Wednesday, early morning
Shipley House

Dr. Schmidt triages the three wounded in the hall, bandages Harkov. Leaves to call emergency services, spots mysterious figure duck around corner in the fog.

In Hospital

Paramedics rush Whistler and Harkov to hospital, treating the less seriously injured Hughes and releasing him while Harkov and Whistler go directly into surgery, with Whistler starting to convulse and foam at the mouth before the curtain cuts off the view.

Harkov and Whistler survive, but Whistler loses his left arm to the necrotic venom. Inspector James Barrington showed up to interview the three wounded men, and is tipped off by Harkov to the body of Shipley back at his residence.

Schmidt takes off to search for Harkov’s backpack full of purloined books before the cops arrive at the house (after calling Mahoney from the hospital to tell him about the story), meeting antiquarian Henry Brinded knocking at the door. Together, they search the house, recovering Harkov’s backpack but also discovering a half-devoured head in a stone bowl in the basement’s hidden room.

After meeting back at the hospital and filling everyone in, Schmidt and Hughes return to the Hotel Russell accompanied by Brinded. Note from Gavigan expresses regret at the missed appointment, but Schmidt reschedules and he and Brinded visit the next day with the artifacts from the Ju-Ju House.

Thursday, midday
Penhew Foundation

Gavigan is intrigued, but not terribly helpful, only able to place most of them as African in origin, and old. The metal bowl and headband he seems to think are made of odd metals, possibly alloys.

He offers to investigate further if they would like to leave the artifacts there; Schmidt declines, but accepts the offer to get in touch should any visiting scholars with appropriate expertise happen to stop by the Foundation.

Back at the hotel, there is a note from Mickey Mahoney, thanking them for the tip on the Shipley House Massacre, and promising payment whenever they stop by the Scoop offices.

Tuesday, Evening
Shipley House, Holbein Mewes, London

Crocodilian creature has surrendered. Whistler demands that he return Emile, and the creature agrees. Hughes and Harkov takes Miles to the basement to get “the drug” which the creature, which calls itself Ssathasaa, needs to retrieve Emile from the painting.

Once separated, Ssathasaa mesmerizes Whistler, who attacks Dr. Schmidt at the creature’s command. Schmidt attempts to club the creature, but misses, and is rendered catatonic for most of the rest of the session by a blast of psychic malevolence.

Harkov and Hughes follow Miles to the basement, where he reveals a secret door concealing a small alcove, which contains among other things a number of old, mysterious books. Harkov stuffs the four with the most secure-looking bindings into his backpack, along with one of the three vials of “the drug” — Miles grabs the other two.

Arriving back in the attic, Hughes is attacked by Whistler, who misses. He retaliates with a flash-powder effect and tries to grapple Whistler, without success. Harkov runs across the room and attempts to club Ssathasaa, but misses and is blasted into an hours-long fit of complete hallucination.

Miles grabs a meat cleaver and hacks Hughes in the back, who then flees to the middle of the room, where Miles had left the drug on his painting table, and quaffs half a dose of one of the potions. He slumps, unconscious, to the floor.

Hughes finds himself transported to the swamp and witnesses Emile suffering an episode of insanity, and discovers that he is merely an observer on the scene, and cannot interact. He witnesses the arrival of a group of crocodilians, who proceed to stretch out the insanely unresisting Emile on the altar, before disemboweling him and feasting on his flesh as he dies.

Some Time Later
In A Dank Basement

When he returns to his senses, he finds himself tied to a column in the basement, along with Whistler. Dr. Schmidt and Mr. Harkov are tied to another column nearby.

Hughes manages to escape and frees Whistler, who finds a heavy chain among the basement’s junk, but loudly knocks over a box while retrieving it. Hughes rushes to free Schmidt and Harkov while Ssathasaa emerges from the hidden room … only to be immediately brained by Whistler with the chain.

Hughes empties a bottle of something in the hidden room, which creates noxious fumes. Everyone retreats to the first floor. Schmidt begins searching while Whistler and Harkov summon Miles downstairs, who pushes past Whistler and heads into the basement.

