Session 04

At the end of last session, I said we'd probably jump over about a month of game time so that the PCs could heal physically and begun to heal mentally. I looked over the rules for regaining Sanity and learned that acupuncture was an accepted treatment. Xian Shen most certainly knew it. I'm being liberal with the rules for regaining Sanity, as the campaign is sufficiently lethal that I don't need to take a hard line. I also added Sanity awards for successfully completing the New York chapter. The Bloody Tongue was hit hard, fast, and effectively. There would be no warning at the next location for the cultist. The PCs earned a reward and, given hoew relatively low they rolled for Sanity awards, I am quite confident that I wasn't excessively generous.

The group divided the books they had acquired:

Peter - Africa's Dark Sects. He read it and learned the spell to creare zombis. He did some research was much disturbed,but despite temptation, returned the book to Miriam Atwright to reshelve in the library from which it had been stolen.

Peter did contact his superiors in the church. While he failed to convince them of the existence of a conspiracy, they did agree that a vacation in England would do him good. This would, however, be at his own expense.

Xian Shen read My Life as a God. He did some research, although there was only a limited amount he could learn in New York. Still, between this book and Africa's Dark Sects and previous research, there was clearly a link between the cult of the Bloody Tongue and the cult of the Black Pharaoh. The Black Pharaoh cult had started in Egypt, but the Englishman who wrote My Life as a God became one of several Englishmen who discovered that cult, joined, and carried its practices home to England. The cult of the Bloody Tongue was thought by some to be an offshoot of the Egyptian colt, one that was active in other parts of Africa, such as Kenya, although most denied that either cult still existed. Nevertheless, it was clear that the cult of the Bloody Tongue existed in New York City, or, at least, it had until the PCs had destroyed it.

Masha read the poetry collection People of the Monolith, a curiously bound book with a strange history. Helen began studying the Middle English Pnakotic manuscript, while Sarah studied the French Selections from the Livre Ivonis.

Meanwhile, Jonah Kensington of Prosperous Press did not learn of the group's recent activities, but did want folks to find out what Jackson Elias knew that had gotten him killed, to finish his work, and perhaps to avenge him. Kensington was not rich nor was Prosperous Press, but he could defray some of the expenses such an undertaking would entail.

He had also given them the Nairobi notes of Jackson Elias, but held back Elias's London Notes, saying they showed Elias was either paranoid or insane, and they might reflect badly on him. Peter and Masha visited him and explained that they needed these notes. After confirming that they weren't writers, Jonah handed over the London notes, which the group soon dubbed "the crazy notes".

Helen was approached by Bradley Grey, Erica Carlyle's lawyer. He wanted to hire her to find out, discreetly, of course, what the situation was with Roger Carlyle. Given rumors from Sarah that the deceased Jackson Elias might have had proof that Roger might be alive, the board of directors for the Carlyle holding and Erica Carlyl both needed to know the truth. Bradley did not ask for Helen to do any more than find out the truth and report back to him, saying that, whatever the truth was, the board could handle it, so long as the board members knew what it was.

Helen accepted. By now, she was no longer convinced that Bradley and the board had anything to do with Roger Carlyle's disappearance.

Helen spoke with an older colleauge, a mentor figure who'd been stuck with the society paper articles until she joined the paper and was give them, about the various principles of the Carlyle Expedition, learning most of what had not already been uncovered. She also spoke with another coworker, Henry Tyler. Henry wanted byline co-credit on anything Helen wrote because of his information. Helen said that if she indeed wrote an article and if that article were printed, they'd talk. She had, of course, no intention of writing anything as yet, and she did warn Henry that her researches might not pan out. Nevertheless, he made a nuissance of himself. tailing her whenever he could.

This made getting the medical notes of Dr. Robert Huston more difficult. Helen's mentor had told her of Huston's checkered career, how he hadn't always been a psychoanalyst, how he had left his wife, and how on his declared death, there was some controversy over whether his notes were properly categorized as medical notes.

Sarah decided to disguise herself as a nurse to try to get the notes. Alas, the roll was flubbed. We pondered a fun rationale for this.

Josh: My nurse outfit is 20 years out of date -- I took one from the prop room.

Me: But you look -marvelous-!

Henry was trying to tail Helen, and somehow, this wound up with him spotting and recognizing the disguised Sarah trying to get records on the sly.

Someonev Oh dear ghod.

Henry: This article is writing itself!

Sarah was not pleased about the article, but it did misdirect any who might have been watching.

Meanwhile, since Xian Shen had told the others aboutbhow Hypatia Masters had secretly been the lover of a man named Raoul. She became pregnant and had an abortion. Fearing his reaction, she told Raoul about neither the pregnancy nor the abortion. She agreed to go on the Carlyle Expedition at least in part to get away from him.

