VorpalBunny said:LOL! I should have known - it's been a long day, but a good surprise nonetheless.
VorpalBunny said:
Toric_Arthendain said:
January 15th, 1925
5:10 PM Ryon's Cafe.
Smoke drifts above the table in the back of Ryon's. A waiter, picks up the plates and used silverware from the table. Five people sit around it, a priest, a professor, a pair of twins, and a daper english man. The professor speaks up. "Here is the information that Shorty and I were able to dig up on the Carlyle Expedition." Several sets of newspaper clipping and a photo lay scatterd on the table.
Big Apple Dateline
ROGER CARLYLE, the playboy whom everyone knows - or knows about - is quietly leaving New Yawk tomorrow to check out the tombs of Egypt! You've seen the cuties ROGER has found in the nightspots. Who can doubt he'll dig up someone - er, something - equally fabulous from the Egyptian sands?
-KNICKERBOCKER JOURNAL, April 4,1919
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CARLYLE EXPEDITION DEPARTS FOR ENGLAND
Led by the fabulously wealthy wealthy playboy, Roger Carlyle, the Carlyle expedition departed this morning for Southampton aboard the luxury British steamship Imperial Standard.
Contrary to earlier reports, the expedition will perform research in London under the ausoices of the Penhew Foundation before continuing to Egypt nexct month.
Readers may recall the enormous party which Mr. Carlyle, now 24, gave at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel upon reaching his majority. Since then, scandals and indelicate behavior have become Carlyle's trademark, but he has never become tarnished in the eyes of Manhattanites.
Members of the expedition have been reluctant to reveal their purpose in Egypt.
OTHER EXPEDITION MEMBERS
Renowned Egyptologist Sir Aubrey Penhew is assistant leader of the expedition and in charge of excavations.
Dr. Robert Huston, a fashionable "Freudian" psychologist, accompanies the expedition to pursue parallel researches into ancient pictographs.
Miss Hypatia Masters, linked in the past to Carlyle, will act as photographer and archivist.
Mr. Jack Brady, intimate to Mr. Carlyle, accompanies the group as general factotum.
Additional members may be secured in London.
-NEW YORK TIMES, April 5,1919
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CARLYLE DEPARTS EGYPT
CAIRO (AP)-Sir Aubrey Penhew, temporary spokesman for the Carlyle Expedition, indicated Monday that the leaders are taking ship to East Aftica for a well-earned rest.' Sir Aubrey debunked rumors that the expedition had dis- covered clues to the legendary wealth of the lost mines of King Solomon, maintaining that the party was going on safari "in respite from our sandy labors." Roger Carlyle, wealthy New York leader of the expedition, was unavailable for comment, still suffering from his recent sunstroke. Discussing that unfortunate incident, local experts declared Egypt entirely too hot for Anglo-Saxons at this time of year, and suggested that the young American had not been well-served by his democratic enthusiasm, rumored to have led him to personally wield pick and shovel.
-NEW YORK TIMES, July 3,1919
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IMPORTANT VISITORS ARRIVE IN EAST AFRICA
MOMBASA (Reuters) - Leading members of an American archeological expedition arrived here on holiday from digs in Egypt's Nile Valley.
Our Under-Secretary, Mr. Royston Whittingdon, held a welcoming dinner for them at Collingswood House, where the wit of Sir Aubrey Penhew, expedition leader, was much in evidence.
Accompanying Sir Aubrey are two Americans, youthful financier Roger Carlyle and medical doctor Robert Huston.
The party leaves inland tomorrow, for Nairobi and hunting.
-NEW YORK TIMES, July 24,1919
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CARLYLE EXPEDITION FEARED LOST
MOMBASA (Reuters) - Uplands police representatives today asked for public assistance concerning the disappearance of the Carlyle expedition. No word of the party has been received in nearly two months.
The group includes wealthy Manhattan playboy Roger Carlyle and three other American citizens, as well as respected Egyptologist Sir Aubrey Penhew of the United Kingdom.
The expedition left Nairobi on August 3, ostensibly on camera safari, but rumor insisted that they were actually after legendary Biblical treasures.
Carlyle and his party reportedly intended to explore portions of the Great Rift Valley, to the northwest of Nairobi.