Harkov goes upstairs and retrieves the group’s weapons from a disheveled bedroom, while Whistler and Hughes hold the basement door against a now-enraged Miles, who screams “What have you done!” after discovering the crocodilian’s body.

Eventually, Hughes becomes unable to hold the door due to blood loss from the massive wound in his shoulder; Whistler vomits and falls to the ground, poisoned from a scratch by the serpent-man, Dr. Schmidt rushes to his aide; Harkov gets his sword stuck trying to stab Miles through the small hole he’s hacked in it; Miles finally shoves the door open and buries his cleaver in Harkov’s chest; and Dr. Schmidt finally connects with his club, cracking Shipley on the knee and sending him tumbling backwards down the stairs, where his scream is suddenly cut off after an audible snapping sound.

Tuesday Feb. 3rd, Late afternoon
Fleet Street, Offices of The Scoop, London

Outside the door marked “The Scoop” on the third floor, Whistler listens to a conversation between Steven Hughes and Mickey Mahoney. The group enters. Mahoney tells them about Elias’ visit, the three stories he was interested in. Meet Hughes, a medium also sometimes writing for the paper. Mahoney makes it obvious that he’s willing to pay for good stories — “blood and sex always sell.”

Tuesday, Early evening
Shipley House, Holbein Mewes, London

Group heads off to nearby Holbein Mewes with Mr. Hughes to visit the house of the artist who is subject of one of the stories, Miles Shipley. Greeted by Mrs. Shipley, and gain entry by posing as interested (and well-funded) buyers. In the attic, Miles is at work on a new canvas and is clearly insane. Whistler looks at too many paintings, Emile studies the Black Mountain painting. Dr. Schmidt tries to sneak away to investigate the rest of the house, is followed by Mrs. Shipley. He notices that her shadow, glimpsed for a moment in the dimly-lit house, seems to be that of a much taller and much more reptilian shape. Whistler pulls out weapons, tense standoff, flash bang, prized painting and a note of credit for the black mountain canvas. Harkov keeps an eye on Miles.

After taking a cheque drawn on Emile’s UK accounts at Bank of England, Mrs. Shipley offers them the chance to view Miles’ masterpiece, and shows Emile, Hughes, and Dr. Schmidt past a locked door to a small cubby-like room at one end of the attic, wherein a painting depicts an rough stone alter in a serpent-infested swamp. Dr. Schmidt shines his flashlight on Mrs. Shipley, revealing her shadow to Emile and Hughes, who are still gazing at the painting. The image grows more realistic as they gaze at it, and suddenly Emile is gone from the attic and a tiny painted representation of him is now in the painting.

Hughes wrests his gaze from the painting as Whistler, Harkov, and Dr. Schmidt panic and attack Mrs. Shipley, who misses Hughes with a wickedly sharp-looking knitting needle before being clubbed by Whistler, at which point a seven-foot-tall, lithe reptilian humanoid burst from within Mrs. Shipley’s shattered flesh and starts snapping its jaws. Whistler clubs the creature again and demands the return of Emile, and the serpant creature seems to capitulate.

The group takes a trip to Fat Maybelle’s, with poor results for poor Conrad Jones, again. Schmidt manages to save him from a point-blank load of buckshot. Whistler manages to get into the basement, and sees some arcane symbols drawn on the concrete floor.

Later, at the hospital, the group goes up on the roof to watch the eclipse with some of the hospital staff. Sanity checks are made.

The funeral

take the train out to Evergreen chapel.
Jonah Kensington
Miriam Atwright
Tommy

PC’s

3 men, available PC’s
Roman
Simon
Henry

Reverend eulogizes

1. How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2. How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? 3. Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, 4. and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. 5. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. 6. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.

Conrad plays trumpet to a song, fails roll, regains 1 san
Jonah says something
Whistler says a few words, Fast talks into regaining 3 san
Schmidt says a few words, fails his persuade check, but manages 1 san

Val Simeo goes back to Erica Carlyle’s

Kensington’s office

Group goes back to Kensington’s office
Roman joins group

After lunch, Miriam Atwright describes her recent research discoveries:

Roger Carlyle

No police record; no military service. His lawyers evaded a paternity suit against him when he was 17. Roger underwent short treatments for alcoholism when he was 18, and again when he was 20. Miraculously, he graduated from Groton, but was allowed gentleman’s resignations from a succession of excellent universities (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Miskatonic, Cornell, and USC) in the next three years. When his parents died in an automobile crash, Carlyle seemed to take stock of himself and for the next year gained the general approval of his peers, retainers, and relatives. But he slipped back into his old ways when his sprightly sister showed a better grasp of family affairs.

