Dr. Randolph Hodgson is a supporting character in The Dark Pictures Anthology's third installment, House of Ashes. He was a British archaeologist who went missing with his expedition in the Zagros Mountains in 1947.
Appearance[]
In a photo along with Randolph's first journal entry, Randolph wore a dark suit and had nice gelled hair. He was also wearing a construction helmet at the time of the photo. His other features are unknown as he was only physically shown decomposed and the photo was only in black and white.
In death, he wears tattered clothing and is shown rotten. His notable features in the photo has now disappeared due to the long time difference.
Personality[]
Judging by his journal entries, Randolph appears to be a frequent writer with an inquisitive mind and open thought, detailing the events. After Mary's death, Randolph calls himself vain, as he did not pay attention to his wife's worries, wishing to explore the underground city.
Randolph is very intelligent as he is capable enough to lead his own expedition while also being a professor. He is shown to be hardworking and deeply loving towards his wife, and also shown to be skeptical towards people he thinks are dangerous, suspicious or untrustworthy.
Furthermore, Randolph is courageous, as shown when he is willing to bury the temple to protect humanity by stopping the vampires to reach the surface even if it means killing him and all the other archeologists.
Biography[]
The Beginning of the Expedition[]
Already a notable archaeologist and war veteran, Randolph met a woman named Mary. They fell in love and in 1945, the couple got married. Shortly afterwards in September of that year, when the newlyweds were planning to spend their honeymoon, they were invited to dinner by British antiquarian Agnes Bradshaw, who was interested in hiring them for an expedition. There, Bradshaw showed the couple two relics from an excavation site in the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq - a brooch and a gold cuneiform tablet, the latter of which she believed to be a map leading to the tomb of Alexander the Great, located somewhere in the Zagros Mountains.
After agreeing to lead her expedition to find the tomb, Randolph (along with Mary and Bradshaw) arrived in Iraq in April of 1946. He also recruited his old comrade from the war Captain Sherman Crow, an experienced dig foreman Arthur Pulman, his personal assistant Aline Journeau and Lady Bradshaw's assistant Ellis van Huyten to accompany them on the expedition as well. Though they had trouble hiring local workers to assist them (they were afraid that the demons in the mountains would possess them), by October, the team had successfully broken into the tomb. However, they soon learned that site wasn't the tomb of Alexander the Great, but a temple built by the Akkadian king Naram-Sin.
Finding an Alien Ship[]
Still viewing the expedition as a success, Randolph and the other expedition members remained at the site to further study the temple. In December, Crow found an unearthly light emanating from below the temple. With Bradshaw's permission, he used dynamite to blow a hole through the rock face, allowing the group to access the area beneath them. Though Mary was beginning to grow increasingly weary of Bradshaw's recklessness, Randolph remained curious of what laid beneath the temple and even helped Crow and Pulman construct an elevator to easily traverse the shaft.
Using the elevator, the group discovered what appeared to be the remains of an ancient city and the hostile creatures that inhabited it. Soon after discovering the city, Mary was found unconscious in the Star Chamber, after which she began to show signs of illness, such as fainting and having a fever. Around this time, van Huyten secretly sabotaged the team's radio, cutting them off from communicating with the outside world. Mary's condition soon worsened, and she began to ramble about winged demons. This culminated in Mary attempting to attack Bradshaw, but she was soon calmed by Randolph.
On December 31, 1946 however, Mary succumbed to her illness. In her final moments, Randolph apologized to Mary for accepting Bradshaw's invitation and promised her that he'd bury the city, the temple, and the creatures forever, even if it means the expedition will die with them. After Mary had passed, Randolph noticed Bradshaw's brooch in her hand and the similarities between the creature on it and the creatures cocooned in the city. Just then, Mary's corpse began to move and attacked Randolph, but thanks to the cell he was able to escape. As the expedition set up weapons and Randolph searched for Bradshaw (who, according to his assumption, went down to the city to catch the same infection as Mary), he realized that she had known all along about the vampires' existence and deliberately led the group to them in hopes of achieving the secret of their immortality.
The Last Battle[]
As Randolph then alleges, he found a transformed Bradshaw hunched over van Huyten's corpse, having sucked out his blood. Grabbing an iron tent peg, Randolph stabbed Bradshaw in the heart, killing her. This claim, however, is contradicted by the fact that Bradshaw's corpse shows no signs of infection, meaning it's possible that Randolph murdered a living Bradshaw and that Mary (the only confirmed vampire in the team) had killed van Huyten sometime earlier, with his journal entries meant to cover up these actions.