-NEW YORK TIMES, Oct. 15,1919
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ERICA CARLYLE ARIVES IN AFRICA
MOMBASA (Reuters) - In response to clues, Miss Erica Carlyle, sister to the American leader of the lost Carlyle Expedition, arrived in port today aboard the Egyptian vessel Fount of Life.
Several Kikuyu-villager reports recently have been received concerning the putative massacre of unnamed Europeans near Aberdare Forest.
Miss Carlyle declared her intention to find her brother, regardless of the effort needed. She brought with her the nucleus of a large expedition.
Detailing agents to coordinate supply and other activities with Colony representatives, Miss Carlyle and the remainder of her party depart for Nairobi tomorrow.
Her companion, Mrs. Victoria Post, indirectly emphasized Miss Carlyle's purposefulness by recounting the rigors of the voyage aboard the Semite ship.
-NEW YORK TIMES, March 11,1920
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CARLYLE MASSACRE CONFIRMED
NAIROBI (Reuters) - The massacre of the long-missing Carlyle expedition was confirmed today by district police representatives.
Roger Carlyle, New York's rollicking playboy, is counted among the missing.
Authorities blame hostile Nandi tribesmen for the shocking murders. Remains of at least two dozen expedition members and bearers are thought found in several concealed grave sites.
Erica Carlyle, Roger Carlyle's sister and apparent heiress to the Carlyle family fortune, led the dangerous search for her brother and his party. She credited Kikuyu tribesmen for the discovery, though Colonial police actually found the site.
Among other expedition members believed lost are Sir Aubrey Penhew, noted Egyptologist'; New York socialite Hypatia Masters, and Dr. Robert Huston. Many bearers are also reported dead.
-NEW YORK TIMES, May 24,1920
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MURDERERS HANGED
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Five Nandi tribesmen, convicted ringleaders of the vicious Carlyle Expedition massacre, were executed this morning after a short, expertly-conducted trial.
To the end, the tribesmen stubbornly refused to reveal where they had hidden the bodies of the white leaders of the expedition. Mr. Harvis, acting for the Colony, implied throughout the trial that the massacre was racial in motivation, and that the fair-skinned victims were taken to a secret location, there to suffer the most savage treatment.
Miss Erica Carlyle, defeated in her efforts to rescue her brother, left several weeks ago, but is surely comforted now by the triumph of justice.
-NEW YORK TIMES, June 19,1920
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As the group of you search the room, you find several things of interest. Stuffed into the pockets of the murderers are several pieces of paper, two business cards, and a photograph. On the desk, Father Joe finds a flyer that is placed in the middle of a book.
The match box
A business card
The other business card
Emerson Imports
648 West 47th Street
New York, New York
Telephone: HA 6-3900
Handwritten on the back: Silas N'Kwane
The Photograph
Photograph of large yacht at harbor surrounded by Chinese junks.
Only the first three letters of the name of the yacht are visible: DAR
A letter
Cairo, Egypt
3 January, 1919
Dear Mr. Carlyle:
I am informed that you seek certain knowledge of our land and can perhaps aid you in this. In my possession are singular curios which I most happily believe of interest. These I willingly send for your consideration, if a price can be agreed upon. Naturally they are ancient and must command a goodly sum. I will arrange matters to your satisfaction when your agent calls at my shop, in the Street of the Jackals in the Old Quarter.
Until then I remain your most humble servant,
Faraz Najir
A Letter
On Harvard letterhead:
Nov. 7, 1924
Mr. Jackson Elias
c o Prospero House Publishers
Lexington Avenue, New York City
Dear Mr. Elias,
The book about which you inquired is no longer in our collection. The information you seek may be found here in other volumes. If you will contact me upon arrival, I will be most happy to further assist you.
As Always,
Miriam Atwright
A Flyer
Tonight Only
"The Cult of Darkness in Polynesia & the Southwest Pacific"
a two-hour lecture with slides delivered by Prof. Anthony Cowles, Ph.D.
of the the University of Sydney (Australia) and presently Locksley Fellow of Polynesian Esoterica at Miskatonic University (Arkham)
Schuyler Hall, NYU
8 PM
Tonight Only
Father Joe is unable to identify the symbol and the head dresses are completely unknown.
"Greeting, I am Professor Anthony Cowles, Ph.D. of the Univeristy of Sydney and presently the Locksley Fellow of Polynesian Escoterica at Miskatonic University in Arkham. Tonight I will speak on a little known Cult of Darkness in the Australian outback."
