At the Prince Albert Theatre, a young Bram Stoker is desperately searching for his manager and actor Sir Henry Irving. He quickly discovers him preparing to go on stage. As he sees his cue, Irving notices a woman on the stage in the wings pointing at something. More peculiarly is that he can see right through her as if she was a ghost. He turns to Stoker who is unable to see the woman, but as soon as Irving turns back, the woman has disappeared…Irving concludes that the theatre is haunted!
At the Red Tavern, a man bursts into the bar gasping and desperately begging Ellie for a drink. Suddenly, the man’s skin begins to dry up instantly and he falls to the floor dead a shrivelled corpse…
At the New Regency Theatre, Jago is met by his old friend Bram Stoker. Stoker confides in Jago about his manager Henry Irving who despite being a celebrated actor has been receiving negative reviews in his performances recently. He invites Jago to the Prince Albert Theatre to see for himself.
At the mortuary, Inspector Quick informs Litefoot about the latest corpse for his autopsy. The man died in the Red Tavern with his skin drying up looking like a mummy. Litefoot is disbelieving of his claim…until he pulls back the sheet covering the corpse to reveal that Quick’s description was not wrong…
At the Prince Albert Theatre, Jago and Stoker are watching Irving’s production of King Arthur. Jago notices how tired Irving looks on stage, and he is stumbling over his lines and getting rather agitated at the supporting cast.
Litefoot is taken aback at the corpse before him. After concluding his autopsy, Litefoot concludes that every drop of liquid has been drained from the victim – saliva, blood, and the bodily acids. Litefoot also finds the letters A.A. engraved in the man’s jacket and Quick notes that the fingers are stained in ink. Quick believes that the man before them on the slab could only be August Augustus, a famous horror author.
Jago and Stoker go to meet with Irving in his dressing room, but the actor is not up for visitors. He eventually relents and allows them inside. Jago praises the actor for the play, but cannot help but bring up a few criticisms, which Irving takes rather personally. Irving angrily believes that everyone has set themselves against him and slips that he can hear voices plotting against him. When Stoker asks him to elaborate, Irving kicks him and Jago out.
At the police station, Litefoot has signed Augustus’ death certificate with the cause of death marked as unknown medically, much to Quick’s annoyance. A man called Meredith Manners arrives to declare August Augustus missing. Manners identifies himself as Augustus’ solicitor. Litefoot informs him that Augustus may be dead, but they are not it may be him, so they ask Manners to identify the body.
Jago and Stoker are discussing Irving’s behaviour. Stoker mentions that everyone has been acting strange and offhandedly mentions that the theatre might be cursed. A woman runs towards them screaming, Stoker asks the woman, Dame Wilhelmina Gussett, what the problem is. She immediately calms down and states that she thought she saw the Woman in White. Stoker reassures her that the Woman in White is just a myth, but Jago is intrigued. Gussett tells Jago that whenever the Woman in White is spotted, misfortune follows. She mentions that the actors are planning to go on strike as well.
Litefoot and Quick bring Manners into the mortuary to identify the body. Manners is immediately sickened by the sight of the dehydrated corpse but confirms from the clothes that the body is indeed August Augustus. Manners explains that he will immediately begin fulfilling Augustus’ will and prepare the funeral arrangements to take place immediately, but states as per the will’s instructions that the funeral must be a private affair and the public are not to know. Once he leaves, Litefoot and Quick find the speediness of the will’s requirements to be quite strange and decide to investigate.
Dame Gussett is in her dressing room when a stagehand delivers her a bouquet of flowers from a Baron Otto Hildebeest. Gussett is agitated that the ‘most boring man in Prussia’ is here to visit her and demands the stagehand to help her escape unnoticed. The stagehand pulls back the rug on the floor to reveal a trapdoor, she can escape under the stage to the side doors. She proceeds to climb down the trap door to her escape.
Under the floor, Gussett is applauding her escape, but realises that she should have brought a lamp with her. She hears a faint screech in the distance and calls out to it. She is suddenly ambushed by a gurgling creature which attacks her…
The next day, Stoker visits Jago at the New Regency Theatre. He informs Jago that Irving has now locked himself away in his dressing room and refuses to see anyone. But more pressingly is that Dame Gussett has disappeared. He reveals that she is not the first person to disappear from the theatre as many staff members have similarly vanished. Jago believes that something supernatural is happening at the Prince Albert Theatre and offers to investigate along with Litefoot, which Stoker accepts.
