Bell, Book, and Candle | Adventure Log

I scream and I scream and I scream

First session

In which the characters get the lay of the land, eat entirely too much ice cream, and are unceremoniously ejected from the Abandoned House at the hands of invisible bogeymen.

The group came together around the nucleus of Frank Charlton, a fellow Frosh who told an intriguing tale of a nearby Abandoned House on Church Street and a standing bet laid down by Delta Phi fraternity: anyone who spent the night in the house stood to win a large cash prize.
Orientation Week was a blur of speeches, tours, and ice cream socials. Particularly intriguing was the University Exhibit Museum, particularly its photo of the “Martin’s Beach Monster” that washed up on shore in 1922; Gladys was sure it defied all known taxonomies. By the end of the week, everyone was thoroughly sick of ice cream.
Logan established a weekly tradition of dining out at Paul’s Steak House; he has a standing reservation for four, and any of his friends who can afford the $3.00 tab are welcome to join him for fine dining on Friday nights.
The group (consisting of the four PCs, Charlton, and Enid’s roommate Lois Norton) met with Delta Phi president Robert Lodge Jarvis and signed a contract agreeing to the terms of the bet: they were to stay in the Abandoned House from dusk ’til dawn or else be subject to a forfeit. A group of Delts would take it in shifts to observe the house through the night to make sure there were no violations.
Charlton brought music and bootleg beer and Enid found some 70-year-old Irish whiskey in the dusty pantry of the house. A regular party got under way!
Enid and Logan both got a bit drunk. Gladys kept drinking. At one point Gladys was sure she heard a whispered conversation in the corner of the parlor, but everyone assumed it was just the Delts trying to freak them out of the bet.
Then Enid spotted…something…sitting on the parlor fireplace mantel, a dog-sized cross between a lizard, frog, and man:

Lp2

“What I Saw” by Enid Gaines

As no one else could see it, everyone assumed it was the whiskey talking.
A search for more burnable materials for the fire uncovered a large rat in a pile of old newspaper; the rodent scurried upstairs.
The group checked out another room and discovered a library/study. Most of the books were moldy and of little interest. A book on the oak desk of the study, however, caught everyone’s attention. Folk Tales of the Emerald Isle (copyright 1842), it held a bookmark in the form of an old tintype photo of a man, his wife, and children standing in front of the very house the PCs were staying in. A date on the back, written in pencil, read “August 6, 1866”.
Moving to check his watch, Frank discovered the expensive gold piece had been somehow replaced with a tin can lid earlier in the evening. A desultory search was made of the parlor and kitchen but turned up nothing.
As the search for Frank’s watch was under way, everyone witnessed something quite strange: a lump moving about under the carpet of the parlor. Attempts to squash the thing met with no success. The lump moved from the carpet to the wallpaper and continued crawling up the wall until it disappeared into a heating vent with a loud “BONG.”
Venturing upstairs, the group found dusty old bedrooms draped in white cloth and dust. They headed up into the tower attic and found a bat lair, currently empty due to the late hour. Across a floor covered in guano, a painting rested against the wall. Using an ash scoop from the poker set downstairs, the group carved a path to the painting and found it to be an oil portrait of a distinguished gentleman, circa the mid-nineteenth century. It was strangely painted, however; his skin was nearly translucent, revealing a highly accurate map of veins and capillaries beneath. The background was similarly organic, a reddish-orange similar to the interior of an eyelid when one is facing the sun with eyes closed. Everyone save Florian was repelled by the piece, but the young med student found it strangely fascinating and took it down from the attic.
Exploring the second floor proper, Gladys found footprints in the dust—strange, webbed feet of some kind of small bipedal creature—but they quickly lost the trail.
In the master bedroom, after noting the dresser mirror had been removed from its frame, the group cornered the rat from downstairs on the canopy bed. Displaying amazing dexterity, Florian bagged the creature in the bed’s duvet. Before capturing the thing, everyone noticed its freakish appearance: built like a rat, it possessed a strange, toad-like face and splayed feet similar to (but smaller than) the tracks Gladys had noticed earlier.
Returning downstairs, the group tried to forget the odd occurrences and wait out the remaining two hours to dawn. A rhythmic chanting began to creep up from below, however, and soon everyone was passing out. Everyone, that is, save Logan, who was so involved with the jazz playing on Frank’s Victrola that he failed to hear the chants. He did notice his friends collapsing in heaps however, and promptly mimed sleep when he heard the pitter-patter of dozens of tiny feet coming up the cellar stairs. He made sure he was holding the crowbar he’d brought along, though.
Logan felt small hands pilfering his pockets, then lifting him up and carrying him. Cracking an eye, he saw his companions in the dim light of the parlor fire being similarly borne forth. One by one, they were being ejected from the kitchen door into the backyard.
Strange goings-on or not, Logan was determined not to lose the bet; he sprang into action, swinging his crowbar about in an attempt to strike down his foe. Instead, he was overborne by a dozen invisible assailants and ejected just like the others. The door slammed loudly behind him as a Delt came up clucking his tongue over the lost bet. Logan has a collection of small bite wounds for his trouble.