His lack of character seemed confirmed when Carlyle fell under the influence of a mysterious East African woman. Rumors of debaucheries and worse circulated. Carlyle began to drain great sums of money from family interests, which prompted vicious arguments. In the months before he left for Egypt, Carlyle seemed to withdraw and become more serious.

The first Carlyle, Abner Vane Carel, was transported to Virginia in 1714, having been convicted of “unwholesome and desperative activities” not otherwise characterized by Derbyshire authorities. Abner was the illegitimate and discredited son of an undistinguished Midlands nobleman. Abner’s son Ephraim moved to New England, adopted “Carlyle” as a more gallant surname, and made sound investments in lumber and textiles, the basis of the family fortune to come. The Carlyle interests amassed huge profits during the American Civil War, and far-sighted management further expanded the financial empire in the half-century thereafter.

Robert Huston

No police record; no military service. The youngest of three sons, his father was a Chicago M.D. who as a young man was reputed to have been caught up in the utopianism of the early plains, and to have belonged to several deviant sects. Robert Huston graduated with honors from Johns Hopkins. After three years he threw over his circulatory-ailments practice (and his wife), and went to Vienna to study first under Freud and then under Jung. Huston was among the first Americans to undertake this esoteric and controversial study of the mind, which dealt so much with sexual behavior that no respectable person could talk about it. Huston’s seemingly salacious and dangerous past, along with his elegant manners and sardonic wit, made him much in demand when he returned to New York City. There he established a practice in psychoanalysis catering to the very wealthy.

Huston enjoyed fame and notoriety. His fees were whispered to be $50-$60 dollars per visit. Women found him suave, handsome, sensitive, perceptive, and sexy. Among his patients was Roger Carlyle. Though Huston supposedly went on the expedition with Roger Carlyle in order to continue treatment, there were rumors Huston had just broken off an affair with a patient, who had then committed suicide. Roger Carlyle helped hush up the scandal, perhaps in return for Huston’s company on the expedition, the rumors continued. There were also rumors that Carlyle did not want Huston at large while Carlyle was far away in Egypt. Carlyle may have believed that Huston’s ethics were not strong enough to resist revealing explosive material about his young patient.

After Huston was declared dead, his records were turned over to the Medical Affairs Board of the State of New York. Controversy about this reached the newspapers.

Sir Aubrey Penhew

Limited service as a Lieutenant with the Yorkshire Guards, 1901-1902, breveted as a Colonel in British Army Intelligence, 1915-1916, and then retired because of injury. Police records list only that young Sir Aubrey was caught pinching a policeman’s helmet in 1898, while at Oxford. Penhew’s public life is easily followed in Who’s Who, Burke’s Peerage, etc. With the inevitable nimbus of black sheep and blackguards down through the centuries, the Penhews trace their nobility from the time of William the Conqueror, when Sir Boris Penhew acquired great holdings in the west of England. With the exception of one Sir Blaize, who was beheaded for treason and black magic (his crimes nearly cost the line its titles and properties), the Penhew prosperity and prestige has been undiminished for eight centuries.

Sir Aubrey graduated with honors in classics from Oxford, but spent the next several years in Egypt, surveying and performing exploratory excavations amid the then little known wonders up-river, to the First Cataract and beyond. As his official biography notes, Sir Aubrey is credited with founding several important branches of Egyptology, and for several important archaeological discoveries, particularly at Dhashur. Nearly as important, the Penhew Foundation, set up by Sir Aubrey, has underwritten many important researches at home and abroad, and is responsible for the education of many brilliant but penniless scholars.