Litefoot and Quick are spying on Augustus’ funeral. Despite it being a private affair, they are surprised at the large number of people, most of whom are famous actors and playwrights. They spot the vicar in strange black garments covered in strange symbols. The two are shocked to watch as the vicar anoints the corpse in paraffin oil and sets it on fire…
At the Red Tavern, Litefoot tells Jago about the funeral and the peculiar events that transpired. He learned that the funeralgoers were all a part of a secretive cult called ‘The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’. Jago tells Litefoot about the mysterious disappearances at the Prince Albert Theatre. Stoker arrives and informs the Infernal Investigators that Irving had slipped out of his dressing room. He had followed Irving discreetly to a cemetery where he met with a stranger for a while. Once the two split up, Stoker followed the stranger…but the stranger vanished into thin air. When Stoker returned to the Theatre, he investigated Irving’s dressing room and found a brooch with a strange symbol. Litefoot is astonished to discover that this brooch has the very same symbols as the ones the vicar wore on his garments during the funeral, which can only mean that Irving is a member of this creepy cult…
That night, Jago, Litefoot and Stoker are hiding in the cemetery bushes waiting for Irving to arrive. Moments later, Irving arrives standing by a specific grave, and a mysterious figure emerges from the shadows to meet with him. Stoker identifies him as the same man from the night before. Stoker emerges from the bushes to greet Irving, much to the Infernal Investigators collective chagrin. Upon being discovered, both Irving and the stranger split up with Stoker chasing after Irving. Jago and Litefoot decide to chase the stranger.
The Infernal Investigators manage to corner the stranger in an alleyway, but the stranger suddenly begins to climb over the tall wall like a reptile! They both conclude that their stranger was not human…
Stoker manages to catch up to Irving. Irving thrashes his cane angrily at Stoker while deliriously claiming to not recognise him. Stoker manages to calm down his friend and tells him that he is worried for his health and that he needs help. Irving tells Stoker that his Master tells him that Stoker is lying and that he must be stopped! Irving once again attacks Stoker with his cane. Jago and Litefoot sneak up behind Irving and knock him out. Litefoot informs Stoker that their stranger got away, but they returned to the graveyard to look at the grave Irving and the stranger were standing by. It belonged to a deceased man called Stanley Harker, but the grave had been dug up with the coffin empty…
The next morning, Jago and Litefoot meet with Quick at the police station. Irving had been locked in a cell after the previous night’s altercation. Quick leads them to meet with him. Once they arrive, they are disturbed to discover Irving had started eating flies. Quick leaves them alone to talk with him. Irving begins to rant and rave about ‘The Master’ waiting for him, and how he is his obedient slave. Litefoot asks him who his master is, but Irving does not take any notice. Jago quietly tells Litefoot that they will not get anything out of him and both men leave.
Once they return, Quick hands the two investigators some documents pertaining to Stanley Harker. They discover he was a builder who died only 3 months ago in a work-related accident. Coincidently, he was working on strengthening the structural foundations of the Prince Albert Theatre when he died…
Later, Stoker leads Jago and Litefoot under the stage of the Prince Albert Theatre. They discover a huge hole in the floor that Stoker confirms was not there when the builders were working, so it was only dug up recently. Litefoot decides they should get some ropes to scale the hole and see what is below…
The trio discover a cave tunnel not far below. As they walk through the tunnel, they discover that the tunnel gets narrower and narrower the deeper they go. Litefoot deduces that this tunnel could not have been dug by the builders and that something else may have done it. At that moment, the three men hear a distant shriek coming from further in the caves. They decide to climb back up and return later when they are better prepared, but Jago finds himself stuck in a narrow part of the tunnel, and worse is that the shrieking is getting closer. They feel what feels like an earthquake and the tunnel begins to collapse around them. Litefoot and Stoker manage to dig themselves free, Jago on the over hand is nowhere to be found…
The earthquake caused a chasm to open beneath Jago and he has fallen deeper into the underground cave network. He gets up without much trouble and calls to his friends to no response. He remarks on how he had a soft landing and lights a match to discover he has landed on a mass grave of dead bodies! Jago notices how they are all dried up like Augustus’ body. Worst of all is that he soon discovers he is not alone as he hears a sinister woman’s laugh…
Litefoot calls out to Jago to no response. Stoker hears a faint rumbling in the distance. With their exit route blocked thanks to the earthquake, Litefoot suggests they press on towards it. They eventually discover something rather horrifying…huge slug-like creatures hanging from the tunnel ceiling. Litefoot tells Stoker that they must pass by these creatures quietly to get past…
Jago discovers the woman’s voice belongs to Dame Gussett. She emerges from the shadows to reveal herself to be rather pale, corpse-like, and mentally unstable. Suddenly, the ghostly Woman in White materialises behind Gussett and vaporises her, much to Jago’s horror and angrily demands to know why she would do such a thing. The Woman in White emotionlessly repeats Jago’s sentences, which infuriates the man further. The Woman in White tells Jago that the threat has been neutralised and that he may return to his duties, for the Draxus has been contained…
Litefoot and Stoker soon hear Jago and the Woman in White talking in the distance of the caves. They quickly find him and the Woman in White not far ahead. At first, they do not see the woman and believe Jago is delirious, but they stand next to Jago and see her as well. Litefoot deduces that the Woman in White can only be seen from certain angles. The Woman in White identifies itself as a sentient galactic zoological survey vessel called the Demeter. The Woman in White is a hologrammatic projection created by the ship, hence it’s ghostly appearance. Demeter explains that it was transporting the Draxus, parasitic alien creatures that not only feed on their victims but transform them into human leeches as well. Its primary function was to keep the crew safe from the Draxus, which had escaped from the ship’s holding facility, which caused the ship to make an emergency landing on Earth 15,000 years ago. Ever since, she has been confined to the Demeter and cannot move far from it, in fact she can only appear as far as the Prince Albert Theatre, hence why she appears around the place as a ghost.