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FEB/2012

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Feb 23, 2012

The Thing in the Cellar

2nd session

In which our heroes return to the Abandoned House in search of fortune and glory (and still make time to attend the Fall Formal, where strange and ominous portents are raised).

Florian rushes Delta Phi, Logan rushes Sigma Phi. Enid is out for the time being, hospitalized at St. Mary’s with a case of mononucleosis.

Florian, Logan, and Gladys go to the library to research who owned the house and what may have happened there. Florian finds out that there is rumored to be a treasure hidden in the house, and that the wife of the former owner said in the paper that the house is haunted by something that originated with her husband, Shaughnessy.

Gladys bumps into and then is confronted in the library by a madwoman who curses at her in Latin and appears to remove books or bound collections from the stacks at random.

Returning to the house, Florian grabs the half bottle of whiskey, vowing never to drink it, the painting of the veined man, which has been mysteriously removed from its frame, the book of folklore from the house study, and Frank’s Victrola and carries them all out to the lawn.

The group finds the bedsheet bag Florian had captured the small creature in had been chewed through, no creature inside.

The back door to the cellar has been blocked with we don’t know what. Time to investigate the Basement of the Abandoned House!

Entering the basement, we find that it is loaded to the brim with a huge amount of shiny debris and odds and ends. Frank’s watch is found here, hanging on a hook. Florian takes it.

Florian’s shoelaces get tied together, and he almost smacks his head on the way to the floor. Who did it? and HOW?

We also find that there is a hole in the wall of the basement, from which emits an earthy, unpleasant odor. We retreat for the time being and to attend the formal party.

The next morning, Florian and Logan awake stark naked under their blankets, all their clothes having been stolen in the night: from their dressers and their bodies. Florian sees the watch has disappeared again, but the Victrola, painting, and folklore book with its tintype are still in the room with them. Gladys has a similar unusual experience, when she attempts to leave her room someone has set a collection of her father’s heavier medical texts at the top of her slightly open door and she barely manages to evade them as this primitive trap is sprung.

While Florian returns the Victrola to Frank (and borrows some clothes), Logan sees that Frank has a lovely visitor in his room, someone we later learn is named Asenath Waite. She is nude. Florian informs Frank of the group’s resolve to return to the house on Church Street, and Frank agrees to join them the Sunday following the Fall Formal.

Gladys meets a senior medical student named Stanley Higgins.

While attending the formal, Frank introduces Asenath and Logan has the strange sensation of seeing himself through her eyes.

Florian is the perfect gentleman and saves Lois from a dreadful evening of not dancing with the football captain, Horatio Marsh. She is reading a small book on Monoliths that she discovered in the Book Nook.

Horatio confronts Florian, who manages to deflect a conflict. Florian and Logan try to connect with an angry and unsocial student named Claude Owen and they cannot locate him later when they go to his room. He is up to something.

