The year is 1649 and we find ourselves in King Charles I's England, a country torn apart by years of civil war and religious persecution.
 
One place the Grim Reaper is hard at work is the Manor of Buckingham, in the county of Buckinghamshire, where an unhealthy dose of the plague, and a spate of highway robberies, have seen the county become ever more isolated and close to ungovernable. Increasingly frail, Lord Henry Blacksnake's grip on power is slowly ebbing away, and the vultures are beginning to circle.
 
Struck down with a moderate case of the 'Black Death', Lord Henry has confined himself to his bedchamber, and now sees only his immediate family and personal servants, all of whom believe, with varying degrees of sadness, that the end must soon be near.
 
It is with complete shock then, that his freshly severed head and body are found in the darkness of the Great Hall of Buckingham Castle. The alarm is raised and the Night Watch immediately seals off all exits to the castle.
 
Dawn sees the coincidental arrival of 'Witchfinder General', Matthew Hopkins, who immediately assumes control and calls for a formal inquisition of all those found within the castle walls, some of whom we would expect to be there, and some of whom, we would not.