For the next 2 hours, Professor Cowles gives a lecture with slides.
Main Points of Prof. Anthony Cowles' NYU Lecture
I. A bat cult once existed among the Aboriginals of Australia. It was known across the continent, and the god of the cult was always known as the Father of All Bats. Adherents believed that by making human sacrifices to their god they themselves would become worthy enough that the Father of All Bats would appear to them. Once he was enticed to appear, he would conquer all men. Sacrifices were run through a gauntlet of worshipers who struck the victims with clubs embedded with the sharp teeth of bats. The teeth were coated with a sub- stance derived from rabid bats. The poison was quick-acting, but victims apparently went mad before they died. Leaders of the cult reputedly could take the forms of bat-winged snakes, enabling them to steal sacrifices from across the land. Cowles believes that this cult became dormant or extinct hundreds of years ago.
II. An Aboriginal song cycle mentions a place where enormous beings gathered, somewhere in the west of Australia. The songs say that these gods, who were not at all like men, built great sleeping walls and dug great caves. But living winds blew down the gods and overthrew them, destroying their camp. When this happened, the way was open for the Father of All Bats, who came into the land, and grew strong.
III. Cowles shows the audience a set of four over-exposed glass slides. Each shows a few sweating men standing beside enormous blocks of stone, pitted and eroded but clearly dressed and formed for architectural purposes. Dim carvings seem to decorate some. Billows of sand are everywhere. Though he did not bring the book with him, Cowles says that the discoverer, one Arthur MacWhirr of Port Hedland, kept a diary in which he records several attacks on the party by Aboriginals. MacWhirr reportedly records deaths to victims from hundreds of small punctures, reminiscent of the earlier bat-cult.
IV. Cowles tells finally of a tale he collected from near the Arafura Sea in northern Australia. In it Sand Bat, or Father of All Bats, has a battle of wits with Rainbow Snake, the Aboriginal deification of water and the patron of life. Rainbow Snake succeeds in tricking and trapping Sand Bat and his clan into the depths of a watery place from which Sand Bat can only complain, and is unable to return to trouble the people.
At the end of the lecture the crowd begins to disperse, though Professor Cowles remains in the lobby talking and answering questions.
Schuyler Hall,NYU
January 15th, 1926
10:14PM
Professor Cowles
"Well luckly for us the bat cult that I spoke about disappeared hundreds of years ago, Father. Humm I am unfamilar with that symbol and the headpiece. The sign used by Cult of the Sand Bat was a circle with two sytlized wings coming out of it."
Thomas finds out that the very attractive woman is Cowles' daugther Ewa.
Thomas has a very nice chat with her and he can tell that she loves her father deeply but she cannot wait to be out on her own. While there are several young gentlemen trying to get Ewa's attention she seems happy to chat with you.
New York City Metropolitan Library
January 15th, 1926
08:15-10:40 PM
Hamish
When Hamish calls the number at Emerson Imports, a man answers in a foreign language (african?). After you state your business the line goes dead. Any calls to the number afterword are not answered.
You fine the number to the Widener Library at Harvard and you get hold of Miriam Atwright. She says "Yes, the book that Mr. Elias sought was called Africa's Dark Sects. The book mysteriously disappeared several months before Elias sought it. And by "mysteriously", I mean it just vanished. There was a unspeakable odor in the collection the day we noticed it was missing."
Shorty
The young librarian helps you with the photo of the ship and to find out about the Street of the Jackel in the Old Quarter. "Well first off, the picture is not taken in the New York. Our docks don't have trees by them and the boat in the foreground looks like something found in the far east. Hong Kong perhaps? You could go to the Port Authority but with out a name and a date it could be almost impossible to find if this ship ever docked here. As for The Street of Jackels in the Old Quarter, sound like some exotic place in the middle east. I would bet Cairo, Egypt. (OOC: the letter does show that it was mailed from Cairo
Professor Carter
You find that the rune represents a cult thought to be descended from a sect driven out of dynastic Egypt. It is called the The Cult of the Bloody Tongue and that of late it has been centered in Kenya.