Gladys and Stanley break into the drugstore to enjoy some laughing gas and get some knockout drops of chloroform. Stanley tells Gladys that he has seen strange hoofed prints around a passage in the basement morgue area of the hospital. She tells Stanley of the strange creatures inhabiting the Abandoned House. Perhaps there is a common passage, or a shared history?

The next day, the group (Florian, Logan, Gladys, Lois, and Stanley, sans Enid, who was still confined to bed, and Frank, who was not in his room) returns to the Abandoned House basement, armed with nets, chloroform and sturdy courage. Stanley and Gladys descend into the hole.

Gladys feels something running around on the floor, and tries to catch it. She fails, just as Stanley trips over this invisible something and trips into yet another hole, cracking his head in a sewage river flowing below the sub basement.

Gladys captures an invisible creature in her net and knocks it out. She then accidently kills the creature with an overdose of chloroform and it becomes visible upon death.

Florian descends and saves Stanley, then Florian and Logan haul Stanley out of the basement. Before departing, Florian again takes Frank’s gold pocket watch from the basement, this time replacing it with some shiny costume jewelry he purchased in town earlier that day.

Stanley goes to the hospital for treatment with Florian to help him.

Gladys and Lois attempt to record the creature for science and take it to the lab for dissection. Gladys fails to draw the creature accurately. Logan, increasingly uncomfortable, tries to leave, and then…

The presence of creatures can be sensed coming through the ventilation shafts. They fall asleep again.

The janitor wakes them up. The creature is gone, the drawings are gone. All the work is lost.

Over the course of the next week Florian encounters Frank and returns the lost pocket watch.

Next Week! The Halloween Party and the death of Frank!

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MAR/2012

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Mar 03, 2012

Is Anyone Sad About Frank?

Session Three

Fatalexperiments

In which the characters witness the death of Frank Charlton and follow a trail of clues that lead them inexorably to a ruined farmhouse just outside of Arkham…

Logan is absent for two weeks, off with his family for their annual autumn trip to the Catskills.

Enid has overcome her bout of mononucleosis, and is feeling well enough to join Florian, Gladys, and Lois at the Delta Phi Halloween party. Florian previously found an art student to emulate the Church Street house painting on his own face, and is going as the Sanity Loss Man.

At the party, Florian is relegated to serving drinks, as he is still rushing Delta Phi, while there Enid learns from Dr. Wingate Peaslee, a handsome Psychology Professor, that a Parapsychology study will be taking place soon, and applicants will receive compensation. Florian and Gladys agree that it would be a lark to join in with the study, which will be headed by Associate Professor Alex Warden.

Eventually it gets late, and Florian walks Enid and Lois back to their dorm, accompanied by Stanley and Gladys. As they approach the plaza, Enid notes how it has been passing strange that Frank Charlton has been absent from the group for so long. The group is given little time to ponder this as they reach the plaza and see a body fall from the bell tower. It lands on the steps below, accompanied by the sickening fleshy crack of bone and muscle on concrete. Florian and Enid rush to the body, and are horrified to see that it is Frank, lying face up, his body broken from the fall. He is unquestionably dead.

Enid suffers a great strike to her composure upon this discovery, while Florian rushes to the top of the bell tower, a wild theory rushing through his head that Frank had been pushed to his death by some assassin. He finds no one at the top of the tower, and the bell strikes 2am, startling him. Returning to the base of the tower in time to see the night watchman come running towards Enid’s screams, the group give a brief explanation of the night’s events before the watchman ushers them back to their dorms.

Before retiring to his room, Florian (still in full makeup!) visits Biff, Frank’s roommate, and informs him of the suicide. Asking about Frank’s mental state before tonight, Biff discloses that his roommate recently posted a letter to Asenath Waite Derby, one of Frank’s former lovers who recently married one Edward Pickman Derby. He finds an initial draft of the letter in the wastebasket with a single sentence: “Asenath, I am encountering difficulty investigating the Eye of Amara society.”

Sleep comes with difficulty for the Miskatonic freshmen.

