Klaas Klok

Member from 1947-1981

Klaas Klok, born in the Netherlands, became an ACE member in 1947. Even at that time, he had a reputation as a fastidious demon researcher and mysticism expert. Among other specialisms, he was known for researching ghost appearances and investigating extraordinary natural phenomena.

Just one year after joining the ACE, Klok was entrusted with a very special task: According to legend, a time portal in the Northern Limestone Alps used to open on a certain date each year – more specifically in the massif generally referred to as Mount Untersberg. As the date approached and a few farmers in the vicinity started to report unusual gatherings of the “Barbarossa ravens” circling the summit of Mount Unterberg day and night, the decision was taken to entrust Klok with investigations.

Klok, an avid mountaineer, was very familiar with the Limestone Alps, and had already undertaken research at the “devil’s hole” during the spring, not far from the described point. As legends also describe the devil’s pursuit of an Alpine herdswoman and dairymaid, detailing how she narrowly escaped through an opening in the rocks that appeared here at her moment of urgent need, Klok decided to bivouac again on the devil’s hole.

On the preceding evening Klok found himself at the site of the stone circle, which at sunrise would pool the rays of the sun and direct him to the site of the portal. But the night deteriorated into torment. Bathed in sweat from nightmares, he awoke again and again, and – before the sun rose over the mountain crest – he heard a ghoulish whispering directly behind him.

Terrified, I looked around and saw two glowing red eyes fixed on me from a distance away. Quickly, one pair of eyes became two, and soon three, and before I knew what was happening they came toward me, panting, slavering and gurgling. Panic-stricken, I stumbled along the mountain path while my limbs seemed to get heavier and heavier, as if gripped by icy cold. Just as abruptly as the demons had appeared, a fog settled over the path so I could barely see where I was going. I became completely disoriented and felt my pursuers coming ever closer. But then, just as they were about to seize me, something extraordinary and unbelievable happened! The first rays of sun cut through the fog and shone on to a rock that was reminiscent of a praying woman, reflecting back from there, as if from a mirror, onto those chasing me. One by one, the demons foundered. I saw them disappear into the rock, but in the next moment they were trying to break out of the rock from the inside! I knew I had found the time portal. But then it became clear to me that I had to destroy it forever, because the demons wanted to return to the surface. What misery!

Klok wrote later, in his report for ACE.

It only became clear years after his death that he had at that time kept as a memento one of the shards of the mirror of the destroyed portal, and added it to a magic box that he gave to his grandson Hans for his 10th birthday. When Hans wanted to try out the magic box, he cut himself on this shard. Later, he would often tell of how he suddenly had the feeling of being able to control time. Today, the great magician Hans Klok is known across the globe as the Master of Time.

In the possession of the Adventure Club of Europe:

Artefacts:

• • sketch of a demon
  • shard of mirror