Later above ground in a horse carriage, Jago, Litefoot and Stoker are discussing what they just saw below. Stoker is disbelieving of what he has just seen. Litefoot deduces that the Prince Albert Theatre was built above the site where the Demeter lay underground. It had been undisturbed since it landed centuries ago, until the builders arrived to strengthen the Theatre’s foundations. The builder Stanley Harker was the first to be infected by the Draxus and in turn infected Irving, followed by Irving infecting his staff who began disappearing. Litefoot assumes from Harker’s grave that the man is not as dead as people were led to believe. Jago announces that he has a plan…all they need is to find Irving…
At the police station, Quick releases an angry Irving from his cell at the behest of Jago and Litefoot. All they need to do is to follow him to his mysterious master that he has been ranting about. Jago and Litefoot leave Quick, whom they fail to notice has gone into a trance after hearing the word ‘master’.
The Infernal Investigators and Stoker follow Irving to Fitzroy Square. They watch him enter a townhouse. They realise the townhouse is the Isis-Urania Temple, the first temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn! Irving must have introduced Harker to the group while under the influence of the Draxus, which in turn made the order a target for the Draxus as the group is made up of the best and brightest minds!
The trio knock on the door of the temple and are surprised to find Meredith Manners, Augustus’ solicitor, answering the door. Manners is reluctant to answer any questions regarding the Golden Dawn, so Litefoot asks if he saw Irving enter the building. Manners denies seeing him enter and invites the trio inside to look for themselves. Stoker notices a flight of stairs heading to the basement, so they decide to look for him there.
The four men call out to Irving in the basement. They hear in the room and he beckons the group to come to him. They find him skulking in the corner laughing madly to himself before leaving, but not before addressing Manners as his master. Realising the ruse is over, Manners reveals that Irving has been his slave ever since he unearthed him from his premature burial… Meredith Manners is in fact Stanley Harker! He will be the progenitor of the Draxus and he and his specifically selected members of the Golden Dawn will infected humanity! He calls out for his infected progenies to rise and the crates in the basement burst open to reveal several Draxus infected members of the Golden Dawn. But Jago and Litefoot are not worried or deterred as Jago reveals that he has brought a small generator with him. He rapidly cranks the handle as he explains that he and his friends have met the Draxus’ keeper and they are bringing her here! Suddenly, the Woman in White materialises in the room and vaporises Manners and all the infected Golden Dawn members. With the threat neutralised, she tells Jago and Litefoot that they may return to their duties, which Jago infers as go to the Red Tavern.
At the Red Tavern, Jago, Litefoot and Stoker celebrate their victory over the Draxus. Stoker tells the Infernal Investigators that Irving has slowly begun to recover but cannot remember anything that happened to him. Litefoot explains that since Irving and Harker and the Golden Dawn were the first ones to be possessed by the Draxus, the people they infected didn’t have full Draxus DNA inside them, so the instinct to infect others was lost on their victims, which meant they died very quickly because they couldn’t figure out how to sustain themselves, hence the dried corpses. Stoker is unsure how to process the events that transpired. Jago suggests that he put the supernatural experiences into a novel – a gothic melodrama with vampires!
Elsewhere, a hypnotised Inspector Quick meets up with The Master. He has brought a handkerchief used by Litefoot and a glass used by Jago from his visit to the police station. The Master comments that he should be able to take samples of their DNA from these items. He thanks Quick for his help. He explains to Quick that he plans to use their DNA samples to drain their life essence to a point that they would be completely helpless, so helpless in fact that they would be forced to summon The Doctor to help them. Then The Doctor will save The Master at the cost of his own life! This time, The Master will be victorious!