The next morning, Enid and Gladys are questioned by the police as to the night’s events, and Florian is awoken by a knocking at his dorm room door by none other than Scott Whidden, editor of the Miskatonic University Crier. He drills Florian about the Frank’s suicide, promises anonymity, and leaves in a hurry. This rush is explained by a special one-page edition of the Crier, released a little after noon, which details the ghastly events of Halloween, beginning with Florian’s statement, but also detailing an incident occurring to a female music student, one Vittoria Nangelo, who is currently confined to bed at St. Mary’s.

Investigators visit Vittoria in St. Mary’s; she is comatose, but has organic material under her fingernails. Gladys and Stanley go to investigate this. They discover that the organic material is flesh with heavy traces of formaldehyde.

Florian obtains Frank’s home address and composes a letter of sympathy to his deceased friend’s family. He also learns that Dr. Morton Waldron of the medical school will be performing the autopsy in Salem. Florian telegraphs his grandfather, and successfully wheedles a promise from the elder Dr. Gaines to forward a copy of the autopsy report back to him on Monday.

The party visits Asenath Waite Derby in her married home in north Arkham, they find her in a drafty attic room, the floor covered in ottomans and cushions, some barely covering chalk scrawls of arcane circles on the floor. They question her about Frank’s state of mind, his communiques with her, and the Eye of Amara society. Asenath promises to tell them all she knows of the society if they attain for her the Necronomicon, a book in the Orne library that has recently been put under heavy security.

Gladys and Enid break into Vittoria’s room for any clues they can find. She is a music student, and a lover of opera. Nothing else exciting is found. Her room mate Amanda Waters is not in.

Gladys, Enid and Florian go to the library to see what can be found on the Eye of Amara Society. Florian finds one passing reference to Jason Gaspart, of 131 E. Saltonstall St. They head over there to quiz Mr. Gaspart. He has a fancy doorknocker with a pyramid and an eye. He is not forthcoming about much, although he is friendly, but Enid infers that Associate Professor Alex Warden, who is conducting the upcoming parapsychology study, is a part of the group and that Asenath Waite Derby is not.

At the Library, Gladys asks about the madwoman who continues to circle around her, randomly picking up books and the librarian Lois tells her that this woman is named Amanda, but that no one knows why or what her last name is. Amanda holds an alumni card, and has rights to use the library.

Going to the Desolate Highway Cafe where Frank Charles Charleton was known to hang out, we find Reed and Josh slinging french bread and strong coffee. A group of bohemians take a liking to Florian and give him the information that Frank and Claude Owen were fighting very recently. Also, it is dropped in the conversation that Private Ronald Sprague was saved from death by a bullet glancing off a coin. This coin is related to something called, “The Great Game.”

Enid finds boxes of notes that Claude has been referring to in the St. Mary’s Hospital basement. These notes are those of one Herbert West, and are regarding the reanimation of dead flesh. They make no scientific sense, but Florian proposes to read them. There is an underlined address at the bottom of a note, Box 2, RR7.

The team breaks into Claude’s room and finds a reanimated dog, jars of liquids and unpleasant materials, and other horrid stuff. Seeing something sparkling under the bed, Enid finds a half-full bottle of chloroform and a rag. Papers are strewn all around the room, most detailing the insane work Owen was attempting, others were various scribblings, some of planned revenge against Frank Charles Charleton.

Florian proposes that the troupe contact the police at this time and direct their suspicions toward Claude Owen. They inform the police of the various encounters between Frank and Claude, and hint that Owen vowed revenge.

The team is unstoppable now, and goes to the house on Rural Route 7, to find that it is a charred ruin. Enid spots a glint from an old Ford in the bushes. Someone is here! They begin to descend into the root cellar that seems to still be intact, but Florian slips on the mossy stairs and slides down the stairs, landing in a heap, severely injuring himself. Barely conscious, he picks himself up off the ground as his sister administers what first aid she can. Together, the group approach the heavy wooden door in the cellar, but find it locked! Inside, they hear the steady hum of a generator, and Gladys proposes that they find the exhaust and block it, so that they can bring Owen up to the group.