You find that the Penhew Foundation was set up by Sir. Aubery Penhew, a british noble and highly respected Egyptologist. After his death in Kenya while he was with the Carlyle Expedition, his vast fortune went to funding the Foundation. It underwrites several important researches in Britain and abroad, and it is responsible for the education of many brilliant but penniless scholars. Edward Gavagan is the current director of the Penhew Foundation.
Professor Carter, Shorty, and Hamish go to Prospero House, a publisher of books having occult or fantastic themes. The offices of Prospero House ar located on Lexington Avenue near 35th street. A blonde haired man with a full beard
comes up to Professor Carter and gives him a hand shake. "John, good to see you. But I wish it was under better circumstances. It's terrible about Jackson. Though the way he lived his life I am hardly suprised it ended like this. Oh, who are your friends?" He turns to Shorty and Hamish. Holding out a hand he says "My name is Jonah Kensington."
"So your looking into the matter? Good! I hope someone can come to the bottom of all this. Jackson was a good friend and colleague. Personally, I think it was either some old enemies at last caught up with him or his new project was even more important and dangerous that he himself believed. Here come into my office and I will tell you what I know. Mrs. Baxter, could you get me Mr. Elias' correspondence file for me please." Mr. Kensington leads you into his office. His secretary enters a minute later with a thick folder and give it to Mr. Kensington.
"Could I interest you gentlemen in some coffee?" asks Jonah and he motions for Mrs. Baxter to bring some. "Jackson was working on a project for the past several months. It had to do with the Carlyle Expedition what was lost in Africa. Here is a letter I recieved from him in August a year and a half ago."
August 8, 1924
Nairobi
Dear Jonah,
Big news! There is a possibility that not all of the members of the Carlyle Expedition died. I have a lead. Though the authorities here deny the cult angle, the natives sing a different tune. You wouldn't believe the stories! Some juicy notes coming your way!
This one may make us all rich!
Blood and kisses,
J.
P.S. I'll need advance money to follow this one up. More later.
"With the letter he send a package with some of his notes." He hands Professor Carter the notes to read.
The Nairobi Notes:
GENERAL IMPRESSIONS: the notes are adequately organized and seem in many ways complete, yet are remarkable for the absence of conclusions, connections, names, suspicions, and clearly-deftned themes. The handwriting is strong and bold.
SET ONE : sets forth the offices, officials, and tribes which Elias visited, searching for material concerning cults and cult rituals. Nothing conclusive, though Elias afterwards completely discounts the official version of the Carlyle massacre.
SET TWO:describes his trip to the massacre site. He notes particularly that the earth there is barren, and that all the tribes of the region avoid the place, saying it is cursed by the god of the black winds, whose home is some mountaintop.
SET THREE:an interview with a Johnstone Kenyatta, who says that the Carlyle murders were performed by the cult of the Bloody Tongue. He says that the cult's home is in the mountains, and that its high priestess is part of the mountain of the black winds. Elias is politely skeptical.
SET FOUR: follows up on the Kenyatta interview. Elias confirms from several minor sources that the Bloody Tongue exists, though he can find no first-hand evidence nor locate any members. The tales include children being stolen for sacrifice. Creatures are said to come down from the mountain of the black winds to carry off people. The cult seems to worship a god unknown to folklorists, one which fits no traditional African pattern.
SET FIVE: a single sheet reminding Elias that the Egyptian portion of the Carlyle itinerary must be retraced carefully. He believes that Carlyle's trip to Kenya was prompted by something or someone in Egypt.
SET SIX: a long interview with Lt. Mark Selkirk, leader of the men who actually found the remains of the Carlyle expedition, and a Kenya hand since the Great War. Importantly, Selkirk says that the bodies were remarkably undecayed for the length of time they were in the open - "almost as if the germs themselves wouldn't come near the place." Secondly, the bearers had been torn apart, as if by animals, though what sort of animal it could have been he could not compre- hend. "Unimaginable," he said. Selkirk agrees that the Nandis may have had something to do with the episode, but suspects that the charges against the ringleaders were trumped-up. "It wouldn't be the first time," he says cynically. Finally, Selkirk confirms that no Caucasians were found among the dead - only the corpses of the Kenyan bearers were scattered across the barren field.
SET SEVEN: a single sheet. Elias ran into Nails Nelson at the Victoria Bar in Nairobi (Nelson had been doing some mercenary work for the Italians and escaped into Kenya after double-crossing his employers). Nelson claimed to have seen Jack Brady alive (March of 1923) in Hong Kong. Brady was friendly, though guarded and not talkative, and Nelson didn't press the conversation. By this Elias thought that other members of the expedition might still live.
