastline and the willow groves on the outskirts of town. reports of the wisp date back to the 1850s, when fishermen began describing a pale, skeletal figure rising from the fog at dusk, carrying orbs of cold blue light in its hands. some accounts describe the wisp as human-shaped but impossibly tall, with willow branches for hair and eyes that glow faintly like lanterns. others claim it has no body at all, just a flickering, wavering form that slips between trees like smoke. the willow wisp is tied to several local tragedies:

— in 1871, three children vanished after chasing "dancing lights" near the coast. their shoes were found neatly placed at the bank, but no bodies were ever recovered.

— in 1924, two loggers reported seeing the wisp waving them away from a collapsing section of trees, one survived, the other was crushed. to this day, some argue the creature is a protector, not a predator.

— most recently in 2016, teens dared each other to walk the willow groves after dark. only one returned, claiming the others "followed the lights into the water." their bodies were found days later downstream.

today, townsfolk treat the willow wisp with wary respect. children are warned not to follow strange lights in the woods, and during the annual festival of lanterns, locals leave candles at the edge of the coast "to distract the wisp" and keep it from wandering into town. the debate rages on in hell's historical society—whether the willow wisp is a ghost, a spirit of the coast, or something older than the town itself.