Sir Aubrey has title to several famous stately homes, as well as mansions in London, the Cotswalds, Monaco, and Alexandria (Egypt), and townhouses in Paris, Rome, and Athens. He is incontestably wealthy, and reputedly made new fortunes from his American holding companies during the Great War.

Though a public figure, Sir Aubrey’s private life is little known. He is a bachelor, without family or heirs other than the Penhew Foundation. His Egyptologist peers hold him in the highest respect.

Hypatia Masters

She has no police record or record of public service. She is heiress to the Masters armaments fortune, the dark antecedents of which have been chronicled in the muckraking Masters of Corruption by Nikolai Steinburg. Miss Masters’ grandfather, Aldington Masters, held onto and increased the holdings by leaving most decisions to a series of chief executives who uniformly made intelligent, far-ranging, and profitable moves. George, her father, also adopted this relaxing way of life, spending his time doting on his daughter. Hypatia attended Swiss and French academies, showing facility for languages. Her great interest proved to be photography. Several of her shows earned good reviews and enthusiastic attendance. A daring streak in her led to an incautious affair with a Catholic Marxist, one Raoul Luis Maria Pinera, at City College of New York.

Jack Brady

The Oilfield murder piqued the curiosity of Roger Carlyle, who just then was being expelled from USC. After an hour-long interview, the two forged an intimate alliance, amazing everyone who knew Roger Carlyle, for the youth had never made any strong friendships. Carlyle summoned the best legal minds in the country for the defense, who proceeded to blow to pieces the seemingly open-and-shut case offered by the county prosecutor and eclipsing the testimony of seven eye-witnesses. Brady was acquitted on a variety of technical grounds. From that time, Jack Brady and Roger Carlyle rarely were separated — at times Brady was Carlyle’s bodyguard, and at other times was his spokesman. For the expedition, Brady acted as general foreman and manager, and by all accounts performed well.

Brady’s nickname comes from a brass plate about four inches square which he carries over his heart. Bullets twice have dented it. Brady has said that his mother, a recluse in Upper Michigan, had The Eye, and that she made this plate to guard her impetuous son.

On cults

Different cults worship degenerate and otherworldly gods

Most prominent:
Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh (Egyptian cult, Most prominent)
Cult of the Bloody Tongue (African cult)
Cult of the Sand Bat (Australian cult)
Chinese cult

Show books to Miriam

Kensington recommends we look up Mickey Mahoney, who publishes tabloid The Scoop

Aftermath of the confrontation with Mukunga M’dare and his minions.

The books are retrieved from the safe; the group is interviewed by Erica Carlyle, and then the local sheriff. Carlyle supports the story that the group drove off a group of crazed burglars. Whistler offers to purchase the books via Kensington, but Carlyle has a offer from Penhew that is hard to refuse (or match).

Interrogation of Mubuntu, one surviving cultist, reveals a lot of information about M’dare and the Bloody Tongue cult in New York.

At breakfast, Carlyle offers a deal: ensure the books’ safe passage to the Penhew Foundation in London, England. She is grateful for the group’s actions in defeating the attack on the estate, and is clear that she expects you to read (or copy) the books while in transit.

Everyone heads back to NYC (now with Émile the French dilettante) and gets the suite at the Plaza. Turn in early to rest up for Elias’ funeral tomorrow.

Jones awakes in the night, puts on the wooden mask, has a crazy vision of The Lord of the Great Abyss.

Tony returns with rumors of newly hired groundskeepers, and the group investigates, and stumbles into mayhem.

Very early morning snuck into grounds keeper house. Left and followed tracks around main house to a locked servants door. Tommy heard a scream from inside and Delacey heard an oncoming car. Tommy tried to open the servants door. Whistler and Jones ran around the house to go back in to get to the patio door and inside. Tommy picks the lock successfully. Delacey rings the servants door doorbell and sees the car approach and shuts off its lights but continue approaching. Whistler runs to dining room and goes down to the basement kitchen level. Tommy enters servants kitchen entrance and seeks help. Whistler and Jones make their way down and meet Tommy and they find a body, one of the bodyguards murdered, throat cut. Delacey hides to ambush the drivers in the car. Jones calls the cops. Whistler and Gant go upstairs.