Father O'Connor decided to have a stern word with Raoul. He showed up in Columbia University, where Raoul taught and scolded him for making Hypatia afraid enough of him not to tell him the truth and for not marrying her. Raoul was shaken by the news, although he would have been willing to marry her. He believed that he was not the kind of person she would ever have married.

He was surprised that the priest knew so much. And, iirc, Father O'Connor left without giving his name.

Someone: It -is-- a western!

Someone: The line at confession is always long...

The group decided to head for London. It was en route to both Cairo and Paris, and there were some clues indicating possible leads in London. So, they booked passage to Southampton on the Mauretania.

One fellow passenger boarded with six bodyguards, all of who did not look as if they encouraged conversation. Then, the man saw the group.

Man (arms spread wide in delight): Masha!

The man was Count Mikhail Andreevich Kurosov, an NPC from the scenario "Mauretania". I decided to cut the supernatural elements of that scenario, but to keep the count, as he was a displaced Russian aristocrat, and so was Masha. I also used the internet to help me come up with names for his bodyguards: Dmitri Zinoviev, Sasha Serdiak, Yevgeni Bakhvalova, Boris Tririon, Egor Alex Andrei, andUriah Korneyev.

The count had known Masha since both were children. He invited her to his suite. Sarah also had a suite, and she was happy to share it with both Masha and Helen. Peter and Xian When shared a third class cabin.

There were three Russians in the third class area: Father Valentin Ostrovsky, Kolya Kosvorkov, and Mikhail Ovchinnikov. Peter noticed a couple of odd things about the Russian priest. First, he seemed less familiar with his own Russian Orthodoxy that Peter was. Second, he tried to go to the first class area of the ship, but was shooed away b y the crew. He seemed confused until Peter explained the situation, and apparently accepted the explanation.

Peter went to the count's suite and was admitted when Masha vouched for him. He told the count of the Russians in third class and the odd priest who seemed unclear about the tenets of his own faith. The count and his bodyguards worked with Masha, Peter, and their friends, luring the third class Russians to reveal themselves as assassins when the count bribed the appropriate ship staff to take over the entire shuffleboard area for an afternoon. The assassination attempt on the count was thwarted, though I think the assassins escaped.

Apart from this excitement, the ocean voyage was restorative, as were Xian Shen's acupuncture treatments. Folks learned or improved skills, Helen spooking her fellow passengers by being extremely focused ion improving her accuracy with hand guns.

The count invited Masha to join his effort to raise funds for an attempt to reclaim Russia. She turned him down, explaining she he'd to help her friends, but they parted on good terms.

Folks reached London and checked into a fine hotel. They considered their leads.

• Mickey Mahoney, friend of Jackson Elias and editor of The Scoop. Helen decided to talk to him.
• Inspector Barrington of Scotland Yard. Masha decided she'd talk to him.
• Edward Gavigan, director of the Penhew Foundation. Peter planned to talk to him, but wanted to do some research first.

Quotes whose context I forget:

He raises his eyebrows, but you don't know that means.

Someone: Disguise oneself as priest to kill a person -- that never happened before.

Peter: Yes, but that was a Russian Orthodox priest.

Inspector Barrington cautioned Masha against attempting vigilante justice. He told her that Jackson Elias had claimed that a group known as the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh was behind the infamous monthly Egyptian murders. A body of an Egyptian man was found at or just after the new moon, the latest victim having been mentioned in the papers the day the group arrived, which, as the players pointed out to me, set the timing of the group's arrival in London.

Barrington was the second man assigned to the Egyptian Murders, his predecessor having vanished a year ago. Barrington had asked local experts about the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh. Edward Gavigan denied it still existed and referred police to a local spice merchant who was Egyptian and had assisted a Penhew Foundation dig. He also denied the existence of such an organization.

Taking a page from Cat Ramen's Post-Modern Masks of Nyarlathotep, I had Mickey explain to Helen that Gavigan, despite his present polish, used to me a member of the IRA. He betrayed him men, and the leader of the soldiers to whom he betrayed them was Sir Aubry Penhew. This did not make Gavigan popular with the IRA, but the man survived at least two assassination attempts, or, at least, the people sent after him were never heard from again. Though neither mentioned it, it was clear to Helen that Mickey was himself part of the IRA, with no love for Gavigan.

Peter decided to visit the Blue Pyramid, which he had reason to believe cultists frequented. He was a little out of place there, but did his best to appear to be a priest looking for a discreet place to have an illicit assignation. He watched the belly dancers, sat quietly, and bought a drink.

In contrast, Xian Shen came in and made his way to the owner as quickly as he could and asked if it were dangerous working at the Blue Pyramid, what with the Egyptian Murders. He was summarily ejected from the bar.

However, a dancer caught his eye and arranged to meet him privately. When she did, she told him that her boyfriend had been killed or kidnapped by the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh. Its members got into a van which drove from the Blue Pyramid, though Yalesha, the dancer, did not know where they went.