The plan works perfectly, the group finds the exhaust and blocks it, and soon the sound of coughing can be heard from the cellar. Owen bursts from the door and rushes up the stairs, encountering Florian, Gladys, and Enid. He attempts to speak, but Florian, seeing his friend’s murderer before him, rushes Claude and swings wildly with his fist, missing by miles. Owen takes Florian hostage with a syringe to his neck, and entreats the group to leave and allow him to finish his work. Gladys and Enid, furious at this turn of events, pelt Owen with rocks, and Florian manages to escape from his grasp, pushing Claude down the stairs. Claude fares no better than Florian, and is unconscious when the group examines him.

They debate whether or not to turn him into the police, but in the end agree that his evil would have to be destroyed forever. They bring him back into the cellar room and prop him up on a chair. Florian steals some notebooks from a shelf nearby, and the group close the door to the cellar again, allowing it to fill with smoke and asphyxiate Claude Owen.

Returning to Miskatonic, Florian makes an anonymous phone call to the police, informing them of signs of smoke on Rural Route 7. The police find Claude dead, and no mention is made of his experiments, instead the next day’s paper lists Box 2, RR7 as Owen’s alchemical laboratory, which suffered some kind of explosion.

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MAR/2012

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Mar 09, 2012

Let's Go to Wisconsin!

Session Four

In which loose ends are tied up and the gang discovers hints of what lurks beneath in the campus tunnels…

The investigators attend the Parapsychology study, most are quickly ruled out, but both Enid and Lois are invited back for a second screening. Enid’s hypnosis does not go well, she finds herself standing at the edge of a precipice, staring down into a darkness blacker than black, with something coming toward her. She screams and is woken by Associate Professor Warden, who regrets that he was unable to generate the correct response from her with the hypnosis. She discovers that she was under for only five minutes, and dismisses Warden’s explanation that she was having a nightmare. Enid waits until Lois has her turn, looking on other students’ tests and becoming more and more aggravated as most of the others stay in the office for about half an hour. Then it is Lois’ turn, and she is in hypnosis for three quarters of an hour, coming out even more energetic than before, it seems.

Enid is able to wheedle some of Lois’ experience out of her, apparently she found herself wandering through fairytale visages and villages, interacting with people a little, but mostly taking in the scenery. She is hesitant to relate more as Alex Warden insisted originally that all happenings during the hypnosis are to be kept private, as not to taint the experiment.

After this the party attends their English class with Professor Abbott, and afterward goes to the creamery for some hot chocolate. There they discuss what they’ve accomplished:
Firstly, solving most of the mystery of the house on Church Street, or at least to the extent of their satisfaction
Lastly, finding out the truth of Frank Charleton’s demise, and ending the sick machinations of Claude Owen.

Florian realizes that there is still much hearsay and rumor around campus that still has not been fully investigated, and suggests a foray into the Witch House, to attempt to resolve the various mysteries surrounding Walter Gilman’s death. The group agrees, but Gladys also mentions that Stanley Higgins is upgrading his armaments in his attempts to capture one of the hoofed creatures that are stealing biological waste from the basement of St. Mary’s. Furthermore, Logan mentions the strange paper sold to him by an upperclassman at the Fall Formal, and reignites the group’s interest in deciphering it. They decide to tackle their current mysteries in the order of:
1) Translate the spoken passage.
2) Investigate the Witch House
3) Assist Stanley Higgins in capturing his quarry.

The scrap of paper indeed turns out to by Egyptian in nature, but the Investigators learn it will take some months of study before they are able to translate the romanized Egyptian into understandable English. They instead decide to take the short route, meeting with a Professor of Archaeology, one well-built Francis Morgan, previously from the University of Chicago and a protege of the venerated Abner Ravenwood. He is able to translate the words, informing the students that the incantation is a plea to Thoth, the ibis-headed Egyptian god of knowledge: specifically that of science, religion, philosophy, and magic. According to Morgan, if the incantation is repeated for a period of thirty minutes, the chanter will attain the blessing of Thoth in his or her endeavors. The solid information that the group seems to take from this is that Logan did not waste his money on simple nonsense words. The group resolves to speak the incantation in the Witch House, perhaps to assist them in the discovery of the truth behind Gilman’s death.