Sees 8 guys disembark. They have a prisoner, Coleman, the agent. Their boss accuses Coleman of failure and starts to cast a spell. Delacey jumps in front of a car, pistol whips a guy. He shoots at the big boss, hitting, then missing. A mook with a big knife tries to stab Delacey, missing. Delacey gets surrounded by guys. Runs away shooting at the gang. Gang slipping and falling in pursuit. Boss is chanting and loudly one word over and over again. Delacey

Whistler, Gant, and Jones go to the library. Two men are there looking for the safe. Tommy pulls a gun on them. Fires a shot and kills him. Whistler hits a guy with his cane who headbutts him back. Tommy shoots the bad guy and searches the bodies. Jones goes to the front door to see the main bodyguard go outside with a gun.

Interview with Erica Carlyle, in her office, along with Joe Corey and Bradley Grey. Learned about “that negress” that Roger Carlyle was associating with before his fateful African expedition; Erica believes that she was instrumental in setting Roger on the path to his doom.

Erica listens to the account of the possible sighting of Jack Brady reported second-hand by Jackson Elias. She tells of how Brady was acquitted of a murder charge with the help of Roger, and how they had been companions ever since, Brady being the one person in his life Erica considered a good influence on her brother.

Erica allows Dr. Schmidt to peruse Roger’s collection of occult books, which she is entertaining offers on from several book dealers, one of which happens to be at the party.

…

Wednesday, Jan. 21

Jones’ Apartment

Reviewing the evidence gathered so far, Dr. Schmidt takes notice of the mention of “the psychoanalyst’s notes” in Elias’ notebook, found in the office of the Ju-Ju House, apparently kept by Elias while in London.

Dr. Schmidt and Det. DeLacey head uptown to the NY State Medical Affairs Board, where Schmidt Dr. Huston’s notes are likely being kept. Between the two of them they talk their way into getting their hands on Dr. Huston’s patient records, most notably the records pertaining to Roger and Erica Carlyle.

Meanwhile, Jones, Whistler, and Tommy take advantage of an apartment across the street, with whose owner Jones has an arrangement for the occasions on which needs to surveil his apartment. They see nothing out of the ordinary, though Whistler realizes that while the apartment gives a good view of Jones’ building, much of the street is not visible. Eventually they return to the apartment and check in with Jones’ message service, having missed a call from Carlyle’s lawyer, Bradley Grey.

Whistler calls Grey back and learns that Erica Carlyle has agreed to meet with the investigators the following evening, at a soiree to be held at the Carlyle Estate. Grey will supply them a car for the trip to Westchester.

The rest of the evening is spent in preparing everyone’s finest outfits for the society party; only Det. Delacey manages to appear presentable to such circles. Everyone else looks pretty shabby.

Thursday, Jan. 22nd

The day passes uneventfully, and shortly after five the car is dropped off at Jones’ apartment. With a trunk full of shotguns and everyone packing a pistol, everyone piles into the 1924 Packard and heads out.

Whistler notices a pair of suspicious headlights tailing them as they leave the city, and a short while later his suspicions are confirmed when Tommy pulls the car over: after initially passing them, the headlights once again appear behind them a short while later.

The mysterious car rams the Packard, and gunfire erupts from the heavily armed investigators. A short and wild car chase ensues, until Jones kills the driver and the car goes out of control. The pistol-wielding passenger is thrown from the car and killed, while the Packard’s gas tank was ruptured when the careening Model T clipped it. Jones improvises a repair from a tire-patching kit, and they Packard makes it the rest of the way to the Carlyle Estate.

After being shown the side entrance and stripped of their weapons by security (except for Det. Delacey), Joe Corey brings them into the party, points out Erica Carlyle and invites them to mingle while she prepares to talk to them. Dr. Schmidt discovers a button hidden behind a volume of Poe in the library, while Tommy is harassed by a drunked guest and Det. Delacey is unable to shake his cop image in order to pick up on any gossip.

After a short while mingling awkwardly with the other guests, Corey rounds everyone up and brings them to the den, where Erica Carlyle is seated behind the desk, enjoying an expansive vista of the well-manicured grounds through the large window behind her.