Either way, he later regrouped with what remained of the expedition team and prepared to bring the temple down with dynamite. However, unbeknownst to Randolph, van Huyten had also sabotaged the dynamite prior to being killed. As Randolph and his team made their final stand against the vampires, Randolph made one last diary entry, where he lamented his actions and apologized once more to Mary for not being able to keep his promise. He then shot himself in the head to avoid being killed or turned by the vampires.
Legacy[]
Months after their last confrontation with the vampires, Randolph and his expedition team's disappearance was written as an article in an American Overseas newspaper. Decades later, Randolph's expedition team's remains were discovered by an American Unit and Iraqi soldiers.
Man of Medan[]
| Chapter Appearances | |||
| Chinese Market | Absent | ||
| The Duke | Absent | Finding Friends | Absent |
| Wreck | Absent | Ritual | Absent |
| Dive | Absent | Pressure | Absent |
| Uninvited Guests | Absent | Plunged | Absent |
| Ghost Story | Absent | Glamor Girl | Absent |
| Intrusion | Absent | Revenge | Absent |
| Storm | Absent | Open Deck | Absent |
| Abandoned Ship | Absent | Distress Signal | Absent |
| Trapped | Mentioned in Text | Depths | Absent |
| An Escape | Absent | Junior | Absent |
| Danny | Absent | Olson | Absent |
| Caskets | Absent | Flooded | Absent |
| Echo | Absent | Matters of the Heart | Absent |
| The End | Absent | ||
Minor Story[]
Randolph was mentioned on the 1947 Newspaper, which touched upon his team's disappearance and his archaeological expedition.
House of Ashes[]
| Chapter Appearances | |||
| Cursed | Absent | ||
| The Briefing | Absent | The Assault | Absent |
| The Raid | Absent | The Horror | Absent |
| Underworld | Absent | Enemy of My Enemy | Indirectly Present |
| Pazuzu | Absent | The Well | Absent |
| The Temple | Debut | The Ancient One | Absent |
| Breaking Up | Absent | Brothers | Appears (Dead) |
| After the Fall | Indirectly Present | The City | Absent |
| Slayer | Indirectly Present | Strange Aeons | Indirectly Present |
| The Truce | Absent | The Vault | Absent |
| Bloodbath | Indirectly Present | Semper Fi | Absent |
| The Signal | Indirectly Present | Daylight | Absent |
| The End | Absent | ||
Main Story[]
The remains of Randolph's expedition team will first be seen once Eric and Rachel arrive at the temple, whom the latter mistakes them as a weapon silo. The couple will also hear a recording of Randolph's last fight against the vampires. Randolph's journal pages are scattered everywhere and can be found throughout the underground. Along the entrance to the buried spaceship, Jason and Salim can find his corpse.
Killed Victims[]
| Character | Mechanism of kill |
|---|---|
| Bradshaw | Impaled in the heart with stake |
| Himself | Shot |
Trivia[]
Secrets[]
- Randolph is associated with some secrets:
- He was first mentioned in the 1947 Newspaper in Man of Medan, where he is said to have vanished along with his entire team while looking for relics of Iraq's past.
- He was the author of all the Randolph Journal entries.
- He was the owner of the Pocket Watch, which holds a picture of Mary.
- The Cuneiform Tablet, Ritual Tablet, Battle Tablet, Holed Stone, Black Onyx, and Star Map were all catalogued by Randolph and his expedition team in the Finds Catalog and Finds Ledger.
- During the research of the vampires, the expedition team made Creature Features, Vampire Speculations, Infection Symptoms, Parasite Notes, Autopsy Notes, Mary's Notes, and Creature Life Cycle.
Facts[]
- The 1947 Newspaper refers to him as a professor.
Other[]
- Although Randolph in Entry 9 states that he killed Bradshaw after she became a vampire, her corpse shows that she was human as her front teeth are still intact. This could mean that Randolph killed Bradshaw (possibly out of revenge for infecting Mary) and lied about it in his journal entries.
- Another proof is Randolph's phrase - "My hand fell to the closest weapon I could find - an iron tent peg". Since the murder of Bradshaw took place in the catacombs, the tent peg couldn't lie there, which means that Randolph brought the stake with him.
Trophies[]
- Randolph is associated with the trophy "The Statement of Randolph Hodgson".
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