There had always been rumours about the secret goings on behind the barbed wire fences and walls of Baskerville. Whispers about genetic experiments, manipulation and the breeding of genetically modified animals were frequently spoken about. Only recent occurrences had roused a little more than suspicion among those living in the hills of Dartmoor; freaky weather patterns, one or two mysterious explosions and an eerie howling that seemed to come from inside the army base. Some thought that the scientists had bred some kind of monster that they couldn't control and it was rampaging, slaughtering those inside and tearing the place apart. But behind the protective walls, the activity in Baskerville wasn't as horrific as some may have thought. The only experiments going on were conducted on nothing more harmful than a rabbit. The interior was immaculately clean; not a single blood cell was in sight where it wasn't meant to be. They only kept everything quiet about what they did to prevent enemies from finding out any information, but with the frequent explosions and howling, it was difficult to keep people from asking questions.
In one of the labs, behind steel bars was housed a white wolf. A scientist discovered this wolf but soon came to see that it was no ordinary arctic wolf that just happened to have wandered too far South across the sea. She managed to capture the wolf and brought it to Baskerville in the hope that they could decipher what kind of species this wolf was. They tried everything they could think of to get at the wolf's biology and chemistry, but of course it wouldn't cooperate. At first, it only behaved aggressively, snapping and snarling at anyone who came near it with a needle and syringe. Then the seemingly supernatural things started to happen; fires caused inside the labs even when all hazards had been checked and doubled checked, flooding of sinks and animals miraculously escaping from their cages. The wolf had escaped its cage many times, only to be caught and put back, as they kept an eye on it constantly. The scientists soon gave up on trying to take blood samples and focused on the wolf's behaviour. It didn't do much other than sit in its cage and watch the people. Nor did it eat or drink; it came as a surprise to many of the scientists that it was still alive the following days. They hoped that by leaving the wolf alone that it might become used to the environment and behave less aggressively towards them, although that technique didn't work either. The moment it was let out of the cage, it took the opportunity to lunge at the closest person's throat. After weeks of having this wolf captive the only thing they knew about it was that it was female, and that all the weird things that started happening only began after it arrived.
A man from Grimpen, a village in Dartmoor situated quite close to Baskerville, took it upon himself to alert someone of the suspicious and curious things going on. But rather that going to the police or the council, he travelled from Devon to London to meet Sherlock Holmes who calls himself a consulting detective. The villager had heard of Sherlock's exploits in solving crimes, and how extraordinarily clever he was, and hoped that he would be just the man to solve this case too.
On meeting Sherlock and his flat mate John, he came across as a rather blunt yet eccentric person but people certainly didn't exaggerate when they said he was quick at figuring things out. John was quite the opposite of Sherlock; he had more social skills than Sherlock did, and seemed to be the more 'normal' one of the two. The villager recited the recently occurring events to Sherlock and John in as much detail as he could. At first, the story seemed to bore Sherlock but once the howling and freak weather patterns were mentioned his eyes swam with increasing interest as he listened intently to what the man had to say. It didn't take long for him to decide that he would take the case and travel to Dartmoor, with his friend and companion John, since the boredom of having nothing to do almost drove him mental. The Grimpen man left Sherlock and John to prepare for their trip to the rolling hills of Dartmoor to investigate the mysteries of Baskerville.