That Friday evening, without either Stanley or Lois-whom Logan admirably succeeded in insulting perfectly-the four friends make their way to the Witch House, carrying electric torches, liquor, a Ouiji board, candles, and Frank’s Victrola. They enter the house, but are immediately ousted by the night watchman, Terrence O’Kelly, who scoffs at their childish antics with their ghost chasin’ and Ouiji boardin’. Deflated, the party make their way to St. Mary’s and Stanley Higgins, intent on solving at least one mystery tonight.

In the basement of St. Mary’s, the party comes across Stanley in hiding, complaining bitterly about his ill luck trapping the creatures yet again. He takes the group on a tour through the passageway to the incinerators, and Logan notices a latched door leading away from the passage. He inquires about it, and Stanley deftly opens the locked door, revealing a stairway down. Immediately Florian and Logan see that this appears to be the point of entry for the ‘hoofed creatures’ and propose an immediate expedition, convincing Stanley to join them with his tranquilizer rifle and Florian’s electric torch. They wander through passageways, at the first junction taking a seeming dug-out tunnel, and the second taking a declining tunnel that eventually leads them to a strange meeting in a room they will soon come to known as The Cave. Tonight, the meeting is of the Burrowers Beneath, a geological gathering of students, whom both Logan and Enid find themselves invited to join by Eugene Garrison, president of the Burrowers Beneath, or more colorfully, “The Moles”. Florian makes a bit of a fool of himself and is politely ignored, choosing instead to flap jaws with Stanley for the remainder of the club’s social. Upon learning that Enid’s new duties in The Moles involve care and feeding of the school’s badger mascot, he collapses into helpless laughter, and Enid’s ineffectual kick to his rear end does nothing to cease his guffaws.

It appears, however, that the party has stumbled upon the tail-end of the Moles’ meeting, and in a short while the newly discovered society departs, leaving Enid, Logan, Stanley, Gladys, and Florian in the Cave, where they decide to recite the incantation. Most recite halfheartedly, giving little of their concentration or belief into the chant, but Florian is a bit more energetic in his ministrations, feeling more drained than anyone else after the chant is complete. Each investigator focuses on some aspect of his or her life that they would like resolved. Enid thinks about poor Frank, and hopes he finds some peace at last. Gladys wishes for a relationship with Stanley. Florian focuses on his academics, feeling that he has neglected his Mathematics enough to warrant a need for some supernatural assistance.

At the conclusion of their chanting, they ignore the advice of another Mole to avoid the tunnels and immediately jump back into them, aiming to reemerge in the basements of St. Mary’s. Instead, the party finds itself turned around and, almost en-masse, Gladys, Stanley, and Enid collapse and slide down a steep embankment, landing fifty feet down, injuring themselves badly. Florian and Logan manage to stay at the top, and Florian is able to keep hold of the electric torch, which he gives to Logan, who volunteers to brave the tunnels and search for help.

They do see Logan in the tunnels again. He finds himself lost and is subsequently chased through the dug-out tunnels, finally arriving at a wooden door, which leads into the Museum of Antiquities. He is ousted by a night watchman and his growling mastiff, and decides to make his way to the Hospital.

The waiting becomes grating, and Enid injures herself further attempting to climb the steep slope, giving up at the last of her strength. Frustrated, Florian calls down that he is going to search for a rope or someone to help them, as it seems that Logan has gotten himself lost. Florian is somehow turned around himself, but eventually finds himself moving in the correct direction again and emerges in the Cave, and takes the far door, which leads to a ventilation shaft and the school Gymnasium’s locker room, which he is very familiar with, being on the fencing team. With some luck, he is able to avoid the watchman in the Gym, steal a length of climbing rope, and outfit himself with a fencing foil from his team’s equipment. Thus equipped, he returns to the Cave and tunnels below and finds himself back at the precipice, where he drops the rope and pulls his friends up to safety.

