Episode 2 begins with the five arriving separately at the Tri-County Bank for the reading of Amy Caldwell’s last will and testament, each expecting a routine obligation and none aware that the others have been called as well. The reunion is unplanned and deeply uncomfortable. Thirty years of distance sit between them, and whatever they once were to each other does not easily return. Conversation is strained, polite at best, with long pauses filled by recognition that feels more like intrusion than familiarity.
Amy has arranged everything with precision.
Each of them is given a sealed envelope addressed in her hand, along with a set of unfamiliar keys and a single personal item. The objects are distinct, clearly chosen for each individual, and carry a weight that makes them feel less like keepsakes and more like instruments. There is no explanation provided for any of it, only the quiet expectation that they will understand in time.
When they begin to handle the items, the tone shifts. Each of them experiences a brief but undeniable waking disturbance. A visual inconsistency. A sound that should not exist in the room. A memory that feels imposed rather than recalled. The moments are fleeting, disorienting, and impossible to verify with one another in any meaningful way. Each is left to question whether it happened at all, or whether the strain of returning has begun to affect them. The pattern is clear even if they do not say it out loud.
The items are doing something. The will itself offers direction without clarity. The keys suggest locations yet to be discovered. The items suggest purpose without revealing intent. And the fact that all five were brought together without their knowledge begins to feel deliberate in a way that is difficult to ignore.
Outside, Ashwood remains unchanged in appearance, but the feeling from their arrival has intensified. The town no longer feels distant or passive. It feels closer, as if their presence has shifted something. As the meeting concludes and they linger in the shared discomfort of being together again, there is a growing sense that this was never about closure.
Amy did not gather them to settle her affairs.
She gathered them because something is beginning.
From the Creator:
Echoes under Ashwood is more than a horror story...it is a deeply personal piece of autofiction. The slow-burn dread, the isolation of the rural Midwestern setting, and the unresolved history of the Gen X cast are directly informed by my own childhood trauma, processed and reframed through the lens of cosmic horror. This is an exploration of what it takes to look into the dark, face old ghosts, and survive the aftermath.
About Echoes under Ashwood: This is an audio-only cosmic horror podcast set in rural southeastern Ohio. Our story is a slow-burn analog mystery rooted in psychological dread, following a Gen X cast through an investigative narrative. While the story is completely improvised, the framework is heavily inspired by investigative tabletop RPG systems like Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green.
In This Episode:
Opening Song \"Home-grown\" written and performed by Sadie Baimel
Show is written, edited, and produced by James Altwies
Cast:
Bex Lexington / Carrie Harris
Dawn McBride / Angela Edwards
Harry Glassman / Grant Gleisner
Lance McClane / Gregg Baimel
Oz Hannigan / Art Pratt and Davis Edwards
Keeper / James Altwies
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