SET EIGHT: discusses a possible structure for the Carlyle book, but is mostly featureless, with entries like "then tell what happened" and "explain why."
"I did not hear from Jackson until the middle of last month. He wired me from London. Here is the telegram."
TO: JONAH KENSINGTON
BEEN TO CHINA AND AFRICA OF COURSE AND LONDON FOR A FEW DAYS STOP DUG UP LOTS OF STUFF STOP SEEN THINGS YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE STOP CONSPIRACY AT WORK STOP WORLD WIDE PROPORTIONS STOP THERE IS A TIMETABLE STOP NEED TO FIND SOME MISSING PEICES FIRST STOP BOARDING PHALAROPE TOMORROW STOP ARRIVE NEW YORK JANUARY 15 STOP
SIGNED JACKSON ELIAS
"His ship arrived two days ago and he dropped by a set of notes and was off again. He seems excited and worried at the same time. When I read these noted, I began to worry about Jackson's sanity. Here you can see for your self."
The pages are folded together to form a small quarto volume. Frequently a page or a dozen pages are blank. Sometimes a single word is repeated over and over for several pages. Most of the entries are written in such an agitated manner that they can't be read, though all of the material is undoubtably written by Elias. The following quotes are most of what can be gleaned from this text.
Many names, many forms, but all the same and toward one end ... Need Help.... Too big, too ghastly. These dreams .... dreams like Carlyle's? Check that psychoanalyst's files . . . .All of them survived! They'll open the gate. Why? ... so the power and the danger is real. They. . . . many threads beginning. . . . The books are in Carlyle's safe.... Coming for me. Will the ocean protect? Ho Ho no quitters now. Must tell and make readers Believe. Should I scream for them? Let's scream together ...
January 16th, 1926 - 10:03 PM
You arrive at the short alley that leads to the 20-foot-square courtyard that fronts the Ju Ju House around ten-o-clock. A single dirty light blub illuminates the court from a lamp post near the alleyway. From the many windows that overlook the court, lights can be seen but most seem to be covered. The slumped forms of three winos lay sprawled in corners of the court. They seem to be asleep.
Hamish after running in and grabbing and throwing the leopard skin sees hanging from a peg in the wall next to one of the corpses, a long feathered shawl of shimmering colors. Also hanging from the peg is a pair of gloves with long animal claws attached to the fingers of the gloves.
Professor Carter sees no symbols on the leopard skin. But it has opened with Hamish's throw and several items spill on the ground: A book, a african devil mask carved of wood, a burnished copper bowl, a headband of grey metal, and a carved scepter. The bowl and the headband have unrecognizable runes and signs on them and the scepter appears to be made of carved wood with what appears to be Egyptian hierogyphics.
Shorty and the Professor hunch and confer over the open leopard skin and it's spilled contents. Shorty opens the book to see that it is titled Africa's Dark Sects, it is in English, and it is stamped "Property of the Trustees of Harvard University".
The mask appears to be of Congolese origin to Professor Carter's trained eye. The wood it is made of looks exotic. It has no straps or ties that would hold it to a face.
The burnished copper bowl and head band of grey metal have strange runes carved in them and Professor Carter and Shorty are at a lost to identify them.
The carved scepter seems to be of African origin and carved from baobab wood. With a little study and the proper books, Professor Carter seems believe he could translate the Egyptian hieroglyphics on the scepter given time.
As several of you are holding flashlights, it is unnessary for Hamish to get the lantern as it is unlite in any case. Everyone save Shorty who backs up from the hole peers down into the dark hole. Your flashlights illumiating the bottom which is about 15 feet down. Thats.........when.......you.......see.......it...............
.............with a strangled gasp you come out of the shock of seeing the thing at the bottom of the pit. Now you know what is making the anguished cries but your mind revolts against the knowledge. The crying THING is composed of dozens of human faces set into a thick wormlike mass of purple-veined muscle. The faces weep, shout, and cry out with great woeful feeling.
Professor Carter sways back and forth as his vision begins to fade in to darkness. His eyes flutter closed and he begins to pitch forwards into the pit. Hamish and Thomas while shocked hold on to their sanity.......just barely.