At the top of the climb, he administers rudimentary first aid to Gladys and Enid, giving his most focused attention to his sister’s multitudes of injuries, and the diminished party sneaks off through the Gymnasium and meets Logan on their way to St. Mary’s. There they receive treatment, again Florian has to explain to a long-suffering nurse that Stanley has taken another unfortunate spill “down the stairs”. Being past midnight once they have finished being tended to, the boys escort Gladys and Enid to the Mayhew household and then make their ways back to their respective dorms.

The party recovers and studies up for the remainder of the semester, and Florian is fully inducted into the Delta Phi fraternity after relating the harrowing tales that took place in the tunnels. Lodge Jarvis shows him to the basement, and reveals that Delta Phi has its own Miskatonic tunnel access, leading both to the Library (for late-night cram sessions), and back to the Cave (for raucous parties). Florian immediately sees value in the tunnels as avenues for pranks.

Enid befriends a Burrower and ex-roommate of Stanley Higgins, one Kenneth Pickering, and is able to obtain a working map of the tunnel system beneath Miskatonic U. A great portion of the map remains undocumented.

Gladys and Stanley begin walking out together, and soon develop a romantic relationship.

Logan does…stuff.

At the conclusion of finals and the reveal of semester grades, everyone finds that they did even better than they thought, seeming according to the energy they put into the chant to Thoth. The only unfortunate casualty was Gladys, who failed one of her courses.

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MAR/2012

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Mar 18, 2012

Don't You Remember Me? The Mummy Guy!

Session Five

In which the investigators set out to clear the name of one of their own and end up coming face to face with something not of this world…

After being apprehended by Louis Tetlow, Museum Caretaker, the group is shepherded to the museum basement where in a few minutes they are lectured by George Grewe, the Museum Curator. Mr. Grewe blames the Deltas for these hijinks and especially Florian, as a Delta Phi fraternity member. Florian decides to escape to Boston to avoid any unpleasantness of a legal nature, and as he is leaving the basement with Enid, Logan and Gladys he spots a home-made looking publication called “The Black Goat Quarterly.”

Enid grabs the journal and reads it, finding an article called “The Sorcerer’s Way” by Douglas Dreber, and other more general articles on channeling and mediumship and theoretical occultism. Most of the articles do not have any author names on them. Douglas’ stands out. Also, an address of 339B Main St. is on the publication.

On Dec 22, the group minus Florian go to the address and find a stationery/bookstore called The Biblioporium behind a well-protected green door with a window in the shape of a snowflake. The store is open.

The proprietor is Dr. Alfred Granger, a man in his sixties, bald and rotund. He is reading a small book of poetry. Enid asks if there are any books in the store about mummies, and is told no. She later finds a book, On Mummies. Hmmm…Dr. Granger will not show them his printing press. Logan buys a variety of expensive stationary and pen nubs.

The group shows Alfred the journal and asks him about it; Enid uses her charm to see the list of subscribers. One name stands out: Douglas Dreber at S. Powdermill Rd, in the French Hill neighborhood.

The group goes to the address, and finds no one at home to the knock. Going around the back of the house, they see a 7-foot hole in the base of the house. Bricks and debris have been blown out, suggesting that something has exited rather than entered the lower floor. Enid finds a great large footprint with razor claw indentations and 4 toes leading away from the house.

Entering the house, they see the carpeted stairs up to the second floor have dried blood on them. Following this grisly trail, they come across a severed hand and a foot of entrails. Further along, they see the body of an old woman in a floral housecoat, clearly the victim of a savage attack.

Logan runs to the bathroom and loses his lunch.

Enid and Gladys follow, traveling to the bathroom through a filthy, unkempt apartment. On their way to help Logan, they see the remains of OL’ SQUINTY. Mr. Squinty is missing his feet and ankles.

