Easton meets Miss Potter near the tarn, who warns kan not to touch a stinking redgill mushroom and demonstrates its putrid smell.

Easton arrives at the house of Usher and is greeted by a surprised and gaunt Roderick.

Easton sees Madeline's alarming condition for the first time — she is extremely pale, thin, and covered in fine white hairs.

Angus arrives at the Usher house and tells Easton that villagers believe the estate is surrounded by witch-hares.

Easton rushes into the hall at night and finds Madeline apparently sleepwalking, then escorts her back to her bedroom.

From a balcony overlooking the tarn, Easton sees lights pulsing in the water in an unsettling, patterned rhythm.

Easton, Denton, and Roderick share a pleasant evening of singing, piano, and livrit — the last normal day in the house.

Roderick announces that Madeline died during the night after a cataleptic fit; Denton has confirmed her death.

Easton visits the crypt alone and, upon lifting Madeline's shroud, discovers that her neck has been broken.

Easton brings Miss Potter to examine Madeline's body in the crypt, but Madeline's corpse is missing from the slab.

A hare autopsy on the dining table reveals the creature is packed with fungus; the severed head continues to move.

Easton sends Angus and Miss Potter away with Hob to seek help and protect them from the spreading fungus.

Denton admits that Roderick killed Madeline; Easton and Denton rush to the crypt and then find Madeline sitting on Roderick's bed.

The reanimated Madeline reveals she has been dead for over a month and that the tarn's fungus is a sentient being.

Roderick returns to the house and sets it ablaze with Madeline inside, while Easton and Denton stand guard outside.

This pool covers the core spine of What Moves the Dead, following Alex Easton from kan arrival at the decaying Usher estate through the exposure of the tarn's sentient fungus. Easton meets military doctor James Denton and is shocked by Madeline Usher's alarming physical deterioration, then begins to sense that something unnatural haunts the house and its lake. After Madeline's death is announced and Easton discovers her broken neck in the crypt, the investigation accelerates when Madeline's corpse goes missing and a hare autopsy confirms the existence of a body-controlling organism. The reanimated Madeline herself ultimately reveals that the sentient fungus living in the tarn has been using her body for over a month. The novella concludes with Roderick sacrificing himself to burn down the house, and the survivors poisoning the tarn with sulfur to stop the fungus from spreading further.

The headline events driving the central plot of What Moves the Dead.

Easton passes a hare with orange eyes that stands and stares at kan without moving on the road to the Usher house.

Denton tells Easton that Madeline would likely be diagnosed with hysteria in Paris but believes she has catalepsy and severe anemia.

Easton gets lost in the house and finds Madeline sitting alone on a balcony, staring silently at the tarn.

Madeline tells Easton she goes to the lake to confess her sins and flatly refuses to consider leaving the estate.

During a chance meeting on a morning ride, Easton and Miss Potter discuss whether certain fungi can grow underwater.

Easton and Angus fabricate a story about accidentally shooting a cow to give the Ushers meat without causing Roderick embarrassment.

Roderick and Denton laugh and openly mock Easton for supposedly mistaking a cow for a deer while hunting.

Angus reports that the fish he caught in the tarn were both filled with something he describes as slimy felt.

Denton describes a nightmare in which the pile of amputated limbs from his wartime surgeries begins to move on its own.

Roderick insists he heard Madeline knocking on the crypt door during the night after her death was announced.

Easton realizes there are no rats anywhere in the Usher house, which strikes kan as deeply and inexplicably strange.

Roderick screams in terror when Easton accidentally scrapes a fork against a plate at breakfast.

Miss Potter uses a magnifying glass to examine Madeline's abandoned shroud and confirms the white hairs are fungal hyphae.

The tarn blazes with coordinated light as the group pours sulfur into it, then slowly dims as the fungus dies.

Aaron agrees to remain and watch the tarn, with orders to shoot and burn any animals that approach the water.

This pool highlights the quieter but essential moments that accumulate dread and texture throughout What Moves the Dead. From the first eerie hare Easton encounters on the road, to the characters' small acts of camaraderie and the strange details that resist easy explanation, these events fill in the world surrounding the central mystery. Denton's medical guesswork, Madeline's cryptic words by the tarn, and Angus's discovery of fungus-ridden fish quietly build a picture of an ecosystem already in collapse. After Madeline's death is announced, small but telling details — Roderick's terror at an accidental sound and his insistence that he hears Madeline knocking — reveal the full extent of his unraveling mind. The pool ends with the practical resolution: sulfur poured into a glowing, dying tarn and a local servant assigned to guard the site against any resurgence.

Secondary scenes and observations that deepen the mystery across the full story.

Approaching the Usher estate, Easton notices the windows look uncannily like eyes and feels inexplicably unsettled by the house.

While helping Madeline during a sleepwalking episode, Easton notices that Madeline's arm is no warmer than the surrounding air.

Easton lets go of Madeline's arm and discovers kan own hand is covered in white hairs pulled from her skin.

Putting Madeline to bed, Easton suddenly realizes that Madeline's stiff, dragging walk matches the movement of the infected hares.

Denton reveals to Easton that Madeline almost drowned in the tarn several months earlier and was submerged for hours.

Roderick tells Easton that Madeline's maid, Alice, did not fall ill — she died by suicide three months ago.

Easton searches the Usher library for information about hares but finds every book has been destroyed by damp and mold.

Easton shoots a hare squarely in the head; the dead animal falls, then crawls back upright and stares at kan.

When Easton urges Roderick to act, Roderick angrily admits he has already considered burning the entire house to the ground.

Denton agrees to perform a full examination of a hare if Easton is able to bring him a specimen.

After Madeline's death is announced, Easton retreats to the library and drinks alone until Angus finds kan and puts kan to bed.

Madeline reveals that Alice also taught the tarn fungus to understand and communicate before Alice died by suicide.

Madeline asks Easton to become the next host for the tarn's fungus so it can continue to grow and learn; Easton refuses.

Easton and Denton lock Madeline in Roderick's bedroom; her dark, hyphae-covered fingers slide around the edge of the door.

Angus and Miss Potter return to the Usher property carrying a large supply of sulfur to poison the tarn.

This pool traces the decisive moments of realization and revelation that shift What Moves the Dead toward its terrifying climax. Early clues — the house's unsettling appearance, the unnatural coldness of Madeline's arm, and white hairs left on Easton's hand — quietly accumulate into a picture of something deeply wrong. The discovery that the maid Alice died by suicide, that the library is too rotted to offer answers, and that a shot-dead hare can still stand and stare all point toward a truth that defies ordinary logic. After Madeline's death is announced, Easton drinks to cope while Roderick descends into panic, and the narrative accelerates toward its climax. Madeline's own confessions — that Alice taught the fungus to speak, that Madeline herself has been dead for over a month, and that she wants Easton as the next host — force Easton and Denton into an agonizing final confrontation before Angus and Miss Potter return to deliver the means of destruction.

Key discoveries, reversals, and moments of decision that drive the story toward its conclusion.