Three jars sit in the dismal kitchenette, one with a sulfur smell, two with dark powder. Gladys takes the jars. On a cork board in the room they see a clip from a gossip magazine—“Kalms the Savage Beast”, a people profile about author Randy Kalms and his move from Hollywood to the country. His wife Mary and their three children are noted. There is a phone number scribbled on the scrap. Logan takes the scrap. There is a mildewed photograph on the coffee table that closely resembles the photo of Mary in the profile piece.

Logan calls the number from the apartment and finds that Kalms is at home and that someone had called to warn him of “evil being released” the night previously. Kalms is shaken and in no mood to talk to someone he doesn’t know.

On the bed of the apartment is discovered a tome, Children of the Sea and Stars by Michael Scott. The book is opened to a page two-thirds of the way in. Gladys takes the book.

Looking at the apartment across the hall, the investigators find mail addressed to Gladys Cooper. Gladys Mayhew recalls that Mrs. Cooper was on heart medication.

Logan reverse directories the phone number and finds that the address for Mr. Kalms, et ux. is in Dunderwell, a small hamlet in the mountains. It starts to rain sleety snow.

Logan sees a passage circled in the purloined book, and reads it. It is about olibanum (aka frankincense), sulfur, saltpeter and mummy dust used as protection against “dread and unwanted visitations” or DEMONS! This mix is called, among other names “The Dust of Suleiman.”

The police are called from a nearby pay phone and notified of the murder, and the mummy.

The group goes back to Gladys’ house and regroups emotionally. Enid wants to go to Boston. Logan and Gladys want to break into the stationery store and find out what is going on there. The locks seemed far too great for a simple store. Enid is convinced to stay.

The investigators break in, having to smash the little snowflake window to do so. Once inside, they find a hidden doorway to a metal door with a combination lock. Having no idea what the combination might be, and Logan hearing sirens, the three flee the scene.

Remembering that the children of the Kalms family may be in danger, and that they are perhaps worthy of saving, they set out in Logan’s Pierce Arrow in what is now a snowstorm. Chains are put on the tires.

Going up the little mountain road is a grueling test of nerves. The Pierce Arrow slides off the road. As they are pushing the car back on to the roadway, Enid spies a glint of metal in the nearby bushes. Investigating, they find an older model Ford on its side, bent up with the roof crumpled. Inside the car wreck is the slim, tall body of Douglas Dreber.

Enid searches the car and finds a jar of mummy dust, she takes it.

Finally the team finds Kalms’ peaceful yet deluxe two-story Art Deco Cabin. Enid knocks on the door, and Kalms opens the door with a shotgun on his shoulder. After some stilted and possibly dangerous conversation, Mary comes to the door. Gladys recognizes her from the photograph in the filthy apartment.

Mary lets the investigator/students in. Betty, a 15 year old girl, helps them with their clothes. Mary spills the beans about Douglas Dreber, saying she was married to him, and that he was a professor of English as Miskatonic U.

While enjoying a brandy with the Kalms family in the largely windowed sun room, a terrific crash happens when a creature breaks through the glass.

The creature, a seven-foot ape-like creature with a flat face, glowing eyes and skin hanging in long folds, slides its claw feet across the parquet flooring, giving the investigators a chance to fight!

Logan leaps into action, moving towards the hideous beast and shooting it point-blank in the face with his .38 cal. revolver, dealing significant damage.

Enid throws one shot of the Dust of Suleiman at the beast, and it is wounded by the powder. An aura begins to shimmer around the creature, and Enid lashes it yet again with the dust.

The creature screams and slowly melts into the wood floor, leaving an unwholesome, greasy stain.

Snow blows in through the window as the child Betty asks what happened. Mary says a tree fell and the noise was the tree as it broke.

The students tell Mary and Randy Kalms everything they know about Dreber, as the blizzard has trapped them together in the cabin for a few days. Gladys is impressed in a romantic way by Logan’s shooting.

Enid and Gladys worry about their parents worrying about them, and on Christmas morning the roads are cleared and they manage to get home. Logan is certain he will not be missed. Logan and Gladys spend Christmas together at the Mayhew cottage.